Stealth Horned Lark

No, Mr. Horned Lark, I can't see you at all.  Really.

Secret Bobolink Conversations #birding

"OMG! My nails are so long! I'm like a cross between Howard Hughes and a red-tailed hawk!"

"I know, right?"

Dust Bathing Horned Lark

Man oh man, these last few weeks have been nuts, but fun.  I'm so looking forward to Birds and Beers tonight in Stillwater.  Hope you can make it.  Remember, if you come with nesting info to enter into MN Audubon's Breeding Bird Atlas, you are entered in a chance for a free growler of beer. Meanwhile, I leave you with a photo of a dust bathing horned lark who was my morning companion yesterday.  I'm off to check out some woodpeckers (not ivory-billed).

Bobolinks!

I have to do some work around cows this week.

I'm not going to lie, cows make me nervous.  Ungulates who stare at you and keep coming towards you are terrifying to me.  The only way they could be even scarier would be if they were bison.  That is just a lot of animal being controlled by an uncertain brain.  These are three of about three dozen cows that were surrounding me.  They just kept coming closer and closer with an expectant look.  Did they think I had food.  If I stepped wards them, they would back away, but some cows in the back of the her would run forward.  I tried mooing and that seemed to confuse them even further.

This one was really pushing its luck, "Oy, Bovine, back away from the carbon fiber tripod!"  The cows eventually went their way and left me alone, but I think being a five foot tall woman makes me feel uneasy about large cloven hoofed animals getting too close and too curious.  Has anyone made a horror movie about cows?  If not, they should.

Apart from the stress inducing cows, the big upside to my work this week is that I get to spend time in some of my favorite habitat--open grassland.  I'm surrounded by bobolinks, dickcissel, meadowlards and savannah sparrows.  Above is a female bobolink who scolded me as I walked to my work area.

Her brazen attitude on the fence made me realize that she must have had a nest nearby.  I made sure to watch where I placed my feet, the last thing I wanted to do was smush little baby bobolinks with my shoes.  Female bobolinks are crazy looking birds, they do not look like the males, they look more like sparrows.  Technically, bobolinks are considered blackbirds (for the moment, who knows will happen with future taxonomy changes).  If you get past the brownish colorization, you can kind of see a blackbird type of shape to these birds (think red-winged blackbird).

The male wasn't too far behind and flew in to chirp at me, also warning me that I was too close for comfort to his nest.  Out of habit, I pished at them and that set the male off in a frenzy of song above me.  I paused to listen to that crazy mechanical song.  I love that song, it's the general ringtone on my phone.  If this make wanted me to move a long, singing his song a few feet above my head was not the way to do it.

I love everything about these guys.  I love their song, their odd plumage (black on the bottom, blond wig on the back of the head, patches of white on the back).  This bird is too weird for color tv.  And check out those toe nails--they're so long!  I love these birds so much, they are worth putting up with a few dozen cows.

Random Coot

I just thought this was a really cool digiscoped picture of a coots face.  Normally when you see them out on a lake, you see a black duck with a white beak (yesssssssss, I know they aren't really a duck but most people describe them that way).  Often, most don't see their eyes.  Love this bright red eye.

Birds and Beers Excitement! #birding

Holy cow!  Amidst all of my travel in May and June, a Birds and Beers opportunity has come together and I'm really excited about it! The next Birds and Beers is June 29, 2011 (next Wednesday).  This time we’ve been invited to Lift Bridge Beer Company in Stillwater–we can sample some local beers!  Take the afternoon off, do some birding along the St. Croix or just come for the birding company after work.  Make connections, see old friends and welcome new ones!  But wait, there's more!

This brewery is really excited about the Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas Project.  If you come and enter in data to the database, you can enter your name for a free growler of beer to take home.  This is notes on any bird you know of breeding in Minnesota.  Know of a coot nest (like the bird above)?  How about a cardinal nesting in your back yard?  Or an owl nest in a nearby park.  Anything, this is important info that MN Audubon needs for the project.  You can help birds and maybe win some beer.  Everybody wins!

Thanks to Lift Bridge Beer Company in Stillwater for coordinating this event for birders and birds!

To get the latest updates on Birds and Beers, "Like" it on Facebook.  Here's the official Facebook Event.  I can't be in every state drinking every day and if you would like to host your own Birds and Beers in your community, that is okay by me.  Here's how.

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.

Sharon on the Heron Rookery for MPR

Hello all, NBB here. This is a quick note to let you know that Sharon has an article up about the response to the destruction of the Heron Rookery on the MPR website. Check it out.

American Woodcock Not Hiding So Well

While on one of the birding trips for the Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds, we visited Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge.  There had been a woodcock nesting right off a trail near the Nature Center.  As we walked towards it, the female appeared to have moved to right on the trail.  The refuge staff suspected that her eggs had hatched.  They are precocial when hatched meaning they can run around.  She was probably moving them from the nest, heard us coming and froze tucking the young beneath her.  Can you make her out in the above photo?

There she lurks, most likely thinking, "Haha, humans, you can't see me, I am invisible!"  We didn't get too close and after everyone had a chance to see her, we went back the way we came from.  I always wonder how may owls I walk past, now I have to wonder how many woodcocks and their chicks escape my notice.

Here's the first photo with an arrow pointing to the woodcock:

Heron Rookery Visible From Marshall Terrace Park

When I last posted about the great blue herons renesting on the Mississippi River, I said that the rookery was not easily viewable from shore.  Tony Hertzel from the Minnesota Ornithologists Union sent a not mentioning Marshall Terrace Park.  I had driven by there and also viewed it from the river and it didn't look viewable. However, I drove back to the park and explored it.  There's a paved trail behind the baseball diamond that takes you to a stairway down to the river and gives you an eye level view of one of the islands on the rookery:

I didn't have my scope with me and took this with my point and shoot camera.  If you look in the bare branches, you can see one of the nests at the top.  This island also has a little colony of nesting spotted sandpipers, so if you go watch for these little shorebirds bobbing their butts along the shore of the island.

Maria Baca from the Star Tribune wrote a really nice follow up about the rookery and there's even a photo of a heron on a nest!

One note about this park.  They have some badass ground hogs:

I found a family of them living in a hole dug out of asphalt...I would give them a wide berth if you encounter them on the trail.

Cliff Swallow Nesting Area

If you ever have a chance to visit the great state of Utah, I highly recommend checking out Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.  This place is awesome, there's an easy birding drive to take and you can use your car as a blind to get great looks at western birds.  You can also use the drive to get photos of grebes, ducks, pelicans and...

...swallows.

Lots and lots of swallows.  If you are birding in a place with all sorts of swallows aka birds who fly around with beaks wide open eating only insects, take note.  It usually means that there are a lot of insects for them to eat.

And lots of insects there are--mostly in the form of non biting midges.  This was  swarm that took over my rental car's windshield when I paused to get some photos. Most of the bugs you encounter are non biting...there are a few who do, but when you see clouds along the road, they are generally non biting midges.  Don't let this photo frighten you from visiting this place.  The midges for the most part will leave you alone and the birding is beautiful.  You can also stay in your car the entire time if you really want to avoid them, but I like to step out.

I had to chuckle, as I would try to get photos of birds around the refuge, midges kept getting in the shot.  All the black dots in the above photo of the marsh wren?  Midges!  Though there are oodles of midges and they can be a source of food for all sorts of insect eating birds, especially swallows, there is a challenge.  You can have all the food you want, but if you want to raise chicks, you need a safe place to do it.

This is the outside of the visitor center of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge--all of the birds in the photo are cliff swallows and they have built mud nests in every corner they can find since it's one of the few building around that offers shelter for their nests and safety from ground predators.

Here's a cliff swallow sitting on a partially completed nest. If you have kids and they give you any guff one day, just say, "Hey, at least I didn't make your bedroom out of mud and my own saliva.  How'd you like to grow up in that?"  The nests are jammed packed but there's still plenty of insects to allow for more nesting.

Then I found this little structure near the auto tour.  I'm not sure if this originally was meant as a shelter for people and taken over by swallows or if this was built specifically for them.  Either way, what a cool idea to build a shelter for cliff swallows to use.  If I had a cabin on a lake, I'd totally make one for these insect eating birds.  Might even discourage them from nesting around light fixtures or other areas you'd rather not have them nesting on.

It was hypnotic to watch the little cliff swallows come and go from the little mud cups.  These are highly social bird and have no problem nesting side by side...so long as there is plenty of food.

As I went around the refuge, I would find muddy patches with packs of swallows gathering mud for nest construction.  Some birds, like those in the lower left hand corner got so into the spirit of things, they mated right there.

It cracks me up to watch cliff swallows on the ground when they gather mud.  They keep their wings up in the air.  It's almost as if it's a reminder that they don't normally perch on the ground and they need to be back in the air stat.  Although, I wonder if the behavior evolved to prevent them from getting mud on the tips of their long wings?

Even though this was in Utah, cliff swallows are all over the United States, so if you wanted to experiment with making a cliff swallow nesting shelter, you could give it a go.  I don't think they are in particular trouble habitat wise, so it's not like you need to do it like purple martins, but if you enjoy them, I'm sure they'd appreciate it.  We have quite a few it the Twin Cities.  When we do canoe paddles on the river, just about every bridge is loaded with cliff swallow nests.  They look different from barn swallows, they don't have the deeply forked tail and they have that blond unibrow look to their face.

Cute little swallows.