Can't Stop Watching Ducks

I'm a sick, sick girl. Once a week, for work, I am assigned to go in a plane and focus an insane amount of energy watching and counting ducks from a plane.  Then after an intense day of not stop ducking, I have to listen to the audio recording of my notes, tally the numbers and enter them in to a database.  If I have time, I try to enter the numbers in to eBird or write up little articles of our progress for the park service or other organizations.

So.  What do I do on my mornings off?

I watch freakin' ducks!  There was a report on the listservs of a long-tailed duck on Vadnais Lake in St. Paul.  But of more interest to me were the numerous other species of ducks reported on the lake.  It was mostly ring-necked ducks (there's a few mallards in the above photo too).  So, I headed out.  I didn't care if I got the long-tailed, I've seen them before, but some non work related duck watching sounded good.

In fairness, we didn't fly last week because of that massive wind storm/"landcane"/record low pressure system.  The 45 mph winds made flying 100 feet above the river a wee bit too dangerous.  Perhaps, I was feeling a bit of duck withdrawal--I was torqued and ready to go and then got the rug pulled out from under me.  I do appreciate ducks in the fall.  Most birds are brown and somber in coloration.  Male ducks--still quite colorful--above with the ring-necked ducks are a lone bufflehead and a redhead.

Here was the view of Lake Vadnais.  This view was from a pull0ut lot of the road.  Some trumpeter swans were near the shore along with a few mallards.  The large raft of ring-necked and other ducks were just beyond.  I situated myself against a tree and the swans paid little attention to me.  As they swam closer, the larger raft of ring-necks didn't seem to to be disturbed by me.

As other birders continued further down the road, the raft of ring-necks drifted towards the swans...and me!  I really enjoyed the pressure of enjoying duck colors and numbers without the pressure of counting and documenting.

The lighting was so perfect, I could actually make out the ring on the neck of the ring-necked ducks (bird in dire need of a name change).

Here's a pair of goldeneye that were mixed in with the ring-necks.

The raft of ducks were in a feeding frenzy, bobbing and dipping--the yellow eyes on most of them gave the whole party a maniacal look.  Here's a closer look at the redhead duck (love the ring-neck with just its head visible in the lower right corner).

If you find a raft of ducks in your area, take a few moments to soak up those colors before they fly off when the water freezes.

Winter Robins Arrive In The Twin Cities

We're down to the bitter end in migration.  The fall robins are all over the place in Minnesota.  On the bike trails around town, the robins are so numerous, I can hear them over the sound of my headphones as I bike past.  These tend to be more aggressive birds and I'll admit that it's fun to see someone who can bully starlings.

I was a little surprised to see a Swainson's thrush mixed in with the robins.  We usually see other thrushes mixed in with flocks of robins, but this late it tends to be hermit thrushes.  The bird was not a welcome part of the flock.  The blurry robin in the above photo was on its way to making a sneak attach and chased the thrush off before I could get a better photo.

Robins totally dig all the fruit trees people plant in their yards, although many of the robins I find are raiding the buckthorn branches.  I'm torn, I'm happy to see robins adapting to a source of food, but I also realize that they are laying the groundwork to plant more buckthorn that has been removed.

Hey? Any Food In There?

I found this nuthatch meticulously searching beneath each shingle for insects to eat.  Woodpeckers aren't the only birds looking for insects off the sides of houses.

Random Autumn Photo

Digiduel 2 Results

Clay and I both posted albums of our five favorite photos from Digiduel 2 on the Swarovski Optik Facebook page.  You can vote on your favorite Clay photos here or my photos here.

This photo of rock pigeons balancing on thin branches of a hackberry to eat the fruit was one of the photos that didn't make it in to the deadline.  It's weird to for me to see pigeons in a tree--I'm so used to them on buildings and sidewalks.

My eventual goal with this Digiduel Project is that we can open it up for other people to play all over the world-you have a digiscoping set up and Twitter account--you can take a turn at a Digiduel.  Clay and I wanted to do a few against each other to work out some kinks...and boy were there kinks to work out this time around:  We usually use Twitpic to upload photos onto Twitter but it was down for a good portion of the day.  I switched to Plixi as a back up but eventually Twitter refused photos from any photo site.  I had about ten images (like the above rock pigeons) that never made it up to Twitter in time and Clay had a few come in after the deadline of 4pm Central time, even though he sent them in well before the deadline.

We also decided to add a new component to the competition.  There are now two ways to win.  You can try to take as many species photos as possible in the time allotted or you can go for "quality images" or really try to get the bird in a pretty pose with some nice fall color behind it.  By adding the photos to the Facebook site, people can vote on their favorites.  And the above European starling did not get uploaded to Twitter before the deadline and I didn't include it in the album on Facebook.  It's just as well, I don't see a lot of people voting for a starling, no matter how cool they look in their winter plumage.

If you are interested in participating in a digiduel, let me know.  Clay and I will try to work you in to the competition.  The keys are to find a spot where you can get photos of birds and have internet access.  It appears to work best if you can do it from or from a park with reliable internet access.  I tried doing it from a park and popping over to a coffee shop periodically.  Doable, but annoying and a waste of gas.

Hooded mergansers flying away.

Favorite Digiduel Photo Thus Far

This downy woodpecker who appears to be under the impression that he is completely hidden from my spotting scope.

Digiduel going on NOW

There's a Birds and Beers at Merlin’s Rest at 6pm this Thusday.  Birds and Beers is a friendly gathering of birders of all ages to get together and talk some birds. YIKES  DIGIDUEL IS TODAY!  If you saw this post this morning, I said the digiduel was tomorrow--it's today!

Clay Taylor and I are doing another Digiscoping Duel or "Digiduel" on Twitter today.  This time I'm going to take my spotting scope and digital camera to the Minnesota National Wildlife Refuge and use local coffee shops to upload images. The competition goes from 8am - 4pm Central Time.  Clay will digiscope someplace in Texas.  We're going to try for "pretty" images this time and then put up albums on the Swarovski Facebook Page.  People can vote on which image we like best.  There's no physical reward for getting the most votes, we're testing out the challenge idea.  My hope is that we can do the challenge in all sorts of ways and get other digiscopers to participate (if you are interested in being a participant or have an idea for a digiscoping challenge, drop me an email sharon at birdchick dot com).

Also, using Twitter, it's a way for people to follow the progress as we load a few images throughout the day.  If you'd like the follow Digiduel 2 then follow both me and Clay at or if you have a program like TweetDeck you can follow us with the #digiduel hash tag or the #birding hash tag.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFpDYR2snvw[/youtube]

What Is That Sharpie Carrying?

While exploring the trails at Hawk Ridge with my mom and sisters, we noticed a sharp-shinned hawk catching a thermal (a warm current of air that raptors glide on).  This hawk appeared to be carrying something in its talons.

I wondered what it was carrying and my sisters wondered why a bird that wouldn't be feeding chicks would carry food during migration.  I wondered if it had just killed it's prey and was looking for a safe place to eat it--but why would it catch a thermal to go so high up?  Usually these hawks tuck into a tree to eat.  I also noticed that the sharp-shinned hawk appeared to have a full crop--why would it hunt if it had already eaten.  Sometimes at the hawk blind, Frank Taylor will get in sharp-shins with full crops that fly in for the bait pigeon.  Frank said that even though the crop is full, the message hasn't hit the rest of the body that it's full of food and further hunting isn't necessary.  Sharp-shins are accipiters like Cooper's hawks and that's very much a group of hawks that tends to act before it thinks.

In this photo you can really see that full crop.  Also, it looks like it's carrying a wing--a robin's wing maybe?  I wondered if the sharp-shinned had just killed and eaten a robin.  Since this is a smaller hawk, it could have eaten its fill and have some leftover.  Perhaps it didn't want to leave the remaining food behind?

There's Another Digiduel This Thursday

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFpDYR2snvw[/youtube]

Cleansing Goshawk

Alright, Non Birding Bill's cartoon post and my pelican post may have been a bit much, so how about a nice, cleansing northern goshawk release shot to start Monday morning?

Some of my family from Indiana came up for a visit last week and got a whirlwind tour of the hives and a trip to Duluth.  On Friday, we stopped at Hawk Ridge to walk the trails (LOVE the Summit Trail) and when we arrived, I saw someone walking down from the banding station with a bird in a holder, ready for release.  I glanced at the feet and tail and said, "Is that what I think it is?"

Debbie Waters, the naturalist for the Ridge said, "Yep."

My mom and sisters asked what it was and I said, "What do you think it is?"  They've been to Frank Taylor's banding station a few times and they do a bit of birding themselves.  They all speculated goshawk and they were correct.  We watched the program and someone had adopted this goshawk for the chance to release it.  I got a photo and love how her arms mimics the bird's wings.

I just showed this photo to NBB and said, "Isn't this cool."

He looked over from his computer, pointed to the lady and said, "FAME!"

Which I guess means the immature goshawk in this photo is now lighting the sky like a flame.

Fame.