It's Dark-eyed Junco Time

After we did some work at the beehives I took a few moments to get some photos at the bird feeders.  I scattered a little bit of millet since I've seen juncos flitting around on the Twin Cities bike trails and along the country roads near Mr. Neil's.  Sure enough, a junco hopped on the stump with the millet...as did a hairy woodpecker.  The suet feeders were full and I even put some old mixed nuts out and still this woodpecker went to explore the millet pile.  There were some black oil sunflowers mixed in with this, so I'm sure that's what the hairy was after.  It was fun to watch the two species interact.  The hairy doesn't appear to care about the junco.  The junco doesn't mind the hairy, but does keep a close watch on the larger bird and seems to make sure that the woodpecker does not violate his personal space. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYXhW2WN1EI[/youtube]

I love the nuthatch that sneaks in at the end.

Mesh Tube Bird Feeding Video & Links

There are some way cool links out there.  One is over at Round Robin Blog and it's all about an Albatross Cam!  It is so cool.  One of the photos from the albrotross backpack cam shows them feeding along with killer whales--how cool is that?  Sigh, I would love to hang out at an albatross colony for a day.  I may never see one, but I love knowing they are out there. Another fun link is about a satellite transmitter on a whimbrel and another is a person's photos of a great horned owl rescue.  The owl is apparently doing fine, but the photos are awesome, especially just the one eye staring at the photographer from the box.  Sinister box indeed.

Bill and I also completed another video for OpenSky about one of the mesh feeders I really like.  You may recognize it from some of the photos in the blog over the years.  Why even Mr. Neil has taken photos of birds on it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7ozd6dQiwQ[/youtube]

If you like the feeder, you can get it here.

Wild Birds Unlimited's Wildlife Blend Recalled In Some States

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Food and Drug Protection Division issued a statement that Burkmann Feeds is voluntarily recalling a seed blend that they make for Wild Birds Unlimited called Wildlife Blend, due to concerns over deaths of wild birds due to salmonella.

The bags carry the manufacturing date code of 81132200291608124.

You can read more at MSNBC and Wild Birds Unlimited has issued a press release.

“Wild Birds Unlimited is committed to keeping everyone safe and informed about issues that may affect the hobby of bird feeding,” said Jim Carpenter, founder and president of Wild Birds Unlimited. “People’s safety and the health of wildlife are our primary concern.”

The press release went on to say that initial tests have established no correlation between any bird deaths and the recalled food; a different strain of Salmonella was found in deceased birds in North Carolina than what was detected in the recalled food.

Customers who purchased WBU Wildlife Blend or WBU Woodpecker Blend are advised to contact their local Wild Birds Unlimited to determine if their product was manufactured by Burkmann Feeds and is part of this recall. Recalled products should be discarded. Consumers are also advised to avoid touching unsealed product and to wash their hands thoroughly after touching any unsealed product. A full replacement, credit or refund for these recalled Burkmann Feeds products will be made available at the store of purchase.

You can read the full press release here.

This is also a good reminder to keep your bird feeding area clean, especially with the influx of large flocks of pine siskins and common redpolls. Dirty feeders do more damage to birds than not putting any food out at all.

How Would You Like These At Your Feeder?

A bird feeder at Los Tarrales in Guatemala. Would you like a blue-gray tanager and golden-fronted woodpecker coming?

Scott's Wild Food Bird Recall

When I last blogged about the peanut butter salmonella recall, I was able to find companies that had statements saying their suets and peanut products are safe. However, I was unable to get a response from Scott's Wild Bird Food. Yesterday, I got this email from Jillian Leiter, Consumer Response Representative:

Thank you for your interest in Scotts and for the opportunity to help you with your lawn and garden endeavors.

I do apologize for the delay in our response but at this time we do not have information available regarding our Morning Song products and the recent peanut recall. Once we have the information available we will forward it on to you.

Well, this press release just hit my inbox:

Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. is keeping an eye out for birds and bird-lovers.

The Marysville-based lawn and garden giant’s Scotts Co. LLC subsidiary this week launched a voluntary recall of five varieties of suet wild bird food products over concerns that they might contain peanut meal bought from Lynchburg, Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America’s Blakely, Ga., plant. Peanut Corp.’s products have become the center of a federal probe into a salmonella outbreak that has involved scores of illnesses and several deaths, including two in Ohio.

Peanut Corp. originally only recalled peanut butter and paste but recently expanded efforts to include all peanut products made in Blakely since Jan. 1, 2007, Scotts said. The company said salmonella not only can affect animals but can pose a risk to humans who handle products tainted with it. No illnesses have been reported and products from the Blakely facility are no longer being used, Scotts said.

Bird food included in the recall involves about $500,000 in annual revenue, less than 1 percent of the company’s sales for its bird food business.

You can read the rest here.

Click here to download details on product manufacturing dates and UPC numbers involved in the recall. Products involved in the recall, only for items manufactured between Dec. 27 and Jan. 17, are:

• Morning Song Nutty Safari Suet, 11 oz.

• Morning Song Woodpecker Suet 3 pack, 1.78 lbs.

• Royal Wing Raisin Suet, 11.75 oz.

• Morning Melodies Variety Suet (3 count).

• Morning Song Variety 15-pack suet, multi-pack with 15 suets and feeder.

Finch Fight Club

The other day while we were doing a bee inspection, I kept an eye on Mr. Neil's finch feeder--they were chock full of common redpolls and pine siskins. You can see some of the tracking of pine siskins at Audubon's Great Backyard Bird Count website...interesting that they are calling it a winter finch invasion. I recall a few year ago when the thousands of great gray owls were in Minnesota, a couple of ornithologists' took me to to task for using the term "invasion" instead of "irruption" (apparently the proper term for ornithologists). I did some digiscoping and digivideoing while at Mr. Neils and even set up a couple of different motion sensitive cameras. Check out some of the finch hissy fits I got with the Wingscapes camera:

Redpolls fighting!

More fighting!

And yet more fighting!

And even picking on a poor little junco! Here's a digivideo of some of the sqaubbling on our 36" long finch feeder:

Redpolls Hittin' The Twin Cities Metro Area

While I was in Florida, common redpolls were being reported in the Twin Cities metro area. Last winter they were showing up in good numbers up at Sax Zim Bog and Mr. Neil even had one at his feeders.

There have been a few hanging out at Carpenter Nature Center. When we were trying to band birds last Friday, we saw a flock of about nine birds. We were almost completely skunked, we only trapped one lone junco and it was a retrap. We would see a redpoll fly into the traps, but one was too light to trip the door closed, so we got completely nooged on banding any redpolls.

I just love the little redpoll goatee--combined with the little red spot on the head that resembles a beret, they look like their about to break out a set of bongos in a 1960's looking coffee shop at any moment. I went back to check what the Winter Finch Forecast had been for redpolls:

"The Common Redpoll is a white birch seed specialist in the boreal forest in winter. White birch crops are poor in the northern two-thirds of the boreal forest, but seed abundance increases southward. In central Ontario, such as Algonquin Park, crops on white and yellow birches range from fair to good. It is uncertain whether the birch crop is large enough to stop the southward movement in central Ontario about latitude 45 degrees. Some redpolls, including a few Hoarys, may get south to Lake Ontario if birch seed supplies run low."

I guess the birch seed supply ran low.

We even got to see some redpolls at Warner Nature Center during Non Birding Bill's Winter Survival Birthday party. His non birding friends also found them cool when pointed out. What was interesting was that unlike all the common redpolls in the photos of this blog entry (which were all taken at Carpenter Nature Center), the redpolls at Warner stayed below the feeders. They only ate on the ground. I wondered if that flock had come from such a remote region that they did not know how to use a bird feeder.

After our time banding was over, I headed to a nearby spot where the St. Croix River meets with the Mississippi River. It has been a bit warmer and the water usually opens up when that happens. You can sometimes see some fun ducks. As I scanned, I only saw some bald eagles jockeying for position for some food on the ice. Suddenly, some friends drove up behind me, shouting. I had them reenact what they did:

Thanks to Jed and Linda who were the great to reference the blog post about my amusement of people who point out eagles when I'm after some small bird that does not seem as exciting. But I did actually look out and the eagles were doing something kind of interesting:

They were eating a Canada goose. There, are you happy? I took a photo of a bald eagle. lol

I joined Jed and Linda a little further down the Mississippi River to search for waterfowl and we found some coyotes on patrol across the river. There was a third, but it was further back in the woods. We got to watch the two above poop and since they were in the boundaries of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, I guess we know who pooped in this park.

Peanut Butter Recall, Salmonella, Suet and Birds

This post will be updated as we hear from more suet manufacturers.

Okay, I have communicated with three different suet manufacturers regarding their nut flavored suets and the salmonella peanut butter recall. Currently, peanut butter produced from Peanut Corporation of America is at issue for salmonella contamination, not commercial brands that many of us have in our cabinets. Here are what three manufacturers told me:

C & S states on their website that their nut suets are safe due to their testing and that they do not use any of the recalled industrial peanut butter products from Peanut Corporation of America.

Pine Tree Farms grinds their own nuts and since just the nuts themselves are not part of the recall, their suet is safe.

Woodpecker Products said that their suet is safe because they do not use peanut butter from Peanut Corporation of America.

UPDATE 1: Thanks to Donald the Birder, we also have info that Heath Manufacturing is also saying that their suets are salmonella free since they do not use any of the recalled peanut butter products.

UPDATE 2: Thanks to hscott, we also have info that Wildlife Sciences says that their suet products do not contain peanut products affected by the current recall.

UPDATE 3: Scott's Wild Bird Food has recalled some of its products.

I called Cornell Lab of Ornithology for good measure and they said that if you do not know where the peanut butter ingredients came from in your flavored suet cake, don't feed it to birds. They did offer that since consumer grade peanut butter is currently not on the recall list, making your own peanut butter suet using ingredients you have on hand should be safe.

If you are looking for a suet recipe, I highly recommend Julie Zickefoose's Peanut Butter Suet Dough Recipe.

While making different phone calls, I did have one person tell me, "Birds can't get salmonella."

"Yes, they can," I said.

"No they can't," they argued.

"Yes they can..." and just as I was about to start listing salmonella outbreaks in birds in the last year, he said, "Well, they can't get the strain that's involved in the recall."

I disagree and asked Cornell about this matter. At the moment, there is so little information about the salmonella involved the outbreak we cannot say whether or not it will harm birds and it's best to err on the side of caution. Here is some information from Dr. David Bonter, the project leader of our Project FeederWatch on salmonella and birds.

"Salmonellosis is caused by a bacteria belonging to the genus Salmonella. It is a common cause of mortality in feeder birds, particularly siskins, goldfinches, and redpolls, but the symptoms are not always obvious. A sick bird may appear thin, fluffed up, and may have fecal material on its vent and swollen eyelids. Infected birds are often lethargic and easy to approach. Some infected birds may show no outward symptoms, but are carriers of the disease and can spread the infection to other birds.

Salmonellosis is primarily transmitted through fecal contamination of food and water. It may also be transmitted through bird-to-bird contact. Occasionally, outbreaks of the disease cause significant mortality in certain species.

Disease transmission can be reduced by 1) cleaning areas that are contaminated with the bacteria, and 2) discouraging large flocks of birds from gathering in one location."

At a blog reader's request, I have tried contacting Scott's Wild Bird Food about their suet and they have not answered me at this time, so I cannot say whether or not their suet is free of the recalled industrial peanut butter (this does not mean it's not safe, but at the moment, it does not have the guarantee the other suet manufacturers have). I shook my head at their website. If you go to their web page for North American bird feeding, they show European goldfinches eating their food. Too bad we don't get those in the US. If a company doesn't even know basic North American feeder birds, how we trust that they know anything about feeding birds?

So that is the current info that we have on peanut butter suet being safe for bird feeding.

KARE 11 Showcase Minnesota Appearance

If you just caught my KARE 11 appearance and wanted to know more on economizing your bird feeding operation, here are some tips (you can also get my book City Birds/Country Birds) and have all of this advice at your fingertips:

The price of many popular bird feeding seeds has gone up due to companies like Frito Lay switching to sunflower oil and many farmers dedicating more land to corn than sunflower. There's just not as much sunflower available for bird feed, bringing the prices higher (not to mention the fuel costs to transport it). If you are only going to purchase one bag of seed, only use black oil, you'll get the most bang for your bird feeding buck.

And don't worry, even small birds like goldfinches will eat black oil sunflower seed!

Avoid mixes that look like this (at least in Minnesota in Wisconsin). Unless you live out west and plan on getting California Quail, this mix will be a waste of money. It may be cheaper than sunflower, but you will get fewer species of birds per dollar with a mix like this.

If you're going to get a mix, it should look like the above--mostly dark in color, a sign that it is chock full of sunflower. Other ways to offer seed and to save on money and birds just kicking it out, is to get a seed cake--seeds held together with gelatin, birds love it and it takes them awhile to eat it. Plus, it's harder for starlings to take over. One of my favorites to offer is the Mr. Bird line and my favorite to put out for the birds is the Pecan Feast.

Nutra-Saff aka Golden Safflower is growing in popularity with chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals and grosbeaks. It's not popular with starlings and house sparrows, which will make it last longer in your bird feeders. Talk to your local wild bird specialty store and ask if they carry golden safflower (this is different than the usual plain white safflower, it's got a thinner shell).

A lot of birds love peanuts and mixed nuts out of the shell, but starlings can take that over and finish it in the blink of an eye. If you're going to offer nuts, offer them in the shell. Starlings cannot crack it open, but woodpeckers, chickadees, titmice and woodpeckers will be able to eat them.

If you want to offer suet, but have crows and blackbird eating it before the woodpeckers get hold of it, offer the suet in an "upside down suet feeder." Woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches can hang upside down to get access to the suet without any problems, but starlings and crows have a much tougher time (they'll try, but will not be as successful). Keep in mind, that if you switch to an upside down feeder, it may take awhile for the birds to figure out how to use it--maybe a month or two. But once they do, they will be loyal visitors.

Other things you can do include investing long term in your bird feeding. Shop around for clearance fruit bearing trees and plant them. This showy mountain ash is popular with cedar waxwings, robins, and grosbeaks. Also look into red osier dogwood, grey dogwood, chokecherry, and pincherry.

Never underestimate the value of a good brush pile. Maybe you can't keep a tree like this felled oak laying around your yard, but a small brush pile full of branches for birds to hide in makes a great roosting spot for juncoes and tree sparrows in the winter. You might even find a cardinal lurking in there. Don't forget a water source like a heated bird bath too.

All little tips for economizing on your bird feeding budget this winter.

The Hummer Heper: What Won't They Think Of Next

Last night's Birds and Beers was awesome! It was a huge crowd full of regulars and first timers. I think we're all ready to get out and do some spring birding--someone was even trying to start a pool of what the warbler seasons was going to be like. Thanks to everyone who came!

Right on schedule, our early spring snow storm has arrived--whoot! So, to let's ignore the snow and focus on what's ahead. One of my many jobs is working for a bird trade publication called Birding Business that is geared toward manufacturers of birding products and people who run bird specialty stores. One of my newer duties is doing a blog called Birding Business News where I plug in news stories pertinent to the industry (like sunflower prices) or cool new products coming down the pike. You're not gonna believe this one.

Hummingbird nesting material. Yep, that's what I said, hummingbird nesting material. It's called the Hummer Helper and was started with the folks at the Hummer House and is made up of natural fibers "to take the place of ever-harder to find spider webs." (Seriously, it's getting harder to find spider webs? Cause I feel like I see them everywhere.) Anyway, it was picked up by a company called Songbird Essentials and should be available at a bird store near you. On the off chance your local bird store isn't carrying it you can call 1-800-269-4450 to find out where you can get it.

It looks pretty cool and is made of natural fibers. Other birds will use it besides the hummingbirds, including finches, titmice, orioles, and waxwings. I think I might give it a go in Mr. Neil's yard. I think it'd be fun to set it up with the Wingscapes motion sensitive camera and see what all birds are coming to it. You can read more about The Hummer Helper here.