Winter Species Around Mr. Neil's

This morning, Non Birding Bill and I headed out to do some bee stuff at Mr. Neil's. When we were turning onto the final stretch of road, I noticed a lump in the top of a tree and told NBB, "Sorry, if that's what I think it is, I have to get a photo."

Can you guess what it is? It's a raptor...it's a hawk...can't tell? Don't worry, it's hard in that photo. Here it is through the scope:

It's a rough-legged hawk. Something about the lump in the distance just said to me, "Hey, I'm a buteo, but I'm not sitting quite like a red-tailed hawk."

This is the first time I've seen one so close to Mr. Neil's home. We get them in our neck of the woods in winter, but fun to see a rough-leg on patrol so close to his house. Is it me, or does this bird look like it's wearing more eyeliner than Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean?

Meanwhile, pine siskins are still on the rampage at his finch feeders. Between the siskins, the rough-leg and the snow, it's winter!

Friday Banding & Birding

It was jam packed at Carpenter Nature Center banding on Friday. It was the day after Thanksgiving and many people stopped by--including a hilarious 4 year old named Dylan. She kept asking to band a bird herself. I was doing a junco when she came to me and said, "I was going to do that one!"

I asked if she took the banding class. She looked to the side and back at me and said, "Yes." Can't blame a girl for trying. My favorite part was a the end of the morning, she was leaving and we said, "Bye, Dylan, it was nice to meet you," and she replied, "Yes, it was."

The big excitement of the day was getting one of the oodles of pine siskins around the Twin Cities. Tom Bell banded this bird and he noted how fine their bills are--perfect for going into those thin slits on finch feeders.

The yellow is subtle on these little birds, mostly in the edging on the primary wing feathers and the tail feathers. I don't think we were able to determine the sex of this bird, but we did determine that it was a hatch year bird.

Ecobirder was also there, he's going to help Carpenter a bit with their website. When we were finished, I drove over to Douglas Point and found him taking photos. I left him peace, I know how I am when I get in a good groove. The weather was so warm, it was 40 degrees that I decided to go for a bike ride when I came home.

I decided to go over to Lake Calhoun to see if I could get a photo of the long-tailed duck in better light. Plus, I've been curious if I could take my whole digiscoping setup with me on my bike. Non Birding Bill and I were both feeling the effects of eating too much and he also joined me for the ride (as long as I promised not to spend an hour trying to get the perfect photo of a duck).

The light was awesome and waterfowl like Canada geese and hooded mergansers were up close...but not the long-tailed duck, it was WAAAY out on the lake and not worth digiscoping.

The light was so perfect that I hated to waste it and took a few photos of geese. I could hear joggers behind me say, "Why would you want to take photos of those ducks?" I wanted to turn around and point out the scaup and goldeneyes and say there's more out there than just mallards and geese, but did not. And of course, since I was birding in a public place, someone came up to me and said, "Hey, is that bald eagle still over there?"

"I don't know," I said, "I'm not looking for that."

"It was over on the north side, in that tree, the lighter one on the left there." He paused and I could tell by the look in his eye that he was waiting for me to move my scope on it. The eagle was out further than the long-tailed duck. I was not on the clock and I was focusing on a shoveler, I didn't move my scope.

"It's right over there," he pointed. "I saw it when I was jogging over there. It was just sitting there."

"That's awesome," I said, "I'm glad you got to see that." I could see NBB in my peripheral vision over by our bikes. He was grinning that someone was pointing out an eagle yet again when I'm after something else.

I showed him the shoveler in my scope and he showed about as much interest in the northern shoveler as I was in his eagle. I explained about the long-tailed duck and he seemed even less interested in that. Finally, he moved on.

It was fun to squeeze in another bike ride in early winter and it was fun to look at the waterfowl and I was only a tiny bit bummed at missing a good photo of the long-tailed duck. When I checked my email this morning I found this report from yesterday about the long-tailed duck from local birder Terry Brashear:

"The Long-tailed Duck was seen at 2PM close to the west shore, but an adult Bald Eagle came by and the group of Hooded Merganser and Common Goldeneye it was with took flight. It spent the remainder of the day out in the middle of Lake Calhoun till I left at 3:30PM."

Which was about the time NBB and I were biking around the lake. That stupid bald eagle that dude was trying to point out is the one that moved the duck so far to the center of the lake.

I'm shaking my fist at that bald eagle and saying in a tone like a villain at the end of a Scooby Doo cartoon, "I would have gotten that photo too if hadn't been for that meddling eagle."

Birdchick Gift Guide 2008

It's time for some of my picks for gift ideas for the birder in your life. Here is a link to all my other past gift suggestions. The gift ideas range for birders of all ages and all abilities. I'm not paid by anyone to endorse any of these products, although a few you may recognize as sponsors of this site. These are all products that I totally dig.

If you have any birder gift ideas that you don't see listed, please feel free to add them in the comments.

Gifts & A Good Cause

The Duck Stamp (or The Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, ya happy, Paul?) Birders of all levels and is okay to give more than once in a year. I'd be honored if I ended up getting five this Holiday Season.

I've said it before and I'll say it again--this is an EXCELLENT gift for anyone into birds, especially for the birder who appears to have everything. The money from purchase of the stamps is used to acquire habitat for waterfowl but that benefits many species of birds including warblers, sparrows, herons, grebes, and shorebirds. The stamp costs $15 and 98% of that $15 goes to purchase habitat for ducks and other wildlife. People and birds benefit from this purchase.

Burning Hawk Wine (great for birders over 21 years of age)

This company was the hit of the show at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival. They hosted the Kiskadee Cordial where festival attendees could sample the wine and socialize. This past May a hawk was electrocuted and caught fire and set a vineyard ablaze. That awful incident sparked several people, like founder Nick Papadopoulos to create a line of wines that are not only tasty but help birds. They company devotes 10% of all sales to bird conservation projects. There's a red and a white and I purchase a red that is very robust, a little bit on the sweet side, but a great wine. Non Birding Bill really enjoyed it. This is a great gift even for the non birding people in you life. You'll note that I have a button ad for this company on my site. If you click on that to order the wine, I get a tiny percentage, but honestly, this company mission is so good, I don't care if you order it through my site or go directly to them from google. It's a great wine and even better cause.

Cornell Lab Of Ornithology Gifts

I was going to post some cool gifts from Cornell Lab or Ornithology, but they have their own gift guide this year. Please check it out. Some of my favorites include the Year Long Membership to Project Feeder Watch (great for backyard birders and kids), Birds of North America Online Membership (perfect for hardcore or intermediate birder--have a question about some bird in North America, you'll find the answer there. Especially with the growing popularity of iPhones and iTouches, this is a great online birding resource.

Books:

The Young Birder's Guide (kids and new birders)

BEST BIRDING BOOK TO COME OUT ALL YEAR. Bill Thompson worked with kids to find out what kind of a birding guide they would like. I have reviewed this book already, but this would be an ideal gift for any kid you'd like to get a little more into birding. It's in an approachable format, has cool birding facts, habitat tips, just about everything. I've even met a few adult birders working on honing their skills appreciate the book. I'd even buy one of these and donate it to Toys For Tots.

City Birds/Country Birds (backyard birder, especially in urban areas)

This is my second and it came out this spring. It's how to attract birds no matter where you live, even if it's in an urban area. The information is based on my 8 years working in a bird feeding retail store and from my personal backyard birding experience. Lots of photos (some from blog readers) and fun to read information. You can get it in a number of places, but if you would like a personalized copy, get it from the Birdchic Boutique.

The New Peterson Field Guide (birders of all levels, although if you know a hardcore birder, chances are good that they already have it).

This is a revamped version of the classic illustrated guide by Roger Tory Peterson. If you have always been a fan of Peterson, you will love this updated version--larger pictures and text, small maps on the species page with larger maps in back, added species, updated maps, and a url to video podcasts. A good classic birder gift. Should be available at most bird stores and book stores.

The Smithsonian Field Guide to Birds (birders of all levels)

This is a more comprehensive take on a photographic field guide. The photos are very good and unlike other photographic guides, there are several photos for each species. This is a newer guide that is not getting the attention it deserves, but would be a welcome addition to most bird watcher's shelves. This might be a bit overwhelming for a new birder or young birder, but for the gung-ho birder, this is a must.

The Boreal Owl Murder (birders of all levels)

This is a cute book. I read it on a flight, and I've loaned my copy to a few other birding friends (some hardcore) and I think one summed it up best: "It was good and it's a book you don't have to be 99% present to read." It's a murder mystery set in Minnesota involving birders. It's cutesy (the main character's name is Bob White--ha ha get it, cause he's a birder) but there all sorts of birding references and Minnesota references--I think she killed off Bill Lane in the book. Again, it's a fun, easy read and just about everything in it bird-wise is accurate (although I disagree with the character who said boreals don't respond to tapes, they sure do). I only found one glaring inaccuracy. She made a Minnesota Ornithologists' Union Board Meeting sound way too friendly and fun.

For The Birds (the backyard birder)

Sisters who own Wild Birds Unlimited franchises combined their birding feeding knowledge and created this book/calendar. It goes through the calendar year and lets you know what birds to expect, what feeds work best for the time of year, kids projects, and personal tips from the authors. The book is good for the entire US, both eastern and western. Available at a Wild Birds Unlimited near you.

Jewelery

Hand Painted Coins (birders of all levels)

I found these when I was at Civic Fest this summer. He paints coins and makes them into pendents for necklaces, cuff links, money clips, etc. I bought a Slovakian coin with a honey bee on it that's absolutely beautiful. He does the US Quarters and coins from other countries, so you can find any manner of birds or wildlife. If you are looking for unique, this is it.

Feather Brain (the flashy birder)

I just thought these were cute headbands.

The Mincing Mockingbird (the birder with a good sense of humor).

Off the wall bird art, what more do you need to know?

Go Go Birding Gadgets

Snapshot Adventures: The Secrets of Bird Island (kids)

This is an awesome little computer game. My only beef is that it is currently only for PCs and not Macs at the moment. But essentially, you use your grandfather's journal to find out where he disappeared to. You meet some of his friends along the way and they ask you to take photos of birds. The birds move and you get points for birds in different poses. Also, if you don't know what a bird is that they want you to find, you have a guide. The birds are fairly accurate and it's a fun way to do some nature photography on a rainy day as well as learn some mad birding skills. Awesome and fun computer game. Heck, some adults will even enjoy this.

Remembird (intermediate to hardcore birders)

This is an awesome little device! It's a digital audio recorder that you can either wear on your neck or attach to your binoculars. When it's on your binos, the buttons for recording fall where your fingers fall and it's very intuitive to use. It's great for taking audio notes of birds. Your looking at the bird and the card takes in all you info. You then can listen later and compare in your field guide. The microphone has 2 settings, one for up close recording for taking notes and one that will grab audio from further away. Can't id that bird song? Grab it on your Remembird and compare it to your birdJam when you get home. Remembird also comes with software and it will keep track of all your audio recordings and you can even make your own list of birds recorded. Very sweet and a useful tool for taking notes and learning your bird calls.

birdJam (great for birders of all levels)

This is as always a great gift idea, one I've mentioned several times. Also, I just noticed that they currently are having bundled special of an iPod Touch, iMaingo portable speaker, software, & songs. It's a really great deal.

The Gift Of Time

Another thing to consider is that if you want to give someone a really nice gift, maybe chip in with other family members, why not buy someone a registration to a bird festival? I go to a lot of bird festivals and they are fun, but the cost can add up between registering, flight, and hotel. If you can help a birder ease some of that travel burden, registration to a bird festival is a great way to go. Some festivals coming up in the near future that would be idea include The Space Coast Birding and Nature Festival (Florida in January) or the San Diego Bird Festival (southern California in March).

Again, these are some ideas that have caught my eye this year. Please feel free to add suggestions and links in the comments (although, I will delete things I find unsuitable for this list like World of Warcraft, Viagra, and Botox).

We Interrupt Naked Thanksgiving For A Long-tailed Duck!

I unsubscribed from a local birding listserv awhile ago. For some reason, I started receiving emails again and took it as a sign when someone reported seeing a long-tailed duck about six blocks from my home. I'd seen one before, but it was years ago in a Wisconsin sewage pond. As a matter of fact, it was so long ago, I think the bird was called by its old name: the oldsquaw.

Non Birding Bill and I have a low-key attitude towards the holiday. We do Naked Thanksgiving: no dressing, pie for breakfast, and showing our gratitude. I read the email that someone had spotted the long-tailed duck this morning at Lake Calhoun--within walking distance of our home and a periodic bike ride for us.

So, we broke tradition, put on some clothes and headed over--I made sure to take along a flask of scotch, partially for Bill and partially for a toast if we saw the bird. We went to the northeast side of the lake. That was where it was last reported. We found lots of ducks, but no long-tailed duck. I scanned the lake and noticed lots of birders scattered about the shore. I then noticed a flock of hooded mergansers and goldeneyes on the south side. We headed over. I scanned a bit and then NBB went back to the car. I ran into local birder Jim Ryan (who is a regular of Birds and Beers) and he was with another local birder named Dave (can't remember his last name). We scanned and admired the waterfowl but found no long-tail. Jim mentioned he saw an odd duck earlier but it took off. He mentioned that he thought it might go to nearby Lake Harriet and he was going to head over. I wondered if I had enough scotch for NBB, so I could pursue the duck.

Just as Jim and I were about to enter our vehicles, Dave called us over--weird duck flew in with some other waterfowl. Jim and I hustled over and sure enough...

There it was. On the left is a hooded merganser, on the right is the long-tailed duck. The long-tailed duck breeds in up in the arctic. After breeding, the ducks migrate to either coast or even to the great lakes. This bird is far from either coast and far south of Lake Superior, not sure how it got here or how long it will stay, but it was treat so close to home.

It didn't stay near us long. There was a lot of traffic on Lake Calhoun--sail boats, kayakers, fishermen. The long-tailed duck appeared to be nervous and soon flew off, perhaps searching for a less boat heavy part of the lake. There were also quite a few walkers, joggers and rollerbladers around the lake. One woman stopped to see what we were looking at and I showed her. She asked if the ducks were here because the lake was heated. Apparently, someone told her that lakes in Minneapolis stay open because the city heats them. We laughed and told her that someone fed her quite a line.

I sent NBB a text that we had the bird (he decided to wait in the car where it was heated while I searched for the long-tailed duck). He came down with the flask and all of us, including the woman who asked what we were doing had a celebratory sip of 18 year old scotch for such a great bird on Thanksgiving Day!

NBB and I returned home and resumed our gratitude.

Happy Naked Thanksgiving!

There are updates at the end of this post!

Non Birding Bill and I are celebrating our usual day long date that we call Naked Thanksgiving. One of the many things I'm grateful for is just some time with each other. It was suggested that bird bloggers post photos of turkeys today. I'm not sure if everyone is going to do it, but I have turkey photos:

Lovely! Although, I took this photo last March when males are in their mating mode. I think they have to puff of those feathers to distract from this:

What female turkey wouldn't want a piece of that?

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have a great day...and if you don't celebrate, I hope you're having a great day too. I'm grateful to everyone who stops by here from time to time to take a look. I'm grateful for my family, for NBB, for having a roof over my head, for our crazy pets.

Update 1: The above is a female, but based on the comment hilarity, I'm keepin' it! And honestly, the males really don't look better than that. And if you would like to see an actual tom head, check out Bill of the Birds. He's got it goin' on!

Update 2: I found more turkey photos. Here's cute turkey photo sent to my by April Grunspan:

And I noticed PicusBlog has a cool turkey blog entry up too.

Update 3: Birding Bev has graciously compiled the turkey photos and offers a most succulent bird in her post.

Space Coast Here I Come!!

I'm pretty much finished with traveling for the rest of the year, but I'm prepping for adventures next year and I am OH so excited. I'm going to do the Space Coast Bird Festival in January and what's really fun for me is that I'll get to help on the field trips and I'm going to a fantastic digiscoping spot, Viera Wetlands where I had the most amazing personal appearance with an American bittern. Here are one of the photos:

So, here's my schedule for where I'm helping at the festival (along with many other GREAT field trip leaders):

January 21 - Viera Wetlands
January 22 - South Brevard (oh dear, it leaves at 4:30am)
January 23 - Viera Wetlands
January 25 - Gull ID (gulls, why did it have to be gulls)
January 26 - Pelagic Trip

This is just going to be a digiscoping bonanza (apart from the pelagic). I'll also be doing two different workshops: Blogging: The New Nature Journal and City Birds/Country Birds, how to attract birds anywhere.

Plus, there will be the whole festival gang there as well. Something to look foward to as we have all these cold days ahead of us in Minnesota.

Mischief On Twitter

Some of you may have noticed on the blog page that I have a Twitter Update. If you are not familiar with Twitter, it's a form of micro blogging. I can send a one or two sentence update, it cannot be any longer than 140 characters. Sometimes I type an update in from my computer and sometimes I send one from a cell phone via text message.

If you wish, you can get a Twitter account and follow anyone you know or find on Twitter. For example, you can follow people like friends or bloggers you know like Born Again Bird Watcher or Picus, or you can follow celebrities like Stephen Fry or Jonathan Coulton, or characters like Darth Vader, companies like Dunkin Donuts, your favorite news organization like I follow MinnPost, or just the plain bizarre like Bacon Friday. I use mine to test out ideas for future blog posts (is this link appropriate) or if I'm busy at a bird festival then I will type in quick updates. Non Birding Bill used it for me when I had to work the RNC as a park ranger. He was able to follow the rioters twitter feeds and let me know where tear gas was being sprayed.

The other day I was at the Minnesota River Valley Visitor Center just doing some digiscoping. I find it relaxing when I'm stressed and now that I have my favorite digiscoping camera (the Fuji FinePix E900, thank you National Camera Exchange for digging one up for me) I just love playing with it.

I joke when I give digiscoping programs that you suddenly find yourself with a renewed interest in common species like house sparrows and starlings. Isn't that a pretty house sparrow? I know, I know, bluebird people are reading that last sentence and think that my choo choo has really gone round the bend. But there were other cool sparrows too:

We still have some fox sparrows hanging out in MN! There were about four working the grounds underneath the visitor centers feeders. I wrote a text on my phone to Twitter that I was seeing fox sparrows.

There were quite a few house finches around too. This was one of the healthy looking ones. There was one male who looked rather puffy and spent too long at the feeders when everyone else would fly away. It looked sick. It didn't have the eye disease you typically see with house finches, but it didn't look good.

Soon, many of the birds left and I noticed this one lone downy woodpecker doing her best to blend in with the column on this feeder. I figured that there must be a Cooper's hawk or sharp-shinned hawk perched nearby, but could not see it. Suddenly, there was a flash of gray, black and white. I first thought "mockingbird" but remembered I was in Minnesota so it must have been a northern shrike. That id was confirmed when Mr. Gray, Black & White took off in hot pursuit of the sick looking house finch. I wrote a text to Twitter:

"A northern shrike just tried to nail a house finch at MN River Valley Headquarters."

To which Born Again Bird Watcher responded:

"@birdchick Oooh, kinky!"

And then PicusBlog adds:

"@birdchick @babw The end result of the aforementioned act might look like this."

Apparently, my texting is just chock full of double entendres and now I know what a house shrike would look like.

National Eagle Center Job Opportunity

This job opening caught my eye. It's perfect for anyone interested in eagles and living in Wabasha, MN:

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: The National Eagle Center, today’s leading organization dedicated solely to eagles and their relationships with the natural world and human cultures, seeks an enthusiastic and highly ambitious senior-level candidate for the position of Executive Director.

Reporting to the board of directors, this newly created position will be responsible for all strategic and operational aspects of this fast-growing, highly visible organization. Leadership responsibilities include visionary strategic planning and direction toward the organization’s mission and goals; aggressive membership, endowment, grant, and gift store/web site revenue growth; effective management of a highly-dedicated staff of employees and volunteers; supervision of traveling and permanent exhibits including live resident eagles; and efficient operation of the National Eagle Center, a newly constructed, 14,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility. The Executive Director will serve as chief executive officer of this dynamic and progressive enterprise and will accept responsibility for its success on all levels.

The ideal candidate will have an advanced degree or equivalent experience in administration, business or the natural sciences, along with an increasingly responsible and successful record of managing seven-figure enterprises. In addition, he or she will possess exceptional interpersonal, leadership, and communication skills that combine to take full advantage of the opportunities available to the National Eagle Center and maximize the organization’s chance for continued growth and success.

The National Eagle Center, a 501c(3) not-for-profit corporation, was founded in 1989 by a group of highly dedicated volunteers and has operated continuously since that time. The organization’s goal is to explore the importance of eagles to human cultures throughout history and to ensure long-term sustainability of native eagle populations through a wide variety of educational and experiential programming. Situated on the banks of the Mississippi River in historic Wabasha, Minnesota, the National Eagle Center enjoys a breathtaking location in the heart of the picturesque Hiawatha Valley, and serves as enthusiastic host to the highest number of wintering bald eagles found anywhere in the lower forty-eight states.

If you are ready to assume an executive leadership position with a nationally-prominent organization, yet appreciate the healthy rewards of an outdoor lifestyle and small-town living, this is the ideal opportunity for you.

National Eagle Center
50 Pembroke Avenue
Wabasha, Minnesota 55981

(URL: Please submit your resume via email along with salary requirements to National Eagle Center Executive Director Search Committee, c/o RANDY EGGENBERGER, Board Member (EM: eggenbrd AT myclearwave.net)

Interesting Recaptured Chickadee

We had an interesting recaptured bird at Carpenter Nature Center last Friday!

We don't have our nets setup right now, it's too cold. Birds tangled in a net can't use their feathers as well to regulate their body temperatures so we don't up them up when it's below freezing. We do set up little cage traps around the feeding areas though. Birds get trapped inside, but they can move around and still use their feathers to stay warm. The above chickadee got into one of the traps and was already banded. These are the birds we really need--recaptures. We can look at the band number, figure out its original capture date, how many times it's been captured, age, sometimes sex, just all sorts of info!

The above black-capped chickadee was banded on July 12, 2002! On its original capture date, the bird was identified as a hatch year bird. So we know based on its plumage that it hatched the summer of 2002. However, we don't know the sex of this particular chickadee. We can only do that in the summer. Females will have brood patches, swollen bare skin for incubating eggs (often called a BP by banders). Males will have a cloacal protuberance for...mating (often called CP by banders).

This six year old chickadee has been retrapped 10 times. Alas, it has always been in the winter. So the first year we banded it, the chickadee was recently hatched and would not have a BP or a CP. And in the winter, males and females are not in the mating mode and they do not have a CP or BP and even though we've had it 10 more times, never at a time when it could sexed.

Still amazing to think that this bird has survived six Minnesota winters. I wonder where it has set up its nesting territory?