Raptor Center On MPR about 08/09 Snowy Owl Irruption

You can read or listen to the story here. Do check it out, there are some great shots of the birds!

Black-capped Chickadee Butt

Oh, the dangers of talking while digiscoping.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, when you digiscope, you get hundreds of not quite perfect photos. If you're just trying it out and you feel that most of your photos are crap, don't feel bad, it takes several tries and maybe even a little tweaking on the computer to get good shots. The other day I was taking shots at a feeding station at a local nature center. When you plant yourself in a chair with your spotting scope and digital camera, people have questions. So, as I was shooting, I was chatting. When I downloaded the photos, I discovered a disturbing amount of chickadee butt photos. I'm not sure what my subconscious is trying to tell me.

Ballistic: Turkey vs Squirrel

I stopped at Richard Nature Center for a bit of digiscoping. When I arrived, the place was chock full of turkeys and like the flock at Minnesota Valley, they took turns fluttering up to the top of a feeding station to get at the seed in the flythru. A flock has been regularly seen at this feeding station, coming and going, but the turkeys are now rather stationary. They fed and roosted and didn't seem too interested in moving on. Many of the turkeys were dozing off right under the feeders.

I don't know why, but this drowsy turkey just makes me laugh. She looks like she should be listening to a Morrissey CD.

As much fun as turkeys are, there was a long tailed sparrow lurking under a cedar tree that caught my attention. I got it in the scope and was surprised to find a white-throated sparrow still around. They are usually out of Minnesota by now. Hopefully, this bird will find a good food supply, a nice place to roost and evade the sharp-shinned hawks and survive the winter. I tried to get a better photo of it...

But the turkeys kept walking between my scope and the sparrow! That big dark blur above is a turkey--thanks, dude.

Earlier, I posted a photo of squirrel in the flythru feeder with a turkey on top. I asked the question, of the squirrel and the turkey, which one would come out victorious in the fight for the feeder. Well, here's a video with the answer, I was surprised:



The turkey gave up without the squirrel putting up too much of a bluff!

It was enough to make a downy woodpecker go "Baroo?"

The squirrel eventually made it's way over to the suet feeder and after filling up on some beef fat...

The squirrel looked rather pleased with itself.

Turkey or Squirrel?

One platform feeder. A squirrel is eating out of it and a turkey wants in on the deal. Who comes out victorious? A video with the answer will be up later.

Share The Experience Photo Contest

Okay, so the deadline is creeping up in two days, but if you happen to have any cool photos of a National Park (and the wonders therein), you might want to enter it in the Share The Experience Photo Contest. The winner gets their photo on the National Park Annual Pass and various and other sundry prizes. Since I work part time as a park ranger, I am ineligible but one you might have the winning photo.

A Little Post Holiday Banding A Carpenter

After several days of butt chilling temperatures, we finally had some warm weather. It started on Christmas Day. Non Birding Bill and I noticed the temps were in the twenties and then stepped outside. It was so warm, we took a walk to Lake Calhoun. By Friday morning the temps were down right balmy in the thirties. The snow started to melt and fog took over the landscape as did a little freezing drizzle, but it made for somewhat pleasant weather banding birds at Carpenter Nature Center. We had several juncos in the traps (like the bird above).

I processed one that had a very odd eye! It was oval instead of round. It looked as though there was some type of swelling above the eye and feathers out of place. The bird had been banded earlier this winter, but there was no notation that it was injured when it was originally banded. I had to look at the eye color under a light to try and determine age and the pupil seemed fine. We let it go. I'll be curious is to see if we get it again.

Among all the juncos, we got in a few of the dreaded cardinals. Dreaded because of that bill and their ability to squirm just right and nail one of you digits. Owie. One of the nice things about cardinals is that you can sex them fairly quick--this is a male based on plumage color. But aging is a different story. I wondered if he was hatched this summer since he had a bit of black on the tip of his beak (juvenile cardinals have black beaks). Our banding leader, Jim Fitzpatrick had me look at the iris of the cardinal and it was dark brown. That coupled with feather condition of some wing and tail feathers made this bird an AHY (After Hatch Year, which basically means we don't know exactly how old it is, but we know he didn't hatch this year).

While I was processing the male cardinal, Jim was processing a female cardinal. They came into the traps at the same time. We had some members of the public watching us process the birds and they asked if the cardinals were a mated pair. It's not the breeding season and cardinals are typically in large winter flocks this time of year. However, there can be pairs in a flock and according to Birds of North America Online, some cardinal pairs will stay on their same territory all year. I wasn't sure if these two cardinals were in the same trap, but my guess was that were. We also couldn't say for sure if they were pair, but it was a possibility.

After we processed them, I tried to get one more photo before we let them go. Note the male is still giving my thumb the what for. We opened our hands and off they flew. Sometimes when we release two of the same species like that, they split in different directions. These two not only took off in the exact same direction, but landed on the same branch of a tree! I dashed back into the center to grab my digiscoping equipment.

They adjusted themselves in the tree and by the time I got my scope on them, the female had perched a bit higher. They seemed relaxed with each other and I think it's a good guess that this is a mated pair. They stayed that way for several minutes. The clouds, fog, and drizzle did not make for the best photo, but it's bloggable.

I took a few more shots of the male I had just banded while he perched in the tree. I noticed that he had some brown feathers on his flanks. I showed the photo to Jim and the other banders. I asked if we should rethink whether or not he was a hatch year bird since there was some brown. Jim wisely pointed out that the base feathers for cardinals are brown (I assumed black, since their skin is black). He also reminded me that the male's eye color was dark brown. Had he been a hatch year bird, we would have seen gray brown. Only Peter Pyle can take a seemingly easy bird to id (like a cardinal) and make it a challenge!

After I let the cardinal go, I got a shot of my thumb--check out the indentations he left! It's now turned to a minor blood blister. Thanks, dude. After banding, we went down to where the Mississippi River and St Croix River meet along the Minnesota/Wisoconsin border to look for ducks and gulls.

There had been a a harlequin duck reported and we had little trouble finding it among all the goldeyes. The fog made for terrible digiscoping conditions and I'm going to have to go back to see if I can get it on a sunnier day. That's a cooling looking duck that deserves a better photo.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to all of you and I am truly grateful to everyone who stops by the blog and makes it a part of their day. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

May you find peace, happiness, comfort with your family and friends.

Finally! A Field Guide for iTouch & iPhone!

There's a really great review of the new iBird Explorer at Cloudy Days and Netbook Nights (done by my buddy Steve the Zeiss rep). The iBird is put out by the folks over at WhatBird.com. The interface on it is really, really cool and very intuitive to use. I wasn't thrilled with all of the illustrations on it and was hoping to hold out for Sibley or National Geographic to put their guide on an iPhone, but reading Steve's review I'm a bit more excited about it.

The creator, Mitch Waite is dedicated to constantly improving the product and not only adding illustrations but also photos of each species--that suddenly makes this much more interesting to a hardcore bird like myself.

For an in depth and excellent review, do check out Steve's write up.

Christmas Tree Bird Count

I know temps were cold for this year's count, but I really don't know what all the fuss was about. I found my count quite easy and with a surprising variety bird species!

Many of the usual suspects were found including white-breasted nuthatch and downy woodpecker...

...and a red-bellied woodpecker working the thicker branches.

There's a black-capped chickadee that was technically not on the tree, but it was in the general count area. Besides, it has the important duty of keeper of the mistletoe in the Stiteler household.

A male and female pheasant were found lurking on the tree as well.

Many people are surprised to find robins in winter, but a few always hang out if they can find berries, insect larvae and open water.

I ran into a bird watching Santa Claus trailed by cardinal and shocked at the largest blue jay he had ever seen.

There were some interesting birds to be noted, like the above male goldfinch still in breeding plumage even though it's December.

And another bird that I was surprised to find in December and in breeding plumage: a male indigo bunting!

This poor barn swallow was way off course. Perhaps it had migration issues because its tail is chipped?

Here was a surprise rose-breasted grosbeak added to the count.

And a scarlet tanager--who knew?

A little pishing revealed not only a cedar waxwing on the right, but a tiny house wren (on the left)! Not only is it late in year to be seeing a house wren, it was checking out a nest box. I could not find a mate with it, so perhaps it was just roosting in the bird house?

Speaking of nesting, check this out! A male and female cardinal nesting in December is unbelievable enough, but sharing incubation...at the same time?? It looks like they are using the power of glitter to keep their nest alive.

Here's another one for the crazy nesting file: a Canada goose--with a gosling! Now, the goose only has one chick, so she hasn't been doing well, but to get one egg to hatch in this weather is well, remarkable to say the least. I have to say, I'm not thrilled with who ever banded that goose. I know you want neck tags noticeable, but that bow is a little much.

I found an eastern bluebird roosting in an old bird box. Whoever is the landlord of this bluebird trail also put some festive lights on. There were several bluebirds seen on this tree--at least three!

Birds do need to be sure and stay tucked in safety in the tree, a snowy owl was on the prowl looking for potential prey.

Speaking of raptors, I also found Santa Claus riding a bald eagle. I asked if Santa had a falconry permit for that bird and he looked nervous and mentioned something about reindeer having a bout of flu. I suspect he doesn't have the proper permits. Hmm, perhaps he should just go back to watching blue jays.

Here was a penguin which was just a shock. I'm not certain of the species, perhaps a variant of little blue penguin? How the heck did it get to Minnesota? It seems a tad domesticated, since it's holding a sign with my husband's name on it--is it an escapee? It may not be countable.

I thought the penguin was the rarest bird of the day, but I was wrong, it was an ivory-billed woodpecker. Who knew they were reverse migrants? Apparently, that's why no one can get a photo of them in Arkansas or Florida, they go north in the winter.

I ran into another fellow bird watcher on the tree. We compared notes and on our Christmas Tree Bird Count we tallied 21 species, including several different cardinals and bluebirds. Not a bad day for winter in Minnesota.

Mary Scott In Ghost Bird

Here is a clip from the upcoming Ghost Bird movie. It's an interview with Mary Scott who is one of the first people who saw an ivory-billed woodpecker in the White River area of Arkansas. She also used to run BirdingAmerica.com which appears defunct. She's infamous for incorporating non traditional methods in her search for this species (up to and including using a psychic):


Ghost Bird (Preview: Mary Scott) from Scott Crocker on Vimeo.

If you are having trouble viewing the video, go here and watch it. If that doesn't work, select the "HD OFF" option.

Do One Thing (from across the pond)

The latest Holiday Cute Animal Video sweeping the interwebs come from Breathing Spaces and their Do One Thing campaign. Pretty cool idea and something that should be started here.

Updates

Some interesting updates on blog entries this from this month:

First regarding this week's snowy owl. An interesting email came on the birding listservs from Linda Whyte regarding the owl being seen now and that there apparently was another snowy seen earlier in the winter:

"For those interested, the owl currently being seen at the airport is not the same one that was seen earlier. Apparently, a couple of weeks ago the party hired by the airport to trap the snowy succeeded in doing so. That bird, a very white male, was examined at The Raptor Center, found to be in good health, banded, and then taken for release (where is unknown) by the party that captured it. Raptor Center personnel recommended against removal, because the owl hadn't been in trouble, and due to their territorial nature, it was likely another one would take its place as soon as it was gone. It appears that has happened, as this one has the black widow's peak and lots of barring."

I've heard that snowy owls are sometimes trapped at the Minneapolis/St Paul Airport and relocated because the official airport statement is concern that they owls might collide with a plane and cause an accident, but I wonder if it has more to do with the influx of birders coming to view the owl and making a headache for airport security?

Interesting to note that there have been two owls and the first was missed by many of us. Also, this is quite the photographed owl. Lots of peeps are posting links to photos on the Minnesota birding listservs, check out EcoBirder's shots--he got shots of the snowy in the sun--those eyes just glow. Rumor has it that Jim Williams of the Star Tribune will have photos in his column soon.

The other interesting note that showed up on the listserv was regarding the Bonaparte's gull observed on December 9 on Black Dog Lake ( the gull circled above). When I was out trying to bone up on my gulls, this was one of the eight species observed. Jim Mattsson was excited when it was first observed and commented that it was late for a Bonaparte's to be in Minnesota this time of year. When Jim talks gulls, he gets a twinkle of excitement in his eyes. He even wondered, where had this gull been all this time. Well, we might have our answer from Linda Sparling:

"Many of you may remember the gull reported as as a possible Little Gull at Lake Calhoun in mid-October. Throughout the day after it was first reported, many noted that it was on death's door, wouldn't make it through the day, was going to die at any moment, etc. It also became apparent that the gull was in fact a Bonaparte's Gull.

Update - I took the gull to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota. They nursed it back to health. They noted that it was very weak and depressed and had trouble walking. Today I received a card from the Center indicating the gull recovered well enough to be released 12/9 at Black Dog! Coincidentally, three observers reported seeing one Bonaparte's Gull in Dakota County on that same day. I was surprised to hear it had been released up here. When I spoke to the folks at the Center, they felt there weren't enough BGs around for a safe release. They were willing to put it on a plane for points South to ensure a safe release. It ended up being such a fighter, I gotta think it's doing well!"

It is interesting that it was late and there weren't any Boneparte's around that the gull was released at Black Dog, but in this economy, perhaps getting the bird on a flight was difficult. There's no doubt that the bird in the photo is the released gull. Interesting, I guess we have the answer to Jim's question about where it had been all that time. Here's hoping it either finds warmer climates or manages well the rest of the winter.

Bird Feeder Rush Hour

One of my favorite things is to watch a really active feeding station. Even if it's birds I've seen a bazillion times, I love watching bird feeder activity, especially in winter before we get a snow and birds are coming from all different directions. Tuesday had subzero temperatures and the start of snow fall and birds were ready to take advantage of a feeding station. I laughed when I arrived at the Minnesota Valley NWR visitor center because of the turkey activity. Note all the turkeys on the ground and all the songbirds crowded into the feeder on the right. Now, note the turkey on top of the feeder on the left...and now songbirds!

It was fun to watch the large bird balance its body and avoid sliding as it went after the food in the platform feeder. Periodically the turkey would slide down and then feed on the ground for a bit. But soon it would again try for the food on the feeder. The activity of all the birds and the snow was intense. I tried to get a video:



It was a steady stream of turkeys, house sparrows, cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers and chickadees.

Some of the turkeys would just park themselves right next to the windows and sit there. I'm not sure if the bird was looking at its reflection or feeling some of the heat off the building. I've always found it curious that turkey vultures migrate out of Minnesota, but wild turkeys stay. Turkeys have bald heads, but they do have some bristly feathers and from the above photo, it looks like those are enough to keep them off the face.

A big surprise to me was a small flock of about 16 brown-headed cowbirds hanging out. They really looked like they were hating life. I'm sure they were asking each other, "Okay, who had the brilliant idea of not migrating because it would cost too much energy and be dangerous?" The mostly stuck to roosting in the trees and the few who came to the feeders were not their usual bossy selves. They were slow and lethargic. One lone male kept feeding on the ground and almost got stepped on (or tasted) by a turkey.

I like sit on the visitor center on cloudy days in winter. If you sit inside you can watch the feeders without the sun directly behind them. So, I was able to sit inside, get some decent photos, and stay warm.

One challenge is that the heaters are right next to the windows, so you do have to deal with a little heat shimmer, but that combined with the snow can make for some arty photos like the above digiscoped image of a female cardinal. And though the birds were active at the feeders full of sunflower seeds, there was plenty of other food around:

Tree sparrows (above), cardinals, and juncos were feeding on seeds in the grasses. It's a myth that if you start to feed birds in the fall that you have to do it all winter or they will starve to death. They find plenty of food in plants that we look at and see nothing. I think that falsehood was started by some seed seller out there to try and keep his customers coming all winter.

If you have to go for a bit without feeding the birds, they will get over it, some birds like the above blue jay stash food away in a cache for just such an occasion. That said, birds may not visit your feeder as regularly as one that is always filled, but they will come back and they will not starve. They treat your bird feeders the way we should treat fast food restaurants. It's a convenience, but not a sole source of food.

Here's a downy woodpecker on a mullen. The woodpeckers mostly perched on this but they would peck on it from time to time, so I wonder if they were getting some food out it as well?

The mullen also made nice perches for the juncos too. It was just a gorgeous snow scene.

Red-tailed Hawk Encounter

I just have too many photos that I took Tuesday during what the local weathermen are calling "an inconvenient snow" (because it was only 2 inches that fell, but it hit during rush hour snarling traffic in the worst way). The first was the snowy owl and then I headed over to the Minnesota Valley NWR Visitor Center. I figured the feeders would be active between the snow and the sub zero temps.

They were so active, I have to divide up what I saw, otherwise we might get 45 photos in one blog entry.

One of the coolest things that happened was as I was leaving the visitor center. A young red-tailed hawk (young because the tail is brown and stripey, not brick red like it would be on an adult) was perched on the parking lot security camera. I wanted to get home because it was after 3pm and I knew with the snow, traffic would be snarled. I took a few shots and walked to my car.

I tried not to stare at the hawk while I walked to my car. Staring can make a bird nervous and this one seemed to be actively hunting and I didn't want to add to its effort in the cold and snow. It paid very little attention to me and I digiscoped one more image before my aching, freezing fingers alerted me that they had had enough. I opened my car door and turn to load in my scope when I heard what I can only describe as hawk wings hitting something (I hear it from time to time at The Raptor Center and at the hawk blind). I looked up and saw that the red-tail was no longer on the camera post and at first thought that it had flown away, but that would not account for the sound I heard. Then I looked to my left and just a few yards away in the grass I saw...

The hawk with some sort of prey, I think it's a mouse! Fortunately, my scope was still up, I quickly slid the camera adaptor back on the scope (thank goodness for that DCA adaptor) and got the above photo. My camera batteries finally died right after I took it but I watched the hawk swallow the rodent whole and then it took off.

It took a good five minutes before feeling returned to my fingers and I got stuck in traffic, but it was so worth it to see that!

Raptor Center Birds

Since the weather has been below zero degrees Fahrenheit, many of the education birds at The Raptor Center need to sleep indoors at night. For the most part, the birds can sleep outside when it's cold--bald eagles and red-tailed hawks live in Minnesota in the wild, so they can usually take it. However, some species like female kestrels migrate--it's the weirdest thing, most kestrels leave Minnesota for the winter, but a few stay--and they're all males. I met a researcher from Ohio who studied this and his theory was that the female kestrel is larger, needs more food in a day than a male. The females go further south where there's more variety of prey and a little longer daylight (more time to hunt).

With the temps getting to -15, all the birds are coming in at night and sleeping in their travel crates. Even if some could survive it, why risk it any chance for frost bite? Because there are so many birds and crates, some of the crates are stacked.

All the owls are getting very hooty right now, mating season is upon us. Yesterday, I was hooting to one of the great horned owls who was in a crate stacked on top of the turkey vulture crate. I had just come in and still had my coat and scarf on as I hooted a response. Someone on our crew pointed to the vulture crate beneath the owl crate:

Nero, the education vulture was trying to sneak through a gap in his door to get to my scarf! Or maybe just me in general. I don't work with him and on the few occasions I've gone in to retrieve old food in his mew, he's displayed some aggressive behavior towards me (he once tried to rip off the tassels on a pair of my capris.

Snowy Owl At The Minneapolis Airport

Last week at Birds and Beers, we talked about snowy owls that are usually seen at the Minneapolis/St Paul Airport in winter. None had been reported at the airport yet (they've been showing up all over elsewhere in Minnesota and in Wisconsin). I've been checking the airport a few times a week (I live nearby) and we had a couple of people who actually work at the airport show up to Birds and Beers and they had not seen or heard any reports. Then, last night someone reported on the local birding listservs that they saw one on Cargo Rd.

When I finished my volunteer shift at The Raptor Center at about noon, I headed over to try my luck. Normally, I would search of the owls after 3pm, since they are more likely to be seen later in the day but the temps were below zero degrees Fahrenheit and a snow storm hit, so I figured my chances were good.

And they were! I drove right underneath a snowy owl! The challenge at the airport is that there are few places airport security would like you to stop and take photos. I think MSP Airport Security must have my license plate on file by now. So many people have made such a big show of writing down my plate number when they see my digiscoping equipment and I never get pulled over by security. They must think, "Ah, it's one of those birders again." I make sure to follow the rules--do what the signs say, like stay six feet away from fences. Also, the glycol plant manager used to collect owl pellets for me, so if I pull over for a photo, I do it in their driveway and only very briefly. I avoid stopping in the road, because it's not safe. Today someone stopped in the road on a downhill curve and I almost hit them since the roads were slick with the freshly falling snow--not cool and the kind of antics that make airport security less forgiving of birders. I'm not sure if the stopped person was a birder or just some regular person shocked to see a huge owl on a light post in the middle of the day.

Not only did I manage to digiscope a few snowy owl photos quickly, but I heard the owl vocalize (some weird bark and nothing remotely hoot-ish) and then watched it dive for prey. Alas, it came up empty taloned, but was cool nonetheless.

The owl returned to the light post and I managed one more photo before airport security pulled up behind me and gave me the hairy eyeball. I paused to make sure he didn't want to come out and wag his finger, but with the temps so cold, he stayed in his truck and glared. I hightailed it out of there to do some more digiscoping at the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge Headquarters and ended up with a general awesome afternoon. More on that later.

Urban Birder Video and a little Holy Crap

Across the pond, Bird Guides has been up to some really cool stuff. One is the first in a video series called "My Local Patch" series featuring different bird watchers and their favorite birding site (the outdoor kind, not the web):



I also found a really interesting and disturbing video on their channel that's up there with the heron vs rabbit photos: it's a video of a grey heron vs a starling. I'm just putting the link to the video, it has a kind of happy ending (depending on your point of view towards starlings) but this video is certainly not for everyone. Incroyable--as the French might say.

Also, in my recent rants about the lack of bird field guides available for iPhones and iPod Touches, Bird Guides sent me a sample of their guides for the iTouch. Before I had a chance to really play with it, Non Birding Bill did a review of it for a site he works for called Appletell. What the heck is the world coming to when NBB is doing bird product reviews?! Anyway, Bird Guides offers video guides (currenty of British birds) but I love the idea of video and photos in a field guide. There are definetly birds that have certain behaviors and postures that cannot be illustrated in a standard field guide. I'll probably do a video review on these guides withing the next few days...that is if Non Birding Bill doesn't beat me to it.

Birds & Beers & Banding

The last Birds and Beers was a huge gathering. Some regulars and some new peeps came to join in the fun.

We had a drawing from some prizes courtesy of Woodlink. We gave away a few of their "Happy Hour Hummingbird Feeders." They're nectar feeders in the shape of a daiquiri, margarita, and martini--how appropriate! In the background of this photo is Liz Stanley who runs The Overlook Circle Feeder Cam. She warns on her site that images are uploaded every 30 seconds during daylight hours, Central Time. During the winters here, days are short so daylight is only 7:30am to 4:30pm. In the summer, it's much longer, lasting from 5:30am to 9:30pm. If the image is completely dark, please check back in the morning. Check it out! There's also Jim Ryan in the background who runs Jim Ryan Outdoors Blog.

The big excitement came when Mark Newstrom arrived with extra copies of the new Peter Pyle book, Identification Guide to North American Birds Part II. Some readers have seen Pyle referenced in this blog before, it's a sleep inducing tome essential to aging and sexing birds if you are a bander. Up to this point, we've only had Part I which had warblers, chickadees, sparrows, vireos, etc. This year part II was released which tells banders how to age and sex waterfowl, boobies and spoonbills. We took turns doing dramatic readings of Part II. There's a bit more talk of distended cloacas (great band name) and duck penises in this volume, but that's about as exciting as it gets. Here's a sentence from the zone-tailed hawk section:

"Shape and color pattern to the retrices by feather generation and sex in Zone-tailed Hawk. R5 is shown and is usualy the last feather replaced during molts and the most likely to be retained during the PB2 and DPB."

Or there's this on molt in Canada geese:

"PF partial-incomplete (Sep/Nov-Jan/Apr in HY/SYs), PB2 complete (Jun-Nov in non-breeding SYs), DPB complete (Jul-Dec in breeding AHYs); PA absent."

And if you can understand either of those sentences, then you'll want a copy of the Peter Pyle book. If you don't, take heart that you have a life and run before you get sucked in to the point of no return.

Speaking of banding, we had an interesting and busy morning at Carpenter Nature Center on Friday--lots of juncos! I think they sensed the impending blizzard that was about to hit. Above is a Potter's Trap and it has 2 doors and usually only gets 1 or 2 birds at a time. This trap had three juncos in it!

We also got in some chickadees and a blue jay (the blue jay got in the traps before I arrived, so no photo).

We did get another interesting retrap. I was processing this black-capped chickadee that already had a band. When I read the number to Mary who helps us track the data, she looked it up and found that we originally banded this chickadee on November 10, 2006. I checked the archives of the blog to see if I had a photo of when it was first banded, but discovered that I was in Harlingen, TX at that time and wouldn't have been there on its original processing date.

Scott Weidensaul

I was reading comments made by Mike McDowell about the Endangered Species Act changes this morning and noticed he linked to comments made by one of my favorite birding authors Scott Weidensaul. I followed the link to Scott's blog--which I was aware of and the last time I spoke to him he wasn't sure where it was going, just wanted to try it out so I didn't mention it too much here (or check that frequently either).

I read the first sentence of Scott's post, "Although I've been blogging almost daily about our owl research project, I haven't been updating this blog - though there's lots to report. Wait a minute, there's been a blog combining Scott, banding, and saw-whet owls?? Where have I been. Check out Saw-whet Owl Research! You can even follow specific saw-whets. Another great cleanse from the news.

Cleansing Titmouse

When Non Birding Bill and I do holiday cards, we usually take one of my photos and he doctors them up. I sent him a few and the above was one of our finalists. Just cracks me up the way the hat sits jauntily on the crest.

I thought it was a good cleanse after the recent news.

It's Official: The Endangered Species Act Is Broken

From the Associated Press:

The Bush administration is reducing protections for endangered animals and plants.

Just six weeks before Democratic President-elect Barack Obama takes office, the current Republican administration is changing endangered species regulations.

Some mandatory, independent reviews that government scientists have performed for 35 years are being eliminated. The scientists' advice from such reviews can delay or block dams, highways and other projects.

The new rules will take effect in about 30 days. The rules also prohibit federal agencies from evaluating the effect on endangered species and the places they live from a project's contribution to increased global warming.

Obama has promised to reverse the new rules. Congress also could overturn them. If Obama doesn't do something to reverse this, he will be no different than the current administration.

Birds and Beers Tonight!

Birds and Beers is tonight at Merlin's Rest at 6pm! We'll have a raffle for some prizes courtesy of Woodlink.

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, ask about where to find target birds, share cool research projects you might be working on, ask a bird feeding question, share life lists, share some digiscoping tips, promote your blog--the sky is the limit. It's low key and it's fun.

And if you need another laugh today, Non Birding Bill sent me this link to Kung Fu Squirrels. Enjoy!

A Little Bird Related I Can Haz Cheezburger

more animals


more animals

Black Dog Lake Gull Watching

When it comes to gull id, I've always depended on the kindness of strangers to point out what birds are in the flock. I haven't had a huge interest in them, they all looked the same and when someone would point out the differences they were seeing on a particular gull, I wasn't seeing those differences and felt that they may have been on some mood altering substance.

Part of the problem is that gull id is hard and not easy to explain. And quite honestly, no one has done a good job of making it understandable to a general audience. All the books that I have found are written by hardcore gull people for hardcore gull people. The books that are currently available are not organized in a way where you can easily do side to side comparisons. They are big clunky and well, just not organized for someone starting from square one. I've even tried looking at websites and haven't found any that are easy to navigate, at least for species in this area. Seriously, I just looked up "gull mantle color" and found this chart--oy! It's not easy for someone to get into. I wish there could be a book with side by side comparisons, a little less natural history info, maybe even flash cards. I'm seriously thinking of scanning my Sibley and making some flash cards.

That said, I'm forcing myself out to get to know gulls. Partly because I want to get over this hump and partly because I'm helping on a gull trip at the Space Coast Bird Festival in January. I really lucked out on Tuesday and ended up having an 8 species of gull night, which for the Twin Cities is pretty darned good.

And might I add that gull watching in Florida in January is going to be 10 times more fun since it will be warm whereas here in Minnesota it's snowy and the temperature is in the teens. I was bundled up, but still got numb fingers while watching gulls the other night.

The power plant keeps the water open and gulls and other waterfowl come in to feed and roost as nearby lakes and the Mississippi River and Minnesota River freeze up. Part of the problem with gull watching is trying to find a place where they are fairly close to try and id. This road next to the power plant is turning out to be an okay place. The birds are fairly close and easy to see...if you have a scope. In the evening, the sun is behind you and you can get some beautiful light on the birds.

So here are some answers that may even lead to debate on the hidden gull in the photos. My goal was to jut be able to pick out a bird that looked different from the expected herring gulls and ring-billed gulls. That's all I wanted to be able to do. I was surprised that I was actually able to mentally id a couple on the spot.

In the first photo, here is the gull in the red circle that is different from the herring gulls and ring-billed gulls. It's in its first-cycle or immature plumage but it's different from what a herring or ring-billed would look like.

Here in the profile, you can see a big difference (and a male common merganser). The bird is pale and it's wing tips are roughly the same color as the back, not dark like the bird below:

See bird in the front that is all gray has dark wingtips? This is a young herring gull.

So, back to our gray, yet very pale gull. The coloration in some ways reminds me of gyrfalcon coloration. When I arrived, another woman was at Black Dog scanning for gulls and she had spotted this one. I scanned and was pleased that I was able to tell it from the other gulls. I noticed that it was pale and I noticed that the wingtips were the same color as the back. I wasn't sure if it was a Thayer's gull or and Iceland but thought I would watch and take photos and check the id when I got home. Other birders arrived and MN gull guru Jim Mattsson came in and called it an Iceland gull. He said that the bird's overall paleness, the wingtips being the same color as the back and having a frosty appearance, as well as a rounded head make this an Iceland gull.

When I first arrived, I found a very large gull, bigger than any of the others. With its large size, checkered back and blunt bill, I felt confident in calling this a great black-backed gull. All the gulls got up and disappeared for a bit so at first I was the only who saw it. Fortunately, it landed again and the whole group got to see it (and I got confirmation which felt good).

I also noticed another super large gull that was really, really pale. Can you pick it out in the above photo?

Here's another photo of our large pale bird. This is a glaucous gull. I really felt good that I was actually seeing different gulls and figuring them out. This is a BIG step for me, I think just picking up gulls here and there at festivals and spending the last week studying Sibley and the overwhelming Gulls of the Americas has helped as well. I'm not as bad off as I thought.

Other birds did distract me a bit. While we were there, we watched the gulls soar around the smoke stack at the power plant. Jim pointed to a pepper speck at the top and said "peregrine":

Sure enough, looking through the scope, you could see an adult peregrine falcon. At one point it even called out. Not sure what that was all about, but it was nice to have the distraction from the gulls. We got a total of eight species that evening: ring-billed gull, herring gull, Iceland gull, Thayer's gull, glaucous gull, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull and...

...a Bonaparte's gull. This one flew in and I heard a member of group call it out. I found it right away and breathed a sigh of relief that this one was easy to pick out from the numerous gulls on the lake. It was super tiny compared to the others, had a dainty bill, and a little black spot behind the eye. All in all, I felt as thought I would have positively identified all the gulls in my photos when I came, except maybe the Iceland gull (that one I would have struggled between Thayer's and Iceland).

Quite a few other species of birds were out on the water including the trumpeter swans see above and white pelicans.

As the sun began to set, the water became more and more pink--it was quite beautiful.

And don't panic, the usual birds will resume on here soon!

Gull Mental Note

NOTE: I swear this blog will not turn into one of those endless gull discussions, just a note on a minor breakthrough I had with my birding ability.

I had a breakthrough in my gull watching ability at Black Dog Lake Power Plant yesterday! Number 1: I enjoyed doing it yesterday and number 2: I was actually able to pick out gulls that looked different from the bazillions of herring gulls and ring-billed gulls and made tentative mental ids, and had them confirmed by both a field guide and a guy who knows WAY more about gull id than I do.

So, I'm going to post a few photos and see if you can A: pick out the gull that is different and B: can you id the gull? There's not prize, just an easy going series of photos to see if you can find the bird that is different.

The first photo will be big a big flock. The second will be a closer view (and if you are new to gull id, if you can just pick out the different gull and why--that is a triumph of the birding spirit).