Sunny Day

The roads were moderately clear today and the sun was out! I headed back to the Minnesota Valley NWR. It's right off the highway and easily accessible. A turkey spent most of her day at the feeding station. She kicked up quite a bit of snow under the feeder to get at the spilled sunflower seeds.
This was to the absolute delight of the juncos and trees sparrows. The turkey also kicked up quite a bit of spilled Nyjer which these birds love to eat.

There were a TON of woodpeckers--mostly downy (above), hairy, and red-bellied. These two just cracked me up. They were eating on either side of the peanut feeder and if they noticed each other would get in a fight. While two woodpeckers would be on the peanut feeder, two more would be on the suet feeders. Then you would see at least a half dozen more woodpeckers waiting in the trees for their turn at the food.

All of a sudden, all of the birds flew off except for this one female downy woodpecker. She remained frozen where she was. I noticed some snow shoers taking off their gear outside the nature center and wondered that were it. No, her attention was elsewhere. There must have been a hawk nearby. Then someone in the building spotted it.

An adult sharp-shinned hawk had flown in. In the above photo are both birds. The female downy is in the yellow circle, the hawk is in the red circle. Both sat still waiting for the other to move. Finally, the hawk relaxed, and tucked in one of its feet (something birds do when they are totally relaxed or about to sleep). The downy saw her chance and flew to safety.

That allowed me to digiscope LOTS of photos of the sharp-shin! You could see those bright red eyes! I took about 120 photos, entranced by those deep red eyes. More snow shoers passed and this hawk didn't pay them any attention. Even a chickadee was brave enough to mob and scream a warning within a few feet of her. I learned from one of the staff that this bird hunted this area quite often, which confirmed my suspicion (on Wednesday I wondered about some curious cardinal feeding behavior and I wondered if it was because of a hawk). Eventually, some small birds flushed and the chickadee that had been mobbing her got nailed and became sharp-shin dinner.

About five minutes after she flew off with her prey the birds returned to the feeder and the original feeding frenzy continued as before--see hawks don't keep birds away from a feeder permanently. Just for the time they are present in the yard. Prey knows that as soon as the hunter gets its fill they are safe for the moment.

It was a different experience being at the nature center on a Saturday instead of a week day. I spent a good chunk of the afternoon giving a digiscoping presentation. It's strange to me that being on the road and going to bird festivals, I get the sense that EVERYBODY knows about digiscoping and it's sweeping that nation. However, to most at the nature center it was very new and different. I had quite a few people ask what I was doing with a "telescope"--was that really for watching birds?

Perhaps I will set myself up there more on the weekends with all my bells and whistles: binos, spotting scope, Handheld Birds, birdJam with speaker...yes, step into my parlour little flies...let me show you how cool birding can be...mwa ha ha ha ha ha.

What Crazy People Do For Fun

I got a bird report from my family in Indiana: My sister Monica sent this photo of a Cooper's hawk her husband Dave took in their yard. Look at that flat head! Textbook Cooper's hawk.

In this weather I would just prefer to hole up and hibernate sampling various tea concoctions, toddies, soups, and stews. Non Birding Bill still wants to go out. Since it was his birthday he got to choose where we were to go and what to do so we headed for the Maul of America. It actually isn't too bad an idea, walking its halls as quickly as possible is remarkably good exercise. As we were leaving he thanked me for spending the afternoon with him at the MOA and asked where I wanted to go for my birthday. "Firing range." I responded. He smiled, nervously.

Meanwhile, the WingScapes Camera captured the freezing birds on the ledge. The nice thing about that camera is that if I can't be home to watch the birds it will watch them for me. The batteries didn't last too long since the temps never made it above -7, but I got a few fun and strange shots. Of course the starlings armada was the first to move in. A cardinal is actually the first bird to show up on our ledge, but they come while it's still dark out and the camera is off. One morning I found a cardinal feeding in the dark on one side of the ledge and a flying squirrel on the other side. Just two strangers passing in the night...or at least the early dawn hours.

After the starling armada has conquered the ledge the pigeons decide that they want a piece of the action and stage an overthrow.

Eventually, the pigeons realize that no matter how much they lunge at the starlings, it's a waste of energy to keep at them. The starlings are small enough to maneuver around the larger lumbering bodies of the pigeons. As a pigeon is pushing one starling away, two more will sneak behind the pigeon and get in a few mouthfuls. The pigeons eventually start snapping up what precious seed they can before the starlings get it all and peace is reached momentarily.

When the ledge quiets down the woodpeckers move in for the suet on the wall. This poor downy got one piece of suet stuck to his breast. He eventually got it off. Nice to know that I'm not the only one who has that problem.

Last night was the Luminary Loppet:

Blocks of ice are hollowed out and filled with a candle. Then the blocks lined up in a path on the frozen Lake of the Isles and around the islands. Cross country skiers can go around the trail in a race but along the way are stops for hot cider, snow shoeing, etc.

Above is a press photo from the website of what the blocks lined up on part of the trail look like. It would be a gorgeous trail to take at night with all the candles and the view of downtown Minneapolis. Some of the homes along Lake of Isles keep their holiday lights out, so it's kind of a romantic view. With the wind chill at -31, NBB an I thought we would just drive around the lake to see the luminaries and the people crazy enough to ski on the lake. Then something caught our eye:

Someone had built a fire right on the lake itself. NBB and I looked at each other and we could see the same thought crossing our minds. We can't pass a fire built on ice on a lake and not go check it out. Plus, we wanted to get an up close photo of one of the blocks of ice. We ran from the car out onto the ice to the fire--surely we would get some warmth from the fire? The wind was fierce and only two people were tending the fire. They seemed both sad and relieved not to have a larger crowd for their efforts. Sad because it's such a cool event, relieved that with a small crowd they wouldn't be tending the fire in this ass freezing wind for long. A few skiers passed and we cheered them on. NBB snapped a photo of the fire and the above photo of the ice block and after three minutes we were sprinting back to the car. My fingers got so frozen so fast they already had the pre frostbite ache, which was worsened when I realized that I couldn't fish the car key out of my coat pocket with my glove on. I removed my glove, retrieved the car key shouting copious amounts of profanity with every step. I hadn't planned on being outside so I didn't even have some Hot Hands with me. Arrrgh. I'm fine with cold, until it's below zero, then I earn my husband given nickname of Sharon Q. Whinypants.

We laughed our way all the way home at the crazy things people do for entertainment in February. Then had some much earned birthday cake and scotch. Good times in a marriage.

And now, it's Super Bowl Sunday and I have to watch--the Indianapolis Colts are actually in the Super Bowl--my mind is blown. I remember when they were brought to Indy from Baltimore and all the arguing about what a waste of money that was--now look at 'em playing in the Big Show.

Early Thoughts on Bird Watch America

Have I really been in Atlanta one day and am I already this exhausted? I love this show--so many great friends to catch up with, so many new people with new ideas to meet and so much new product to see. All this is on top of my actual duties that I have to perform here.

Non Birding Bill was kind enough to check out a laptop pc for me from the university he works at since Norbert was not ready from having his hard drive replaced. I can't get the darn thing to connect to the internet or hold a battery charge, but somehow I have landed a very spanky executive suite with office privleges. I'm currently tucked away in a quiet corner on the 17 floor of the Hilton using their complimentary computers and internet access. Incidentally, accessing in my room is $13.95 a day--nuts.

My lunch time presentation went over better than I expected. It's odd, I feel perfectly natural most of the time in front of a crowd, but I found myself incredibly nervous--my left leg and right hand were uncontrollably shaking for most of my talk. I think it was because I was debuting some new material (crazy customer stories--like the woman who used to call the bird store and tell us about the peewees she could communicate with psychically) and I get more nervous talking in front of peers than people I will never see again. The audience seemed to enjoy it, and I think I kept it brief--whew.

The best presentation that I observed today was by Peter Marra about urban ecology--he has been doing some interesting research on common birds found in urban areas. I think this is something that can be used in several major cities. One of his most interesting findings had to do with nest predation in urban areas compared to forested areas. I think the general thought is that nests are less safe from predators in urban areas because we think of raccoons, crows and cats. Marra's research found that urbans nest were preyed upon a little over 30% whereas nests in forested areas were preyed upon closer to 80%! The main reason appears to be that we have fewer nest predators in urban areas--sure there are crows, raccoons and cats but not nearly as many snakes or smaller predators because we can exterminate them more easily.

He also had studies of catbird survival rates once the young leave the nest. Interesting to note that in neighborhoods with more cats, had fewer fledging catbirds survive.

Tomorrow I get to go in to the trade show and see what's nifty and new. Some sneak peaks that I found today: solar powered squirrel proof feeders, newer ant moats for hummingbirds, suet pellets, and a new book from Houghton Mifflin with tips from 50 top birders (hmmmm, I wonder how many people are going to glance at the list of 50 top birders and then take offence that they weren't invited to submit an essay--incidentally, there are a lot of essays by women in the book).

More soon.

More on One Legged Grackle

Well, when I downloaded images today from the camera, I was anxious to see if there was anything more on the one legged common grackle and sure enough the bird showed up in a few photos. What was interersting this time was in the first few photos you can see an immature grackle waiting behind it? A nestling of the one legged grackle?

A few photos later answered my question. In the background of the photo on the left, the one legged grackle is in front of a begging immature grackle, it does have chicks! Today I mixed in some mixed nuts and mealworms and for the grackles, the nuts are definetly preferred over the mealworms. The bird appears to have two chicks and it's kind of inspiring to watch it in the photos continue on with its duty of raising the off spring and carrying on its DNA. I suppose

that is one of the things that makes this species so successful. Of course many people this time of year are having lots of trouble with grackles taking over feeding stations so it does seem kind of silly to get so taken with one, but I just can't help but show interest in an underdog. Grackles really are a cool looking bird, I wonder if they didn't crowd out other birds sometimes when they feed if people would like them more?

On another note I did notice that we have a banded bird hanging out. I thought I saw a banded bird in one of the photos a few days ago, but figured is was a stray seed in a blurry photo, but today you can clearly see the red-winged blackbird male has a silver band on its right leg. Last year we had a couple of banders behind the store out who banded some birds, I wonder if this was one of them. Which reminds me that I need to book those guys again, they are great educators and it's always fun to hang out with banders.

One Legged Grackle

Here's an unusual sight that showed up behind the store today, a one-legged common grackle (making it a tad uncommon). The bird is very plucky and kept all the red-winged blackbirds away from the food pile. Even one of the crows seemed a bird unnerved by this bird. We noticed it today by its mode of hopping as opposed the cocky looking strut a grackle normally has. I've never seen this particular grackle before today so I wonder if this bird recently acquired this injury as opposed to having hatched missing a leg. The grackle appeared healthy otherwise the whole day, not sitting low to the ground all puffed up as sick bird would. I got several photos (most blurry) of mono leg, and the eyes appear fairly bright which is a good sign of health. This is the only photo that shows part of its nictitating membrane (extra eyelid birds have to protect from dust when flying and eating) is exposed, so I think that is more the result of when the motion sensitive camera captured the image instead of a sign of illness.

Of course we still have some nasty mealworms that we're trying to get rid of at the bird store and I put another pile out hoping to have a contest of which bird species could carry the most. A female house sparrow was found with six mealworms, a female red-winged blackbird had seven and low and behold, check out mono leg here: at least nine! Which leads me to believe that this bird has a nest somewhere and has chicks ready to be fed. This kind of makes me think that the injury is fairly new since the bird would be nesting nearby for the last few weeks and I would have noticed it sooner with the way we all watch the feeders behind the store (and monitor the area with a motion sensitive camera). Also, birds that have injuries like this have a tougher time finding a mate. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how long this bird lasts behind the store and if it ends up bringing chicks to the feeder in another week or two.