2 Caracaras In 1 Year

Winter and lots of snow brings with it cabin fever. We have lots of modern conveniences that help ease that tension, like Netflix Watch Instantly and Amazon Streaming and alcohol! You don't have to go to a rental facility, you don't even have to wait for Netflix to arrive in the mail--you can have most any movie...even things you shouldn't watch like Dagmar's Hot Pants delivered right to your tv with the press of a button. But that leads to things like watching Inception several times in a row, which for me leads me to vexing states: either I need a more exciting job or I have no idea what reality I'm living in.  Bwaaaaaa. But being cooped up is a great time to go through photos and put them in storage since I'm running out of space on my laptop.  I have so many birds that I have not blogged!  Holy crap, I completely forgot the caracaras!

One species was observed during the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival at Laguna Atascosa.  I remember looking at their images in field guides as a kid and thinking, "How cool would it be to see one of those?"  They are one of the birds that attract me to Texas.

Man, stick a cigar out the side of this bird's beak and you could confuse it with Groucho Marx. I'm not sure if you can make it out in the above 2 photos, but there's a yellow bulge on the caracara--that's a full crop.  These birds eat quite a bit of roadkill and will forage for insects too.  Man, what must it be like to get a nice big fat food baby in the middle of your chest and then have to fly around.

I have to admit, it kind of grossed me out to watch the bird preening around the bulge.

The second species of caracara I saw in 2010 is a yellow-headed caracara on one of the field trips with Canopy Tower in Panama.  I didn't get the weird crop/saggy yellow boob view on this one, but it was cool to see nonetheless.

So random bird blogging coming soon.

Random Immature Bald Eagle

Golden Eagle Survey Time Again!

First, an interesting news story that popped up over the Holidays: According to a story in The New York Times blog in the last week a red-tailed hawk was picked up in New York and eventually made its way to The Raptor Trust.  Turns out that the hawk is over 27 years old!  I was curious if this was the oldest wild red-tailed hawk recovered in the wild...it's not.  According to the Bird Banding Lab the oldest known wild red-tailed hawk was 29 years and 9 months old.  Interesting was that this bird was also recovered in New York.

Since it's now officially winter, it's getting to be golden eagle season along the Upper Mississippi River.  The National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN will hold its annual Winter Golden Eagle Survey on January 15, 2011.  The above photo is one that I took during the survey last winter. I took a route near our beehives and ended up finding 3 golden eagles.  If you do not feel comfortable with your golden eagle vs immature bald eagle id skills, the National Eagle Center offers seminars to teach you how.  These are helpful because they show the habitat you are more likely to find a golden eagle than you would an immature bald eagle.  The next seminar is on January 8.  If you are in the area, you should sing up.  It's beautiful country in the winter and at the very least, you'll see lots of bald eagles, if not a few golden eagles.

Robins & Starlings Out My Window

All afternoon robins and starlings have been using a puddle on the roof across the alley as a birdbath.  The robins are only using it for drinking, but the starlings are going hog wild and bathing up a storm.  As soon as they finish, they head to a nearby chimney to warm up and dry off so I've yet to see any die right away. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvMnLHGZ2MU[/youtube]

January Birds and Beers at the Loring Crow Roost!

The next Birds and Beers is on January 22, 2011 at 4:30pm at Joe’s Garage.  This is the one where we watch the millions of crows fly into Loring Park!

I'm looking forward to this one, the crows at Loring Park are a spectacular sight and last year's gathering was the biggest Birds and Beers we've ever had!  The only downside is that we have to pay for parking for this event but we get a spectacular show in exchange. Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of birders of all abilities–if you’re interested in birds, you’re invited. You can meet other birders–maybe find a carpool buddy, ask about where to find target birds, share cool research projects you might be working on, ask a bird feeding question, share life lists, share some digiscoping tips, promote your blog–the sky is the limit. It’s low key and it’s fun.

Non Birding Bill and I stopped by Joe's Garage the day after Thanksgiving to check out the crow roost and even took a moment to walk beneath the crows in the dark.  Loring is a busy city park, these birds are used to a bit of pedestrian traffic.  As we walked through, one of the flocks abandon their tree.  For a second I was worried that we startled them but then NBB said, "That doesn't look like a crow..."

Sure enough, it was a great horned owl passing through the roost, no doubt looking for a vulnerable crow for a meal.  Hope you can make it and again this is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon and meet some new birding friends, promote your bird club or group.

Maraschino Cherry Bees

Last week, I linked to the story about the bees producing red honey because the were gathering syrup from a Maraschino Cherry Factory--bees going for high fructose corn syrup, go figure.

There's an article over at The Grist about one of their writers went for a blind honey taste test to see if she could taste the difference between various honeys, including corn syrup honey.  Turns out, it was not as flavorful as some of the other honeys she tried.

It makes me wonder if urban bees will find other ways to access corn syrup and would people notice?  This one was discovered because the bees brought back red dye with them.  But what if some other candy factory out there doesn't have dyes?  Or will some crazy person out there think, "You know what, we can totally market this!  What if we put out vats of corn syrup with blue dye and we get bees to make Smurf Honey?"  Jokes have been made that the red honey looks like the beekeepers have vampire bees or zombie bees and I wonder if someone out there will find a market for blood red cherry honey?

As I was pondering this, I found another article from The Grist about the Maraschino Cherry Factory's response to the bees using their syrup.  The owner of the factory, Arthur Mondello did offer to provide different shades of syrup so that the bees could make rainbow-hued honey.  The beekeeper response was not favorable to that idea--that's not "true" honey and quite frankly, initial taste tests show that it's not that tasty anyway.

According to the story, Mondello is ready to go the extra mile and do what he can to prevent bees from harvesting the syrup.  The Grist reported that the problem is that cherry syrup spills when vats are moved around.  Once bees discovered the ample syrup supply, they soon found ways of bypassing the shrink wrap that covered the vats as well.  So, Mondello is looking into several options to block the bees, including covering the vats with vinegar soaked fabric to mask the sweet aroma.

It's an interesting series of articles, definitely check them out at The Grist.

Random Starling

I know they are non native and cause problems, but I do love the look of starlings in winter plumage.  This is a bird in my neighborhood resting after a good gorge on hackberries.

Birds and Beers This Week

So, what does a bacon framed photo of the Golden Girls playing Dungeons and Dragons with Wil Wheaton have to do with anything.  It serves as a reminder that tonight is the final night to see Non Birding Bill and me in the Golden Girls Christmas Carol at the Bryant Lake Bowl. This is also a heads up that there is a Birds and Beers this week on Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 6pm at Merlins Rest. We can discuss the snow, the birds, the Ross's gulls popping up all over the US or the upcoming Christmas Bird Counts.

Speaking of CBCs, WildBird on the Fly had a very interesting post about alerting communities that those freaky people with optics in your neighborhood may not be casing your joint, but counting birds.  It's a good idea.  May be too late for this year, but for the future, consider writing letters to the editor of local papers warning about the counts.

Snowpacalypse 2010

We got a wee bit of snow.  We're still trying to dig out of it.  After watching the feeding frenzy at Neil's on Friday, I felt certain that the weather folks were "for serious" when they reported one to two feet of snow was eminent the next day.

Saturday morning I woke up to seven inches of snow, with more falling.  I would fill out my window feeders, only to have snow block the food ports ten minutes later.  It reminded me of the time in 2006 when Cinnamon and I were stranded in a blizzard after the Sandhill Crane festival in Nebraska.  At least this time we were home and not trying to entertain ourselves in a hotel room with nothing but an Irish/Mexican restaurant to feed us.

Non Birding Bill and I spent half the day moving cars before the Snow Emergency kicked in (for those who don't live in the Twin Cities, local communities declare a snow emergency and you have to pay attention to the parking rules or one of three things happen to you: you get ticketed, towed or plowed in).  Above is a car entombed in a snow bank, the plows hadn't even gotten to this street yet, if they didn't get it out soon, they'd be plowed in and stuck for some time.

Our little car was blocked by a snow bank too, but between the two of us and a shovel, we got the Stiteler Mobile out.  We even helped shovel the ally when one of our neighbors was stuck and she needed to get to a wedding.

Ah, this is the spirit of our neighborhood--take to the streets with your cross country ski gear when a blizzard hits!  The side walks were totally impassable on Saturday.  The only way to get anywhere was in the street, either walking or on skis.

Since we were spending show much energy moving cars, we spent the other half of the day eating.  While I was bottling up honey on Friday, NBB was gathering supplies for survival during Snowmaggedon which included alcohol infused whipped cream.  As tasty as this is on hot chocolate and an Irish Coffee, I find the warnings about not refridgerating it--even after opening, a little disturbing.  What kind of cream are they using in there anyway?

And so we kept tabs on the news and learned of various highways closing, theater performances canceling, bus service was halted and even snow plow drivers were taken off the road because they were getting stuck.  Some local bars sent out messages on Twitter that if you could walk to them, they would buy you your first drink.  We met up with one of our neighbors at Moto-i for drinks and some appetizers marveling at how crazy it was to walk around a city almost completely shut down.  Minneapolis usually is on the ball when it comes to snow removal, but getting 17 0 21 inches (depending on where you lived) was too much.  And there are only so many places the city can put the snow.

We went to bed and when we awoke the next day, we got the news that the snow was so heavy, the Metrodome (home to the Vikings) collapsed.  For my family who has not seen the video footage--here it is:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh5iE5FA84g&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Holy crap!

I was supposed to work at the park service on Sunday morning, but learned that we would be opening three hours late.  That game me plenty of time to dig out our car and help others in my neighborhood.  When I eventually could drive to work, it was no picnic.  It was about as much fun as getting a TSA pat down from Barney the Dinosaur.  During the storm, the temps were in the 20s.  After it finished, it plummeted to below zero, rendering most of the snow melting techniques used by the salt/sand trucks ineffective.  It looked as though none of the streets had been visited by a plow in the last 24 hours.

This poor car owner that did not heed the Snow Emergency rules was so boned.  Blocked by a snow drift one one side and plowed in completely on the other side.  There is probably a parking ticket attached to the car windshield beneath the snow.  The only reason this car did not get towed was that the tow drivers saw that it was too packed in with snow to be worth the bother.

The roads were so narrow from all the snow, that often only one car could fit.  Everyone was trying to move their cars at once before a new set of Snow Emergency parking rules were about to take effect.  If you were walking the streets with a shovel, hungover hipsters would accost you, "Dude, can you help me dig out?"

They stood before you in their pajamas in the -3 degree F temperature with their sad ice scrapers trying to dig out their no-wheel drive cars--how could you say no?  Actually, that's one of the things I love about where I live.  If you are out about after a hard snow and you see someone struggling with their car, you help--no questions asked.  That's just what you do.  One poor dope  was stuck in the middle of the street.  Four of us tried pushing his car but could not get it to budge more than six inches at a time.  His wheels spun hopelessly in the snow while he was blocking traffic both ways.  Finally, I decided to use my little Kia to push him to a street with less snow (that's what bumpers are for, right?).  That did the trick and he was on his way to safer parking ground.

Not even bicycles were immune to the fury of the snow plows.  Believe it or not, quite a few people ride continue to ride their bikes in winter up here.  NBB and I saw a couple during the blizzard and a few on Sunday.  I hope the person who owns this bike gets it out soon.  The below zero temps will soon turn the snow banks into rock solid slabs of ice.

I marveled at all the robins in my neighborhood.  We saw quite a few watching the birds at my feeding station during the storm, but none of them came to the window.  We have quite a few hackberry trees loaded with fruit and that appears to be a big source of food for them this year.  Still, even though the robins we see in winter are from Canada, I wonder if they wished they could go further south?

Here it is the third day after the storm and life is not completely back to normal. I realized with a grin that it's still technically Autumn and we haven't had the Winter Solstice yet.  I do enjoy the snow and that's one of the reasons I chose to live here, but it will be interesting to see how this winter plays out.

Bayer & EPA Causing Colony Collapse Disorder With Clothianidin?

This is an interesting story and is not getting as much play as it should.  It is the first news that has made me think we may have a serious idea of what might be causing bee colonies to disappear, commonly called Colony Collapse Disorder.

This is a must read--why?  Because a pesticide called clothianidin was approved for use in the US in 2003 (this pesticide is banned in France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia).  Colony Collapse Disorder was first on the Beekeeper RADAR in the winter of 2004/2005 and became a media headline in 2006.

A beekeeper by the name of Tom Theobald wrote an article for Bee Culture magazine this past summer about clothianidin. It is a pesticide produced by Bayer that is absorbed by plants and then released in pollen and nectar to kill pests.  Basically, anything that pollinates can get a dose.

After the article came out, an Environmental Protection Agency employee contacted Theobald and told him that his article led to a study about the pesticide.  He asked if could get a copy of the study and the EPA employee emailed it over .  You can look at a PDF of it here.

Here are some interesting quotes from that memo that raised BIG RED FLAGS to me in several areas of my life:

As a beekeeper:

"Clothianidin’s major risk concern is to nontarget insects (that is, honey bees). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis. Although EFED does not conduct RQ based risk assessments on non-target insects, information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other neonicotinoids insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid) suggest the potential for long term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects. An incident in Germany already illustrated the toxicity of clothianidin to honeybees when allowed to drift off-site from treated seed during planting."

"This compound is toxic to honey bees. The persistence of residues and potential residual toxicity of Clothianidin in nectar and pollen suggests the possibility of chronic toxic risk to honey bee larvae and the eventual instability of the hive."

As a birder:

"This compound is toxic to birds and mammals. Treated clothianidin seeds exposed on soil surface may be hazardous to birds and mammals. Cover or collect clothianidin seeds spilled during loading."

And can I point out as a birder who loves hummingbirds, which are a native pollinator--are they affected by this too??

As a fishing enthusiast:

"This product is toxic to aquatic invertebrates. Do not apply directly to water or to areas where surface water is present or to intertidal areas below the mean high-water mark. Do not contaminate water when cleaning equipment or disposing of equipment washwaters. Do not apply where runoff is likely to occur. Runoff from treated areas may be hazardous to aquatic organisms in neighboring areas. Apply this product only as specified on the label.

What do we need to do? Get the EPA to recall this pesticide now!  This is not a matter of "Oh no, Neil and I might lose our cute bees," this is a matter of, "Holy crap, this affects the world wide food supply!"