Common Nighthawk Medical Exam

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]

Singing Wood Thrush LOL

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.

 

 

Birdchick Podcast #58: Hurricane Irene, Bird Excitement

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:

AX6A6iNCEAAkpAo
AX6A6iNCEAAkpAo

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.

Birdchick Podcast #58

Smoking Bees

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]

Total Slacker Bees #Beekeeping

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

 

Birdchick Podcast #57: Edible Birds & their Parts

Brits at a pub were apparently eat crow (of sorts).  A Rook Salad is now off the menu.  Here's a followup story on what exactly you are allowed to eat wild bird wise in the UK.  Man, I thought the Migratory Bird Treaty was hard to explain. Careful what swift saliva you're eating in birds nest soup.

Kellogg you're really making me not want to eat Froot Loops (and that's hard to do).  Kellogg goes after a non profit the Maya Archaeology Initiative an educational group in Guatemala for infringing on Toucan Sam.  Here are the 2 logos side by side.  Kellogg is being a jerk:

Screen shot 2011-08-23 at 8.42.30 PM
Screen shot 2011-08-23 at 8.42.30 PM

Maya Archaeology Institute appears to be using a Toco Toucan (which isn't native to Guatemala) and I suspect Kellogg's Toucan Sam is unidentifiable but shows characteristics of Keel-billed Toucan and Blue Plate Mountain Toucan.

Help Cornell Lab's version of HAL called Merlin learn how people see color on birds when trying to id them.

Birdchick Podcast #57

Hermit Thrush via Music of Nature

I'm posting this for my mom because I know she'll dig this.  A short video showing a hermit thrush singing from the folks over at Music of Nature.  If you know what a hermit thrush sounds like, I know you'll listen, if you haven't--YOU MUST WATCH AND LISTEN.  It's a moral imperative--for realzies. C'mon, the bird harmonizes with itself, you know you want to listen:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9vHS6JdHog[/youtube]

 

I Whip My Caterpillar Back & Forth

We did a check of our bees on Sunday (they are all slacking off this summer). Under the roof of one of our hives was this caterpillar:

This isn't just a cute looking inch worm posture, this was a threatening posture.  This is one of the most badass caterpillars I have ever come across.  It's not unusual for us to find other bugs inside an active hive.  Lots of spiders, daddy longlegs, ants and caterpillars work their way up to the shelter of the roof of the hive.  As long as they stay out of the honeybees' way, no one gets killed and mummified in propolis.  But when I find buts, especially caterpillars, I usually move them out.  This particular caterpillar did not want to go gently.  Check out this video I took of it (you will hear both me and Non Birding Bill in the background):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5glrrpWFzhY&[/youtube]

What the frickity frak was that all about??  It's a defense posture.  Something comes up to try and eat the caterpillar and it goes all Tom Cruise crazy and the potential predator thinks, "Yeah, maybe not."  We've seen caterpillars have some pretty interesting displays.  Back when I ranched some black swallowtails we made a video of their defense--they whip out horns of stinkiness:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj1jNu3aEDc[/youtube]

I think the caterpillar we found in the beehive is from the subfamily Hypeninae--although any bug experts can feel free to correct me, I'm not CaterpillarChick.  But reading in my  Caterpillars of Eastern North America Guide, it comes the closest.  Also in the Remarks section for Green Cloverworm it reads, " Like other hypenines the caterpillars hurl themselves from their perch when disturbed, by rapidly contracting and twisting their bodies in a fashion reminiscent of tightly wound rubber band."

Ah, Nature, you never cease to entertain and educate me.