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!