Storms Finally Passing...I Think

It's been non stop rain and drizzle since Saturday. We've been in a drought for awhile and all the rain that hit southern Minnesota this past weekend really blind sided some of the towns near the Mississippi River. Going from no rain to all of a sudden 18 inches over night was just too much for the ground to take. We are fortunate that we don't live anywhere near the flooding that has been reported, but I can't help but feel bad for the families who lost their homes or the man who so bravely got his wife and her friend up in a tree safely and then lost his fight with the rising waters and was swept away.

There was finally a pause in the rain today. Every time it looked like the sky would clear, another storm would pop up out of nothing. Tonight, as another thunderstorm formed overhead, the clouds cast a yellowish glow and it looked like the world was lit with an incandescent bulb (above photo).

When I passed the bees today, the Olga bees were lined up outside the hive, almost looked like a swarm. (It wasn't, but if it was, I'm not messing with it, I learned my lesson from the Kitty hive). But if you watched the bee traffic, it was a very steady stream of bees leaving and bees returning. They haven't really been able to forage with all the rain, so I imagine that they felt the urge to go out and gather massive amounts of pollen and just get out of the dark box crowded with millions of bees (I just want to bee alone, alright!). The bee equivalent of cabin fever.

I love living in the northern states. Last week, when I was driving away from the hives at dusk, all the surrounding farm fields had low clouds of mist forming, they looked like hoards of ghosts meandering through the fields. You can drive down the roads with the windows open, listening to the deafening katydids, crickets, and who knows what other types of buzzy singing insects and take in the fragrant air that is very cool and heavy with moisture. You can smell wet grass, decaying leaves, and that pungent black walnut aroma. Love it.

Tonight, I tried to find the mists before another thunderstorm broke out. I was thinking about how the summer songs have changed from warblers, vireos, grosbeaks to insects buzzing. Then I heard a buzzy peent overhead. A small flock of 40 nighthawks (above photo) were kiting insects in front of the coming storm, soon on their way south.

In a few months, the woods and the fields will be silent save for the occasional crow and chickadee. I can't think about that now, I'll go crazy if I do. I'll think about that tomorrow.

FYI - really cool warbler post and bee blogging is on the horizon.

Screech Owl Looking Rough

Okay, not only is it the season for bald birds, but it's all the season for squirrel cannibalism. I'm suddenly getting a lot of comments on this old post, if anyone is interested in reading about squirrels eating squirrels and birds.

Boy, I would type a caption for what this bird would be saying about getting its picture taken, but I just don't use that kind of language (well, not in the blog anyway). Looks like somebody had one too many jello shooters.

This is the education gray phase eastern screech owl from the Raptor Center. If you saw the bald bird post from earlier this summer, you may have seen a link to Susan Gets Native's photo of her education red phase eastern screech owl also molting out all its head feathers at once. Perhaps we should get together with our ed birds. At least we will have a matched set.

And don't worry folks, like the bald cardinal or blue jay you may be seeing out your window, these owls will grow back all their facial feathers before winter. You know, I just thought of something. The feathers along the owls facial disc are supposed to direct sound to their ears. I wonder if a rough molt like this affects their hunting ability? That's kind of a moot point for the education screeches, they're fed dead and gutted mice. But if this happened to them in the wild, I wonder if they have relearn how they hunt?

Help Promote Disapproving Rabbits

The sad thing is that when I took this photo, I was sining. I don't think she cares for my singing.


Hey blog readers, could I impose on you for a moment?

Because I'm new and unheard of, I'm going to be responsible for promoting Disapproving Rabbits. Could ask y'all a favor? I just noticed on the Ellen Degeneres site that they are looking for weird websites they haven't heard of. If you have a spare few minutes and could put in a note about Disapproving Rabbits (www.disapprovingrabbits.com), that would be awesome. Wouldn't it be fun to see Cinnamon on national tv?

Thanks!

New Bird Seed-- Golden Safflower

There's a new bird seed coming onto the bird feeding market called golden safflower. Note the color in the photo above that give the seed it's name, safflower is normally pure white. This new version claims to be higher in oil content, higher in protein and higher in fat, making it more desirable to feeder birds. It's also supposed to be non germinating and I'm not sure if that's because it's out hull-less or if it's been roasted.

The big advantage to safflower in the past has been that cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches (above), mourning doves, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and house finches really enjoy the seed but grackles and house sparrows do not care for the taste and usually leave it alone. That's not to say that house sparrows won't eat when desperate. Starlings are physically unable to eat it, since they do not have bills that are strong enough to open seeds in a hard shell.

But what about golden safflower--will it now be tastier to house sparrows and grackles? We'll have to wait and see. I first noticed the safflower at Carpenter Nature Center, on of their 20 some odd bird feeders was filled with it and a flock of chickadees preferred it over any other. And went on a search for it. I've found two bird stores in the Twin Cities that carry it (I didn't call all of them) and I'm sure other birds stores will follow suit soon (at the least the good ones will).

I've been testing it out at Mr. Neil's feeding stations and the birds took to it right away--especially the nuthatches and the chickadees. the birds still prefer nuts and sunflower but there is certainly more activity at the golden safflower than at the regular safflower. I tried it at home and the house sparrows just don't know what to do about it. The cardinals and flying squirrels are happy to eat it though. If you're having a house sparrow, grackle, or cardinal problem call your local wild bird specialty store and see if they have it in, if they don't recommend that they consider carrying it.

Remember that if you are going to try a new seed that sometimes the birds don't take to it right away. It's like going to Wendy's for a #1 hamburger special. One day you get there and Wendy's is now a Taco Bell and the #1 special is now three tacos. It's not that you don't like tacos, but when you go there, you were expecting a hamburger. In time, you get over it and start having the taco special.

Click It. Click It Good.

You know how sometimes you just don't want to go outside and fill the bird feeder? Maybe the snow is deep, it's pouring down rain, or you have fifty other things to do and just can't get to it? Well, ClickOn Bird Feeders has the answer for you, my friend:

"Many homeowners with bird feeders - including seniors and the infirm - often stop re-filling their feeders altogether during the cold winter months, and their busy schedules often preclude them from regularly re-filling their feeders during the rest of the year," according to Nathan Arthurs, the founder of ClickON Bird Feeders.

"Winter is the funnest time of year to feed the birds, because their natural resources are depleted, yet, if you look around your neighborhood in January, you'll see that almost all of the feeders are empty," Arthurs said.

Birdchick Note: I would argue that spring and fall is the fun time to feed birds, especially spring because they are in the breeding plumage and let's not forget summer, when you get to watch the adults teach the young how to feed. And another thing, studies show that birds only use a feeding station (at most) as 20% of their overall diet. To say that natural resources for birds is depleted in winter is a bit of a stretch. But I digress. Watch the magical feeder in action below:

That's right folks, for only $495 you too can have the magic of ClickOn in your backyard! And if you still aren't swayed, check out the "easy to install" system.

Thoughts?

For me personally, I'd rather have it the opposite. Suck all the seed out of there when the squirrel gets on there. Deal with that, furball.

I Think The Bees Are On To Us

Just a short update on the old bees. Yesterday, Mr. Neil, Lorraine and I checked on the beehives.

The Olga hive is really expanding with comb honey and I'm very hopeful for what she will do for us next summer. She's got three deep brood boxes (the large ones on the bottom) full of brood and honey for winter, and the top three smaller boxes are the honey supers for us. Two are the Ross Rounds and one is the cut comb honey kit which had some melting issues earlier in the summer and is now full of burr comb. Ah well, in the end it's all edible.

One of the Ross Rounds super is almost completely ready to harvest, almost all the frames are capped. We should be able to take it out next week. Up until this point, we've been putting an extra empty frame in our third brood box. We've just been harvesting it there from time to time. The frame is empty, but the bees are perfectly capable of drawing out comb without foundation.

However, I think the Olga bees are on to us. When I opened the box, I could see comb from the frame attached to the wall. I tried to pull the frame out, but it felt stuck. We took out the frame next to it out for a closer look inside.

Sure enough, the girls had drawn out their own foundation from the wall to the frame, making it impossible for us to harvest. It was as if they were saying, "Ha ha, take that, thieving humans." So, no honey harvest this time, but next week (insert maniacal giggle) we shall plunder the honey supers and no amount of propolis will stop us.

On our way to check the Kitty hive's progress we found a grasshopper waiting for us on the outside. You would think that they could sense all the activity in the hive and would want to stay away. You can hear much more activity before you open the box--the most I've heard in weeks. The brood has definitely hatched.

The girls still have not quite drawn out all the frames in the third brood box, but they are over halfway there and with more workers hatching every day, I feel that they will be ready by the end of August. Above is some of the freshly drawn out comb, see the little glob of bright yellow? Some worker has just deposited some pollen stores.

We found more freshly laid eggs, which means Queen Kitty II was here sometime in the last three days. As we were checking this hive, I suddenly realized that next month I will need to begin preparations to overwinter the bees. They will have to be sealed up in October and I won't be able to check on them every seven to ten days. What on earth am I going to do with myself between October and April?

Needs Me Some Quotes

Hey blog readers, I just got asked to do a very last minute article on trends for water features in the backyard for Birding Business. If you use water to attract birds to your yard can you tell me:

What did you put in? (i.e. just a bath, fountain/pump, a whole pond, heated bath)

How long ago did you put it in?

What was the biggest change you noticed after you put it in?

You can leave your answers in the comments section (although, I will need a first and last name for the quote) or you can email me through sharon at birdchick dot com.

Thanks, peeps!

The Benefits Of A Dead Tree

"Did someone say there's a dead tree? Yum! Count me in!"

We've had some powerful storms in our neck of the woods for the last month. Non Birding Bill and I have been fortunate in not having any storm damage (heck of a light show, though), but Mr. Neil has lost some trees, one being a very large oak near the bird feeding stations--NOT the oak that supplied us with a tasty harvest of Sulphur Shelf--it's still standing tall (although the fungus has dried out).

This oak has been kind of the staging area for all the feeder birds. Up until a large bolt of lightening struck the giant tree a couple of weeks ago, all the birds would hang in there and make sure the coast was clear before coming down to the feeders. Woodpeckers would check for bugs, nuthatches would cache suet and nuts, mourning doves would flirt, and immature birds would beg from parents high in the branches as the adults fed, trying to show the young how to use the feeders. I always thought to myself that if something happened to that tree, it might affect the bird activity. Initially, it was thought that the tree had just lost a large branch, but an arborist came and pointed to where and how hard the tree was struck and needed to be cut down since it was so close to the house. When the yard crew cut the tree, you could see the charred core for the powerful bolt of lightening.

After the tree was cut down, I asked Mr. Neil what he was going to do with it. The tree fell into the woods (away from the house) and he was considering the idea of leaving it there to rot. I strongly favored the idea, though we lost a tree for the birds to hang out in before they go to the feeders, it would become a great brushy area and an awesome food source. Even though the tree has only been down a few weeks, the birds are already digging it.

Here is a black-capped chickadee going for tiny insects working around the dead leaves. This birds kept bouncing from clump to clump of dead leaves. As I was watching this chickadee, I could hear soft pecking from several different sources around me. As the oak had come down, a few other trees came down with it, so there are several dead trees surrounding the oak--an Old Country Buffet of all natural food for the birds (hm...can you have "all natural" and "Old Country Buffet" in the same sentence?).

One of the birds pecking was this tufted titmouse. The bird was really hammering away at this jagged edge of a broken branch. First it started at the top, and then the side. Anytime another titmouse flew it, this bird would chase it off. Something must have been good in there...

Eventually, the bird really started pecking away at the bottom and really excavating. The behavior was so fascinating, I thought I would digivideo what it was doing. Be alert, this clip is only six seconds long:

As soon as I had pressed record on my little digital camera, the titmouse got its reward--did you see the size of that grub?? I couldn't believe my luck of getting a quick video of the bird getting the food. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I can't wait to see what happens over the winter.

Another benefit to the missing large oak is that now the late afternoon sun casts a gorgeous glow on the feeding station--perfect for digiscoping. I found this female ruby-throated hummingbird preening in one of the small trees next to the nectar feeder. Earlier, when I had been filling all the empty seed feeders, she buzzed by head twice (I wasn't wearing red, so it wasn't like she thought I was food). The third time she buzzed, I turned around and followed her with my eyes. She flew twenty feet away to the hummingbird feeder, hovered for a moment and flew up into the tree. Hm, what is it Lassie? Is Timmy in the well again? Or is the nectar nasty in the hummingbird feeder. I took the feeder in, cleaned it out, put in fresh nectar and not five seconds after I hung it back up, she flew down and started feeding on the nectar. This bird has me trained--three buzzes and I fill the feeder. After she fed, she went to the tree to preen. Here's a video of her ablutions. Note how she periodically flicks out that tiny tongue:

And for those interested, a bee update will be coming up later today.