Dr. Charles T. Collins This is Me

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1. 1. Philadelphia Inquirer | 09/16/2006 | Super Swifts

   www.philly.com/mld/philly/1553 - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/16/2006   Last Visited: 9/17/2006

   The species was "one of the earliest to adapt to using manmade structures in this country," said Charles T. Collins, emeritus professor of biological sciences at California State University, Long Beach, who studies swifts around the world.
   
   The chimneys triggered a dramatic population increase, although Collins believes the trend has reversed in the last 20 years as new chimneys have become less suitable for nesting.
   
   Still, plenty of breeding pairs rear young in their personal chimneys each spring, then briefly join the group smokestacks in autumn. This concentration makes the swifts unusually accessible to the general public; neighbors set up lawn chairs every fall.
   
   Yet much of the species' life cycle has not been studied, Collins wrote in a monograph, because they fly fast and far during the day and spend nights in dark places that are inaccessible to scientists.
   ...
   "I have no idea," said Collins, who guessed that they, like many school chimneys, were picked because they are large, uncapped and unused.
   
   What is known is that the birds winter in the upper Amazon basin of Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Brazil, and arrive back north from March through May. They eat huge numbers of insects in flight.
   
   Research suggests that flocks migrating south in the fall stop at the first convenient chimney every evening - joining local swifts as they stage for flight - although there is also evidence that the same chimneys are used repeatedly. Roosts of 50 to 1,000 birds are not uncommon, and Collins said 30,000 Vaux's swifts, a close relative ranging west of the Rockies, were recorded at a chimney in Portland, Ore.
   
   The circling, teasing and, finally, diving he explained as "social swirling" - reasons unknown - "and it may be a sort of follow-the-first-ones-down."
   
   Inside, they cling to the rough surface by their claws, using spiny tails as a brace, and overlapping themselves like shingles if necessary.
   
   And then, said Collins, they "hang on the wall and catch a snooze."
   
   How to Search for Chimney Swifts
   
   Look ... for groups of small (5 inches long, 12-inch wingspan) dark birds in jerky flight, like a bat's.

2. 2. parrots

   www.gazettes.com/parrots.html - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/8/2003   Last Visited: 9/8/2003

   It is among the Long Beach parakeets' favorite places to perch, said Dr. Charles Collins, a biology professor at California State University, Long Beach.
   
   Theories vary about how the birds got from their native lands to Southern California, Collins said.
   ...
   Some believe that the birds escaped from a pet store that caught fire years ago, Collins said, while others point to smugglers whose black market birds escaped. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, which conducted an in-depth study of the displaced birds called The Parrot Project, concluded "(that) none arrived on their own."
   
   No matter how they got here, the parrots' adopted Southern California habitat has allowed them to thrive. Collins, who has casually tracked naturalized (wild) parrots in Southern California for years, said Long Beach's parakeet population has grown from only five or six birds 20 years ago to more than 90 today.
   
   There is even some evidence that the birds' unlikely new homes may help preserve their species: two varieties of parrot that now live in Southern California are threatened in their native lands (the Mitred parakeet is not among them).
   
   Mitred parakeets (Aratinga mitrata), the dominant wild parrot species in Long Beach, are native to Peru, Argentina and Bolivia. With a green body and dark red forehead, Mitred parakeets grow to 15 inches long. Parakeets are a type of parrot characterized by their small, slender bodies and long graduated tails. This time of year, the parakeets are likely to be spotted in pairs, Collins said. In mid-winter, he said, one might see a flock of 50 to 90 birds perched in Belmont Shore or roosting in Eucalyptus trees on the CSULB campus.
   ...
   As long as humans do not try to handle the birds, Collins said there is no immediate cause for concern about Long Beach's parrot population.
   
   "All birds have a certain amount of parasitic things that live on or in them," he said, but disease is not a great concern considering Long Beach's relatively small parrot population.
   
   The birds' environmental impact also is minimal, he explained, since they feed mostly on exotic vegetation and do not compete with local species.
   
   "Greater L.A. is so polluted by exotic trees," Collins said, "a few exotic birds feeding on exotic plants is not a problem."

3. 3. SFBBO - Board of Directors & Staff

   www.sfbbo.org/board_staff.html - [Cached]

   Published on: 10/18/2003   Last Visited: 10/18/2003

   Charles Collins, PhD. - California State University, Long Beach