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Monthly Archives: January 2011
Promiscuous white males and faithful tan males in white-throated sparrows
In the case of the white-throated sparrows, Formica and Tuttle report that 35 percent of the nests they sampled in 2000 had at least one chick that was the result of the female copulating with a male other than her mate. … Behavioral Ecology 14:425-432. doi: 10.1093/beheco/14.3.425 
The sparrows were in this thicket. 
White-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis, white form, taken by Ken Thomas (public domain). 
This one is the tan form. 
The figure above is from Tuttle 2003.
Christmas bird count on the Katy Prairie – the measure of a day outside
Dawn over Hebert Reservoir on the Katy Prairie. 
We saw thousands of snow geese, and many Canada geese, and long-billed curlews. 
Our group counted every bird we saw, writing down species, number, and location using our eyes, binoculars, and a spotting scope. 
The reservoir was dry, so all the gar had died. 
Bob Honig was our leader, and he wrote everything down and could identify all the birds. 
Our group was a lot of fun! 
Sometimes we just waited, looking hard, particularly after the wind picked up, sending the birds to cover. 
Deciduous yaupon is not common in Houston, but it shines brilliantly on the Katy Prairie. 
This is what Bob’s notes looked like, a page for each location. 
The lichens were rich in the unpolluted Katy Prairie air. 
Something was killing the turtles in the pond and something was dragging them onto the levee.
