Golden Eagle and Bald Eagle Field Trips

Can you tell the difference between these 2 birds?  If not, you should consider coming to the National Eagle Center's Golden Eagle Field Trips.

Identifying bald and golden eagles in the wild can be a challenge. We are fortunate to be able to see both bald and golden eagles in the Upper Mississippi River region in the winter months.  During the NEC Golden Eagle seminars and field trips, you will learn what to look for to distinguish bald and golden eagles, including juveniles. You’ll also gain valuable raptor field identification skills from experienced birdwatcher and NEC Education Director, Scott Mehus.  Each field trip begins at the National Eagle Center at 1:00pm. After a brief classroom session learning tips for identifying golden eagles, participants will caravan out to a field site to observe golden eagles in the wild.  Call (651) 565-4989 or email nationaleaglecenter@gmail.comfor details.

I've already had a couple of golden eagles show this fall during my travels so they are definitely back along the Minnesota/Wisconsin border.  That's a photo of a juvy golden that I got a couple of weeks ago.  Not that eagle watching ever gets tiring but it is fun to pick the golden eagle needle out of the hundreds of bald eagles in the haystack.

Birds & Beers Coming

I'm going to be out of town but the courageous Curt Rawn (who works at National Camera Exchage) is spearheading the hosting of a Birds and Beers while I'm away. The next Birds and Beers will be at the Sunshine Factory on November 22, 2011 from 6pm - 9pm.

Thanks gang for keeping the fun going while I'm gone.

Common Cranes In Israel

As information is coming in about my itinerary to the Hula Valley in Israel, I'm getting more and more excited.  One of my hosts for the trip is Tim Appleton and he sent over some photos of what we could see...looks like Cranemaggedon to me.  Actually the Common Cranes in the above photo remind of the Sandhill Cranes in Kearney, Nebraska.  The last time I went to Nebraska, our group actually saw a lone Common Crane mixed in with a bunch of Sandhills...wouldn't it be funny to see a wayward Sandhill Crane mixed in with thousands of Common Cranes?

Apparently the Hula Valley is host to millions of migrating birds of several species including the Black Storks above.  Should make for some fantastic photos and interesting stories.

Can You ID This Road Kill?

I found some interest road kill just now on my bird surveys. Let's use it as a contest! The first person to correctly id the bird in the comment section of this post based on these photos wins a giant loon coffee travel mug.

And here is what the other side looks like:

Downy Woodpecker Working The Corn

Most of the fields in my survey area have been cut and plowed (which has really wrecked my bathroom plans).  At one spot a female downy woodpecker has been systematically work the corn stubble.

She must have been getting something out of there, she worked the stubble piece by piece the two days I was there.  She wouldn't stay if she wasn't getting a good food benefit from it.  She would peck open the cracks to make them larger and stick her tongue inside.

Here's a shot where you can get an idea of how long a woodpecker's tongue is (for more on woodpecker tongues click here).  She actually had it wedged in the stalk but only for a few seconds. And then she continued on to the next stalk.

It was interesting to see a bird finding benefit in the stubble.  I also wonder if there was some bug that moved in to the stalk after harvest or if there was some bug in there and the farmer had a low yield to his crop.

Fun On My Ground Surveys

Man the final stages of fall migration have set in. Today on my eagle survey I had a flock of tundra swans fly over me. It was really cool because the were headed towards the Mississippi River and I realized that chances were good that the would be included on my aerial waterfowl surveys next week.

There are still plenty of eastern bluebirds around and I find it amazing that I can see the above bird in the field and take a photo and send it to the blog all via the iPhone.

Random Eagle Breakfast

About 10 eagles crowded around a carcass.  Observed during one of my many bird surveys this fall.  This was digiscoped close to dawn.

Best Green Heron Video Ever

I almost peed my pants watching this video this morning.  It is HIGHlarious!  Stick with it, things get interesting at the 20 second mark and end up amazing at the end.  Herons are awesome and kudos to my buddy Clay Taylor for an excellent capture of this behavior. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoPGGTitNbU[/youtube]

And that's a young heron finessing its technique!  You can still see downy feathers!

Birds are awesome, that is all.

Birds and Beers Reminder

I came across this photo from my trip to North Dakota with some birding friends last June and it reminded me--Thursday at 6pm is the next Birds and Beers at Merlin's Rest!

I can neither confirm nor deny that this photo has anything to do with the previous blog entry about my broken camera...

Birds and Beers is a friendly gathering of birders of all abilities to gather, have a beverage and talk some birds.  Looking for volunteers for a birding project? Wanna promote your birding blog or field trip business?  Just want to meet some other birders and maybe find a friend to go birding with?  Have questions about how to attract birds in your yard?  Have you ever noticed a bird at all?  This is the group for you!

Rare Extinct Imperial Woodpecker Footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OCd6b1aXU According to a press release a biologist from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology tracked down a 16-mm film shot in 1956 by a dentist (who was riding a mule at the time) from Pennsylvania.

The footage, which captures the last confirmed sighting of an Imperial Woodpecker in the wild, has now been restored and used to describe the species' behavior and its habitat—determined by tracking down the exact filming location during a 2010 expedition. The research appears in the October 2011 issue of The Auk, the scientific journal of the American Ornithologists' Union, and the cover features a painting of the woodpecker adapted from the film.

It's really hard for me to watch these sorts of things.  So close, so far away.  And as much as I like to focus on how well we have done conserving some species, we continue to think things like this Tar Sands Pipeline is a good idea.