Friday Banding & Birding

It was jam packed at Carpenter Nature Center banding on Friday. It was the day after Thanksgiving and many people stopped by--including a hilarious 4 year old named Dylan. She kept asking to band a bird herself. I was doing a junco when she came to me and said, "I was going to do that one!"

I asked if she took the banding class. She looked to the side and back at me and said, "Yes." Can't blame a girl for trying. My favorite part was a the end of the morning, she was leaving and we said, "Bye, Dylan, it was nice to meet you," and she replied, "Yes, it was."

The big excitement of the day was getting one of the oodles of pine siskins around the Twin Cities. Tom Bell banded this bird and he noted how fine their bills are--perfect for going into those thin slits on finch feeders.

The yellow is subtle on these little birds, mostly in the edging on the primary wing feathers and the tail feathers. I don't think we were able to determine the sex of this bird, but we did determine that it was a hatch year bird.

Ecobirder was also there, he's going to help Carpenter a bit with their website. When we were finished, I drove over to Douglas Point and found him taking photos. I left him peace, I know how I am when I get in a good groove. The weather was so warm, it was 40 degrees that I decided to go for a bike ride when I came home.

I decided to go over to Lake Calhoun to see if I could get a photo of the long-tailed duck in better light. Plus, I've been curious if I could take my whole digiscoping setup with me on my bike. Non Birding Bill and I were both feeling the effects of eating too much and he also joined me for the ride (as long as I promised not to spend an hour trying to get the perfect photo of a duck).

The light was awesome and waterfowl like Canada geese and hooded mergansers were up close...but not the long-tailed duck, it was WAAAY out on the lake and not worth digiscoping.

The light was so perfect that I hated to waste it and took a few photos of geese. I could hear joggers behind me say, "Why would you want to take photos of those ducks?" I wanted to turn around and point out the scaup and goldeneyes and say there's more out there than just mallards and geese, but did not. And of course, since I was birding in a public place, someone came up to me and said, "Hey, is that bald eagle still over there?"

"I don't know," I said, "I'm not looking for that."

"It was over on the north side, in that tree, the lighter one on the left there." He paused and I could tell by the look in his eye that he was waiting for me to move my scope on it. The eagle was out further than the long-tailed duck. I was not on the clock and I was focusing on a shoveler, I didn't move my scope.

"It's right over there," he pointed. "I saw it when I was jogging over there. It was just sitting there."

"That's awesome," I said, "I'm glad you got to see that." I could see NBB in my peripheral vision over by our bikes. He was grinning that someone was pointing out an eagle yet again when I'm after something else.

I showed him the shoveler in my scope and he showed about as much interest in the northern shoveler as I was in his eagle. I explained about the long-tailed duck and he seemed even less interested in that. Finally, he moved on.

It was fun to squeeze in another bike ride in early winter and it was fun to look at the waterfowl and I was only a tiny bit bummed at missing a good photo of the long-tailed duck. When I checked my email this morning I found this report from yesterday about the long-tailed duck from local birder Terry Brashear:

"The Long-tailed Duck was seen at 2PM close to the west shore, but an adult Bald Eagle came by and the group of Hooded Merganser and Common Goldeneye it was with took flight. It spent the remainder of the day out in the middle of Lake Calhoun till I left at 3:30PM."

Which was about the time NBB and I were biking around the lake. That stupid bald eagle that dude was trying to point out is the one that moved the duck so far to the center of the lake.

I'm shaking my fist at that bald eagle and saying in a tone like a villain at the end of a Scooby Doo cartoon, "I would have gotten that photo too if hadn't been for that meddling eagle."

Birdchick Gift Guide 2008

It's time for some of my picks for gift ideas for the birder in your life. Here is a link to all my other past gift suggestions. The gift ideas range for birders of all ages and all abilities. I'm not paid by anyone to endorse any of these products, although a few you may recognize as sponsors of this site. These are all products that I totally dig.

If you have any birder gift ideas that you don't see listed, please feel free to add them in the comments.

Gifts & A Good Cause

The Duck Stamp (or The Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, ya happy, Paul?) Birders of all levels and is okay to give more than once in a year. I'd be honored if I ended up getting five this Holiday Season.

I've said it before and I'll say it again--this is an EXCELLENT gift for anyone into birds, especially for the birder who appears to have everything. The money from purchase of the stamps is used to acquire habitat for waterfowl but that benefits many species of birds including warblers, sparrows, herons, grebes, and shorebirds. The stamp costs $15 and 98% of that $15 goes to purchase habitat for ducks and other wildlife. People and birds benefit from this purchase.

Burning Hawk Wine (great for birders over 21 years of age)

This company was the hit of the show at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival. They hosted the Kiskadee Cordial where festival attendees could sample the wine and socialize. This past May a hawk was electrocuted and caught fire and set a vineyard ablaze. That awful incident sparked several people, like founder Nick Papadopoulos to create a line of wines that are not only tasty but help birds. They company devotes 10% of all sales to bird conservation projects. There's a red and a white and I purchase a red that is very robust, a little bit on the sweet side, but a great wine. Non Birding Bill really enjoyed it. This is a great gift even for the non birding people in you life. You'll note that I have a button ad for this company on my site. If you click on that to order the wine, I get a tiny percentage, but honestly, this company mission is so good, I don't care if you order it through my site or go directly to them from google. It's a great wine and even better cause.

Cornell Lab Of Ornithology Gifts

I was going to post some cool gifts from Cornell Lab or Ornithology, but they have their own gift guide this year. Please check it out. Some of my favorites include the Year Long Membership to Project Feeder Watch (great for backyard birders and kids), Birds of North America Online Membership (perfect for hardcore or intermediate birder--have a question about some bird in North America, you'll find the answer there. Especially with the growing popularity of iPhones and iTouches, this is a great online birding resource.

Books:

The Young Birder's Guide (kids and new birders)

BEST BIRDING BOOK TO COME OUT ALL YEAR. Bill Thompson worked with kids to find out what kind of a birding guide they would like. I have reviewed this book already, but this would be an ideal gift for any kid you'd like to get a little more into birding. It's in an approachable format, has cool birding facts, habitat tips, just about everything. I've even met a few adult birders working on honing their skills appreciate the book. I'd even buy one of these and donate it to Toys For Tots.

City Birds/Country Birds (backyard birder, especially in urban areas)

This is my second and it came out this spring. It's how to attract birds no matter where you live, even if it's in an urban area. The information is based on my 8 years working in a bird feeding retail store and from my personal backyard birding experience. Lots of photos (some from blog readers) and fun to read information. You can get it in a number of places, but if you would like a personalized copy, get it from the Birdchic Boutique.


The New Peterson Field Guide (birders of all levels, although if you know a hardcore birder, chances are good that they already have it).

This is a revamped version of the classic illustrated guide by Roger Tory Peterson. If you have always been a fan of Peterson, you will love this updated version--larger pictures and text, small maps on the species page with larger maps in back, added species, updated maps, and a url to video podcasts. A good classic birder gift. Should be available at most bird stores and book stores.


The Smithsonian Field Guide to Birds (birders of all levels)

This is a more comprehensive take on a photographic field guide. The photos are very good and unlike other photographic guides, there are several photos for each species. This is a newer guide that is not getting the attention it deserves, but would be a welcome addition to most bird watcher's shelves. This might be a bit overwhelming for a new birder or young birder, but for the gung-ho birder, this is a must.

The Boreal Owl Murder (birders of all levels)

This is a cute book. I read it on a flight, and I've loaned my copy to a few other birding friends (some hardcore) and I think one summed it up best: "It was good and it's a book you don't have to be 99% present to read." It's a murder mystery set in Minnesota involving birders. It's cutesy (the main character's name is Bob White--ha ha get it, cause he's a birder) but there all sorts of birding references and Minnesota references--I think she killed off Bill Lane in the book. Again, it's a fun, easy read and just about everything in it bird-wise is accurate (although I disagree with the character who said boreals don't respond to tapes, they sure do). I only found one glaring inaccuracy. She made a Minnesota Ornithologists' Union Board Meeting sound way too friendly and fun.

For The Birds (the backyard birder)

Sisters who own Wild Birds Unlimited franchises combined their birding feeding knowledge and created this book/calendar. It goes through the calendar year and lets you know what birds to expect, what feeds work best for the time of year, kids projects, and personal tips from the authors. The book is good for the entire US, both eastern and western. Available at a Wild Birds Unlimited near you.


Jewelery

Hand Painted Coins (birders of all levels)

I found these when I was at Civic Fest this summer. He paints coins and makes them into pendents for necklaces, cuff links, money clips, etc. I bought a Slovakian coin with a honey bee on it that's absolutely beautiful. He does the US Quarters and coins from other countries, so you can find any manner of birds or wildlife. If you are looking for unique, this is it.

Feather Brain (the flashy birder)

I just thought these were cute headbands.

The Mincing Mockingbird (the birder with a good sense of humor).

Off the wall bird art, what more do you need to know?

Go Go Birding Gadgets

Snapshot Adventures: The Secrets of Bird Island (kids)

This is an awesome little computer game. My only beef is that it is currently only for PCs and not Macs at the moment. But essentially, you use your grandfather's journal to find out where he disappeared to. You meet some of his friends along the way and they ask you to take photos of birds. The birds move and you get points for birds in different poses. Also, if you don't know what a bird is that they want you to find, you have a guide. The birds are fairly accurate and it's a fun way to do some nature photography on a rainy day as well as learn some mad birding skills. Awesome and fun computer game. Heck, some adults will even enjoy this.

Remembird (intermediate to hardcore birders)

This is an awesome little device! It's a digital audio recorder that you can either wear on your neck or attach to your binoculars. When it's on your binos, the buttons for recording fall where your fingers fall and it's very intuitive to use. It's great for taking audio notes of birds. Your looking at the bird and the card takes in all you info. You then can listen later and compare in your field guide. The microphone has 2 settings, one for up close recording for taking notes and one that will grab audio from further away. Can't id that bird song? Grab it on your Remembird and compare it to your birdJam when you get home. Remembird also comes with software and it will keep track of all your audio recordings and you can even make your own list of birds recorded. Very sweet and a useful tool for taking notes and learning your bird calls.

birdJam (great for birders of all levels)

This is as always a great gift idea, one I've mentioned several times. Also, I just noticed that they currently are having bundled special of an iPod Touch, iMaingo portable speaker, software, & songs. It's a really great deal.


The Gift Of Time

Another thing to consider is that if you want to give someone a really nice gift, maybe chip in with other family members, why not buy someone a registration to a bird festival? I go to a lot of bird festivals and they are fun, but the cost can add up between registering, flight, and hotel. If you can help a birder ease some of that travel burden, registration to a bird festival is a great way to go. Some festivals coming up in the near future that would be idea include The Space Coast Birding and Nature Festival (Florida in January) or the San Diego Bird Festival (southern California in March).

Again, these are some ideas that have caught my eye this year. Please feel free to add suggestions and links in the comments (although, I will delete things I find unsuitable for this list like World of Warcraft, Viagra, and Botox).

We Interrupt Naked Thanksgiving For A Long-tailed Duck!

I unsubscribed from a local birding listserv awhile ago. For some reason, I started receiving emails again and took it as a sign when someone reported seeing a long-tailed duck about six blocks from my home. I'd seen one before, but it was years ago in a Wisconsin sewage pond. As a matter of fact, it was so long ago, I think the bird was called by its old name: the oldsquaw.

Non Birding Bill and I have a low-key attitude towards the holiday. We do Naked Thanksgiving: no dressing, pie for breakfast, and showing our gratitude. I read the email that someone had spotted the long-tailed duck this morning at Lake Calhoun--within walking distance of our home and a periodic bike ride for us.

So, we broke tradition, put on some clothes and headed over--I made sure to take along a flask of scotch, partially for Bill and partially for a toast if we saw the bird. We went to the northeast side of the lake. That was where it was last reported. We found lots of ducks, but no long-tailed duck. I scanned the lake and noticed lots of birders scattered about the shore. I then noticed a flock of hooded mergansers and goldeneyes on the south side. We headed over. I scanned a bit and then NBB went back to the car. I ran into local birder Jim Ryan (who is a regular of Birds and Beers) and he was with another local birder named Dave (can't remember his last name). We scanned and admired the waterfowl but found no long-tail. Jim mentioned he saw an odd duck earlier but it took off. He mentioned that he thought it might go to nearby Lake Harriet and he was going to head over. I wondered if I had enough scotch for NBB, so I could pursue the duck.

Just as Jim and I were about to enter our vehicles, Dave called us over--weird duck flew in with some other waterfowl. Jim and I hustled over and sure enough...

There it was. On the left is a hooded merganser, on the right is the long-tailed duck. The long-tailed duck breeds in up in the arctic. After breeding, the ducks migrate to either coast or even to the great lakes. This bird is far from either coast and far south of Lake Superior, not sure how it got here or how long it will stay, but it was treat so close to home.

It didn't stay near us long. There was a lot of traffic on Lake Calhoun--sail boats, kayakers, fishermen. The long-tailed duck appeared to be nervous and soon flew off, perhaps searching for a less boat heavy part of the lake. There were also quite a few walkers, joggers and rollerbladers around the lake. One woman stopped to see what we were looking at and I showed her. She asked if the ducks were here because the lake was heated. Apparently, someone told her that lakes in Minneapolis stay open because the city heats them. We laughed and told her that someone fed her quite a line.

I sent NBB a text that we had the bird (he decided to wait in the car where it was heated while I searched for the long-tailed duck). He came down with the flask and all of us, including the woman who asked what we were doing had a celebratory sip of 18 year old scotch for such a great bird on Thanksgiving Day!

NBB and I returned home and resumed our gratitude.

Happy Naked Thanksgiving!

There are updates at the end of this post!

Non Birding Bill and I are celebrating our usual day long date that we call Naked Thanksgiving. One of the many things I'm grateful for is just some time with each other. It was suggested that bird bloggers post photos of turkeys today. I'm not sure if everyone is going to do it, but I have turkey photos:

Lovely! Although, I took this photo last March when males are in their mating mode. I think they have to puff of those feathers to distract from this:

What female turkey wouldn't want a piece of that?

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have a great day...and if you don't celebrate, I hope you're having a great day too. I'm grateful to everyone who stops by here from time to time to take a look. I'm grateful for my family, for NBB, for having a roof over my head, for our crazy pets.

Update 1: The above is a female, but based on the comment hilarity, I'm keepin' it! And honestly, the males really don't look better than that. And if you would like to see an actual tom head, check out Bill of the Birds. He's got it goin' on!

Update 2: I found more turkey photos. Here's cute turkey photo sent to my by April Grunspan:

And I noticed PicusBlog has a cool turkey blog entry up too.

Update 3: Birding Bev has graciously compiled the turkey photos and offers a most succulent bird in her post.

Space Coast Here I Come!!

I'm pretty much finished with traveling for the rest of the year, but I'm prepping for adventures next year and I am OH so excited. I'm going to do the Space Coast Bird Festival in January and what's really fun for me is that I'll get to help on the field trips and I'm going to a fantastic digiscoping spot, Viera Wetlands where I had the most amazing personal appearance with an American bittern. Here are one of the photos:

So, here's my schedule for where I'm helping at the festival (along with many other GREAT field trip leaders):

January 21 - Viera Wetlands
January 22 - South Brevard (oh dear, it leaves at 4:30am)
January 23 - Viera Wetlands
January 25 - Gull ID (gulls, why did it have to be gulls)
January 26 - Pelagic Trip

This is just going to be a digiscoping bonanza (apart from the pelagic). I'll also be doing two different workshops: Blogging: The New Nature Journal and City Birds/Country Birds, how to attract birds anywhere.

Plus, there will be the whole festival gang there as well. Something to look foward to as we have all these cold days ahead of us in Minnesota.

Mischief On Twitter

Some of you may have noticed on the blog page that I have a Twitter Update. If you are not familiar with Twitter, it's a form of micro blogging. I can send a one or two sentence update, it cannot be any longer than 140 characters. Sometimes I type an update in from my computer and sometimes I send one from a cell phone via text message.

If you wish, you can get a Twitter account and follow anyone you know or find on Twitter. For example, you can follow people like friends or bloggers you know like Born Again Bird Watcher or Picus, or you can follow celebrities like Stephen Fry or Jonathan Coulton, or characters like Darth Vader, companies like Dunkin Donuts, your favorite news organization like I follow MinnPost, or just the plain bizarre like Bacon Friday. I use mine to test out ideas for future blog posts (is this link appropriate) or if I'm busy at a bird festival then I will type in quick updates. Non Birding Bill used it for me when I had to work the RNC as a park ranger. He was able to follow the rioters twitter feeds and let me know where tear gas was being sprayed.

The other day I was at the Minnesota River Valley Visitor Center just doing some digiscoping. I find it relaxing when I'm stressed and now that I have my favorite digiscoping camera (the Fuji FinePix E900, thank you National Camera Exchange for digging one up for me) I just love playing with it.

I joke when I give digiscoping programs that you suddenly find yourself with a renewed interest in common species like house sparrows and starlings. Isn't that a pretty house sparrow? I know, I know, bluebird people are reading that last sentence and think that my choo choo has really gone round the bend. But there were other cool sparrows too:

We still have some fox sparrows hanging out in MN! There were about four working the grounds underneath the visitor centers feeders. I wrote a text on my phone to Twitter that I was seeing fox sparrows.

There were quite a few house finches around too. This was one of the healthy looking ones. There was one male who looked rather puffy and spent too long at the feeders when everyone else would fly away. It looked sick. It didn't have the eye disease you typically see with house finches, but it didn't look good.

Soon, many of the birds left and I noticed this one lone downy woodpecker doing her best to blend in with the column on this feeder. I figured that there must be a Cooper's hawk or sharp-shinned hawk perched nearby, but could not see it. Suddenly, there was a flash of gray, black and white. I first thought "mockingbird" but remembered I was in Minnesota so it must have been a northern shrike. That id was confirmed when Mr. Gray, Black & White took off in hot pursuit of the sick looking house finch. I wrote a text to Twitter:

"A northern shrike just tried to nail a house finch at MN River Valley Headquarters."

To which Born Again Bird Watcher responded:

"@birdchick Oooh, kinky!"

And then PicusBlog adds:

"@birdchick @babw The end result of the aforementioned act might look like this."

Apparently, my texting is just chock full of double entendres and now I know what a house shrike would look like.

National Eagle Center Job Opportunity

This job opening caught my eye. It's perfect for anyone interested in eagles and living in Wabasha, MN:

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: The National Eagle Center, today’s leading organization dedicated solely to eagles and their relationships with the natural world and human cultures, seeks an enthusiastic and highly ambitious senior-level candidate for the position of Executive Director.

Reporting to the board of directors, this newly created position will be responsible for all strategic and operational aspects of this fast-growing, highly visible organization. Leadership responsibilities include visionary strategic planning and direction toward the organization’s mission and goals; aggressive membership, endowment, grant, and gift store/web site revenue growth; effective management of a highly-dedicated staff of employees and volunteers; supervision of traveling and permanent exhibits including live resident eagles; and efficient operation of the National Eagle Center, a newly constructed, 14,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility. The Executive Director will serve as chief executive officer of this dynamic and progressive enterprise and will accept responsibility for its success on all levels.

The ideal candidate will have an advanced degree or equivalent experience in administration, business or the natural sciences, along with an increasingly responsible and successful record of managing seven-figure enterprises. In addition, he or she will possess exceptional interpersonal, leadership, and communication skills that combine to take full advantage of the opportunities available to the National Eagle Center and maximize the organization’s chance for continued growth and success.

The National Eagle Center, a 501c(3) not-for-profit corporation, was founded in 1989 by a group of highly dedicated volunteers and has operated continuously since that time. The organization’s goal is to explore the importance of eagles to human cultures throughout history and to ensure long-term sustainability of native eagle populations through a wide variety of educational and experiential programming. Situated on the banks of the Mississippi River in historic Wabasha, Minnesota, the National Eagle Center enjoys a breathtaking location in the heart of the picturesque Hiawatha Valley, and serves as enthusiastic host to the highest number of wintering bald eagles found anywhere in the lower forty-eight states.

If you are ready to assume an executive leadership position with a nationally-prominent organization, yet appreciate the healthy rewards of an outdoor lifestyle and small-town living, this is the ideal opportunity for you.

National Eagle Center
50 Pembroke Avenue
Wabasha, Minnesota 55981

(URL: Please submit your resume via email along with salary requirements to National Eagle Center Executive Director Search Committee, c/o RANDY EGGENBERGER, Board Member (EM: eggenbrd AT myclearwave.net)

Interesting Recaptured Chickadee

We had an interesting recaptured bird at Carpenter Nature Center last Friday!

We don't have our nets setup right now, it's too cold. Birds tangled in a net can't use their feathers as well to regulate their body temperatures so we don't up them up when it's below freezing. We do set up little cage traps around the feeding areas though. Birds get trapped inside, but they can move around and still use their feathers to stay warm. The above chickadee got into one of the traps and was already banded. These are the birds we really need--recaptures. We can look at the band number, figure out its original capture date, how many times it's been captured, age, sometimes sex, just all sorts of info!

The above black-capped chickadee was banded on July 12, 2002! On its original capture date, the bird was identified as a hatch year bird. So we know based on its plumage that it hatched the summer of 2002. However, we don't know the sex of this particular chickadee. We can only do that in the summer. Females will have brood patches, swollen bare skin for incubating eggs (often called a BP by banders). Males will have a cloacal protuberance for...mating (often called CP by banders).

This six year old chickadee has been retrapped 10 times. Alas, it has always been in the winter. So the first year we banded it, the chickadee was recently hatched and would not have a BP or a CP. And in the winter, males and females are not in the mating mode and they do not have a CP or BP and even though we've had it 10 more times, never at a time when it could sexed.

Still amazing to think that this bird has survived six Minnesota winters. I wonder where it has set up its nesting territory?

Birdwatch Radio

There's a new podcast up for Birdwatch Radio. It's part one of a two part series made during this year's Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. He talks to my buddy Jim Danzenbaker from Kowa (and Jim even schools you on how to properly pronounce the name Kowa).

Also interviewed is one of the guys from Rockjumper Tours...learn how much money you'll need to go to Africa and some of the cool things you'll do on their trips.

And my personal favorite part of the podcast is the interview with Kevin Karlson and he talks about his book he coming next year on birding by impression. Non Birding Bill was listening with me and when they started talking about "jizz" birding, coffee shot out my nose, and NBB was shaking his head with laughter. In the podcast, Steve asks is if it's spelled jizz and Kevin does say what the real spelling for jizz should be. And if you don't know what the slang meaning for jizz is...well...ask the nearest teenager. They'll probably turn three shades of red and be too busy giggling to answer but you might get the meaning.

Anyway, fun podcast to have on in the background.

How To Pick Up A Birder

"Hey, is that an ibis in your scope, or are you just happy to see me?"

Well, here's an interesting question that came through the BirdChick Email from a new birder who I met on my travels this fall. She asks:

"Being both single and new to the birding community with a renewed commitment to take advantage of the birding opportunities in my area, I was wondering if there is any "birder" behavior I should be on the lookout for. They say the best place to meet someone is doing the things you enjoy, though it hasn't worked for me so far, but you never know when the right guy might trip over me.

I know different groups of society have quirks in their verbal and body language when showing interest in a member of the opposite sex, i.e. when the IT guy was showing me all the cool features on my work computer and no one else in the office, he was doing the best his geeky little heart could to flirt with me; for really shy guys, just speaking to a girl is flirting; macho guys break stuff; military/law enforcement blow stuff up etc. as a way of showing off for the "female bird" and getting her attention. So, are there any identified exhibitions to look for in the male birder? Do they brag about their equipment (no, I don't mean it that way!), or their life bird list? Do they point out lots of birds to you, showing their ornithological prowess? Or do they just walk around with their eyes hooked to binoculars and noses in field guides?"

I don't feel qualified to answer this question. I have never dated a birder--ever. (I even dated a guy with a bird phobia, but never a birder). I know the signs from men in general to know when they're attracted but nothing specific to birders. This is a question that does come up in one form or another about 4 - 6 times a year in my inbox, so fellow birders, can we help this single birder out? I should mention that she's a younger birder, this isn't necessarily an older person but I'm sure all single birders out there could benefit from the answer.

How do you know when a birder is flirting with you?

Can't Stop Blogging About The Rio Grande Valley!

Can you believe I still have blogging to do about Texas?? It really is one of my favorite birding trips I do all year. I love the organizers, the birds, the food, the temperature--it's tops. Check out this altamira oriole that was just cleaning itself off after using a bird bath at Laguna Atascosa NWR.

I think I have finally caught up from all my traveling. I was trying to catch up all last week from being in Ohio, New Jersey, and Texas. I was home between those trips, but only for brief periods. In that time, the apartment had exploded into a chaos world of bunny fur, cockatiel dust, and hay. Books were staging some sort of coup and weren't returning to shelves, my suitcase refused to unpack itself and a glacier of laundry was moving out of the bedroom. Amid trying to work and catch up on the blog, Non Birding Bill said those magic words: "I'm taking Friday afternoon off, let's go see the new Bond movie!"

But late Sunday, well into Monday and Tuesday I went into a cleaning and organizing frenzy. Interrupted briefly by a one way conversation with my stomach Tuesday morning. Still not quite sure what that was about. Was my stomach getting into the spirit of my apartment purge? I didn't feel sick which is completely out of character when I throw up. I suspect it had more to do with a bad combo of coffee and omega 3 fish oil gel caps.

But back to talking about Laguna! I love the trails and I love the wildlife drive. I took almost a full day to creep along and look for birds to digiscope. I was hoping to get some great shots of a caracara.

But had to settle for the Dr. Seuss stylings of a long-billed curlew! I was showing this photo to a non birding friend of mine (even more so than Non Birding Bill) and he looked at the photo and asked, "What the hell does it use that for?!" The beak is a little striking. I checked out the always fabulous Birds of North America Online. It said that the long decurved bill is used when foraging earthworms or shrimp and crabs. BNA also suggested that the long bill is used mainly when feeding on their wintering grounds as opposed to their breeding grounds. Basically, observers see curlews probing more in winter on the migratory habitat and see more pecking on the breeding grounds. Interesting to have a bill like that and only need it for part of the year.

Osprey were all over the place. The above bird was trying to eat its fish in peace, but had an audience:

This young turkey vulture (it's young because the head is still dark) was biding its time on the side lines, trying to work out a way to sneak in and steal a few bites for the osprey. This bird must really like fish because there's an abundance of fresh roadkill in the Rio Grande Valley. Why didn't the vulture just for that instead?

Laguna had signs posted warning of you alligators. The first gator I ever saw in the wild was at Laguna. I did see a few on my drive:

This one was right off the road. I got out of the vehicle to digiscope it. I took a couple of images through the scope with my phone and sent them off.

Here's a digiscoped image. I have to say, there were a couple of points where I felt like I was in the Blink episode of Doctor Who. When I turned away, it almost seemed as if the alligator was closer. It wasn't long after I took this photo that I looked to my left...

...and found another alligator lounging not too far from me. I digiscoped it too:

Well if that just isn't the most contented looking alligator ever. Realizing that I'm rather short, there are warning signs, and having two alligators near me, I hightailed it back in the car. I love a little adventure in my birding. I love going to places where there are animals that could knock me off a rung or two on the food chain.

Skywatch Friday: Night Dragon

It's Skywatch Friday time again! It's a site you can visit and follow links to people's pages to look at different photos of sky.

Check out the dragon! I took this photo at last weekend's bonfire party during the fireworks portion of the evening. Non Birding Bill was helping set off fireworks and this image came from something called "Bad To The Bone." I wasn't expecting to get anything, but when I downloaded photos the next morning, this showed up as a big dragon. If you follow the link, you can watch a video of Bad to the Bone does. I don't know how I got a dragon out of it, but it was cool!

One Last Call To Help The Endangered Species Act

CALL YOUR HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE TODAY AND DEMAND THAT THEY LEAVE THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT THE WAY IT IS.

You know, I kind of thought that maybe with the current president's low approval rating that he might do something "nice" like establish a bunch of National Parks and Historic sites. It's the thing to do when you are leaving office to try and keep a positive legacy. I was wrong. No matter how many of us have protested, the Endangered Species Act is in grave danger.

From the Associated Press:

The Bush administration has until Friday to publish new rules in order for them to take effect before President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in. Otherwise, Obama can undo them with the stroke of a pen.

A rule eliminating the mandatory, independent advice of government scientists in decisions about whether dams, highways and other projects are likely to harm species looked likely to meet the deadline, leaving the only chance for a quick reversal to Congress.

A Nov. 12 version of the final endangered species rules obtained by The Associated Press has changed little from the original proposal, despite the more than 250,000 comments received since it was first proposed in August.

The rules eliminate the input of federal wildlife scientists in some endangered species cases, allowing the federal agency in charge of building, authorizing or funding a project to determine for itself whether the project is likely to harm endangered wildlife and plants.

Current regulations require independent wildlife biologists to sign off on these decisions before a project can go forward, at times modifying the design to better protect species.

The regulations also bar federal agencies from assessing emissions of the gases blamed for global warming on species and habitats, a tactic environmentalists have tried to use to block new coal-fired power plants. But the Bush administration feels that endangered species laws should not be used to regulate greenhouse gases.

Tina Kreisher, an Interior Department spokeswoman, could not confirm whether the rule would be published before the deadline, saying only that the White House was still reviewing it. She said it was possible more changes could be made.

"We started this; we want to finish this," Kreisher said.

If the rules go into effect before Obama takes office, they will be difficult to overturn since it would require the new administration to restart the rule-making process. Congress, however, could reverse the rules through the Congressional Review Act, a law that allows review of new federal regulations.

It's been used once in the past 12 years, but some Democratic lawmakers have said they may employ it to block the endangered species rules and other last-minute regulations by the Bush administration.

The Huffington Post reports:

The Interior Department rushed to complete the rules in three months over the objections of lawmakers and environmentalists who argued that they would weaken how a landmark conservation law is applied.

A Nov. 12 version of the final rules obtained by the Associated Press has changed little from the original proposal, despite the more than 250,000 comments received since it was first proposed in August.

Birds And Beers Turns Into Birds And Scotch

I've spent the last 48 finally catching up from all my travels: unpacking and cleaning my apartment. Regular blogging should resume soon, I still have a few more Texas entries coming.

It was a wild time at Birds and Beers tonight at Merlin's Rest. We had a good mix of people from regulars to at least one new face. I also brought a bunch of books I've been reading to share with the group.

Some of the excitement surrounded a white-breasted nuthatch foot that I brought along with me. On Saturday, I was filling Mr. Neil's feeders. I noticed the seed storage bin (old garbage can) had the smell of a dead mouse. When I took the seed out, I found a dead nuthatch in the bottom. I think the bird had flown into the garage, somehow made it over to the seed (the lid was off), got stuck against the inside wall of the bin which was too smooth for it to get any good traction and got stuck. I felt incredibly guilty and sad and wonder if we might look into some of the seed storage bins at Credit River?

The nuthatch was most likely banded by Mark and Roger (who periodically band birds at Mr. Neil's and also attend Birds and Beers), so I brought them the foot. I also turned the band number into the Bird Banding Lab website. Above, Roger is handing the foot to Merlin's Rest regular Bill Watkins.

I think we made have weirded him out.

The rest of the birders like Curt from National Camera (in Golden Valley, MN) were wowed by the incredibly tiny toes and insanely long claws of the nuthatch. We're not sure how long ago the nuthatch was banded, Mark and Roger weren't quite sure, but we'll find out soon enough.

The big excitement for the evening came when some of used the bathroom and noticed the sign on the door promoting a visit from Winston a rep for The Glenlivet. The sign mentioned that he would be in a kilt, so after my trip to the bathroom, I sought out a man in a kilt. I found him right away and told him that I periodically fill my Swarovski flask with their 18 year old single malt.

Winston came over to give our group a private tasting! It went from Birds and Beers to Birds and Scotch. We tried the 12, the 15, the Nadurra 16, and the 21. The 15 year old was my favorite, not too heavy and with good spicy taste.

Our group got our photo taken with with Winston of Glenlivet. Above from left to right is most of the Birds and Beers crowd: Gordon, Roger, Curt, me, Winston, Kirk, Adele, Michelle, Mark, Linda, and Diane.

Winston resumed his spot in the bar to continue his single malt scotch tasting, but I snuck back the bottle of 21 year old single malt for some photo shenanigans (no, I would not actually chug that). Nice: a Cape May Bird Observatory shirt and a bottle of scotch--see what birding can drive you to do?

This Birds and Beers lasted to almost 11pm! That's one of the longest. Kirk, Roger, Curt, and I stayed awhile discussing topics from movies, cool environmental education experiences, silly birding mistakes, kids, just the gamut. I've enjoyed all the Birds and Beers, but this one was really great!

Now, I just need to remember to sign up for a Christmas Bird Count.

Is this a sign I need a break?

Pine Siskins and Bonfires and Bees

Just a reminder:

The next Birds and Beers is this Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 6pm at Merlin's Rest.

This weekend was kind of a blur, I'm still trying to catch up. This early winter weather is just perfect for a one last hurrah before the hardcore cold temperatures force us inside. Non Birding Bill got Mr. Neil to host a bonfire gathering.

We had a great bonfire going and we burned some unusable beehive frames which made for some spectacular pyrotechnic effects with the old wood. Speaking of frames, we still have some frames full of honey to extract and a big fancy extractor. I thought that maybe we could do some extracting at the bonfire gathering--lots of friends over, "Hey, don't you want to be a junior beekeeper and extract some honey?" We could all take turns, running the crank. Alas, much like all the beekeeping equipment out there, NO INSTRUCTIONS (beekeeping equipment manufacturers--that sucks and makes me not like your products and is off putting to new beekeepers).

So, little was extracted and we now have a fancy extractor that we are not real clear on how to use. Lorraine has gone to the cheesecloth method for some of our frames.

This morning we woke up to a dusting of snow and LOTS of finches at the feeders. Non Birding Bill and I headed out to our remaining hives we are going to over winter--Kitty and Kelli. We were going to screw in the metal entrance reducers so the girls would have less area to defend and to also keep mice from moving inside.

When we arrived, we found paw prints which looked remarkably like skunk at the entrance of both hives. This snow fell in the early morning hours. That jerk skunk had just been there a mere few hours before NBB and myself. Skunks knock at the entrance of a hive. This makes the bees angry and they come out to attack, the skunk eats them, apparently unfazed by the stinging. We have carpet tacking around the entrances to prevent this (when the skunks come knocking, they get pricked by the nails), but it's gotten strewn around this past bee season. So NBB and I rearranged it to give that skunk a few good pricks if it comes back. Hanz (the guy who does yard maintenance) built our bees a wicked bad electric fence to keep bears out, Lorraine is going to ask him to add one more line of electricity, closer to the ground and closer to skunk height to encourage the b@stard to look for food elsewhere.

NBB and I put our ears to both hives and heard contented buzzing from within each hive. Love that!

Early plans for next season--six hives! We'll divide Kelli into 2 hives (cause she's gonna swarm and if we divide her, we can control the swarm), 3 new hives, and Kitty...well, that's our angriest hive and we're just gonna let her do whatever she wants to do. If she wants to swarm, then she can swarm. I'm not gonna argue that hive.

There was a constant flow of goldfinches all morning. None of them were banded, so it was just a steady stream of hundreds visiting. The day before, I had noticed a couple of pine siskins and the more I watched the goldfinches...

...the more I would see streaky pine siskins mingle in among the flock. Which is right on target according to the Winter Finch Forecast: "A conifer seed specialist in winter, most siskins should leave the province this fall because the spruce cone crop is poor in the boreal forest. It is uncertain whether the huge white pine seed crop will keep some siskins in central and northern Ontario this winter."

I put some fine ground sunflower hearts and thistle on the tree stump. Goldfinches flew in for it, as did juncos and (of course) pine siskins. In the above photo, you can see some of that yellow edging on the wing feathers of the siskins. If you have goldfinches in your yard and you've never noticed a pine siskin before, take a closer look at your finches. Pine siskins can be easily mistaken for goldfinches in winter plumage. But look at the breast. If it's clear, it's a goldfinch, if it's super streaky, it's a pine siskin.

Once two or three siskins were on the stump, more moved in. It wasn't too long before the siskins outnumbered the goldfinches! I didn't get a photo of it, but we did have one crazy pine siskin going to the no melt peanut butter suet. I'd never seen a siskin on suet before, I thought they were strick seed eaters.

All Over The Place Post

Here is a yellowlegs that WildBird on the Fly and I observed at one of my favorite digiscoping spots, Estero Llano Grande. She and I went there a couple of times and I tried to get some lifers and do some digiscoping. I discovered that I need to focus on one thing at a time. If I'm after a lifer, I should concentrate on that, if I want to take pictures of birds, I should focus on that. If I try to do both, I don't know where to focus my attention and I miss good shots and I totally miss birds.

Estero has several different trails and the boardwalk around the ponds is usually a good place for shore birds, like the above solitary sandpiper (who is actually living up to its name, it's by itself).

We some colorful birds too like this little blue herons,

black-necked stilts--love those guys,

least grebes (check out that crazy yellow eye),

and a young male vermilion flycatcher.

We even did our good deed for the day by rescuing a dragonfly (although, after reading Born Again Bird Watcher's post, maybe we should have left it). Amy notice this dragonfly on its back in the water. I couldn't reach with my arm, but used my scope's tripod to fish it out. We took a few photos and then set it down on the board walk to finish drying out.

I generally do not take field guides with me. It helps you focus on the bird in front of you rather than spending too much time with your nose in a book. It kind of forces you to pay attention to field marks. Like the above shorebird. It was tiny, kinda brownish, and the legs were a different color than the bill--that's a least sandpiper.

The other reason why I don't bring a guide is that someone on field trips always has a book, I know many birds and what I don't know, I can usually digiscope and id later, or I'm almost always out with someone who knows the area better than I do and will confirm id for me. Well that bit me in the butt.

We got to a spot with some kingbirds and I wasn't sure what type we were seeing, but I figured I would digiscope it and then look it up later. I have it narrowed down to either a tropical kingbird or a Couch's kingbird. I thougt I would go over to BNA and see if I could work out the difference. Here's what Cornell had to say:

"Couch’s is most similar to the Tropical Kingbird and these species are often difficult to distinguish in the field by appearance alone. In the field, adult Couch’s is slightly larger, with a proportionally shorter bill,"

Hmmm, that would be difficult, the bird's bill is facing right at the camera, can't really tell proportions. Let's try the next one:

"and more olive-green back than adult Tropical, but the back fades to grayish during the breeding season making this character unreliable."

Well, again, the bird is facing me so I can't really see the back.
"The plumages of juveniles are inseparable in the field, and only extreme specimens can be identified in the hand (Traylor 1979)."

Wow, that sounds like I'm totally hosed on the id. Wait, there's a little more to read,

"Vocalizations however, may be used to separate these species reliably in the field. The slowly repeated pit (or kip) and pitweeeer of Couch’s are easily distinguish-able from the rapidly repeated, metallic-sounding pit calls of Tropical Kingbird. The dawn songs are also distinctive. Although T. couchii is probably more vocal than T. melancholicus, silent birds cannot therefore be positively identified as the latter."

Yeah, I totally did not pay attention to the calls and did not take any video. I will have to chalk this bird up to some sort of Tyrannus.

There were some great birds being reported around Estero and they had a great little kiosk in there from ebird called Trail Tracker. You can use it to find out which birds are being reported and where they are being seen. The observations also become part of eBird and includes photos, audio, video and life history information for the birds seen. I tried to use it to find some cool birds being reported like a rose-throated becard (didn't see it) and a paraque (looked at it, but didn't see it, but Round Robin got shots of it).

Skywatch Friday, In Transit From Texas

It's Skywatch Friday again! If you have a blog with a photo of sky, you can link your post up to Skywatch Friday and share the beauty. I thought I'd share one of my "in transit" days.

I never cease to be amazed at the ability to change time and temperature with our ability of global travel. I marvel at my Monday this week. I woke up in south Texas, in Harlingen, near the border. I'm surrounded by warm weather and exotic species.

Not just blue jays here, no, crazy birds like green jays (above), curlews and kiskadees. When I boarded my plane in the morning, it was sunny, windy, and temperatures were in the 80s.

The view of the sky from the plane was an intense palette of blue and white. The sky, so clear and so blue, pushing down on a thin layer of clouds.

Take in that blue for a moment.

The clouds had some fluff but were mostly thin. It's so strange and such a privilege to get to see clouds from above. I try to concentrate on them as opposed to my fear of flying (or rather, crashing) in a plane.

As the clouds gave way, I could see some of Minnesota below, my final destination. The land had been dusted with snow. How strange to start a morning with humidity and 80 degree temps and then end the afternoon in 30 degrees with snow. I never get tired at the wonder of travel and where you can find yourself in a day.

Venting My Bunny

I love my pet rabbit Cinnamon, I really do. I miss her when I travel and she is home with Non Birding Bill.

But she is driving me up a wall!

I'm still catching up from Texas, I still have Rio Grande Valley birds and critters to talk about and I'm also in the middle of National Novel Writing Month (you try to write a novel or 50,000 words in the month of November). Both Birdfreak and I are giving it go...because you know, we don't write enough as it is. I was off to a good start, but lost momentum in Harlingen. I've been trying to catch up and was really on a roll yesterday--I typed 7086 words! I'm still behind for the month for a