The Problem With Exotic Species Gets Worse

I found this on the Bluebird Recovery Program of Minnesota site:

The U.S. Congress just passed two identical bills of importance to bluebirders. The bills reauthorize the soon -to- expire Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and added clarification to specifically state that invasive, exotic species are NOT federally protected. This overruled a recent court decision which interpreted the act as including exotic species. With this strong new federal interpretation of the act, states may now be able to add language to their own rules and statutes regarding state’s control of exotic species.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) is right now in the process of reviewing their rules, and has asked for comments. Of particular interests to us is statute 84D.12, subd,3 under Rule #6216, which states that it is illegal to introduce certain regulated or prohibited exotic species into the state. The Bluebird Recovery Program urges people to write and request two changes:

1. Include the exotic house sparrow and European starling in the regulated invasive species category, and
2. change the wording of statute 84D.12, subd 3 (which states that it is illegal to introduce regulated exotic invasive species), to include the words “or release”.

With these two changes, it would be illegal in Minnesota to rehabilitate house sparrows and release them again into the wild (or trap them and release). Hundreds of volunteer hours and donations are spent by rehabilitating centers in treating and releasing house sparrows. Over 700 house sparrows and starlings were released last year by just one rehab center.

Help stop this cycle of releasing rehabilitated house sparrows which in turn cause death or injury to our native song birds, some of which may survive to be treated by rehabilitation centers!

Some of the DNR rules were adopted by emergency power given to them to act quickly when invasive species appear, to prevent further spread. The DNR needs to make permanent these rules, and can do so without having to go through the legislature.

Comments should be submitted by April 1 in writing, by phone, or by email to:

Steve Hirsch
Division of Ecological Services, MN DNR
500 Lafayette Road
St. Paul, MN 55155-4025

Phone: 651-297-4928

Email steve.hirsch@dnr.state.mn.us

I am very disturbed by it. If it's passed, it will be illegal for any rehabber to treat and release an injured house sparrow, starling or pigeon. I know these species have been a part of the decline of native species--I have even found a nuthatch that was killed by a house sparrow, but if this law goes into effect it will not slow down the bird populations of these invasive species.

To top it off, most of the people who drop off baby birds at wildlife rehab centers don't know the difference between house sparrows and cardinals. Picture this: a child comes in carefully carrying a box that has a baby bird nestled inside. The child feels bad and wants to help. The rehab center then opens the box sees a house sparrow and says, "Sorry, kid, if we help this bird, we can't release it so we'll have to put it to sleep." That's just going to turn kids off to wildlife. It also encourages people to raise wildlife on their own, which is much worse.

The statistic that is used is way off. The only rehab center I know in Minnesota that could have possibly taken in the number of birds below is the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Minnesota and even if they did take in that number, they only have a 20% success rate in treatment so most were euthanized anyway. (I'm really getting worked up now) And, in the grand scheme of things the number taken in is not even a drop in the bucket of the total population of these birds. You can do far more for native bird species with proper bird house management than by telling a wildlife rehabilitation facility what they can and cannot treat.

Feel free to contact the DNR with your own thoughts, but I intend to tell him that this law if enacted would do WAY more harm than good.

Sax Zim Meeting

I headed up to the bog today with Amber Burnette and Mark Martell from Minnesota Audubon. The meetings are organized by Pam Perry and it's goal is to find a way to make the bog more accessible and safe for birders and how to keep birders from ticking off the locals. It's opened the doors to some great conversation and great possibilities for the area. The meetings are held at Wilbert's Cafe. At the counter where you pay, they have a notebook where folks can sing names and where they are from. Next to it is an assortment of owl articles and I was excited to discover an article written by my friend Val Cunningham who writes for Outdoor News:



We did some brief birding and I'm sorry to report that we found only one owl but then again we weren't really trying that hard. Male harriers were all over the place. We found one guy eating something on the side of hwy 7. Of course, as soon as we stop he took off for the other side of a field but I was able to digiscope him with my Stokes binoculars. Mark was comparing them to his Zeiss binos and even he was impressed. Here is the harrier with a mouth full of food:



We did see a ton of bald eagle moving through as well as gray jays, northern shrike, kestrels, rough-legged hawk (a dark morph!) and of course one lone northern hawk owl.

One Owl Day

Well, I can't believe it. I was at Sax Zim Bog today and only saw one hawk owl and that was it...

Signs of Spring

Today was a great day! I discovered that I have lost six pounds this morning and it was warm enough to wear a skirt without tights--whoo hoo. I was supposed to do some writing and tidying up but Non Birding Bill pointed out that I can do that when it's dark and that I should go out. I think he was more tired of me meandering about the house whining that migration was passing me by. Anyway, I went one county south to Dakota County and got my first official sign of spring, a turkey vulture:


This photo was digi scoped with my new Stokes binoculars. I love them so much however I still can't believe I have them. I don't feel nearly grown up enough to have a pair this nice. These are truly the best binoculars you are going to find under $1000.

Anyway, enough gushing about my binos. I did see other signs of spring including listening to eastern meadowlarks and eastern bluebirds. I really enjoy living in the Twin Cities. I have all the comforts of metropolitan living and less than an hour away I am in some if the best birding spots enjoying open meadow species. I pulled over at Schaar's Bluff, turned off my car and just sat and listened, beyond the bluebirds and meadowlarks you could hear tree sparrows and red-winged blackbirds. A robin hopped beside the car looking for insects and it almost made me think it was trying to say, "Yes, here I am, the thing you are looking for. I am the embodiment of spring, you may bask in my greatness." I didn't have the heart to say, "Sorry, dude, turkey vulture already took care of me."

Bluebirds seemed to be everywhere, on almost every telephone wire. One rather accommodating male put on quite a show. He completely ignored my car as I pulled up underneath him and digi scoped him stretching in the sun:


The bluebird butt of happiness.



"Hey, did you just take a picture of my butt?? I'm so embarrassed."

Expectant Bird House

A lonely bluebird house waiting for a tenant.

Yesterday I checked our bluebird trail behind the store. It is actually a tree swallow trail. Last summer was my first breeding season at the Wayzata Wild Bird Store and there's a great wetland behind our strip mall. I asked the property owner if he would mind any bird houses out there and he thought that was a great idea. I have two Peterson style bluebird boxes, a Gilbertson bluebird box and a Woodlink bluebird box. The Woodlink bluebird box was the only one ignored so I might switch it to a Gilbertson box this year.

The house finches are placing nesting material in the swallow cup out front. I tried to get a photo, but we were just too busy Saturday at the bird store. March is such a weird month. The first half starts deadly slow and you panic a little bit as to whether or not you will make your sales budget. Then at some point in March and it's usually related to warmer weather, there's a snap and customers come pouring in and you can sometimes even exceed your sales budget. Since I can do more of my own ordering at this store I have been having fun watching what's selling to see if I guessed correctly what my customers wanted. There was a fairly expensive feeder called a Gazebell. It's got a huge copper bell top and the body is made of white recycled plastic and looks like a gazebo. in the center hangs a mesh tube that you can put sunflower or peanuts in. Because of the recycled plastic it's a bit more expensive than some of my other feeders, but it will last forever. Because of the expense I wondered if I made a mistake ordering it. Sure enough though, it spoke to one of my customers and she bought it.

I also got in these heavy duty clay bluebird houses that look like giant acorns. Because of the weight, shipping is really on these guys and again so is their price. I thought they were a risk but we sold one of those too on Saturday. I can't imagine really enjoying a retail job, but I really and truly enjoy the challenge of finding things that appeal to my customers. The big challenge isn't finding cute stuff, there's cute bird stuff all over out there, the real challenge is finding something unique, cute and durable all in one. There's a lot of cute and unique that if you sneezed on it, it would blow apart.

Tree swallows have been found in southern Minnesota. I saw gulls for the first time outside the store yesterday. We also had one grackle and a killdeer. Spring is moving in.

My Poor Bill

So, Non Birding Bill and I were leaving a parking garage after a tasty breakfast at the Uptown Diner. As I backed out he said, "If you back up a few spaces we can skip the top level and exit quicker."

"Yeah, but," I replied, "if we go straight we can look at the nest some crows are building!"

"Oh geez, of course, what was I thinking?" he responded.

I know he wasn't really excited, but I pretened he was. I think that's the secret to staying married for six years.

Crouching Birdchick Hidden House Finch

So I'm at the store and I was adjusting some merchandise by the front window. I was down below the window, bunny-proofing some merchandise, when I felt like I was being watched. I looked up and on the vine outside the window and there's a female house finch with a bill full of nesting material staring down at me.

Certain things for some people are signs of spring--arrivals of certain birds, blooming of flowers but a non-raptor nest building says spring to me. I noticed yesterday two males were chasing each other around the nest cup I put for the finches but I didn't anticipate them starting this early. Last year we had two broods of house finches. The first time they nested in the cup we put up the second time the pair made a nest on the vine right next to the cup. I'll have to try and get photos tomorrow.

Flicker Needs a Snooze Button

I had a northern flicker in the neighborhood this morning that was loud enough to get me out of bed. My alarm clock has a snooze button so I was trying to catch a few extra minutes in the warm covers and then in flew the flicker that started calling away.

The last couple of weeks have been like Christmas, tons of new stuff coming in and my store is almost loaded to the gills. I suspect I am hugely over my inventory budget, but when it comes to shiny new things in birding catalogues, I'm just a girl who can't say "no". Well, that's not entirely true. I've had one incredibly pushy photographer on the east coast trying to get me to carry his cards. Part of my decision not to carry his cards has been how pushy and time consuming he is. The other reason is that most of the samples he sent me were birds not in Minnesota. I love brown pelicans but I don't think my Minnesota clientele wants use one of those guys to convey special thought in a card. When I suggested to the photographer birds that probably would sell in the bird store he got very defensive and said that he doesn't have time to get photos of every bird out there he just takes pictures of interesting looking bird moments. It was kind of odd, kind like a arty guy and a hard core birder all in one. Strange.

I have yet to see a grackle, I wonder where they are?

Lunch Date with a Peregrine

Juneau, a female peregrine dines on quail over fist.

Today I went in for some refresher training at The Raptor Center. Since my schedule has become so full I am not able to do regular programs at TRC so the bird curator has me come in once a month to keep up on my bird handling skills. I didn't realize until today how much I miss doing programs at TRC. It's really, really cool to have the privilege of handling birds of prey--I never EVER get tired of it. If you ever meet someone that says, "Yeah, I used to work with raptors it was no big deal"--they're lying it is a big deal. It's as much fun as you think it would be. I love everything about it, they way each bird feels different on your fist (red-tails feel like chunky blobs, peregrines feel like a solid and erect piece of steel), I love the way the birds smell, anticipating what they are going to do next and I miss sharing that with the public. I am going to have to find a way to clear my schedule to have time to do this again.

I handled Ricke (an unfortunate great-horned owl with rickets because he was raised as a vegetarian by some dorkwad veterinarian) and Juneau the peregrine in the photo above. Juneau was involved in a duck hunting incident. Some poor duck hunter was aiming at a duck not realizing that a peregrine was aiming for the same fowl racing in around 200 mph. The hunter turned her in to US Fish and Wildlife and since it was an accident was not charged but Juneau has permanent injuries to her flight muscles and is now an ed bird.

Peregrines are the reason I'm not a vegetarian anymore. I was for a few years and early on at TRC I was feeding one a rat while it sat on my fist. Peregrines really look like they enjoy what they eat. They pick the darkest, juiciest pieces of meat and eat those first. There are all kinds of strange squishy and crunch sounds as they eat and then after some bites they almost do a num num num gesture with their bill. As I watched the peregrine eat the rat I realized how badly I wanted some meat and have justified my meat eating that if a bird can eat meat, so can I.

Bird Cams Up in Action

I got a tip from Janet in New York that one of her favorite bird cams is up on the peregrine falcons that nest on the Kodak Building in Rochester, NY.

That got me in the mood to check out some of my bird cams that I always watch in the spring and summer. About a month ago Xcel had their falcom cams up and you could see some adult birds from time to time roosting or preesing in the nest box, but now they are not active. The falcons on the Colonnade Building on my way to work are already duking out the territory so I imagine Xcel's falcon cams will be running soon. However, they do have a great horned owl cam which is a hoot (yes, bad pun intended) to watch. Last year it wasn't up because the crazy raptor decided to use an old squirrel nest instead of the owl box, but this year it looks like a female is incubating at least two eggs so far.

I'm very excited that The Indianapolis Star is going to have their falcon cam up on their website. I had heard a rumor last fall that some of the powers that be were going to nix the cam but it is up and running on their site and the peregrines already have eggs. There's even a blog to go along with it--everybody getting a blog these days.

I got an email from The Raptor Center, they are getting a big response from my post about people donating for the great gray owls. I posted it on the Minnesota birding listservs and it got a little out of hand. At first the idea was taken and run with, which I thought was great, but then it turned into a battle of the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union should donate to this or their board is just a bunch of jerks. It was interesting that it was just the MOU that was singled out to donate and not any of the other birding organizations in the state. I think it's mostly one person who for whatever reason wants to take over the MOU and make it into what they feel a bird club should be, but I just think, "good grief don't get The Raptor Center involved in your politics" and "if you don't like the way one particular bird club is run, start your own." Gotta love that bird geek angst.

Speaking of donating, word on the bird trail is that Bill Lane, that crazy owl researcher who lives out in the middle of the boreal forest monitoring Minnesota's boreal owl population and providing them with much needed nesting boxes is underfunded and under manned for his boreal nest box project this spring. If you can donate money or physical labor, I'm sure he would welcome it. Bill's a hard working guy and much like any other bird researcher suffers from not being able to communicate with others in a way that would get him more money. He hasn't learned the slick PR that would get him lots of money and I think sometimes his passion for the boreal owl gets the better of his mouth and he loses money for it.

Donate for Injured Great Gray Owls

The University of Minnesota's Raptor Center has admitted over 90 great gray owls this winter. The owls are coming from collision injuries with vehicles as opposed to starvation and the average cost of a surgical patient at TRC is $1500. Typically this time of year is slow at TRC but with the unusually high patient load, the center is facing some financial constraints.

The Kathering B Andersen Fund of the Saint Paul Foundation is offering a 1:1 matching challenge grant to The Raptor Center, so any money donated right now will be matched dollar for dollar.

If you have been enjoying the great gray owls this winter please consider making a donation. The Raptor Center receives more than 50% of it's budget from contributions. They take in a lot of birds and none of them have health insurance. You can call in or donate online at The Raptor Center website.

Blackbirds are moving in

Migration is really kicking in. We started last week with a couple of red-winged blackbirds behind the store. Today when I came into work we had a flock of about twenty and two mourning doves were under the feeders. I haven't seen any mourning doves behind the store since last December. This means that grackles aren't far behind and sales will be picking up at the store because people will either go through more seed as a result of the ravenous blackbird throng or switching to safflower with is more expensive than oilers.

Non-birding Bill had a scare with Cinnamon this weekend. It started when Bill and some of his friends had a bad movie night party in my absense and Cinnamon refused dried banana. Bill felt that she quit eating, which resulted in Bill taking her to the vet emergency room and being sent home with bunny antibiotic and a powder to mix with water for force feeding if neccessary, even though they couldn't really find anything wrong with her at the Vet ER. Of course as soon as I came back from Nebraska she started eating normally.

It's best to err on the side of caution with rabbits, things can go downhill pretty fast if something goes wrong with their digestion., but I have a feeling that this was more of a bunny protest gone wrong. Since I was in Nebraska, Cinnamon was away from the store for three days where she's spoiled rotten by my employees and customers who give her loads of dried banana, raisins, dried cranberries, cashews and Deer Mix. I have one customer who gave her a bag of fresh parsley for Christmas. I think after being at home for three days she decided, "Hey, I'll quit eating the boring hay and pellets at home and then dad will freak out and take me to the bird store and I'll get my own dish of Deer Mix!" Alas, her plan went awry when she ended up crated and sent to the vet where she was poked, prodded, needled and whatever else goes on in the back room. Then to add insult to injury she was force fed two kinds of medicines and sent right back to the boring old apartment.

For the last two days at the store she has been very demanding of treats so I think she has learned her lesson not to freak out poor Bill anymore.

Today was an exciting day, I got a love sack off of overstock.com and it's now sitting in the living room morphing from and uncomfortable lump of polyurathane foam wrapped in denim into one of the most comfortable pieces of furniture I have ever sat on. Cinnamon is very curious about the whole business. She keeps climbing the lump to explore it. Just a second ago she did this thing (that is supposed to be a sign of bunny relaxation but looks frightening) where she will fling herself over on her side or back with all four paws in the air. It's looks like she either was just shot or had a heart attack. Anyway, she just flung herself up against the sack, so I think she is as excited about the new furniture as I am.

Okay, I am officially using this blog to avoid finishing my first draft of my book. I need to get to work.

Small Owl Story in the Star Tribune

The Minneapolis Star Tribune had a cute story about an owl "hooty call" this morning.

Birdzilla Radio

My first webcast is up on Birdzilla, it's about the owl irruption. More will be coming soon!

Spoiled Rotten in Nebraska

As always, watching sandhill cranes and snow geese on the Platte has moved me deeply. I just came home and am exhausted from spending a fun and birdy weekend with Amber, Lori and Johnsgard.

Johnsgard made arrangements for us to stay at a place he referred to as Tom's cabin which I later learned was Tom Mangelsen's cabin for professional photographers. For it being a guy's cabin without any women to give it that "special touch" it was a nice place. Guys were in and out throughout the weekend, but everyone treated us with such hospitality, like we were just part of the regular gang. It was definitely and outdoorsy cabin, here was the view above my bed:




I love visiting Rowe Sanctuary and encourage people to do it in spring. If you are reading this and saying to yourself that you have never visited Rowe Sanctuary in early March through late April--get your butt out there, it is one of the top five birding experiences you can have in the United States. It's such a spiritual experience watching thousands of cranes and sometimes millions of snow geese coming in to roost at night or taking off for the day in the morning. This year we were able to sit out with Johnsgard on a secluded river bank and watch the cranes come in from all around us on the river. It was chilling watching them fly right over our heads--an experience you don't really get in the blind.




This time of year it becomes a bird rush hour on the Platte River. At certain times there can be a million birds in front of you consisting of sandhill cranes, snow geese, cackling geese, white-fronted geese, pintails, wigeons and mallards. Some of the smaller species will get spooked by juvenile thug bald eagles that take pot shots and into the air a few thousand will go. Some will climb high into the air and others will remain lower, all kind of spinning in a vortex or bird cyclone. When these flocks circled us overhead, we laid on the ground and watched as different smaller of flocks of birds flew in various directions above and below each other. It was mesmerizing watching so much activity.

One minor bummer was that the area has been in a draught for the last six years and so lots of the places we had previously explored for waterfowl were dried up. At certain points on our trip I felt we spent a lot of time in the car for very little birds. I also was sorry for ducks coming in and not being able to find staging areas they had previously used. But the surprise number of snow geese more than made up for it. Saturday night after we watched the cranes come in we started to head back towards the cabin. In the dim dusk light Amber pointed out droves and droves of snow geese pouring in. They eventually began to settle on a sandbar, but more followed behind them. I was so grateful for my new binoculars and I really saw the difference between these and my old pair. My new Vortex binos really let in a remarkable amount of light and we were able to watch the geese descend into the river. I passed my binoculars around for the others to use since theirs couldn't see that far in the dim light. It was amazing. Any problem you might be having in your life can really be put into perspective when you watch over 500,000 birds come into roost in the span of 15 minutes.

I'm still processing the trip and I still have a head cold I'm recovering from, but I'm very excited. When I get my voice back into shape I have some great recordings on my iPod for my next Birdzilla segment. But I'll end with a flock of snow geese we found in a corn field:

9(mm) Lives

Hello, everyone. Bill here.

In regards to Sharon's post on the proposed plan to shoot feral cats, you should know that the cats aren't taking this lying down.

Out of the Blogger

I'm off to Nebraska to party hearty with Amber, Lori and Paul Johnsgard at some photograhpers cabin. So unless Non Birding Bill comandeeers my blog there will be no updates until Sunday night.

NEW BINOCULARS!

I can't believe my luck! I just got my new binoculars in the mail just in time for Nebraska. They are so cool, they are the Stokes Binoculars made by Vortex and I got the 8X42s. I'm having a tough time concentrating on work at the store and not playing with the new binos. I feel like I just got a new fashion accessory!

Disapproving Cats!

My mother's (indoor) cat, Copernicus

"It's time to go to the mattresses!!"

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, some zealot in Wisconsin wants to make it legal to shoot feral cats by putting them in the catagory of an unprotected species (along the same lines as house sparrows, starlings and rock pigeons). This will no doubt set the Cats Indoors! campaign back a good five years. Cats do kill millions of songbirds every year, but many cats are wonderful companions and shooting them is not the answers. This is a touchy area that requires tact and patience not guns. Cat people think bird people are weird enough (and vice versa). Now instead of gradually getting people to see the benefits of raising cats indoors we have some "let's just shoot it out of our way" attitude introduced as legislation which is just going to lead to arguing and name calling and quite frankly no one really listening to each other.

The cats killing songbirds is not an issue that will be solved overnight and no amount of legislation is going to heal this issue. It will take gradual change. I've known birders who have cut ties with friends and family over this issue and I don't think that's worth it. I try to give the facts and let my friends and family do with it what they will. People love their pets and want to try and give them as much love and freedom as possible, but songbirds do pay the price. I find that most cat owners love their cats and would prefer to keep a blind eye as to how many birds their cats kill than keep them indoors, kind of like parents not wanting to admit their teenagers are drinking or smoking pot. Ultimately they love their cats and I can't fault them for that. If I cut off my friendship with someone because of their cat killing the occasional bird is that going to make them change their minds? No, they will think I'm crazy in the bad way and not in the likeable way. All I ask is that friends and family at least make an effort not to have their cat kill birds in front of me and so far that arrangement has worked. People should also remember turn about is fair play. I do have a friend whose cat survived a great-horned owl attack when it was very young.

My big concern is that someday in the near future we might see vigilanties "getting rid" of free roaming cats. Years ago before I was even aware of the Cats Indoors! campaign I knew someone whose cat was poisoned by a neighbor that didn't like other people's pets on his property. That was enough to convince me never to leave my pets outside unsupervised. I hope we can find a common ground on this issue but I think it is a long way down the road.

More writin' less birdin'

I am knee deep in work. I'm in the middle of the Michigan Birding Calendar for 2006 edits, the book and a couple of articles that will be due at the end of the month. Where does the time go, it seems like only last week I was brining in the new year and now here it is well into March.

I'm working like a fiend to get everything done because Amber, Lori and I are heading to Nebraska for the crane migration. I can't wait to be bundled up in my toasty warm hunting pants, with Hot Hands tucked in my gloves and socks, and buried under five layers of clothing to watch sandhill cranes on the Platte River.

Since I'm sitting so much now and doing more writing when not at the bird store I've started going to the YWCA for an hour of activity. I am really enjoying this thing called and elliptical machine that makes you feel as though you are bouncing in place. Non-birding Bill got me a set of back issues of Birding from the ABA so I've been reading those while bouncing in place. I was reading an article on reverse sexual dimorphism (an article about theories of why in some species of birds females are larger than males). As I was reading it the Big Butt song came up on my iPod. I suddenly had all these images of male sharp-shins flying around to this catchy little rap ditty looking for large female sharp-shins perched and shuffling their tails as they normally do. I thought to myself, why can't they make bird tv shows with this type of humor? I love Attenborough's Life of Birds, but there has to be more out there than that.

Home and Garden Show

I've spent the last few days at the Minneapolis Home and Garden Show working the All Seasons Wild Bird Store booth. I did get to meet Dick Enrico of 2nd Wind Exercise Equipment.



Dick Enrico and the birdchick. Not a bird, but an interesting sighting nonetheless.

The booth is loads of fun, I learned that a couple in Dakota Country has three ring-necked doves in their backyard and a couple from Blooming had a snowy owl in their yard last week. I gave them my cell number so they could call if they see it again. I always wonder what unusual birds show up that never get documented because people are either didn't know to tell the MOU or are afraid if they do tell they will end up with 400 MOU members in their backyard.

Traffic seemed to be kind of down from previous years at the show, and I had time to check out some other booths while there. One of them being the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum booth. They are promoting their Wild About Birds festivities they will be holding this summer. The had a giant nest and eggs in their display. You could crawl in the eggs and get your photo taken. These are some random children who had parents crazy enough to let a strange woman sit in an egg with them and get their picture taken. They are cuties though.


Pretend you're a hatching bird at the Home and Garden Show!

I'm very excited because the bird store is going to be a huge part of that this summer by having feeder demonstrations and a host of other projects. It should be a good time. The Arboretum is a fairly under birded area so it will be fun to see what comes of it.

Owls are still being reported in huge numbers especially around the Hinckley area. I would have thought they would have moved out by now...are they going to stay and if so that should bring many more birders to the state.

Dead Redpoll and Pine Siskin Answer

I just got a call from Carrol Henderson. The early tests on the redpoll carcasses had suggested that the redpolls and siskins were dying of something viral not fungal, however the tests have concluded that the redpolls died of Salmonella E.

This outbreak of salmonella is widespread with reports of dead birds from several areas including Minnesota, Vermont, Virginia, Michigan and Quebec just to name a few.

One of the ways birds are probably spreading it is through fecal material built up around feeding areas. The best thing to do when this occurs is remove finch feeders and thoroughly clean them. It is also a good idea to keep the feeders in for a week to encourage the redpolls and siskins to move on to other areas and cut back on the chance of it spreading at your feeder. Also, it is important to clean up the area under the feeders as well.

One one other note is that salmonella is transmittable to cats so if you have a problem with a neighbor's cat at your feeder, you might want to warn them to keep their cat indoors for a week (or preferably the rest of the cat's life).

For more information go here.

More Bird Thugs

The Ohio Ornithological Society has a link up of some young thug eagles loitering around cars and trampolines. Birds fresh from the nest are a hoot. They have no idea what to hunt and you'll sometimes see wacky things like a peregrine going after a butterfly or and eagle on a trampoline. Many people like to think of this as play but ornithologists usually attribute this to learning, birds figuring out what they can eat and kill. I'm not sure which it is, but it's funny.

I'm very excited, we ended up not owing as much in taxes as we set aside and I got a new iPod this weekend. I'm using it in conjunction with the microphone that Sam Crowe sent me to record my Birdzilla.com segments. I did kind of a tester segment about the owls over the weekend and next week Amber, Lori and I are headed to Kearney, Nebraska to party with Paul Johnsgard (at least party as much as one can with a 74 year old ornithologist) and see a butt load of cranes and snow geese.

Amber just alerted me that they have the Crane Cam up at National Geographic. It's a mic that's on at Rowe Sanctuary where you can watch and listen to the cranes. I have it on while I'm typing this and I can't see anything but I can hear the cranes. It reminds me of being in the blind (minus the frozen extremities)--I have goosebumps right now. Cool, I can hear snow geese starting up...and a train. Non-birding Bill has just come in and given me that smile. He said, "I'm so happy for you, you have taken your birding to a new and even geekier level."

Awkward Bird

Young Lauren asks:

I have a question what is the most awkward kind of species of bird that you have came across?

Well, there are lots of awkward birds out there. Have you ever watched a bald eagle jog on the ground. The way their body bounces back and forth they remind you of weebles. Loons are incredibly awkward on the land. Their feet are place so far on the back of their bodies, they are unable to stand or walk on land--however this adaptation makes them incredibly graceful and fast in the water.

But the most awkward bird I have personally encountered was a young osprey. I went out with Amber, Bud Tordoff and Mark Martell as they banded osprey on Grey Cloud Island (it was a magical day for me because I got live my dream of riding in a cherry picker). Anyway, when you take young osprey out of the nest, they just sort of deflate and lose whatever majesty you normally associate with that bird. Here's a photo:




Nature's perfect fish killing machine as a disaffected youth.

The Hunter and the Birder Should be Friends

On April 2, 2005 hunters and birders are going to join together for a rally in St. Paul regarding the poor state Minnesota wetlands are in. Other groups are joining in, but I think if we can actually work together great things could happen.