Jen's Robin At The Jelly Feeder

Jen Vieth from Carpenter Nature Center sent some cool photos of her grape jelly feeder. She's getting orioles, like the young ones above, but she also gets:

an American robin coming in to the grape jelly too.

Thanks, Jen!

Random Meowing Catbird

I think this is a young catbird--note it is banded. I digivideoed it at Carpenter Nature Center.

Young Grosbeak

So, I'm in Rhode Island at the moment hanging at the Swarovski Headquarters. I'm eating lunch (real mashed potatoes, thank you very much, Swarovski Cafe) under a large crystal chandalier. Ah life. I'm giggling too because Non Birding Bill has just sent me a link to a limited edition Beverly Hills 90210 iPod Nano. But, if I download all the episodes, will I still have room for birdJam?

Check out this funky bird in hand that we got in at Carpenter Nature Center last Friday (boy am I behind on some blog entries or what. To those who are not as familiar with birds this might be a tad confusing but banding wise this was a fairly easy bird to figure out. We didn't have to debate too much with the Pyle over it. It's a hatch year male rose breasted grosbeak. Normally you have to look at feathers and see if they're truncate and fresh or relatively abraded, blah blah blah. But, because this dude looks like a female grosbeak with pink on the undersides of the wings, that tells us he's fresh from the nest and male.

It this upclose head shot you can see the gape at the corners of his beak indicating a young bird. Don't get me wrong, even though he's young, that beak is still quite capable of breaking the skin. Here's hoping he survives his first migration and visits us again next spring.

Okay, now back to looking at naked binoculars.

Caterpillar Fierceness

If you watched the caterpillar shed video in the earlier post, here is a little background info. As caterpillars grow, they shed their skins. The period between each shed is called an instar. Monarchs do this too as they grow, but what's fun about black swallowtail caterpillars is that they change color. When tiny, they start off resembling bird poo and not a protein powered snack a bird might want to eat and as they get larger, the coloration switches to help them blend in with parsley stalks. The caterpillar that shed was in its third instar and then shed into the fourth looking completely different. Pretty cool huh? Here is a cool site that helps explain it.

One of the cool things about black swallowtail caterpillars that I neglected to mention during last year's ranching season was their crazy defense mechanism. When threatened, two little orange protuberances that resemble horns pop out. Note the horns on the above black swallowtail caterpillar? They have a strange aroma and they whip their heads around flashing their horns. I think the smell is supposed to repel potential predators, but in my case, it just fascinated me.

They even have them when they are tiny caterpillars. Beware the mighty black swallowtail caterpillar! And of course, I corralled Non Birding Bill into helping me video it. I've read that you can squeeze your swallowtail cats to get them do this, but I don't recommend it--why risk the injury. Sometimes just brushing parsley near their butts results in the stink horns coming out. In the video, NBB is just barely grazing the cat with a Q-tip. Here is the video:

Swallowtail Caterpillar Shedding Its Skin

Okay, time to get back to blogging as usual. I'm currently on my way to some interesting travel. I'm on my way to Rhode Island and will be here for a few days and take a side trip to Cape Cod, then come back to Minneapolis late Friday night and leave Saturday morning around 7am for a whirlwind jaunt to South Dakota.

In the meantime, it's Butterfly Ranchin' time at Chez Stiteler and below is a video of a black swallowtail caterpillar shedding its skin:

Jane Goggin

Another hard loss for the Minnesota Birding Community. Last week, losing Bud Tordoff was hard, but combine that with the way too early loss of one of my favorite vets at The Raptor Center makes this an almost unbearable Monday morning indeed.

Jane Goggin was young, she was gifted--a rare vet not only with a sensitive bedside manner with birds, but also with humans. She didn't like to be in the forefront, she was quiet and it was darn hard to ever get photos of her, but talented though she was, the limelight was not her objective. Chances are good that if you ever communicated with one of the vets at TRC, it could have been Jane, she worked in clinic for over 16 years. She was part of some of my most memorable blog entries. Above is one of the very few photos I have of her, test flying a Cooper's hawk. This was from the day she and fellow vet Lori Arent allowed some volunteers to watch them test fly a young Cooper's hawk that was recovering in clinic--the Coops almost clotheslined us.

She was so generous for information and never made lay people like myself feel stupid. Another memorable moment was the day she and Dr. Juli Ponder (above) explained about young eagles with maggots in their ears--read it here, but be warned, it's kinda gross.

Jane cared about conservation of birds and cared for individual birds, their comfort when injured was always a priority. She will be greatly missed. TRC has put up a lovely tribute here.

Partial Albino Golden Eagle

The above photo is of a partial albino (or whatever bird scientists are calling it these days). from the Pueblo Chieftan There's a once-in-a-lifetime guest at the Pueblo Nature and Raptor Center who'll be staying indefinitely.

Diana Miller, raptor center director, said the leucistic ("partially albino") golden eagle was found July 12 by ranchers in the Hoehne area in Southeastern Colorado. They contacted state Division of Wildlife officials, who brought the weakened bird to Pueblo.

Miller said the male bird's feathers have been severely damaged by parasitic, chewing lice. She surmised that they were especially susceptible to insect damage because most of them are lacking normal pigmentation. Pigmentation protects them from damage caused by the elements, she explained.

"He's also suffered a minor shoulder injury at some point. His wing is a little droopy," she said. "The condition of his feathers is a big problem. They're in horrible shape. Lots of them are very fuzzy and very frayed."

Miller said albino eagles are "pretty rare" and human encounters with them even more rare. "I have no idea what the statistics would be, but it would be way up there - one in a million, maybe," she said. The bird won't be on display at the raptor center until - and if - it is healed to the point that Miller and others determine it can either be released back into the wild or transferred to the public area of the center where other permanent residents live. Only birds that can't survive on their own stay on at the center after they've healed from the injuries or other conditions that brought them there.

"It's hard to say if he'll fly again. It's gonna be a long road. He's going to need to moult, and we'll have to wait and see how the new feathers come in and what condition they're in before we see whether he can survive in the wild again," she said.

Curious nature lovers may be able to view the eagle's progress by video on the center's Web site within the next few weeks.

"We're working on getting a Web cam set up and we'll see how that goes," Miller said.

For now, she added, "He's adjusting well. He's calming down and getting accustomed to his situation. He's eating well and enjoying having a pool of water to bathe in. I think he's just happy to have food and water, and not be out there struggling and starving to death."

She said the bird's tail feathers indicate an age oJ 2 or 3 years, so apparently it had been independent and healthy until this summer. "There's no way he could fly when he was found," she said. "We hope he will be able to again after he's healthy."

The raptor center, located on Nature Center Road just before the curve that leads to the nature center, accepts donations of cash and the raw meat of elk, deer and antelope to feed the birds of prey in its care.

Harrison Bud Tordoff

Bud Tordoff, peregrine falcon guru has died.

This is how I will always remember him. He loved peregrine falcons, he loved showing them to the public, he loved restoring our falcon population in Minnesota.

I'll never forget the first time I got to tag along to a peregrine nest with Bud and Mark Martell. Years ago when I was kid, reading my Wonder of Birds book or being sent articles by an uncle about reintroducing peregrine falcons in cities, I dreamed about what it would be like to be up on one of those buildings, watching a falcon nest.

When I started volunteering at the Raptor Center, my friend Amber and hoped to get out to the nests. We got to know Mark who went out banding with Bud and who managed to get us an invite. We were both nervous and excited. On the one hand we were going out to see a peregrine nests up close and learn about falcons. On the other, we were with one of the guys who not only worked with Dr. Pat Redig to reintroduce peregrine falcons in Minnesota, but was a past president of the American Ornithologists' Union and was a World War II Flying Ace. I just hoped I wouldn't come off as some Twinkie and not annoy either Mark or Bud too much. But we soon learned that with Bud, if you liked peregrine falcons, you were good company. We would listen to him recount the various histories of peregrine falcons not unlike the way one of my aunts would recount all the loves of Susan Lucci on All My Children. Even over the years, if one of us would find a banded peregrine and told Bud, he would ask if we could read the band number. If we could, he usually knew what nest it came from and when and where it was hatched.

The first time we went up into a building to a peregrine nest platform, it was a cloudy day in Minneapolis. Traffic was noisy and bustling on the street, but when we ascended the Multifoods Building and made it to the nesting corridor, it was silent except for the wind whipping through the screen. I remember walking down the dark corridor, feeling the wind and noticing pieces of pigeon wings, starling legs, grackle heads and other bird parts. With the wind blowing and the bird parts, it almost seemed like we were walking into some monster's lair. Bud spotted a peregrine perched on a building about two blocks away. As we aimed our binoculars, it dropped from its perch. Before I could get the sentence out, "Huh, I wonder where it went?" the falcon's dark form flashed right in front of us. We laughed at being startled and admired the bird's speed to defend its nest. I was so nervous that day, I foolishly didn't bring a camera. I'll never forget that day and it certainly is in my top five birding moments of all time.

Bud was kind and generous with his information. I've met so many people who would tell me of meeting a "nice old man who apparently knows a lot about peregrines." If you hung out at any of the nesting spots in the Twin Cities, the chances were good you might find him along side you watching the birds as well. No question was too stupid, he would answer them all and often ask bystanders about what they had seen, always wanting to know more about the falcon species he loved so much.

I'm just scratching the surface of all the wonderful avian projects Bud was involved in, I know others who knew him could add to it. He is going to be missed.

Birds And Beers Tonight!

Tonight is Birds and Beers at Merlin's Rest. It should be interesting, we start at 6pm and they are doing a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) fundraiser (silent auction and raffle) at the same time. They're even doing a special pub quiz tonight too starting at 7:30pm.

Hope to see you there!

Orange Variant House Finch

We had an orange variant house finch show up at feeders. Usually when you think male house finch, you think pink--and there can be various shades of pink. Periodically, you might even notice and orange one like the bird above or perhaps even a yellow male.

Here's a comparison of an orange variant male house finch and a typical pink colored male house finch. According to Birds of North America Online, the color of male feathers results from 3 carotenoid pigments: ß-carotene, which produces yellow to orange color in feathers; isocryptoxanthin, which produces orange color in feathers; and echinenone, which produces red color in feathers. By doing controlled feeding experiments with captive house finches researchers found that all individual male finches in all populations all over the US have same potential to be pink, orange, or yellow; the color variation based on the finch's access to carotenoid pigments when they are molting (shedding old feathers and growing in new ones).

In experiments, males that were fed a plain seed diet, which was fully nutritious but provided few carotenoid pigments, all males grew feathers with similar pale yellow coloration. On a seed diet with ß-carotene added, all males grew pale orange feathers. And, on a seed diet with the red carotenoid canthaxanthin added, all males grew bright red feathers. So, this male above is getting his ß-carotene, but not the right carotenoids for red feathers.

There is also a study that suggests the brightness in color in male house finches can be a signal of nutritional health to female house finches. Females may look at a brightly colored male as a better mate since he appears to have access to a good food supply in his territory.

Cleansing Mourning Dove Nest?

Okay, we need some cleansing after the Alaska post. There is an arbor in Mr. Neil's yard, it leads to his writing gazebo. A few weeks ago, Non Birding Bill told me that a bird flew away when he walked by it and it looked like a nest had been started. I checked a week later and saw what looked like a half finished nest. I wondered if the bird started the nest and then changed it's mind. Then Mr. Neil called two days later to report he saw a mourning dove on it--that made total sense, they build rather haphazard nests, it's amazing that any of the chicks survive at all. That's why it looked half finished.

When Kimberly Butler visited, she got the above photo of one of the adults on the nest. The birds will stay on the nest when you walk under it through the arbor, but if you stop or try to hold a camera, they bolt. Kim was lucky to get this photo, but hey if she can make celebrities comfy and at ease for a photo shoot, why not a mourning dove?

I was out the other day and found a position far from the arbor and the young are old enough to sit up high to where you can see them in a patch in the grape vines:

Thanks to the scope you can see the two chicks and part of the head and eye of the adult morning dove. All three stayed very still while I digiscoped them from a safe distance. It'll be interesting to see how much longer they will stay in there. The grapes will be ripe soon and once that happens, that will no longer be a secluded spot. Catbirds, robins and orioles will be in and out of there gorging on the fruit...and a few humans too.

Have You Been To Alaska?

From Kenn Kaufman:

"This past weekend, a delegation from the US Congress made a brief trip to Alaska, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The team was led by Ohio's Rep. John Boehner and includes ten other members of the US House of Representatives from a total of nine states.

Birders who hear about this trip are likely to respond with envy when we think about all the amazing species that the lawmakers will see, the abundance of nesting sandpipers, plovers, phalaropes, jaegers, Arctic Terns, Snowy Owls, Long-tailed Ducks, Steller's Eiders, Spectacled Eiders, and so many other beautiful birds. We might quibble about the timing of the trip -- after all, many of the Arctic-breeding shorebirds have already started to migrate south, with Pectoral Sandpipers and others already appearing in my area of Ohio on their way to South America. But still, most of us would jump at the chance to go along. I've been to the North Slope about a dozen times as a leader of birding tours, and it was always an amazing experience.

Unfortunately, the congresspersons may not get the full benefit of the birding experience, because they seem to be going with a negative mindset. In a July 15 press conference, Rep. Boehner said, "We're going to look at this barren, Arctic desert where I'm hoping to see some wildlife. But I understand there's none there. But I'm still going to look for it. If I find any, I'll let you know." Another member of the group, Ohio Rep. Bob Latta, was quoted by the Toledo Blade as saying that he believes the refuge is not as "picturesque" as some may envision -- that it's "not what they see on the news. We're talking about tundra." Of course, picturesque or not, coastal tundra is among the richest wildlife habitats imaginable during the brief Arctic summer. But at least some members of the congressional delegation seem to be going with the intention of proving that the wildlife refuge is not worth protecting."

After seeing Kenn's email, I got a note that Minnesota's own Michelle Bachmann was part of this trip and her report shows that she must not have had a pair of binoculars with her or even had her eyes open because she said, "It was flat arctic tundra with absolutely no trees in view. And, caribou and wildlife were nowhere near the possible drilling sites."

Um, hello? There were absolutely no birds there? Really, Michell, you didn't see any? Not a single thing? Okay, so maybe the tour was timed to be after the shorebird breeding, but still, there should have been birds. A lot of companies book tours to Alaska...have they been wasting birders' time up there?

So, any blog readers been to this area of Alaska? Would you care to let Ms. Bachmann know about the wildlife you have seen (202-225-2331)? I don't see this as a republican vs democrat issue. I don't even see this as a do we drill there or do we not drill there issue. I see this as an issue of--Did you actually have your eyes open while you were there issue. Don't tell the country that there's no wildlife just because it's flat and there's no caribou. That's like calling the prairie boring. There's more to wildlife than what is big and obvious and easy to see.

It's almost tempting to start a campaign of birders mailing her a copy of Sibley with Alaska birds highlighted.

Here's a list of all who went in case you want to check on your state's rep and their report.

John Boehner (R-OH)
Michelle Bachmann (R-MN)
Gus Bilirakis (R-FL)
Mary Fallin (R-OK)
Dean Heller (R-NV)
Jim Jordan (R-OH)
Doug Lamborn (R-CO)
Robert Latta (R-OH)
Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
Steve Scalise (R-LA)
Adrian Smith (R-NE)

UPDATE: Born Again Bird Watcher hit this before I did here and here.

UPDATE #2: Ken from Rosyfinch Ramblings would like the world to know that he and FOX talked about this first. Here is his message:

"Not to steal any credit from Born Again BW, the scoop belongs to Fox News, which seemed to have been the first to report the story (from a more friendly perch), on July 16, and my Blog ("FLASH: Wildlife Have Disappeared from ANWR") provided commentary and a link to the article that same day, as did my July 16 post on BIRDCHAT."

Ken

Not to be confused with Kenn.

Working On A Bee Book

I'm working on a bee book, but in the summer I find I get so easily distracted. Today, I arrived at the Science Museum to do some park rangering at the Mississippi River Visitor's Center and discovered that I was mistaken, I'm not working 8am - 4:30pm, I'm working 5:30pm - 9:30pm. I was going to take the bus back home to get some writing accomplished, but then realized that there's a back office I could work distraction free: no laundry, no "let's make an unneccessarily complicated dinner for Non Birding Bill, and sketchy internet access to prevent an hour or so loss of time while researching lost reunion scripts of the tv show Wings.

Meanwhile, I leave you with the cutest gulp in the world.

City Birds Country Birds

So, I have a second book out.

It's called City Birds/Country Birds and it helps you attract birds no matter where you live, whether it's out in a remote area like Mr. Neil or in a metro area like me. Cardinal Corner has offered to have the book release party and signing--I'll be at both stores (and will bring Cinnamon too) August 23, 2008.

Book Signing Times:

August 23, 2008:
Cardinal Corner in West St. Paul Store (651-455-6556) 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Cardinal Corner in Newport (651-459-3880) 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.

I haven't really talked about this book as much and I've been trying to figure out why. I think for one thing, I'm nervous. With my first book, Disapproving Rabbits, I really didn't have anything invested in it. It was a happy accident--or winning the Internet lottery. We had the site up for fun, Harper Collins emailed and bada bing, bada boom, it's a book. I am so grateful that so many people enjoy the book and the website, but it is not my passion the way birds are my passion. It's one thing to tell your peers you have a humor book out about rabbits, quite another that you have an actual bird book out that they could knowledgeably critique.

I did feel some relief when I was at the American Birding Association Convention a few weeks ago and they people who run the book store said that they plan on carrying it in their catalog (whew) and last week while out celebrating my birthday, Non Birding Bill and I found it at Magers and Quinn--which I felt a personal victory because they never carried Disapproving Rabbits. I also showed it to the banding crew at Carpenter and got the best compliment from the senior banders: "You did good."

Birds & Beers July 2008

The next Birds and Beers is Thursday, July 24 at 6pm at Merlin's Rest.

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 birders--maybe find 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.

Conjoined Birds In (Where Else) Arkansas

Lorraine sent me this story:

Apparent conjoined barn swallows found in Arkansas:

An apparent set of conjoined twin birds - an incredibly rare find - has been discovered in Arkansas, authorities said.

The bodies of the barn swallows, which are attached at the hip by skin and possibly muscle tissue, are being sent to the Smithsonian Institution for examination and confirmation, Arkansas wildlife officials said Friday.

"I can't even say it's one in a million - it's probably more than that," said Karen Rowe, an ornithologist with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. "There's just very little to no records of such a thing."

The birds, found by a landowner in White County, fell out of a nest as a healthy sibling flew off to learn how to hunt with its parents, Rowe said. The birds first appeared to have only three legs, but further examination found a fourth leg tucked up underneath the skin connecting the pair.

Rowe said the landowner likely kept the birds for a day before calling wildlife officials. By the time officials arrived, the birds were not eating. One died early Friday and a veterinarian later euthanized the other.

Finding conjoined birds is rare because they likely die before being discovered, Rowe said.

X-rays of the pair found each bird was fully formed, Rowe said. She said the birds would have had to come from a double-yolk egg.

Barn swallows can live for several years, though the conjoined twins might not have lived that long even if they had been separated. Rowe said it would have been difficult to teach the birds to fly.

Random Morning Cuteness

Downy woodpecker recently fledged from the nest and learning to eat off of the suet log. Note that unlike an adult male downy woodpecker, the young have red on top of their head instead of the back.

Orioles Feeding Young

Mr. Neil has had an increase in oriole activity recently. It's typical to get a lull in oriole activity at a jelly feeder once migration is finished. Orioles appear to focus more on insects while raising their young. Once the chicks fledge, you get a second bump in oriole activity in mid summer as the adults teach the young how to feed at jelly and nectar feeders. I was out taking photos and saw a few young orioles like the one above. This bird was feeding without the family group and appeared to be doing well at the jelly feeder...

That is, until an adult male showed up and chased the recently fledged oriole off the jelly. That's the way it goes in the bird world, older more experienced birds push around the younger ones. This young oriole must not have been from this male's family group.

The male Baltimore oriole gathered globs of grape jelly. I heard a young bird begging in the nearby trees. The male flew up, the begging calls stopped. I couldn't see them, but I could tell that the male must have been feeding a young bird. He flew back down to gather more jelly. I was puzzled because the begging calls did not sound like a young oriole. I spent two years volunteering in the avian nursery of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and one thing that stuck was the sound of baby birds. I never paid attention to those calls before, but now I'm pretty good at picking out eastern species begging calls. Begging orioles have a breathy, descending "eeep, eeep, eeep, eeep" sound. This wasn't it. As the male oriole grabbed more jelly, the young begging bird flew to the feeder pole and the male flew up to feed it.

Doh! No wonder it didn't sound like a young oriole...it's a young cowbird begging for food. Oh, oriole, I expected more from you. And great, just what we need, cowbirds learning to feed at jelly feeders. Even though the young cowbird at what it was fed by the oriole, I watched it watch the birds at the seed feeders. When the male oriole flew away, the young cowbird flew over to the seed feeders and tried eating some of that instead of going to the jelly feeder. Perhaps jelly does not taste good to cowbirds? This is not the first oriole to raise a cowbird, so if jelly were a good food item to them, we would see more cowbirds on jelly feeders and I just don't see that very much.

Eventually, the young oriole flew back to the jelly feeder and resumed it's feeding:

Kitty and Olga and The Newspaper Method

Well, there have been some changes in the beekeeping operation. But first, let's start with the fun.

Can I say how grateful I am for the sweet natured temperament of the MimiKo bees? They are just a joy to visit and are still so friendly and easy going...which as you will read later, is much needed this summer. I love it when I open the lid of a hive and all is calm and a few bees that are at the top of the frames just kind of poke their heads up to see what is going on. They just hang there as if to ask, "Hey, how's it going? Did you see the dance about that aster patch on the south side of the fallow field--that's some good nectar." They're so fuzzy up close, you almost want to pet them.

My buddy Jody the Librarian came out with me for some of the hive inspections and I had her do some hand feeding. That is the cool thing to do this summer: come out to the hives and feed bees bare handed. Once you've had bee tongue on your finger, you never go back to life as it was before.

Above is a Bickman hive frame with some out of control comb construction. In a beehive, you have deep brood boxes with longer frames that bees put their brood and food stores. Then there are smaller boxes called honey supers that bees building excess honey in and you get to eat. We've been having a tough time convincing some of the bees to get out of their brood boxes and go build up inside the honey supers. So, I put a smaller honey super frame inside a deep brood box of the Bickman hive. The plan was to have her start to draw out comb on the frame and then I would put it back up in the honey super and encourage the girls to build up there. I left the frame in just a little to long and the bottom of the frame was covered in soon to be drone cells. I scraped those off and put the frame back in the honey super...honey should be packed in there by the end of this month. Whoot.

I will say this, the Bickman hive has low tolerance for shenanigans. While scraping off the drones cells, a worker tried to sting my glove. I didn't feel it, but I saw her stuck on the finger tip. I had Jody smoke my glove. When a worker bee stings you, she releases a pheromone that tells her sisters, "Hey! Something bad, right here, come sting too!" And soon more bees arrive. Sometimes it's instantaneous. You'll see the one sting you and three seconds later, five bees fly to the spot. If you use your smoker and puff it over the sting, that will mask the pheromone and prevent more bees from coming to join in the stinging fun. Jody smoked my glove, but this one bee pictured above was furiously trying to find the spot to sting. She kept angrily buzzing the glove, but couldn't find the exact spot to sting. Her stinger kept popping in and out of her body, but my camera was not fast enough to catch it.

Jody and I also checked the Kitty and Olga hives. Kitty is still going strong. Above is a frame with some early drawn out comb. Kitty is strong. We looked in on Olga, neither of the new queens had hatched yet. Damn. They should have hatched by now and it was clear that they just weren't going to. Olga was dying. The workers were in a slow death. What could I do? Well, there's the dump method where you take a brood box and dump in front of other hives and hope for the best that some of the workers will make it past the guard bees of other hives and start a new life there. We opted for the news paper method. I went back to consult an under the weather Mr. Neil. He agreed, it was time to combine the weak hive with a strong hive. I waited until later in the afternoon when more foragers would be back and could take Non Birding Bill with me.

NBB opened up Olga. She was quiet, not the robust busting of activity that she had been in the past. Even though we had two brood boxes on Olga, half the frames in each box were empty, so we took frames full of bees and combined them into one brood box.

We then went over to the Kitty hive, opened the roof and ceiling, placed down a layer of newspaper and set the Olga box on that. Since some Kitty bees were still coming back from foraging and using the top of the hive, we put another piece of newspaper on top of the Olga box, and then put Kitty's honey supers on top. The bees will chew through the newspaper in the next 24 hours and hopefully by that time, the workers will have absorbed the new queen's pheromone and acclimate to the hive. Mr. Neil wisely pointed out that pointed Kitty was simply Olga's daughter hive anyway (we divided Olga this spring to create the Kitty hive), so Olga was transforming back to herself..

I went back to where Olga had been. We missed some bees. Foragers were still coming back and landing on the bottom board of where their hive had been. I looked at the frame with the two queen cells that didn't hatch. Did I do this too soon? Was there any chance that the queens might hatch really late. I needed to open them to know...but what would I find. I couldn't open them. NBB took the frame and offered to open the queen cells and tell me. I was a coward and agreed. He said that the larvae in both cells was shriveled and dried up. Something had gone wrong.

I watched former Olga foragers landing on the board and furiously running around. Guilt knotted up in my stomach. A lump formed in my throat. The sound was awful and full of panic:



It was early evening, it was cool, and it would be dark soon. Where would these bees go?

I took all the frames out of a brood box but set it up with an entrance and roof so they would have someplace to hang out in at night, some sort of shelter. Maybe some of them would fly over to the Kitty hive and the guards would let them through. Otherwise, what else would they do? NBB had to drive the vehicle with the remains of the Olga hive back to the house, I opted to walk. I felt terrible. As took the path, I saw a honey bee foraging on some clover. I wondered to myself if it was an Olga bee, and tears filled my eyes, she's gathering pollen and nectar only to head back to hive that no long exists. I thought back to all the lessons in beekeeping the Olga hive had taught me: how I freaked out big time because she was my first time putting new bees in; she gave my only sting thus far, we got comb honey from her last year, we listened to her in winter.

And now she is gone. She's very much a part of the Kitty hive and perhaps it's appropriate that the two hives we started with last year are combined into one hive this year. I didn't think I would feel this bad. I tearily met up with NBB and he patted my back and agreed that he too felt bad, but really at the end of the day, they are just insects. I tried to listen, but found that my typical anti anthropomorphic resolve was failing. These are just bees, they only live for like 21 days anyway.

So, days when you make the decision to end a hive, it's good to have a friendly hand feeding hive as a back up.

No, I'm not too attached to my bees. I can quit beekeeping at any time. Really, I can. It's not a habit. So what if I broke down in my hair stylist's chair yesterday as I related the story? I'm not in too deep, really. I can totally handle this.

Actually, I've had a few days to chew on this since it happened, so I am over the loss of the Olga hive and can chuckle at myself for being so wrapped up in my bees (and looking at the calendar, I'm sure hormones had something to do with it too). Meanwhile, there have been other happy and cool things related to beekeeping on:

MimiKo (hive namesake) sent me a kickin' shirt for my birthday--it's an Eddie Izzard shirt and much like his routine, I'm a beekeeper who is happy to be covered in bees. And, unlike a majority of bird shirts out there, this is actually designed for a woman's body and looks cute--bird manufacturers, please take note--you don't have to sell only men's sizes or the unisex sizes.

And another artist has been inspired by our bees (some may remember the Lisa Snellings art). Well, this really cool photographer named Kimberly Butler made a series of photos based on our beekeeping adventures--that's one above them. She gave us a signed copy. I was speechless when she showed it to us, it was so weird and reminded me of calm, happy bees poking their heads over frames to see what you are doing. So, in many ways, old hives do live on in really weird and wonderful ways.

Now Hiring MN Breeding Bird Atlas Coordinator

Here's a birding job for you:

Audubon Minnesota seeks a full-time Project Coordinator for the recently funded state-wide Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas (BBA) project. This project is a partnership of multiple agencies, non-profits, and universities, and will be housed in Audubon’s state office. The Project Coordinator will be responsible for coordinating the day-to-day activities of the project, providing materials and assistance to volunteer Regional Coordinators, recruiting volunteers, overseeing data gathering, editing and updating the Atlas website, along with other aspects of Atlas coordination as needed.

The Project Coordinator should have strong organizational and interpersonal skills, and be able to work effectively with diverse partners, volunteers, and the public. A passion for conservation, and knowledge of Minnesota birds, are highly desired qualities. Applications will be accepted until August 15, 2008. Contact Audubon Minnesota for a full job description. Please send a cover letter, resume, and name of three references to mmartell@audubon.org.

Audubon offers a competitive salary and benefits package, and is an EOE employer.

Another Sign From Paulie

Another informational bird sign from my buddy Paulie:

Bird Researchers Blowing Our Minds

It's a commonly heard fact at many bird programs: most bird species have a lousy sense of smell. Check out great horned owls--their favorite food is skunk!

Well, according to this article in Science Daily...we may have to rethink that!

The sense of smell might indeed be as important to birds as it is to fish or even mammals. This is the main conclusion of a study by Silke Steiger (Max Planck Institute for Ornithology) and her colleagues. The sense of smell in birds was, until quite recently, thought to be poorly developed.

Recent behavioural studies have shown that some bird species use their sense of smell to navigate, forage or even to distinguish individuals. Silke Steiger and her colleagues chose a genetic approach for their study. Their research focused on the olfactory receptor (OR) genes, which are expressed in sensory neurons within the olfactory epithelium, and constitute the molecular basis of the sense of smell. The total number of OR genes in a genome may reflect how many different scents an animal can detect or distinguish. In birds such genetic studies were previously restricted to the chicken, hitherto the only bird for which the full genomic sequence is known.

The implication of this finding is that different ecological niches may have shaped the OR gene repertoire sizes in birds, as has been suggested for mammals. The high number of OR genes in the kiwi could be explained by this bird’s unusual ecological niche. Unique among birds, the nostrils of the night-active kiwi are at the tip of the bill. When kiwis probe the forest floor in search of food, they are guided by smell rather than sight. Indeed the snuffling, nocturnal kiwis are sometimes considered to be New Zealand’s equivalent of a hedgehog!

You can read the rest of the story here.

Hummer Shtuff

I'm so proud, Non Birding Bill had a submission accepted over at Cute Overload.

A DC Birding Blog has some interesting observations on the reports of birders not seeing as many hummingbirds this summer. Meanwhile, Mr. Neil's yard seems to be experiencing more hummingbirds than usual. There are two feeders out this year and both get regular traffic. There are at least four separate hummers, two males and two females. One male in particular goes right into display mode when a female shows up.

They're totally digging the sundae feeder. Above, a female ruby-throated hummingbird is sipping from the feeder.

Even as she approached she could barely keep her tongue contained, here's a closer view:

Birds n the Bees--You're doin' it weird

Thanks, Jed, for sending this my way, it's from National Geographic, so it's gotta be true, but here is a story about using bees to keep crows away from a threatened tern colony:

After years of being attacked by crows, a colony of seabirds nesting in Tokyo is getting an unlikely ally: the tiny honeybee. Conservationists hope bees will repel the crows, based on the insects' tendency to attack anything dark-colored that approaches their hives.

This year beehives from rural areas were relocated to the top of a large water-treatment facility near Tokyo's international airport, where as many as 4,000 birds known as little terns nest after a long migration from Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea.

Although they are not endangered internationally, little terns are listed as "vulnerable" in Japan's Red Data Book of threatened species.

That's because the terns' nesting sites in the country are being destroyed by construction work and other human activities, so the birds are considered potentially at risk in the future.

The terns near the airport have long been victims of Tokyo's crows.

In a single prolonged attack five years ago, about 60 crows picked off roughly 300 eggs and 160 young birds, and fewer terns have come to the nesting site since then.

"The young can't defend themselves against the crows, so we tried to find ways to protect them at the nesting site," said Naoya Masuda, a member of the nonprofit Little Tern Project.

"One thing we tried was putting netting in the trees and stringing up fishing lines, but nothing worked."

Then a suggestion from a city water-bureau employee led the tern group to the Ginza Bee Project.

"We spoke to an expert and learned that honeybees in the wild have the natural response of attacking a black object that comes near to their hive," Takayasu said.

"There have been tests with black and white balloons, and the bees always attack the black balloon."

It is believed that the bees' reaction is linked to the color of bears' fur. The insects apparently attack dark-colored creatures to protect their hives from plunder.

"We noticed that the bees swarmed around crows that were taking offerings from white plates left on the outdoor altar of a shrine in Ginza," Takayasu added.

"After a while the crows stopped coming back, so we thought it was worth trying at the terns' nesting site."

Between July and November of last year, two hives were placed on the roof of the Morigasaki Water Reclamation Plant to protect the birds once they arrived in April, and another hive was added this May.

Around 20,000 honeybees currently patrol the terns' nests, according to Masuda of the Little Tern Project, who added that the two creatures are getting on "like good neighbors."

"It is not 100 percent foolproof yet, because the area is quite large, and there do seem to have been fewer birds here this year so far," he said.

"But we are hopeful that it will prove effective over the long term."

Hand Feeding The Bees

Here's a video of a honey bee licking my finger:



You can watch it in high resolution here. There's a similar video here.

Pyro Pigeon Nest?

From blog reader Malorie:

"I have been reading your blog for a while now, and I came across something today in which I thought you might be interested. There are a series of caves in Kuna, Idaho called Kuna Caves (not very creative name, I know), and I went to explore there today.

At the end of my traipse (and sometimes crawl/clamber) I discovered something that I was really not expecting to see--a nestling in a nest made primarily of bits of firework. Instead of sticking with my assumption that it must be a phoenix as it is born of fire, I decided to contact the Snake River Birds of Prey center, and I also thought to send you some pictures in the event that you would like to see pictures of a baby bird kicking it in a cave. If you know what it is by these not-so-great photographs, I would love to know as all I have guiding me is limited knowledge and conjecture."

Well, Malorie, nestlings are a challenging for most people. But this bird using the bottle rockets for nesting material is a rock pigeon (the pigeons you see in cities). Pigeons and doves are in the Ugly Baby Hall Of Fame and if you didn't know birds, that might be something you expect to find in a cave. Pigeons started out nesting on cliffs before they nested on buildings, so a cave kind of makes sense...although the bottle rockets do not. But I find it best not to question a pigeon.

Thanks for the fun photo and for sharing this interesting find! I love the comparison to a phoenix!

Sharon Stiteler, Roving Ranger & Snapping Turtle Crossing Guard

Today, I had to do a "roving ranger" day for the National Parks Service at Coon Rapids Dam. Basically, we go out with a backpack full of brochures and ask people at random, "Hey, did you know you were in a National Park?" and politely and excitedly tell them about the trail system and various ways to enjoy the park. I also had my spotting scope in tow to show off the birds.

The Mississippi National Recreation and River Area that I work for as a park ranger is a unique park in that it is comprised of several smaller parks, and the NPS actually owns very little of the acreage. So, you could be in a county park or state park or city park along the Mississippi River and if you are in one of the 72 miles between the Crow River and the St. Croix River...you're in the National Park. Like I said, it's a unique park. I was out with fellow ranger Rebecca and right as we were leaving, I noticed a lump in the road.

It was a small snapping turtle...with some kind of weird lump on it's back. We couldn't tell what the lump was (it was definitely not a snail) and quite frankly, we didn't want to get too close or you get this:

Rebecca and I both have some experience with turtles, usually when you see one crossing a road, heading away from a lake, it's a female laying eggs. Although, it's a bit late for snappers in Minnesota, but a lot of bird species are two weeks behind this season, so why not turtles too? Now, if this is a female going to lay eggs, you really do not want to pick her up, whether she is s a snapper, Blanding's, map, or whatever type of turtle. Females have water stored inside that they will use to wet the ground to help dig the hole in which they will deposit their eggs. If you pick up a female crossing the road, she will usually squirt out the water and after you put her across the street, she will have to go back and collect more water.

It's best to try and get traffic to stop and hurry the turtle along...as much as one can hurry a turtle. This one kept snapping at us like crazy and turning around and following us. So, I held out a stick, she tried to bite it, and then started to chase the stick. I managed to kind of herd her along safely by dangling the stick and she got to the other side without her dropping any water. Meanwhile, my partner answered questions to passing cars, "Now, we're not just taunting the turtle. It's a snapping turtle, you really don't want to pick it up. We want to get her to the other side of the road safely. It's better that she bites the stick than the ranger's hand."

And excellent team effort.

Robber Bees

Do you ever have days where you feel like no one can make a mistake as big as you can, or quite so publicly, and taking several people down with you in the process? That you are perhaps the antithesis of tact? That perhaps the place for you to reside for the next month or so would be under a rock? I was having that kind of day earlier this week.

Then I got a somewhat panicked call from Lorraine. She said that there were several bees in the garage and they were going for the bee equipment and hive boxes. Could this be a swarm? If it was a swarm, was it from one of our hives or was it from a neighbor or even a passing truck? Was is something else? Did Lorraine have a camera?

Lorraine didn't have a camera to document this and she didn't see a large clump of bees that could mean a swarm but assured me a large quantity of bees was in the garage. I decided to head out regardless, I needed the company, someone needed to get photos, and even if it wasn't a swarm, something blogable was happening.

By the time I arrived, the amount of bees had diminished but it was still enough to make me want to put on a bee suit. Many bees were crowded on the windows and surrounding some old frames, but there was no telltale clump that would mean a swarm.

What we had were robber bees. In the above photo, are the old frames from the Kitty Hive that died out this winter--they were covered in bees. Lorraine had left the garage door open and a worker bee found them, went back to a hive, did a little dance that said to other workers, "Holy crap, there's a trashed hive with some frames with honey! We don't even have to gather nectar and convert it to honey, we can just take the honey! Watch me dance!"

And soon several thousand bees followed suit to the garage. We stood outside the garage to watch where they were coming from because we have the Olga and Kitty Hive in one area and Bickman and MimiKo in another area. The traffic flow appeared to head towards Kitty and Olga and my guess is that these are Kitty bees. Lorraine and I decided to head out to do some late afternoon bee inspections. Not the best idea, most of your foragers are back at the hive at that time and they are most likely to sting you, however, we were just going to check the tops of the hives and not dig too deep.

We did dig deep into the queenless Olga hive to check her progress. We found queen cells on June 22 and we were checking the hive on July 8. The queen should emerge in 15 - 17 days after being laid. Hopefully, a queen will emerge by this weekend, kill off the other queen cell, go on a nuptial flight and replenish this hive. Maybe this queen cell was emerging on Tuesday? Note the little notch in the capping at the top? Fingers crossed for this queenless hive.


Kitty seemed well and contented. She's a little behind in production compared to the MimiKo and Bickman hives, but seems well on her way to filling the hive in time for winter.

The MimiKo hive was super calm for so late in the afternoon. We didn't use the smoker on her. Everyone was mellow while we checked honey supers that had been placed on top recently. I told Lorraine that this would be the perfect time to hand feed the bees.

So we took off our gloves and dabbed a tiny bit of honey on our hands and tried to find a taker for our sweet finger tips. Low and behold, we found a taker. Above is Lorraine, without a glove, hand feeding a honeybee. Here is a close up:

The little bee tongue reached right out for her sweet fingers. This was a truly amazing moment if you knew Lorraine before we stared the whole beekeeping operation--she was the most opposed to the idea from the beginning, I seem to recall her shouting several times "Bees are NOT in my job description!" And now she not only goes out to the hives and does maintenance, she's out at the hive during the busiest time, with minimal smoke, bare-handedly feeding worker bees. A testament to how chill the MimiKo bees are and how much Lorraine has mellowed out in regards to beekeeping.

We checked the Bickman hive, she's sorta friendly but not nearly as laid back as the MimiKo hive.