Rain rain go away Come back another day – unless you are a frog, fish, hummingbird or mosquito. The frequent, heavy rains we’ve seen this season have resulted in most of us crouching a lot more than we’d like. This is not the case with some of our native wildlife species.
When it rains heavily, our ruby-throated hummingbirds seek shelter in low, dense vegetation, often downwind from a large tree trunk. But the occasional rain doesn’t stop them. Although extremely light – about three dozen of them are the weight of a stick of butter – they can maintain their flight position in the presence of moderate raindrops. With their tiny bodies, low fuel storage capacity and high metabolism, rain cannot keep them from eating for long.
When it rains heavier, as has happened several times this season, they can still fly – but they do so with great reluctance, having to increase their wing flapping speed considerably and forcing their usually upward sloping buttocks into a horizontal stance. a position that is more difficult to hold. Under these harsh conditions, they undesirably consume much more energy.
As for our native insects, most will settle down and wait for the rain to stop and then reappear with great energy. Usually rain coincides with cooler conditions, and cold-blooded insects usually reduce their behavior proportionally. But some very small species, especially those that thrive in warm, humid areas, will endure the rain – and even benefit from it. But the temperature has to be right.
Mosquitoes are built to be most active at 80 degrees and above. If the temperature drops to 60, they become inactive and can no longer function at all at 50. However, on a warm day, they can be uncomfortable to fly in the rain.
And because of their tiny size, mosquitoes can miss out on being hit by lots of raindrops, which are more common than most of us can imagine. When hit, which they are about 25% of the time they fly in a rain shower, they temporarily become part of the drop, falling with – and escaping – just before they hit the ground thanks to their waterproof body. Of course, they prefer the humid days after a rain, when they are not pelted regularly and can lay eggs in stagnant water, which is key to their reproduction. When a puddle is warm, these eggs can hatch in just four days. If the water is cold, the eggs can last almost a month.
There are good reasons for mosquitoes to fly out during the rain. They can go out and make a hell of a living when their bigger competition, like green-haired and horseflies, are ducked. That is a great survival benefit. For mosquitoes it is an opportunity to suck the blood of humans or other species in the rain without having to deal with other bloodsuckers.
Hurricane Henri didn’t help our satiety problems. But our water problems could have been worse. While the strongest winds of the storm were east of the storm track, it rained the heaviest west of it. Still, adding more water to already saturated soil further weakened the support of the large trees, which are now top heavy with foliage, making them more susceptible to the fall of the wind.
Henri did not help fishing either. The waves far out at sea rose to 20 feet. All boats had to be secured – or taken out of the water entirely so that they would not be torn from their berths. Storm surges three to five meters high eroded beaches, inundating normally dry land, and continuing topography changes, a destruction that has and will continue to increase with climate change. The fishery reports have ceased and hook-polluting algae have been blown up. Bird migration came to a standstill as southern birds were carried north, allowing bird watchers unusual sightings, especially on the coast.
Keep an eye out for flying ants
Just before the hurricane, Oakham Botanist Tom Rawinski sent a report on flying ants. Every late summer after a flood, they emerge in large numbers as nutritious, easy prey for birds. August 2021 is no exception. We can expect flights from high-soaring night owls to nibble heavily on them now to boost their southern migration.
Take a moment to enjoy the ruby red hummingbirds
The most amusing wildlife report I received last week was of a very vivacious hummingbird hovering over a rabbit, blushing it, and tracking it an estimated 15 meters before disappearing to safety. Hummingbirds are notoriously combative, but usually around nectar sources with one another.
There were numerous questions about our hummingbirds, all of which will leave us in the next month in flower-rich habitats between southern Mexico and Panama. When you feed them, expect lots of newcomers to stop by for a while. However, there is a lot of confusion when it comes to determining their age and gender. Only adult males with bright ruby red throats are easy to spot.
Around the first week of May, when most of the Rubies arrive, there is no need for confusion. Then brilliant, jeweled males contrast clearly with the white-throated females. It is the juvenile hummingbirds that fly out of the nest a month or two later that confuse us until they depart. (Hummingbird eggs hatch locally from May 24th to July 22nd.) Young males all lack ruby throats, giving the false impression that the large numbers of birds that feed on our nectar are females. But a closer, very careful look can even distinguish some of these mysterious birds.
Adult males have an entirely black, slightly forked tail. Females and young males have rounded tails with white tips on the outer feathers.
If you were a bird band and caught one in your fog net, you could clearly see that the sixth primary feather on a little male’s wing is pointed. The same wing feather of a small female is rounded. But only bird ribbons with a bird in hand can ever see this wing feather.
This feather difference likely allows the males to present themselves a little more excitingly with a different sound coming from their wingbeats, a vibration that is evident to both females and competing males. The same phenomenon occurs with eastern king birds.
But with really good binoculars and a bold lobster up close, you can learn a lot from their calculations. If a bill is smooth and polished, then it is an adult. If it’s rough in texture (the fine grooves are called corrugations) and dull, it’s immature. The beak becomes smooth and shiny from the tip to the back, although the bases of some adults never become completely smooth. It takes about six months for a young bird to develop an almost completely polished, smooth beak. This feature comes from increased blood flow to the corrugation as well as from thousands of inserts in flowers.
As for the sex of confusing pups, some, but not all, very young birds can sometimes be distinguished with good optics or great cameras. Males may have white throats subtly decorated with a small number of faint black or green stripes, the precursors of their eventually showy ruby red throat. Maestro nature photographer Michael Stefanik sent a perfect shot of an adult (shiny, polished beak) bitch (white neck and white tail). I would appreciate a photo of a young male with a white, striped throat and a white tip of his tail.
One final factor that can help us age birds now is their departure schedule. Adult males who urgently arrived here at the beginning of May also go first. They are followed by adult females. Our last hummingbirds to leave are the immature ones. If you are up to the challenge, watch it carefully now. They will all be gone in no time.
– Contact Mark Blazis at markblazissafaris@gmail.com.
