Wishin' for a Dickcissel

Today is my wedding anniversary so first Non Birding Bill and I did KARE 11 and then spent the day meandering around Uptown. Our schedules are so active that it's a treat just to have a day to not do anything in particular. He was very thoughtful and got me a Bent Book, and my collection is almost complete. I don't know what I will get for holidays once I have the complete Bent Life Histories of North American Birds.

I did break away late this afternoon because I had a hankerin' to see a dickcissel. I headed towards the Empire Substation in Dakota Co and found the usual suspects:

Clay-colored sparrows
Western meadowlarks
Eastern meadowlarks
Chipping sparrows
Brown thrashers
American kestrels
Red-tailed hawk
Eastern kingbird
But no dickcissel!

I lolligagged for an hour and then got back in the car. As I drove back I noticed a sparrow in a tree. I stopped the car, checked the rear view and reversed. There in all its glory was a dickcissel, singing his heart out and even posed for quick digiscope with my binoculars:

The KARE 11 today segment was the big reveal of the backyard makeover contest. For those that don't know, we had a contest where people could write in an essay of 100 words or less on why they need a backyard birdfeeder makeover. The winner got a makeover of up to $1000 worth of product. We put in to separate poles with multiple feeders and even erected a wood duck house. Even with all that was put up we didn't quite get to $1000 so I gave her the remainder as a gift certificate. I know she wants a heated bird bath and we don't really have too many in stock at the moment so I figure she can come in this fall and pick one out with her remaining winnings.

Great birds were all over her yard. We did a live shot from the winner's backyard and we even brought Cinnamon (one of my disapproving rabbits) along for fun. The winner's daughter has been in my store and loves that bunny. Cinnamon was surprisingly relaxed with the kid, which is unusual. But this girls seemed to have a way with animals. As we set up the shot orioles, downy woodpecker and goldfinches showed up right away. Five minutes before the segment, a broad-winged hawk cut low across the yard. Bill was a tad concerned for Cinnamon's safety but I reassured everyone that the hawk's flight path was after something in another direction and that Cinnamon is too huge for any raptor to pick her up...except maybe a harpy eagle but we shouldn't see any of those loose in Minnesota. Here's some of the feeders we set up:

Note the oriole on the orange recycled feeder in the center.

The winner had just purchased her home and gave us a quick tour. She hadn't furnished her home yet (this is a woman after my own heart, she just moved into a home and what's the first thing she gets done? Not furniture, not painting but installing bird feeders and gardens). Anyway, her home came with the coolest ceiling lamp ever!

If I had room in my apartment, I would have offered to buy the lamp off of her, but I think her kids liked it too much anyway. Plus, bringing home a giant chicken lamp might not be to Non Birding Bill's taste.

Great Blue Heron Tootsies

Today was actually a nice weather day in Minnesota. When Non Birding Bill and I woke up it was pouring rain (again) but we met with Amber and Reier for breakfast and headed out for the day. We were shooting scenes for our first (insert trumpets) video segment for Birdzilla today! Whoo Hoo.

We were out filming a bald eagle nest on hwy 36 and 61 in Keller Regional Park. While there we found a black-crowned night heron (not the rarest bird on the block, but not one you see every day either). Amber and Reier took us to Lock and Dam Number 1 to check out the peregrine nest box which was very cool however we all got distracted by great blue herons. Yes, I know it's hard to believe we had nature's fastest and most perfect killing machine nesting mere yards from us and we got fascinated by heron feet. We were up high and able to look straight down on the great blue herons and see their feet. I've never really had a chance to appreciate them on this level before. Is this a new fetish for me? Who can say? Anyway, I digi-scoped them with my binoculars:

"That's right ladies, you know what big feet mean."

"Big branches."

There are worst woodpecker problems to have: pileated woodpecker

I frequently get asked what to do about woodpeckers pecking on houses, and how to keep birds from fighting their reflections in windows (short answer: nothing easy). This email showed up on Birdchat and is just a reminder that if a bird is giving you a minor irritation, it really could be a lot worse:

Subject: pileated attacks outside rear view mirrors

Just recently a reader of my bird column told me about a pileated
woodpecker that has been attacking his reflection in the outside rear
view mirrors of cars parked in the driveways of a group of houses in
a forested area near Syracuse, NY.

When this bird hits these adjustable mirrors the thin glass breaks.
So far this spring 18 mirrors have had to be replaced. Last year just
under 30 mirrors were destroyed and 2 garage and barn windows have
been broken. The bird also lit on the cab roof of a new red pick-up
and pounded a dent in that roof. The local garage that replaces
automobile windows and glass has done most of the repair.

Question: While many songbirds attack their reflection in windows in
homes and or in car rear view mirrors, those birds are not able to
hit the glass with enough force to break it. Over the 50 years I
have been writing this column, I have had many reports of birds
attacking their reflections in windows, mirrors, hubcaps, but never
before has it involved a pileated woodpecker.

Do any readers of BIRDCHAT know of other pileated woodpeckers that
have done this or is this a unique occurrence? I suspect it is one
particular woodpecker , but how did he happen to spot his image in a
car, rear view mirror? These birds generally are wary and only
sometimes seen close to our homes so it seems unlikely that he would
ever be around an automobile in the first place.

Benjamin P. Burtt
bpburtt@usadatanet.net
> Professor of Chemistry Emeritus

Eddie Albert was a Good Egg

Eddie Albert has died and while reading article about him in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, I came across some interesting factoids about his life. Who knew he was such an environmentalist and not just a guy who was part of one of those great tv songs you can't out of your head (Green Acres for wee ones who ready this blog and don't know the wacky comedies that can ensue when a rural farmer marries a hot Hungarian woman who prefers the city and luxury yet brings her to a podunk town for a simple life on the farm). Anyway, here's snippit of the article:

In the late 1960s, Albert's attention turned to ecology. He did extensive reading on the subject as well as talking to experts in the field.

In 1969, he accompanied a molecular biologist from the University of California, Berkeley, to Anacapa Island off the California coast to observe the nesting of pelicans. What they found were thousands of collapsed pelican eggs.

"The run-off of DDT had been consumed by the fish, the fish had been eaten by the pelicans, whose metabolism had in turn been disturbed so that the lady pelican could no longer manufacture a sturdy shell," Albert told TV Guide in 1970. After learning more about the effects of the pesticide, he said, "I stopped being a conservationist.... I became terrified. The more I studied, the more terrified I got."

Sharing his ecological concerns on the "Tonight" and "Today" shows, he became, in the words of a TV Guide reporter, "a kind of ecological Paul Revere." The TV appearances led to speaking engagement requests from high schools, universities, and industrial and religious groups.

Albert formed a new company to produce films to aid in "international campaigns against environmental pollution."

Home for the actor-activist was an unpretentious Spanish-style house on an acre of land in Pacific Palisades, where Albert turned the front yard into a cornfield. He also installed a giant greenhouse in the back yard, where he grew organic vegetables.

In 1963, he served as special world envoy for Meals for Millions, a philanthropic project providing nutritious, low-cost meals to the underprivileged around the world. He helped launch the first Earth Day on April 22, which was his birthday, in 1970, and served as a special consultant at the World Hunger Conference in Rome in 1974.

Somebody got a merganser

Tammy Wolfe has been sending me great updates about her wood duck and blue bird boxes. She even managed to get a great photo of a hooded merganser chick popping out of the box (I am pea green with envy):

"Banzai!"

She also had quite the adventure this morning trying to get more photos of young chicks coming out of a wood duck box. It made me chuckle because who of us out there haven't had the exact same thing happen to us?

This morning I got up at 5:30 am to check to see if the hooded mergansers were still in the duck box. I waded through the chest-high murky water to the box, set up the ladder, clicked the button to take a photo, and then realized that I had forgotten to put a memory card in my digital camera and had to head back to the house. When I got back to the box, I was pleasantly surprised that the babies were still in it. So, I headed back to the house for my tripod, camera and zoom lens. As I was getting set up, the female returned. I tried to hide in the tall grass and brush, but decided to go back to the house again to get my blind. After setting it up, I had to wait about 20 minutes. There was a wood duck family in the area and then some squabbling geese. Once they left, she began to call them. When we put up this box three years ago, we didn't base it on where the best photo op would be. Therefore, my memories are better than my photos. It was a pleasure to watch 10 babies jump out of the box on a beautiful, sunny morning around 7 am.

Minnesota Osprey News

Word on the street (or another way to put it, my friend Carrol Henderson at MN DNR told me) that there was a formal survey of osprey nests in Minnesota this spring. Here's the scoop:

I thought you would like to know that Pam Perry, the DNR Nongame Wildlife Program Specialist from Brainerd, has completed tallying the data for the 2004 statewide osprey survey and came up with 608 nesting pairs. She has distribution maps and an interesting summary of all of the typical and incredibly nontypical structures on which the ospreys nest. This is the first time we have done such a survey so we can not speculate if this represents an increase or decrease in osprey numbers. Best wishes, Carrol

I feel like I see more osprey in the state but that's not always conclusive. One of my favorite things about working at the Wayzata bird store is that we typically see osprey fly over the store and they are carrying large goldfish. I'm pretty sure the fish are from the ponds at the Carlson Center. Although, last summer I was out doing a bird walk behind the store and an osprey flew over with what looked to be a koi worth at least $350. Gotta' be careful about teaching your koi to swim up when you tap the surface of the water. It makes fishing all the easier for osprey, herons, egrets and raccoons.

Nest Extravaganza

I got my National Geographic in the mail today. It's getting to be less and less the cool magazine about faraway places, cultures and animals and more like People Magazine with each issue. It claims to have an article about the face of King Tut, but the king bears a striking resemblance to a bald Barbara Streisand. What happened?

A couple of weeks ago Denny found a teal nest near one of our swallow houses behind the bird store. I went out and found it right away but have been unable to relocate it ever since. Since raccoons will sometimes follow trails with a human scent because we often lead to food for them, I feared that a raccoon inspecting our swallow trail had found the teal nest and eaten the eggs. However, today while dodging swallows I flushed the female and about gave myself a heart attack.

Can you find the blue-winged teal nest in this photo? It's right there, right in front of you. Here's a better view:

Now can you see it? I placed a thin stick near the nest to make it easier to find. On the off chance you can't, look at the dark upright stick in the center of the photo and look a little to the right, see the eggs? If you still can't see the eggs then this blue-winged teal hen has done her job well and below is a view of the nest.

This busy little hen has 12 eggs. I'm still surprised with how close this is to one of our swallow nest boxes, especially since we check the swallow boxes so often. This is what Amber and I call a well informed decision, she knew we came to the boxes a few times a week. Plus, you can't flush her until you're about to step on her, so she must be well used to us. Last year, the teal hen that had a nest behind the store would flush if you were twenty feet away. This one is much more sensible...or foolhardy.

Meanwhile the tree swallows have eggs in all four of our bluebird boxes. I just realized that our wood duck box had hooded mergansers in it and our bluebird boxes are full of swallows. Don't birds read the labels anymore?

One of the tree swallows tried to poke my eye out...cool!

An FYI from the BBC

Eagle Alaska escapes bird display

Police are warning people not to approach a bald eagle that escaped during a display at the weekend.

The 14-year-old bird named Alaska flew off at around lunchtime on Sunday, during a display at Eagle Heights Bird of Prey Centre in Dartford, Kent.

Alaska has a massive wing span of around two metres and although her owners describe her as "friendly" she could pose a threat if confronted.

It's the fifth time Alaska has escaped but she's always been found safe. (Birdchick comment: If this is the fifth time Alaska has escaped, I think someone needs question whether or not this facility should house these birds, or any birds for that matter.)

The 4.5 kg bird of prey has lived at the centre since she was six months old and her owner Alain Aimes says he is desperate to get her back.

"In the wind she was able to go up a couple of thousand feet," he said. "That's normal, but this time she did not return. She just took off."

Experts say Alaska could have flown as far as north-east London, Essex or Suffolk.

Merganser Hatching

Warning:

At the end of this entry is kind of a gross photo, if you are queasy about innards you might want to avoid scrolling too far down. It will be the sixth photo and I will give one more warning before we get there.

For those interested a certain Mr. N___ had a house full of naked chicks on Thursday:

These are freshly hatched black-capped chickadees in Mr. N___'s Gilbertson Bluebird Box. Believe it or not, in about 16 days these guys will be flitting around and learning the ropes at a bird feeder.

On to mergansers. First the bummer news. I spent quite a bit of time adjusting the NovaBird Camera to get the just the right angle to catch the merganser chicks coming out of the box. Alas, I failed notice the tiny branch in the lens's field of view and ended up with 333 photos of a tiny branch going from left to right. Ah well, win some lose some.

When I heard the female in the box giving her low barks, I stuck the digital camera inside the box and found this:

In my screen on my camera I noticed what looked like an extra bulge from her body. Between that and the barking, I knew the birds were hatching. Later when she left the box, I stuck the camera in and saw that hatching was well underway:

At this point, three of the eleven eggs were hatched with two more poking out. Since the hen was out, I opened the side to get a better view, at first the temptation was too much not to pick one up--they were so cute, however the aroma of warm, damp, fish eating birds made me think better of it.

"Lady, get that camera out of my face. I just hatched, I'm tired and I stink."

Interesting to note, that they were able to raise their down on their heads like little hackles.
When I checked the box this morning, the hen and chicks were gone. All but one of the eggs had hatched. Just a reminder, the photo after this one, is the gross photo.

All of the hard shell bits of egg were gone and only the inner shell membranes were left. I wonder if the female ate them if the chicks at them as their first sustenance. I shall have to research that. Warning, the next photo is the gross photo.

I have always been curious about eggs that don't open and what's on the inside and I never have opened one. When confronted with this one, I gave it some thought all day. What was a I afraid of? The smell of a rotten egg? After spending the day being barfed on by pelicans and cormorants last summer fear of bad aromas was no longer an issue. What could be causing my hesitation? The idea that I would open the egg and find a malformed zombie bird chick that would want to eat my brains? Yep, that was it. So I decided that after work tonight, I would open the egg. There was a hard outer shell and a tough inner shell. As I slowly opened it I half expected it to come alive in my hands a la Frankenstien, but it never did. Here are the contents:

The chick was mostly formed except that it hadn't absorbed the yolk sac (the bright orange thing with all the veins attached to the abdomen. At The Raptor Center we sometimes feed the birds day old chicks (that are already dead). We always have to take out the intestines before we do and when you cut open the chicks you see the yolk sac. I wonder if this was the last egg that was laid and didn't get the complete incubation or if it was addled some how in the last few days killing the chick inside. I was amazed with how large the webbed feet were in relation to the whole body. You can see the claws at the end of each toe to aid in climbing out of the nest box.

It's a bummer that this chick didn't survive to hatching, but on the upside ten chicks did. Birds play the odds during the breeding season. 75% of the birds hatched this spring, won't make it to next spring.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker Haircut?

Here's an interesting article about some of the planned wildlife tourism regarding the ivory-billed woodpecker. I'm curious to see what's going to happen with some of the nearby towns and will people actually see the bird. I'm a little perplexed about the woodpecker haircut being offered during a bird festival in the area this weekend. From the description it sounds like a red mohawk with black and white stripes. I seriously doubt birders will go for this. I mean, I applaud the beauty shop owner for coming up the idea and let's face it, birders have a geeky image, but so few of us go for outlandish hair styles (at least not on purpose).