Wild Birds Unlimited's Wildlife Blend Recalled In Some States

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Food and Drug Protection Division issued a statement that Burkmann Feeds is voluntarily recalling a seed blend that they make for Wild Birds Unlimited called Wildlife Blend, due to concerns over deaths of wild birds due to salmonella.

The bags carry the manufacturing date code of 81132200291608124.

You can read more at MSNBC and Wild Birds Unlimited has issued a press release.

“Wild Birds Unlimited is committed to keeping everyone safe and informed about issues that may affect the hobby of bird feeding,” said Jim Carpenter, founder and president of Wild Birds Unlimited. “People’s safety and the health of wildlife are our primary concern.”

The press release went on to say that initial tests have established no correlation between any bird deaths and the recalled food; a different strain of Salmonella was found in deceased birds in North Carolina than what was detected in the recalled food.

Customers who purchased WBU Wildlife Blend or WBU Woodpecker Blend are advised to contact their local Wild Birds Unlimited to determine if their product was manufactured by Burkmann Feeds and is part of this recall. Recalled products should be discarded. Consumers are also advised to avoid touching unsealed product and to wash their hands thoroughly after touching any unsealed product. A full replacement, credit or refund for these recalled Burkmann Feeds products will be made available at the store of purchase.

You can read the full press release here.

This is also a good reminder to keep your bird feeding area clean, especially with the influx of large flocks of pine siskins and common redpolls. Dirty feeders do more damage to birds than not putting any food out at all.

How Would You Like These At Your Feeder?

A bird feeder at Los Tarrales in Guatemala. Would you like a blue-gray tanager and golden-fronted woodpecker coming?

Scott's Wild Food Bird Recall

When I last blogged about the peanut butter salmonella recall, I was able to find companies that had statements saying their suets and peanut products are safe. However, I was unable to get a response from Scott's Wild Bird Food. Yesterday, I got this email from Jillian Leiter, Consumer Response Representative:

Thank you for your interest in Scotts and for the opportunity to help you with your lawn and garden endeavors.

I do apologize for the delay in our response but at this time we do not have information available regarding our Morning Song products and the recent peanut recall. Once we have the information available we will forward it on to you.

Well, this press release just hit my inbox:

Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. is keeping an eye out for birds and bird-lovers.

The Marysville-based lawn and garden giant’s Scotts Co. LLC subsidiary this week launched a voluntary recall of five varieties of suet wild bird food products over concerns that they might contain peanut meal bought from Lynchburg, Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America’s Blakely, Ga., plant. Peanut Corp.’s products have become the center of a federal probe into a salmonella outbreak that has involved scores of illnesses and several deaths, including two in Ohio.

Peanut Corp. originally only recalled peanut butter and paste but recently expanded efforts to include all peanut products made in Blakely since Jan. 1, 2007, Scotts said. The company said salmonella not only can affect animals but can pose a risk to humans who handle products tainted with it. No illnesses have been reported and products from the Blakely facility are no longer being used, Scotts said.

Bird food included in the recall involves about $500,000 in annual revenue, less than 1 percent of the company’s sales for its bird food business.

You can read the rest here.

Click here to download details on product manufacturing dates and UPC numbers involved in the recall. Products involved in the recall, only for items manufactured between Dec. 27 and Jan. 17, are:

• Morning Song Nutty Safari Suet, 11 oz.

• Morning Song Woodpecker Suet 3 pack, 1.78 lbs.

• Royal Wing Raisin Suet, 11.75 oz.

• Morning Melodies Variety Suet (3 count).

• Morning Song Variety 15-pack suet, multi-pack with 15 suets and feeder.

Finch Fight Club

The other day while we were doing a bee inspection, I kept an eye on Mr. Neil's finch feeder--they were chock full of common redpolls and pine siskins. You can see some of the tracking of pine siskins at Audubon's Great Backyard Bird Count website...interesting that they are calling it a winter finch invasion. I recall a few year ago when the thousands of great gray owls were in Minnesota, a couple of ornithologists' took me to to task for using the term "invasion" instead of "irruption" (apparently the proper term for ornithologists).

I did some digiscoping and digivideoing while at Mr. Neils and even set up a couple of different motion sensitive cameras. Check out some of the finch hissy fits I got with the Wingscapes camera:

Redpolls fighting!

More fighting!

And yet more fighting!

And even picking on a poor little junco! Here's a digivideo of some of the sqaubbling:

Redpolls Hittin' The Twin Cities Metro Area

While I was in Florida, common redpolls were being reported in the Twin Cities metro area. Last winter they were showing up in good numbers up at Sax Zim Bog and Mr. Neil even had one at his feeders.

There have been a few hanging out at Carpenter Nature Center. When we were trying to band birds last Friday, we saw a flock of about nine birds. We were almost completely skunked, we only trapped one lone junco and it was a retrap. We would see a redpoll fly into the traps, but one was too light to trip the door closed, so we got completely nooged on banding any redpolls.

I just love the little redpoll goatee--combined with the little red spot on the head that resembles a beret, they look like their about to break out a set of bongos in a 1960's looking coffee shop at any moment. I went back to check what the Winter Finch Forecast had been for redpolls:

"The Common Redpoll is a white birch seed specialist in the boreal forest in winter. White birch crops are poor in the northern two-thirds of the boreal forest, but seed abundance increases southward. In central Ontario, such as Algonquin Park, crops on white and yellow birches range from fair to good. It is uncertain whether the birch crop is large enough to stop the southward movement in central Ontario about latitude 45 degrees. Some redpolls, including a few Hoarys, may get south to Lake Ontario if birch seed supplies run low."

I guess the birch seed supply ran low.

We even got to see some redpolls at Warner Nature Center during Non Birding Bill's Winter Survival Birthday party. His non birding friends also found them cool when pointed out. What was interesting was that unlike all the common redpolls in the photos of this blog entry (which were all taken at Carpenter Nature Center), the redpolls at Warner stayed below the feeders. They only ate on the ground. I wondered if that flock had come from such a remote region that they did not know how to use a bird feeder.

After our time banding was over, I headed to a nearby spot where the St. Croix River meets with the Mississippi River. It has been a bit warmer and the water usually opens up when that happens. You can sometimes see some fun ducks. As I scanned, I only saw some bald eagles jockeying for position for some food on the ice. Suddenly, some friends drove up behind me, shouting. I had them reenact what they did:



Thanks to Jed and Linda who were the great to reference the blog post about my amusement of people who point out eagles when I'm after some small bird that does not seem as exciting. But I did actually look out and the eagles were doing something kind of interesting:

They were eating a Canada goose. There, are you happy? I took a photo of a bald eagle. lol

I joined Jed and Linda a little further down the Mississippi River to search for waterfowl and we found some coyotes on patrol across the river. There was a third, but it was further back in the woods. We got to watch the two above poop and since they were in the boundaries of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, I guess we know who pooped in this park.

Peanut Butter Recall, Salmonella, Suet and Birds

This post will be updated as we hear from more suet manufacturers.

Okay, I have communicated with three different suet manufacturers regarding their nut flavored suets and the salmonella peanut butter recall. Currently, peanut butter produced from Peanut Corporation of America is at issue for salmonella contamination, not commercial brands that many of us have in our cabinets. Here are what three manufacturers told me:

C & S states on their website that their nut suets are safe due to their testing and that they do not use any of the recalled industrial peanut butter products from Peanut Corporation of America.

Pine Tree Farms grinds their own nuts and since just the nuts themselves are not part of the recall, their suet is safe.

Woodpecker Products said that their suet is safe because they do not use peanut butter from Peanut Corporation of America.

UPDATE 1: Thanks to Donald the Birder, we also have info that Heath Manufacturing is also saying that their suets are salmonella free since they do not use any of the recalled peanut butter products.

UPDATE 2: Thanks to hscott, we also have info that Wildlife Sciences says that their suet products do not contain peanut products affected by the current recall.

UPDATE 3: Scott's Wild Bird Food has recalled some of its products.

I called Cornell Lab of Ornithology for good measure and they said that if you do not know where the peanut butter ingredients came from in your flavored suet cake, don't feed it to birds. They did offer that since consumer grade peanut butter is currently not on the recall list, making your own peanut butter suet using ingredients you have on hand should be safe.

If you are looking for a suet recipe, I highly recommend Julie Zickefoose's Peanut Butter Suet Dough Recipe.

While making different phone calls, I did have one person tell me, "Birds can't get salmonella."

"Yes, they can," I said.

"No they can't," they argued.

"Yes they can..." and just as I was about to start listing salmonella outbreaks in birds in the last year, he said, "Well, they can't get the strain that's involved in the recall."

I disagree and asked Cornell about this matter. At the moment, there is so little information about the salmonella involved the outbreak we cannot say whether or not it will harm birds and it's best to err on the side of caution. Here is some information from Dr. David Bonter, the project leader of our Project FeederWatch on salmonella and birds.

"Salmonellosis is caused by a bacteria belonging to the genus Salmonella. It is a common cause of mortality in feeder birds, particularly siskins, goldfinches, and redpolls, but the symptoms are not always obvious. A sick bird may appear thin, fluffed up, and may have fecal material on its vent and swollen eyelids. Infected birds are often lethargic and easy to approach. Some infected birds may show no outward symptoms, but are carriers of the disease and can spread the infection to other birds.

Salmonellosis is primarily transmitted through fecal contamination of food and water. It may also be transmitted through bird-to-bird contact. Occasionally, outbreaks of the disease cause significant mortality in certain species.

Disease transmission can be reduced by 1) cleaning areas that are contaminated with the bacteria, and 2) discouraging large flocks of birds from gathering in one location."

At a blog reader's request, I have tried contacting Scott's Wild Bird Food about their suet and they have not answered me at this time, so I cannot say whether or not their suet is free of the recalled industrial peanut butter (this does not mean it's not safe, but at the moment, it does not have the guarantee the other suet manufacturers have). I shook my head at their website. If you go to their web page for North American bird feeding, they show European goldfinches eating their food. Too bad we don't get those in the US. If a company doesn't even know basic North American feeder birds, how we trust that they know anything about feeding birds?

So that is the current info that we have on peanut butter suet being safe for bird feeding.

KARE 11 Showcase Minnesota Appearance

If you just caught my KARE 11 appearance and wanted to know more on economizing your bird feeding operation, here are some tips (you can also get my book City Birds/Country Birds) and have all of this advice at your fingertips:

The price of many popular bird feeding seeds has gone up due to companies like Frito Lay switching to sunflower oil and many farmers dedicating more land to corn than sunflower. There's just not as much sunflower available for bird feed, bringing the prices higher (not to mention the fuel costs to transport it). If you are only going to purchase one bag of seed, only use black oil, you'll get the most bang for your bird feeding buck.

And don't worry, even small birds like goldfinches will eat black oil sunflower seed!

Avoid mixes that look like this (at least in Minnesota in Wisconsin). Unless you live out west and plan on getting California Quail, this mix will be a waste of money. It may be cheaper than sunflower, but you will get fewer species of birds per dollar with a mix like this.

If you're going to get a mix, it should look like the above--mostly dark in color, a sign that it is chock full of sunflower. Other ways to offer seed and to save on money and birds just kicking it out, is to get a seed cake--seeds held together with gelatin, birds love it and it takes them awhile to eat it. Plus, it's harder for starlings to take over. One of my favorites to offer is the Mr. Bird line and my favorite to put out for the birds is the Pecan Feast.

Nutra-Saff aka Golden Safflower is growing in popularity with chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals and grosbeaks. It's not popular with starlings and house sparrows, which will make it last longer in your bird feeders. Talk to your local wild bird specialty store and ask if they carry golden safflower (this is different than the usual plain white safflower, it's got a thinner shell).

A lot of birds love peanuts and mixed nuts out of the shell, but starlings can take that over and finish it in the blink of an eye. If you're going to offer nuts, offer them in the shell. Starlings cannot crack it open, but woodpeckers, chickadees, titmice and woodpeckers will be able to eat them.

If you want to offer suet, but have crows and blackbird eating it before the woodpeckers get hold of it, offer the suet in an "upside down suet feeder." Woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches can hang upside down to get access to the suet without any problems, but starlings and crows have a much tougher time (they'll try, but will not be as successful). Keep in mind, that if you switch to an upside down feeder, it may take awhile for the birds to figure out how to use it--maybe a month or two. But once they do, they will be loyal visitors.

Other things you can do include investing long term in your bird feeding. Shop around for clearance fruit bearing trees and plant them. This showy mountain ash is popular with cedar waxwings, robins, and grosbeaks. Also look into red osier dogwood, grey dogwood, chokecherry, and pincherry.

Never underestimate the value of a good brush pile. Maybe you can't keep a tree like this felled oak laying around your yard, but a small brush pile full of branches for birds to hide in makes a great roosting spot for juncoes and tree sparrows in the winter. You might even find a cardinal lurking in there. Don't forget a water source like a heated bird bath too.

All little tips for economizing on your bird feeding budget this winter.

The Hummer Heper: What Won't They Think Of Next

Last night's Birds and Beers was awesome! It was a huge crowd full of regulars and first timers. I think we're all ready to get out and do some spring birding--someone was even trying to start a pool of what the warbler seasons was going to be like. Thanks to everyone who came!

Right on schedule, our early spring snow storm has arrived--whoot! So, to let's ignore the snow and focus on what's ahead. One of my many jobs is working for a bird trade publication called Birding Business that is geared toward manufacturers of birding products and people who run bird specialty stores. One of my newer duties is doing a blog called Birding Business News where I plug in news stories pertinent to the industry (like sunflower prices) or cool new products coming down the pike. You're not gonna believe this one.

Hummingbird nesting material. Yep, that's what I said, hummingbird nesting material. It's called the Hummer Helper and was started with the folks at the Hummer House and is made up of natural fibers "to take the place of ever-harder to find spider webs." (Seriously, it's getting harder to find spider webs? Cause I feel like I see them everywhere.) Anyway, it was picked up by a company called Songbird Essentials and should be available at a bird store near you. On the off chance your local bird store isn't carrying it you can call 1-800-269-4450 to find out where you can get it.

It looks pretty cool and is made of natural fibers. Other birds will use it besides the hummingbirds, including finches, titmice, orioles, and waxwings. I think I might give it a go in Mr. Neil's yard. I think it'd be fun to set it up with the Wingscapes motion sensitive camera and see what all birds are coming to it. You can read more about The Hummer Helper here.

Fun Birds 10 Minutes From Uptown

First, Birds and Beers will continue, I just haven't scheduled January yet. I will get it squared away after the first of the year. I just needed to get the holidays out of the way.

Second, a BIG THANK YOU to Metro Magazine for including my blog in their list of "The Best Homegrown Blogs We Read Just About Every Day." It's nice to know a non bird related magazine is interested in birds...and bees...and disapproving bunnies.

Third, someone reminded me to mention The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up in February. I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm tentatively booked at a bird festival that weekend. But if you're not doing anything that weekend, count the birds in your backyard.

I did have some time to do some birding today and headed over to the Minnesota Valley NWR Visitor's Center about ten minutes from my apartment.

I was hoping I could do some digiscoping from inside, but the visitor's center was closed. I wasn't wearing as many layers I should have for the outdoors, but I had some emergency hand warmers stashed in my coat and tucked those in my gloves and gave it a shot.

Light snow was falling and many birds were tucked in the bushes awaiting their turn at the bird feeders, like this female cardinal. When I arrived, I met a fellow digiscoper out in the parking lot, he was leaving as I was arriving. He showed me photos of a sharp-shinned hawk he had just photographed perched near the feeding station. I was bummed that I had missed that, but a cardinal is still a very cool sight in the snow.

The birds were still very wary about coming to the feeder. That hawk must have been fresh in their minds. The cardinals would come to the feeder, but the slightest chip note would send them flying back to the shrubs.

I found one downy woodpecker with a band on his foot (its male, they way the head is turned, you cannot see the red spot on the back of his head).

I've been trying to get better photos of tree sparrows. This little one cracked me up with its snow mustache over his bill. As I was following this bird around with my scope, I noticed a rusty brown bird about twice his size. I looked it up and it flew to the brush.

Holy crap! Is that what I think it is? Is this a fox sparrow? The upside about finding this bird at this point (besides that I wasn't expecting it) was that I got so focused on the bird, I no longer paid attention to how cold I was. Whoot. Even better, I am super-duper sore right now, I signed up for yoga again and am in severe pain after the first class. The last time I took yoga, I remember having such intense pain for three days after the first class. I thought it was just exaggerated in my memory. No, it wasn't an exaggeration...I'm in pain in places I didn't know could feel pain. At least this time I won't make the mistake of having Non Birding Bill rub Icy Hot all over my entire body to ease the sore muscles. That wasn't pretty. Icy and hot all over, I couldn't get comfortable for hours--take my advice: only use Icy Hot on one body part at a time.

Anyhoo, back to the fox sparrow. At first the fox sparrow started feeding kind of like a chickadee: it would fly out under the feeders, grab at a seed and then fly back into the brush. I usually only see this species during migration when there are all kinds of dry leaves and they do that characteristic kicking with their feet, but this bird wasn't doing that in the snow.

I love looking at sparrows head on (it doesn't have to be fox sparrows, it can be any sparrow). They have such great masks. It was interesting to see how the rusty browns on this bird just popped out of the brush, especially since it was surrounded by the more muted colors of juncos and tree sparrows. At times, this bird was about as bright as a cardinal. Right after I got this photo, my batteries died in my camera and I put in my spares. As I put the camera back up to my spotting scope, the sparrow was gone and I suddenly heard a loud flutter of wings, all the downy and hairy woodpeckers gave sharp "cheeps" and their wings flapped with such intensity, you could hear each distinctive flap. I looked over to the feeders, they were bare. I thought that the sharp-shinned hawk must have returned and I glanced around:

There it is in the top of the tree. Note where my scope is in relation to the hawk. I didn't move the scope from here for the photos--just keep that in mind for the next two photos. Let's look at it through the scope:

It was a haggard bird and I wondered if it was the same sharp-shinned hawk that hunted the feeders here last winter?

When I took the first photo and my camera focused, the hawk turned and looked right at it. There is not beeping sound on my camera, this was just the sound of the lens adjusting. I know harriers have a great sense of hearing...I wonder what the stats are on the sharp-shinned hawk sense of hearing? It was at about this point that the batteries on my camera totally died and I had to go back to the car, which was good because my fingers were numb. I don't know if the sharpie ended up getting any of the birds, it was still perched in the tree when I left.

UPDATE: Check out fellow MN Blogger EcoBirder, he has photos on Dec 13 and Dec 29 at the same spot of an adult sharpie--perhaps the same bird?

Back To Frozen Birds

A personal triumph for me:

Digiscoping an almost completely in focus ruby-crowned kinglet. How the heck did I manage that? Perhaps I am finally becoming one with my digiscoping equipment.

Holy cow! I think this is the most media that I have ever done in one day! I woke this morning just after 6am to a call from Darci, the producer of the Ian and Maregery show asking if I had a few minutes to go on air, after that at 6:45am, I got a call from the producer of Showcase MN, asking if I could fill in as guest host and this afternoon after 4:30pm, I have an interview on WLTE to promote the book--I'm all over the place.

I got a kick out of the crew at Showcase calling me the new diva because the show was just pretty much all about me. I was originally scheduled as a guest this morning and they decided to keep that segment, so I had to film teases for my segment and host--I didn't end up interviewing myself but I was all over--it was fun. They are so nice on that station and Corbin (one of the other hosts) was really sweet to tell me where to stand, making suggestions on what do--it's a real team effort which makes it fun. And what was the best part of my morning--my first interview was for Surdyk's--a local liquor store Non Birding Bill and I frequent! Their chef cracked open a bottle of champagne in the middle of the segment. Champagne at 10am! My goodness I have a glamorous lifestyle for a birder.

Okay, back to the original intent of this entry: frozen birds--and I don't mean frozen as in cold, I mean frozen as in just plain not moving.

This titmouse photo was taken a couple of weeks ago. The bird had been flitting around Mr. Neil's feeders and then just stopped here for several minutes and I got all sorts of fun photos of it. When birds stop moving, that is a pretty good sign that a predator is nearby. When bird's aren't moving, they know something is near that could eat them. I started to scan around the yard and noticed other birds not moving.

SIDE NOTE: I just looked out the window while typing this entry and noticed that it's snowing. Sigh.

You can almost hear this female downy woodpecker saying through pursed bill, "If I don't move, you can't see me at all." Now This strategy might work well if she were against a tree trunk, however, up against a finch feeder filled with Nyjer thistle and sunflower chips--she kind of sticks out like a sore thumb.

I mentioned earlier that the idea of a chickadee souped up on sugary donuts is a scary thought--a chickadee frozen in place is just as unnerving. Above this black-capped chickadee and white-breasted nuthatch doing their best statue impersonations. Some further scanning around the woods did reveal a small sharp-shinned hawk lurking in the trees. The hawk eventually moved on, but I'm sure if one of frozen songbirds had moved, it would have stimulated an attack from the hawk.

After the sharpie moved on, normal bird activity resumed and birds began flitting around like crazy. So keep an eye on those feeders. If you ever see a house finch stock still on a feeder, scan the trees, chances are that there is a hawk nearby.

The Joy Of A Messy Fallen Oak

I am so loving the dead oak in Mr. Neil's yard! This may look like a bunch of dead boring branches, but it is teeming with life. It was struck by lightening and had to be felled and when the tree was down, I asked if he would mind leaving it there to do its decomposition thing. He agreed and this fall it has been sparrow town! I've been scattering seeds for sparrows all along the edges to encourage them to pop out, mostly white millet, flax, canary seed, sunflower chips, cracked corn, canola, and Nyjer.

The juncos have just been lovin' it. They will even perch on some of the branches and chill out for a bit, allowing you to get cute photos of them doing their impersonation of a fluffy puffball.

Others juncos just give you the sass. It's a fun challenge getting photos of tiny birds not at a bird feeder.

This week, the migratory sparrows have shown up in earnest. Even around my neighborhood I've found some lurking white-crowned sparrows. So far in the fallen oak I have found white-throated sparrows like the one in the above photo. They seem a tad cagey compared to the juncos, preferring to stay within the tree branches. They must have just arrived, maybe after a few days of refueling they will stay out in the open more.

Speaking of cagey, there is at least one fox sparrow lurking in the oak. The above photo was the best that I could do for a photo. I swear, that is the back of a fox sparrow. Really, it is. It's different than the other brown birds featured in this post. Honest.

This bird popping out for the sparrow mix surprised me. I would have thought they would be outta the state by now. It looks a little different from we're used to. Can you guess it? If you said chipping sparrow, you'd be right. The tree sparrows should be here very soon after these guys go.

The song sparrow in this awkward position is hoping that if it sits still enough, I won't notice and will aim my scope else where and it can enjoy whatever morsel it just found in peace. It's not every day you see a bird with it's tail caught in a branch--how embarrassing. Someone call Mr. Blackwell.

Sparrows aren't the only birds enjoying the fallen oak. The titmice have been grabbing leaves and pecking the heck out of them, there must be some type of bug or larvae lurking in there.

And it's not just the fallen tree itself that has been fun. You may have noticed in previous that we've turned the stump into a tray feeder and everybody has been using it (well, maybe not the hummingbirds, hard to put nectar on a stump).

And it's not just the brown birds either. I put some mixed nuts on their for the chickadees, titmice and nuthatches, but it's never long before a blue jay wants in on some of that action. They love their nuts.

I love this photo. That chickadee looks like it's thinking, "Well, there goes the neighborhood." There's now attractive way to mammal proof a stump, but we have all the other feeder poles mammal proofed so I'm not too bothered if the squirrels and chipmunks want to hoover up the seeds. Since this stump doesn't have much in the way of drainage holes, it helps to have birds and critters move the seed faster.

Watch Out, Finches

I have been trying to do this entry all day and so many cool and blogable things keep happening. I will do this and begin working on my very exciting discovery in the woods entry.

Okay, now we are getting some proper fall temps--blustery wind with fifty degree temps--now that is what I call buckthorn removal weather! On my way out to Mr. Neil's this afternoon, I noticed several raptors bouncing and soaring in the wind. Mostly red-tails and eagles, but peregrine went bombing over the highway in hot pursuit of something over the fields.

I have noticed a significant increase in purple finches at the feeder in the last few days. A family group had shown up a few weeks ago, but on Sunday when I was photographing the cedar waxwings, I could hear dozens and dozens in the surrounding woods. In the fall, they have such a quiet little chatter as they flit from tree to tree and squabble over perches at the feeder in can be easy to miss among the din of blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches and titmice.

I love this photo--it looks like the goldfinch is trying to eavesdrop on the male purple finches. "Hmmm, what are they plotting?"

Ron Pittaway, of the Ontario Field Ornithologists has an annual Winter Finch Forecast with Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) and the observations of regional birders, Pittaway tries to make predictions about finch movement in southern Canada and the northern United States. Birds are always a tricky thing to predict, but this year I did notice an increase in purple finches, so I thought I would see what he had to say:

"Most Purple Finches will migrate out of Ontario this fall in response to the low seed crops. Currently, Purple Finches are migrating south through southern Ontario. Very few or none will stay behind at feeders in southern Ontario."

You should check the rest of the report, he describes conditions in the northern boreal forests and how that relates to individual species like redpolls, grosbeaks, finches and siskins. He does predict that white-winged and red crossbills and pine siskins will not be irrupting south out of Ontario as they do some years. However, other winter finches such as pine grosbeaks, evening grosbeaks and redpolls are supposed to get out of Ontario and down south into the United State.

It's been interesting to watch the purple finches interact with the other species. Here a male purple finch got into it with a black-capped chickadee--they are not very tolerant of other species feeding with them. When I worked at the bird store, customers would tell me that house finches drove other birds away, but I have never seen them be as aggressive as these thugs.

They're even hanging out on the tray feeder like this female purple finch and flushing away juncos. They're pretty, but man, don't mess with them.

Don't worry, goldfinch, you're still pretty too. Even in winter plumage. What's interesting is that the purple finches are seemingly preferring the sunflower feeders over the Nyjer thistle feeders, so the goldfinches do have a quiet place to feed at the moment.

Hey, Did You Hear Something?

A white-breasted nuthatch and downy woodpecker surprise each other on the bird feeder.

Look at the wide stance on that nuthatch...perhaps it should be renamed Craig's nuthatch?

New Bird Seed-- Golden Safflower

There's a new bird seed coming onto the bird feeding market called golden safflower. Note the color in the photo above that give the seed it's name, safflower is normally pure white. This new version claims to be higher in oil content, higher in protein and higher in fat, making it more desirable to feeder birds. It's also supposed to be non germinating and I'm not sure if that's because it's out hull-less or if it's been roasted.

The big advantage to safflower in the past has been that cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches (above), mourning doves, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and house finches really enjoy the seed but grackles and house sparrows do not care for the taste and usually leave it alone. That's not to say that house sparrows won't eat when desperate. Starlings are physically unable to eat it, since they do not have bills that are strong enough to open seeds in a hard shell.

But what about golden safflower--will it now be tastier to house sparrows and grackles? We'll have to wait and see. I first noticed the safflower at Carpenter Nature Center, on of their 20 some odd bird feeders was filled with it and a flock of chickadees preferred it over any other. And went on a search for it. I've found two bird stores in the Twin Cities that carry it (I didn't call all of them) and I'm sure other birds stores will follow suit soon (at the least the good ones will).

I've been testing it out at Mr. Neil's feeding stations and the birds took to it right away--especially the nuthatches and the chickadees. the birds still prefer nuts and sunflower but there is certainly more activity at the golden safflower than at the regular safflower. I tried it at home and the house sparrows just don't know what to do about it. The cardinals and flying squirrels are happy to eat it though. If you're having a house sparrow, grackle, or cardinal problem call your local wild bird specialty store and see if they have it in, if they don't recommend that they consider carrying it.

Remember that if you are going to try a new seed that sometimes the birds don't take to it right away. It's like going to Wendy's for a #1 hamburger special. One day you get there and Wendy's is now a Taco Bell and the #1 special is now three tacos. It's not that you don't like tacos, but when you go there, you were expecting a hamburger. In time, you get over it and start having the taco special.

Bald Cardinals and Other Bald Birds

All of a sudden in the last two weeks, I have been getting comments to an old post from July 25, 2005 (way back when I worked at the bird store). The post is about bald cardinals.

Every year about late July and early August there are questions from people asking about black headed birds, miniature vultures or bald headed feeder birds. Most of the time, people are describing cardinals without any feathers on their heads, but I've also had reports of bald blue jays and grackles.

While I was down in Indianapolis, my mom had a bald cardinal coming to her feeding station. So, what is the dealio? No one knows for sure, even Cornell Lab of the Big O admits that the case of the bald cardinal is not well studied. There are two possible explanations. Number one, this is the time of year when many songbirds (including cardinals and blue jays) are molting (shedding old feathers and growing in new feathers). For some reason, the birds drop all of their feathers on their heads at once. I've seen this with captive birds like great horned owls and even our education screech owl at The Raptor Center. The birds are healthy, they just molt everything at once (interesting to note that all of those species mentioned are tufted: cardinal, blue jay, great horned owl, eastern screech owl--hmmmmmmm).

Alas, my mom didn't have just a bald male cardinal, she also had a bald grackle (so much for the only tufted bird theory). This grackle was much more wary than the cardinal and this was the only shot I got of it. The bird seemed to sense the spotting scope and flush right as I was about to take a photo. I don't blame it, the bird kind of looks like a Skeksis, I wouldn't want my photo taken either. This bird leads me to the number two reason birds can go bald and that is that they can get feather mites. Generally, birds can use their bills to remove pests like mites when they are preening. However, they would be unable to get to mites on their heads and so the mites eat away the feathers. It's tough to say what really is going on, without trapping the bird and looking for the mites, you really can't tell for certain if it's molting or mites causing the lack of feathers.

There was another grackle coming to mom's feeders that was starting to lose its facial feathers. Interesting to note that the cardinals are dark skinned under the feathers and the grackles are light skinned. Since my mom had at least three birds that were either bald or starting to become bald, I wondered if this was a case of mites being passed around. The birds appeared in good health and were eating well, looking alert--all good signs. And mites don't usually kill a bird. Annoy it and make it look grotesque--yes, but kill birds--not so much. Check out the video I got of the male cardinal eating a berry off of mom's fuschia plant:



Did you note how he scratched the back of his head? That also makes me wonder if mites are the cause. Although, I would bet a bunch of pin feathers growing in at once would be rather itchy.

By the way, don't feel too bad for him, he's still gettin' some play. Not long after I took that video, this female flew in and he jauntily bounced over to her and fed her some of the fuschia berries--very clear mating behavior. She didn't seem to mind his bald pate one bit (perhaps she likes that Christine Lavin song). Although, if you look right behind her eye, there's a small bald patch--mites? Will she be bare headed soon as well?

As I was watching the cardinal, I noticed something new. Check out where his ear canal is. Do you see it? It's that large hole right under his eyeball (there's a small red feather over it). How cool--who knew that their ears were just below their eyes...and about the same size. I wonder if anyone has done any studies and the hearing capability of cardinals? So much we don't yet know...

And just for comparison and to not leave you with grotesque cardinals, here is a photo of a proper male cardinal. Whether the birds in the other photos have mites or an odd molt pattern, don't worry too much. In most cases, the feathers do grow back in plenty of time before the winter sets in and all will be right with the cardinal world once again.

Birdchick and Barn Owl

There was a request to see video of me giving a Raptor Center program. I don't have that, but Tuesday when I was feeding the education barn owl during my volunteer shift, I had fellow crew members, Maddy and Sue take some video with my camera and just ask me questions. This is not like one of my usual programs--I'm WAY more animated in front of a large audience, but I thought it would be fun to watch the barn owl eat. For those curious, I'm feeding her cut up pieces of mice.



The video cuts off before I can answer that last question. The barn owl is a captive bred bird and imprinted on humans. I think The Raptor Center got her from a facility in North Carolina, who breeds them for release in the wild.

Sneak Thieves

Mr. Neil has a cat flap on his garage...

I think I need to put a clarification up before I go further with this post. Mr. Neil has cats. I have given him all the information on the Cats Indoors Campaign, and some of his cats are strictly indoor cats, however one cat in particular cannot be an indoor cat (Mr. Neil readers know him as Fred the unlucky cat). Please do not bombard him with info on Cats Indoors, he knows it, I know it--we've discussed it, especially after the time when young Fred showed up with four puncture marks on his hind quarters in the shape of great horned owl talons. And yes, in a perfect world for me, all cats would be indoors--however, who out there lives a perfect world? It's not always an easy task to turn a free roaming outdoor cat into an indoor cat. We're not going to change every mind in one night and we're not going to get every cat out of the wild by tomorrow morning. We do what we can, as we can, and the Cats Indoors campaign is a gradual effort.

That said, Fred is an outdoor cat who lives in the garage. There is a special cat door that only opens when Fred is standing in front of it, he has a special sensor on his collar that causes it to open. We keep all of the bird seed in the garage (and beekeeping equipment). Recently, something has been coming into the garage and living large in the bird seed--most likely a raccoon. The only way that I could find that they could be getting inside, would be the cat door, I'm sure raccoon claws could outsmart a sensor. We have a motion sensitive game camera and set that up:

Raccoon one (apparently wearing a monacle) came in through the door. I had the camera too close to the cat door and the flash WAY over exposed all the images. Non Birding Bill did a lot of tweaking to get them to this state.

Raccoon two came into join the party. If one has figured it out, it's not long before others follow.

And raccoon number three--this one appears to be smaller than the first two. So far these three have kept there shenanigans to the bird seed and have left the bee supplies along. I'm not sure what the next step is going to be. On of Mr. Neil's readers has suggested a door that uses image recognition software. I suggested leaving Cabal, his large white german shepherd in the garage for a few nights.

And so, here is one of the coons leaving, a little fatter. Perhaps they will eat so much they will not fit through the door--much in the same way Pooh got stuck in Rabbit's hole after eating too much honey.

Birds Are Fledgin' Out All Over

Young chickadees are invading the feeders at Mr. Neil's house. If you look closely at this photo, you can see a little yellow where this young chickadee's bill connects with it's face. The remnants of the gape young chickadees have to help stimulate their parents to feed them. This young chickadee was figuring out how to hold a peanut between its toes and then peck out bite sized pieces.

The adult chickadees are now ignoring the young birds crying for food and eating themselves. The ravenous young birds are following what they see the parent birds do and learning how to use the feeding stations. Once they figure out how to grab peanuts from the mesh feeder and sunflower seeds from the tube feeders, they explore further for food. This young bird is contemplating the eye hole on this decorative bird on top of the feeder pole. It is asking itself, "Can I eat this?"

"Let's find out!" PECK! The young bird pecked and prodded the eye hole a few times and then gave up. It was fun watching the young chickadees trying out new things. One intrepid youngster flew to the hummingbird feeder and ate the ants trying to get past the ant moat.

The young chickadees were looking fresh and well feathered.

The adults, well, they were looking a little rough. I'm sure it's a combination of the nonstop work of nesting and it's time for a summer molt (dropping those old feathers and growing in new ones).

Young titmice were also learning to feed too. The adults kept going to the peanut feeder over and over again while the young birds begged in the tree. Eventually, one impatient young bird followed the adult to the feeder and continued to beg. As the adult continued to feed only itself, the young bird finally got the idea that it had to dig out it's own peanut or sunflower.

As the young bird finally mastered the feeders, it seemed triumphant in its discovery. "I am king of the peanuts, master of all the feeders I survey!"

I found another grosbeak photo and I'm just throwing this in to the entry to add a little color.

Albino Black-capped Chickadee

This fluffy white cuteness comes to us from Deb Pflueger of Avon, Minnesota. It's a recently fledged albino black-capped chickadee! If you look closely at the photo, you can almost see a hint of the lightest beige where the black cap and beard should be. It was in her yard on June 9, 2007 but she has not seen it since.

Thanks, Deb, for taking such a great shot of this unusual bird.

Bird in the Hand

I'm fairly certain I've said this before in the blog, but I'm going to say it again.

I get that hummingbirds are incredible birds, but I don't get it in photos. I will look at magazines with incredible photos and I'll glance at them and think, "Yes, that's a pretty bird." But I don't get the wow factor until I see one in front of me at a feeder or flower and then it hits me, "How is that a bird and not a bug?"

Unfortunately, today I got to experience one in the hand. We get hummingbirds from time to time in the nets at Carpenter, but the more experienced banders are the ones that get them out--which is fine with me. Today, I heard a loud thump on the windows at Mr. Neil's (a bird hit the glass)--a problem we've been trying to fix. It's hard to stop Cooper's hawks and sharp-shinned hawks from driving birds into the windows. When I first heard the thump, I thought is was finch. I poked my head out the window and found a female ruby-throated hummingbird splayed on the grass. I dashed out and picked her up.

She was breathing and there was no visible blood from her beak. The hummingbirds have been fighting over feeders and territory, so I wonder if she flew into the window after being chased away from the feeder. No other bird species were in a panic when she flew like when the hawks are around. Several finches continued at the finch feeder oblivious to what happened.

You could see around her bill that she had little traces of spider webs--she has been gathering nesting material. Ruby-throated hummingbirds use spider webs to bind the nesting material together.

I took a moment to photograph her feet. Ruby-throated hummingbirds are unable to walk with their feet. They are pretty much there just for perching. If she is sitting on a branch and wants to turn around, she will have to use her wings to fly up, turn around and then land back on the perch facing the other way. Dear me, I'm looking at my finger tip in this photo and realizing I need to exfoliate.

Right as I took this photo, her eyes started to ope nand you could see her tongue slipping out at the tip of her bill. I quit taking photos and tried to keep her perched on my hand, facing away from me, so she wouldn't see me behind her--I thought that might help keep her calm. I had some nectar with me and set a drop of nectar on her bill, she licked it up. I did that a couple more times and then she straightened up, buzzed her wings and before I knew it she was hovering above my hand and then headed for the cover of a nearby pine tree.

It was an honor to have a hummer in hand, but I really do wish it had been under much different circumstances. There was something kind of surreal holding something so seemingly fragile yet has the ability to survive and nest outdoors and migrate single handedly across the Gulf of Mexico.

After a few minutes in the tree of preening and rest, she flew back over to one of the hummingbird feeders and I was able to digiscope a photo. She's the one on the left--you can see a couple of feathers on the back of her head are still out of place. It was interesting that this time a second female came in to feed and not chase her off. We have three nectar feeders going, but at the moment this Hummzinger is the most popular with the hummingbirds.

This photo isn't the best. But I love it. I had turned off the camera accidentally while I was digiscoping the hummingbirds. I turned it back on and as I was zooming in, I took a photo--that's why you can see the vignetting around the image. Anyway, as I shot the photo, a goldfinch flew in front of the feeder. Just cracked me up.

Everything BUT An Oriole

So, part of my goal on Saturday was to get some photos of orioles--I really don't have any recent ones. A pair had finally shown up at Mr. Neil's so I thought I would go out, play with his new dog, and put together our comb honey supers (yes, I'm being optimistic for later this summer). I set myself up near the feeding stations to try and get some photos of orioles on the jelly feeder.

The rose-breasted grosbeaks were incredibly accommodating. They were not in the least bit shy about all the hammering Non Birding Bill and I were doing. One pair even engaged in some..."marital relations" right on the tray of the copper Aspects feeder--daring!


The goldfinches were very easy shoot as well. This male kept cracking me up--he kept raising his little "crest". I'm not sure what was getting the finches so excited, it's a bit early for them to be nesting, but it was cute.

I have a hummingbird feeder set up right next to the jelly feeder for the orioles. I decided to just aim the scope on those feeders just in case the orioles finally decided to make an appearance. A male ruby-throated hummingbird came in and lurked at the feeder. He took sips of nectar in between curious glances my way.

It was a glorious day to be outside. Look how the sun hit that hummingbird's ruby throat above--nice! The chorus of birds was unbelievable. A male scarlet tanager flew in and sang above me in an oak tree. I played my birdJam and he flew down, gave me once over and then stayed in the tops of the trees. It was interesting to see how quickly he figured out the song was nothing to be alarmed about--a fake. I wonder if they pick up on recordings being the same timing and phrasing every time?

I played the oriole call, and they didn't respond at all.

In the afternoon I heard one of my all time favorite songs--bobolink! Poor Non Birding Bill was dozing in the grass when I first heard the song. I gasped loudly and yelled at Bill, "Do you hear that?!" He jerked awake and said, "Huh? What's wrong? Where?" He was not as excited as I hoped he'd be at the idea of seeing a bobolink. I snuck over to the field where the song was coming from (and near the beehives) where at least four male bobolinks were singing out a territory battle (almost as choreographed as West Side Story). I managed to get a few photos--nothing great--but proof of the bobolink. I thought to myself, "How is it that I can get a bobolink photo today, but no oriole?" But, I still had time.

When I walked back to my supers, a male pileated woodpecker was on the suet log. I managed to trip over a frame and not scare him off and get a photo. Okay, a pileated photo and no oriole? Mother Nature has GOT to be toying with me.

I set the scope back towards the nectar and jelly feeders and managed to get a few more fun ones of the hummingbird. I love the above shot. He's on his way to chase out another male who wanted a chance at the feeder. I thought that while I was hammering away that I should brush up on my warbler calls. I'm one of the field trip leaders at next week's Detroit Lakes Bird Festival and need to be on my game. I like how the birdJam has a warbler playlist with no narration so I can just let that go and test myself. I had my iPod on my portable speaker and was going through the calls: song--black-throated green, song--blackburnian, song--blackpoll, song--blue-winged...when the next warbler came on, I noticed I could still hear the blue-winged. I turned off the iPod...

...and ten feet above my head was a blue-winged warbler! Let me tell you, it took some pretty fancy maneuvering just to get this shot as I tried to angle the scope straight up. The blue-winged sat there for at least five minutes, completely aloof to my straining below (and I kept the birdJam off the whole time). He was pretty mellow and even tucked up one of his feet in a relaxed position. He eventually flew away and then continued singing his buzzy "bluuuuuu wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing" call below.

So, did I get the oriole photo?

No, just another grosbeak shot. But hey, if I have to miss an oriole, I appreciate the pallet of colors I got from all the other birds on Saturday.

A Spike In Sparrows

And now, a cool titmouse shot:

We are now in the lovely town of Cleveland, OH. We have to go to bed early tonight, someone from the North Coast Nature Festival is picking us up at 4:30 am for two tv segments on WKYC. We're doing two, one at 5:15 am and one at 6:15 am. Oy.

First up, there's been a comment and a couple of private emails that people still had trouble seeing the queen bee, so I added a photo and circled the queen to that entry. Hopefully you can see her in the middle of my wiggly squiggle.

One of the fun things about being out at Mr. Neil's while hiving our colony was watching all the migrants pour in. When I arrived on Tuesday, there were several of the usual suspects singing. The only sparrow I noticed was the song sparrow (above) eating sunflower chips below the feeders.

Wednesday morning, sparrows were everywhere!

Chipping sparrows were flitting around to all the feeders. For the record, I did not fill this feeder. When I'm not around, other people fill them and it makes me chuckle to see where the seeds end up. The blue jays were going crazy trying to figure out how to get access to all the peanuts. The chipping sparrow was more interested in the sunflower chips still available at the bottom feeder port.

This little chipping sparrow kept erecting his cap. His hormones must be in overdrive.

White-throated sparrows had arrived over night. I can never control myself around these guys. I always start whistling they're "oh sweet Canada, Canada Canada" or according to Kaufman "oh sweet, Kimberly, Kimberly, Kimberly" song. I started whistling and then many more in the surrounding bushes started singing. Love those guys.

I did find a lone Lincoln's sparrow mixed in. These are always such a pleasant surprise when they show up at the feeders. I put out some extra millet and sunflower chips for the migrating sparrows, they always put a little more fun in the sea of brown that seems to take over the feeding stations.

Back to the feeder with all the peanuts. As the chipping sparrows moved the sunflower chips out of the way, the titmice came in for the peanuts. This one worked for a good three minutes trying to get that nut out. It flew away and I wondered how long it would take it to chip it away into edible pieces.

Some mixed nuts had been put in some of the other feeders and the red-bellied woodpeckers were working those out. This one managed to pry out a hazelnut. If you closely at this photo, you can almost see the spear that is at the tip of his tongue.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

This morning I was sipping my coffee and watching the cars in the drive way. I was (and am) exhausted from the week. I was formulating my plan for the day when I noticed what looked like a female goldfinch flitting around my car. At first glance, it looked like she was fighting her reflection going from window to window, but I thought, "Why would a female be fighting her reflection? Isn't it early for goldfinches to be this territorial?" Something did not seem right. The finch moved on to Lorraine's car and she walked in and asked, "Why is that finch on my car?"

Then the coffee kicked in. The "finch " flew over to the finch feeder with the other goldfinches (above). "That's not a finch." I said. Look at the top photo, can you see the "finch imposter" feeding on Nyjer and sunflower chips?

I dashed to get the scope:

The feeder was almost too close for the spotting scope to focus on the bird. Here is the face. It was a pine warbler! I can't believe it, I digiscoped a warbler--barely. I think with the cool weather, this migrant was working extra hard to find insects. My guess is that the warbler was gleaning smashed insects off of our cars and when that wasn't enough decided to go for the sunflower chips--something warblers will eat if they have to.

I tried to get a better shot, but got a butt shot instead. The warbler flitted around from feeder to feeder, someone had mixed in some suet nuggets in some of the feeders and it went for those as well.

I looked over at the suet log and a second pine warbler had flown in. This one went right for the fat. When a downy woodpecker flew in, the warbler flew away and waited for another turn. Mr. Neil's suet log has an arm that sticks out that makes a great perch for waiting birds. This digiscoped shot turned out much better. I thought digiscoping warblers was going to be impossible this spring (I'm no artist like Mike McDowell) but this gives me hope.

Coolest Pileated Woodpecker Post In The History Of This Blog

Holy crap, this is going to be a super cool post! Warning: Gratuitous photos of pileated woodpeckers ahead.

So, today I had a meeting with the Explore Minnesota Tourism folks at Eastman Nature Center in Elm Creek Park (cool stuff that generated from that meeting will pop up in the next few weeks). During a break in the meeting, I went to check their feeders for some digiscoping. At first I just saw the usual suspects: nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, chickadees, etc. The feeders were spread between two rooms. When I walked into the second room, I saw this:

Okay, it may be hard to get an idea of scale with this tree, but that is a large sliver of a lump up there. I knew instantly: a pileated woodpecker. Knowing how cagey these guys can be, I just set the scope up and started to photograph hoping I might get a shot of the head.

Then, the pileated flew over to the window feeders! I was way too close to digiscope, so I took a photo old school style--just through the point and shoot. I went to the back of the room and tried to digiscope.

However, the feeder was swinging violently due to the bird's weight. It was a tall order trying to get the head in the frame and in focus at the same time. I have about 50 blurry and blank photos.

Okay, there's the head, and it's kind of in focus...but the suet feeder is in the way! Although, I did like this shot because if you look at the bottom of the lower mandible you can see it's white. I have never had the opportunity to see that part of pileated, who knew it was white?

Okay, still not quite in focus but I love this because the woodpecker was in mid peck and had its eyelid lowered to protect its eyes. This looks thicker than a nictitating membrane (extra eyelid birds have that is transparent--they use it to protect pupils in flight so dust won't damage it). I'm sure they have some sort of eyelid protection since they chip off such large chunks of bark when pecking.

Whoot! It's in focus, it's not head on, but you can still see the face very well. I like how you can see the crest feathers come together in the back. Kind of reminds me of a kewpie doll.

I couldn't believe how accommodating this bird was. The whole group had gathered in the room to watch at this point. I asked one of the naturalists if the windows were tinted and she said that they are not, these birds are just that used to people. There was also a female flying around, she was eating at the tray feeder. She tried to bump the male from the feeder, but he always won.

She was fairly close to and I was able to get a head shot of her. For those who can't tell the difference between male and female pileated woodpeckers, here is what you need to look for: the female lacks the red mustache and her red crest starts halfway up her head as opposed to right at the bill. I was pretty jazzed about this photo. Finally, a crisp head shot! Double whoot!!

The female started working her way around towards another empty suet feeder. However, instead of flying up to the empty feeder...

She went right underneath us to forage for all the fallen suet chunks! What a treat to look right down on a pileated woodpecker only five feet away! I was so excited, I almost peed my pants. There were still about ten of us in the room and we call crowded around the window.

Here's my buddy Carrol Henderson taking a photo of her. It's not uncommon to see pileateds on the ground, they do forage a bit, not quite as much as northern flickers, but they do know how to dig around old fallen snags for juicy bugs.

The male didn't stray too far away. When he was finished at the other suet feeder, he flew to a tree to keep an eye on the female. My goodness, were we watching a pileated lunch date? Boy, if things keep going this well, he'll be at third base in no time.

Eventually, the birds flew off and we had to finish the rest of the meeting. Sigh.

The naturalists told us about a barred owl nest right along one of the trails. While we were finishing our meeting, I saw Sue who volunteers with me at The Raptor Center walk by the outside window. I flagged her down to say hi. She was going to look for the nest, so I told her to let me know if she found it on her way back. Five minutes later she walked past the window and gave a thumbs up--she saw the owl. Afterwards we went to look for it, we found the nest hole, but she was hunkered down for the day doing some hard incubating. Now quite what I was hoping for, but after the pileated show how can I really complain?

One last thing, we did find a disapproving jack rabbit at Eastman Nature Center. Apparently, he didn't approve of being stuffed.

Assembling the Hives

I'm starting this entry with the tufted titmouse photo above. Non Birding Bill really liked it (that's sayin' something). I set some mixed nuts in a tray of one of Mr. Neil's feeders and EVERYBODY flew in right away. The titmouse is contemplating the large Brazil nut. Look at the size of that food morsel! Alas, it is way to heavy for this mere titmouse to carry away in flight.

Today we decided to assemble our bee hives. The bees won't ship until late next month but that gives us plenty of time to prepare for their arrival. This gives me time to order anything that I discover is missing after assembly.

We were told that we are supposed to name our hives (with women's names) so NBB put together Olga...

While I put together Miss Kitty. Some readers my recall that I was thinking of using screws, but thanks to Old Drone's assurances we went with nailing the hives together and he was right, it was easy. The wood was soft and many of the nails were small so I didn't have much chance to smash my fingers.

We had to put everything together: the boxes, the floor, the top, the individual frames where the bees will build the comb for larvae and honey--ten frames for each box! It was tiring. The wax in each frame is there to encourage the bees to build their comb in an easy to access form so I can check the hive and partake of the honey.

Between frames I did sneak away to watch the birds...

The juncos sure were frisky. Lots of chirping and chasing while feeding. You could see pin feathers on some of them, I'm sure molting in fresh feathers for the breeding season was bringing on a surge of hormones in them. I enjoy their mechanical twitters in early, early spring.

"Ugh, I don't know if I'm in the mood for that much nut."

Another bird flies in to contemplate the Brazil nut. This black-capped chickadee gave it some serious thought, but instead went for half a pecan. A hairy woodpecker ended up flying away with the large prize nut.

We did finish both of our hives, and after assembly I realized that our starter kit only came with two brood boxes for each hive. The class that I took recommended that for over wintering bees in northern states that I should have a third brood box for each hive, so looks like I'll be doing a little ordering this week.

I have to admit, I was really not looking forward to assembling these, fearing it would be really complicated. I think this stems from having to assemble aluminum purple martin houses at the bird store. I hated those things! Don't get me wrong, I think aluminum martin houses can work well to attract martins, but assembling them is about as fun as stubbing all ten toes. You have to follow the directions EXACTLY and if you get something wrong at step five, you won't notice until step 487 when the roof won't line up with the box--and you have to take it apart and start over. Whereas with a bee hive, if you make a mistake or split the wood--the bees will just fill it with propolis.

Ah, martin house assembly is coming back to me now...ahhhh....I would always try to tell customers that it was important for them to assemble their own martin house so they could truly understand it and I also would lie and say how much fun it is to put together on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Putting the hive together was much more simple and quite pleasant and I'm looking forward to assembling the third brood boxes.

Incidentally, if you're thinking of getting a purple martin house, get the plastic gourds, they are usually cheaper, are easy to snap together (if not already assembled at purchase), are more resistant to predators and save bird store employees (and you) hours of assembly grief.

Me Want Spring Now!

"Dude, hold your horses, I'm molting as fast as I can!"

Note all the little pin feathers on this goldfinch's head--it's going full force for the breeding plumage--sign of spring.

Holy Mackerel! When I came home from beekeeping class followed by a Hera concert (loves me some Icelandic folk music) I found tons of messages on the Minnesota bird listserv on signs of spring--especially early migrants. People are seeing meadowlarks, killdeer, bluebirds and...brace yourself...grackles! Yo, if you are not keen on grackles and you want to try and avoid them, now is a good time to start switching one of your feeders to all safflower to give the other birds a chance to acclimate to it.

Today we learned about honey and wax extraction in beekeeping class. Yum. I also learned that among the beekeeping community "raw" is a four letter word when used in advertised honey. I have mentioned before that I am a fan of Really Raw Honey. Many in the bee keeping world aren't too pleased with honey being called advertised as raw, because all honey is raw. Also, there is some resentment that honey with visible wax, propolis, bee parts, etc. being advertised as raw and charged a premium is selling poorly filtered honey at an outrageous price. I don't care about the "raw" issue, I just really like the way Really Raw Honey tastes--it doesn't have that weird after taste that you find with liquid honey. I also really like the thick, creamy consistency of Really Raw Honey and wanted to know how to encourage my bees to create a thick honey. Apparently, it has to do more with the types of flowers than any kind of processing. One of the instructors told me that the bottom line is that the honey that comes from my own hives will taste better than any other honey I ever purchase because I helped create it. Makes sense.

This whole bee thing is fascinating. They are not native to North America, they were introduced. They evolved for pollinating Europe and Africa. We have hummingbirds in North and South America for our pollinating which they don't have in Europe in Africa. Honey bees really like to pollinate exotic plants (plants geared and evolved for attracting insect pollinators like bees) and that can be a problem. I actually found places on the Internet advertising Loosestrife Honey. If you don't know the woes of Purple Loosestrife, read about it here. We go to great lengths to cultivate the non native honey bee because it is an important part of our economy--it is illegal to set up a hive without arranging the frames in just the right way in order to prevent the spread of diseases. Coming from a birding background where non natives tend to be bad news, this whole bee attitude kind of throws me for a small loop. Imagine of house sparrows and starlings produced some kind of sweet edible liquid...

At any rate, I have my certificate and feel ready for the challenge of beekeeping this spring and summer. If you are remotely interested in beekeeping, I highly recommend the University of Minnesota's short course on beekeeping. The class had about 100 people and they were from as far as Vermont to take part. They do a good job of walking you through your first year and give you some great literature to get you started. I can't wait until the end of April when we get our two packages of bees!

Sunny Day

The roads were moderately clear today and the sun was out! I headed back to the Minnesota Valley NWR. It's right off the highway and easily accessible. A turkey spent most of her day at the feeding station. She kicked up quite a bit of snow under the feeder to get at the spilled sunflower seeds.
This was to the absolute delight of the juncos and trees sparrows. The turkey also kicked up quite a bit of spilled Nyjer which these birds love to eat.

There were a TON of woodpeckers--mostly downy (above), hairy, and red-bellied. These two just cracked me up. They were eating on either side of the peanut feeder and if they noticed each other would get in a fight. While two woodpeckers would be on the peanut feeder, two more would be on the suet feeders. Then you would see at least a half dozen more woodpeckers waiting in the trees for their turn at the food.

All of a sudden, all of the birds flew off except for this one female downy woodpecker. She remained frozen where she was. I noticed some snow shoers taking off their gear outside the nature center and wondered that were it. No, her attention was elsewhere. There must have been a hawk nearby. Then someone in the building spotted it.

An adult sharp-shinned hawk had flown in. In the above photo are both birds. The female downy is in the yellow circle, the hawk is in the red circle. Both sat still waiting for the other to move. Finally, the hawk relaxed, and tucked in one of its feet (something birds do when they are totally relaxed or about to sleep). The downy saw her chance and flew to safety.

That allowed me to digiscope LOTS of photos of the sharp-shin! You could see those bright red eyes! I took about 120 photos, entranced by those deep red eyes. More snow shoers passed and this hawk didn't pay them any attention. Even a chickadee was brave enough to mob and scream a warning within a few feet of her. I learned from one of the staff that this bird hunted this area quite often, which confirmed my suspicion (on Wednesday I wondered about some curious cardinal feeding behavior and I wondered if it was because of a hawk). Eventually, some small birds flushed and the chickadee that had been mobbing her got nailed and became sharp-shin dinner.

About five minutes after she flew off with her prey the birds returned to the feeder and the original feeding frenzy continued as before--see hawks don't keep birds away from a feeder permanently. Just for the time they are present in the yard. Prey knows that as soon as the hunter gets its fill they are safe for the moment.

It was a different experience being at the nature center on a Saturday instead of a week day. I spent a good chunk of the afternoon giving a digiscoping presentation. It's strange to me that being on the road and going to bird festivals, I get the sense that EVERYBODY knows about digiscoping and it's sweeping that nation. However, to most at the nature center it was very new and different. I had quite a few people ask what I was doing with a "telescope"--was that really for watching birds?

Perhaps I will set myself up there more on the weekends with all my bells and whistles: binos, spotting scope, Handheld Birds, birdJam with speaker...yes, step into my parlour little flies...let me show you how cool birding can be...mwa ha ha ha ha ha.

Early Thoughts on Bird Watch America

Have I really been in Atlanta one day and am I already this exhausted? I love this show--so many great friends to catch up with, so many new people with new ideas to meet and so much new product to see. All this is on top of my actual duties that I have to perform here.

Non Birding Bill was kind enough to check out a laptop pc for me from the university he works at since Norbert was not ready from having his hard drive replaced. I can't get the darn thing to connect to the internet or hold a battery charge, but somehow I have landed a very spanky executive suite with office privleges. I'm currently tucked away in a quiet corner on the 17 floor of the Hilton using their complimentary computers and internet access. Incidentally, accessing in my room is $13.95 a day--nuts.

My lunch time presentation went over better than I expected. It's odd, I feel perfectly natural most of the time in front of a crowd, but I found myself incredibly nervous--my left leg and right hand were uncontrollably shaking for most of my talk. I think it was because I was debuting some new material (crazy customer stories--like the woman who used to call the bird store and tell us about the peewees she could communicate with psychically) and I get more nervous talking in front of peers than people I will never see again. The audience seemed to enjoy it, and I think I kept it brief--whew.

The best presentation that I observed today was by Peter Marra about urban ecology--he has been doing some interesting research on common birds found in urban areas. I think this is something that can be used in several major cities. One of his most interesting findings had to do with nest predation in urban areas compared to forested areas. I think the general thought is that nests are less safe from predators in urban areas because we think of raccoons, crows and cats. Marra's research found that urbans nest were preyed upon a little over 30% whereas nests in forested areas were preyed upon closer to 80%! The main reason appears to be that we have fewer nest predators in urban areas--sure there are crows, raccoons and cats but not nearly as many snakes or smaller predators because we can exterminate them more easily.

He also had studies of catbird survival rates once the young leave the nest. Interesting to note that in neighborhoods with more cats, had fewer fledging catbirds survive.

Tomorrow I get to go in to the trade show and see what's nifty and new. Some sneak peaks that I found today: solar powered squirrel proof feeders, newer ant moats for hummingbirds, suet pellets, and a new book from Houghton Mifflin with tips from 50 top birders (hmmmm, I wonder how many people are going to glance at the list of 50 top birders and then take offence that they weren't invited to submit an essay--incidentally, there are a lot of essays by women in the book).

More soon.

More on One Legged Grackle

Well, when I downloaded images today from the camera, I was anxious to see if there was anything more on the one legged common grackle and sure enough the bird showed up in a few photos. What was interersting this time was in the first few photos you can see an immature grackle waiting behind it? A nestling of the one legged grackle?

A few photos later answered my question. In the background of the photo on the left, the one legged grackle is in front of a begging immature grackle, it does have chicks! Today I mixed in some mixed nuts and mealworms and for the grackles, the nuts are definetly preferred over the mealworms. The bird appears to have two chicks and it's kind of inspiring to watch it in the photos continue on with its duty of raising the off spring and carrying on its DNA. I suppose

that is one of the things that makes this species so successful. Of course many people this time of year are having lots of trouble with grackles taking over feeding stations so it does seem kind of silly to get so taken with one, but I just can't help but show interest in an underdog. Grackles really are a cool looking bird, I wonder if they didn't crowd out other birds sometimes when they feed if people would like them more?

On another note I did notice that we have a banded bird hanging out. I thought I saw a banded bird in one of the photos a few days ago, but figured is was a stray seed in a blurry photo, but today you can clearly see the red-winged blackbird male has a silver band on its right leg. Last year we had a couple of banders behind the store out who banded some birds, I wonder if this was one of them. Which reminds me that I need to book those guys again, they are great educators and it's always fun to hang out with banders.

One Legged Grackle

Here's an unusual sight that showed up behind the store today, a one-legged common grackle (making it a tad uncommon). The bird is very plucky and kept all the red-winged blackbirds away from the food pile. Even one of the crows seemed a bird unnerved by this bird. We noticed it today by its mode of hopping as opposed the cocky looking strut a grackle normally has. I've never seen this particular grackle before today so I wonder if this bird recently acquired this injury as opposed to having hatched missing a leg. The grackle appeared healthy otherwise the whole day, not sitting low to the ground all puffed up as sick bird would. I got several photos (most blurry) of mono leg, and the eyes appear fairly bright which is a good sign of health. This is the only photo that shows part of its nictitating membrane (extra eyelid birds have to protect from dust when flying and eating) is exposed, so I think that is more the result of when the motion sensitive camera captured the image instead of a sign of illness.

Of course we still have some nasty mealworms that we're trying to get rid of at the bird store and I put another pile out hoping to have a contest of which bird species could carry the most. A female house sparrow was found with six mealworms, a female red-winged blackbird had seven and low and behold, check out mono leg here: at least nine! Which leads me to believe that this bird has a nest somewhere and has chicks ready to be fed. This kind of makes me think that the injury is fairly new since the bird would be nesting nearby for the last few weeks and I would have noticed it sooner with the way we all watch the feeders behind the store (and monitor the area with a motion sensitive camera). Also, birds that have injuries like this have a tougher time finding a mate. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how long this bird lasts behind the store and if it ends up bringing chicks to the feeder in another week or two.