Oriole Fix?

This morning as I was getting dressed I heard the distinct oriole whistle. I tore through the apartment looking for my red jelly dish and grape jelly. I could find neither. So, I grabbed a red candle and some chokecherry jelly and set that out along with the NovaBird Camera. For those that don't know, orioles are attracted by bright reds and oranges, so having a little extra color helps get their attention when they are moving through. I didn't get an oriole but I did manage to capture an image of a very confused looking house finch.

I had to go out and get a proper oriole set up. It suddenly dawned on me that I'm not going to get my usual oriole fix this year. I get orioles at home, but just for a couple of weeks. I got them constantly when I worked at the bird store and Non Birding Bill and I make trips out to Mr. Neil's to watch his feeders in the spring. Sitting down with a warm mug of coffee or tea and watching orioles is in my top ten list of things to do. I no longer work at the bird store and just learned that Mr. Neil's feeders have been demolished by bears so I will not be able to sit with a nice warm mug of coffee or tea and watch orioles to my heart's content as easily this spring? Where will I go this year? I'm a tad bummed.

I did head over to the bird store and picked up one of those Erva Ant Moats. They're supposed to be a trap to keep ants out jelly and nectar feeders, but their the metal design keeps them from braking even if a raccoon or bear knocks them down and the bright red color really attracts orioles. I think they work way better as a feeder than ant moat. I hung mine just above my domed X-1 Seed Saver and loaded it with grape jelly and mealworms. Hopefully I'll have some takers in tomorrow morning.

Yesterday, I stopped at the "Lose Your Shoes Event" at Arc's Value Village. Margery Punnett and Paul Black were on hand and I got my picture taken with half the Balanced Breakfast crew. Margery always asks great questions, she tends to apologize if they aren't the right question, but I like how her questions remind me that not every one knows as much about birds as I do. I love doing the Balanced Breakfast. We are supposed to talk about birds, but the segment frequently meanders--which is fun. I used to try and prepare for those segments the night before, but ever since the morning Ian gave me a Cosmo Quiz I decided that it's best to free my mind and just go with the flow. I'll say one thing, that show certainly helps break down the nerdy, dowdy birder stereotype.

I Have The Bird Flu Movie!

Thanks to the tv chick at TV Picks I have an advanced screening copy of Fatal Contact! I'm watching it tonight and will write up a review for her site!

Incidentally, tv chick has one of the longest running blogs in history.

I've Been Tagged: Most Beautiful Birds

I have been tagged by WildBird on the Fly to participate in the most beautiful birds meme. This is a fluctuating list and is bound to be different if you ask me ten minutes from now. Here are the rules according to WildBird:

The rules: Post a list of the 10 birds you consider most beautiful on your blog; you may limit the list to the ABA area (continental United States and Canada) or use a geographic area of your choice. Mark birds you have seen with an asterisk. Tag 3 bloggers to keep it going.

I'm going to keep my list to beautiful birds I have photographed. If I try to go worldwide, my little budgie brain would just explode.

List (Subject to Change at Any Moment)

Rose-breasted Grosbeak* - I love the song of these birds in the spring (that would make a cool meme, the ten most beautiful bird songs). I like the black and white and the pink triangle. Is Nature trying to make a political statement or is just "is what it is". Regardless, I love these dudes, they are one of the many heralds of true spring in Minnesota.

Northern Goshawk* - Hands down the most handsome hawk found in the United States. I love the soft gray colors that blend well for camouflage accented by the maniacal looking, blood red eye. Those eyes seem to suit the hunting style of goshawks or accipiters in general. See it, and kill it no matter what aerial acrobatics must be done. Peregrines may get most of the glory but goshawks are the coolest in my book.

Yellow-headed blackbirds* - It's like someone shoved a goldfinch onto the head of a blackbird. Brilliant! Need I say more?

Red-tailed hawk* - I love how every single red-tailed hawk is different. Some are darker, some are lighter and they can be seen almost anywhere in the United States--a constant for me in my travels. Browns and creams and red melding together for a luscious killing machine.

Baltimore Orioles* - I love how tropical and out of place orioles look in the upper midwest. I love how bright and striking they look at the feeders, yet that orange and black hides so well once they are in the canopy of a cottonwood or willow. Pure perfection and another candidate for most beautiful song meme.

Common Grackle* - I know some out there are thinking, "Birdchick, what the fudge?? A grackle?!?" Sorry dudes, I am a closet grackle admirer. The blues, the purples, the blacks all accented by the yellow eyes topped by the over lapping supra orbital ridge. Imagine just having one that ate millet quietly in a corner--you might think they were pretty too. I was going to put in a starling in winter plumage, but I didn't want to start a boycott of my blog. But deep down, I think starlings in winter plumage are almost prettier than a grackle.

Sandhill Crane* - This was a toss up. Pelican or sandhill crane, I decided that since I went to the trouble of having a crane tattooed on me, that I feel the crane is prettier. They're long, they're graceful, they sound like a dinosaur, they dance, they are gray with a flashy red piece of flesh on their head and a flock 40,000 cranes is the only thing more beautiful than one crane.

Cooper's hawk* - What, another accipiter? I'm always happy and know it's going to be a great day if I see a Cooper's hawk. I love their stealth, the orange breast, the slate blue back, the bloodthirsty looking read eyes and that sassy swishing of tail they do so often. Frightening beauty, they name is Cooper's hawk.

Cinnamon Teal* - Brown, beautiful rusty brown. It reminds me of a rich ginger cookie batter, I want to bite into one whenever I see a Cinnamon tea. And to top it off, they have that wonderful sky blue patch on their wings. The most beautiful brown bird I have ever seen--and it floats, how can you not admire that?

Indigo Bunting* (Okay and I cheated by including a goldfinch). Indigo buntings are technically a black bird that appears deep purplish blue to our eyes. A tiny wonderful surprise at our feeders in spring, and if we are lucky, the lone songster on hot humid summer afternoons singing at the top of a tree or shrub. And as if they weren't cool enough in their own skin by being so blue, they eat millet. They say, "Hey cardinals, chickadees and nuthatches that insist on sunflowers, forget it. I'm going for the crap seed, I'm going for millet."

I end my list and a realize that I don't have pileated woodpecker, scarlet tanager, western meadowlark, green jays...crap, will sharp-shinned hawks feel left out because I included the other two accipiters in North American and left them out???

Ah well, my list is done and it's not about me any more. So, whom shall I tag?

Birder Blog because she has a new book out and we should promote and support it and I'm sure her choices will be thoughtful and somehow helpful to birds.

Ivory-bill Skeptic because I want to see if he's capable of blogging about anything other than his lack of belief over Cornell's announcement of the ivory-billed woodpecker--you do have to admire that it keeps going every day like an Energizer Bunny on just the same topic, every day, the same thing. How does he do it?

PunkBirder because I just discovered it and it looks very promising. I'm strongly in favor of anyone putting the words "punk" and "birder" together.

One For Bad Movie Night

One of the things I love about doing a Balanced Breakfast on fm107 is that the less I prepare the better I am. I never know where the conversation will go, today I was all set to talk about a list of birding activities in Minnesota this month and ended up talking about bad movies like Xanadu and Grease 2. This led to conversations about avian flu and apparently ABC has the perfect sweeps week movie: Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America--brought to you by the same writer as Atomic Twister. Here's the weird thing, as of the day I created this entry the movie isn't up on Internet Movie Database and it's supposed to be filmed and in the can. ABC is keeping it quiet. Hmmm, wonder why? Could it be bad? I don't even want to think about how inaccurate the bird references will be. Non Birding Bill hopes that the movie will have Canada geese walking down the street, stalking their victims and then nonchalantly walking over and making a sudden attack.

I think this quote about says it all:

"We feel we're providing a level of awareness and we've gone to great effort to make sure the film is accurate," co-producer Judith Verno said.

What Judith is really saying, "We found all the scariest stuff about flu on the internet and put it in this movie. Oh, and I have seen birds fly by my office window and we had a book with birds on the cover available on the set."

Blog Cleaning

I forgot to post a couple of photos from Friday's banding. A sparrow came into the nets and at first glance wasn't easily identifyable. Here is the sparrow in question:

You can't see the front but trust me, it wasn't that much of a help. So the bird was taken in for banding, but the best part is watching all the guys sittin' around trying to figure it out:

Sibley, Peterson and even Pyle (the really big gun) were brought in to try and figure out what the sparrow was. It turned out, after some debate to be a Lincoln's, but it was fun to watch the boys work through the identification. They love a good mystery.

This past weekend was all rain, all the time--a beautiful rain: the sound of the water falling down the gutters and splashing in our ally (I love that sound), combined that with the soft, bright green glow of leaves emerging from buds on the trees and then on sunday, the trilling of yellow-rumped warblers, but not much bloggable material there. Non Birding Bill and I spent the weekend "reestablishing our pair bond" and that's not really blogable either. About the only thing I can safely report is that I made a rhubarb pie and is was spectacular (no strawberries, no raspberries, just pure unadultorated rhubarb...well, there was some sugar adulorating it).

I have a file that I keep in my email folder of items people send me so if I don't have much to blog about personally, I can at least have an interesting update. Up first, Mike Hendrickson was kind enough to send me a photo of one of the weird rabbits of Duluth (right). For those that don't know, about 15 years ago someone released several domesticated rabbits along Park Point in Duluth and they bred like...well, like rabbits. Now they even hybridize with the Eastern Cottontails. I have always been perplexed by this because Duluth is such a hot spot for raptor migration. This is the place that once got over 100,000 broad-winged hawks flying over in one day. Granted, most of the birds are passing through, but quite a few do make it to Park Point to feed. How a bunch of white furry targets never got wiped out by hawks just baffles me. These rabbits are saavy. A few years ago a congressman hired some guys with nets to trap the rabbits. Mike tells me that they didn't net a single one, and all the residents were upset that their yards were trampled by the folks with the nets. The congressman lost his position over it. Ooopsie.

Speaking of rabbits, I know you're waiting for a big ole disapproval from Cinnamon, but NBB found a rabbit that may have out disapproved her in the form of the sulking bunny snowcone. She's gone back to her hutch to work on her look. She's watching Zoolander for inspiration.

NBB also sent a link to Shawn Kielty's blog who has some cool photos of a red-tailed hawk nest. NBB periodically checks links to my blog and found a link from Shawn's saying that my rabbits make him gag. Boy if rabbits make him gag, I don't even want to think about what would happen if he were faced with something truly gag worthy like vulture or pelican vomit.

Rick Hollis sent me a photo of a junco who regularly feeds on his hanging feeders (left). This was in reference to my surprise of a junco on my second story ledge during a snow storm. Most juncos are not fond of hanging feeders and tend to feel more comfortable on the ground. Every now and then a juncoes disregards what is written about its feeding habits and buck tradition by feeding on a feeder and not underneath. You go, junco, you go.

Don't forget that this Saturday is the Raptor Release for The Raptor Center at Carpenter Nature Center. It should be gorgeous weather and you can see eagles, hawks, owls, falcona and a vulture up close and personal, watch birds that have recovered in clinic be set free and come hang with me at the binocular booth, I'll be selling binoculars as a fundraiser for TRC. You can try them out or just shoot the breeze. It's bound to be a good time.

Why Can I Not Keep My Mouth Shut?

Now, I enjoy my neighborhood, we have an ecclectic crowd to say the least. The pizza restaurant across the street is well known for being one of the few employers who welcomes employees who have facial tattoos and piercings. I expect there to be colorful characters here and I like being one of them. However, there are days...

This morning before having any sort of caffination I dashed over to the neighborhood drugstore to pick up a prescription. I was wearing my "bird action" shirt and trying to mind my own business. In front of me was a gentleman pushing sixty and wearing a black leather jacket with a huge lion head stiched on the back. He was having trouble hearing the pharmasist and you could tell that though he was nice, he was a sandwich shy of a picnic basket. I just kind of zoned out while waiting my turn. He turned around and below is our conversation:

Lion Jacket: What's "Hot All-Bird Action" supposed to mean?

Birdchick: I'm a bird watcher.

Lion Jacket: (whistles four note tune over and over) What bird's that?

Birdchick: Not sure, doesn't sound like a Minnesota bird.

Lion Jacket: It sure is, that's a chickadee.

As Non Birding Bill will point out (often at my expense) I have a low threshold for bird inaccuracy, but realizing where I was and not wanting to engage I decided to let it go and smiled and nodded my head. He must have detected my skepticism and continued with his strange whistling.

Lion Jacket: You see that's what a chickadee sounds like, you gotta really listen for those notes, you're not listening for them correctly.

Birdchick: Here's what a chickadee sounds like (and I did the two note call).

Lion Jacket: No, no that's not a chickadee and he continued his odd four note call. You see, you need to learn your birds better and really listen to those notes.

Birdchick: Uh-huh (heavy on the skepticism)

Lion Jacket: That's what a chickadee really sounds like to someone who really knows their birds.

Birdchick: Uh-huh.

Lion Jacket: They follow me around when I whistle, they know what I'm saying.

Birdchick: Uh-huh.

Lion Jacket: You just gotta take more time and learn your bird calls, (whistles more). That's what a chickadee is.

Birdchick: Here's a black-capped chickadee (whisteled the two note call), here' a Carolina chickadee which has a four note call, which you might have heard down south, but not here in Minnesota (whistled four note call). Here's a white-troated sparrow (whistled its call), here's an eastern screech owl (whisted its call). Do you really want to debate bird calls with me? I can do more.

At this point, the gent in the lion jacket and the pharmasist were looking at me speechless, mouthes agape as were a few other customers in the drug store. What the heck was I doing and how did I end up in a drug store whistling bird calls and trying to debate bird calls with this guy? All that Lion Jacket could say was, "That's not a chickadee" and went away. I wanted to clarify to the pharmacist that I wasn't crazy, I just hadn't had any coffee yet, but I think my audio display spoke way more than any protest I would make.

Alas, why couldn't I just let it go?

Woodpecker Tongue

"Hey, red-bellied woodpecker, pull my finger!"

Here's a female red-bellied woodpecker that came into the nets at Carpenter Nature Center. And for those who doubt that these birds actually have red on their bellies, here's proof:

Back in the early days of exploration on this continent, explorers did not have access to binoculars and spotting scopes. The best way to identify birds was to shoot them and look at carcasses up close. So, if a red-bellied woodpecker is in your hand and about five inches from your face, you can see a hint of red on the belly, hence the name: red-bellied woodpecker.

One of the things I enjoy about banding is that it's a way to see birds up close and see the features that bird books talk about. Check out the tongue on the red-belly. The tip is hard like a spear with little barbs that are used to spear and grab onto larvae found inside dead and dying trees. As a matter of fact, when woodpeckers are in nets you have to be careful that the nets don't get caught on the barbs of the tongue and hurt the bird. Another fun detail that I learned is that red-bellies have deep brown eyes.

Another freaky feature of woodpeckers is that they have very long tongues that can stretch out quite a bit. Woodpecker tongue muscles start on the top of their heads (I read once that if a woodpecker has something on its mind, it generally its tongue). This feature helps them to really gain access to larvae deep into tree bark.

Don't forget that if you've never visited Carpenter, next week (May 6) is a great time because the Raptor Center will be releasing birds of prey that have recovered in their clinic. Education birds will be on display and there will be fun activities planned. I also will be selling binoculars there on behalf of TRC, so if you need some binoculars that would be a great time to pick some up and help out a great organization.

Bird Naughty Bits

Look how tiny a ruby-crowned kinglet is compared to my iPod! I always forget how teensy these guys are. Jen Vieth at Carpenter Nature Center got this guy out of the nets during their banding session this morning. Remember they do the banding every Friday morning and if you are at the park you can check out the action. May is an exciting time at a banding station with such a variety of birds moving through.

I remembered that I have a pelican band on my keychain so I took a picture of it next to a band used for a kinglet foot. The band on the left is the one for kinglet. It's so teeny tiny. The bird we banded was female so she did not have the little red crest that males pop up when they are excited. Speaking of excited male birds, Jen was kind enough to show me how they are able to tell the sex of quite few song birds this time of year. Below is a photo of a sparrow, can you tell if it's male or female?

Do you see it? It's a little nub just to the right of the bald patch, which for a male bird is quite large. This is called a cloacal protuberance (the bird equivalent of a hoo-ha). Apparently male birds get it this time of year and it lasts all through the mating season--woof. The males are basically flying around with a constant swollen cloaca for several days or weeks, ready for action at any time. I'm not making this up, Jen showed me a book that showed all the different types of cloacal humps...their humps, their humps, their lovely birdy bumps (I'm so sorry for the Black Eyed Peas reference):

The ones on the left are circumsized--no, no, no I'm just kidding. Females will not have the above protuberance, but they will have a bare patch on the breast called a brood patch, that is used to incubate their eggs.

Here's the male chipping sparrow that we took the photo of the cloaca shown above. Please don't think less of him for having a picture of his cloacal protuberance on the internet, he's a young bird who really needed the money.

Flying Squirrels and Disapproval

The flying squirrels outside my bedroom window are getting braver and braver. As it's warming up in Minnesota, we are opening our windows and we (or I should say I) can hear their chirping. Non Birding Bill never seems to hear it. I can't seem to get my camera to focus on them in the pitch black, I'll have to work on that. As soon as I spread a little seed for them on the window ledge they come right for it. I bet it would just be a matter of time before I could hand feed them. The dude to the right was sitting right above my window and posed for a few shots. He kept munching away at the nuts even with the flash on. Most of the photos turned out a little blurry, but with a little practice and a little positive reinforcement towards the squirrels, I bet I can do better. I love that I get flying squirrels while living in a busy metro area.

I took Cinnamon with me to Adventure Publications today. I needed to go over the proofs for the 2007 Birding Calendars (Illinois had the coolest cover) and talked about my City Bird Country Bird book (looks like it will be coming out this summer instead of this spring) and a few other ideas I have cooking. I thought Cinnamon just wanted to come along to spend some time with me since I have been doing so much traveling without her. Alas, she was just using me as a pawn in one of her many schemes. When I stepped into the bathroom, she took the opportunity to talk to my publisher about a Disapproving Rabbits book. Gordon (above) was a good sport and listened to her ideas and then tried to tell her as gently as possible that he just wasn't familiar with the rabbit market and wasn't prepared to invest in the idea a this time. I think she would have had a better chance had she not insisted on a $20,000 advance for the book. She took the rejection hard, I was concerned that her disapproval would wipe out half the staff at Adventure, but Gretchen, my editor saved the day with a handful of parsley. Poor dejected bunny. She's currently drowning her sorrows in a bag of Broccoli Wokly.

I and The Bird

Are you curious about what other bird related blogs are out there, maybe just around the bend? (Okay, I couldn't resist another Utah photo)

I and the Bird is up and running, this week it is being hosted by Home Bird Notes. Boy, it really has grown since it started, Home Bird really had her job cut out for her. This is a place where bloggers can submit posts about birds and the host gathers them into a theme. If you're someone who doesn't have time to keep up with all the blogs out there, then think of this as a newsletter highlighting the best posts from the various birding blogs to just give you a taste.