Birdchick Blog
Here is one heck of a photo! Mark Martell emailed me this photo from his friend Daniel Schmidt of a young raptor at the Berlin airport on its way to Spain (oh dear, now I have Daniel by Elton John in my head).
Can you identify the raptor in the airport screening system? First correct answer gets a free Vortex Harness for your binoculars or camera.
Okay, here's the photo contest. First correct answer in the comments section wins a calendar for one of the following states:
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Michigan
Ohio
Illinois
Indiana
So, I'm very interested in the discussion started by Bird Stuff about using Google Trends to measure an activity's popularity. Have you checked out Google Trends? It's a way to track and search out how popular things are down to the region. Birding is not nearly as popular as hunting and especially fishing. I'm not sure if this means birders are deluding themselves about how many people are interested or if it just can't be quantified that way?
I did a comparative search for the ivory-billed woodpecker with birds like cardinals, hawks, owls, etc--even gull registered higher than ivory-billed woodpecker. Apparently, ivory-bills are not nearly that fascinating to the world. Hm.
I woke Sunday morning and loaded up the trusty Saturn with my bird gear and even at 7:30am it was already a very muggy 80 degrees in the Twin Cities. I think the heat index at the time was over 90. I asked Cinnamon if she wanted to come up north with me to visit Birderblog and Photon and to go see the slaty-backed gull:
"Nope."Poor thing, the heat is just too much for her. I concur with her on disapproving of this weather. Blah! I moved to Minnesota for the cold, why is it hot here? I didn't want to force Cinnamon to come because I do worry that if something happened on the road that it would be rough on her to be pulled over on the highway with no air conditioning. So, off I headed towards Duluth alone, at least it's an absolutely lovely drive.
A front was pushing its way through north of the Cities and I was hitting intermittent drops of rain. When I arrived in Duluth and saw the dark clouds clustered between the ridge and Lake Superior, I happened to have Mozart's Requiem playing and toyed with the idea that the weather was a symbol of two powerful forces of birding coming together.
When I arrived at Laura's home she was experiencing a power outage, not sure if it was from the lightning or just a general power shortage that the power companies keep warning us about with the high heat and high power usage from everyone cranking their air conditioners.
We loaded up her Prius with our birding stuff and most importantly Photon (above) and set out. If you've read Laura's blog, you know that if anything she is environmentally conscious and she holds it to the letter. She watched the gas mileage like a gyrfalcon watches ptarmigan.
The clouds stuck with us all the way to Grand Marais but it was a wonderful and breezy 64 degrees--I actually had to put on a rain jacket and was still comfortable. Laura checked all the usual spots and found the gull quickly behind a cafe called the Angry Trout.
Of course the gull was sleeping so I couldn't really see all the things that make it a slaty-backed gull, but I was just happy to be in cool temperatures. That's a big plus to the northern states. Don't like the temp, then drive north near one of the Great Lakes and you're good to go. I did find it to be somewhat anti-climactic to drive all this way for a dozing bird and I was surprised that I wasn't jumping up and down like I would other birds. I started focusing on some of the herring gulls nearby. With the storm clouds in the distance and colorful rocks, it was quite pretty:
Then, Mother Nature decided to shake me out of my lackadaisical attitude towards gulls with a large crack of lightning behind the loafing gulls followed by a bone shaking crash of thunder. That was enough for me and I said, "Okay, Laura, time for lunch, let's go into the Angry Trout." To which she replied while bubbling over with enthusiasm, "I bet that thunder woke that gull up, let's get it back in the scopes!" Sure enough, she was right. I had some trepidation about being electrocuted and Laura said, "You're the shortest one here and the least likely to be hit by lightning." She had a point and if she was willing to take one for the team and risk being struck by lightning, the least I could do was give the gull a second chance:
Behold the slaty-backed gull in its standing glory...on a poop covered rock. Actually, it has not officially been dubbed a slaty-backed gull by the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union Records Committee--the vote hasn't happened yet. It looks similar to a western gull but when it flies you can see the difference in plumage that makes it a slaty-backed and slatys have more of a tendency to roam than a western gull. The vote is expected to call this bird a slaty-backed...unless some starts greasing some palms of the records committee.
People at the restaurant were very curious about what we were all staring at on the docks and came down to look at the rare gull--this is a rare bird that does impress non birding people. It's noticeably different from all the herring gulls surrounding it and it's sounds cool to say this is a Korean bird. When we went to eat, the hostess at the Angry Trout made sure to put us by the window so we would still be able to see the slaty-backed from our table.
After lunch we walked around the lake a bit more, it was so cool and refreshing and I was in no hurry to return to what was now 98 degrees and 110 heat index. We found some warblers, including an immature mourning warbler which I had not seen yet this year. I even had the chance to walk Photon:
I can't believe I was trusted with Photon. It's kind of nice to spend time with an animal that isn't constantly judging me. She's a very well behaved and mellow dog. She was rewarded for all her hard work with a trip to Dairy Queen. Did you know they give free ice cream to dogs at DQ? Some other trip highlights:
On the way back to Duluth we stopped at a rest stop for a break and found evidence of young love.
As we went through Two Harbors, we passed the pantsless statue of the Voyaguer that Ian and Margery have been talking about. Laura was kind enough to stop so I could get a better look. So what does a woodsman with just leather leggings have under his tunic?
Oh my, is that shrinkage?
I'm really glad I went, thanks for all the encouragement, but I'm really glad I went with Birderblog. Seeing the gull was cool, but company on the long drive made it much better.
I'm totally trying to get my post up about Sunday with Birderblog, but I'm having blogger issues. It will be coming, along with another photo contest.
Ooooooooo. Ahhhhhh.Blog reader Denise came to The Raptor Center for a tour today and gave a very generous donation--Thanks! That feeds a merlin for a month and a half! And what did she get for her generosity?
A photo with the sooty shearwater head! Whoo hoo, a round of applause for Denise. Thank you for being such a good sport. Hey, Denise, if you were totally grossed out by it blame WildBird on the Fly, it was her idea.
Hey, remember the art car post from the other day? Well, when I went to KARE 11 on Monday, this car was in the lot. This isn't just art, this is the flirtologist's car. She was on the same show I was that day. I'm going to be on her radio show on August 26 when she's broadcasting live at the Great Minnesota Get Together. You can grab some fried cheese curds (or my personal favorite: scotch egg on a stick) and come watch or listen online. She flirts, I bird...should be interesting. Maybe some single birders can learn some tricks.
Speaking of interesting get togethers, Birderblog and I are meeting on Sunday. She's gonna take me to Grand Marais to see the slaty-backed gull. Two mouthy bloggers, one super rare bird...whose post will come out victorious (I watch too much Iron Chef--and I mean the original not that iron chef america crap). She has already blogged about it so I'm sure this is old hat to her. She wants to know if I'm bringing Cinnamon. I'm not sure. It's about a three hour drive from Duluth to Grand Marais...that's an awful lot of disapproval in a tiny car to inflict on the uninitiated. I don't know if I want to expose poor little Photon to that.
And I just have to say how much Non Birding Bill rocks. Last night was one of his few nights off from rehearsals and he spent it reloading photos that were lost in the wipeout a two weeks ago. Here is one that I was missing from 2oo2 that I was so happy to get back:
We were hawk trapping and an adult sharp-shinned hawk was chasing a Nashville warbler and both ended up in the nets. After we got them out, we were posing them at the same time and it was just too much for the sharpie, she made a quick jerk to try and nail the Nashville. She didn't get it though. The Nashville was released quickly to give it a chance to hide while we banded the sharpie. Don't worry about the sharpie, it was fat and sassy and would get another bird at another time without any problem.
Ah, that just makes me with it were Autumn right now! I am so ready for hawk migration...it's like my Christmas.
I'm not sure why, but I've been getting emails of some Australian birds from a couple of people--don't get me wrong, I love 'em, I just didn't expect 'em.
I have been sent these photos from Maarten Vanderhaar who has a couple of blogs. One is Maarten's Digital Travels (and be sure to check this post--no possible way I will ever use that toilet) and now is starting a bird related photo blog.
He sent this, which was a treat:
They have osprey in Australia--sweet. I can't explain it, but there is something a little different about the Aussie version--looks a little beefier than our sleeker ospreys. They must deal with heavy duty fish.
This was originally sent as a sea eagle but the face to me doesn't say eagle. I was thinking it might be a whistling kite, but I'm not an expert on raptors down under. I almost turned this into a photo contest but was worried that it might cause a mutiny.
Out of curiosity, anyone want to take a gander at this species? Yes, it's from Australia.
It is Cooper's hawk city down in the clinic of The Raptor Center. Every time I run downstairs to grab some food for one of the education birds, I see someone working on a young Coop. It makes sense, right now they are learning to fly and hunt and since these hawks have done such a great job of adapting to living with people, they are easily noticed by kind hearted folks. Since adult Coops will sometimes drive songbirds into windows to stun them, young Coops who haven't figured out all the nuances of flight hit quite a few windows this time of year.
Most young red-tailed hawks have been out and hunting for a couple of months, but even they are showing up injured. This young red-tail with massive talons was just admitted and was under going an eye exam and an all over check up.
If you notice this envelope on the tail, that is put on the birds so they won't damage their tail feathers as they are recovering in the clinic cages. Strong, unbroken feathers are just as essential to their survival in the wild as everything else. It would be a shame to heal the raptor's injuries and then send it out with broken tail feathers that would affect it's flight and hunting ability.
Here the red-tail is getting ready to go in for x-ray. Since birds are more relaxed if they cannot see what's going on, the clinic vets put a hood over it's face. This, believe it or not does help birds feel safe and keeps them calm for the x-ray.
This red-tail was chock full of this NASTY smashed up bug. This is a hippoboscid fly (read all about 'em at Hilton Pond) and is one of the down sides of insects that you face if you work with wild birds. They are blood parasites and pretty much all birds have them. They don't really get any benefits from mammals, but that's not to say the flies don't try. They move all herky jerky like a spider, and then fly into your face or hair and crawl around. This one is a little smashed, the vets grab and pop them as they find them on the bird. Eeewww. Ah, the glamorous lifestyle of a raptor vet...popping blood parasites.
My 2007 calendars have been printed! I just got my complimentary calendars in the mail today--whoot!
I have bird calendars for six states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Each month has gorgeous bird photos, a list of birds to expect, a to do list for your birds, and trivia as to when to expect certain species and records for each state. For example: On December 4, 2003 7,400 common goldeneyes were seen at Pool 8 of the Upper Mississippi NWA in Minnesota.
So, in honor of my calendars arriving, I'm throwing a contest (hopefully comments are working). Whoever is the first to id this bird (correctly) gets a free calendar of the state of their choice:
Can you identify this bird butt? Post answers in the comments area.