Bald Eagle Is OFF The Endangered Species List

Well, it's about darn time in my book.

I'm happy to see that in my lifetime that today we have gotten something very right with conservation and that the national symbol for the United States of America has been taken off of the Endangered Species List.

The move is important on so many different levels--number one, bald eagle numbers increased from 417 breeding pairs in the lower 48 states in 1963 to an estimated new high of 9,789 breeding pairs today! The longer the eagle stayed on the list, the more critics could point to it and say, "See, it doesn't work, the bald eagle is still on the list. Let's get rid of the Endangered Species Act."

I know some are arguing that the delisting means that there could be loss of eagle habitat, but at the same time, bald eagles are choosing to nest in areas that previously weren't considered eagle habitat. Case in point, the bald eagle nest that 10 minutes from my house that's in a residential neighborhood, bordered by two major highways, and right across the street from the Minneapolis/St Paul International Airport.

These birds don't care as long as they can find food like fish, injured waterfowl, and roadkill. The eagles are also still protected under the Bald Eagle Act and the Migratory Species Act. And individual states can still keep the bald eagle on state threatened or endangered lists, but it is time for eagles to be off of the federal list, so we can concentrate on the other 1,300 species still on the list.

There are still concerns like bald eagles ingesting lead --lead is something that needs to be taken out of the environment for several species. Bald eagles are exposed to lead in gut piles of deer during hunting season, the common loon (Minnesota's state bird), trumpeter swans are exposed to it via lead sinkers in the bottom of lakes and streams. Lead isn't good for anybody--including us. We need to quit putting it out there.

And if you're still not convinced that the bald eagle delisting is a good thing, rather than sending me an email or comment telling me that I'm killing eagles and I have no business calling myself a bird lover (which I don't think I have ever used that phrase to describe myself anyway), I encourage you to read about what Rhode Island is doing and start a similar program for habitat preservation in your area.

Beekeepers Give Advice

"I don't approve of this entry at all! I'm seriously considering disowning you. Harumph!"

I've been kind of debating about whether or not to put up a link. But, I'm going back to my personal blogging rule, "Would I find this interesting?"

Yes, I would.

Nerve.com asks for experts in different fields (like sudoku masters) to give sex advice once a week. This week, they were looking for beekeepers and I was asked--that's right, they were looking for beekeepers, not birders. Who knew that beekeeping would ever lead to this? So, with LOTS of warning that this link is NSFW and to those of you who are reading this with your kids, save it for later or visit this beekeeping blog about a guy who is experimenting with bee sculpture. He was one of the beekeepers also asked for advice.

Okay, if you still want to proceed and are chronologically an adult, here is the Nerve.com link.

If you are visiting this blog for the first time from Nerve.com and you're wondering where all the bee entries are, check here. And, everyone wants to know what an entrance reducer is, so here's a photo of a wooden one and here is a photo of a metal one--I've got both! You use these to control your traffic and it helps maintain temperature and ventilation early in the spring.

Goldfinch Date

I saw goldfinches gathering nesting material today. At distance, their coloring really blended in with the dull yellow of the vegetation. You would think the males would pop out more. This female appeared to be supervising the male's gathering.

But perhaps she was just begging for a kiss? He didn't give her any nesting material, he actually dropped what he had to bill tap with her. She had started coming towards him, wings slightly fluttering, giving a soft call and then they had a quick bill peck. No copulation occurred, but I'm sure it was some sort of pair bonding.

She flew away, and he continued to gather the soft thistle down. I wonder what goldfinches used for nesting material before thistle was introduced to North America?

Minor Monarch Release

Yesterday when I was trying to get ready to go to The Raptor Center, I noticed that one of my monarch chrysalises was about ready emerge. Wow, that was fast. Seemed like it was only yesterday this guys made the pretty, green chrysalis. Right before the monarch emerges, the chrysalis turns dark and you can see the butterfly on the inside. I wish I could have gotten a photo of it as soon as it came out--they look deformed. Ah well, another time.

When I came home from TRC, I made some lunch and sat on the couch...I noticed the chrysalis was empty and paused to try and see where the butterfly was hanging out in my apartment. Then I noticed some fluttering and found it at one of the windows. It had emerged, had plenty of time to pump moisture into it's wings and was ready for forage for nectar. I didn't see any dark spots on the lower wings, which means this was a female monarch. I opened the window and tried to get a video of her release from my apartment:



After she landed, I set up my digiscoping equipment and got a few shots of the monarch resting on a tree:

Then she flew off to search for nectar. She will also search for a male for mating and eggs will grow into the monarchs who will migrate south into Mexico this fall.

Ecological Investment Market

From Newswise Science News (thanks budak for the heads up):

Farmers in Jamestown, R.I., are being paid by local residents to delay haying their fields until after birds have completed nesting in a unique test to establish investment markets for ecological services.

The project to protect habitat for bobolinks, a grassland-nesting bird whose population is declining in New England, was designed by a team of University of Rhode Island economists in collaboration with a URI biologist and Providence-based EcoAsset Markets, Inc.

“The public constantly says that they value a clean and healthy environment, and yet the economy overlooks those values and instead creates environmental problems,” said Stephen Swallow, a URI professor of environmental economics. “Ecological markets are a way to correct these environmental problems by enabling businesses and individuals to express their values and invest in the environment. It’s a way of bringing environmental qualities into our everyday decision making.”

Farmers who grow hay for their livestock can usually get two cuttings a year from their fields, but the first one typically interferes with nesting grassland birds. The mowing machines can destroy the birds’ nests, eggs and young. By compensating the farmers for the cost of delaying the harvest and purchasing replacement hay, the birds have enough time to mature and fly away without negatively impacting the farmers.

“This market approach is brand new,” said Emi Uchida, assistant research professor in the URI Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. “The Jamestown residents and farmers experienced one of the first experiments in the world to use a market approach to enhance ecosystem services.”

Read the rest of this very cool story here. Very cool idea! More communities should steal that idea.

Turkey Vulture Hangover Fix

We have some really cool friends. One of whom is Kitty, who among many other talents is a caterer to bands. Now, when I say bands, I don't mean like Kielbasa Kings, I mean mainstream bands you might actually have heard of: Motley Crue, Depeche Mode, Justin Timberlake, etc. Yesterday, she came into town with TOOL and we met her and the crew for some drinks at their hotel. And I learned two things:

1. The Embassy Suites in downtown St. Paul has ducks inside their hotel.

2. And I don't quite have the alcohol tolerance I did in college. Sigh.

I have to say that after tossing a few back and then seeing a duck fly in the lobby of the hotel, I thought that I was ready to be cut off. But I went to the lobby and sure enough, there were ducks in the fountain. It looked like the hotel had cinnamon teal, wood ducks, and green-winged teal. But looking at the photos today, some of them had an odd shape or their markings are a little off. They must be hybrids from a game farm. Anyway, it's nice to know that even when a few sheets to the wind, I can still find the birds and id them...sort of.

I got a big kick meeting all of the back stage guys (wish I could remember their names)--especially the tour accountant. I tried to tell him that he was the hippest accountant I had ever seen, but he kept stressing that he wasn't really an accountant, that was just a title (kind of like people who have all the birding gear but won't call themselves birders). I met another guy who had a mother who lived in New Zealand and he lamented that she only came to visit him when he was in an area with a lot of bird species to add to her list. There's another guy looking to sample bird calls for music and I'm going to try and hook him up--he really wants a western meadowlark. All in all it was a great time...until I woke up this morning. Ugh!

And as much as I really wished I could have stayed burrowed under the sheets, I had to go to The Raptor Center for my weekly volunteer shift. I felt awful, but staying home was not an option. We had a big program scheduled and my not feeling well was entirely my own fault, not the result of a stray virus. I drove in after copious amounts of juice and coffee, hoping that working with the birds or giving a program would take my mind of off my uncertain stomach.

One of the things we are supposed to do on the morning shift is check on all the ed birds, make sure all are upright and to pick up any leftover food from the day before. Quite a few of the birds will leave behind rat skins, fish bones, chicken feet, etc. The photo above is my black glove that I use for handling. We use different gloves for different tasks, that way the birds have an idea of what we are doing when we enter their mew.

This is the big blue welder's glove that we wear when we are picking up scraps, tossing food in the mew or anything not related to giving a program. It's especially important when you are going to pick up food--sometimes the birds get a little territorial. They're not going to eat that dried up and stinky rat skin, but at the same time, they don't want you to have it. If a bird comes at you, this is your main defense. We have a great horned owl that likes to ricochet off of your head, and sometimes eagles or red-tails might run at you.

This is a little glove you can wear on your other hand so your skin doesn't have to come into contact with the leftover food. I prefer not to wear this glove when entering mews because it takes me longer to pick up the food and I really don't mind picking up old rat bits with my hands, I can easily wash them.

Some of the birds are more challenging than others. We sometimes will rotate who takes what out of which bird's mew. Today, Nero, the imprinted (thinks he and humans are the same species) education turkey vulture had some rat skin and fish bits inside his mew. He was sitting right next to the door and was not about to move. I offered to go in and get the scraps, because Nero always flies away from me when I enter his mew and sits on top of his hutch where I have no chance to reach him. He figured out years ago how short I am, so that I wouldn't be able to reach him and take him out for programs. He knows the exact spot to stand on top of his hutch so I will have no chance to grab his jesses (bracelets all the birds wear on their ankles that we use to attach them to leaches). Clever bird.

Look at that beady little head giving me the hairy eyeball. You can't see it from this angle, but he has a mailbox shaped perch near the door. He was on the far end of the perch when I opened it. I stepped in and waited for him to fly up. He didn't, he sat looking quite relaxed. As I picked up the scraps, I noticed some fish pieces back in the corner and went back quickly to retrieve them. When I turned around to leave, he had adjusted his position on the perch and was blocking me from going out. "Hm," I thought, "this is new. Maybe he won't fly away from me anymore and I might be able to use him for program again." It was at this precise moment, that Nero jumped off of the mail box perch and when straight for my legs. I was wearing some capris and had skin exposed, I shoved down the blue glove to block his attack. He jumped and thrashed, trying to dodge it and managed to get a hold of the hem on my left pant leg. He whipped his little head around trying to rip them and jockeyed for a better position. This is where it gets hard. One the one hand, you want to protect yourself, on the other hand, you do not want to hurt the bird (and there is also the third hand of not wanting to scare the vulture so it will barf on you in defense--yuck).

His attack continued and I could feel his chest pressed against my hand, trying to get a better bite. My hand slid down his chest and he jumped up, this time landing on the glove. I quickly raised my hand up and put him in handling position, like I would for a program. This kind of confused him--he was perched the way he was trained to be perched, but the glove wasn't the usual glove. I used those few seconds of his confusion to secure his jesses in my gloved hand and stood for a moment. As soon as I had him secure, the bird curator poked her head in smiling and said, "Hey, what's going on?" She had seen what happened and said I did everything right and then got a handling glove and crated him for a bit. The bottoms of my capris have little tassels and she wondered if the tassels where what Nero was after. Mental note: don't wear tassels in the vulture mew.

I noticed after the vulture incident, that I wasn't feeling my hangover so much anymore. Nothing like a little vulture therapy. Here is a video I took of Nero later on in the morning after he was placed back in his mew with a touch of improved Jaws soundtrack:

Piping Plover vs Least Tern

Another great link from Jeff that I had squirreled away in my massively overstuffed inbox:

Nesting piping plover vs least tern.

For some reason, the link defaults to the photos being irritatingly large. If you click on "zoom out" above each photo, they fit the frame and are easier to view.

I never realize how small some birds until I see them together. That piping plover looks big compared to the least tern and for some reason I have it sent in my mind that terns are bigger. I remember seeing a yellow-rumped warbler foraging in some reeds next to a least sandpiper and noticing they had the same body size--it blew my mind.

Now to deal with my inbox--I may just declare email bankruptcy and just delete the whole batch that's built up in the last few weeks.

Pigeon Extremists

I originally decided to keep mum on a story that broke in late May about a handful of roller pigeon enthusiasts in Oregon and California who were charged with killing raptors (including Cooper's hawks, goshawks, red-tailed hawks, and peregrine falcons) to protect their hobby. I figured it was a case of a couple of bad apples spoiling it for the rest of the club. You have extremists in anything and the area of birds is no exception. We recently had a debate on the Minnesota birding listservs about whether or not playing recordings of bird songs to find a species is harmful. Some felt ANY kind of disturbance to get birds to pop up is wrong--even pishing! That's a little extreme in my book.

I didn't want to bring attention to the roller pigeon issue, because I figured most of the members and the national organization would want to distance themselves from a few extremists who broke the law and not be that bothered by raptors...then I read the press release put out by the National Birmingham Roller Club. Though they are distancing themselves from the members who knowingly broke the law, the release reads as though they are in support of some kind of raptor control for their clubs. The press release starts:

" The National Birmingham Roller Club's position has always been one of not condoning or promoting the harassment, capture, or killing of birds of prey for any reason. The NBRC in no way endorses or supports any activity that would cause stress, injury, or death to any bird of prey."

That looks good, however, reading further down...

" Many of our Club members have pleaded with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for intervention or assistance to relocate Cooper's Hawks, in compliance with laws protecting livestock predated by endangered species. So far, our pleas have gone unanswered. Our government regularly assists ranchers when their livestock are predated by wolves, coyotes, cougars and bears. However, when thousands of our valuable pet pigeons are killed by Cooper's Hawks whose current numbers far exceed any previous hawk population estimates, our pleas for assistance to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are met with silence."

Hmmmm, here is where I have trouble getting on board with the situation. I understand that a roller pigeon can have a value of over $100, but that is hard to equate that with livestock--these birds are pets, not a food supply for a nation. This particular breed of pigeon is not native to North America, the hawks are. This would be like having a pet starling or house sparrow and asking for protection from raptors.

If you are going to have prey for a pet (no matter how expensive), you are going to have to accept the fact that native wild creatures are going to want to eat it. I understand that--Cinnamon, my beloved pet rabbit is prey, she has a body built for food. And much like the roller pigeon, she has a "unique genetic trait" that makes her fur irresistibly soft to the touch--and rabbits can be expensive pets. She can run like the dickens, and can be incredibly fast and make hair pin turns and dodges. I would love nothing more than to release her in the park or in the field next to where we keep our bees and just watch her go--really see her go fast and far, but I won't do that because of the risk of a red-tailed hawk, Cooper's hawk, bald eagle, etc grabbing and killing her is just too great. Even in my urban neighborhood in busy parks, I've seen raptors take a look at Cinnamon when she's out on the leash. They don't come for her because I stay near when I spot them, they won't come in with a human so close.

So, the idea that pigeon fanciers are releasing birds out to fly in the wild, far from humans and then some get upset that predators are flying in for them baffles me. I would imagine that decades ago, raptors weren't so much of a risk with racing pigeons and roller pigeons--the hawk, falcon, and eagle populations were unnaturally low because of pesticide use. Now that those populations have recovered, the playing field has changed and you probably can't fly pigeons like you used to. The club does acknowledge this further down in the press release:

" However frustrating it may be, we understand and work with the hawk problem by not exposing our birds routinely to hawks when they are present and also by not flying at all during the seasons of the year when hawks are most prevalent, typically fall and winter in North America. This is the only method the NBRC recommends and endorses."

Falconers release their birds in the wild and that is a risk for them too. A smaller raptor can be killed by a larger one, battles can happen if you fly your bird in the territory of the same species, or another raptor could try to fight your bird to steal the prey it just captured. Of all the falconers I know and articles I've read, they take total responsibility for that. If their bird gets killed while out, they feel it was their for fault for not being aware of the habitat, for flying the bird at the wrong time of day, for not paying attention. And while the NBRC acknowledges that they are trying to not fly their pigeons when there is potential danger, the press release still reads that the overall situation is not their fault, it's the Cooper's hawk that has the unfair advantage in the current situation. I would have more sympathy if they weren't tossing prey into the air that is naturally going to stimulate a Cooper's hawk's hunting and survival instincts.

And for the record, I'm not anti pigeon, anti pigeon racing, or anti pigeon rolling. I think they sound like fun sports and I could see myself with a flock of homing pigeons some day. And I give a benefit of the doubt to a majority of pigeon fanciers--that they are not killing hawks. The press release gives me cause for concern--if we start allowing the removal of raptors for hobbies, that is a slippery slope. What about people who don't want hawks around the bird feeder?

I am against removing native wildlife because a pet owner wants to let their non native prey animal loose and not get eaten. If you're going to play with fire, you have a good chance of getting burned. I don't think wildlife should be removed for a hobby and that includes pigeons, bird feeding, beekeeping, etc. You have to learn to live with wildlife and work with wildlife, we are running out of room and just can't afford removal for hobbies.

Maybe rolling pigeon and racing pigeon enthusiasts could hook up with knowledgeable birders and falconers? Maybe working with experts on the raptor species could help them come up with methods of flying pigeons with the hawks? If US Fish and Wildlife is ignoring them, they should try for other organizations or people to help them learn more about the raptors. Maybe this is an opportunity for some birder or raptor specialist out there to reach out and help? Who knows, they talk about the value of the birds, perhaps they'd be willing to pay for raptor consultations? Anyone want to give it a go? Try it out as a graduate project?

Click For Condors

Just got an email from a friend with a request...along with a very weird graphic (not sure how I feel about being ordered around by a bushtit):

Patagonia (the outdoor clothing company) is opening a new store in Palo Alto, CA and as part of the promotion they will be giving away $5,000 to a local charity. Ventana Wildlife Society is one of the candidates, and we need your help! The winner is determined by online voting, so we need all the votes we can get. All you have to do is go to here and vote (you don't have to sign in or anything, just click--and as I understand it, you can click mulitple times). Nepenthe, a local restaurant has offered to match the funds if Ventana wins, so the dtal could go to $10,000!

Why would this be of interest at the Birdchick Blog? Ventana is going to use the money to the California Condor reintroduction program, which is seriously strapped for funds this year. This year there are two Condor nests in Big Sur with healthy condor chicks--it's the first time in over 100 years that condors have bred in Monterey County! This money will go a long way to help ensure the survival of those chicks.

So, if you're feeling in the mood to help birds but are short on time and money--give a click.

Unrest In The Kitty Hive

Five days ago we checked the hives to see if they were ready for some expansion. Olga was very ready and we added a third brood box. Kitty was about three frames behind, so we decided to expand Olga and give Kitty a few more days to build up comb.

We took a look at Kitty today, and I noticed all but one of the frames had comb drawn out. We took out a center frame to check the status of the brood and found something most troubling. Can you see it in the above photo? It's down at the bottom, towards the right...kind of looks like a peanut shell...here's a close up:

The bees have formed queen cells. Now, I'm perplexed as to what is going on. There were about six queen cells formed throughout the hive and most were formed on the bottom of the frame--off of a column of drone cells. Now, here is the deal, queen cells are formed for two reasons--swarming (when the bees run out of room, they raise a queen, divide up and swarm) or supercedure (which means the current queen is failing, injured, or dead and the workers are trying to raise a new queen to replace her).

Now, according to bee literature, swarming queen cells are on the bottom of the frames. Supercedure queen cells are formed on the center of a frame...Most of the queen cells in the Kitty hive were on the bottom, but I did find two that were on the frame towards the center. I could find no eggs, but if the hive is about to go into swarm mode, the queen would have stopped laying eggs. However, it's been weeks since I've seen the Kitty queen. Is she dead? did she get injured or killed when we checked the box five days ago? Now, what do I do? Should I buy a new queen to introduce to the hive?

Check out this frame laden with capped over honey and a small patch of brood. From reading about queen cells in books and bee forums, the only thing that is certain with bee keeping appears to be that there are some guidelines, but really nothing is hard and fast. Sure swarming cells are usually at the bottom of a frame, but according to bee literature and bee forums--anything is possible. All of this may just be the Kitty girls feel crowded and are ready for a third brood box. I started thinking back: We checked the hive five days ago, and all seemed normal--eggs in cells and no queen cells. Today--there are about a half dozen queen cells. It takes fertilized eggs three days from when they were laid to be larvae and queen cells get capped at about seven days after being laid--these can't be more than four days old. The queens don't emerge until nine days after they have been capped. I decided to remove all the queen cells I could find and to add the third brood box and check again in a week. If there are no eggs after a week, then I'll order a new queen.

Ack, this is nerve wracking.

I ended up removing quite a few of the drone cells as I removed the queens. I felt terrible about it, but the hive needs workers to build and gather food,not males to eat honey while they bide their time to fly out looking for queens. As I removed wax, cells got exposed and you can see the larvae oozing out. I really felt bad killing the, but it needed to be done. On the upside, none of the larvae and pupae I exposed had any varroa mites--which means the overall health of the colony is good. After I scraped this chunk off, some of the drones started to emerge (above photo). I'm sure it was panic at feeling the cells being moved. As with any type of farming, you will have to kill some of your stock, but I found myself feeling more guilty about it than I had anticipated. If I'm like this with drones, I don't want to even think about my state at the end of summer in 2008 when I have to let my older colonies die off.

If anyone has advice or insights to my queen situation, please feel free to comment.

In other news, I have three new monarch chrysalises around the apartment. Two were formed about three days ago and appear to be parasite free. Whew!

News and Odds and Ends

So, I stumbled upon a really interesting blog called Pete at Midway, written by a man spending six months on Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean--who knew they had Internet access there? Anyway, he's got some great shots of the birds around there including albatross, fairy terns (also known as white terns), and tropic birds. He started his blog June 9 and you can easily catch up on his adventures. I love this photo of his front yard covered with albatross in his first entry.

In other news, I can finally get my favorite beer that I've had at birding festivals in the Twin Cities: Fat Tire! Whoot!! It's the best, and quite possibly could be the official birder beer. If you live in the Twin Cities and you have never had it, I highly recommend picking one up.

I got a press release today for the Midwest Birding Symposium that's happening September 13-16, 2007 to be held once again in the Quad Cities. The MBS happens every other year, so the last one was in 2005. It's held in an area twice, so this is the Quad Cities second go at it:

"We hope you enjoyed your time in 2005, and we have a whole new experience to share in 2007!

Highlights for 2007:
New venue - Stoney Creek Inn & Conference Center, Moline, IL. The hotel is a northwoods experience on the Mississippi River!
Keynote speaker: Kenn Kaufman
Expanded field trips
Earlier dates for migrating species.

Join us for a great time, free reception, and reconnect with the friends you made in 2005."

I went to the MBS in 2005 and had some fun, I'm not sure if I'm going to go again this year. It's good to see that they listened to feedback from last time and changed when they are having the festival and labeling which trips are boat trips. Although, I did notice that they are still promoting one trip by saying, "Participants may also see the Eurasian tree sparrow." I signed up for that trip last time just for the sparrow and when I was boarding the vehicle, I asked the guides where we were going to see one. They shook there heads and said, "There are no Eurasion tree sparrows where we're going." Hm, I wonder if they will be there this time?

Saturday Morning TV Appearance

I'm going to be on KARE 11 Saturday tomorrow morning. I'm scheduled to be on between 9:30 am - 10 am. I'll be talking about summer bird feeding.

The Loghouse and Homestead Bed and Breakfast

Yo, Mom, Terri--y'all are gonna want to pay attention to this entry. I think we need to do a weekend at this place!

Wednesday, Explore Minnesota started it's pilot project of Bed & Breakfasts & Birds (BBB). What we are trying to do is help teach bed and breakfasts how to market to birders who travel around looking for birds. We also want to help people become local bird guides. Many people guide, but very few are paid what they are worth (if at all). The goal was also to get guides a chance to meet bed and breakfast owners in their area so they could get more business. The B&Bs could offer birding packages to guests or have a guide list on hand for guests who visit and are looking for someone to take them out. The end of the workshop featured a short walk for the guides to show their birding skills.

Bobolinks were a hit with many of the B&B owners--many of whom hadn't really noticed them before. Man, I must say, this year has been the year of the bobolink for me. I remember being a kid and looking through my field guides thinking about how cool it must be to see and hear one of those.

The workshop was hosted at the Loghouse and Homestead Bed and Breakfast in Vergas, MN owned by Suzanne Tweten. This is the Loghouse, it was built circa 1889 by Suzanne's great-great grandparents! There are framed bits of newspaper throughout the loghouse that were found inside the walls, it's cozy and beautiful and perfect for a girlfriend getaway--or birding getaway.

When Explore Minnesota was making my lodging arrangements, they asked if I had a room preference. Being the wiseacre I am, I said that I wanted the least crappy room. So, I ended up in the Fredholm Suite--complete with hot tub, a box of chocolates, and the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. Organic, fair-trade coffee awaited me in the room--at night I could hear loons singing off of Spirit Lake in front of the B&B. It was an almost perfect night--except for the lack of Non Birding Bill.

The property is loaded with ruby-throated hummingbirds, this male is flaring out his wings and tail fighting for his position on the feeder. A female hummingbird had taken hold of this feeder, and some males she allowed to feed and others she chased off. After a little flaring, this male was allowed to stay. Later on, they both retreated to a tree and he started a mating display, his flare up at the feeder must have appealed to her.

Here is the female chasing off a different male. Check out the differences in the tail. You can see white tips to the tail feathers of the female on the feeder. There is no white on the male's tail in the top left hand corner of the photo. Female ruby-throats are kind of little Murphy Browns. They mate with the males, drive them out of the territory, build the nest and raise the chicks completely on their own.

I had timed my travel to this meeting to get some digiscoping done. The meeting and workshop started at 10am on Wednesday morning and was about three and a half hours from where I lived. I drove up Wednesday before the meeting, so that way I could spend the night and digiscope like crazy Thursday morning and take my time driving back to the Twin Cities. Above is Chloe, the Suzanne's spaniel showing me that my breakfast was ready. The food served at this place is FANTASTIC. Suzanne served me a broccoli, cheese, ham and egg dish with olive bread. My favorite part was the warm blueberries with cream cheese. Not only is the food tasty, they also grow some of the ingredients right there on the property and try to buy food locally as often as possible.

Suzanne does what she can for birds on her property, like providing housing for bluebirds (above), being careful with land management and taking dropped off cats to the local shelter.

Chipping sparrows nest in many of the trees. This one was preening his feathers and I have so many weird photos of him--but he was in great light, so I had to post them. Kind of reminds me of Audubon paintings--he was always posing birds in weird ways. Seriously, has anyone ever seen an egret pose like this?

Cedar waxwings acted like they were nesting right out side my window, but I was unable to find it.

The highlight bird for me was this male golden-winged warbler. This was the mellowest warbler I have ever seen. One of the guides had noticed him during the walk and saw that he was carrying a caterpillar around--as if on his way to feed chicks. When I saw him, he was singing on territory and not bothered by me in the slightest.

He was even stretching! Warblers are tough birds to digiscope, so I couldn't believe my luck in this one being so relaxed and easy to see. I think I took about 92 photos of him in all different kinds of light. I was even able to get a video of his song:



Isn't that just a weird song for a bird that looks like that? Many associate warblers with musical twittery calls, and this guy sounds like Froggy from The Lil' Rascals.

The trails are well maintained and you can do a prairie loop or walk though woods. I will warn, it's quite tick heavy this year in Minnesota. Something interesting that I'm noticing is that when I wear fruitier smelling lotions, I get fewer ticks on me. On Wednesday when I was walking around, I had on "Juniper Breeze" and had three ticks--three wood ticks and one deer tick (all attached). Thursday, I wore "Cherry Blossom" spent way more time in tall grass areas and found only one wood tick and it was not attached, but crawling around on my hip. I started noting this at the Detroit Lakes festival when people were really getting ticks, and I was getting very few. I was wearing Cherry Blossom then as well. Something to think about.

And, I have to end this on another bobolink photo. If you're going to be up and around the northwestern end of the state, I highly recommend staying at the Loghouse and Homestead, there's great birding on the property and there are quite a few birding areas nearby including Rothsay Prairie, Fergus Falls, and Tamarac NWR just to name a few.

Okay, I forgot I had a bobolink video, so I'm going to end with a singing bobolink:

Random Hummingbird Photo

I took a ton of photos Wednesday and Thursday at the Log House and Homestead Bed and Breakfast for a meeting and workshop with Explore Minnesota. I'm trying to put together a blog entry about it, but I've got over 45 photos and two videos I want to use, so I'm trying space them out. Anyway, here's a cute photo:

"Mmmmmmm, that's good nectar!"

A Reason To Visit Fergus Falls, MN

Just came back from a magical experience in Vergas, MN--more on that later, for now, I present Fergus Falls, MN.

And I don't just mean the giant otter statue in the park...at least I think it's an otter since it's in Otter Tail County. But to me, this looks like a weasel. Whatever it is, it's the animal statue in the city park off of State Hwy 59 in Fergus Falls. Anyway, it's not the reason I'm talking about to visit Fergus Falls.

Okay, and this isn't the reason I'm going to point out either, but I did get a kick out of the idea that a local church in Fergus Fall is bribing members to show up with the promise of free coffee and donuts.

This, my friends, is the reason to visit Fergus Falls. It's a little island in the city park. What could be so cool about that?

It's chock full of great egrets, they use it as a nesting rookery. I have never stopped at Fergus Falls--even though I pass quite a bit in my travels, but my buddy Carrol Henderson told me about the rookery in the city park that I stopped by today for lunch, gas, and to digiscope the nesting egrets.

The island is so close to the parking lot, that it's easy to get up close shots or just casual views of all the nesting great egrets. And in case you haven't noticed yet--take a look at those toes, hanging out over the side of the nest! Cute...in an extra terrestrial kind of way.

I loved watching the adult fly in. At first approach, they looked very dignified and heron-like with their necks tucked in, but in the final descent, their necks shot out, their long legs would splay, and they just looked out of control as they tried to land on a branch.

But, when the adults got to the nest, it was all business feeding the chicks and then just standing guard over them for awhile. The chicks actually made quite a bit of noise. It almost sounded like locusts trilling, with their monotonous buzzy, nasally begging calls. I tried to get a video with sound, but the wind was too high and interfered with the mic on the digital camera.

As I was digiscoping the great egrets, I noticed that I could hear some sounds behind me. It was a little different than the call the young egrets were making. I decided to go investigate.

A quick scan of the pine trees in the park revealed dozens of black-crowned night-heron nests. Perhaps the night-herons found the great egrets too noisy, or preferred to be along the shores of the park, as opposed to the islands, but any conifer in the park that was next to the lake had one, if not more black-crowned night-heron nests.

While I was at the city park in Fergus Falls, quite a few vehicles pulled up to watch the egret rookery. Many of them obviously hadn't noticed the night-heron nests---otherwise they wouldn't have parked directly underneath them like the car in the above photo. I love birds, and I know bird poop getting on cars is a fact of life, but when it comes to a bird the size of a night-heron, I would not want to tempt fate by parking directly beneath a couple of nests.

Scanning the ground directly beneath the nests revealed several night-heron egg shells and a few dead night-heron chicks (and poop). From my experience going out to heron and pelican rookeries for banding, I'm always amazed that any heron (or pelican) survives beyond hatching from the egg. Survival is tough--older siblings or other birds try to kill and eat you, if you fall from the nest too early your parents will ignore you and you will starve, all the nests are piled above each other, so birds are pooping all over each other--it's just a mess. But survive, they do...somehow.

So, if you find yourself in Fergus Falls, check out the city park for herons and egrets. It's an easy photo opportunity and one of the most easily accessible heron and egret rookeries I know of in Minnesota.

Still A Bird Blog

Just to keep the bird stuff going around here, I found some photos that were sent to me last month, that I haven't had a chance to post yet. Aaron sent these photos of woodcock chicks. Can you see it in the above photo? If not, here is an up close view.

Can yo see the chick? It's running away in the upper left hand corner. If you still can't see it, Aaron helps us out in the next photo.

Aaron says, "I wanted to send you this photo of some woodcock chicks I found while out looking for Goshawk territories. I know you dig the courtship flight of the woodcock. Have you ever seen the mothers broken wing routine? It's the same kind of thing as a momma mallard dose but weird and I fell for it too. I was just walking threw some open woods at about 6 AM and this wood cock takes off but instead of flying away from me like they usually do she flew at me and over my shoulder kind of appearing to have a tough time of it and then landed very close by. Then just as I was thinking to myself, "hum, maybe there's something wrong with that bird", I heard the peeping cheeping at my feet. I looked down and three little chicks were scattering like a good break on a pool table."

"It was the strangest flight. Like a bird from Mars. Loopy and like a Dr. Seuss cartoon. She flew and flopped/flapped her way around in the air and just plopped down in the grass in front of me and starred right at me several times. I put the chicks down and got out of there and a few moments later I heard her fly over and join them."

Thanks for the photos Aaron!

Young Porcupine On Solid Foods!

Unexpected Life Dream Realized: A young porcupine crawled into my lap--I didn't even know that was a life dream until it happened. This totally made up for the unexpected, pricey, yet oh so needed, costly vehicle repair today. His handler can now hold him without gloves and as I was taking pictures, he crawled my way. She said, that if I wanted, he would probably crawl on me, and well, he just crawled on my lap...I let him call the shots. No quills were fired. Whew!

The wee porcupet is about three times larger than the last time I saw him. We had the video of him nursing...now brace yourself for him eating solid foods! Today, the woman who is rehabbing him, gave him a piece of banana. You will hear some minute squeaks at the start of the video--are you ready for this? Those are porcupet hiccups!! Wahhhhhhhhhhh!

Here is the video, and trust me, it is SO worth all one minute and twenty-four seconds. This is safe for work, and as a matter of fact, I insist that you show it at work--who could have a bad day after seeing this? It may even prevent a firing.

Bee Update and Misc. Bugs

Warning: there is a spider at the end of this post. I used to be scared of spiders, not so much now.

We checked the hives yesterday and we had one of the hive namesakes to help out (Olga). We currently have three bee suits, which Mr. Neil, Olga, and I wore. Non Birding Bill came along too, but he wore the pith helmet with a net and a set of gloves. The rest of his outfit was a red t-shirt and gray sweats. I admired his bravery (or foolhardy attitude), although he wasn't digging around in the hives like I was, only staying back and taking a few photos.

Here is Mr. Neil showing a frame of burr comb from the bottom brood box of the Olga hive. Olga is giving the frame a puff of smoke. She still prefers to think of her bees as striking out new ground and innovative design as opposed to being problem bees. Actually, since I've started using the frame spacing tool, we haven't had too much of a problem with bees making the funky come.

Here's an up close look at the comb. If you recall, when I first posted a photo of Olga's odd comb, it was light in color and now looking at it above, it has darkened quite a bit. All normal and to be expected as the wax ages. Most of the worker brood has hatched on the above frame and there are quite a few drone cells.

We wanted to check both the top and the bottom boxes to make sure that all looked healthy and happy, see if we need to reverse the position of any of the boxes to encourage more brood. Some brood cells had been built between the two brood boxes and we exposed some larvae. We had to scrape them off and I felt awful about it, but the comb couldn't stay there. That is one tough part of beekeeping--you will kill some of the bees. Every time you go out, some of your colony will perish--some workers will sting your gloves and die, some bees just will not get out of the way when you put the hive back together (I hate crunching sound), or you have scrape away brood cells that are not in an appropriate area.

Despite some of our killing we did see new life. If you look at the above photo (towards the top and towards the left corner), you can see a new worker who has just finished pupating, chewing her way out of her cell--new life emerging into our hive! That was really exciting. Int he lower right hand corner is both a worker bee and a larger drone.

Here's a great frame shot! On the bottom is bright yellow capped brood (pupating into new workers) and some uncapped brood still growing. Above that is a layer of workers tending to the uncapped brood and feeding on honey. The top is the lighter colored capping is honey--all honey--properly aged and everything! Mr. Neil got some of it on the hive tool and we took a taste. Earlier in the season we had tasted the uncapped honey, which basically means that it had more moisture in it and wasn't true honey and could ferment. After the worker bees regurgitate the nectar into the cells, they fan it, evaporating the water from the regurgitated nectar and raising the sugar concentration. When the nectar has evaporated to less than 18.6% moisture, it will not ferment and that is when the bees cap it. When there is capping, you have true honey. We tasted it, our first true honey from our hives. Before we had tasted promise, this time, we tasted perfection. I was so proud of my girls.

All looked well, Olga had filled both brood boxes and was ready for a third brood box. I remembered from my notes in the beekeeping short course that three brood boxes were essential to overwintering our bees to insure that they would have enough honey and pollen stores--however, I couldn't remember if I needed to use the queen excluder at this point to that it would only be filled with honey and no brood. I reread my manual and couldn't figure it out, so I emailed the professor. She said to not use the queen excluder until I would put on our honey supers for our own consumption, that the queen have access to the the third box. So, no queen excluder for the moment. Kitty is now about three frames behind Olga, so we did not add a third brood box to her. We'll check again next weekend and then let them go. Hopefully, by mid July, we might be able to add our own honey supers and then use the queen excluder.

And since we're talking about bugs at Mr. Neil's house, I thought I would add a few more. I don't know about where you live, but around here I am noticing a TON of red admiral butterflies. The drive way was covered with them yesterday!

I even found a few flitting around in the education bird courtyard at The Raptor Center this year. I think their larvae like stinging nettle, must be a good year for that plant too. Yippee.

This isn't a painted lady, but a giant leopard moth near the trash bins. As if this moth isn't cool enough on the back, check out the front side:

Check out those crazy blue mandibles. I'm not sure if they make it look scary or incredibly wise. Speaking of scary...brace yourself:

Ewww! Spider--with an egg sac. At first glance, I thought this was a wolf spider. Someone else speculated garden spider. I remember once seeing a wolf spider with her back covered in babies, but some quick Internet research showed that wolf spiders carry their egg sacs in back and this girl was carrying her eggs in front.

Also, looking at the photo, this spider has very thin legs compared to wolf spiders. What could it be? Well, I googled "spider egg sac" and quickly found the answer. Turns out, this is a nursery web spider who carry their eggs sacs in their jaws (in front) as opposed to wolf spiders who carry them on their spinnerets (in back).

I don't know if this photo does the spider justice--it was quite large. And now we return to our the regularly scheduled bird updates to the blog...and quite possibly another porcupet post is in the works.

Bander's Eye View Of A Peregrine Falcon

Ever wonder why banders wear hard hats when banding peregrine falcon chicks? Well, my friend Carrol Henderson got some photos last week during banding to answer the question.

"Get your grubby human hands off of my chicks!"

Oh, Animal Planet!

I'm getting some work done while having Little People Big World on in the background. A promo just came on for Animal Planet, they are going to show Winged Migration next weekend. In the promo, they showed the bald eagle from the movie landing...and what sound did I hear dubbed over?

Red-tailed hawk.

Is it too much to ask for a little accuracy from Animal Planet?

Caterpillar Parasites

This post is going to get kinda gross. You may not want to read it during a meal if you have a sensitive tummy.

"Sigh, will I ever be that big?"

Last week, I did my segment on Showcase Minnesota about the Monarch Ranching Class that I'm doing at Staring Lake Nature Center July 7. Non Birding Bill and I grabbed some milkweed plants at Loring Park and they were loaded with monarch caterpillars of all sizes.

Here is a leaf with small, medium, and large monarch caterpillars. I generally don't like to get a caterpillar as large as the one on the right--too much of a risk of a parasite but I needed cats for all sizes for the tv demo. Wasps and flies (and who knows what else) will lay their eggs in caterpillars. The wasp or fly larvae will feed on the inside of the caterpillar and about the time it forms a chrysalis, it will pop out. Yeah, it's as gross as it sounds.

After I finished the segment, I brought the milkweed home and set it in a glass full of water. I normally don't like to put milkweed in a glass of water, on the off chance that a caterpillar could fall into the water and drown, but this time, I'm glad I did.

The next day, one of the monarch caterpillars went on a "walk about"--a long journey to find the perfect place to form a chrysalis. It stopped at the top of our living room window frame and we thought, not the place we would pick, but safe enough in our apartment to chrysalize.

That night before we went to bed, he assumed the "J Position" and worked to shed his skin. We noticed another monarch caterpillar J-ing out on a monarch leaf. We tucked ourselves into bed, excited to find chrysalis the next morning.

Alas, I found one of our caterpillars shriveled up. It was dead--my fears were confirmed. If you look up at the third set of legs, you will see a bit of film--the left overs of fly larvae that had emerged from the caterpillar.

I looked up to the caterpillar that had been at the top of the window frame and found it had made it as far as forming an actual chrysalis, but the slimy rope hanging from it, showed that fly larvae had emerged--ew. All that milkweed chewing for nothing! The maggots emerge form the caterpillars when they are ready to pupate.

Since the larvae dropped straight down from the caterpillar and chrysalis, they ended up in the bottom of the glass of water and drown! Too late for the caterpillars I had, but at least they won't be getting future monarchs. Take that, you nasty maggot. I know you have to survive, just not on my monarchs.