hummingbird photography, beak hygiene, and desert water
(Mostly) cool stuff I learned this week!
a badass 75-year-old woman is photographing all 366 species of hummingbird
Meet Carole Turek, a woman who discovered a new (and important!) passion project late in life: to photograph every species of hummingbird on planet Earth.
I connect with her story because it mirrors my own. Carole didn't set out to become a birder or bird photographer. She was simply interested in birds, and becoming a birder naturally followed. She also didn't have any formal training when she first picked up a camera. She learned a brand new hobby and proved that if you practice, you can do anything at a high level.
It shows that when you follow your intrinsic motivations and pursue activities that give you true joy, you can find the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning. The thing that makes you feel excited and grateful to exist. Carole found that thing while on a birding tour:
Somewhere on that trip, it clicked: This is what I want to do. I want to photograph all of them.
And that's what she's been doing. As of this writing, she's photographed 77% of hummingbird species (286 out of 366). She also runs three hummingbird feeder livestreams out of California, Peru, and Ecuador.
Reading Carole's story fills me with a giddy excitement and energy, which probably means I'm in the right hobby!
why do birds rub their beaks on stuff?
While walking to my car after work, I heard two House Finch in a nearby tree. I stopped to watch them as they fluttered around. I noticed they kept rubbing their beaks back and forth across the branch they stood on. They repeated this behavior for several minutes as I watched and theorized.
Turns out other people have theorized too. There are three main theories with varying levels of evidence and acceptance:
napkin theory
This is the most widely accepted theory in the ornithology world. Studies have shown that birds wipe their beaks more often after eating messier/stickier food (like "suet, fruits, or juicy insects") than dry food. Just like how I wipe my mouth more often after eating a juicy burger than a bowl of popcorn.
file theory
A bird's beak is made of keratin, same as human fingernails and hair. Maybe with more use, their beaks get dull or chipped, and need to be filed down or reshaped. There's some evidence to suggest that this might help them obtain food faster. But it doesn't sound like this is a leading theory.
cologne theory
Apparently birds have a gland that produces preen oil which contains chemicals and odors that impact mate selection. Some scientists suggest that "birds might be slathering preen oil on nearby surfaces to release those smells and lure a mate." But the evidence doesn't seem to be very strong.
Whatever the reason, it's cute and fascinating to watch!
a corporation is trying to deplete Mojave Desert groundwater
This article isn't specifically about birds, but it could impact all of us--birds, humans, and everything else. Especially those of us in the desert Southwest.
Long story short, a corporation has unsuccessfully tried to "drain 16 billion gallons of water each year for 50 years" from the aquifers sitting below parts of the Mojave Desert. Numerous peer-reviewed studies show that it would completely deplete the aquifer.
The company wants to pump 50,000 acre-feet of water (the equivalent of 16 billion gallons of water) each year for 50 years, but independent agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey have determined the aquifer's annual replenishment of water is as low as 2,000 acre-feet a year. This means that the aquifer would lose 25 times more water than nature can replace every year for the lifespan of the project.
The company knows it could make a massive profit off this water, especially given the Columbia River Basin crisis.
The problem is that the Mojave Desert needs water. All ecosystems on Earth do. Mojave wildlife and plant life depend on springs to "provide water in some of the hottest and driest landscapes in the country." For example,
Bonanza Spring, located off Route 66, is the largest water source in a 1,000-square-mile area. It would be forever altered by groundwater pumping, and the wildlife who depend on it would suffer greatly. Bighorn sheep, bobcats, migrating birds, mountain lions, and kit foxes all flock to these springs for water, food, shelter, shade, and rest in the thickets of cottonwood and desert willow that grow in the moisture-rich conditions."
The impact is clear:
If Cadiz Inc. were to succeed in its plan to drain the aquifer that feeds these landscapes and these springs, the beauty of the plants and wildlife that depend on these springs would collapse.
There's an economic impact too, as millions of people visit the Mojave Desert (which includes Joshua Tree National Park) every year.
The American West has a water problem, but utterly destroying an entire ecosystem isn't the way to solve it. Luckily many government agencies and nonprofit organizations have been able to block the corporation's attempts to get permits approved. But Cadiz Inc. (which was conveniently renamed in 2025 to Fenner Gap Mutual Water Company) has been trying to drain the Mojave aquifer for decades. Do they not understand the impacts, or do they just not care? Either way it's a mess. We only have one planet, we can't destroy it and expect to survive.
In conclusion!
The world needs more people like Carole Turek and less people like whoever runs Cadiz Inc.