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May 10, 2014

The Gyrfalcon Project is on the Ground in Alaska

by Bryce W. Robinson

I’m in Alaska to start the first field season of The Peregrine Fund’s Gyrfalcon Project. I landed only three days ago, and hit the search for nests right away. At this point, the earliest nesting Gyrfalcons will have hatching eggs any day. For my research, I need to find them before they hatch.

Already I’ve located two occupied territories, with one nest well into incubation. With the help of my friend and field assistant Neil, I made my first entry into an eyrie yesterday to assess nest age, and gather other important data. While I was in the nest, Neil took advantage of the disturbance and documented two very responsible adult Gyrfalcons as they circled and watched my intrusion.

After we finished our tasks of data collection, we left the nest. When we reached a distance of approximately 500 meters from the nest cliff, we turned around and took a look at the nest. We were happy to see the female had already returned to the nest to resume incubation. While I was in the nest, I was able to see that one egg had pipped, meaning that in a couple of days there will be some newly hatched Gyrfalcons.

Stay tuned as the summer progresses. There will be numerous reports over the course of the season. Soon there will be nestlings, and I’ll be there to photograph them. You can find out more about this work on ornithologi’s Gyrfalcon Project page, and be sure to check out the Peregrine Fund’s website and consider supporting my work, and raptor conservation as a whole. Here’s to a successful summer, with loads of Gyrfalcon’s!

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May 3, 2014

Intermountain Bird Observatory’s Long-billed Curlew Study

by Bryce W. Robinson

I was fortunate to tag along with Jay Carlisle and the IBO crew yesterday afternoon to trap and outfit a female Long-billed Curlew- Numenius americana, with a GPS transmitter. IBO has been tracking Curlews for a little over a year now, with the focus of understanding their movements and why there has been a general population decline.

This is a great project, headed by a great institution. I encourage everyone to take a moment to learn about the effort and consider supporting the work of IBO.

The Long-billed Curlew is an exceptional bird. Let’s do our part to make sure it has a future in the changing west.

LEARN MORE, and CONTRIBUTE! Do so on IBO’s Curlew Homepage

Long-billed Curlew nest

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April 20, 2014

Sharp-tailed Grouse Lek

by Bryce W. Robinson

Yesterday, I had the privilege of getting up at 4 AM to join Jay Carlisle and Heidi Ware on a trip to visit a Sharp-tailed Grouse lek in western Idaho. We arrived on the lek before sunrise, just in time to hear the beginning dances of the lekking grouse. As the sun rose the grouse surrounded us, chucking in unison and stamping their feet.

If you’ve never been to a Sharp-tailed Grouse lek, you must. It is a bizarre performance as the birds face off with a nemesis to exhibit their fitness and attract the attention of a lady.

The peculiarity of this display is reason enough to ensure that open natural landscapes, such as the sagebrush steppe in western Idaho is preserved. Spread the word and the images of natural wonders such as these grouse, so that even those not so interested in wildlife will recognize the benefit of conserving the wild world.

April 4, 2014

A Communal Roost of the Great Horned Owl

by Bryce W. Robinson

I’d like to share this video of a solitary roosting Great Horned Owl to introduce a story and celebrate a career goal accomplished for both Caitlin Davis, and myself.

In December 2012, Caitlin and I were conducting Golden Eagle surveys in the west desert of Utah. One evening on our survey route near the border of Nevada and Great Basin National Park, we came upon a roosting pair of Great Horned Owls. These owls sat in a small string of trees about 30 m in length. Soon after we discovered the roosting pair, we noticed an additional four owls in the same tree line. A total of six owls sat together in close proximity, and soon after we counted the birds, I knew the significance of what we had found.

Because I knew that Great Horned Owls are extremely territorial, I looked into the literature hoping to find any reports of similar roosting behavior. After what seemed to be an exhaustive search, I had found no reports of any communal roosting behavior for the Great Horned Owl, or any other Bubo species.

I discussed the idea of reporting the findings with Steve Slater, Shawn Hawks, and Markus Mika at HawkWatch International. They were supportive of the idea, so with little hesitation I wrote a short report of the roost and submitted it for publication to the Journal of Raptor Research.

The report was accepted, and has now been published in the latest issue of the JRR. Caitlin and I are extremely grateful to everyone who helped us get the word out in the proper fashion by talking out ideas, and revising the manuscript. It was a fun process, and I look forward to repeating it again in the future.

Read the article here:

Robinson, B.W. and C. M. Davis. 2014. A communal roosting of the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus). Journal of Raptor Research 48(1) 88-89

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