Odds and Ends

For all those avian podophiles out there, reader Dea sends this cool link to site about bird feet.

I had to kind of bar myself from the blog yesterday. I love doing the blog so much, it can be a worse distraction than cable television. What fun to root around on the web for odd and obscure bird stuff. But work calls and so I put a mini ban on posting to the blog until I'm finished.

One of the projects I'm working on is some text for new lobby signs at The Raptor Center. I took home some of the sample designs to give me an idea of how much text. Cinnamon was quick to look it over.

And chew it. Working out some pent up frustration against the raptors there my little bunny butthead?

This starling about sums up my attitude at the moment. Both the starlings and the pigeons have taken to just sitting on my window ledge, not feeding but soaking up the sun in the cold weather. The bird looks like it's thinking, "Damn, it's cold."

I have become such a lazy lima bean since the weather has taken a turn for sub zero and single digit temperatures. Ever since the day after Christmas I had been on a good track of eating lots of fruits and vegetables and exercising regularly. I even joined the Beat the Punnetts team for Get Fit Twin Cities. I walked to the Y and then worked out, I was even walking to the local grocer instead of driving--that has all changed with the sudden dip in temperature. I love cold, but once my boogers freeze when I inhale (that's not an exaggeration), I prefer to just hole myself up in my home. Word on the radio is that I should enjoy the temps now, Friday it's getting even colder. I have to get out today and exercise...and pick up a roasting hen for some hardy soup.

Changing Peckers and Demonic Deer

I was downloading photos from the WingScapes Camera yesterday--FYI the batteries are working just fine in sub zero weather. One of the fun parts of having a motion sensitive camera is watching the story picture by picture when you are downloading what's on the camera. The above photo is part of a series of a downy woodpecker eating suet off of the wall of my apartment building. There were about five photos of her and the suddenly she turned into a hairy woodpecker. We tried to recreate it in the above photo.

Arg! Creatures of the Night! Demonic Deer and a bat. Eeeeeeeeeeee!

WingScapes is part of Moultrie which makes the best selling game cam on the market. They are fun, they help take photos of what's going on in your yard at night. One of their cameras took this photo--check it out, it got a bat. I'm not good with bat species, anyone have and idea what species it is?

Only In Alaska

From the Washington Post:

JUNEAU, Alaska -- About 10,000 Juneau residents briefly lost power Sunday after a bald eagle lugging a deer head crashed into transmission lines.

"You have to live in Alaska to have this kind of outage scenario," said Gayle Wood, an Alaska Electric Light & Power spokeswoman. "This is the story of the overly ambitious eagle who evidently found a deer head in the landfill."

The hefty bounty apparently bogged down the eagle, which failed to clear transmission lines as it flew away from the landfill, she said. When a repair crew arrived, they found the eagle carcass with the deer head nearby.

This eagle "got a hold of a little bit more than he could handle," Wood said.

Power was out less than 45 minutes.

I Kid, Because I Love

I just got this announcement: The guy who wrote one of the most comprehensive (and most sleep inducing) bird field guides is offering the following workshop:

WORKSHOP: ADVANCED AGING AND SEXING OF PASSERINES WITH PETER PYLE,

MAY 14-18,2007

Please join the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO) and Ventana Wildlife Society (VWS), in cooperation with the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP), for an advanced aging and sexing of passerines workshop on 14-18 May, Monday - Friday, 2007. Peter Pyle, IBP Biologist, and author of The Identification Guide to North American Birds, Part I, will be the primary instructor. The action-packed week will consist of presentations, study of specimens, field mist-netting, banding, and processing at multiple locations on the central coast of California, and field trips to renowned birding locations. Participants will be trained in a synthesis of methods pertaining to identification, aging, and sexing of landbirds in the hand and in the field. Cost is $750 ($650 early registration, by 2 April 2007).

Breakfasts and lunches are included; lodging not provided.

For more information and a registration form please see our website at or contact JESSICA GRIFFITHS at the Big Sur Ornithology Lab (EM: jessicagriffiths AT ventanaws.org).

I actually really wish that I could go to this but I am too broke at the moment (so broke, I opened up what I thought was a royalty check and instead found a bill from the publisher). The Pyle book is essential for bird banding, it is not meant for the run of the mill birding. It's hardcore--some of the aging and sexing involves math--math of all things! Ack. Still, it would be a good time--San Francisco and birding. Sigh.

Disapproving Rabbits Book Cover

Yes, she looks a bit shaggier, but I think it works. She is so upset with what is going on that her fur is standing on end. This is so surreal to see A. my bunny butthead on a book cover and B. seeing my name on the book cover (and spelled correctly at that). I feel so grown up.

Odds and Ends

It's coooooooold. Today's low was supposed to be 0 degrees but I woke up to -4. Best to just tuck in, bake up some tasty high calorie food, watch the birds at the feeder and when it's too dark for that, watch tv.

I love The Learning Channel! Little People Big World is one of my favorite shows--I love it if for no other reason they're good parents. It's nice to watch a family actually work like a family. The mom on that show doesn't put up with any crap and the dad makes the coolest stuff for the kids to play on. I also bet they have some really cool birds on their property. I also love Miami Ink (gotta love a show about a bunch of hot artistic guys with a dream to make it big). If I didn't have to pay for my own travel I'd love to apply to get my next tattoo on that show. Both those shows have so much heart, everyone is passionate about what they are involved in.

Tonight we have much different shows on TLC. These are just the one hour documentaries about things you shouldn't watch but want to know about anyway. The titles pretty much tell you everything you need to know:

I Eat 33,000 Calories A Day
The Smallest People In The World
A New Face For Marlie

I have to say that watching a show about four morbidly obese people--two of whom are eating over 30,000 calories a day are really making me feel not so bad about days I eat over 2000 calories.

Now the true Minnesota winter has set in. Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day but in the teens with stinging wind. We took a walk in it, being fooled by how cold it really was since the sun was out. Above is a photo of Lake of the Isles not too far from where we live. It is completely frozen over and is a playground for cross country skiers or any of us who just want to walk around on the lake and get a closer look at its islands. Many of my friends are down at the Space Coast Festival in Florida. I have deadlines and couldn't make it there this year. I will not think of the warm temperatures, ocean and oh so cool birds. Really, I won't.

This is an old osprey platform on one of the islands on Lake of the Isles. You're not allowed to get on the islands, they are a preserve. My owl senses tingle every time I go by, but the islands have so much brush, I don't know how far I would get onto them even if I decided to ignore the signs. In the summer I'm sure they are loaded with all kinds of breeding birds. You can't see it at this angle but this osprey platform is surrounded by taller trees so the chances of it being used by osprey is very slim since they like the nest to have good visibility from all sides. As I understand it, the people who lived around Lake of the Isles when the platform was put up didn't want the platform to be taller than the surrounding trees for aesthetic reasons. Sigh.

I'm not sure how, but I managed to coax Non Birding Bill out on the ice with me. I think he would rather not have been out, but since I was going he wasn't thrilled about me walking on ice by myself (no matter how deep it is) and didn't want me out there alone.

My favorite part of the frozen lakes are the ice sculptures that people put up. Here we have a sweet dragon sculpted on top of the ice. That is one of the benefits of living in an artsy area, the local artists are happy to use the frozen medium.

Here's a head on view. Happy Dragon.

When it gets this cold, you use any sign possible to remind you of warmer months in the future. Note the two starlings above. The starling on the left has fewer spots than the one on the right. It has already worn out most of its winter plumage. Even the bill has gone to being mostly yellow instead of mostly black. This bird is ready for spring. Maybe a little too ready, it's not even February yet, but I love an optimist.

Just Because I Love This Headline

Birders Crazy for Smew from the Union Democrat.

We had a smew show up in southern Minnesota a few years ago. Everyone was gung ho to see it until someone from the MOU records committee sat and studied it and discovered that the right hallux was missing and it looked like a clean cut--something that is often done with captive birds. The smew was presumed an escapee and not a wild smew and therefore not countable on Minnesota bird lists.

I remember a few month after that I was in Nebraska and over heard a couple of guys talking about birds and smew came up. I turned and asked where they had seen it. They were from Iowa and had gone to see the smew that was in Minnesota a few months earlier. I told them that it was no longer considered countable and about the missing hallux. They looked at me skeptically and one said, "Somebody actually watched it that close?"

"Yes. You don't play around with the Minnesota bird record committee, they're hardcore."

And they are.

Crestfallen, they quietly walked away.

Have I put this story in the blog before? I'm really starting to get concerned that I'm repeating stories...

Friday's Doin's

Think those chickadees are cute and adorable? Get one in hand they are as vicious as can be and masters of pinching the most painful pieces of skin. I had just focused this shot of a chickadee head perfectly and right before I snapped the photo the chickadee bent down an pinched the bander. She requested through gritted teeth that I hurry to get my photo.

Well, Non Birding Bill and I are still married. That N in the NBB is still firmly intact.

We went banding in the morning, had some lunch and then drove around looking for some the unusual birds in the area that have been reported: female mountain bluebird, gyrfalcon and maybe a stop by the airport to glance at the snowy owls.

We didn't see a single one!

Even banding was slow. I started referring to Non Birding Bill and Bad Luck Birding Jones. He corrected me that it was Bad Luck Birding Bill or Anti Birding Bill. He taunted me by saying he was going to start keeping track of all the birds he didn't see--that was his listing strategy.

NBB and I joke that especially when it comes to owls, we don't see stake out birds when I bring him along. I thought we had broken that with the sightings of the short-eared owls at Carlos Avery but I think the real reason is that when I have Bill along, I don't search as hard for birds as I would when I am alone or with fellow birders. When alone, if I notice a new road that I have never been down before, I might check it. If I get a little lost, I don't sweat it, I figure that I will eventually come to something recognizable and find my way back. NBB likes to know where we are and how we can get back, so I may ignore certain roads and trails. It was fun just spending time together in the car and talking nonsense.

Even though the numbers of birds into the traps was low on Friday at Carpenter, we did get one very interesting retrap--a male junco that was first banded in January 2003--it was one year old at that point and has been retrapped five more times since then. Here it was January 2007--the bird is now five years old. It has survived migration all those years, all those times we have harsh winter storms, temperatures below zero degrees, breeding and raising chicks. Something so small lasting so long in the wild, still going strong. I wonder where it breeds? We do have some that breed in the Arrowhead region of Minnesota, but did this junco come even further north than that?

Again, I have to ask: If banding is so traumatic why does the bird keep coming back to the same area where it has been banded so many times?

Woke Up This Mornin’, Got Myself A Bun…

Cinnamon and her posse. This reminds me of the print ads for the Sopranos. I'm so excited, I just got a proof of the cover for the Disapproving Rabbits book. I don't know how, but the designer managed to make her look even more frightening than I thought possible. I'll see if I can get permission to put it in the blog. I might have to wait on that. It's so cool, Cinnamon has a book cover!

One of the great things about this blog is all the reader support. I truly do appreciate all the notes warning against Cinnamon meeting the neighbor's ferrets (although the sending of the graphic video of ermine and rabbits was a bit much and not as appreciated). I have learned lots about rabbits with meeting other rabbit folks and gotten some great tips.

The fake bunny thing is totally working with Cinnamon, she's not digging in her box at the moment. Above is a photo of her snuggling with her posse.

Cinnamon certainly isn't aware of any danger with the ferrets. She doesn't show any signs of fear when in the hallway after they have been out and doesn't freak out when I pet her after petting the ferrets. But after all the words of warning, why risk it? So thanks for the heads up and being such a great resource.