Birdchick Blog

Sharon Stiteler 6/16/11 Sharon Stiteler 6/16/11

Birdchick Podcast #39

Crazy rare birds showing up and making news: a Cassin's sparrow is in Ohio and a willow ptarmigan is outside a nuclear power plant in Ontario. Lead poisoning is still killing reintroduced California Condors in the Grand Canyon.

This Friday is the first day to buy the new Duck Stamp for the year. Purchasing stamps doesn't mean that you support hunting. It means you are giving money and over 98% of the money from the stamp purchase goes to habitat acquisition for National Wildlife Refuges and they essentially get you access to any NWR without paying a fee. It's not just ducks who benefit from this, several species of birds, plants and mammals benefit from this. Just because hunters are forced to purchase one doesn't mean birders are making a good statement by not purchasing one.

It's a Dalek Squirrel Feeder. Why can't we have one these in North America???

Some pelicans cleaned up from last year's BP Oil Spill are breeding this year.

eBird has updated their list entry system. Are you submitting your bird observations to eBird?

Sharon Stiteler 6/13/11 Sharon Stiteler 6/13/11

Cinnamon

I regret to inform those who knew her, but today was Cinnamon's last day. I disapprove.

How do yo say goodbye to a creature who shared a hotel room with me when I got stranded in a blizzard in Nebraska? A rabbit who helped launch my freelance career? A rabbit who brought me over a decade of laughter on a daily basis?

If you have a pet hug them tight. I know many people have enjoyed Disapproving Rabbits and at this point, I don't know where it's going to go. If you feel compelled to do anything, please donate to your local animal shelter or rabbit society. Had it not been for someone dropping off this delightful ball of velvety fur to the St Paul Humane Society all those years ago, life would have been a bit more boring for us.

Here's one of my favorite memories of her:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y7TV0gEri8&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keYEQlCy61o&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

Sharon Stiteler 6/9/11 Sharon Stiteler 6/9/11

Heron Rookery Reloaded Post Tornado

Who knew this story would have such legs?!

As reported last month, the great blue heron rookery at North Mississippi Regional Park was completely obliterated by a tornado that went through north Minneapolis. I worked with some of my fellow National Park Rangers at MNRRA, the MN DNR and the Animal Humane Society to help gather what few live chicks and injured adults were remaining on the island. We all pretty much guessed that it was late enough in the season that the herons would not rebuild. All last week, I received several emails about herons building new nests in two different locations with my the boundaries of my National Park!

I organized a boat trip with my fellow park rangers, Carrol Henderson from the MN DNR, Bill Hudson and Brad Kopp from WCCO and Jim Williams from the Star Tribune to investigate. I was excited, I was able to get our park's head honcho Superintendent Paul Labovitz to be my river chauffeur for the morning! We passed the mangled rookery and even made a stop.

I was amazed at how few carcasses were left on the tornado ravaged island, we found very few compared to what was there a couple of days after the tornado. I'm sure turkey vultures and crows took advantage of the food source and based on some of the damaged feathers found around the few remaining bones, some mammalian predators ate them too, possibly raccoon or fox.

One of the reports of the herons rebuilding centered on islands just off of the Riverside Power Plant north of downtown Minneapolis. Even the power plant staff sent emails asking if they needed to do anything to help keep the herons safe--how cool is that?

There are two small islands here and we found about two dozen nests. There could be more, but it's hard to count them among the leaves. They rebuilt quickly. Park Ranger Gordon (who took some of the photos in this post) looked at me and said, "You know, those birds were flying around with sticks when we went to the island two weeks ago. I didn't think they would seriously re-nest." I agreed.

More herons came in with sticks while we circled the islands. I've observed herons adding sticks to nests with chicks during nesting season. I figured that they look like flimsy nests to begin with and additions are regularly added. When we saw the herons with sticks right after their nests were destroyed, I thought it was just an attempt, not serious nesting behavior--kind of like their hormones were telling them, "this is what you need to be doing now." But we watched more than one bird fly in with sticks while we checked the new rookery. I wondered if we would see any birds incubating.

Sure enough, herons were incubating on this island! Wow! I was not expecting that. I'll be curious to see when the chicks fledge. It should be a three month process, but if we have a warm fall, these birds just might be successful.

As we cruised under the trees on the boat, Paul asked, "What's that bird on the branch, it looks like a lump." Carrol, Gordon, Jim and I all about jumped out of our seats--it was an adult peregrine falcon perched below all of the heron nest.

There's a peregrine falcon nest box right on the Riverside Power Plant. I thought our chances of seeing a peregrine falcon was very good, but I didn't expect one to be hanging out in the midst of a heron rookery. Great blue herons are not one of the preferred foods of this falcon. I don't think the herons see it as a serious threat. I had to give our park's superintendent some serious props for locating the falcon while all the birders in the boat missed it.

The falcon eventually flew over to its nest box but wow, what a bonus to see a peregrine mixed in with herons! This made me happy on so many levels--I love bird resiliency and I especially love when they do not read the same books and articles that I do and do their own thing. I'm also excited because we planned some canoe trips to view the old rookery this summer and I thought those would be bummer trips with me saying, "Well, we used to have a rookery here, but..."

This new little rookery is on that paddle route, so we'll be able to take people by the old tornado damaged island and the new one.

The one big bummer about this new rookery is that it is not easily viewable from either shore of the Mississippi River. Because of barge companies and power plant security, you can't view it like you could from North Mississippi Regional Park. However, not all of the herons relocated to this rookery. Some when to Coon Rapids Dam which is totally viewable from the eastern shore of the Mississippi River!

UPDATE! THIS ROOKERY IS VERY VISIBLE FROM THE EAST SIDE OF THE RIVER! YAY!

There's been a rookery there for years. What's interesting is that staff told me last year that the number of birds using the rookery was shrinking, the speculation being that the herons were using the old North Mississippi Regional Park rookery. But now, some have gone back to re-nest after the tornado. Most of the nests were covered up, but there were quite a few on the outer edges where birds could be seen incubating. If I really tried to focus my scope, I would make out nests deep in the leaves with chicks about five to six weeks old. You could certainly hear older heron chicks calling. A few years ago, I found a great horned owl nesting in this rookery, and no heron would nest next to it. I think the owls may have partaken of some heron chicks and that may have contributed to some leaving this rookery. Hopefully no owl will visit the nests on the outer edges of the this summer. At the very least, the owl nesting season should be over at this point.

I did find a red-tailed hawk with two large chicks among the newer heron nests, another bonus raptor for the day! Herons aren't high on the red-tail's preferred prey list, so I don't think it will be an issue for the herons.

So, all in all a very hopeful outcome to a devastating loss. Bill and Brad did a very nice piece on the rookery, I was grateful they were interested in a follow up story. The resiliency of birds never ceases to amaze me. I'll post Jim's story when it comes up.

Sharon Stiteler 6/8/11 Sharon Stiteler 6/8/11

Horicon Marsh Bird Festival Warblers & Songbirds

I did a bunch of traveling in May and haven't really had a chance to sit and breathe and really focus on the wonderful birding to be had. It started with the Horicon Marsh Bird Festival in Wisconsin. This is a smaller festival and forgoes some of the traditional things like name badges and packets for participants. It doesn't matter, this festival is run by local bird club and they truly love this marsh and know you will love it too.

Here's the view from the driveway to the visitor center of this vast wetland--you can't help but feel your birdy senses tingling when you approach that view. You can enjoy the marsh via car, hiking and canoe, but I spent most of my three days along Dike Rd which offered excellent views and digiscoping opportunities and the birds seemed to change by the hour during migration. What you got at 10am may not be what you would get 2 hours later.

Since this area was a bit further south of me, I was able to run into migrants that had not reached the Twin Cities yet like the above rose-breasted grosbeak. This was one of my last morning of birding, we were walking along Northern Road--a great place for spring warblers a little patch of trees among near the marsh.

Here's a very cooperative black-and-white warbler we found during our field trips. If you've never seen one of these, they are a weird little warbler. It has the warbler shape, but it's colored like a female downy woodpecker and creeps on the trunks of trees like a nuthatch or brown creeper. What it lacks in color, it makes up for in interesting character. We had a great warbler time until we found the following vexing warbler on Dike Road:

Ugh, I would expect this sort of dull warbler in the fall, but the spring?? We consulted several guides trying to figure this out and went into my default mode of digiscoping as many shots as I could to consult field guides later. There was a male Cape May warbler nearby and I wondered if this was a first year female who had not gone into her breeding plumage yet.

I posted it on my Facebook wall and many more knowledgeable folks than I dull looking warblers said, "Pine warbler!" Even Kenn Kaufman said, "Incidentally, on p. 418 of my new KFG to Advanced Birding, there's an illustration of a bird very much like the one in your photo." It's so handy having access to such knowledgeable folks on Facebook. That new edition of Kenn's book is a very handy guide for someone who feels good about their yard birds and is ready to graduate to learning the difference between shorebirds, warblers, gulls and flycatchers.

Since the leaves weren't quite on the trees yet, it made finding the blindingly red scarlet tanager less of a challenge. I love these birds and since I have such a great Swarovski Spotting Scope, I love to give people a chance to see this bird. There was one woman who was hanging around in back and she tried looking through the scope but didn't see the bird. As some of our group was moving along with another field trip leader, I made it my mission to get it for her. I can tell when someone actually sees a bird in the scope and when someone tries to politely fake it (they don't want to be a burden to the rest of the group) but I told her to stick to me like glue and as soon as I left my eyepiece to get in there. When I got the tanager in again, I should "Move, move, move," like a football coach, she jockeyed into position, there was a pause and then an unadulterated, "OH!"

I knew she had it then. That's one of the things I really enjoy on field trips is hanging with the people who have trouble with a bird, even one that might be common for most and giving them a really good look.

Sharon Stiteler 6/6/11 Sharon Stiteler 6/6/11

Chickadee Nest Location Unintentionally Hilarious #birding

My coworker and fellow Park Ranger Gordon Dietzman posted this photo of a black-capped chickadee nesting in a crane statue in his yard. Oh dear...

Sharon Stiteler 6/3/11 Sharon Stiteler 6/3/11

Update On Tornado Ravaged Herons #birding

Hey, here's a great video from the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of some of the young great blue herons that were retrieved from the tornado damaged rookery at North Mississippi Regional Park. They appear to be doing very well! [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgQhwLHxWgs[/youtube]

In other news, I have had multiple reports of herons rebuilding on 2 different areas on the river. I'm working with my park and the MN DNR now to go out and try and get photos of it for next week. One of the new spots is not easily visible from the shores of the Mississippi but if you are canoeing the area or taking a boat, you'll see it. As a matter of fact, I was supposed to lead a birding trip to the rookery via voyageur canoe with Wilderness Inquiry on June 11 and wondered how we would improvise, but that trip is going to go right past the new rookery. We should also see eagles, peregrines, orioles, and hear warblers, vireos and wrens.

If you have any spare cash, consider donating to the WRC and the great blue herons. Fish eaters are expensive birds to take care of.

Sharon Stiteler 6/1/11 Sharon Stiteler 6/1/11

The Nighthawk Connection

I love days that do not turn out the way I thought they would. Especially when the original plan included copious amounts of laundry. It started when the woman who does my hair (Rachel) texted and asked if I wanted to go fishing. I did want to inaugurate my pole to the season and I need to stay in some sort of practice for ranger programs so I was excited to say yes. I typed up my beat for for 10,000 Birds (basically, it's a "know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em" article on how to be an actual help to found baby birds) and when that was up and ready to go, I joined Rachel for some fishing. We were fishing off of Lake Harriet which is a frequent bike route for me and it's also where the great horned owls were nesting (young owls have left the nest now). But it's not a bad place for some casual fishing. All was well, we were giggling, chatting and in my case, landing some of the smallest bass ever when a guy started playing his flute. We both sort of rolled our eyes. When I enjoy the lakes, I like to listen to bird songs, not some random guy working on his "sound" with his flute.

All of a sudden, I heard a nighthawk call loud right above us. It sounded off three times and I realized that it was 2pm (not the time for a nocturnal bird to be singing) and I didn't see it fly off. Was the nighthawk as irritated with the flute player as we were?

A quick scan of the tree and we found the common nighthawk. Do you see it? It's right there in that tree! I didn't have my scope with me to digiscope it. I find that if I try to fish and bird at the same time, I don't do either well. After Rachel and I finished our day, I ran some errands and headed home. I noticed that I had an hour before Non Birding Bill would be home so I thought I'd strap my scope to my bike and try to digiscope the nighthawk. Since it's a nocturnal species and their defense during the day is to remain still and camoflage, my chances were good that it would still be there late in the afternoon.

As I pedaled around Lake Harriet, I noticed ducks running amok. Drakes were chasing hens and at one point a hen almost nailed a jogger right in the face. I paid attention as I headed down the trail and then noticed a biker in front of me yelling at some cars on the road that goes around Lake Harriet. I thought the bike rider was yelling at someone driving a car, as I neared I could see a hen mallard in front of the vehicle. It sounded like the bike rider was yelling at the driver, perhaps for hitting the duck. I felt that it wouldn't have been the driver's fault because the ducks were chasing each other. I pulled over and heard snippets of conversation:

Bike Rider: "Nice job."

Woman with Car: "We are trying to help, we are trying to get bird expert, she has nest in the road!"

I recognized the voice. It was a woman I had seen at parties who was a friend of NBB's Theatre Arlo partner. But I couldn't remember her name. I knew she had an accent and that her name sounded Russian...what was the name.

I lifted my sunglasses, her name suddenly hitting me, "Natasha?"

Woman with Car: "OH! You're who I'm looking for! Sharon, we've been trying to call you for the last hour! Help, what do we do with this duck?"

Natasha had been trying to get hold of someone to give me a call because she didn't have my number--how weird that I took this bike ride at the last minute and ran into her! I got to the street and assessed the situation: a hen mallard had a nest right on the curb of a very busy and narrow street around the lake. It looked like the nest had started on a hill right above the curb and the eggs shifted down on the pavement. Some nesting material surrounded the eggs as did a few beer cans. I suspect someone else found the nest in the street and tried to use the beer cans as a buffer from from cars.

Natasha and her friend directed traffic as she told me how she had seen the duck and worried it would get hit. Many of the eggs were cracked. Most felt cool. I peeled open the cracked eggs and found liquid inside. I picked up an uncracked egg and pealed it too and found that egg was also liquid. I made a snap judgement:

This was probably a young female who made a poor choice for a nest. If I took the eggs away now, she wouldn't nest there again, it'd would be as if a fox/raccoon/skunk had raided the nest. She would be out of the street and in less danger from being run over by cars and could possibly nest again this year. The eggs weren't viable and if they stayed, she might still try to incubate them and most likely get hit by a car. I removed the eggs. Then Natasha and I surrounded the female causing her to fly out of the road on to the bike trail. She was spooked by a dog walker and went to the lake where she would be safe. I stuck around a few minutes and she swam to shore, staring at me and making soft quacks.

I'm sorry I took her nest but her eggs were dead and her nest situation was precarious for her survival. At least this way she would live to nest again and this time stay FAR away from a busy street.

I continued on my way around the trail and did find the roosting nighthawk:

It was still here, perched the way a nighthawk should be. Lake Harriet is not far from my apartment at all. We only hear one nighthawk singing, I wonder if this is that bird that flies over our apartment at dusk?

As I took pictures of the bird through my scope, I heard someone passing me say, "Is she looking at leaves? Oh, I bet she's taking pictures of bark."

Well, I was taking pictures of a bird that uses bark to camoflage itself in the middle of the day.

So, all in all not a bad day, despite it not going as I planned it to be, but glad I could be around to offer some help to non birding friends, get in some fishing in and a cool bird too.