I think a pair of ovenbirds might be nesting in Mr. Neil’s woods. I was on the trail looking for flowers that our bees might be pollinating and nectaring from when some scuffling startled me. I saw a brown bird run and flit away into some low trees. I waited to see if would come [ Read More ]
We had a great sampling of birds come into the nets on Friday…and lots of people came to enjoy the beautiful day outdoors and watch what we do at Carpenter Nature Center. I have finished my banding class and am an official apprentice–with a certificate. I’m not sure what I will eventually do with this, [ Read More ]
I’m trying hard to focus on the good. I’m incredibly swamped–I still have a post left from the World Series of Birding but there are articles to finish, emails to deal with, trips to lead, blogs to write, etc. I had every intent to just do my time banding at Carpenter this morning and then [ Read More ]
This year’s Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds was more challenging than in the past. Due to the long winter, migration was about two weeks behind, so instead of warblers dripping from trees and the shorebirds crowding the mudflats we really had to work to get participants their target birds. This year, the organizer added a [ Read More ]
We birded Glendalough State Park during the Detroit Lakes Bird Festival. There were common yellowthroats singing on territory all over. I even managed to get video of them through my spotting scope and digital camera. They are usually described as having a song that says, “witchety, witchety, witchety” but sometimes they can be a little [ Read More ]
Or, the queen was not getting released from her cage: The really cool part about blogging the bees is that sometimes readers save our beekeeping operation from potential disaster. When I mentioned this morning that Fabulous Lorraine and Mr. Neil had found a queen cell in the newly divided hive and that the queen had [ Read More ]
This was a yellow-bellied sapsucker doing some territorial drumming on an old rusty drum during the Red Lake trip of the Detroit Lakes Bird Festival. For those not familiar with sapsuckers, they have a distinctive drumming sound. Note how it starts and then kind of peters out. When you hear that sort of drumming, you [ Read More ]
Just back from the Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds–more to report on that when I am a bit more rested. I’ve been trying to upload some video I took on YouTube, but for some reason it keeps failing–is it perhaps because I’m using “sapsucker” in the title? I’m not sure, but Non Birding Bill is [ Read More ]
We saw a totally funky oriole today on the Glendalough field trip. There should only be Baltimore orioles here, but this one kind of looked like a hooded oriole (although not quite). So, this bird is either a hybrid between the two, a second year male oriole who hasn’t quite molted into his adult plumage, [ Read More ]
I’m livin’ large at the Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds. I have a fun sapsucker video, but YouTube is being…difficult. So, here’s is your nasty story of the day (a note, don’t have food in your mouth while you read this one). From the wacky Brits: From io9: “When the Z-Wars get ugly, you’ll want [ Read More ]
