Dead Redpolls and Pine Siskins

About a week ago I started getting emails and calls at the store about people finding dead common redpolls and pine siskins. I called the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Minnesota and they had gotten about ten phone calls regarding the same thing. A few days ago, I got a call from Carrol Henderson from the Minnesota DNR saying his office was getting several phone calls from around the mid and northern part of the state regarding sick and dying northern finches. Carrol said that he was getting calls mostly about redpolls and siskins but one yard did have one dead evening grosbeak. He also said that they had eight dead redpolls to examine to try and determine the cause of death. Preliminary results show that the infection that killed the birds was probably viral rather than fungal--so what does this mean?

Viral vs Fungal
The usual culprit when dead birds show up at the feeder is that the feeders are dirty and have mould built upside that is killing the birds. When this happens it's best to take down your feeders and clean them thoroughly with bleach and water or antibacterial soap. If you are unable to completely clean the feeder due to its construction, throw it out and buy a feeder that you can clean. Since the preliminary results lean towards viral that means that the redpolls and finches are passing a virus to each other rather than getting sick from eating directly out of the feeder.

Should you take your feeders down?
If the birds are spreading it to each other, chances are large congregations of birds at a feeder could be infecting each other. By the same token the birds are spreading it to each other by the very nature of the way they behave in flocks whether they are at a bird feeder or not. Some argue that the birds will spread it to each other regardless of your feeder so why not provide meals even for those that will succumb to the infection soon. Others argue that having birds concentrate in your yard could risk spreading it to other species (although the infection seems to only be infecting redpolls and siskins at this point). The bottom line is that it's a personal choice.

We don't know all the facts yet, but we should have more answers Monday or Tuesday.

Trumpeter Swans

Incoming!!

So today started with much promise for getting things done and I did get quite a few errands and writing accomplished, but not as much as I wanted. I'm trying to find a digital recorder that won't cost an arm and a leg, is Mac compatible, and can pick up ambient bird sounds if I'm interviewing someone outside. I've been trying to ask around for opinions but get either, "oh I'm sure you'll find that" to "here's something that's perfect for picking up sounds 200 yards away and can be ordered from such and such and then jerry rigged to do such and such". I will say, a guy named Rich Peet showed me a very cool microphone that attaches to a brimmed hat that you can record while you walk--the brim blocks out some of your stomping as you walk. The downside is that you would need to wear the mic with the stereotypical birder's hat and I don't know if I can do that.

The one thing I don't like about being a birder is the wardrobe. Couldn't we come up with some fancier duds? Is it too much to ask for the occasional form flattering shirt or pants? The endless khaki, the vests and don't even get me started about the whole tuck the pants into the socks bit. It's bad enough that the birder dress code requires that we dress like geeks looking for someone to beat us up, but it's often made worse by the accessories. Have any of you guys seen the walking sticks that double for a sort of chair? I'm sorry but old people sitting on what appears to be a stick up their butt is not attractive at all--and it really doesn't look comfortable either...wow, where did that rant come from?

Anyway, I thought I had found the recorder I needed was Mac compatible, but alas non-birding Bill can only find updates for the software needed to download the sound files and not the software itself. Judging by the amount of profanity still coming from the living room, I think I will be taking the recorder back to Best Buy.

On the upside, I did have another fun afternoon with the trumpeter swans out at Monticello. I did discover that the digital camera I'm using takes videos and maybe I can use the audio from that to do what I want.


Canada geese and trumpeter swans loafing and feeding in Monticello, MN.
What could be worse than yellow snow...brownish green snow--ew.

Snowman and flying squirrels

I talked non-birding Bill into going out to build a snowman tonight. We tried to make it into a snow bunny, but it looks more like Marge Simpson than a bunny or at the very least quite abstract. Anyway, we're in the trendy Uptown area of Minneapolis so it looks arty and that's the important thing.

As we were rolling the large balls of snow (our snow creature ended up being over five feet tall) the flying squirrels were chirping at me overhead. I wondered if they recognized me as the one who is always putting out nuts for them on her bedroom window or if they were just chirping at the odd humans moving large mounds of snow?

Anyway, one is staring at me now with a mouth full of nuts? Can I get a photo...yes, here it is:

WCCO and Bog Weirdness

WCCO is going to air their segment about the great gray owl irruption Sunday night on the 10pm news--whoo hoo!!

Well, owls are still being seen in good numbers around Hinkley and I talked to Carrol Henderson from the MN DNR and he (yes he even though the first name is Carrol--it's a weird Minnesota thing, I don't get all the guys with female names up here either) he is speculating that many of the owls will stick around and breed here because the vole population is still no where near recovered in Canada and that owls aren't regular migrators but a tad nomadic and will start nesting where ever there is food. Still so much to learn about what is going on.

For all those that have come to Minnesota to see the owls, please don't forget to report your spending to the MOU. It's important to try and learn the economic impact these owls are having on the state. That's one of the best tools for conservation.

You know, I have never put any kind of warnings about some of the weirdness to be found in the bog. Some people live out in the middle of no where because they don't want to be around other people--and that is true in the bog. There are some places we try to avoid. If you visit Mike Hendrickson's home page and scroll down to the bottom, you see one of the homes we try to avoid. We do this for several reasons, one being that you don't know what would set someone off and start firing a gun and two, if they are unhappy people are visiting their area, they will take steps to remove whatever is drawing people to the area. I always make a point to avoid the yards that have signs up that say "no birdwatching" there are plenty of places to find good birds in the area without irritating people.

Sometimes you just find really odd unexplainable stuff. When we were up earlier this winter we were excited to see a fox on the side of the road...that is until we realized that it wasn't moving. We got out of the van to look at it we realized it was kinda dead, and could find no visible sign of what had killed the fox, but were shocked that someone took the time to try and pose it on the side of the road.

Was it teenagers with too much time on their hands or just some weirdo? Who knows, but it is all part of the fun and adventure of visiting Sax Zim Bog.