The Fungus Among Us

Ok, so this isn't technically a fungus. It's a slime mold - and it's not even quite a mold for that matter. In fact, their classification, it turns out, is quite a topic of debate among scientists who debate such things (ewww). They are affectionately known as "dog vomit mold" as well . . . further explanation unnecessary. Wikipedia has a pretty good article on them. I believe what we are seeing is Dictyosteliida .

Why am I putting such disgusting looking things on a birding blog? Well, these crazy things kept me from my favorite birding location for about a week in the last month. I have always had pretty serious mold allergies, but over the past 10 years or so my allergies and asthma have been almost an afterthought they are so mild. We have been seeing these things growing in our mulch most of the summer - it's been unusually wet. I hadn't given them much thought - they were an interesting curiosity and I just assumed they were a fungus and nothing to be alarmed about - they didn't seem to bother any of my flowers or other plantings. Then one night while I was lying on the swing, I had a very sudden onset of severe allergy symptoms and an asthma attack that was the scariest in probably 20 years! It even scared the kids. Fortunately, my inhaler opened me back up pretty quickly.

There had been 2 or 3 molds that had gone to "spore" stage right there by the swing. I had left them because I figured trying to clean them up in this powdery form would just spread them more. The dogs had broken them open, though, which causes a brown cloud of spores to release every time they are touched. We contacted our local Ag Extension Agent, who confirmed they are essentially harmless to plants and the best thing to do is scoop them up to get rid of them. Also, the best way to prevent them is to keep the mulch raked, which aerates it to prevent the growing conditions.

I made sure I was not even near home when my husband cleaned them out. I am now very cautious around them. The series of pictures here is of one that started yesterday and was ready to release spores tonight! It's a very cool process where the single cell organisms signal chemically that they have run out of food, they all collect together into an amoeba like state called a slug, "build" ladders out of themselves so the top organisms can release spores up (a whole 2 mm) higher. This process is what has the rapt attention of so many scientists.

My husband has now very dutifully (and carefully) removed them from the mulch around my favorite birding spot. Back to birding!

All-You-Can-Eat Cooper's Hawk Buffet

So many things to cover since the last post - right before a crazy month of vacation and weekend trips. But, for now, we will talk about the natural circle of life that might be going on right at your feeders. We all know that the neighborhood cat can be a threat to your backyard birds, but did you know there is a threat from the air, as well? Both the Cooper's Hawk and the Sharp-Shinned Hawk will prey on backyard birds. A pile of feathers near your feeder with no sign of a carcass is a tell-tale sign your feeders were visited by one of these birds of prey. The good news is that if they are hanging around for the birds, they may also be reducing your population of small rodents and other mammals and maybe even snakes.

The Cooper's Hawk is larger and especially known for raiding poultry yards - so it's not always the fox's fault! Your grandmother may have called them a Chicken Hawk, in fact. I always remember the Sharp-Shinned from the Cooper's by the alliterative trick of the S's in its name - it is Smaller and has a Squared tail. The Cooper's has a Curved tail. Other than those two things, they look remarkably alike in their markings. Don't be fooled by the color in this photo my Mom took at her backyard feeder this weekend. Photos frequently cause much debate amongst birders because colors can be so strongly affected by the ambient light, the camera settings, and in this case, the fact that the photo was taken through a screen. But the key reason this one is brown is because it is a first year juvenile. According to both Sibley's and Stokes, the 1st years of both Hawks are brown on the back and their eyes are not yet the distinctive red. What Bird does not show juveniles. The adults are much more slate gray on the back and rustier mottled brown on the front. Look for the distinctive horizontal dark and white streaks with the white stripe on the end of the tail of either bird, juvenile or adult.