Lee Ann van Leer
Forum Replies Created
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Hello Everyone! Just a reminder that people taking this course are at all levels of drawing and field note taking. Some have never drawn or taken field notes. Others may be at the other end of the spectrum and be skilled in art or science notes. Please don't be intimidated by the submissions of those that might appear more advanced than where you are at. Course author Liz Fuller has taught many beginners and folks at all levels. The skills she is teaching will help you no matter what level you are at. Everyone: Please feel free to ask for feedback from your peers in reference to uploaded artwork on these discussion topics. We encourage polite, peer to peer feedback, encouragement, and suggestions. We can't wait until we see some of the "after" drawings of this same Yellow Warbler that you may upload in the final assignment discussion so we can see your before and after and how far you've come. Cheers! ---Lee Ann van Leer, Bird Academy Project Assistant.
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@Kathleen Hello Kathleen, Thanks for posting this. I love your adding of field mark notes and the scientific name and field notes. I'm excited to see everyone's "after" drawings at the end of the course.
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Uploading Images of your art to the Discussion Boards. For those with smartphones or iPads:
- Take a digital photo of your artwork with your smart phone.
- Use the devices web browser (i.e. Safari or Chrome) to search for and then sign in to Bird Academy.
- Login to the Nature Journaling course right on your smart phone or iPad
- Click on "insert image" on the discussion board post and it will go to your devices camera roll and allow you to select the image to add to the post.
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Don't worry. There is no such thing as "late" in this course as new people are buying it and/or starting it every day. This is totally go at your own pace. Take your time everyone. Some people might finish quickly and others might take years. There will always be someone starting or doing an assignment after you. I hope that makes everyone feel better and not worry that they are behind as there is no such thing in this course. Thanks for posting your "Before" drawing. :-)
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Hello Cassandra, Thanks for posting. Don't worry about the timing of your posts compared to others. This is a go at your own pace course. There are new people buying and or starting the course every single day and no deadline to start or finish the course. So feel free to take your time on any and all assignments. There will always be freshly starting folks nearly every day that will see and benefit from anything you post or share. Thanks.
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We are in the middle of creating an Bird Photography course that will be out next year.
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Hello Mike, My favorite place to look at bird photos and videos is eBird Explore. eBird Explore photos, sounds, videos You can search by species, location, date etc. You could also try watching wildlife cams. Cornell Lab of Ornithology has several LIVE cams and you can actually pause the video feed and even scroll back a couple hours to find something you like. Bird Cams My favorite place to watch LIVE cams is Africam Africam Explore has great full color cams. Bears, tropical reefs, birds, and more. Explore Cams These might be interesting to practice on. I am not sure what the wildlife is like in your area but there are usually some bugs and birds to be found without going to far from your house.
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@Alicia Welcome Alicia, Yes, Bird Academy is also very excited to see all the drawings from around the world. Hello to Brussels! Thanks for sharing.
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Hello Jude, Bird Academy doesn't sell any art supplies. You should be able to pick the supplies up at a local art store or the chains that sell Arts and Craft supplies. We don't want to officially recommend any certain stores but I'm sure if you post this question on of the the early lesson topics your fellow nature journalists can tell you where they picked up their supplies.
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Hello Laura Rainbow Dragon, I was out of the office for the first two days of the class and overwhelmed and thrilled at the number of posts everyone is doing. I had to laugh at your Michelin Man description. Several folks that are nearing winter have mentioned this. Here at Cornell Lab of Ornithology we have a pretty long and cold winter in Upstate New York. Some of us have for the last couple years committed however to going on trail walks during every single lunch break year round, even if the temperature is below zero Fahrenheit. What I have learned for this is that it being out in nature is possible even when super cold if you invest in the right apparel. I bought a super awesome warm jacket that goes down to my knees and has a nice hood. It is very thick and heavy with fiber fill. I cannot feel any cold air through it. I don't quite look like Michelin Man (maybe close) but it isn't for the fashion runway so I'm good with that. Then I bought some Arctic Ice Muck Boots that are rated for -40F and it keeps my feet toasty warm even when -15 F. I get so hot on our winter walks in that outfit that I have to leave the hood down to cool off. As far as your hands the best thing I can suggest is some kind of battery operated hand warmer to keep in your pocket. You might want to take walks in the winter when bundled up and do your journals from memory as soon as you get inside. Otherwise you might be able to find a Nature Center or other public building that has nice views of wildlife from indoors like bird feeders or lakes or ponds, or ocean, trees etc that can be viewed from indoors. We have people in this class from around the world so I am excited to see what people in the warmer climates are going to post while we are in the frozen time of year. Looking forward to posts from Australia, India, Africa, and Central America. I will say there are tons of things to witness even in the dead of winter so you will be surprised what is going on year round. In December we had one day that warmed up enough that a frog came out. A Blue Jay got ahold of it and was eating it. It was caching the frog leg in the crook of the tree for eating later. There is always something interesting going on out there and winter is great time to journal signs of nature such as tracks in the snow and scat. Birds are out there no matter what the weather. Thanks Laura and everyone else for all these amazing posts.
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Hello Patricia and all you Nature Journalers: Bird Academy actually has a free web learning page called All About Feathers. All About Feathers Website Click on the above website if you want to learn and about and visualize feathers and their anatomy. Enjoy.
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Can information regarding the baby’s health be detected by the colour of their tongue?
Dorothy, The color chart you noticed was used that year by a graduate student that was looking to see if inside mouth color variation was indicator of anything such as health, quality, or temperature. That student has not published study results so no updates or conclusions for us to post about. -
Erin, American Crows can be initially agitated when the tree climber is near the nest or young. However, the American Crows typically have too much invested in their 'kids' to abandon them or ignore their begging calls after they are returned to the nest.Erin asked: <
I imagine you have to use the gear that tree trimmers do to get to the tallest part of the tallest tree where the nest and babies are, and handle the babies and put tags and bands that are strange to them. Why does that not spook the parents and make them leave the nest? You always hear that birds and animals will abandon young ones if you scare them or make too much of a ruckus near their nests.>>
Erin asked < < If humans need to use a blood test to tell the gender of the birds, how do the birds know who is male and female? >>
There are some differences between male and female that a crow would be better able to access than a human or researcher. We are not aware of any studies that have been done to determine how the crows themselves know male vs. female. The male does have a slightly lower voice than the female and while that is difficult for humans to easily use for "sexing" a bird the crows themselves might be better at using voice to tell male from female. There are probably other differences they pick up on such as slight differences in bill size or shape. Even trained researchers have a difficult time with any visual differences and that is why to be 100% sure researchers go by DNA tests. There are probably behavioral cues they could pick up on but without a proper study it is all speculation. Thanks for asking. -
Hi Diane, That is a good question about roosts and regions. American Crows do form large roosting flocks in the winter in Georgia, so you must not have been at the right place and time to see one. The roosts are at night. The largest flock in the eBird records for Georgia is 1,100 crows at Fite Bend Rd. (Gordon County) on Dec. 31, 2013. Near some silos, and agriculture fields. For this year the largest flock was reported to eBird so far was 600 crows on January 4th, 2019 on Trimble Hollow Road near the intersection with Rt 3/41 north of Adairsville, GA. This is agriculture field. In 2018 the largest American Crow roost was 160 crows on Brandon Farm & Taff Road, East of Stilesboro on Feb. 2, 2018. This spot is by some animal barns and agriculture fields. It can be sometimes very hard to find the crow roosts in smaller cities or in the country as they happen at night and sometimes you just have to happen upon them. People don't report them to eBird as much as they might other types of birds and people don't do as much night time eBirding either. Even here in Ithaca, NY where we study the crows it can take us days, weeks, or months of driving around to find the crow roost in the winter. However that is because we don't keep looking every single night. It typically takes me from 1-7 different attempts to find the roost in winter. The instructor isn't available this week but when he returns I'll ask him if a regional difference in roost sizes has been noticed. Thanks for asking. Given that the three high counts mentioned above for Georgia were near agriculture fields these might have been foraging flocks instead of night roosts but I don't have the time of day of the reports handy. Too find where the high counts of crows have been spotted in your state or county go to ebird.org/explore High Count page and put in your location. Then it asks the date range. Once you get that data scroll down until you see American Crow.
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Hello Larry, Are you looking at these flocks with the naked eye or with binoculars or a scope? During Spring migration the male Yellow-headed Blackbirds migrate earlier than the females and arrive on their breeding grounds a full 7-14 days ahead of the females. However, females do have yellow on the head. The females have a duller yellow on the head and sometimes bright yellow only on the face and bib area. From a distance or without optics both males and females might look similarly yellow-headed. Males have brighter yellow on head,face, and chest. However since the males migrate sooner than females in the Spring you might be seeing a migrating flock of only males. Males arrive earlier than females in order to establish territories. Furthermore the northernmost wintering populations are mostly males and the southernmost wintering populations are females. Range Map for Yellow-headed Blackbirds
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For crows the eye color is a cue for the recognition of juvenile status. The blue eyes show that they are babies. The blue eyes change to their adult color within a month or two after they fledge (leave the nest). The pink inside out the mouth is another visual cue for crows to recognize that the crow is a young crow. The pink inside of the mouth can last up to two years.
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When the males and females look the same they are called sexually monomorphic. The males are slightly larger than the females but not enough for humans to easily notice the difference without taking measurements and that is why DNA testing is the best way for humans to tell the sexes apart. Crows do have some courtship displays. However there is more that could be researched about the American Crow courtship process. The local researchers don't witness the meeting of a crow with a mate or potential mates and the courtship period is thought to happen quickly perhaps. They don't know if the males need to impress the females visually. It is difficult to make an assessment since the local researchers don't witness much if any of the courtship process.
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The local researchers haven't noticed anything to indicate that the tags impede movement. The tags usually stay on for several years, but not as long as the leg bands. Crow "AP" the longest lived of the research crows still had remnants of his wing tag at age 17. When they first get the wing tags they fuss with them, investigating the new adornments. However after a day or so they seem oblivious to their presence. The antennas haven't been put on very many crows thus far and don't stay on for very long. They usually fall off in less than 1 year.
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If the "wedge shaped tail" of a Common Raven is hard to visualize. See if you notice that the outermost tail feathers on each side of the tail are shorter than the innermost/central tail feathers. For an American Crow the tail feathers are even in length.