Laysan Albatross Is The Oldest Living Wild Bird #birding #birds

And she's still raising chicks!

That's right.  According to bird banding records, a Laysan albatross on the Midway Atoll is now officially the oldest living (and breeding birds) in the wild!  She's at least 60, but most likely older than that, since she was already breeding when she was initially banded.  According to the press release from USGS:

"A Laysan albatross named Wisdom, is at least 60 years old and was spotted in February 2011 raising a chick at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Islands. The bird has sported and worn out 5 bird bands since she was first banded by U.S. Geological Survey scientist Chandler Robbins in 1956 as she incubated an egg. Robbins estimated Wisdom to be at least 5 years old then since this is the earliest age at which these birds breed, though they more typically breed at 8 or 9 after an involved courtship lasting several years. This means, of course, that Wisdom is more likely to be in her early sixties."

When you think about all the hazards that face albatross from ingesting plastic and lead to the sheer amount of energy and distance they travel when not breeding, this is amazing.  Here's the current list of the top ten longevity records according to bird banding studies.  Interesting to note the the oldest birds tend to be fish eaters.

ALERT: Yellow Cardinal In Kentucky

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post to direct your attention to a link to a YELLOW northern cardinal found in Kentucky.  This photo is interesting on many levels:  Number 1.  It's a freaking yellow cardinal.  Number 2.  Is that raw chicken breasts being offered as suet on that feeder? The cardinal is cool.  But what made it yellow?  I didn't think cardinal color came from food like it does with house finches.  Is this bird genetically lacking in carotenoids? So many questions!

If that is raw chicken in the suet feeder--that is disturbing.  Not due to cannibalism but raw chicken could have all sorts of disease transmittable to birds.  Think of the salmonella that could explode in a feeding situation.  I'm all for offering table scraps to birds, but for heaven sakes, if you're going to offer chicken, offer it cooked.

UPDATE 1: I just got an email from the photographer of the yellow cardinal in Kentucky:

Sharon,

I was reading your blog about the Yellow Cardinal that I took the picture of. I can assure you that it IS cantaloupe in the suet feeder. We were experimenting to see if the birds appreciated the sweetness of it.

thanks

David Gourley

UPDATE 2: I found a couple of other photos of yellow cardinals--one in Ohio and one in Mississippi (the male in Mississippi has even been observed feeding chicks, so hey, he found a mate).

Aflockalypse Now?

Good grief!  First we had the story of the 3000 - 5000 dead birds in a one mile area in Arkansas...and now we have another report of 500 birds dead on Louisiana.  What the heck could be going on?  Flockmaggedon?? Here's my take:  I agree that the New Year's Eve incident in Arkansas was probably the result of fireworks startling a sleeping flock and that birds either ran into each other or into houses and trees resulting in collision trauma.  The reports say that the collision injuries were in the front of the birds--as if they flew hard into something.  If the trauma was caused from their fall from the sky, then the necropsy would show the trauma on different sides of each bird, as each bird would fall and hit at different angles.  So, barring that the red-winged blackbirds, grackles, cowbirds and starlings flew into an invisible alien spaceship, I think the fireworks theory is plausible.

Let's take a look at some images of blackbird flocks.  I went into Google and searched for "blackbird flock" and "starling flock." They're flocks can look similar:

I did not take any of these photos.  These are all flocks of blackbirds.  This gives you an idea of what those roosting flocks can look like.  If you've never seen a winter roost starling flock or a blackbird flock, it is a strange presence in the sky.  It reminds me a bit of the eeriness of an Aurora Borealis. Here's another flock photo:

Again, I did not take this photo, but I found via Google Image Search.  Look at how tightly packed those birds are.  That is a group out during the day, in the wide open.  They can move and swirl and function more as a whole without flying into each other in the daylight.  At night, in a full blown panic, that many birds will run into each other.  If they were roosting, they were probably low to the ground to begin with.  If fireworks were going off overhead, they sure as heck would not fly up, they would try to fly below it.  In the dark and in a panic, they'd run into each other, trees, poles and buildings.

Now, here is a photo of the dead blackbirds in Louisiana:

This photo is from The Advocate.  Keep in mind how tight those blackbird flights can be.  Now, note the blurred vehicles in the above photo.  See the bus?  I wonder if semis also come down this road.  I think a flock of blackbirds flew hard into a large vehicle and died.  It's happened before.  I remember reading about a case in the 1990s.  It doesn't even have to have happened at night.  It could have happened at dawn or dusk.  The startling factor for the blackbirds may not have been fireworks, but a Cooper's hawk.  This probably would have gone unreported had it not been for the Arkansas story.

Mysterious things happen to large flocks of birds,they don't get quite the media play as this story did.  Here's a story you may have missed about several hundred turkey vultures found floating just off the Florida coast near the Keys from last November.  It's sad that we lost a lot of blackbirds.  Is it cause for concern and should we try to find out the reason?  Yes!  Should we panic for the coming apocalypse? No.

And I end this with a starling flock video:  crazy stuff:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH-groCeKbE[/youtube]

Last night on Facebook people were posting vague links other possible die offs, but I could find no news organizations reporting on them.

Thousands of Dead Blackbirds in Arkansas

The news wires are buzzing with a story of thousands of blackbirds (mostly red-winged with a few grackles mixed in) literally falling from the sky in an Arkansas town on New Year's Eve.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said its enforcement officers began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. Friday. The birds fell over a one-mile area of the city, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of that area, officials said.

Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe said that similar events have occurred elsewhere and that test results "usually were inconclusive."

The birds showed physical trauma, said Rowe, who surmised that "the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."

The agency also said another possibility is that New Year's Eve revelers shooting off fireworks in the area could have startled the birds from their roost and caused them to die from stress.

It's doubtful the birds were poisoned, Rowe said, "since it only involved a flock of blackbirds and only involved them falling out of the sky." She said a necropsy is the only way to determine if the birds were poisoned.

This is an interesting incident.  I agree with the ornithologist that since the birds fell in a concentrated area and appear to be species that would be in a mixed winter flock, something in the air happened and injured them.  Could it have been lightening or hail from the storms that blew through?  Arkansas was hit with tornadoes that night.  Or could it have been fireworks from New Year's celebrations?  I guess it will depend if they find burn marks on the birds.

This reminds me of the time I went to the first Ivory-billed Woodpecker Festival in Brinkley, Arkansas in 2006.  When we arrived to set up our booths, there were huge flocks of thousands blackbirds all over the area which we thought was kind of cool.  Their flocks would wheel and spin in the sky, forming fluid and temporary shapes in the sky.  This was a wintering area for several icterids including red-winged blackirds, grackles and cowbirds.  Some of the flocks were coming in to land on the trees surrounding the parking lot for the festival's meeting area at the convention center and we watched as they would dip onto the trees and take off for the sky again.

Suddenly, we heard some banging and I saw some young men with guns firing at the blackbirds landing in trees around the parking lot.  The also set bottle rockets off towards them.  We marveled that a festival would be so naive to think that birders would understand shooting birds outside of a bird festival.  We were also baffled that they did not see the beauty of the blackbirds swarming in odd shapes in the sky.

I went to the festival's contact to talk to her about it.  She was discussing last minute details with the mayor of Brinkley.  I told her that she might want to curb the firing squad on the blackbirds because birders could take offense to that sort of thing happening at a bird festival.

The mayor leaned towards me and said in his southern drawl, "This ain't no blackbird festival, this is an ivory-billed woodpecker festival."

I tried to explain that birders liked all sorts of birds and would appreciate the spectacle of the multitude of blackbirds.  Both were skeptical and explained that no one would care for the smell of the droppings or the mess of bird poop in the morning.

Well, birders did not find bird poop in the parking lot at the festival the next morning...they found dead birds littering the ground instead.  Couple that with what appears to be a non existent woodpecker, you can see why that festival doesn't happen any more.

Here's  a link to a great video of starlings coming in to roost on the trees.  There are so many birds, the trees literally bend under the flock's weight.

Golden Eagle Survey Time Again!

First, an interesting news story that popped up over the Holidays: According to a story in The New York Times blog in the last week a red-tailed hawk was picked up in New York and eventually made its way to The Raptor Trust.  Turns out that the hawk is over 27 years old!  I was curious if this was the oldest wild red-tailed hawk recovered in the wild...it's not.  According to the Bird Banding Lab the oldest known wild red-tailed hawk was 29 years and 9 months old.  Interesting was that this bird was also recovered in New York.

Since it's now officially winter, it's getting to be golden eagle season along the Upper Mississippi River.  The National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN will hold its annual Winter Golden Eagle Survey on January 15, 2011.  The above photo is one that I took during the survey last winter. I took a route near our beehives and ended up finding 3 golden eagles.  If you do not feel comfortable with your golden eagle vs immature bald eagle id skills, the National Eagle Center offers seminars to teach you how.  These are helpful because they show the habitat you are more likely to find a golden eagle than you would an immature bald eagle.  The next seminar is on January 8.  If you are in the area, you should sing up.  It's beautiful country in the winter and at the very least, you'll see lots of bald eagles, if not a few golden eagles.

Hooded Crows vs Cats with a Twist #birding

Perhaps tired of the slowness of the Cats Indoors campaign to take hold, a pair of hooded crows appear to be starting some you know what with cats: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNqNfxo42J8[/youtube]

I love the Predator soundtrack that was added to this video.  This may become a meme, as I see that someone has also put this video to the music of West Side Story.  I applaud the hooded crows and see this as further proof of corvid intelligence.  If humans are not going to stop the scourge of cats killing birds for "play" it appears the birds have begun pitting the cats against each other.  Brilliant!  Well played, hooded crows, well played.

More Pelicans Eating Birds

I've linked before to videos of pelicans eating pigeons, but if you haven't seen on, watch the video below: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNNl_uWmQXE[/youtube]

The Daily Mail recently posted an article with some pretty incredible photos of the pelican attack.  I'll just link to the article so that way if you don't want to see a pigeon in a pelican beak, you can avoid it.  But if you love a good animal train wreck...follow that link.

Talking Raven Videos

Despite the fact that I have a mile long to do list before some of my family arrives sometime tonight or tomorrow for a visit, I have found a slew of talking raven videos.  They are five kinds of awesome because, the ravens sound a little creepy. Ravens are in the corvid family and that group can mimic other birds--think of blue jays imitating Cooper's hawks and human speech is not out of their reach.  Ravens and crows have been kept as pets in the past, although in the United States, it is no longer legal. This video of Julian the talking raven is from a bird at a wildlife rehab center:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GusdG_SSWw&feature=related[/youtube]

But I think my favorite is Terry the Talking Raven from across the pond who not only sounds rather polite with his accent but scores major points for going "Arrrrrr," just like a pirate!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZyBNWVD70w[/youtube]

Geek A Week

So what is this whole Geek A Week Trading Card thing all about?  Good question!  Here's what happened...it all started at a crazy thing called W00tstock Minneapolis.

This blurry photo is me meeting Adam Savage from the MythBusters at W00stock...and then a whole bunch of people decided to photobomb it including Hans (the groundskeeper who mows around our beehives), Mr. Neil, Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi and Len Peralta.

If you have not been to a W00tstock and one is coming to your town--GO!  It's put on by Paul & Storm and it advertises to be a three hour music and all around geek event, but the Twin Cities W00tstock went on for 5 hours.  Each show has a roster of different guests with some regulars.  Wil Wheaton reads from his books, Adam Savage told stories and sang I Will Survive in the voice of Gollum, the dudes from Mystery Science Theater 3000 sang and riffed some old educational movie shorts, the Science of Superheroes guy did a math demo--really a little of everything and fun.

Non Birding Bill and I hung out backstage a bit (NBB more than me because he was with his own kind). I must admit, my absolute favorite moment of the whole thing was Wil Wheaton asking me, "You're married to the THAC0 guy?  I love that script!"  I beamed with some major wifely pride.

This is me with Len Peralta (getting photobombed by Bill Corbett...who looks remarkably like Father Jack from the Father Ted tv series in this photo).  Len spends the show onstage and creates an original poster for the show--it's different from town to town.  If you order it and pay a little extra, he will even insert you in the poster.

Len is a FANTASTIC artist.  He recently illustrated the Trace Beaulieu book Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children. Above is one of my favorite rhymes for the book.  I follow Len on Twitter so knew who he was and knew about his Geek A Week project--what he calls a one year art challenge to connect with 52 influential geeks from different disciplines (art, movies, TV, computing, science).  He records a podcast and through the interview, designs a superhero or villain for the card.  Paul and Storm write all the cool facts and geeks attributes for all the card backs.  Some of the other cards include:  the guys from Rifftrax & Cinematic Titanic, Grant Imahara (another Mythbuster) and Weird "Al" Yankovic" just to name a few.

When I met Len, he said, "Birdchick!  I wanted to ask you to be a one of the cards but I saw the tag line on your blog was, 'To show the world that you can be a birder without being a geek' and thought you might be offended if I asked.

Non Birding Bill said, "That's really more of a goal that she fails at miserably."

Len later emailed me and we talked some more about it.  He thinks of geeks something different than I do.  He sees geeks as people who are passionate about a subject and felt birding wise, I was a good card candidate.  So I did it.  Here is the podcast and here is the front of the card:

I'm so relieved I'm not wearing a vest or a Tilley hat!  I feel like I'm in some sort of odd brotherhood and I told Len that he should have a show where all of us dress up as our alter-egos and have a battle royale.  Here is the back of the card:

I love everything about this--I love that the National Park I work for is mentioned in it, I love that my Swarovski spotting scope is my primary weapon--and I'm not wearing a vest!  I don't think this is going to make any big splashes in the birding community, but anything that gets non birders to give birds a second thought is worth its weight in gold, so if someone sees this on Len's sight and thinks, "Yeah, bird watching, maybe I should try that, I'm all for it."

So, thank you, Len for being kind in your illustrations and thank you for including me in such a fun list of people.  I feel like I'm in some sort of weird brotherhood or secret society.

Cruise Ships Potential Habitats For Burrowing Owls?

Probably not, but intrepid burrowing owl sure did try.

The above Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is of a burrowing owl that tried to set up a territory mini-golf course on Royal Caribbean International's "Oasis of the Seas" last Saturday.  The ship was about to depart Port Everglades for the high seas when a crew member called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission regarding this unusual passenger.

FWC Lt. David Bingham and a Broward County Sheriff's Office deputy were able to safely remove the small owl from the golf course. Bingham released the owl in an open field in western Broward County.

"Never in all of my 25 years with the FWC have I seen anything like this, and I have responded to some strange calls," Bingham said. "I am very pleased the owl wasn't injured and that we could get it back to a normal habitat."

As a species of special concern, Florida burrowing owls, their burrows and their eggs are protected from harassment and/or disturbance by state law. Burrowing owls also are protected by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

"Burrowing owls need to be in open, treeless areas where they can dig their burrow," said FWC biologist Ricardo Zambrano. "The artificial turf on the ship's golf course resembles the fields they use for nesting in urban areas; however, it was obviously not suitable habitat for this owl."

One has to wonder how long this owl was there and what it might have been feeding on.  According to Cornell's Birds of North America Online, burrowing owls are "pportunistic feeders; primarily arthropods, small mammals, and birds; amphibians and reptiles also reported and may be important in Florida."