Birdchick

After days of clouds and rain, what a delight to wake up to sun (via a nearby restaurant’s leaf blowers) and robins trying to bathe in all the puddles on the roof.

Mixed in with the robins are hoards of waxwings.

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Alright, anyone going to Aitkin County in Minnesota this weekend might want to keep their eye for Golden Eagle 42.  Mark Martell reports that for the last two days, “Golden Eagle 42 spent the evenings of both days in eastern Aitken Co. 5 miles east of Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Moved about .5 miles during the day of the 29th  and Roosted on the edge of a woodlot.”

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I’ll be late to tonight’s Birds and Beers that starts at 6:30pm at Merlin’s Rest.  I should be in a little after 7pm.  In the mean time, I leave you with a photo of the most disturbing bird house ever.  I found it in my external drive.  Years ago when I worked at the bird store, we carried these.  I find them both disturbing and humorous.  It was called the Amish Bird House (and was made of resin, not wood):

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Check out this cool photo of a red-winged blackbird attacking a sandhill crane that was submitted for my Digiscoper of the Year Contest:

Let this is a quick reminder that this Saturday, October 31, 2009 is the last day for my Swarovski Digiscoping Contest.  If you have ever digiscoped (used a camera up against a spotting scope) you need to enter.  One reason is that you could win some really cool prizes like a Swarovski EL binocular and two if you win you are automatically entered for the overall Digiscoper of the Year grand prize which in the past has been a fun birding trip to digiscope birds.

Keep in mind, you have several other chances of winning.  Bird Watcher’s Digest are also hosting mini contests like I am–think of how your chances have just increased to win a great pair of Swarovski binoculars by entering both of our contests.  And based on the number of entries I’ve seen so far…you’re chances of winning are really, really good.  So, scan your drives, get your best digiscoped images and enter them in.

DO NOT SEND THEM TO ME!  Follow this link and submit your entries while there is still time.  This is a great contest and the past few years, the Digiscoper of the Year winners have been from overseas.  Let’s show them how it’s done in the US!

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I’m writing an article for Bowtie’s Popular Bird Series Hummingbird Issue and one of the editors emailed that she is looking for reader submissions of memorable hummingbird stores in 300 words or less.  Annika Small says she’s looking for stories like you were having a bad day and a hummingbird came into view, brightening your outlook or you were once mesmerized staring out your kitchen window at a hummer or two visiting one of your feeders? Did you see an unusual hummingbird passing through your property one summer? Have you taken a vacation just to look for hummingbirds?

Please send your favorite hummingbird memory to Annika at asmall@bowtieinc.com, no later than Nov. 16, 2009. The best memories will be published in the upcoming Hummingbirds issue of the Popular Birding Series, which will be on newsstands in early spring. Please include your full name and address in your e-mail.

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Golden Eagle 42 is still bookin’ it south in Minnesota and taking an interesting way down towards Wabasha.  Mark Martell reported this morning:

“Our eagle spent last night in Itasca County, MN about 3 mi. NE of Battle Island. He has been steadily making his way south at about 30 – 40 miles per day since Oct 23. The exception being Oct. 24 when he was on the Chippewa National Forest about 16 miles east of Lake Winnibigoshish and he made almost no movement.”

There have been 111 Golden Eagles counted over Hawk Ridge so far this year, obviously our bird was not one of them. Is he an outlier and not following the main migratory path, or does this mean there is an even larger and broader migration of golden’s going through northern MN? And if so, where do they winter? Winter counts turn up around 80 eagles in SE Minn, and SW WI, are there more Golden Eagles in the area or are some going further south?”

Now, I’m curious if he will follow the St. Croix to the Mississippi River and then on down to Wabasha?  Will he fly over the Twin Cities, mixed in with a flock of bald eagles?  Can’t wait to see where he goes.  Learn more about Golden Eagle 42 at Audubon Minnesota.

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A snippet of birds visiting the green mesh feeder made with the Wingscapes Cam.  This was more of a test to see if I could teach myself how to make an animated gif. How many bird species can you identify?

Now another question: do I post the P&S and JoCo trampoline photos?

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I think this photo caught with my WingScapes Cam kind of sums of the hodgepodge of the last few days. Check out the red-bellied woodpecker, black-capped chickadee, and female purple finch posing on the feeder (never mind that there are 6 other feeders). Note that the chickadee is sporting a band–that means that my buddies Mark and Roger have been around and it was time for their bi-annual banding at Mr. Neil’s. And we got in a ton of birds–so many that I barely had time to take a photo, we got over 50 birds in the nets. We pretty much would put up the nets and in fifteen minutes later they would have to be furled so we could process what we had.

One of the interesting birds what this white-breasted nuthatch who was missing two claws on one foot. Many birds would be able to survive this just fine–but nuthatches use those toes constantly to go down trees. She was a hatch year bird (hatched this summer) so it will be interesting to see if she sticks around and survives awhile–will she ever be a recapture?

Speaking of recaptures, we had a really exciting one! We had a female goldfinch come into the nets with a band. Roger read off the number and Mark asked, “Can you read that again?”

Roger obliged and Mark said, “Huh, not our band number.”

We had this happen once before and let me tell you–getting a foreign recapture once is like winning a million bucks in the lottery. Getting that twice, is–well it’s just a big fat HOLY COW! Now, the last time this happened, it was a female goldfinch who had been banded four years earlier in Illinois (over 450 miles away). Now, here is where this recapture gets really freaky–we trapped this second bird in the same net as the other recapture and we caught her in the fall too. If this bird ends up being from Illinois too–what kind of crazy reverse goldfinch movement is going on? I have turned in the goldfinch’s band number to the Bird Banding Lab…now I have to wait to hear from the original bander.

We had a special guest around the banding. If you are hip to the Internet Geek Music scene, you might recognize the bearded fellow releasing a nuthatch above–it’s Jonathan Coulton. If you are new to him might I suggest his listening primer and check out the top four songs. Skullcrusher Mountain is a favorite of mine (although I do find myself humming Tom Cruise Crazy quite a bit).

Also around were Paul and Storm of the comedic musical duo…Paul and Storm. If you listen to Bob and Tom, you might be familiar with some of their songs and their alternate band name of the BarryTones (they use the power of barbershop to do things like a rap medley). Check out the songs Count to Ten, Your Town, or The Captain’s Wife’s Lament.

They recorded a podcast in Mr. Neil’s sauna and Non Birding Bill and I got to participate. It’s about a half hour long and there are a few four letter words flung around so not the safest for work. Also, some in the podcast are more tipsy than other. The boys tell some funny drunk stories and towards the end, you get a peak into the dynamic of my marriage to NBB. And, Mom, if you are reading this…skip to minute 18:00.

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Birds and Beers is this Thursday, October 29 at 6:30pm at Merlin’s Rest and we have something to celebrate.  I’ve been testing the waters with OpenSky–creating a shop that only has products I like, use and enjoy.  Well, I thought to myself:  all the best bird companies give back to the birding community and I’d love the blog to be able to help with that.  I told OpenSky that I wanted 10% of my share to go to young birder programs for the American Birding Association.  They said, “Great, we’ll match that!”

What a cool company!  I never had the chance to go to any kind of bird convention or one specifically for kids.  I would love it if the shop gets enough sales to provide a full scholarship to some aspiring kid birder!  So, if you have any birding needs, check out my OpenSky Store and know that all the things in there are products that I love and that you can see in my photos in my blog and that 20% of the profits are going to help fun young birder programs!  I’m so excited about this and happy that the blog can help kids in some sort of way.

To help celebrate, OpenSky is offering discount codes for five products and you’ll be able to get the discount code by attending Birds and Beers this Thursday. Wingscapes BirdCam, EZ lift hanger, Aspects Hummzinger Mini, Finch Flocker, Green Mesh Feeder.

As always, Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of birders to get together and talk some birds.  Anyone from the hardcore lister to the backyard birder to someone who has heard about birding and wants to find out what it’s about is invited to attend.  If you have a bird blog–come and tell us about it!  If you are a field trip leader–come and share your upcoming trips!  Have a cool research project–we’d love to learn about what you are doing!  Have a Christmas Bird Count in need of some volunteers–come ask us!  It’s low key and fun–many new birders to the area have found some great birding partners.

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Golden Eagle 42 has crossed the Canada/Minnesota border!  Alas, this bird appears to be bypassing the Lake Superior Shoreline and probably won’t go over Hawk Ridge.  Our bird is currently in Koochiching County, MN.  What route will he take to get to Wabasha?  To follow more of Golden Eagle 42’s story, check out Audubon Minnesota.

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