Birdchick Blog
Big Year news, we have a Trailer:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCBAP2wId5M[/youtube]
And Audubon Magazine has an article with all 3 stars. Steve Martin assures us they are respectful to birders...
Crows tested with snakes and teddy bears.
If you are remotely interested in whether or not birds have fingers or thumbs, you'll love this article.
Another great reason to buy a Duck Stamp: Bird Watcher Supply, Blue Ridge Bird Seed Company and Dawsonville Wild Birds Unlimited have agreed to offer a 10% discount to their customers who display the current duck stamp. Promotion continues through the end of December, 2011.
Here's an article about Sandy Komito, this is the guy who is portrayed by Owen Wilson in The Big Year Movie. Also, Mark Obmascik is now on Twitter and posted this photo for a new book cover (above), could this be a movie poster preview?For those interested, here's a blog post from when I spoke with a man who sat through an early preview several months ago.
Minnesota man charged with excessive bird feeding gets probation.
Record flock of sociable lapwings reported!
Birdspot has a shop up temporarily--includes harlot shirts!
Hurricane Irene Bird News:
Bird migrates through Hurricane Irene (must read).
New York Time article on birders birding post hurricane.
Zen Birdfeeder writes about the birds in her yard during Tropical Storm Irene.
eBird's breakdown of Hurricane Irene's birds.
Black-throated green warbler says, "Haha, you can't see me!"
Nighthawks are migrating like crazy through the Twin Cities right now. I've seen them when we've been grilling this week and on Saturday we were on the St Croix River with some friends and a steady stream passed over the boat all afternoon and well into the night (I'm not ready to face fall migration). Injuries are inevitable during migration and here's a video of a common nighthawk medical exam at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota this week--watch how big that mouth gets with the bird starts fussing during the exam:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpBWTZmkoSQ&feature=uploademail[/youtube]
So the other day I posted a short video showing a hermit thrush singing from the folks over at Music of Nature. I noticed that they also have a wood thrush video on their YouTube channel too (this is another bird that is a moral imperative to listen to): [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrmxlez2cAg[/youtube]
This video cracked me up. Did you notice how many times the bird sang a phrase and then flew? I was actually surprised that the videographer got the bird perched for more than one phrase--but noted how the bird was always obscured by a branch or leaves. It reminded me of when I was a kid and my parents moved to a new home and we had one of these singing in the yard. You didn't have access to all the bird id CDs and apps back then like you do today.
So one Saturday morning my mom and I spent an hour trying to track this bird down in the tops of the trees. After each song phrase it fluttered to another leafy branch, hiding in obscurity. The longer it took, the more I fantasized this would be something cool and so beautiful it HAS to hide, maybe even a painted bunting. I remember feeling like such a chump that that it was brown and fairly colorless. How could something so brown have a song so pretty?
Now I know better and it's one of my favorite songs and sometimes I get to hear it out around the beehives. But all that searching we did to see it makes me appreciate all the work the videographer went through to give us such a wonderful glimpse to a secretive singer.
Reader feedback from Kevin Collison: "You frequently mention birding groups efforts to attract more birders (members). I have one, tell them to stop being so hard on hunters. Most hunters, like myself, have a love for nature too. I love hunting, birding, and nature photography." Interesting RADAR image from Saturday night of bird migration and Hurricane Irene:
Birders are excited about hurricane birds and all kinds of terns and even a tropic bird have been reported.
A wayward red-tailed hawk got caught in a New York City apartment building and the rescue team tried to lure it out with bread. Really, guys, bread? Thanks for the news, Space Doggity.
A specimen collected in the 1960s proves to be an undocumented (and world's smallest) shearwater. It hasn't been seen since, is it extinct or hidden among other shearwaters? Here's a photo of the Bryan's shearwater specimen.
In less depressing news, there's a common murre nest on the Channel Islands that hatched chicks for the first time in 100 years! Yay! See sometimes conservation efforts CAN work.
A contest for musician/bird look alikes.
Although, I think these are actually ravens. Still makes me larf.
This is a video of some of our bees just chilling out at the hive. I started it to show what they look like when they are relaxed. We had to dig deeper into the hive to see what was going on so I asked Non Birding Bill to smoke them. When you puff your bees with wood smoke, it triggers a response that makes the bees go in and eat--there could be a forest fire and they may have to flee and who knows when they will eat again. The eating makes them less interested in defending the hive and stinging the large people moving around frames and boxes of the hive. When you smoke them it always reminds me of office workers who suddenly realized the boss is walking through and they all need to look busy, it's a joke I've done before but it still cracks me up.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxNxvEm_-zc[/youtube]
Dear Bees,
I don't want to get all Ned Stark on you, but Winter is coming. You are bees of summer and it's been fun to fly around and explore, but seriously, dudettes, you need to start some serious storage to make it through the winter.
See, this whole socializing and not storing honey business is not going to do you any good. I know, I know, Mr. Neil has been away for awhile and I've been busy counting birds this summer and you've been able to do your own thing, but that's because I believed you could handle the responsibility of being an adult worker. And I realize that some of you are Russian Bees and that you have a reputation for keeping the hive small and still surviving the winter. But all of you are bees of summer and bees of the south--what do you know of Winter?
I'm willing to compromise. I know some books say you should have 3 deep brood boxes full of honey to get you through our northern winters, but we've had bees do just fine with only 2 boxes. If that's all you want to do and not give us any excess honey this year--that's fine. We'll help you with that. But this business of only using one box and completely ignoring the second is not going to work, you must band together and get to work.
I know you think you're being clever by filling in any area that violates "bee space" but that's not enough. And though we will subsidize you with food in a 2 box system well into fall and possibly early winter, we can't help you come February, that's when your stores are crucial. And do understand, if you don't have enough honey, your hive will fail and you will die. And though we will mourn you, we will loot your hive like the Hound loots a corpse.
I love you, but I understand that you are all insects and that you have to do as much for yourself as you can. So, I hope you read my blog between gathering pollen and half-heartedly storing honey to understand how serious I am about your need to bump up production in order to survive the winter. I also hope Mr. Neil doesn't mind me referencing another writer in a post about our hives.
Your Obedient Beekeeper,
Shaz
Some forgotten photos from my May trip to Utah. This was a male northern harrier hunting around Antelope Island:
One of the few North American raptors you can tell the difference between male and female by color.
He even got some prey!
Harrier hunting grounds.
