Question For A Goldfinch

Hey, did you guys see the nuthatch with the deformed bill over at Mary's View?

I've encountered some long-billed birds before, we had a peregrine come into the hawk blind a few years ago and I saw some deformed red-winged blackbirds in 2006 in Nebraska too. If you see long-billed birds you can report them to either Julie Craves or Cornell.

This goldfinch has little black feathers on his head--signs of his black cap he will have in breeding plumage. Now here is the question for the goldfinch: is he slow at molting, is this left over from last summer or is this a hint of what is to come? Is he starting his breeding plumage changeover all ready?

Speaking of signs of spring, this morning, even though it was -5 degrees F, black-capped chickadees were singing "Spring Soon!" The birds must be feeling like the glass is half full or they have read The Secret and are just trying to will the weather to be warmer.

Pigeon Smuggling? Seriously?

People are smuggling pigeons? I'm against smuggling, but I understand when people try it with something like a parrot, but pigeons? From the AP:

LEWISTON, N.Y. (AP) — Border agents pulled four live birds from the pockets of a pigeon collector and a traveling companion trying to enter the United States from Canada.

The pair were stopped Sunday at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge border crossing, where they told inspectors they were on their way to visit an uncle in LeRoy, outside Rochester, Customs and Border Protection spokesman Kevin Corsaro said.

Inspectors found the pigeons wrapped and taped from neck to tail in pockets of the pair's coats after they asked the men from Uxbridge, Ontario, to remove their jackets.

One man told CBP officers he is a pigeon collector who belongs to a club that trades and sells birds of various colors. He said he was taking the birds to trade or sell to his uncle.

The men, whose names were not released, were fined $1,000 and the case was referred to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and United States Department of Agriculture inspectors for possible criminal charges, Corsaro said.

People bringing pet birds into the country are required to arrange for a veterinary inspection at the border three to five days before entering to protect against the transmission of communicable diseases such as bird flu.

USDA inspectors took custody of the birds.

First Bee Post of 2008

Lots of snow has been falling in Mr. Neil's woods. There are some trails from the deer, some from the dog Cabal, and quite a few from rabbits, squirrels, and deer mice. This morning we took whoever was still around from the New Year's party out to the beehives so people could experience the magic of live buzzing bees while it was somewhere near zero degrees (Fahrenheit) outside.

As everyone was putting their ears to the Olga hive, I noticed a very steady trail of deer mouse tracks...

...leading directly underneath the Olga hive. This is not good. We have a mouse guard on the entrance, but our hives are elevated, so there is a space underneath the hive that a mouse could chew and gain access to the inside. It's a tempting abode for an enterprising deer mouse: bees keep it warm and you'd be surrounded by honey. Was the mouse just hanging out under the hive, or was it going up and into it? I stuck my camera into the space below Olga:

There was a pile of bee parts and some tiny wood scraps The bee parts could be decomposing dead bees that had fallen out, but the wood was a sure sign that some chewing was underway.

I tried to take a photo of the bottom of the hive, and low and behold there is a hole large enough for a deer mouse to gain access to the bottom of the hive. I think we have caught this early, I was just out a week ago and there were no tracks. Lorraine headed out and purchased some snap traps to place under the hive. I feel bad for the mouse, it's a clever way to survive the winter, but I have a responsibility to my girls to help them survive the winter--the mouse has to go. Funny thing--we had two traps, but had trouble setting one of them in the extreme cold because the metal was contracting.

But now to some very exciting news! We are prepping the hives for the coming spring! Last year, Non Birding Bill and I put the hives together and painted them. In preparation for this spring, we ordered assembled hives and Mr. Neil is commissioning artists paint them. The first artist?

Kelli Bickman came in from New York to paint one of the new hives! It is so incredibly cool(and isn't Kelli adorable?)! The colors, the dripping honey, the skulls! I love it, and I can't wait to see it alive with a colony of bees.

Here is the other side. Kelli has actually done three deep brood boxes and two of our comb honey supers. I'm going to find myself impatient to put this hive together through spring and summer in order to see the whole art, but it will be a gradual process.

Here is a close up of the eye. Kelli's cousin, Jen did all the detail work here, down to a bee in the middle of the pupil. Beekeeping is fun enough, but to have an artist create such a space for our bees, really takes it to a new level. This is just such a gift and this beekeeping thing combines so many elements I love: art, natural history, learning, and friendship. Kelli's work is so vibrant and the color composition has a way of taking me to a peaceful, vibrant world. Can't wait to see what the personality of this hive will be.

So, here we have it: The Kelli Hive. I like this new rule, you paint the hive, we name it after you.

Highlights & Gratitude For 2007

I'm a little foggy from last night's New Year's party. There was a man there who taught ballroom dance for a living and all the women took turns being twirled, whirled, hustled and rumbaed around the room. Good times.

The first bird that I saw and digiscoped for 2008--a white-breasted nuthatch. Mr. Neil tried to make a joke that seeing a white-breasted nuthatch meant a year of bad sex and Non Birding Bill wisely encouraged him to avoid inaccurate bird jokes before I have any coffee in the morning...so the fantasy writer still lives...for the moment.

I week or two ago I was tagged with a top birding moments of 2007 (for the life of me, I can't remember who tagged me) but I wanted to wait until 2007 was fully over before I put it together. I also get a wonderful email from a friend expressing gratitude for moments in the last year, so I think this will kind of morph into that as well since I have so much to be grateful for.

A huge highlight was getting to perform Play on Birds with Non Birding Bill at a Nature Festival in Ohio. I love doing this show and I love working with my husband on stage. I hope we get the opportunity again.

Digiscoping has just taken over my birding life and I've observed some really great moments with it. One big highlight was getting some great photos while at a meeting at Eastman Nature Center.

I also got a chance to digiscope a singing male indigo bunting. The bird was so focused on singing, he never noticed me. He sang so long that after I had taken all pictures I could, I just had to finally take the time to just enjoy him. What a treat and what a great bird to have such a beautiful bird in existence.

A big highlight was getting the chance to photograph and video a male golden-winged warbler at a bed and breakfast in Vergas, MN. If you follow this link, that will take to the post to watch the video of the golden-winged warbler and also of a bobolink that was singing at the bed and breakfast as well.

North Dakota was another great time, and getting the chance to observe ruddy duck courtship display was a definite highlight. I just happened to find them while exploring some remote gravel roads and spent and hour watching the males display and the females take their time in showing any interest. North Dakota was also a great chance to hang out with great friends and explore Clark Gable's grandparent's home and find a burrowing owl.

Young Cooper's hawks provided no end of entertainment from bathing in a puddle of a neighboring roof (she's a dirty girl) to nailing a pigeon right in front of my apartment building. I never ceased to be amazed at the incredible amount of nature right in front of our eyes in a busy metro area. Going out in the middle of nowhere is fun, but incredible wild stuff is happening anywhere, as long as you go out and take a moment to notice.

Banding hawks in the fall is always fun, but this year was particularly exciting because I got a chance to "yank the pigeon" and help bring hawks into the nets. I also slept in a van out in the fields to prove that if I need to, I can still rough it.

I finally had a chance to improve my shorebird watching skills! Doug Buri offered a weekend workshop in August and he promised me that I would learn my shorebirds. I was skeptical, but he promised that I would see least sandpipers within five feet of me. The man did not lie and not only can I had identify shorebirds in my area, I find them quite beautiful. I hear he's offering two workshops next year--I highly recommend them!

Carpenter banding is always fun, but this year when we had an adult sharp-shinned hawk try to get one of the juncos we had just trapped, was a big highlight--Hellziggy took the above photo. We ended getting the sharpie and banding it as well as the junco. This is not to be confused with a separate sharpie/junco incident that happened in December.

Having a young titmouse sit on my head while at Mr. Neil's was another highlight.

Speaking of Mr. Neil, I finally got vindication with a saw-whet owl. For years, I have insisted that one should be in his woods. I had found saw-whet feathers in wren nests, I had found poop, but never the saw-whet--until this year when I found the above bird sleeping in a pine. Whoot!

Birds were only part of this magical year. Beekeeping has opened my eyes to a whole new world, and words cannot express what it felt like to have a worker bee lick nectar off of my bare finger. From having a massive panic attack when installing the bees, to requeening problems, to even giving sex advice, to my first bee sting...this has been one weird year and I cannot wait to see what new adventures lay ahead of us in 2008.

And let's not forget the porcupet--the baby porcupine who was found on the side of the road next to his mother who had been hit by a car. He was being cared for by a friend of mine who is a professional wildlife rehabber. By the time he was in her care, he had already been imprinted on humans and could not go back to the wild. He is now living at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Mn and goes by the name Clover. His videos are still a sensation on YouTube.

Birding also got me a brush with coolness when the Colbert Report filmed a segment at an Eagle Festival in Connecticut.

And I can't talk about what an amazing year it has been without talking about Cinnamon and Disapproving Rabbits. That has been one wild ride to have a web page we put up for fun and have it turn into a book. To have signings and have people come from different states to meet my bunny is just overwhelming. When I looked over the blog in the last year and how it has morphed and changed, I noticed that Cinnamon has been featured less and less. I'm not sure why. At first, I thought it was my infatuation with beekeeping, a new subject to write about. Then we started a separate blog for Disapproving Rabbits so I wondered if I was keeping it separate. But, I also get some strange emails (greatly overshadowed by some really wonderful and funny ones) from fans. I wonder if the few odd/unpleasant ones are making me feel protective of my bunny's privacy and the fun times we have. Or is that she is getting older and I want to distance her to protect all from being too emotionally invested when the inevitable happens? Not sure, but we'll see what happens in the coming year.

Birds and Beers has been a real treat. Above is a photo from the first Bird Blogger Conference where many bird bloggers got to meet face to face for the first time. I'm hoping to expand Birds and Beers in 2008 where anyone who is remotely interested in birds from beginner to kinda interested to very interested to birding has taken over my life will get a chance to sit down, share a beverage and talk some birds.

And I would like to once again thank EVERYONE who reads the blog, leaves comments, sends emails, or spreads the word. I feel incredibly honored that people are interested in what I put on here and make it such a fun part of my day and my life. I've made some great new friends and connections and I love it when someone sends a note to tell me that they noticed some bird or activity that they never would have noticed before if they had not read the blog. We also did some good this year when readers from here did the "Click for Condors" and helped Ventana Wildlife Society win $10,000 in grant money. Not bad at all. Thank you very much, and here's hoping you have wonderful new year and share new adventures.

Thank you.

This Just Made Me Laugh

While doing some online research for something, I came across an archived article from the New York Times dated September 20, 1896:

A young South American bittern fell exhausted in the rear yard of 411 West Thirty-third Street yesterday. August and Willie Schramm, two boys who live at that number, caught the bird. It fought desperately with its sharp claws and bill and uttered a sound which resembled closely that made by an alarm clock going off inside a box.

The boys put the bird into a box, which they tied securely with twine. They then took the bittern to the Central Park Menagerie and turned it over to Director Smith. It was placed in the pigeon house, where it immediately assume its habitual attitude of quiet watchfulness.

The South American bittern when at home makes relentless warfare on fish and birds of its own size and smaller, which it devours greedily. It is very difficult to raise in captivity.

Boy, they don't write up natural history reports like that anymore! Just looking around at my own personal bird library and online resources, I admire the ability to id an off course South American bittern in the 1890s.

Fun Birds 10 Minutes From Uptown

First, Birds and Beers will continue, I just haven't scheduled January yet. I will get it squared away after the first of the year. I just needed to get the holidays out of the way.

Second, a BIG THANK YOU to Metro Magazine for including my blog in their list of "The Best Homegrown Blogs We Read Just About Every Day." It's nice to know a non bird related magazine is interested in birds...and bees...and disapproving bunnies.

Third, someone reminded me to mention The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up in February. I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm tentatively booked at a bird festival that weekend. But if you're not doing anything that weekend, count the birds in your backyard.

I did have some time to do some birding today and headed over to the Minnesota Valley NWR Visitor's Center about ten minutes from my apartment.

I was hoping I could do some digiscoping from inside, but the visitor's center was closed. I wasn't wearing as many layers I should have for the outdoors, but I had some emergency hand warmers stashed in my coat and tucked those in my gloves and gave it a shot.

Light snow was falling and many birds were tucked in the bushes awaiting their turn at the bird feeders, like this female cardinal. When I arrived, I met a fellow digiscoper out in the parking lot, he was leaving as I was arriving. He showed me photos of a sharp-shinned hawk he had just photographed perched near the feeding station. I was bummed that I had missed that, but a cardinal is still a very cool sight in the snow.

The birds were still very wary about coming to the feeder. That hawk must have been fresh in their minds. The cardinals would come to the feeder, but the slightest chip note would send them flying back to the shrubs.

I found one downy woodpecker with a band on his foot (its male, they way the head is turned, you cannot see the red spot on the back of his head).

I've been trying to get better photos of tree sparrows. This little one cracked me up with its snow mustache over his bill. As I was following this bird around with my scope, I noticed a rusty brown bird about twice his size. I looked it up and it flew to the brush.

Holy crap! Is that what I think it is? Is this a fox sparrow? The upside about finding this bird at this point (besides that I wasn't expecting it) was that I got so focused on the bird, I no longer paid attention to how cold I was. Whoot. Even better, I am super-duper sore right now, I signed up for yoga again and am in severe pain after the first class. The last time I took yoga, I remember having such intense pain for three days after the first class. I thought it was just exaggerated in my memory. No, it wasn't an exaggeration...I'm in pain in places I didn't know could feel pain. At least this time I won't make the mistake of having Non Birding Bill rub Icy Hot all over my entire body to ease the sore muscles. That wasn't pretty. Icy and hot all over, I couldn't get comfortable for hours--take my advice: only use Icy Hot on one body part at a time.

Anyhoo, back to the fox sparrow. At first the fox sparrow started feeding kind of like a chickadee: it would fly out under the feeders, grab at a seed and then fly back into the brush. I usually only see this species during migration when there are all kinds of dry leaves and they do that characteristic kicking with their feet, but this bird wasn't doing that in the snow.

I love looking at sparrows head on (it doesn't have to be fox sparrows, it can be any sparrow). They have such great masks. It was interesting to see how the rusty browns on this bird just popped out of the brush, especially since it was surrounded by the more muted colors of juncos and tree sparrows. At times, this bird was about as bright as a cardinal. Right after I got this photo, my batteries died in my camera and I put in my spares. As I put the camera back up to my spotting scope, the sparrow was gone and I suddenly heard a loud flutter of wings, all the downy and hairy woodpeckers gave sharp "cheeps" and their wings flapped with such intensity, you could hear each distinctive flap. I looked over to the feeders, they were bare. I thought that the sharp-shinned hawk must have returned and I glanced around:

There it is in the top of the tree. Note where my scope is in relation to the hawk. I didn't move the scope from here for the photos--just keep that in mind for the next two photos. Let's look at it through the scope:

It was a haggard bird and I wondered if it was the same sharp-shinned hawk that hunted the feeders here last winter?

When I took the first photo and my camera focused, the hawk turned and looked right at it. There is not beeping sound on my camera, this was just the sound of the lens adjusting. I know harriers have a great sense of hearing...I wonder what the stats are on the sharp-shinned hawk sense of hearing? It was at about this point that the batteries on my camera totally died and I had to go back to the car, which was good because my fingers were numb. I don't know if the sharpie ended up getting any of the birds, it was still perched in the tree when I left.

UPDATE: Check out fellow MN Blogger EcoBirder, he has photos on Dec 13 and Dec 29 at the same spot of an adult sharpie--perhaps the same bird?

Mixed Nuts

Someone asked in the comments what the red-breasted nuthatch is eating in the feeder. This is a mesh feeder full of mixed nuts: peanuts, Brazil nuts, almonds, cashews, pistashios, and the odd filbert. Birds love this stuff. If you can mount your feeders in such a way that squirrels can't get to them and you don't have too many starlings, birds love this stuff. It's fun to watch red-bellied woodpeckers fly off with the Brazil nuts and to watch titmice fly away with an almond and chip it apart.

The latest installment of I and the Bird is up at WildBird on the Fly. She has managed to work in her love of cars as a theme--quite creative!

I'm just looking over my schedule for early 2008 and it is action packed! One of my favorite emails that I've gotten all year was from Swarovski asking if I would mind if they sent me to Florida in January for a digiscoping workshop...hmmm, let me think about that--OKAY!!! Two days after I get back from that, I'm off to Atlanta for Bird Watch America to see the latest in bird items that could be showing up at a wild birds specialty store near you.

On January 20, 2008 I'm doing an All About Owls program for The Raptor Center using live owls and PowerPoint to talk about Minnesota's diversity of owls. If you want to attend that, I would recommend signing up. Some years it does sell out and we've had to turn people away who just show up at the door.

On February 2, I'm co-leading a trip with Stan Tekiela to go to northern Minnesota to see hawk owls, pine grosbeaks, common redpolls, black-backed woodpeckers, or anything else being reported. Call 952-949-8479 to sign up.

Chickadees Are A Popular Subject In The Star Tribune

The chickadee flies up to the suet log and demands a share of the peanut butter suet.

The downy woodpecker accepts and doesn't fend off a rival for the fat. Must be having an off day.

In the December 18, 2007 Home and Garden Section of the Star Tribune, Minnesota birder Jim Williams wrote an article on chickadees and how they survive the winter. Today, December 26, 2007 TV hunting personality Ron Schara had a front page article in the Star Tribune on chickadees and how they survive the winter. Either the Star Tribune editor was ready for a Christmas break or really loves chickadees. I bet it's the latter!

Our Weird Little Christmas

One of the great things about living in a state that gets a lot of snow is that your plans change. It's not a big deal, it happens, you just have to make adjustments. Non Birding Bill got off work last Friday and we thought we would stop out at Mr. Neil's on Saturday, head home Sunday, do our Christmas Eve rituals on Monday, and celebrate Christmas Tuesday. Well, dusty snow and strong winds arrived which made visibility poor and driving unsafe so we ended up staying at Mr. Neil's until Christmas eve. We brought Cinnamon with us just in case we did get stuck at the house and it was a good thing. We can leave our cockatiel alone with a larder of food, he seems to know how to ear sensibly. Cinnamon will just vacuum up whatever is set in front of her and cannot be left alone. She was having a great time in the carpeted guest room at Mr. Neil's. Each morning she woke us up with all her popcorn impressions (most rabbit owners call this binkies, but I just can't).

I tried digiscoping outside, but the weather was just too cold and the wind too strong that my rechargeable batteries barely lasted five minutes in my camera. So, I tried rearranging feeders to get photos from the kitchen window and the photos didn't turn out half bad like this one of a red-breasted nuthatch on the mixed nut feeder. The birds activity was as intense during the storm, but the next morning when the wind had subsided, the birds were out in full force.

I'm still seeing some of the birds we banded last fall. Check out the chickadee perched on the bittersweet on the right--it has a little silver band on its foot. W00t! Christmas Eve morning was just about as perfect as it could get. Standing at the window in my pajamas taking photos of birds in perfect light, sipping a warm cup of coffee, trading barbs with Non Birding Bill, while periodically, Mr. Neil would come in and say something inaccurate about birds.

It seemed that every bird that showed up to the stump just looked perfect and cute. How could they not with the snow, the pine branches and bittersweet berries.

Then the crows crashed the party. It looks like the crow on the left had a rough night or at least is the low perching guy at the nightly crow roost--note the poop on its left wing. That's going to be fun to preen out later on!

Chirstmas Eve, we headed back to the Twin Cities. We picked up a few last minute items for our dinner the next day and then we headed out to our tradition of watching the last minute shoppers at the Mall of America. I always get a kick out of the restaurant Tucci Benucch, it has "patio seating" which means you can have a cafe table out in the hallways of the mall to watch traffic. We stationed ourselves, had a light lunch and commenced to people watching. We did run into some friends at the MOA and I was going to post the photos, but then realized I may get them in trouble for shopping last minute and decided against it.

We stopped at Urban Outfitters to see if they had Disapproving Rabbits and we found it there. It was very exciting to see our book at your one stop pop culture shop. We also stopped at Barnes and Noble, and they were sold out. W00t! The airport is on our way home and we took a quick drive on Cargo Road to see if we could see the snowy owl. We did, and we almost missed it. It was perched WAY up high on some type of metal tower--I have no idea what it's used for, but I never think of looking for those birds so high up since they come from the tundra and the snowies are used to low terrain, but it was cool way to wind our day.

On Christmas day we got the beautiful snow that you would see in Hollywood movies. It's still snowing this morning. It was a great day. One of the highlights was getting the goshawk hat that I blogged about (it's even pretties in real life than in the photo) and my mother-in-law made me a squirrel calendar--all with photos she took herself squirrels in her yard. She was very proud and said with a maniacal giggle, "I know how much you love those squirrels!"

We had our friend Ari over who is a local comedian and is Jewish. NBB and Ari have such a similar sense of humor and interests, they could be brothers. They were in the middle of conversation when one of them mentioned the Snoopy Snow Cone machine and without missing a beat, both started singing the song from the commercial as if well rehearsed though neither had probably sang it aloud since 1983. At one point Ari and NBB started writing a Hanukkah special that they could perform and as Christmas music played in the background and I looked out the window watching the fluffy snow while sipping cocoa, I realized that this was one of our weirder Christmases...I was loving every minute of it. Later, when the sun set, NBB and I took a stroll around our neighborhood in the dark. Traffic was gone, the snow was still falling and collecting around everyone's outdoor lights. The muted glow of the lights and the soft sound of snow kind of made me feel like we were the last people on the planet and it was magical. I felt grateful for everything that we have and have experienced in this life and look forward to whatever is coming on the horizon.

And now Minneapolis has declared yet another Snow Emergency and we need to go move our car. More later.

Stranded At Mr. Neil's

Well, our plans got a little derailed today as this puffed up blue jay in the snow hints at.

We got some unexpected snow. Some of the snow was expected, but where exactly it fell and how much was not. We knew some snow was coming but there wasn't supposed be too much falling where we live. We went out to Mr. Neil's to take some photos (I was hoping to see some common redpolls, a few have been reported around the Twin Cities, so I figured it was a matter of time before some would show up at Mr. Neil's.) and spread some Christmas cheer...then the wind picked up and dusty snow fell and then I received an email note from the City of Minneapolis that a Snow Emergency has been declared so we have decided to stay at Mr. Neil's and avoid the treacherous roads. It's not so bad being here, apart from Mr. Neil trying to get Non Birding Bill and me to drink some kind of liquid fungus he's been growing. But on the upside, when my toes get frozen, I can use the sauna.

The wind has been particularly nasty. It's already about 10 degrees, but the wind makes it feel well below zero. Above, this red-bellied woodpecker was trying to position himself in the least windy area around the suet log. I went out to artfully arrange some bittersweet berries and pine boughs. In part to create an artistic back drop for photos, but to also help create a wind break for the birds while they feed.

The feeding stations were not as active as usual. No squirrels showed up, I'm sure they were hunkered for the day, sleeping in their nests. The birds, like the tufted titmouse in the above photo stayed hunkered only moved if hunger absolutely drove them down.

Alas, the wind was so bitter, that not even an extra layer of clothing or my hand warmers could keep me comfortable. The hand warmers have been helpful in the past with keeping my rechargeable batteries going in my camera. But today, they camera kept freezing up. I decided to give up the ghost since all my batteries were failing, my fingers were going numb, and no matter what direction I was standing in--snow insisted on pelting my cheeks.

When I got into the house, I looked out the kitchen window and lo and behold, one common redpoll was among the goldfinches. The feeder is so close to the window that I had tough time getting it in focus. I got as far back as I could and at this point the scope started fogging up after having been in the cold for so long. I managed one photo and then finally my batteries went kaput for good and I hit the sauna.