Birdchick

Jen Vieth from Carpenter Nature Center sent some cool photos of her grape jelly feeder. She’s getting orioles, like the young ones above, but she also gets: an American robin coming in to the grape jelly too. Thanks, Jen!

I think this is a young catbird–note it is banded. I digivideoed it at Carpenter Nature Center.

So, I’m in Rhode Island at the moment hanging at the Swarovski Headquarters. I’m eating lunch (real mashed potatoes, thank you very much, Swarovski Cafe) under a large crystal chandalier. Ah life. I’m giggling too because Non Birding Bill has just sent me a link to a limited edition Beverly Hills 90210 iPod Nano. But,  [ Read More ]

If you watched the caterpillar shed video in the earlier post, here is a little background info. As caterpillars grow, they shed their skins. The period between each shed is called an instar. Monarchs do this too as they grow, but what’s fun about black swallowtail caterpillars is that they change color. When tiny, they  [ Read More ]

Okay, time to get back to blogging as usual. I’m currently on my way to some interesting travel. I’m on my way to Rhode Island and will be here for a few days and take a side trip to Cape Cod, then come back to Minneapolis late Friday night and leave Saturday morning around 7am  [ Read More ]

Another hard loss for the Minnesota Birding Community. Last week, losing Bud Tordoff was hard, but combine that with the way too early loss of one of my favorite vets at The Raptor Center makes this an almost unbearable Monday morning indeed. Jane Goggin was young, she was gifted–a rare vet not only with a  [ Read More ]

The above photo is of a partial albino (or whatever bird scientists are calling it these days). from the Pueblo Chieftan There’s a once-in-a-lifetime guest at the Pueblo Nature and Raptor Center who’ll be staying indefinitely. Diana Miller, raptor center director, said the leucistic (“partially albino”) golden eagle was found July 12 by ranchers in  [ Read More ]

Bud Tordoff, peregrine falcon guru has died. This is how I will always remember him. He loved peregrine falcons, he loved showing them to the public, he loved restoring our falcon population in Minnesota. I’ll never forget the first time I got to tag along to a peregrine nest with Bud and Mark Martell. Years  [ Read More ]

Tonight is Birds and Beers at Merlin’s Rest. It should be interesting, we start at 6pm and they are doing a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) fundraiser (silent auction and raffle) at the same time. They’re even doing a special pub quiz tonight too starting at 7:30pm. Hope to see you there!

We had an orange variant house finch show up at feeders. Usually when you think male house finch, you think pink–and there can be various shades of pink. Periodically, you might even notice and orange one like the bird above or perhaps even a yellow male. Here’s a comparison of an orange variant male house  [ Read More ]