Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Blue Jays of the Vermilon River. A Post to My Worl...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Blue Jays of the Vermilon River. A Post to My Worl...: "I've written a great deal about these guys already, so I think it's just time to enjoy them!! Also Boom & I broke free today and were..."

Blue Jays of the Vermilon River. A Post to My World Tuesday.

I've written a great deal about these guys already, so I think it's just time to enjoy them!! Also Boom & I broke free today and were out on the trails, so no commentary. It was that weather that is described world wide as spring ski weather. Woof, woof and yahoo!!

A Post My World Tuesday @ http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Female and Male Evening Grosbeaks of The Vermilon ...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Female and Male Evening Grosbeaks of The Vermilon ...: "Female Female  Close-up of Male Three more photos of an impressive looking bird. A Post to Micro Monday @ http://lisaschaos.com/..."

Female and Male Evening Grosbeaks of The Vermilon River. A Post to Micro Monday.

Female

Female



Close-up of Male

Three more photos of an impressive looking bird.

A Post to Micro Monday @ http://lisaschaos.com/

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Black-Capped Chickadees of the Vermilon River. A P...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Black-Capped Chickadees of the Vermilon River. A P...: "I've said before that Boom & I shoot a lot of photos, partially I think,because we live in a wilderness and have plenty of oppport..."

Black-Capped Chickadees of the Vermilon River. A Post to Scenic Sunday

I've said before that Boom & I shoot a lot of photos, partially I think,because we live in a wilderness and have plenty of oppportunities. So I collect a lot of files of unpublished work and some are even still on memory cards. So with very little text here are some my favourite bird.


A Post to Scenic Sunday @ http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Female Evening Grosbeaks Of The Vermilon River. A ...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Female Evening Grosbeaks Of The Vermilon River. A ...: "A truly welcome visitor both to the forest and the bird feeders, the Evening Grosbeak is a voracious eater so be prepared to watch your ..."

Female Evening Grosbeaks Of The Vermilon River. A Post to Camera Critters

A truly welcome visitor both to the forest and the bird feeders, the Evening Grosbeak is a voracious eater so be prepared to watch your supply of  sunflower seeds dwindle. They are a finch and will sometimes appear with American Goldfinch. It's hard to tell the female grosbeak from the winter plumage of the Goldfinch so check out the beak if you have a flock hit your feeders, but you'll know something is up just by the size of the flock. By the way "evening" has nothing to do with anything.The male is even more colourful with a dark head and yellow horns.

A few more facts:

1) In spring the beak colour changes from pale yellow to green the colour of  new spruce buds.

2) They are natural predators of spruce bud worms.

3)They eat raw salt so you'll see them on roadways.

4) They inhabit mixed and coniferous forests, and can be seen across Canada and the US from west to east, but were initially a western mountainous bird.

For more Information the best site is http://www.hwww.ca/hww2.asp?id=40&cid=7

A post to http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/.

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: More Cotton Candy Skies of the Vermilon River. A P...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: More Cotton Candy Skies of the Vermilon River. A P...: "More cotton candy skies that brought a taste of spring. The spring was simply a quick taste as it is gray and cloudy today, with snow flu..."

More Cotton Candy Skies of the Vermilon River. A Post to Sky Watch.

More cotton candy skies that brought a taste of spring. The spring was simply a quick taste as it is gray and cloudy today, with snow flurries.

A post To Sky Watch @  http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: American Goldfinches of the Vermilon River. A Post...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: American Goldfinches of the Vermilon River. A Post...: "I hadn't realized that we had so many photos of these Goldfinches. Which is a very nice problem to have. A Post to W..."

American Goldfinches of the Vermilon River. A Post to WBW.

I hadn't realized that we had so many photos of  these Goldfinches. Which is a very nice problem to have.

A Post to WBW @ http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Eastern Swallow Tails and Dragonflies of the Vermi...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Eastern Swallow Tails and Dragonflies of the Vermi...: "Continuing in the same vein, here's another taste of summer. I'm guessing that both black butterflies are the dark morph females, but..."

Eastern Swallow Tails and Dragonflies of the Vermilon River. A Post to My World Tuesday.

Continuing in the same vein, here's another taste of summer. I'm guessing that both black butterflies are the dark morph females, but if you'll notice the base colours are different.If any one knows differently, let me know.


A Post to My World Tuesday @ http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Painted Ladies (Butterflies) of the Vermilon River...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Painted Ladies (Butterflies) of the Vermilon River...: "Painted lady  Full view   A little worn out We had our brief session of warm weather, which brought rain and then reverted to co..."

Painted Ladies (Butterflies) of the Vermilon River. A post to Camera Critters

Painted lady



Full view




A little worn out

We had our brief session of warm weather, which brought rain and then reverted to cold temperatures with high north winds, generally leaving a mass of ice that restricts our travel. So Boom & I have cabin fever and need a touch of summer in the company of these butterflies of summer.

A Post to Camera Critters @ http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Cotton Candy Skies of the Vermilon River. A post t...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Cotton Candy Skies of the Vermilon River. A post t...: "Despite the darkness and the building nature of these cumulus clouds, I think these clouds are amazingly like cotton candy. The day was c..."

Cotton Candy Skies of the Vermilon River. A post to Sky Watch

Despite the darkness and the building nature of these cumulus clouds, I think these clouds are amazingly like cotton candy. The day was clear and cold, but the following days were warm and rainy.

MORE SUCCESS STORIES FOR THOSE WHOSE DEDICATION IS FALTERING IN THE CONSERVATION WARS. See earlier posts on the Tar Sands and Oil & Water.

In yesterdays' post of success stories, I forgot to include the sled dogs killed in Whistler BC. There was  a rally led by dog rescue people which was reported on our national news that was extremely successful. Of course dogs attended.

The response to the story was so incredible world wide and even so violent that the RCMP is having to protect the company members from world wide and local threats. The web site with the petition that I included in an earlier post had over 56000 signatures. The investigation is still underway. For an update see:

 http://www.suite101.com/content/rcmp-investigates-threats-against-sled-dogs-killers-in-whistler-bc-a341859

For US readers, and others who pointed out the lack of success in earlier struggles:

BC already has a carbon tax. Now I don't know if the money goes into an account that funds independent research. It should however. How's that for success.

BC also has recall legislation that was currently used to recall politicians over the introduction of blended sales tax. The Liberal Government had not indicated they would move to introduce the blended tax ( a blended of federal and provincial tax ) during the previous election. The people of BC rallied and started to recall legislators. The Premier resigned as head of the party as he was in an untenable position. SEE YOU CAN FIGHT BACK. Of course the Internet helped.

A post to Sky Watch @ http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Water and Oil. A Post from the Vermilon River to W...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Water and Oil. A Post from the Vermilon River to W...: "Some of these photos are left over from earlier posts, but are still interesting photos, and related to the Tar Sands post. Since..."

Water and Oil. A Post from the Vermilon River to Watery Wednesday

Some of these photos are left over from earlier posts, but are still interesting photos, and related to the Tar Sands post. Since oil and water do go together, but at the risk of the environment ,the scenes are at least germane to what I'm going to say today. So enjoy them!! I said on my woodpecker posts that I would reply to questions on the tar sands' post.

But first an aside: I said because we have not sponsored lots of independent science, nor tapped by way of education the brains of youth, all the technologies are in their infancy in the tar sands, and we have been forced by the failure of government to use unproven science.

Anti-environmentalists will quote carbon trapping underground on land or in the ocean as an alternative. You can read about this method on the web site How Stuff Works, just google it. This again is unproven science and costly. Carbon has to be trapped and then transported by pipeline, truck or tanker to the site. And that uses more energy. If it leaks in an ocean site, it will turn the water acidic, a process which is already going on, because of high carbon emissions.

 In the Cameroons a volcanic eruption breached a CO2 site causing 2000 deaths and  the contamination of a lake.The US had an experimental site in conjunction with a coal fired electrical plant designed to generate enough electricity for 150,000 homes. President Bush cancelled it when the cost reached $50 Million with no answers.

I heard on the CBC news that a farmer was attempting to sue the Government of Manitoba for CO2 contamination of his water supply, which he had had an environmental study group check out. He was next door to a conventional oil field which the oil company uses CO2 to force the oil from the ground. The company PR person said they were using the latest technologies. The Premier of the province said there was no claim or proof on his desk. Maybe it fell off!!! I haven't heard any more about it and don't know what to make of it.

The only successful application is in the Sleipner Gas Field which has been in existence for only 10 years.

Scary Isn't it?

I was surprised by the number of comments to the original post because it was long and wordy. Generally in the comments, there was a weariness with the constant battle so let me help you out.

It is a war of attrition, in which the basic enemy is loaded with money, but remember what they buy with it is a rather shoddy politician, who'll desert at the first loses. The right wing, and look at them, are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

I also said that the 19th century industrial economy is fast destroying itself, and all we are trying to do is manage our way with the least bumps as possible, while we wean ourselves off consumerism which means energy conservation, to give us time to test and try new methods. And try to construct an economy that works, with minimum dislocation to the people. The right will call us communists and socialists if they still exist. And you may have to do some name calling back, so be prepared.

This morning I heard on the radio that China has now an inflationary economy where food prices are steadily rising. Eighty percent of China lives in sheer poverty. They want tar sands oil which is expensive and will become more expensive. Remember the pipeline the pro-oil people want to build to the west coast of Canada, that's for China. If they were successful, could China afford the cost of the oil plus the pipe line? With tar sands oil, China will soon have run away inflation. The whole country is a sea of pollution so water is a problem also, and global warming through weather change is playing hell with their agricultural yields. These are the normal prerequisites for a revolution in a country like China.

Since we're all tired of fighting, let's recount some of the successes:

I heard from Woodland Trust about the UK forests. They have a petition that I posted which you can sign even if you don't live there. The trust has collected some 400,000 signatures, and they said the UK Government is listening to them.Remember the UK Government is a minority government also. A minority government means the people don't approve of any party.

David Suzuki's  documentary has succeeded in so far as our federal government is  independently supervising the science, and contamination in the Tar Sands through an independent board, not the province who was dependent on the companies. This is a severe spanking delivered to our PM who is a Conservative and from Alberta. And certainly reflects poorly on the Alberta Government. If you watched the film most of that opposition came from Canada itself not abroad or the US.

 Is there more to do?? Sure it's a war of attrition.

Some pointed out the earlier fights over corporate farming with genetically altered food were unsuccessful. This fight is easier because global warming is here,and the price of oil is rising astronomically,which will inflate an economy faster than you can blink. Just think the US economy has barely restarted. If it heats up a little then oil will rise because supply is limited. And remember oil is a commodity and traded on futures, which means Wall Street, Bay Street, and the London exchange are back helping to raise the price. That means US inflation!!  And with the price of oil, you can't afford to ship a DNA altered apple to me from South America, or at least one that I can afford.

The right wing has money which you saw used in the US election, but we have the Internet, and look how potent it is.Look at Egypt or Iran, and maybe China again.And even our successes outlined above.

Coupled with the Internet, we are the baby boomers who are the most educated group, the most results oriented group, and we're retired, so we have the time. What business bought to represent them is the next generation down and they're NOT strong. So don't lose faith.

The original tar sands posted on Tuesday so just scroll down if you want to read it.

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: A Female Hairy Woodpecker of the Vermilon River. A...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: A Female Hairy Woodpecker of the Vermilon River. A...: "My post on the Alberta Tar Sands and Oil tired me out so you're not getting much text today, except to add that these were taken at my bi..."

A Female Hairy Woodpecker of the Vermilon River. A Post to World Bird Wednesday.

My post on the Alberta Tar Sands and Oil tired me out so you're not getting much text today, except to add that these were taken at my bird feeders which are only active as long as there are leaves on the tree.

Just a quick aside. The post on oil got as many page views as usual. My audience is slanted towards the US, followed by Canadians in a rough ratio of the population, and then by S. Koreans and people from the UK., and with the minority from western and eastern Europe. The comments were not as heavy as usual, but I expected none, because the post apart from Boom's photo is long and all copy. So I'm pleased with the results and I'll answer the comments on another post.

If you want to see the post just scroll down to yesterday's post.

A post to World Bird Wednesday.

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Energy and the Tar Sands of Alberta. A Review from...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Energy and the Tar Sands of Alberta. A Review from...: "Disclaimer: Initially I want to make a point about Boom and I. We have no wish to become activists. In fact we would prefer to live out our ..."

Energy and the Tar Sands of Alberta. A Review from the Vermilon River.

Disclaimer:
Initially I want to make a point about Boom and I. We have no wish to become activists. In fact we would prefer to live out our lives simply taking wildlife photos, publishing the blog , pursuing the other interests that we have, and generally becoming better at those things that interest us. I often say that it's a good thing that we're retired because we don't have a lot of time available to do a job. Nor do I have to worry about descendants because I don't have any.

Therefore the environmental state of the world shouldn't bother me any more. But damn it does!! I don't know if my discontent with the direction things are going comes from a conscience,or the constant living in a re-generating forest that was initially and utterly destroyed by mining, and is constantly under attack from the curse of abundant natural resources and greed.

 Right this moment the Government of Ontario is holding hearings initiated by Vale, the old International Nickle Co., to give Vale an extension on clean air changes to meet a series of new requirements. The inquiry members will probably give them the extension based on their study of other regions in the world. I have never heard such nonsense. The other regions are subsistence countries that regularly operate unsafe and high polluting mines.

But I'm not writing about hard rock mining, I want to talk about OIL and in particular the The Alberta Tar Sands. And by default energy also. I find it as hard as you do to get a handle on energy today.

 The Economy and Governments:

So let's make it simple. Our world wide governments would have us believe the economy is something akin to mother nature, a sort of force (think star wars). But that 's not true. Our industrial economy is a 19th century thing based on cheap energy as British historians are now quick to point out. That has lots of implications, but what it really means is that we're going to pass through another stage and develop a new form of an economy, which likely will be neither global or consumer oriented.

Our thinking has become so turgid that we permit politicians, whose primarily concern is themselves ,and are devoted to the extremely short term, to keep things the same so that they can carry on. The same factories, the same means of transportation, the gas engine, the pork barrel. the lobbyists etc.

The ruling of the US Supreme Court that permits full funding of political campaigns by corporations in the US, and in effect makes the corporation a citizen with more than one vote, because of the money they have, complicates the story, because it allows untruths to be readily disseminated. And industry uses money to fund their kind of science, in short to buy scientists and spin doctors who can and do provide the media with their corrupted view.The right wing GOP would not be such a concern without the Supreme Court ruling. They would just be another group of nutcases. The same exists in Canada, but to a more limited extent with The Conservatives who have a wing that are just a little right of Attila the Hun. Harper is part of that group, but is impeded by his minority position.

But the base of that 19th century economy is Oil and we've passed peak petroleum world wide. That means that our DEMAND outstrips SUPPLY, and demand continues to grow, by about 4 % last year, because we are a consumer oriented society, and no one has the courage to tell us that we've first got to conserve and then we're going to have to change. Change not only hurts but it makes demands on us, the little people to approve and make those changes. It means we have to make the effort to read and understand so that we can approve the correct path and recognize the charlatans that would misled us. A pretty fair amount of misleading has been done already by those same charlatans, and unfortunately at the time we need help, we have a complete shortage of honest leaders.And we under funded independent, not industry sponsored, research at the university level, and under funded education at all levels as well as the reach of education to all levels of society.By doing this we deprived ourselves of intelligence we sadly need, and the elitist education we have has created something called the professional politician.

Also the burning of fossil fuels produces carbon, which means we're heating up our globe, which is destroying parts of the world, causing strange weather patterns, and contaminating our fresh water and our oceans.

Water:
So, another byproduct of our energy oriented economy is a water shortage in terms of quality and quantity. Water levels are low in the Great Lakes, and have been for sometime.

The Ogallala Great Plains aquifer is at a record low and contaminated from agricultural fertilizers, and pesticides which are of course made from petrochemicals.. The Ogallala aquifer underlies the mid -western states of S. Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado,Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. These, of course, are the bread basket, and stock raising states of the US. But they are all semi-arid, and irrigation is required for good crops. A new book has been written about this situation, and I heard the author interviewed on,another CBC radio program.

The initial study, which all the aquifer web sites use, was done in 1982 and raised recharge and contamination concerns then, BUT assumed the climate as fixed and friendly, not changing in a negative way. The other thing he, the author, pointed out was that some of the states want to increase withdrawals, and the supply is simply not there. The author, mentioned in the interview above, said that our system of corporations endowing scientists encourages the buying of scientists, and went on to outline how that occurs. But all you have to remember are the Tobacco companies' studies that proved smoking did not cause cancer. And the attacks of the right on global warming by their bought scientists.

The Alberta Tar sands are on top of the Athabasca aquifer, a huge clean water source that feeds the Artic ocean via the Athabasca River i.e., the river runs north. At the moment, it is not oil contaminated and is full.

The Tar Sands
The tar sands are located in Northern Alberta ,and all told ,are about the size of the State of Florida. On the surface the area is muskeg and water with the tar sand, a gloppy tar, sandwiched in between the surface and a layer of clay, underneath which is the aquifer. It is the largest oil reserve in the world. Currently, the main extraction method is by open pit mining destroying the muskeg which can never be replaced. Using this method 1 cubic metre of oil mined requires 2-4.5 cubic metres of water. For Americans a metre is 39 inches so say a metre for fast work is equal to a yard. The water is contaminated and is stored in tailing ponds which you will have heard of  in the news because ducks land there, and end up coated in a thick oil. It takes 1200 cubic feet of natural gas to produce about 6000 cubic metres of heavy sour crude. Very roughly, the gain on potential energy makes the process economically viable, although it does not factor in the water and the fact that the crude is not energy until it is refined in a conventional refinery which uses energy and water again.So remember the ratio is some what facile. As surface tar sand is used up, a steam extraction method is used, which oil companies claim uses less water. The risk here is that it is an invasive exercise and may break through the clay shield and introduce tar sand into the aquifer.

Just a note. The Oil Spill in the gulf was light sweet crude. Not to undermine the enormity of that spill, but we're talking heavy sour crude here; hence the name dirty oil.

The Conventional Refining Process
Crude oil is made into products by a process of distillation using steam. The distilling process produces the various products: Gaseous fuels such as propane; liquid fuels eg aviation fuels; lubricants such as machine oil and greases;wax or paraffin used in the meat industry; sulphuric acid or sulphur;tar for roofing; asphalt for roads, and petrochemical feed stock for plastics, fertilizer or pesticides.

The various product cuts of the barrel can be altered by chemical processing called cracking, unification, and alteration. This just means the carbon chain is lenghtened or shorten or re-combined to form an other product. For instance gasoline is cracked to produce a higher octane fuel to prevent knocking in a car engine.

All of the sites mention the carbon emissions, the use of water and contaminated tailing ponds, but none quote numbers on the emissions of a typical refinery.

The tar sands account currently for 3.4 % of Canada's carbon emissions, and Canada is the 8th largest carbon emitter in the world. All this will grow, because countries like China and Norway want tar sands oil. So, typical refineries add to the emission numbers that can be credited to petroleum. In addition chemical processes allow the product bands to be changed, but to get rid of say the petrochemical feed stocks because petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides account for the aquifer contamination. And to get rid of the plastic feed stocks, because we cannot even use the re-cycled plastic we have now would raise the price of the gasoline because more chemical processes would have to be used. This will raise the cost of fuels which will of course place more pressure on an outmoded economy. In effect the rising price of oil is destroying the consumer economy anyway, and will eventually force us to set priorities on our use of energy.

I've tried to lay out the problem to you in simple terms and now I urge you spend 45 minutes of your time watching a CBC TV Video on the contamination problems in the the tar sands narrated by David Suzuki, scientist and famous ecologist as part of his nature program called the Nature of Things. You're probably seeing the last in the series but you can buy the tapes for your own viewing. CBC is our public broadcasting company. The tape is about 45 minutes long and unfortunately has ads in it.

So what are you going to see?

You're going to see the documentary of a campaign waged against the Alberta Government dealing with contamination in the tar sands. The campaign started out with the local aboriginal band showing high and rare cancer incidences and fish caught in the lake and river that have strange growths and tumours.

 The local medical doctor was discredited by the Alberta Health department until he was forced to leave.

You're going to see a courageous, experienced research scientist from the University of Calgary refute provincial claims carried out by the companies themselves, that the contamination in the Athabasca is just some natural seepage.

You're going to see up close the hell that is the Alberta Tar Sands. You're going to see James Cameron the director of Avatar throw in to help out the local aboriginal bands.

As asides you're going to see a US senator, who you will recognize,  publicly endorse the tar sands. You're going to see a US ( Retired ?) admiral tell you the tar sands are necessary for the defense of America. Maybe he thinks we'll use sling shots when the cost of oil is so high that you're going to have to use it on a priority basis.You're going to see some interviews with Americans that don't even know where the tar sands are. You're going to see Hilary Clinton say that you can use the dirty oil of the Saudis or of the Canadians.Remember Saudi oil is at peak now, and the Emirates will run out in the next few years..

Unless you see the earlier portions you're not going to see Premier of Alberta in Washington with his environment minister talking to your government representatives. Many of whom you will recognize.

You're going to see a chief of the local band talk to the state owned oil company of Norway which is investing in the tar sands because North Sea oil is giving out. Norway will shortly be using dirty oil while claiming to be a green country. Take a look at the faces of the company representatives.

You're probably going to feel like me that the technology of the tar sands is in its infancy. But we have no choice. That is the fault of our politicians. We desperately need independent research on alternate energy, current oil technology, and viable conservation plans that curtail our consumer economy while taking into consideration the displacement of workers. We need to expand independent research at our universities, and we need to improve and expand our primary and secondary education reach so that we tap the brains of our youth. Of course funding is a problem. But I can think of ways of redirecting current funds. Can you? Be hard now they're your children.

You can watch the oil series @ www.cbc.ca/video/#/shows/The_Nature_Of_Things/ Click on The Tipping Point. The Age of The Oil Sands. If this link changes just google cbc.ca the Nature of things. The presentation is about 45 minutes long.

Other sources: I'm not going to list the sources as if I were writing an essay, but I'm going to tell you how to get there. I used Wikipedia for information on The Oil Sands and on Refining. I used How Stuff Works on Refining also as it is more technical and has some good illustrations. I used The Iowa State and the Emporia University site on the US Aquifer and the author who was interviewed  by Michael Enright on his CBC Radio Program. I used information out of the TV show itself. For the latter you'll have to search CBC past radio show list. For the former just google the subject and they'll all show up.

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Cecropia and Lunar Moths of the Vermilon River. A ...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Cecropia and Lunar Moths of the Vermilon River. A ...: "Cecropia Moth likely male. Tired of birds and scenery for the moment, here's something a little different. The Cecropia Moth is our ..."

Cecropia and Lunar Moths of the Vermilon River. A Post to Scenic Sunday.

Cecropia Moth likely male.

Tired of birds and scenery for the moment, here's something a little different.


The Cecropia Moth is our largest native moth. I said male because the antennae on this fellow are larger, and purposely so to detect female pheromones to facilitate breeding.The moth has only one full generation per year.



Luna Moth

A large but not as large as the cecropia the Luna Moth may have a wing span up to 4.5 inches. It is resident in Canada from Manitoba to the Maritimes and in the US from the great plains east, and south to northern Mexico. They also produce only one generation per year, except in New Jersey and  New York where they produce two. They have no mouth as the adult stage is for breeding only.


For further Information see http://en.wikipedia.org/Hyalophora_cecropia and see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actias_luna

A post to Scenic Sunday. For more sites go to http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Black-capped Chickadees of the Vermilon River A Po...

Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River: Black-capped Chickadees of the Vermilon River A Po...: "Probably the most ubiquitous bird of our forest, these little fellows remain favourites of both Boom and I. I've written about the chic..."

Black-capped Chickadees of the Vermilon River A Post to Camera-Critters

Probably the most ubiquitous bird of our forest, these little fellows remain favourites of both Boom and I. I've written about the chickadee before, but I found some new information to pass onto you, some of which is very disturbing.

The Chickadee moves in flocks which are composed of other birds such as hatches or warblers, because the Chickadees vocalizations are highly developed, and food calls make it easy to find food for the other birds, as well as allowing them to remain alert to predators.This is likely an adaption that has occurred from their habitat which is dense forest where sight is limited. Chickadees have a social hierarchy based on aggressiveness. So be careful around them because you don't know where the the big tough one is.

They reduce their body temperatures at night by 10-12 degrees to conserve energy.

The States of Washington, and Massachusetts, and the Province of New Brunswick have chosen the Chickadee as their state bird.

Now the CONCERN: An "agent" is causing substantial misshapen beaks in these little fellows as well as other birds in Alaska, Washington and the pacific north west.The list of other birds is substantial and I have this terrible feeling we, meaning humans, have messed up again, especially in view of  the ecological record of this area.You can see the problem and the other birds and report any problems you have seen at:

http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/landbirds/beakdeformity/index.html/

or go to:
 http://enwikipedia.org/wiki/Black-capped_Chickadee/

And go to the bottom of the page and click on the Alaskan state site as given.

A Post to Camera-critters @ http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/