Friday Feathered Feature
Showcasing a different bird species each week
Turkey vulture photo by Mick Thompson
We know Thanksgiving usually centered around turkeys. But variety is the spice of life, right? So for your pre-Thanksgiving entertainment, here are a few fun facts about turkey vultures:
A group of turkey vultures is called a committee, or a kettle if in flight, or a wake if they're feeding.
The scientific name means "cleansing breeze."
Turkey vultures can travel up to 200 miles in a day.
Their feet are useless for killing prey, but beaks are strong enough to rip through cow hide.
A bald head prevents a delicious meal of dead meat from getting stuck to their feathers.
What an incredible sense of smell! The wafting aromas of dead animals can be picked up from over a mile away.
They sometimes eat so much that they can't take off or fly until they digest some of their meal.
Turkey vultures vomit when they feel threatened.
Ok, who's ready for a holiday dinner?!
Before you get too involved in decorating, cooking, and enjoying, please mark your calendars for Giving Tuesday on December 1. Think Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but better! You can donate to support Madison Audubon's work through our website, any amount, at madisonaudubon.org/gt
If you are thinking about holiday gifts, check out our store for some great ideas -- tshirts, bird-themed greeting cards, a gift membership, or bundles for adults and kids. More info and options at madisonaudubon.org/store
And, if you are already shopping on Amazon, could we ask that you set your Amazon Smile account to benefit Madison Audubon? They donate while you shop!
With that, we hope that your Thanksgiving celebration is fun, relaxing, and orders of magnitude more delectable than a turkey vulture dinner. Thank you for being a wonderful part of this organization!
With a grateful, cleansing breeze heart,
Brenna Marsicek
Madison Audubon director of communications and outreach
Goose Pond could have been called Gull Pond on November 2nd, when there were thousands of gulls on the pond and many more in adjoining fields that were being plowed by farmers. That morning, Mark met Brand and Sharon Smith who were enjoying a morning of bird watching. Mark asked if they could count the ring-billed gulls, thinking that this “screech” of gulls may be a new record for the pond.
Brand and Sharon counted 6,960 ring-billed gulls and filed the following eBird report: “Brand & Sharon drove around Goose Pond to get this count. 4,000 birds were following a very large tractor plowing the field. This tractor was plowing a distance of approximately 1/4 mile. The entire length of the plowed field was full of gulls. 1,300 were on the south side of the east pond. 660 gulls were on the west pond & in the field south of the west pond. 1,000 gulls were along the north side of County K east of Hopkins Rd. When the ground is white there are a lot of gulls.”
The previous high count at Goose Pond by Spike Millington on October 31, 2020 of 1,000 ring-bills was short-lived. The 6,690 ring-billed count is also a record count for Columbia County.
Sam Robbins in 1991 wrote in Wisconsin Birdlife that ring-billed gulls are common migrants and are a common summer resident north and east. Their main habitat is the Great Lakes and inland lakes. Sam also wrote “until recently the Ring-bill was known as a non-breeding summer resident, mainly along Lakes Michigan and Superior, and only occasionally as a breeder.”
Photo taken by Joshua Mayer in Door County 2013.
It was not until the 1970s that ring-bill numbers began increasing along the shoreline of Lake Superior when Sumner Matteson and Jim Harris found 20 nests on Gull Island in the Apostle Islands. In 2019 Sumner surveyed Gull Island and found a flock of 12 ring-bills and “Dismal production—the worst I have observed in 45 years —of herring gulls with only 12 young.” Nick Anich, Breeding Bird Atlas Coordinator, recorded an interesting observation of 200 ring-bills, 101 nests and 316 eggs on the Eagle Forge building in Ashland.
Gull numbers also increased along Lake Michigan and In 1976 Tom Erdman found about 273 nests in northeast Wisconsin and a year later a new colony appeared in Kewaunee County with 1,292 nests. In the recently completed Breeding Bird Atlas II, Tom Presby counted 4,500 adults and young at the Cat Island wave barrier near Green Bay in 2018.
While exploring data closer to home, we were surprised to find that Dory Owen found 20 nesting ring-bills nesting on the roof of the Walgreens Distribution Center in Windsor in 2019 and 18 adults and 17 young nesting on the roof of the Department of Natural Resources (GEF II) building, a block from the Capitol in 2017.
While visiting the Oshkosh Correctional Institution in the mid 1990s on DNR business, Mark found a gull nest on the ground in the center courtyard of the facility. The pair must have thought that ground nesting predators would not breach the heavily fenced facility.
Photo by Richard Armstrong
The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology states, “After nearly succumbing to hunting and habitat loss, Ring-billed Gull populations increased in most areas between 1966 and 2014, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. The North American Waterbird Conservation Plan estimates a continental breeding population of 1.7 million birds... Their populations plummeted during the late nineteenth century, when humans encroached on the birds' nesting grounds and killed them for feathers to decorate hats. By the early 1900s many breeding sites were defunct. Protection under the 1917 Migratory Birds Convention Act (Canada) and 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act (U.S.) helped bring the species back, and now this species once again thrives across the United States and southern Canada—so numerous in some places that they are considered pests. In the middle of the twentieth century, Ring-billed Gulls around Lake Ontario proved susceptible to the pesticide DDT and to PCB pollution. Environmental regulations in the 1970s helped reduce pollution levels. Humans have generally helped Ring-billed Gulls by providing extra foods, including introduced fish; insects and grain exposed on farm fields; and discarded food and refuse. The Ring-billed Gull continues to extend its breeding range—likely fueled in part by the edible garbage available at open landfills.”
Short- to medium-distance migrant. Many birds migrate along coasts, including the Great Lakes, and major rivers. Ring-billed Gulls spend the winter throughout the southern United States. Courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology
The gulls at Goose Pond were probably feeding in the newly exposed soil on earthworms and grubs. They were interesting to watch as they leap-frogged over others to get close to the tractor. At dusk, the gulls fly south about 14 miles to Lake Mendota to join other flocks, and return to the farm fields the next day until the field work is completed. We believe the reason gulls congregated in record numbers at Goose Pond is that there may have been high numbers on the Madison Lakes, that farmers north of Madison were not plowing their fields, and that the gulls had to travel further away to feed.
Mark is looking forward to counting ring-billed and herring gulls for his 40th Madison Christmas Bird Count at the Dane County Landfill. Numbers vary due ice conditions on the Madison Lakes. It is not uncommon to find over 1,000 gulls at the landfill.
Photo of ring-billed gulls taken at the Dane County Landfill by Mark Martin on December 19, 2015. The photo was printed and gulls were counted by circling each one and counting the circles.
Next time you visit Goose Pond during the gull season spend some time watching their feeding behavior. They are an interesting and adaptable species that takes advantage of food sources found away from water.
Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers
Cover photo by Richard Armstrong
A catchy title but seeing sea ducks at Goose Pond is a very, very rare occurrence. Three species of sea ducks recorded at the pond are the long-tailed duck, black scoter, and white-winged scoter. This feature is on the scoters. In the 41 years since we have lived at Goose Pond, there have been just two days when scoters were present.
The first scoter sighting was a black scoter that Mark found one fall afternoon in the 1980s. The scoter was about 40 feet from Goose Pond Road when Mark drove by and quickly stopped after seeing this unusual duck. It appeared to be a male and was easy to identify with the black body and knob above the bill.
Black scoter photo by Aaron Maizlish FCC
Sam Robbins wrote in 1991 Wisconsin Birdlife that black scoters are an uncommon fall migrant east (Lake Michigan); rare fall and spring migrant elsewhere.”
Sam also reported that “Until 1981, Wisconsin had no record between early June and late September. So it came as a complete surprise to Jim Hale to find a female escorting five downy chicks along the Lake Michigan shore in Door County on 6 July, 1981." Mark worked in the DNR’s Bureau of Research at that time where Jim was the Bureau Director.
According to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, “Late autumn migration occurs across a broad front, so migrants may turn up almost anywhere in the continent’s interior, usually on lakes and larger rivers, where they normally do not linger long.
Black Scoters nest in the remote north, making their population trends hard to estimate, but they appear to be in decline. A 1993 study of eastern North America estimated a decline in all 3 scoter species at 1% per year between 1955 and 1992, indicating a cumulative decline of 31% over that period. Partners in Flight estimated the 2017 global breeding population at about 500,000 and rated the species a 12 out of 20 on its Continental Concern Score, indicating a species of low concern. Black Scoters form large winter flocks along both Atlantic and Pacific coastlines, though they are scarcer south of the Carolinas and northern California. During late autumn, tens of thousands may migrate southward past prominent headlands or peninsulas. Inland, Black Scoters turn up briefly on lakes or reservoirs, especially when bad weather drives them out of the sky. As with most waterfowl, a spotting scope is useful to get good views.”
Black scoter range map, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
There must have been bad weather before the fourth weekend in October to the north and east of us. On October 23 to October 25 there were numerous reports of scoters in Dane County. Rare eBird reports had black, white-winged, and surf scoters at Ferchland Place Overlook and Olbrich Park. Black scoters were found at Hudson Park and white-winged scoters were found at Tonyawatha Park, Marshall Park, Schluter Beach, University Bay, Hudson Park, Lake Farm County Park, and Lake Kegonsa State Park in Dane County.
JD Arnston reported on the following observations on October 24 and 25:
“This past weekend, I received several eBird alerts about all three species of scoter being sighted on the Madison lakes. Excited to add them to my life list, I checked out a number areas on the 24th and was lucky enough to see two of the three species—3 black scoters and 1 surf scoter.
The next day, while talking with Mark Martin about my scoter sightings, he suggested keeping an eye out on Goose Pond for scoters as well. That afternoon, I went out to Goose Pond for some birding—hopeful, but not convinced—that I would see any scoters. I surveyed the entire pond but had no luck in the way of a single scoter. After this, I drove around the area, visiting several other wetlands and ponds in search of migratory waterfowl. After seeing many birds but no scoters, I made my way back to Goose Pond, figuring I would give it one more quick look before calling it a day.
As I scanned the pond, I almost couldn't believe it—a group of 8 white-winged scoters near the center of the west pond. Not only was this a lifer for me, but it was also the first record of a white-winged scoter at Goose Pond.” JD’s eBird report contained the following observation. "Juvenile/female plumage. Large bill, especially at the base. Dark colored with the exception of the white eye markings on both sides of the eye. The white wing patch was also visible." Mark, Graham, and Calla searched the next day but it appeared that the scoters had moved on.
Female white-winged scoter photo by Mick Thompson FCC
Male white-winged scoter photo by Mick Thompson FCC
Sam Robbins wrote in 1991 Wisconsin Birdlife that white-winged scoters are an uncommon fall migrant east (Lake Michigan); rare fall and spring migrant elsewhere.”
According to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, “White-winged Scoters are usually the scarcest of the three scoter species in North America During migration, after heavy storms, or when the Great Lakes have frozen over, they often show up on inland lakes.
White-winged scoter range map, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Biologists know very little about their population trends. Partners in Flight estimates a combined global breeding population of White-winged, Stejneger’s, and Velvet Scoters of 400,000 and rates White-winged Scoter a 13 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score, indicating a species of low conservation concern. Much research is needed on all three scoter species.”
Until recently, the Common Scoter of Eurasia and Black Scoter of North America (and northeastern Russia) were thought to be the same species. Bill differences between male Common and Black Scoters have been known for centuries, but it took a 2009 study of differences in courtship calls to clinch the case for recognizing them both as full species.
For many years, the Velvet Scoter of western Eurasia and Stejneger’s (Siberian) Scoter of eastern Eurasia were combined with White-winged Scoter as a single species, but in 2019 taxonomists decided to treat them as 3 separate species.
Although the White-winged Scoter winters primarily along the coasts, small numbers winter on the eastern Great Lakes. Populations on the Great Lakes may have declined during the 1970s but now appear to be increasing in response to the invasion of the zebra mussel, a new and abundant food source.
We hope the scoters in the Madison area linger for awhile and that you can get out to see these sea ducks. The white-winged scoter is the 36th species of waterfowl (ducks 27 species), geese (6), and swans (3) on our Goose Pond Bird Species List. We are looking forward to the day when we can add the surf scoter.
Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers
