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IN HONOR OF MALCOLM (Mac) BROWN WE WILL BE CLOSED THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 5th FOR HIS CELEBRATION OF LIFE.

September 2024

This helps the birds to convert fructose into energy.  However, just like people, some individuals overdo their consumption of fermented grapes.  This can prove fatal for the birds.  The alcohol affects the behaviour and flightworthiness of the befuddled waxwings.

Bohemian waxwings are only rarely seen in central Europe, but when they are they are mostly in large flocks.  These birds, found from Scandinavia to Russia, Alaska and Canada are considered to be invasive birds; it is only in severe winter weather that they leave their northern homelands to travel south.  The origin of their name is also interesting: waxwing describes the stripe or droplet shaped ends of some secondary flight feathers that look as though they have red wax dropped on them.  And in olden times, the Bohemians were thought to be a people prone to prowling around in brightly coloured costumes.

For the better part of two thousand years, the waxwing was credited with an amazing power.  It was believed in all earnestness that these gentle, crested fruit-eaters glowed in the dark. It was reported that their feathers were said to “shine like flames” in the dark forests of central Europe.  The Latin scholar Solinus went further:  not only did waxwings throw off a warm glow, he said, the Germans used captive birds to light their way when they were obliged to travel by night.

But at the end of the sixteenth century, the great Italian bird man Ulysses Aldrovandi was skeptical.  In his twelve-volume encyclopedia of ornithology, Aldrovandi admits that the waxy red tips on the bird’s wing feathers are beautiful, but he dismisses the notion that they give off any kind of light.

How could he be so sure?  “For nearly three months, I kept the bird alive in my house and observed it through the night.”  He goes on to note the bird stubbornly failed to emit flames or light of any kind.

Today, no one thinks that waxwings glow in the dark.  But that doesn’t stop these winter nomads from brightening the birdwatcher’s day.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 2024 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

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WINGS OF CHANGE – Part THREE: MONITERING MIGRATION

What the birds are telling us about climate change

Story by:  Kurt Kleiner  Western Alumni Magazine Spring 2024

On the roof of the Western Interdisciplinary Research building, a huge, motorized satellite dish antenna peers up into the sky: by the end of next year it should begin to receive signals from Western Skylark, a small satellite Western students are currently building under the supervision of engineering professor Jayshri Sabarinathan.

When the satellite starts operating, it will collect information on bird movements from an existing network of ground based radio towers and relay the information to researchers at the Western Institute for Earth & Space Exploration.  “It’s going to help us get access to the data more quickly than we can from remote areas that are difficult to access,” says Yolanda Morbey, Western biology professor and co-investigator on the project.

The existing network is called the Motus Wildlife Tracking System.  The network (which includes Western) consists of more than 2,000 towers in 34 countries around the world.  They receive signals from tiny radio transistors that have been attached to thousands of birds, as well as bats and insects.

“If we can understand bird behavior and physiology  the and their responses to the environment, we’ll be better able to predict what m places ight happen under climate change or other habitat change, and identify places where some mitigation is required,” Morbey says.

When a tagged bird nears a tower within 15 km, the antenna records its signal, which is then uploaded to the network through internet cell phone connection. However, in remote areas without such connectivity, someone has to go to those towers and download the information manually.

“When you are talking about visiting a station that might be way, way up north or on an island somewhere, that can be quite a logistical challenge,” says Andrew Beauchamp, a PhD student working on the project.

Western Skylark will help solve that problem.  Some of the remote towers will be fitted with transmitters that can send data up to the satellite, which will relay it to the satellite dis at Western.  The satellite is being built as part of the CUBICS program funded by the Canadian Space Agency, intended to give students hands-on stand up to the vacuum, to experience in space systems engineering while supporting science missions.At the moment, the satellite, known as CubeSat, is a modest 30-centimetre-long rectangular frame with a 10×10-centimetre base that students will need to pack with radio transmitters and receivers , solar cells and other components that will let it perform its mission. “If you want something to survive in space, you have to make sure you build it so it can stand up tp vacuum, , temperature changes, and to Research, the radiation environment,” says Sabarinathan.

Back at the Advanced facility for Avian Research, scientists will continue to study birds not only for the sake of the birds, but for the sake of climate as well.

“Birds are the most visible indicators of biodiversity and environmental quality.  The timing and patterns of their movements are changing along with the climate,” says Guglielmo.  “We need to understand how changing temperature, humidity and wind conditions in the atmosphere , and habitat shifts on the ground, are going to affect their migrations so we can plan for how to maintain healthy ecosystems in the future.”

Watch for the final Installment of Wings of Change – “Navigating Western’s Campus”

In The Wild Bird Store Birding News October 2024 Edition

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Why do Blue-footed boobies have blue feet?

Blue-footed boobies’ blue feet come from the nutrients of fresh fish they eat.  The blue pigment can indicate if a Blue-footed booby is nourished.  The more pigmented the blue, the healthier the bird.

The Blue-footed booby name originates from the Spanish word “bobo,” which means silly or foolish.  These birds tend to have a lack of regard for possible danger, making them vulnerable at times.

Blue-footed boobies lay their pale bluish eggs on the ground without a nest.  To incubate the eggs, the male and female will take turns using their feet to keep the eggs warm during the incubation period.  Out of the two or three eggs that are initially laid, usually one or two hatch.  The parent birds defecate while incubating, leaving a circle of feces around the nest called guano.

Blue-footed boobies stay cool through evaporative cooling—a method that uses evaporation to cool the air—by vibrating the bones in their throats to flutter the surrounding skin.  They will also use a cooling mechanism called urohidrosis that involves defecating and urinating on their feet.

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The Wild Bird Store will be closed on Monday, September 2 celebrate Labour Day. We will also be closed Sept 5th in Memory of Mac Brown

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