To The Bee Cave, Bee Boy!

DON'T FORGET: There is still time to get your entries in for the Swarovski Guest Blogging Contest. A chance for you to have a blog entry posted here for the day (and getting some of my readers a taste of your writing) and a cool prize while I'm birding in Guatemala!

Well, the weather has been above freezing and all of us just happened to be in town for a moment so Mr. Neil, Non Birding Bill, Fabulous Lorraine and myself decided that it was time to do a winter bee inspection to determine how many bees and supplies to order for this spring.

Since we would be digging about inside the hive to check the food stores the hives had left, we decided to go with our bee suits on. With his hat and bee suit, NBB almost looked more like seaman from the movie The Life Aquatic than a member of a team of award winning beekeepers.

We have two hives that we are over wintering. Above is the Kelli hive. She is three deep brood boxes, wrapped in insulation, with two moisture boards (stuff they use in your bathroom walls to absorb moisture), and some newspaper. You worry more about your hives getting wet in winter than you do the cold. The bees can take the cold, but moisture in a hive just messes everything up. Kitty is two boxes without insulation and just newspaper for moisture. We were running a couple of experiments: for overwintering, do we want to do three boxes instead of two and do we want to use insulation or not. There are arguments for both. It's possible for bees to survive with only two boxes--fewer places to go and therefore the cluster won't be at risk of being too far from food. Insulation on the hive could fool the bees into thinking it's warmer outside than it really is and they fly out too soon and die.

Before we opened them, I put my ear up to each hive to see if I could hear them buzzing. I could! Kitty was not as loud as Kelli, but both hives were totally alive and had survived the harsh January temperatures so far! After we opened the Kelli hive, I held up my camera to the open frames so you could hear a hive buzzing in winter (you can see the green Kitty hive in the background):



We didn't dig too deep in Kelli, she was loud, just glancing at the top frames, she had plenty of food, and if we have learned anything, it's that the more you leave your bees alone to just bee, the better off they are.

We did make sure that bother bottom and top entrances were open for good ventilation. She was incredibly dry. Even her news paper was bone dry. The moisture board was working well and there weren't too many dead bees at the entrance and we could see a couple come in and out. The three box system, with insulation, and the moisture boards appeared to be working very, very well.

Kitty was a different story. She was alive, but her cluster was very small. If you look between NBB and Mr. Neil in the above photo, you can see part of it. Mr. Neil is holding a spray bottle, he sprayed some homemade bee nectar around them and we made sure that the frames closest to them were full of food, so if the cluster ran out of food where they were, they would not need to go far.

The cluster of bees stays together to stay warm. If it gets so cold that they cannot move far and they have eaten all the nearby food, they may starve before they can move to where there is food in the hive. As we moved the frames around, the hive was incredibly wet.

Even the newspaper on top was wet. There were thousands of dead bees on the inside. We took out a bunch of the dead wet bees. We have some concerns about this hive. Her cluster is small. If the rest of the winter is mild, she should survive. If we get some more subzero days, we're afraid that the remaining cluster of bees is so small it won't be able to stay warm enough. There's not much more we can do at this point.

So, I think two things to take from this are: 1. That white moisture absorbing material used for bathroom walls helps to keep a wintering hive dry. 2. That a two brood box hive probably could survive, but I don't know if we would do it again without insulation. We want to have six hives going this summer and we think what is going to happen is that we will split the healthy Kelli hive into two hives and that Kitty will most likely die and we will need to restart her.

Some good, some bad with the hive inspection, but it was fun to get a taste of our beekeeping operation. I really do miss it. I love birding and I love travel, but I think beekeeping is one of the coolest things you can ever try in life. It's more fun than I ever realized.

After we were finished we had to put the hives back together and put the bricks back on to make sure a strong winter wind didn't knock their covers off...and I can never resist working a Father Ted reference:

Winter Species Around Mr. Neil's

This morning, Non Birding Bill and I headed out to do some bee stuff at Mr. Neil's. When we were turning onto the final stretch of road, I noticed a lump in the top of a tree and told NBB, "Sorry, if that's what I think it is, I have to get a photo."

Can you guess what it is? It's a raptor...it's a hawk...can't tell? Don't worry, it's hard in that photo. Here it is through the scope:

It's a rough-legged hawk. Something about the lump in the distance just said to me, "Hey, I'm a buteo, but I'm not sitting quite like a red-tailed hawk."

This is the first time I've seen one so close to Mr. Neil's home. We get them in our neck of the woods in winter, but fun to see a rough-leg on patrol so close to his house. Is it me, or does this bird look like it's wearing more eyeliner than Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean?

Meanwhile, pine siskins are still on the rampage at his finch feeders. Between the siskins, the rough-leg and the snow, it's winter!

Here The Buzz Of Our Bees On MPR

Mr. Neil's interview that was made the day we did our honey harvest is up at MPR:

You can listen to it above or read the transcript over at MPR. Interesting...there appears to be no mention of the sting...

Fantastic Banding At Mr. Neil's

Quick notes first:

My buddy Amber can be seen in an odd photo I took of a Mandrake Carrot at Lorraine's blog and Mr. Neil's blog. Rumor has it that the MC is working it's way towards our home for a sacrifice to the great Disapproving Rabbit.

Tea and Food linked my Chicken of the Woods post. I have not found any in the usual places this year. I think it's been too dry. I'm worried about not finding my all time fave wild edible - Hen of the Woods. But that's one of the reasons wild food is such a delight when it happens, you just never know for sure if you'll have it.

Sunday was the day I always knew we could have at Mr. Neil's. I always knew there was great banding potential and great things to be learned. I've asked Mark and Roger to band and they've been out a couple of times and we've gotten some birds, but nothing like this past Sunday. It was good timing with the migration and placement of the nets.

We had some nets set up around the feeders and another set down in the woods near the creek (but far from the beehives). The nets were so busy around the feeders that after we got birds out, we would furl the nets up so we could quickly process the birds we had. I think we banded a total of 53 birds on Sunday.

The most common species banded that day? Goldfinches! I'll have to double check Roger's report, but I think he said they banded a total of 27 goldfinches? It was insane around the feeders, they would unfurl the nets and in less than 3 minutes, there would be 6 goldfinches. These are fun to band and I noted some things that banders look at when a bird is in hand. Notice the rough and beat up look of the primary wing feathers? Those are older feathers that have been worn with use. Then notice how some are fresh looking and not too beat up.

You can do this with all birds and Mark's research with banding is the aging of down and hairy woodpeckers based on feather replacement symmetry and wing feather color. According to his research, you can age a downy or hairy up to four years. Next time you see a downy or hairy woodpecker on your feeder, take a minute to look at the wings. Sometimes, you'll notice that some of the wing feathers will be brownish instead of black--that's all part of Mark's aging system.

At one point, we had so many birds in the feeder nets that Mark and Roger told Amber and I bag only non banded birds, any birds that already had a band, we were to note the number and let it go. A could were found and Mark and Roger were able to figure out if it was banded last spring or fall. I took out the above goldfinch and noticed right away that the band was on the right foot--we normally put it on the left. I assumed that this was probably a bird they let me band last fall and spring when I was still learning and somehow managed to put it on the wrong foot. I read off the number. Mark and Roger looked at each other and said, "Bag it!" Turns out, this banded goldfinch was not banded by Mark and Roger--it wasn't wearing one of their assigned bands! This is the type of excitement that banders live for. It's exciting to get any of your birds recovered and get the data, but to get someone else's bird is just as exciting. The bird had a brood patch (meaning she's nesting nearby). The band looked fairly new...is someone nearby banding birds? Or did she get banded this past spring and did she travel a good distance? Mark and Roger are going to submit the band number to the Bird Banding Lab and we'll have to wait and see on the results.

UPDATE: We now know where that finch came from!

It will be interesting to note how many banded goldfinches will stick around--27 is a lot of finches. But towards the end of the day, Amber and I were noticing non banded finches at the feeder--how did we miss you? Finches do wander in the winter, but I'll be keeping an eye out for them at the feeders--and for one with the right foot banded.

The feeder nets were pretty hoppin' but we also had the nets in the woods. Mark and Roger could hear LOTS of birds in the woods, but they were high in the canopy and we weren't sure if they would come down. We got one bird right away--recognize the species? I wasn't too surprised to find it in the nets, they have nested near where the nets were placed. It's an ovenbird!

The ovenbird is the species that goes "teacher teacher teacher" in the woods. I got some footage of Mr. Neil's ovenbird earlier this year. Here's the link to that blog entry. I doubt it's the same bird, but nice to know some are still here this week.

As Amber and I were taking in the beauty of the ovenbird, Amber and I took note of the feathers on the back...hm, kind of olive...

...kind of like the olive feathers found stuck to the toes of a sharp-shinned hawk at Frank's banding station the day before. I have to say that if I were a sharpie, I would target an ovenbird--that's one beefy warblers. They are chunky and feel like they would fill you up a lot better than some tiny yellow-rumped warbler.

The ovenbird is a brown bird, but they do have that crazy rusty cap on their heads and it's a bird that you rarely get to see from the top down and it was fun to just take in every nook and cranny of the feathers. After the ovenbird, the woods net wasn't getting any traffic. We could hear warblers and vireos passing overhead, but couldn't get them down. I started to think about how Hawk Ridge uses owl calls to bring in birds for owl banding in the fall. Why not try that on Mr. Neil's property? Territory song will not work this time of year, but some chip notes would work. I grabbed my iPod and iMainGo Speaker. BirdJam has a new warbler playlist that not only has tracks of songs, but tracks of chip notes for each warbler species. I also have Cornell's Voices of North American Owls which has each type of owl call for every North American species on individual tracks. So, I made a quick mobbing playlist: a single eastern screech owl trill followed by chip notes of a few warbler species I know could be found in Mr. Neil's woods. The whole playlist lasted less than two minutes. I hung my iPod near the nets and walked in the woods a bit with Amber. We walked back to the nets:

A northern waterthrush! It was so strange to see this bird in hand being so still. When you see them along creeks, they are always bobbing their tails like little Fergies.

It was a good chance for me to really work on telling northern waterthrushes from Louisiana waterthrushes. This one is for sure a northern because of the yellowish wash and the spotting on the chin. The only other way I did it before was with song, having them in hand is a chance to hone your id skillz.

We tried the playlist once more and when Amber and I returned to the net, we saw a flycatcher perched just in front of the net. It looked young and we tried walking towards it to see if it would flush into the net. It flew over, but the reason why it flushed was that another bird was already in the net--a great crested flycatcher! After Amber took this guy out of the net and walked it back to the banding table, the other flycatcher kept following us. I think it was a young bird wondering what was going on with its parent, but without DNA tests, can't know for sure.

This bird is a beauty. They are also cagey as all get out, I always have a tough time digiscoping these dudes and was surprised we got one in the nets. Check out all the yellow on the belly and along the wings.

And where the bird is brown, it's not just regular brown, it's a beautiful rust. These birds are cavity nesters and I have seen them use a Peterson bluebird box. Periodically, birdhouse manufacturers will try to make great crested flycatcher houses but they never seem to catch on. I think there's a block. When people think flycatcher, they thing drab brownish gray. Wouldn't you love to have a dynamite looking bird like this--and like bluebirds, they're insectivores!

Even the inside of their beaks are colorful. These guys are known for their loud "reep, reep" call. This guy gave a much whinier version of that. He also snapped his bill a few times, similar to what an owl does when threatened. Just a cool insect eating bird all around.

Alas, we tried our mobbing playlist two more times and the birds seemed to have figured us out. "Hey, did you notice that screech owl trills the exact same way every time? Hmm, and did you notice that when it's mobbed, the same birds go in the same order, never overlapping each other...call me bird brained, but that is suspicious." Even though we didn't get huge amounts of birds, we got some awesome birds. I'm going to definitely watch the ovenbirds that nest around there next spring and see if either of the pairs are banded.

Hummer Shtuff

I'm so proud, Non Birding Bill had a submission accepted over at Cute Overload.

A DC Birding Blog has some interesting observations on the reports of birders not seeing as many hummingbirds this summer. Meanwhile, Mr. Neil's yard seems to be experiencing more hummingbirds than usual. There are two feeders out this year and both get regular traffic. There are at least four separate hummers, two males and two females. One male in particular goes right into display mode when a female shows up.

They're totally digging the sundae feeder. Above, a female ruby-throated hummingbird is sipping from the feeder.

Even as she approached she could barely keep her tongue contained, here's a closer view:

I'm So Proud Of My Junior Beekeeper

I don't know what it is...maybe it's the Canon Rebel they've been playing with...but both Non Birding Bill and Mr. Neil are showing more of an interest in birds lately. While I was away livin' large in North Dakota, I was sent some oh-so-cool pileated woodpecker photo from Mr. Neil. It's a fun shot and that is such a classy bird. We've been putting some cashew suet in that particular feeder. It's been cool enough that it's not melting and the peckers are loving it.

It sounds like things are going well at the hives. This May and June have been insanely busy and Lorraine has been checking the bees and so has Mr. Neil when he is in town. I feel as though I've hardly been all up in them this year and I'm really missing them. I'm going to try and eek out a bit with them this weekend. Everyone else has been taking such great care of them that they are well in hand, but I do miss just sitting at their entrance, watching them coming and going. Here is the report:

Kellli & MimiKo Hives now have a third deep brood box to build into. If they keep going at the pace they have been, we could very well get honey from them.

Kitty 2 is buiding away and growing...and the Olga Report (my favorite report of all):

Olga: "Took a cursory glance at Olga -- saw larvae but no eggs anywhere. Decided not to worry and that if they didn't have a queen they could damned well grow a new one."

I hope the queen is really laying and they just didn't see any eggs at that time. And hopefully, we will get honey from her, but bees will be bees. I should also report that Mr. Neil has discovered that we may have some bees with extra long stingers--he got stung through the leather glove! Alas, he did not have a dramatic retelling to with it. I'm not sure if that's because his Britishness gives him a natural dignity when stung, or that one of the ways he keeps his cool factor is that unlike me, he keeps embarrassing moments of flailing and ponytail stomping to himself rather than put them in the blog.

Spring Bird Banding Around Mr. Neil's

It's been interesting to watch the bird movement at Mr. Neil's. With all the bee installation going on, Non Birding Bill and I spent a few days to make sure the bees were enjoying their new digs and to watch some bird. We put the bees in Thursday and on Sunday, Mark and Roger were coming back to do a bit more bird banding. Friday was rainy and cold, lots of birds were coming to the suet including a few pine warblers, the one above (this bird showed up about the same date last year). Even a black and white warbler showed up--Sunday's banding potential seemed immense.

Saturday, the weather was chilly, but the sun was out and I could hear new bird song. One thing I do love about spring is waking up, hearing a bird song and realizing that I had not heard that song the day before. These birds had just arrived overnight. Over a morning cup of coffee saw the first rose-breasted grosbeaks in Mr. Neil's yard.

Not long after that, a pair of orioles showed up and stayed around the feeders all day. Even though it was a male and female, they did not tolerate being on the oriole feeder at the same time--they fought over it quite a bit. I put out both an orange and grape jelly, they totally ignored the orange and went straight for the jelly. The brush pile was chock full of sparrows, they looked like mostly white-throated sparrows. Pine warbler, rose-breasted grosbeaks, white-throated sparrow, orioles--this banding session was going to be colorfully unbelievable!

Not so much, as evidenced with Ms. Brown-headed Cowbird. Actually, I shouldn't say that--it was awesome as always--it was banding and I always learn something, we just didn't get the birds that thought we would.

We did get in both red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatches. I love in the above photo that the red-breasted puffed up a tad when confronted with a larger white-breasted. The red-breasted did have a brood-patch and I have been seeing a pair sticking around. Between that and some excited yanking calls, I have a suspicion that the red-breasted are nesting nearby.

Here is the titmouse from the earlier contest. That was a treat for Mark and Roger, they don't get too many of those where they normally band birds, so something new pecking at your knuckles is always fun.

A surprise in the nets were a pair of mourning doves. We had been using the back entrance of the house, and while I was in there indulging in a cinnamon roll, I noticed to doves on the ground. I wondered if I went out the front door if they would flush towards the nets. Yep. It was a pair too and we were able to sex them by plumage. Above is the female.

And here is the male. Note that he has some blue on the top and back of his head--the female doesn't have that.

Another fun surprise was a pair of blue jays. We did get in a steady stream of birds Sunday morning, so I was not able to get all the info about the birds, I was busy helping to get them out of the nets. But my friend Amber got some great shots of them flying away.

We did get one warbler. This yellow-rump filled the quota for the day. It was interesting to note that while the nets were up, no pine warblers or Baltimore orioles showed up. Grosbeaks serenaded us from the tops of the trees and when they did fly into the feeders, they had a knack of flying in a line just above the nets--clever birds.

Out of the 40 odd white-throated sparrows in the brush pile, we only got one in the net. This bird is fine. Sometimes, when you finish banding a bird and open up your hands to let it go, they don't quite realize that they're free and just rest for a moment. All it usually takes is for the bander to twitch his fingers or for an observer to cough, sneeze, or move suddenly and the bird takes off like a shot.

We did get in quite a few chickadees. One was a retrap that Mark and Roger banded last fall. What was interesting was that they were unable to determine the sex of the bird last fall, but this time the bird had a brood patch (a bare patch of skin used to incubate eggs, in some species just the female has it--like chickadees, and in other species both males and females have it--like nuthatches). So, since the chickadee had the brood patch, she was female. The chickadees have taken over a bluebird box in the front yard. I'll have to watch and see if one of them is banded.

At about noon and over thirty banded birds later, the guys took the nets down. And what species was one of the first to show up to the feeders? The pine warbler, of course. The orioles never did show up again all day. Roger suspects that they were just passing through and that the previous nights winds pushed them north. Ah well, more will be coming soon.

I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing my digiscoping for the World Series of Birding this coming weekend (boy, I was just going over the rules for that--that's a blog entry). Amidst all the white-throated sparrows and chipping sparrows in the brush pile, I was surprised to find a field sparrow! Wonder where this bird came from? I don't normally find these guys around the yard, I hope it stays, I love that call.

Wood Frogs and Chorus Frogs

We were serenaded by frogs all weekend! There are wet spots all over Mr. Neil that's just perfect for frogs. The loudest were the chorus frogs and wood frogs. Above is a wood frog in mid...croak. Wood frogs have a special place in my heart. When I first moved to Minnesota, I went to TS Roberts Sanctuary for birding. There was a wet area with this weird barking sound. A woman standing there with binoculars was intently watching the wet area. "What is that?" I asked. She said it was grouse. Not being familiar with grouse and new to Minnesota, I found it completely plausible that grouse would be found in a city park in an urban area. I spent an hour scanning with my binoculars before I finally found the wood frogs--much to the consternation of Non Birding Bill--ah good times.

I continued to scan Mr. Neil's pond for chorus frogs and I found one out of the water puffing away. Such a tiny frog, makes such a loud sound! I took some video through the spotting scope. The first is focusing on a wood frog (the are the kind of barking sound). The second video is on the chorus frog, but again you will hear both wood and chorus frogs. Chorus frogs sound like you are running a finger over the tines on a comb. Now, if only I could find some spring peepers to listen to!

Hairy Day Of Banding At Mr. Neil's

We tried to band and track some of the birds in Mr. Neil's yard on Sunday. Professional banders Mark Newstrom and Roger Everhart came out and set up some nets--just like they did last fall. Above is the first bird we banded--an eastern phoebe.

On the left is Roger and on the right is Mark. We were expecting a 70 degree day, but the morning started with fog and 37 degrees. Fabulous Lorraine, who is Mr. Neil's assistant was taking good care of us by keeping a steady flow of coffee our way--to keep us alert and warm.

What surprised me were the number of hairy woodpeckers we got in the nets on Sunday. Mr. Neil has a huge population of woodpeckers on his property--partly because he doesn't cut down and haul away every dead and dying tree. Some have to be removed for safety, but even when trees come down, some are left as huge fun brush piles. But, we had so many hairy woodpeckers come in, I lost count--I think we got in five. Above is the head of a female hairy woodpecker.



One of the things that the guys check for are brood patches. Above, Roger is blowing on the feathers of the female hairy, exposing a large patch of bare skin--females (and males of some species) get these to keep eggs warm during incubation and keep chicks warm on cold days. Speaking of which, Roger and Mark noted on this female that the skin was wrinkly. That tells them that she already has chicks at the nest! When the brood patch first forms--the skin swells for incubation. After incubation, the swelling goes away and the skin has wrinkles.

Here is one of the male hairy woodpeckers that came into the net (note that the sun did eventually come out). Are you noting the length of that hairy bill--that is one of the ways you can tell them from a downy woodpecker--hairys have longer bills. Speaking of length...

in the spring, you look for things like cloacal protuberances (aka bird boner). I know length isn't supposed to matter, but for a bird, this is impressive. When the hormones kick in, the cp swells and remains that way for a few weeks. Imagine having to fly around with that swollen for a few weeks. It must be hard to concentrate.

Here is the stiff tail of a hairy, you can see that the tips are stained from being used to prop the woodpecker up against the sides of trees.

Owie! We did get in a couple of female red-bellied woodpeckers. I was glad because this is Lorraine's favorite species.

Red-bellies have really cool tongues. Note above the hardened tip that is covered in sharp bristles that are used to spear and grab on to larvae inside dead trees. These birds can be a challenge in the net because their tongue bristles can get caught on the nets. You always have to be careful when taking birds out of the nets, but it gets really tricky with this species. One of the many reasons you need have permits and be well trained to band birds.

Speaking of training, Mark and Roger were very gracious and let me help so I could learn. Early on, I would start to get a bird out and then give it to them. Both showed me their techniques of getting birds out of the nets and towards the end of the morning, I was getting birds out (without shaking). They even let me practice my banding on a robin. I've been doing so many juncos, I needed the practice with a larger bird. Oh! I should mention that this female was VERY vocal. As we were taking a photo before she left, she was squawking and out of nowhere two male robins flew in and one almost hit me in the face! We let her go--my goodness, the dangers of banding.

Roger was excited to get to band a new bird species. Tufted titmice are not found in the area where he and Mark usually band birds. I had hoped last fall that they would get one, but did not. We did on Sunday and it's the same bird in the video posted earlier. I swear, this species head is 80% eyeball.

I was noting on Thursday that I was still seeing tree sparrows and no chipping sparrows yet. Well, that changed on Sunday, we got in quite a few chipping sparrows. It will be interesting to watch and see if the chipping sparrows keep heading north or will be the birds that nest here in summer.

We got in some white-breasted nuthatches, but no red-breasted. We saw at least three red-breasted nuthatches in the net, but each one managed to work their way through--perhaps because they are so tiny, which is odd because we got some last fall. I wonder if they were a tad fatter then?

My friends Amber and Reier came along and during a lull, Reier found a raccoon sleeping in a very large hole of a dead tree. He had hoped to find an owl but found the raccoon instead.

I think we banded close to 30 birds on Sunday morning--check out poor Roger's knuckles in the above photo--that's what comes from banding woodpeckers all morning. One of them actually drew blood! Although, he's holding a phoebe in the above photo--it almost looks like that bird did it.

Look at that sweet phoebe face, they wouldn't hurt anybody...well, except flies (being a flycatcher and all).

Check out this shot that Amber got of the eastern phoebe being released--what a great shot! I love how the bird's head is turned, almost as if giving her the perfect pose on purpose. It was a great day of banding and the guys will be back in a couple of weeks to try and get some warblers. Should be fun!

Highlights & Gratitude For 2007

I'm a little foggy from last night's New Year's party. There was a man there who taught ballroom dance for a living and all the women took turns being twirled, whirled, hustled and rumbaed around the room. Good times.

The first bird that I saw and digiscoped for 2008--a white-breasted nuthatch. Mr. Neil tried to make a joke that seeing a white-breasted nuthatch meant a year of bad sex and Non Birding Bill wisely encouraged him to avoid inaccurate bird jokes before I have any coffee in the morning...so the fantasy writer still lives...for the moment.

I week or two ago I was tagged with a top birding moments of 2007 (for the life of me, I can't remember who tagged me) but I wanted to wait until 2007 was fully over before I put it together. I also get a wonderful email from a friend expressing gratitude for moments in the last year, so I think this will kind of morph into that as well since I have so much to be grateful for.

A huge highlight was getting to perform Play on Birds with Non Birding Bill at a Nature Festival in Ohio. I love doing this show and I love working with my husband on stage. I hope we get the opportunity again.

Digiscoping has just taken over my birding life and I've observed some really great moments with it. One big highlight was getting some great photos while at a meeting at Eastman Nature Center.

I also got a chance to digiscope a singing male indigo bunting. The bird was so focused on singing, he never noticed me. He sang so long that after I had taken all pictures I could, I just had to finally take the time to just enjoy him. What a treat and what a great bird to have such a beautiful bird in existence.


A big highlight was getting the chance to photograph and video a male golden-winged warbler at a bed and breakfast in Vergas, MN. If you follow this link, that will take to the post to watch the video of the golden-winged warbler and also of a bobolink that was singing at the bed and breakfast as well.

North Dakota was another great time, and getting the chance to observe ruddy duck courtship display was a definite highlight. I just happened to find them while exploring some remote gravel roads and spent and hour watching the males display and the females take their time in showing any interest. North Dakota was also a great chance to hang out with great friends and explore Clark Gable's grandparent's home and find a burrowing owl.

Young Cooper's hawks provided no end of entertainment from bathing in a puddle of a neighboring roof (she's a dirty girl) to nailing a pigeon right in front of my apartment building. I never ceased to be amazed at the incredible amount of nature right in front of our eyes in a busy metro area. Going out in the middle of nowhere is fun, but incredible wild stuff is happening anywhere, as long as you go out and take a moment to notice.

Banding hawks in the fall is always fun, but this year was particularly exciting because I got a chance to "yank the pigeon" and help bring hawks into the nets. I also slept in a van out in the fields to prove that if I need to, I can still rough it.

I finally had a chance to improve my shorebird watching skills! Doug Buri offered a weekend workshop in August and he promised me that I would learn my shorebirds. I was skeptical, but he promised that I would see least sandpipers within five feet of me. The man did not lie and not only can I had identify shorebirds in my area, I find them quite beautiful. I hear he's offering two workshops next year--I highly recommend them!

Carpenter banding is always fun, but this year when we had an adult sharp-shinned hawk try to get one of the juncos we had just trapped, was a big highlight--Hellziggy took the above photo. We ended getting the sharpie and banding it as well as the junco. This is not to be confused with a separate sharpie/junco incident that happened in December.

Having a young titmouse sit on my head while at Mr. Neil's was another highlight.

Speaking of Mr. Neil, I finally got vindication with a saw-whet owl. For years, I have insisted that one should be in his woods. I had found saw-whet feathers in wren nests, I had found poop, but never the saw-whet--until this year when I found the above bird sleeping in a pine. Whoot!

Birds were only part of this magical year. Beekeeping has opened my eyes to a whole new world, and words cannot express what it felt like to have a worker bee lick nectar off of my bare finger. From having a massive panic attack when installing the bees, to requeening problems, to even giving sex advice, to my first bee sting...this has been one weird year and I cannot wait to see what new adventures lay ahead of us in 2008.

And let's not forget the porcupet--the baby porcupine who was found on the side of the road next to his mother who had been hit by a car. He was being cared for by a friend of mine who is a professional wildlife rehabber. By the time he was in her care, he had already been imprinted on humans and could not go back to the wild. He is now living at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Mn and goes by the name Clover. His videos are still a sensation on YouTube.

Birding also got me a brush with coolness when the Colbert Report filmed a segment at an Eagle Festival in Connecticut.

And I can't talk about what an amazing year it has been without talking about Cinnamon and Disapproving Rabbits. That has been one wild ride to have a web page we put up for fun and have it turn into a book. To have signings and have people come from different states to meet my bunny is just overwhelming. When I looked over the blog in the last year and how it has morphed and changed, I noticed that Cinnamon has been featured less and less. I'm not sure why. At first, I thought it was my infatuation with beekeeping, a new subject to write about. Then we started a separate blog for Disapproving Rabbits so I wondered if I was keeping it separate. But, I also get some strange emails (greatly overshadowed by some really wonderful and funny ones) from fans. I wonder if the few odd/unpleasant ones are making me feel protective of my bunny's privacy and the fun times we have. Or is that she is getting older and I want to distance her to protect all from being too emotionally invested when the inevitable happens? Not sure, but we'll see what happens in the coming year.

Birds and Beers has been a real treat. Above is a photo from the first Bird Blogger Conference where many bird bloggers got to meet face to face for the first time. I'm hoping to expand Birds and Beers in 2008 where anyone who is remotely interested in birds from beginner to kinda interested to very interested to birding has taken over my life will get a chance to sit down, share a beverage and talk some birds.

And I would like to once again thank EVERYONE who reads the blog, leaves comments, sends emails, or spreads the word. I feel incredibly honored that people are interested in what I put on here and make it such a fun part of my day and my life. I've made some great new friends and connections and I love it when someone sends a note to tell me that they noticed some bird or activity that they never would have noticed before if they had not read the blog. We also did some good this year when readers from here did the "Click for Condors" and helped Ventana Wildlife Society win $10,000 in grant money. Not bad at all. Thank you very much, and here's hoping you have wonderful new year and share new adventures.

Thank you.

Owls Calling In Each Other and Some Digiscoping

As mentioned in the previous post, it's a little chilly right now. But I decided to try some digiscoping at Mr. Neil's bird feeders. Number one, being right outside the house, I could dash in and have some pumpkin spice tea when the layers would begin to fail me (my layering system works great when I'm walking, but it's hard to stay warm when standing in one spot taking photos). Plus, the cold just wreaks havoc on my batteries for my camera. I have discovered that using those Hot Hand hand warmers does help keep them going a little bit longer than just keeping them in a pants pocket.

The berries that were in the blue jay photo are from a bittersweet vine that we planted in the yard. I just love bittersweet, I think it's one of the pretties fall vines out there, so I snipped some off and set it on top of the stump with the snow and tossed some black oil sunflower seed and mixed nuts in front of it so see what type of bird photos I could get.

It's interesting that you hear some people complain about all the manipulation of images with Photoshop, but images can be manipulated just as easily with some well placed foliage and food bribery. I know some who go to great lengths to hide the bird seed used to bring in birds for photos, but I'm not that picky.

It was interesting that this female red-bellied woodpecker had no problem coming down to the stump for the nuts. This species is usually pretty cagey in Mr. Neil's yard. If they do come in, they usually stick to the suet feeder or peanut feeder. But this female decided to risk the spotting scope and come down for some nuts.

Round about 4pm, it started getting darker and the bird activity began to slow down. It was mostly juncos and a couple of cardinals coming in towards the end. I normally would have cropped out the half red-breasted nuthatch on the right, but check out the leg--there's a band, no doubt this is one of the nuthatches we banded this fall. Whoot.

As it was getting darker, something caught the attention of both me and the junco (notice that it looks a bit more alert)--we heard a great horned owl hooting. There has been some hooting on and off in the last few weeks, but they sounded very close. First it stared with one, and then a second, higher pitched hoot came in--male and female. They were hooting back and forth, well it is December, that is prime owl flirting time, but as they were hooting, I noticed a very faint hooting--another great horned was hooting back!

It was almost 4:30pm at this point and that's when the sun sets this time of year. I took a photo and see those tall pines in the back ground? That's where the owls were hooting. After I took this photo, I noticed some flapping and then saw a bird land on top of the pines. I thought I would test my Swarovski's light gathering abilities and see if I could see anything:

There was an owl, perched right at the top of a branch! In the scope, you could make out the colors, but my little digital camera could only just about make out the great horned owl's silhouette.

Here is the male owl in mid-hoot. I love how they pop their tails up like they are some kind of giant wren. Check out its puffed out throat too! The distant owl kept hooting back to the pair closest to me. This is great, I didn't even have to use the iPod, the birds were calling themselves out! Not long after I took this photo, the female flew up to join him:

Here is the male on the left and the female on the right. You can see the size difference and when they were hooting, you could totally tell that the owl on the right was much higher in pitch than the one on the left. I tried to get a video which will be below. You really can't hear the hooting, they were too far for my sad little mic to pick up. But, some fun things that I did catch on the video: At 34 seconds, the female on the right will hoot (you'll see her cock up her tail) and then right after that, watch the male on the left--he's going to cough up a pellet and you should see it fall at about 51 seconds, then watch the female again because she will poop at 1:01. The who thing lasts about a minute and twenty seconds. I ran in and grabbed Mr. Neil's video camera to see if it would be strong enough to pick out the hooting sounds and if you click here and crank your volume as loud as possible, you can hear the male and female hoot (head phones might work best. Anyway, here is the video of the hootin' nanny:



Ah, one of my favorite moments in life. Listening to owls calling in the dark while standing in snow.

Paul and Storm and Jonathan Coulton and Turkeys

The turkey posse had taken over the feeding station at Hyland Park the other day and I have all these photos of turkeys that I'd like to post and I'd like to talk about the concert I went to, so I'm going to combine them. BUT I would like to stress that the turkey is not a metaphor for the bands--the bands were really quite wonderful.

Oh, and Non Birding Bill redid my turkey photo to be in the LOL design. Thanks, NBB. So, I never cease to be amazed at how cool life is and the fun situations I find myself in. At the last Birds and Beers, HellZiggy mentioned that she was going to the Jonathan Coulton concert and asked if I was going. I mentioned that I'm on a budget at the moment and didn't know if I could swing it. She mentioned that if I helped at the merchandise table, I could get in free. Awesome!

It was so cool! I got there late (still sometimes have trouble navigating my way around the Twin Cities with the 35W bridge being out) but as soon as I got in and found HellZiggy I got to meet both Jonathan and the opening act Paul and Storm. It's very strange, I've never met either and had only listened to Coulton's music, but there I was talking with them like I just met them at a party and handling their merchandise--that's the wonder of the Internet for you.

I have to say, I really do enjoy Coulton, and had no idea what to expect from the opening act, but I'm listening to them right--Paul and Storm are just delightful. What's really weird is that they perform on Bob and Tom--a radio show that I grew up with in Indianapolis and the have some of the tracks form the show on their CDs. It was so weird to suddenly hear those familiar voices in my kitchen (Bob and Tom aren't syndicated in Minnesota)--but Paul and Storm are such a delight. They do musical impressions--"If Aaron Neville Were Waiting for a Parking Spot at the Mall, But Someone Else Snagged It" or "Randy Newman's Theme to The Lord of the Rings" and they write songs for a barer shop quartet and I have to say that I'm really digging the "Hip-Shop". You can go to their site to download the music and you can listen to the songs --these guys are well worth the listen if you are into Coulton, They Might Be Giants (they even do an impression of them), or nerdy/geeky guys with a great sense of humor--you'll love their music. And I'm not just saying that because they throw out Pop Tarts and Moon Pies to the audience for bribery.

The Coulton part of the concert was fun too. Someone had asked in the comments earlier if he was nice--he is, incredibly down to Earth. He's as nice in person as he comes off in his music. There was some talk before the show if Mr. Neil was going to come to the concert because he'd referenced Coulton songs in the blog. I offered that if he came I would introduce Coulton him and he said something to the effect of not wanting to impose himself on Mr. Neil. When Mr. Neil did show up and I asked if he wanted to meet Mr. Coulton after the show and Mr. Neil said, "I don't want to impose myself on him." So, I decided to be the imposing conduit.
After the show, I did the introduction. It's times like this that I wish I could have some audio control in the blog to give the full effect. The theater was just playing some general after show music and it was at this exact moment that Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" came over the speakers and the following conversation happened as two somewhat geeky men who are fans of each other met:

Birdchick: Excuse me Mr. Coulton, I have someone I'd like to introduce...

Mr. Coulton: (turns around) Hi! I'm a huge fan!

Mr. Neil: I'm a huge fan!

Mr. Coulton: Really? I saw the mention in the blog.

Mr. Neil: I first heard about you through John Hodgeman and had to listen to more.

Mr. Coulton: Wow, thank you.

Mr. Neil: If you like, I can send you some books and things.

Mr. Coulton: That would be great, I'll give you my guitar.

Mr. Neil: Don't give me your guitar, you need it.

Mr. Coulton: You're giving me books, I have to give you my guitar!

Mr. Neil: Then, I'll give you Sharon!

Mr. Coulton has no need for bees, birds, or disapproving rabbits so the conversation ended there.

So, here is proof of the event thanks to HellZiggy's husband: Paul, Me, Mr. Neil, HellZiggy, Mr. Coulton, and Storm. Anyway, if you haven't heard of Jonathan Coulton, do go check out his mad strummin' tunz.

Thanks, HellZiggy for the great time!

Bonus While Removing Buckthorn

And maybe just a tad of personal vindication.

This afternoon I was doing some half hearted buckthorn removal in Mr. Neil's woods. It needs to be done, but at the same time I was making mental apologies to the woods and wildlife that areas of thick brush would go through a drastic change but would be made up to them in future years with better plants. I fell in love with this woods the first time I walked through it. I remember the spot in the above photo being a particularly perfect place to find a saw-whet owl. Every single time I pass it, I comb the branches with my eyes for small owls but have never seen one there. I've even been taunted by a saw-whet owl feather a wren used in lining a nearby nest box.

Today, I found tiny owl poop beneath one of the trees. I started scanning the trunk but didn't have my hopes too high. After all, I have found owl poop before and no owl. I stood right on top of the poop and looked straight up. The branches revealed nothing. I took a step back and to the right. An oval shape and then vertical lines came into view--saw-whet owl! Finally, a saw-wet! I dashed back up the trail to gather my digiscoping equipment to get a photo of this tiny owl:

It was not the best light and the wee owly was not in the least bit threatened by me and continued its snooze. I left the scope on him and called Lorraine to see if she was working at the house. She was and I insisted that she join me on the trail to see an owl. How could she refuse? We both marveled at the owl and then it did the craziest thing! It woke up, faced away from us and started bobbing its head. We changed our position to get a better look. Without the scope, it looked as though it was about to cough up a pellet. But when I looked in the scope it was opening its mouth and moving as though it were making sounds? What was it doing?? Lorraine and I strained to hear and finally we made out very high pitched, almost inaudible squeaks and clicks--almost bat like. I tried to get a video, but there was no way to get the sound on that microphone. Here you can watch it move:



You know, I've worked with an education saw-whet owl at TRC and have never heard that sound or have seen or heard it in the wild. I couldn't find anything like it on BNA. I did find something sort of like it on Cornell's Owl CD (a must have for any person remotely into owls) and there are a couple of tracks on there listed as "unknown winter vocalization". If there are any owl experts out there who would care to share their knowledge of saw-whet owl vocalizations, I would love to hear it.

We waited for Mr. Neil to finish some writing and insisted that he and Cabal come join us to watch the owl before it got to dark. The owl didn't vocalize but took a direct interest in the large white dog. It's now night, and I hope the saw-whet is finding plenty of tasty mice and voles around the feeding area. I put out some extra bird seed on the ground to encourage small mammals for it.

I guess you never know what you'll find when removing buckthorn.

Banding Birds At Mr. Neil's

I know quite a few banders and I've always wanted to try a banding project at Mr. Neil's. Number one - he's got great bird nesting habitat. Number two, a fair number of migrants pass through and use the area for fueling up for migration. So, I asked my friends Mark Newstrom and Roger Everhart who do regular banding programs at Lowry Nature Center in Carver Park if they would be interested in banding at Mr. Neil's. Being banders, the answer is generally "yes".

They were due to come Saturday morning and I had a somewhat sleepless night between my waning cold, thunder storms all night long, and just general excitement at banding. But the rains finished about 6 am followed by intense humidity.

Roger and Mark set up nets in three different areas: one near the feeders, one near a stand of pines that's full of birds, and one near a small pond. The banding conditions were not perfect. It was hot and humid (hello, it's October, it's supposed to be in the 50s in my neck of the woods), the winds were high (making it easier for birds to see the nets move), the falling leaves kept getting trapped in the nets. Above is a photo of Mark trying to get about 300 oak leaves out of the nets. They took two nets down and left one up by the feeding station.

Here is the first bird banded that day: a red-breasted nuthatch! Even though banding conditions weren't the best and with only one net, Mark and Roger managed to get band twenty-five birds (of five different species) before noon--and the feeder activity was unusually slow. Not bad!

We also got in one very feisty white-breasted nuthatch who did not care for my finger (or maybe just my green nail polish). When biting didn't seem to cause me any agony...

The nuthatch tried the clever and effective nip maneuver. Point taken, nuthatch, point taken.

At some point we had about four birds in the feeder nets at once. We would take the birds out of the nets, put them in a bag and then hang the bags on a string to await being processed. Since it was hot and humid, we had to move the bag hanging area to a more shady spot.

So, we hung them in a tree. Don't let his photo of a smiling Non Birding Bill with bags full of birds fool you. True to his identity in this blog, he showed little to no interest in the banding. He stopped out at one point and then went right back inside saying, "The excitement is too much, I need a nap."

I think the black-capped chickadees were the most common species banded that day. It seemed as soon as one got in the net and started protesting, three others would join in at the sound. Since there were so many, Mark and Roger let me band one:

Talk about pressure! I'm still learning how to do these little tiny songbirds, and I have to do it according to Roger and Mark's protocol.

They take more measurements than at Carpenter Nature Center. They do wing measurements, tail measurements, weight, and they measure individual feathers like primary wing feather 8 as well as trying to age and sex the birds. However, being just two guys, they do it quite quickly. I don't think any bird was in hand for more than five minutes.

They also blow on the body feathers to see if and where the bird is molting and to check for any fat stores the birds might have. Mark and Roger can predict when a flock of birds is about to leave an area based on their fat stores. Above is a goldfinch being blown on and if you look closely on the right of the exposed pink skin (which you can see through--that kind of grossed Lorraine out), you can see a bit of yellow--that is some fat this finch as stored up.

They ruffle the feathers on the head to see if there is any molting up there. Nice Eraserhead look. Don't worry about all the feather ruffling. One good rouse after they fly away puts all the feathers back into place.

We did have one goldfinch come in that appeared to show signs of either illness or not eating well. It was underweight to begin with and all the feathers on the head appeared appeared to have a crusty texture to them.

The bird's tail appears to be molting in late. It could be underweight with the molt or there could be something more serious going on. We're far from any rehabber and so we thought the best thing to do was let it loose and I will just stay on top of keeping the feeders clean and full of good food.

We did get one woodpecker in, this female downy woodpecker. There are usually dozens of woodpeckers at the feeders, but they were wary of the whole situation. We could hear the red-bellies calling from all corners of the yard, but none came to the feeding stations until late afternoon.

Mark and Roger showed me how dark the underside of her tail was--no doubt stained by tannins in tree bark. Woodpeckers use their stiff tails to prop themselves upright and white feathers are bound to get dirty. Based on this bird's molt pattern, Mark and Roger speculated that she was at least hatched in 2005. Pretty cool.

I was hoping we would get some of the fun birds (What am I saying! they're all fun! Let's say unusual) would come into the nets like tufted-titmice. But much like the red-bellied woodpeckers, these birds decided to avoid the feeding stations until late afternoon.

Purple finches managed to avoid the nets as well. The young of the family group are starting to show adult coloring--especially the males. More on these later.

Since it was so hot, Mark and Roger wrapped up the banding by noon--you don't want to risk birds sitting in the nets on a hot day for any extended period of time--bird safety is top priority. Later on Saturday, I was digiscoping and did find one or two of the banded birds. Here is one of the black-capped chickadees we banded. Perhaps this the one I banded? Even this morning, I saw a red-breasted nuthatch and goldfinch sporting the bands. It will be fun to watch which stick around this winter.

I'd like to thank Roger and Mark for taking the time out of their busy schedule to band birds. I hope they can come again. They are excited about the spring migration potential. Hopefully, next time it won't be 80 some degrees with high humidity.

Go See Stardust and A Little About Our Honey

One of the fun things about being a theater major is that from time to time you see former classmates show up in anti-drug commercials, episodes of Law and Order, or live action kid tv shows. It's just fun watching friends get into the Hollywood industry. That's kind of the way I feel about Stardust--it's the Hollywood version of Mr. Neil.

Unlike Non Birding Bill, I had never read any of Mr. Neil's stuff before we met him. I got to know him as this fun British guy who has an interesting job. I think Anansi Boys was the first book that I read (and that was just checking bird facts) and I have read a couple other things since then. I listened to Stardust as an audio book on my travels the last couple of weeks just prep for the movie. Sunday we were invited to the preview and had a great time.

The movie is different than the book--it's a Hollywood version of it--what fun to see something a friend had written turned into a big summer movie with lots of special effects and actual stars--Robert De Niro, Clare Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer. It's about a fallen star that has landed into the fairy side of the world and all the people going after her. If she had landed on the real world, she would have been a cold, hard rock. Since she landed in fairy land, she's a woman who now has princes, a boy in love, and an evil witch all coming to claim her.

De Niro was by far my favorite part of the film. I figured he was just going to be his usual De Niro self which would have worked fine with the book, but they really take the character to another level which I was not prepared for and loved.

I would call this an adult fairy tail, kind of along the lines of Princess Bride (but with much cooler effects) but I think kids would enjoy it. It has some violence, but not nearly what is in the book--the book is far grosser in my opinion. The movie version has some sword play--not a lot--the end has a fun fight scene with some cool effects. There's something for everyone: pirates, magic, pretty dresses, hot guys, a couple of sword fights, unicorns, even a bird--I think it's a magpie jay, but if someone else has seen the movie and knows what it is, please let me kn0w.

So, go see Stardust this weekend, take a friend. Supporting this movie does help support the bees you read about in this blog. If the movie does well, next year we can add more hives--perhaps even making it available for sale or to give away as prizes. I know it's crazy to make blockbuster movies to fund a beekeeping business, but it's just crazy enough that it might work. Speaking of bees, Mr. Neil told me to do a taste comparison between the first frame of honey we harvested and the second. Here is a photo of our first honey:

Now, below is some comb honey from our second harvest two weeks later:

Look at that, it's a little darker and more yellow. The flavor is a bit different too, it's more sweet and not as peppery and lacks the hint of pine that the first harvest had. Still very tasty. Some honey was sent to our friend Malena and she reviews it here...although as much as I love Malena, her bee natural history is a little inaccurate, so don't take that bit too seriously.

And, I have it on good authority that four out of four dead princes agree, our honey rocks.

Bee Report - Olga on Track

The heavens opened up and shone down upon our industrious beehives and made the larvae to sparkle! And it was good. Note the twinkling bee larvae in the above photo? That's gotta be a good omen.

Well, we learned some interesting lessons at the bee hives today. Number 1 - you sweat in all kinds of places when wearing a bee suit in upper eighty degree temperatures while standing in bright sunlight. Hoo wee! Number 2 - Olga is coming along rather splendidly!

She had about 70% of her frames drawn out with comb! The above photo is one of the center frames that we checked last week that had eggs in it. Now the eggs are larvae and the workers are capping them so they can pupate in peace. You wouldn't believe how heavy a frame full of drawn out comb, brood, and honey feels! This is what a good frame of brood looks like according to the books and classes--what do you know, Olga is finally agreeing with the books--and exceeding Kitty's hive in comb construction. Kitty was a full two frames short of the Olga hive.

That's not to say that Olga still isn't showing her individuality. There is some unique comb construction going on, but I believe that is more my fault for not spacing the frames properly. Above is an example of some of the funky comb from Olga's hive. It's elevated and curled upon itself. They Kitty hive had a little of this as well, but not to the degree of the Olga hive.

For some of the comb, we were able to press down onto the frame, but some of it was out so far out, I had to take it off. I felt a pang of guilt because larvae was inside some of the cells--but it had to be done to insure proper frame spacing in the future. There was also some honey mixed in with the larvae from the removed comb that dripped onto my palm. Mr. Neil, Lorraine, and I took a taste. It had honey flavor, not full honey but the potential for flavorful greatness is there. I felt a surge of pride in our girls.

Here's another shot of some uncapped brood. This larvae will probably be capped off within the next day or two. Imagine, two weeks from now, those gelatinous, squirmy blobs will be just like their sisters above. We did not see either queen today, but we did see lots of eggs in both hives meaning both queens were there, but doing a good job of evading our watchful (albeit sweat covered) gazes.

Both hives are taking advantage of the nectar feeder and of the pollen patties. Kitty's hive has gone into propolis overdrive. The flat things in the above photo are the pollen patties and the little bits of tan granules around it are propolis. It's starting to get gooey ad sticky in the hot weather. I have a feeling it's gonna get messy later this summer in the Kitty Hive.

Here's a photo of the workers at the Kitty hive entrance. Notice the yellow around the hole--that's pollen that has fallen off and collected from returning worker bees. It's interesting to observe the more territorial behaviors today. With the Olga hive, we have a very limited time before we wear out our welcome. They start off quiet, but within five minutes, they start bumping our head masks, warning they are about to sting. The buzzing gets more agitated as well. Kitty gives us a bit more time before warning us off. They are an easy going kingdom--to a point. When they've had enough, they get down to the business of driving you out.

Once our frames in our brood boxes are 80% full, it's time to stack another brood box on there. With they way Olga was working today, I might do that this Saturday. For now, cap away girls, cap away.

Rio Grande Valley Fest Odds and Ends

Did I mention that I ran into Mr. Neil in Harlingen? I was invited to a party at Marci Fuller's house and there he was at the kitchen table. Here he is regaling Amy Hooper, Marcie and Katie Fitzmier with his stories. This was the first time I'd run into him at the bird festival.

The fun thing for me when visiting another state is just enjoying birds that I don't normally see where I live, even if I have seen them before. On the lines we have large flocks of great-tailed grackles and starlings gathering to roost for the night. The grackles made so many strange clicks and whistles, they really remind me of dolphins. I really enjoyed seeing some different blackbirds.

Here the blackbirds are coming in for one last bathe for the day in this drainage ditch. When the starlings joined it, there were so many of them flipping water around it created almost a mist and you could barely make them out.

Blackbirds are well and good, but a fancy pants scissor-tailed flycatcher is fun to watch for on power lines too. This one was digiscoped the Swarovski scope and Nikon P4 camera. Here's what it looks like at a distance:

Even at a distance you can't help but notice that bird. I wonder what non birders from the East visiting the western United States think when they see these guys?

Neil appreciated being able to see these guys through the scope.

Here' s a bird that his more Mr. Neil's speed--a butcher bird aka loggerhead shrike! These predatory birds are different from raptors because they use their bill to catch and kill their prey and not their feet like a hawk or falcon would. Theses birds also impale their prey on thorns or barbs to make it easier to hack at and that's where their folk name comes from.

Another fun part of travel are just odd things, like this water tower proclaiming to be the home town of Freddy Fender. It was great to see the town of San Benito so proud of their native son with such prominent 1970s hair and handlebar mustache.

If you ever find yourself in Harlingen, Texas either for the RGV Bird Festival or just going on your own, I can't recommend this place enough. It's called Alicia's and I was introduced to it by the Eagle Optics staff. They are only open for breakfast and lunch and you get large portions for a small price. Think a whole Mexican style breakfast for $3.75. Another great place for lunch and dinner is Pepe's but be sure to specify that you want the hot salsa.

Part of Alicia's charm is the artwork on the wall. Check out all the deep inner meaning. I like how the loin cloth morphs into the mustache.

I had intended to do an entry about the kid's artwork at the festival, but WildBird on the Fly beat me to it so we'll talk about Alicia's art. It's not all religious, there's also interesting takes on the great masters:

The Mona Lisa bunny hands freaked me out at first, but then the growling dog behind her weirded me out more. Don't even get me started on the men in the mountains.

I must say, they had cooler hats at the festival. It's not often you see a black cap and then add such a striking green jay to it. Mr. Neil looked very smart with it on.

I think this brings the RGV coverage to a close at the moment. It was an awesome time and I hope to go again next year.

G-Dawg Photo Art

Birder Avec Fantasy Writer

Neil Gaiman Searches for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Woo Hoo! I can upload images to blogger in the usual way, I heart blogger again.

Read an early press release on the Ivory-bill search at WildBird on the Fly. It's good to have a friend on the inside of the media.

Okay, not many people know this, but when I when down to Arkansas, Neil Gaiman came along and aided with the search. After all. we are such good friends and I try to sneak him away birding whenever we can. He had a good time and since info is available, I can talk aobut this now. By the way, all the photos in this entry are from Sharon Stiteler Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Here was the trailer that Neil slept in. It wasn't bad until one night when it got down to 20 degrees, the propane tank ran out and because of low water supplies we were asked not to use the bathroom unless it was an "emergency".

Here is Gene Sparling with Neil. Gene was the kayaker who got the whole ball rolling with his sighting on the Cache River. Gene offered to take Neil kayaking sometime. I think they were fast friends.

Here is Neil sporting his camo. Silly writer, he forgot his ghillie suit so I loaned him peices of mine. He blended in very well with the cypress knees. He was so covered up, a winter wren even tried to roost in him...or maybe was looking for insect larvae tucked in his hair.


We were both very amazed by the vines and the twisting they did around each other. Above, Neil waits patiently for an ivory-billed woodpecker to fly by in the White River WMA. We had to move along from this area though. Barred owls were all over the place and for some reason one swooped here. Perhaps Neil just moved just enough under his camo to give the impression he was a colony of mice as opposed to an award-winning author.

Ooooo, this looks like intriguing horizontal scaling mixed with some pileated woodpecker cavities. Could this be the work of an ivory-bill or a prankster pileated? Neil removed his camo so we could use his body as a size comparison. Whatever woodpecker did this is enormous...I don't know if we want to find it. I'm kinda scared.

Oh no, someone help quick! Neil got caught in one of the bazillions of briar patches--a big downside to walking around in the White River WMA. Any camo worn by searchers, whether it was a ghillie suit or bug suit was ripped to shreds. I wonder how much camo was left in the woods after all the searchers left?

I don't know what kind of fungus this was, but it sure looked cool. Neil blended very well. Can you find him? We heard several double knocks in the White River WMA, but we soon learned that everything gives double knocks: pileated woodpeckers, red-headed woodpeckers, water bottles in your backpack, your stomach, trees blowing in the wind, duck wings...you name it. We learned not to trust double knocking as sign of ivory-bills.

This was as close as Neil got to seeing an actual ivory-bill. We thought this sign telling people to look for the ivory-bill was a little funny, since no one has really seen the head on the bird. We had an adventure, it was a blast.

Birding with Neil

Periodically I am asked if I am really friends with Neil Gaiman. Yes, I am really am. And to prove it, I took Neil up for a day of hawk watching around Duluth, MN to experience the thrill of thousands of migrating birds of prey. First we stopped at my friend Frank Taylor’s hawk blind to band migrating hawks and then we headed to Hawk Ridge. Many don't know this, but Neil is quite the birder and has a way with passerines (note Neil with the song sparrow on the left).









Neil sits in the hawk blind to help watch for hawks flying over the field. There were a couple of times when he confused blue jays with sharp-shinned hawks but he got the hang of it before the end of the day.









We banded a passage female merlin. She graciously posed for a photo with Neil before continuing on with her migration.











Neil meets some pigeons at the banding station—all of whom never get harmed by hawks during banding due to protective leather jackets and expert handling by hawk banders. He tried to chat with them about their adventures, but being pigeons they were hesitant to speak of their exploits.







After a morning full of banding we stopped at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve. Neil took a look at the daily totals. He was most excited about seeing a Northern Goshawk and agreed with me that, goshawks are hands down the coolest North American raptor.








The banders at Hawk Ridge got in a Red-eyed Vireo—which are surprisingly aggressive and try to bite anybody. It’s okay because they are insectivores and have soft bills and don’t hurt so much when the bite. This one took a break from nipping for a photo with Neil.










A rare appearance by a Golden-crowned Kinglet at the Hawk Ridge banding station made for a special day. Neil graciously accepted a kiss from this secretive bird.















A fellow birder, Reier decides to make Neil feel like a true bird watcher by making fun of him. This is a good sign that Neil is being embraced by the birding community.















Before the day was done we found a huge mushroom. It reminded me of a smurf house. I wanted to see what it tasted like, but Neil smartly recommended we shouldn’t eat mushrooms we aren’t sure of.


Well hopefully this answers the question of just how well I know Neil Gaiman.