World Series of Birding 2008 Report Part 1

I have so much catching up to do before the Detroit Lakes Festival this weekend--how will I fit it all in? In the meantime, I need to catch you up on all the wacky fun that is the World Series of Birding and some of the photos we got like the above red-winged blackbird.

Essentially, it's a contest that turned 25 years old this year that requires a team to see the most species of birds in the state in a 24 hour period. There are a few different ways to win, like seeing the most birds in Cape May County in a 24 hour period or what our team did: digiscope as many different species of birds as possible in a 24 hour period. Our team was the Swarovski Digiscoping Hawks consisting of Swarovski Optik Rep Clay Taylor, me, and our driver, Amy Hooper (aka WildBird on the Fly). Incidentally, her magazine WildBird sponsored a winning team as well and you can read about that here.

There was on big challenge for the day: the weather! It rained--blah. It's hard enough if you are a team just trying to see and hear as many species as possible, it's even worse for camera equipment. I was hoping to come home with some really hot shots of shorebirds and species I don't normally see like the brant in the above photo, but I had to settle for just getting identifiable.

I don't think I could do a World Series team any other way than digiscoping. Here we are getting ready to load into the vehicle to get started at 5am. We can't really shoot photos in the dark, so unlike the other teams who drove out to their birding spots Friday night, so they could start the count right at midnight Saturday morning, we got a compartively late start. We were out for a total of 15 hours because of light, as opposed to teams who went for the full 24 hour birding blitz. Digiscoping is a more relaxing way to go.

I've heard people try to say that birding is good exercise. I don't know if I agree with that since you are generally trying to creep through areas looking for species and if you get to a hot spot, you stand around and stare. A world series team is constantly moving at a brisk pace--you need to rack up the species, you can't just dilly dally around. The only problem is that you are out for so long, you tend to load up on sugary drinks and junk food so it counter acts all the movement. It was great for us when we would get to a spot like the above, and you could knock out several species in one frame: whimbrels, short-billed dowitchers, and gull-billed terns.

But, I have to say, I thought we did a few things that would keep us from winning. Clay is my kind of guy. We enjoyed the sport of going out to get bird photos, but when a merlin flew in and landed, we had to take a moment. With merlins, attention must be paid. We saw this bird fly in and land not long after we arrived at this spot. We got an identifiable photo, but Clay, Amy, and I went over to get as many photos as we could. I love that even though it was a competition, we still could take a merlin moment. Incidentally, merlins were everywhere that day. We first saw one at the Meadows and it flew by too fast for us to get a photo, but we watched it fly over a couple of other teams who were not digiscoping and the completely missed it. I wonder how many birds we missed like that?

There were some challenges for me. We didn't see too many feeding stations and I'm used to Mr. Neil's where all I need to do is place a feeder in great sun and bam, I knock off the birds. When I heard a rose-breasted grosbeak overhead, I was sweating trying to line up the scope with the bird popping out periodically from the leaves to sing his song.

Even more shocking was that I was able to knock out a tanager. Again, a not perfect photo, but it's identifiable.

Clay has some mad digiscopin' skillz. I used a point and shoot digital camera with my spotting scope. He uses a digital SLR attached to his. He also has developed a technique of taking his scope off the tripod and holding it to get flight shots--note above. Yes, he's holding a Swarovski 80mm scope that is attached to his SLR--and he can get some great flight shots that way.

Check it out, he even got us a snipe in flight! Snipe are hard enough to find and photograph, he got one on the wing. See what I mean people, mad digiscopin' skillz. You can see examples of this free handed digiscoping technique at this blog entry when Clay and I were at the Connecticut Bald Eagle Fest.

I was really curious who we were going to get swallows, they were zipping around all over the place and that's a challenge even with Clay's technique. Fortunately, a whole line was perched on a wooden railing and we were able to systematically knock off barn swallow and cliff swallow (both above) as well as northern rough-winged and tree all in a few snaps.

I think this is the best photo that I got all day long. It was pouring rain and I was trying to get a white-eyed vireo and for all my pishing, about three catbirds came out to stop and stare. Perhaps they were thinking of incorporating that into their usual mimic song routine?

This is one of the photos that Clay got, his SLR really was able to get the color of this tri-colored heron even in the crappy light. We were actually trudging around through a salt-marsh trying to get a photo of a salt-marsh sharp-tailed sparrow...man, a salt marsh...that's a special kind of stinky.

While Clay got the heron, I got this banded osprey feeding on a fish. When I showed this photo to Non Birding Bill and pointed out the band, he asked snarkily, "Can you read the numbers?" I zoomed in on iPhoto and we could make out a 0 and an 8. He was impressed.

I think this is the last photo that I got for the day. We already had a turkey vulture flight shot, but again, a turkey vulture that was perched in the rare moment of sunshine for the day was just too good to pass up.

We actually ended our day at around 8pm because it got too dark to photograph. We went back to the hotel, showered and Clay worked on our PowerPoint for our checklist presentation. At around 11:30pm, we went to the finish line which was bustling with activity. Here is the long line of volunteers who verify your numeric total of birds. Teams were pouring in all the way to midnight. Teams who were just trying to observe birds were out til the last minute trying to listen for black rail and saw-whet owls.

Some teams were collapsing from sheer exhaustion. Birding hardcore for 24 hours. Could you blame them. There was also some press there--even Animal Planet! They were following one of the teams for a potential birding series pilot. Hope it makes it on tv. After midnight, we went back to our hotel and slept, resting up before the morning awards ceremony.

Here, Clay and I are reenacting me learning that we won--that was total shock. I really thought with some of the birds that we missed, the crap weather, and things like merlin moments that we would come in at a respectable number, but not win. But at 113 bird species identifiable in our PowerPoint, we won.

I was a big ole honkin' cheese ball when we went up to get our award. I think I said "Holy Crap" about four times (although, better than the words I actually used when I learned we won--my mom would get out a bar of soap). I even took a photo of the audience while we were getting our plaque.

Here is our award. They used Clay's photo of a marsh wren in the background. Since Swarovski was the sponsor, the plaque will go to their offices. That's fine they get the award, I got to have all of the fun out in the field.

More to come later.

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!

Rules for the World Series of Birding

I went out today and did a bit of scouting for the World Series of Birding and went over the rules with Clay Taylor for our team: Swarovski Digiscoping Hawks. It's an okay team name, but I'm having some major envy of the team named Blue Oystercatcher Cult.

We have to try and photograph as many species as possible in a twenty-four hour period. The photos do not have to be printable or even blogable, but the bird in the photo must be identifiable.

A regular WSoB team would be able to count species heard and seen. We can only count what we photograph. I wondered if we could use the possibility of digivideoing. For example, we were hearing clapper rails all over the place, could I take a digivideo with the scope and pick up the audio of the call? Clay says "no" we can only photograph. Fortunately, one of the clapper rails came out of the reeds and I was able to get a photo...let's hope it's that easy this Saturday during the actual event.

These are some of the other general rules that just made chuckle:

A sick, injured, or oiled bird counts--as long as it's alive. However, eggs do not count...unless you see the parent bird.

To avoid disturbing a raptor nest, a team that knows the location of a nest where flushing an adult is possible does not have to see the actual nest. On the day of the competition (and if the species was seen simultaneously by two people from the team during some scouting the week ahead) the team can park in close proximity during daylight hours and wait inside or beside the vehicle for as long as it would have taken for all members to get to the nest...the team must wait a minimum of five minutes.

During the competition, a team cannot find birding help from other resources like birding hotlines, listservs, or any other general alert via phone, pda, or computer. So, Non Birding Bill can send me text messages saying how much he loves and misses me or that he sees a Nashville warbler outside the bedroom window, but he would not be allowed to send me a text reading that a wood stork was found a Higbee Beach. Further, if my team is out and we encounter other birders--even if they are not part of the competition, we cannot ask them, "Seen any good birds?" Now, there is a provision if we accidentally hear about something. For example, if Clay and I were walking by a group not involved with the competition was walking past us and one of them exclaimed loudly to her group, "Oh my! I can't believe I got my lifer blue tit outside the Lighthouse in Cape May!" we could use that information.

Now, what if a team found an eskimo curlew and it was just too exciting of a bird and such a once in a lifetime event that all the other teams should know? Well, it would be okay to tell us and it would b okay for us to hear that information...however, if we went to see the eskimo curlew, it would not be countable for our team because we didn't find it on our own. This is known as the "Outlaw Birds" clause.

Wacky stuff, but if you're going to have a competition, you need to have rules. You can read the full rules and guidelines here.

While doing some scouting, I noticed these two laughing gulls. They started perched on the roof of a shelter and then started fighting each other. A few flaps and then they stayed locked in this position for about eight minutes (yes, I timed it).

The gull on the left that is stuck in the bill hold did not move to much. I wondered if it was nervous about having the sharp tip of the attacker's bill so close to the eye? Just I started to wonder aloud just how long this would last...

In flew a fish crow that flushed the gulls. I don't think it was an altruistic motive to keep peace in the bird neighborhood. I think the crow wondered if the birds were fighting over some food and if it could steal the food during the fight. There didn't appear to be food, but it was an interesting interaction that once again leaves me with questions rather than answers.

I hope I was awake enough for during this entry to only have five typos instead of two dozen.

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.

Blogging On A Snowy Spring Day

I think this post needs to be book ended by butter butts (aka yellow-rumped warblers). In many ways spring is a cruel and at times non existent season in the northern US. Some might even goes far as to call spring a treacherous snake woman. After the magical Wednesday of seventy some odd degrees Thursday and Friday were rain, rain, rain, snow. Yep, snow. Now, luckily in the Twin Cities we just got a few flurries and a dusting that melted away by Saturday afternoon. However, up north they got 6 - 10 inches. I'm curious to see if there will be snow when I go up to the Detroit Lakes Festival in a few weeks.

After it rained all day Thursday, I headed 150 miles south to Wisconsin on Friday morning to give some bird programs at an elementary school. I knew cold weather was coming because my right knee was acting up--very stiff and painful to walk on--I dislocated that knee in a skateboarding incident at age 16 and like some weird voodoo it can sense dramatic temperature shifts. After I gave the programs, I used the chance to hang out with my buddy Joan and she took me to Trempealeau NWR. We had a few breaks between rain showers to do a little walking. When we stepped out of the parking lot we overcome by the aromatic and eye watering smell of:

a fish kill! Not since Stink Island have I had an nasal experience like that, it looked like mostly carp. I tried looking up the cause of the fish kill on "the google" and found that Trempleau NWR has a history of fish kills. The carp cause a disappearance of aquatic plants by grubbing up the roots and that leads to a deletion of dissolved oxygen in winter causing the fish kill. Bleh! However, some birds try to make the most of it:

This red-winged black bird was announcing his territory. I thought it was a pain to be out on a cloudy and drizzly day--this guy was singing on a pile of floaters--that's optimism! Imagine being a female red-winged blackbird, just returning from migration and you find a male you kind of like and he takes you back to see his territory and he takes you to this! Actually, she probably wouldn't care too much, not having a highly developed sense of smell. When the male wasn't displaying to rival males, he hopped from dead fish to dead fish feeding. At times it looked like slivers of fish meat and a couple of times it looked like he had found some sort of aquatic insect larvae. Leave it to birds to make the best of a rotten situation.

There were tons of yellow-rumped warblers. As I would drive, I could see clouds of them rolling through fields, the edge of woodlands, along water edges looking for anything edible. On my way down and on my way back to the Twin Cities I saw many recent insect eating arrivals: chimney swifts, purple martins, palm warblers, and on the listservs people were reporting orioles, thrashers, and rose-breasted grosbeaks. As much of a bummer as cold snap in spring is to me, I can't help but wonder how birds exhausted from migration can survive it.

I drove along and heard a familiar song--an eastern towhee. That's not a bird I hear very often in the cities and just took a few moments to enjoy his "drink your tea" song. I was bummed that I didn't have fantastic light. I'd love to try and get a shot where you can see that crazy red eye on the towhee--ah well, another bird for another day. His song was a welcome tune to the chilly day.

Okay, this is not the greatest shot ever of a red-tailed hawk, but the bird cracked me up. It was between rain showers and the bird was trying to air dry it's wings. Poor guy.

It's been interesting to watch the birds around my neighborhood. Saturday when it was snowing there were some yellow-rumps in my neighborhood searching for food around the tree buds and in crevices of apartment buildings--it's so strange to see them in their breeding plumage while feeding in snow flurries. The week is going to be chilly but should be warm by this time next weekend. I wish I could control the weather to give the arriving migrants a warmer welcome.

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!

Mergansers At Wood Lake

I love this time of year. Loons are migrating north and this is one of the few times you can find them on the lakes near our apartment. This was my Friday morning loon.

I had a spare hour this morning and headed over to Wood Lake Nature Center. Now that the ice is finally coming out of some of the Twin Cities lakes, people are reporting waterfowl all over. When I arrived at Wood Lake, I was surprised to see a tree sparrow still hanging around. How soon will we see chipping sparrows in their place?

When I got down to the lake, I noticed some waterfowl dotting the surface. Across from me, a coot started splashing around. It poked its bill a couple of times in the water and then took off. I wondered if a large fish was going after its feet...

I was surprised to see a pied-billed grebe pop up where the coot had been. Not long after I took this photo it gave its territory call. Perhaps the grebe plans to use this as its nesting territory and feels that no coots should be allowed.

There was a robin lurking in the reeds--check out that beakful of nesting material!

I continued to scan the lake and found this pair of hooded mergansers. They drifted over to the other side where there is another dock. I wondered if I could get over there to get a closer look. They can be kind of cagey, but the male would be interested in the female and maybe wouldn't notice me.

I walked over to the dock and moved slowly, using the reeds to hide my body. They noticed my movement, but didn't seem too alarmed.
Every time they dove under water for fish, I would take a step closer and try to anticipate where they would pop up and have my scope and camera ready.

This seemed to work well. When the birds would come up with a fish, they were so interested in trying to swallow it, they didn't care if I came right out in the open.

Some mallards came out towards the mergansers. The males were chasing a hen, oblivious to the smaller ducks around them. It's weird seeing the mergansers head on.

Eventually, the female swam over to a log and began to preen. The male soon followed and did a little display of raising his crest. And either because I'm incredibly tired or have been sipping too much scotch, I leave you with an anthropomorphic cartoon of hooded mergansers:

The Benefits Of Relieving Yourself In The Woods

This is the post that I was debating about: is it too much information? But Non Birding Bill said that is was gold...hm, interesting choice of words in hindsight.

I was bebopping around in Mr. Neil's woods on Sunday. I was in hot pursuit of a ruffed grouse and the report that a black-backed woodpecker had been seen (I did not see it). After spending so much time trying to get photos of fox sparrows on Saturday, I was amused at how abundant and cooperative they were for my camera. Note the guy above. He just perched right above me in the woods and sat for several minutes. We're banding at Mr. Neil's on Sunday, I hope a few stick around.

It did seem to be a brown bird bonanza day. I was trying to get a photo of a brown creeper, but boy they just do not sit still. I got this shot and then aimed my scope up a few feet higher in anticipation of getting the perfect shot...

...however, just as it was perfectly centered in the frame, it took off! Curses!

The woods were full of hermit thrushes foraging on the ground. I love these birds. They are so secretive when they feed, it's hard to remember that they are the glorious singers we'll soon hear up north. I lost total track of how long I was in the woods chasing down all these brown birds. As I was following the thrushes, I heard a red-tailed hawk call from not too far behind me. It's sound I hear the education red-tails at The Raptor Center make in their mews. I wondered if there was one on territory nearby. I know a pair is nesting nearby, but did not think that the nest would be in this direction. I soon found myself far off on a path I do not normally travel looking for the nest. The sound of the red-tail was getting louder and louder, but I couldn't see anything in the bare trees that looked like a hawk nest. I reached the end of the path, it ended right at a bend in the creek. I noticed that I had a dire need to pee. There was a place just right for needs, and I assumed the position. From that angle, there was a clearing in some tangled buckthorn with a view of some pines across the creek:

Oh hey! check out that lump in the pine. I couldn't see it when standing on the path, but from this lower angle, it was quite visible. I finished what I started and then got the large lump in the scope.

I watched for about five minutes and then saw a large lump emerge. That looks like a hawk. Then to confirm it, I heard the loud, scratchy "keeeeeer" of a second red-tail--right over head. Then a third bird appeared. There was lots of screaming and it looked like a territory skirmish was underway. The red-tail in the nest took to the sky and the two hawks drove out the third.

After the intruder left, both red-tails returned to the nest. I was excited to find the nest, but a tad bummed that it is not in a place that is easy to photograph from a distance. Once the buckthorn leafs out, it will be well hidden.

I worried about posting this because, me peeing in the woods might be too much info and really, do you need that image floating around in your head? But as I said, NBB said "How can you not blog about peeing in the woods?"

Anyway, it led to finding a cool nest.

Sapsuckers And Grouse

I woke up this morning hoping to dash out to look for a grouse drumming log. I put on a cup of coffee and was chit chatting with Non Birding Bill when I looked behind him and saw a male yellow-bellied sapsucker--I was so excited on a nearby pine! It was low and in great light. I grabbed my scope and NBB grabbed my camera and I went to work trying to get a photo. I was getting some okay photos, but it was through a window and it wasn't as crisp as I would like them. Sapsuckers have never been a very cooperative bird for me and I didn't want to scare it off.

But it continued to peck when I went outside so I got some great shots. It's weird, I was trying to find information about sapsuckers and tree health and I couldn't find a conclusive study about whether or not sapsuckers damage healthy trees or go after trees already in ill health. There did seem to be information from tree people calling them pests and information from bird people saying that we don't know for sure and most trees survive. Looks like more study needs to be done.

I did go out to look for grouse and NBB came with me. Mr. Neil told me that a week ago he heard strong drumming. We went to the area he described and sure enough we heard the drumming. We slowly followed a trail up the hill and I spotted this tangle. I saw a log...I saw a grouse shape--we found the grouse! It was frozen, it knew we there and we were not going to get to see it drum. After about thirty seconds it took off.

In spring, male ruffed grouse find a log and beat their wings against their chest to attract a female. If you've never heard it before, let me tell you, it's a crazy sound. It's such a low resonance, I tend to feel it as opposed to hear it. My friend Larry from banding has been giving information on what to look for in grouse drumming sites. This one fit the bill--it was a clearing, but the log itself was surrounded by some branches.

We found some grouse poop, but not a lot. I wonder if this isn't the usual log? I wanted to set up the motion sensitive camera, but the log is on someone else's property and in full view of a cabin. No one was home for me to ask and I momentarily thought of setting it up anyway, but NBB wisely pointed out that leaving a motion sensitive camera for someone to find might freak them out. I'll try again next weekend. Nonetheless, it is a goal realized--I've always wanted to find a grouse drumming log. Now I just need to get some footage of it in action.

And now I leave you with a video of the sapsucker drilling. There's a bee entry coming up, we did our first big spring hive inspection. I also have an idea for another entry, but I'm not sure. NBB says it's gold. I'm worried, that it might be too much information. I'll sleep on it.

Taunted By Fox Sparrows

Non Birding Bill went out with me today to Staring Lake Outdoor Center with Cinnamon. We were there for the open house and when we arrived, there were a ton of sparrows under the feeder. I tried to take a break here and there to get photos of fox sparrows, but the closest I came was getting a vent shot.

We had kids giving Cinnamon lots of love, completely oblivious to the disapproval. I got a kick out of the people at the table next to me showing snakes. They kept making a point to say within ear shot that it was a good thing they didn't bring the big snakes. Apparently, the big snakes would have been overly excited sensing a rabbit--that's food after all. One in particular was making a big show of staying as far away as possible from the rabbit. The first time I heard them it was amusing. After the thirteenth time, it was just tiresome and I said, "Yes, I get the food chain. I understand."

Oh well, I'm sure I've done the EXACT same thing when doing raptor programs. "Oh, better keep that purse puppy away. That's making the hawk awful interested."

I tried a few more times to get photos of the fox sparrows. I did get this lovely grackle. A whole flock discovered our apartment feeding station yesterday and made short work of the suet. Guess it's time to switch to safflower.

I did get a lovely song sparrow, but the fox eluding not only my digiscoping but the motion sensitive camera. After we finished at Staring Lake, NBB and I head out to Mr. Neil's for dinner. We arrived just as the afternoon sun was hitting my beloved brush pile.

I scattered some seed on the larger branches and nestled my body and my spotting scope in some of the surrounding shrubbery and waited. The chickadees and juncos flew in first. Note the disapproving junco above. Next flew in the song sparrows and finally...

A fox sparrow popped up and perched on one of the branches and gave me a few minutes to get the fluffy bird. Love those sparrows!

Early Spring Sparrows

Winter storm warning starts today, April 10 at 4pm! We might be getting 4 - 6 inches of snow sometime within the next 48 hours. I shouldn't complain...Duluth is supposed to get blizzard conditions (not blizzard like, just blizzard).

While I was checking the traps yesterday, I heard my first field sparrows of the year (above). When we finished banding, I took a few minutes to go out and look for them--there were several. That is such a sweet sound of spring and summer.

There were a few song sparrows (above) around too. They've been around for a couple of weeks now. Although, some song sparrows don't leave the Twin Cities in winter. When I worked at a bird store on the west side, we had them at the feeder all winter long.

The field sparrow is such a cute brown bird! I was really enjoying the time with the field sparrows yesterday. Tax time has been rough this year. We put it off (our own darn fault) and we're gonna have to pay and it's going to hurt and we've irritated our accountant--just all those crazy things that many of us go through this one week in April every year. I loved just standing out in the prairie at Carpenter Nature Center surrounded by the sweet songs of the field sparrows, soaking it in. And no matter how late we are with our taxes or how much we end up owing, birds are always a comfort. I tried to take a video through my scope of the field sparrow singing for people who may not know what they sound like (it reminds many of a ping pong ball bouncing on a table). There's a little heat shimmer, but you get the idea:

Junco Goodness

Today has been such a weird day. So what do you do on April 1 and you wake up to eight inches of snow?

Well, you could go a little crazy like Lorraine did and melt some beeswax and drop globs of snow in to watch it form hard yellow clumps of wax.

I opted to spend some quality time with a brush pile. It's covered in juncos as usual and I was surprised to find a Lincoln's sparrow lurking among them. Alas, it moved way too quickly for me to digiscope it.

I scattered some seed on some of the branch ends that were sitting in the direct light of the setting sun. As soon as I would turn my back and walk ten feet back to my spotting scope, the juncos would hop out to feed.

A few chickadees flew in to partake of the seed as well.

If you look closely at the above bird, you might notice little pin feathers around its face--it's molting. I always wonder what it must be like to molt and feel little pin pricks where new feathers are poking through--and some species do this twice in a year. Do you suppose there's bird PMS (pre molt syndrome)?

Speaking of PMS, my goodness the snow made some people cranky. It's funny because in November we smile and welcome the snow, knowing more is yet to come. By the time it's mid March we have run out of love for the snow. I felt the crankiness coming over me and decided that I just need to pay attention to the juncos, after all they will be leaving our area soon.

The juncos are getting a bit more tetchy lately, there's a bit more fighting over food and you can hear some of them start to do a territory song which they haven't done all winter. Soon they will be gone and I'll be swooning over warblers and vireos, only to be tired of those in September and longing for juncos once again--it's a vicious cycle.

Grouse Hunt & The Bossy Purple Finch

So, I've a small goal this spring to see if I can find a ruffed grouse drumming log. I've heard them drumming in a few places on Mr. Neil's, but I've never found the log itself. Yesterday, I went out with my buddy Amber to try and find the log. She's one of the few people I know who doesn't mind some challenging hiking conditions on deer trails. When we arrived, we found the above male goldfinch well on his way through his molt into breeding plumage--which is a welcome site this morning as eight inches of snow is falling.

We found a stand of pines that had some kind interesting story to tell, but couldn't quite suss it out. We found owl pellets and owl poop. It looked like good potential for saw-whet. But then we found a bunch of owl feathers. From the size and shape, they looked like long-eared owl feathers...and it looked like something had attacked the it. We couldn't find any other owl but wondered if one of the larger owls like a great horned or barred owl had killed it. There were also other feathers mixed in with the owl--cardinal and junco, which made us wonder if it a Cooper's hawk had been eating here too.

We flushed a ruffed grouse from a thick tangle of buckthorn and water horsetail. I started to step inside and found a turned over tree, but it was way too thin and not hollow. One of the guys I band birds with at Carpenter (Larry) knows a lot about grouse and he's been giving me tips on what to look for.

There were some healthy piles of grouse poop, so the grouse has been spending quite a bit of time. I sent Larry the photos and he said that this looks like it was siting under that pile of brush - using it for cover from overhead predators. Even though we didn't find the drumming log, I heard some distant drumming across the creek. I may have to break out my chest waders from the Ivory-bill Search and cross the creek to find the drumming log. Larry said that peak drumming time is in the next three weeks and that foggy mornings are best because that helps to carry the drumming sound. I'll see if I can make it out there this weekend.

We ended up spending the rest of our time trying to get photos of birds at the feeders. They were empty when we arrived and we filled the feeders first thing. It took no time for the birds to fly in. It's fun to watch the red-bellied woodpecker chip out a large chunk of suet to eat in safety up in the branches. There were lots of birds on the move. Amber heard and saw sandhill cranes fly over and then we heard a distant high pitched barking...hmmm...more sandhills? No. Snow geese? Not quite...

When they finally flew over we saw that they were tundra swans--sweet! I hadn't seen any since last November and then it was only while I was driving so I couldn't hear their barking sound. A few flocks passed over our heads throughout the day and above is a photo that Amber got as they passed overhead.

We didn't see the common redpoll that I had seen about a week and a half earlier, but we did see a male purple finch. I haven't seen one of those guys since last fall.

He was a bossy little bird too. I had heard people speculate that the influx of introduced house finches had pushed out the purple finches, but I have to say that watching this one male, he didn't look like the kind of bird who would take any guff from a house finch. Above, he is lunging towards a chickadee.

In this photo, he drove out a white-breasted nuthatch.

A second nuthatch tried to fly in, but the purple finch gave it the hairy eyeball and the nuthatch darted away from the tray towards a tree instead. He did tolerate a goldfinch, but if it came to close, the purple finch lunged at it too.

Time To Clean Those Feeders

I got this rather arty photo of house finches with the WingScapes Camera. The female house finch looks like she's doing some weird interpretive dance. Speaking of finches, there are some reports this week in the news that there is a salmonella outbreak going on in Arkansas and New York. I linked to a couple of articles over at the Birding Business News Blog--now is would be a good time to clean you bird feeders and you'd be doing a tremendous service to migrating birds.

Here's a goldfinch and purple finch sharing a tray that I digiscoped yesterday. Birds can spread salmonella by depositing fecal matter in trays (or on the ground) and then it gets mixed in with spilled seeds. Cornell Lab has some good tips of what to do if you see diseased birds at your feeder. If you can't keep your feeders clean, consider paying a kid to do it or find out if you local bird store offers a feeder cleaning service. If you can't keep your feeders clean...then you probably shouldn't be feeding birds.

Somebody Wanted A Long Weekend Off

Gorgeous, isn't it? I went to the Minnesota River Valley Visitor's Center to do some digiscoping today. We got some snow on Friday and there were a few flurries on Saturday and I figured I could get some fun shots in the snow.

But the center was closed. Now, come on--the sign reads about bad roads and winter weather and it's true that we got about 3-5 inches on Friday--but, this is Minnesota, that's nothing. I could understand if this was a remote park miles from a town with a gravel road, but this center is right off a major highway in the south metro area of the Twin Cities across from the airport. And to prove my point, here is the road the visitor's center is on:

Pretty darned cleared off if you ask me. I think it was Easter Weekend and the employees wanted an extended weekend off--and who can blame them? But it was a balmy thirty degrees and I went to get some photos anyway. All the feeders were empty and many had been taken down (I assume put away for the weekend to prevent theft), but as always, I have an emergency bag of bird seed in the car and scattered some around the feeding area.

The two platform feeders were way too high for me to fill with seed, so I just scattered it on the ground--and the birds came in for it right away. The cardinal and junco were eating peacefully side by side, but when the female house sparrow flew down, the cardinal wanted none of her. I just love that little tableau above.

Ah, look at this! It's the rarely seen woodpecker worm tunneling out from the snow to get some mixed nuts. It's so weird to see a downy woodpecker hopping around on the ground like a robin. I'm sure there's a Dune reference to be made here, but I can't think what it is. Oh! And that reminds me, someone asked in a previous entry what a snow flea is. They are a bug you can see even in summer weather, but since they come out early while there is still snow on the ground, they are easier to see in winter. You look at the base of a tree on top of the snow and if you see what looks like dust moving--that's snow fleas. You can read more about them here. Believe it or not, there is also a snow mosquito and I've already seen one of those this week too.

I could hear red-winged blackbirds all over and I saw this flock in the distance, but when I looked at them through the scope, I realized they were brown-headed cowbirds.

And the males were wasting no time in displaying to the females. In the above photo, there is a female cowbird on the left and the male is in mid chirp on the right--cowbirds, hold off, there really aren't any nests for you to deposit eggs yet...except for bald eagles and red-tailed hawks and they aren't gonna buy your tiny eggs in their nests. I tried to get a video of the cowbird display through my scope. You can watch it below, but the cowbirds get almost completely muted by the red-winged blackbirds and robins singing around them. Towards the end you will hear a western meadowlark--that's my cell phone, not the actual bird. As migration progresses, I may have to switch my ring tone to a sound I won't actually hear in Minnesota.

Checking The Olga Hive In Winter

Hey, I did end up getting a photo of Mr. Neil's common redpoll. I wonder how much longer this bird will stick around. It has been the only redpoll in his yard--separated from a flock further north. I'll be curious to see how long it stays.

Non Birding Bill went out with me to the beehives last weekend. There he is with a worker climbing up his fleece. We had the following conversation before we went out to the hives:
NBB: Aren't we going to put on bee suits?

BC: Nah. We won't need it.

NBB: What about the smoker, shouldn't we take the smoker?

BC: Nah. They'll be calm enough, we shouldn't need it. We're just going to put in a pollen patty for some extra protein.

When we got to the hive, NBB held his ear next to the hive to see if he could hear them buzzing inside the hive. We could see that the bees had been out in some of the warmer weather--pooping like crazy. Not all the little spots on the black insulation--that's bee poop! Bees don't go potty while they are in the hive to help keep it clean. That's fine in warm weather, but takes remarkable self control in winter. Then in spring when the weather is warm enough, the fly out to release all that they have been holding during the winter, these are called cleansing flight. Can you imagine having to hold it all winter long--and I'm not talking one of those southern winters, I'm talking a serious and long northern winter! Ah, bees, you never cease to amaze me!

As we were taking the hive apart to put in the pollen patty, we noticed that it was sealed with propolis and I regretted not bringing along the hive tool to pry it open. We did some knocking and that kind of alerted the girls. To hear NBB tell it, when a few flew out at us, I ran off squealing "Don't flail!" while running like a two year old and flapping my arms. I think I more dashed back cautiously. The few bees that flew soon fell to the ground and we tried our best to pick them up and put them back on the hive. Bill had one on his gloves and she tried to sting him. Fortunately, her stinger didn't get stuck in his glove so he put her back on the hive alive and intact.

The bees were in a loose cluster and when I was at the Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers meeting was told that they could even have brood inside! Whoot. We put the Olga hive back together and I felt a pang of excitement that in a month or so I would be installing two new packages of bees. When I was at the meeting, I learned that lots of keepers up here lost hives over the winter, some to the cold temps like we did and some to possible Colony Collapse. I met one woman who said that she lost five of her six hives. I was incredibly grateful that we still had Olga--and SO grateful that we started our beekeeping adventure with two hives instead of one. It gave us a much better frame of reference. NBB and I also took home a couple of jars of the now defunct Kitty hive that Mr. Neil had extracted. My goodness did it taste good!

On our way back to the house, I found a hawk pellet. I'm pretty sure this is from a large red-tail that has been keeping watch over the fields at the front of the driveway. I can tell that this is a hawk pellet and not an owl pellet by the lack of bones--owl pellets are fun to take apart because they tend to swallow prey whole and and have weaker digestive acids than hawks so you find bones in the pellets. Hawks tend to rip and shred prey and when they do swallow bones, their stronger digestive acids dissolve small bones.

I walked by the bluebird house to see if any early returning bluebirds had left a calling card.

A calling card was left--but not from a bluebird. It looks like a downy woodpecker has been in here and pecking the floor. I'm thinking the woodpecker has been using this as a winter roosting box and not a potential nest site, but I'm going to leave it alone and see what happens in the coming weeks.

I went to check some of the bushes and trees we planted last fall and found that some unauthorized pruning was going on. Gee I wonder who did this?

Or this?

Well, speaking of calling cards, I find that a bunny left one around the dogwood. I didn't need the rabbit poop to confirm it, you can tell bunny damage by the perfect little cuts that their teeth make. For once, I disapprove!

Rabbits weren't the only pruning offenders. This one looks like it has both bunny damage and a bit of deer damage. Ah, the joys of planting for wildlife...sometimes the unintended wildlife eat it before the birds do.

Making Progress With Mr. Neil's Barred Owl

Mr. Neil has a few owl species on his property. There is a resident barred owl who occasionally duets with a second bird. This bird has been the cagiest of barred owls that I have ever encountered. Most of the time when I walk through the woods where it roosts, it takes off even if I'm far away. A few weeks