Turkey Terrorizes Neighborhood in Blaine, MN

Boy, some weeks it really is like living in the movie Fargo. Friday morning all of the stations were covering a story about the Minnesota Attorney General going after one of the major cell phone companies for trapping customers into extended contracts. An angry customer was interviewed at the press conference and gave us this lovely sound bite:

"I'd like to give their CEO a swift boot right in the patootie."

If you click on the above link, you can watch the video and hear the quote delivered in a fine Minnesota accent.

And we also have have a story of a turkey ruling the roost in a suburb of the Twin Cities:

A fearless fowl has been strutting along Cloverleaf Parkway in Blaine since spring, delighting senior citizens, annoying police and mail carriers, and frightening schoolchildren waiting for the bus.

"It went after elementary kids at a bus stop, and it doesn't scare away," said Police Chief Dave Johnson, whose department has fielded numerous turkey calls.

Johnson said an officer called one day to report that the Cloverleaf turkey had him trapped in his squad car.

Read the rest of the story here.

Carpenter Banding

It was another beautiful day at Carpenter Nature Center--and busy! There were so many birds to band that I didn't have time to get photos of the Lincoln's sparrow, orange-crowned warbler, and the first junco of the season (although, I think I will have ample opportunity of getting junco photos in the near future). It's so weird to see juncos and hummingbirds all in the same day. I did have time to get photos of a palm warlber in the above photo. Here's another:

Thanks to all the readers who sent kind notes about my incorrect id in the blog when I originally posted this as a yellow-rumped warbler, they are correct, it is a palm warlbers. Although as soon as I got out of my car I could hear yellow-rumps thick in the trees--kissing sounds everywhere. I'm now to the point where I get to band whatever bird someone hands me or that I get out of the net. I thought this was exciting until I had to start aging and sexing the fall warblers. And if it's any consolation--it's not any easier to do them in hand than it is when they are in the trees. I think we ended saying this one was an after hatch year female. I would tell you how...but then I would have to kill you.

Here was a Tennessee warbler that Larry was banding. I was trying to help him age and sex this bird by reading through Pyle. We were trying to determine between after hatch year male and female. Here are just one of the differences according to Pyle: male--underparts with a moderate yellow wash and female--underparts lightly washed yellow.

Hmmmmm. Can you tell the difference between those two? Ah, Pyle, I kid, because I love. In all seriousness, Pyle is a helpful book to banders, but sometimes you come across weird bits like that and they just make you want to hit your head and against the table and say, "Huh?"

A fun surprise what a Philadelphia vireo. When it was first tangled in the net, I thought it was a warbler. But when I got it out, I knew it was some kind of vireo. They really are quite small and just to give you an idea, check out this photo at Hilton Pond of a green-breasted mango next to a Philadelphia vireo (that photo was taken in Costa Rica). That's one big hummer next to one small vireo.

We also banded a ruby-crowned kinglet. This little stinker was flashing its red crown like crazy when it was in the bag waiting to be banded, but once it was in hand, the ruby crown became subdued. You can see a hint of it in the above photo. The kinglet, half bird, half mouse.

After banding, I went out to get photos of some photos of unfettered birds among the autumn foliage. The song sparrows were quick to perch up to a little pishing. There were quite a few other sparrows lurking about in the brush: white-throated, Lincoln's, clay-colored, and one or two field sparrows.

I did find this sad looking song sparrow. It looks like it's asking, "Have you seen my tail anywhere?"

Now, off to bed, I have to get up early for a field trip I'm leading to Hawk Ridge in the morning. Also, if you still have not been to Carpenter this fall, it's still absolutely gorgeous. What are you waiting for? Great color and lots of apples on sale. Get thee hence!

Autumn Hummingbirds

Okay, just to prove that the "take your hummingbird feeder in on Labor Day" is bunk, we still have hummingbirds:

Not only that, but someone who lives in Duluth, MN reported a hummingbird at his feeders yesterday. This is normal hummingbird movement this time of year and good reason to keep the feeders out--get that last reminder of summer before they head south across the Gulf of Mexico.

Speaking of hummingbird migration, Scott Weidensaul mentioned there is a study he and others are conducting on the increased number of western hummingbirds that are showing up in the eastern U.S. (we just had a green-breasted mango in Beloit, WI).

The researchers are banding hummers when they can and Scott is theorizing that we may be seeing a new migratory route being developed by some of these populations. A route that takes them from the western US across the continent to the east coast and then south. He noted that many of these birds are turning up later in the season. Another reason to keep those hummingbird feeders out.

Hen Of The Woods

I don't have any excuse or text to really go with this red-breasted nuthatch, I just thought it was cute, perched in the sun.

So, this morning I went to check on the shaggy mane mushrooms I found yesterday and they were well on their way to be coming an inky cap. Here's an up close shot of the inky:

Check it out, it kind of looks like blood, so that combined with the auto digestion just creeps me out and makes me not want to eat it. However, I took a walk with Non Birding Bill and not far from where we found the sulphur shelf tree, we found:

Hen of the Woods! Super Yummy! Mr. Neil found some last year and asked all of us to keep an eye open while he's been traveling so we could harvest and save it for him. Hen of the Woods is different than Chicken of the Woods (that's sulphur shelf) and as I understand it, gets its name from looking like a fluffed up chicken sitting on the ground. It's also known as maitake which you may find from time to time in grocery stores.

Check it out, mushrooms bigger than my head (now that is big). Usually when you find them, you find several pounds at a time. I called my buddy Stan to do a little bragging and find out what his favorite way is to preserve them. He highly recommended drying them. There was plenty to go around, so I decided to freeze some and to dry some so Mr. Neil could have some options when he gets home.

First thing I had to do was slice them up and make sure to get the bugs and dirt off them. The slices reminded me of coral.

Check out the cool patterns in the stem, kind of reminds me of a geode.

Even NBB couldn't wait to eat the mushrooms. I put some of the slices on a cookie sheet making sure they weren't touching and placed them in the deep freezer. Once they were rock solid, I put them in baggies and left them in the freezer.

Per Stan's instructions, I chopped some of the slices into one inch pieces and put them in the food dehydrator. Stan prefers this method because when you rehydrate them, you end up creating a very rich mushroom broth this is perfect for soups.

By the end of the day the pieces were dry and we placed them in mason jar for later use.

By the end of the day, the inky cap was very black and surprisingly dry. There are more popping up in the yard and in the woods.


Here's the inside of the inky cap, kinda freaky.

And now I realized that I am very tired and must get to sleep if I'm going to wake up in time for banding.

Death By Propolis?

Well, here's something unexpected. I went to put some feeder pails out for the Kitty and Olga hives today. When I opened the lid to Olga, I found a drone stuck by the head to the propolis trap.

I could see him hanging when I lifted the lid. When I set it on the ground, he remained rigid in this head stand position. He's been dead awhile, but he sort of looks like he's in some weird yoga pose. I wonder how he managed that? Perhaps the workers did it because they are tired of the drones eating the honey and doing nothing but going on their daily flights to look for a queen to mate with and return day after day, unsuccessful virgins. It's easy to tell if a drone is still a virgin--because it's still alive. Once they mate with a queen, they die in process.

The Olga hive has been in propolis overload. When I went to switch the feeder pail, they had glued it to the boards with propolis. I admire their efforts, but it makes feeding them a bit of a challenge.

In other news, I found a fifth edible fungus in Mr. Neil's yard today--a shaggy mane. I've read different explanations of how tasty it is, but I didn't try it because I didn't have time to prepare it and once you pick it, the fungus will quickly autodigest turning into a black liquid--bleh. It will do it a little slower if you don't pick it, which is what give this mushroom its folk name, the inky cap. Plus, Mr. Neil isn't in town and no one else around seems as interested in the wild edible shrooms.

Interesting Info From Banding Birds

I keep trying to write this blog entry, but my rabbit insists on using me as a jungle gym, making typing most difficult.

Here's a photo of last weekend's banding crew (the only bummer is that Frank Taylor, the guy who runs the blind isn't in it). But from left to right we have Reier Grudem, Joan Schnabel, me, Amber Burnette (holding a red-tailed hawk), Rick Dupont, and Katy Dupont.

Frank Taylor just included this photo in his weekly banding report. That's me in the pigeon yanking seat holding the pigeon line and a sharp-shinned hawk I lured into the banding station by pulling the pigeon. Whoot!

Above are two haggard (adult) sharp-shinned hawks. So, I gave you the info for how we have the banding station set up, now let's talk about some of the interesting things observed over last weekend. First off, birds were all over, both songbirds and raptors. Saturday morning, Amber, Reier and I arrived at the field and could see sharp-shinned hawks, harriers, merlins all moving and could hear blue jays all over. You would see flocks of blue jays miles away in your binoculars and there would always be at least one sharp-shinned hawk mixed in with the flock.

In the above photo is both a haggard (towards the back) and a passage (first year) sharp-shinned hawk. Note the difference in eye color and that the younger bird is brown and white and the older birds is dark blue with and orange breast. The passage sharp-shins were in hunting mode and were bound and determined to take out a blue jay. You would hear a flock of blue jays screaming and then all of a sudden you'd hear one give a strange honking call and that was usually a shin hot on its tail. We also saw flocks of smaller birds in the fields in front of the blind. At one point we had a white-crowned sparrow feeding in the grass in front of us. Just as we identified what type of sparrow it was, a passage sharp-shinned hawk flew down, landed on it, killed it and flew away with it's prize--in less than 40 seconds. It's was a much more effortless affair than the Cooper's hawk incident from yesterday.

Above is an up close shot of a haggard sharp-shinned. It was one of the busiest weekends I've ever experienced at this little hawk banding station. On Saturday we banded 32 birds (29 sharp-shins and 3 red-tails) and on Sunday we banded 34 birds on Sunday (33 sharp-shins, and 1 Merlin). We did have quite a few heart breaks, including birds bouncing out of the nets before we could get to them and one mouthy little female kestrel. When the kestrels come into the net, you are sure they are going to come in, but they always seem to find the net at the last second and dodge out of the way. This particular female, flew right to us with no intention of going for the pigeon and landed on one of the poles that holds the net. She looked directly to the blind and gave the loud kestrel cry--pretty much the equivalent of giving us the bird. It was as if she were screaming, "Hey, I know you guys are here and any predator withing the sound of my voice should stay away!!" We must have had her in the nets before.

Here's a haggard red-tailed hawk that came into the nets. This bird was a bit thin and its bill was a tad crusty looking. As Amber was banding it, she noticed that the left eye was clouded over. When you waved a finger in front of it, the hawk could see out of it at all.

Obviously the hawk had not been surviving well with this disability, but it had been surviving. Who knows exactly how long the birds had been living with sight in only one eye. The bird has been alive at least three years. When red-tailed hawks are young, they have yellow eyes (note the yellow eyes of a passage red-tailed hawk in the next photo). Their eyes get darker as they get older, this bird could very well be 15 years old. Glaucoma doesn't develop overnight, perhaps it has been such a gradual change the hawk has had a chance to adjust it's hunting style. Reier noted how it flew to take to view the bait pigeon and really, had the nets not been there, it would have been able to catch it. There really aren't any treatments for bird glaucoma so taking to the Raptor Center wasn't an option. After banding it, we let it go. Maybe it will survive another few years or maybe it's going to end its last days in a blaze of glory.

For a comparison, here's a very healthy passage red-tailed hawk, note the yellow eyes? This bird was having some tail issues:

Check it out, it's missing quite a few feather and has a mixture of both first year red-tail brown feathers and a red tail feather--what the heck is going on? Frank speculated that the tails feathers had been grabbed, maybe by another red-tail in a territorial fight, or by a nest mate, or even some other predator. The feathers are starting to grow back in, and the new feathers are growing in red because the body says "hey, after the second set, these should be red" but at the same time, the feathers are supposed to be brown striped, so you get some striping in there too. And since we have a photo of a red-tailed hawk with the wing extended, note how the wings look very long in relation to the body, and the tail is short in relation to the body--this is a characteristic of this type of hawk, known as a buteo. Compare that to a different hawk:

Here is a sharp-shinned hawk, they are accipiters and they have a shorter wing in relation to the body, and a very long tail--that's one way you can start to id hawks. When you see one, try to note if the tail is long or short compared to the body and if the wings look long or short. Incidentally, this is one of the birds that I lured into the nets.

The birds were coming into the nets so quickly, that at times we barely had time to get photos or to release banded birds. We were getting ready to release this merlin (in front) and this sharp-shin when Rick yelled that some birds were coming into the nets. We just ran behind the blind rather than taking the time to go in. Sometimes that's faster and if you're quiet, the birds will still come into the nets. I was going to take a photo of these two when all of a sudden both looked up. They were seeing hawks fly over too.

When we have a chance, I like to get photos of people releasing hawks. My favorite thing to do is lay on the ground and get a wing shot of the bird. When you release a sharp-shinned hawk, you can pretty much just open your hand and they take off towards the woods right away.

Reier got a photo of me releasing a red-tailed hawk. They are little heftier and you have to kind of fling them into the air so they don't just thunk on the ground. Unlike the sharp-shinned hawks that head straight for the safety of the woods as soon as they are released, red-tails stay in the open and try to find the nearest thermal to lift high into the sky.

At one point we had two sharp-shins to release and one merlin. We released them all on once (that's the merlin in the middle). Note the shin on the right aiming right for me? That was courtesy of Katy. I told her that she could just let it drop towards me, boy I think she kind of threw it at me. It's okay, I had it coming, I was making fun of her for texting her friends from the blind. And if you're worried, the bird didn't hit me and made it safely to the woods.

We got to do several multiple releases. Here's a video of a sharp-shinned hawk release. I'm holding a sharp-shin and aiming my camera at my hands. But since two people next to me are releasing birds, it looks like a magic trick: one bird turns into three:



And for those who can't see video, here's a couple of consolation photos:

Haggard sharp-shinned hawk.

Passage merlin.

Embassy Suites Ducks

Some may remember earlier in the summer that I had a night of revelry at the St. Paul Embassy Suites and was surprised to find that they had ducks in their lobby. Well, some inebriated jerk killed one of them over the weekend. You can read about him here. Boy, doesn't he just sound like the grand prize on the Dating Game?

Struggle For Life In Uptown

We interrupt the regularly scheduled report on last weekend's hawk banding to inform you of an urban Cooper's hawk observation that happened today.

WARNING! This post is not for the squeamish. In Nature, the fight for survival can be brutal and this post is going to describe an incident between a hawk and a pigeon. If you would rather think of all the animals and birds getting along like a Leo the Lion cartoon, you may want to skip reading the rest of this post.

I needed to take care of some grocery shopping this afternoon before we were hit with a line of thunder storms. When we came back from Duluth last night, you could feel the humidity, I had a tough time sleeping last and the air felt heavier throughout the day today. I left to go shopping and I as I walked past the side of my building, I noticed an odd lump next the bushes that border the apartment building's property. It suddenly dawned on me that the shape was a Cooper's hawk mantling over prey. There was white flash and I realized it had a pigeon and it wasn't quite dead. So, I dashed upstairs to my apartment for my digiscoping equipment.

I came back down and the hawk had changed position and was facing me with the pigeon. This was a Cooper's hawk hatched this year based on the brown and white plumage. It's also a female based on her size compared to the pigeon--she's a big ole girl. The hawk seemed antsy, and had a tough time balancing on top of the pigeon. When I took the second photo, I found out why:

The pigeon was still alive and struggling to free itself from the inexperienced hunter. I have always thought that Cooper's hawk was one of the worst ways to go--especially a young one that doesn't quite know how to use all of its equipment yet. Cooper's hawks squeeze repeatedly, and since their toes and talons are thinner than a red-tailed hawk, it's kind of like a death by sewing machine needles. When a Coops starts to feed, prey isn't always dead. Experienced birds can kill quicker, it makes it easier to feed and they don't waste as much energy. I started to debate with myself as to how long I can watch this, let alone take photos.

And then the pigeon rolled and was free (I took a photo but all that was left was a few feathers floating), it took off like a shot right over my head, the Cooper's followed in hot pursuit at eye level with me to the right side of my face. I felt a slight breeze in its wake. The pigeon crossed the busy street right over the cars, the Cooper's gained quickly. The pigeon raced over a parking lot towards some trees, the hawk caught up and nailed it in mid air, there was a puff of feathers and both fell to the ground.

I crossed the street at searched the parking lot. The young Cooper's hawk had made it to a small yard at the other end of the lot. If you look between the dark gray car and the yellow garage, you can see a small lump on the ground. That's the hawk. Don't worry, I got her in the scope:

The pigeon was still putting up a fight, although not much. You could still see it breathing the scope. The young and hungry hawk could no longer wait and had to feed.

You will note in some of the photos that her mouth is open. She was panting hard. I could feel sweat dripping down my back under my rain jacket from the humid conditions, I can't imagine what it feels like when you can't sweat, have to fly hard and try and kill something half your size to survive. I didn't approach any closer to the hawk, she was having a tough enough go at trying to eat for the day and I could get good enough photos from this distance.

As she was feeding, the pigeon finally stopped struggling and breathing. A few times the hawk would mantle--spread out her wings and tail to look big and intimidating and hide the prey. I wondered what would cause that.

I soon had my answer. A gray squirrel was investigating the situation, squealing out its protest of the hawk near its tree. I could hear cardinals chipping a warning to each other and robins giving their high pitched warning whistles as well. No one was happy about the Cooper's hawk.

The hawk continued to feed and then mantled one more time. This time and older gentleman and small dog were approaching, both appeared oblivious to the feeding hawk.

The man and dog were too much and the Cooper's flew away with its kill. I'm always amazed at what I spy in our neighborhood. I always wonder if my other neighbors ever notice this. Did the people driving down the street notice the pigeon with the hawk in pursuit mere feet in front of their windshield? I did feel bad for the pigeon (I feed them off my window ledge), but also realized that they hawk had been having a hard time of it herself just trying to survive. Will she able to continue to navigate the busy Uptown area already populated with quite a few adult Cooper's hawks? Will she last the fall and winter?

I will say, she looked so big compared to all the tiny sharp-shinned hawks we banded this past weekend. Speaking of which, we will now return to our regularly scheduled hawk banding updates.

Hawk Banding 101

I'm always amazed at how closely people pay attention to the blog. When I wrote earlier that I was on a tight budget and didn't know if I could go up hawk banding this fall, invitations came from all over for free housing. I am sometimes overwhelmed by friends and their generosity. Another example is what I say I'm going to blog about. While I was having a great time at the banding station, one of the sub banders named Rick said, "Aren't you going to take pictures of the setup?"

"Huh?" I asked.

"You said that you were going to explain how we band the hawks up here." he reminded me. And he was right, I do need to explain the set up so this post will explain that. One BIG point to stress about banding birds:

Because banding birds requires capturing the birds and handling them before the banding takes place, the banding of birds in the United States is controlled under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and requires a federal banding permit. Some states require a state permit as well. Only official federal bands may be legally placed on birds that are released to the wild within the United States.

You can read more about banding birds at the Bird Banding Lab. I'm fortunate enough to know several researchers who band different types of birds (pelicans, hawks, songbirds, herons) and allow me to tag along and carry equipment and now I'm to the point where I'm actually learning to do different aspects of it. This is just how this particular banding station works and records data, every station is different. This station in Duluth, MN is run by Frank Taylor, who has been banding hawks longer than even Hawk Ridge--38 years--and he doesn't look a day over 39.

Here are the nets. Can you see them? There are two different ones there, right in front of the trees--can't you see them? Heck, I took the photo and I can't even see them. Let's look at them from a different angle:

These are the front nets and this photo was taken from the banding blind where we hide while the hawks fly in. The nets form a sort of U-shape, with the open end of the U facing the blind. There are nets surrounding the bait bird (pigeon). Most hawks aim for the pigeon and fly into the front net, but some species are able to see the front net at the last second, dodge above it and as they go up and over, end up in the nets behind the pigeon. Sometimes, they hawks are so fast and maneuver so quick, they elude both front and back nets! It's incredible to watch the mad flight skills of all raptor species. Even a big chunky buteo like a red-tailed hawk has some fast peregrine moves inside it.

This is the pigeon harness. This is a vest of leather that covers the pigeon around the chest to protect it on the off chance a raptor grabs it when coming into the net. The harness is also attached to a pull chord.

Rick is putting the harness on one of the pigeons. The wings and feet fit through the holes comfortably and all the pigeons have to be the same size, if they are too small they can get tangled in the harness, so their weight and size is closely watched. You pull the cord, and the pigeon is aloft in the air, it flaps its wings and then flutters to the ground. The pigeon yanker has to pull, get the pigeon to flap the wings and then prevent the bird from thunking onto the ground and breaking some bones, so it does take technique to do it so the pigeon has a natural looking flight and doesn't get injured. We use several pigeons throughout the day. If it's a busy day and lots of hawks are flying over, a pigeon can be yanked a lot and tire easily, especially in warm weather, so you must keep an eye on the pigeon so you don't exhaust it. Rotating the pigeons gives them a chance to relax.

Rick's primary job at the hawk blind is pulling the pigeon, or as I affectionately call him, The Master Yanker (this is the part that I got to learn this weekend, so I guess that makes me a Novice Yanker). When a hawk is spotted, Rick has the job of controlling the pigeon. You yank the pigeons in different ways for different birds. For accipiters or for larger hawks that are far away, you yank hard and get the pigeon high in the air. For larger hawks that are close, you just kind of wiggle the cord and get the pigeon to flutter slightly, too much flapping can freak out a red-tailed hawk or bald eagle on close approach--seriously, it will. I have to say, this wears out your arms pretty quick. You pull hard and far from the blind, and sometimes you punch people sitting next to you, or knock your knuckles on the boards inside the blind, not to mention how the cord rubs the skin on your hand raw.

That's Rick in the blind in the above photo. See the hole in the lower left corner? That's where the pigeon chord comes into the blind. Another important job that the Master Yanker has is to pull the pigeon out of harm's way. Some raptors dodge the nets or are so big they can still reach the the pigeon though the nets, so you have to pull the pigeon out of the way at the last second, so it doesn't get killed. Frank has only lost 3 pigeons to raptors in the 38 years he has been doing this. As if all that isn't pressure enough, Rick has to burst through that little door at lightening quick speed when a raptor gets in the nets before it works itself out and flies away. It's a high pressure job, but man is it fun. I only did it for about 45 minutes and about 8 hawks flew in, two bounced out of the nets, but still I got six, man am I sore!

We watch for hawks coming in. It's so much fun to watch a speck in the distance, identify what it is and then watch that speck come in to the nets. The red-tailed hawks are one of the coolest. You can see them from miles away, circling in a thermal and if you can figure out when its looking in the banding station's direction, you pull the pigeon. When the red-tail sees it, the bird will flap to get out of the thermal and then set on target for the pigeon--it's incredible once it has set, the red-tail won't usually flap, but just hold the wings steady and come in for a dive. There's a red-tail in the above photo. It's hard to see, I'll try and zoom it:

It's interesting to watch some raptors come in low, using the vegetation behind them to hide their shape as they approach their prey. At the last second before the red-tail hits the nets, it will swing its feet forward, baring the talons--it's like watching an airplane drop its landing gear, and sometimes you can even hear the woosh of their wings--if you're thinking that sounds really awesome, it is.

My friend Reier took this photo from the blind. When Rick had to take a break, I asked Frank if it would be okay if I took a go at pulling the pigeon. He seemed hesitant but gave the go ahead. It took some practice to get the pigeon yanking down (and I'm still no Rick) but Frank then asked, "Sharon can you book it? You have to be fast when the hawks hit the net and grab them before they get loose." I said I could do it. I took off each time and on the last time, my shoe got caught in the nets and I fell over, but still grabbed the hawk before it flew off. That's me, as if I just slid into home base, holding my hand it the air, "I'm okay!" I shouted. I got the hawk, and provided comic relief--that's what I call a job well done. I have a beauty of a bruise today and have made the extra effort to wear cropped pants to show it off. "Ew, Sharon, how did you get that nasty bruise?" and I will proudly exclaim, "Hawk banding." I love my bruises and scars.

After the hawks are in the net, you have to untangle them quickly--and I have to say that it's much easier to get raptors out than songbirds (you just have to watch out for the feet). That's Reier above getting a hawk out of the net with Rick. From thew, the hawk is processed, it's measured, banded, aged, and in some cases we try to determine sex. My buddy Amber is learning the measuring and banding end of things (and I just realized that I have tons of bird photos, but none of Amber in action), but I have to say I am a pigeon yanking junky--it's sooooo fun--and GREAT exercise. I'm okay with how my body looks, oh sure I would like to be a but more buff or a few of my parts could be a little smaller (it would make clothes shopping for tv, ten times easier) but it's hard to find exercise that's not redundant and boring. Today, after doing the pigeon yanking yesterday--all the right parts of me are sore--my arms from yanking, my thighs from squatting and lunging to get hawks out of the net, my torso (I'm not sure why) but if a gym could come up with some sort of virtual hawk banding station where every ten minutes I do some sprinting to get hawks out, and pulling to get the pigeon going, I would SO sign up! You could have screens to show hawks flying in, ah, it would be so cool.

For some birds, we take photos before they are released. Seriously, little male sharp-shinned hawk, you thought trying to catch one of those pigeons who are bigger than you was a good idea?

"Yeah, and I still say I could take one!"

And then the hawk is released and we start the process over again.

I love this photo. It's Frank (in the green fleece) standing in front of the hawk blind with some friends getting photos of the hawks that were just banded. If you look at the blind behind them, Rick is scanning the skies for more incoming hawks. Rick, Master Yanker, ever ready to bring in a hawk.

More hawk banding photos and interesting bird things we learned coming in the next entry.

Birdchick Mention In The Wall Street Journal

Well, I was called perky and witty in the New York Times Last year, and now the Wall Street Journal confirms my status as falling short of geeky. So, if you come by my blog for the first time via WSJ, welcome! Here's the mention (and as luck would have it, I was getting a good whiff of red-tail this weekend and have a photo to go along with it) and I've linked to the entries the article mentions:

This blog by Sharon Stiteler, based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, aims to "show the world that you can be a birder without being a geek," according to its masthead. Her recent video of a Peregrine falcon tearing a piece of meat to shreds certainly falls short of geeky.

Ms. Stiteler talks about birding on a couple of radio shows in the Minnesota area, and her blog is packed with information about birds on the prairie and in more urban habitats. In one recent post, she explains how to tell the difference between a juvenile male cardinal and a female cardinal -- neither of which has the bright plumage associated with adult males -- by the color of their bills. A separate post describes a particular insight that comes from being close to wild birds: "I love the good, warm, feathery smell of a bird. Not all birds have this, eagles for example smell like an empty 35mm film canister. Great-horned owls frequently smell of skunk or at the very least three-day-old road kill. . . . Red-tailed hawks have a wild alive smell."

Congrats to Birds Etcetera, Bill of the Birds, 10,000 Birds, and I and the Bird for getting a mention too.

And to take advantage of the all the extra traffic and continue my usual shameless self promotion, I do have a book coming out October 16, 2007 titled Disapproving Rabbits, based on the website and my pet rabbit Cinnamon. We also talk about beekeeping and a favorite reader post appears to be my recent bee sting, so if you need a laugh, you might want to take a look at that.

Great Hawk Banding

Ehn.

I am so tired, worn out, bruised, and have a feeling of overall contentment. It was an awesome hawk banding weekend and some in depth posting will be coming, but for now, I'm going to soak, sleep and read about Jim Stevenson in People Magazine (interesting that it takes shooting a feral a cat about to attack an endangered bird before a birder gets a profile, but that People for ya').

In the meantime, here is a preview of hawk banding:

Autumn Banding At Carpenter

It was absolutely stunning at Carpenter Nature Center this morning. Really, if you have never been there and live in the Twin Cities area, you should go now. The last of the late summer flowers are blooming, the leaves are changing color, and birds are all over the place!

It was such a pleasure to walk in this environment to the nets to get the warblers out. I was running a tad late to Carpenter this morning (thanks to a Rocky Horror Picture Show discussion on fm107) and all along the way, I could see raptors lifting off the bluffs along the Mississippi River and the St. Croix River. Thursday night, we had some bad storms with funnel clouds right at sunset. I wonder if the migrants were forced down and I was watching them leave. I saw several sharp-shinned hawks (one ambitious fellow was trying to pop a blue jay) and even a young peregrine as well as LOTS of harriers. The songbird banding was great at Carpenter.

We had a puzzling Nashville Warbler (above). The bird showed many characteristics of being male, but had NO rufus cap. But was way too yellow on the bottom to be female. So, take heart new birders, even in hand, fall warblers are tough to id. But, do note the warblers toes--Nashville warblers have yellow toes--cute!

The most exciting birds for me were the two above. It was just about time to take the nets down, and I was doing one last round to check for birds in the nets when I found in one of the nets right outside the nature center, two birds within a foot of each other. Recognized one right away. For some reason, chestnut-sided warblers and bay-breasted warblers get cross wired in my head. I know they are two separate species, but in my mind, there's not much difference in color between bay and chestnut.

I got this one out of the net and confirmed it was a fall male chestnut-sided warbler.

Larry got the second one out of the net and it turned out to be a fall bay-breasted warbler--in the nets at the same time, withing a few feet of each other--so sweet.

It was such an honor to hold these birds for a few moments as they start their trek to South America. Who knows, in a few nights these birds could be lurking in a bush in Illinois and then a week later be in St. Louis. Hm, side by side, these two don't look so hard to tell apart.

We also got in an eastern phoebe today. We've been getting in so many least flycatchers and alder flycatchers, that this looked like one beefy bird. If fooled me at first because it was so yellow. But after we banded the bird and let it go, you could hear a weak "fee bee" call. It's still learning the notes.

I was surprised to see a monarch lurking about on the prairie. It's still possible to see these guys.

I think this is an Atlantis fritillary, although a tad beat up. The last few remnant butterflies before winter sets in.

And, I leave you with one last photo of the chestnut-sided warbler. I have to get to sleep. It's now 10pm and I have to wake up at 4am to go up north for hawk trapping. I don't know what my Internet access will be like this weekend, but when I come home there should be some hot hawk banding photos.

Giggity.

Banding Giggity Giggity

Banding rocked so hard today--and it's not done, I'm going hawk trapping this weekend. I try to formulate a post about banding at Carpenter before I leave--I still have to download photos from the other camera, but here is a hint of what we got:

Both of these birds came into the same net at the same time. Can you guess what they are?

Washington Post Review of 3:10 to Yuma

Found this review this morning of 3:10 to Yuma. Birders will appreciate it:

In James Mangold's new blockbuster Western "3:10 to Yuma," the first time we meet Ben Wade, played by tough-guy actor Russell Crowe, he is making a natural history sketch of a bird just minutes before carrying out yet another murderous stagecoach robbery. The scene establishes Wade not only as a complex character, but as a savvy birder who takes the time to document what is surely the first and only sighting in the United States of Africa's augur buzzard.

Suspend my disbelief, you say? Hollywood's ornithological ignorance probably didn't ruin your last trip to the movies, but don't call me a lone curmudgeon. Peruse the e-mail group BirdChat and a Web page called "How did that bird get there?" and you'll see the extent of the agony shared by me and America's 50 million other birders. How many times must we watch a bald eagle soar across the movie screen, paired with the cry of a red-tailed hawk in Dolby Digital surround sound?

Read the rest of the review here, it's worth it as he documents other avian mistakes in movies.

Request To British Readers

The guys over at Bird Guides are looking for footage of British jays:

This year we have managed to obtain frame-filling shots of Spotted Crake, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Ptarmigan...but so far similar footage of Jays has eluded us. Autumn can be a good time of year to rectify the situation, particularly if we can find a site where these birds are storing acorns for the winter. If you know a location (preferably in the vicinity of London or Sheffield) where Jays are now reliably present, we would be most grateful to hear from you. As usual please email our cameraman max@birdguides.com.

Some Screech Owls And Geeking Out

Tuesday was much busier than I anticipated at The Raptor Center. The rest of my crew was off, there were no programs scheduled and it was pouring rain so the possibilities of walk-in tours was pretty darned remote. But that didn't mean the staff couldn't find things for me to do. In less than four hours I worked with a merlin, a kestrel, a peregrine and two screech owls.

The screeches needed some re-training to the glove. The above gray phase screech owl has been going through a rough molt and was practically bald all summer and didn't do as many programs. When I put my hand in a crate to get him out, he jumped onto my finger and just tried to squeeze the life out of it, apparently my finger had to die. But he will go through retraining and relearn that the gloved hand is a good place where screech owls get food, and have a relaxing time.

The gray phase lives in the same mew as a red phase screech owl. What's interesting about these too, is that when they are perched in their mew, the red phase is usually sitting in front of red bricks and the gray is perched in front of some weathered wood, working their camo feather colors.

I don't know if you noticed, but this bird was facing my camera but was not quite seeing it. It has some eye problems and can't see well. My camera makes a slight sound when it's focusing and the screech owl could hear it, but not quite focus on it.

The gray phase could totally focus on it.

Well, I haven't had a good old fashioned geek out in awhile, but had it last night. Scott Weidensaul is in town for Minnesota Audubon and I was invited to attend. I have to say, Scott is one of my all time favorite bird authors (Living on the Wind is one of the best books ever) and he is a really nice guy who will sign a book in just about any way you'd like him to. A few years ago, I found his phone number on the Internet and called and asked if he would autograph a book in a very unique way for my buddy Amber (at the time we called ourselves "the baddest b!tches of birding" and he did). So, I got to introduce him to Amber last night.

I was nervous because the last and only time I met him face to face was VERY early on the blog, I met him at an ABA Convention in Southeast, AZ in 2005. He was supposed to be there and then his name was crossed off the list so I didn't think I'd get to meet him. It was my last night there and I was having some drinks with some optics reps and new friends and was very much "in my happy place". Then, he walked into the hotel lobby and I suddenly realized I had to pull it together, not sound like a stalker and if I could muster it, sound kinda intelligent. At the time, I thought it was the Algonquin Round Table, but the next morning had a fear that I sounded more like John Goodman in The Big Lebowski ("You wanna toe, I can get you a toe, I can get you a toe by two o'clock!"). Anyway, he remembered, gave me a hug, said I didn't act like a slobbering junk, and even took a look at the Disapproving Rabbits book (and liked it).

The program was a special event for donors and highly active Audubon Members. I've donated some photos to some Audubon publications, so that's how I got my invite. I was honored just to be part of the crowd, it was a who's who of the Minnesota birding community. Above is the oh so tall humorist Al Batt, Val Cunningham, Jim Williams, and Laura Erickson just to name a few.

I get to see bird speakers all the time and have a good handle on who is worth seeing once and who is worth seeing two or three times, who is worth seeing after a few shots of scotch, and who you should feign illness for, but Scott Weidensaul is worth seeing multiple times. I feel like I do quite a bit for birds, but he is one of the few who gets so passionate about birds when he talks about them, that I feel like, "Crap! I'm not doing enough, I need to leave right now and help Red Knots." Very effective speaker, and if you're reading my blog, live in Minnesota and thinking, "Bummer, wish I could have been there." Do not fear. Scott is the keynote speaker at the Detroit Lakes in 2008. Plan on going now, it will be well worth it. If you're in another state and are looking for a good speaker, book him, he's worth every penny.

Cat Suet

I just got my copy of Birding Business and as I was skimming, I noticed a new product coming down the line soon...Garfield Suet. And that's as in Garfield the lasagna loving cartoon cat. Are you kidding me? I'm all for creative marketing, and I applaud bird companies finding a contemporary character for licensing, but a cat? Seriously? When you think feeding suet to birds and need a character to help market it, the best you can come up with is a cat?

In the graphic on the pack, it reads "Garfield's Peanut Crunch" and he's holding a peanut and says, "They're even nuttier than I am". People are going to think this is for their pet cat.

And Garfield isn't really known for his altruism, when did he start making food for birds? Again, I ask, when you think bird feeding, do you really want to think "cat"? How does this figure into the whole Cats Indoors! campaign?

I would link to it, but the company doesn't have it up on their site, which I can only hope is a sign that they are rethinking this.

Well, I guess this gives me hope, maybe Cinnamon and Disapproving Rabbits will get a promotional deal? Maybe she'll start endorsing prostate exams? Because that makes as much sense as a cat promoting suet. Lexus maybe? Happy Meals?

Sigh.

Rolling Bees In Powdered Sugar

Or

How To Make Your Bees Really Angry, Yet Really Popular In The Hive!

Hey, I found a way to soothe a bee sting. Make an apple pie from apples the bees pollinated. That puts you in a forgiving mood.

So, periodically, I have to check the bees for varroa mites. They have actually been a problem for the last 15 years or so and could be part of the problem with Colony Collapse Disorder. They can seriously weaken your colony. And if you're wondering why I don't talk about CCD much in the blog, here's why: every few years, the media likes to find some disease and use it to scare the pants off of us, "this could wipe out the human race" ie SARS, West Nile, Bird Flu, and now CCD. I want to wait and see before I run around like Chicken Little. Anyway, in some recent photos, I thought I was seeing mites on a bee or two. Case in point, check out the bee just emerging from the cell in the above photo. See the brownish spot on top of the head coming out? I'm fairly certain that is a varroa mite.

So, I have two ways for testing for mites. One is getting 250 bees, soaking them in alcohol (killing them), and sifting the dead mites from the dead bees. The other is to fill a jar with 250 bees, put screen over the lid, drop in a tablespoon of powdered sugar, roll the bees around in it (not killing them), and letting them sit for a minute. Apparently, the powdered sugar causes the mites to fall off. After a few minutes, I shake the jar and sugar and mites fall through the screen and I return the sugar coated bees to the hive, mite free...although a tad angry. I decided to go with the powdered sugar method, I'd rather have angry bees than dead bees.

I took out some frames to gather the bees. You're probably wondering how you know when you have 250 bees in a jar? Apparently, one fluid ounce roughly equals 100 bees, so we poured in two and a half ounces of liquid in a jar, marked it with tape. Then we took a bee brush and used that to brush bees into the jar. Once we had them n the jar, we slammed on the lid with the screen, and bonked it to make the bees fall to a pile. Fortunately, we estimated well, and the pile reached the 250 mark. For the record: bees REALLY do not like this at all. I'm pretty sure if someone could translate the buzzing coming from the jar, they would have recorded much profanity and threats of bodily harm.

It's at this point where you pour in the powdered sugar and roll the pile of bees around to get completely coated. Boy, if I thought they were unhappy before, that's nothing compared to this.

You let them sit in there to give the varroa mites a chance to fall off. Isn't this just the coolest photo? It's like you're looking into a tunnel of ghost bees. It's like what you might find in the closet of the movie Poltergeist. It's even freakier when you see this image moving around each other.

After a few minutes we shook the sugar out onto a white plate and we found about three or four varroa mites in each hive. So, we have an infestation, not a bad one and I am choosing not to treat it this fall, but next spring we might take some action, I want read up to see what the latest is. In some areas, the mites are developing a resistance to antibiotics, but there are some other options to look into. So, after the mites are counted, we have to release the sugared bees back to the hive, here's a video, it reminds me of when the ghosts joined the battle in the Lord of the Rings series:



Isn't that freaky. The other workers swarmed around the sugared bees to lick of the sugar. Here's a photo:

The bees get cleaned off fairly quickly. Here's an up close shot:

Now, you may be wondering if powdered sugar causes the mites to slide off, why not dump a bunch all over the hive from time to time? Some bee experts say that powdered sugar gives the bees too much starch and can cause problems. Although, I hear there are some beekeepers who do it with good results. Again, I have all winter to research our options before I make a decision.

Something else interesting we noticed in the Kitty hive, a few of the bees had a yellow mark on them. We did not see this on any of the Olga bees, just Kitty. NBB and I found about four bees with the yellow mark. It almost looks like someone took a tiny paint brush and slapped it down the thorax a la Pepe Le Pew cartoons.

I watched one of the marked bees for sometime, and I'm guessing that it's just some sort of pollen dust pattern. Maybe from going inside a hibiscus? I don't know, any experienced beekeepers have any input?

And I'll end with one more bee video that NBB shot of some workers trying to clean off a bee. It's a really sweet video, the sugared bee almost falls over and the others rush in to lick off the sugar. Maybe they are trying to help or maybe they are taking advantage of the food, but either way, it's cool:

Birds And Beers Tonight

Where have the last seven days gone??

Anyhoo, Birds and Beers is tonight at Merlin's Rest at 6pm. If you're interested in birds, you are invited.

We can talk about all the red-breasted nuthatches showing up at bird feeders.

Here's a nice comparison to the larger white-breasted nuthatch.

I love this shot, I got on Sunday of a young purple finch and a winter plumaged goldfinch. A family group of purple finches just arrived to the yard. Speaking of migration, Mr. Neil had tons of birds flying over this weekend. I was planting some trillium bulbs and overhead I could hear flocks moving in and moving out: bluebirds, grackles with a few blackbirds mixed in, and then I heard the secretive "seep" around me in the bushes, as white-throated sparrows started working their way to the feeding station. Glad I bought a small bag of some millet and cracked corn for those guys. I always like to scatter that on the ground this time of year.

This young purple finch is just start to sport a hint of the raspberry red that will deck out his head and chest. I hope he stays the winter.

I'll also bring along the preview copy of Disapproving Rabbits. I was annoying just about anyone I came into contact with, showing it