Go See Stardust and A Little About Our Honey

One of the fun things about being a theater major is that from time to time you see former classmates show up in anti-drug commercials, episodes of Law and Order, or live action kid tv shows. It's just fun watching friends get into the Hollywood industry. That's kind of the way I feel about Stardust--it's the Hollywood version of Mr. Neil.

Unlike Non Birding Bill, I had never read any of Mr. Neil's stuff before we met him. I got to know him as this fun British guy who has an interesting job. I think Anansi Boys was the first book that I read (and that was just checking bird facts) and I have read a couple other things since then. I listened to Stardust as an audio book on my travels the last couple of weeks just prep for the movie. Sunday we were invited to the preview and had a great time.

The movie is different than the book--it's a Hollywood version of it--what fun to see something a friend had written turned into a big summer movie with lots of special effects and actual stars--Robert De Niro, Clare Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer. It's about a fallen star that has landed into the fairy side of the world and all the people going after her. If she had landed on the real world, she would have been a cold, hard rock. Since she landed in fairy land, she's a woman who now has princes, a boy in love, and an evil witch all coming to claim her.

De Niro was by far my favorite part of the film. I figured he was just going to be his usual De Niro self which would have worked fine with the book, but they really take the character to another level which I was not prepared for and loved.

I would call this an adult fairy tail, kind of along the lines of Princess Bride (but with much cooler effects) but I think kids would enjoy it. It has some violence, but not nearly what is in the book--the book is far grosser in my opinion. The movie version has some sword play--not a lot--the end has a fun fight scene with some cool effects. There's something for everyone: pirates, magic, pretty dresses, hot guys, a couple of sword fights, unicorns, even a bird--I think it's a magpie jay, but if someone else has seen the movie and knows what it is, please let me kn0w.

So, go see Stardust this weekend, take a friend. Supporting this movie does help support the bees you read about in this blog. If the movie does well, next year we can add more hives--perhaps even making it available for sale or to give away as prizes. I know it's crazy to make blockbuster movies to fund a beekeeping business, but it's just crazy enough that it might work. Speaking of bees, Mr. Neil told me to do a taste comparison between the first frame of honey we harvested and the second. Here is a photo of our first honey:

Now, below is some comb honey from our second harvest two weeks later:

Look at that, it's a little darker and more yellow. The flavor is a bit different too, it's more sweet and not as peppery and lacks the hint of pine that the first harvest had. Still very tasty. Some honey was sent to our friend Malena and she reviews it here...although as much as I love Malena, her bee natural history is a little inaccurate, so don't take that bit too seriously.

And, I have it on good authority that four out of four dead princes agree, our honey rocks.

Feeding a Kestrel

Well, now here is an interesting chunk of fur. It's a chunk of gray squirrel tail--that in and of itself is not all that exciting. However, where it was found is most intriguing: inside the mew of Maxime, an education bald eagle at The Raptor Center (the same one some of you saw at CONvergence this year). Here's the really interesting part: we don't feed the ed birds squirrel...ever. As if that's not enough, this eagle was on a tether (or leash) while perched in her mew, so this squirrel had to come up to her. Strange, I'm gonna guess this was a little bit of the Darwin Effect going on. Although, several years ago, the education golden eagle lived in that same mew and was on a tether and periodically you would find squirrel tails. Must be stupid squirrel corner.

Our new assistant curator, the fabulous Gail Buhl was moving ed birds around and I took advantage of her holding some of them in daylight to get a photo. This is our dark morph red-tailed hawk (this is not a Harlan's red-tailed hawk--it has a red tail and Harlan's do not have red tails). This bird is primarily used as a display bird, it doesn't seem to have the temperament for programs just yet. I normally don't get to see it in good light and Gail was kind enough to pause for a photo. This bird is actually from Nebraska. We don't see too many dark morph red-tails in Minnesota, there's one that has been hanging around hwy 100 near 494 in the south metro the last few winters, but I usually see these guys further west in the US. I always see between 3-5 when I go to Nebraska to watch sandhill cranes in March. I love 'em, they look like they were carved out of dark chocolate.

We have another new education bird--a boreal owl. From what I understand, the bird is still in training and so most of the time is tucked away in a dark mew. For those non birders reading the blog, this is as big as these owls get, it's fully grown. Not much is known, they are found in the boreal forest of Minnesota. I don't know that much about them so I was reading up a little on BNA tonight. I was reading about their usual prey items and it started out as a long list of various types of voles when I came to this part:

"birds, especially thrushes (Catharus spp.), warblers, Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra), American Robin (Turdus migratorius), Mountain Chickadee (Parus gambeli), Common Redpoll (Carduelis flammeus), kinglets, and woodpeckers; and insects, especially crickets, are usual prey"

Thrushes? Robins? Crossbills? Some of those species are about as long as the boreal owl. Impressive.

Boreal owls look like a shrinky dink version of a northern hawk owl. This is a vex bird for me, I've done everything legally I can with one of these birds apart from seeing it in the wild, just doing it thang. I've had one perched on my fist, I've held a banded one from a net, I've even had one ride in my car, but I have never, ever seen a boreal owl in the wild. Ah well, another bird for another day.

Later on this morning I got to feed one of our male education kestrels. When I give programs, I just don't always pay attention to how colorful these guys are. This is Jack, getting his lunch on with a mouse head.

He came in to TRC about six years ago. A nest of kestrels fell during a storm and someone took care of them for a few days--just enough time for all the chicks to imprint on humans and become unreleasable. There were three males and because kestrels have a habit of bobbing their heads, we called them the three Bobs--which just became really confusing and we had to color code their jesses (the leather straps on their feet) in order to tell them apart. Eventually, their names settled to Baron, Jack, and Bob. Bob ended up at a nature center but we still have Jack and Baron.

And of course I had to take a video of Jack finishing off his mouse. I opted for him eating the last bit of mouse leg. I did get a video of him eating the head, but there are some serious crunching sounds. This video might be a tad gross for those eating a meal or those who have a weak stomach so be warned before you watch.

I didn't realize how much I was cheering him on while he was eating.

Cute! Jack has a mouse mustache!

I used to take the 35W bridge to and from The Raptor Center, so I had to find an alternate route today. It was weird driving by the exit and seeing the highway I have used so regularly become this strange and mysterious road that suddenly drops out of site. Sunday, they allowed the public a closer view and on Monday a friend and I went to see how close we could get--pretty darned close. This was down by one of the media tents that has been set up to keep reporters and cameras out of the sun or rain as they deliver non stop coverage. I have seen this particular pile of cars numerous times in the media coverage, but it was still jarring to see it in person. My heart goes out to the families of the dead, injured and missing, but at the same time, after seeing how large this collapse was in person, I am so grateful it wasn't worse--if all eight lanes had been open and cars going the usual 60mph, instead of only two lanes open with traffic creeping along, so many more would have been lost. Also, the bridge collapsed on a freight train, what if the cars had been filled with some toxic substance that could have gone in the river, affecting our drinking water or released an ammonia cloud? It really could have been so much worse.

Pigeon Madness--the good kind

There's a new bird club starting in New York called the Pigeon Club of New York City. The initial members appear to have a healthy sense of humor, which I heartily endorse. I highly recommend checking out their video section. Warning, crumb number one is a link to a video similar to the one I linked to of a pelican eating pigeon. This one is much better quality but this time you see a goose chase after the pelican--wonder if that means the pelican has been going for goslings besides pigeons?

Crumb number 2, however is a hilarious prank and worth checking out--especially with your kids. Crumb 3 is a cartoon I'm not familiar with and Crumb 4 is some retro Bert (of Sesame Street) action.

Word On Disapproving Rabbits

Well, I just got off the phone with Harper Collins and got some great news about the Disapproving Rabbits book - both Barnes and Noble and Borders have ordered large quantities of the book! Actually, those two orders are more than half of the first printing--I think that's a good sign. Whoot!

We're now in the process of scheduling signings and appearances. If you think that your local book store or tv station would be interested in booking us (I'm going to try and take Cinnamon with me when I can) then email me at sharon at birdchick dot com. Also, if you know of any publications in your area that might appreciate a press release, please let me know.

The official date the book is ready for sale is October 15--right before Cape May Autumn Weekend/First Annual Blogger Conference.

Shorebird Workshop

Because I am in dire need of improving my shorebird id skills, I'm taking a weekend workshop with one of the best shorebird guys in my area, Doug Buri. Doug Buri has a BS degree in zoology. His interest in shorebirds has led him to pursue them around the globe on five different continents. The shores of Hudson Bay, the mud flats of coastal Columbia, the great rift valley of Ethiopia, and the marshes of central India all attract shorebirds. Doug followed them; intrigued by the challenge of studying and identifying this avian group. He was involved for many years in a multi year research project on Big Stone NWR studying Least Sandpipers and Pectoral Sandpipers. Doug has acted as an identification consultant for the study collection at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and for the Peabody Museum at Yale University in New Haven Conn. In other words, he knows his stuff.

It's a limited group--only ten people are going but I just got word from Doug that he has three spaces available. I know this is last minute, but if you have this weekend free and have wondered if you would ever figure out these little guys--this is the workshop to take. Doug says that his number one goal is to get the group up close looks so you can learn to tell a white-rumped from a pectoral. I just got this in an email tonight:

"My number one priority is to get very VERY close to the birds. Actually I had Least Sandpipers 12-15 feet from me yesterday -- which I consider to be normal. I hear that some people use a spotting scope for shorebirding, but I'm sure it is just a vicious rumor perpetrated by those evil optical goods sellers."

The workshop starts this Friday at 9am in Milbank, SD and runs through Sunday 12pm. It'll be a good time and you'll be able to wow your friends with your mad shorebirdin' skillz. The workshop is $100 plus a $25 non-refundable registration fee includes the entire weekend workshop. It does not include food, lodging, or other expenses. If you are forced to cancel, the registration fee can be applied to future workshops.

If you would like to sign up, contact Doug NOW at dougburi@tnics.com.

Minor Notes To NBB's Guest Blogging

For the record, when Non Birding Bill offered to take over the blog when I had to leave town, I did leave him some photos to use in my absence to help him out, like the one above. Why, my goodness, what is that? Why isn't that a colorful bird on that bird feeder? Is it me or is that bird bright yellow and not brown? Right before I left, we had been at Mr. Neil's and he had tons of young bird coming to the feeders, learning how to eat at the big kid table. Here's a young downy woodpecker--his red cap on the front of his forehead distinguishes him from an adult male who would have the red on the back of the head. Oh, look at that--red and not brown. Harumph!

I even told NBB that he could do a post on all the young rose-breasted grosbeaks hanging out at the feeders. Look, another bird with some color, oh my. Here's a young male fresh from the nest. These guys were just thugs. Perhaps their larger size and demand for food made them so formidable to the other birds at the feeding stations. Titmice, nuthatches, and finches flew away on the young grosbeaks' approach.

Here is a young house finch minding its own business while feeding. This bird is fresh from the nest as well, not the yellow gape on the beak. Anyway, this guy was just feeding on a lower perch, there were plenty of other feeding stations around, and this finch even took the lowest perch--the least desirable to adults who would prefer to be higher up.

But, in flew a young grosbeak to the lower perch and the young house finch flushed. The grosbeak stayed on the perch where the finch had been, but then flew up to one of the higher perches and began to feed. The young finch watched and waited for the grosbeak to feed so it could have access to the food source. I think the adult grosbeaks were no longer feeding the young ones, and they began to feed themselves. They seemed to watch other birds feeding and when they noticed a species eating, they flew to where it was to try the food out. Their larger size flushed the smaller birds. Thugs.

Even though there were tray feeders that had large platforms to fit a grosbeak, all the young came to this tube feeder. Above is young female--now, unlike what NBB asserted, she looks very different from a house finch, she's larger, has different striping and look at that distinct eyebrow.

See how she bends and curves? It's interesting how in some yards, birds won't go the extra mile to feed out of a feeder that is too small, but in other yards they will.

Anyway, I do appreciate NBB filling in for me while I was away. He is a very talented writer and funny, and I'm lucky to married to such a man.

More Honey Extraction From Our Bees

It was time to check on the progress of the bees once again, so Mr. Neil, Non Birding Bill, Cabal, and I headed to the hives. Last weekend, NBB checked on the hives and found that the bees were still not using our new comb honey supers. The instructions that came with our Ross Rounds supers led us to believe they were already fully assembled. Well, I did some digging on the Internet and found that they were supposed to have wax foundation on the inside of the rounds to get the bees started. GRRRR. I emailed NBB from out of town and he did some digging. Fortunately, the boxes that the supers arrived in hadn't been recycled yet, so he found the foundation. WHEW!

He put together one of the supers and replaced it with the one that was already on the hive. We're supposed to take the brown plastic pieces apart--they just snap apart easily. Well, even though the bees hadn't been filling that super with comb and honey--they did manage to propolis the crap out of it. But, NBB and Mr. Neil managed to pry them apart with the aid of the hive tool and get the foundation in, so it will be ready if we need more supers this summer. Our goal with the inspection today was to check on Kitty's progress and see if Olga was finally filling the Ross Rounds with the foundation.

Kitty's buzz is much improved. Before, when we would open the hive, it was very quiet and if you did some digging you would find the bees, and there would be a quiet general hum, but here and there would also be a weak solitary buzz. Today the bees just sounded more contented and industrious--they sounded like they had a purpose.

The larvae from the new queen hasn't emerged yet, but I'm not too worried, there are massive amounts of honey stored for the time being (that's the workers eating some of it above), so if there is a shortage of foragers for a small period of time the girls have reserves for the next week or two. Some workers have finally started drawing out comb in top box--that's the box they need to fill in order to make it through the winter. It's the beginning of August so there is still time. OK, maybe I'm a tiny bit concerned, but we'll do what we can when we can.

Olga is in mass production mode. When we took her roof off, we found lots of propolis, these girls are really going to town. I wish I had such a great fix up tool. Got a hole or crack, got a dead mouse? Just cover it with propolis--it prevents the spread of bacteria, plugs up holes, and keeps everything together.

We checked the Ross Rounds and found some very exciting activity. Each compartment was jammed packed full of workers drawing out comb, soon to fill them with honey--WHOOT! Finally, they are using the super! They are also sealing all the frames together with massive amounts of sticky propolis.

Here's a little video:

NBB asked me last night what I enjoy most about bees, and I think just watching their industriousness. They each have jobs and those jobs change over time, they always have something to do, some place to be.

We found that the empty frame we put in the brood box was once again chock full of capped honey for us to harvest. I'm wondering if push comes to shove with the Kitty hive and she doesn't have enough stores for winter, if we can replace some of her empty frames with honey frames from Olga? Of course, that means less honey for us this year, but next year we'd have two hives that would produce nothing but honey. We'll see how things are at the end of August.

Here's another video of some general bee activity while we're getting the frame ready to take back with us:

Did you notice Mr. Neil using the bee brush in back? We're gently brushing off the workers from the frame with the honey. We're taking them off, so we don't take them back to the house with us. Thinking back to the Ross Rounds, we suddenly began to wonder, how are we going to get the bees out of the super when we are ready to harvest it? The frames are all wedged together (and now sealed with propolis), we can't really get a bee brush in there. We can't smoke the frames, that affects the flavor of the honey and also the smoke calms the bees and makes them eat honey, which doesn't help the situation. I've heard of some chemical methods, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm going to have to google that a bit to find out how we harvest the honey.

On the bottom of the frame, the workers had made more comb, but they made larger cells--we know what that meas--drones. The whole bottom of the frame either had squishy larvae or capped drone brood. It was easily cut away from the honey were going to eat, but it got me thinking: The queen has been up here sometime in the last week or two. We did have a queen excluder between this box and our other honey supers to prevent the queen from laying eggs in the Ross Rounds but we took it out when the workers weren't drawing out comb in them, thinking that was preventing them from working in the supers (plus many beekeepers are anti excluder). We also reversed the brood boxes, which gets the queen to start in the third brood box and work her way down to lay eggs. But larvae this small means she's been here in the last two weeks. Is there any possibility she has gone up to the Ross Rounds to lay eggs? I don't want to use the excluder now on the off chance she is in the rounds and that cuts her off from the rest of the hive. Oh well, only time will tell and this year is supposed to be a learning curve.

One thing I am really encouraged about with the beekeeping is that even though this is our first year and I've made some mistakes, we've still managed to get honey for ourselves. Last time we harvested we got seven boxes of frame honey, and on this run we got six boxes of honey--a total of 13 boxes so far and things looks promising that we will get more.

Oh! Here is something interesting. Some say that in nature you never find straight angles--check out what I found in the Olga hive entrance. I think that's propolis on the floor that may have dripped down, I'm not sure, but it's in straight angles. What are the Olga bees up to? Are they defying nature? The Olga bees, always leaving me with more questions than answers. Perhaps that is why I love them so.

Bald Cardinals and Other Bald Birds

All of a sudden in the last two weeks, I have been getting comments to an old post from July 25, 2005 (way back when I worked at the bird store). The post is about bald cardinals.

Every year about late July and early August there are questions from people asking about black headed birds, miniature vultures or bald headed feeder birds. Most of the time, people are describing cardinals without any feathers on their heads, but I've also had reports of bald blue jays and grackles.

While I was down in Indianapolis, my mom had a bald cardinal coming to her feeding station. So, what is the dealio? No one knows for sure, even Cornell Lab of the Big O admits that the case of the bald cardinal is not well studied. There are two possible explanations. Number one, this is the time of year when many songbirds (including cardinals and blue jays) are molting (shedding old feathers and growing in new feathers). For some reason, the birds drop all of their feathers on their heads at once. I've seen this with captive birds like great horned owls and even our education screech owl at The Raptor Center. The birds are healthy, they just molt everything at once (interesting to note that all of those species mentioned are tufted: cardinal, blue jay, great horned owl, eastern screech owl--hmmmmmmm).

Alas, my mom didn't have just a bald male cardinal, she also had a bald grackle (so much for the only tufted bird theory). This grackle was much more wary than the cardinal and this was the only shot I got of it. The bird seemed to sense the spotting scope and flush right as I was about to take a photo. I don't blame it, the bird kind of looks like a Skeksis, I wouldn't want my photo taken either. This bird leads me to the number two reason birds can go bald and that is that they can get feather mites. Generally, birds can use their bills to remove pests like mites when they are preening. However, they would be unable to get to mites on their heads and so the mites eat away the feathers. It's tough to say what really is going on, without trapping the bird and looking for the mites, you really can't tell for certain if it's molting or mites causing the lack of feathers.

There was another grackle coming to mom's feeders that was starting to lose its facial feathers. Interesting to note that the cardinals are dark skinned under the feathers and the grackles are light skinned. Since my mom had at least three birds that were either bald or starting to become bald, I wondered if this was a case of mites being passed around. The birds appeared in good health and were eating well, looking alert--all good signs. And mites don't usually kill a bird. Annoy it and make it look grotesque--yes, but kill birds--not so much. Check out the video I got of the male cardinal eating a berry off of mom's fuschia plant:

Did you note how he scratched the back of his head? That also makes me wonder if mites are the cause. Although, I would bet a bunch of pin feathers growing in at once would be rather itchy.

By the way, don't feel too bad for him, he's still gettin' some play. Not long after I took that video, this female flew in and he jauntily bounced over to her and fed her some of the fuschia berries--very clear mating behavior. She didn't seem to mind his bald pate one bit (perhaps she likes that Christine Lavin song). Although, if you look right behind her eye, there's a small bald patch--mites? Will she be bare headed soon as well?

As I was watching the cardinal, I noticed something new. Check out where his ear canal is. Do you see it? It's that large hole right under his eyeball (there's a small red feather over it). How cool--who knew that their ears were just below their eyes...and about the same size. I wonder if anyone has done any studies and the hearing capability of cardinals? So much we don't yet know...

And just for comparison and to not leave you with grotesque cardinals, here is a photo of a proper male cardinal. Whether the birds in the other photos have mites or an odd molt pattern, don't worry too much. In most cases, the feathers do grow back in plenty of time before the winter sets in and all will be right with the cardinal world once again.