Birding The Meadows

I started writing this entry last night, and completely fell asleep while typing it--completely slumped over on the couch. Thank goodness I didn't drool on the keyboard.

Ack! I birded this place Sunday, how is it now Thursday that I'm finally blogging it? Ah well, at least I'm getting to it now. When we watched the weather over the weekend and learned that Sunday would be the first sunny day of the festival, we all were planning our morning birding strategies. Clay Taylor recommended going to The Meadows for just loads of birds flying over, so that was where I went.

We found a good sampling of ducks in the above pond. Here we have a mallard, a blue-winged teal, and a gadwall. It's fun to note the size difference of all three of these ducks when side by side.

I think gadwalls have one of my favorite ducks calls of all time. You can find it on this WhatBird (you may have to scroll down a bit when you get there). They sound like Muppets--mer mer mer. As we were taking these photos, a steady line of small raptors were zipping just over our heads--and I mean mere feet above our heads. The change in weather had pushed songbirds down south on their migration and they were landing in the meadows to feed, sharp-shinned hawks and merlins were taking advantage of the situation. While I was shooting ducks, I would look over my view finder and I'd see sharpie, sharpie, sharpie, sharpie, MERLIN, sharpie, sharpie, etc. It was pretty darned sweet.

Ducks were well and good, but being in Minnesota, I was more interested in doing some beach digiscoping. Clay decided to try his luck with warblers, so we briefly parted ways. I love photographing on a beach with little to know humans. You hear the crash of the surf, you feel the wind on your face, you smell the salty air and you just can't help but feel like an adventurer. I was also feeling more confident about my shorebird id skills and photography after taking that shorebird workshop this summer.

Alas, a little tougher than I thought! Well, one of the things that separates sanderlings from other shorebirds that can look similar like the semi-palmated sandpipers is that they constantly run back and forth with the waves. Which makes them hard to photograph--and just plain hard to find in the scope as the waves and birds move.

Fortunately for me, some much slower shorebirds moved in! Not only that, they have a pretty distinctive bill shape, making them dunlins--whoot! I decided that I would just try to follow shorebirds and take as many photos as possible to have a reference of sanderlings in my photo library.

When I downloaded the photos later in the day, I discovered that some of them were banded! I didn't notice it while out on the beach, but fortunately I was haphazardly shooting and got the evidence. I thought I was photographing sanderlings and honestly, from this angle we can't see the front for positive id, but it's a pretty good bet.

And that wasn't the only one! I found a second banded shorebird! This does look like a sanderling, but it's interesting to note that both birds have similar banding patterns to the banded semi-palmated sandpipers we found this summer during the shorebird workshop. I know the green flag on the bird in the above photo means it was banded in the US, but not sure about the other one. I'll turn these photos into the Bird Banding Lab and when I find out more info, I'll post an update in the blog. Well, as I was just enjoying the day and a set of willets just landed, a peregrine flew into view and chased all the shorebirds away. It dawned on me what a beautiful and unusual site this is for me. To see the large dark falcon fly right on the beach--I usually see them around skyscrapers. Since the shorebirds got the heck out of Dodge, I decided to try my hand at the gray hair inducing task of photographing fall warblers.

I never thought I would say this, but it was like shooting fish in a barrel! It was mostly yellow-rumped warblers, but it was just a matter of picking a perch, keeping your scope aimed there and waiting a few minutes for a warbler to land. This yellow rumped perched here for a full three minutes!

Heck, I even managed to get a shot of it nabbing insects when it flew. That is what is part of the magic of Cape May during migration. Oh sure, you may be able to see many of the bird species there, but it's the sheer number and magnitude that consistently shows up during migration. On year, over a million robins flew over in an hour. While I was photographing this warbler, several hundred turkey vultures were moving through.

I even managed to photograph a second species of warbler--this lovely palm warbler popped up. Only in Cape May, folks, can a novice digiscoper manage to get some decent warbler shots.

The Meadows is run by the Nature Conservancy and you do need to pay a small fee (well worth it) to enter. I will say this, about Cape May--it attracts some old school birders...dare I say crotchety birders. One man was very angry about paying for entering The Meadows, "This place is ruined, I shouldn't have to pay." Which I think is utterly ridiculous. Natural space for birds is at a premium, it takes money to maintain it and people should pay to make sure it stays. Of course, this guy also grunted at the birdJam software, "In my day, we just went outside to learn the bird calls." He would have finished his speech, but he had to run after some teenagers to shout, "Get those darn smoochers offa meh property."

Mental note to old schoolers talking to whipper snappers: Starting a sentence with the phrase, "In my day..." automatically induces eye rolling on the part of the listener.

Speaking of old school, another conversation that I had at Cape May about iPods:

Old School Birder: In my day we did this thing called listening to the radio to get our music.

Birdchick: Yeah, but sometimes the Sinatra or opera isn't on the radio.

Old School Birder: My dear, public radio has opera every Sunday, so there you go.

Birdchick: But what if you're jonesing' for La Traviata on a Thursday night, the iPod's there for ya'.

Old School Birder backs away in apparent confusion that a whipper snapper would know the title of a Verdi opera or the possibility of being able to listen to any kind of music at any time of day...or at the use of the word "jonesing".

I wonder what I'm going to be crotchety about when I grow up? What will be the technology that I think is too much or just think it too complicated to use? I seriously ponder this. "In my day, we held the digital camera to the spotting scope to get photos...we didn't have the camera built into the scope."

And for the record: "old school" and "crotchety" have more to do with a state of mind than with age. I know birders older than I am who act younger than me (I like to think I act like a 15 year old, and there are a couple who qualify as 13 year olds--you know who you are) and some birders younger than me that could qualify for crotchety.

Zombie Gadwall?

I'm going through photos that I took at Cape May for coming blog entries and found what may be the first ever documented case of a Zombie Gadwall attempting to suck out the brains of a teal:

It Sounded Like A Good Job, Until...

Found this in the Bird Jobs Email. At first, it sounded like an interesting and fun position, until a few lines into the explanation of "adverse conditions":

EXPERIENCED FIELD ASSISTANTS desired: Seeking two assistants to work in Costa Rica on a study of vocal communication in threatened yellow-naped amazon parrots. The focus of this NSF-funded project is observational and experimental based research on parrot communication. This position also involves nest finding and monitoring, and involvement in a conservation program at local schools. Assistants must be quick-thinking, motivated, hard working, and willing to work in adverse conditions including insects, mud, wind and heat. Last field season was a bad tick year; we frequently found clumps of over 100 baby ticks crawling on us. Field work is 6 days a week and is demanding; expect to work hard. Anyone can apply, but Spanish-speaking ability and experience with tree-climbing, video and audio-recording, animal behavior and/or parrots are a plus. Must be able to work both independently and with a team, as well as with children during a conservation based program. Non-smokers preferred. Under-represented minorities are especially encouraged to apply. Duration of project is early Jan to late Mar. Benefits include $1000 salary, up to $650 towards airfare, free group lodging and many beautiful sunrises with the parrots. Food and health insurance not included. To apply, please send a cover letter, resume, contact info for two references, and a copy of your transcripts. Contact: CHRISTINE DAHLIN, (EM: crdahlin@nmsu.edu) or mail to 602 Texas Ave, Las Cruces NM 88001.

Waking Up In The City That Never Sleeps

More Cape May coverage is coming, probably on Wednesday when I'm back home in the Twin Cities.

I just woke up in my friend Mimi's apartment listening to the sounds of the city below. Yesterday was a whirlwind and I found the Talking Heads' song Once In A Lifetime running through my mind, especially the "And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?" I left Cape May and drove to New York. Actually, I dropped my rental car off at Newark and had a driver take me to the city where I had a meeting at Harper Collins and they took me out to lunch at a fancy restaurant. I like to think that I get some culture living in Minneapolis, but this truly was a posh spot--amazing tasting food, practically a work of art when served, but every menu item had at least two (and in some cases more) components I couldn't pronounce or identify. So it was fun to just randomly pick and enjoy what was served. I had to suppress a Gomer Pyle-esque "Gooawwwly!"

Everyone was incredibly nice and it was fun to note that pages from a Disapproving Rabbits book proof were taped up outside of everyone's office.

They even tacked up a page in the women's restroom bulletin board! Not too far from a hunky cowboy calendar--nice touch! After the meeting, I met up with Mimi to unloaded my suitcases in her apartment (that's on the fifth floor...with no elevator). I got settled, and that afternoon we went to Central Park to look for Pale Male. Can I say how much I love that New York has a bird related tourist attraction and that it's a red-tailed hawk?

We walked outside the park on 5th Avenue and found the building where the nest is located. It's hard to see, but the nest is at the top and towards the center. Here is a closer look:

The nest is on an arch over the center window. It was hard to see and I couldn't figure out how to digiscope it. I was thinking back to all the photos of the nest and knew there had to be a different spot for observation. We headed into the park.

We found the spot where the hawk watchers hang out and it was a much better view of the nest:

Alas, Pale Male or any of his mates and offspring were not around, but it was fun seeing the whole area that's been covered in the news. I do get kick out of the Pale Male battles page. Some of the stuff the fans get angry about are good--like pesticide use. But some of them like the birds of prey show or kites I disagree with. Like the birds of prey show--the writer wonders how the red-tails feel about this invasion on their territory--I can tell you, they can deal with it. In the wild in Minnesota, red-tails deal with eagles, falcons, owls all sorts of raptors in their territory. Also, raptors have excellent vision, they can see leashes, jesses, a hoard of humans surrounding the captive birds--they're gonna stay away. Sure, they'll do a fly by, maybe even a territory cry, but it's not the worst part of the day.

And kites--well, kite string in trees is more dangerous to nest gathering songbirds than to a red-tail. And again, red-tails can deal with kite flying, they figure it out. And, this is about the most common bird in the country--cool yes--but incredibly abundant. They know how to live around us. Still, better to have people embracing the birds and wanting to help, than wanting to get rid of them.

We did find some red-tail evidence near the nest--here's a piece of gray squirrel tail. Someone's had a good hunt.

There were all sorts of migrants in the park. Hoards of robins were hidden in trees and flocks covered the ground. White-throated sparrows were scurrying under shrubs and kicking up leaves. Even hermit thrushes were all over--some landed on railings as were walking by. Very cool to see the birds and interesting to note how habituated they are to humans--letting us get so close.

I was super excited and surprised to find this in Central Park! Hen of the Woods! I pointed it out to Mimi and offered to cook some up for her, but she was wary. She said it was one thing to eat it out of someone's yard, but she wasn't sure of eating it off of a tree in Central Park. So, all you New Yorkers reading the blog may want to head over today and grab it...although, I might go back and grab it before I catch my flight tonight...if I can figure out how to get it in my suitcase.

Since we didn't get the tasty mushrooms, Mimi took me to Gyu-kaku a Japanese BBQ place--where we cooked our own meat and veggies. It was so tasty and who doesn't love to grill? The meat practically melts in your mouth.

So, I need to get out of the comfy bed and get ready for more meetings. More later.

Gyrfalcon Antics In Cape May

Some may recall from last year that I blogged about John Wood and The Raptor Project his bird program that he does at Cape May. One of the highlights is that he flies his white gyrfalcon out on the beach. He flies to a lure (an object with some meat attached to a long line that he lassos overhead to get the bird to fly down.

This year, things went a little different. Saturday, as blogged earlier, it was wind and rain, but John flew the falcon anyway. Apparently the bird decided, "screw this" and instead flew after one of the many wild pigeons and to find a nice, warm place to eat. So, off the bird went, it nailed a pigeon and flew out of site. John, being a wise and experienced falconer, had a radio telemetry unit on the bird and was able to track it to town. After the bird flew from sight, it found a shoe store with doors open and landed in the store with a decapitated pigeon and began to rip it apart. Imagine that you know nothing of birds and you are absorbed in shoe shopping when a bird the size of a red-tail, but all white flies in with a headless pigeon--out of nowhere...needless to say, it caused a stir. The shop owner called 911 and Animal Control (I think Animal Control might have given John a hard time about his falcon killing a pigeon--apparently, they didn't know that pigeons are non native and not under any protection in the US). Anyway, John returned to the convention center with his bird safe in hand and with a headless pigeon.

He tried to take the gyrfalcon out Sunday and as soon as he and the white bird emerged from the convention center, the pigeons were off, instantly recognizing the bird from the day before.

John tried to get the falcon to focus on the lure, the bird was having none of it. It tasted pigeon the day before and it wanted more. You can see the bird in the above photo ignoring John and focusing on the fat, winged, tasty delights circling on the other side of the beach.

No matter what John tried, the falcon just really wanted pigeon and kept trying to take off after them. He opted not to fly the bird and risk losing it in town again. Smart move, but still pretty to see the bird in a beach setting.

Birds And Beers: Triumph Of The Blogging Spirit

How many bird bloggers can you identify in this photo?

Friday night was the most attended Birds and Beers yet. I think we had over 30 people show up at Jackson Mountain Cafe throughout the evening. They pretty much just gave us the upstairs bar area (and went as far as to have the tvs tuned into Animal Planet instead of ESPN. I was asked what the biggest surprise of the evening was for me and that was learning what a babe Susan Gets Native is! Holy Cow, she came in with long flowing hair, beautiful eyes and a personality that sweeps you up into a tsunami of fun.

We had more than just bloggers on hand. Hougton Mifflin showed up and I met some east coast birders--one who has a plan to help the red knot. He's been doing fundraisers to buy up private property where the knots can feed on the horseshoe crab eggs. I'll blog more about it later, but it was so refreshing to meet someone with a proactive idea, and who has already got the ball rolling. They already bought a little over four acres this year. Exciting stuff.

There were also bird magazine editors there too. One of whom got the last serving of single malt scotch available at the bar (my drink of choice). When this editor (who shall remain nameless) learned of how he...affected my little birder world...he hid himself and the scotch behind a menu. I proceeded to call him several things including evil, wicked, mean, bad and nasty...I think I just kind of ruined my chances of him accepting the article that I recently pitched...

So, I had martinis (Don't worry Non Birding Bill, I stopped at two). More Birds and Beers coverage can be found at Susan Gets Native and Born Again Bird Watcher. I swear, you would think the restaurant had never seen a bird watching laying on the bar before.

It did dawn on me that I was meeting several of these bloggers face to face for the first time, even though some are part of my daily routine. Beginning To Bird has been a huge supporter of Disapproving Rabbits, and her bun Niblet is in the book twice. Mike at 10,000 Birds was another big surprise. From some reason, from reading his stuff, I had the idea that he would be a quiet, guy--something along the lines of Mike McDowell but was nothing like I expected and a good time (Not that McDowell isn't a good time...he's more of a quiet good time). I guess its weird to have expectations of bloggers. In some ways, it's kind of a DJ effect. You listen to someone on the radio and get a mental picture of what they look like and then when you see them, they look nothing like that. It's the same with blogging, you get a mental picture of the writers look and talk and they take you by surprise.

Cape May Update

Let me tell ya', folks, the weather has not been optimal for birding. I've gotten to sleep in for 2 days in a row. It rained most of the day Friday and Saturday looked to be about the same. And it wasn't just rain, it was wind driven rain that aims to hit your in the face and soak into all clothing. I am such a fair weather birder. I'll bird in the desert. I'll bird in the snow. Heck, I'll bird in ice, but wind driven rain is about as exciting to me as having plaque scraped off my teeth. But, at some point this afternoon, the rain stopped and the sun poked out from behind the clouds. I've been helping out at the birdJam booth and when things started to clear, I headed over to visit Clay Taylor at the Swarovski booth. We looked at the light outside and he said, "As soon as it's five, we're heading to Hawk Watch, wanna come?"

YEAH!

So, I grabbed Jay at birdJam when it was time to close and we headed out. It was clear a few others had the same plan, Born Again Birdwatcher and Jim Danzenbaker from KOWA were also at the platform. We had been pent up in a hot birding destination and needed to watch birds and do a little digiscoping.

I was never so happy to see an American wigeon in my life! Birds! Whoot! The temps were in the sixties, there was a breeze, you could hear the ocean crashing in waves in the distance at watch birds from the platform.

And there, as if on cue was a northern mockingbird, sitting in perfect sun on a bush, about level with the Hawk Watch Platform--which I first called a shrike and Clay corrected, "You northerners aren't used to these! That's a mockingbird." I didn't care, it was a bird, it was there, I wasn't being pelted by rain or abused by wind--it was delightful.

There were quite a few sparrows lurking in the shrubs, the most abundant being the robust white-crowned sparrows (above) mixed in with song, swamp, and house sparrows.

Here is a younger white-crowned sparrow, note how the crown is a little different on the younger birds.

It was getting almost too dark to digiscope when Clay shouted, "Dickcissel!" Not a common bird for Cape May, but a welcome surprise. Oh, and if Mike from 10,000 Birds is wondering, I did get those lifer brants today, while scanning the ocean, three flew into view of the scope.

And as if word had been spreading to the lagomorph community, a got a feral bunny disapproval East Coast style while birding at the platform. Oh! The best review of Disapproving Rabbits can be found over at Julie's blog.

Sunday is supposed to be awesome birding conditions, so I'm hoping to have some exciting stuff for tomorrow.

Back (in black)

Hello, all, NBB here. I have an announcement regarding the Birdchic Boutique, our online store.

The bad news is that the brown shirts we use for the Disapproving Rabbits shirts is being discontinued. So, once we sell out of the brown shirts, they're gone (and we're already out of a couple of sizes!).

The good news is that we're going to continue to sell them in a black shirt!

We've had a lot of request to print these shirts in a stylish black, and now it's an idea who's time has come. The shirts will continue to be printed on quality, pre-shrunk cotton Tees, with the design screenprinted (not heat-transferred) on.

You can pre-order the black tees now, and we expect to have our first batch ready before Thanksgiving. Thanks to everyone who's bought a shirt!

MSNBC Holy Crap

MSNBC has a story about rabbits on the Internet and it features Cinnamon and Disapproving Rabbits!

Cape May Friday Morning

First bird of the morning', right outside the hotel room! House sparrow! Actually, I took this yesterday, the sparrows appear to be used to hotel patrons feeding them. The sea is crashing, the wind is howling and it's rain, rain so I'm staying in this morning. Last night I went to a dinner hosted by Swarovski with a few folks from Cape May Bird Observatory, WildBird on the Fly, and Jay from birdJam at this wonderful little restaurant called Freda's. When the mussels appetizer was served, it got a little ugly, there was some competition, but Clay Taylor, the Swarovksi rep said that we had to our best black oystercatcher call to get them. I found this unfair as there are American oystercaters on the east coast and black oystercatchers on the west coast. Plus, I also felt birdJam had the unfair advantage--they always seem to have a portable speaker hidden in a pocket. Had it been a behavior challenge and we had to act out an oystercather--I would have nailed it.

WildBird on the Fly and I showed off our nails. She took me for my first ever manicure--I had no idea that was that much dead skin just around my finger tips. I chose Kreme de la Kremlin for my nails, she had something I think called Sparkles in the Snow.

And I was just sorting through some emails last night and found Frank Taylor's banding report from last weekend and this oh so cool shot of red-tailed hawk flying low right into the nets. What a great shot! If I weren't in such a cool birding place at the moment, I'd have total banding envy!

Okay, time to tweak my PowerPoint for Saturday, take a shower, and prep for the bird show this afternoon. I wonder how the other bird bloggers are fairing this morning?

Arrived In Cape May

Well, it took more drama than it needed, but I made it to Cape May. This morning was just a series of little trip ups that suddenly turn what is normally routine travel plans into enormous amounts of stress. First, we went to the wrong terminal to catch my flight and I ended up getting to the right terminal so late, I had to be whisked past the long line of security--to everyone I went in front of--I apologize, I normally wait in line just like you. The folks at Sun Country Airlines really saved my bacon, not only getting me to my departure gate in time, but also getting my luggage on the plane. Then there were some issues with the rental car, which at this point I'm relieved are resolved.

But, I got on the Garden State Parkway, popped in the iPod and had a leisurely drive here. On the way, I saw lots of turkey vultures, an osprey, some (non vulture) turkeys, and deer. When I got to Cape May, it was windy and cold. It's supposed to keep up in the morning, so I may stay in tomorrow morning instead of birding.

Totally Stealing From Hawk Owl's Nest

I found this news report while looking over at Hawk Owl's Nest of the rescue of a passage red-tailed stuck in a park bench. The accompanying video is awesome, a must watch.

Peregine 568 Update

I got a call from Lorraine this morning. She reported that she saw a saw-whet owl in Mr. Neil's yard flying around the bird feeding station--perhaps it is the same saw-whet we found a couple of weeks ago. I wish I could have gone out to look for it, but I have to pack for my trip to Cape May, NJ--SO excited about the birding and meetin' up with all the bird bloggers and Birds and Beers on Friday night. AND! I have a bonus trip to New York on Monday and Tuesday. Maybe I'll get to see Pale Male?

I have some optimistic news about peregrine 568 at The Raptor Center. They were going to do an X-Ray on Tuesday morning, but remember how she likes to rip the duct tape off of her foot? She was at it again big time this weekend, so they did her check a day early. I didn't get to observe, but Tuesday morning, Alana gave me the down lo on what happened.

The X-Ray looked good! You can see where the bone break had healed up in the above photo and that's very good news in her recovery!

Here is the X-Ray from right after her first surgery. You can see that there is one big rod lining up the broken leg bone and two smaller roads helping to stabilize the bone. Alana said that they removed the large rod that was inside the bone, but left in the two smaller rods. They remove the rod gradually, to make sure the injury is stable as the bird gains more movement. I got a video of Alana explaining the X-Ray below--again, she's a great teacher and very good at explaining things:



Things looks promising.

How Is This Hairy Woodpecker Foraging?

A couple of weeks ago when it was warmer, a large group of wasps/hornets were converging on the side of Mr. Neil's house. There was more than one species and I'm not up on all of them, but it was kind of scary to watch. Leaf cutter bees and mason bees will sometimes use gaps in wood to lay eggs and woodpeckers love to find them and eat them.

This hairy woodpecker was working the roof area in search of food--despite the massive amounts of suet and mixed nuts I had filled in the feeders below. Hello?? I was trying to watch the hairy to see how she was foraging for the food. Was she randomly poking, looking or hearing the larvae?

The bird appeared to be putting the side of her head to the shingles and gaps, actively listening...or was she just looking? According to my beloved Bent, the birds are suspected of having excellent hearing. In his book, there is a quote from Minnesota's Dr. T.S. Roberts:

"The active grub, as it crunches the wood, makes a sound that would surely be audible to a bird with its keen sense of hearing. The tunnel produces a cavity which would give both a different sound and feeling on tapping over it. Such things as grubs have a strong odor, and it is probable that this plays a part also."

I checked BNA to see what modern thinking is and couldn't find anything that supported hairy woodpeckers having a great sense of hearing but did discuss using percussion for locating prey:

"Percussion not a means of securing prey, but rather a means of locating prey by rapidly tapping along a branch or trunk, presumably in order to hear resonance produced when tapping is above tunnel of a wood-boring insect."

So, that would add to why the woodpeckers are pecking, not just boring to get to the food, but testing for sounds of food. Interesting.

So Much For The Winter Finch Forecast

Earlier this month, I mentioned the influx of purple finches in Mr. Neil's yard. While we were there over this past weekend, there were still some purple finches about, but nearly as many as that day. Perhaps some of the flock has headed further south? However, a flock of pine siskins moved in on Sunday (above photo). Pine siskens resemble very streaky goldfinches in winter plumage. Here is a goldfinch in winter plumage:

I took this photo on Sunday, this bird still has a splash of yellow to remind us what they look like in breeding plumage.

I wasn't expecting the pine siskins, as the Winter Finch Forecast had predicted that:

"White-winged and Red Crossbills and Pine Siskins will not be irrupting south of Ontario as they do in some flight years, because most have already gone east and/or west."

So much for predictions! Hey, we got siskins, now it's time to bring on the crossbills! That would be so cool to digiscope at Mr. Neil's feeders.

Check out this crazy siskin. We still have the hummingbird feeder out on the off chance some western hummer migrates in a different direction and because rain is collecting in the ant moat and the birds are sipping out of it, like this siskin in the above photo. When it was warmer and there was a trail of ants on the hook, you could see nuthatches, chickadees, and warblers flying in to eat them. Nectar feeders: not just for hummingbirds and orioles.

Mr. Neil Takes One For The Team

This past weekend, we started closing the beehives for the winter. I've been kind of dreading this--no more beekeeping fun once a week! I didn't even want to blog over the weekend, I just wanted to pretend I didn't have to close up my beekeeping fun. I noticed an interesting change in my beekeeping ability this past weekend. Normally, I am very prepared for our trips to the hives, but his past weekend I took advantage of my procrastinating nature by creating an identity on a social networking site, I just didn't want to close them up. I thought back to how excited and ready I was for the hiving of our packages and now, I delayed, delayed everything and we had to do some scrambling for materials before we went out Sunday. I'll miss visiting them and also, I'm worried that the Kitty hive doesn't have all the stores she needs to make it.

The plan when you close the hives in the northern United States is to wrap the hives with insulation, close up the bottom entrances, remove feeders, and put in a moisture board. I modified our plan somewhat. If there is anything this beekeeping adventure has taught me is that bees do not read the books and every beekeeper had a different method for dealing with their hives and with challenges that arise. Even my small mention of closing the hives in the previous post prompted a beekeeper to share in the comments their strategy of keeping their hives open a little longer and their process. And when we had the swarm this summer, I got lots of different advice from a myriad of beekeepers. I've been following what I learned in the Beekeeping Short Course, but since I figured chances are good that Kitty wouldn't survive, why not try an experiment to see if that will keep her going.

This is Kitty, she has three deep brood boxes. In theory, the top should be filled with honey stores and the bottom two should have some food and some brood cells. The top and second box both have some empty frames, which they have been slowly building out since we started feeding the homemade nectar. The top two smaller boxes are holding the bee feeding bucket. We should remove this, but we have decided to just keep filling the bucket for the time being. Above is Mr. Neil and Non Birding Bill securing the entrance reducer. We stared with a wooden one in spring, but have switched to a metal one, to prevent mice from chewing the entrance open wider and moving in for the winter. Note Mr. Neil is NOT wearing gloves. Some of what were doing required some dexterity, and he opted to offer his hands to the cause--since he really doesn't use his hands that much, right? What would a writer need his hands for?

After we secured in the entrance reducer, we wrapped a specially made insulating wrap around the hive, but we left open one small entrance hole at the top for the Kitty bees to fly in and out of if they need to. We replenished the feeder bucket and will continue to check and feed through the fall and as far into winter as we can.

We did the same with the Olga hive, but we removed the feeder bucket--she is just chock full of comb, nectar and brood. She will have no problem surviving the winter.

In both hives, we put in a pollen patty. In theory, both hives should have plenty of pollen, but you can't really see it because pollen is placed in the bottom of a cell, then covered with honey and capped off. It was recommended that we throw in a pollen patty to help if they run short on protein over winter.

When we were removing the Olga feeding bucket, there was still a small amount of nectar inside, so Mr. Neil drizzled it into the hive for the bees to clean up/eat up. Above are some syrup-covered beets. The worker in the center looks like she has a large orb like crown--she's queen of the nectar for the day.

The Kitty bees had been pretty lethargic, but Olga still had some zip left in the colony. As we were drilling and banging the hive, Olga remained true to her defensive nature...

and stung Mr. Neil. That's his third sting from the Olga hive, and he said that it really wasn't as bad as the first one. But we did need his dexterity for some of the drilling, duct taping and wrapping, so Non Birding Bill and I appreciated his noble sacrifice. I must say, true to his British background, he took the sting with dignity and barely any flailing and now wild screaming whatsoever. I took notes.

We took out the propolis trap from the Olga hive and discovered more bee art. I must say, one big complaint I have about bee supplies--it does not come with clear instructions--some of it comes with no instructions--period, you just get the item. After we finished closing the hive, Mr. Neil did some digging on the Internet and found that we used the propolis trap incorrectly but we will be ready next year. So, on the off chance any beekeeping retailers read this site: instructions with the equipment--it's a beautiful thing.

So, the hives are wrapped for winter. I'm sure I'll visit them a bit--I have to see for myself that heat from the hives will melt snow near them! But still, the season is over and it's a good six months until they will be open again and I can do things like dividing the colonies or perhaps installing new packages once again.

Man, if I'm having trouble dealing with this...how will I be this time next year when I won't go to efforts to get the girls to over winter? The average queen is supposed to live 2 summers. It was recommended that after the second summer we let the colony die out over the following winter and start with fresh bees to help prevent the spread of mites and other diseases. How can I let them just die out over winter?

Underside Of A Brown Creeper

Sorry about the lack of posts. I have been avoiding the blog because I'm avoiding anything remotely related to the bees. I had to close them up this weekend. But in the meantime, we did have an encounter with a brown creeper this morning. We're not sure if this bird hit the window and was recovering on the ledge or was just exhausted from migration.

Normally, I would say that it hit the window, but usually when a bird hits the window hard enough to stun itself, it ricochets far out and hits the ground. Lucky, that this bird didn't, it was a good two stories up. Either way, it is a rare chance to see the belly of a creeper. These guys creep along the trunks of trees like nuthatches, but rather than creeping down head first, these guys creep up. Their brown backs and heads blend well with bark, almost looking as though the tree bark itself is moving.

Don't worry, a few seconds after this photo was taken, the creeper flew to nearby white pine and began foraging for food and doing what it does best: creep.

Best Birds And Beers Yet!

Last night was the biggest Birds and Beers yet! We had 24 people show up throughout the evening from all over the metro--people from up near Carlos Avery, White Bear Lake, Wayzata, and Woodbury! We had hawk banders, songbird banders, bird and conservation writers, new birders, photographers, mildly interested birders, hardcore birders--it was a GREAT mix and so much fun to say hi to bird people I know and bird people I just met.

Frequent commenter Hellziggy was there and even took a photo of me with the new Disapproving Rabbits book. Thanks HZ!

The next two Birds and Beers are scheduled:

Cape May, NJ on Friday, October 26, 2007 at 8pm at Jackson Mountain Cafe
Minneapolis, MN onThursday, November 29, 2007 at 6pm at Merlin's Rest

I just realized that I'm going to be in Harlingen, TX for the Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest November 7 - 11 and could schedule a Birds and Beers there. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. If anyone has any ideas for a Birds and Beers anywhere, any town, please let me know.


Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of people interested in birds to have a chance to connect. Anyone interested in birds is welcome to attend--from the hard core to the beginner to everyone in between. If you want to meet some people, talk some birds and have a beverage or two, this it the place for you.

Peregrine 568 Update

WARNING! This is a post about an injured peregrine falcon we met earlier this month. This post covers some of her recovery. Some photos might be a tad gross for those who may be eating or have a problem with needles. Just an FYI.

Alana Shrubsole-Cockwill, the vet overseeing the injured peregrine falcon I've been blogging about, called me this morning to let me know that she was going to check on the bird to see how she was doing. When I arrived at The Raptor Center, Alana was working on a red-tailed hawk with an injured wing in the above photo. After she checked the injury, she extended the wing to keep the muscles from permanently contracting.

The red-tail was passage (first year) and huge! That's Steve Sutter hold her up. He volunteers in clinic at TRC. Clinic volunteers come in once a week, feed and clean birds in recovery and hold birds while the vets check them out.

Steve's job is to get the falcon and then when she is under anesthesia, he still holds onto her feet--on the off chance she isn't completely under, she won't grab the vet or flail around and risk further injury.

Some good news is that the bruising has gone down! Some may remember from last time that the bird's leg was bright green from bruising. The flesh looked healthy pink and you can see pin feathers growing in (her leg feathers had to be removed before surgery--kind of like when humans need to be shaved on a body part about to be operated on.

Something I didn't mention last time was that the foot, just below the break was red, and Alana mentioned that it might be some type of vascular compromise--maybe the blood vessels were damaged when the bird flew into the nets or transported or as a result of the injury. If you look at the photo of the leg from last time, you will note just below the green that the foot was red. Today, all the redness was gone, so the blood flow is good. After that, Alana moved the leg around. I asked if the moving the leg around was for the same reason she was extending the red-tail's injured wing, but she said she was checking for stiffness. I got a video of her extending the leg and talking about what she's doing:



I will say this, Alana does a great job of explaining what she's doing, she's a good teacher. Since I'm an education volunteer at TRC and not a clinic volunteer like Steve, I don't know all the lingo and what they are doing and why. She very naturally will explain what she's doing and do it in way so that you don't feel like a complete dunderhead.

She made sure to clean the spots where the pins holding the broken leg in place and then she took a look at the peregrine's toes:

Because the falcon was going to be putting more weight on her good leg as opposed her broken leg, care had to be taken to keep her from getting bumblefoot and her good foot was wrapped in surgical and duct tape. But what is a bored falcon to do when it can't migrate and hunt and has to sit in a dark box all day--why try and rip at the tape off her toes! Note the mangled mess above. Alana removed the tape:

The bottom of the foot looked good, no signs of bumblefoot! You know how I love to smell birds? Alana told me to smell the falcon foot. I have now experienced that bad bird smell--her feet were stanky! Which is weird because birds don't sweat like humans so it's not like she had sweaty toes in gym socks. It's a combination of the foot being wrapped, probably getting some food bits and poop in there. Alana washed it off and rewrapped the toes. Who knew birds can get stinky feet?

If you look at this photo, you can see little tabs of duct tape--the tabs are there on purpose. She's going to pick at it anyway, might as well give tabs to keep her busy to keep her from ripping it all off her toes.

One thing I haven't mentioned that you may have noticed on the red-tail and on the falcon are the envelopes on their tails. By sliding this over the raptor tails, this prevents them from breaking tail feathers during their recovery. They are in small boxes to prevent them from moving too much too soon. But sometimes an antsy raptor is going thrash about in the clinic cages, so this just helps protect those important rudder feathers.

Here's Alana and Steve with peregrine 568 at the end of her exam. She's perkier, her weight is up and she doesn't need to be hand fed. Alana is going to do an X-Ray next Tuesday to see how the bone has healed and to determine what the next stage will be in her recovery process.

Again, if you enjoy following peregrine 568's story, please consider contributing to her recovery at TRC. I've yet to meet a raptor with health coverage and TRC relies on donations to treat the over 800 birds they see in a year.

Odds and Ends

Okay, this is an on hold post--I just got a call from The Raptor Center, they are going to do a check up on the injured peregrine falcon and said that I can come and watch.

But, before I go, I got a story from my buddy Amber:

Disregarding a plea from his own Fish and Game Commission, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Saturday a bill that would ban the use of lead ammunition for hunting big game in the California condor range.

Assembly Bill 821, the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, written by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, requires the use of nonlead centerfire rifle and pistol ammunition when shooting big game or coyotes within specific areas of the state identified as the condor's range.

Who knew that Gov. Ah-nold would do something so right?? You can read more here.

Also, Bird Chaser has an entry up about cats being allowed to roam free in Cape May and asking should birders boycott the birding mecca to serve a lesson to the local government for ignoring all of us tourists who come to the town specifically for the birds. He also lists some other options too. It's a little late in the game for me to boycott--the Bird Blogger Conference is next week, but be sure that there will probably be some bloggin' about this issue. I would recommend that anyone going to this be very vocal with business that you are a birder and you are here for the birds and it would be a shame to lose tourism dollars over feral cats.

And if you need a Cinnamon fix, there's an entry over at Disapproving Rabbits Blog--complete with a video of her snarfing down some canned pumpkin.

Chattering Screech Owl

It's been very rainy lately in the Twin Cites--I love autumn rain, so I'm enjoying, but the education birds at The Raptor Center seem to have had just about enough. Many were very antsy yesterday and chattery (one could almost say they were singin' in the rain). One surprise was one of the eastern screech owls was vocalizing--our ed screeches rarely do that. Sue, my crew leader said that the gray phase screech (who is called Squeak) was making all kinds of chattering sounds when the did morning rounds in the courtyard.

We have a new education bird, a boreal owl (above). Sometimes it will start vocalizing. I popped out to the courtyard and played a boreal owl call to see if it would be respond. I played it once and got no response from the boreal owl, but got plenty from the gray phase screech owl:



It was quietly giving its whinny call! It also was trying to give its trill, but sounded more like a tiny rattly engine. I don't know if it's off because the owl hardly vocalizes and is out of practice of if its off because it's imprinted on humans, anyway here it is:



If you look in back of the gray phase screech, you can see the red phase screech owl perched in the hutch.

How Cinnamon Spent The First Day Of Her Book Release

"Yes, that's it, rub my ears."

"Hey, wait! Who said you were finished? Don't pull that hand away!"
(butts head urgently against my retreating hand)

"That's better, keep rubbing my ears. I almost approve of you."

Today On Cute Overload

Thanks to Cute Overload for putting the word out on this: Sparrow Shoes anyone?

Must not have been an actual birder who designed those shoes, otherwise they would have been covered in black oil sunflower--which is more sensible, you can always use a great pair of black shoes.

Porcupet Sweeping The World

Remember those videos of the porcupet (aka baby porcupine). I had them on Google Video and last week, I transferred them to You Tube--Holy Crap, the one of the baby porcupine eating a banana had 16,000 views yesterday and today it's past 27,000! I just got a message from someone who produces an animal show on a BBC station asking if they can use it. On top of that, Neatorama picked it up so I'm getting a double wammy from them with the Disapproving Rabbits promotion. The internet is a strange and wonderful place!

Weekend Of Red-tails

Sometimes, it's fun to live in our neighborhood. Oh sure, there are noisy neighbors, but there are benefits. Twice in the last week I have seen Sir Ian McKellen, once behind me line at the grocery store and tonight on our way to the movie theater (he's in town performing King Lear at the Guthrie). I didn't say anything at the grocery store, but tonight when I pointed him out to Non Birding Bill, he went over, greeted him and told him how much he enjoyed his work as an actor. He was really, really nice and very gracious. Can I say how much I enjoy just picking him out in the streets among all the other people? It's like finding a Ross's goose mixed in with a bunch of snow geese.

On to hawk banding!

Here's the man who makes my weekends of hawk banding possible--Frank Taylor! One of the coolest guys I know and the man who taught me to handle birds of prey and to give an entertaining yet informative program.

Well, it was a weekend chock full of red-tiled hawks at the banding station (that's a passage or first year red-tailed hawk in the above photo). On Saturday we got 7 birds (1 northern goshawk and 6 red-tailed hawks) and on Sunday we got 8 birds on (1 sharp-shinned hawk, 1 northern goshawk and 6 red-tailed hawks).

I think of all the birding things I do throughout the year, hawk banding is my favorite. I love everything about it, the fall foliage, the layers of cold to ward of the chill in the air, the waxy chocolate donuts we eat in the blind, watching the birds fly in, picking our raptors from the specks flying away.

We got to see some other wildlife besides raptors. We heard the crows going berserk on the other side of the field. Eventually, a coyote came into view. Rick Dupont got the above photo. They coyote kept coming closer and closer. Every time someone's camera beeped, the coyote would look right at us. Even with the wind blew and they coyote turned to sniff, if a camera beeped, it looked towards the blind. The coyote kept on its merry way and disappeared and suddenly as it appeared, followed by some noisy crows.

We even had a lone raven meander towards the blind. We watched this bird for the better part of Saturday morning, walking along through the grass snatching up lethargic grasshoppers. Periodically, the raven would hunker in the grass and sleep. After awhile, the raven would resume hunting grasshoppers. It worked its way closer and closer to the blind, oblivious to the many red-tails zooming over head, the half dozen people popping out of the blind, and even the noisy goshawk. When I watched it through my scope, it blinked both eyes in quick succession and not always at the same time. I've seen birds with West Nile Virus do this and wondered if that had struck this raven. The bird would let people get within 10 feet of it and then would fly. It had an ample food source and was wise enough to evade humans, so we didn't make too much effort to catch it.

There were also quite a few horned larks lurking in the grass. It was fun to watch them disappear and then reappear. A couple of northern shrikes hunting in the field would try to separate one of the larks to catch it, but to no avail, the larks were too fast. Another bird that hung out near the blind was a boreal chickadee. A small flock of black-caps flew in and one of them sounded a little nasally--instead of chickadee dee dee it was more of a chickashneeee. It hung out low in the trees and I got one of my best looks at one (alas, I didn't have the digiscoping equipment set up).

Even though we had almost all red-tailed hawks come in, each one had an interesting story. Like this bird. It was in haggard (adult) plumage, complete with red-tail (although the eyes were kind of half passage, half haggard). Note the blood mustache over the bill--this bird had eaten fairly recently. However, it did one of the most powerful dives into the nets I had ever seen. We actually almost missed this bird coming in. We were kind of chit chatting, someone had asked me a binocular question and looked out the blind window and said, "Well, 8x42's are good GASP..." and most everyone else saw it at the same time straight ahead, wings tucked, the bird going over 60 miles straight for the pigeon.

The red-tail blasted through the front net so fast and so hard it went all the way into the back net! Frank and Rick had to get the hawk out of two nets! Rick, ever the master yanker, did manage to pull the pigeon out of the way before the hawk nailed it. I did get to thinking though--if the nets hadn't been there, and this hawk was hunting the pigeon, it would have hit the prey so hard it would have blasted right into the woods. It would have rolled and tumbled and maybe slammed into a tree. That bird was intense. It wasn't skinny either, it had been eating well.

It's always interesting to see the differences in adults and young birds when you have the up close. Even without seeing the tail, you can know this is a young bird by how yellow the eyes are. Red-tailed hawk eyes get darker as they get older. So, above is passage red-tail...

and here is a haggard bird--look at how dark brown those eyes are! Speaking eyes, one of Frank's sub banders was up the whole week banding hawks and found an interesting one:

Chuck Schotzko got in this one eyed red-tailed hawk. Look at that, the whole entire eye ball is missing from the socket! Chuck is a medical doctor and guess with how dried out and healed up the injury is that this happened long ago, perhaps even when the bird was young. He speculated that this happened with the bird was young, even in the nest. It would be much easier for a young bird to learn to hunt with only one eye, than for an adult to suddenly lose an eye after hunting for years with two. Regardless, the bird was very chunky, the tissue around the keel was very plump--this bird had been eating well. If it can fly and is a good weight, there's no need to take it some place like The Raptor Center, this bird is doing just fine on its own.

Here you can see clear back into the empty eye socket. This really makes me wonder about birds in wildlife rehab facilities with only one eye that are turned into education birds or euthanized. This is the second red-tail we've gotten into the nets with vision in only one eye that was fat and sassy. Birds always remind me that they are more resilient than we give them credit for.

On Saturday night, I slept in Frank's van. He has a cot set up inside, so all I had to do was unroll my sleeping bag. I brought a pillow and stuck some hand warmers in the bottom to keep my toe warm. The stars crowded the skies and I was tucked warmly inside my sleeping bag and watched the sky. I was only disturbed once when someone drove slowly by shining a very bright flash light (I assume looking for deer). I set my iPod and iMainGo speaker to alarm so that I would wake up the next morning to the sound of bobolinks. I met Frank and his wife Trudi in their cozy trailer for hot chocolate and donuts, then it was off to more banding. It is nice to stay in hotels, but I have to say that I'm glad that I still have it in me to sleep in a van and use the woods for a restroom all for a cool birding experience!

This is one of the many red-tails we got in on Sunday, note the blood stains on the breast? This bird totally punk'd me! We were watching it in the distance and it hovered, it held its wings in a v-shape, the wings looked longish--I called it a rough-legged hawk. Until it flew into the nets and showed itself to be a juvenile red-tail. Later on, I tried to turn a kestrel into a merlin--I was having an off identification day. Maybe sleeping in a van dulls my bird id skills. Ah well, happens to all of us.

I did find a red squirrel lurking in the trees. It was surprisingly quiet. I suppose it noticed all the hawks flying in and decided that hunkering down and eating would be a sensible tactic instead of chirping and drawing attention to itself.

After we banded and released one of the many red-tailed hawks that came into the nets, it landed in the top of a spruce. As I set up my digiscoping equipment, it started to take off and I got this photo. But my favorite photos to get are the ones of me laying on the ground while people release the birds:

Like this...

Or this...

And this...

This was a little boy who got to release a red-tail. Since he was a tad short, I opted to take his photo from the side. The last thing I want is a face full of red-tailed hawk. He did a great job doing the release--that's a lot of bird for young boy.

I love this photo, that little boy looks like he's about to go into the sky along with the red-tail!

Gratuitous Goshawk

At first when I was looking at my schedule and budget for the fall, I was worried I just wouldn't be able to get to my friend Frank Taylor's hawk banding station--my favorite bird activity I do all year. I was very down that I would not get to see a northern goshawk (my favorite raptor and next tattoo) fly into the nets But thanks to help from my great friends, I managed two trips. And I got to see a first year northern goshawk fly in! Whoot!

Frank asked me to hold the young goshawk so he could get photos and I gave my camera to a wonderful woman I've been getting to know at the blind named Joan. We were working as swiftly as possible with the goshawk so we could send it on its way.

Why would we want this magnificent bird away so quickly? Because the moment it hits the nets to the very second it is released, it give a loud, piercing, melt-your-eardrums shriek over and over and over. All we're doing is holding it, it's not in any pain what so ever. Such a big bird, such a big whiner. Even the smaller cousins of this accipiter, the sharp-shinned hawk and the Cooper's hawk take the banding process with stoicism. Frank wanted to try and get a photo of the goshawk with its mouth closed--not an easy feat.

I think this photo that Joan got about sums it up. Yes, here I am with my favorite raptor and you can see that I'm clearly thinking, "Are we done yet? Can we move on?" I bet you're now curious, just how awful this sound is, aren't you? Okay, here is about five seconds of ear-splitting goshawk (those you cannot view video should be grateful):



Annoying, huh? As if that weren't bad enough...

The goshawk started attacking my coat. It was time to set this bird free and continue on its way.

I tossed the bird in the air and Joan got this great shot which actually looks like the bird is reaching out to attack me. Actually, what's going on is that I tossed the goshawk out to the field, but being the type of hawk that hunts in the woods, the bird is turning around in mid air so it can fly into the safety of the trees behind me. Still, I love how it looks like I'm reaching out it and the goshawk looks like it is going to nail me.

More banding fun to come!

Neatorama

Hey Disapproving Rabbit fans, there's a caption contest going on over at Neatorama and you can get a sneak peak of some of the bunnies in the book.

Hawk Banding Preview

"I'm gonna eat you and your little disapproving rabbit too!"

Just rolled in, ate some dinner, pealed off two layers of clothes, and sifted through 98 emails. Am now going to bathe and autograph some books. More hawk banding fun tomorrow.

Birds and Beers Ocotber 18, 2007

The next Birds and Beers is October 18, 2007 at Merlin's Rest at 6pm (not to be confused with the Cape May Birds and Beers on Friday night, October 26, 2007 at 8pm I at the Jackson Mountain Cafe.)

There are so many people who are doing interesting things bird wise--research projects, banding, writing, etc. and we don't often find out about it on the listservs. This is the chance! It's a fun get together of people interested in birds and we can have a drink and talk some birds. It doesn't matter what you're experience level is. If you are interested in birds, you are welcome!

Hope to see you there!

The Joy Of A Messy Fallen Oak

I am so loving the dead oak in Mr. Neil's yard! This may look like a bunch of dead boring branches, but it is teeming with life. It was struck by lightening and had to be felled and when the tree was down, I asked if he would mind leaving it there to do its decomposition thing. He agreed and this fall it has been sparrow town! I've been scattering seeds for sparrows all along the edges to encourage them to pop out, mostly white millet, flax, canary seed, sunflower chips, cracked corn, canola, and Nyjer.

The juncos have just been lovin' it. They will even perch on some of the branches and chill out for a bit, allowing you to get cute photos of them doing their impersonation of a fluffy puffball.

Others juncos just give you the sass. It's a fun challenge getting photos of tiny birds not at a bird feeder.

This week, the migratory sparrows have shown up in earnest. Even around my neighborhood I've found some lurking white-crowned sparrows. So far in the fallen oak I have found white-throated sparrows like the one in the above photo. They seem a tad cagey compared to the juncos, preferring to stay within the tree branches. They must have just arrived, maybe after a few days of refueling they will stay out in the open more.

Speaking of cagey, there is at least one fox sparrow lurking in the oak. The above photo was the best that I could do for a photo. I swear, that is the back of a fox sparrow. Really, it is. It's different than the other brown birds featured in this post. Honest.

This bird popping out for the sparrow mix surprised me. I would have thought they would be outta the state by now. It looks a little different from we're used to. Can you guess it? If you said chipping sparrow, you'd be right. The tree sparrows should be here very soon after these guys go.

The song sparrow in this awkward position is hoping that if it sits still enough, I won't notice and will aim my scope else where and it can enjoy whatever morsel it just found in peace. It's not every day you see a bird with it's tail caught in a branch--how embarrassing. Someone call Mr. Blackwell.

Sparrows aren't the only birds enjoying the fallen oak. The titmice have been grabbing leaves and pecking the heck out of them, there must be some type of bug or larvae lurking in there.

And it's not just the fallen tree itself that has been fun. You may have noticed in previous that we've turned the stump into a tray feeder and everybody has been using it (well, maybe not the hummingbirds, hard to put nectar on a stump).

And it's not just the brown birds either. I put some mixed nuts on their for the chickadees, titmice and nuthatches, but it's never long before a blue jay wants in on some of that action. They love their nuts.

I love this photo. That chickadee looks like it's thinking, "Well, there goes the neighborhood." There's now attractive way to mammal proof a stump, but we have all the other feeder poles mammal proofed so I'm not too bothered if the squirrels and chipmunks want to hoover up the seeds. Since this stump doesn't have much in the way of drainage holes, it helps to have birds and critters move the seed faster.

Workin' On The Books

Woof. I have a lot of signing to do. I bailed on Carpenter banding this morning because I'm behind on some blog posts, I'm going hawk banding this weekend and need to get some work done if I'm gonna sit in a blind for two days, and holy cow you guys are so cool and have ordered a lot of books for me to personalize. My goal is to get them done this weekend and to commence the shipping on Monday. But, really, holy cow, thank you to everyone who has ordered a book, it's an overwhelming and strange sensation that something that started as joke between my and my husband got turned into a book and so many people enjoy it. I am truly grateful and never cease to be amazed by what a strange and delightful trip life can be.

I haven't found an ink I feel safe using on Cinnamon's paw for her to do a "pawtograph" and she would not be happy to have Non Birding Bill and myself hold her down and mark a bunch of books. However, she seems to tolerate running a book across her back (see how thrilled she looks?) so I can get you some Cinnamon DNA on your book (or at the very least bunny fur) and your book will absorb a lot of disapproval. It should be palpable when you open the package.

Last night I picked up NBB from work to go out and do some celebrating of the book's arrival. When we pulled into the liquor store parking lot, I saw Leann and Jon who designed and produce our Disapproving Rabbit shirts (by the way, Carri Ann, they LOVED disapproval gate). I fumbled in the car for a book and went to personalize one for them. I was so flustered because it was the first official autograph, it's illegible, I made up a word, and when I got to the actual signature...well it was sad. They laughed and said they were honored to get the very first autograph. They were being kind. Leann mentioned that the brown women's shirt is being discontinued and Jon says he has a new design he's working on so be prepared for a new disapproval shirt, and if you want to be someone who has one of the original Disapproving Rabbit shirts (you liked Disapproving Rabbits before they were popular), you might want to get one fairly soon.

And don't forget, if you would like to meet Cinnamon in person and learn more about living with a rabbit and meet some foster rabbits looking for a new home, we are having a Disapproving Rabbits Party at DreamHaven Books on November 2, 2007 at 6:30pm.

Okay, now to work on the next blog entry--brace yourself for a super cute junco photo as well as lots of brown birds!

Look What UPS Just Delivered

"What, am I supposed to chew on all these?"

Chickadee Damage

I was trying my hand at digiscoping in the woods of tiny birds that move very fast. Not an easy feat. This was my best golden-crowned kinglet. It was fun to just hold in one spot and listen to the changes of bird flocks as they moved through in the morning having just flown in the night before looking for various food sources. One minute the woods are alive with sounds of hundreds of birds and just as suddenly as they appeared, they will disappear and ten minutes later the woods are silent. I first saw a brown creepers zipping up a tree and I thought, "Where's the kinglet, they seem to go hand in hand (or wing and wing)." Sure enough, a kinglet appeared on the branches, then more creepers and more kinglets.

I heard a "twee" that almost sounded like a towhee, but not quite. I scanned and found hermit thrushes lurking among the brush. They were taking advantage of the wild grape that has draped over some of the dead trees. Even though I was wearing a bright red sweater, I was standing still and the birds moved in fairly close. A mixed flock of chickadees and nuthatches moved in to the area and one chickadee flew right to me and at the end of my spotting scope. I couldn't see it, but new it was right in front of the objective lens at the end of the barrel (the big lens that lets in the light, not the small one you look through). I thought about turning on my camera and getting a very blurry photo, then I heard a "tap tap tap" coming from the chickadee.

I love chickadees. I won't argue that they are one of the cutest birds out there--look at that face in the above photo. What's not to love? But there is no pecking on a Swarovski 80 HD Spotting Scope! I shouted, "Hey!!" and the bird poked it's head above the barrel and suddenly noticed the big human attached its new found perch. It then jumped on top of the scope and gave a little sputter and flew to a nearby tree going into full blown mobbing sounds and angry "chick a dee dee dees!"

I looked at the lens and found no visible damage and was grateful that it's very sturdy equipment. I wondered if the Swarovski limited lifetime warranty covered chickadee damage...and how embarrassing would it be to call in and request repair because of a chickadee--"seriously, it pecked the lens, honest, the bird had it in for me." It'd be way cooler to say that your scope was damaged by something like a lammergeier who mistook the scope for a large bone. Although, I suppose it wouldn't help the Swarovski rep if the chickadee had damaged the scope. Bottom line, the scope is fine and a heart attack on my part was avoided.

I didn't get a good look at the feet, but I wonder if this was one of the chickadees we banded last weekend?

Cold, Quiet Bees

First, a big shout out to Jennifer Tanner! Thank you so much for sending me the bee song! I love it! I have been listening to it all week. Go to Mirah and Spectratone International and download the song "Community" (it's free and legal). I now imagine the bees singing that while we're working the hives.

There's not a huge amount going on with the bee hives right now. We're feeding them, trying to get the girls fully stocked with honey for the winter. Today, the temps were in the forties and the girls were clustering together for warmth and moving very slowly. I even took a video to show how quiet they are. A month ago there would have been loud buzzing, now there is this:



Very quiet. Compare that to this.

We're feeding them a nectar solution to substitute the current lack of natural nectar sources to build up their stores. Olga is chock full, her hive is very busy, but I'm feeding her anyway because the book says I'm supposed to. Kitty is a different story. We didn't harvest any honey from her hive, but even still she is behind on comb and honey production from swarming this summer. Her hive is light. I don't know. If we have a warm winter with milder temps, she just might make it. But if we have the type of winter this part of the northern United States is known for, I'm afraid we will lose her. Ah well, we're doing all we can to keep her going and the bottom line is that this year is our first year beekeeping and it's all a learning experience.

I will say that Kitty has done an outstanding job of gathering pollen. In this undeveloped comb, you can see on the other side of the comb, all the many colors of pollen that is in the bottom of honey cells.

Since the bees were calm and we were feeding them, I had Mr. Neil try his luck at hand feeding the bees. The bees were happy to feed from his fingers. Non Birding Bill learned from the QI tv show that bees can recognize individual people, so this hand feeding business may prevent future stings. Here's the blurb from the Telegraph:

"Bees can recognise human faces. Given that many humans struggle with this once they have turned 40, it seems utterly remarkable in a creature whose brain is the size of a pinhead. Yet bees who are rewarded with nectar when shown some photos of faces, and not rewarded when shown others, quickly learn to tell the difference. Not that we should read too much into this. Bees don't "think" in a meaningful way. The "faces" in the experiment were clearly functioning as rather odd-looking flowers, not as people they wanted to get to know socially."

In a couple of weeks, I will have to close up the hives for winter. How long this winter will seem without being able to look in on the girls.

Sigh.

Bonus While Removing Buckthorn

And maybe just a tad of personal vindication.

This afternoon I was doing some half hearted buckthorn removal in Mr. Neil's woods. It needs to be done, but at the same time I was making mental apologies to the woods and wildlife that areas of thick brush would go through a drastic change but would be made up to them in future years with better plants. I fell in love with this woods the first time I walked through it. I remember the spot in the above photo being a particularly perfect place to find a saw-whet owl. Every single time I pass it, I comb the branches with my eyes for small owls but have never seen one there. I've even been taunted by a saw-whet owl feather a wren used in lining a nearby nest box.

Today, I found tiny owl poop beneath one of the trees. I started scanning the trunk but didn't have my hopes too high. After all, I have found owl poop before and no owl. I stood right on top of the poop and looked straight up. The branches revealed nothing. I took a step back and to the right. An oval shape and then vertical lines came into view--saw-whet owl! Finally, a saw-wet! I dashed back up the trail to gather my digiscoping equipment to get a photo of this tiny owl:

It was not the best light and the wee owly was not in the least bit threatened by me and continued its snooze. I left the scope on him and called Lorraine to see if she was working at the house. She was and I insisted that she join me on the trail to see an owl. How could she refuse? We both marveled at the owl and then it did the craziest thing! It woke up, faced away from us and started bobbing its head. We changed our position to get a better look. Without the scope, it looked as though it was about to cough up a pellet. But when I looked in the scope it was opening its mouth and moving as though it were making sounds? What was it doing?? Lorraine and I strained to hear and finally we made out very high pitched, almost inaudible squeaks and clicks--almost bat like. I tried to get a video, but there was no way to get the sound on that microphone. Here you can watch it move:



You know, I've worked with an education saw-whet owl at TRC and have never heard that sound or have seen or heard it in the wild. I couldn't find anything like it on BNA. I did find something sort of like it on Cornell's Owl CD (a must have for any person remotely into owls) and there are a couple of tracks on there listed as "unknown winter vocalization". If there are any owl experts out there who would care to share their knowledge of saw-whet owl vocalizations, I would love to hear it.

We waited for Mr. Neil to finish some writing and insisted that he and Cabal come join us to watch the owl before it got to dark. The owl didn't vocalize but took a direct interest in the large white dog. It's now night, and I hope the saw-whet is finding plenty of tasty mice and voles around the feeding area. I put out some extra bird seed on the ground to encourage small mammals for it.

I guess you never know what you'll find when removing buckthorn.

Watch Out, Finches

I have been trying to do this entry all day and so many cool and blogable things keep happening. I will do this and begin working on my very exciting discovery in the woods entry.

Okay, now we are getting some proper fall temps--blustery wind with fifty degree temps--now that is what I call buckthorn removal weather! On my way out to Mr. Neil's this afternoon, I noticed several raptors bouncing and soaring in the wind. Mostly red-tails and eagles, but peregrine went bombing over the highway in hot pursuit of something over the fields.

I have noticed a significant increase in purple finches at the feeder in the last few days. A family group had shown up a few weeks ago, but on Sunday when I was photographing the cedar waxwings, I could hear dozens and dozens in the surrounding woods. In the fall, they have such a quiet little chatter as they flit from tree to tree and squabble over perches at the feeder in can be easy to miss among the din of blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches and titmice.

I love this photo--it looks like the goldfinch is trying to eavesdrop on the male purple finches. "Hmmm, what are they plotting?"

Ron Pittaway, of the Ontario Field Ornithologists has an annual Winter Finch Forecast with Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) and the observations of regional birders, Pittaway tries to make predictions about finch movement in southern Canada and the northern United States. Birds are always a tricky thing to predict, but this year I did notice an increase in purple finches, so I thought I would see what he had to say:

"Most Purple Finches will migrate out of Ontario this fall in response to the low seed crops. Currently, Purple Finches are migrating south through southern Ontario. Very few or none will stay behind at feeders in southern Ontario."

You should check the rest of the report, he describes conditions in the northern boreal forests and how that relates to individual species like redpolls, grosbeaks, finches and siskins. He does predict that white-winged and red crossbills and pine siskins will not be irrupting south out of Ontario as they do some years. However, other winter finches such as pine grosbeaks, evening grosbeaks and redpolls are supposed to get out of Ontario and down south into the United State.

It's been interesting to watch the purple finches interact with the other species. Here a male purple finch got into it with a black-capped chickadee--they are not very tolerant of other species feeding with them. When I worked at the bird store, customers would tell me that house finches drove other birds away, but I have never seen them be as aggressive as these thugs.

They're even hanging out on the tray feeder like this female purple finch and flushing away juncos. They're pretty, but man, don't mess with them.

Don't worry, goldfinch, you're still pretty too. Even in winter plumage. What's interesting is that the purple finches are seemingly preferring the sunflower feeders over the Nyjer thistle feeders, so the goldfinches do have a quiet place to feed at the moment.

Injured Peregrine Update

Quick update on the injured peregrine falcon, I went to check on her and she was resting. Steve, one of the participants on the bird trip that picked her up called The Raptor Center and got a rundown from Dr. Jane Goggin:

"The Raptor Center left a message on Friday, Oct. 5, about Falcon 568. Jane said our girl was doing pretty well at this time, but it would be 3-4 weeks before the splint would be removed. She'll probably spend the winter a TRC. Jane suggested calling back in a couple weeks for an update. Sounds pretty good to my untrained ear and her appetite certainly seems fine."

I'm at TRC every Tuesday and will do a check in. They have my number to give me a call with any developments if something happens when I'm not there. Honestly, no news at this point is good news. Here's hoping that in a few weeks, I will have photos of her upright in a flight room.

In other news, no one has stepped up to claim ownership of the eclectus. TRC has tried everything--all the local parrot organizations, parrot stores, vets, Craig's List and no one is coming forward as the owner. I wonder if something happened to the actual owner? When you see the bird, it is in excellent health and well trained. Someone spent a lot of time, energy, love and money on this bird. A bird like this can outlive the owner. I'm wondering if the actual owner died and the surviving family not wanting to keep it, let it go outside--sounds crazy, but I've had people tell me about doing this kind of thing before. They know nothing of birds and they think it's a tribute--to set grandma's bird free. Who knows. Again, there is a long line of folks at TRC ready to take him in, I just wish we could find out who it belongs to.

Scott Weidensaul On Disapproving Rabbits

Here comes some major name dropping:



Thank you Scott Weidensaul!!

Disapproving Rabbits in USA Today's Blog

This is the weirdest sensation I've ever had. The Pop Candy blog at USA Today has a mention of the Disapproving Rabbits book...and they are encouraging people to buy it...and I'm not related to anyone on staff...the blogger did of her own accord. Thanks, Whitney!

Autumn Cedar Waxwing Goodness

Holy Crap! As I'm starting this entry, I'm sitting on our couch which faces the windows in our apartment. An adult Cooper's hawk has just landed on a wire outside the window and we are pretty much face to face. The hawk is having a tough time, she wants to focus on the pigeons eating near my feeder, but with the lights on in my apartment, she has also noticed the human facing her. I wonder if I can reach for my camera without her flying away? Nope. She just flew. Cool start to the morning though! Now, on to cedar waxwings:

Here is a cedar waxwing eating berries off of a showy mountain ash, or as Mr. Neil calls them, rowan trees. Now that there are great birds established on his land and thriving honey bees, we're trying to find ways to help both out by improving the quality of the surrounding woods.

The woods have some great plants, but some invasive buchthorn is moving in which in a few years will choke out all the great native plants like Jack-in-the-Pulpit and sumac. So, I know from reading books what plants birds like, but I don't have much in the way of practical knowledge--it's hard to put that into practice in a one bedroom apartment, but helping with the project will let me put some of that book learnin' to use. I found a nursery near Carpenter Nature Center that specializes in native plant landscaping called Out Back Nursery. The first time I went there just to look around, I noticed a guy named Pete staring at some pots of soil and some plant growth. After a few minutes, I went over and asked what he was up to and he replied, "My mix. There's something I'm doing wrong with my mix. These aren't growing the way they're supposed to, so I'm trying to figure out what I need to change in my soil mix."

That is my kind of guy--he feels about native plants the way I feel about birds. I found the right nursery. I also like how they group some of their displays by habitat. If you want to turn your yard into oak savanna, they have a whole grouping of the types of native plants that you would need for an oak savanna habitat. Nice! I highly recommend this place if you're looking for some native plant ideas.

So, I've gotten some trees from them to put in this fall, including this showy mountain ash that had a few berries left on it. The waxwings found it on Sunday. It was SO cool. Sunday, the light was perfect and the autumn leaves made for a lovely background for photos. I spent most of the day outside coughing and digiscoping. I watched a small flock of cedar waxwings fly over, kind of slow in mid flap, and circle over the feeding area--some bird in that flock noticed the bright berries. They circled a second time and landed high in an oak, carefully scanning the area for predators. After a few minutes, one by one, they descended on the showy mountain ash. The adult in the above photo is being watched by a younger waxwing.

The younger cedar waxwings are distinguished by the vertical striping down the front of their breast...and their lack of grace and elegance when scaling the branches for berries.

After watching an adult eat its fill of this cluster of berries, this younger waxwing struggled to reach the few remainders. You can't see it in the photos, but there was much flapping and slipping.

Eventually, the young waxwing figured it out and began to eat the last three berries.

The first two berries went down quickly, but there was some hesitation going for the last. Was the bird getting full? Had it eaten too much? But, never to leave an uneaten berry go uneaten, the young waxwing took the last berry.

Sure enough the bird's crop was bulging with berries after eating that last bite. See the pinkish blob along the neck? It may look like this bird has a huge tumor, but it's just a muscular pouch (now full of ash berries) used to store food awaiting digestion.

Snowbirds Despite The Heat

Man o man, the humidity and high temps today made it feel like there was a gravitational smack down instead of the usual pull that secures you to the Earth's surface. That combined with my stuffy nose and coughy chest made me forgo buckthorn removal around Mr. Neil's property. But I did do some digiscoping and found some of the juncos that I have heard lurking in the trees. The snowbirds are moving south.

Banding Birds At Mr. Neil's

I know quite a few banders and I've always wanted to try a banding project at Mr. Neil's. Number one - he's got great bird nesting habitat. Number two, a fair number of migrants pass through and use the area for fueling up for migration. So, I asked my friends Mark Newstrom and Roger Everhart who do regular banding programs at Lowry Nature Center in Carver Park if they would be interested in banding at Mr. Neil's. Being banders, the answer is generally "yes".

They were due to come Saturday morning and I had a somewhat sleepless night between my waning cold, thunder storms all night long, and just general excitement at banding. But the rains finished about 6 am followed by intense humidity.

Roger and Mark set up nets in three different areas: one near the feeders, one near a stand of pines that's full of birds, and one near a small pond. The banding conditions were not perfect. It was hot and humid (hello, it's October, it's supposed to be in the 50s in my neck of the woods), the winds were high (making it easier for birds to see the nets move), the falling leaves kept getting trapped in the nets. Above is a photo of Mark trying to get about 300 oak leaves out of the nets. They took two nets down and left one up by the feeding station.

Here is the first bird banded that day: a red-breasted nuthatch! Even though banding conditions weren't the best and with only one net, Mark and Roger managed to get band twenty-five birds (of five different species) before noon--and the feeder activity was unusually slow. Not bad!

We also got in one very feisty white-breasted nuthatch who did not care for my finger (or maybe just my green nail polish). When biting didn't seem to cause me any agony...

The nuthatch tried the clever and effective nip maneuver. Point taken, nuthatch, point taken.

At some point we had about four birds in the feeder nets at once. We would take the birds out of the nets, put them in a bag and then hang the bags on a string to await being processed. Since it was hot and humid, we had to move the bag hanging area to a more shady spot.

So, we hung them in a tree. Don't let his photo of a smiling Non Birding Bill with bags full of birds fool you. True to his identity in this blog, he showed little to no interest in the banding. He stopped out at one point and then went right back inside saying, "The excitement is too much, I need a nap."

I think the black-capped chickadees were the most common species banded that day. It seemed as soon as one got in the net and started protesting, three others would join in at the sound. Since there were so many, Mark and Roger let me band one:

Talk about pressure! I'm still learning how to do these little tiny songbirds, and I have to do it according to Roger and Mark's protocol.

They take more measurements than at Carpenter Nature Center. They do wing measurements, tail measurements, weight, and they measure individual feathers like primary wing feather 8 as well as trying to age and sex the birds. However, being just two guys, they do it quite quickly. I don't think any bird was in hand for more than five minutes.

They also blow on the body feathers to see if and where the bird is molting and to check for any fat stores the birds might have. Mark and Roger can predict when a flock of birds is about to leave an area based on their fat stores. Above is a goldfinch being blown on and if you look closely on the right of the exposed pink skin (which you can see through--that kind of grossed Lorraine out), you can see a bit of yellow--that is some fat this finch as stored up.

They ruffle the feathers on the head to see if there is any molting up there. Nice Eraserhead look. Don't worry about all the feather ruffling. One good rouse after they fly away puts all the feathers back into place.

We did have one goldfinch come in that appeared to show signs of either illness or not eating well. It was underweight to begin with and all the feathers on the head appeared appeared to have a crusty texture to them.

The bird's tail appears to be molting in late. It could be underweight with the molt or there could be something more serious going on. We're far from any rehabber and so we thought the best thing to do was let it loose and I will just stay on top of keeping the feeders clean and full of good food.

We did get one woodpecker in, this female downy woodpecker. There are usually dozens of woodpeckers at the feeders, but they were wary of the whole situation. We could hear the red-bellies calling from all corners of the yard, but none came to the feeding stations until late afternoon.

Mark and Roger showed me how dark the underside of her tail was--no doubt stained by tannins in tree bark. Woodpeckers use their stiff tails to prop themselves upright and white feathers are bound to get dirty. Based on this bird's molt pattern, Mark and Roger speculated that she was at least hatched in 2005. Pretty cool.

I was hoping we would get some of the fun birds (What am I saying! they're all fun! Let's say unusual) would come into the nets like tufted-titmice. But much like the red-bellied woodpeckers, these birds decided to avoid the feeding stations until late afternoon.

Purple finches managed to avoid the nets as well. The young of the family group are starting to show adult coloring--especially the males. More on these later.

Since it was so hot, Mark and Roger wrapped up the banding by noon--you don't want to risk birds sitting in the nets on a hot day for any extended period of time--bird safety is top priority. Later on Saturday, I was digiscoping and did find one or two of the banded birds. Here is one of the black-capped chickadees we banded. Perhaps this the one I banded? Even this morning, I saw a red-breasted nuthatch and goldfinch sporting the bands. It will be fun to watch which stick around this winter.

I'd like to thank Roger and Mark for taking the time out of their busy schedule to band birds. I hope they can come again. They are excited about the spring migration potential. Hopefully, next time it won't be 80 some degrees with high humidity.

Crow Cam Video

Thanks to New Scientist for getting the actual video up:

Blame The Cold Medicine

And Cute Overload because I just found it over there:



If you're wondering what it's singing, it's singing that it ate too much in the cute accent: "I ate too moishe."

Crow Cams

Miniature cameras have given scientists a rare glimpse into how New Caledonian crows behave in the wild.

The birds are renowned for their sophisticated tool-using ability, but until now, observing them in their natural habitat has proven difficult.

But specially designed "crow-cams" fitted to the birds' tails have shed light on the creatures, recording some tool-use never seen before.

The research is reported in the journal Science.

New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) are found on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia.

They can use their bills to whittle twigs and leaves into bug-grabbing implements; some believe their tool-use is so advanced that it rivals that of some primates.

You can read the rest of the story and see the camera at BBC News and there is also an article at National Geographic.

Lot Sicker Than I Thought

I went out to Mr. Neil's to make some nectar to feed the bees. Lorraine was out there too, busy working, but every time she saw me, she offered to make me tea. I think I looked and sounded so miserable, her care taking instincts kicked in and just wanted to give me some soothing tea. As I was feeding the bees, I began to sweat profusely beneath the bee suit--and it was a cool day, I shouldn't have been sweating. It then occurred to me that I might be sicker than I realized.

So, I left, stopped at the grocery store, loaded up on fruits for our juicer, came home, and started boiling a left over roasted chicken for some broth. And then slept.

I'm a bit better today, but I think I need more sleep. Now, here is the question:

Non Birding Bill believes our box of Disapproving Rabbits books that people have ordered on the website that I'm supposed to personalize will arrive today. Do I begin the personalization process today, or wait until I'm healthy so as to not risk shipping my germs to the people who ordered a book?

I Need A Blog Entry

And Non Birding Bill says that writing, "I'm siiiiiiiiiiick, pity me, pity me." would not be a good blog entry.

I'm really not that sick, just a cold--nothing that some whining won't cure. I'm going to go out to Mr. Neil's and feed the bees, there's no point in staying home, there's some kind of pipe situation going on in my apartment building. It started yesterday with one maintenance guy coming in and saying he needed to look at the bathroom. Then two guys came in and said they needed to make a small hole. Before the end of the day, I had five guys in my bathroom drilling on four different holes in my bathroom. They're going to come back this morning, so I figured that there's no way I'm going to get some rest by staying home, so might as well take advantage of the perfect fall temps outside, even if my nose is too stuffed to drink in the smell of dead leaves.

Some announcements:

Birdscaping Presentation Sponsored by the Twin Cities Chapter of Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes

October 6, 2007

Saturday, at 10 AM: Oxboro Public Library, 8801 Portland Ave. S, Bloomington will host Mariette Nowak, Milwaukee 'Wild Ones' member and author of recently released Birdscaping in the Midwest: A Guide to Gardening with Native Plants to Attract Birds will speak about what can be done in our yards and gardens to provide havens for our lovely permanent and migratory birds. Free; public invited.

I just got that email this morning and I'm not really familiar with Wild Ones so I went to their website. When you go to their webpage, there's an announcement for their annual conference and Ohio blogger Jim McCormac will be speaking, but take a look at the photo they have for him. Here's the link. That is not the Jim I know. I've met him and he's this big burly cute guy that's the life of the party. That photo makes him looks irritated, worried, and not the fun guy I know him to be. Couldn't they get a better photo of him?

In other news, there is a new website dedicated to Comfortable Birding For All. It lists birding sites where someone with mobility considerations might have an easier time visiting. It's a great idea and I'm sure they would be looking for input from other readers. Check it out.

And finally, have you noticed the Bird Watcher Buddy ad under " These companies help support this site!"? That's a new company that is a social networking site for birders. I'm all for that. You can use this site to find a romantic birding companion or platonic birding friendship. Since it's new, you can currently sign up for free. Thanks BWB for helping to support this site.

Cape May Birds and Beers!

As if Cape May Autumn Weekend weren't reason enough to visit New Jersey, or the first ever Bird Blog Conference, there's now another incentive: Birds and Beers--Cape May edition!

That's right, Friday night, October 26, 2007 at 8pm I'm hosting a Birds and Beers at the Jackson Mountain Cafe. Anyone interested in birds is welcome to attend--from the hard core to the beginner to everyone in between. If you want to meet some people, talk some birds and have a beverage or two, this it the place for you.

Here are the bird bloggers that I know are coming to Cape May for the bird festival that you could meet:

10,000 Birds
Beginning To Bird
Birdchick
Blue Lizard Birding Blog
Born Again Bird Watcher
Hasty Brook
Hawk Owl's Nest
Jeff Gyr
Lake Life
Life, Birds, and Everything also does (Birders On The Border)
Leica Birding Blog
Somewhere in NJ
Susan Gets Native
WildBird on the Fly

Man, this bird festival is going to get a lot of coverage and publicity!

Whoot!

I just remembered that it was during this festival last year that our then host service lost their servers and I was freaking out because my blog disappeared. That was some panic. And if you weren't a reader then, here's a link to one of our adventures during the festival.

There's still time to sign up for this weekend long birding party.

MN Pioneer Press Bee Article

We know it's not cell phones, in the scientific community, that was never a possibility.

I really like this article for not being so Chicken Little about it, the way most of the stories about Colony Collapse Disorder have been. You can read the full article at the Pioneer Press, but here is an excerpt:

A new ailment had emerged over the winter, causing bee colonies to mysteriously flee, and fueling scary stories about the vanishing honeybee - and the threat to crops that depend on bees for pollination.

But Minnesota's honeybees are still here. In fact, most honeybees thrived this summer, state beekeepers report. Minnesota's crops were richly pollinated. Apples, berries and pumpkins are abundant. There's even plenty of honey here in America's No. 5 honey-producing state.

David Ellingson, an Ortonville beekeeper and past president of the Minnesota Honey Producers, told Congress this spring about losing 65 percent of his bees while wintering in Texas. Now back in Minnesota, he's still having problems among his 3,400 hives.

"We did see probably 20 percent of our colonies go from excellent to poor, at the end of June and into July," Ellingson said. "Some of them have rebounded, and others have gone away."

Losing bee colonies is one of the gloomy facts of life for beekeepers, and over the years, bee losses have been worsening. Bee mites, viruses and pesticides have taken a toll.

"Twenty-five years ago, if you lost 5 to 7 percent of your bees (during the winter), that would be normal," Ellingson said. "But today, we look at normal as being 20 percent."

"We know it's not cell phones," said Katie Klett, a University of Minnesota bee specialist, who added that, "in the scientific community, that was never a possibility." But it did grab lots of media attention.

Since last spring, scientists have identified an imported virus that appears linked to collapsed colonies. They're also examining a long list of other suspects, including a class of insecticides and an array of bee diseases. Beekeeping practices are coming under scrutiny, too.

"We've got a 50-piece puzzle here, and we've only got 10 pieces that we know are going on," Ellingson said. "There's too many unknowns."

Klett, whose family runs a North Dakota farm breeding queen bees, said it suffered big losses in 2006. Yet 2007 was "the best year we've ever had," she said, with production "through the roof."

So it's a riddle and a concern. Winter will test the state's honeybees again. But thus far, they're hanging tough.

Falcon Medical Care

First up, a quick public service announcement:

Anyone missing an eclectus parrot in the Twin Cities area? One was found on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota and is now hanging out at The Raptor Center. If you're missing one, call TRC at 612-624-4745. The bird does not need a foster home or a new home, just looking for the owner.

A WORD OF WARNING: THIS POST MIGHT GET GROSS FOR SOME READERS! I was allowed in TRC's clinic this morning to observe a post operative exam of the injured falcon. We're going to see some of her injury, it might be kinda gross for those who have trouble with injections and medical procedures. There's not a copious amount of blood but there is a photo of some nasty looking bruising. If you think this might be too much to read while eating, quit reading after the broad-winged hawk photo.


Here's a new bird we're training in for educational programs at TRC, it's a first year broad-winged hawk. Don't let that cute cock of the head fool you, this bird is not sweet, it's a tad brain damaged. This bird was shot as a youngster in the nest in the Twin Cities area and still has the BBs in its head and somewhere in its back--hence the head tilt. We suspect that it has vision loss in its left eye (and possible hearing loss). When you look at it, the lights are on but there doesn't appear to be anyone home. I'm not sure if the shooting occurred by a bored kid or by someone who didn't take kindly to hawks nesting near their feeding station. However it happened, it was illegal and a shame.

When I came to TRC for my volunteer shift this morning, I did a quick verbal check to see if the peregrine we brought in on Saturday was still alive. I do educational programs and am not involved in the clinic. I know they are always busy in the clinic and didn't want to be underfoot to view the falcon myself. But, Alana, the vet working on the falcon, offered to give me a call when she was going to do a post operative check on the bird so I could take pictures and learn more about the injury.

They put the falcon under anesthesia in order to clean her surgical wounds and inspect her without stressing her out. Here is the X-Ray they took of her Saturday night. She had a compound fracture of her right leg. Know one know for sure how she got it. Did she bounce off of a car windshied? Did she crash land on pavement while hunting a pigeon? Did she hit a window on a building? Who can say?

Alana showed me where the fracture had pierced the skin and she had sutured that up. The bird really couldn't be in a better place for its injury, TRC specializes in avian orthopedic surgery.

So, Alana, cleared the feathers away from the leg (they don't shave 'em, they have to pull them out) and inserted pins to reset the bones. This is the falcon's X-ray after her surgery. There's a rod inside setting the bones straight that is connected to pins that go through the skin and are attached to another rod outside the leg to help stabilize the fracture while it heals.

Here's what it looks like from the outside. See the blue piece? That is the outside rod covered in surgical tape. If you look close, you can see the pins going into the skin that connect to the rod on the inside. Alana cleaned up that whole area to prevent infection. Note how green the flesh is on the leg? I asked if that was some type of medication--that's not what that is. That is bruising--raptors bruise green! I never knew that. So, for her type of injury, that color is normal. Alana said that some people will see that on a bird and mistakenly think it's gangrene but it's just a normal bruise. And I thought human bruises looked gross. Alana also said that when she first saw it, that told her the injury was three to five days old.

Feet are very important to birds--they use them when they are not flying. Even when sleeping, birds stand on one foot. Since this peregrine will be putting all her weight on one foot while her broken leg heals, she is at risk for an infection called bumblefoot. To prevent that, Alana put on some surgical tape to help cushion it the good food. They will keep a close eye on the foot when they check her bandages to prevent infection.

After her wounds were cleaned, the peregrine was given fluids. She had been starving and her weight was low. The above photo is the peregrine slowly coming out of anesthesia. Alana told the clinic volunteers that when she was awake, she was to get forty grams of quail. She wanted the bird to be hand fed to insure that she ate all the food. The volunteers carefully weighed out the quail and cut it up into bite sized pieces. The hope is that while you are holding the bird, someone can just hold forceps with meat to the beak and the bird will eat it. However, being in captivity and held by a human can stress the appetite right out of a bird and sometimes you have to force feed them. The volunteers were hoping that they didn't have to force feed the falcon. Here's a video of how she reacted to food:



Needless to say, she did not need to be force fed. If you're wondering why the dish is held in front of her, then removed, and then brought back to her, that's to help stimulate her to eat. If the meat just sits there, after a bite or two, the bird can lose interest and just play with the dish. But when the dish is removed and suddenly reappears with meat, the bird's food instinct kicks in and it takes a bite. Kind of an ADD thing. Sorry to everyone who can't view video. I tried to get a photo:

She's so fast that it came out blurry, but you get the idea.

This is the inside of the crate she is staying in. The clinic volunteers made a sort of donut shape for her to lean into so she doesn't have to put weight on her feet, but when she was put inside, she decided to stand. I didn't get any photos once she was in, she had more than enough paparazzi for the day and needs to recover.

And I should mention that she is getting all of this first rate medical care without health insurance. I've never met a raptor who has any kind of health policy. TRC survives on donations, and if you are feeling inclined to spend a few dollars, please consider donating a buck or two to TRC in her honor. She's case number 568.

I will make updates on her progress as I hear about them--good or bad. She still has many obstacles to overcome, but if a bird can survive the first twenty-four hours in the TRC clinic, their chances of recovery greatly increase. If she does end up having to be euthanized, at least she's being made as comfortable as possible and being well fed as opposed to starving over several days with a painful injury.

Injured Peregrine Update Case #568

I just checked in at The Raptor Center about the injured peregrine falcon our bird field trip picked up on Saturday and there's some optimistic news: she's still alive! She has gone through surgery to repair her broken leg. Dr. Lori Arent said that it's way too early to tell how she will recover, but so far she looks good. At the very least, she's not starving and is being well fed during her recovery.

White Pollen Mystery

Some may remember that I blogged about some of our bees coming back to the hive with white pollen and wondering where it was coming from. Well, Michele may have the answer:

If you look on the bottom flower here you can clearly see someone has left behind a trail of while pollen. :) This is ipomoea purpurea or common morning glory. Bindweed, a member of the same family that has smaller white flowers and grows tenatiously also appears to have white pollen. Both are hard in zones 3-8. This picture is from my yard. Here in my neighborhood they are everywhere.

Thanks, Michele!

fm 107

For you early risers, they haven't given away all the copies of Disapproving Rabbits yet on Ian and Margery. I just got an email that more are going to be given away after 7am.

Wet Wild Duluth Bird Trip

That's our wind swept field trip from this past Saturday. One of the fun things about leading trips to Hawk Ridge in Duluth, MN is that when the weather is right and you get winds out of the northwest, you get a fabulous trip with gorgeous weather and see thousands of hawks. Alas, you cannot as of yet demand these days from Mother Nature and I had a reminder of that on Saturday when I led a trip with Stan Tekiela. Weather prediction: rain and winds out of the southeast.

It was raining at Frank Taylor's hawk banding station, our first stop. I warned our group that on wet and rainy days, those are guaranteed peregrine falcon days. Sure, we wouldn't see the thousands of hawks flying over in migration that Duluth is known for, but boy howdy, these types of days guarantee a peregrine sighting. They are a bird that relies more on powered flight and can fly in any type of weather, unlike the the other hawks that are looking to glide on thermals. Little did I know how right I would be this day. When we arrived, we found a group huddled around a passage peregrine falcon female that had just come into the nets.

When they took her out of the nets, it was discovered that she had a broken leg--that's not how I wanted our group to get their guaranteed peregrine on a rainy day. Fortunately, several members of the Minnesota Falconers Association were at Frank's blind and talents were available for triage. Thanks to some painter's tape, a stick, panty hose, and a falconer's hood, her leg was set, she was secure to avoid further injury, and she was ready to go to a rehab facility. Since our group was heading back to the Twin Cities that day, we offered to take her to The Raptor Center on our way home. Wow! A bird trip and injured bird transport service all in one! I'll find out on Tuesday when I volunteer at TRC if she is still alive. The break looked to be a few days old and she was very thin, you could feel her sharp keel.

The falconers had put a hood on her to keep her calm. When birds can't see what's going on or if they are in the dark, they stay calm and relaxed. She worked off her hood, but fortunately we had a box with a lid so she could stay in a dark spot and be calm. Note how light her head is? I think that is a tundrius subspecies of peregrine, meaning she was probably hatched in or near the Arctic. No one can know for sure since she didn't have a band, but considering that it's migration and the tundrius is a migratory subspecies and a paler form, it is a good guess. Hope she makes it, but if not, at least she didn't have to starve and suffer for several days before finally coming to an end.

Despite the pouring rain, some sharp-shinned hawks did come into the nets, including this beautiful adult. I was glad that our group got to experience watching at least one bird fly into the nets.

Okay, is this not the most adorable photo of Hasty Brook? At one point there were two sharp-shins and Frank gave one to me to hold while he got the blinds back up and he was picking who would be the lucky ones to release them. I gave Hasty Brook the hawk to hold for a minute. Look at the excitement in those eyes.

And I made sure everyone in our group had a chance to stop and smell the birds. It's not every day that you have a chance to smell a wet bird. I love the way birds smell.

Frank was so gracious to show us around and how his nets are set up despite the rain. I also have to say that the people in our group were real troopers to put with it at well.

Here are some members of our group releasing a couple of sharp-shinned hawks in the rain.

After Frank's blind, we headed to Hawk Ridge proper and the sun came out just as we arrived--a chance to dry out. We got to see some hawk movement and several white-throated sparrows hanging around the bushes. I have to give some major bonus points to the staff at Hawk Ridge this year. They have shirts...in girl sizes... and they look cute. I highly recommend checking out their gift shop--if not for helping support the Ridge, if in support of cute bird shirts for girls that flatter our figures.

Just as our group was about to leave, one of the Hawk Ridge staff told me that a red-tailed hawk was coming out from their banding station and our group could have a chance to see that up close. Though we didn't see a ton of species, we were getting to see some up close view of some really awesome hawks. I got this shot of the hawk being released. I love the few feathers hanging in the air as the bird flies away.

From Hawk Ridge, we headed down to Park Point. The clouds came in and the winds were high off of Lake Superior. The great thing about Park Point is that usually when the weather is crap at the Ridge, the birding is great along the shore.

We did find some black-bellied plovers in fall plumage running around on the beach of Lake Superior. When we first spotted them, we weren't sure if they were black-bellied plovers or American golden plovers--the look similar and both are possible this time of year. Eventually, they flew and we could see their "black armpits" confirming them as black-bellied plovers.

Again, I have to stress what troopers our participants were. It's not easy to go running hither and yon in a rainy day looking for birds, but they stuck with us, made several jokes, saw some cool birds, and help transport an injured falcon to medical help. Job well done in my book.

Disapproving Rabbits Book Give Away fm107

Sorry about the lack of weekend posts. Things are really getting busy this fall as far as where I'm going, what I'm doing and promoting the Disapproving Rabbits book. I've spent Sunday and the better part of Monday trying to get myself together and organized and sift through a mountain of email.

In quick Disapproving Rabbits info, we do our first radio interview for the book tomorrow morning on fm107's Ian and Margery show. They are doing a book give away (I have no idea how, but they have managed to get five copies, I've only been able to get one so far). The good news is that they stream live on the Internet so you can listen anywhere there is an internet connection. The bad news is that the segment is scheduled for 5:50am (Minnesota time). Ugh! So, if you want to get up SUPER early to try and win a book, Tuesday morning is your chance.

In other news, Disapproving Rabbits now has a permalink on Cute Overload--and I am SO honored--love that site!

Mark your calendars, we are going to have a book release party at Dream Haven Books in Minneapolis on Friday, November 2, 2007 at 6:30pm. I'm so honored, I once met Douglas Adams here (and talked to him about birds). Another big incentive to come: there will be live bunnies!! You can meet Cinnamon in person and get a personalized disapproval. Not only that, but the Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society will be on hand with foster bunnies--so if you don't like the book, donate the money to needy homeless rabbits.

And finally, you can catch Cinnamon in a rare moment of approval over at Laura Erickson's blog. She's looking for photos of people and her book 101 Way to Help Birds. Have a book and a camera? Send her your photo.