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Coffee. It's as essential as air or water to millions. Many of you can't face the day without your morning cup or mug. It's even spawned a whole culture, involving social etiquette and a mysterious language.
I never picked up the habit myself, despite threats like, "You will drink coffee when you need to pull an all-nighter in college" or "work the night shift at the hospital" or "survive vet school" or "hold down the emergency clinic over New Year's Eve weekend when the local puppy rescue has a parvo outbreak." I may be the only adult on the planet who doesn't know how to stand in line at Starbuck's and order a tall mocha frappuccino, a grande double shot espresso, or a venti latte half-caf no-foam, extra hot.
But, I know a lot of you like coffee, and a lot of you like birds and nature, too. And, if you do, you should be drinking shade grown coffee.
Let us backtrack. It used to be that coffee fincas (plantations) in Central America were practically nature preserves. Coffee, an understory plant, grew beneath the natural canopy of native trees and bushes, little or no chemicals were used during production, and the birds flourished. That included "our" birds, neotropical migrants like warblers, vireos, and tanagers that nest in North America and migrate south for the winter.
Now, things are different. Shade-grown coffee plants were replaced with sun-loving varieties, which required chemical fertilizers and pesticides for increased yield. Now, the native plants are stripped away, exposing the topsoil to erosion and sacrificing all that lovely bird habitat.
What's a caffeine-addicted birder to do? Why, drink shade-grown coffee, that's what. Bird-friendly, fair-trade, organic shade-grown coffees are becoming more widely available because of demanding eco-aware consumers. More than just buying and drinking it, promote shade-grown coffee at your local bird club meetings, nature centers, or specialty stores. Ask your favorite coffee shop to stock up on shade-grown coffee. And spread the word to others via your blogs by attaching the logo below to your site.
For more information on this topic, see Kenn Kaufman's article "Brew the Right Thing" in his Bird Watcher's Digest column "After the Spark," Jan/Feb 2009, and Paul Baicich's BWD article Nov/Dec. 2006. Or, go to Kenn and Kim's blog here, or to the Audubon Coffee Club via this link http://www.auduboncoffeeclub.com/
For vulture lovers and wanna-bes: Vulture ID made easy.
Some of you have no problem with identifying vultures. The only one you see is the Turkey Vulture.
Those of us who live in the eastern US, roughly south of the 40th parallel, must separate Black Vultures from the more common Turkey Vultures. Here's how:
The photo below shows a Black Vulture on the left, and a Turkey Vulture on the right. From a distance, and disguised by the tree branches, there doesn't appear to be much difference. If you get up close and personal, though, you begin to seen the variations.
First, the head. The Turkey Vulture seems to be embarrassed. Look at that red face!
The Black Vulture's face is, well --- black.
The face alone can fool you, however, since immature Turkey Vultures will also have a black head, so look at the wings.
Turkey Vultures have a silvery gray color to the trailing edge of their wings, all the way from the body to the wingtips, when view from below. Since this is the most common way we see them, this is a helpful field mark.
Black Vultures, on the other hand, have white wingtips only.
Next, look at the flight pattern. Black Vultures flap a lot more than Turkey Vultures do.
When a Black Vulture soars, it is only for a short distance, and it holds its wings flat.
Turkey Vultures have to expend a lot of energy to get airborne, especially on cloudy days when there isn't enough sun to warm the rising thermals, but once aloft, they can soar forever, teetering back and forth in their classic dihedral. (A dihedral, for the non-birders who read this blog, is a wide, shallow "V" shape.)
Sometimes, it seems that none of your field marks help. You are too far away to see head color, and the lighting is too bad to be able to distinguish the underwing patterns. All you have is a silhouette. What's a birder to do?
There is one clue which is indisputable, one way to tell your two vultures apart that doesn't rely on good lighting, flight patterns, or a spotting scope. Check the bird's tail. Black Vultures have very short tails, just the length of their legs.
In comparison, a Turkey Vulture's tail is long and wedge-shaped.
Whether the bird is flying, soaring, or perched, tail length will always give him away.
Now that you are all vulture experts, try to ID the following two photos, which I deliberately chose for their poor quality and lack of obvious field marks. Do we have one species below, or two? And which is which?
mystery bird 1
mystery bird 2
Sorry I have been so lazy lately. I promise to turn over a new leaf and get back to blogging ASAP.
