ID Contest

Okay, here's the photo contest. First correct answer in the comments section wins a calendar for one of the following states:

Minnesota
Wisconsin
Michigan
Ohio
Illinois
Indiana

Popularity of Birding

So, I'm very interested in the discussion started by Bird Stuff about using Google Trends to measure an activity's popularity. Have you checked out Google Trends? It's a way to track and search out how popular things are down to the region. Birding is not nearly as popular as hunting and especially fishing. I'm not sure if this means birders are deluding themselves about how many people are interested or if it just can't be quantified that way?

I did a comparative search for the ivory-billed woodpecker with birds like cardinals, hawks, owls, etc--even gull registered higher than ivory-billed woodpecker. Apparently, ivory-bills are not nearly that fascinating to the world. Hm.

Ballad Of The Slaty-backed Gull

I woke Sunday morning and loaded up the trusty Saturn with my bird gear and even at 7:30am it was already a very muggy 80 degrees in the Twin Cities. I think the heat index at the time was over 90. I asked Cinnamon if she wanted to come up north with me to visit Birderblog and Photon and to go see the slaty-backed gull:

"Nope."

Poor thing, the heat is just too much for her. I concur with her on disapproving of this weather. Blah! I moved to Minnesota for the cold, why is it hot here? I didn't want to force Cinnamon to come because I do worry that if something happened on the road that it would be rough on her to be pulled over on the highway with no air conditioning. So, off I headed towards Duluth alone, at least it's an absolutely lovely drive.

A front was pushing its way through north of the Cities and I was hitting intermittent drops of rain. When I arrived in Duluth and saw the dark clouds clustered between the ridge and Lake Superior, I happened to have Mozart's Requiem playing and toyed with the idea that the weather was a symbol of two powerful forces of birding coming together.

When I arrived at Laura's home she was experiencing a power outage, not sure if it was from the lightning or just a general power shortage that the power companies keep warning us about with the high heat and high power usage from everyone cranking their air conditioners.

We loaded up her Prius with our birding stuff and most importantly Photon (above) and set out. If you've read Laura's blog, you know that if anything she is environmentally conscious and she holds it to the letter. She watched the gas mileage like a gyrfalcon watches ptarmigan.

The clouds stuck with us all the way to Grand Marais but it was a wonderful and breezy 64 degrees--I actually had to put on a rain jacket and was still comfortable. Laura checked all the usual spots and found the gull quickly behind a cafe called the Angry Trout.

Of course the gull was sleeping so I couldn't really see all the things that make it a slaty-backed gull, but I was just happy to be in cool temperatures. That's a big plus to the northern states. Don't like the temp, then drive north near one of the Great Lakes and you're good to go. I did find it to be somewhat anti-climactic to drive all this way for a dozing bird and I was surprised that I wasn't jumping up and down like I would other birds. I started focusing on some of the herring gulls nearby. With the storm clouds in the distance and colorful rocks, it was quite pretty:

Then, Mother Nature decided to shake me out of my lackadaisical attitude towards gulls with a large crack of lightning behind the loafing gulls followed by a bone shaking crash of thunder. That was enough for me and I said, "Okay, Laura, time for lunch, let's go into the Angry Trout." To which she replied while bubbling over with enthusiasm, "I bet that thunder woke that gull up, let's get it back in the scopes!" Sure enough, she was right. I had some trepidation about being electrocuted and Laura said, "You're the shortest one here and the least likely to be hit by lightning." She had a point and if she was willing to take one for the team and risk being struck by lightning, the least I could do was give the gull a second chance:

Behold the slaty-backed gull in its standing glory...on a poop covered rock. Actually, it has not officially been dubbed a slaty-backed gull by the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union Records Committee--the vote hasn't happened yet. It looks similar to a western gull but when it flies you can see the difference in plumage that makes it a slaty-backed and slatys have more of a tendency to roam than a western gull. The vote is expected to call this bird a slaty-backed...unless some starts greasing some palms of the records committee.

People at the restaurant were very curious about what we were all staring at on the docks and came down to look at the rare gull--this is a rare bird that does impress non birding people. It's noticeably different from all the herring gulls surrounding it and it's sounds cool to say this is a Korean bird. When we went to eat, the hostess at the Angry Trout made sure to put us by the window so we would still be able to see the slaty-backed from our table.

After lunch we walked around the lake a bit more, it was so cool and refreshing and I was in no hurry to return to what was now 98 degrees and 110 heat index. We found some warblers, including an immature mourning warbler which I had not seen yet this year. I even had the chance to walk Photon:

I can't believe I was trusted with Photon. It's kind of nice to spend time with an animal that isn't constantly judging me. She's a very well behaved and mellow dog. She was rewarded for all her hard work with a trip to Dairy Queen. Did you know they give free ice cream to dogs at DQ? Some other trip highlights:

On the way back to Duluth we stopped at a rest stop for a break and found evidence of young love.

As we went through Two Harbors, we passed the pantsless statue of the Voyaguer that Ian and Margery have been talking about. Laura was kind enough to stop so I could get a better look. So what does a woodsman with just leather leggings have under his tunic?

Oh my, is that shrinkage?

I'm really glad I went, thanks for all the encouragement, but I'm really glad I went with Birderblog. Seeing the gull was cool, but company on the long drive made it much better.

The Ballad Of The Slaty-backed Gull Part I

I'm totally trying to get my post up about Sunday with Birderblog, but I'm having blogger issues. It will be coming, along with another photo contest.

Did I Get The Slaty-backed Gull?

Ooooooooo. Ahhhhhh.

And So It Begins...

Blog reader Denise came to The Raptor Center for a tour today and gave a very generous donation--Thanks! That feeds a merlin for a month and a half! And what did she get for her generosity?

A photo with the sooty shearwater head! Whoo hoo, a round of applause for Denise. Thank you for being such a good sport. Hey, Denise, if you were totally grossed out by it blame WildBird on the Fly, it was her idea.

Hey, remember the art car post from the other day? Well, when I went to KARE 11 on Monday, this car was in the lot. This isn't just art, this is the flirtologist's car. She was on the same show I was that day. I'm going to be on her radio show on August 26 when she's broadcasting live at the Great Minnesota Get Together. You can grab some fried cheese curds (or my personal favorite: scotch egg on a stick) and come watch or listen online. She flirts, I bird...should be interesting. Maybe some single birders can learn some tricks.

Speaking of interesting get togethers, Birderblog and I are meeting on Sunday. She's gonna take me to Grand Marais to see the slaty-backed gull. Two mouthy bloggers, one super rare bird...whose post will come out victorious (I watch too much Iron Chef--and I mean the original not that iron chef america crap). She has already blogged about it so I'm sure this is old hat to her. She wants to know if I'm bringing Cinnamon. I'm not sure. It's about a three hour drive from Duluth to Grand Marais...that's an awful lot of disapproval in a tiny car to inflict on the uninitiated. I don't know if I want to expose poor little Photon to that.

And I just have to say how much Non Birding Bill rocks. Last night was one of his few nights off from rehearsals and he spent it reloading photos that were lost in the wipeout a two weeks ago. Here is one that I was missing from 2oo2 that I was so happy to get back:

We were hawk trapping and an adult sharp-shinned hawk was chasing a Nashville warbler and both ended up in the nets. After we got them out, we were posing them at the same time and it was just too much for the sharpie, she made a quick jerk to try and nail the Nashville. She didn't get it though. The Nashville was released quickly to give it a chance to hide while we banded the sharpie. Don't worry about the sharpie, it was fat and sassy and would get another bird at another time without any problem.

Ah, that just makes me with it were Autumn right now! I am so ready for hawk migration...it's like my Christmas.

Raptors--Aussie Style

I'm not sure why, but I've been getting emails of some Australian birds from a couple of people--don't get me wrong, I love 'em, I just didn't expect 'em.
I have been sent these photos from Maarten Vanderhaar who has a couple of blogs. One is Maarten's Digital Travels (and be sure to check this post--no possible way I will ever use that toilet) and now is starting a bird related photo blog.

He sent this, which was a treat:

They have osprey in Australia--sweet. I can't explain it, but there is something a little different about the Aussie version--looks a little beefier than our sleeker ospreys. They must deal with heavy duty fish.

This was originally sent as a sea eagle but the face to me doesn't say eagle. I was thinking it might be a whistling kite, but I'm not an expert on raptors down under. I almost turned this into a photo contest but was worried that it might cause a mutiny.

Out of curiosity, anyone want to take a gander at this species? Yes, it's from Australia.

Notes From The Raptor Center Clinic

It is Cooper's hawk city down in the clinic of The Raptor Center. Every time I run downstairs to grab some food for one of the education birds, I see someone working on a young Coop. It makes sense, right now they are learning to fly and hunt and since these hawks have done such a great job of adapting to living with people, they are easily noticed by kind hearted folks. Since adult Coops will sometimes drive songbirds into windows to stun them, young Coops who haven't figured out all the nuances of flight hit quite a few windows this time of year.

Most young red-tailed hawks have been out and hunting for a couple of months, but even they are showing up injured. This young red-tail with massive talons was just admitted and was under going an eye exam and an all over check up.

If you notice this envelope on the tail, that is put on the birds so they won't damage their tail feathers as they are recovering in the clinic cages. Strong, unbroken feathers are just as essential to their survival in the wild as everything else. It would be a shame to heal the raptor's injuries and then send it out with broken tail feathers that would affect it's flight and hunting ability.

Here the red-tail is getting ready to go in for x-ray. Since birds are more relaxed if they cannot see what's going on, the clinic vets put a hood over it's face. This, believe it or not does help birds feel safe and keeps them calm for the x-ray.

This red-tail was chock full of this NASTY smashed up bug. This is a hippoboscid fly (read all about 'em at Hilton Pond) and is one of the down sides of insects that you face if you work with wild birds. They are blood parasites and pretty much all birds have them. They don't really get any benefits from mammals, but that's not to say the flies don't try. They move all herky jerky like a spider, and then fly into your face or hair and crawl around. This one is a little smashed, the vets grab and pop them as they find them on the bird. Eeewww. Ah, the glamorous lifestyle of a raptor vet...popping blood parasites.

Contest

My 2007 calendars have been printed! I just got my complimentary calendars in the mail today--whoot!

I have bird calendars for six states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Each month has gorgeous bird photos, a list of birds to expect, a to do list for your birds, and trivia as to when to expect certain species and records for each state. For example: On December 4, 2003 7,400 common goldeneyes were seen at Pool 8 of the Upper Mississippi NWA in Minnesota.

So, in honor of my calendars arriving, I'm throwing a contest (hopefully comments are working). Whoever is the first to id this bird (correctly) gets a free calendar of the state of their choice:

Can you identify this bird butt? Post answers in the comments area.

Some Days I Heart the Onion

Okay, I shouldn't be laughing at this but I need a laugh and the graphic just cracks me up. Someone at The Onion, must be a birder. Here's an excerpt:

Sparrow Aviation Administration Blames Collision On Failure To Detect Pane Of Glass

Mysterious Phenomenon Kills Millions Each Year

July 25, 2006 | Issue 42•30

PIERRE, SD—Sparrow Aviation Administration officials are calling the Monday collision of an westbound sparrow with the window of a Mitchell, SD home a clear case of "controlled flight into glass," after the bird failed to detect a transparent windowpane directly in his flight path.

SAA officials describe the crash at a press conference.

Howard R. Trojanowski, a Pierre-bound, 2-year-old field sparrow who had been licensed to fly since two weeks after he was hatched and had logged over 60,000 flying hours, departed from a ledge near Sioux Falls Regional Airport at 11:04 a.m. CST. Trojanowski never reached his intended tree branch, instead striking a tempered-glass picture window 2.5 miles northwest of Mitchell 74 minutes after takeoff at an estimated speed of 39 mph.

There were no survivors.

You have to read the rest of the article, there are more graphics to go along with it. I practically peed my pants from laughing...even though windows killing birds is no laughing matter.

Test

Can I upload photos?

Okay, I can upload photos now, but can I publish this post? I'm feelin' lucky, let's give it a whirl.

Blogger

Still issues with blogger and uploading photos, and I have some great ones too--Drat!

Well, I was ready to head to the gull on Friday but I forgot that my friend the librarian is having a cookout Friday night and I must go. I think I'll have to try for the slaty on Sunday. NBB and I only have one vehicle between us--thanks Twin Cities for great public transportation. But, he needs it for hauling props to rehearsals this weekend. Saturday night there's a Fringe Preview and he and his cast will be there. I can't believe his show opens a week from today. I can't wait to see it, I've only read it.

Hey, if you're an Australian guy reading this who has a first name Maarten, I would love link to your blog with your photos when blogger let's me post them, but you didn't include it in your emails and my searches for it have come up fruitless. I've tried emailing but have not gotten a response.

A Distraction

I went out with my friend Amber Burnette on Sunday to Dakota County on Sunday to go birding. She's a much better photographer than I am so I opted to go with her photos for this entry.

I never get tired of dickcissels. I had so much fun with Amber on Sunday, I drove the car and she took photos. We used the car as our mobile photo blind and I worked to maneuver the vehicle so she could get photos of the birds.

I love how she got the white stripe on this eastern kingbird. Oh, look at that right wing, somebody's moulting.

I'm debating about something. We have a slaty-backed gull in adult plumage up in Grand Marais, MN. This is huge, this bird is way out of its range and what the heck is it doing in Minnesota this time a year? I'm trying to justify going five hours to go see it. I'll go five hours for hawk watching easy...but a gull...even if it is a first state record...

I just don't know. I shouldn't go out of town, Non Birding Bill is getting into the final rehearsal period for his Fringe show (the show is not as racy as the title suggests--but is a very funny show), but I could easily fit in a trip Friday/Saturday.

Is a rare gull worth a 10 hour round trip drive?

Bunny Approval? Ch.

I admit it, I'm one of the eaters of Annie's Shells and Cheese but I've never really looked at the box until recently. Check out the label:

What's all this about "rabbit approval"? I grew highly suspicious of Annie's labels wearing a bunny of a approval. I even suspected that Annie had in fact never lived with a rabbit. Anyone who has ever lived with a rabbit knows the pain of never meeting a bunny's standards. You will note, that the Bernie on the box is smiling and approving. You will also note that the Bernie on the box is a cartoon. If you look at the real photos of Bernie, you can see that he does in fact disapprove. For further examination, take a look at one of the oh-so-tasty Annie's Bunny Grahams:

That looks like a sweet graham cracker of a disapproving bunny if I ever saw one. This leads me to believe that the folks at Annie's are in denial about their rabbit, it's not approving of anything. But perhaps that's why their food tastes so good--a vain attempt to win Bernie's approval. What does Cinnamon have to say?

"I don't approve of smiling bunnies and I never authorized my name to be on a box of "bunny grahams"--I can't believe you named me after a flavor."

I on the other hand, heartily approve of Annie's food and eat it any chance I get.

No Photos

I'd like to do a blog entry--I have so much stuff jammed in my blog potential file, I'm just bursting. Alas, no entries at the moment because blogger is not allowing me to upload photos. I checked the blogger status area and they were fixing something yesterday, but apparently a few lingering issues are still ongoing. I checked the discussion board and all day people have not been able to upload photos.

Updates are coming...including an approval scandal.

Oh Dear

Here is hands down the most ridiculous graphic I have seen put together for a "news" site about bird flu.

That is the most malevolent chicken I have ever seen. I like Non Birding Bill's suggestion that it won't be long before there's video of Canada geese lurking behind city buildings waiting to walk up behind people and sneeze on them.

One of Those Mornings

Yeah, this is starting off to a strange Monday. I woke up at 6am to Darci from A Balanced Breakfast calling because Ian and Margery wanted to talk about the red-necked stint that is wowing birders in Connecticut...with a little help from Darci and quick brush of my teeth I made it through that segment. I even managed to bring up the possible state record of a slaty-backed gull that we're dealing with here in Minnesota.

Then about a half hour later, Non Birding Bill and I are getting ready for our day and Ian and Margery start lamenting on air that they never do anything wild. Margery announces, "We need Sharon Stiteler the birdchick, she's the wildest person we know. She can help us." And then Ian tells Darci on air, "Darci, get the birdchick, let's find out what's the wildest thing she's done."

NBB and I looked at each other and he said, "No, no, no. Stop what you're thinking right now."

My cell phone rang, it was Darci.

NBB said, "Make something up but don't do tell them anything." He knows me all too well that before a sturdy cup of coffee, confronted with an audience and a challenge to tell the wildest thing I've done could spell trouble.

Did you ever think you would see the day when a popular morning radio show has a birder on air because she is the wildest person they know? The birding times they are a changing.

All this before 7am and a good cup of coffee. Now off to KARE 11.

Business As Usual At The Bird Store

I have a Showcase Minnesota appearance on Monday and I want to talk more about birdbaths so I stopped in at my old stomping grounds in Wayzata to borrow some props. Melissa who used to work with me and now has my job said that she would allow it, but only if I helped locate some monarch caterpillars for their monarch ranch, she just can't find them. I will say that is one thing I totally miss about my old job is the big monarch ranch that we would have going in late summer and early fall. Once I get my groove going, I get obsessed with finding them. I was happy to oblige.

While there I checked out what new stuff she brought in. One thing was this interesting idea for feeding oilers and or peanuts out of the shell:
At first I thought this was some type of bluebird feeder since it appears to be made out of left over Peterson bluebird house parts. The opening has mesh over it instead of being open so birds feed out of the hole where they would normally enter the box. Since you have to kind of teach bluebirds to use birdfeeders if they are not used to it, I thought this would be for bluebirds. The idea with this is that you can feed oilers and peanuts to chickadees and nuthatches and keep blackbirds away. I can see how this could work to keep grackles away because they aren't cavity nesters, but starlings do nest in cavities--won't they still be able to feed out of this?

She also has some new books in, including Laura Erickson's 101 Ways to Help Birds and Pete Dunne's Art of Pishing.

It was nice to see that some things never change--like dead birds in the store's freezer. Customers drop off dead birds to be identified or the employees will take them to the Bell Museum or The Raptor Center as study skins or use for imping (repairing broken feathers). Here was the current dead bird:

Boy, these sure are a lot smaller than I thought they were. It fits in my hand and I have tiny hands. They seem much bigger in the wild.

Look how long the nostrils are on the bill--must have a very sensitive bill and perhaps a highly developed sense of smell.

Note how long the bill is in relation to my index finger.

Yee ah, comin' at ya'! Hot cha cha cha chaaaaaaaaa.

Note the interesting toes as well as the striking black and white on the vent area.

Another thing that amazed me was just how narrow and skinny this bird is. Perfect for the type of habitat it toodles around in. This particular bird was found in Minnesota.

Art Cars--not bird related

My neighborhood is very arty. Every summer we have an art car parade. I completely forgot about this year's until walking down the street I saw some of them parked here and there.

This is the cork car. I've always had a special fondness for this truck covered in corks. The year we moved to Minnesota, we saw a special on tv about art cars and the artists who make them. The cork car artists was one of the featured people. We were excited when we discovered the artist lived in our neck of the woods.

This one had the license plate HIPOGRF. You can't see it in this photo, but there is a My Little Pony attached to the dash board.

Modest, but still arty.

Reminds me of some vehicles in southern Indiana that apparently are unintentionally arty.

Just plain weird. It's hard to see in this photo, but there are big plastic lizards attached to the hood and somehting that looks like swamp thing on the roof.

ID this Bird

Reader Nan has sent in this photo asking to ID what it is. I think I know what it is, but since I have so much fun trying to id birds, I thought I would let everybody have a crack at it. Can you ID this bird--and this time we can do it in the comments section--how exciting!

My Right Foot

At Morgen's request, I'm giving an update on the black-crowned night-heron foot.

First, I have to tell everyone that according to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act you cannot have parts of native birds in your possession (even if you just found them on the ground without state and federal permits). I have an umbrella permit through The Raptor Center. I can have in my possession for education some of the most illegal bird parts out there--eagle parts by using their permits. Now, if you're reading this thinking, "Holy cow, I have a stock pile of cardinal feathers, I gotta flush 'em quick!!" Don't be alarmed. This treaty is in place to prevent poaching, let's face it, it's hard to prove poaching unless it's witnessed, so this is a tool for Fish and Wildlife to get someone suspected of poaching if they have parts without a permit. It's generally not abused, otherwise second graders across the country would be hauled in on a regular basis for every blue jay feather they find.

So, back to the heron foot. I tried to dry the foot in my office with nasty, smelly results but thanks to Morgen, I put it in some silica gel in a plastic bag and it worked great.

Here is my beautiful heron foot, dried in all it's glory. This will be a great prop for explaining why both herons and osprey are predators, but what's different--the feet for one thing. A heron's not going to get fish by using it's feet like an osprey does.

When I was in Maine our group found that washed up sooty shearwater and our guide was kind enough to cut the head off for me. I stopped and got some more silica gel and packed it in my carry on. I didn't have any permits with me so I was curious if I would get this past security. Of course my carry on was flagged at the Bangor Airport--I wondered if they thought the baggy full of a whitish substance was some type of drug? The screener pulled out the bag and raised an eyebrow. "It's got a bird head in it, see?" and I jiggled the bag to reveal the bird head. "I'm drying it out."

"Ma'am," he started, "we're not allowed to let you touch this table, but I'm going to make an exception and have you repack this bag."

So, for those curious, it is possible to get a sooty shearwater head past airport security without too much of a fuss. Here's the dried head, not too bad and more importantly, not too smelly.

I have the head in the bag about three weeks and took it out today. Some of gel is still a little grainy in the cranial cavity... say that five times fast.

Again, another tool for showing a predatory bird with a hooked beak but is still different from raptors. Hm, maybe I'll start doing the duck thing that WildBird on the Fly does, only with the sooty shearwater head. Will I be able to get wacky photos of people posing with my head?

Comments

I've enabled comments and in less than 24 hours I found my first spam comment. This does not bode well and is one of the reasons why I've been hesitant to enable them (that and the occasional obscene emails I get from someone who claims to be incarcerated). I may have to require comments to be made by only those registered with blogger.

I'll give it a little more time.

I will say, getting comments from people who felt they couldn't email me is a plus. You're always welcome to email, I just can't guarantee a response. If I didn't want people to email, I wouldn't have it available on the site.

Cinnamon Demands

"Um, excuse me, I need your attention."

"Hi there, what are you up to? Um, what's this button do? Gee, that's great, can I have your attention please? Hey, what are you typing about me right now?"

"Hey, I don't approve of you writing that about me on the internet! And I don't think you understand my meaning, pay attention to me right now or I delete this blog entry you've been composing for the last twenty minutes!"

"There, was that so hard? Now, be a smart girl and learn to type one handed, and say nicer things about me. Oh, a little harder behind that right ear...ahhhhhhhhhhh."

I need photos

So, yesterday I had meeting with my editor and we went page by page through the book deciding where I'd like photos. I had to fight for color for the book, but I think it's worth it. There are a lot of great books out there with great information, but if they don't have bird photos with them, the books just don't sell very well. I saw that at the bird store and don't want that to happen with this book.

Alright, here are the types photos I need for my book City Bird/Country Bird. Take a look, do you have a photo from your yard that might work for it? Keep in mind that all the birds need to be native to North America, commonly found east of the Rockies.

1. Wooden bird feeder
2. General shot of a yard with a bird feeding station (feeders need to look clean).
3. Birdbath on a deck (preferably with birds using it, but if you have a really cool birdbath, I'm interested in that too).
4. Heavily Wooded Yard
5. Mildly Wooded Yard
6. Few to No Trees Yard
7. Marsh/Wetland
8. Birds in obvious city areas--sidewalks, sides of buildings, etc.
9. Hummingbirds near people
10. Robins on lawn
11. Bird feeders mounted from a deck
12. Bird houses mounted from deck
13. House finch nest in plant basket
14. Hummingbird coming to plant basket
15. Photo of shepherd's hook pole w/feeder
16. Squirrel Baffles--hanging and pole mounted (raccoon resistant)
17. Window mounted bird feeders
18. Squirrel-proof feeders
19. Birds eating mealworms
20. Birds using egg shells
21. Birds eating berries--chokecherries, pincherries, crab apple, sumac
22. Birds bathing in birdbaths
23. Dirty bird feeders
24. Photo of a sick bird (puffed up, eyes half closed)
25. Bluebird houses (Peterson style, Gilbertson style, or Gilwood style)
26. Wren house (1 inch hole)
27. Chickadee house
28. Robin nest ledge
29. Purple martin house
30. Suet feeders
31. Wood duck houses
32. Cats
33. Woodpecker pecking on house

I need the following species either feeding on bird feeders or using bird houses or on some type of building or fence (or something that shows the birds are coexisting with humans):

1. Cardinal
2. Black-capped and Carolina chickadee
3. Orioles
4. Ruby-throated hummingbirds
5. Rose-breasted grosbeaks
6. Pileated woodpecker
7. Bluebirds
8. Goldfinches
9. House finches
10. Nuthatches
11. Squirrels (fox, red, gray, black phase and albino)
12. Raccoons
13. Blackbirds (grackles, red-wings, yellow-heads, starlings)
14. Crows
15. Blue jays
16. House sparrows
17. Canada goose
18. Hawks (Cooper's, sharp-shin, kestrel, red-tail, broad-winged, red-shouldered)
19. Rock pigeons
20. Indigo buntings
21. Scarlet tanager
22. Wild Turkey
23. Ring-necked pheasant
24. Pet birds at a bird feeder (budgies, cockatiels, lovebirds, etc.)
25. Native sparrows (white-throated, white-crowned, song, Harris, chipping, tree, etc)
26. Eastern warblers
27. Bears
28. Deer
29. Flying squirrels

If you do have a photo based on the list above please email the highest resolution possible (or for those not so techno savvy --the large picture that comes straight from the camera). My editor and publisher have final say if it gets used and these are some of the considerations to keep in mind when submitting.

This is obviously a photo of an indigo bunting, but there are wires blocking and it's slightly out of focus. This couldn't be used in the book.

This is a cool shot of an oriole and downy woodpecker eating suet at the same time on the same feeder, but the oriole is cut off and the pole is blocking the feeder. Fun for the scrapbook, but not usable for the book.

This would be an ideal shot because you can see the bird's body, it's near a house--you can see cars and a trampoline in the background. Also, it's in focus and not taken through a window screen.

If your photo gets used, you get credit in the book and a free copy of the book. Please email photos to sharon@birdchick.com and be sure to put photo submission in the subject line of the email. If you send emails with blank subject lines, they have a greater chance of ending up in the spam file. Be sure to include your name and snail mail address.

Doh!

I'm here at the Saturn Dealership getting my ignition looked at after the key snafu on Sunday. And I'm being sent this article about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker halting a huge dam project from several people. I'm sure other bloggers have this out already, but I remember last December when I was down in ye olde bayou hearing about this project and speculation on whether or not it would be stopped. Now, apparently it has.

By ANDREW DeMILLO

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A federal judge halted a $320 million irrigation project Thursday for fear it could disturb the habitat of a woodpecker that may or may not be extinct.

The dispute involves the ivory-billed woodpecker. The last confirmed sighting of the bird in North America was in 1944, and scientists had thought the species was extinct until 2004, when a kayaker claimed to have spotted one in the area. But scientists have been unable to confirm the sighting.

Still, U.S. District Judge William R. Wilson said that for purposes of the lawsuit brought by environmental groups, he had to assume the woodpecker exists in the area. And he ruled that federal agencies may have violated the Endangered Species Act by not studying the risks fully.

"When an endangered species is allegedly jeopardized, the balance of hardships and public interest tips in favor of the protected species. Here there is evidence" that the ivory-billed woodpecker may be jeopardized, he said.

You can read the rest here.

This is huge, this is not over and it's gonna get ugly. I personally think there are one to three ivory-billed woodpeckers down there, but there is no concrete proof. Look at the judge's quote, "allegedly jeopordized". That is not going to sit well for those who are pro dam. This could have gigantic ramifications. Will someone try to sue Cornell for declaring the refinding of an extinct bird without concrete proof because the dam is halted? Hm, I wonder if that last sentence is going to end up as a quote on another blog that likes to take things out of context?

Egrets in Kansas in Trouble

Many parts of the country are having a dry spell--Minnesota included. We finally got some rain yesterday but when I was out in some agricultural fields before the storm yesterday, all the birds were congregating around those big water sprayers (I'm not a farm girl, I don't know the term for them--what are they irrigation systems?). That's where I saw most of the shrikes and kestrels and large flocks of blackbirds.

Kansas is having quite a problem right now too. Here's a story from the Hutchinson News and good reminder to all of us who are in areas with little to no rain to put out some extra water:

Egrets were dying of thirst Wednesday afternoon in Hutchinson, while others panted and wobbled in the heat at East Avenue C and Severance.

City of Hutchinson workers erected snow fence Tuesday to corral the birds after numerous egrets were hit by vehicles traveling in the area.

The two-sided fence covered half a city block, but the long-legged, white migratory birds - panting in the 104-degree heat - acted as if they were trapped.

Drivers swerved to avoid hitting throngs of birds, which scrounged the neighborhood near the Hutchinson Correctional Facility in desperate attempts to find water. Many of the egrets nested in the trees at the corner of C and Severance.

You can read the rest of the story here. I like how towards the end of the article it tells how Walmart donated a whole $25 dollars for a wading pool for the egrets. Normally, I don't like to criticize a business for its donation, since everybody hits up businesses for donations and every little bit counts, but c'mon. You can't tell me that Walmart couldn't donate some actual pools? A donation that small from a company that size just looks cheap--especially since many people have a negative view of how Walmart takes over great wildlife habitat.

Hawk ID

The young hawk in question is an immature Cooper's hawk. That was a toughie, since the bird was being held and its body was crumpled in an awkward fashion. The flat head should have been a big clue.

I don't know what the final prognosis was for the bird, it did look good, there were no broken bones. This time of year a lot of young Coops learning to hunt fly into windows when pursuing birds at feeding stations.

I and the Bird

I and the Bird is up at Bog Bumper this week.

For those who have never encountered I and the Bird, this a collection of bird related blog posts. Bloggers submit what they think are their best posts from the last week, so if you're interested in reading other bird blogs, this a great way to sample from the blog buffet.

Whole Lotta Fledgin' Goin' On

"I don't approve of this."

Okay, first and foremost I have finally enabled comments on the blog. I don't know if it's the hormones or just a plain old wild hair (or hare in my case) but I'm caving to reader pressure. My concern has always been that inappropriate comments will come in, but NBB assures me that we can get rid of those. I'll give it a whirl. I can always disable. That said, I'm gonna leave the hawk post unanswered another few hours. I'm still not sure about this whole comments thing.

This morning I met Stan in Dakota County at 7am to show him the goldfinch nest I found last week. After I showed him the nest I drove around and saw several fledging birds especially eastern kingbirds, kestrel and more loggerhead shrikes in a 2 mile area than I've ever seen in my life: 12! The really funny thing was that I was approaching an adult shrike when a newly fledged kestrel flew up and landed a few feet away on the same line. Intriguing...one predator gets it's food with it's feet, the other hacks at its food with its bill. What will happen here? The shrike looked as though it wanted to fly but perhaps realized that the kestrel could out fly it and decided to stay. The young kestrel looked just happy to be there and as if it was about to say, "Why hello there, isn't it great to be out of the dark nest box. By the way, do you have any food?" The kestrel then got distracted by a flock of blackbirds and took off towards them.

The kestrel landed again, this time next to a mourning dove. That dove totally wanted to take off but knew there was no way it could out fly a falcon. The kestrel just looked quizzically at the dove. They were similar in size so it probably wasn't occurring the falcon that this was potential prey. Eventually the falcon moved on, much to the relief of the mourning dove.

This afternoon I headed out to Cambridge to meet with my editor and come up with a photo list for the book--it's really coming together. I'll be looking for photos, and will post a list tomorrow--maybe someone out there can help me with bird photos from their yard.

When I left, I was surprised to find two adult sandhill cranes foraging in a field near the road. I know they're supposed to be around here, but they are always unexpected when I drive by them.

Can You ID this Bird?

Here's a young hawk that was brought in for examination at The Raptor Center today. Any guesses as to what it is? Cinnamon wants to give a hint:

"I really don't approve of these types of birds, must you include them in the blog??"

I don't know how much help that was. It's best not to expect a lot from a rabbit.

Bird Bound

My friend Marci who I met last year at The Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest has started a new site called BirdBound full of tips for the traveling birder...including a most intriguing section on how to travel with Non Birders. My favorite quote is, "More friendships are tested and found weak in the areas needed when it's too late - in the middle of a trip."

Being married to a non birder, I know that all too well.

Want to Contribute to the Reward Fund?

Investigators want to know who abused bald eagle in Michigan

July 18, 2006
By TINA LAM

State wildlife investigators are trying to solve the mystery of what happened to a mature bald eagle found two weeks ago in a field in the Upper Peninsula with clipped flight and tail feathers. And its characteristic white head had been spray-painted brown, as if to disguise the fact that the bird was an eagle.

When the eagle was found, it was weak and emaciated because it hadn’t eaten in days. It couldn’t fly and could only hop a few feet.

“When we got it, it kind of hung its head like it was depressed," said Randy Bruntjens, who runs the Upper Peninsula Raptor Rehab center from his home. “It was abused. It’s a total disgrace."

Bald eagles are protected by state and federal laws and no one is allowed to possess them without a special permit. The eagle wore a leg band which will eventually tell investigators where its nest was, which might help them figure out who captured the bird.

There is a $1,200 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who captured the bird, and that person could face fines and prison time.

You can read the rest at The Detroit Free Press.

Birds Fighting!

Non Birding Bill just gave me such a cool gift, a 1955 book called Birds Fighting by Stuart Smith and Eric Hosking (with field assistance by George Edwards). I haven't been this excited about an obscure book since he got me the Parasitic Birds and Their Hosts for Valentine's Day!

These British ornithologists went out and did experiments on birds to see what would happen when they came into contact with a predator, parasitic bird or another one of their own species during nesting season. For all of those people who like to think of the sweet nightingale singing high on his perch, you may want to look away. As I have attested to before, every bird has a dark side and this book captures it. Here are some highlight photos from the book:

Here is a stuffed sparrow hawk (the European equivalent to a sharp-shinned hawk). The stuffed bird was put out and then attacked in the top photo by a nightingale and in the bottom photo by a cock whinchat (is that an actual bird name?). The stuffed hawk isn't the best representation and looks a little goofy--kind of adds a whole new level of eerieness.

Isn't this an odd little tableau? In Europe the cuckoo is a parasitic bird like the brown-headed cowbird is here--depositing its eggs in another bird's nest. So, the Brits decided to see what would happen with a stuffed cuckoo near a nest. I love this photo, there's the odd looking stuffed cuckoo looking like he's saying "Huh?" being yelled at by a wood warbler while the warbler's young is begging for food in the background. This kind of reminds me of candid family photos at holidays.

Here we have a tree pipit giving the what for to a stuffed cuckoo--actually ripping out feathers! The cuckoo studies were quite interesting. The chapter was called "Part One: Adventures with a Stuffed Cuckoo". Isn't that a great title? I want to write a buddy picture starring William H. Macy and title it that. Heck, this book makes me want to chuck it all and declare a new life that involves adventures with a stuffed cuckoo. Anyway, check this out:

Some species were stimulated to attack based on the shape of the head. For example, these willow warblers vehemently attacked a cuckoo head as demonstrated in the above photo but were not so aggressive with a cuckoo body without a head. Or this just means that they are just as freaked out as I would be if someone came by with a human head on a stick.

Here's an up close view of the warbler attacking the head. It looks as though it's thinking, "Blood, murder, destroy." Almost enough to make Alfred Hitchcock proud.

And finally I give you this sad little display. Here we have a stuffed redshank being mounted by a live redshank. I've seen this kind of behavior in spruce grouse, but I guess I expected a little better from a redshank. Here is the passage describing the events that led to this photo:

"We placed our stuffed Redshank alongside a nest containing four well-incubated eggs. The hen Redshank returned, saw the dummy from a distance and ran towards it, calling with a melodious 'chew-chew-chew' note. It then rushed the dummy and thrust its bill into the dummy's neck tearing large pieces of feathering away. It then sprang on to the dummy's back and violently attacked its head, crushing it meanwhile to the floor. In this position, the dummy stretched out with its tail somewhat erected, and in a quite different attitude from the upright position in which we had first placed it. The Redshank now sprang on to the dummy's back again, but this time did not attack it, but attempted to mate with it. The crouched posture and raised tail of the dummy now elicited an entirely new reaction from the Redshank."

I'll say!

So, if you're looking for a fun read about three British ornithologists who go out and mess with a bird's head all the while discovering interesting and useful information about aggression and other bird behaviors, this is the book for you.

Boy, they just don't write 'em like this anymore.

A Cleansing Post

After all the whininess of the previous post, now some wackiness.

What's this, Cinnamon wants to help put groceries away? What a helpful little bunny! Alas, this was all a clever ruse to distract me. She was using the bags as a cover for her real plan, to steal a stick of butter off the coffee table.

And she would have gotten away with it too...if it hadn't been for all the globs of buttery evidence on her nose. Naughty, naughty, willful rabbit. For once, I disapprove of you. Foot's on the other shoe now isn't it, bunny butthead--how do you like them apples?

Candidate For Worst Weekend--key won't go into ignition

WARNING! Severe whininess ahead. If you wish to ignore it (and I don't blame you), skip ahead about nine paragraphs. Yes, that's right, nine paragraphs of whining--wanna make something of it?

Technology-wise this weekend bit the big one. The cowbird of life laid a big fat egg in my unknowing warbler nest.

Every time I could see hope, the rug was quickly pulled away. First, there was the initial powerbook wipe out. Then Non Birding Bill seemed well on his way to recovering things. Almost all photos from 2002 until April 2006 were spared.

I did find this this photo from last week. That's Mark holding an unhatched osprey egg and Amber holding a five week old osrey. Imagine going from the size of that egg to the size of that chick in just five weeks! I thought this wasn't so bad, until I started reviewing the blog and discovered all the banding photos missing--all my precious Harris's sparrow photos--gone! What was odd was that some photos were found, but the really super cool ones are just gone. The only photo I have left as a souvenir of Maine is the open mouth of a dead sooty shearwater. The upside is that my best photos I put in the blog, but they are not print quality. So, I can visit them in the blog, but I won't be printing them out any time soon.

NBB is doing his very best to find anything that may be archived. He found half of my calendar. However, all appointments and meetings I've made are gone--festivals and conventions are still in. I know I have three meetings this coming week, but I'm unclear on the times...If anyone reading this has an appointment with me in the next couple of months, I'd email to clarify the time.

I thought my music was spared, because of the new replacement iPod had a full backup of my music. Saturday night while driving to a friend's outdoor wedding (in 100 degree heat), the iPod froze--FROZE! When we got home, NBB was able to load all the music onto the USB drive but the playlists appear to be gone. I'm not sure what will happen with the iPod, it's barely used. I hope my warranty will let me get a replacement iPod for the replacement iPod.

Did I mention that we discovered a mouse in the home this weekend?

Sunday, I woke up to our neighbor who decided to rev and ride his motorcycle at 5am--even his own house mates yelled at him for that one.

I started to doze off again, only to be woken by the young blue jay (above) that has been driving us nuts as he learns to fly and learns to convert his begging calls into the raucous jay calls his species is known for, thereby setting off the cockatiel alarm. This morning even his parents were avoiding him. He's so loud and obvious, I'm really surprised that he hasn't been eaten by the area Cooper's hawk yet.

NBB and I were going to film some video for online segments today. We are on a timeline because we have to return the camera to Sam Crowe so he can use it to film puffins. NBB made me a fantastic breakfast of pancakes and we set out on our way. We stopped to gas up and when I went to put the key in the ignition, it would not go in. We tried my key, we tried NBB's key--it just wouldn't go in. I check the Saturn handbook--nothing. I called the Saturn roadside service. Since it was Sunday, no mechanic was available and the person answering the phone had no idea. Our Saturn dealership was closed, so the only option was to call AAA. We had it towed to our mechanic (who was closed). Our tow truck driver said that it was a Saturn--this happens all the time and all we needed was a locksmith.

It was iffy as to whether or not AAA would cover this because we are only allowed one call per car problem, but if they are going to diagnose it as something they take care of and it's in our coverage, we should get that coverage--shouldn't we? AAA agreed and the first thing the locksmith said when he pulled up was, "Yeah, you're going to need a new ignition." He squirted something called "true flow" (not WD40--it doesn't do the job as well) to lubricate the ignition. Apparently, this is a common problem for Saturns, the ignition plates get stuck and you can't get your key into your Saturn, call a locksmith and then make an appointment to get your ignition replaced.

Ugh.

We finally got on our way and were able to get to our filming. Part of the filming included working with a couple of The Raptor Center birds. When we were finished filming them, I had to feed them.

And you know, I can have the worst day possible and things can be just going completely wrong and then I get to feed a peregrine falcon on the fist. I felt all the stress of the weekend disappear. Haaaaaaaaaaa. There really is nothing quite as soothing as the rending of flesh.

I have gotten some really great emails over the weekend from friends. Susan Gets Native sent me this note:

Sharon, Wanted to write to someone who understands the horror that is vulture vomit: I have been training to be the new education director for RAPTOR, Inc and yesterday I got to hold Earl, the resident program education vulture. And she( yes, she's a she) barfed on me. I didn't even care, really. I must be smitten.

You can see her account in this entry--congratulations Susan! Take a look at that albino red-tailed hawk. We have a Krider's red-tail and a dark morph red-tail but not an albino like that.

Amber sent me photos she got of our osprey adventure last week:

This coming week is going to be great--I know it. It has to be.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Any guesses as to who built this nest? This is really a tough question. I wouldn't have any idea if I had not taken the photo. It will be identified at the end of this post.

I think the powerbook problem is almost resolved--my volume structure is no longer corrupt and there are some losses, but not as many as there could have been. I think Non Birding Bill has been able to recover almost all of my photos, I don't know if I will get back the osprey photos from yesterday, but we'll see.

Recent events have helped a great deal with this situation. Right before I went to Maine, my iPod went kerflooey. I got a replacement from the warranty last week and I had just hooked it up and synchronized it to iTunes so all of my music is backed up--whew.

My important files of articles, calendars and books were mostly backed up. I think some articles and MANY emails are totally lost. I'm a pack rat by nature and I think these periodic losses due to my not backing up files is necessary for me. Sometimes to generate new ideas, slates need to be wiped clean and force me to start from square one. If the idea had been that great in the first place, I would have gone to a greater effort to back it up.

We have been dealing with this problem since yesterday afternoon and were up well past Midnight trying to get it figured out. 1am is the worst time to hear--"I think everything is gone." Needless to say, it was a restless night of little to no sleep. Banding ended up being cancelled this morning so I took a small sidetrack to Dakota County to refocus.

I went to the substation on 210th Street to just take in the meadowlarks and dickcissels. I have to say we are having quite the dickcissel explosion in Minnesota this year--they are everywhere, even in the metro area. Kestrels were fledging and awkward juveniles were on just about every powerline.

At the substation I took walk and found lots of suspicious acting clay-colored sparrows. There are several small conifer trees for sparrows to nest in. I was following one sparrow and he led me right to the nest below. Can you tell what bird this is based on the naked chicks?

Okay, this one is a toughie too--it's a goldfinch. It was kind of funny, I watched the clay-colored be bopping around the bottom of a spruce tree, so I thought I would peek for a nest. I searched and search and then stood up, only to be face to face with a female goldfinch sitting on the nest. I don't know who was more surprised, her or me. She had to have known I was on hands and knees under the tree. After five seconds she gave one of her sad little warning chips and took off. Two males moved in--it's hard to take goldfinches seriously when they are scolding you with that sad sounding chip they make. Since she flew, I aimed my camera for inside the nest and found the four naked chicks. Well done little finch, well done.

On my way out, I did find a clay-colored sparrow nest--that is the photo at the top of the blog. It's not a very well woven nest, it was surprisingly loose. I aimed my camera and found...

...a cowbird! Blah.

I stuck my finger underneath it and found one unhatched egg. Poor clay-coloreds, all that work for a cowbird.

Back to more powerbook recovery. Thanks to everyone who kept their fingers crossed, it worked.

Yeah, It's Gonna Be One Of Those Days

If you have sent me an email in the last week and I haven't responded, please resend it today.

I'm having some issues with my powerbook and it's probably going to spend a good portion of today at the Apple Store. I can check email via my webmail account and will do that when I can today but I don't have my address book or remember everyone I need to respond to.

Keep fingers crossed. My system volume was corrupt and we tried to fix that last night. As a result, on the surface it looks like everything is erased, however we did a back up recently so even if there has been major erasing, we didn't lose everything.

I can't believe how reliant I have become on such a tiny machine! If all goes well today, I will post photos of yesterdays banding. If all goes unwell, I figure out a plan b.

Rockin' The Raptor Bowl

We played a valiant game of lawn bowling today at Brit's on behalf of The Raptor Center and alas we lost, the Eagle Optics team came in 17th--okay that sounds bad, but one team came in 27th. But the important thing is lots of money was raised to help injured birds and lawn bolwing is a fun way to do it. That's Denny Martin in the above photo, rolling our ball. Go, Denny!

Here we have one of the celebrity judges, former pro wrestler Stan "Krusher" Kowalski.

I was excited to see my friend Rover, one of the KARE 11 videographers show up and cover the event. Here Rover is trying to get a shot of Non Birding Bill bowling his ball. He almost knocked Rover over--man, I can tell the heat really got to me today. I'm so tired, "Rover over" is making me giggle like crazy."

Of course, being the kind of girl I am, I had my binos on the whole time. I gave them to Rover to check out--he really liked them. They binos came in handy, one of the adult peregrines flew over the lawn a few times. The first time I started shouting "Peregrine, peregrine!" and jumping up and down while pointing to the sky. NBB cautioned me to cool it as I looked like a crazy drunk. Others saw the bird fly over--I was really excited, because one of the employees at Brit's had no idea you could see such cool birds down town and she got to see it.

The lawn on the roof of Brit's in down town is a great place, maybe I'll do a big sit there this fall?

Cursed, Wretched Blue Jays!

I love blue jays, I really do. Honest! When I worked at the bird store I did my best to sway the most avid blue jay hater, but today I cannot be their fan. It's not because of their ability to locate and eat eggs and nestlings--so many bird species do that anyway, blue jays are just the most flamboyant about it.

No, today they are inadvertently setting off my cockatiel alarm. Blue jays have always set Kabuki off to warn the household of their presence. I don't know what it is about their calls, but whether our beloved bird hears them on tv, plush toy or right outside, they cause a rash of loud cockatiel alert calls. Today, the blue jays have brought a young bird to the feeder to teach it to feed. Normally, I enjoy watching young jays figure out how to eat on their own from the suet log, but the young jay's urgent begging cries are causing Kabuki to deliver alerts that are loud, fast and hard on the ear drums. Oh, my ears. Ah, this is the reason why birds don't make good pets.

"I'm a helper!"

Yes, my little Eraserhead bird, you are. Now, for the love of pete, please shush!

Bowlin' For Birds

I was stepping into the shower this morning and found a squirrel spying on me. Yeah, it's as disturbing as you might think it is to have a squirrel giving you the hairy eyeball right after you undress.

So, for some reason I have it in my head that when I'm not traveling I have a ton of time. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...ha.

This morning when I walked into The Raptor Center, I saw one of the staff running around like a chicken with her head cut off. She started out having a great morning and then things went haywire and she had to rush rush rush. I chuckled and was relieved that wasn't me...oh my how that worm turned on me.

It now turns out that Eagle Optics will have a team at the Xcel Energy Raptor Bowl. I had to corral some people at the last minute and guess who I roped in? Non Birding Bill! I think I lured him with the promise of fish and chips available at Brit's Pub where the fundraiser is being held. I also roped in an old co-worker by the name of Denny Martin to help out. I need a third team member and I have called everyone I know and asked, "Hey, you want to skip work tomorrow afternoon and play a type of bocce ball and have beer all while raising money for The Raptor Center???"

How could people resist an offer like that?

"You're going to wear that?"

If you're in the downtown area tomorrow, stop by and say hello to me and NBB. Cinnamon will not be along, she disapproves of 90 degree heat. I'm trying to find hats and shirts for us all to wear so we'll look corporate like everyone else. I'm tempted to wear a tank top since it will be so hot, but Cinnamon is greatly disapproving of that (note her reaction above).

Tomorrow is just going to be crazy busy and fun. First I have KARE 11, then I have to get the binoculars to the TRC gift shop at Raptor Bowl and then I have to lawn bowl. I'm tired just thinking about it. I'm supposed to do more osprey banding on Thursday, but I may have to bow out of that.

Don't forget there will be celebrity judges at Raptor Bowl...mostly sports types so I can't remember their names.

My other big project this month is getting my book off the ground. It was supposed to come out this spring but I was swamped getting my footing with the new job and my editor had other projects so we both decided to wait until we had our full attention ready to devote to it. Now is the really exciting part where we are deciding the design and the photos.

I'm going to put part of the process in here because I had no idea how books come into bloom and this is a really fascinating process. I gave all the text to my editor a few months ago and I have an idea of how I want it presented--based on books I enjoyed when I first got into birding and based on what books sell at bird stores. Gretchen is doing a great job of interpreting what I'd like and making it come together. I have notes in my text of "chart here" or "graph there" "bird doing this here" and when I go into meetings, she has a draft with what I had in mind.

What's really cool, is that I'm being allowed to have more input on the design than I ever would have imagined. For some reason I had it in my head that once you sent the text in, that was it--the design was at the mercy of your editor and publisher. I think I had this idea from the many misidentified birds and mislabeled captions I've seen in books--I didn't want to believe the author would let that happen, that obviously had to be someone else's fault. Now, I feel the pressure is really on because I have to make sure every bird is correctly identified in the book and makes sense for where it ends up on the page.

I'm so excited, I'm going to have an ISBN number. When I think back to how much I hated writing in high school and how I could never imagine anyone doing it willingly, let alone for a living, I'm shocked to see that's me.

The hard part right now is finding photos. I need photos of birds where you can see buildings and evidence of human habitation. Many photographers tend to try and get shots with as little evidence of humans as possible. I know some photographers photoshop their images like crazy to get the shot to look totally natural. I wonder if I will have to resort to photoshop to edit the people evidence back in?

You Won't See This At A Bird Convention

Here we have a person dressed as a Klingon, dressed as Elvis eating from a chocolate fondue fountain from one of the party rooms at CONvergence. You know, I think every person should visit the parties at a science fiction and fantasy convention at least once in their life. You meet such interesting and free spirits and might I just say, they really know how to cut loose. I met Miles Teves who has done art and visual effects on just about any movie you could imagine.

Amber and I did our bird program from The Raptor Center at CONvergence on behalf of MISFITS a non-profit organization which promotes literacy, community service and community building (and promotes the appreciation of science fiction and fantasy too). I've got to hand it to MISFITS, they sponsor visits to local and area schools by educators from TRC with live birds. Besides TRC, they also bring robotic and reptile programs to schools as well. I like how this organization works to keep geeks in shape with their Geek Physique Program--this is one well organized, civic minded group! TRC got a very generous donation from MISFITS and CONvergence attendees on top of our programming fee. Thanks, guys for helping those raptors out!

After we finished our program, Non Birding Bill and I visited the rest of the convention.

At sci fi and fantasy conventions, there are programs, lectures and panels during the day on topics from birds, women's images in Star Fleet to poetry reading. At night, there are the parties in different hotel rooms. The party rooms are generally hosted by organizations that put on other sci fi conventions, groups of specific genres like people interested in anime, or dealers like local comic book shops--all of them have a theme. Some of the parties at CONvergence included Galactic Geisha's House of Tea, Hoth Beach Party, Xenavirsity, Middle Earth's House of Chocolate and Source Party. When you arrive at the hotel, flyers are posted everywhere advertising where the best parties are:



This is Captain Kirk's House of Ill Repute hosted by some other con organizer. We visited this and there really wasn't much debauchery going on. There were other themed rooms like the House of Toast. My camera couldn't really capture the magic of this room. All the furniture was removed and the walls were covered with foil. On top of the foil were red neon tube lights, zigzagged to look just like the heating coils inside a toaster oven. The party served a huge variety of toast and you could get ANY topping on there you could think of: marshmallow, peanut butter, sushi, pesto, mace.

The parties are all located around the pool area of the Sheraton and everyone mills about. There's a masquerade and everyone comes dressed up in anything from a character from Star Trek to cartoon characters to just general goth apparel or regular street clothes--all are welcome in any form and half the fun is trying to recognize the different characters.

So, below I will show photos from CONvergence and photos from bird conventions. Can you tell the difference?







Okay, I generally have a fear of the Burger King Mascot, but after trying something called Romulan Ale, those fears kind of went away. You will note, I opted for the general goth attire for the convention...you know what they say, "When in Rome..."

I wonder if bird conventions will ever cross the line into something like sci fi conventions? Could I talk my boss into hosting a karaoke party room at a bird convention? Could you see a local wild bird specialty store hosting the Murder of Crows Roost? Will birders start showing up in bird costumes? I'd love to see someone dress up as a dickcissel! I think that just might be a pipe dream on my part.

Again, not something you would see at a bird convention.

Celebrity in the Audience

Amber and I did our Raptor Center Program at CONvergence today. Check it out, Wonder Woman was in the audience...and yes I mean Wonder Woman as in "in her satin tights, fightin' for our rights and the old red, white and blue (insert piano solo)". Aparently, when not using her lasso of truth on deserving criminals and Nazis, she likes to learn all she can about birds of prey.

Retrapping Banded Birds

So, why is this bird so exciting? What is this bird's id? If you don't know the id, they eyes of this bird should be a hint--note the red eyes. Now is it clicking in? It's a red-eyed vireo. And this particular vireo was in the blog not too long ago!

This bird was banded at Carpenter Nature Center on May 26 and had its photo in the blog May 29th. I was told that the same vireo was netted again at Carpenter in June while I was away, and now here it showed up for a third time in the nets on July 7th. Every now and then I meet people are against banding birds, that it is too cruel and that banders are traumatizing and scarring these birds for life if not out right killing them. If that's the case, why is this vireo showing up in the nets once a month? This bird has made an informed decision about where to set up it's territory. The nets are set up in the same spots when birds are banded, if the bird was so traumatized the first time it was banded, it would have gotten the heck out of dodge and set up a nesting territory elsewhere. At the very least it would have avoided the area where the nets are. And this vireo isn't the only retrap, many species end up being retrapped at Carpenter, it's a helpful tool in determining how long certain birds live in the wild. I'm not saying that a bird's favorite activity in life is to be handled by humans and to be banded, but birds are not as traumatized by it as some would believe. Think about what a bird goes through on a day to day basis: constantly on the lookout for Cooper's hawks, foxes, cats, snakes, never knowing where that next meal is coming from for sure, defending it's territory--violently if necessary from rivals or other species, sitting out storms, getting up and doing it's job every single day--regardless of how it feels--now that's a work ethic. Birds are hardy, tough, resilient creatures. Five minutes of banding is not going to wreck them for the rest of their life. It certainly does far less damage than someone who finds a young bird of prey and feeds it only hamburger and chicken breasts or a young robin and feeds it only bread and milk.

Since the vireo had posed so nicely with a song sparrow in May, I tried photographing it with a nuthatch for comparison this time. Nuh-uh, that nuthatch was not going to have any of that. The nuthatch trashed and snapped and made such strange catcalls that we decided to let it go. When both birds came in the nets, they were fairly low to the ground--the vireo surprised me, that's a bird I tend to associate with the tops of trees and here it had flown into the net only three feet from the ground and about the same time as the nuthatch--hm, I wonder if they were chasing each other?

I was the one who got the white-breasted nuthatch out of the net. I had to stifle my chuckles while I removed her. First she did her caterwauling, but then she started doing that usual nasally nuthatch "her her". I could feel her body vibrate in my hand while she made her yanking calls. Very cool.

Other birds we got in the nets today included a very tiny house wren--we had heard a winter wren that morning and were hoping for one, but got the boisterous house wren instead. It's so hard to believe this tiny guys make such a loud call.

We also got in SEVERAL recently fledged red-winged black birds. The young blackbird pictured above was so fresh from the nest you could still see the edges of the gape that baby birds have.

On a side note, Non Birding Bill just informed me that the Disapproving Rabbits pages are getting more traffic than the blog...Cinnamon is demanding an increase in her parsley allowance and is threatening to hire an agent if we don't comply.

Preview for Next Entry

Isn't this just a sexy looking bird? It took this photo this morning. Can you name the species? It's been in the blog before...and I don't mean this species, I mean this exact bird! More later.

I forgot to include in the Appearances page that my friend Amber and I are doing a couple of Raptor Center programs at CONvergence on Saturday. Maybe I'll get some fun photos of sci-fi fan birders tomorrow.

My Week Is So Off Kilter

So, for some reason I thought that the Raptor Bowl Event was today, when it is in fact next Wednesday. Non Birding Bill has helpfully updated my appearances page to help me manage where I'm supposed to be over the next few months--note that in November I'll be going to Harlingen for the Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest. If you can only afford to do one bird festival, I highly recommend going to this one!

Part of me was very excited that I would have a second whole day at the office this week to catch up on work. I was just setting down to start a blog entry about the dickcissel and bluebirds that I found on my lunch break at TRC yesterday when it suddenly hit me that today is Friday--banding at Carpenter. This holiday week has me so off.

In the meantime, check out the one year anniversarsy issue of I and the Bird--the whys of bird bloggers.

Osprey Banding 2006

It's that special time of year again...osprey chick banding! After all that travel and then time off for the holiday weekend, I should have spent this morning scheduling meetings and catching up on paperwork...but I'm just a girl who cain't say no to biologists and researchers when they ask if I want to come along banding. It balanced out though, I ended up selling a couple of digiscoping adaptors and maybe even a spotting scope--whoot!

We had lots of kids and young people along this morning as we banded birds from three different locations. One of my favorites was bander Mark Martell's son Chris (or Mini Mark as I like to call him). Look at that hat! Don't you just want to eat him up? Chris is holding up one of the bands.

I love this photo, father and son banding together while an osprey waits its turn in front of them. Chris looks like he's supervising his dad. Mark needs all the suprevision he can get.

Speaking of young people, this was Elizabeth with bander Missy Patty. Elizabeth has a growing interest in biology and banding. I started listing all the great places Elizabeth can go. I'm not sure her mother appreciated all the advice, if I had kept going, I would have had her driving young Liz all over the state and even suggested that she skip school in the fall to go to Hawk Ridge on days when there's a northwest wind. There are so many opportunities for young people to get involved now, especially in Minnesota. Elizabeth is well on her way and has already volunteered with Featherfest at Waldorf Schools. Elizabeth, come to banding on Fridays at Carpenter, you know you want to! All the cool birders are doing it.

And I wonder why more people don't let me around their kids.

"GRRRR! I'm so fierce! Fear me and let me crush you like the bullhead you are!"

Now, on to gratuitous young osprey photos. The birds in these photos are around five weeks old and won't be flying for another three weeks. They're so funny at this age, they are just starting to learn what they can do with their feet and aren't very agile.

Missy Patty said that their muscles aren't strong enough to hold up their wings yet, so they just kind of hang on the sides. Doesn't this kind of take you back to eighth grade and all your adult body parts are coming in and you're growing and not used to taking up so much space? I feel for ya' dude. Instead of acne, these guys have to deal with all their feathers growing in at once. Feather quills coming in all at once have got to feel strange.

This bird was Mr. Bitey McBite Pants. It was the oldest and put up the most struggle. Since it didn't quite know how to use its feet yet, it bit everything--including its own toe! Toe biting with talons just doesn't work well at all and sure enough this bird got a minor puncture wound--man that's gotta be one heck of a canker sore. So, to keep the chick from biting itself anymore, Missy sacrificed her finger. It actually didn't hurt that much--with birds of prey, the talons are always what you worry about, not the bill.

"Wait, what do you mean you need a blood sample?"

Mark and Missy also took blood samples for all the birds for DNA testing. I'm not sure where that goes, but it's smart to start that now and keep track of bloodlines. It would especially be important if ospreys ever need to be bred in captivity again. Osprey reintroduction has been a smashing success in Minnesota. The most successful nest in the Twin Cities is at a private residence. Mark calculated that this particular nest has successfully fledged 33 birds since 1991--including three today.

One bizarre thing that young osprey do as a defense mechanism is what's called pancaking. You can see a young osprey doing it in response to my hat in the above photo. When the young birds hear the warning call from the adults or fell threatened, they kind of flatten out and tuck their heads down. What purpose could this serve? Are they just fainting and pretending to ignore the danger? No! Check out what they look like from above when they do this:

Kind of brown and nondescript. That blends perfectly with the inside of an osprey nest. So, if a potential predator is flying over, at first glance the predator may not notice any young in the nest with their white faces tucked away. Very clever.

I actually got to help and hold one of the young ospreys today. In my excitement and eagerness to help, I forgot to unclip my binos from the harness. When I was finished, they were a little messy:

Look at all that dander, shaft flakes and bird oil (that smells like fish because that's all the birds eat)--thank goodness for lens pens! Glad the talons didn't nail the lens--although, that would have been covered in the no fault warranty and I could have got them repaired.

Here we have a frog who made a cameo appearance during the banding--so tiny! I at first thought it was a spring peeper, but Missy and Mark thought it was a wood frog and with that mask I agreed. However, my Reptiles & Amphibians of Minnesota Field Guide suggests that it is a western chorus frog. If there are any frog experts who disagree, feel free to drop me an email. Whatever it was, it was teeny.

Osprey, a fierce fishing machine and yet goofy looking all at the same time.

Balanced Breakfast

Looking for video of Birds vs a Tree? It's here. The video is from Scott Fraser.

If you didn't hear the Ian and Margery Show this morning, be prepared. Ian is going to try and arrange an interview with someone who has seen one of those thunderbirds/giant owls and have me on at the same time. It's odd, I believe the ivory-billed woodpecker, but I don't buy the giant bird theory--mostly becuase I've seen the video from the 1970s and the bird filmed is clearly a turkey vulture.

I also forgot to mention that Friday when I was on Showcase Minnesota, one of the hosts, Rob said, "Hey, Sharon, I saw a pair of robins rubbin' cloacas the other day!" How does he know what a cloaca is?

Bunny Loaf!

Due to popular demand, a third page of disapproving rabbits has been added.

"I disapprove of being called bunny loaf!"

It Was Nice To Be Missed

Holy cow! How much was I missed from my last trip? So much so that Non Birding Bill went with me to the location pictured above to find a brown bird (Henslow's sparrow) yesterday! We heard the sparrow more than we saw it, but we did see lots of swallows.

Here's a fun shot of a pair of tree swallows on the left and a pair of barn swallows on the right. I was trying to point out the differences between the two species to NBB. I said, "Notice the forked tail on the barn swallow?" He asserted that both had forked tails and I didn't know what I was talking about.

It's been nice to have this holiday weekend to recover and try to get my routine back. Although, it's very hard to get your routine back when you suddenly realize that you didn't have much of a routine to begin with. The first thing I needed to do was cut back on coffee, I didn't realize how much of it I drink when traveling--sheesh. I've been trying to drink tea when the coffee urge strikes and I think I'm finally making progress. This morning I didn't have a cup until after 12 noon. Hooray, triumph!

Sunday night Bill and I went out did something we haven't done for awhile, a pub quiz. We used to go to Molly Quinn's but that pub is closed so we heard a rumor that friend John Dingley continues the quiz at the Lake Street Garage and sure enough we found him.

Dingley (pictured above administering the pub quiz) gets around and I have met people from so many different social circles who know him: birding, falconry, renn fest people, science fiction people--he's even acknowledged in one of my peregrine falcon books! He has a beautiful tenor voice, can deliver a fine pub quiz, has done so many different lines of work, it makes my head spin and loves to talk peregines and swallow-tailed kites. Bill and I did fairly well (for us) on the quiz, we got 21 out of 25 answers right.

I got an email from Sam de Beer whom I met at the ABA Convention. He sent me a photo of the catamaran that we rode on for the pelagic trip to see all the shearwaters, puffins, razorbills and petrels. I heard that people who are used to riding on a single hulled boat often barf on catamarans because they aren't used to the movement of the double hull. I lucked out and didn't barf. One of my favorite moments was riding on one of the hulls and feeling it ride up and down, with the wind hitting my face.

I though Sam had a great name, Sam de Beer means Sam the Beer, right? No, he told me that where he's from that Beer is Bear and so he's actually Sam of Bear. Still a great name and fun guy to pal around with. He also sent the above photo, it's very relaxing and makes a great desktop.

Oriole Window Feeder

One of my favorite oriole feeders has been the Oriolefest (my other favorite is the orange recycled oriole feeder, both are made by Backyard Nature Products). Last year, they made a larger version of the Oriolefest, so that it holds two oranges, more nectar and more jelly. It didn't work well as a hanging feeder, because the liquid nectar would cause the feeder to tilt and spill. Well, the feeder has been reworked as a window mount and now works really well! Thanks, Barb, for the photos. You should be able to get this from your local wild bird specialty store. Other birds that will visit this feeder include catbirds, house finches and robins. If you fill it with all mealworms, every bird and their cousin should visit.

The Big Why

This post is for I and the Bird. Mike Bergin, the founder of I and the Bird has asked past participants to answer three questions. Here are the short answers.

Why do I blog?

Because Non Birding Bill said I needed it for my website.

Why do I bird?

It's the way I'm wired. I couldn't do anything else if I tried, and believe me I did try.

Why do I blog about birds?

Combine the two answers above.

The story behind the blog:

A few years ago, I tried a desperate bid to get free binoculars. WildBird Magazine has monthly contests where they will ask a question and you have to send in an answer within so many words. The winner gets a free pair of binoculars. I saw the question, "How do you show your birdiness?" and knew I had a winner--my first tattoo. I wrote about how my tattoo was a great conversation starter and helped link me with a younger crowd and didn't make me look like a stereotypical birder. I had been thinking of getting a second tattoo and at the end of my entry I suggested that I might ask Paul Johnsgard or Kenn Kaufman to design my next one.

When the magazine came out I didn't get picked as the winner (I was totally robbed--my answer was way better than the actual winner's) but within a week I got emails from both Johnsgard and Kaufman asking what kind of bird, what size and location of probable tattoo. So, in a sense I guess I did win. I ended up going with the Johnsgard design (pictured above)...largely because Kaufman never actually sent a design (yo, Kenn, it's not too late, I still have real estate available).

I went to Uptown Tattoo to get my new tat. While there, I took along one of my favorite Johnsgard books Arena Birds. I wanted to get a photo of me reading it while artist Tom (that's him behind me in the above photo) applied that tat. As my photo was being taken, some of the staff recognized me. "Hey, you're the bird lady on tv! You tell me to feed safflower to get rid of grackles and feed jelly to orioles!"

I was impressed. This was the last place I ever expected to get recognized and not only that, they actually remembered my advice. They asked why I didn't have a website and suggested that I should have one. Non Birding Bill and I had kicked around the idea of starting a website called birdchick.com because the moniker of "bird lady" got me confused with other bird ladies--plus, "bird lady" also reminded me of "the chicken lady" from Kids in the Hall. That night, we registered www.birdchick.com.

As NBB was helping me set up the site and template he told me that I really needed to have a blog. I balked, I had tried a blog before and I just couldn't keep it up, I didn't think this time would be any different. He pressed, went ahead and registered the birdchick blog and then even went the extra step to make Blogger my home page. How could I resist? It's weird starting a blog as you struggle to find your voice and what you want to talk about. Now I think I finally have a groove. I do struggle with not outing people. Just because I'm an exhibitionist and enjoy posting embarrassing photos of myself for the world to read, doesn't always mean my companions do. I still struggle with how much personal information about myself to include, do people really want to read about non-birding stuff in my life? I just try to ask, "Would I find this interesting?" If that answer is "yes" then it goes in.

I've never been a journal or diary keeper but for some reason blogging works for me. I enjoy keeping it as a scrapbook of where life has led me the past few years and quite frankly, many opportunities that have come my way in the last year have been a direct result of the blog. I didn't start it as a job, but it has helped land me a pretty sweet one. If the blog was a job, I doubt I would update it as regularly as I do.

Thanks to the blog, I've...

...known the glamour of hangin' out with nesting cormorants.

...had young pelicans try to brood between my legs.

... been able to touch and smell one of the coolest birds on the planet--northern goshawk.

...found myself alone enjoying the Utah desert.

...been snowed in.

...seen the rich brown eye of a Harris's sparrow.

...discovered that young great egret skin is green.

My family mostly lives in Indiana. When I started, I thought at the very least the blog would be a great way for them to keep up with what I'm doing, especially if I'm traveling and they can't get hold of me. Ironically, they rarely read it. I do try to avoid being a snob about it. I remember once meeting a writer and we were all talking about our favorite birds. The writer announced, "Well, we know what my favorite bird is!" We looked at the writer quizzically and they said, "Ugh, didn't you read my article!?" My big fear is that I will turn into that. Someone will ask me a question and I'll say, "Ugh, didn't you read my blog?" If that does happen, I hope someone has the good sense to say, "Oh, get over yourself!"

If people enjoy the blog, that's fantastic, I'm glad what I do interests them. If they don't that's fine, my style of birding certainly isn't for everybody--especially my disapproving rabbit (above). And as hard as it is for me to believe, I'm sure there's a small segment of the population that wouldn't care to read about birds all the time. That's crazy talk I know, but NBB assures me that it's true.

Glad That's Not My Job

Shuttle team shoos away vultures Bird-strike during liftoff could endanger crew, NASA says

By Marsha Walton
CNN
Friday, June 30, 2006; Posted: 10:44 a.m. EDT (14:44 GMT)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) --When the shuttle Discovery launched July 26 2005, a turkey buzzard flew into the spacecraft's external tank about three seconds after liftoff. The bird's body fell away from the tank and apparently did no damage.

But NASA took the collision seriously, gathering experts to create a "Bird Abatement Plan" to reduce the risks for future shuttle missions.

On Thursday, NASA contractors began rounding up and securing dozens of vultures. They expect to capture about 150 by launch time. The birds will be released after the launch.

Birdchick Note: I hope the poor person that has to round up the birds got a serious bonus or raise. Vultures vomit when trapped. Bleh, roadkill vomit.

You can read the rest of the story at www.cnn.com.