Before A Storm?

And now, Birdchick.com presents:

SQUIRRELS ON ICE! I really don't know where I'm going with that. But there were quite a few squirrels sliding across the ice at Hyland Lake Park Reserve today.

Will there be a storm on Saturday? Since Wednesday, Twin Cities weather people have been warning about our first winter snow storm. The warnings have become more dire in the last few days. Even today the reports have been fluctuating. This morning the report was probably 2", maybe a slight chance of 5" of snow. Tonight, the storm watch has gone to storm warning with predicted amounts of snow being 5" to 9". What will it be? Not sure, when they over predict, we have very little. However, I'd love a good solid layer of snow. The goldfinch in the above photo seems to be wondering as much as I how much snow we will get.

I headed to Hyland to see what the bird activity was like at the bird feeders--a good indicator of what changes will come with the weather. This suet feeder in the above photo was in high demand. Above, you will note a downy woodpecker.

The downy was first chased away by a larger hairy woodpecker. That woodpecker was chased away by the above blue jay. But soon, that bird fled as well:

A gray squirrel took over the suet and would not let any creature--hairy, feathered or otherwise to get between eat and large chunks of animal fat. That's a sure sign that a storm is a comin'.

I spent the rest of the time getting strange photos of cardinals. This shot isn't so bad, the bird looks fairy normal...then he decides to show off his good side: Here you go, random cardinal butt. However, not to be out done:

A chickadee flew in to show off the junk in its trunk.

The female cardinal looks as though she doesn't approve of that.

Don't Know Who To Root For...

Courtesy of I Can Has Cheezburger:


moar funny pictures

Calling All Birders In The Western US

This morning, I drove Non Birding Bill into work (it was 6 degrees, I couldn't let him stand at a bus stop). After I dropped him off, we took a two mile walk among all the skyways around Minneapolis. I kept half an eye out for zooming peregrines in downtown, but didn't see any. On my way back home, I large dark bird burst from one of the neighborhoods and zipped in front of my car. Just as I thought to myself, "Wow, that's a shallow wing beat...is that a peregrine?" the bird descended upon a KMart parking lot inciting a cloud burst of pigeons into the air--so cool! It banked and you could see the clear silhouette of a peregrine--so weird to see that in front a KMart logo.

So, when I came back from my trip to Indiana, I was sifting bleary eyed through my email and regular commenter HellZiggy took some photos of birds of California and wondered if I could confirm the id. I glanced at them and saw that one of the photos was a gull. I felt like Indiana Jones when he was looking for the Arc and discovered it was in a pit surrounded by snakes. "Gulls, why did it have to be gulls." So, rather than me fumbling through and risking my poor gulling skills giving her incorrect info, I thought I would post the photos here--with my answers and those who live out west (or anywhere who can id these birds) can confirm or correct. Sound good? Here we go:

I'm saying double-crested cormorant on this one. That pouch under the bill looks like a double-crested.

I'm guessing western gull on this one, but really I'm not so sure on my gull id.

I'm guessing Anna's hummingbird, but I live in the land of one hummingbird species that is only here for six months. Hummer experts--care to help?

Ack! A shorebird, I'm still working on that, but I'll give it a go. Now, here is what is tough--there are no other shorebirds in the photo to compare it to as far as size and shape and it's not a video, so we can't use it's behavior to narrow the field. I'm guessing that this is either a western sandpiper or sanderling. So, if I'm going to pinned down, I'm going to guess sanderling because I'm not seeing a hind toe and sanderlings don't have a hind toe and westerns do. I tried doing a bill comparison, but honestly to my eyes, I just cannot see that much difference between a western's bill and a sanderling bill. I leave that to the shorebird experts out there.

So, what do you think these birds are?

2007 Birdchick Holiday Gift Guide

Gifts for birders. Gifts for bird watchers. Gifts for people interested in nature.

Well, it's that time of year when I round up interesting books and gift ideas for the bird person in your life. In the past, I have organized this into something along the lines of beginners, intermediate, hard-core, etc. But many of the items fall into more than one category. I'll make notations if something is especially right for a particular type of birder. For the record, I have not been asked or paid to endorse any of the products on the list, these are just items that are new or a little different from last year that I think are nifty. If there is something that you have found that is not on this list, feel free to add to it in the comments section (complete with link).

Socks

There was a post earlier this year about all my bird stuff that I have and socks were of particular interest. Two great companies to check out for fun bird socks are For Bare Feet and Wheelhouse Designs. Many of the designs can be found at your local wild bird specialty store, but if there isn't one in your area, you can try their websites.

Jewelry

Bamboo Jewelry make some great birds and other wildlife necklaces. Now, here is the weird part, it's called Bamboo Jewelry, but not of the items are made from bamboo...they just come in bamboo boxes. The make earrings, pendants, and necklaces of birds, butterflies, moths, koi (the koi really is spectacular), dragonflies, and other wildlife. Some of my favorites include the luna moth necklace, the mourning cloak necklace, and the puffins and pelicans. But really, it's all pretty cool.

Non Birding Bill just picked up a really cool bracelet for me from a Twin Cities store called Heavenly Soles by company called Hotcakes Design. He got the bright birds in the large bracelet, but the company makes some really cool necklaces and rings.

Books

BIRD: The Definitive Visual Guide--This is a large pictorial book from Audubon. It's not what I would call the end all be all of field guides, but for a general over view of the world species--it's not bad. It doesn't have every possible species, but if you're curious about what a honeycreeper looks like, you'll find it in this book. I would recommend this book for a beginner or intermediate birder or someone who is mildly interested in birds. I would even give this to a kid who has a growing interest in birds, the information is presented with lots of photos, and not in bites as opposed to overwhelming and boring text. I would not get this book for someone who is fanatical about birding or very hardcore into research. One puzzling thing...it features over 1000 species in the book and comes with an audio CD of about 60 birds. There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to the CD, it's almost as if one of the editors discovered about 60 bird calls they didn't have to pay the rights to, so it's not clear how to use the CD with the book--but a minor criticism for an overall ok book.

Oology & Ralph's Talking Eggs by Carrol Henderson--This is a fun little book that starts with the author's visit to a neighbor's boarded up farmhouse that is full of old wildlife mounts and cabinets of eggs from around the world. It was an egg collection started in the early 1900s, back when it was legal and all the eggs were documented from what species and location they were collected. Henderson goes back to document and photograph the eggs and begins a study of oology (egg collecting) and how it figured into modern conservation and bird watching. Photos of eggs and early birding material, fascinating information along with an easy to read narrative makes this a great gift for any birder at any skill level. One of my favorite books of the year.

Of A Feather by Scott Weidensaul--Along the lines of Henderson's book we have a brief history of bird watching in North America from the days when birds were observed when they were properly shot to now with listing and big years almost the norm for a North American birder. If you wonder who was the Bendire behind Bendire's thrasher was or funny story about the first time Jeff Bouton met Roger Tory Peterson (or see a photo of Kenn Kaufman looking like an uber-hippy), this is it. Weidensaul books are always high on my list to read and this one does not disappoint. This is another book with an easy to read writing style and I would recommend it for beginner, intermediate, or hardcore birder.

National Geographic Birding Essentials--When I first saw this book, I thought, "Oh please, do we really need another book to tell someone how to watch birds?" In the past, they had been text heavy, poorly illustrated, and boring. I gotta say, this one isn't bad at all. First, they use photos to point out things like primaries and secondaries (if you read that and though "Huh?" you need this book). It's an easy to read structure and format. It covers most topics that someone new to birding might have and be too afraid to ask on a listserv or a field trip leader. I would give this to a beginner, even kids and possibly an intermediate birder. I would also give this as a gag gift to a hardcore birder, just for pure amusement to watch their face contort in consternation when they unwrap it.

Gadgets

birdJam has some fun new stuff going on, even if you already have it on your iPod. birdJam is software for your iPod that organizes your Stokes bird call CDs. If you already have it, do keep in mind that there have been some upgrades in the last year. They've added photos and new playlists which should be free if you've already purchased the software for your iPod--I discovered in November that I didn't pay attention to the updates and was missing out on some fun playlists an photo. Also, birdJam now supports—on Windows—the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's "Bird Songs of Southeastern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico" and there are plans to add Costa Rica and Ecuador soon.

Subscriptions and Memberships

There are so many bird clubs and publications out there, that I for one just cannot keep up. Someone was on my case the other day about letting a membership lapse and I mentioned all the memberships I have and how it adds up:

Minnesota Ornithologists' Union: $25
American Birding Association: $45
Cornell Lab Of Ornithology: $35
WildBird Magazine: $12.99
Bird Watcher's Digest: $19.99
Birder's World: $26.95

That's $164.93! And this really is just the tip of the iceberg, there are so many other obscure birding publications that I like to get that it can easily get past $200 a year (and this doesn't include my non bird related reading--Cosmo Quiz anyone?). I would totally love it, if someone paid a subscription or membership for a year. So consider the memberships above for the birder in your life--even if you suspect they may already get that publication, getting a bonus year is always a great thing.

Another great membership is Birds of North America Online--this is so much for a bird enthusiast of any age--so long as they can read and surf the net. It's an online account of every species in North America. Each species is written by the expert in that field and because the information is online, new and updated data is added regularly. Got a question about black-capped chickadee egg incubation--check BNA. You can sign someone up for a yearly membership or just for a few months. It's an in depth online field guide with photo, audio, and in some cases video. A fantastic resource!

And there is also the idea of getting someone a Duck Stamp (aka Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamps). The money from purchase of the stamps is used to acquire habitat for waterfowl but that benefits many species of birds including warblers, sparrows, herons, grebes, and shorebirds.

Bird Feeding

I figured it was a matter of time until someone had it and sure enough, Duncraft is offering a Seed by the Month Subscription...the gift that keeps on giving!

Squirrel-Off is offering a solar powered squirrel zapping bird feeder. It gives a mild shock to squirrels, but does not bother the birds. We've had one hanging out at Carpenter Nature Center, the birds love it and the squirrels have been properly zapped.

Toys

A 17" latex vulture...maybe I'm the only one who wants this...there's also a 9" latex penguin.

What else are people seeing out there?

Fun With An Indoor Cat

Here is my Mom's following the bouncing Disapproving Rabbit (you might want your computer on mute so you don't have to hear my big ole donkey laugh):



You can also get a low down of the book signing at that we had at Big Hat Books in Indianapolis.

Birds and Beers

Holy Crap!

Thanks to some alert readers who emailed me a reminder (can you tell by the entries so far that I'm cleaning out my email box?) that this Thursday, November 29 at 6pm is Birds and Beers at Merlin's Rest!

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. Hope you can come! This Saturday is the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union Paper Session (aka annual gathering)--we can talk about that! Speaking of that, I'll be giving a presentation on Techno Birding--how technology is working it's way into the average birder's life. I have to say, I'm really honored to be giving a presentation there, something that I've always wanted to do. Plus it's always fun to catch up with Minnesota birders and to take advantage of the annual book sale--what old book or publication will I find this time?

Goose Games? What The Duck? Imprinted Birds

Sigh. So, I haven't been filling my feeders because of some mice that are trying to share our humble little one bedroom apartment. We've trapped them (I think there is one free roaming mouse left) but with the single digit temperatures this morning, I just had to fill the bird feeders. I wasn't expecting much, the feeders have been empty well over a month, so I was expecting the bird activity to take a few days to resume. Oh no, within ten minutes a blue jay showed up--setting off our dear little cockatiel alarm system. Yes, screechy bird, I hear you, I am now very well aware that there is a blue jay outside.

So, imprinted birds seems to be a theme in my email inbox. My friend Amy sent this question along with a link to some photos:

Today there was a duck (female I think) hanging out by the entrance to our building. She would huddle next to the door and would let people in and out but by all appearances it looked as if she wanted in. She ended up finally flying away at sunset but was at the doorway all day. Any ideas why a duck would do this? I took some photos here.

I think this bird is imprinted on humans. People will get duck and goose chicks from game farms (or find them in the wild when they have been separated from their family group) and raise them and release them. The problem is that when the birds are young, they imprint on what they see leading them around providing them food. They look at that and process, "Okay, this creature must be what I am, so I will use it as a guide to find food, a mate, safety, etc." When people release the birds in the wild, the ducks and geese will have a "Holy Crap" moment. The flock is gone, how will they find food and safety so they seek out what they think will be food and safety--other humans. The other problem is that, people don't train ducks and geese what are predators. They don't have a good idea about foxes, coyotes, mink, raptors so they are very vulnerable to predators. I think Amy's duck was trying to get inside the building looking for food and warmth.

I don't begrudge people wanting game farm chicks (look at those cute little goslings above--how could you resist that?), if those birds are going to live out their life on that person's property--that's great. But I am not a fan of schools and families raising waterfowl for release in the wild. I just don't think those birds have all the tools they need for survival.

If you would like to watch a narrated slide show (worth it for the very thick Minnesota accent heard in the narration) about a family who raised some Canada geese from a game farm and now play "goose games" with their Lincoln Town Car, then check out this link from the Minneapolis Star Tribune Pursuit of Happiness Series.

Completely Unrelated

We just got back into town last night. When we arrived in Minnesota, it was about 30 degrees. A very pleasant temperature to ease us into winter. This morning I woke up and the radio weather guy said that the high today was 21 degrees...the current temperature being 3 degrees with a windchill of -12 degrees. Yikes! No, I'm not ready, that's January weather...

So, here are some odds and ends to make you smile: Here's an artist who takes found objects and turns them into arty vingettes. Here's Bye Bye Birdie and Scissor Bird. The non bird related stuff is very worthwhile, and you can find more at Bent Objects. I think my favorite is Ending a Dysfunctional Relationship.

Holy Crap, someone made a coot look cute over at CuteOverload. Who knew?

Those reading the blog with kids, may want to check this next link alone first, so you can prepare yourself for some 'splainin' to do. All I can say is that this is bird news from my buddy Olga.

More Odds and Ends

I keep trying to get photos of my mom's Carolina wrens but they are not cooperating...she does have goldfinches that pose endlessly.

So, while checking my bird news this morning, I came across an article about Geobirds. I had been kind of aware of it but haven't checked it, but the article got my attention with: "Geobirds (www.geobirds.com) is a multifaceted site -- part Facebook for bird nerds, part electronic field guide -- that promises to take birdwatching into cyberspace." I was intrigued by the Facebook part (not so much the bird nerd part--so tired of that moniker) but alas I don't appear to be able to do fun things like become different animals and battle friends, send growing gifts, or take quizzes. One feature the site has is a brush and color wheel so if you see a bird you can't id, you can try and figure it out. I tried to do it with the bird in the above photo, and it did come up with goldfinch but only confirmed it with a male in adult plumage.

Cinnamon's tv appearance went well, although here is a photo of Cinnamon disapproving of the morning show producer, Becky. As you can see, the producer took it hard.

Speaking of Cinnamon, Mom's cats have decided to seek out shelter under the guest bed until the reign of terror that is my rabbit leaves the area.

Odds And Ends

This entry is brought to you by the amazing levitating nuthatch--ooooooOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo. Ahhhhhhh.

Well, Non Birding Bill, Cinnamon, Kabuki, and I have all made the long car trip from Minneapolis to Indianapolis without incident. Cinnamon has been here before and is just loving running around Mom's condo--it's carpeted. She popcorned (or binkied) all over the living room. My mom has two cats who are quite afraid of Cinnamon. I don't know why, but here is an example:



See what I mean? What a wuss!

This will be good, Cinnamon will be in a great mood before her tv appearance and signing. If you're in the Indianapolis area Saturday, watch WISH TV between 8:30am - 9am or come say hi and get your own personal disapproval at Big Hat Books at 4pm. You can also see how short my mother is--if you think I'm short, she's even tinier. We'll also have the great folks from the Indiana House Rabbit Society on hand with live bunnies. Live bunnies and books--what could be a better combo?

I'm trying to sift through my email and found the following message from Lorraine:

"uh, I found a frozen bird in a bag in our freezer today. Not the
kind you eat. Did anyone mention this to you or is it yours? Just
curious....."

When I find a freshly killed bird that is still fairly in tact, I will freeze it and take it with me to donate the Bell Museum. Last time I was out her way, a junco had hit the window and I put it in the freezer to take with me when I left...and forgot. Oops. I'm so lucky to have friends who put with my weird ways. NBB still has not gotten used to frozen birds in the freezer.

Speaking of NBB, I forgot to mention that he got one heck of an honor. A couple of months ago, I got an email from the editor of The Albatross, the newsletter for the Santa Cruz Bird Club. She wanted to use an excerpt from my blog in their newsletter. I was honored and excited and then I noticed which entry they wanted to use. It was the Brown Bird entry that my darling husband wrote while guest blogging for me. He's now getting no end of enjoyment lording over my head that he's been published in The Albatross and I have not. Sigh. I am proud of him and I wonder how long he's going to keep being a non birder--I mean, c'mon, he's now been published in a bird publication...what's next, giving a paper at the next American Ornithologists' Union Conference??

Happy Naked Thanksgiving

Cinnamon likes to pull open a can of pumpkin and celebrate:



On a side note, I would just like to express to everyone out there how grateful I am to you for visiting the blog and for all the support I get from you guys with each blog post. I'm so grateful to everyone who checks in and for all the support. You guys make it fun to log on.

LOL Owl

An homage to I Can Haz Cheezburger, how many people get this reference?

I Needed Today

I was feelin' a tad stressed yesterday. Some of it travel related, some of it scheduling related, some of it money related, some of it deadline related, some of it work related, some of it book related--blah, blah, blah, blah, BLEH. It was to the point where I was even having trouble sleeping, where you wake up in the middle of the night and have even more irrational worries like, "I need to lose ten pounds." or "Am I going to have time to buy pickles and a baguette before Thursday?"--just ridiculous crap. And then I had today and realized that in the end, life is really cool.

I had my shift at The Raptor Center today.

First up, injured peregrine falcon number 568 is doing really well! She was very feisty when I took this photo right before her examination this morning. Her pins are out and her bone has healed.

Alana, who was her original vet has left The Raptor Center--it's a teaching hospital so there is a steady rotation of vets. The peregrine is now in the care of Dr. Mitch (in green on the left, who has been at The Raptor Center all of 9 days). Today, Dr. Julia Ponder (Executive Director and Vet) also checked on the peregrine with Dr. Mitch to make sure that the healed leg fracture was stable.

The doctors tested both legs to make sure that the fracture healed properly and that the leg wasn't sticking out at an odd angle. After that, Dr. Mitch and Dr. Ponder gave her a sort of falcon pedicure, by sloughing off any tape or medication residue on her toes. The big news is that the healed fracture looks stable and after the Thanksgiving Holiday, our injured falcon will be moved to a flight room with other peregrines--hopefully she will get along with the other peregrines in there and get used to moving around in a larger space! If all goes well, she will move on to flight training. What great news!

As if that wasn't great news enough, I got to give an All About Owls program. Most of the time at The Raptor Center I do a general Raptors of Minnesota program but periodically, groups will request something specific like owls, falconry, eagles, or just about anything. It's fun to break out of the routine. The group was very into it and there was 5th grade boy who knew almost all the owls that I brought out. The only one he missed was the above bird. He called it a ferruginous pygmy owl. Even though the bird is actually an eastern screech owl, I gave him props for even knowing that there is such a species as a pygmy owl.

After the program I got a chance to feed our education barn owl on my gloved hand. There's something relaxing about having a bird feel comfortable enough to eat while perched on your arm, you can't help but feel honored. It's also a fun opportunity to observe the birds at close range. I love getting lost in the stiff feathers on an owls facial disc.

All in all, not a bad day.

Mystery Bird

A bird that was photographed in Tennessee that appears to be a partial albino has birders guessing. The person who observed the bird said it was about 6" in length. It did appear
to have a tuft but does not look exactly like a tufted titmouse. It was spotted near a bird feeder. Do you have any ideas? So far some of the top birders have suggested tufted titmouse, Carolina chickadee, Junco, blue jay, or blue-gray gnatcatcher.

I was thinking either titmouse or chickadee myself.

Local Birds

After all the exotics in Texas, I was kind of jonesing to spend some time watching the usual suspects around Minnesota feeding stations. I'm dealing with a minor mouse issue in our apartment, so I've let my own feeders go empty. We headed to Mr. Neil's yesterday and his feeders have also gone empty because of a minor chipmunk issue. When I had been there about three weeks ago, the woods were chock full of activity with pine siskins, purple finches, juncos, and the other expected species. Yesterday, it was eerily silent...except for the non stop booming of rifles of deer season. I filled the feeders and gradual activity resumed, but not in time for photos. All of the images in this blog entry came from a quick stop at Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge this morning.

The visitor center is closed on Mondays, but you can still watch the feeders from outside, as well as take the trails. I'm not sure if it was because it was Monday and things were closed, but they only had their platform feeders out (not the super cool peanut feeder they had up last winter) and the platform feeder was empty--note the disappointed nuthatch above.

But fortunately, I'm the kind of crazy person who keeps a bag of bird seed in the car just for such an occasion--note the shocked look of the nuthatch in the above photo. So, I grabbed the mug from my car's emergency kit and tossed some seed into the feeders.

Chickadees came out of the woodwork--zipping in all over. I love that point at a feeding station when birds are coming from all directions and you don't know where to look next, it's just a constant flow of a activity. At one point, every time I took a photo with my digital camera through the scope, the image that came up would be a different bird: chickadee, nuthatch, two chickadees, downy woodpecker, nuthatch, chickadee.

Look--bookend chickadees! I really needed the relaxation, I'm getting edgy about travel this coming weekend. We normally stay home and Non Birding Bill have our little Naked Thanksgiving, avoiding all the holiday cranky and cramped travel. But, we're doing the Disapproving Rabbits book signing at Big Hat Books on Saturday at 4pm. So, we'll have Thursday for our celebration, but Friday we drive to Indianapolis--and there's supposed to be a storm in the Midwest--including Indiana. But I'm looking forward to meeting the folks form the Indian House Rabbit Society who will be at the signing.

Now the black-capped chickadees are facing out at the same time--perhaps this is a little Tomax & Xamot action going on?

So, here's a video of all the bird action going on, just at this small corner of the feeder. You can hears some goldfinches chipping the back ground. Not long after I took the video, a northern shrike flew in (it didn't stick around long enough for the photo) but I have to say that I have seen so many shrikes this fall, I think this is the most I've seen this time of year, so keep your eyes open around the feeders.

Final Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival Post

Really, it is. I swear. At least for this year.

Banding was slow today at Carpenter Nature Center and I spent the morning talking to the Development Director while she repaired nets. Fortunately, I had a chance to observe some banding while at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival. Once again, a Sunday morning trip was scheduled to watch bander Mark Conway (that's Mark in the above photo banding a kiskadee) and his assistants band birds at Los Ebanos Preserve.

Here's a closer shot of the kiskadee Mark was banding. Something interesting that I learned was that all kiskadees have a yellow gape.

I took a photo of one earlier in the festival and I had never noticed that before and thought it was a young bird, but all kiskadees of all ages have that yellow outline at the corners of their mouths.

The first bird of the morning wast a gray phase eastern screech owl. The banders weren't targeting owls, but they had the nets up at not long after dawn and this bird was just flying through and flew into the net.

Here is a long-billed thrasher which I hear way more than see in when birding in South Texas. That bill is not deformed, that's the way they are.

The best part of the day was getting to see a green jay up close. Last year they banded quite a few and I figured that green jays were par for the course.

But Mark said that they don't get green jays in the nets very often as they are members of the corvid family and very intelligent. They had not banded at Los Ebanos recently so the birds were just not used to it.

Mark said that this set a record for the most green jays that they have ever caught in a day: 9 green jays banded--and I never got tired of them.

Another exciting bird of the day was an olive sparrow--one of the hardest birds to see, you hear them quite a bit. I was glad to have a chance to get this photo because, frankly, my earlier efforts were just plain sad:

Behind all those tiny branches lurks an olive sparrow at Llano Grande. This was not bad, just finding an olive sparrow sitting on a branch long enough to aim your scope and camera is feat within itself.

Here, Mark is holding an orange-crowned warbler. These guys are all over in the trees in south Texas this time of year. They're not an easy warbler to see, so when a guide finds one, I think people hear warbler and hope for an exciting/colorful bird. As they search and search, they'll say, "I see a small brownish bird..." Yep, that's the orange-crowned. It's not even as orange as a blackburnian warbler. You may be wondering to yourself, why this bird is called an orange-crowned warbler...

Here, Mark demonstrates the name. When you hold and orange-crowned warbler about six inches from your face and blow on its crown, you can see a kind of orangish color on the underside of the crest feathers--see how obvious that is? Another one of those birds that was named when bird watching was done with a gun, not with binoculars.

Here are one of the many great-tailed grackles in the area. When you get them in the sun, they really are a striking bird. You can hear great-taileds singing all over Harlingen, any time of day--even all night long when they are roosting in the trees--how do those guys get any rest?

They do sound incredibly mechanical as opposed to musical. I wonder how that adaptation sounded, and what must have early explorers to North America have thought hearing those things chatter all night in the trees above them?

There was also a very exciting bird into the nets--a common yellowthroat, which to Mark are not common but something to study in depth. He thinks that there is an isolated population of yellowthroats that could be a subspecies that he calls the Brownsville yellowthroat. Will there a split some day separating this species of yellowthroat from the rest of the common yellowthroats seen around the United States? If so, Mark will have been instrumental in that research.

Okay, this doesn't have too much to do with banding, but there were quite a few anoles running around during the banding program and this guy with the wavy tail caught my eye. I wondered what happened to make it look like that? Did appear to slow it down in its daily travels.

And so, I leave you wit one final green jay photo, because they are just so darn cool looking. I'm very excited, it looks like we will be able to go out with Mark one day on the South Texas trip next year, which would be awesome for the group and great for me to learn different banding techniques from different people.

Mistrial In Jim Stevenson Cat Killing Case

This just in: the judge declared a mistrial in the case involving the birder who admitting shooting a cat he felt was feral and threatening a population of endangered piping plovers.

I think stupidity was exhibited on all sides of this case. The Birder in Question could have found other options besides blatantly shooting the cat. He could have been more discreet in killing it, he could have live trapped them and dropped them at a no kill shelter, he could have talked with bridge workers to find a solution to remove the cats and protect the plovers. He just took matters into his own hands, somewhat vigilante style.

The big issue was whether or not the cat in question was feral. In Texas it's legal to shoot and kill a feral cat, but not legal to shoot and kill a pet cat. A toll-booth employee, John Newland argued that he "owned" all the cats around the bridge because he put food out for them and toys. However, he never paid for the cats and never brought them inside his home. Newland also mentioned in one of his many interviews that he had noticed at least 10 cats that had been shot dead around the area--call me crazy, but as a responsible pet owner, if you see pets being killed in your area--you protect your pet, you bring them inside. Why isn't he being brought up on charges for encouraging non native/invasive predators around endangered species?

And the media seems more interested in portraying the whole thing as bird lovers vs cat lovers. It's more interesting to them to tell the story about some wacky bird watcher went so over the edge in his love for birds that he bought a gun and killed a cat.

Even though it appears the The Birder in Question is avoiding jail time and a fine, I can't imagine what his legal fees will be from this--possibly more than the fine. I don't know if this really did anything to further the cause of protecting birds from feral cats.

I And The Bird

I and the Bird is up and running. For those new to the blog, I and the Bird is a Carnival or a collection of blog entries from various bloggers. It's great way to discover new blogs out there or ones that have been around that you have never experienced.

It runs the gamut from a few of us reporting on the Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest (Amy got a baby javelina photo--I is sooooooooo jealous!) to slowed down bird calls to the evolution of bird claws. Cool stuff.

Disapproving Rabbits In Indy

This is a photo by John Rubbo, the official photographer of the Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society. He took this at the DreamHaven Book Release party.

Well, we have a whirlwind trip to Indianapolis coming up next week. Cinnamon and I will be on Daybreak Saturday Morning on WISH TV sometime between 8:30am - 9am. That afternoon, we'll be doing a book signing at Big Hat Books at 4pm. Members of the Indiana House Rabbit Society will be on hand with literature about whether or not a rabbit is the right pet for you and have live foster bunnies.

I don't think I can manage a Birds and Beers, we just don't have enough time on this visit--I have a large family so it's hard to squeeze everything in. Speaking of which, my mom will be at the signing. If you think I'm short, wait until you see her. And if anyone is curious, Non Birding Bill will be on hand too on bunny wrangling duty. So, come meet Cinnamon and learn about a great rabbit organization in Indiana.

Estero Llano Grande State Park

And yet more Texas birding goodness. Incidentally, if you have been reading these entries and thinking, "Dude, I so have to get my birding butt to south Texas!" I have been in contact with a friend of Non Birding Bill's who runs a travel agency and we are putting together a trip for next October...

I had so much fun on my field trip to Estero Llano Grande State Park on my first day of the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival, I thought I would go back and do some proper digiscoping before I had to work the birdJam booth on Saturday morning. It really is a cool park--it's new and I think over time will gain in popularity.

I wanted a chance to see and digiscope the black-bellied whistling duck without the fog. These guys were all over the park and they kind of whistle and their bellies are black--boy ornithologists must have been having a bad day--a bird that actually fits its name. Shocking.

The park isn't all wetlands. The path to the visitor center is quite lush and great for watching butterflies. Please don't ask me what kind--I do know lots of people were freaking out because some rare butterfly had been spotted but I can't remember the name. I'm taking baby steps towards butterfly id--I mean, I ranch caterpillars but I don't drop everything to see a hairstreak. I am kinda getting more into it...I must admit that I did pick up one or two butterfly id guides. Man, butterflies have much better names than birds: Shasta Blue, Frigga Fritillary (say THAT 5 times fast), Dull Firetip (kind of an oxymoron name), Definite Patch, Confused Cloudywing--seriously, those are all butterfly names. Ornithologists, if you discover any more birds on this planet, please take note of butterfly names and come up with something creative.

The area also had some hummingbirds. I will mark off a few points from the park for not having their bird feeders filled. Guys, what were you thinking? It's a bird festival weekend, plus you have your own programs going on, how can you not have your bird feeders filled? For a new park, this is not a good first impression--empty feeders on a busy weekend? If you're trying to attract regular birder traffic, that's not the way to do it. I know some of us left feed back on that, so hopefully after the park is open awhile they will have a regular schedule to keep their feeders filled. The empty hummer feeders did put the kibosh on my chances of getting a decent buff-bellied hummingbird photo. Believe it or not, there is a female ruby-throated hummingbird in the above shot. Can you see her? No? She's hard to see? You betcha', so I put my camera to the scope:

There she is. She would fly towards the empty hummingbird feeder, test it out and then sit on the thorn, waiting or perhaps hiding from the buff-bellied, it seemed on constant patrol and ready to chase her off if she even thought about approaching a feeder.

Periodically, a buff-bellied hummingbird would show up, but it never landed in a spot that was easy to photograph. This was the best I could do.

The park did have a nice shorebird selection and after my class that I took this summer, I thought I would try my id skills. It was tough because I learned how to id shorebirds for Minnesota and the Dakotas, not Texas. But I had the time, they were fairly close and it was a good idea to practice. Above we have sleeping shorebirds, mostly dowitchers and stilt sandpipers. But time to break 'em all down and see what I can find.

This one is easy enough--a black necked stilt. Can't really mistake it for anything else.

Here's a family group of stilts. Actually, while I was digiscoping these guys, a rail flew past me. It was so fast and I only saw the silhouette, but I'm assuming it was a Virginia rail. Several soras scooted about the reeds too.

Argh! Here is where it would get tough. Okay, there's a dude in the back with light colored legs and it's smaller than the black legged dudes in front--they guy in back has to be a least sandpiper. But what are the other three? They are either western sandpipers or semi-palmateds. There bills didn't look blunt and kind of down curved--are they westerns? I'm thinking that they're westerns.

Fortunately, as I was digiscoping, I found Clay Taylor (digiscoped above). He confirmed that they were in fact westerns--wrong time of year for semi-palms anyway. Incidentally, he was there for the butterflies.

Now, here was an interesting scenario. The bird on the right is a yellowlegs with a broken leg and the other three are dowitchers. Now which yellowlegs and which dowitchers. Lesser yellowlegs are about the same size as either dowitcher, so this would be a lesser yellowlegs. Now, the dowitchers were very vocal and my shorebird instructor said that if they're noisy, they're long-billed dowitchers. Everyone who passed me called them long-billed as well. Plumage-wise, I just can't really tell. If anyone wants to add tips in the comments on your tips for separating dowitchers--please feel free. I'm calling these long-billed dowitchers.

Or maybe I should call them long-billed bullies, because they would go after any bird trying to feed in their vacinity. Note the posture of the bird in the middle of the dowitchers--puffing itself up and stretching its neck to look impressive. The injured yellowlegs was in no position to argue and soon flew off. But the bird in the middle was not finished.

It made a beeline for a stilt sandpiper (on the right). Again, notice the dowitcher craning its neck as it approaches the stilt sandpiper, major intimidation mode.

But then suddenly everybody flew off--even the thug dowitcher (that's his rump in the above photo in mid take off. I looked up and sure enough, there was a Cooper's hawk cruising overhead. The shorebirds formed a tight flock and circled the water noisily. The Coops didn't dive for any of the birds, but continued over the wetlands in search of less suspecting prey.

A few minutes after the hawk passed, an immature lark sparrow popped up to see what was going on. About this time, I needed to head back towards the convention center. I ran into Clay who was still searching out the butterflies. We talked for a few minutes and one of the visitor center staff came out and said that they had observed a bobcat lurking in the vegetation behind us. Who knew? Stuff like that always makes me wonder what I miss. How many owls do I walk under? How many coyotes cross the path behind me? How often has mountain lion considered whether or not I'd be worthwhile prey?

Inca Dove Making Headlines

The Inca dove (like one of the doves in the above photo) reported in Two Harbors is making headlines. Last night it was a headline on the Star Tribune web page and MPR interviewed Jim Lind, the man who found and photographed this first state record.

This morning fm107's Ian and Margery called and we talked about it on their show. They were referencing the part of the story where Jim describes seeing the bird for the first time. "I was shaking, I knew it was a very big deal," said Lind, an avid birder.

Margery asked, "Seriously, he was shaking?"

I tried to explain that it was a big deal to submit a first state record to a bird records committee and then the conversation derailed, "There's a state records committee for birds?!?"

They wanted to know if the guys on the records committee were fun or serious...I think we can guess the answer to that question.

I have not gone to see the Inca dove and probably will not. I have no immediate plans to visit that area up near Duluth and can't justify the gas. Also, I just got back from Texas where I trippin' over the tiny doves (note how tiny they are in the above photo--those are house sparrows mixed on the tray feeder with the doves). I'll be curious to see if it stays and for how long. It's great find for the state. I do wonder how it got here, they just don't seem that capable of long distance flight. But maybe it's taken over a year for it to get here--just gradually pushing north? What's weird is that during the Detroit Lakes Bird Festival this year, a hard core birder who lives in Florida and had done lots of birding in Texas thought he saw one fly off the road during the field trips. He was hesitant to bring it up and a small group went back to look for it and it was never found--was this the same dove that over the summer and fall traveled southeast towards Two Harbors? We had the green-tailed towhee last year that showed up in southern Minnesota after being banded in Canada.

Another birding mystery.

Portrait Of A Lister

Now, this my friends is a hard core bird lister. If you can't see it, you can click on the photo for a larger version. Note that she has a color coded system as well as a pen to check birds off. I was trying to figure it out. Did the pink just denote birds that were heard and the green was birds heard and seen? Or did the pink indicate birds they group saw, but she did not? Anyway, I admired the listing system, not being a hard core bird lister myself. I have no idea how many birds I have seen in North America. I check off a National Geographic Guide but I haven't counted it in awhile.

Speaking of National Geographic, here is a play of how I stuck both feet in my mouth:

We were all sitting down to a final dinner at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival and I'm catching up with old friends and seated next to WildBird on the Fly who is engaged with and older gentlemen. As the food is winding down and people are leaving the table, I insert myself with WBotF and the gentleman--he's talking about a bird club he started called the Western Field Ornithologists--and we start moving on to other topics including touching on politics and I demonstrated on him a groping handshake that I received from a republican senator and had a good time. Someone came by asking for a book to be signed and I asked WildBird, "So, who's the old guy?"

She laughed and answered, "Um, that's Jon Dunn."

We both started cackling loudly--I know who Jon Dunn is--and have almost all of his books, I just had no clue what he looked. I confessed my ignorance to Jon and we laughed. We ended up on the same flight out of Harlingen and I have to say for someone who co-wrote and in depth gull identification book, he really is a well-rounded and interesting guy and not the big, boring scary scientist type.

Green-breasted Mango

The green-breasted mango (for non birders, that's a type of hummingbird) that has been hanging out at a feeder in Beloit, WI has been captured and will now reside at a zoo.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I feel the bird should have been left alone to figure it out for itself--this is how bird population ranges change, some birds just start moving in a different direction (and a mango has just shown up in Dublin, GA). On the other hand, can a Mexican species of hummingbird survive a Minnesota winter? And if I had it coming to my feeder on a daily basis and had formed an emotional attachment to it, would I not consider putting it in a zoo as well?

For a well thought out blog entry from someone with a strong hummingbird background, check out Sheri Williamson's blog.

More Tales Of Harlingen

If you have not heard about the baby owls using a stuffed owl as a parent, you must check it out at Cute Overload!

I go all the way to south Texas to see things like the Inca Dove above and low and behold there's one hanging out in Two Harbors, MN. Doh! They kinda look like a small mourning dove with highlights. Although, they do fly as though they d