Florida Grasshopper Sparrow

FGS-caseygirard

About Them: A specific subspecies of the Grasshopper Sparrow that’s unique to the prairies of Florida. They have beautiful coloring with dark lining and spotting on their back surrounded by almost white edging. Then they have yellow above their eye and at the shoulder of their wing. They also have dark stripes across their crown with a light stripe that is almost white down the center. Their breast is lighter with no markings. You would most likely hear these birds instead of see them if you visited their habitat. You would hear an insect like call that rings out across the fields they are found in. Generally you will hear this in spring and early summer as males are advertising for a mate.

Their plight: This sparrow has suffered habitat loss, but additionally and perhaps worse now is the invasion of red fire ants. The sparrow nests on the ground so, if an ant colony is nearby it is able to decimate any sparrow babies.

Then recently they have discovered a protozoan parasite that attacks the birds organs and causes death. This is the kind of problem you see when species get to such low population size. If anything major hits, there is not room for rebound because almost all animals will likely be affected and there won’t be enough left to make a new population.

What we should consider: Species of Florida are under more pressure than most species. In fact the first bird to go extinct after the ESA was in place was a bird that only lived in Florida, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow. The Florida Grasshopper Sparrow is really close to extinction in the wild very few are left, think under 50 if that. They did find unbanded birds in the spring of 2018. To bolster the Grasshopper Sparrow species and not letting this specialized subspecies go should matter.

What is being done: A breeding program has begun to help build back up the population and it is seeing success. You can see videos of fledglings on the the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow facebook page. Additionally they are setting up predator detectors around sparrow nests that are located so they can neutralize the threat. Habitat continues to be restored with controlled burns. Finding ways to battle the protozoan are also in the works.

How to help: Continue bringing awareness. Call into state senators when legislation is being passed that could affect the continued support of policy that protects wildlife and waterways. Support locally.

Support can be:

donating to science groups
helping to ensure funding to the organizations that creating breeding programs
being a citizen scientist through
- land restoration project
- trash clean ups
- species counts
- bio blitzes
getting people you know excited about how incredible our planet’s biodiversity is.

Joining your local Audubon Society is a great first step into finding activities and ways to become a citizen scientist and environmental advocate.

The Florida Audubon did have a call for volunteers in 2013 when conservation of this sparrow began. Be on the look out for more opportunities like that. -> http://fl.audubon.org/news/citizen-scientists-needed-help-florida-grasshopper-sparrows

Kirtland’s Warbler

The Kirtland’s Warbler is proof of success from the Endangered Species Act. This bird was down to 167 breeding pairs in the 1970’s when it was one of the first species to be placed on the Endangered Species List for the US. Now it is up to over 2,000 breeding pairs and up for removal from the Endangered Species List.

kirtlandwarbler-caseygirard

About them: These are larger warblers that have a gray cap and back with black streaks then, a bright yellow breast. They have white eye crescents and the males have dark in front of their eye. They have a ting territory for breeding and wintering; Northern Michigan for breeding and the Bahamas in winter. Even their migration track is almost a direct line from place to place making them only over Ohio, Georgia, and Florida with any regular notice.

Their choice for breeding habitat is very specifically jack pine forests, but only if they are six years growth from a fire. Once the trees are over 16 feet tall the warbler will not continue breeding there. This need for such specific habitat is one of the largest reasons this warbler got into peril.

The other reason is Brown-headed Cowbird nest parasitism. Brown-headed Cowbirds lived in the great plains where the Bison grazed. Because of this they constantly moved with the heard and learned to leave their eggs in the nests of other birds. Within this territory and amongst birds that evolved with them, both species were ok. Since humans have altered the land and caused large herds of grazing cattle, Brown-headed Cowbirds have been able to spread into territories of birds that did not evolve with them and they are able to harm the population of those species. The Kirtland’s Warbler is one of those species that has struggled.

What we should consider: Our legislation of the ESA does work. It saved this species from extinction. It contributed to the funding, research, and needed time to give these warbler’s back what they needed to survive. If we could succeed here, we can succeed for other species.

What is being done: Habitat management is constantly in the works. Forests of Jack Pines are being set up in human controlled ways to provide the Kirtland’s Warbler with the needed habitat to breed. Then, Brown-headed Cowbirds are captured and kept away from these warblers.

How to help: As this species comes off the Endangered Species List support for interventions will be less, namely funding to control Brown-headed Cowbirds. There are enough Kirtland’s Warblers to experience more of the cowbirds, but if after a year or two decline is seen, the controls will need to go back on. Without being on the ESL it will be more complicated to get funding needed to implement this, and this is where independent contributors will be sought out. Be on the look out to see if they need funding.

Continue bringing awareness. Call into state senators when legislation is being passed that could affect the continued support of policy that protects wildlife and waterways. Support locally.

Support can be:

donating to science groups
helping to ensure funding to the organizations that creating breeding programs
being a citizen scientist through
- land restoration project
- trash clean ups
- species counts
- bio blitzes
getting people you know excited about how incredible our planet’s biodiversity is.

Joining your local Audubon Society is a great first step into finding activities and ways to become a citizen scientist and environmental advocate.

Birding and Leaf Painting

I have always collected leaves. Every year as the leaves turn I find myself picking up my favorites. In past years I did this without much plan; I would pick them up and shove them between book pages (books I clearly didn’t care about because leaf pressing in books wicks all the moisture from the leaf into the book, warping the pages). While this was fairly successful in pressing the leaves, they languished. I didn’t have a plan and the plans I thought I had wouldn’t work with the paper like dried leaf I ended up with.

This time I got a real plant press and prepared a set up to submerge the leaves in glycerin. I wanted to have two options, leaves dried like paper and leaves that were preserved maintaining their flexible state.

A lettuce leave after soaking in glycerin. It looks like kelp!

The glycerin leaves are still in my processing space. Sometimes I have to sit and look at something day after day before the idea fully forms and I know what I will do with it. The dried leaves I immediately started painting birds on them.

Two separate things brought this idea together. I have always liked painting on none white surfaces. When I went hiking in 2010 and picked up birch bark off the trail, it looked so much like paper, I decided to paint on it. I left these paintings on the trail knowing they were watercolor and would wash off if no one picked them up (I found out the hut kids found them and enjoyed them). Then in the summer of 2016 I got a button maker and realized you could easily put leaves in the press. The jump to painting on the leaf first was a short distance away.

I decided on birds because I look at birds all the time. I have feeders all around my yard. My mother and her sister, Karen & Teresa are birders and they constantly teach us what birds we are looking at. Also, many family vacations now have large swaths of time devoted to birding. We all enjoy it including my son. It’s very similar to collecting Pokemon but, real animals and instead of taking them home we make a list of what we saw and/or heard.

I took the close up photos with my phone using a scope and binoculars for zoom, technology can be ridiculous.

I wanted to paint birds that came from the same locations as the leaves. Representing native species on both fronts, flora and fauna. However, even though the leaves I have collected are living locally, they are native to other countries. The Ginkgo specifically which, is a favorite to paint on. However, the birch and sweet gum trees are fine, as well as the blackberry, strawberry, saltbush, holly cherry, and other natives I have purposefully replanted in our yard. This follows my overall goals of native flora for the paintings and a native garden for the yard.

The leaves all react differently to being pressed and dried, sorted and held until I paint on them, and after they have been enclosed in a button. If the leaf isn’t fully dried it tends to mold within the button. These possibilities cause me to charge not much more than a fancy cup of coffee which, is also a short lived life enjoyment. However, there is the possibility the properly pressed leaves will survive for quite sometime. This is the moment where we say, ‘only time will tell’.

Photos of the buttons finished or pre-pressed. The penny is for size. These end up being 1 inch buttons.

I hope that this project will bring happiness to anyone who buys a button or other final finishing choices I am exploring (pressed in glass making it wall art or made into a pendant). I also hope it brings awareness to the many amazing species of birds that continue to thrive or struggle to live on this planet. I believe our coexistence holds more importance than we are fully aware of.

Illustration and Musings

by Casey Girard

Tag Archives: birds