Birdchick

I was beginning to think the annual cold that hits me in February might miss me this year, but it arrived unannounced yesterday morning. Gr.  As I have been drinking gallons of various instant Thai soups and toddies to rid my nasal cavaties of this beast before Saturday’s Birds and Beers, I wondered what might make me feel better.  Reading some Isak Denisen? Watching old Douglas Sirk movies? But I decided to go back to Panama.

This trip really stuck with me.  I love travel and I’m generally happy where ever I am from a lone prairie in North Dakota to the porch step of my neighbor Zoe to an abandon research station in Kazaskhstan, but when I have quiet moments to myself, I find my brain returns to the platform on top of the Canopy Tower, gazing beyond the Panama Canal and into the unknown of the rain forest listening to unknown creatures in air thick with humidity carrying the smell of lush green leaves.

One place that I really enjoyed was our trip to Municipal Summit Nature Park.  Check out those big hanging oropendola nests hanging from the fronds of a palm tree.  This was a zoo and park and our primary reason for visiting was to see a harpy eagle exhibit.  But what I really enjoyed about this park was that it gave me a chance to spend time with some common Central American birds–they weren’t in cages but in the surrounding trees and gardens.  Since so many people pass through the park, the wild birds are habituated to people and you could get some great views and photos.

This is a female masked tityra, a cavity nesting bird.  She was taking her time selecting the berries ready to eaten. I think this is one of those birds that scientists aren’t sure where they fit in the grand scheme of taxonomy.  That face with the red skin kind of reminds me of a crane or muscovy.

I think I mentioned earlier that vultures were the most common bird in Panama–like house sparrows.  At the park, the vultures (like the above black vulture) flew in to see what pickin’s could be had around trash bins and picnic tables.  I believe you could throw scraps to some of these birds and they’d waddle right up.  They were a bit cagey when I would aim my scope at them, pictures made them shy.  It’s okay to come to humans with food, not one that is giving you the stare down with a large scope.

We did see the harpy eagle exhibit.  I believe this bird is from the Peregrine Fund and has been part of the education and captive breeding program.  Some harpy eagles have been released in Panama, not too far from Canopy Tower.  I was a tad jealous to discover that one was seen on a field trip after I left the Panama, but sometimes in birding, that’s the way it crumbles, cookie-wise.  Look at the feet on this bird.  This bird has what I would call man hands for feet–that’s because they eat big prey…like sloth.  There’s a famous video of a harpy eagle grabbing and killing a slot.  The first time I showed it to Non Birding Bill, he was underwhelmed.  He said, “Yeah, it’s big but come on, it’s a sloth.  It doesn’t move that fast.”  But then he saw one being treated at The Raptor Center one day and was shocked by the size of it’s toes–they were as big as his hands.

Here’s a sign that gives you an idea of the size of the harpy eagle compared to your average guy and a bald eagle.  According to The Peregrine Fund a harpy eagle can be between 35 – 41 inches long (huh, I’m 60 inches long) and weigh anywhere from 10 pounds (a male) to upwards of 20 pounds (female).  Bald eagles in MN average about 10 pounds.  It’s a big, cool bird and I was honored to see one in a large paddock if I could not see it in the wild.

Another cool bird we got great looks at was a squirrel cuckoo.  I’d seen one in Guatemala and we saw quite a few in Panama.  They remind me of a cross between a sharp-shinned hawk and a brown thrasher (they’ve got the bright red eye like sharpie and the beautiful cinnamon brown of the thrasher).  They’re huge but like to hide in the canopy.  Like many birds, they will fly ahead of an army ant swarm catching bugs trying to flee the coming swarm.  Birds weren’t the only fun we saw at the zoo, we also got to see some cool little bats:

That is a tent-making bat.  Here’s a photo:

Isn’t just the cutest little thing!  These little dudes make bite marks along the palm leaf causing it to bend down and create a tent to roost under during the day (hence the name).  This species of bat is very tiny and they eat a variety of foods including insects, fruit and nectar.  I love that little stripey face.

As we were leaving the park, we got one more bird–a black hawk perched on one of the paddocks.  At first I thought maybe it was part of the zoo, but I banged on the cab of the truck to stop.  It was a wild hawk that stay perched then flew across the road in front of us.  I wasn’t able to get a better photo, but it was a great view for my first ever sighting of a black hawk.

I’ll leave you with one last turkey vulture shot.  This poor guy was trying so hard to preen and kept missing getting his actual feather in this beak.  Check it out below:

That’s gotta be like an itch you can’t scratch.  Alright, cold medicine is kicking in.  Time to stop blogging.

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I really enjoy Twitter. It’s not for everyone, but for someone like me who has friends scattered all over the country, it’s kind of like sharing an office with them. I work part time from home and I’m a social creature. Being alone all day gets to me, but with Twitter, I can share daily bits of info with my friends (and some new people). It’s like being in a cubicle environment with people I actually enjoy and sometimes you discover cool things like WildBird on the Fly posted on her Twitter feed a link to a one in zillion penguin: it’s all black.  Be sure see the photo here and here too. It’s the Shaft of penguins!

Twitter is also how I got my interview with Rob at Outdoor Talk on Sunday–he asked me through Twitter (who was a blast to talk to with his on air partner Tim and gave a nice promo to this Saturday’s Birds and Beers.

But the big reason I love Twitter is the odd random people you can connect with on Twitter that you otherwise would never have the opportunity to know.  Some of you might be familiar with the band Wheatus.  I fell in love with them years ago when Non Birding Bill played me their song Teenage Dirtbag (if you’ve never heard the song, take a listen, it’s awesome).  They’ve released several albums and they even covered one of my favorite Erasure songs A Little Respect.

There was some kind of weird thread about vegemite going on with Twitter and I saw some retweet a photo from an @Wheatus:

Not a remarkable photo, but for one thing.  If you are a birder, do you recognize anything in that photo?  I spotted it right away and I’m not sure if I should be impressed or not that I recognized it so quickly.  Don’t see it yet?  Here’s a hint:

This is the back of my Kaufman Guide to Birds.  Take a look at the photo again:

To which I asked on Twitter: Wait a minute, does @wheatus have a Kaufman guide behind him? He birds???

And Wheatus responded: @birdchick Nice spot….best bird book ever.

We then got into a conversation about birds, Kenn Kaufman (and his ability to rock out), potoos.  I shared some with Kenn–we’ve got to get these crazy kids together.

This discovery has my mind turning.  Most birders are trying to find ways to get younger people interested in the activity.  Many bird festivals are looking to increase attendance.  Wouldn’t it be awesome to book Wheatus to a bird festival?  Wouldn’t it be magical to find a way to have both Kenn Kaufman and Wheatus at a bird festival?  Some organizers may balk and say, “I’ve never heard of them.”  That’s a sign that they are popular with the market you are trying to attract and have been unable to do so.

You can download albums from Wheatus and they allow you to do it free, but you should leave a donation.  It’s a new trend among musicians to make their own way in a struggling industry.  So give some love and support to this great band who happens to enjoy birds…and if you organize any birding event, find a way to get some funds to bring them to your festival.

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For readers in the Twin Cities who are fans of Non Birding Bill, he has a show opening this weekend at the Bryant Lake Bowl with Theatre Arlo: MacBeth: The Video Game Remix.  Watch how many ways MacBeth gets killed and has to regenerate!

And see Lady MacBeth as an elf!  That’s our friend Dawn. You may recognize her from commercials like this one for Mall of America or this one where she’s serving eggs.  And while I was searching for Dawn’s stuff on YouTube, I discovered a Mystery Science Theater 3000 parody that NBB made for CONvergence last year is there.  Mom, you’ll want to watch this:

Many of the actors in that movie are in MacBeth so if this tickled your fancy, you’ll love the Video Game Remix.  Oh, and also for my mom, here’s a podcast with NBB and some of the cast talking about the show.

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There’s a rather suspicious news story coming out of Stonington, Connecticut about a “red-tailed hawk attacking people.” Apparently, a bird of prey has been diving at people and has struck at least 5 (taking off with a hat and headphones and sending one woman to the hospital for stitches.  Here’s a video of the news story or you can read about it here.

There are a few things bothering me about this story.  The initial reports that “experts” are giving about why the red-tailed hawk is diving at people is that it’s a most likely a territory issue.  This is puzzling 1. because it’s a wee bit early for that type of territoriality in a red-tailed hawk and 2. according to witnesses, this has been going on since last summer.

If you ask me, this sounds like an imprinted bird, meaning someone raised a baby hawk who didn’t know what they were doing, the hawk “imprinted” on what it saw feeding it and is associating people with food or interacting with humans the way the should be interacting with other hawks.

Another thing that bothers me is the hawk nest people keep pointing to as belonging to the diving hawk.  It sure doesn’t look like a red-tailed hawk nest to me.  It looks more like an old Cooper’s hawk nest.  The red-tail nests that I’ve seen are usually large even after the season is done–kind of like a big bowl shape.  Cooper’s hawk nests are smaller and I’ve seen quite a few in small and narrow crotches of trees and they tend to not stand up to winter weather quite like a red-tail nest can.

I can’t find any photos or videos of the hawk itself but I’m sure they will be coming. Stonington has sent out warnings to residents to be careful of the area because of the attacks, which I’m sure will bring a few birders or thrill seekers out to be dived at by a hawk (I know I would go).  It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out.  Hopefully, it will be handled better than the hawk situation that happened here in Minnesota last summer.

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Last week I joined Mark Martell to aid in his quest to put more satellite transmitters on golden eagles in conjunction with the National Eagle Center in Wabasha.  It was a lovely drive down along the Mississippi, the hoar frost was thick on the trees and glittered in the sun.  He already has one on Golden Eagle 42, but one goldens movements do not tell us the whole story behind that wintering population of goldens along the Mississippi River near Wabasha, MN.

But trapping goldens is tricky business, the birds are cagey and lots of predators like the same bait as the target eagles. But still, watching a goat prairie for a day without actually trapping a golden eagle, beats any day behind a desk in my book.  I’d go into more detail, but I wrote up an article for Outdoor News which should be coming out in the next week or two.  Rob Drieslein who edits Outdoor News is also one of the hosts of KTLK Outdoors.  He asked me to call in to the show this Sunday around 5:15pm and talk some golden eagles.

Mark did help a fellow researcher named Brett Mandernack attach a transmitter to a bald eagle.  This was one bruiser of an eagle!  When she was trapped, she weighed just under 14 pounds!  We assume she is female because females are larger than males, so at that weight, it’s a good guess this is a girl. She was part of a different research program to see where eagles that winter along the Mississippi go for their breeding territory.  I would guess a girl this size nests in Alaska but who knows what the transmitter will tell?

The forceps in the above photo are holding together the straps before Mark sews them together. They have to make sure the straps are snug enough to not fall loose and inhibit the eagle’s movements but also loose enough to accommodate a bird’s fluctuating weight.  A hood is placed over the eagle’s head to help keep her calm and to also allow Mark to work in peace without the eagle waving her hooked beak around near chest. It helps the process go along faster and safer for the eagle.

Check out those talons! Speaking of eagles, March is a great time to visit the National Eagle Center.  March is their Soar with the Eagles month and every weekend they have special events planned and plenty of wild and display birds to be seen.  I’ll be there this Saturday giving a digiscoping program at noon.  It’s free and much our time will be spent on the lovely photo subjects around the center.  Even if you can’t make this weekend, be sure to visit this month if you can.

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Mattel takes a stand to promote kids in the outdoors by coming up with Bird Watching Barbie! Now I won’t be the only girl in the woods with lipstick and mascara.  Although, Barbie, babe, you might want to consider trading in your fold up chair for a set of binoculars.  You know, girl, you’re popular enough, I bet any number of optics companies would love to sponsor you.  I think Swarovski is a natural fit–you could have crystal bins!

Can I say how much I love that Mattel went the extra distance to prove she’s a birder by giving her a vest?  Granted, it’s stylish and pink and helps accentuate her ample figure (wow, imagine her with a binocular harness) but I am so grateful they left off the Tilly Hat (no one looks good in those–no one).

I wonder how long Barbie’s Life List is?  And does she prefer Peterson to Sibley? Or is she a Kaufman girl?

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We should all approach life like this orange-chinned parakeet I saw in Panama

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I’m loving this spring prick tease we are getting right now. Yeah, I said it, I went there.  Let’s face it: it’s March 1 and we’re getting a sort of thaw in the upper 30s and 40s and some much needed snow melt is underway. Large chucks of snow people Non Birding Bill and I made on Christmas Day in a neighbor’s yard still linger. However, facts must be faced and spring is far off.  I love this photo of the creek with flowing water and ice. Some of the water is so still that you can see a perfect reflection of the trees on the banks.

Mr. Neil describes this as Spring making promises to stay for good but we know all too well that she is currently a one night fling and will be frolicking in the southern US the next morning. More snow will come and hearts will be broken several times over before the end of April. Yet, Cabal, Mr. Neil and Non Birding Bill took advantage of the sun and the warm temps and I trudged through the snow to our beehives.

All four are still alive! The bees were very active today and may flew about.  I watched on bee leave the hive, fly down by the snow, relieve herself and head back towards the hive. Others flew to the tops of the trees as if to head out on the bee super highway in search of pollen and propolis. The white snow in the bee yard is littered with be poop and dead bees but if you put your ear to the hives, buzzing can be heard inside.

Some bees were busy pushing dead ones out of the hive. I love the above photo. In the center is one live bee surrounded by dead bees, bee parts and snow. Life forges ahead despite the elements.

After we checked the hives, I went over to a nearby wood duck box NBB and I set up years ago.  I think it’s a perfect spot for wood ducks to nest, but they do not seem to agree with me.  A house wren did, but not wood ducks.  This winter I suspected an eastern screech owl has been periodically roosting the box because I’ve found red screech owl feathers.  Today, it looked like a woodpecker had done some renovations around the opening. I opened the side and felt down around the cedar bedding.

I found a ton of chickadee feathers and a very dry owl pellet.  The pellet contained the remains of a mouse not a chickadee.  I wonder if the small owls will only use this box for roosting.  I’d love to have one nesting but who can say if it will stay. Based on the amount of feathers in the box, I’m guessing the local chickadees will be happier if it nests elsewhere.

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Wow, what a great Monday–we might hit 40 degrees (do I dare take out my bike), I’m going to learn how to ice fish today and I just came off a fun weekend.  I have to put in a plug for my Twin Cities readers:

Non Birding Bill’s birthday was the day I flew to Panama. To make up for it, I scheduled a party with Virginia Corbett who taught us how to do couple’s dancing like the cha cha, foxtrot, and hustle.  It was fun and easy going and you have to love a woman who can teach you to fox trot to Jonathan Coulton.  I think even our friends who were horrified at the idea of learning to dance had a good time.  If course, the Lambic and cupcakes helped.

And speaking of Panama, I am SO not finished blogging about it.  What fertile blogging ground that place is.  And I am planning a ten day tour there next year.  Carlos was going to get me the itinerary late last week but his computer died.  But it is on in mid to late February and it will happen at both Canopy Lodge and Canopy Tower.  Start calculating your frequent flyer miles and saving your pennies now.  This will be an unforgettable winter getaway in 2011.

One of the fun things about birding in another country is that the vehicles they use to transport you are a bit more exciting than what would be allowed in the US.  Here we have a truck and the bed is fitted with padded benches that allow us to watch for birds and mammals unfettered by a roof and seat belts.  If we were traveling and saw something worth stopping for, all you had to do was pound on the roof of the cab and the guide would stop the vehicle.  Fun!  Some of our best birding was the road to and from Canopy Tower called Semaphore Hill.  One morning we walked it, but often when we were tootling down to hit the highway and on to birding adventures elsewhere, we would have the driver stop for monkeys or motmots.

Coatis were frequently seen along the road and when the drivers stopped the vehicle so we could get photos, I noticed the familiar smirk.  It’s the same one I would give if I were leading a US tour and we stopped for a raccoon.  But the guides are smart and they know that people love an animal with a nose that appears to swivel around of its own accord.  Oh, coati, how can you be so cute munching your palm fruit and not allow me to scratch your belly?

I did get to see a celebrity bird.  Does this species look familiar to you?  It’s actual name is the red-capped manakin but I would wager that millions have seen this bird and not know its name, but they do know it as the Moonwalk Bird–here’s a collection of videos I’ve found on the web. There’s actually a second male in this photos but he is obscured by the branch.  I did get to see a hint of the display but did not get to see the manakin in his full Moonwalking glory.  Writer Laura Kammermeier has an article a fun video of the manakin mating dance.  Her video also includes a bit more graphic bit that tends to be left off of the nature programs and her color commentary that goes along with it is hilarious.  I never grew tired of seeing these cute little birds, I had to resist asking for an autograph.

All kinds of birds lurked in the lower canopy like this dusky antbird and as much I love a gray bird, the female of this species appeals to my love of brown birds:

All kinds of cool birds hid in the lower foliage. One bird I was really looking forward to was the tinamou–it was also a requested bird when I asked what people wanted me to try and photograph.  We heard them quite a bit and one day when we were driving up to the Tower, we saw a couple on the side of the road.

But tinamous like this great tinamou above like to lurk and hide in dark places–probably because this chicken like bird also known as the mountain hen has a body built for food.  Being cagey and secretive is their key to survival.  I brought along a video camera because some of those dark areas are not good for digiscoping and here is a video of the great tinamou:

You can hear Carlos doing the great tinamou wavering whistle and another tinamou answering back from deeper in the forest.

Outside the tower itself were a few hummingbird feeders.  Above is a photo I got of a white-necked jacobin (a type of hummingbird) with the Wingscapes BirdCam. They can’t have banana feeders here like at Canopy Lodge because the coatis.  They raid the feeders and will try to get into the tower and as cute as they are, the last thing I want in my room (apart from a fer de lance or bushmaster) would be a coati.  But the hummingbird feeders are enough to entertain.

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Sometimes it’s fun to use my spotting scope for things other than birds. Lorraine pointed out that they clouds over the bright moon tonight made a sort of “moonbow.”  Noting how bright the moon was, I grabbed the scope.

Even Non Birding Bill registered interest. I couldn’t believe how clear the moon looked in my scope or that I was able to digiscope it with my Nikon D40.

NBB thought the edges of the moon looked the coolest.  As did I, all the various craters playing with the shadows of the Sun’s reflections was incredible.

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