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Western Tanager: The Double Life of The White-Throated Sparrow
Western Tanager: The Double Life of The White-Throated Sparrow
WESTERN
TANAGER
a publication of Los Angeles Audubon www.laaudubon.org
rom October 2008 until Huntington Central Park, but these In northern New York state,
PRESIDENT:
David De Lange
1st VICE PRESIDENT:
Garry George
An active beaver pond, tan males prefer to set up territories
2nd VICE PRESIDENT:
in small isolated openings as this in order to avoid neighbors.
Paul Fox
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY: Numerous bodies of water dot the During early spring, White-
Linda Oberholtzer
RECORDING SECRETARY: landscapes and on one of the largest is throated Sparrows were fairly quiet
Eleanor Osgood Cranberry Lake, where the State Uni- with only the occasional subdued song,
TREASURER:
Lisa Fimiani versity of New York maintains a bio- but when the first warblers arrived, the
EXECUTIVE PAST PRESIDENT: logical research station. The research familiar “Sam Peabody” resounded
Dexter Kelly
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:
station is located within a remote part from every forest edge. White-throated
Mary Loquvam of the woods surrounding Cranberry Sparrows have been studied exten-
Lake and is most easily reached via a sively and have helped ornithologists
Membership in Los Angeles Audubon is $10
Student, $25 Individual, $35 Couple, $50 thirty minute boat ride across open understand questions of migration,
Family, $100 & $250 Annual Donor, and water. It is part of a huge wilderness song, habitat selection and breeding
$1,000 Lifetime. Members receive the
Western Tanager newsletter and other benefits. area with Black Bears knocking on ecology. Yet researchers have only be-
Donations and memberships can be made your cabin door, literally! Stands of gun to unravel the unique life history of
online at www.laaudubon.org, or by US Mail.
mature deciduous woods cover rolling this common species. A quick look
Make checks payable to Los Angeles Audubon. hills and patches of boreal forest into any field guide reveals that the
Mailing Address:
thrive in poorly drained soils. Over White-throated Sparrow is polymor-
Los Angeles Audubon decades, beaver activity has created a phic; meaning males and females can
P.O. Box 931057, Los Angeles, CA 90093 mosaic of woodland and small mead- be either the white or tan morph, occa-
Tel: (323) 876-0202 ows. Old beaver ponds, long dry, are sionally causing confusion for birders,
Fax: (323) 876-7609 covered in grass and shrubs and new since morphs can look especially dif-
Bird Tape: (323) 874-1318
beaver ponds flood the surrounding ferent during the summer. White
Los Angeles Audubon land creating boot sucking swamps of morphs have bright white throats and
Headquarters, Library and Nature Store
are open to the public
dense alder, the preferred habitat of supercilia, whereas on tan morphs the
Monday – Thursday White-throated Sparrows. When I colors of throat and supercilia are a
9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. reached upstate New York at the start muted brown. The story does not end
Street Address: of the season, White-throated Spar- with different facial patterns though.
Audubon House, Plummer Park rows had arrived a week prior and The two morphs result from a chromo-
7377 Santa Monica Blvd., W. Hollywood, CA 90046
there was still plenty of snow on the somal polymorphism caused by a peri-
WesternTanager@LAAudubon.org – Editor ground. All researchers and students centric inversion of the second chro-
LAAS@LAAudubon.org – General email
www.LAAudubon.org – Website stayed in simple wooden bunkhouses mosome. In other words, numerous
along the lakeshore and followed nar- genes are affected, leading not only to
Printed on Recycled Paper
row trails through the pristine forest to obvious differences in morphology, but
reach study sites. also behavior.
Free Admission!
• Beautiful outdoor venue
• Refreshments available
• Seating limited, arrive early
Allison and Brown Creeper, Photo by Anand Varma • Bring the family
I am honored to be a recipient of than we can), I will be able to
this year's Ralph W. Schreiber objectively quantify sexual This year's line up includes:
Ornithology Research Award. dichromatism, or differences in color
between males and females. By Friday, June 26th: Over the Hedge
Here is a short paragraph combining this information with A comedy about a group of animals
describing my research: genetic information of how the taking back the neighborhood... one
species are related, I will answer snack at a time.
Tanagers, a diverse family of 365 questions about the evolution of (Spanish with English Subtitles)
species, make an ideal group for sexual dichromatism, such as which
studies of bird coloration. By taking sex drives dichromatism, and Friday, July 24th: Water and
reflectance measurements from the whether certain coloration Watersheds are explored through two
plumage of museum specimens, and mechanisms (carotenoid, etc.) are shorts- Stream Spirit Rising and
using a model of avian vision (birds differentially associated with higher A River's Journey to Rebirth, and
can see ultraviolet colors and can levels of dichromatism. through the internationally
acclaimed, award winning
distinguish between colors better
documentary investigation
FLOW.
L o s A n g e l e s Au d u b o n R e q u e s t s (English with Spanish Subtitles)
—by Mary Loquvam, Executive Director
Friday, August 28th: The Education
Los Angeles Audubon is searching for a member(s) who might be an of Little Tree. Little Tree is an 8-year-
alum of Occidental College. We would like an introduction to talk about old Cherokee boy who learns the
some of our programs with the school. If you are an alum and want to wisdom of the Cherokee way of life.
help out, please contact Mary Loquvam at (English with Spanish Subtitles)
maryloquvam@laaudubon.org or call (323) 662.1294. Thanks!
Audubon Center at Debs Park (Off
The Western Tanager is soliciting articles relating to bird and wildlife the Arroyo Seco Parkway (110
conservation and recreation issues to build an archive for future Western FWY), between Avenue 43 and
Tanager issues. If you have an article you would like to see published in Avenue 52)
the Western Tanager, please send it to 4700 N. Griffin Ave.
westerntanager@laaudubon.org. Thanks! Los Angeles, CA 90031
Phone: 323-221-2255
Western Tanager July/August 2009 E5
birds of the season —by Jon Fisher
igration this spring was virtually no misses of expected birds, Garrett) was only the second
I
honking of vehicles outside. The only
Nature columns we heard reason most kids in my community
from Rosemary Virula, a Fonda is looking forward to considered recycling was because you
Dorsey graduate now attending attending UCLA in the fall. Besides could win a cool prize in class. I knew
that glass, paper, and plastic were
CSU Northridge, and Chris wrapping up an excellent
recyclable and that I shouldn’t litter
Simmons, a Baldwin Hills greenhouse research project this because it could reach the ocean and
Greenhouse Intern. In this column past school year, Fonda was also a harm marine life. Despite this limited
we’ll hear from Fonda Williams, key player on Dorsey High information about the cause and
another student who participated in School’s Academic Decathlon effects of my actions, I wasn’t truly
the Baldwin Hills Greenhouse Team, and participated in student able to grasp the idea of environmental
Internship Program. During the leadership on campus. What awareness. In my community we are
2008-2009 school year five follows is Fonda’s perspective on not fostered to care, we are exposed to
students from Dorsey High School the environmental education she thinking that our effort won’t make a
big difference, so we figured why even
participated in this internship received as a student growing up in
attempt.
program, a joint project between Los Angeles. Again, we hope this
Los Angeles Audubon and essay helps you to understand the Missing out on learning about the
Earthworks Restoration, and inner-city student experience and environment while you are young
funded by the Baldwin Hills that it inspires you to get involved creates issues when trying to transition
Conservancy. Students have spent in our programs in the Baldwin later in life. Once someone becomes a
the past school year working on Hills… young adult it becomes hard to change
intensive individual research —STacey Vigallon, and form new habits. Although the
projects that focused on native Director of Interpretation transition is not impossible it is very
species within the Coastal Sage Continued on page 12
Exceptions:
Closed: Sat., July 4th
Open: One Saturday of the month,
July 11 and Aug., 1st 10 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Continued from page 9 would have never thought that I would honestly didn’t believe that I could
difficult. It’s about as hard as someone be handling 180 cactus plants, like achieve acceptance to these colleges
trying to get into the habit of daily they were my own adopted children. and universities. But, conducting
exercise after a life of being a coach The thought of working with cactus native plant research at my internship
potato. The habits become unconscious made me uneasy. Having to endure the helped give the confidence and skills I
acts, so even when you begin to try to cactus spines that seemed to find their will need next year at UCLA, where I
change you see yourself doing the way into my gloves and then into my plan to major in English and minor in
same thing sometimes. This challenge skin, sometimes with spines so little I science.
can discourage people from beginning only knew they were there because I
or continuing to become could feel the sting. As painful as the It is not hard to expose people to
environmentally aware. spines were— the experience was the environment. Maybe in addition to
worth the pokes and pulling of the funding trips to the museum, send
Some may wonder how come I spines out of my skin by the tweezers. children to a botanical garden. Let a
became environmentally aware while part of school curriculum be about
others have not. That is because I have This internship was a new conservation. I was lucky enough to
taken my own initiative to learn. I am experience, and it has benefited me have exposure late in high school but
naturally curious, always signing up greatly. Partly because of my others are not. Making a difference
for things just to see what the internship, I was awarded acceptance environmentally means making a
experience would be like. Many into some of the most prestigious difference educationally. And my
people refuse to do that because they universities and colleges in the education started with the Baldwin
don’t like the idea of doing something country, such as UCLA, UC Berkeley, Hills Greenhouse program.
so new and strange to them. Their and Smith College. Schools found it
inexperience and fear overtake their impressive that someone of my —Fonda Williams,
curiosity. As Greenhouse Intern, I background would be involved in Baldwin Hills
something like this internship. I Greenhouse Intern
E12 Western Tanager Vol. 75, No. 6