Blog With Potential--Edited

I was scanning Fat Birder's Top 500 (although, it's currently only the top 336) and came across Alan's BirdCam Blog. Lots of photos and it appears so far to be about what's going on in his yard. Some really fun photos and video of warblers, thrashers, towhees and grosbeaks at his feeder.

After I posted about Alan's blog, a reader pointed out to me that in the comments section of his last entry was this note:

"This was the last posting by Alan. He passed away within an hour of posting this wonderful image. "

I rarely read comment sections on blogs and had completely missed that. Thank you, Lea, for bringing that to my attention. I'm so sorry for his family's loss and even though he is no longer with us, we can enjoy and share in the love he had for the birds at his feeder. For some, he gave the gift of cyber birding.

Yesterday's Open House

The Raptor Center has an open house twice a year. It's part of a University of Minnesota event designed to let the public see what is going on. It's free and well attended by lots of families. One of the projects I'm working on is setting up The Raptor Center to sell binoculars in their gift shop.

For big events like the open house or the spring bird release, I try to be on hand and explain how to use binoculars and what to look for when choosing them. It's a great deal, because people can get GREAT binoculars at affordable prices and purchasing them through The Raptor Center benefits the injured eagles, hawks, owls and falcons.

I've been with The Raptor Center since 1998 and I remember when I first started in education, I wanted to do every event possible to handle birds and because I was so excited to talk about birds with anybody. It almost never fails to be cold and rainy on open house days so after the first two, I made a mental note to never volunteer for the outdoor raptor displays for the open house. Yesterday was no exception--rain and forty degrees. I felt bad for all the soggy volunteers and birds. When I would demonstrate digiscoping from inside the dry, warm building, I would aim the scope on the outdoor raptor displays and I think people got a huge kick out of the wet owls (above), as well as the dripping volunteers. Live and learn.

Speaking of educating the public, one of the things with doing booth programs is that from time to time you run into people who know way more about birds than you do--the information isn't always accurate or correct, but they certainly do know more than you. I was talking about that with Al Batt when I saw him at the Northwest Sports Show. He agreed and said that he sees that especially with young guys who have their sweetie on their arm and want to show off to impress her. He then added, "But, I'm on the guy's side and I want help him look good so I just go ahead and agree--sure, that's not common, but you sure did see a roadrunner in Minnesota. We guys gotta stick together."

I love Al Batt.

Where Did The Weekend Go

I found another roosting sparrow (left) at the convention center, this female wasn't as sound a sleeper as the other dude.

Somehow, a whirlwind kicked in on Thursday and I got swept up. It's unusual for me not to have time for the blog, but I got completely caught up at the Sports Show and at The Raptor Center Open House on Sunday. Whew. I'm kind of dreading the email inbox. I haven't checked it on a daily basis the last four days and I know it is practically overflowing at this point.

I'm feeling a strong need to go out and watch birds, last night I had a dream that I found the first state record of a phainopepla in Minnesota. If you are having dreams about watching birds, you better get out and do it. Actually, with all the talk of woodcocks at the Thompson and Zickefoose household, I think I might take a trip woodcocking tonight or tomorrow. I have a mountain of laundry to do and I save the woodcocks as my goal. I can't go see woodcocks until I've done three loads of darks and one load of whites.

We had a minor trauma for me in the kitchen. Thursday night I made a couple of mugs of hot chocolate to unwind. Friday morning a spider had moved in and webbed out in the spout of our electric kettle. So much for heating up water for the French press coffee pot. I like spiders in my house, they serve a useful purpose. I just really don't want to know about them in my home. Part of it is, that I can swell to Popeye proportions when bitten by certain species of spider. The other part is that they move in such a weird way, it freaks me out. I called Non Birding Bill at work and alerted him to the situation of the spider in the kettle.

NBB: Clean out the kettle.

Birdchick: That's not the purpose of this call. I'll be at the convention center when you get home from work, so in case you want to make yourself some tea, I thought you might want to know about the spider.

NBB: Why don't you just wipe out the spider and clean the kettle?

Birdchick: You know, I think I'm going to just have coffee at the convention center--it's Starbucks and cheaper than the water there.

NBB (laughing): It's just s spider. Wipe it out.

Birdchick: That's not the purpose of this call. Again, I just thought you might find this information useful for when you get home.

NBB: Well, I can clean the itsy bitsy spider out, but it's just going to crawl up the spout again (laughing uncontrollably).

I don't know what happened, but he kettle was cleaned out and ready for use on Saturday morning.

A conversation

Me: Darling?

Sharon: Yes?

Me: If you're going to make a joke about the Pope having bird flu, you should probably spell "flu" correctly.

Sharon: How did I spell it?

Me: As in "The bird flew out the window."

Sharon: A string of profanity.

-posted by Bill

News Alert! Pope Has Bird Flu

I just heard that the Pope has bird flu. Early reports say that he got it from a Cardinal.

April Fools!

I Found A Sleeping Bird

Last night at the end of the Sports Show shift, I was waiting outside of the convention center for Non Birding Bill to pick me up. It was around 10pm. I noticed a large pile of bird poop under a lamp that was lighting the area and instantly thought, "Someone is nesting there."

I then realized that it's late March, no small bird could have successfully nested in the last few weeks. I wondered, "Is someone sleeping up on the lamp?"

I always wonder about roosting birds and where they go. Some birds, we know where they go, but I do wonder about sparrows, cardinals, blue jays--where are those dudes sleeping. I tried to position myself to see who was up there. I whipped out my binoculars and silently chuckled as a couple of smokers next to me tried to nonchalantly edge a few feet away. What on earth did they think I was doing or going to do to them? They were just binoculars for cryin’ out loud. Granted, it was dark out, not a traditional time to watch birds, but not unreasonable either--you’re not going to get cooties from someone with a pair of binoculars.

The bird looked to be a male house sparrow: small, gray and brown and a little dark patch on the chest. I snapped a few photos and he continued to sleep. Based on the amount of poop on the ledge and on the ground, this guy must have been using this site all winter.

The birding just never stops.

I forgot to mention in the previous post that Kim and Cindy Risen have a table full of their new paper called Nature Scape News that they are handing out free. It's goal is celebrating the joy of birds, butterflies and wildflowers. They mentioned to me late last year they were going to start it, and boy howdy they have already sent out three issues. It's for the Midwest area and you can either sign up for a subscription on their website or many wild bird specialty stores have them for sale as well. It's a great publication full of photos and articles about backyard and general birding. Check it out if you get the chance.

Welcome to Fogey Town

Population: Birders

I'm struggling today. The Northwest Sports Show is a big fun outdoors experience and I thought it was a great opportunity when the organizers asked for help in creating a bird watching room. Several bird clubs came together to put together what we thought would be a fun and interesting booth set up, but we are not meeting the standards set by some of the other groups and vendors. We have a small spinning "wheel of fortune" type game where kids answer questions and get either a bird tattoo or little compass, information from various bird clubs and festivals, a table full of stuffed birds (that no one can touch--oils on human hands damages feathers), a display of bluebird houses and a video from the Bluebird Recovery Program, and my table full of binoculars and a scope people can test out.

What do they have next door to us? A touch a live shark tank! How do you compete with that? Not only that, they have all sorts of dead and dried out sea and like life that kids can touch. They also have a wheel of fortune game that has a wheel three times as large as ours. Across the way is a trout-fishing tank where kids can fish out of--with actual trout and the vendor booths have pheasants, foxes, antlers from deer, elk and all sorts of beast. It's a feast for the eyes and something tangible that you can touch. I suddenly came to the realization that it's incredibly difficult to capture the fun and excitement of birding and present it in a booth. With hunting and fishing, you have trophies of either the whole animal or some of the parts that you can touch and see up close. With birds, we really can't do that. Birders are all about seeing things in the wild--we're about enjoying birds without touching them or taking them--except for bird banders. So, it's difficult to have something tangible for kids to touch.

I talked to another lady in the booth about maybe finding some hawk wings and feet that we can bring for kids to touch and look at up close and maybe bring in some more sounds to play in the room that says, "birds"! Actually, I've been playing birdPod on my laptop and getting people interested in that.

Even our talks aren't that well attended, last night I had two guys show up for a "basics on birdhouses" discussion. They politely asked if I would talk for ten minutes on what hawks they should worry about eating their pheasants. So, I'm now wondering if I can throw together a PowerPoint that is something along the lines of "cool birds you see when hunting" or "top food animals of hawks and owls". These people aren't interesting in learning about getting started in bird watching, bird feeding and housing. They want to know about birds and how it relates to them. Mark Alt, the president of the MOU is sending out flyers of the top ten most wanted birds in the state. Birds that we should be seeing based on neighboring state records or from carcasses recently found (like a barn owl that flew into someone's window in the Twin Cities this winter). Chances are, these hunters and fishermen are seeing them too.

I'm not saying that we didn't work hard and put together some good booths, but what we have is not right for this audience. Just some food for thought that I'm going to mull over for future opportunities at hunting shows.

Calling All Young Birders in the Twin Cities

The proposed new Youth Birding Club will meet on April 15th at 9:00 at Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield for a field trip. The group is for 12-16 year olds. If you know any such young birders who might benefit from such a group, please provide me with names and e-mail addresses. Parents are welcome to attend this first session.

Bob Holtz
BobHoltz1933@aol.com
If you are too busy to go birding, you are too busy.

Hormonal Hawks and other species

Quick correction from the last post from J. Marty Paige:

Hi Sharon, Birders as you have mentioned are often thought of as Geeks. ( Geeks do rule the world, Bill Gates for instance). I just wanted to make a comment on your “chainsaw” post on Birdchick. I believe it is a Circular Saw and not a Chainsaw, not that it really matters. (I am just a stickler for details). Still odd though that it has been up there so long. Anyway, have a great spring birding season.

He is absolutely right. What was I thinking--and I'm someone who loves power tools. Sometimes, I get words crossed in my head. I have been known to call out peewee when the bird is actually a phoebe, and I know it's a phoebe but some kind of wiring is off in my brain that causes me to say peewee. I agree with Marty's assessment, chainsaw or circular saw--it's still weird that it has been up there for so long.

It's noisy in the education bird courtyard at The Raptor Center. Holy Cow! Every diurnal (active during the day time) bird is calling (more like squaking and screeching). The red-tailed hawks start whining back and forth to each other, which gets the golden eagle going (pictured above), who inspires one peregrine to start "per chupping", once one peregrines starts, the two have to scream back in response and, not to be left out, the kestrels periodically trill in their little territory calls. It's nuts. I was taking a peregrine out for program yesterday and as I was crating her, she was calling. It's a great call to listen to out in the wild, watching them from far away when they are on top of a cliff or skyscraper. When they are a few inches from your ear, it's not so fun.

When I was taking a group around for a tour, the group was very intrigued why this hawk (pictured right) was hunkered down on top of her hutch. She had laid an egg. She's housed by herself, so it's an infertile egg, but it just goes to show the power of hormones. Sometimes the birds will lay an egg, male or no male because their body is telling them that this is the time of year to do it. It's not as much fun to go in and get her for program during this time.

In the raptor world, males are smaller than females. With some species like peregrine falcons and Cooper's hawks it's very obvious, the male can look a third to even a half size smaller than females. With bald eagles and red-tailed hawks, it isn't always so obvious. You can just look up the feathers and check red-tailed hawks to find out the sex, you have to do it surgically. Since it really isn't that much of an issue for us to know the sex, we don't bother with the surgery and make an educated guess based on weight. Now, when the red-tails lay an egg, it's incredibly helpful because we know the sex.

Roof Mallards

Signs of spring continue to be evident in my neighborhood. As water collects on the tops of all the apartment buildings on our block, mallards show up and take advantage of them. The first year we lived here it was very odd to see mallards floating by on the building across the ally. Every now and then a hen will try to lay eggs on a roof. Before she gets too far, crows and squirrels take over and eat the eggs almost as fast as she can lay them. I'm relieved by this, I didn't want to think about having to get the newly hatched mallards off of the roofs. A good example of where egg predation comes in handy--to warn those young hens that a roof is not the best idea that they could have come up with for nesting. Mallards aren't known for their forward thinking abilities.

About eight years ago, some guys were doing some tree trimming on the roof across the way and left a chainsaw up there. It looks like a really nice DeWalt brand chainsaw. I tried to contact the building owners to let them know, but there it stays. People still go up there, but no one ever takes the chainsaw down...I sometimes wonder if it was used to dismember a body--see what happens when I watch a couple of episodes of CSI?

I was out at the Minneapolis Convention Center getting ready for the World of Birds booth at the Northwest Sports Show. This thing looks fun, and I'm not just talking about the bird room--although, that's pretty cool too. There's all sorts of bird groups represented there, MOU, Minnesota Audubon, MN DNR, MN Bluebird Recovery Program just to name a few. I was marveling in awe watching other exhibitors set up fancy boats and docks indoors (they're huge), someone next to our room was setting up a "touch the live sharks pool" and a Wisconsin animal rescue guy will have his exhibit of animals, including a lynx and a baby porcupine. How could a day be bad when you get to see a four day old porcupine? Wow, I really hope that one wasn't a breech birth. Yeow.

Hey, do you like my new tube feeder? It looks just like a squirrel! I can't believe this female is casually hanging by her back legs, while dangling two stories up. She obviously didn't read the label that reads that feeder is for clingers only and not hangers.