Grouse Hunt & The Bossy Purple Finch

So, I've a small goal this spring to see if I can find a ruffed grouse drumming log. I've heard them drumming in a few places on Mr. Neil's, but I've never found the log itself. Yesterday, I went out with my buddy Amber to try and find the log. She's one of the few people I know who doesn't mind some challenging hiking conditions on deer trails. When we arrived, we found the above male goldfinch well on his way through his molt into breeding plumage--which is a welcome site this morning as eight inches of snow is falling.

We found a stand of pines that had some kind interesting story to tell, but couldn't quite suss it out. We found owl pellets and owl poop. It looked like good potential for saw-whet. But then we found a bunch of owl feathers. From the size and shape, they looked like long-eared owl feathers...and it looked like something had attacked the it. We couldn't find any other owl but wondered if one of the larger owls like a great horned or barred owl had killed it. There were also other feathers mixed in with the owl--cardinal and junco, which made us wonder if it a Cooper's hawk had been eating here too.

We flushed a ruffed grouse from a thick tangle of buckthorn and water horsetail. I started to step inside and found a turned over tree, but it was way too thin and not hollow. One of the guys I band birds with at Carpenter (Larry) knows a lot about grouse and he's been giving me tips on what to look for.

There were some healthy piles of grouse poop, so the grouse has been spending quite a bit of time. I sent Larry the photos and he said that this looks like it was siting under that pile of brush - using it for cover from overhead predators. Even though we didn't find the drumming log, I heard some distant drumming across the creek. I may have to break out my chest waders from the Ivory-bill Search and cross the creek to find the drumming log. Larry said that peak drumming time is in the next three weeks and that foggy mornings are best because that helps to carry the drumming sound. I'll see if I can make it out there this weekend.

We ended up spending the rest of our time trying to get photos of birds at the feeders. They were empty when we arrived and we filled the feeders first thing. It took no time for the birds to fly in. It's fun to watch the red-bellied woodpecker chip out a large chunk of suet to eat in safety up in the branches. There were lots of birds on the move. Amber heard and saw sandhill cranes fly over and then we heard a distant high pitched barking...hmmm...more sandhills? No. Snow geese? Not quite...

When they finally flew over we saw that they were tundra swans--sweet! I hadn't seen any since last November and then it was only while I was driving so I couldn't hear their barking sound. A few flocks passed over our heads throughout the day and above is a photo that Amber got as they passed overhead.

We didn't see the common redpoll that I had seen about a week and a half earlier, but we did see a male purple finch. I haven't seen one of those guys since last fall.

He was a bossy little bird too. I had heard people speculate that the influx of introduced house finches had pushed out the purple finches, but I have to say that watching this one male, he didn't look like the kind of bird who would take any guff from a house finch. Above, he is lunging towards a chickadee.

In this photo, he drove out a white-breasted nuthatch.

A second nuthatch tried to fly in, but the purple finch gave it the hairy eyeball and the nuthatch darted away from the tray towards a tree instead. He did tolerate a goldfinch, but if it came to close, the purple finch lunged at it too.

Time To Clean Those Feeders

I got this rather arty photo of house finches with the WingScapes Camera. The female house finch flying in behind the domed feeder looks like she's doing some weird interpretive dance. Speaking of finches, there are some reports this week in the news that there is a salmonella outbreak going on in Arkansas and New York. I linked to a couple of articles over at the Birding Business News Blog--now is would be a good time to clean you bird feeders and you'd be doing a tremendous service to migrating birds. Here's a goldfinch and purple finch sharing a tray that I digiscoped yesterday. Birds can spread salmonella by depositing fecal matter in trays (or on the ground) and then it gets mixed in with spilled seeds. Cornell Lab has some good tips of what to do if you see diseased birds at your feeder. If you can't keep your feeders clean, consider paying a kid to do it or find out if you local bird store offers a feeder cleaning service. If you can't keep your feeders clean...then you probably shouldn't be feeding birds.

Unwrapped Bees

Olga's busting out all over! I went out to check the Olga hive today and her winter insulation was gone. I started mumbling to myself something along the lines of, "Now, why did Mr. Neil go ahead and take the insulation off the hive without telling me? Is it too soon? What was he thinking?" Then I found the insulation in a pile in the woods. There must have been some strong winds in the last week that blew it off.

Couple of the girls were out and about. I did notice that there appears to be some type of weird damage on one of the boxes. It looks like damage done by paper wasps when they take bits of wood and chew it up to make their nests. I don't know if the Olga bees got bored this winter and decided to start chewing paint or if it was something else. I'm also not sure if I should put the insulation back on. It's the end of March and the temps are currently thirties and a few forties...although there is a winter storm advisory for tomorrow and we're supposed to get about six inches...

Red Squirrel Sneeze

Caught on the WingScapes Camera.

Bluebird Splosion At Carpenter

Oh, we are getting into dangerous territory. The last few days have been sincerely spring-like in Minnesota: forty degree temps, sun, melted snow and lots of returning birds like the killdeer in the above. What typically happens here is that we will have a few days of this and out of the blue will come either a fourteen degree day or eight inches of snow which leads to extreme crankiness among the citizens.

I headed out to Carpenter Nature Center on Friday for a little extra banding practice. I'm finally starting to feel a bit more comfortable handling small birds. I reported on Wednesday that we saw a song sparrow around the traps but didn't get one in, well on Friday we got two in the traps (that's one in the above photo). Check out that massive central breast spot. I've been so used to juncos and chickadees, that this bird felt quite beefy and robust in my hand. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when it's my turn to do a larger bird like a blue jay or hairy woodpecker. I have small hands and am now used to tiny birds. I've done large birds like sharp-shinned hawks before, but you can't hold a blue jay the same way you hold a raptor. Oh well, that's what training is all about.

Since it was so nice and sunny, many of use walked outside. We could hear distant sandhill cranes overhead, a couple of meadowlarks and lots of eastern bluebirds (above). I followed a pair around the small prairie trying to get photos. The male was excited to show the female any nest cavity he could find. He showed her a bluebird house and then guided her over to an old snag with a few woodpecker holes. He perched atop the snag, excitedly singing as she tried to fit through the hole...alas, she was too large to slip inside--talk a dating disaster: "Honey, I've found a great place to raise a couple of kids! Oh wait, you're too big to fit inside? Awkward!"

I'm sure any man who has purchased the wrong sized clothing for their lady friend can relate.

The bluebirds were singing like crazy trying to decide on territory boundaries. A fight between at least three pairs broke out at one point and then a fourth female flew in for a total of seven bluebirds. They have such a pretty and subtle song, that it's hard to take it seriously when they fight.

I've been anxious to try out my Remembird on some bird songs. I got it in January and have loved it for its audio note taking ability but it also has a microphone for picking out bird songs. Even though the bluebird was some distance away, I was able to pick up his song with the Remembird You can hear it below. It's not professional but wow, did it do the trick. It's not loud, but to be able to record an unknown bird song that I can take home and compare with my iPod--this is fantastic. I can tell, that I'm going to be lovin' my Remembird during warbler season, this is a really cool tool for note taking in the field.

Non Restricted Heron Rookery

People were talking about Coon Rapids Dam on the Minnesota birding listservs. The great blue herons were returning to the rookery and there was a great horned owl using one of the nests. From my understanding, the owl has been there for the last few years--there's a plethora of nests for it to choose from but I've never made it over to see it. So I took a few minutes to go check out the rookery.

Some of the great blue herons were actively building nests, others were kind fluffed out as if they were too cold to want to deal with it. I couldn't tell right away which nest had the great horned owl. I followed the directions to try and see the fourth one from the right and all I saw were herons.

I systematically checked each nest. Heron...heron...heron...heron...oh hey:

You're not a heron! That's a little red-tailed hawk head! And the great blue herons don't seem to care. Granted, red-tails are a mighty hunter, but adult heron probably isn't high on their prey list. Young herons would be a possibility...but I wonder if red-tails do not like the fishy taste? The red-tail would have been in that nest before the herons arrived, so the herons are choosing to nest there despite the hawk. I wonder if the hawk has nested there before? I wonder if the hawk built its own nest or just refurbished an old heron nest?

I found some birders nearby and asked if they knew which nest had the great horned owl and they pointed to a cluster of heron nests away from the active clump that had no herons on them whatsoever. There in the center was a great horned owl. This cluster of nests was further back and I found it interesting that the herons nested next to the red-tail seemingly without any problems but gave plenty of space to the great horned--the owl would go for adult and young herons. I remember when I went to a rookery a few years ago and we found the night-heron remains with a big fat owl pellet in the middle. I wondered too if the early returning herons get the better nest spot farther away from the owls and if the later ones would be forced to take a nest next to the great horneds? Either way, the other active nests are in easy view of the great horns and I'm sure the owls will take a few nestlings from them. The red-tail is in easy view of the great horned...I wonder how that territory negotiation is going? The owl would have started nesting in January, the red-tail in early March, and now the herons. I wish I had more time to spend and watch the negotiations.

I also noted that almost every wire stabilizer had a staring next to it singing territory song. The holes that the wires go through are wide enough to easily fit a starling and the area on the inside must make a snug nest. Such enterprising birds.

Peep Roasting

If you're bird and like to watch sugary marshmallows being toasted, check out the video of Non Birding Bill roasting and eating a Peep. I have to say, this may be the best way to eat one. Because the fire carmalizes the sugar on the outside of the Peep, it's like eating a marshmallowy Crème brûlée. I was sent in the suggestion of using this for s'mores and to alse use a peanut butter cup instead of just a piece of chocolate.

Mmmmmm.

Wednesday

I just had a weird, weird Wednesday. First I read a headline on CNN about a high school teacher in trouble for using a banned book in her classroom. Curious about what backwards school system that was, I clicked on the link and discovered it was my old high school: Perry Meridian High School. And that the teacher in trouble was my old Speech and Drama teacher. You can read about it here. I remember that when I was in school I wore a shirt that read, "Celebrate Freedom: Read A Banned Book" and listed a bunch of classics that had been banned. How did I not get suspended? Well, they did let one student wear a "Hitler World Tour" shirt so the clothing policy was lax.

It was another junco bonanza at banding class at Carpenter Nature Center. This time we could hear them singing all over. Most of the juncos were new birds, not too many retraps. I wonder if the birds that we got on Wednesday morning are from further south: Indiana? Texas? They're heading north towards their breeding grounds.

Here's a junco being let go--this new camera can get some really fun shots. We did see one song sparrow hopping around some of the ground traps and we were trying to use our mind control to get it to hop into the trap. It's funny, we'll get them in the summer, but it's been a few months so a different species is exciting. I'm sure by September we'll be dreaming of juncos again.

When I finished, I drove over to the Prescott Railroad Bridge to see if any peregrines were about and sure enough, one unbanded bird was in the sun. Right after I snapped this photo, it hopped off the rail and disappeared so I wasn't able to digiscope it. I looked around and noted a spotting scope attached to a car. I walked over and found that is was Bud Tordoff. He said the unbanded bird was a male and he was watching for the female who is banded to try and read her numbers. Always a great day to run into that Peregrine Guru.

Raptors were really on the move yesterday. On my way home, I passed several bald eagles chasing each other and even saw a talon grab. Red-tails were chasing each other, I saw two more peregrines doing a fly over and though they're not raptors I did see some turkey vultures catching a few thermals. Spring is definitely on the upswing.

Toying With Skitch

Non Birding Bill is always keeping me abreast of the latest technology and just uploaded a screen shot and photo editing application called Skitch. It's mostly so I can point out things in photos. I took that golden eagle photo from the previous post and added some notes:

The first time I posted the photo I didn't even notice the house sparrow on the right. The sparrow was in eating leftover rat scraps. The house sparrows started building a nest in the golden eagle mew last week. No worries about raccoons in there.

The Golden Eagle Laid An Egg

I'm not sure how it happened, but one of my photos has ended up in the I Can Has Cheezeburger builder. People have been emailing me captioned photos and links. I want to thank whoever put it in there for crediting the photo to birdchick.com.

Andi, the education golden eagle at The Raptor Center laid an egg this morning. She's not housed with any male eagles (she's our only golden eagle) so the egg is unfertilized. Every spring, Andi and one or two of the red-tails hormones get so geared for spring that they lay eggs. If we can get to the eggs in time, we save them as props to show people. Alas, Andi smashed her egg not long after I took this photo.

Last night Non Birding Bill and I met some friends for some fabulous food at Amazing Thailand in Uptown and then we walked by Urban Outfitters and found several copies of Disapproving Rabbits on the book shelf. We then found the April issue of Metro Magazine at the grocery store and it has a small article I wrote about birds around the Twin Cities in spring. I enjoyed writing for Metro, they wanted me to be a bit saucier than the bird magazines I normally write for. I even managed to work in the phrase "hot turkey action"--and I get paid for this. Life is weird and fun.

I just got booked to be on Showcase Minnesota next Tuesday and rumor has it that Aaron Eckhart will be live in studio that day too. Yum.