Author Archives: pnixon18@hotmail.com

Esprit: Life and Death of a Wolf Pup

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3-5-ForJudges1_Page_01So few Mexican wolf pups.  And now we have lost another one.

Earlier this month I wrote about the nine pups born in 2015 and given names in this year’s contest.  (Last year there were seventeen named pups.)  Born in April or May a year ago, the pups, now juveniles, are almost full grown and are old enough to venture out on their own, sometimes for short jaunts away from the pack, other times to pair up and start a new family.

Just as I sat down to start this post about the lives of those young wolves, the monthly update* for March landed in my inbox.  I scrolled to the end of the report hoping there were no mortalities, but found instead the sad news that the Marble Pack pup, fp1442—named Esprit, had died.  The report provided no details, but said her death was under investigation.

The young female had still been traveling with her pack which consisted of her father and one male sibling.  Her mother (AF1340) died earlier in the year when she was captured  during the annual count.

According to Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation  (edited by L. David Mech and Luigi Boitani) at this age juvenile wolves are honing their hunting skills while traveling with their families.  They usually leave their natal packs between the ages of 9 and 36 months— when exactly that occurs is a function of “the complex and often subtle interactions within each family.”

Once the Marble Pack lost their alpha female they became a “disrupted family.”  Although this is not uncommon with  field studies pointing to ” . . . much turnover in packs and populations” due to dispersal of juveniles and “deaths from disease, fights with neighboring packs, and hunting by humans,” the Mexican gray wolf population has had an especially conflicted relationship with the human population in its home range.  Over the course of seventeen years (1998-2014) and 111 investigated wolf deaths, 55% were caused by illegal shooting and trapping and another 14% from vehicle collisions.

To increase the numbers and the genetic diversity of the wild population the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to introduce more captive wolves and pups in Arizona and New Mexico this year.  With the population numbering 97 at the end of 2015, down from a high of 110 in 2014, they should implement their plan sooner than later.

********************************************************************************************************To find FWS press releases, monthly monitoring reports, and annual progress reports go to The Mexican Wolf Recovery Program.  For more information and tips on ways to take action on behalf of wolves go to mexicanwolves.org

 

Helen and Her Hawk

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“. . . her name drops into my head. Mabel. From amabilis, meaning loveable, or dear.   An old, slightly silly name, an unfashionable name.   There is something of the grandmother about it: antimacassars and afternoon teas. There’s a superstition among falconers that a hawk’s ability is inversely proportional to the ferocity of its name. Call a hawk Tiddles and it will be a formidable hunter; call it Spitfire or Slayer and it will probably refuse to fly at all.” —Helen Macdonald

HIsForHawk

Mabel is at the center of Macdonald’s captivating memoir about the upheaval of her life when she suddenly and unexpectedly lost her father.

In the weeks after his death Macdonald purchased Mabel, a northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), and began training her to hunt.  Even though she had years of experience raising birds of prey, it was still a big decision.  According to The Sibley Field Guide to Birds, the goshawk is the largest of the accipiters—fully grown, 21 inches tall with a wingspan of 41 inches.  The bird is also notoriously fierce and difficult to train.

Wondering what it would be like to have a Mabel in my house, I got out a tape measure.  Standing on my kitchen counter, she could look me in the eye and demand a piece of raw steak and, no doubt, she would receive it.

Tim Gallagher, editor of Living Bird and also an experienced falconer, wrote this review which illuminates the challenges Macdonald faced.  But even for those of us who will never don a falcon’s glove, Helen and Mabel’s journey is compelling.  Their story stayed with me long after I read the final page.

The paperback edition of H Is for Hawk was released in March and for the last couple of weeks Macdonald was on a book tour of the western U.S.—Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver.  I was looking forward to her Santa Fe visit.  She stepped on the little wooden stage at Collected Works last Saturday evening and charmed the standing-room only crowd with tales of her life with Mabel.

My favorite was her description of walking around Cambridge with Mabel on her gloved fist, overhearing mothers warn their children not to get too close to the “hawk lady.”

 

 

 

Names for Mexican Wolf Pups

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When you name something, you rescue it from indifference, you commit to it the energy of your attention.  Liz Cunningham in Ocean Country

By Alejandro G. 5th Grade

By Alejandro G.
5th Grade

Stella. Auia. Suki. Bosque. Mago. Esprit. Libre. Kiko. Leopold.

Nine pups born in the spring of 2015 to Mexican wolf packs living in the wild have been given names in the fourth annual contest sponsored by Lobos of the Southwest.

Kids ranging from kindergarten through the eighth grade submitted essays, poems, drawings, and other artwork along with their name selections—104 entries in all.

Once again, I had the pleasure and honor of participating as a judge, but it’s a tough job!  We needed a lot more wolf pups to do justice to all of the creative and thoughtful names.  Only those that had been captured, collared, and assigned official studbook numbers by the field team were given names.   Thirteen additional entries, including Faith, (see drawing above and the accompanying essay below by fifth grader Alejandro G.) were selected as runners up and will be assigned if and when other pups are identified.

3-5-ForJudges2_Page_20 (2)

I’ll be featuring more of the essays and artwork on my blog in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime you can see all of the entries here.

A big thank you to each one of the students who put their time, effort, and imagination into naming the newest members of the Mexican wolf packs!

The Name Game

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Along the way, as I often do, I got distracted.

Last month I was writing a few words about my attempt to identify a bird on power pole. Raven or crow? Corvus corax or Corvus brachyrhynchos? Their scientific names—binomials, genus and species—piqued my interest.

What did they mean? Did they give any clues as to the differences between the birds?

The two-part names are usually Latin, but sometimes Greek or sometimes something else altogether.  They are standardized so that everyone knows exactly what we are talking about when we refer to that noisy black bird scavenging in the parking lot as a Corvus brachyrhynchos.

I started with Google, but didn’t find the answer easily using a Latin translation website, so I asked one of my local reference librarians who sent me back to the internet.  I kept scrolling and cobbled together what I thought was the answer.  Corvus means crow.  And, from what I could tell brachyrhyncos seemed to mean short-nosed.  But I wasn’t completely certain I was right and, worse, I wasn’t satisfied.

Still trolling, I discovered a book published in 2014 called Latin for Bird Lovers: Over 3000 bird names explored and explained written by Roger Lederer and Carol Burr.  Bingo.  But my library didn’t have a copy.

I published my raven or crow blog post without defining their scientific names and  waited for the book to arrive in the mail.

LatinForBirdLovers

It didn’t disappoint.  A compact hard cover, it’s the perfect companion to my birding field guides. The definitions are arranged dictionary style with lots of color illustrations and supplemental information—a whole page devoted to the Corvus genus.

I’ve been going through it slowly.  Looking up birds as they appear in my backyard, first in the field guide to learn their scientific name and then in the book of definitions.

Of course, I started with the ravens and crows.  Corvus means crow in Latin and corax means raven, also in Latin.  Brachyrynchos, a two part word: brachy means short in Greek and rynchus, bill in Latin.  That makes the common raven in my back yard the “crow raven” and his smaller counterpart, the American crow, the “short-billed crow.”

The red-breasted American robin that has recently returned to my bird bath is the Turdus migratorius or “wandering thrush.” The midnight blue Steller’s jay with its saucy crest is the Cyanocitta stelleri or “dark blue jay named for the German naturalist, George Steller.”

With its three thousand definitions you would think it would be years before I ran up against the book’s limits, but it happened quickly when a red-crowned, zebra-striped bird showed up at the feeder.  It is known as the ladder-backed woodpecker or Picoides scalaris.  Picoides means woodpecker-shaped, but scalaris is not defined.

Looks like I’ll be on the hunt for the Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names if I really want to know the answer.  Referenced by the authors in their introduction, it boasts 20,000 definitions.  I checked, but my library doesn’t have it.

 

Here’s to Spring

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The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another.
The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.
Fisherman’s Luck by Henry Van Dyke

Yellow tulips. Photo: Paula Nixon

Yellow tulips.
Photo: Paula Nixon

I just returned from a short trip to California and Nevada where spring is not holding back.  In Los Angeles hibiscus, azaleas, and birds of paradise were in full bloom; mounds of scarlet bougainvillea, visible from the freeway, decorated the hillsides.  On a morning walk in Boulder City, red roses spilling over onto the sidewalk tempted me to stop.

Back in Santa Fe, the arrival of spring is more cautious.  The willows are decked out in bright green and tiny purple crocus poke their heads up out of last fall’s leaf litter, but the robins, now visiting my birdbath daily, sometimes find a layer of ice if they show up too early.  After nearly twenty springs in northern New Mexico I would be more surprised than not if it didn’t snow another time or two.

But the countdown is on.  With each passing day there is a minute or two more of sunlight. Another tree unfurls its leaves and within weeks I’ll fill the glass feeder with sugar water to welcome back the hummingbirds.

 

Western Wind

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March blew into New Mexico.

Grit in my teeth.  Tangles in my hair.  I cursed under my breath—the same feeling I had as a little girl growing up in western Kansas, but without words strong enough to push back against it.

Out running errands fighting the car door at each stop it felt like a gale, but according to the Beaufort Wind Scale  was probably only a breeze.  Moderate, fresh, or strong—no matter—it was enough to lift dirt, leaves, and litter into the air.

At eighteen (hundreds of miles from home, in the hills and trees of eastern Kansas, where they don’t know wind the way we do on the wide open plains) my freshman English class analyzed a poem about a lovesick boy.  He longed for the return of spring and his girlfriend.  Wind was the sign he was waiting for. It was a revelation, an unexpected combination—wind and romance.

But it stayed with me.  Each year, hunkered down in the house, waiting for the dust and pollen to settle I pull out the tattered textbook, filled with penciled notes, and turn to the early pages to reread the words:

Western wind, when will thou blow,
The small rain down can rain?
Christ! if my love were in my arms,
And I in my bed again!
-Anonymous (c. 1500)

 

 

 

Mexican Gray Wolf Census: The Cost of a Count

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On February 18th  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced the results of its Mexican gray wolf census—the annual count of the endangered wolves living in the wild.  The number, 97, is down from last year’s 110.

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont via Compfight cc

Each January FWS conducts its survey from the cockpits of an airplane and a helicopter. It’s the best time of year to count  wolves—they are easier to spot in the snow and their population is at its most stable, pups born the prior spring are almost grown and are running with the adults.

As part of the survey a few of the wolves are darted from the helicopter and are transported to a mobile clinic to be examined and outfitted with radio collars. In this Arizona Daily Sun story, “Anatomy of a Wolf Count,” the reporter walks us through the capture and release process.  It usually goes smoothly and within a few hours the wolf is back on its home turf.  But this year two female wolves suffered complications and died after being captured, sad news any time, but especially in a year when the population decreased significantly.  Because the count is “as of the end of the year,” both wolves are included in the total.

One of the wolves, F1340, died within minutes of being darted.  She was a three-year-old born into the Bluestem Pack in 2013, captured and collared during last year’s census without incident.

Tracking her history through monthly status reports, I discovered that F1340 began to travel away from her pack about this time last year and was spotted by the field team with a male wearing a non-functioning radio collar.  In the spring it appeared she might be expecting pups based on signals transmitted from her radio collar, indicating she was staying in one area, not traveling, probably digging a den.

By mid-summer the field team reported seeing the two adults with five pups.  The new wolf family was named the Marble Pack.  They established a territory in the northwest-central portion of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in the White Mountains of Arizona.

In August the field team captured and collared one of the pups, a male, and assigned him studbook number mp1440.  The next month they captured a female pup and gave her number fp1442.  Their father, the alpha male of the pack, remained unidentified.

In what should have been a routine capture operation on January 28th, the field team darted both alphas and one of the pups of the Marble Pack.  As reported above the alpha female, F1340, died quickly and unexpectedly (a necropsy conducted at FWS’ forensics lab may provide more answers about the cause of her death).  The pup, fp1442, was checked for a foot injury and released.  The alpha male, identified as M1243*, formerly of the Paradise Pack, was re-collared and released.

The Marble Pack, now incomplete without its alpha female, may or may not have stayed together.

February is breeding season for Mexican wolves (they mate only once per year).  There is no way of knowing how it might have turned out, but if F1340 had survived she might now be preparing a den for a new litter.  It’s likely the yearling pups would have continued to travel with M1243, hunting, bringing food to F1340, continuing to mature—preparing to disperse, find mates, establish territories.

Even without the alpha female it’s impossible to predict the fate of the Marble Pack.   These wolves, born and raised in the wild, are resilient.  I’ve followed F1340’s original pack, the Bluestems, for years and time after time the family of wolves has survived shootings, wildfire, challenges from other wolves, encounters with livestock and humans, and probably countless other things not revealed by a radio collar or field observation.

For now all we can do is hope.

****************************************************************************************************

*According to the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program Reports #14, #15 and #16 (years 2011, 2012, and 2013, respectively) M1243 was born to the Paradise Pack in 2011.  He left his natal pack late in 2012. When his collar stopped transmitting in 2013, he was considered “fate unknown.”

To find FWS press releases, monthly monitoring reports, and annual progress reports go to The Mexican Wolf Recovery Program.  For more information and ideas for ways to take action on behalf of the wolves go to mexicanwolves.org

Raven or Crow?

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Maybe you noticed me standing in front of Albertson’s last week.  I was wearing a red coat, staring up at a large black bird.  He was perched on a light pole and his squawking caught my ear the moment I opened the car door.

As I stood watching him, trying to figure it out—raven or crow—he lowered his voice.

Have you ever run your fingers over the teeth of a pocket comb?  That’s what it sounded like—the end where the teeth are closest together.  I stood still, trying to memorize what I was hearing, until he flew off.

Identifying ravens and crows has vexed me since I began paying attention to the birds in my neighborhood.

American Crow Photo Credit: goingslo via Compfight cc

American Crow
Photo Credit: goingslo via Compfight cc

Side-by-side, the field guide points out, it’s easy.  Ravens are significantly larger than crows (24 inches long versus 17.5 inches).  But that’s not the way it works in my backyard or the parking lot.  One-by-one, at a distance, it’s challenging. This time I focused more on sound than sight..

Common Raven Photo Credit: ConspiracyofHappiness via Compfight cc

Common Raven
Photo Credit: ConspiracyofHappiness via   Compfight cc

Back at home, I read this article that discusses the differences (wing  and bill shapes, social behaviors, flight patterns) between the two corvids. It was the bird’s location that was a big tip-off—he was scoping out a grocery store and fast food parking lot.  It’s the sociable crow that is much more likely than a raven to frequent urban areas.

To confirm I listened to the  various calls for both birds at allaboutbirds.org and was certain.  American crow.  Corvus brachyrhynchos.

Just in time.  The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up February 12th-15th.

 

The Bluestem Pack–Late 2015

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Photo Credit: Mark Dumont via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont via Compfight cc

El Niño arrived in northern Arizona last week.  After drenching southern California, it piled two feet of snow in the higher elevations of the White Mountains, the home range of the Bluestem Pack.

It was spring when I last posted an update on the family of lobos. Since then the field team that monitors the endangered Mexican wolf population living in the wild verified that AF1042, the alpha female of the Bluestem Pack, gave birth in April or May to a litter of  eight pups, the largest born since reintroduction began in 1998.

Over the last few months the pack has included  AF1042, five radio-collared offspring born in 2013 and 2014, and the pups of the year.  The alpha male of the pack, AM1341, lost his collar in March (it was designed to drop off when the battery got low.) He may well still be traveling with the family, but is not identified on the monthly status reports.  All of the wolves would have helped in the upbringing of the newest members, although two of the juveniles have spent time traveling on their own, perhaps preparing to disperse and join or form new packs.

Late in the summer the pack killed a calf and a cow.  From what I can tell, reading the monthly updates, a herd of cows was grazing in a summer pasture that was close to the pack’s territory.  The field team first provided a food cache to try and divert the wolves from the livestock, but after the depredations U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) issued a removal order to shoot up to two members of the pack if they killed any more cattle.

Wolf advocates mobilized a letter-writing campaign to protest the order, but the crisis passed without incident.  No further depredations occurred, the cows were moved out of the area, and the removal order expired.

And now it’s January, the month the field team conducts a year-end population survey.  In years past they have relied on a variety of methods to count the wolves, both collared and uncollared.  In the air they use use airplanes and helicopters to track radio-collared wolves and to visually identify and count the others.  On the ground they set up remote camera traps and travel backcountry roads and trails in vehicles and on foot looking for tracks and scat.

Once the field work is complete, the team will write their annual report and it will provide not only a count but more detailed information about each pack—information that may answer my questions about the Bluestem Pack.  How many of the eight pups survived?  Have the two dispersing juveniles found mates?  Is AM1341, the alpha male, still running with the pack?

This morning it’s cold and the snow is deep in the White Mountains.  But the sky is clear and the wolves with their heavy  coats and big feet are well-designed for winter.  The pups are almost grown.  I can picture the family of lobos weaving through a stand of pines, loping across a mountain meadow, pursuing a small herd of elk.

For more information about the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program check out USFWS‘s website.  And to learn more about how you can help go to Lobos of the Southwest.

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

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Perhaps to those familiar with their ways
The sight would not have been so startling:
A deer fording the Missouri in the early afternoon.
–Kevin Cole*

Photo Credit: ahisgett via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: ahisgett via Compfight cc

I had a few of those moments in 2015:  a family of skunks scurrying down a dark, wet street; a butterfly landing on my sleeve for just a moment; a young buck drinking from the birdbath in my backyard.  Moments that made me hold my breath and stay still.

Thank you for reading my blog.  I wish you a wonderful 2016 filled with magical moments!

*Here is the link to Kevin Cole’s poem “Deer Fording the Missouri in the Early Afternoon”