Great Horned Owl Nesting In Planter

So, with all my crazy travels, it's been tough to keep up with all my back emails. Boy, have I missed a whopper! Thank you, so, so much to Robbyn Spratt for sending this my way! Brace yourself, are you ready for this? Okay, here it goes:

There's a great horned owl nesting in a planter in Viera, FL.

Yes, you read that correctly. Viera, FL home of one of my all time favorite birding spots, Viera Wetlands has an owl nesting in a pot! Apparently, a pair of great horned owls chose to use a planter outside of the Brevard County Commission and the eggs have hatched--there is even a LIVE owl cam. The camera does not appear to be visible at night, however, there are clips that you can watch any time, so bookmark the Brevard County Owl Cam for some on the job entertainment.

This is an awesome diversion, especially since the owls at the Valmont Owl Cam appear to be having issues.

Gulls Stealing Ice Cream

I don't know why, but I can't stop looking at these photos of gulls stealing ice cream.

That Is One Crazy Messed Up Cardinal!

The Quad Cities Times is reporting a half male/half female cardinal. You can see even more photos of this crazy bird over at my buddy Minnesota BirdNerd's Blog.

Urban Birder Video and a little Holy Crap

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



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

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

Spider Attacks Bird

WARNING, THIS POST GETS KINDA GROSS!

Maybe you've gotten this story already in your inbox, but according to early reports, it's true!

It's a spider eat bird world out there! I don't know if you noticed Mum Of Critters comment in the previous post, but here is a story of a spider with a bird from Australia! According to an article from news.com.au, a giant orb spider appears to have captured and killed a chestnut-breasted mannikin in Atherton, near Cairns:

There's a much more "heart breaking" photo for those who are squeamish when it comes to cute birds meeting a nasty end at this link.

Joel Shakespeare, the head spider keeper at NSW's Australian Reptile Park said he had seen golden orb weaver spiders as big as a human hand but the northern species in tropical areas were known to grow larger. Mr Shakespeare said that the bird, a chestnut-breasted mannikin which appears frozen in an angel-like pose in the pictures, is likely to have flown into the web and got caught. "It wouldn't eat the whole bird," he said. "It uses its venom to break down the bird for eating and what it leaves is a food parcel." Queensland Museum's Greg Czechura is reported as saying cases of the Golden Orb Weaver eating small birds were "well known but rare".

"It builds a very strong web," he said, but also added that the spider would not have attacked until the bird weakened due to its struggle to free its wings. "The more they struggle, the more tangled up and exhausted they get and they go into stress."

Read the full story here.

This reminds me of a few years ago and Bird Watchers Digest had photos of a praying mantis eating a hummingbird, show at this link. While trying to google the link to the photos, I came across a YouTube video of a mantis with a hummer. Man oh man, it can be a bug eat bird world out there:

Holy Crap! Goldfinch Retrap Info From Mr. Neil's

Back in September, we had a great day of banding birds at Mr. Neil's. One of the birds we got was an already banded goldfinch--but not banded by any of us. Well, it turns out that the bird was banded in 2004 near Springfield, Illinois by Vernon Kleen! That makes this bird at least 4 years old and how the heck did it get over 450 miles north?

H to the O to the L to the Y to the CRAP!! Heron Eats Rabbit!

WARNING!!!


WARNING!!!


WARNING!!!


Disapproving Rabbit fans and general cute bunny lovers (that means you, Non Birding Bill) do NOT want to click on any links or even read the following blog post.

STOP READING NOW!


But it is bird related and I find this horribly fascinating as a birder and I think that's enough stahling.

A grey heron has eaten a rabbit--and there's photographic documentation. Yeperooni that is the headline. I just did another Big River Journey today for the National Park Service today and I was just discussing the things that great blue herons will eat: fish, frogs, smaller birds, snakes, nestlings (there's a reason red-winged blackbirds bop the on the head). A little boy brought up that his neighbor told him a heron was chasing chipmunks on their lawn. It's not common, but a small chipmunk is certainly not out of the realm of possibility for a great blue.

Well, according to the Telegraph in the UK, Ad Sprang got photos of the great blue heron's cousin, the grey heron getting a rabbit. Not just a wild rabbit, a domestic looking rabbit.

This is the final photo...as you can make out from the heron's bulge, this did not end well for the rabbit. I'm not going to post all Al Sprang's photos here in the blog, there's just too much of a conflict of interest between the bunny lovers who read my blog and the birders. Just follow this link...

Some Interesting Updates Like Tom Carver Stole Kelly Munday's Images

I did a little hawk trapping over the weekend (emphasis on "a little") and am doing Big River Journey for the next couple of days. I'm using tonight to try and catch up on lots of email and phone messages...why is it that last-minute-OMG-I-need-this-done-now emails come in when I take a few days to go where there is no cell reception or Internet access?

I did just find a couple of interesting updates to old blog posts that came in. One from Kelly Munday, the woman who took the photos of the bald eagle attacking the trumpeter swan. Here is what she had to say:

"I am Kelly Munday the real photographer. The fake person Tom Carver has tried to claim credit for my photos...not sure why??

Anyways, they were taken by myself in April 2008 on Lakelse Lake near Terrace BC. The birds are a bald eagle and a trumpeter swan, both common to Terrace. The series of pictures that I captured are unique in that no one has ever captured this event before. I have talked to other locals that say they have seen signs of a struggle but no witnesses. The whole story can be read here."

In other news, remember the fuzzy leaves at Mr. Neils? Liz Jones thinks she has found the answer at BugGuide.net. Thanks, Liz!

On a weirder note, someone is looking for starlings?! This came in on a really old post, so thought I add it here to give him some more views:

"Hi Starling lovers.

I live in northwest Missouri, and have several starlings. I have seen some white and partially white starlings and have been trying to obtain some. If anyone can help me obtain any white or part white starlings, please contact me.

My email address is glledo@aol.com

Thanks,
Gary "

Now, keep in mind that starlings are an introduced species in the US so it is legal to keep one as a pet, don't send him emails telling him that it's illegal. It may be weird, but it's not illegal. And for the few who have not seen it, here is a link to a Weewoo the talking starling videos.

For all my readers:

Swept Up In An RNC Riot

So, how was my day being a Roving Ranger at The Republican National Convention? Weird.

Since the RNC is in St Paul at the Excel Center, several blocks are closed off--including the Science Museum where I'm based a National Park Ranger for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. My assignment today was to go out with fellow Ranger Caitlin and walk around offering people ideas on how to enjoy the Mississippi River while in town. It's fun, everyone was friendly and surprised to learn that they were so close to a National Park. We based ourselves in Rice Park--MSNBC has rented the park for the week and there was lots of traffic (and law enforcement). It was easy to pass out brochures to people on their way to the convention.

We even had some celebrity sightings--including Tom Brokaw above--okay, it's blurry and Non Birding Bill said that he'll take my word for it that it is, in fact, Mr. Brokaw, but I walked right by him, it was totally him...and yes Mom, he's as handsome in real life as you think he is on the news.

We even had some birding in downtown St. Paul--this is a common yellowthroat that was feeding on some insects up in one of the many trees in the park--this was one bad ass yellowthroat--it chased any house sparrow (about a third the size larger) that came near it. We were impressed.

It was after this point that things got a bit weird. Caitlin and I decided to head towards headquarters to fill up our water bottles, gather more brochures, and eat our lunch. We were looking forward to coming back in the afternoon. We knew the protest was about to start and were curious to watch it. On our way back, several police cars sped past us. NBB sent me a text saying that protesters were being sprayed on Minnesota and 7th Streets--the direction the cars were headed. It was not far from where we were--we could hears some distant screams. We made it to headquarters and NBB continued to send updates. We could see some police activity outside our window. They didn't seem too tense, so we didn't worry. We ate our lunch and headed back outside.

We could see about two or three blocks away, people dressed in all black were marching--they were headed the opposite direction we were at that point and figured we were safe. We got in touch with our immediate boss to tell him that we were safe and not to worry if he heard any news reports about protesters getting arrested or sprayed with pepper spray. He suggested that we call it a day, that we look too similar to police in our park service uniform and could be at risk (it's true, someone pointed to us and said, "Check it out, the National Guard is here."). We felt safe and saw that the group was several blocks away, going in the opposite direction. We told him we would try to press on, but would head back if we felt unsafe.

It's amazing how quickly things deteriorate.

The sounds of police sirens increased, a helicopter followed overhead, crowds were going in every direction. Soon all sorts of law enforcement vehicles were around us on the streets, sirens blaring. Caitlin and I both suddenly felt unsafe. Just as we were about to change direction, I turned around and said something along the lines of "Holy Crap!"

Riot police were running towards us. Now, this photo is blurry because Caitlin sensibly grabbed my arm to drag me away shouting, "No pictures! Run NOW!"

I couldn't help myself, I never thought I would be in a situation to have a large group of riot police running towards me. It was a memorable moment.

We dashed across the street and tried to find an open building to duck into and maybe get up to the sky way and out of the protesters way. I called NBB to tell him we were safe, but with all the people yelling around us and the constant din of sirens, it didn't quell any of his concerns. I learned later in news reports that the VAST majority of the protest was peaceful. Smaller groups broke off to just cause mayhem and that was what was coming our way. NBB kept texts coming of updates where pepper spray and tear gas was being sprayed. Fortunately, we were indoors so we weren't affected--it was very windy, I'm sure lots of people got some residual spray.

We made it to the sky way level and could look down at the forces mobilizing. Two groups of riot police were assembling to direct the coming mayhem makers. They were breaking windows, slashing tires and taking whatever wasn't bolted down and dragging it into the street.

The small crowd went right under our sky way bridge and continued to drag signs and sandbags in the road. There were quite a few photographers mixed in to capture the action. A few guys were throwing sharp metal objects in the direction of the police cars. Watching the crowd swarm was like watching a flock of starlings dart around in the fall. It was hard to concentrate on one person's destruction.

Several squad cars followed. A group of officers walked in front of the cars picking up debris left behind by the melee. It was strange to watch people swarm in with the group to join in the destruction. I could see nothing on them--no signs of why they were mad, no messages, they just seemed to be swept up in causing destruction. Again, I would like to say that this was a small break off group of the protest--the majority of the protesters were peaceful and got their message across--and stuck to the planned route.

When the crowd was corralled to the top of the hill, we could see clouds and all sorts of debris--orange cones and signs being tossed high in the air--it was surreal.

We saw at least one arrest. It was amazing at how well the guys who were breaking windows and slashing tires blended in with the crowd. It was kind of the birding equivalent of picking out a Ross' goose from a flock of 20,000 snow geese. There was a large group assembled in they sky way to watch the protest. I looked to my right and found myself standing next to a Minnesota icon: Klondike Kate

She was in booth near the sky way getting her portrait painted. If you follow the St. Paul Winter Carnival, you'll know who Klondike Kate is. Weirdsville. Talk about a random moment, watching a riot and standing next to Klondike Kate, and me in my ranger uniform.

We eventually made it back to headquarters. We could see some of the damages the rioters left behind--including smashed store windows and slashed tires on squad cars. We debriefed with our bosses and drank lots of water. I couldn't believe how one minute we're talking with out of towners, pointing out birds and the next, dodging unpredictable crowds. Bus service was temporarily suspended and I wasn't sure how I would get home to Minneapolis. One of the admin staff was kind enough to drive me home.

The numbers of riot police greatly increased, large groups were everywhere. It was so strange to see in sleepy downtown St. Paul. When I walked in to our apartment, NBB gave me a long hug, he'd been following the news and Twitter updates. I told him I was so grateful, he really helped us avoid some nasty intersections with the trouble makers that could have gotten us swept up right in the thick of things. We were closer than I really preferred.

Looking forward to a quiet day with birds of prey at The Raptor Center tomorrow.

Check Out Birding With Bev

Kudos to Birding With Bev and her effective use of Twitter. Her status update read: "Owl drama on my blog. Come check." I did and whoa doggies, the title hooks you instantly. I insist you check out Roadrunner vs. Falmmulated Owl!

HOLY CRAP!

Mr. Neil just called. Lorraine entered our honey in the county fair. Our honey won. We are now officially award winning beekeepers.

Photos soon.

Holy Crap!

Conjoined Birds In (Where Else) Arkansas

Lorraine sent me this story:

Apparent conjoined barn swallows found in Arkansas:

An apparent set of conjoined twin birds - an incredibly rare find - has been discovered in Arkansas, authorities said.

The bodies of the barn swallows, which are attached at the hip by skin and possibly muscle tissue, are being sent to the Smithsonian Institution for examination and confirmation, Arkansas wildlife officials said Friday.

"I can't even say it's one in a million - it's probably more than that," said Karen Rowe, an ornithologist with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. "There's just very little to no records of such a thing."

The birds, found by a landowner in White County, fell out of a nest as a healthy sibling flew off to learn how to hunt with its parents, Rowe said. The birds first appeared to have only three legs, but further examination found a fourth leg tucked up underneath the skin connecting the pair.

Rowe said the landowner likely kept the birds for a day before calling wildlife officials. By the time officials arrived, the birds were not eating. One died early Friday and a veterinarian later euthanized the other.

Finding conjoined birds is rare because they likely die before being discovered, Rowe said.

X-rays of the pair found each bird was fully formed, Rowe said. She said the birds would have had to come from a double-yolk egg.

Barn swallows can live for several years, though the conjoined twins might not have lived that long even if they had been separated. Rowe said it would have been difficult to teach the birds to fly.

What A Crazy Weekend!

This weekend completely fell out of my hands.

Non Birding Bill and I went to CONvergence and he premiered his movie Thac0--and it was a hit! I was bummed that I missed the initial premier because I had to help set up for a Raptor Center program at the convention. However, the movie was so popular that it ended up being reshown Sunday night--I was so proud of him. It is so cool to sit in a packed room and listen to people be entertained by something your spouse worked so hard on with all of his friends. Above is a photo of the second movie audience. It was packed both times it was shown, standing room only. I think he's going to reshow it later this month.

Go, NBB!

Our TRC program was action packed! Above is Gail Buhl toting our turkey vulture Nero. We had an hour to go through four birds and one heck of a panel to present the bird information:

Here we have Erin from MISFITS who books TRC for CONvergence, Mercedes Lackey, Gail from TRC (who you might recognize from the oh-so-viral baby porcupine video), my buddy Amber (whose photos periodically show up in the blog), me, and Larry Dixon. Between all of us, we had some fun bird stories. Amber, Gail and I were just as excited to hear Mercedes and Larry's tales of wildlife rehab as we were to talk about the birds we brought.

Once again the sci fi and fantasy community treats TRC very well--everyone donated during the program and we took home an additional $200 on top of the actual off site program fee. Misfits also makes it possible for TRC to make appearances at area schools and we are so grateful for their support.

Mobridge Bald Eagle Nest On Shaky Ground

I just got the following email and photos from my buddy Amber:

"My dad just took these photos today. It is a nest that was built in a tree that has since had a river overflow next to it. If there is a big wind, I am afraid these eaglets might drown. The proper authorities have been contacted and hopefully they will respond?"

Amber has put in a call to The Raptor Center, but I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done. The birds look to be close to fledging but they really do not have any room for error in that first flight.

Are there any South Dakota readers who have some ideas to help these birds?

Watch Where You Step!

I helped out at the Swarovski Optik booth at the American Birding Association Convention. I was out with a couple of the guys from the booth--Clay and Bruce. As we were going down a mountain road, Clay put on the brakes and said, "That looked like an interesting woodpecker!"

We found a place to pull over and walked in. I was hoping for a Williamson's sapsucker, but we weren't seeing anything but robins. Bruce picked up a stick and started pounding a nearby tree, doing his best sapsucker territorial drumming. We heard some soft drumming and eventually found:

...a three-toed woodpecker. Not a lifer, but always a cool woodpecker and fun to see it outside of Minnesota. Clay then said, "Hey, Bruce, check it out." and pointed to Bruce's feet.

From Clay's excitement, we thought there was a snake. We looked down and couldn't really see anything, Clay kept pointing and then Bruce finally saw it. It's in the above photo with Bruce. Can you see it? Don't worry if you can't, I was there and can barely see what Clay was point to. Here is a hint:

There in the center of that circle is a tiny young robin! We had been there for several minutes, watching the trees, talking, banging sticks against trees and yet this young robin stayed stock still, using it's fledgling coloration to camouflage with the surrounding vegetation. I wanted to digiscope it, but the young robin was too close to focus in my scope, so I had to back up a few feet:

"You can't see me!" Fresh from the nest and already this bird knows what to do, instinct told it to just sit and hide, and the big lumbering creatures would move past, hopefully without stepping on it. It was strange that we did not hear the adult robins give their warning and freak out call. We could hear that they were busy feeding another fledgling nearby. Since we'd seen the woodpecker, we decided to move along and let the young robin be and commence to learning how to care for itself under the tutelage of its parents.

On our way out of the woods, I found a second fledgling. Like its wise sibling, this young robin also stayed stone still as I walked past. Moments like these always make me wonder how many birds (especially owls) have I walked past when focused on something else. How many birds have been just a foot away and I just didn't see it?

Word On The Street At The ABA

Above is a beautiful Bullock's oriole we saw on a field trip in Vivian Park yesterday. See, Non Birding Bill, they aren't all brown and gray out here. So, here are some of the topics birders are discussing at the American Birding Association Convention in Utah:

Falcons are more closely related to parrots than other raptors??

Yes! That is the word on the street here at the ABA Convention and on the birding listservs and blogs. There's an article about at the Chicago Tribune and Grrl Scientist has a bit more detail here in her blog.

So, what does this mean to you? Your field guide orders are going to change. But aren't they always changing anyway. I still get confused seeing waterfowl up front instead of loons and grebes.

The other interesting deal going down is that a man attending the convention has scanned in his National Geographic Field Guide and placed it on his iTouch! He said that it took him three weeks and he showed me how he can zoom in on the illustrations and you can easily view the text. He also used the Thayer Software for birding and has all the North American bird calls to go along with it. Now, because it's proprietary to National Geo, he can't sell it, but he has offered to mail a disk of the scanned guide to anyone who wants it--for FREE! He doesn't want money and he just seems to enjoy getting a good guide on an iTouch.

I was going to blog out loud to National Geographic and say: "Yo, dudes, why aren't you doing this--getting a good field guide onto an iPod, iTouch, or iPhone? You did such a fun job with the Palm Pilot thing." And when I checked email yesterday, I got this in my Inbox:

Introducing National Geographic Handheld Birds Online

Now all of the power in National Geographic Handheld Birds™ is available Online! Access Handheld Birds™ from any full-featured web browser on a computer or mobile device such as the iPhone. With the new online features Handheld Birds™ is a must-have for any bird enthusiast!

Here are just some of the new Online features:

-Compare species side-by-side
-Search on multiple selections for criteria
-Search with new “family” criteria
-Add notes to checklists and individual species observations
-Manage your checklists and lifelists
-Set date ranges for checklists for a single day or over months
-Order species in checklists by name, taxonomic order, and count
-Download checklists to your desktop or store them online
-Set personal preferences
-Manage up to 100 checklists at a time

For a limited time only, you can get a full 1-year subscription to Handheld Birds Online for only $25. That’s a 50% savings off the regular price!

This now makes it compatible with an iPhone or iTouch when you are online.

Techno Birding is getting interesting folks.

Bald Eagle Attacks Swan

I did not take the photos of the eagle attacking the swan, they were taken by Kelly Munday.

It's another one of those viral photo series filling up inboxes--almost as popular as the Golden Eagle vs Fox series. I get sent stuff like this from time to time and it rarely has the name of the photographer and each email seems to have a different location for where the photos were taken, so I like to take time to see if I can figure out the back story before posting them in the blog. And now, I present in the same vain as Bald Eagle vs Sandhill Crane a bald eagle attacking a swan--with photos taken by Kelly Munday at Waterlily Bay Resort:

Yes, that is an adult bald eagle attempting to grab and kill a fully grown swan...I believe its a trumpeter swan and not a tundra swan or mute swan. I don't see any yellow on the bill that you would see with a tundra swan or orange that you would see on a mute swan. The bill on the swan in the photos, looks big and chunky like you would see on a trumpeter.

Check out the size different between the eagle vs the swan. If it is in fact a trumpeter swan, then its average weight would be about 20 pounds, the average weight of a bald eagle would be around 10 pounds. If that eagle is able to grab and kill the swan, it will have to eat it where the swan body lands on the ground--eagles are only able to carry roughly half their weight when in flight.

Alas, there is not a lot of info to go with the photos (like was there a trumpeting sound coming from the swan, clinching its id as a trumpeter swan). The website that posted the photos just has the photographer's name (Kelly Munday) but no more about what initiated the attack, the end result, or how long it lasted.

I can only guess from the photos that like the bald eagle with the sandhill crane interaction we witnessed this past March, this swan got away. However, was the swan mortally wounded? Did the eagle continue the chase out of the view of the photographer? Again, you can see the entire photo series here and read a quote from the photographer here.

I've heard more than one birder wish that bald eagles would figure out how to attack and kill the non native (in the US) mute swan (my photo above taken at the World Series of Birding in Cape May, NJ). Mute swans are a big threat to wetlands when they show up, they destroy the vegetation native ducks need for food and nesting and have even been observed killing smaller ducks that wander into their territory. From time to time, I get email press releases asking me to protest mute swan eradication programs, but I can't get on board with it. Like starlings and house sparrows, mute swans are an introduced species and causing problems with our native wildlife--it's not pretty to watch one kill a teal. I wonder if these same groups would be just as quick to protest starling, house sparrow and rock pigeon eradication programs or they just jump on board with mute swans because they look pretty (arguably prettier than our native trumpeter swans and tundra swans)?

We saw quite a few mute swans while in Cape May. Above is a flummoxed animal control officer trying to figure out what to do with a mute swan taking refuge in a neighborhood. This younger swan had been pushed out of the nearby ponds by nesting adult mute swans. Every time it went back it was chased and even flew into some power lines. The animal control officer was trying to figure out if he should get it to a vet or try to find a pond without mute swans.

The mute swan question is not easy to answer, but if our native ducks, rails, smaller herons and other waterfowl have to compete with the mute swans for food and territory, a management system will have to be put in place to deal with them.

Holy Crap We Won! And Contest!

I'm blogging from the World Series of Birding Awards Breakfast. When I arrived with Amy and found Pete Dunne and my other teammate Clay, they said our digiscoping team (The Swarovski Digiscoping Hawks) won--our goal was to digiscope as many bird species as possible in one day. We won? In complete and utter shock I said "Get the heck out!" (Athough, substitute a more colorful metaphor in there).

The photos didn't have to be pretty but identifiable. So above is one of our photos that helped us win. What species of bird is this? First winning answer with a name attached in the comments section of this blog entry wins a Woodlink Hummingbird Feeder.

Don't worry, cool photos will be uploaded soon.

Meanwhile, our team is sharing a table with WildBird Zen Zugunruhe team (who won the Cape Island Division) and they would like me to tell you that their teammate Tait Johansson is dipping his bacon in catsup and teammate Matt Garvey is my favorite because he is keeping my coffee cup filled.

Also, I just learned that New Jersey is putting a moratorium on the harvesting of horseshoe crab eggs until the populations of both the crabs and shorebirds recover...go New Jersey birders!

Turning A Corner With Banding

Wednesday was a glorious 70 degree day and just a fun morning of banding--I'm finally getting my footing with getting birds out of the net. We got in quite a few white-throated sparrows like the bird above.

KARE 11 came back to film a few more shots for the bird segment they are working on. Jim Fitzpatrick is getting interviewed above. And once again, as I was trying to get a bird out of the net I heard, "Hey, hold still, we're coming over to film that!" Happily, there was no panic attack like last week. I ended up doing it twice and I really feel like a turned a corner in my learning process. I have to admit that after last week, I was questioning whether or not I should keep going--but thanks to some extra practice last Sunday and the patience and teaching of some of the other banders at Carpenter I feel like I'm back on track with little birds. The only thing I worry about is that I don't dress for tv when I'm banding at Carpenter, I tend to dress for comfort--ah well.

The most interesting bird that we got on Wednesday was the last bird in the traps--a junco (quite possibly the last junco I will band this spring). When I was taking it out of the bag, I could see that it had a pink rump. Closer inspection revealed that they were not pink feathers:

The bird was missing a large patch of feathers on its rump. It must have happened a couple of weeks ago, pin feathers are already growing above the tail. You could also see that in the middle of the pink skin was a healed over puncture wound. Something had attacked this junco and it survived! And it was still strong enough to migrate! At this point, the juncos we are getting at Carpenter are ones that spent the winter further south like in Missouri or Texas. Somewhere along the way, something tried to eat it. We made a note about the wound and it will be interesting to see if the junco is retrapped and how long it survives.

Here's a photo pointing out the growing feathers and the scabbed over wound. You can also see the uropygial gland also called the preen gland. They squeeze this gland and oil comes out that is used when preening. I wonder if this wound is from a shrike? Shrikes kill with their beaks? It could also have been a sharp-shinned talon too. I don't think it's from a cat, small animals usually don't survive that. Cats have a bacteria called Pasteurella that will infect the bite or claw wound and kill the small animal within a few days.

So many things learned at banding.

File Under: That Had To Hurt Comin' Out

I was sent this story about a California wildlife rehabber who found an injured hawk:

A hawk was found dead along a California highway with the claw of a songbird protruding from its chest.

It's not clear, however, if the partially digested meal, one claw somehow managing to get back out from a terribly wrong location, had anything to do with the hawk's death.

On the evening of Sunday, March 30, Julia Di Sieno of the Animal Rescue Team in California noticed the dead sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) while driving a sick night heron to the Solvang Veterinary Hospital. Sharp-shinned hawks are birds of prey and considered stellar hunters. They are the smallest hawks that reside in the United States and Canada.

"So I did a U-turn, put on my gloves and picked the bird up, and immediately rushed him to the vet where he died in my hands," Di Sieno told LiveScience. "Upon examination, we noticed that there was a small bird foot out of its chest."

A pouch in the hawk's chest area called the crop had ripped open and the songbird, which had been a meal for the hawk, was spilling out. You can see this in a larger version of the above photo here. There is also another angle of the hawk here.

"We removed a good portion of this bird [the songbird], which was partially digested," Di Sieno said by telephone yesterday. The hawk had apparently just finished downing what might have been a sparrow, she said. "He [the dead hawk] even still had down feathers and meat on his beak."

However, Di Sieno said she is not sure how the hawk died or what caused its crop to burst open.

I'm not sure what happened. It the larger versions of the photos, the head looks really flat and more like a Cooper's hawk than a sharp-shinned--but the photos are at odd and unnatural angles. Also, the leg looks like a blackbird leg. Either way, I don't think that the prey ripped it's way out. Sharp-shins and Cooper's typically do not swallow prey whole--they are smaller and they rip it apart. I doubt whatever bird it was would have had a chance to claw it's way out of the crop. My guess is that when the hawk was hit by a car, the impact or some part of the vehicle cause the very full crop to get ripped open. But we don't know for sure and it makes for some interesting conjecture.

Speaking of bird feet undigested...

I found some interesting excrement at Carpenter Nature Center yesterday! It looks like mammal poop and that the mammal had eaten a large bird. Do you see the long bird toes in the above photo?

This chunk had shafts from feathers in it. The bird wasn't white, but the shafts got bleached as they were worked through a digestive tract.

The toes were just fascinating. I'm guessing that they are pheasant toes, but turkey is a possibility--both can be found at Carpenter. While I was taking photos I could hear a pheasant giving its old rusty car horn call not too far away. Still there are many questions: What sort of mammal is this from? Red fox? Gray fox? Coyote? Was it a turkey or pheasant? And how much did it hurt to have those bird claws coming through the back door?

Red-tailed Hawk vs Snake

My goodness, the Holy Crap factor is majorly spiking this week!

Thanks to Jennifer who alerted me to a link of photos that her mother took of a young red-tailed hawk that tried to get a snake and things went a bit wonky. Click here to view the photos. There are three photos of the hawk in an awkward position--don't worry, the hawk gets away. Although, if snakes ook you out, you may not want to follow the link.

This is a good example of how young raptors have to learn some hard lessons on not only what to hunt, but how to hunt.

Loves Me Some Minimum Maintenance Roads

Oh, the places we took this bus on our field trip!

Saturday in Nebraska we went to explore other birding areas. We drove by Funk Waterfowl Production Area which in the past few years hasn't been all that great because the cattails had grown up and hidden the ducks. But the powers that be had improved the area for wildlife viewing and it would have been perfect for our field trip--if the water had not been frozen--doh!

So we headed south for Harlan Reservoir. You can take one of the main highways, but we opted to take some minimum maintenance roads towards our destination instead. These barely maintained roads have produced some of our best birding and wildlife opportunities in the past. This time we saw came across a prairie falcon (the blurry bird above). The best part was that this falcon flew right over our group so that we got a chance to see its black armpits (a distinguishing characteristic).

One of the challenges with birding Harlan Reservoir is that you are not allowed to stop your vehicle at some of the best places to watch for waterfowl. This was near the town of Alma, that's mostly cackling geese and greater-white fronted geese in there.

We were happy to see so many geese. One of the volunteers at Rowe Sanctuary said that there wasn't much at Harlan the day before, just some diving ducks. We decided to drive the length of the lake and headed east. We found tons of robins, bluebirds, rough-legged hawks, bald eagles and gulls.

There were quite a few redhead ducks and I took an opportunity to try and figure out my mojo with my new digiscoping camera. While I was photographing the ducks, I noticed a strange sound. I had a tough time trying to determine if it was animal or mechanical. When we scanned the other side of the lake with my scope, we could see thousands of gulls, but it didn't quite sound like a flock of gulls. I decided that it was some sort of farm machinery and didn't give it much thought.

We continued driving and stopped at Republican City to have lunch at the prairie dog town--always a crowd pleaser.

I noticed a new addition this year to the prairie dog town. See the large stick nest in the above photo? Let's look through the scope and see who is nesting inside:

There we see a red-tailed hawk head. What smart hawks...and what unfortunate neighbors for the prairie dogs! Ah well, that's the food chain for you. Amber and I had birded here before, but Stan had not. We told him that if we went a few blocks away we had a pretty good chance of finding a great horned owl nest.

Sure enough, there it was. It's so weird to me that Amber and I know this area fairly well just by birding here one a year for the last several years. I think the red-tails switch nests with the great horneds from year to year. I wonder if next year the owls will be in the nest over the prairie dog town?

Even still, a red-tail right over the town and a great horned a mere few blocks away...it's a good thing prairie dogs breed like...prairie dogs.

As we continued around the reservoir we found this rather cooperative hawk in a little marina community. It had such a tiny little head I almost thought it was some weird dark morph broad-winged hawk, but it was a red-tailed hawk. Now we just had to figure out what type of red-tail. It's a dark morph red-tail, but is it just a dark morph or is a dark morph Harlan's red-tailed hawk? It had some white on the chest...

It had some what on the scapulars, and no red on the tail. The striping looks like the striping you would see on an immature red-tail. We came to the conclusion that is was an immature dark morph Harlan's red-tailed hawk. And when I checked my Wheeler books at home that seems to support the id, but if anyone cares to add their two cents worth, please feel free. We don't get too many of this type of red-tail in Minnesota.

As we worked our way around the lake, I told Stan to stop the bus and let me out. I looked at the lake and asked, "Is that ice?" If you look in the distance of the lake, you can see a long line of white. I looked through my binoculars. It wasn't ice. It was all snow geese. I felt kind of like Sam Neil's character in Jurassic Park when they first saw the dinosaurs. We had seen strings and strings of snow geese flying over all day and didn't realize they were heading towards Harlan. We decided to drive closer.

We kept taking minimum maintenance roads to see if we could get closer and we finally found a road that let out on a hill. We stopped to see if we could get out and get a clear view of all the snow geese.

I got to the top of the hill, I saw this view to my left...

And this view to my right. The snow geese just went on and on and on and on. We estimated the flock to be a mile wide and two miles wide. The sound was unbelievable and remember how I said that I heard some unidentifiable sound earlier? I now realized that I had heard the ginormous flock of snow geese.

More still came in and the flock seemed to be in a constant state of flux, rearranging itself on the water. When we later told some of the volunteers at Rowe Sanctuary they said that the day before the lake was devoid of geese and that this was the third round of snow geese to come through on the reservoir--wow.

Here is our field trip group in front of the geese. Nebraska is known for its cranes, but in some ways the geese are even more spectacular. I wonder how many Ross's geese were mixed into that flock? As amazing as the geese were to watch, we still needed to get back to our crane blind and had to keep going.

Talk about your roads less traveled! We started to go off map at this point. We had an idea of where we were but didn't know for sure. Some of the road zigged and zagged but we felt that if we went on, we would at some point reach the other end of the reservoir and a major highway to get us back to Kearney. I think we made a couple of people nervous with our exploratory ways, but Stan whipped out his iPhone and we found exactly what road we were on and were able to figure out an alternate route when the road became too muddy to continue.

One of the great things about traveling with Stan is that he knows a lot about all sorts of stuff and he is easy to egg on. My favorite things to do on a trip with him is point out a hole and tell him to stick his hand in there...sometimes he sticks his whole body! Most of the time he can id it, I think this hole was some sort of fox.

We continued to find all sorts of gems like this opossum. We also found pheasant and a flock of about 50 wild turkeys. We finally made it back onto an actual road and Stan I noticed that the signs telling use the miles to the next town specified that they were in Nebraska.

Then we passed this welcome to Nebraska sign. Somehow we had taken the minimum maintenance roads into Kansas. Who knew?

Then we passed a speed limit sign and saw this bird--can you tell what it is? If not, no worries, it was most cooperative. We pulled ahead and got out to put the scope and cameras on it.

Check it out--an owl on speed! Seriously, this is a short-eared owl perched on a sign. Its back was to us and then it turned it After we got a good long look, we loaded back into the bus and continued on our way, it took off and we got to watch its bouncy flight over the fields.

What an awesome day of birding! I think its one of the best I have ever had in Nebraska. And to give you a hint of what all those snow geese sounded like, here is a mini video that I took:

Bald Eagle Attacks Sandhill Crane

The photos in this blog entry are from Stan Tekiela and Amber Burnette.

This year's trip to Nebraska was just chock full of "Holy Crap" moments. I mean, the common crane (in the above photo) that we saw within thirty minutes of arrival to the area after driving all day was almost too much to hope for. I just found out that it's on the American Birding Association Blog and is classified as a Code 4 Bird (Casual--Species not recorded annually in the ABA Checklist Area, but with six or more total records—including three or more in the past 30 years—reflecting some pattern of occurrence). As a field trip leader you kind of wonder how you will top a sighting like that for the rest of the weekend--but top it, we did!

The following documented behavior is the type of stuff that a girl like me reads about in magazines and wonders if I'll ever have a chance to witness in real life. Again, I want to thank Stan and Amber for letting me use their photos in the blog to share it with you. Click on the photos if you wish to see the larger version.

We were watching a group of cranes forage in a field when we noticed something was spooking them and causing them to fly off. I was in the bus with half the group and Amber and Stan were outside with the rest getting shots of cranes in flight.

That's when we all noticed an adult bald eagle in hot pursuit of one of the cranes. Somehow the eagle had managed to get one crane separated from the flock. I started shouting, "It's going for the crane, it's going for the crane, it's going for the crane!" I wondered if the others outside the bus noticed, but Amber's enthusiastic yelling told me they had. Everyone was shouting on the bus, it was like an intense football game but the crowd was unsure of which team to root for--we all loved eagles and we all loved cranes (I think it's a safe assumption that for Raptor Center alums like Amber and me--we were on Team Eagle).

The bald eagle closed the gap in such a short amount of time, it pumped its wings hard and was soon on top of the crane. It flew past the crane just a little, dove at it and missed.
Here is the eagle making a second attack.The sandhill crane breaks free and starts to drop.

The eagle makes a quick grab a second time.

The eagle has the crane in its talsons and is flying while carrying the crane upside down, wings open!

The bald eagle is holding the sandhill crane for one or two seconds before...

The eagle lost its grip and the crane starts to fly away with the eagle coming after it.
The eagle gives one last chase before breaking off from the crane. What was interesting to me was that the crane and the eagle ended up flying right over our bus. As the crane flew over, the eagle appeared to slow and change direction. I'm left with so many questions from this encounter. Did the eagle not want to fly over humans? Did the crane luck out or fly over us on purpose? We did not see where either bird ended up, but did the eagle make a wide circle and wait out the exhausted crane? Did the crane fly away in its weakened state and become coyote chow? How deep did the talons get?

Out of all the sandhill cranes that took off, why that one bird? Did the eagle see something different or was it just that the crane foolishly went away from the safety of the flock? This was an adult eagle--has it killed a crane successfully before?

Such a cool encounter and yet so many questions unanswered.

Butt Load Of Snow Geese

I'm doing another interview on Talk Shoe, this time with a show called Conscious Living on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see if there are the same naughty forum questions as the other show I was on. Then I'll know if it was me bringing them out or just a weird one time thing. If you're interested in listening, go to the Talk Shoe site on Wednesday at 4pm Eastern Time.

This was a massive flock of snow geese that we found on Friday just driving around Nebraska. It's interesting that the focus of the Platte River birding in Nebraska is the sandhill crane, but the sheer numbers of snow geese are more intriguing to me. When Stan asked about doing a field trip to Nebraska through his nature center, I suggested early March. There may be fewer cranes, but enormous amounts of snow geese. And really, the numbers for both are still pretty amazing--60,000 sandhill cranes, 2 million snow geese.

I think this is one of my favorite photos from the trip. This is just a long, long line of snow geese. As cool as this is, it may be cause for environmental concern. According to Birds of North America Online the current estimates of the snow goose population is between 5 and 6 million, a number that may be environmentally unsustainable. When snow geese return to their breeding grounds, they pretty much eat the crap out of the habitat which in the long term could mean that they eat away the habitat so quickly that it won't recover for future breeding seasons causing a crash not only in their population but other species like sandpipers and phalaropes. Despite all of that, it's still pretty overwhelming to witness.

Below is a video of the above flock flying over our heads. You can hear Stan, my buddy Amber and myself giggling like fools. Non Birding Bill says it sounds like we are high.

Common Crane In Nebraska

Below is the photo of the common crane that we saw within 30 minutes of arriving to Rowe Sanctuary in Nebraska on Thursday night. This photo was taken by Stan Tekiela:

I can't believe our group saw such a rare bird on our trip! I'm also happy to report that others have seen the crane, here is an email from Linda Brown that was posted on NEBirds and has detailed directions for all you big year people who are wanting to go see it:


This morning we followed directions from Sharon Stiteler and Amber Burnett who are part of the Minnesota group of 10 who saw the common crane on Thursday, we drove to the spot after taking in the sunrise at the Gibbon Bridge viewing platform. As we scanned the flock Paul Johnsgard invited us to look at the pale whitish crane about twenty feet in from the west side of the flock. Sure enough I could see the black marking with my naked eye! It helped that all the birds were alert and looking at us so all heads were up and facing us. We put the scope on it and the following persons confirmed the sighting:

Paul Johnsgard, Josef Kren, Jackie Canterbury, Fujiyo Koizumi, Michelle Johnson, Randy Yeager and Linda R. Brown.

Josef, Paul and I drove back so we could give you good directions to the field where it was spotted two days in a row. (I have now been by the field four times in two days and only saw it once. There are two young eagles in the area keeping the flock of sandhills flighty. So, I wish you lots of good luck!)

The GIS coordinates for the crane field (from the road) are 40 degrees,41'940, 098 degrees,46'214. The abandoned eagle nest is at 40 degrees 41'940, 090 degrees,46'648.

1.Directions from Shelton Exit off I-80. Driving directions from Interstate 80, Exit 291, the Shelton exit. Drive south 1.5 miles. The crane field is 1.5 miles west of the Shelton Rd 24th Rd intersection (The field is on 24th-the road going west). The cranes were on the north side of the road. For reference: There is an abandoned eagle nest on the south side of the road 1.9 miles west from the intersection of Shelton Rd and 24th.

2. Directions from Gibbon Exit south off of I-80. Paul wrote out directions from the Gibbon Bridge Crane Viewing Platform. (This large platform is located on about the 5th Platte River channel bridge south of the Gibbon exit off of I-80. This viewing platform is accessed from Elm Island Rd which is the road directly south of the bridge. To see the common crane, drive east of Elm Island Rd to Sodtown Rd. North on Sodtown Rd to 17th, east to Sioux, north to 24th, then east to crane field on north of road. The crane field is 0.4mile east beyond the abandoned eagle nest on the south side of the road.

Linda R. Brown
Lincoln, NE

Coming Out Of The Fever Dreams

First, the caption contest will be decided by tomorrow morning--perhaps we'll pick the winner at Birds and Beers tonight?

Second--I love my readers. I love that you teach me something new all the time. How on earth would I have learned about a website dedicated to Feral Children? Why is that not a show on The Learning Channel?

Third, I totally thought I had a perfect blog entry the other day about a pair of cardinals that were doing a mating display in my apartment and checking out an empty onion bag on my couch as a potential nest site. I even got incredibly excited when Cinnamon hopped up next to the onion bag and the male cardinal tried to puff up and drive her off, but she tried to nibble his tail...then I woke up to blog it and then realized that wow, that was some powerful cold medicine.

Fourth and speaking of fever dreams, I DID NOT TAKE THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS, but they are making the rounds in the email inboxes, so if you haven't seen them check out this great gray owl (I think that was seen Montana, I have no idea if it is recent):

If you you know who took these photo, let me know--I'd love to give them their props. It's a partially albino great gray owl...although, I don't think we're supposed to call them partially albinos anymore, according to Birding I think we are supposed to call this partial amelanism (because you know, ornithologists like to make things simple for the general public).

Shnifty bird.

UPDATE: WE KNOW WHO TOOK THE PHOTOS! Thanks to knowledgeable blog readers we now know that the photos were taken by Cheryl Farmer in Montana and you can read more about this bird at the Prairie Ice Blog (which looks like a cool photography blog). Thanks, John!

Those Darned Red-tails

I swear, just going into Google Image Search and typing a bird species name reveals some fun stuff--usually on the part of red-tailed hawks. Those who are on the squeamish side (or have a strong fondness for kestrels) may want to avoid clicking on the links below:

We've seen a red-tail fly away with a live kestrel...and now we can see what that famous red-tail known as Pale Male does after he gets a kestrel.

MSNBC Holy Crap

MSNBC has a story about rabbits on the Internet and it features Cinnamon and Disapproving Rabbits!

Lawrence's Warbler?

As if fall warblers weren't already tricky to identify! Here comes a whopper.

All the photos in this blog entry were taken by bird bander Mary Messerli. She and Robert Fashingbauer were banding birds near Willow River State Park in Wisconsin on August 15, 2007 when they banded these two unusual warblers. Take a look at this:

At first glance this looks like a golden-winged warbler, however it has way too much yellow. If some of you are jumping to a hybrid conclusion, you are right. Sometimes golden-winged warblers will hybridize with blue-winged warblers.

When a golden-winged warbler mates with a blue-winged warbler, you usually get a hybrid called a Brewster's warbler. This bird doesn't look anything like a Brewster's. It has the masking of a golden-winged, but the yellow wash of the blue-winged warblers. This bird is a backcross--one of it's parents was a Brewster's and the other was either a true golden-winged warbler or true blue-winged warbler. When this happens you get another type of hybrid called a Lawrence's warbler. Confused yet? Were you able to follow that? Well, hold onto your hat, it gets even trickier:

That same day, those banders caught this bird--another hybrid. Oy! The banders said that this bird had characteristics of being a hatch year bird (it came out of the egg this year) the bird above had characteristics of being an after hatch year bird (at least a year old). But really, it's hard enough to identify hybrids and even harder to age and sex them. I think this is another Lawrence's warbler backcross (a Brewster's hybrid that bred with either a true golden-winged or blue-winged warbler). The banders felt that this bird is of unknown sex, but with the pale mask, I think it is reminiscent of a female golden-winged warbler, so I'd be willing to go out on a limb and call this female.

I nipped over to BNA Online to see what they had to say about hybrids and found this:

"Molecular analyses of hybridization indicate that Blue-wing mtDNA introgresses asymmetrically and perhaps rapidly into Golden-wing phenotypes without comparable reverse introgression and footprinting of Golden-wing mtDNA into replacement Blue-wing populations."

Holy crap, I though Pyle was hard enough to read. Basically, (I think) this is saying is that all this hybridizing and backcrossing can result in fewer golden-winged warblers and more blue-winged warblers. The hybrids and the backcrosses end up in future generations breeding into blue-winged warblers.

Pigeon Madness--the good kind

There's a new bird club starting in New York called the Pigeon Club of New York City. The initial members appear to have a healthy sense of humor, which I heartily endorse. I highly recommend checking out their video section. Warning, crumb number one is a link to a video similar to the one I linked to of a pelican eating pigeon. This one is much better quality but this time you see a goose chase after the pelican--wonder if that means the pelican has been going for goslings besides pigeons?

Crumb number 2, however is a hilarious prank and worth checking out--especially with your kids. Crumb 3 is a cartoon I'm not familiar with and Crumb 4 is some retro Bert (of Sesame Street) action.

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.

HOLY CRAP! Deer Hunting With A Bird

It's a golden eagle used for falconry taking out a deer. I have no idea of the origin of this video, but wow, you gotta see it!

Young Porcupine On Solid Foods!

Unexpected Life Dream Realized: A young porcupine crawled into my lap--I didn't even know that was a life dream until it happened. This totally made up for the unexpected, pricey, yet oh so needed, costly vehicle repair today. His handler can now hold him without gloves and as I was taking pictures, he crawled my way. She said, that if I wanted, he would probably crawl on me, and well, he just crawled on my lap...I let him call the shots. No quills were fired. Whew!

The wee porcupet is about three times larger than the last time I saw him. We had the video of him nursing...now brace yourself for him eating solid foods! Today, the woman who is rehabbing him, gave him a piece of banana. You will hear some minute squeaks at the start of the video--are you ready for this? Those are porcupet hiccups!! Wahhhhhhhhhhh!

Here is the video, and trust me, it is SO worth all one minute and twenty-four seconds. This is safe for work, and as a matter of fact, I insist that you show it at work--who could have a bad day after seeing this? It may even prevent a firing.

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.

That's One Dirty Bird

Tonight, I was putting away groceries and Non Birding Bill was talking on the phone He came into the kitchen flailing his arms at me while still carrying on his phone conversation. After a few seconds of wild flapping, I finally understood that he wanted me to look out the window. Much in the same way Timmy would talk to Lassie, "What's that, girl? You want me to look out the window? Timmy's stuck in a well again?"

Lo and behold, there was a young female Cooper's hawk sitting in the puddle on the roof of the apartment building across the way. We had our screens down and I tried to take a few photos through the spotting scope as well as a video. She appeared to be nervous and taking her time with bathing. We slowly lifted the screen to get better photos. The above photo was taken after we lifted the screen, she appears to be aware that we are watching her.

The only birds we could hear out and about were chimney swifts. When they would fly over she would follow them--always an eye on potential food! She was so big and so close, I had trouble fitting her whole body into the frame with my digiscoping equipment--I was backed up against the wall as far as I could go and still could barely fit her whole body into the shot.

It was funny to watch all the squirrels hopping on to the roof to drink from the puddle, realize there was a hawk in front of them and then sprint off back in the direction they came from. Whoopsie! The hawk eventually was completely soaked and she flew off--albeit a bit unsteady into the trees.

We did get some videos of the Cooper's hawk bathing. She was doing this very weird kind of butt slap against the water. I apologize for the narration...you may want to just keep your computer on mute while watching the one minute video--I was just kind of excited and caught up in the moment.



There are two other videos you can watch here and here (this was the first video we took with the screen still down). Each are about a minute long.

The Latest Craze

Raptor Skiing!

Check out the photos here, here (sweet doubles!), and here. They'll have fun, fun, fun until daddy takes the red-tail away.

Alan Stankevitz got photos of a red-tailed hawk while it was being harassed by red-winged blackbirds chasing it out of their nesting territory.

Osprey Nest Surprise!

We interrupt the regularly scheduled updates about the Detroit Lakes Bird Festival for an unbelievable osprey nesting story:

Becky Field, who currently has some of her photography on exhibit at Minnetonka Center for the Arts took a most unusual photo! Look closely at that chick in the osprey nest--that's not a osprey chick, that's a Canada goose gosling. Now it looks like the adult is bringing the gosling to the nest in its talons. The osprey is actually bringing in a fish to the nest and the gosling is behind the feet.

The platform is on private property in Maplewoods on Lake Minnetonka and Becky's friends asked her to come photograph it. They have been watching the osprey on the platform through a scope in their house and were very excited to report the arrival of their first chick to local osprey expert and bander, Vanessa Greene. She told them that no osprey chicks would be hatched this early in Minnesota. When they described the "chick" as having a fuzzy yellow head the plot thickened.

Turns out, they had observed a Canada goose up on the platform for a short time. Either the goose had been chased out by the osprey or she was just dumping excess eggs in the nest. I'm not sure what the goose would have been thinking--she could have been her first breeding season and Canada geese have to kind of learn where to put their nest so it will be safe. Or it could have been a case that she either had no mate or too many eggs in her own nest and decided to give a few out to other nests. Either way, she wasn't thinking clearly: how would the chicks have gotten down from the high platform--Canada goose chicks aren't built like wood duck chicks--they weren't meant to jump 50 feet from a nest.

Somehow, the osprey ended up incubating a goose egg and it hatched. The property owners observed this little family for several days and were expecting the gosling to die within 2-3 days as an all fish diet would not meet its nutritional requirements. Both the male and female osprey tried to feed it fish, since osprey chicks are altricial (beg for food). That would be a tricky situation since Canada geese young are precocial (they feed themselves) and wouldn't be begging its parents for food. The property owners had even watched the gosling nuzzle up to the female osprey.

Becky took some photos on both May 19. She received a call on May 20 from the property owners that they had not seen the gosling all day and is presumed dead and is either in the nest or has been removed by the osprey.

Thanks, Becky, for sharing this incredible photo and documenting this odd little event. Sometimes nature goes a little off kilter.

Deformed Chipping Sparrow & Unusual Cardinal Behavior

Check out this photo of a chipping sparrow that was at Mr. Neil's feeder today. At a distance, it looked like it was sporting a beard, but closer inspection through a spotting scope showed some type of growth or tumor.

The bird was able to feed, but did not hang around with the other chipping sparrows. In fact, this bird preferred to use the tube feeders as opposed to feeding on the ground.

I also wondered if this was some sort of weird crop (a storage pouch on birds) infection as well.

Has anyone seen anything like this? Anyone know what this could be?


In other news, Hasty Brook sent over this question:

I've got a question for you. I've been watching a wren working hard, stuffing sticks into a birdhouse attached to our shed. While I was watching a male cardinal swooped in and snatched the twig out of its beak! I though it was a fluke but a few minutes later it did it again. In fact for several minutes the two birds continued this. At one point the wren went into the house (sans stick), the cardinal landed on top of the house and when the wren tried to exit the cardinal attacked. Is this common bird behavior? Are cardinals that territorial?

I asked my buddy Stan and he said he thinks the cardinal is stealing nesting material--birds do that. I agree, although I have watched how aggressive cardinals are at the feeder and wonder if the cardinal is trying to discourage the house wren. Has anyone out there witnessed this type of behavior from a cardinal (or any other bird)? Any experts lurking out there who knows what is going on or can point us in the right direction for more information? I tried BNA, but have not been able to log on tonight.

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.

MEOW! Saucer of Milk to Table 2

Some catching up: DK and the Fluffies won the owl caption contest with "Yes, damn it, we are having rodent for dinner again tonight and until you can flap your a** out of this damn nest and get your own damn food, I'm not having any more whining from you! *snap*"

Sorry I fell behind on that one, I blame the bee class. Email your snail mail to me.

Okay, a BIG FAT thank you to Veronica B in SoCal for bringing this to my attention:

Okay, to the untrained non birder eye, this might look like bird "marital relations" but it is quite the opposite. This is an all out peregrine falcon territory battle happening at the Riverside Falcon Cam. You can view all of the photos at the website, but you will need to scroll down to March 11, 2007.

You'll note in all the fight photos that the raptors are keeping their heads back and their feet forward. On raptors, the feet are the business end of the bird, they are strong and sharp. The goal is to kill or severely disable your opponent--aim for the eyes with the toes. The eyes are the last thing raptors want destroyed on their body--they can't see to hunt or defend the territory. That's why people who work with birds of prey and have them sitting on the fist aren't worried about being bit. Raptors don't want to use their bills as a primary weapon, they want to keep their eyes away from any potential danger. By bringing their face close to your face to bite you, they risk bringing their eyes closer to a dangerous situation. It's much safer for them to use their talons.

Speaking of fights, I go out today for awhile and when I come back home all heck is breaking loose on the birding blogosphere. Laura Erickson has left binoculars.com and started her new (temporary) blog here. I had a link earlier to her notice of resignation that was up at the old blog, but it has been taken down. Mike has a copy of the original notice up on his blog. I'm sure Laura will come out on top when the dust finally settles. If you're worried and want to help her, you can always purchase a copy of one of her books--even if you already have one, purchase another and gift it to a school, your senator, or library.

If you're looking for a place to purchase binoculars, I still recommend my former employer Eagle Optics. Their record for giving back to the birding community and funding for conservation programs speaks for itself. There's even quite a bit that they do that no one ever hears about. Early on in the current war in Iraq, Dan Hamilton (the owner) read about an army unit that had really poor binoculars among the many hardships they were enduring. He sent the whole unit new optics. It didn't make the papers. Just one of the many interesting facets of Dan Hamilton.

Prepare To Have Your Mind Blown

I've posted some things that may have gotten the non raptor lovers hackles up. Like the red-tailed hawk raiding an oriole nest. Well, for those who think I show the raptors always with the upper hand, check this photo out. I'm not sure who to root for, the kestrel or the red-tail.

All I can say is, "Holy Crap!"

More on Golden Eagle vs. Fox

Remember that photo we were debating about before Christmas of the golden eagle attacking a fox? I know goldens will go for foxes--no debate from me on that one. But this has the signs of an internet hoax since no one is claiming (with a first and last name) to have taken the photo. I found someone on BirdForum with a "raptor" username, but no photograper saying, "Yes, that is me. My name is ...."

Also, the photos are said to come from a variety of places like a hunter in Montana, a hunter in Colorado, a photographer in Canada--again, no name. I'm also bothered by the lack of back story. Was this actually filmed on a deer carcass? Was this staged with a falconry bird on a game farm? What is the story?

Well, now there is a series of photos on Tarisger.com and it's said that the photos were taken in Finland by Pekka Komi. Still no back story but at least we have a name to go along with the photos.

Golden Eagle vs Fox--is this real?

Every now and then I'm sent an incredible photo and a warning bell will go off. The last one was the photo of the black bear going after some bird feeders. The person who had sent me the photos had gotten if after a long line of forwarding. No one knew who originally sent the photo, but was sure the photos were taken near Detroit Lakes, MN. After some digging on "the Google" I found that some websites had it, but no one was taking credit for the photos. Hmmm, were they photo shopped? I found one message board where people were arguing about the trees in the background. This site said the photos were from Canada, but a tree expert said the trees weren't native to North American and someone else anonymously said the photos were taken at a zoo in Russia.

I still have no idea where the photos came from or what the story is.

Here is the latest:

It's a golden eagle in the middle of an altercation with a fox. The photo comes with a note "Taken by a hunter in Montana." My assessment of the situation is that the fox and magpie (small bird flying away on the right) were checking out the carcass and the golden decided that it wanted the food and made an attack on the fox to scare it away.

What makes me suspicious is that no one seems to be taking credit for the photo and there is no back story to go with it. Is it photo shopped? Was the eagle landing on the carcass and then someone added in the fox later? Was the scene staged on a game farm? With the position of the bird and fox, jesses on the eagle's feet could easily be edited out.

I've been sent the photo from a few sources and no one seems to know who took the photo. I did some checking on Google and found that there is no entry on Snopes, but the Snopes message boards are talking about the photo. At this time there doesn't appear to be a clear consensus on the photo. I have no doubt that this is possible. Golden eagles will go after large prey--especially younger eagle learning what they can and cannot hunt. I have seen young goldens take pot shots at deer and turkey. A few years ago there was golden that several people witnessed attacking white tailed deer. Usually, the young birds learn that it takes a lot of energy and rarely a food reward so they give up and end up going after easy to kill prey.

I hear stories from all types of people of goldens taking all sorts of animals. If someone tells them they witnessed an eagle carrying away sheep, deer, antelope, etc I don't believe them. Eagles are only able to carry half their weight in flight and considering goldens average between 10 - 12 pounds, it's not possible for them to carry away anything too heavy. Can they kill something bigger than they are that is on the ground and eat it gradually--you betcha! However, the risk of going after healthy prey is a danger to them, they tend to go for weak, injured, or young who do not have parents smart enough to protect them.

I kept searching for more on the photo and found a discussion on a hunting blog about golden eagles going after mule deer and other odd prey (someone in the comments section also references the young golden we had in MN that went after the deer and turkeys).

Here's an example from You Tube. This looks to be a Spanish video on falconry techniques with a golden eagle. From my limited understanding, they were taking the golden out to hunt and weren't aware of the fox and the golden decides to go for it. The falconer freaks out and goes to intervene. The eagle has a firm grip on the fox but the fox is putting up one heck of a fight. If the golden's feet get injured by bites from the fox, the bird will be at a huge risk for infection and probably die. The video is about a minute and a half long, watch it at your own risk.


THERE IS NOW AN UPDATE TO THIS POST HERE. THE PHOTO IS REAL.

Duck!

So, I almost got clotheslined by a Cooper's hawk today! Above we have Jane Goggin, one of the many fabulous vets at The Raptor Center. We didn't have any programs scheduled for my shift today so our crew asked if we could watch Jane and Lori (one of the other fabulous vets) test fly one of the 13 Cooper's hawks still in clinic (that's down from 24--it's been a record year).

We followed Jane and Lori and stood behind them as they released the immature female Cooper's. The bird had recovered from its injury and has been test flown by the volunteer flight crew (after birds have recovered from their injury they go through this to build up their muscles). Lori and Jane go out and test fly the birds to determine if the flight therapy is working and to see if the bird's flight is strong enough for release. The bird is attached to a creance (a really long leash attached to the ankles so it can fly but not get away yet). The bird took off well in front of Lori and Jane.

Then she suddenly banked and headed straight for some spruce trees off to my right. At that point she figured out the creance was going to prevent that and she turned on a dime towards me coming up fast on my right. About two seconds after I took the above photo, I realized the creance line was heading straight towards me at about neck level. I hit the ground and heard Jane and Lori yell, "Duck! Quick!" towards the rest of our crew. I heard the line zip over and lifted my head to see the rest of the crew on the ground.

Fortunately, no one was injured and I think it's safe to say that this particular female Cooper's hawk is ready to go off in the wild with moves like that!

Someone emailed how I get the release shots that I posted last week. Above is a photo I took of Chuck releasing a merlin.

Here is the same scene taken by Rick Dupont of me getting the above shot of Chuck releasing the merlin.

Holy Crap!

This video is not for everyone, it's a pelican getting a pigeon. If you would like to keep the idea that birds are harmoniously living together in the wild, do not press play. If you are like me and can't help wonder how the mechanics of a pelican eating a pigeon works, then press play.


Pelican Eats Pigeon - video powered by Metacafe

Man, I always thought a sharp-shinned hawk was a bad way to go since they are slow to kill you, but I have seen the inside of a pelican's mouth and it ain't pretty.

A Bird's Ability to Thrive No Matter What

All the photos in this entry are courtesy of Frank Taylor.

I just got in a weekly banding report from Frank Taylor. In it was a an interesting account of a first year sharp-shinned hawk that had impaled it's wing on a twig. Frank said that it had healed up with a bit of the twig still in the wing!

They didn't try to pull out the twig, just clipped the ends that were close to the wing. The bird seemed to be doing just fine and they didn't want to stress it out with a trip to The Raptor Center down in the Cities. Frank used to be curator of birds at TRC and has been a master falconer for longer than I've been alive. He knows a healthy flight in a bird when he sees it, and with a high strung bird like an accipiter, letting it go gave it a better shot at survival than time in a rehab facility.

The injury was healed, I wonder how long ago it happened? Perhaps when it was learning to fly.

Another fine example of how birds will survive no matter what. It would never occur to this bird that, "Hey, I've got a stick in my wing, I don't feel like hunting and heading south to find food. I'm just going to hunker down and sleep today." Birds just do what has to be done in order to survive. I love that.

Really Gross Eagle Post

WARNING! This is a really GROSS post. Quite frankly, I don't know how I'm going to muddle through it. It's interesting and does have a happy ending, but for those of you out there who don't like bugs, especially squishy maggots, I highly recommend avoiding going any further in this post. However, if you're like me and just can't help yourself, keep reading...although, you may not want to be eating anything at the moment.

"Ugh, I've got that not so fresh feeling."

A five week old bald eagle was down in clinic at The Raptor Center today and the vets were kind enough to let me follow with my camera. As vet Jane Goggin was looking over the young bird, it looked in good condition...and then she checked one of its ears.

Instead of finding a clear ear canal, it was chock full of maggots! Are we ready? On the count of three: 1...2...3...EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! This is not a common occurrence in young raptors, but it happens often enough that when they are brought in, the vets check the ears. Vet Juli Ponder said that generally in nature, the maggots go through their whole life cycle and leave, causing relatively little damage. She did add that they can find this in any raptor, especially great horned owls and bald eagles.

Here are the contents of the ear (one ear, mind you). The vets pluck out the maggots with forceps and then drop them in alcohol to kill them, afterwards swabbing out the ear. Can you imagine having maggots in your ear and not being able to get them out. Think about that, feeling (and hearing) all that squirming and squiggling and itchiness in your ear for days. When Juli said that great horned owls get them too, I thought about how owls are supposed to have better hearing, how does multiple maggot sucking blood in their ear canals rock their world?

Jane checked the young eagle's other ear and found more of the same. 1...2...3...EWWWWWWWW!! So, basically this bird's ears have been plugged up with squirming and sucking. Gross, gross, gross. Think about how big your head is compared to an eagle. Now, can you imagine what it must be like to have 9 maggots wriggling in one ear on such a small head. Ew. Ew. Ew.

"We love our job! It's fun to pick maggots out of bird ears. We rock!"

That's Jane on the left and Julie on the right, smiling after a job well done and seriously, they do rock--I really don't think I could do some of the icky treatments they have to do. I love all the vets in clinic, they all have what's best for the bird in the forefront of their minds. In the photo above they are now testing the bird's feet--which were quite soft because it is so young and hasn't done much perching. Who knew bald eagle feet were so baby soft?

The eagle is now ready to go back to the wild. I wondered if afterwards the young eagle was marveling at all the new sounds it was hearing. It's ears were plugged up for awhile and now they are wide open and cleaned out. In the wild the maggots can clean up on their own, but it never hurts to give the birds a little extra help if they visit the clinic. From now on when I look at raptors soaring and envy their flight capability, I will just remind myself that "Hey, I don't have to worry about maggots in my ears." I think that should calm my envy.

To Pack Or Not To Pack

Hmmmmmm, I'm not sure I will be leaving tomorrow morning with the predicted record snowfall that's supposed to start in earnest around 9pm tonight. Traffic was more than a little slow at the booth today. I think many people left early to try and get home before the big storm hits tonight. This morning there was a layer of ice and about two to three inches of snow. The main highway was not plowed, so instead of going the posted 75 mph, I went 30! The gravel road to Rowe Sanctuary wasn't plowed at all and I was beginning to wish that I had rented that SUB instead of the lower riding Stratus, but I made it there and back in one piece. I'm half heartedly packing, think that there isn't much chance that I will be able to drive to Minnesota tomorrow. On the bright side, the cranes look beautiful in the snowy landscape (but there is no way I can photograph them in the ice that pelts you and stings like a sand storm when you are outside).

Today while demonstrating some digiscoping, I noticed two long billed male red-winged blackbirds feeding on the ground at Rowe Sanctuary. Early readers of this blog may remember the long billed peregrine we got in at the banding station in Duluth, MN. Not long after I posted that entry, I got in contact with Bud Anderson who has been tracking what he calls the long billed hawk syndrome. This is also prevalent in passerines as well and I found that Julie Craves at Rouge River Bird Observatory is compiling deformities as is Colleen Handel.

There is so much we're learning but so little we don't know. Part of me was excited when I saw the birds, realizing that this is part of a great mystery, but then I felt sad that this a problem that we don't know the answer to and these birds are going to have a rough go of it as their bills continue to grow. A friend had given me a copy of Bud's PowerPoint Presentation on the long-billed hawk syndrome so I showed some of the examples of birds to the staff at Rowe Sanctuary, there was even a photo of a male red-winged black bird looking just like the blackbirds in my photos.

If you see a long-billed bird, please report it to Bud at bud@frg.org.

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.

Red-tail eating baby birds

This is from Non-Birding Bill. I hesitated to send it, because most of the time red-tailed hawks don't do this sort of thing, but like any bird, if they see an opportunity for food they are gonna go for it. I don't like to perpetuate the myth that hawks kill every bird in the neighborhood, but this is what I would find interesting to read about in a blog. I don't know the story behind this link, but I think the photos speak for themselves:

Red-tailed Hawk attacking an oriole nest.

So, here's the conversation that came along this morning when my husband found the link:


Non Birding Bill: Cool, Poppy Z Brite is a bird watcher.

Birdchick: Mmm, I think Mr. Neil told me that.

Non Birding Bill: Wow, roseate spoon-bills are cool looking. Did you know there's a loon cam?

Birdchick: No, I didn't.

Non Birding Bill: Oh! Here's a series of photos of a red-tail taking baby birds, I'll send you the link!

Birdchick: Wait. What are you doing looking at birding websites?? You're not interested in birds.

Non Birding Bill: I was just looking at them for you, I thought you would like them.

Whatever shall I do, if my husband turns into a birder? I've never even dated a birder, I can't imagine being married to one! What will I call him? He gets mad if I call him Ivory-bill Stiteler (Mr. Neil's doing not mine). This really messes up my Chi.