Mourning Cloaks All Over The Freakin' Place

My goodness, those mourning cloak caterpillars pupated quickly!

Less than two weeks after gathering a whole boat load of mourning cloak caterpillars on the bike trail, the all emerged at about the same time.  I was engaged in a phone meeting when I looked over and saw all the activity unfolding in my butterfly ranch.  I had to suppress my excitement, not every adult understands a big girly scream of delight at watching butterflies emerge.

All told, of the 13 caterpillars I picked up, 11 emerged into butterflies.  One never emerged and one ended up having parasites.  I noticed that particular caterpillar didn't crawl as much as the others and ended up forming it's pupae on the ground of the ranch, rather than on the ceiling like the others.  I had meant to toss it, fearing that being on the ground would lead to deformation in the pupae.  When I went to throw it away, I noticed the all too familiar pods of flies next to the pupae.  I flushed them all.

I was most excited to get photos of the mourning cloaks that emerged--isn't that a dynamite looking butterfly?  They are my favorite butterfly, but they are so flighty outside, I rarely get one in the right position to get a photo of their fabulous and subtle colors. They are still a bit groggy as they dry out, you get to spend lovely little moments with them, studying all their detail, color, and beauty they would normally hide from what they think would be a potential predator.  This is another creature that makes me wish I could paint.  Again, I wish I could just spend a few hours getting lost in the color and patterns on the wings, examining the fine subtle texture of the wings.

Look at that face, the intrepid face of a butterfly about to take on the world.

I had to go to work at the park service during the day and some of the mourning cloaks were still emerging and not quite dry, so I took them with me for release there. There are plenty of plants for them to nectar on around the building.

This is one of the longest lived butterflies.  I was trying to read more about them on the Interent.  I found at Butterflies and Moths that after they emerge they feed briefly, estivate until fall, when they re-emerge to feed and store energy for hibernation...Okay, if you are like me, you are wondering, "What the heck does estivate mean?"

Well, "to estivate" is kind of like "to hibernate," it's just so darn hot, they lay low until it cools off.  Then the mournin cloaks will feed again and then hibernate through the winter, wake the following spring and start the process all over again.  No wonder they can live so long--they're sleeping most of the time.

So, the butterflies are off the the world, it was cool having them pupate in my kitchen for a few days.  Here's a video of some of them taking off.  The pump up their wings and then off they go.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FLz6bc9eSE[/youtube]

Cardinal, What Are You Thinking?

We split a CSA share with our neighbor Zoe.  The other day I was dropping off her half of the tasty fruits and vegetables when I heard a cardinal chip nearby.  I could tell the sound came from the small tree next to me on the sidewalk, but thought it strange that the cardinal ceased moving or chipping.  I stepped inside my apartment building and waited.  I watched her fly from the tree and stepped out to look in the tree.  She had started a nest.

What's strange is that our street is under some heavy construction all summer long.  She has stared this nest amidst all the noise, drilling, and pounding.  I noticed the start of the nest on Thursday and took the above photo today.

What concerns me is the pink tape at the bottom of the tree.  Is this tree slated or removal?  They have already moved one large tree on my street.  I think I will talk to the construction guys tomorrow about the tree.  If it's slated for removal in the near future, I may remove the cardinal nest.  Better to destroy the nest before there are eggs and young.

However, maybe the tree is safe from the chopping block and we'll get some interesting cardinal stories this summer.  I've never seen a cardinal nest is such a small and sparse tree.  We have some great tangles of hedges and bushes in our neighborhood in much quieter spots, I'm very surprised she chose this tree.

Friday Links!

First up, an oldy but a goody of videos that make the rounds on the Internet, but with the passing of Michael Jackson, it's worth a replay.  The Moonwalking Birds (aka red-capped manakin): [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-wtO7pjJKk&feature=related[/youtube]

Yes, this bird does actually move like that, manakins do all sorts of funky moves or mating.

Big news! The new duck stamp is available (buy it today) and it's one of the most economical (all the way around) things you can do for bird in the United States. Stamp money -- 98 percent of the $15 cost -- is used to purchase and lease land for national wildlife refuges and waterfowl conservation areas--and it's not just ducks who benefit from this: shorebirds, raptors, warblers, native sparrows, buntings, grosbeaks, etc.  This is not just something hunters need to buy, this is something birders should buy.  It's relatively cheap, and how can you argue with 98% of the $15 going directly to habitat acquisition?  Plus, the stamp is really pretty this year, purchase one today and use it as a gift for friends (especially those who have everything).

Andrea Lee Lambrecht is looking for a nesting red-headed woodpecker near Duluth, MN.  She has a confirmed sighting at St. Croix State Park, but no known nest hole.  If you know of a nest site, please let me know ASAP by contact her at andreal at umn dot edu (don't contact me).

People raising wild birds without the proper permits (or training) are in the news.  One is the "bird lady of Fargo" who was forced to shut down her operation of taking in wild baby birds without the proper permits or training.  This woman obviously did not know much about what she was doing or bird health--she has several parrots, if you are a rehabber, you keep wild birds far away from your pet birds because of the risk of spreading bird diseases.

Another story was a young man found with 53 baby birds in his room.  No one is sure why he took in so many, it is believed he robbed nests of birds like swallows, bluebirds and sparrows.  Two thirds of the birds are dead because they were fed the wrong foods and not kept warm enough.  I'm wondering if this is a kid who is really into animals, maybe has read things like the yearling and just wanted to do it himself.  I'm not sure, but I hope his interest in birds can be redirected.

Speaking of helping birds, a very lucky double-crested cormorant got a helping hand in New Jersey.  Don't worry, despite the freaky photo, there is a happy ending.

Rare birds aren't often a big reason to be in this blog, but this is a really cool bird for my home state.  A roseate spoonbill was observed in Indiana--and even photographed.  Go, hoosier birders!

Don't forget that there is still PLENTY of time to enter the Swarovski Digiscoper of the Year Contest. You have nothing to lose and a pair of ELs to gain.  Get out and take some photos.  You don't need your own scope, you could try it out with someone else's scope.  If you need help with digiscoping, I'm giving a digiscoping program (and we'll put it into practice) at Carpenter Nature Center on July 25, 2009.

And finally, if anyone is going to be at CONvergence next week, I'll be around for a couple of programs.

Friday, July 3 at 11am, I'll be doing a non birding panel discussion with Mary Jo Pehl--we're going to talk about our fascination with TLC (The Learn Channel).  Is it learning, or is it just channel?  If you look at the shows: Half-ton Mom, I Eat 36,000 Calories A Day, Face Eating Tumor, My Enormous Foot, Mermaid Girl, The Man Who Turned Into A Tree, etc, you begin to wonder, are we learning with this channel or is it like a traditonal freak show and we are given premission to watch and stare in the comfort of your own homes?

Saturday, July 4 at 2pm, my buddy Amber and I will give a program with live birds from The Raptor Center, it's a bit more of an informal program, but fun all the way around.  Bring your camera and your deepest, darkest bird questions--we'll answer them!

Birds and Beers

The next Birds and Beers will July 9, 2009 at 6pm at Merlin's Rest. 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.

One thing will talk about is having the next Birds and Beers on a Mississippi River boat.

UPDATE! Eagle Attacks Remote Controlled Plane

Amy linked to a really interesting video on Twitter last night. Here's a video of an eagle attacking a remoted controlled plane.  I'm trying to figure out what type of eagle it is.  It looks "booted" (has feathers that go all the way down to its toes) which would suggest golden eagle, but the feather pattern looks more like a juvenile bald eagle...and now I wonder where this video was shot.  Is it from Europe or Australia?  What species of eagle could this be?

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/5051228[/vimeo]

UPDATE: Thanks to blog reader Roy Harvey, we have some great stills of the eagle in question:

Note the white "arm pits?"

The pattern of white ont his bird looks like of like a Jackson Pollock painting, it has white armpits, and it looks like the video is from the Washington state area--it's an immature bald eagle.

I suppose a golden eagle really would have taken the plane down.

More on Los Andes in Guatemala

Look at this pygmy-owl outside of Los Andes lodge! This one perched right out the front door. There was some debate as to whether this was a ferruginous pygmy-owl or mountain pygmy-owl. The debate seemed to center around the spots on his head. Ferruginous pygmy-owls should have streaks, mountain pygmy-owls should have more spots. To me, it looks streaky. Bottom line, it was a tiny owl.

Pygmy-owls were all over the place in Guatemala, this was a pygmy-owl that was spotted as our bus was passing through a small town. You know how in the US, some people will try to whistle like an eastern screech-owl, in Guatemala, birders whistle like pygmy-owls to get smaller birds to come in closer. One day our group saw a yellow-wing cacique fly over. In trying to get it to come back, someone in our group started the pygmy-owl call and I noticed something small and brown fly up to a telephone pole with a hole. At first I thought it was a wren, but it was a ferruginous pygmy-owl--we actaully called one in.

How's this for a Guatemala sunrise? This was just off of the organic tea farm at Los Andes Private Nature Reserve. The tea is bordered by cloud forest where resplendent quetzals can be found. I'm generally not a fan of early rising (I know, I know, I'm a birder, I'm supposed to enjoy getting up in the dark, but I don't). However, when I'm forced to get up, what a treat to get a fabulous sunrise.

Here's a zoom in, you can see the puffs of smoke coming off the volcano--beautiful. We took our time walking in to the forest, many birds were already singing. I mentioned early on that digiscoping was a challenge in Guatemala--digiscoping in the tropics is hard work and this was a trail where I had to make a decision: spend a few wasted seconds trying to get the camera an scope lined up, or use those precious seconds to enjoy the bird. One was an antpitta, I can't think of any way to describe it but maybe, combine an American robin and a nerf football with long legs. It was a bird I expected to only hear and not see, but as our group made it through the forest, one was walking along the path searching for food. What a treat to see this secretive brown bird.

Here's the view of the tea farm outside of the forest with the quetzal. This was a cool spot to stand in and just watch birds go by.

We searched this forest more than once for the quetzal but I only heard it, I did not see it. I heard two different versions of quetzal sounds. One was a rather pleasant, almost ticking call. The other scared the crap out of me. I found a very distant version of it on Xeno Canto, you'll hear this kindy of shrieky gobble, that's what I heard, only it was right behind me and ten time louder. I literally ducked when I heard it. Alas, did not see the quetzal, but we saw their nest boxes scattered about. We saw so many other birds including azure-rumped tanager, emerald touchanette, blue-crowned chlorophonia, and collared trogon that I could live with living to see a quetzal another day.

They did have resplendant quetzal tail feathers on display at the lodge. I stood next to one to give some perspective as to how long their tails can get. I'm five foot and that tail is over half as long as I am.

I should mention that the road to the quetzal area is quite adventurous. Our group was packed into the pack of this truck and we had to stand...I had to be careful where I stood. My head was at the top bar level and if I stood in one of the corners, I would end up hitting my head.

The ride is about about twenty minutes long on what I would call minimum maintenance roads...and the above was about as flat as they got. There were curves and hills and large rocks and we were bounced all over in the back. It was nerve racking enough to watch when it was daylight and even more so when it was dark--our drivers were great, they knew how to drive on those roads, but to me who is not used to those types of mountain road--it was exciting. But the upside of when it was dark was that we'd periodically stop for pauraques sitting in the road, I'm sure they followed our vehicle a bit as toddled down the road, going after insects kicked up.

I have to get back to Los Andes. At least to see the quetzal, but also because it's a cool place.

Los Andes Private Nature Reserve In Guatemala

Why, hello there, Mr. Clay-colored thrush! I totally forgot about this photo I took of you at Los Andes in Guatemala!

While working on another project, I discovered a huge backlog of blog posts--I have parts of Guatemala that I haven't blogged about yet--one of them was my absolute favorite lodge we visited. Doing some real digging in my photos, I have entries from last year's Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival--doh! So, we're going to catch up on a few spots as well as talk about Kazakhstan over the next week.

If I ever have the chance to return to Guatemala, I want to return to Los Andes Private Nature Reserve. It's a farm that supports 80 families and grows organic tea, shade-grown coffee and quinine. Surrounding the farm are several rubber tree plantations as well. Parts of it are left untouched and you can find quetzals there. The most common bird I saw while we were there was the yellow-winged tanager (above).

The lodge itself offered a cozy, family atmosphere. Comfortable couches, tons of books, info on the rich family history--an even Internet access. I was able to use Skype here to call Non Birding Bill free over the Internet. Dinners were family style and prepared on premises. You knew when each meal was almost ready, you could hear the cooks in the kitchen patting out the homemade tortillas. Olga, the owner, was quick to offer us samples of their own coffee and tea. She even made us fresh chai--what heaven to drink those beverages while slowly meandering around outside the house...

...and watching dynomite birds like socail flycatcher and red-legged honeycreeper. I could easily spend two weeks at this place. If I ever write a birding romance novel, I would set it here.

There were some familiar sites, like tons of monarch caterpillars. I've read that there are six generations of monarchs in a year. Since it was February, I wondered if this was the first generation after the one that over-winters?

There were also quite a few great kiskadees around--a bird I see quite a bit in south Texas. They look very similar to the social flycather. Note the large heavy bill on the above kiskadee.

Note the smaller dainty bill on the social flycatcher. The also sound quite different. The kiskadee seems to shout, "kisk ka DEE!" Here's a social flycatcher singing:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb91w3TDeEc[/youtube]

Almost like the kid brother of the kiskadee trying really hard, but comes off a tad whiny. Cute birds and a treat to watch while sipping organic tea.

This is a holding pond on the property and it was chock full of birds, again some familiar like indigo and painted buntings. So exciting to see where are breeding birds, party and hang out in the winter. I don't blame them for coming to Guatemala at all--beautiful and lots of seeds and insects to eat (Los Andes also have sunscreen and insect repellent ready to grab at a moment's notice). There was even a great-tailed grackle hunting and eating small lizards around the water.

This is a white-collard seedeater lurking in some of the grasses.

Check out this crazy looking bird! It's called a masked tityra. Follow this link for a better photo of one, so you can really see how striking this bird looks. I think there are some issues as to where this bird belongs in field guides. It used to be considered a tyrant flycatcher (those are the classy, somewhat easy to id flycatchers like kiskadees and scissor-tailed flycatchers, not the mind-numbingly hard to id empidonax flycatchers--incidentally, those are not all the same bird in that linked photo). However, there still seems to be some debate as to where it belongs, how to call that category and what other birds would fit in there. Bottom line, it's a crazy looking bird.

I saw many types of trogons while in Guatemala, but getting photos of them proved more challenging that i realized. Above is the beautiful backside of a violaceous trogon, perched in a tree right outside the lodge. We did explore other parts of the reserve and that is in a coming post. However, if you are looking for a place to do some relaxing birding, eat great local food, drink tea and coffee that is good for birds, and just visit with good people--Los Andes is it. Don't get me wrong, you can do hardcore birding and there are some strenuous trails here, but it was just such a joy to slowly work around the lodge itself and soak in so many colorful birds.

Even when it rained, you could stand at the window and enjoy the view.

More on the wonders of Los Andes later.

Mourning Cloak Caterpillars, Not Gypsy Moth Caterpillars

Last week, when I was on the bike trail, I came across a ton of mourning cloak caterpillars.  They were trying to cross the path, some made it, some got squished by unknowing bike riders.  I tried to take some home, I fit as many as I could in my little pouch and brought them home to our butterfly ranch...I ended up with 14.

They are a cool little caterpillar, dark with a bit of blue and red spots down their back.  And check out those wicked spikes to discourage you from eating them.  As I was getting my butterfly ranch set up for my mourning cloak caterpillars and taking a photos, a friend on Facebook posted photos of some pest caterpillars in his trees, wondering if anyone had suggestions to get rid of them.  He had contacted a pest control company who told him they were gypsy moth caterpillars and would kill his tree.  I looked at the photos and the caterpillars were not gypsy moth caterpillars, they were mourning cloak caterpillars, just like mine.

I sent a desperate plea to my Facebook friend to not exterminate the caterpillars, they were not invasive, exotic caterpillars, they were native and would not destroy his tree.  I was irritated that a pest control company couldn't tell the difference. I don't blame my friend for being confused...these caterpillars have some similar habits and if you are unfamiliar with mourning cloaks, I could see how you would be worried for your tree.

Gypsy moths feed in large groups. Mourning cloak caterpillars also remain in one large group after hatching from their eggs and feed together as caterpillars.  If you ever come across a cluster and disturb them, they'll shake and vibrate en masse.  Their voracious appetites may denude a branch, but they will not kill the tree.  Once they are full grown, the who group leaves the tree at about the same time and heads off to form their chrysalis to turn into a butterfly.

My friend ended up leaving his caterpillars alone and they moved on to pupate, but I do wonder now how many unknowing people have mourning cloak caterpillars experminated?

Mine have all taken to the J-position and are forming their chrysalises.  Hopefully,  I will have  photos of lots these gorgeous black butterflies to show later this summer.

Friday Links

It's time to share fun things found via Twitter and Facebook or share links people would like me to share. First, note that there is one spanky blog contest going on in the form of Swarovski & Birdchick's Digiscoper of the Year contest.  You have nothing to lose and a fabulous pair of ELs to win (among other prizes)--also the winners in my contest are automatically entered in Swarovski's worldwide Digiscoper of the Year contest with an even bigger prize.  You don't have to have a Swarovski scope (you don't even have to own the scope, you could borrow a friend's scope) and get out and take some shots.

Holy Old Crap!  The BBC reports that a nest over 2,500 years old has been found and they are still in use!  That's right, gyrfalcon nests in Greenland have been examined, the years of excrement around the nest has been measured (some almost 2m deep) and carbon tested the results are startling.  Read the article. They even found a feather from a gyrfalcon that was over 600 years old!  Crazy!

A couple of people have sent me stories about sandhill cranes in Florida regularly getting injured by golf balls--who knew?  An organization known as Save Our Seabirds has been working with a taxidermist to outfit some who need them with prosthetic legs.  See the a leg here and a sandhill crane with a fake leg here.  Read the news store here.

For your daily chuckle, a blogger had call to say, "Um waiter, there's a hawk in my soup."

If you love British humor, you'll love this spoof of Birds of Britain. If you're at work, you may want to use headphones, there could be some fowl language ahead (har).

Remember Golden Eagle 42--on of the golden eagles who winters along the Mississippi River on the Minnesota/Wisconsing boarder?  If you're new, he was found caught in a leg hold trap (those really need to be banned) and underwent treatment at The Raptor Center and was released in early spring with a satellite transmitter in the hopes of learning where some of these winter golden eagles go to breed.

Well, according to my buddy Mark Martell, he just keeps going north and is probably going to be a bachelor this breeding season. Martell reports, "The golden eagle continues to move north. He is now above 62.8 degrees latitude and as of June 7 was about 13 miles west of Hudson’s Bay near Rankin Inlet. Photos of Rankin Inlet posted on Google Earth show an area that seems not so friendly to a golden eagle, pretty treeless."

New maps of his journey are posted here. He's gone in kind of odd directions since his release--he even went to Iowa at first.  By the time he made it to Canada, it was late but somewhat doable for him to breed.  But with all his movement, it's clear he will not be breeding this year.  Which brings up a question that is sometimes asked--does a stay in wildlife rehab throw off a bird for a year?  Or is he just taking the summer off.  As always, birds are leaving more questions than answers.

Bees, Glorious Bees

I've been doing so much traveling, I have not been able to visit much with our bees. Poor Lorraine had to take over beekeeping duties while both Mr. Neil and I were away. She did her best, making sure to give the bees more room to build as they filled in their hive boxes. We have one hive, the yellow Hannah hive that had been slow to build and draw out comb. Lorraine reported on Twitter that the hive had no new brood and whatever larvae was present was shriveled, other than that there was capped honey. We advised her to let the hive be, add a box if it needed it and maybe keep a food bucket on there. As soon as Mr. Neil returned from his trip and I returned from North Dakota, we'd check it and decide what do to. The shriveled larvae had me worried...did we have some new disease to deal with?

Non Birding Bill and I headed out to meet up with Mr. Neil and Lorraine for a hive inspection. We started with the presumed queenless hive. I wanted to see if the Hannah hive was failing and if a disease was the cause. If she was merely queenless, we thought we might combine her with another hive, but we weren't going to do that if she had something like foulbrood. However, when we go there, we could see a fair number of bees going in and out, some even arriving with loaded pollen baskets.

There were a fair number of worker bees inside and they were rather laid back but did not have that queenless buzz, they sounded mellow but harmonious in their buzzing. We took out a frame to assess the situation.

Not only did we find capped brood (larvae pupating into new workers) but we found very fresh, healthy looking larvae and eggs. The queen was definitely alive and kicking into high gear producing some larvae. We told Lorraine that she did the right thing by just letting the hive be. What she thought was capped honey was capped brood. I didn't see any shriveled larvae, just plump healthy larvae. I tested a couple of capped off cells for the presence of foulbrood but they were healthy. What a big sigh of relief--we still have four hive for the summer! We just adjusted the spacing of the frames in the hive and let Hannah keep growing.

The only big problem we encountered in any of the hives was the violation of bee space. The term "bee space" came from Reverend Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth who in the 1800s figured out that if a space of 3/8 inch is left in the hive for the bees to move around in, the bees will neither build comb in the space nor cork it up with propolis (bee duct tape). If you allow your frames to fall into violation of that space you get what's called "feral comb." As you can see in the above photo, the purple Yvaine hive had a major bee space violation going on. NBB and I had to pry off that excessive comb while Mr. Neil held the heavy brood box.

We carefully scraped it off to ensure that the queen was not there. We couldn't just leave it, the oddly placed comb would have caused more problems with future inspections and encouraged unregulated comb construction. Mr. Neil took care to properly space all of the frames in all of our hives so we could avoid future violations. Above, he's using a frame spacing tool along with a hive tool to set all the frames straight and into proper alignment for good bee space. I'd heard from more experienced beekeepers that frame spacing tools were a toy, but for newer beekeepers, they really do help cut down on the feral comb. I cannot eyeball bee space.

As we scraped of some of the feral comb, a few developing pupae came out. I felt bad, but again it's worse in the long run to let the comb stay. The queen lays thousands upon thousands of eggs, a few lost larvae will not destroy the hive. Lorraine however, was a tad grossed out. Here's a video of Mr. Neil properly scraping some feral comb with his tool and explaining larvae:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w97rNEzUlqU[/youtube]

One happy surprise was that our Juliet hive which started as a bit of an angry hive is mellowing out.

We had to make some minor repairs to her base...well, NBB and Mr. Neil did. Lorraine and I sat and studied the chilled out bees while they worked (didn't want to be in the way while the boys did the heavy lifting). It's just so relaxing spending time with chill bees while they do what they do and how pretty they look, all golden in the sun. You can watch them here, if you would like to experience the mellow red Juliet hive.

Oh, one final note: How do the boys like to spend their time while working with the hives? They make up haiku:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CZAOlWgbfM[/youtube]

What a joy to have happy harmonious hives without the drama of the previous summers. Let's hope that holds when our Russians arrive.