American Dipper

One of the target birds for me on this trip was an America dipper. I've always wanted to see one of these guys and no, not because in the photos it looks like the dullest bird ever. It's super cool.

First, you look for dippers in this type of stream. They actually move around the water's edge and even walk under water to get at all sorts of aquatic invertebrates. I'm actually standing on a bridge, taking this photo and a dipper nest is under my feet. The water is incredibly cold, full of freshly melted snow.

One of the striking things is that you will notice a white eyelid. They use this when they are in the frigid water looking for food to keep insulated. One of the cool things about the American dipper is that they kind of fit their name: they dip...they constantly dip. I went to Cornell's BNA to see if I could find out what the dipping is all about and under the "Priorities For Further Research" it reads, "Why do American Dippers dip? This remains one of the biggest mysteries about the species, with many theories but no answers. Why do South American species not dip or dive? How does the American Dipper compare with other stream birds in North America (Spotted Sandpiper, Louisiana Waterthrush [Seiurus motacilla], wagtails [Motacilla spp.]), in Europe, and in Asia?"

Some things that even Cornell doesn't know. I can't wait until some hard working graduate student unwraps the code of all the bobbing birds out there--what is that all about? And here are some videos I took with my digital point and shoot camera and spotting scope of a dipper dipping and preening and scratching. You can hear our field trip group in the background. If you click on the YouTube link, there's a link under the video that gives you the option of watching it in high quality and see the dipper in more detail:



As if that isn't cool enough, it even dips on one foot:

Flammulated Owl Adventure

Ah, a few minutes to blog at the Salt Lake City Airport.

One of the best parts of an American Birding Association Convention are the sub parties. There are field trips, but there are people who may have missed birds or need birds that are not part of the offered field trips, so people come together and form little posses to get target birds. A target bird for me (and several others) that was not offered on any of the trips was flammulated owl--a tiny dark eyed owl that would make screech owls look big. They are in the mountains and are best found at night. I can understand why the ABA may not want to risk a night time mountain hike...but that doesn't stop some of us from doing it on our own time.

The guys working the Leica booth went out and scouted it the night before. Jeff Bouton came back the next day with dizzying tales of how close this hard to see owl was--it could be digiscoped! Another posse was assembled. Now, here's the kicker to this story. We were driving out to see an owl after dark and may of use had field trips meeting the next morning at 3:45 am or 4:00 am. But, this is a once in a lifetime bird for many of us, so off we went.

We loaded up three vehicles (thanks, Barb, from Borderland Tours for letting me ride with you), drove to the mountain the canyon that was about 45 minutes away, then up we went--we had to cover five switch backs and for those of us not used to that altitude, it was strenuous.

We made it up there and I found myself surrounded by good friends and soon hooting flammulated owls. There were at least four surrounding us in the dark. Soon, one came in, we shined the flashlight and viola:

Isn't it cool! Now Jeff would like to clarify:

"The autofocus picked up the stick above and in front of the bird (it is perfectly focused). Too bad, I had one shot though and it is at least a documentation shot. If I’d gotten one more shot off I would have nailed him! maybe next time…"

He doesn't need to apologize, it's an INCREDIBLE shot considering he was digiscoping on the side of the mountain in the dark with only a flashlight to show the owl. It's a cool, cool shot. When I saw the owl I shouted, "Holy Crap!" and a sixteen year old birder named Erick said, "Holy Crap is right!"

We both got lifers. Flammulated owls are birds of mountain pine forests and eat almost entirely insects (although a few tiny mammals and birds are possible). They are a unique small owl because they have brown eyes (like a barred owl) so that makes them look freaky and according to Cornell's BNA the "specialized syringeal anatomy in these small birds (males < 60 g) produces hoarse, low-frequency notes sounding like those of much larger owls." It's true, they have a bass voice.

What a trip life is! Going up a mountain, in the dark, on trails that have a steep enough drop off that one mis-step could garner you an injured limb, being surrounded by tiny, tiny owls hooting, not hearing any human traffic (apart from the group), a distant breeze, the mountain air, fragrant wildflowers, and great old and new friends.

I love birding. Although, I did not love only getting three hours of sleep before meeting my field trip. But hey, flammulated owls are worth it.

I must get to my gate, I am so looking forward to some sleep tonight. Hope their are not too many typos in this...

At Work Trying To Get Black Swifts

Bird Uganda Safaris (is here with their primo give away) and got a shot of me and another convention participant trying to get our lifer black-throated swifts:

Beats the heck out of "swift neck."

Word On The Street At The ABA

Above is a beautiful Bullock's oriole we saw on a field trip in Vivian Park yesterday. See, Non Birding Bill, they aren't all brown and gray out here. So, here are some of the topics birders are discussing at the American Birding Association Convention in Utah:

Falcons are more closely related to parrots than other raptors??

Yes! That is the word on the street here at the ABA Convention and on the birding listservs and blogs. There's an article about at the Chicago Tribune and Grrl Scientist has a bit more detail here in her blog.

So, what does this mean to you? Your field guide orders are going to change. But aren't they always changing anyway. I still get confused seeing waterfowl up front instead of loons and grebes.

The other interesting deal going down is that a man attending the convention has scanned in his National Geographic Field Guide and placed it on his iTouch! He said that it took him three weeks and he showed me how he can zoom in on the illustrations and you can easily view the text. He also used the Thayer Software for birding and has all the North American bird calls to go along with it. Now, because it's proprietary to National Geo, he can't sell it, but he has offered to mail a disk of the scanned guide to anyone who wants it--for FREE! He doesn't want money and he just seems to enjoy getting a good guide on an iTouch.

I was going to blog out loud to National Geographic and say: "Yo, dudes, why aren't you doing this--getting a good field guide onto an iPod, iTouch, or iPhone? You did such a fun job with the Palm Pilot thing." And when I checked email yesterday, I got this in my Inbox:

Introducing National Geographic Handheld Birds Online

Now all of the power in National Geographic Handheld Birds™ is available Online! Access Handheld Birds™ from any full-featured web browser on a computer or mobile device such as the iPhone. With the new online features Handheld Birds™ is a must-have for any bird enthusiast!

Here are just some of the new Online features:

-Compare species side-by-side
-Search on multiple selections for criteria
-Search with new “family” criteria
-Add notes to checklists and individual species observations
-Manage your checklists and lifelists
-Set date ranges for checklists for a single day or over months
-Order species in checklists by name, taxonomic order, and count
-Download checklists to your desktop or store them online
-Set personal preferences
-Manage up to 100 checklists at a time

For a limited time only, you can get a full 1-year subscription to Handheld Birds Online for only $25. That’s a 50% savings off the regular price!

This now makes it compatible with an iPhone or iTouch when you are online.

Techno Birding is getting interesting folks.

Now That Is A Hardcore Birder

Double binocular harnesses!

Birds Non Birding Bill Won't Understand

Just a quick and dirty entry:

Got some exciting life birds today (and just in case there is still a question, a life bird or lifer is a bird that you observe for the first time in your life and add to your life list):

A cordilleran flycatcher--I can hear how overwhelmed he is in my head. Check out that buffy/olive goodness.

And an American dipper. This bird was nesting under a bridge and would come out and swim around in the water and periodically dip its tail while grabbing who knows what for food.

And though the birds were brown, the views were spectacular. This was from our stop at Sundance--it's not just for movie festivals and skiing. I've enjoyed Robert Redford movies, but I've never been so grateful to him as I was today looking at the beautiful land that be bought and preserved.

Crazy Pileated Bills

Someone posted photos on MnBird of a female pileated woodpecker at the Minnesota Zoo. Check out her bill in this photo and this photo--it's crazy long! I wonder if it's a result of the bill not being worn down enough in captivity or if it's part of the larger bird bill deformity problem?

Here is a link to a photo I took of a female pileated--note how much shorter her bill is compare to the bird in the zoo.

Speaking of pileateds, here is a video I got of Mr. Neil's pileated eating cashew suet:

Wednesday In Utah

When I first arrived, I tried to do a quick blog post and kept getting error messages. I called Non Birding Bill and he looked into it. Apparently, I had used up all the space on the server. Ooopsie. He cleared some space and I should be good to go over the weekend, but we're going to have to change next week.

I have the potential to get many lifers on this trip. So far, I've been too overwhelmed saying hello to old friends and hanging out at the Swarovski booth to really dig in. Clay, the Swarovski Rep when to a local bird store (which also does not have mealworms at the moment) and picked up a droll yankee feeder, some sunflower hearts and hummingbird feeder for people to test scopes on. Two key birds that I needed were showing up to them (Cassin's finch and black-headed grosbeak). However, they had the knack of showing up when I wasn't looking. Every time I went out, it was just pine siskins. I eventually did get one (above). Here's an even better shot:

It's hard to tell from the light in this photo, but you can tell them from purple finches by this little brown mark on their cheek that resembles a mutton chop style beard. Tomorrow, I get to go out on the reasonably timed 5:45am field trip and will surely rack the lifers up. Saturday, I have a brutal start time of 4am...ah well, it could be worse, there is a field trip leaving at 3:45am too.

Hey, if you are interested in some up to the minute updates, Born Again Bird Watcher is blogging from the floor to his blackberry.

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Look Out ABA

I just checked into my room for at Snowbird for the American Birding Association Convention. Check out the view:

I think this is the fanciest place I have ever stayed at for a birding convention. Also of note: my first bird in the state was a black-billed magpie. Beats the usual house sparrow, starling, or rock pigeon.

The place is packed with birders. Everywhere I turn there's either floppy hats or khaki.

Squirrel In The Window

This squirrel has made a little sleeping nest on the window ledge in our bathroom. They do this every summer and only stay a few nights. They don't seem to be bothered by the light on at night or the early or late shower. Here's a video of him getting comfy:

Holy Crap! Go Florida!

More good conservation news:

LOXAHATCHEE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Fla., June 24 (Reuters) - The state of Florida announced on Tuesday it intends to spend $1.75 billion to buy a large chunk of Everglades land from U.S. Sugar, one of a number of sugar companies blamed for polluting the precious wildlife habitat.

U.S. Sugar Corp., one of the largest privately held U.S. agriculture firms, will abandon its Florida sugar plantations and go out of business in six years, handing over about 187,000 acres of farmland to the state's efforts to restore the Everglades, company and state officials said.

The purchase, lauded by environmentalists as the "missing link" in the restoration project, will be paid for with $50 million cash and $1.7 billion in certificates of participation, similar to bonds, that will be sold in public debt markets, the South Florida Water Management District said.

The land deal would revive an effort to turn sugar cane fields back into marshes and waterways that would help cleanse polluted Everglades water and carry it from Lake Okeechobee to the southern reaches of the Everglades and Florida Bay.

Read the rest of the story here.

Mealworm Shortage?

Hey, I'm hearing from some people in Minnesota that they are having a tough time finding mealworms for bird feeding. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, please leave a comment in this blog post. You don't have to be a member, you can do it anonymously, but do include what state you are in.

Thanks!

Need Cleansing

Some Numb Nut at the Pizza Luce across from our apartment building thought it would be a fine idea to hire a crew to redo their parking lot at 3:30am last night. Non Birding Bill and I were part of a coalition of neighbors coming out to get the crew to stop. Boy, was I the old lady of the group--all the younger neighbors were shouting "This is unacceptable! Call the cops!" or "Dude, I can't believe this, you gotta stop!" (although add a few more colorful metaphors) and I was quoting the city's noise ordinance and shaking my fist.

I must say, the woman who came out to meet the tired/sleepy/irritated/slightly irrational gathering didn't give the best initial answer. When a business has suddenly awakened the neighborhood and angry neighbors come out, the response should be, "Oh wow, dude, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that using noisy paint scraping motorized equipment would be a bad idea in the middle of the night! We'll stop immediately! Oh, and here, why don't I give each of you gift certificates for a free slice for your inconvenience!"

Instead we got, "Uh, well, I didn't hear anything."

We did get them to stop, but I had a fitful night of very little sleep afterwards, couple that with working all day today and packing for Utah and an early flight in tomorrow morning, I'm feeling like a bit of an anti pizza cranky pants. Or, rather, a bit like this:

Okay, I'm having way too much fun with the jumping spider, I'll stop soon, I swear.

I do need some cleansing, so how about a cleansing American redstart (or as NBB calls them, sample sized orioles) who must be nesting near the feeding station in Mr. Neil's yard. Speaking of Mr. Neil, have you seen the baby raccoons he found in his yard (cute!). I know they nest down by the creek, but this one was singing all over the fallen oak and declaring his domain near the feeders.

Breathe in the redstart, breathe out, in, out, in out. Ahhhh. And now for some video:

The Olga Plan

Well, after all the heartbreak of the failed requeening of Olga, we decided to give her some eggs and see if she will queen herself. We checked her on Sunday and found 2 queen cells--those are the two yellow things pointing down on the comb. When workers sense the need for a queen, they will pick a fertilized egg and feed it nothing but royal jelly, place it in a larger cell to grow (workers only get royal jelly for three days, then switch to regular food). One of these queens should hatch sometime next week, kill off the other queen cell, go on a mating flight and hopefully will find a drone congregation area consisting of drones from the MimiKo and Bickman hives, mate and kill about 12 - 15 of them, come back and commence to layin' some eggs for this troubled colony...hopefully the queen will do this without being eaten by a great-crested flycatcher or swallow. I have no idea if this will work, but if there's one thing that beekeeping is teaching me, it's that the more I mess with the hives, the more likely they are to fail, so I'm gonna let the bees do their thing. If she's too weak going into the winter, we may combine her with Kitty.

Sunday night, a friend named Sabrina stopped by for an oh so tasty lamb dinner prepared by Mr. Neil. Afterwards she asked if I would mind showing her the hives. Would I mind? I love showing off the girls! I didn't really want to start up the smoker again because it takes so long to get going and asked Sabrina, "How much do you want to see, do you want to just walk by them or do you want to see the inside?"

"You mean I could actually look inside the hive?!?" Sabrina asked excitedly.

Non Birding Bill and I decided to take her to the more docile MimiKo and Bickman hives. They are still so new, so young, so friendly. Sabrina has an allergy to bee stings, so we made sure that her bee suit was fully secure and took her out. Both hives were INCREDIBLY docile, considering we were out there in the evening when all the foragers are back and we had no smoker. Some of the bees were even lapping up spilled honey off of our gloves. Their buzzing was so soft, so content. I really, really love beekeeping. I love birding, but I never really knew how much bees were going to take over my life and how much I would just fall in love with our fuzzy little stinging insects.

The best part of the day, was that both MimiKo and Bickman are in overdrive producing honey and comb. There's a bit of feral building going on that we need to scrape it away to make inspections easier. We all got to have our first bite of honey comb straight from the hive to your tongue. Honestly, there is nothing quite like soft, chewy comb, warmed from the summer sun in the hive. You bite into it and get these little bursts of sweetness of all the flowers within two miles having a party in your mouth. The wax is soft, similar to a taffy consistency. It's just the best. The honey tastes a bit different from Bickman and MimiKo which kind of makes sense, they are in a different area than Olga and Kitty--those have a more clover, fruit blossom flavor. MimiKo and Bickman still have a wild sweetness, but not the same delicacy. It's a bit more woodsy, perhaps because there's so much giant hemlock nearby?

Anyway, it was on this evening inspection that we found that weird jumping spider. It really did look like some strange demon man. See:

Can't you just see him shaking his tiny little fist in anger? I'm not too worried about a spider on the hive. Should it be foolish enough to try and go inside, the bees will ball it in short order.

A Waxwing And Some Woodpeckers

Check out what we got in the nets on Friday at Carpenter Nature Center. No that's not a female cardinal tarted up with excessive eyeliner, that's a cedar waxwing. There are waxwings around Carpenter, and by their behavior, I'm sure they are nesting, but I am always too distracted to figure out where the nest is.

We were actually able to age this bird. Notice something missing? Check the wings--there's no "wax" on the wing. This is actually a second year bird (it hatched last summer). Waxwings do not get those red waxy tips until their second fall. The waxy tips are the result of a astaxanthin, a carotenoid pigment. We also had to measure the yellow tips on the tail--they are shorter in younger birds than they are in the adult birds.

Here's a female red-winged blackbird. These birds just look kind of like an overgrown sparrow when you see the flying around marshes, but they are quite pretty up close and in hand. Note that she also has reddish shoulder patches, similar to the male of the species.

The big excitement of the day was a male northern flicker in the net. You can tell he's male by his black mustache. I had actually just stepped outside with a male goldfinch that I had just banded and was thinking, "Oh, this would be a good picture for the blog, when I noticed something large in the net with a white rump. I immediately let the goldfinch go (we'll get more, so I can get a photo another day) and walked quickly to the nets.

The flicker started to fly and I noticed that it was actually on the other side of the net than I was on. Also, as it flew, I could see it was only caught by one foot. I heard more banders coming out of the building so I just reached through the net, and put my hand over the flick and secured it against my body. Our master bander, Jim Fitzpatrick got hold of the flicker on my side and I went to the other side of the net. In less than a minute, the flicker was out of the net, and Jim banded him.

The bird was a study in elegant design, beauty--not bad for an ant specialist. Check out the yellow feather shafts on the wing feathers that give this bird the old name "yellow-shafted flicker."

Check out that yellow when it flies.

Another interesting bird that came in was a recently fledged red-bellied woodpecker. It looks enough like a red-bellied woodpecker, but the red on the head is a little weird and doesn't match up with the coloration on males and females.

Another interesting bird that came in was a recently fledged red-bellied woodpecker. This bird just had a small red patch on the top of the head. So, we had to break out the Peter Pyle banding book to see if we could find a clear way to sex this bird. We could measure either the spikey part of the tongue, or the culmen--which is basically the upper mandible of the bird. Females have smaller culmens and tongue tips than males. We came up with female based on measurements.

I also pointed out the gape on the above bird. That's one way you can tell an immature bird in some species, that yellow corner on the bill. Keep your eye open for that with the birds that are showing up at your feeders.

Scary Little Man Or Spider?

So, we found this on one of the beehives tonight:

At first glance, it looks like some little scary demon man hanging out on our hives. What voodoo could it be up to? It's actually some sort of spider (although missing to legs on the left side).

It doesn't look any less scary head on. Yikes! After doing some googling, we think this is a jumping spider--Phidippus audax. Although, if anyone has any other suggestions, I'd be open to it.

Sure is a freaky little thing that looks like a little voodoo man when upside down.

A Little Field Sparrow

How can I blog when the weather is perfect and field sparrows are singing?

Interesting Birds News From Reier

Some interesting news from Science Daily sent in by Reier:

Birds Communitcate Reproductive Success In Song:

Some migratory songbirds figure out the best place to live by eavesdropping on the singing of others that successfully have had baby birds -- a communication and behavioral trait so strong that researchers playing recorded songs induced them to nest in places they otherwise would have avoided.

Read the rest of the story here.

My Pigeon Superior To Your Three Year Old?

Keio University scientists have shown that pigeons are able to discriminate video images of themselves even with a 5-7 second delay, thus having self-cognitive abilities higher than 3-year-old children who have difficulty recognizing their self-image with only a 2 second delay.

Read the rest of the story here.

And here is a hot topic from Birds and Beers last night:

From the Star Tribune:

St. Paul is experimenting with pigeon birth control to reduce the population and lower the fowl output.

An automatic feeder atop the Lowry Building is poised next week to begin mixing in the contraceptive, OvoControl-P, with the cracked corn and grain that has been scattered about the rooftop of late. The pellets do not harm the birds, but prevent eggs from hatching by impeding development of the layer between yolk and egg white.

The birth-control plan has the backing of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and is producing results in Hollywood, which found itself overrun with pigeons as result of frenzied feeding by a well-heeled seamstress dubbed the "Bird Lady."

Neighborhood leaders there estimated that the woman put out 112 tons of bird feed a year, in turn yielding other unsettling numbers. If a bird metabolizes two-thirds of what it eats, one-third becomes waste, and one-third of 112 equals 37 tons of pigeon excrement, said George Abrahams, second-in-command in Hollywood's pigeon offensive.

They first learned of OvoControl-P from a PETA biologist who attended a pigeon summit last year with downtown building owners. The birth-control method, combined with a gradual reduction in people feeding pigeons, is a humane approach to controlling the population, PETA contends. The St. Paul project, Kessler added, is a pilot effort to prove to building owners that they, too, should install the contraceptive feeders. The pilot is costing a couple of hundred dollars, he said.

For the contraceptive to kick in, a pigeon must eat the kibble for five consecutive days. Predators who consume pigeons are not vulnerable to its effects.

In Hollywood, the pigeon population has shown a 90 percent decline in some areas, a reduction that Abrahams attributes not just to OvoControl, but also to the arrests of people who were killing hawks and falcons and to a sharp cutback in the Bird Lady's largesse.

Olga's Down, MimiKo and Bickman Are Up

My friends, I'm sad to report that the outlook of the Olga hive is not good. Mr. Neil, Non Birding Bill and I headed out to do a quick bee inspection...Olga has no eggs, no brood, nothing. And the overall buzzing sound is just sad--dissonant. The new queen didn't take. We're not sure what happened. We purchased a new queen to replace the one missing in action, and Lorraine made sure to release her and it didn't work. There could be several reasons: was the new queen not fertile (doubtful) or did she get released and not all the bees in the hive accepted her and at some point killed her? Is there democratic movement going on and the workers have decided to ditch the monarchy system?

We decided to make one last ditch effort by putting in a frame with some eggs from the Kitty hive to see of the Olga bees will grow a queen, but that's going to take another 16 days and then if they get that far, she has to go on a "maiden voyage" and will she find drones to mate with? Will she get eaten by a great-crested flycatcher or purple martin? It's just time to let go and let bee--see if they can sort it out themselves, we've done all we can.

After we checked Olga, I began to understand why so many people I meet and find out that I keep bees say, "Oh yeah, I did that once." Last summer was so fun, something new to discover every week, bees mostly following the books and doing some cool things on their own. I was feeling down and getting irritated with my junior beekeepers. When NBB and Mr. Neil went to retrieve a frame of eggs from Kitty for the Olga hive, Mr. Neil dutifully came over with a frame full of eggs...and Kitty bees. "NO!" I shouted. "We can't have bees, and the queen could be on there, you can't put Kitty workers in with Olga workers! The Kitty Queen could be on there!"

NBB insisted that they both had checked for the queen and would brush the Kitty bees back into their hives. I was feeling the pressure and felt bad for snapping at them. Two hives not doing super great. The unhappy buzzing of Olga just made me question the whole beekeeping operation. Sure, even if Olga dies, we'll still get her honey, but what went wrong? Was it something we could have prevented? Is this spot too shady for the bees? We had to move Olga over a little bit this spring, did we move her too close to a tree trunk? Also, like last summer, I found that we were trying all sorts of things to try and save her and it seems to be postponing the inevitable.

Then we left the Kitty and Olga hives and went over to the new Bickman and MimiKo hives and the world shifted. These were happy, healthy hives! And MimiKo was getting creative with her comb. Mr. Neil and NBB took off the top brood box and we found this:

They drew out some funky comb! Go MimiKo. One side had eggs and the other side did not, so we decided to smoosh it onto another frame without eggs. The buzzing at these hives was much happier, much more in harmony. Despite the fact that a couple of weeks earlier when I stole a frame of brood from this hive and angered them, they were still pretty cool with us and we barely needed the smoker.

The Bickman hive was just as happy and friendly. Here is the sound of a happy Bickman bee with full pollen baskets waiting for another worker to help her unload. Watch her little butt bouncing in expectancy:



Hear that happy buzzing in the background?

Another worker approached and started to get the pollen. Check out the bee with the pollen baskets. Notice anything strange in that photo? It looks like she has not wings. I think she was moving them so quickly that my camera couldn't pick them up at that setting. The happy buzzing sounds, the friendly bees, the industrious drawing out of comb, the healthy harmonious sounds--now I remembered why I love beekeeping. I looked at NBB and Mr. Neil and was overcome with joy. Though Olga might be failing, Kitty isn't doing so bad and MimiKo and Bickman are going like gang busters. The beekeeping life is good.

Mr. Neil and I have made the leap from newbie to true beekeepers. The one thing that is a constant among all beekeepers is disagreement. You ask 5 beekeepers a question, you'll get 5 different answers, all thought out and with reasons (good or bad) for the madness. I learned from the Beekeeping Short Course that in northern climates like Minnesota, you should do a three deep brood box systems so your bees will overwinter. The bottom two boxes have brood and honey, the top is all honey. Mr. Neil has been reading online about a two deep brood box system that some people in Wisconsin have tried and think that it helps to keep your bees clustered and warm. We were "discussing this" and in the middle we suddenly stopped and realized--"Hey, we sound like beekeepers! We're arguing over method! Sweet!"

Now I think we can truly call ourselves beekeepers and not "I'm a new beekeeper."

BioBlitzing

On Saturday morning, I woke up at 4am, got my stuff together and headed out to Rapids Lake Education and Visitor Center for the Minnesota BioBlitz (you try to see document as much wildlife as you can in a 24 hour period). It's southwest of the Twin Cities on a bluff along the Minnesota River. It's relatively new and I was excited to find an adult lark sparrow feeding young as soon as I stepped out of my car.

This was a catbird that we banded that morning. There was a band of park rangers on hand to help out with the BioBlitz. I was there to lead a bird walk at 6 am and then we helped out with the center's banding demonstration. There are nesting blue-winged warblers and prothonotary warblers along some of the trails--I was excited to see them...but was defeated by mosquitoes. The staff at the center warned us about them.

I've been around the block in this state, mosquitoes are ravenous here. But usually some appropriately placed DEET products keep them at bay. Not these. The staff advised us to use mosquito netting, but I foolishly declined since I really can't see well through my optics with netting. The bug spray I applied did not create the bug barrier I hoped, but instead seem to serve as a nice hollandaise sauce for the insects. We heard and glimpsed some great birds: blue-wings, prothonotary warblers, black-billed cuckoos, but alas, did not stop to watch them well--the mosquitoes were so bad, I ceased worrying about West Nile and focused on anemia. They flew into my ears, my nostrils, I had so many on my hand, it felt like a soft paint brush dabbing my skin. It was brutal. I still trying to decide if all the bites are some strange poem written in pink Braille or a connect the dot puzzle in the shape of Alaska.

We only banded three birds that day, but the biggest highlight was a male indigo bunting! Talk about a crowd pleasing bird! I didn't plan it, but my nail polish ended up matching his plumage. After I finished with the BioBlitz, Non Birding Bill and I headed out to Mr. Neil's to enjoy some beer butt chicken and check the bees (more on that later). I noticed he had an indigo bunting singing in his yard.

He's had indigo buntings around his property (last year a male would sing right over the Olga and Kitty hives when we would do inspections). This is the first time that I had ever noticed one nesting right in the backyard. He sang as we ate dinner outside and when I headed towards where he was singing, he valiantly defended his territory. Awesome! Here is a a video of him singing his song. Some birders think that they are saying "Fire! Fire! Where? Where? Here! Here! See it? See it?"

Do you hear that?

Birds and Beers June 2008

Birds and Beers is back! It will be held at Merlin's Rest this Thursday, June 19 from 6pm - 8pm. Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of birders of all abilities--if you're interested in birds, you're invited. You can meet other birds--maybe a carpool buddy, talk about why people get weird on bird listservs, ask about where to find target birds, share cool research projects you might be working on, ask a bird feeding question, share life lists--the sky is the limit. It's low key and it's fun.

Storm Troopers At The National Park

I had a wild weekend of park rangerin'. Saturday, I was bioblitzing (more on that coolness later) and Sunday...well, let's just say it was off with a bang when Non Birding Bill was dropping me off and said, "Hey, isn't that Darth Vader?"

Yes, yes it was. The Science Museum has the Star Wars exhibit going on and since the Mississippi River Visitor Center is there, we get to see some of the fun. Several people were walking around the museum in full costume.

The Star Tribune set up right outside the visitor center to take photos of all the characters and we got to see everyone from Storm Troopers to Boba Fett to Sand People.

There was even a remote controlled, life size R2D2! It was fun to watch the guy running the controls maneuver him. A couple of times you would see R2 following a kid and the kid would nervously walk faster and faster, not sure what to make of the beeping little bot trailing behind.

Vader tried to get out of hand, but never fear, Ranger Birdchick kept him in line with her mad Jedi skillz. I didn't even need a light saber.

I was talking to one of the Jedi's and she said that all the people who came in character are part of a volunteer organization. They make their own costumes and make appearances for events like the Science Museum exhibit and even parades. I asked if they were going to be at CONvergence in a few weeks--NBB and I will both be there. Sure enough, they are going too.

I should mention, that NBB's play and his movie will be at CONvergence too. On Friday, July 4th at 7pm, the play THACO will perform on the main stage. On Saturday, we're both busy. I'll be doing a Raptor Center program with my buddy Amber from 5pm - 6pm and then NBB debut's the movie version of THACO at 7pm. If I understand it correctly, you have to be signed up for CONvergence to see the play and The Raptor Center program, but you can see the movie for free and not be signed up for the convention.

So, if you don't have plans that weekend and would like to experience a sci fi convention, stop on out.

TRC From Someone Else's Perspective

So, I'm catching up on emails and I found this really cool blog entry sent to my by my buddy Amber. Gretchen Stiches keeps a blog and relates a story of having to intervene with some tree trimmers who were misinformed about the legality of hawk nest removal and what to do with the chicks after they are removed from a nest. It's a great insight as to what some of our great clinic vets at The Raptor Center like Lori do for her day to day job.

Random Indigo Bunting

Because we all need a little indigo bunting from time to time.

From the Birding Community E-Bulletin

Here's an interesting turn for birds that I was reading in my latest issue of the Birding Community E-Bulletin:

U.S. - CANADIAN PEACE BRIDGE PLAN SCRAPPED FOR THE BIRDS:

A modern bridge-span between the U.S. and Canada, conceived by world-renowned bridge designer Christian Menn, has been scrapped to favor the birds. A Peace Bridge project that would connect Buffalo, New York, and Fort Eire, Ontario, will have to be redesigned. The design jury had originally considered 33 design concepts before narrowing its choices to six finalists: five cable-stayed concepts and one with a three-arch design.

Common Terns which nest in Buffalo Harbor but feed downriver must pass through the area proposed for the Peace Bridge many times a day. Since the terns typically fly over - not under - bridges, flying over a 567-foot-high structure could reduce their chances for survival and their ability to successfully feed their young.

Reportedly, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not issue the permits needed to construct such a cable-stayed span. Similarly, the Federal Highway Administration - which is financing the environmental study and which must approve the plan before a new bridge can be built - will not approve the originally favored cable design.

Presently, plans for a new Peace Bridge have shifted to a three-arch span — taller than the current bridge on the site (originally opened in 1927), but less tall than the soaring two-tower proposal. Of the final options, only the three-arch bridge, at 226 feet high, can apparently gain approval from the environmental agencies.

The bridge project’s current timetable calls for an environmental impact statement to be finalized this year and construction to begin by the end of 2009.

AND IN FUN BLOG LINKS:

Sometimes you might see mallards nesting in trees. Check out this post by Birds 'n Such. I think one of the things that make mallards so successful adapting to urban environments is that they will try and nest anywhere once. I've seen them try an apartment roof, tree branch, planters, woodpiles, medians, bushes--although I have yet to see one actually use one of those rolled up nestings tubes you see dotted on lakes. Seriously, do they use those? I was about to ask if there was photographic proof, but then I found this doing a google image search.

Bird Poop Facial

From Reuters:

Forget avocado, evening primrose oil or other exotic ingredients, the latest facial to hit New York is a mask made with bird excrement.

The Geisha Facial, available at Shizuka New York for $180, about $100 more than the shop's other facials, contains nightingale excrement.

The Japanese powder, also known as uguisu no fun, is rich in the amino acid guanine, said to brighten and cleanse skin. In the 18th century geishas and kabuki actors used the powder to clean heavy white makeup off their faces.

The Japanese manufacturers of the powder treat it with ultraviolet light to kill bacteria. Bernstein mixes the substance at her spa with finely-ground rice bran to neutralize its slightly musky odor.

She claims the mask helps women achieve a porcelain white quality to their skin.

"I was a little tentative at first," said Andrea Nieto, who recently received the treatment. "But there was no smell. It was creamy and rich."

Thank You To Everyone Who Bought A Duck Stamp

The happiest press release in my inbox all week:

"As part of a suite of wetlands acquisition and conservation grant approvals, the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission today approved $4 million to purchase more than 18,000 acres of prime prairie wetland and associated grassland habitat for the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Minnesota – one of the largest purchases ever using dollars generated from Federal Duck Stamp sales and import duties on firearms and ammunition."

Read the full press release here, there are several other projects in other states including Maine, North Carolina, and Oregon. It mentions that it's going to be great for many types of waterfowl, but several bird species besides waterfowl will benefit from it as well. It's such a treat to get something in my inbox about bird habitat that is POSITIVE. So, if you purchased a duck stamp--I thank you and this is an example of what your dollars are doing.

Thanks.

Colbert Bird Report

Birdchick Email Is Wonky

I'm not sure what's going on, but my sharon at birdchick dot com email apparently isn't working. The last email I got from that account came in at 9am June 11. It's hosted through gmail and appears to be a problem on their end. For some odd reason birdchick at gmail dot com is working, so if you need to email me, please use that for the moment.

Brown Birds At Potholes & Prairie Bird Festival.

This past Sunday was just about as perfect as a day can get for me. It started at 4:15am when Kate and I woke up to load up our van for the ride home at the end of the festival. At 5am, we met up with good friends Kim Risen and Bill of the Birds to have some time to just sit and enjoy some Sprague's pipits and Baird's sparrows. It was rounded out with some fun driving time with my buddy Kate and then finished with a spicy Thai meal and some quality time with Non Birding Bill.

One of the first birds we saw in the wee hours of the dawn--a short-eared owl! And check it out, it's tiny, barely there tufties were erect. Not only did we see the owl...we got to see what it's named for. Take that, historic ornithologists who gave birds names for obscure parts barely seen in the field!

We stopped on some private ranch property (that allows birders to enjoy the sparrows) and headed out. You could hear the cows in the distance and one of our first birds was--

A chestnut-collared longspur just chillin' on the fence. There are brown birds, and then there are Brown Birds. Chestnut-collards take brown to a whole new beautiful level and they still have that bobolink thing going with their black chest. BNA describes them as prairie specialists: "Typical breeding habitat is arid, short to mixed grass prairie that has been recently grazed or mowed...this species avoids nesting in areas protected from grazing, instead preferring pastures and mowed areas such as airstrips, as well as grazed native prairie habitats."

The next bird we heard was a grasshopper sparrow (that's the hunch backed looking bird in the above photo). It's buzzy call was mixed with western meadowlark and about that time we heard Sprague's pipits overhead. I've linked to the songs, but if you have birdJam or any bird cds and are not familiar with these songs--look them up.

It wasn't long after that before we heard the sweet sound of the Baird's sparrow. And I had a video earlier, but here the lovely song of the Baird's sparrow yet again:



You can hear Canada geese and western meadowlarks singing in the background of that video.

There was also a pair of savannah sparrows nearby--above is one of them. The two would chase each other and periodically, the Baird's would get caught up in the chase as well. I don't think Baird's feel that threatened by savannah sparrows, but I have a feeling that their fighting was taking place a little too close to its nest.

The Baird's sparrow kept getting closer and close. Kim suggested that we all get as low to the ground as we could and see how close the Baird's would get to us. It came within ten feet. Here are the photos, it was almost too close to fit into the field of view of my scope.

There we were listening to one of the sweetest bird songs in North America, and even more sweet songs overhead and surrounding us--it seemed amost unreal to hear the Sprague's pipit's descending song right after the Baird's. The prairie was chilly, but gradually warming in the glow of sunrise, giving the wet ground a sweet and musky smell. You could barely hear traffic. Sharing the moment with people who truly appreciate the moment and prairie in the same way is what really made the morning, this is what birding is truly all about for me. As we were enjoying moment on the prairie with the Baird's we heard two vans pull up way back by the roadside where we parked. A quick scan in the scopes revealed the vans were full of people with floppy hats and khaki hats: birders. They unloaded.

Kim Risen and I recognized one of the people