Grouse Hunt & The Bossy Purple Finch

So, I've a small goal this spring to see if I can find a ruffed grouse drumming log. I've heard them drumming in a few places on Mr. Neil's, but I've never found the log itself. Yesterday, I went out with my buddy Amber to try and find the log. She's one of the few people I know who doesn't mind some challenging hiking conditions on deer trails. When we arrived, we found the above male goldfinch well on his way through his molt into breeding plumage--which is a welcome site this morning as eight inches of snow is falling.

We found a stand of pines that had some kind interesting story to tell, but couldn't quite suss it out. We found owl pellets and owl poop. It looked like good potential for saw-whet. But then we found a bunch of owl feathers. From the size and shape, they looked like long-eared owl feathers...and it looked like something had attacked the it. We couldn't find any other owl but wondered if one of the larger owls like a great horned or barred owl had killed it. There were also other feathers mixed in with the owl--cardinal and junco, which made us wonder if it a Cooper's hawk had been eating here too.

We flushed a ruffed grouse from a thick tangle of buckthorn and water horsetail. I started to step inside and found a turned over tree, but it was way too thin and not hollow. One of the guys I band birds with at Carpenter (Larry) knows a lot about grouse and he's been giving me tips on what to look for.

There were some healthy piles of grouse poop, so the grouse has been spending quite a bit of time. I sent Larry the photos and he said that this looks like it was siting under that pile of brush - using it for cover from overhead predators. Even though we didn't find the drumming log, I heard some distant drumming across the creek. I may have to break out my chest waders from the Ivory-bill Search and cross the creek to find the drumming log. Larry said that peak drumming time is in the next three weeks and that foggy mornings are best because that helps to carry the drumming sound. I'll see if I can make it out there this weekend.

We ended up spending the rest of our time trying to get photos of birds at the feeders. They were empty when we arrived and we filled the feeders first thing. It took no time for the birds to fly in. It's fun to watch the red-bellied woodpecker chip out a large chunk of suet to eat in safety up in the branches. There were lots of birds on the move. Amber heard and saw sandhill cranes fly over and then we heard a distant high pitched barking...hmmm...more sandhills? No. Snow geese? Not quite...

When they finally flew over we saw that they were tundra swans--sweet! I hadn't seen any since last November and then it was only while I was driving so I couldn't hear their barking sound. A few flocks passed over our heads throughout the day and above is a photo that Amber got as they passed overhead.

We didn't see the common redpoll that I had seen about a week and a half earlier, but we did see a male purple finch. I haven't seen one of those guys since last fall.

He was a bossy little bird too. I had heard people speculate that the influx of introduced house finches had pushed out the purple finches, but I have to say that watching this one male, he didn't look like the kind of bird who would take any guff from a house finch. Above, he is lunging towards a chickadee.

In this photo, he drove out a white-breasted nuthatch.

A second nuthatch tried to fly in, but the purple finch gave it the hairy eyeball and the nuthatch darted away from the tray towards a tree instead. He did tolerate a goldfinch, but if it came to close, the purple finch lunged at it too.

Time To Clean Those Feeders

I got this rather arty photo of house finches with the WingScapes Camera. The female house finch looks like she's doing some weird interpretive dance. Speaking of finches, there are some reports this week in the news that there is a salmonella outbreak going on in Arkansas and New York. I linked to a couple of articles over at the Birding Business News Blog--now is would be a good time to clean you bird feeders and you'd be doing a tremendous service to migrating birds.

Here's a goldfinch and purple finch sharing a tray that I digiscoped yesterday. Birds can spread salmonella by depositing fecal matter in trays (or on the ground) and then it gets mixed in with spilled seeds. Cornell Lab has some good tips of what to do if you see diseased birds at your feeder. If you can't keep your feeders clean, consider paying a kid to do it or find out if you local bird store offers a feeder cleaning service. If you can't keep your feeders clean...then you probably shouldn't be feeding birds.

Unwrapped Bees

Olga's busting out all over! I went out to check the Olga hive today and her winter insulation was gone. I started mumbling to myself something along the lines of, "Now, why did Mr. Neil go ahead and take the insulation off the hive without telling me? Is it too soon? What was he thinking?" Then I found the insulation in a pile in the woods. There must have been some strong winds in the last week that blew it off.

Couple of the girls were out and about. I did notice that there appears to be some type of weird damage on one of the boxes. It looks like damage done by paper wasps when they take bits of wood and chew it up to make their nests. I don't know if the Olga bees got bored this winter and decided to start chewing paint or if it was something else. I'm also not sure if I should put the insulation back on. It's the end of March and the temps are currently thirties and a few forties...although there is a winter storm advisory for tomorrow and we're supposed to get about six inches...

Red Squirrel Sneeze

Caught on the WingScapes Camera.

Bluebird Splosion At Carpenter

Oh, we are getting into dangerous territory. The last few days have been sincerely spring-like in Minnesota: forty degree temps, sun, melted snow and lots of returning birds like the killdeer in the above. What typically happens here is that we will have a few days of this and out of the blue will come either a fourteen degree day or eight inches of snow which leads to extreme crankiness among the citizens.

I headed out to Carpenter Nature Center on Friday for a little extra banding practice. I'm finally starting to feel a bit more comfortable handling small birds. I reported on Wednesday that we saw a song sparrow around the traps but didn't get one in, well on Friday we got two in the traps (that's one in the above photo). Check out that massive central breast spot. I've been so used to juncos and chickadees, that this bird felt quite beefy and robust in my hand. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when it's my turn to do a larger bird like a blue jay or hairy woodpecker. I have small hands and am now used to tiny birds. I've done large birds like sharp-shinned hawks before, but you can't hold a blue jay the same way you hold a raptor. Oh well, that's what training is all about.

Since it was so nice and sunny, many of use walked outside. We could hear distant sandhill cranes overhead, a couple of meadowlarks and lots of eastern bluebirds (above). I followed a pair around the small prairie trying to get photos. The male was excited to show the female any nest cavity he could find. He showed her a bluebird house and then guided her over to an old snag with a few woodpecker holes. He perched atop the snag, excitedly singing as she tried to fit through the hole...alas, she was too large to slip inside--talk a dating disaster: "Honey, I've found a great place to raise a couple of kids! Oh wait, you're too big to fit inside? Awkward!"

I'm sure any man who has purchased the wrong sized clothing for their lady friend can relate.

The bluebirds were singing like crazy trying to decide on territory boundaries. A fight between at least three pairs broke out at one point and then a fourth female flew in for a total of seven bluebirds. They have such a pretty and subtle song, that it's hard to take it seriously when they fight.

I've been anxious to try out my Remembird on some bird songs. I got it in January and have loved it for its audio note taking ability but it also has a microphone for picking out bird songs. Even though the bluebird was some distance away, I was able to pick up his song with the Remembird You can hear it below. It's not professional but wow, did it do the trick. It's not loud, but to be able to record an unknown bird song that I can take home and compare with my iPod--this is fantastic. I can tell, that I'm going to be lovin' my Remembird during warbler season, this is a really cool tool for note taking in the field.

Non Restricted Heron Rookery

People were talking about Coon Rapids Dam on the Minnesota birding listservs. The great blue herons were returning to the rookery and there was a great horned owl using one of the nests. From my understanding, the owl has been there for the last few years--there's a plethora of nests for it to choose from but I've never made it over to see it. So I took a few minutes to go check out the rookery.

Some of the great blue herons were actively building nests, others were kind fluffed out as if they were too cold to want to deal with it. I couldn't tell right away which nest had the great horned owl. I followed the directions to try and see the fourth one from the right and all I saw were herons.

I systematically checked each nest. Heron...heron...heron...heron...oh hey:

You're not a heron! That's a little red-tailed hawk head! And the great blue herons don't seem to care. Granted, red-tails are a mighty hunter, but adult heron probably isn't high on their prey list. Young herons would be a possibility...but I wonder if red-tails do not like the fishy taste? The red-tail would have been in that nest before the herons arrived, so the herons are choosing to nest there despite the hawk. I wonder if the hawk has nested there before? I wonder if the hawk built its own nest or just refurbished an old heron nest?

I found some birders nearby and asked if they knew which nest had the great horned owl and they pointed to a cluster of heron nests away from the active clump that had no herons on them whatsoever. There in the center was a great horned owl. This cluster of nests was further back and I found it interesting that the herons nested next to the red-tail seemingly without any problems but gave plenty of space to the great horned--the owl would go for adult and young herons. I remember when I went to a rookery a few years ago and we found the night-heron remains with a big fat owl pellet in the middle. I wondered too if the early returning herons get the better nest spot farther away from the owls and if the later ones would be forced to take a nest next to the great horneds? Either way, the other active nests are in easy view of the great horns and I'm sure the owls will take a few nestlings from them. The red-tail is in easy view of the great horned...I wonder how that territory negotiation is going? The owl would have started nesting in January, the red-tail in early March, and now the herons. I wish I had more time to spend and watch the negotiations.

I also noted that almost every wire stabilizer had a staring next to it singing territory song. The holes that the wires go through are wide enough to easily fit a starling and the area on the inside must make a snug nest. Such enterprising birds.

Peep Roasting

If you're bird and like to watch sugary marshmallows being toasted, check out the video of Non Birding Bill roasting and eating a Peep. I have to say, this may be the best way to eat one. Because the fire carmalizes the sugar on the outside of the Peep, it's like eating a marshmallowy Crème brûlée. I was sent in the suggestion of using this for s'mores and to alse use a peanut butter cup instead of just a piece of chocolate.

Mmmmmm.

Wednesday

I just had a weird, weird Wednesday. First I read a headline on CNN about a high school teacher in trouble for using a banned book in her classroom. Curious about what backwards school system that was, I clicked on the link and discovered it was my old high school: Perry Meridian High School. And that the teacher in trouble was my old Speech and Drama teacher. You can read about it here. I remember that when I was in school I wore a shirt that read, "Celebrate Freedom: Read A Banned Book" and listed a bunch of classics that had been banned. How did I not get suspended? Well, they did let one student wear a "Hitler World Tour" shirt so the clothing policy was lax.

It was another junco bonanza at banding class at Carpenter Nature Center. This time we could hear them singing all over. Most of the juncos were new birds, not too many retraps. I wonder if the birds that we got on Wednesday morning are from further south: Indiana? Texas? They're heading north towards their breeding grounds.

Here's a junco being let go--this new camera can get some really fun shots. We did see one song sparrow hopping around some of the ground traps and we were trying to use our mind control to get it to hop into the trap. It's funny, we'll get them in the summer, but it's been a few months so a different species is exciting. I'm sure by September we'll be dreaming of juncos again.

When I finished, I drove over to the Prescott Railroad Bridge to see if any peregrines were about and sure enough, one unbanded bird was in the sun. Right after I snapped this photo, it hopped off the rail and disappeared so I wasn't able to digiscope it. I looked around and noted a spotting scope attached to a car. I walked over and found that is was Bud Tordoff. He said the unbanded bird was a male and he was watching for the female who is banded to try and read her numbers. Always a great day to run into that Peregrine Guru.

Raptors were really on the move yesterday. On my way home, I passed several bald eagles chasing each other and even saw a talon grab. Red-tails were chasing each other, I saw two more peregrines doing a fly over and though they're not raptors I did see some turkey vultures catching a few thermals. Spring is definitely on the upswing.

Toying With Skitch

Non Birding Bill is always keeping me abreast of the latest technology and just uploaded a screen shot and photo editing application called Skitch. It's mostly so I can point out things in photos. I took that golden eagle photo from the previous post and added some notes:

The first time I posted the photo I didn't even notice the house sparrow on the right. The sparrow was in eating leftover rat scraps. The house sparrows started building a nest in the golden eagle mew last week. No worries about raccoons in there.

The Golden Eagle Laid An Egg

I'm not sure how it happened, but one of my photos has ended up in the I Can Has Cheezeburger builder. People have been emailing me captioned photos and links. I want to thank whoever put it in there for crediting the photo to birdchick.com.

Andi, the education golden eagle at The Raptor Center laid an egg this morning. She's not housed with any male eagles (she's our only golden eagle) so the egg is unfertilized. Every spring, Andi and one or two of the red-tails hormones get so geared for spring that they lay eggs. If we can get to the eggs in time, we save them as props to show people. Alas, Andi smashed her egg not long after I took this photo.

Last night Non Birding Bill and I met some friends for some fabulous food at Amazing Thailand in Uptown and then we walked by Urban Outfitters and found several copies of Disapproving Rabbits on the book shelf. We then found the April issue of Metro Magazine at the grocery store and it has a small article I wrote about birds around the Twin Cities in spring. I enjoyed writing for Metro, they wanted me to be a bit saucier than the bird magazines I normally write for. I even managed to work in the phrase "hot turkey action"--and I get paid for this. Life is weird and fun.

I just got booked to be on Showcase Minnesota next Tuesday and rumor has it that Aaron Eckhart will be live in studio that day too. Yum.

The Birder Prom Dress?

Um, yeah. This is from Prom Dress Shop.com under their "Unique and One of a Kind" section. Guess how much it costs? Go on, guess, I dare ya! Give up, check out the price tag here. Yikes! I wouldn't recommend this for young birder fashion...let's not forget about Bjork's swan dress.

Easter Morning With Cinnamon

We tried to get Cinnamon to pose with some peeps this morning, but that seemed to not dignify our girl, however having her own MySpace Page and BunSpace Page is ok. Don't worry, she's not being held down in the above photo, Non Birding Bill is petting her. You can see more photos of her and her Peeps at Disapproving Rabbits and below is a video of her gettin' some bunny lovin' (bonus points to those who can id the two people singing in the duet in the background):

Somebody Wanted A Long Weekend Off

Gorgeous, isn't it? I went to the Minnesota River Valley Visitor's Center to do some digiscoping today. We got some snow on Friday and there were a few flurries on Saturday and I figured I could get some fun shots in the snow.

But the center was closed. Now, come on--the sign reads about bad roads and winter weather and it's true that we got about 3-5 inches on Friday--but, this is Minnesota, that's nothing. I could understand if this was a remote park miles from a town with a gravel road, but this center is right off a major highway in the south metro area of the Twin Cities across from the airport. And to prove my point, here is the road the visitor's center is on:

Pretty darned cleared off if you ask me. I think it was Easter Weekend and the employees wanted an extended weekend off--and who can blame them? But it was a balmy thirty degrees and I went to get some photos anyway. All the feeders were empty and many had been taken down (I assume put away for the weekend to prevent theft), but as always, I have an emergency bag of bird seed in the car and scattered some around the feeding area.

The two platform feeders were way too high for me to fill with seed, so I just scattered it on the ground--and the birds came in for it right away. The cardinal and junco were eating peacefully side by side, but when the female house sparrow flew down, the cardinal wanted none of her. I just love that little tableau above.

Ah, look at this! It's the rarely seen woodpecker worm tunneling out from the snow to get some mixed nuts. It's so weird to see a downy woodpecker hopping around on the ground like a robin. I'm sure there's a Dune reference to be made here, but I can't think what it is. Oh! And that reminds me, someone asked in a previous entry what a snow flea is. They are a bug you can see even in summer weather, but since they come out early while there is still snow on the ground, they are easier to see in winter. You look at the base of a tree on top of the snow and if you see what looks like dust moving--that's snow fleas. You can read more about them here. Believe it or not, there is also a snow mosquito and I've already seen one of those this week too.

I could hear red-winged blackbirds all over and I saw this flock in the distance, but when I looked at them through the scope, I realized they were brown-headed cowbirds.

And the males were wasting no time in displaying to the females. In the above photo, there is a female cowbird on the left and the male is in mid chirp on the right--cowbirds, hold off, there really aren't any nests for you to deposit eggs yet...except for bald eagles and red-tailed hawks and they aren't gonna buy your tiny eggs in their nests. I tried to get a video of the cowbird display through my scope. You can watch it below, but the cowbirds get almost completely muted by the red-winged blackbirds and robins singing around them. Towards the end you will hear a western meadowlark--that's my cell phone, not the actual bird. As migration progresses, I may have to switch my ring tone to a sound I won't actually hear in Minnesota.

The Hummer Heper: What Won't They Think Of Next

Last night's Birds and Beers was awesome! It was a huge crowd full of regulars and first timers. I think we're all ready to get out and do some spring birding--someone was even trying to start a pool of what the warbler seasons was going to be like. Thanks to everyone who came!

Right on schedule, our early spring snow storm has arrived--whoot! So, to let's ignore the snow and focus on what's ahead. One of my many jobs is working for a bird trade publication called Birding Business that is geared toward manufacturers of birding products and people who run bird specialty stores. One of my newer duties is doing a blog called Birding Business News where I plug in news stories pertinent to the industry (like sunflower prices) or cool new products coming down the pike. You're not gonna believe this one.

Hummingbird nesting material. Yep, that's what I said, hummingbird nesting material. It's called the Hummer Helper and was started with the folks at the Hummer House and is made up of natural fibers "to take the place of ever-harder to find spider webs." (Seriously, it's getting harder to find spider webs? Cause I feel like I see them everywhere.) Anyway, it was picked up by a company called Songbird Essentials and should be available at a bird store near you. On the off chance your local bird store isn't carrying it you can call 1-800-269-4450 to find out where you can get it.

It looks pretty cool and is made of natural fibers. Other birds will use it besides the hummingbirds, including finches, titmice, orioles, and waxwings. I think I might give it a go in Mr. Neil's yard. I think it'd be fun to set it up with the Wingscapes motion sensitive camera and see what all birds are coming to it. You can read more about The Hummer Helper here.

Also Caught On The Wingscapes Camera

The propane man wondering what the heck that thing on the stump is.

Six Word Memoir Meme

I was tagged by EcoBirder for the six word memoir Meme and here is mine:

Birds Plus Bees Equals Disapproving Bunnies.

So, I need to tag 5 other bloggers:

Minnesota BirdNerd
WildBird On The Fly
BirdFreak
Born Again Bird Watcher
Life, Birds, and Everything

Here are the rules:

1. Write your own six word memoir

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere

4 .Tag five more blogs with links

5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Banding In March

Well, one of the things about March is that it's a transition month and when it comes to banding it's feast or famine. This red squirrel in a Potter's trap. Don't worry, we didn't band it. It was set free.

We did get in a few birds like this junco, but that's nothing compared to Minnesota BirdNerd (aka my buddy Roger who often shows up at Birds and Beers with has banding partner Mark) who was having a slow bird banding day until a pileated woodpecker flew into the nets. Check out his blog entry here for some photos of the event. Also, check out his face in this photo--he totally looks like he's a breath away from some choice four letter words--I'm sure a pileated pecking your hand is up there with getting footed by broad-winged hawk.

Photo Series From My WingScapes Cam

The following series of photos on my WingScapes Camera made me larf:

Sounds Of A Randy Peregrine

This an education peregrine falcon at The Raptor Center. He is a male and is doing some vocalizing in "his territory." Brace your ears.

Yeah, females find this attractive.

Checking The Olga Hive In Winter

Hey, I did end up getting a photo of Mr. Neil's common redpoll. I wonder how much longer this bird will stick around. It has been the only redpoll in his yard--separated from a flock further north. I'll be curious to see how long it stays.

Non Birding Bill went out with me to the beehives last weekend. There he is with a worker climbing up his fleece. We had the following conversation before we went out to the hives:
NBB: Aren't we going to put on bee suits?

BC: Nah. We won't need it.

NBB: What about the smoker, shouldn't we take the smoker?

BC: Nah. They'll be calm enough, we shouldn't need it. We're just going to put in a pollen patty for some extra protein.

When we got to the hive, NBB held his ear next to the hive to see if he could hear them buzzing inside the hive. We could see that the bees had been out in some of the warmer weather--pooping like crazy. Not all the little spots on the black insulation--that's bee poop! Bees don't go potty while they are in the hive to help keep it clean. That's fine in warm weather, but takes remarkable self control in winter. Then in spring when the weather is warm enough, the fly out to release all that they have been holding during the winter, these are called cleansing flight. Can you imagine having to hold it all winter long--and I'm not talking one of those southern winters, I'm talking a serious and long northern winter! Ah, bees, you never cease to amaze me!

As we were taking the hive apart to put in the pollen patty, we noticed that it was sealed with propolis and I regretted not bringing along the hive tool to pry it open. We did some knocking and that kind of alerted the girls. To hear NBB tell it, when a few flew out at us, I ran off squealing "Don't flail!" while running like a two year old and flapping my arms. I think I more dashed back cautiously. The few bees that flew soon fell to the ground and we tried our best to pick them up and put them back on the hive. Bill had one on his gloves and she tried to sting him. Fortunately, her stinger didn't get stuck in his glove so he put her back on the hive alive and intact.

The bees were in a loose cluster and when I was at the Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers meeting was told that they could even have brood inside! Whoot. We put the Olga hive back together and I felt a pang of excitement that in a month or so I would be installing two new packages of bees. When I was at the meeting, I learned that lots of keepers up here lost hives over the winter, some to the cold temps like we did and some to possible Colony Collapse. I met one woman who said that she lost five of her six hives. I was incredibly grateful that we still had Olga--and SO grateful that we started our beekeeping adventure with two hives instead of one. It gave us a much better frame of reference. NBB and I also took home a couple of jars of the now defunct Kitty hive that Mr. Neil had extracted. My goodness did it taste good!

On our way back to the house, I found a hawk pellet. I'm pretty sure this is from a large red-tail that has been keeping watch over the fields at the front of the driveway. I can tell that this is a hawk pellet and not an owl pellet by the lack of bones--owl pellets are fun to take apart because they tend to swallow prey whole and and have weaker digestive acids than hawks so you find bones in the pellets. Hawks tend to rip and shred prey and when they do swallow bones, their stronger digestive acids dissolve small bones.

I walked by the bluebird house to see if any early returning bluebirds had left a calling card.

A calling card was left--but not from a bluebird. It looks like a downy woodpecker has been in here and pecking the floor. I'm thinking the woodpecker has been using this as a winter roosting box and not a potential nest site, but I'm going to leave it alone and see what happens in the coming weeks.

I went to check some of the bushes and trees we planted last fall and found that some unauthorized pruning was going on. Gee I wonder who did this?

Or this?

Well, speaking of calling cards, I find that a bunny left one around the dogwood. I didn't need the rabbit poop to confirm it, you can tell bunny damage by the perfect little cuts that their teeth make. For once, I disapprove!

Rabbits weren't the only pruning offenders. This one looks like it has both bunny damage and a bit of deer damage. Ah, the joys of planting for wildlife...sometimes the unintended wildlife eat it before the birds do.

Why Am I Being Fingerprinted?

Any guesses?

Birds and Beers This Thursday

Thanks to my Google Calendar reminder, I need to tell everybody that this Thursday, March 20 is Birds and Beers at Merlin's Rest at 6pm.

Birds and Beers is a gathering of anyone interested in birds at any level from the hardcore lister to the mildly interested backyard birder. We just get together and talk some birds. If you are interested in birds, you are invited.

And for the record, there is no business behind Birds and Beers. I'm not paid by anyone to do it (in fact, I lose money on this since I like really good scotch). Birds and Beers is an idea that I came up with at the Minnesota Ornithologists' Paper Session one year because I would meet so many interesting people working on different projects and realized that there wasn't any kind of club where birders got together to just talk--especially outside of the Internet. If people are field trip leaders they are welcome to come and promote their services. If people are curious about where to go birding, they can come and ask questions. If people optics, or cameras, or bird feeding, they can come and ask (no guarantees on the qualities of the answer). If someone is working on a research project they can come and share it. This is meant to be fun and a chance for people to socially network face to face.

Making Progress With Mr. Neil's Barred Owl

Mr. Neil has a few owl species on his property. There is a resident barred owl who occasionally duets with a second bird. This bird has been the cagiest of barred owls that I have ever encountered. Most of the time when I walk through the woods where it roosts, it takes off even if I'm far away. A few weeks ago, I found it just across the creek and for once it didn't move. However, I think it was forced to stay in one spot because a few trees away was a roosting great horned owl and if the great horned found the barred owl, it would have been an ugly fight. You can read about that here.

I figured that the barred owl had finally decided to stay across the creek and went walking through the pines where it normally roosts. While exploring the pines and checking out a large stick nest, I had that feeling I was being watched. I turned to my left and there was the barred owl roosting. This was the closest it had ever allowed me to come. Typically, it would have flown off. I didn't have my scope and snapped the above photo with just my camera. I looked behind me and noticed up on the hill was Mr. Neil's writing gazebo. It has a deck and I thought that if I went there, I could get a better view of the barred owl--maybe even be eye level with it. I took note of the base of the tree that the barred owl was roosting on and went back the way I came on the trail and took the long way back to the yard and gazebo so as not to get any closer.

I set the scope on the deck of the gazebo and aimed it towards the owl. Can you see it? It's right there in the tangle of trees. Don't worry, I can't see it either. Here it is through the scope:

There it is roosting in the pines. It stayed all day and later, at around 4pm while I was digiscoping the robins and waxwings, I could hear it call from the pines. This is excellent progress--I think the owl is finally learning that the people who come through that part of the woods for the most part ignore it or just watch it a bit from time to time and leave it alone. Incidentally, this is the same deck and gazebo where I recorded the pair of barred owls hooting a duet.

Birds were moving through Mr. Neil's yard today. As I was photographing this goldfinch, I could hear tons of birds moving through the woods. It sounded like hundreds of goldfinches and some waxwings and robins. I looked down towards the woods and I could see the bodies flitting through the trees.

I went in to see what I could see. Some of the robins and waxwings must have just flown in. You could see some of them tucked high in the trees dozing. One robin had tucked herself into the crook of a branch and a tree trunk, her wings drooping. I didn't have my scope with me at that point, but decided to go up the hills to get it. I had to find a long and winding path down to this part of the woods, with some of the snow melt and refreeze, the hills were slick and not easy to traverse while carrying a spotting scope.

I found a way down but the birds were awake and feeding--above is a cedar waxwing, stretching and getting ready for action. I did see a couple of bugs and I know on a warmer day like this that snow fleas are active. The waxwings were feeding on some kind of flying insect. They would wait out on a branch and fly out to catch something just like a phoebe or flycatcher.

I found a buckthorn tree that we missed and the robins and waxwings were taking full advantage of the food source--perhaps they will replenish all the buckthorn we removed-curses!

Here's a head on shot of a robin and big beakful of buckthorn--noooooooooooooooooooo!

As I was digiscoping the birds eating the buckthorn, I could hear them overhead and I heard rustling all around me. I looked and the floor of the woods was covered with robins flipping over leaves searching for edible bugs and who knows what else. It was really quite something--there were so many robins that it almost sounded like a small herd of deer were moving through.

I didn't get photos, but Mr. Neil still has a common redpoll and a few pine siskins hanging around. Winter is not over yet.

Sounds Of Spring

Spent the day working my mojo with my new digital camera for digiscoping. I took this video through the scope of a female red-bellied woodpecker eating off of a suet log. It's not the most exciting footage ever, but I really wanted to capture the background sounds--some birds were singing territory songs even with snow still on the ground. You can hear a tufted titmouse, northern cardinal, blue jays, and crows (you might also here a few goldfinch chips and nuthatch yanks too).

New Bird Discovered!

This is the kind of story that makes Non Birding Bill shake his head at birders:

From Science Daily:

The announcement of the discovery of a new bird comes with a twist: It’s a white-eye, but its eye isn’t white. Still, what this new bird lacks in literal qualities it makes up for as one of the surprises that nature still has tucked away in little-explored corners of the world.

Read the rest here.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Not Another Nebraska Entry

Hey! If you need a sandhill crane and or waterfowl fix, the National Geographic Crane Cam live at Rowe Sanctuary is up and running.

You're probably asking yourself, "How much longer is this chick going to go on about Nebraska???" This will be the last post and then later this week I'll be opening up the Olga hive and feeding her some pollen and try and figure out my mojo with the new digiscoping camera at Mr. Neil's bird feeders--I know the new camera is capable of sharply focused photos, that Harlan's hawk doesn't look bad. Perhaps it will get better when I get new glasses?

In an offbeat bit of news, an artist did a rendering of a photo that was on Cute Overload and included a reference to Disapproving Rabbits. I love being combined with one of my favorite websites and sometimes it's weird to think that we coined a phrase that's part of the Internet Lexicon.

One of the fun parts of visiting Nebraska this time of year is watching the cranes fly off of the Platte River from one of the crane blinds at Rowe Sanctuary. The first time I was in one of these was about ten years ago. I had no idea what to expect, we went out in the morning to the giant blind, crammed in with about 30 other people. We were given the lecture to be quiet and not use any flashes so as to not scare off the cranes. We walked out in the cold, you could tell there were quite a few cranes on the river. You stood shivering in the dark, mesmerized by the sheer number of birds. As the skies became lighter you could make out bird shapes and see birds standing on islands and suddenly got an idea of how many thousands of birds were in front of you. Eventually, an eagle would fly over or a coyote run through, frighten the cranes and they would lift off all at once, each individual call merging into a gigantic roar--an overwhelming and powerful experience and something I have tried to come back to every year since.

Over the years, I've found other places to watch the cranes. Rowe Sanctuary can sometimes provide a closer view but really, if you know where to go, you can watch the cranes outside of their blinds. The above photo was taken from the shores of the Platte River on Tom Mangelson's cabin. It's interesting that at Rowe you are given all these rules--don't stomp too hard in the blind, don't stick your camera lenses outside the blind, no talking inside the blind, no lights period on the front of your camera, etc. When we were on the shores of Mangelson's property, we weren't in a blind, we talked (not loud), we walked around (we didn't dance or do jumping jacks) and cranes flew in and landed without any problem. There was even a big bonfire going on not too far from us and if that doesn't disturb the cranes, I don't know what would.

Check out the five young thugs (immature bald eagles) hanging out in a tree at Mangelson's--are they thinking what this eagle was thinking? Don't get me wrong, Rowe's rules are important. You have several people sharing one blind and a person could conceivably stick their arm out of a viewing window and cause an early fly off. I don't know, I think that since I've been coming here so long and know places to stay and watch free, I'm getting spoiled about how I view the cranes and the geese.

It's interesting to see how things are changing at Rowe. Something to keep in mind now when booking time in a blind is that tripods are an issue. In the past when I took field trips to Rowe, I always tried to get a blind just for our group--it's never been a problem before, Rowe has many blinds. This was the first year that I wasn't given a blind just for our group (even with the offer of paying extra). The morning our group arrived for our first blind visit, a volunteer mentioned the blind they had us in had limited space for tripods for a spotting scope or camera--and we were sharing the blind with another group. When they saw how many tripods our group had, they ended up giving us our own blind. However, when we returned for evening crane viewing, we didn't get our own blind and since all the windows were sold, we were told that our tripod legs could not fall into the space of the window of the person next to us or you wold have to put your scope and tripod away. Our group lucked out a little because we had a couple of people cancel last minute and Rowe didn't refund the money so we had some extra windows for space.

I think everybody should visit Rowe Sanctuary at least once in their life and it's a great place to start off if you've never been to Nebraska to see cranes (and you can get some fun crane souvenirs) but I'm starting to see the fun in hanging out on the Fort Kearney Hike and Bike Trail Bridge for crane viewing.

And I end with one final digivideo of sandhill cranes (and some geese) flying over Mangelson's.

Not The Binoculars Just My Eyes

I'm having way too much fun with my phone. Non Birding Bill finally figured out how to get my phone to play some of my favorite bird calls as my ring tones. The other day I was talking to one of the vets in the clinic at The Raptor Center when I heard a bird screaming. "You have a goshawk in clinic?" I asked, excited. "No." said the vet and then I realized it was my phone! It also does red-tailed, hawk, Baird's sparrow, western meadowlark, pileated woodpecker, veery, wood thrush, gadwall, and bobolink--sweet.

In the last year or so, I noticed that I could not get my eyes to focus the same through my binoculars, no matter how I adjusted the diopter. I sent them in to Swarovski to have them realigned and there wasn't any change when I looked through them. I also noticed lately that my left eye wasn't focusing the same as my right eye--especially when reading subtitles on movies. I've never worn glasses or seemed to need them but made an appointment with an eye doctor--turns out I have astigmatism. I asked the doctor why I've never noticed before and he didn't really have an answer. But I have glasses coming and I chuckled today when I looked at my receipt for them. It read "Bebe Schatzie Grape Suzette." That looks more like I ordered a stripper instead of a pair of glasses.

So, Bill said that I should have used the following video of snow geese in an earlier post:

Red-tailed Hawk vs Snake

My goodness, the Holy Crap factor is majorly spiking this week!

Thanks to Jennifer who alerted me to a link of photos that her mother took of a young red-tailed hawk that tried to get a snake and things went a bit wonky. Click here to view the photos. There are three photos of the hawk in an awkward position--don't worry, the hawk gets away. Although, if snakes ook you out, you may not want to follow the link.

This is a good example of how young raptors have to learn some hard lessons on not only what to hunt, but how to hunt.

Loves Me Some Minimum Maintenance Roads