December Birds & Beers

It's time for another Birds and Beers!

Thursday, December 11 at 6pm at Merlin's Rest!

I don't know if it will be the rip roarin' scotch tasting it was last time, but I can guarantee that it will be fun and we'll talk some birds. We can talk about the MOU Paper Session, the Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas, owls, crossbills, upcoming bird festivals, bird feeding, Christmas Bird Counts, banding, the topics are limitless. And unlike all the other holiday parties out there--you don't need to bring a gift or baked good! We'll get it all from 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--the sky is the limit. It's low key and it's fun.

Birds And Beers Turns Into Birds And Scotch

I've spent the last 48 finally catching up from all my travels: unpacking and cleaning my apartment. Regular blogging should resume soon, I still have a few more Texas entries coming.

It was a wild time at Birds and Beers tonight at Merlin's Rest. We had a good mix of people from regulars to at least one new face. I also brought a bunch of books I've been reading to share with the group.

Some of the excitement surrounded a white-breasted nuthatch foot that I brought along with me. On Saturday, I was filling Mr. Neil's feeders. I noticed the seed storage bin (old garbage can) had the smell of a dead mouse. When I took the seed out, I found a dead nuthatch in the bottom. I think the bird had flown into the garage, somehow made it over to the seed (the lid was off), got stuck against the inside wall of the bin which was too smooth for it to get any good traction and got stuck. I felt incredibly guilty and sad and wonder if we might look into some of the seed storage bins at Credit River?

The nuthatch was most likely banded by Mark and Roger (who periodically band birds at Mr. Neil's and also attend Birds and Beers), so I brought them the foot. I also turned the band number into the Bird Banding Lab website. Above, Roger is handing the foot to Merlin's Rest regular Bill Watkins.

I think we made have weirded him out.

The rest of the birders like Curt from National Camera (in Golden Valley, MN) were wowed by the incredibly tiny toes and insanely long claws of the nuthatch. We're not sure how long ago the nuthatch was banded, Mark and Roger weren't quite sure, but we'll find out soon enough.

The big excitement for the evening came when some of used the bathroom and noticed the sign on the door promoting a visit from Winston a rep for The Glenlivet. The sign mentioned that he would be in a kilt, so after my trip to the bathroom, I sought out a man in a kilt. I found him right away and told him that I periodically fill my Swarovski flask with their 18 year old single malt.

Winston came over to give our group a private tasting! It went from Birds and Beers to Birds and Scotch. We tried the 12, the 15, the Nadurra 16, and the 21. The 15 year old was my favorite, not too heavy and with good spicy taste.

Our group got our photo taken with with Winston of Glenlivet. Above from left to right is most of the Birds and Beers crowd: Gordon, Roger, Curt, me, Winston, Kirk, Adele, Michelle, Mark, Linda, and Diane.

Winston resumed his spot in the bar to continue his single malt scotch tasting, but I snuck back the bottle of 21 year old single malt for some photo shenanigans (no, I would not actually chug that). Nice: a Cape May Bird Observatory shirt and a bottle of scotch--see what birding can drive you to do?

This Birds and Beers lasted to almost 11pm! That's one of the longest. Kirk, Roger, Curt, and I stayed awhile discussing topics from movies, cool environmental education experiences, silly birding mistakes, kids, just the gamut. I've enjoyed all the Birds and Beers, but this one was really great!

Now, I just need to remember to sign up for a Christmas Bird Count.

Pine Siskins and Bonfires and Bees

Just a reminder: The next Birds and Beers is this Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 6pm at Merlin's Rest.

This weekend was kind of a blur, I'm still trying to catch up. This early winter weather is just perfect for a one last hurrah before the hardcore cold temperatures force us inside. Non Birding Bill got Mr. Neil to host a bonfire gathering.

We had a great bonfire going and we burned some unusable beehive frames which made for some spectacular pyrotechnic effects with the old wood. Speaking of frames, we still have some frames full of honey to extract and a big fancy extractor. I thought that maybe we could do some extracting at the bonfire gathering--lots of friends over, "Hey, don't you want to be a junior beekeeper and extract some honey?" We could all take turns, running the crank. Alas, much like all the beekeeping equipment out there, NO INSTRUCTIONS (beekeeping equipment manufacturers--that sucks and makes me not like your products and is off putting to new beekeepers).

So, little was extracted and we now have a fancy extractor that we are not real clear on how to use. Lorraine has gone to the cheesecloth method for some of our frames.

This morning we woke up to a dusting of snow and LOTS of finches at the feeders--the long tube feeder almost had all 20 perches were full. Non Birding Bill and I headed out to our remaining hives we are going to over winter--Kitty and Kelli. We were going to screw in the metal entrance reducers so the girls would have less area to defend and to also keep mice from moving inside.

When we arrived, we found paw prints which looked remarkably like skunk at the entrance of both hives. This snow fell in the early morning hours. That jerk skunk had just been there a mere few hours before NBB and myself. Skunks knock at the entrance of a hive. This makes the bees angry and they come out to attack, the skunk eats them, apparently unfazed by the stinging. We have carpet tacking around the entrances to prevent this (when the skunks come knocking, they get pricked by the nails), but it's gotten strewn around this past bee season. So NBB and I rearranged it to give that skunk a few good pricks if it comes back. Hanz (the guy who does yard maintenance) built our bees a wicked bad electric fence to keep bears out, Lorraine is going to ask him to add one more line of electricity, closer to the ground and closer to skunk height to encourage the b@stard to look for food elsewhere.

NBB and I put our ears to both hives and heard contented buzzing from within each hive. Love that!

Early plans for next season--six hives! We'll divide Kelli into 2 hives (cause she's gonna swarm and if we divide her, we can control the swarm), 3 new hives, and Kitty...well, that's our angriest hive and we're just gonna let her do whatever she wants to do. If she wants to swarm, then she can swarm. I'm not gonna argue that hive.

There was a constant flow of goldfinches all morning. None of them were banded, so it was just a steady stream of hundreds visiting. The day before, I had noticed a couple of pine siskins and the more I watched the goldfinches...

...the more I would see streaky pine siskins mingle in among the flock. Which is right on target according to the Winter Finch Forecast: "A conifer seed specialist in winter, most siskins should leave the province this fall because the spruce cone crop is poor in the boreal forest. It is uncertain whether the huge white pine seed crop will keep some siskins in central and northern Ontario this winter."

I put some fine ground sunflower hearts and thistle on the tree stump. Goldfinches flew in for it, as did juncos and (of course) pine siskins. In the above photo, you can see some of that yellow edging on the wing feathers of the siskins. If you have goldfinches in your yard and you've never noticed a pine siskin before, take a closer look at your finches. Pine siskins can be easily mistaken for goldfinches in winter plumage. But look at the breast. If it's clear, it's a goldfinch, if it's super streaky, it's a pine siskin.

Once two or three siskins were on the stump, more moved in. It wasn't too long before the siskins outnumbered the goldfinches! I didn't get a photo of it, but we did have one crazy pine siskin going to the no melt peanut butter suet. I'd never seen a siskin on suet before, I thought they were strick seed eaters.

Birds and Beers

The next Birds and Beers is Tuesday, November 18, 2008 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.

Our Texas version of Birds and Beers turned into a blogging meeting. We had some of the guys from Round Robin, Born Again Bird Watcher, Flying Mullet, WildBird on the Fly (pictured above), birdspot, The Birder's Library, and Clay Taylor (also pictured above and who is working on a blog, but not quite ready to debut it).

In this photo we have a brother of a blogger on the left, The Birder's Library in the middle, and Amy on the right who is friends with Flying Mullet (who blogs some great birding down in her neck of the woods in Florida). Amy does not have a blog. We were trying to talk her into starting a birding gossip blog. The rest of us could feeder gossip and she could post it without it ever being traced to us. Due to the uninteresting birder gossip and her lack of interest, it was not started.

Above is Born Again Birder looking sinister next to a smiling bird spot. I told John to look a little more friendly (as I know him to be) and got this:

He looks a little less serial killerish, but birdspot's eyes are closed. Doh! Incidentally, Born Again Bird Watcher did a much better job of chronicling the Texas Birds and Beers, be sure to check out his photos. We had a great time laughing at the Lone Star and then we learned that birdspot is an award winning bird caller. Here is a video so you can hear her do a dead on rock pigeon:

Talented! I have to admit, birdspot and I must be connected on some weird level. We both have cool glasses and not the usual birder fashion sense. We are both on Twitter and she will often write a tweet that I was just thinking about. Before either of us knew each other I was doing Birds and Beers and was doing Birds and Beer (she writes Twitter updates about birds she sees when she's having a beer) Also, we both ordered the same beverage at Birds and Beers: single malt Scotch with water on the side. Freaky! Although, I am not the artistic talent she is.

Birds, Beers, Bald Eagles, Bees, and Rio Grande Valley Fest

Holy Buckets, I am in love with the boys at the Golden Valley, MN National Camera Exchange. My all-time favorite point and shoot digital camera to use for digiscoping is a Fuji FinePix E900. It's been discontinued and hard to find. They found one for me. I'm takin' that bad boy to Texas. The Canon A570 I'm currently using is okay, but the color quality is just not as good as the Fuji. Thank you National Camera in Golden Valley, you boys are the best!

Hey, here's some cool news from WFRV:

A bird that's believed to be the oldest banded bald eagle on record in the upper Midwest has been returned to the wild. The 31-year-old female was hit by a car on state Highway 47 near Fence Lake last month. After recovering, the eagle was released by wildlife officials in Lac du Flambeau on Friday.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the bird was among 6,000 eagles banded in 1977. The average age of adult eagles is 10-12 years old.

Before this bird, the oldest bald eagle according to the Bird Banding Lab longevity records was 30 years and 9 months.

So, I think I'm kinda grateful for my insanely busy schedule this fall. Mr. Neil wanted to move the Kitty hive so it would be inside the newly installed "bear proof fence" before the winter. This is our least friendly hive and the best time to move a hive is at night. I'm sure you can tell how fun and exciting this is just be rereading that last sentence. I alas could not go this week but you can read all about it over at Lorraine's blog. Of the four of us: Non Birding Bill, Mr. Neil, Me, and Lorraine, only NBB is not the bee sting virgin. Lorraine got her's last night.

Don't forget, we got a couple of Birds and Beers coming up. 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.

Here are the dates and note that the first date is in Harlingen, TX--in conjunction with the Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest!

Thursday, November 6 at 7:45pm (or after the festival keynote speaker is finished that night). It will be held at The Lone Star, they are holding a table for us.

The next will be back in Minnesota:

Tuesday, November 18 at 6pm at Merlin's Rest.

If anyone is on a Texas birding listserv and wants to post the Harlingen Birds and Beers there, please do. It's open to anyone, even if you are not part of the bird festival.

Speaking of the RGV bird fest, if you are a bird blogger and are going to be there, we're going to have a formal Bird Blogger Meeting in the Alcove at 4:30pm on Friday. This is your chance to meet other bloggers, ask questions, share ideas and network. We're a fun group and we're happy to see you be successful. Please come!

AND if you are someone who has no clue what bird blogging is all about or even what the heck a blog is, I'll be giving a program called Blogging: The New Nature Journal on what bird blogging is all about, how to start one, ideas for what you can blog about, highlights of my blog and other great birding blogs you can find on the Internet. The program is on Thursday at 2pm.

If you're in Texas, I look forward to meeting you. It's gonna be a great time!

Birds and Beers

Hey, we have some Birds and Beers dates coming up!

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.

Here are the dates and note that the first date is in Harlingen, TX--in conjunction with the Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest!

Thursday, November 6 at 7:45pm (or after the festival keynote speaker is finished that night). It will be held at The Lone Star, they are holding a table for us.

The next will be back in Minnesota:

Tuesday, November 18 at 6pm at Merlin's Rest.

If anyone is on a Texas birding listserv and wants to post the Harlingen Birds and Beers there, please do. It's open to anyone, even if you are not part of the bird festival.

Reminder! Birds and Beers Tomorrow & A Bee Update

Special thanks to Richard Phillips for the caption:

Birds and Beers is in Ohio tomorrow! There's going to a be a special edition of Birds and Beers in Belleville, OH when I come for the Audubon State Assembly on October 17, 2008!

Birds and Beers
At K.C.'s Steak and Ribs
419-886-2159
6pm - 8pm (or when people go home)

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--the sky is the limit. It's low key and it's fun.

I took a frame (with permission) to the MN Hobby Beekeepers Association meeting on Tuesday night. Beekeepers came up to smell the frame and reached the conclusion: not American Foul Brood, so we do not have to burn the equipment--whoot! I was made fun of for ignoring this hive and I said, "But she was so friendly--we should have called her Lebowski, she was so friendly and yet didn't really do much of anything."

"Oh, you know," a wisened beekeeper said, "an overly friendly hive is a sign that something is wrong with the brood or the queen."

I've come to the conclusion that just bees themselves are a sign that something is wrong with the hive. I'm sorry we lost this hive, but at the same time, even if we had noticed much sooner that she was queenless, I doubt I would have attempted a requeening...it just does not seem to work for us.

Incidentally, the MN Hobby Beekeepers Association has a Youth Scholarship Program. The idea is to get kids interested in beekeeping and to give a kid a chance to try it out. Tuesday night we got to listen to a couple of kids who tried their hand a hive this summer. It was pretty cool to see starting a hive through their perspective. Kids can apply through the website and winners get a free membership to association, tuition to go to the Beekeeping Short Course (which I took and HIGHLY recommend you take if you are considering starting a hive), a hive, some starter bees, some beekeeping gear, and a mentor. Check it out!

I just thought this was a cool photo of the Kitty hive hidden in the fall colors (the Kitty and Kelli hives are both doing well, although we need to get Kitty inside the anti bear fence). I have to say, I had a weird moment yesterday, courtesy of social networking online. I was at the Mississippi River Visitor Center at the Science Museum and I saw a women walking by in the lobby. Without any hesitation I nodded a "hello" and she returned it. Then, we both had the moment of "Why did I just say hi to that person?"

I knew in my gut that I should say hello but didn't know how I knew here. Five minutes later, she came over and said, "Are you on Facebook?"

That was how we knew each other! We had a good laugh about how we had each noticed we worked at the Science Museum and had mutual friends but never saw each other. Add that to the fact that we said hi to each other before each of us knew why we were saying hi, without having met face to face before, it was weird. Turns out that she also knows someone Non Birding Bill and I shared a house with in college. The world get smaller every day.

Ah, the craziness of social networking online.

Birds and Beers Special Edition in Bellville, Ohio--Oct 17, 2008

Callin' Ohio Birders! There's going to a be a special edition of Birds and Beers in Belleville, OH when I come for the Audubon State Assembly on October 17, 2008!

Birds and Beers
At K.C.'s Steak and Ribs
419-886-2159
6pm - 8pm (or when people go home)

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--the sky is the limit. It's low key and it's fun.

There are so many people that are doing interesting things bird wise--research projects, banding, writing, etc. and we don't often find out about it on the listservs. I also notice that some of us only have a chance to meet at a stake out bird. This is a chance to get some of us together, have a drink, and talk some birds.

I must say, last night's Birds and Beers got a bit randy--I think it was the best laugh I've had all week. Someone mentioned that they wanted to start a Muskrats and Martinis, which led to discussions of taking Birds and Beers going on the road, watching the birds and sipping a little something. This time of year we could do Coors and Coots. I wondered what we could pair with owls and had trouble thinking of something and then some sweet little thing said she had an idea and wasn't going to say it out loud (and it wasn't a form of alcohol) which degenerated into double entendres of birding lingo. I'm never going to think of casting a pellet the same way again.

We also came up with a birding drinking game. Find an active feeder, fill a hat with the names of birds that are commonly seen there. Everyone draws a name out of a hat and every time their bird species comes to the feeder, they have to take a sip. You'd be in trouble if you drew chickadee, house sparrow, or starling. If a bird shows up that no one has, a player could challenge another player to identify it. If that player cannot, they have to drink from a cup that has a little of everyone's drink in it.

We wrapped it up early so we all had a chance to go home and watch the debate.

What I Enjoy About Digiscoping

First, Birds and Beers will be Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 6pm at Merlin's Rest. I'm sorry to people who can't make it to Tuesday and only on Thursdays, but my Thursdays are a little nutty for the next few weeks. The next one will be on a Thursday.

Birds and Beers is an informal gathering for people interested in birds to get together, have a beverage, maybe a few eats, and talk some birds. It's open to anyone who might be interested in watching birds to the hardcore lister and anyone in between. It'll be a great way to ignore the nasty political adds on tv, the baffling candidate choices, and the state of the stock market and focus on birds.

Speaking of not wanting to turn on the tv or visit news sites, I'm so grateful to birds and digiscoping. It's nice when the news starts to sound too terrible, that I can find a place and simply watch birds. I love visiting a well traveled feeding station and the Minnesota Valley NWR is just one of those places. I needed photos of woodpeckers and just really took a moment to focus on birds. When someone asks what drew me to birds, I can only answer, "It's the way I'm wired, I love everything about them." Even just watching their natural daily functions. Take a look at that down woodpecker above. This small woodpecker as the ability to hang on the bottom of the feeder, use that stiff tail to prop itself up, and still manage to work out a peanut from just that position. I wonder if I would be willing to do that for a Klondike Bar? Although, that would be a messy way to get one.

I know some "pro photographers" who poo poo amateurs like myself. "You can't get a head on shot of a bird, that's not going to sell." But it's the imperfect shots that I appreciate more--because that's how you actually see birds in the wild. There's a reason that the Mad Bluebird photo is one of the most commercially successful bird photo ever taken--it has character. Again, I take comfort in this nuthatch getting ready to fly of this feeder, the way The Stranger in The Big Lebowski takes comfort in "The dude abides." The position, the shape, the ability of this bird to survive for years in the wild being despite being tiny and sometimes enduring temperatures well below zero degrees Fahrenheit. I'm not looking to sell images, just enjoy birds.

Here's another photo that would never sell, but I take a moment to appreciate how all these functional colors work into a beautiful pallet. Sure black and white blends well with trees and a little flash of red serves a purpose in mating and territoriality, but it's just beautiful. I could stare at that red, white, and black for a good half hour.

Again, it's just nice to find something to take your mind off all the gloom and doom in the news.

On a fun note, yesterday on Big River Journey, our boat was just coming into downtown St. Paul and we watched a very healthy looking coyote drinking from the river. I wish I had my digiscoping set up then. The coyote in perfect sun with the St. Paul high rises looming behind it.

Skywatch Friday & Carpenter Nature Center

It's Skywatch Friday again and I was out at Carpenter Nature Center this morning and thought I'd get a shot of sky. The sky was crisp and blue. And though it's a lovely shade of blue, when put in the blog, it looks more like I just placed a blue box in the post. It needs some accents. Since there were no clouds to oblige, I had to work with earthly accents.

How about some goldenrod? I think this is the start of my favorite time of year at Carpenter. In late summer and early fall the prairie comes alive with color of yellows, reds, greens...

The asters are starting to burst open to. The purple itself is fine, but add a touch of that gorgeous blue sky is all part of the pallet.

And it's not just the flowers, monarchs and swallowtails are nectaring on every blooming thing. This is a giant swallowtail on a a thistle. Note that sea of goldenrod capped off with a beautiful blue sky in the background. At Birds and Beers last night, I had a conversation with bird banders Roger and Mark about goldenrod fields and all the birds that lurk in them this time of year. They mentioned how many warblers are down in them. We had a net up in a goldenrod/sumac/dogwood field at Carpenter this morning and it was our most active net.

We got in a couple of Wilson's warblers (or WIWA according to the American Ornithologists' code) like the bird above and a Nashville...and oodles of flycatchers. Flycatchers just kind of take the wind out of my sails when banding. We get both alder and willow flycatchers in Minnesota and telling them apart this time of year (when they aren't singing) involves algebra (that's not an exaggeration). What heck kind of sadist has to ruin birding with math. I always feel like Tom Hanks in A League of their Own: "There's no math in birding! There's no math in birding!"

Here a second Wilson's. It's so buttery yellow--you can imagine how well it would hide in those goldenrod fields while gleaning insects off the flowers.

Check out the bottoms of the WIWA's foot--it's super yellow. Warblers are just cool from head to toe.

We did have a rather interesting chickadee show up-- it was missing a foot! Fortunately, not the banded foot, so we were able to find out that we banded it last fall and it was healthy and had two feet when it was first banded. Wonder what happened? Did the toes freeze off over the winter? Did the bird fly into a window, injure its foot, resulting in a severe infection that caused the toes to fall off? Did it get bumblefoot?

Another surprise was finding a goldfinch incubating two eggs this late in August. I know goldfinches nest late, but this seems really late for Minnesota. Will be interesting to watch its progress over the next few weeks.