Black-capped Chickadee Butt

Oh, the dangers of talking while digiscoping. I've said it before and I'll say it again, when you digiscope, you get hundreds of not quite perfect photos. If you're just trying it out and you feel that most of your photos are crap, don't feel bad, it takes several tries and maybe even a little tweaking on the computer to get good shots. The other day I was taking shots at a feeding station at a local nature center. When you plant yourself in a chair with your spotting scope and digital camera, people have questions. So, as I was shooting, I was chatting. When I downloaded the photos, I discovered a disturbing amount of chickadee butt photos while it was on the feeder. I'm not sure what my subconscious is trying to tell me.

Ballistic: Turkey vs Squirrel

I stopped at Richard Nature Center for a bit of digiscoping. When I arrived, the place was chock full of turkeys and like the flock at Minnesota Valley, they took turns fluttering up to the top of a feeding station to get at the seed in the flythru. A flock has been regularly seen at this feeding station, coming and going, but the turkeys are now rather stationary. They fed and roosted and didn't seem too interested in moving on. Many of the turkeys were dozing off right under the feeders.

I don't know why, but this drowsy turkey just makes me laugh. She looks like she should be listening to a Morrissey CD.

As much fun as turkeys are, there was a long tailed sparrow lurking under a cedar tree that caught my attention. I got it in the scope and was surprised to find a white-throated sparrow still around. They are usually out of Minnesota by now. Hopefully, this bird will find a good food supply, a nice place to roost and evade the sharp-shinned hawks and survive the winter. I tried to get a better photo of it...

But the turkeys kept walking between my scope and the sparrow! That big dark blur above is a turkey--thanks, dude.

Earlier, I posted a photo of squirrel in the flythru feeder with a turkey on top. I asked the question, of the squirrel and the turkey, which one would come out victorious in the fight for the feeder. Well, here's a video with the answer, I was surprised:

The turkey gave up without the squirrel putting up too much of a bluff!

It was enough to make a downy woodpecker go "Baroo?"

The squirrel eventually made it's way over to the suet feeder and after filling up on some beef fat...

The squirrel looked rather pleased with itself.

Turkey or Squirrel?

One platform feeder. A squirrel is eating out of it and a turkey wants in on the deal. Who comes out victorious? A video with the answer will be up later.

Share The Experience Photo Contest

Okay, so the deadline is creeping up in two days, but if you happen to have any cool photos of a National Park (and the wonders therein), you might want to enter it in the Share The Experience Photo Contest. The winner gets their photo on the National Park Annual Pass and various and other sundry prizes. Since I work part time as a park ranger, I am ineligible but one you might have the winning photo.

A Little Post Holiday Banding A Carpenter

After several days of butt chilling temperatures, we finally had some warm weather. It started on Christmas Day. Non Birding Bill and I noticed the temps were in the twenties and then stepped outside. It was so warm, we took a walk to Lake Calhoun. By Friday morning the temps were down right balmy in the thirties. The snow started to melt and fog took over the landscape as did a little freezing drizzle, but it made for somewhat pleasant weather banding birds at Carpenter Nature Center. We had several juncos in the traps (like the bird above).

I processed one that had a very odd eye! It was oval instead of round. It looked as though there was some type of swelling above the eye and feathers out of place. The bird had been banded earlier this winter, but there was no notation that it was injured when it was originally banded. I had to look at the eye color under a light to try and determine age and the pupil seemed fine. We let it go. I'll be curious is to see if we get it again.

Among all the juncos, we got in a few of the dreaded cardinals. Dreaded because of that bill and their ability to squirm just right and nail one of you digits. Owie. One of the nice things about cardinals is that you can sex them fairly quick--this is a male based on plumage color. But aging is a different story. I wondered if he was hatched this summer since he had a bit of black on the tip of his beak (juvenile cardinals have black beaks). Our banding leader, Jim Fitzpatrick had me look at the iris of the cardinal and it was dark brown. That coupled with feather condition of some wing and tail feathers made this bird an AHY (After Hatch Year, which basically means we don't know exactly how old it is, but we know he didn't hatch this year).

While I was processing the male cardinal, Jim was processing a female cardinal. They came into the traps at the same time. We had some members of the public watching us process the birds and they asked if the cardinals were a mated pair. It's not the breeding season and cardinals are typically in large winter flocks this time of year. However, there can be pairs in a flock and according to Birds of North America Online, some cardinal pairs will stay on their same territory all year. I wasn't sure if these two cardinals were in the same trap, but my guess was that were. We also couldn't say for sure if they were pair, but it was a possibility.

After we processed them, I tried to get one more photo before we let them go. Note the male is still giving my thumb the what for. We opened our hands and off they flew. Sometimes when we release two of the same species like that, they split in different directions. These two not only took off in the exact same direction, but landed on the same branch of a tree! I dashed back into the center to grab my digiscoping equipment.

They adjusted themselves in the tree and by the time I got my scope on them, the female had perched a bit higher. They seemed relaxed with each other and I think it's a good guess that this is a mated pair. They stayed that way for several minutes. The clouds, fog, and drizzle did not make for the best photo, but it's bloggable.

I took a few more shots of the male I had just banded while he perched in the tree. I noticed that he had some brown feathers on his flanks. I showed the photo to Jim and the other banders. I asked if we should rethink whether or not he was a hatch year bird since there was some brown. Jim wisely pointed out that the base feathers for cardinals are brown (I assumed black, since their skin is black). He also reminded me that the male's eye color was dark brown. Had he been a hatch year bird, we would have seen gray brown. Only Peter Pyle can take a seemingly easy bird to id (like a cardinal) and make it a challenge!

After I let the cardinal go, I got a shot of my thumb--check out the indentations he left! It's now turned to a minor blood blister. Thanks, dude. After banding, we went down to where the Mississippi River and St Croix River meet along the Minnesota/Wisoconsin border to look for ducks and gulls.

There had been a a harlequin duck reported and we had little trouble finding it among all the goldeyes. The fog made for terrible digiscoping conditions and I'm going to have to go back to see if I can get it on a sunnier day. That's a cooling looking duck that deserves a better photo.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to all of you and I am truly grateful to everyone who stops by the blog and makes it a part of their day. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

May you find peace, happiness, comfort with your family and friends.

Finally! A Field Guide for iTouch & iPhone!

There's a really great review of the new iBird Explorer at Cloudy Days and Netbook Nights (done by my buddy Steve the Zeiss rep). The iBird is put out by the folks over at WhatBird.com. The interface on it is really, really cool and very intuitive to use. I wasn't thrilled with all of the illustrations on it and was hoping to hold out for Sibley or National Geographic to put their guide on an iPhone, but reading Steve's review I'm a bit more excited about it.

The creator, Mitch Waite is dedicated to constantly improving the product and not only adding illustrations but also photos of each species--that suddenly makes this much more interesting to a hardcore bird like myself.

For an in depth and excellent review, do check out Steve's write up.

Christmas Tree Bird Count

I know temps were cold for this year's count, but I really don't know what all the fuss was about. I found my count quite easy and with a surprising variety bird species!

Many of the usual suspects were found including white-breasted nuthatch and downy woodpecker...

...and a red-bellied woodpecker working the thicker branches.

There's a black-capped chickadee that was technically not on the tree, but it was in the general count area. Besides, it has the important duty of keeper of the mistletoe in the Stiteler household.

A male and female pheasant were found lurking on the tree as well.

Many people are surprised to find robins in winter, but a few always hang out if they can find berries, insect larvae and open water.

I ran into a bird watching Santa Claus trailed by cardinal and shocked at the largest blue jay he had ever seen.

There were some interesting birds to be noted, like the above male goldfinch still in breeding plumage even though it's December.

And another bird that I was surprised to find in December and in breeding plumage: a male indigo bunting!

This poor barn swallow was way off course. Perhaps it had migration issues because its tail is chipped?

Here was a surprise rose-breasted grosbeak added to the count.

And a scarlet tanager--who knew?

A little pishing revealed not only a cedar waxwing on the right, but a tiny house wren (on the left)! Not only is it late in year to be seeing a house wren, it was checking out a nest box. I could not find a mate with it, so perhaps it was just roosting in the bird house?

Speaking of nesting, check this out! A male and female cardinal nesting in December is unbelievable enough, but sharing incubation...at the same time?? It looks like they are using the power of glitter to keep their nest alive.

Here's another one for the crazy nesting file: a Canada goose--with a gosling! Now, the goose only has one chick, so she hasn't been doing well, but to get one egg to hatch in this weather is well, remarkable to say the least. I have to say, I'm not thrilled with who ever banded that goose. I know you want neck tags noticeable, but that bow is a little much.

I found an eastern bluebird roosting in an old bird box. Whoever is the landlord of this bluebird trail also put some festive lights on. There were several bluebirds seen on this tree--at least three!

Birds do need to be sure and stay tucked in safety in the tree, a snowy owl was on the prowl looking for potential prey.

Speaking of raptors, I also found Santa Claus riding a bald eagle. I asked if Santa had a falconry permit for that bird and he looked nervous and mentioned something about reindeer having a bout of flu. I suspect he doesn't have the proper permits. Hmm, perhaps he should just go back to watching blue jays.

Here was a penguin which was just a shock. I'm not certain of the species, perhaps a variant of little blue penguin? How the heck did it get to Minnesota? It seems a tad domesticated, since it's holding a sign with my husband's name on it--is it an escapee? It may not be countable.

I thought the penguin was the rarest bird of the day, but I was wrong, it was an ivory-billed woodpecker. Who knew they were reverse migrants? Apparently, that's why no one can get a photo of them in Arkansas or Florida, they go north in the winter.

I ran into another fellow bird watcher on the tree. We compared notes and on our Christmas Tree Bird Count we tallied 21 species, including several different cardinals and bluebirds. Not a bad day for winter in Minnesota.

Mary Scott In Ghost Bird

Here is a clip from the upcoming Ghost Bird movie. It's an interview with Mary Scott who is one of the first people who saw an ivory-billed woodpecker in the White River area of Arkansas. She also used to run BirdingAmerica.com which appears defunct. She's infamous for incorporating non traditional methods in her search for this species (up to and including using a psychic):


Ghost Bird (Preview: Mary Scott) from Scott Crocker on Vimeo.

If you are having trouble viewing the video, go here and watch it. If that doesn't work, select the "HD OFF" option.