You can almost see the surprise and "dang it" in the bird's eye aa a black oil sunflower seed slips from the vice like grip of its bill.
Birdchick Podcast #1: Lesser Prairie Chicken
Moving quickly into hot trend of 2004, we present the first Birdchick podcast. Sharon and Bill discuss the upcoming Lesser Prairie Chicken Festival where Sharon will be delivering the keynote address. Listen online: [audio:http://www.birdchick.com/wp/podcast/podcast-1-lpc.mp3]
If there's another topic you'd like us to tackle in the future, please let us know in the comments.
Changing The Minneapolis Beekeeping Ordinance
It's currently illegal to keep bees in Minneapolis, one of the many reasons I share a beekeeping operation with Mr. Neil. There's been a move with the Minnesota Hobby Beekeeper Association to change the law so people could keep a hive in their yard. There's an article in the Star Tribune and I noticed commenter BeeGirl was quoted: "Kathleen Connelly, a longtime city resident who's temporarily living just over the border of Golden Valley, said she's waiting to see whether the proposal passes before deciding where to buy a house. She now keeps her colonies in Zumbrota.
She called bee prohibitions a relic of efforts by developing suburbs to shed their agrarian pasts. With hiving season at hand, the city hopes to accept applications by June 1 if the measure passes as expected on April 25."
You can read the full article here.
About Time For Hummingbirds in Minnesota
I went to Journey North's website to check the status of the ruby-throated hummingbird migration and it looks like they're about to hit Minnesota and are already hitting Wisconsin.
Orioles should be a couple of more weeks out yet.
Oh Google
So, in an effort to find out what bird species made the Mystery Nest, I did a bit of searching on Google. Rick Wright mentioned that yellow warblers sometimes make multiple nests and so I googled the words "yellow warbler nest cowbird" and found a link to a bald cardinal feeding a young cowbird (cardinals, I expected more from you). Thank you, and here's to the weird stuff you find on Google.
Mystery Nest
Boy, spring hormones are kicking in with the local peregrine falcons. I was walking from the Mississippi National River & Recreation Headquarters to the visitor center in downtown St Paul when I heard a familiar "Per-chup per-chup per-chup." Sure enough, the local breeding peregrines were circling and diving towards each other. It didn't look like territory battle, but more display and pair bond reaffirmation.
While I was at headquarters, a co-worker showed me a nest that had been collected on one of the islands in our national park near the Twin Cities metro area. She found it last fall and when she first described it to me, I couldn't figure out what was going on. It was a nest that was covered with cotton, but had a perfectly round hole on top. What could that be? I finally got to see it today.
At first glance, I realized that it was two nests, one stacked on top of the other. This could have been done for a couple of different reasons, maybe a bird decided to build on a nest from the previous year? Or, I wondered, if the bottom nest started as maybe a warbler nest and then a cowbird laid an egg and the warbler decided to start over with a new nest on top? I asked my co-worker if I could pull them apart and she seemed hesitant, but then said it was okay.
I pried them slightly apart and low and behold, there were two eggs hidden in the bottom nest. Now, here was the question, are these cowbird eggs or are these the original nest builder eggs? For the non birders who read this blog, brown-headed cowbirds do not raise their own young, they are a parasitic birds and lay eggs in other species' nests. Sometimes you will see a small bird like a yellow warbler feeding a brown bird twice its size. That is a young cowbird that has been raised by unknowing birds.
I set one of the eggs on a ruler to measure it. It looked to be about 5cm long. I'm going to have to go home and look up the length of cowbird eggs vs warbler and sparrow eggs. Based on where the nest was found, the most likely candidates for who made it would be song sparrow, yellow warbler, or common yellowthroat. I'm not that great at nest id and I don't have any of my nest books with me. Are these the nest builder's eggs or are these cowbird eggs?
We looked into the nest on top where there was some cotton looking material and a hole. At first I wondered if a mouse had covered up the top cup and used the double nest as a home, but then realized that the cotton looking layer was mostly likely the lining for that nest, put in by the birds that built it. The hole was probably made by a mouse or rodent, perhaps it could smell the eggs underneath and went to investigate? Perhaps there were originally more than two eggs and the mouse ate some (then decided they were old and nasty and not worth eating more).
So many questions left unanswered with this mystery nest, but quite a few stories in there as well.
A Minneapolis Sage Thrasher
Man, this was a busy Tuesday: I started with a volunteer shift at The Raptor Center, then on to some grocery shopping, did a little bike riding, saw an off course Sage Thrasher, then made dinner, and off to a Minnesota Hobby Beekeeper's Association meeting to get geared up for the spring season.
The highlight of the day was definitely the sage thrasher, it was only a few blocks from my home. It was so close, I loaded up my digiscoping equipment onto my bike and rode over--exercise and a cool bird, now that's multi-taskng.
This bird is a tad off course. Perhaps it spent the winter in Texas and when it headed north to its breeding grounds, got mixed in with a rogue flock of robins and ended up a little further east than planned. Perhaps this bird was originally hatched in the far western reaches of South Dakota and in the grand scheme of things, isn't that far off.
Who knows how long it will stay. The bird has been at Lake Harriet for a few days, hanging out near the canoe racks at the Rose Garden, feeding on hackberry with the robins. If you're in the Twin Cities area and want to see this bird, just look for the people with the binoculars, that should lead you to the thrasher.
Speaking of which, there were two really nice people already on the bird when I arrived, one named Chris works for a Twin Cities company called Fetch Delivers--a pet and wild bird delivery company. They currently have no minimum order and no delivery fee. So, if you want one suet cake, you get just the suet cake, no delivery fee. They carry some feed I would actually use like C&S Peanut Suet and Wild Delight--plus some rabbit chow. We might give them a try--can't beat no minimum and no delivery fee.
Mysterious Robber Bees
We still have juncos moving through, many were starting to sing some of their territory songs over the weekend. Some even chased each other through the brush piles as the flocks start their northward migration.
Lorraine has been gleaning honey from the remainders of the Kelli and Kitty hives. As she put the wrecked frames outside, we got some robber bees coming in to them!
Little honeybees came in to claim what honey we had not. We currently have no active hives in our beeyard...where are these girls coming from? Is it possible that these are bees from our first summer that swarmed off of the Kitty hive? Or is a neighbor also keeping bees? Honeybees will fly 2.5 - 5 miles away from the hive in search of food, so it is conceivable that these are from a neighboring hive. But it's more fun to think them being the Kitty bees. Oh, how I wish I had a little robotic, remote-controlled, helicopter bee cam!
Kroening Interpretive Center
Saturday, I did a Spring Birding Program at Kroening Interpretive Center and discovered a great little park, mere minutes from my home. The center is in North Mississippi Park, a small park right on the river (and part of the National Park I work for, the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area). I can't believe I haven't been here before. There's a great view of a heron rookery and now is the best time to go see it.
Since the leaves are off the trees, the birds and their nests are easily visible. Also, it's just the start of the mating season, so there's lots of activity as the birds put their nests together. Once the leaves grow in, the nests will be almost impossible to see.
If you are interested in getting any photos of the birds, the afternoon is the best time, the sun is behind you from the trail and you can get some decent shots. I may go back on Tuesday afternoon.
We saw several other birds like this male kestrel, tree swallows, and song sparrows. I just saw my first of year yellow-rumped warbler today and I bet this park will be chock full of warblers since it's right on the river. I can't wait to go back.
They have some great programs coming up at Kroening, so be sure to check it out.
Birds & Beers, Woodcock Edition Is 04-22-09
So, Friday night I headed out with a few friends to scout for woodcocks for the next Birds and Beers--we had success and found at least three woodcocks. Above is a very blurry photo of one of them. Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of birders of all abilities to meet with others, have a beverage, and talk some birds. You can promote an upcoming bird event or website, share research, look for a birding buddy, or just learn what this birding thing is all about. It's relaxed and fun! Normally, we do this at a pub, but we're so excited to get out in some warm weather, that the next gathering is going to be combined with some fun birding: watching woodcocks!
The next Birds and Beers will be Wednesday, April 22 at Lebanon Hills Regional Park. The woodcocks start their display about 15 - 20 minutes after sunset, which means they will start around 8:30pm. Since the display area is next to the visitor center at the park, we'll meet there starting about 6:30pm and have an old fashioned tailgate party--you can come early to mingle or come closer to magic hour. Bring your own food and beverages and we'll laugh until it's Woodcock Time. The park closes at 10pm, so this gives us plenty of time to get some great birding done.
Looking at the park rules, I can't find anything that says "no alcohol period" but I did find rules that say no alcoholic beverages at the beach or trails, so use good judgment, this is a family park and it's no fun running through brush in the dark looking for a small brown bird if you are toasted.
If it is pouring down rain on April 22, this event will be postponed to the following Wednesday, April 29.
If you are unfamiliar with how to watch woodcocks, here is a video that Non Birding Bill and I made a few years ago for Eagle Optics. This is fun birding, I've taken a few non birders and they've all had a great time:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeBevezTpx0[/youtube]
The friends who went out with me on the scouting mission included a couple of kids. One even made me the cutest thank you card:
I love the little woodcock head in the binocular view. She has them saying "Mah" as opposed to "peent" which just cracks me up. My absolute favorite part is the little portrait of me down in the right hand corner:
It's me demonstrating how to cup your hands behind your ears and opening your mouth--this increases your hearing by 40% (partially because you aren't talking while doing this).
Spread the word for the next Birds and Beers, should be a blast!