Whoot

My goodness today was busy! We had a lot going on at The Raptor Center: programs, inspections, moving birds around indoors because it's too cold for them outside.

This imprinted male kestrel was very fascinated with the doin's a transpirin' outside his crate. We were having a conversation about the morning's activities and he was watching us intently.

Well, my talk at the Minnesota Beekeepers Association went really, really well! The audience was very engaging and my fears about not knowing what I was talking about were quickly relieved and the talk became more of me sharing some of my experiences and mistakes and laughing together. I also talked about the cameras that I use. One of the instructors from the Beekeeping Short Course that I took last year in the audience. He asked if I would send him the above photo for research, he said that he thinks the bees are removing propolis in this photo and not pollen. I told him that I learned so much from that class that he's welcome to any of my bee images.

The best part was that the talk really helped me formulate a book outline. There has been some interest in a beekeeping book and I wasn't sure how I would structure it or what I would have to say, but tonight, it all came together--whoot.

The meeting itself was very different from the county beekeeping meeting that attended last year. It was rowdy and funny and even had a show and tell time where members can show off inventions or ideas that have worked for their hives. The next meeting is going to feature a talk by master gardeners with tips for plantings for your hives. We started some bee plantings last fall, but I hope my travel schedule allows me to come to that one as well.

Here's another photo of those tracks we found outside the Olga hive. I was thinking with the thumb and the smaller star shaped track to the right that these are opossum tracks, but again, if someone has a better idea, I'm open to it.