My little breeding colony of Dendrobates ventrimaculatus “Iquitos Red” is getting a bit bolder – yesterday I saw 3 of the 4 frogs out in the open. Unheard of! Today I managed to grab the camera and snap a shot of one before he disappeared into the undergrowth. Apologies for the quality – speed was of the essence – it really is a point and shoot picture.

Just to allay any concerns if you clicked though and read “Conservation status: Extensive captive breeding in the US and Europe has greatly decreased the demand for smuggled specimens, with the possible exception of the red and orange Iquitos morphs…” – these guys are first US-born generation from a captive breeding operation in Peru and carry registration numbers so that froggers can keep accurate records.

I just did a loop of the yard to make sure I’d brought in all my gardening junk and got a real treat. The area is alive with birds: robins, downy woodpeckers, cardinals, an oriole, and it looks like I have three nesting pairs in residence. The flycatchers are back – they’re using a two year old nest (refurbished, I’m sure) that is perched on top of a shutter, right under the eaves. I have to admit that I don’t know what kind of flycatcher they are although they’ve raised many clutches either on the shutter or in a nest a foot away from the back door. I guess it’s time for a little close observation with one of my bird books in my lap. The other two pair are easy to identify. The ruby-throated hummingbirds are nesting in the big lilac tangle again this year. Last year I got to watch a bit of the male’s mating display; this year (about 20 minutes ago) I got to watch the female perform her evening clean-up. Feaking (I hope it’s OK to use that word on an H-bird), some scratching, wing preening – she was sitting in the evening sun and the her iridescence was jaw dropping. Finally a black fly flew up my nose and I twitched – it was all over. There is a tufted titmouse nest in a hole in an old, dead apple tree. I was thinking about cutting what is left of the tree down last winter – I’m glad I didn’t.

Via Engadget, a dog collar that combines a GPS receiver and a cell phone. The collar can phone home with long/lat coordinates – with the right device on the other end, putting a dot on a map is trivial. Right now it’s way too bulky, but I’d imagine that a year or two down the line we may be able to put a similar unit on a large hawk or falcon. Many folks put two telemetry transmitters on their birds now – substituting a GPS/cell unit for one might make sense in some circumstances. Two critical considerations – battery life (always an issue) and density of cell towers. What might make sense here in the east (or across the Atlantic) might be foolish in the middle of Wyoming where the falcon is more likely to be eaten by a Goldie than it is to find cell service. There’s also the fair chase aspect – incorporating yet another gadget into an ancient practice. The question may never arise – my bit of technological prognostication may be off base – but if it does, I have to think that avoiding a plane rental (for an aerial search) may be a good thing. To illustrate the post (you may have noticed that I likes me some pitchurs) a falconer with bird and sighthound:

Darren Naish, in his great post on the origins of the domestic dog, writes:

As a rough rule of thumb, the domesticated forms of wild mammal species (1) revert back to wild-type after being feral for a few generations, and (2) readily interbreed with their wild ancestors. If domestic dogs are wolves, then the many populations of feral dogs that live world-wide should theoretically have reverted back to being wolf-like in appearance and behaviour. But they haven’t. Instead, domestic dogs always end up looking like pariah dogs – the relatively small (11-16 kg), socially flexible semi-domesticated and feral dogs of the Old World tropics.

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Archaeological data shows that pariah dogs have a stable history, with dog skulls from 4000 year old deposits in Thailand being essentially identical to the modern dingo-like pariah dogs of the area.

A recent post on O&P regarding Heck cattle got me thinking about this point. For those who don’t want to click through, Heck cattle are an attempt to breed back to the extinct ur-cow – the aurochs. The general consensus on Heck cattle seems to be that the attempt was a failure; “once a genetic lineage is gone, it cannot be ‘bred back'”*. My thought on all this is that it seems to show that once genetic material is lost in a population (as a result of domestication) it’s gone – all the king’s horses, etc. Perhaps, then, it’s not shocking that dogs revert to pariah dogs in some number of generations – the genes that would allow reversion to a more wolfy form are just gone from the domesticated dog’s gene pool. To extend the title of the post a bit – border collies are to pariah dogs as Holsteins are to criollos/Texas longhorns? Don’t get me wrong – there are a number of other persuasive points in Darren’s post – I’m just not sure about the ‘won’t revert to wolves’ argument at this point.

Migratory birds are heading north – the dogs and I flushed a small group of mallards this morning from a vernal pool (vernal lake is more like it) across the street. Two interesting bits of songbird migration info have come over the transom in the past couple days. First, check out this excellent post on songbirds, coffee and the World Bank from the Terrierman (I’m sure many of my visitors also check Patrick’s blog, but if you don’t here’s a reason why you should). Second – via NPR on the drive in this morning – greater noctule bats (Nyctalus lasiopterus) are occupying an unexpected niche – preying on migrating birds as they come north through Europe.

The ability of giant noctules to prey on the wing upon nocturnally migrating passerines appears unique not only among bats but also within the whole animal kingdom. Although carnivorous bats feeding on small-sized vertebrates are not rare, they all live in the Tropics and collect their prey from substrates. The few species of falcons which capture migratory birds along the Mediterranean and African coasts are exclusively diurnal. Finally, owls, as typical night-active predators, never forage in the open space: moving prey is detected from substrates through passive-listening of rustling noises. *

Here’s a link to the paper that is causing the hubbub – right now it looks like the Public Library of Science servers are getting slammed, but when they come back up I’ll likely post an addendum.

From: Figure 1 of Popa-Lisseanu, A. G., Delgado-Huertas, A., Forero, M. G., Rodriguez, A., Arlettaz, R. & Ibanez, C. 2007. Bats’ conquest of a formidable foraging niche: the myriads of nocturnally migrating songbirds. PLoS ONE 2(2): e205.

I just got back in from airing out the dogs in the woods behind my house. We’d gotten about 20 yards deep in the woods (see snow pictures below for an idea of what I’m talking about) when 2 birds flew toward me – moved by the dogs I think – and perched between me and the dogs, who were a ways in front. At first, I thought they were crows (based on their size), but when they perched, I knew that wasn’t the case – typical raptor posture, and the one I had the best view of had his head low and out in front. The sky is overcast and the light is poor, so I didn’t pick up much more than silhouettes. They were calling to each other – one would krek and the other would reply: krek-krek (think of the sound of trees creaking in an otherwise quiet wood). They stayed perched for a heart-stopping 35 seconds or so, then flew off – under the canopy. I know what I think they are, but I’d appreciate a reality check/wishful thinking alert. I know a pair of what-I-hope-they-are nests about a half mile south of the house (though I can never find the current year’s nest). There was some logging last year where they normally nest – maybe they’ve been pushed towards me?

Later – I realize there’s not a lot of data to go on – it’s really the calling that I was curious about – whether that was enough to rule anything out or in.

I received a picture today of a couple dart frogs (D. tinctorius Surinam Cobalt) I sold to a local frogger last fall. He was just getting started in the hobby – I’d say he’s off to a very good start. We both think he got a male and a female; males tend to have larger, heart-shaped front toe pads. I’m grinning like a Cheshire cat…

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