Peregrine 568 Update

Last week when we last checked in on the Injured Peregrine Falcon 568, she was a tad jumpy and we weren't able to peek in. Two of The Raptor Center Vets, Lori Arent (that's actually Lori on the home page of the TRC website) and Jane Goggin emailed over some photos when they did a check up on her:

As you can see, her feisty spirit has not diminished. Lori and Jane were worried because anytime anyone came near the flight room, she would get jumpy and all the other peregrines in the flight room with her would start flapping around. One of the things that make peregrine falcons so fast are their incredibly stiff wing feathers. If the peregrines continued to fly around willy nilly in the flight room, that would risk breaking those feathers and increasing the length of their stay at TRC. (Incidentally, when someone tells me that they had a raptor show up at their bird feeder and it ran on the ground, dove into a bush chasing birds, that is a big clue that it's NOT a peregrine falcon--a peregrine would break too many valuable flight feathers hunting in that way--however, a shorter winged and softer feathered Cooper's hawk is perfectly designed for that type of hunting).

Jane and Lori decided to do some switching around of the peregrines in the flight room to see if that would make all the birds more calm. They removed a male and put in a different one. When I arrived on Tuesday for my shift, Lori said that it would okay for me to peek through a corner of the cover on the flight room window to see how she is doing:

That's Peregrine 568 on the right--note how skinny the foot is on the left--that's where the feathers were plucked to operate on her injured bones. Now she is upright, hanging with another male tundrius peregrine falcon and staying relatively calm. There's also a third falcon--a large female which you can't see from this angle. From this point, she will have to be exercised and her flight progress closely monitored to make sure she will be in peak condition for release. Since she has not flown since she flew into the nets at the banding station, her flight muscles have atrophied a bit. She will need conditioning to get used to flying and hunting on a daily basis. Between that and waiting for the feathers on her leg to grow in, she will more than likely be at TRC until spring.

All in all, things are looking very good.

Bees In The Snow

Thank you to do Stacy Kagiwada for getting this awesome photo of Cinnamon! This is from the Indianapolis book signing, you can see more here--wow, Stacy has really nailed how to get a disapproval out of my bunny. I just love this one below--Cinnamon's totally disapproving of me in the background. Stacy also got a shot of Non Birding Bill and I together--we have so few of us in the same shot, I love it!

Whoa, doggies! Sounds like I'll be signing lots of Disapproving Rabbits books tomorrow. About a month after the book came out, we learned that Harper Collins had run out of the DR book and were going to print more. According to UPS, the packages will be dropped off tomorrow and I'll be signing away so we can mail them out on Friday and get them to people in time for Christmas.

It continues to be super cold here, but very lovely--like this puffed up little downy woodpecker. This morning I woke to 5 degrees but I am assured by the weatherman that it will warm up to twenty degrees before the sun sets at 4:30pm. I went out check on the beehives.

Single digit temperatures are much easier to take in when there is snow. Also, between all of my layers, hand warmers and the marching motion I have to do to maneuver over unplowed paths in the woods, I can work up quite a sweat. It's a strange quiet in the woods, and all you hear is the chip note of a chickadee, the industrious soft tapping of several woodpeckers, and crow caws echoing off of the hillsides. So different from the cacophony of warblers and vireos in spring and the dry humming and buzzing of katydids and grasshoppers in late summer.

I took a very long route to the hives to enjoy the scenery in the snow. The creek on Mr. Neil's property is almost completely frozen, apart from a few pockets that the birds are using for drinking water. I can't believe I've seen some ice fishing houses out already on some of the lakes in town--it's too soon. If there is still some slush on the lake, it's too soon, you crazy fishing people! As I was working my way to the field near our hives, I noticed a strong aroma.

Hoo-wee, you've been warned of yellow snow...how about brown snow? Someone must have run a manure spreader right after our last big snowfall. It was still very pungent--and rock solid.

The path to the hives was dug deep into the snow with splatters of hard poop. I know the kind of enjoyment I get from walking through fresh snow...I wonder if it's the same when one is riding a manure spreader. There's a huge field full of pristine snow and you're gonna cover it with some hot liquid manure. Good times. Actually, I had to chuckle, because the field is part of a network of snow mobile trails...I would wager that there have been some very disappointed snow mobile drivers who were raring to go after our first big snow of the season only to come upon that road block of several acres.

But I made my way to the hives and found Kitty nestled in the snow. I put my ear up to the hive and you could hear all the bees inside buzzing softly keeping the hive warm. Incredible.

You will note that the snow just around the hives is melted away--they keep it that warm! Again--Incredible. And now in French--Incroyable!!

There were some dead bees outside of the hives, here's a little pile in front of Olga. I had closed the entrance reducer, but Mr. Neil read about some Canadian beekeepers, leaving it open a little bit for some air circulation. The bees seemed to have covered the entrance holes with dead bees on the inside, so I'm not sure if they need in ventilation or not. There's a small hole at the top as well, so they can take cleansing flight. I'm not too worried about. After all, our bees have insulation around their hive, in the wild, they don't have anything, but their honey and their little wings to maintain temperature. I put my ear up to Olga and you could hear the humming in there too. Amazing, just amazing to hear them living on the other side of some thin pieced of wood while it's in the single digits outside. Ah, my bees, I miss you. Can't wait to play with you next spring.

Blast From The Past

I was barely home yesterday. I had my shift at The Raptor Center, then a dental appointment, I was in dire need of new snow boots and had to pick those up and then it was back to TRC for a Holiday Party--I barely had time to check email. But everywhere I went, people kept telling me they saw me on TV and asking if the great gray owls were irrupting again (No they are not like they did in the winter of 2004 - 2005). Apparently WCCO reran the story and you can read it and view it here. According to the story... I still work at the Wild Bird Store.

On January 25, 2005, my buddy Amber and I had one heck of a day, we started it at KARE 11 (where we got to meet Donny Osmond) and then headed up north, met up with a news crew from WCCO to film great grays and before the day was done, we ended up with a car full of four injured owls that people had found that we took back with us to the Twin Cities to The Raptor Center (two great grays, one barred owl, and one great horned owl). We have it on the Birdchick Adventure Pages.

Owls Calling In Each Other and Some Digiscoping

As mentioned in the previous post, it's a little chilly right now. But I decided to try some digiscoping at Mr. Neil's bird feeders. Number one, being right outside the house, I could dash in and have some pumpkin spice tea when the layers would begin to fail me (my layering system works great when I'm walking, but it's hard to stay warm when standing in one spot taking photos). Plus, the cold just wreaks havoc on my batteries for my camera. I have discovered that using those Hot Hand hand warmers does help keep them going a little bit longer than just keeping them in a pants pocket.

The berries that were in the blue jay photo are from a bittersweet vine that we planted in the yard. I just love bittersweet, I think it's one of the pretties fall vines out there, so I snipped some off and set it on top of the stump with the snow and tossed some black oil sunflower seed and mixed nuts in front of it so see what type of bird photos I could get.

It's interesting that you hear some people complain about all the manipulation of images with Photoshop, but images can be manipulated just as easily with some well placed foliage and food bribery. I know some who go to great lengths to hide the bird seed used to bring in birds for photos, but I'm not that picky.

It was interesting that this female red-bellied woodpecker had no problem coming down to the stump for the nuts. This species is usually pretty cagey in Mr. Neil's yard. If they do come in, they usually stick to the suet feeder or peanut feeder. But this female decided to risk the spotting scope and come down for some nuts.

Round about 4pm, it started getting darker and the bird activity began to slow down. It was mostly juncos and a couple of cardinals coming in towards the end. I normally would have cropped out the half red-breasted nuthatch on the right, but check out the leg--there's a band, no doubt this is one of the nuthatches we banded this fall. Whoot.

As it was getting darker, something caught the attention of both me and the junco (notice that it looks a bit more alert)--we heard a great horned owl hooting. There has been some hooting on and off in the last few weeks, but they sounded very close. First it stared with one, and then a second, higher pitched hoot came in--male and female. They were hooting back and forth, well it is December, that is prime owl flirting time, but as they were hooting, I noticed a very faint hooting--another great horned was hooting back!

It was almost 4:30pm at this point and that's when the sun sets this time of year. I took a photo and see those tall pines in the back ground? That's where the owls were hooting. After I took this photo, I noticed some flapping and then saw a bird land on top of the pines. I thought I would test my Swarovski's light gathering abilities and see if I could see anything:

There was an owl, perched right at the top of a branch! In the scope, you could make out the colors, but my little digital camera could only just about make out the great horned owl's silhouette.

Here is the male owl in mid-hoot. I love how they pop their tails up like they are some kind of giant wren. Check out its puffed out throat too! The distant owl kept hooting back to the pair closest to me. This is great, I didn't even have to use the iPod, the birds were calling themselves out! Not long after I took this photo, the female flew up to join him:

Here is the male on the left and the female on the right. You can see the size difference and when they were hooting, you could totally tell that the owl on the right was much higher in pitch than the one on the left. I tried to get a video which will be below. You really can't hear the hooting, they were too far for my sad little mic to pick up. But, some fun things that I did catch on the video: At 34 seconds, the female on the right will hoot (you'll see her cock up her tail) and then right after that, watch the male on the left--he's going to cough up a pellet and you should see it fall at about 51 seconds, then watch the female again because she will poop at 1:01. The who thing lasts about a minute and twenty seconds. I ran in and grabbed Mr. Neil's video camera to see if it would be strong enough to pick out the hooting sounds and if you click here and crank your volume as loud as possible, you can hear the male and female hoot (head phones might work best. Anyway, here is the video of the hootin' nanny:

Ah, one of my favorite moments in life. Listening to owls calling in the dark while standing in snow.

Fun In Six Degrees Fahrenheit

A pair of thigh high wool socks? Check
Two pairs of pants? Check
Two shirts? Check
A Fleece? Check
Winter Coat? Check
Snow Boots? Check
Hand Warmers? Check
Ear Muffs? Check
Gortex Gloves? Check
Scarf? Check

And, what did this get me?

A pretty sweet blue jay photo! How do they do it outside with no layers??

Paul and Storm and Jonathan Coulton and Turkeys

The turkey posse had taken over the feeding station at Hyland Park the other day and I have all these photos of turkeys that I'd like to post and I'd like to talk about the concert I went to, so I'm going to combine them. BUT I would like to stress that the turkey is not a metaphor for the bands--the bands were really quite wonderful.

Oh, and Non Birding Bill redid my turkey photo to be in the LOL design. Thanks, NBB. So, I never cease to be amazed at how cool life is and the fun situations I find myself in. At the last Birds and Beers, HellZiggy mentioned that she was going to the Jonathan Coulton concert and asked if I was going. I mentioned that I'm on a budget at the moment and didn't know if I could swing it. She mentioned that if I helped at the merchandise table, I could get in free. Awesome!

It was so cool! I got there late (still sometimes have trouble navigating my way around the Twin Cities with the 35W bridge being out) but as soon as I got in and found HellZiggy I got to meet both Jonathan and the opening act Paul and Storm. It's very strange, I've never met either and had only listened to Coulton's music, but there I was talking with them like I just met them at a party and handling their merchandise--that's the wonder of the Internet for you.

I have to say, I really do enjoy Coulton, and had no idea what to expect from the opening act, but I'm listening to them right--Paul and Storm are just delightful. What's really weird is that they perform on Bob and Tom--a radio show that I grew up with in Indianapolis and the have some of the tracks form the show on their CDs. It was so weird to suddenly hear those familiar voices in my kitchen (Bob and Tom aren't syndicated in Minnesota)--but Paul and Storm are such a delight. They do musical impressions--"If Aaron Neville Were Waiting for a Parking Spot at the Mall, But Someone Else Snagged It" or "Randy Newman's Theme to The Lord of the Rings" and they write songs for a barer shop quartet and I have to say that I'm really digging the "Hip-Shop". You can go to their site to download the music and you can listen to the songs --these guys are well worth the listen if you are into Coulton, They Might Be Giants (they even do an impression of them), or nerdy/geeky guys with a great sense of humor--you'll love their music. And I'm not just saying that because they throw out Pop Tarts and Moon Pies to the audience for bribery.

The Coulton part of the concert was fun too. Someone had asked in the comments earlier if he was nice--he is, incredibly down to Earth. He's as nice in person as he comes off in his music. There was some talk before the show if Mr. Neil was going to come to the concert because he'd referenced Coulton songs in the blog. I offered that if he came I would introduce Coulton him and he said something to the effect of not wanting to impose himself on Mr. Neil. When Mr. Neil did show up and I asked if he wanted to meet Mr. Coulton after the show and Mr. Neil said, "I don't want to impose myself on him." So, I decided to be the imposing conduit.
After the show, I did the introduction. It's times like this that I wish I could have some audio control in the blog to give the full effect. The theater was just playing some general after show music and it was at this exact moment that Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" came over the speakers and the following conversation happened as two somewhat geeky men who are fans of each other met:

Birdchick: Excuse me Mr. Coulton, I have someone I'd like to introduce...

Mr. Coulton: (turns around) Hi! I'm a huge fan!

Mr. Neil: I'm a huge fan!

Mr. Coulton: Really? I saw the mention in the blog.

Mr. Neil: I first heard about you through John Hodgeman and had to listen to more.

Mr. Coulton: Wow, thank you.

Mr. Neil: If you like, I can send you some books and things.

Mr. Coulton: That would be great, I'll give you my guitar.

Mr. Neil: Don't give me your guitar, you need it.

Mr. Coulton: You're giving me books, I have to give you my guitar!

Mr. Neil: Then, I'll give you Sharon!

Mr. Coulton has no need for bees, birds, or disapproving rabbits so the conversation ended there.

So, here is proof of the event thanks to HellZiggy's husband: Paul, Me, Mr. Neil, HellZiggy, Mr. Coulton, and Storm. Anyway, if you haven't heard of Jonathan Coulton, do go check out his mad strummin' tunz.

Thanks, HellZiggy for the great time!

Cats & Birds Living Together--We're Talkin' Mass Hysteria Here!

Calling all bird behavior experts!

This video of a crow and kitten hanging out together--even the crow feeding the kitten showed up on Cute Overload. What is going on here? Confused crow? Are birds trying to reach a peace agreement to keep cats from killing them at feeders? Have crows become so smart that they have decided to attempt to join forces with cats to secure their place high on the food chain? Are crows trying to set a better example for Jim Stevenson? Or is this just some weird event that can never be fully explained or understood?

More Bird Gift Ideas--Birdorable!


This came in the comments section of one of the gift idea posts, but I want to make sure people have a chance to see this site: Birdorable! The site reads that Birdorables are the kind of cute and colorful birds you might find in your backyard or when you go birding...only they've been "cutified".

Okay, I know some of they guys out there are looking at these and saying, "Are you kidding me?" but kids and some adults (especially of the female persuasion) would love these. I have to say, I LOVE the Tough Titmice shirt--and it's in girl sizes (Thank You!).

And...um...here's another gift idea for Hasty Brook...she loves the vultures. There's some joke to be made about a turkey vulture on a thong, but I can't think what it is right now...

Thanks, Life On The Road, for pointing this site out!

Preempting The Turkey

Boy, does that title sound like a euphemism or what? I have some photos that I took yesterday but this morning, there was a lovely soft snow coming down and I really felt the need to go to some bird feeders and take some photos. Also, I got exciting news from Harper Collins, Amy Sedaris sent a note (on some completely adorable stationary--and oh so appropriate for me and my wild fungus tastes) and said that she loves the Disapproving Rabbits book. It's blowing my mind that someone with that much comedic talent looked through the book and liked it. WHOOT!

I went to the Minnesota Valley NWR Visitor's Center and there about 18 cardinals lurking in and around the feeders. Nothing quite like seeing those pops of red in a fluffy snowfall.

Okay, except maybe a fluffy junco in a big soft snowfall!

There was a surprise in the heated birdbath. Can you tell in the above photo what the surprise is?

Is this dude right here! Common grackles should have flown the coop by now (at least from Minnesota). This one looks as though it's been having some issues. Note the whitish feathers on the wings. I'm not so sure that's albinism or leucism (or whatever we're calling it in birds these days). I think these are stress feathers, maybe from lack of nutrition? The bird did look like it had seen better days--it was very puffed up, but could fly well enough to get to branch, albeit slower than the other species hanging at the feeder.

The suet and peanut feeders were in high demand. This hairy woodpecker was keeping the downy woodpeckers away and eating the suet. But soon, this hairy was chased off by...

a starling! Surprise, surprise. I have to admit, I do really enjoy a starling in winter plumage--it's a very striking bird, and so evil looking. I would love to have an education starling for programs, but knowing my luck and its ability to be a great mimic, it would learn all sorts of phrases that would make it unsuitable for programs with small children. I figured the starling would be here a while, but was surprised...

to see a red-bellied woodpecker land on the feeder. There was some flapping, some pecking, some squealing. But! Only one would come out on top. Who will remain victorious on this episode of Iron Suet?

The red-bellied! Go, red-belly, go! Eventually, a hawk flew over and all the birds cleared out, and about three downy woodpecker flew in to try and take advantage in the lull in bird feeder activity. They spent so much time squabbling with each other that they barely had a chance to actually eat the suet.

Okay, now I have to get a bit more work done. Thanks to HellZiggy, I'm going to the Jonathon Coulton concert tonight. I liked him for the song Re Your Brains, about zombies, but I loved him when it he sang it in French. If you're interested in listening to his other songs, I highly recommend Skullcrusher Mountain, Baby Got Back (yes, it's a cover), and Tom Cruise Crazy.