Putting Oxygen Back Into The Water..Part 1

The water you drink . . . .it is full of stuff, even when you drink filtered water -- and that is a good thing!

The water that you bathe with, the stuff that comes out of the tap, the stuff that was deemed ‘safe’ by the local water company for you to drink, is full of stuff, too -- and that’s a good thing!

Dissolved oxygen .jpg 

The water that we call ‘rain’….it may have traveled thousands of miles from the ocean where it was picked up.  It may have floated over many hundreds of smoke stacks before it landed in our gardens and is also full of stuff, but this “stuff” may not always be a good thing if it has turned into acid rain.  Chances are, the rain also picked up a bunch of other stuff like soil and particulates, and that is usually a good thing!

Yes, the first thing that comes to mind is that water -- that clear, effervescent, necessary ‘gold’ that, unfortunately, we take for granted -- is usually full of stuff like minerals and microscopic life that is needed to keep us humans and other critters alive. 

Water, even purified and bottled water, is full of dissolved minerals, necessary for us humans to take in for all of our nutrients.  These minerals occasionally add flavor to the water when you taste extra iron or calcium.  And it might scare us modern humans to think that we are swallowing microbes, afraid that they could make us sick when, occasionally, these microbes DO make us sick.   Who knows what else was in that innocent-looking, plain, colorless glass of water that went so far to keep us alive, that satisfied our thirst, that got brewed into that delicious cup of java in the morning?

Most of us who took chemistry class in high school learned that the formula of “ H₂O ”  was supposed to represent water -- 2 atoms of Hydrogen was bound together with one atom of Oxygen.   Most of us were taught about the chemical bonding, the chemical ‘attraction’ between these atoms, which always set up this wonderful ratio.  But if this was all that was ever in the water we drink, it would not be enough to help sustain life. 

Yellow-crowned Night Heron feeding on a Crawfish in Francis Biedler Forest, North Carolina…a demonstration of the “food chain” (photo: Gay Schroer)

Now, most of us are well aware that chemicals, minerals, soil, and all kinds of stuff can be dissolved into that water and that we need all that stuff to stay healthy.   Most of us have learned that fish can filter the life-giving oxygen out of the water across their gills as their version of ‘breathing.’  Most of us have learned that aquatic plants even pull oxygen out of the water to make the simple sugars that keep the plants alive, the microscopic organisms, the next level of creatures, etc., all the way up the predator chain.

But sometimes, it is not so much what was in that mouthful of wet that you just swallowed.  A large part of this story is about what it wasn’t.

What happens when you don’t have enough dissolved oxygen in the water?   Yes, unfortunately, you can have a whole pond or other large body of water -- all wet and wonderfully cool and surprisingly dead -- that is lacking in enough oxygen in the water.  It is a condition called ‘Low Dissolved Oxygen. It is a rather dangerous condition too, causing massive fish kills or unwanted algae growth and other out-of-balance conditions to the environment that affects both plant and animal life, both upstream and downstream, of the body of affected water.

Dorothy Falls, Lake Kaniere, South Island, New Zealand…falls such as this help to introduce extra oxygen into the downstream water (photo: Gay Schroer)

The ‘dissolved oxygen’ that we need in water is actually extra oxygen free floating in the water and it has a separate chemical symbol, shown as “ O₂“.  It is a chemical bond between two oxygen atoms, bound only to each other and not to any hydrogen atoms.  It is this ‘dissolved oxygen’ that the microbes, plants, and fish grab out of the water to perform their bodily functions. The “ O₂“ molecules (more than one atom) get put into the water by a variety of mechanisms:  most generally from the photosynthesis of plants releasing leftover oxygen into the water; bubbling and babbling brooks add extra oxygen from the turbulence, and even rain and lightening will help add extra oxygen back into the water.

We humans, particularly the environmentalists and engineers, have learned that there is a measurable quantity of “ O₂“ that must be present in the water in order for it to be considered healthy.  If the amount of oxygen is too low in the water, then the plants can’t fully take up the soil’s nutrients, the microbes won’t process the chemicals, and the fish will suffocate.

Ultimately, we all know what that means -- no fish, no raptors and many other birds.

Check back with us next month when we have to start putting the oxygen back into the water......

Submitted by Paula Arbuthnot, World Bird Sanctuary Part Time Employee

Bill Size and Shape

One of my favorite things to do, during migration season is to identify birds.  Many aspects of bird watching combine to make this the world’s number one hobby; the hunt through the binoculars for that wind-blown leaf you thought was a bird;  the sudden realization that you’re facing the wrong direction in a valley; following a song for an entire afternoon just to get a glimpse of that fellow who sings his heart out. 

When I do finally see that special bird, I have to take quick mental notes on size, color, foot type (if I see a bird feeding), bill type, and behaviors.  Although behavior is a really big part of identification, I enjoy using bill type as a guide for those really tough ones.  This is especially true when you consider that many species depend mostly on a specific food for survival.  Whether it feeds on seeds, insects, nectar, or other animals, its bill will be specially adapted for feeding.

Members of the parrot family have beaks that are designed for gripping and cracking seeds and nuts.  (photo: Leigh French)

Seedeaters need to have a bill that is strong enough to crack through the thick hard hulls to get to the meaty fruit inside.  Their bills are often thick and arrow shaped having hard ridges to aide in grip, like a wrench.  Parrots are a great example of this.  Their bills are very thick and their upper mandible has serrations on its underside, out near the tip, so that they can grip nuts and crack them.  Also, cardinals have a thick, strong bill for smaller seeds.

Shorebirds are a wonderful example of diversity within a habitat.  Gulls and terns have bills adapted for fishing.  They dive into the water from the air or from floating on the water. 

Roseate Spoonbills have a bill shaped for shoveling around in the lake bottom debris for their food. (photo: Gay Schroer)

Some Ducks and wading birds have a specialized bill for shoveling around in the water for invertebrates. 

This Scarlet Ibis has a very specialized beak for probing for food in soft mud and under plants (photo: Gay Schroer)

Birds like the sandpipers, oystercatchers, godwits, turnstones, and plovers have bills that are shaped for finding invertebrates that have tunneled into the sand or mud.  Their bill is sort of shaped like the prey for which they forage. 

Herons and egrets use their bill as a spear.

This Great Blue Heron uses his bill as a spear and then swallows the fish whole (photo: Gay Schroer

…whereas this Yellow-crowned Night Heron snatches his preferred diet of crayfish with his long pointed bill

…and then turns it, pinchers side out, and crushes it with the powerful upper portion of his bill before swallowing it

Moving away from the shore, there are other smaller birds that flit about after tiny gnats and flies.  These birds have small bills and are a bit more difficult to identify because they are usually small and fast.  These are typically gnatcatchers and flycatchers. 

Prothonotary Warblers have small thin bills for catching insects and snails which they pry out of their hiding places

Ruby-crowned Kinglets are such tiny little birds and they are the most difficult for me to see clearly.  That’s when I listen to any calls or songs they may be making.  Woodpeckers have a bill that is like a chisel.  They bang away at trees looking for insects crawling under the bark and inside the wood.

Finally, I think crows and ravens are a good transition into birds of prey.  They are very adept and intelligent.  They hammer and poke and tear and pull their food.

Meat eaters are probably more diverse because they may feed on certain animals based on their habitat.  Owls, hawks, and eagles have bills that are great for tearing meat.

The Eurasian Eagle Owl has a beak that is supremely well adapted for tearing meat (photo: Gay Schroer)

So, when you are having trouble narrowing down that bird species, perhaps you can get a good look at the bill to figure out a bit about it.

The next time you visit the World Bird Sanctuary, pay particular attention to the different beak shapes that you will see on our display birds and the birds that visit our bird feeders.  Try to guess what each bird’s preferred food would be.

Submitted by W. Leigh French, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist