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description=Promotes the appreciation of wildlife, focusing primarily on birds, and hopes to increase harmony between humanity and nature. Originates in Seattle.;

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plains the native keystone plant concept in more detail https www youtube com watch v o5cxccwx030 the top keystone genera in our ecoregion i e plants and trees you might want in your yard click here additional content available here https wos org wos wp wp content uploads 2022 10 native plant resources 10 7 22 pdf in this area i typically display at least one photo with each post to challenge us to know our native lifeforms can you identify these three native pnw ferns a b c scroll down for the answer the answer the simple answers are a licorice fern b sword fern c deer fern some additional interesting observations happen when you turn over mature fronds that have produced spores depending on the time of year this photo was taken in march if you turn over mature fronds of licorice fern you may see the round brown sori which have produced the spores that aid in the dispersal and reproduction fyi the easiest clue to identifying licorice fern is that they are the only one of the three that grows on trees most often big leaf maple in my experience also depending on the time of year this photo was taken in september if you turn over mature fronds of sword ferns you may see the round brown sori which have produced the spores that aid in their dispersal and reproduction curiously with deer fern you will never see round brown sori under their primary light synthesizing green fronds this is because their sori grow a different type of frond in the central part of the plant you can still see a few of their brown sori on the underside of these central fronds this photo was taken in september the email challenge over the years i have had many readers tell me that google is no longer sending them email announcements as of 2021 google has discontinued the service in response i have set up my own email list with each post i will manually send out an announcement if you would like to be added to my personal email list please send me an email requesting to be added something like larry please add me to your personal email list my email address is ldhubbell comcast net thank you fyi i have begun using gmail to publish my posts since it allows more email addresses in a single batch however it still takes multiple days to send out the notices of a new post thank you for your patience the comment challenge another common issue is losing your input while attempting to leave a comment on this blog often everything functions fine however sometimes people are unable to make it past the robot detection challenge or maybe it is the lack of a google account i am uncertain about the precise issue sadly a person can lose their comment with no recovery recourse bottom line if you write a long comment please copy it before hitting enter then if the comment function fails to record your information you can send the comment directly to me using email my email address is ldhubbell comcast net sincerely larry recommended citation artuso c c s houston d g smith and c rohner 2022 great horned owl bubo virginianus version 1 1 in birds of the world n d sly editor cornell lab of ornithology ithaca ny usa https doi org 10 2173 bow grhowl 01 1 posted by larry hubbell at 11 36 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday august 28 2026 acuity merriman webster defines acuity as the quality or state of being able to sense slight impressions or differences what do you notice when you study this pileated woodpecker piwo take a moment look closely you might even make a short list of things that stand out about this bird i think we all realize there is a lot more happening around us than we can catch at first glance this is one of the reasons digital photography is so useful it gives us a second chance to observe and look more deeply for clues that may have eluded us initially in the photo above you may have first noticed that the red forehead and red malar stripe indicate this is a male pileated woodpecker the eye color could easily be the next detail that catches your attention the grey iris with perhaps a slight hint of yellow indicates this is a first year bird especially given it was a july 30th photo so this first year bird was only a few months old most but not all adults typically have yellow irises another even more subtle clue is the lack of discoloration on the white feathers closest to its bill adults often have yellowing in that area i believe it comes from their feathers being stained by moist decomposing wood as they excavate for carpenter ants and their larva at this point this y oung bird has been mostly fed by its parents it has not spent enough time excavating in decaying wood for its white feathers to become stained you may have also noticed the sparseness of the red feathers on its head and the amount of downy white fluff on its shoulder i suspect these clues are also more common among first year birds this young one was also accompanied by an adult when the adult leaned over and fed the young one that was the most obvious clue to their parent child relationship and the young one s age seeing the unique pattern of feather coloring on the adult i was virtually positive this was the same adult male i had seen feeding nearby less than a month earlier normally black feathers turn brown from the sun bleaching the color and from normal wear and tear spotting a few faded brownish feathers on a pileated woodpecker was not surprising however this was the first pileated woodpecker that i remembered seeing with such a variety of old brown feathers mixed in among the newer darker feathers i wondered if there might be more to the story than just old feathers i asked my birding friends if they had ever seen a pileated with feathering quite like this they all said no later i remembered seeing goldie a 2017 female feeding young at her nest in the arboretum i recalled that she looked really bedraggled here is that 2017 photo she does look wet plus she does have some light brownish colored feathers but nothing close to the mix on the male in the 2026 photo while looking for more information on the internet i came across a wonderful article called the plumages of pileated woodpeckers by peter pyle click here to open bird pop then scroll down to the beginning of the second paragraph to download the plumages of pileated woodpeckers article the amount of research and inspiration peter did to ascertain this unique woodpecker molting process is a stunning example of acuity and intelligence if you are not a bird bander you may not know about peter and his larger earlier publications he is also the author of the two volume identification guide to north american birds these books are densely populated with efficiently coded descriptions explicit diagrams and abundant tables that describe north american birds by age gender and molt in the greatest possible detail these references help bird banders to identify and describe the birds they catch and band together these books are commonly called the bander s bible after reading the plumages of pileated woodpeckers multiple times but still not confident in my ability to see the correct feathers and understand the appropriate implications i decided to send an email to peter i also included a lingering question i have about the eye colors of pileated woodpeckers here is that exchange mr pyle two quick questions item 1 in my limited experience the adult male piwo in the next photo is in an exceptional state of molt this adult male was accompanied by a fy male which he was occasionally feeding your 2021 article on the plumages of pileated woodpeckers is awesome i am perhaps a bit slow to comprehend all the details does this degree of molt imply this bird is after fourth year i took the photo on whidbey island in washington s tate on 7 30 26 feel free to use the photo if you find it useful item 2 ten years ago i noticed a minority of pnw piwo photos showed females with red irises in part 1 of your excellent id guide to na birds while referencing hy sy in the penultimate paragragh of page 204 you state iris color probably grayer or browner vs deep red in asy atys through jan editorial note hy sy means hatch year second year and asy aty means after second year after third year birds of the world states iris brown in juveniles and first year females brownish yellow in first year males b l noel pers comm yellow to golden in adult males and some adult females not known when iris in female changes to yellow here is an old photo i took that shows the significant difference in iris color between a male and a female in virtually the same light fyi one of my readers did send in a photo of a one male with red eyes my question is do you think red irises are a stage between the grey brown of youth and the yellow of adulthood given that this pair is mating perhaps the yellow stage in females comes later in life i e sometime after adulthood begins thank you for any thoughts you have time to share sincerely larry hubbell peter pyle s response hello larry thanks for the kind words about the article and id guide i have seen other examples of piwos with worn feathers like your first bird in a quick look through macaulay i found this one from virginia https macaulaylibrary org asset 615753915 i m unsure if this is simply wear on feathers that did not get molted for 1 2 years of if there is also a pigment issue assuming the former they do look quite worn in any case it would depend on whether or not the older secondaries are juvenile or not if juvenile i d probably go with a 4th year bird having retained those feathers for two molts but my hunch is that they are older basic feathers as the retained back feathers and wing coverts look of the same age and i don t think they are juvenile this would put age as at least 5 years old being able to see the primary coverts would help with the age question but they are covered by the greater coverts in the image in any case it is in an anomalous state of molt as you surmised the iris question is a good one and i m not sure of the source for my statement in the guide about it becoming redder in older birds in a glance thorugh macaulay https media ebird org catalog taxoncode pilwoo mediatype photo sort rating_rank_desc i also see a minority of adults of both sexes with reddish iris examples females https macaulaylibrary org asset 313359491 https macaulaylibrary org asset 631528369 males https macaulaylibrary org asset 529617461 https macaulaylibrary org asset 415652341 but also many yellow and orange irises my best guess is that they go from grayish to yellow to orange to red in both sexes a similar pattern to what we see in sharp shinned and cooper s hawks so your photo may show e g a 3 year old male and an older female both birds are at least three years old based on the plumage that can be seen hope this helps peter my response peter i really appreciate all of your detailed research writing and guidance this makes your taking time to reply and explain your thought processes to me incredibly valuable and enlightening thank you item 1 this photo was taken when the adult bird leaned over to feed the young one i think i am seeing at least one brown primary covert above the small sliver of white showing through from the inner portion of a primary feather item 2 if i write post about red eyed pileated woodpeckers would it be ok with you if i publish your guess i e just the following sentence while of course giving you full credit my best guess is that they go from grayish to yellow to orange to red in both sexes a similar pattern to what we see in sharp shinned and cooper s hawks either way i totally understand thanks again sincerely larry hubbell peter s response you are welcome the primary coverts do help in that the inner one visible is newer than the outer one it is also in the area where the last coverts are replaced in molt sequence so it s not being juvenile reinforces the age as 5 years or older yes feel free to repost any of the below cheers peter my original post on the subject of red eyes in pileated woodpeckers was inspired by the disappearance of a red eyed female whom i called storm click here to read that post during the post i asked readers to send in their photos showing the eye colors of pileated woodpeckers ultimately readers responded to my request and provided dozens of photos showing pileated woodpeckers and their eye colors i concluded there were 24 unique adult pileated woodpeckers in the photos i did not count obvious fy birds or obvious duplicate photographs of the same bird this is not a scientifically controlled experiment however this informal survey provided the following information eye color female male total percent yellow 16 4 20 83 3 orange 2 0 2 8 3 red 1 1 2 8 3 on its own this information did not lead to a logical conclusion however it does seem to align with our observations and peter s idea that adults initially develop yellow irises that then potentially turn orange and ultimately become red if they survive long enough a special thank you for your photographic contributions to gene beall craig kerns eric kowalczyk gerald lisi dennis paulson christine southwick trileigh tucker leroy vanhee milt vine while revisiting the storm passing post i took a closer look at two of the photos this 2013 photos shows storm with an orange iris even though this photo is from the opposite side i do believe it shows the same individual bird note the thin supercilium and the fact that she was found in the same territory where she was photographed both before and after now meaning a year later in 2014 her orange irises have turned red i accept that this is my belief regarding the individual bird s identity and so not scientific proof however if i am correct her changing eye color supports peter s color ch ange concept part of the challenge with scientifically proving this eye color change is that unlike feathers and skins which can be stored and studied in museums the eyes of birds decompose very rapidly which is why the eyes in museum display specimens are typically manmade the best scientific method s to validate and prove peter s theory that i can think of are a capturing banded birds multiple times during their lives and photographing their eyes as they change over time this would most likely require an enormous amount of luck and effort b photographing a bird in captivity as it ages perhaps an injured bird in an appropriate care facility that could not survive without assistance by the way there is such a bird he is called norman in the john ball zoo in grand rapids mi i have sent an email asking for their help this might be the best opportunity to solve this conundrum c someday maybe ai will be able to identify individual birds from all publicly available photographs and essentially track individuals and their eye color change over time when and if this capability becomes available it could provide both breadth and depth of proof this would be es...