Don’t know what it is, but this bird’s got it
Far Afield
By Bert Raynes, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
September 1, 2010
For many of “our” birds — those species that reside or return to breed here in the Jackson Hole region and the Sorta North and Kinda West — breeding season is about over.
Not all bird species, of course. Many larger birds (raptors, ravens, magpies) are still training their fledglings how to survive. Some insectivorous birds (swallows, bluebirds, other sparrows and thrushes) may still be attempting a late brood. Goldfinches haven’t nested yet. But the bulk of the species has changed behavior. They must now prepare either for migration or for sources of winter food. Nature takes over.
Got to thinking about this watching a yellowish warbler in a lilac bush this past week. Couldn’t tell the species through a screen and under dim lighting. Perhaps an orange-crowned warbler. There was just something about the bird’s behavior — what English birders call its “jizz” — that suggested a bird in passage, in migration: An unfamiliarity with its surroundings, tentative hop from branch to branch, hesitation.
Interesting expression, jizz. Popular among the Brits and the very experienced hotshot birders in the U.S. Described as a distinctive physical attitude, not some definitive field mark. A combination of traits, a shape and posture, behavior, circumstances, flight patterns, as examples. The way one knows a loved one or friend at distance by his size, shape, walk or posture, for instance. One must know the bird — or person — well. It can be reliable in the field. Familiarity breeds identification.
The origin of jizz is unknown. Pretty swanky, though.
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A visual reference and guide to the arrival and departure dates of most regional birds are in the “Birds of Jackson Hole” pocket guide. Couple of bucks; proceeds to the Jackson Hole Bird Club.
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Field Notes: At 11,000 feet, on the North Face of the Grand Teton a couple of weeks ago, Stephen Koch found and photographed an alpine flower rare in Wyoming. There’s some back and forth between sources, so it’s either a mountain campion or an alpine lantern. If the former, it’s apetalous catchfly. If the latter, it’s an alpine lantern lychnis apetala.
In either case, it’s a tiny, delightfully pretty plant. Stephen has consulted W. Richard Scott, author of “Alpine Flora of the Rocky Mountains,” who suspects at distance it’s alpine lantern. Amy Tucker consulted Ron Hartman, curator of the Rocky Mountain Herbarium at the University of Wyoming, who thinks it could be a mountain campion. Everyone is working from photographs (or digital images or whatever).
A rare find, almost surely a first in the Tetons, and really lovely, whatever the identification is established. Congratulations and thanks to Stephen Koch. I hope he’ll post his find on Nature Mapping Jackson Hole along with his other reporting to interested and concerned parties.
There’s always something exciting and new to see and to learn about in nature.
Touches of fall in the Hole. Still nicely green and brown, with suggestions of color in a tree here, a bush or shrub there, a late-blooming flower.
Flocks of birds moving about: blackbirds and bluebirds have been noted, for instance. Mike Mauer noted eight nighthawks. Bru Wicks had evening grosbeaks on Spring Gulch Road on Aug. 25, first for long months. Bru also noted with interest some unusual bird behavior apparently connected with smoky valley conditions on Aug. 22. Flocks of 200 crows and 50 mourning doves appeared and fed actively. A 50-mourning-dove flock is most unexpected.
© Bert Raynes 2010
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Bert Raynes writes weekly on whatever suits his fancy with a dash of news on nature and its many ways.
