Working The North Coast Nature Festival

Migration was just getting hot and heavy in Cleveland, OH this past weekend. White-throated sparrows (above) covered the ground and we could hear some warblers overhead. Part of my festival duties were to lead a "Birdchick Walk" for families at Rocky Ridge Nature Center on Saturday and Sunday. You have to kind of pick your battles on this type of walk. If you have thirty people with you, almost half of whom are under age 8, you really want to consider carefully if you want to point out that Cape May warbler flitting in the trees high overhead. In that type of situation, warblers can become an exercise in futility.

What I love about family groups is that people are excited about Canada geese (like the one snoozing above), red-winged blackbirds, and goldfinches. One of the ladies in our group pointed to some reeds and said "I saw something black and red over there." I guessed red-winged blackbird and a moment later, a male popped up. She confirmed that was the bird she saw. I said, "Good spot!" and her friends high fived her.

On the second day of the field trip, some of the young 'uns were a little rambunctious and more interested in racing down the trail and screaming. It was a warm sunny day, these boys had energy to burn and asking them to be quiet was just not going to cut it. So, I used one of my kid tricks. I told them that one of the best ways for us to find birds is to listen. If we can hear where a bird is ahead of us, that give us a better chance of finding it. Sometimes, it's hard to hear the birds in the distance, so we need to shape our face like an owl. If you cup your hands over your ears and open your mouth--you can increase your hearing ability by up to 40%! At first it looked like the boys weren't going to buy it (note skeptical look of the lad in the green shirt above).

But the kids bought it and continued down the trail a little more quietly. As I was getting the boys to do this, their parents were giggling wildly behind them. As silly as it looks, it really does help increase your hearing--and helps to quiet kids and to teach them to listen on a bird walk. After a few minutes, one of the boys came up to me because he heard a new sound. We listened and we were hearing the trilling of American toads. Very cool.

Amphibians were all over. We heard toads, spring peepers, and even found a bull frog (above). I was fortunate enough to have Jen Brumfield helping me out on my walk (mark my words, she's an amazing illustrator and will be huge in the coming years, Cleveland Metroparks are lucky to have her on staff--check out her books here--the dragonfly book is OUTSTANDING).

Jen was fearless on the walks. Here she is grabbing a frog out of the water for the kids to look at up close.

She also found a red-backed salamander (dark morph) on one of the walks. It was great and all the kids were really impressed. I've not had much experience with salamanders, when she first found this under a log, I thought it was an earthworm.

But looking closer, you could see the little nubby hands. It's kinda cute for a slimy thing you find under a log.

On Sunday, one of the best parts of our walk was finding an old woodpecker cavity chock full of raccoons. The female was sleeping and all you could see were one of her back paws sticking out. Did she party a little to hard Saturday night? We took a moment to digiscope a few photos.

After awhile, she shifted, yawned and started licking...something...

She jostled a bit more in her cavity and then a small ball of fur started moving in front of her--she had young! You can see the back of it's head on the left side of her face. Cute!

Eventually, she popped her head out as if to look down on all of us and say, "Alright, nothing to see here, move along. I don't care where you go, but you can't stay here."

We didn't see huge amounts of birds, but we observed some great wildlife that delighted the crowd. I was so happy to be part of sharing nature, birds and otherwise with the kids, and grateful to have Jen along with me. Oh, and there was one more highlight from the trip:

Notice anything familiar in the above photo? Look at the shirts. Someone is wearing a Disapproving Rabbits shirt! Whoot! Her name is Dawn and she was really sweet. When I told Non Birding Bill about it, he recognized her name and said that she was one of, if not the first person to order a shirt. Thanks, Dawn, for spreading the good work of my bunnies around Ohio. And thanks for coming along, it was so great to meet you!

Quick Bee Update

The Fabulous Lorraine has been keeping an eye on the hives while I was out of town and I am so grateful. We're supposed to leave them alone to do their own thing for the first 7 - 10 days after installing them, but I was worried since we were having problems with the Olga hive. So, Lorraine just checked the food and sure enough, the Olga bees quit eating the nectar again and hadn't touched the pollen patty. Lorraine and Mr. Neil made up some new food and today they appear to be eating normally.

Today, Lorraine sent over this photo of one of the bees right outside the house foraging on some dandelions. She's also seen some of the honey bees on the flowering plum tree and soon they should find the flowering cherry tree. I'll check the hives on Wednesday to see if they have drawn out comb and if I can find any eggs. Go, girls, go!

Leucistic Hawk

Hey, if you're hankerin' for another contest, WildBird on the Fly has a bird call one going on and the prize is the very cool new book Songs of Insects.

Now back to this wicked bad white hawk. This is one of the eduction birds for the Medina Raptor Center, they were giving programs at the North Coast Nature Festival. This bird is a leucistic red-tailed hawk. Doesn't he just glow in the sunlight?

Here it is in comparison to a "typically colored" red-tailed hawk. The leucistic bird is smaller because he is a male and the other bird is a female. In the raptor world, males are smaller than females.

This bird was flying free in Ohio, and many were aware and had observed him. However, he was run over by a train and lost half of his left wing. I would have thought he was an albino, but true albinos have a complete loss of pigment and red eyes and pink skin. This bird has washed out yellow legs and toes and blue eyes, so that makes it leucistic (having reduced pigmentation). It's interesting that this birds talons are pink instead of black. If you go to click here, you can see an up close shot of this bird's head and take a gander at those blue eyes.

I also got a kick out of this little male peregrine falcon. He was found in Non Birding Bill's home town of Mansfield, OH and spent some time recuperating up in Minnesota at The Raptor Center. The bird world is truly a small world.

Contest

We're currently in the lobby of our hotel waiting for our shuttle to the airport to get back to Minneapolis. We had a FABULOUS time in Cleveland, this was a well organized festival. It was so busy I didn't have time to blog. I caught up with friends and made some new ones.

While waiting and to give me time to formulate some blogs entries about this weekend, here is a contest:

What kind of raptor is this? Leave your answers in the comments section. I'm not sure what the prize will be, either a book or a mug--I need to check for prizes when I get home this morning. As usual, the first correct answer with a name attached wins.

eBird on CNN

Check out Brian Sullivan on CNN talking about eBird and Handheld Birds.

Herons in Ohio

I am exhausted.

The North Coast Nature Festival--wow, this is an action packed event and it's all free! It's a great event for people in the Cleveland area. There are bird walks, banding, workshops--and it's not just birds. There are wildflower walks, pond study, photography workshops, live animals, everything.

We did our tv segments early this morning and then Non Birding Bill and I rehearsed our show for tomorrow night and then we met up with NBB's friend Kirk.

A few years ago, Kirk sent us photos of a bunch of nests in a tree and asked if we knew what they were--we did. It's a great blue heron rookery. So, Kirk was kind enough to take us to Cuyahoga National Park today to view them. The birds nest right off of the road (not too bothered by humans) and there's a parking area so you can easily pull over and scope them. I had NBB and Kirk stand on the other side to get a sense scale. Note NBB pretending to be a bird watcher by pointing.

According to the signage, the birds should have eggs that are hatching or are about to hatching. Scanning the nests, it appeared that the birds were at various stages in nesting from nest building, to incubating, to feeding chicks. The birds in the above photo are actually two nests side by side. The bird on the right is regurgitating food to some young in the bottom of the nest--barfed up fish and frogs--yum!

I had Kirk check them out through the scope so he could see the yellows of their eyes. Kirk would also like everyone to notice his jacket, he's very proud of it.

Now, I'm off to do some writing and then some much needed sleep.

I did get word from Lorraine that the beehives are feeding well.

Wood Lake Owl--Sad News

I just got this bummer of a report from Hellziggy about the young owl at Wood Lake:

Sad news... Sometime Monday night the baby fell from the tree. They found him on the ground Tuesday morning and put him in a basket that they put up into the tree so predators wouldn't get him. He must have sustained internal injuries because he never bounced back from it and he was dead this morning. :(

Sad news indeed. This is unfortunate, but does happen. Sometimes when young owls are learning to fly they fall and get injured. Usually they can survive it.

A Spike In Sparrows

And now, a cool titmouse shot:

We are now in the lovely town of Cleveland, OH. We have to go to bed early tonight, someone from the North Coast Nature Festival is picking us up at 4:30 am for two tv segments on WKYC. We're doing two, one at 5:15 am and one at 6:15 am. Oy.

First up, there's been a comment and a couple of private emails that people still had trouble seeing the queen bee, so I added a photo and circled the queen to that entry. Hopefully you can see her in the middle of my wiggly squiggle.

One of the fun things about being out at Mr. Neil's while hiving our colony was watching all the migrants pour in. When I arrived on Tuesday, there were several of the usual suspects singing. The only sparrow I noticed was the song sparrow (above) eating sunflower chips below the feeders.

Wednesday morning, sparrows were everywhere!

Chipping sparrows were flitting around to all the feeders. For the record, I did not fill this feeder. When I'm not around, other people fill them and it makes me chuckle to see where the seeds end up. The blue jays were going crazy trying to figure out how to get access to all the peanuts. The chipping sparrow was more interested in the sunflower chips still available at the bottom feeder port.

This little chipping sparrow kept erecting his cap. His hormones must be in overdrive.

White-throated sparrows had arrived over night. I can never control myself around these guys. I always start whistling they're "oh sweet Canada, Canada Canada" or according to Kaufman "oh sweet, Kimberly, Kimberly, Kimberly" song. I started whistling and then many more in the surrounding bushes started singing. Love those guys.

I did find a lone Lincoln's sparrow mixed in. These are always such a pleasant surprise when they show up at the feeders. I put out some extra millet and sunflower chips for the migrating sparrows, they always put a little more fun in the sea of brown that seems to take over the feeding stations.

Back to the feeder with all the peanuts. As the chipping sparrows moved the sunflower chips out of the way, the titmice came in for the peanuts. This one worked for a good three minutes trying to get that nut out. It flew away and I wondered how long it would take it to chip it away into edible pieces.

Some mixed nuts had been put in some of the other feeders and the red-bellied woodpeckers were working those out. This one managed to pry out a hazelnut. If you closely at this photo, you can almost see the spear that is at the tip of his tongue.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

This morning I was sipping my coffee and watching the cars in the drive way. I was (and am) exhausted from the week. I was formulating my plan for the day when I noticed what looked like a female goldfinch flitting around my car. At first glance, it looked like she was fighting her reflection going from window to window, but I thought, "Why would a female be fighting her reflection? Isn't it early for goldfinches to be this territorial?" Something did not seem right. The finch moved on to Lorraine's car and she walked in and asked, "Why is that finch on my car?"

Then the coffee kicked in. The "finch " flew over to the finch feeder with the other goldfinches (above). "That's not a finch." I said. Look at the top photo, can you see the "finch imposter" feeding on Nyjer and sunflower chips?

I dashed to get the scope:

The feeder was almost too close for the spotting scope to focus on the bird. Here is the face. It was a pine warbler! I can't believe it, I digiscoped a warbler--barely. I think with the cool weather, this migrant was working extra hard to find insects. My guess is that the warbler was gleaning smashed insects off of our cars and when that wasn't enough decided to go for the sunflower chips--something warblers will eat if they have to.

I tried to get a better shot, but got a butt shot instead. The warbler flitted around from feeder to feeder, someone had mixed in some suet nuggets in some of the feeders and it went for those as well.

I looked over at the suet log and a second pine warbler had flown in. This one went right for the fat. When a downy woodpecker flew in, the warbler flew away and waited for another turn. Mr. Neil's suet log has an arm that sticks out that makes a great perch for waiting birds. This digiscoped shot turned out much better. I thought digiscoping warblers was going to be impossible this spring (I'm no artist like Mike McDowell) but this gives me hope.

The Trouble With Olga

We went out to check on the hives today to make sure that the bees were feeding, had accepted the hive and open the hive entrances. The Kitty hive was in working order. You can see in the above photo that a cluster of bees is on the pollen patty and many more were under the white pail feeding on the nectar. This hive is following the textbook and next week I hope we will find some comb under construction.

Olga was a different story. No bees feeding at all. We lifted up the nectar pail and no bees were underneath--not good. The pail felt hard and yesterday when we were making nectar, we used some raw sugar to make the nectar for this hive--it had turned into a dry rock. We decided to take the pail back and remake the nectar. The feeding tin that came with the package of bees still had nectar in it, so we placed that in with the bees while we made more. When we came back about forty five minutes later, there were still no bees to be seen--not a good sign. Were they still in the hive? Did they die off?

I had been stressing to Lorraine that after today we were to leave the hives alone. We could check the feeders, but to not open up the hives to view the frames until next week. Now, I didn't know what to do. I wanted to open it up and see what was going on but I didn't want to disturb them and I didn't want to set a bad example. We decided to open it up. I didn't know what I would find or if I would be able to do anything. We opened it and the first thing I noticed were quite a few dead bees on the bottom. I remembered that the Olga bees had quite a few dead ones on the bottom of the package, I figured that was normal. But the rest of the bees were all huddles along frames on the extreme right side of the box. I suddenly remembered this being covered in the class. Sometimes the bees get cold on the first night an huddle to one side, completely missing the food at the hole in the center of the roof. All I had to do was rearrange the frames so the bees were right underneath the nectar feeder.

We moved the frames and within moments one of the workers came up and began sipping the nectar and not long after other workers followed. I'm so glad I took that Beekeeping Short Course at the U of M so I knew what to do! Whew.

I will say one thing about the Olga hive, they had already opened the entrance of the hive without my help. They may not have found the food that I set in there for them, but at least they were smart enough to find their own way out to start searching further away.

I have a feeling that Kitty is going to go by the book and Olga is going to be a bit rebellious and require extra attention.

St Paul Bird Festival

Looking for a family friendly bird festival in an urban area? Check out the Ramsey County Bird Festival next week.

Hikes are scheduled to give a bird's eye view of areas where swans, eagles and loons nest and where migrating warblers feed. Other tours will look at resident birds like cardinals, blue jays and chickadees. A low-cost dinner will feature nationally known bird expert and author Laura Erickson, speaking on "Backyard Birds---Hooooo Gives a Hoot?" Archimedes, an Eastern Screech-Owl, will be along for the fun as Erickson discusses the birds that make our own backyards so interesting, and what we can do to more easily see and enjoy them.

Speaking of owls, Hellziggy got some cute shots of the young great horned owl at Wood Lake.

Practicing flight: flap-flap-flap-flap! The young owl builds up its muscles and walks away from the nest in the brancher stage.

The young owl looks down to its mother as if saying, "Look at me, I'm higher than you, I'm a grown-up." Mom's response? "Yes, dear."

Part 2: Enjoyment At The Beehive

So, when I last left you, Lorraine and I had installed one colony and totally wigged out during the first hiving. The bees didn't pour out of their travel crate as easily as I thought they would and I got to experience having bees fly all around. It was weird, when they would land on the face netting, they almost looked like they were inside of the bee suit with you. Yikes!

We suited up in our full bee armor and returned to the hives. We realized we forgot the instruction book and that Lorraine's camera batteries were running low, so we walked back to the house. Yes, we were stalling. Finally, we went back. There were still quite a few bees in the air from the first installation. Several had worked their way over to the unopened box of bees.

Feeling safer with the gloves on, I zoomed in for a photo. Lorraine sprayed the box and the bees on the outstide were licking up the sugar water. If you look closely in the above photo, you can see the tongue of the bee in the middle, lapping up the nectar.

Here is what the travel box looks like up close. From the top of the box, a can full of nectar is suspended and the queen cage is next to it. All the workers pile on top of the feeder and the queen. You could wiggle the box and watch the mass of bees wiggle back in forth together. Freaky. I gave the box one, good, hard BONK.

And all the bees fell to the bottom exposing the feeder tin. The queen is still covered in workers. I tried to pry the tin out, but it was lodged in with propolis. I tugged and tugged and couldn't get it out. Lorraine offered to give a whirl.

Okay, here it is. I know people who know her are going to be shocked, but yes indeed, that is Lorraine workin' a box o' bees! Who knew? It took several tries, and me holding the box for leverage, but we finally got the feeder tin out.

I pulled out the queen case. In the above photo, I am holding the cage and it is covered with worker bees. It was at this point when Lorraine snapped a photo of me that I realized we had gotten over our panic of the first hive installation and we were having a great time.

I held the queen cage over the hive, flicked my wrist and all the workers on the cage fell in. Lorraine offered to keep the queen in her pocket this round.

Even with all the prying issues with the feeder tin getting stuck, the worker bees in this box seemed way more relaxed than the first. Some were flying out, but not at the rate of the first box.

I poured them into the hive and this time they did go in like pizza sauce. I got most of the bees inside the hive in very little time. I don't know if this is just a more mellow colony or if the bees sensed that Lorraine and I were more relaxed so they were more willing to go along with the plan.

After the worker bees were installed, Lorraine took the queen bee out of her pocket, we opened the cage and the queen crawled right onto the frame with the workers. She is in the above photo. Can you see her? Let's zoom in:

Now do you notice her? She's in the middle, the one with the big eyes facing front. All the workers eyes are on the sides of their heads. Still can't see her? How about this:

She's in the middle of the red circle.

I was so relaxed this time that I was able to sweep excess bees onto my hand and put them in the hive.

We were covered in bees and this time instead of peeing our pants, we took photos of each other. Incidentally, you always have the most bees on you when the camera is off. Once it turns on, 90% off bees leave your body.

I placed the empty queen cage covered with worker bees next to the pollen paddy and nectar feeder and closed up the beehive.

We closed everything up and left our girls to begin the process of growth. Tomorrow we will check on them to make sure the feeder pails are working well and then let them build for the next week to 10 days. I'm glad I will be out of town, I want to check on them every day now. Based on reader advice, we have named the hives (Kitty--green and Olga--light orange).

Lorraine and I both feel like different people. This day feels like it's been a week. I really do feel different (don't worry, this won't turn into an all bee blog--it's still a bird blog). I think for me, I had a lot of fear about working with bees that I didn't want to acknowledge--I was forced to face it during the first installation. By the second hive, I was having a blast. I had survived the first installation, I had a friend with me who makes me feel comfortable and we could both laugh at our mistakes and discomfort.

It reminded me of when Non Birding Bill and I got married. We actually got married twice (another story for another entry). During the first ceremony, I was so overwhelmed and emotional, I really can't remember much apart from crying (with joy) a lot. The second ceremony I really got to pay attention and enjoy the moment and what was being said.

We almost started off with one colony, I'm so glad we did two. This way we can compare and on the off chance I really messed up installing the first hive, we have a back up.

Oh, and for the record--no stings today. I'm sure there are some in our future, but for now we are sting free.

Hiving Part 1: Panic At The Bee Hive

Today was the day when I finally got started on realizing my dream of keeping bees. You're really not prepared for that first moment, no matter how many books you have read, videos you have watched, or classes you have taken.

I stopped at B & B Honey Farms to pick up our two packages of bees. Each package had three pounds of bees inside as well as one queen in her own cage. The queen was put inside her cage and then placed in the box with a bunch of worker bees four days ago. That gives the queen a chance to release all her pheromones to get the workers bonded to her. Or as our beekeeping instructor said, "They work out all their differences."

I was prepared for the wooden box and having that in my car for two hours as I drove the bees out to Mr. Neil's, but I was not prepared for the "outsiders". There were, of course, escapees at B & B and so those bees just swarmed onto the boxes. They guys loading the bees wiped as many off as they could, but I still ended up driving the whole way back with about a half dozen unsecured bees. I made a deal with them that if they stayed on the box, they could travel in the car, if they wanted to fly around the car, they would go out the window. Only one bee ended up going out the window.

I'm proud to say that on the drive back, I only got seriously distracted by birds once. I'm sorry, but you just can't pass a pair of adult eagles sitting in a field so close to the road without trying to take one picture. It was weird, when the car was stopped, you could really hear the humming of the bees.

When I got to the house, Mr. Neil's assistant, Lorraine was there and was ready to document the hiving of the bees. Neil had to leave this morning and was sad to miss it. I was surprised Lorraine was so willing to go along, because she has been quite vocal and very clear that she was in no part going to be the beekeeper in this enterprise. If I'm out at a bird festival and Mr. Neil is out at a book signing and there's a bee emergency, she was not having any part of it. She doesn't like bees. Completely understandable. After all that fuss, I was surprised she wanted to come out with me.

The first thing we did was make sure all the hives were ready. They had been placed in the chosen spot, but I did move the two hives further apart (above). When it's time to start taking honey out of your hive, neighboring colonies will try to steal it, so a little space helps with that. And I think a little space makes for healthier neighbors.

Since having the bees in the car with me for a couple of hours without any mishaps and having watched many videos of smooth hiving of colonies by people not wearing bee suits, I decided that I was going to install our bees without gloves. I was going to wear that hat and net, but not the gloves.

However, when I got inside the house, I saw that our bee suits had arrived and they looked SO cool (seriously, they looked like astronaut suits...without the built in diaper). I decided that I would wear the bee suit, but not wear the gloves. Lorraine put on a suit too and we both took some gloves with us as we took our bees out to the hives--just in case.

Lorraine had the camera at the ready. I had my hive tool, this was going to be a piece of cake. All I had to do was spray the bees with sugar water, bonk the box so they all went to the bottom, remove the feeder can, remove the queen, scrape off any workers, put the queen in my pocket, spray all the workers with more sugar water, dump them in the hive, take the queen out of my pocket, spray her, open her screen and then have her crawl onto the frames with the workers, put on the feeder pail, the pollen patty, and close up the hive--simple right? I had Lorraine hold on to the instruction book to read each step to me as I went along.

So, far so good. I sprayed the bees and I bonked the box, they went to the bottom. I pulled out the feeder can--it came out so easy! I was fully expecting it to be stuck in there with some propolis. Out came the can, easy as pie...and then out exploded a few hundred bees.

With bees, flailing is a no no. They are more likely to sting if you flail. What happens when you remove the feeder can, which you can't really see in the videos (and now that I look at my photos, you really can't see in the photos either) is that many of the bees get confused and fly out.

Have you ever had that feeling on a roller coaster when you get to the crest of the first hill and you just feel this deep, guttural panic and are willing to trade ANYTHING to not be there at that moment to be ANYWHERE else but there. That's pretty much what I felt at the moment the feeder can was removed (that's Lorraine above doing a dramatic reenactment of the moment). I tried to collect myself--I had to get the queen out and get what bees I could into the hive. I sprayed everything with sugar water. Lorraine, sensing my panic kept reading instructions. I pulled out the queen, she was covered in workers, I tried to brush them off, but I could feel their little vibrating bodies on my bare hands and it freaked me out. I started chanting as calmly as I could, "Don't flail. Don't flail. Don't flail." It was pretty much a substitute for the river of obscenities flowing through my brain.

Lorraine just kept reading the instructions over and over in a steady pace, anything to keep our minds off of the massive amounts of bees flying around us and trying to land on us. I got the queen into my pockets and then went to dump the rest of the workers in the hive. "Stay calm." I thought to myself. "Lorraine doesn't like bees, if I panic, it won't help her." I later learned she was thinking the exact same thing, that she needed to keep calm because her freaking out wouldn't help me. I think we saved each other with that bit of logic.

I love the photo above, I can see that I'm trying to keep calm, but underneath I'm really just a freaked out mess--note my little pinky finger in the air as I'm trying to dump the bees in the hive? Yeah, trying to look dainty is really helping.

I bonked and I bonked the box, but I could not get the workers inside the hive, sure a few fell in, but many were flying out as they were being poured in and even more were just staying in the box. They were not pouring and spreading like pizza sauce (which is what is supposed to happen according to the video and the class I took). I kept shaking the box back and forth--they weren't coming out. Some were landing on my hand, startling me and causing me to flail.

Lorraine said in awe, "Oh man, you have SO many bees on you!"

"I don't want to know!" I warned. I finally put the box down and said as calmly as I could, "Okay, we are going to walk away and put gloves on."

Lorraine agreed with the plan.

We put the gloves on and then I tried to get as many bees as I could into the hive. I took the queen out of my pocket, opened her cage, and held it on one of the frames in the hive. She crawled on my hand and finally crawled onto some workers on one of the frames. I turned around to put frames back in the hive but I couldn't find her again. I lost track of her. I assume she is still in there...I hope she is. We'll find out in a week. Many of the workers were drawn to the empty queen cage so I laid that in hive, put in the feeder and the pollen paddy and closed her up. I had to close the entrance to get the bees to stay in the hive for the night and felt a pang of guilt for all the workers now trapped on the outside.

That hive was done, but we still had one more to do. Lorraine and I were both exhausted and decided to head back to the house for some tea and coffee to gird ourselves before the next hiving.

We walked to the house, shell shocked and shedding bees along the way. After removing the feeder, the whole experience was a blank. We pretty much quit taking photos, bees everywhere just freaked us out. I had helped at a beehive before, this was not my first time being around hives, but it was different when it's your own and when you have bare hands.

I was so glad Lorraine was there, we both kept the other from freaking out and running away like a big sissy. Neither one of us got stung with the first installation, but how on earth could we go back and calmly hive the next package? Only time and a cup of tea would tell.

Up next, Part 2: The Hiving of Kitty

Murrations of Starlings

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Aaron!

You might think your grackle/starling/squirrel problem isn't so bad after reading this article about Starlings in Rome. Bee sure the check out the multimedia show--the photos are intense! At one point, the starlings almost form what looks like an upside stork.

They should probably turn that into a tourist attraction...I'd pay to see a few hundred thousand starlings. Speaking of which, yesterday I gave a small presentation with Explore Minnesota at a conference for Minnesota Bed and Breakfast Association. We were talking about heron and egret rookeries and some of the newer ones popping up around that state. One of the ladies was complaining about how sad it was that egrets nested on a little island on a lake in a city park. She felt they destroyed the park--egret and heron droppings at rookeries can kill of trees. I told her that I would much rather visit her town to look at several large white elegant birds and a tree covered island. She seemed skeptical, but after we gave our presentation about the value of birding, how much birders spend on a trip, she might be changing her mind.

It's interesting to me how birds can be perceived. I can totally see how a bunch of birds killing off vegetation can be perceive as "not good" but I would think that with prettier birds like egrets, you might think--"huh, would people like to come see that? Could we hold bird photography/digiscoping workshops with this?"

Bee Day Is Coming

Tomorrow is it. The bees will be ready for pick up. I am both excited and nervous. When I took the U of M's Beekeeping Short Course, we went over hiving the package of bees several times and even watched a video. The instructors told us that we did not really need the gloves because the bees will be so docile, but if it will make us more comfortable we should wear the full suit. I was thinking I would probably do it glove free since they made it look so easy in class.

Then I foolishly went to YouTube tonight and watched some bee installations going wonky.

At first it freaked me out, one video in particular showed some very angry bees, but then I started to pay attention. First thing I noticed was that in all the videos where things went wrong, the people were wearing full bee suits. Second, they were doing things very differently than what I learned in class. I did find one video where the guy was "hiving a package" with no bee suit and it went fairly smooth. He put the queen in the hive a different way than I learned but everything else was about the same and all was calm.

I don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight. I haven't been anyway, partially because our neighbors stay out until 4 am having a party (college kids, who swear they are being quiet when you walk over and tell them they're being noisy). The other night someone was in the ally arguing with her boyfriend Josh, on her cell phone. I woke up to "Josh, Josh! I don't want to #$%^*&@ loose you!" I looked at the clock and it was 2:45 am. She cried out again to her Josh on her cell about trying to work out their differences, when I heard a robin stir. It gave it's "reep cheap cheap" and then started a full on territory song. After he got going, other males on neighboring territories started to sing and by 3:05 am all the neigborhood robins were in chorus. Good grief, that lady woke up the birds!

Once birds start singing, I just can't sleep. I'm too programed to pay attention to them.

Red-wing on Red-tail

Orv Lehman has been watching and photographing a red-tailed hawk nest in Virginia with his Nikon P1 Pro digiscope kit.

I love how at first glance it looks like the red-winged blackbird is perched on the red-tailed hawk's head, but he's perched behind the hawk. If you look close, you can see some white fluff under the hawk, behind some of the sticks that make up the nest--that is the young hawk.

It's got to be annoying to have red-wings dive bombing you at the nest. Thanks for the fun photos, Orv!

Go Birding Through Craig's List Founder

WildBird on the Fly is reporting that a new online birding game is available. A webcam has been set up in the backyard of Craig Newmark (founder of Craig's list) to try and snap shots of birds that are visiting. Players vie for spots on the top watchers' list by photographing and classifying the most birds. They snap stills of avian targets from the video stream, and the shots are dumped into a database for classification.

The game is supposed to be up at CONE Sutro Forest sometime today.

I Will Survive

"Oy."

Did you ever wake up one morning thinking everything is going to be relaxing and then come to the sudden realization--"Wait, I'm doing ALL of that? This week? Eeep!"

I'm not sure how I'm going to make it, but by this time one week from today I will be marveling at all I accomplished. Right now, I'm wondering how I'm going to do it. First up, I have a lunch meeting/presentation with the Office of Tourism tomorrow in New Ulm which is about two hours away. Sometime tomorrow, my supplier (B & B Honey Farm--who does not have a website) is getting our honey bees over in Houston, MN and I will pick those up on Tuesday, drive them to Mr. Neil's, make them some nectar and pollen patties, hive them, wait twenty-four hours to make sure they accept the hives on Wednesday. Thursday, we fly out to Cleveland, OH for the North Coast Nature Festival, Friday morning we do some tv appearances (at 5am), do some final rehearsing for Play on Birds, Saturday I lead walks, give presentations, and that night we do Play on Birds. Sunday is a little more of the same only minus the Play on Birds. Both Non Birding Bill's family and my family will be there. Also, during all of this, I need to work on a deadline looming for MN Audubon.

Please, please, Forces of Nature, do not let me get any disfiguring stings this week before we go on stage or tv!

Incidentally, any readers who are planning on coming to see Play on Birds in Ohio, you will need to get there early, the seating is first come/first serve. There's no ticket fee and space maybe limited. This will be a rare chance to see Non Birding Bill. It really is a funny show and is one of my favorite things to perform, I love, LOVE performing with NBB.

I have to give a big thank you to the Wild Birds Unlimited in Cleveland, they are loaning us some of their feeders to use during our Four Stages of Squirrel sketch--I'm so relieved we don't have to take those props with us on the plane.

So, off to do some rehearsing and for some relaxation, I present a video of Cinnamon's nose. We went to the park for the first time since last fall and boy was her nose wigglin' taking in all the scents! The video is about a minute long:

Wood Lake Great Horned Owl Nest

The other day at Wood Lake Nature Center, I wanted to get a photo of the young great horned owl in the nest. However, it was snoozin'. I went for a walk around the lake and when finished I came back to find the wee owly still a snoozin'. Just as I was putting the cap back on my scope, an old snag not too far away came crashing down. I watched in awe as it fell. I looked back to the nest and the young owl was standing straight up, having been started from the crash--even its fluffy excuses of ear tufts were trying to be erect.

After a couple of minutes, it hunkered down and stared...make that glared at me. I didn't cause it...really...it wasn't me. Okay, so I was thinking, "Wouldn't it be nice if some noise woke they owl baby up, but really, I didn't cause a whole snag to fall."

Geez, somebody get that bird some coffee, stat!

Speaking of the young owl, it is now in that brancher phase (young owl out of the nest) and will soon be flying. Here is a link to a photo taken by Derek Bakken today of the young owl walking in the tree and another of one of the parents chewing a feather it molted out. My cockatiel does that when he pulls out a tail feather or primary feather--just kind of chew it for a minute. I wonder if that's like kids who bite off a finger nail (or worse a toe nail) and chew it for a few minutes?

Stop The Presses - There's A New Frogmouth

According to the press release, "Your bird field guide may be out of date now that University of Florida scientists discovered a new genus of frogmouth bird on a South Pacific island." Because so many of us have a frogmouth section in our North American guides.

Frogmouths are named for the huge, wide, strong beak that resembles a frog's mouth--here is a link to a photo of some live frogmouths to give you an idea.; but their beak also sports a small, sharp hook more like an owl's. Steadman said their beaks are like no other bird's in the world. Frogmouths are predators and eat insects, rodents, small birds -- and yes, even frogs. These birds are also well known for their camouflage--three great examples here, here and here.

According to the press release, the perspective on the scale of evolutionary difference between genera, consider that modern humans and Neanderthals are different species within the same genus (Homo), while chimpanzees are our living relatives from a closely related genus (Pan), but that we share the same taxonomic family (Hominidae) with our chimp cousins.

The exciting news is that David Steadman and Andrew Kratter, ornithologists at the Florida Museum of Natural History, found the new genus of frogmouth while on a collecting expedition in the Solomon Islands. It is the first frogmouth from these islands to be caught by scientists in more than 100 years. They immediately recognized it was something different.

"This discovery underscores that birds on remote Pacific islands are still poorly known, scientifically speaking," Steadman said. "Without the help of local hunters, we probably would have overlooked the frogmouth."

Originally, the bird was misclassified (gasp) as a subspecies of the Australian Marbled Frogmouth, Podargus ocellatus. The blunder went undetected for decades (gasp again), until a collecting trip led by Kratter in 1998 turned up a specimen on Isabel, a 1,500-square-mile island in the Solomons. Today, the only museum specimen of this bird in the world, with an associated skin and skeleton, is housed at the Florida Museum (oooo, ahhhhhh).

Read the full press release here.

Cinnamon Eats More Parsley

Good Birders Don't Wear White

Then why does the American Birding Association sell white shirts with their logo on it?

Lisa White from Houghton Mifflin has brought together many of our favorite bird writers and compiled their essays in Good Birders Don't Wear White, a book on the subject of what makes a good birder. There's some fun with some practical and good advice mixed in for good measure. I as I was going through and checking off how many friends have essays in the book, it got me inspired to try and find a link for everyone in the book. Here is a list of all the birders who have essays. Starred names are bloggers:

John Acorn
Peter Alden
Paul J. Baicich
Jessie H. Barry
David M. Bird
Jeffery Bouton*
Robert A. Braunfield
Kevin J. Cook
Alicia Craig
Julie Craves
Richard Crossley
Jon L. Dunn
Pete Dunne
Lang Elliot
Victor Emanuel
Laura Erickson*
Ted Floyd
Tim Gallagher
Jeffery A. Gordon*
Chuck Hagner*
Amy K. Hooper*
Steve Howell
Dave Jasper
Kevin Karlson
Kenn Kaufman
Paul Kerlinger
John Kricher
Donald Kroodsma
Paul LehmanArthur Morris
Mike O'Connor
Wayne R. Peterson
Bill Schmoker*
Scott Shalaway
Stephen Shunk
David Sibley
John Sill
Peter Stangel
Don and Lillian Stokes*
Noah Stryker
Clay Sutton
Bill Thompson III*
Connie Toops
Judith A. Toups
Richard K. Walton
Scott Weidensaul
Mel White
Sheri Williamson*
Louise Zemaitis
Julie Zickefoose*

Well, I found all but four. If anyone can let me know of a link for those four please pass it along. Again, a great collection of birders and writers.

Whooping Crane Obit

From the Washington Post:

A whooping crane found dead in a farmer's field was a "senior citizen" with a colorful past that helped with studies of the rare birds, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman says.

The whooper, found Wednesday in a field west of the city, near Almont, appeared to have a broken neck, spokesman Ken Torkelson said. Biologists believe the bird had been dead for at least a day before it was found but they do not believe it was killed by humans, Torkelson said.

The carcass is being sent to the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. for analysis.

"What caused the broken neck, we're not sure, and we may never know," Torkelson said Thursday.

A power line was about a mile away, but authorities do not know if that played a role, Torkelson said.

"It would be a first, but it's not impossible for that bird to have had a heart attack in the air and suffered a broken neck on impact with the ground," he said. "It could also have been a predator but there are no signs of that. If we had to guess, it appears to have come in a collision with something."

An identification band showed the bird hatched in 1983. Biologists say most whooping cranes do not live much longer than 20 years.

"It was still a very productive male, having brought six chicks to Aransas out of the last 10 years," Tom Stehn, the whooping crane coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, said in a statement.

The dead bird and its mate were equipped with radio collars in the early 1980s and were known as the "radio pair," Stehn said. Along with producing offspring, the pair provided valuable information for researchers, he said.

"He was not the granddaddy of the flock, but he was definitely one of the senior citizens," Torkelson said of the dead whooper. "He apparently he was still mated up this year and still could have produced offspring, so it's certainly a loss to the whooping crane flock."

Stehn also said the whooper found near Almont was involved in the "fastest whooper migration across the United States ever recorded."

The bird and its parents were in a flock of six whooping cranes that landed near Pierre, S.D., on Nov. 8, 1983, and were found on the Texas coast just three days later, he said.

"They were pushed by strong tailwinds and a low pressure system on their way south and must have flown pretty much nonstop," Stehn said.

Urban Eagles Still Going Strong

Ah, man, I was just sitting down to whip up this entry and I got a UPS delivery of some books. I already have a stack of cool books that I've come across in the last four weeks that I need to share on the blog and now another book arrived that looks oh so promising: The Songs of Insects--by Lang Elliot and Wil Hershberger. I'm not familiar with Hershberger, but I loves me some Lang Elliot, this looks like it's in the same format of Music of the Birds. Whoot!

I went to check on the eagle nest near my home after a meeting at Minnesota Audubon. As I was driving through the neighborhood, one of the birds was flying low in the air, trying to catch a thermal. Every person outside was looking up with a look of awe on their faces. The trees haven't leafed out yet, so you can still see the nest. When I set up the scope, a couple of the residents walked by and had a look. They are very proud and excited about the nest.

The eagle in the nest looked like she was eating and then she hunkered down inside. Boy, the buds are starting to burst, in another week or two, this nest will be well hidden. Incidentally, while watching the nest in the scope, a pair of house sparrows were lurking at about 4 o'clock in the nest. They kept going in and out. I wonder, are they nesting in the eagle nest or are they looking for food scraps?

Has anyone ever observed other bird species nesting in an active eagle nest (or any raptor nest)?

Spring Watch USA

We need to get Jeff Corwin in a harness...I mean a binocular harness.

Looks like there is an interesting show on Animal Planet this weekend called Spring Watch USA, a four-week, as it happens, multi-media event. Filmed just prior to broadcast, this miniseries is a celebration of the arrival and beauty of spring across the nation. Hosted by Jeff Corwin (above) and Vanessa Garnick, viewers learn about the amazing mammals, birds and insects that herald the arrival of spring.

From their headquarters on Kiawah Island, located off the coast of South Carolina near Charleston, Jeff and Vanessa give viewers a backstage pass to spring from the animals’ point of view. With cameras positioned in nests, caves and other habitats, Jeff and Vanessa track such inhabitants of Kiawah Island as bobcats, red-tailed hawks, alligators, bluebirds and screech owls.

Corwin and Garnick are joined by Animal Planet correspondents Philippe Cousteau and David Mizejewski who also take cameras along as they report on animal activities from the rest of the country. Cousteau covers sea otters, sea lions and gray whales in California, from Sausalito to Monterey to the Channel Islands. Meanwhile, Mizejewski checks in on the great horned owl and the beaver in Georgia, flying squirrels in Northern Virginia and black bears in Upstate New York.

You can go to the Animal Planet website and at the Spring Watch USA tracker to check out an interactive map, play with the online bird and butterfly field guide, and even post your own signs of spring.

This could be cool, especially since spring has been a tad out of reach the last few weeks. Plus I'm in favor of anything Jeff Corwin. I have to say, I did get a chuckle out of this photo of the hosts of the event:

Okay, these are all people who love to get down and dirty in the wild--would they really ever wear white? It almost looks like an album cover for the Carpenters.

I And The Bird

I keep forgetting to submit posts to I and the Bird and I have to send a big thank you to this week's host, Jochen. He sent me some good reminders. I and the Bird is up and running at Bell Tower Birding Blog, so check out. I and the Bird is a blog carnival. Bird bloggers from all over submit an entry of their choice to the host who compiles them all into a theme. This is a great way to get a sampling all the different bird bloggers out there.

To learn more about I and the Bird or to find out about being a host (it's a great way to generate some traffic to your blog) check out 10,000 Birds.

Large Helping of Canada Geese with a Side of Killdeer

The Canada geese are all over the metro area. Whoo wee. I watched some geese stop traffic twice in two different areas today. Some local parks do a good job of discouraging public feeding and redoing the lake landscape to put a vegetation barrier between people with large sacks of bread and the geese. The above goose was on one of the board walks at Wood Lake Nature Center. It was a minor stand off: would it move first or would I? I forged ahead:

It flew away.

I had a meeting yesterday at the Minnesota Zoo. Afterwards I walked around, not really interested in the tigers and wolves and caribou but more for the wild birds that may be about. The most abundant bird found:

The Canada goose. They were everywhere, nesting along the trails...

Hanging out on top of the zoo's roof...

Stealing food from the caribou pen. This goose quickly moved away when one of the caribou began to approach. As I was watching through the scope, I heard some killdeer vocalizations, but not the usual "kill a deer." It was the killdeer tone, but giving a kind of peep.

Here's the whole caribou field. I could hear the killdeer, but could I find it?

After some scanning I found her. And just as I was focusing, she hunkered down in one spot--she's incubating already! I wonder if the caribou are too much of an issue? What the chances are that the eggs could get stepped on? I'm always fascinated by birds nesting in the zoo. I remember a few years ago watching some flickers that were nesting in the tiger area and I thought, "No raccoon is gonna bother that nest! Will the young survive fledging?"

But back to the geese.

I found this bird trying to dose off. With nesting going on, geese are a little on the defensive and honking wildly at each other if someone looks at them the wrong way. Every time an altercation would start, this goose would open its eyes and then slowly get sleepier...

...and sleepier...

...and then finally go all the way to sleep.

Bill of the Birds Survey

Hey, Bill of the Birds has a survey up on how many field guides you own, if you would care to participate. I'm surprised by the number of participants so far who own too many field guides to count--I thought I was the only one.