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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 2017)
Wednesday, January 4, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon of what the bird looks like in normal plumage, and — if one looks carefully — has normal dark eyes, not blood red or pink. That’s a bird with screwed-up genes, which have lost the ability to carry the normal coloring on to the Tales from a next generation. This is a wonderful time of the year to get about bird- ing, looking for that unusual by Jim Anderson plumage, and especially strangers. A leucistic bird stands out like a sore thumb, and so do strangers from a foreign land, especially It’s tough enough to come a Mexican jay; they really up with the correct ID for stand out! Every once in a while, the varied finches that gang up around my feeder every non-US-of-A species get morning, noon and late after- blown off course so badly noon. When you have a leu- in winter they end up in our cistic one show up, the whole western flyway, bewildered, day gets disrupted. Which is not knowing where they are, what my pal Brent McGregor who their friends or foes are, ran into in his backyard the or what to eat. I can recall that happening other day. The first thing that usu- while I was with a bunch of ally happens when a white, wildlife biologists who were speckled bird comes by that on a BLM “show-me” tour you know shouldn’t be that out on the high desert looking devoid of coloration, some- at playas modified for water one calls it an albino. Wrong. storage for cows. (Several An albino is aways pure of the bios thought a better white, devoid of any color- term for the modification was ation, even the eyes, which “destroyed...”) Anyway, we were at a are always pink to red. All the others with weirdo huge modified playa south coloration are leucistic. The of Brothers on the Great usual lack of coloring in Sandy Desert, and as we dis- plumage of leucistic birds is mounted from our pickups combined with little splashes we could see a rather large group of black- and-white waterbirds scuttling along on the surface to avoid us. I thought they looked like ocean birds, surf scoters to be exact, but I didn’t say so — and neither PHOTO BY BRENT MCGREGOR did anyone A leucistic robin. Sisters Naturalist All white — but not quite Cork Cellars Wine & Bistro Dinner Specials else — until a more daring USFW bio said, “Say aren’t those surf scoters…?” Then everyone jumped in: “Yeah, they sure look like it.” Through some act of weather, they were blown away from the Pacific Ocean and ended up on the playa — perhaps thinking, “water is water,” but wondering why it tasted so funny. Therefore, if you see a bird in your backyard that you either don’t know, or looks like something you saw in a Japanese bird book, first, do your utmost to get a voucher photo, then put it on the birder’s hot line. Over my long and won- derfully happy years of bird- ing I have seen some beauti- ful strangers who have flown off-course and made it to the local park or my backyard, and among them have been a wonderful variety of leucistic robins, swallows, red-tailed hawks, and infernal finches I can never identify. Leucism is the term for the type of patchy color- ing resulting from defects in genes that control color cells of skin, hair, or feathers dur- ing development. This results in either the entire surface (if all pigment cells fail to develop) or patches of body surface (if only a few are defective) having a lack of cells capable of making nor- mal color — but not the eyes. Therefore, the noticeable difference between albinism and leucism is in eye color. Due to the lack of melanin production in both the retina and iris, those affected by albinism typically have red eyes due to the underlying TIME FOR INSIDE PROJECTS Table Saw Friday & Saturday Chicken Pot Pie Clam Chowder Live Music Sat., Jan. 7th, 7-9 pm Megan Rose Americana Project Alumni Wallpaper Steamer Open Tuesday-Saturday 12-8 pm 391 W. Cascade Ave. | 541-549-2675 Carpet Cleaner NEED IT, RENT IT! 506 N. Pine St. 541-549-9631 Sales • Service Rentals • Accessories www.sistersrental.com 19 PHOTO BY BRENT MCGREGOR A common, everyday, male house finch from Brent McGregor’s backyard in Sisters Country... PHOTO BY BRENT MCGREGOR ...and a not-so-common leucistic. blood vessels showing in the cells. Melanin, in case you’re wondering, is any of the various black, dark brown, reddish-brown, or yellow pigments of animal or plant structures — as skin, feathers or hair. Melanin is the root of what gives color to skin, hair, eyes, and plants, ubiqui- tous in every entity on Planet Earth that has a hue/color. Now I have a favor to ask: If — in your busy life — you could take the time to get out with your kids looking for leucistic/albino/winter- time strangers around your home. If you see any such strange bird suddenly appear on your feeder or near the woodshed, please, try and get a voucher photo and send it to me. We’ll all have a great time wondering what the year 2017 will bring us. CITY OF SISTERS NOTICE OF SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET HEARING
