Boy, some weeks it really is like living in the movie Fargo. Friday morning all of the stations were covering a story about the Minnesota Attorney General going after one of the major cell phone companies for trapping customers into extended contracts. An angry customer was interviewed at the press conference and gave us this [ Read More ]
It was another beautiful day at Carpenter Nature Center–and busy! There were so many birds to band that I didn’t have time to get photos of the Lincoln’s sparrow, orange-crowned warbler, and the first junco of the season (although, I think I will have ample opportunity of getting junco photos in the near future). It’s [ Read More ]
Okay, just to prove that the “take your hummingbird feeder in on Labor Day” is bunk, we still have hummingbirds coming to our feeder: Not only that, but someone who lives in Duluth, MN reported a hummingbird at his feeders yesterday. This is normal hummingbird movement this time of year and good reason to keep [ Read More ]
I don’t have any excuse or text to really go with this red-breasted nuthatch, I just thought it was cute, perched in the sun. So, this morning I went to check on the shaggy mane mushrooms I found yesterday and they were well on their way to be coming an inky cap. Here’s an up [ Read More ]
Well, here’s something unexpected. I went to put some feeder pails out for the Kitty and Olga hives today. When I opened the lid to Olga, I found a drone stuck by the head to the propolis trap. I could see him hanging when I lifted the lid. When I set it on the ground, [ Read More ]
I keep trying to write this blog entry, but my rabbit insists on using me as a jungle gym, making typing most difficult. Here’s a photo of last weekend’s banding crew (the only bummer is that Frank Taylor, the guy who runs the blind isn’t in it). But from left to right we have Reier [ Read More ]
Some may remember earlier in the summer that I had a night of revelry at the St. Paul Embassy Suites and was surprised to find that they had ducks in their lobby. Well, some inebriated jerk killed one of them over the weekend. You can read about him here. Boy, doesn’t he just sound like [ Read More ]
We interrupt the regularly scheduled report on last weekend’s hawk banding to inform you of an urban Cooper’s hawk observation that happened today. WARNING! This post is not for the squeamish. In Nature, the fight for survival can be brutal and this post is going to describe an incident between a hawk and a pigeon. [ Read More ]
I’m always amazed at how closely people pay attention to the blog. When I wrote earlier that I was on a tight budget and didn’t know if I could go up hawk banding this fall, invitations came from all over for free housing. I am sometimes overwhelmed by friends and their generosity. Another example is [ Read More ]
Well, I was called perky and witty in the New York Times Last year, and now the Wall Street Journal confirms my status as falling short of geeky. So, if you come by my blog for the first time via WSJ, welcome! Here’s the mention (and as luck would have it, I was getting a [ Read More ]
