Change in molting patterns a growing concern

Oklahoma Mesonet reported 0.91 inches of rainfall in the past seven-day period.

Payne County rare birds for the same time include Neotropic Cormorant and Ruddy Duck at Lake Carl Blackwell, and audio Eastern Whip-poor-will and Chuck-will’s-widow on E0650 Road.

Nationwide rare/vagrant birds for the week tallied Steller’s Sea-Eagle on Newfoundland and Labrador and Florida’s Yellow-headed Caracara and Thick-billed Vireo.

Wisconsin’s Kelp Gull and Arizona’s Flame-colored Tanager, Berylline Hummingbird, Buff-colored Nightjar, and White-eared Hummingbird made a big hit.

Lastly, California tagged Red-necked Stint.

Birds are molting earlier with a warming planet. Thirteen years data encompassing 134 species determined

DEB HIRT

that fall migratory birds are molting one day earlier yearly.

Changing molting patterns are possibly negatively impacting avian energy levels, as well as potentially jeopardizing food supplies through species survival. Molt is crucially necessary for both migration and breeding. Old and worn feathers could negatively impact mating capabilities and flight.

Spring birds did not show any shift at community level for body molt. That might be due to the speedier need for breeding, though fall is much more of a meandering nature.

Molt patterns, if overlapping with breeding or migration, may negatively impact avian energy, damaging their survival long term, which would be disastrous for both humanity and migrating birds. It would globally affect food supplies if hummingbirds became extinct pollinators.

Citizens can help by using part of your yard for native lawn for all pollinators, which gives them critical protein sources.

A New Zealand moth was observed by a scientist, called the Frosted Phoenix on iNaturalist. It has also been called the Holy Grail of New Zealand moths, as it had been missing for about a century. It was assumed by scientists to be extinct.

About a year ago, it reappeared. It was entered on iNat by a Swedish birder searching for Kiwis in Australia. They have to be seen at night, so he is out after dusk. He finds the moth on his hotel balcony after walking home and photographs it, never realizing he just solved a century-old science mystery.

So photograph as much as you can, and post on iNaturalist as you don’t know who you might help.

The unfathomable humidity at Boomer Lake added Canada Goose, Mallard, White-winged and Mourning Doves, American Herring Gull, Downy Woodpecker, Warbling Vireo, Blue Jay, Fish Crow, Purple Martin, Barn and Cliff Swallows, American Robin, House Sparrow, Common Grackle, Northern Cardinal, Great Blue Heron, Eastern Kingbird, Carolina Wren, Northern Mockingbird, Eastern Bluebird, House Finch, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, and Common Grackle.

Lake Carl Blackwell checked Northern Bobwhite, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Killdeer, Least and Black Terns, Great Egret, Black and Turkey Vultures, Red-headed, Hairy, and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Eastern Phoebe, Scissor- tailed and Great Crested Flycatchers, American Crow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Bluegray Gnatcatcher, Bewick’s Wren, European Starling, Chipping and Lark Sparrows, Orchard Oriole, Pine and Yellow-throated Warblers, Summer Tanager, Blue Grosbeak, Indigo and Painted Buntings, Dickcissel, Mississippi Kite, Belted Kingfisher, Western Kingbird, Wood Duck, and Ruddy Duck.

Happy birding! Deb Hirt is a wild bird rehabilitator and photographer living in Stillwater.

A Berylline Hummingbird.

CHARLES J. SHARP, CC BY 2.0 , VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS