Banding Brown Birds

It was a busy day of banding brown birds at Carpenter Nature Center last Friday.  Above is a female purple finch that flew into the nets. It was interesting to not the changing of the guard we had going on migration wise.

Although, the first bird I banded was not a migrant, but a house sparrow. I know this is a non native species and they can wreak havoc with bluebird and purple martin nest boxes, but the males in breeding plumage are a very striking bird.  Check out that jet black bill.  If you are not familiar with house sparrows in the US, they were brought over from Europe. House sparrows are cavity nesters and will aggressively compete with our native birds (like bluebirds, wrens, tree swallows, chickadees, nuthatches and purple martins) for nest holes. If a house sparrow wants an already taken nest cavity, they will use that thick and pointy bill to attack whoever is already in there.  They will peck a hole in the back of the heads of the adult or young birds and even build their own nest on top of the carcasses.  I once found a freshly dead white-breasted nuthatch on a birding trail. It had a hole in the back of its head. I looked straight up from where the nuthatch was on the ground and  saw a small cavity in the tree trunk with a house sparrow poking its head out.

But the most common sparrow we banded last Friday were white-throated sparrows. Yikes, the way that white-throated sparrow looks in the above photo, I think he roughed up poor Sam Peabody. It was funny, the Friday previous we had nothing but juncos, however a week later there were absolutely no juncos and tons of white-throats. These guys are on their way to Canada for nesting, but watch for them foraging for millet under your bird feeders.

Here was fun sparrow that we weren't expecting--a swamp sparrow.  The last time I saw one of these guys was at Cape May, NJ last October.  Incidentally, these sparrows have the longest legs of any other sparrow in the US, most likely to help with foraging in water in a swamp.

Here's another sparrow that is a spring favorite for me--a field sparrow. They have one of the best bird songs out there.  Check out how long this bird's tail is. Many of the birds we banded had longish tails.

It kind of threw me when we got in some pine siskins and they barely have a tail at all.  They were so stubby, just something I had not noticed until they were in hand.

Here's an up close view of the little stub tail.  Many of us had big numbers of pine siskins this winter and I've heard through the Minnesota birding grapevine that some are already building nests in Minnesota.

Above is our banding crew at Carpenter.  If you'd like to watch our banding, we open it to the public every fourth Friday of the month.  Although, we band every Friday so if you're at Carpenter on a Friday morning, you'll see us milling around, checking nets.

This Saturday, you can watch my buds Mark Newstrom and Roger Everhart at Lowry Nature Center as part of the Youth Birding Clinic.  It’s geared for kids between the ages of 10 - 19 and includes bird banding, forest bird hikes, grassland bird hikes, wetland bird hikes, a session on digital photography, and birding by bike.  I’ll even give a presentation on techno birding.  All sessions take place at Lowry Nature Center.  You need to register for the event, so call 763-559-6700.

Redpolls Hittin' The Twin Cities Metro Area

While I was in Florida, common redpolls were being reported in the Twin Cities metro area. Last winter they were showing up in good numbers up at Sax Zim Bog and Mr. Neil even had one at his feeders.

There have been a few hanging out at Carpenter Nature Center. When we were trying to band birds last Friday, we saw a flock of about nine birds. We were almost completely skunked, we only trapped one lone junco and it was a retrap. We would see a redpoll fly into the traps, but one was too light to trip the door closed, so we got completely nooged on banding any redpolls.

I just love the little redpoll goatee--combined with the little red spot on the head that resembles a beret, they look like their about to break out a set of bongos in a 1960's looking coffee shop at any moment. I went back to check what the Winter Finch Forecast had been for redpolls:

"The Common Redpoll is a white birch seed specialist in the boreal forest in winter. White birch crops are poor in the northern two-thirds of the boreal forest, but seed abundance increases southward. In central Ontario, such as Algonquin Park, crops on white and yellow birches range from fair to good. It is uncertain whether the birch crop is large enough to stop the southward movement in central Ontario about latitude 45 degrees. Some redpolls, including a few Hoarys, may get south to Lake Ontario if birch seed supplies run low."

I guess the birch seed supply ran low.

We even got to see some redpolls at Warner Nature Center during Non Birding Bill's Winter Survival Birthday party. His non birding friends also found them cool when pointed out. What was interesting was that unlike all the common redpolls in the photos of this blog entry (which were all taken at Carpenter Nature Center), the redpolls at Warner stayed below the feeders. They only ate on the ground. I wondered if that flock had come from such a remote region that they did not know how to use a bird feeder.

After our time banding was over, I headed to a nearby spot where the St. Croix River meets with the Mississippi River. It has been a bit warmer and the water usually opens up when that happens. You can sometimes see some fun ducks. As I scanned, I only saw some bald eagles jockeying for position for some food on the ice. Suddenly, some friends drove up behind me, shouting. I had them reenact what they did:

Thanks to Jed and Linda who were the great to reference the blog post about my amusement of people who point out eagles when I'm after some small bird that does not seem as exciting. But I did actually look out and the eagles were doing something kind of interesting:

They were eating a Canada goose. There, are you happy? I took a photo of a bald eagle. lol

I joined Jed and Linda a little further down the Mississippi River to search for waterfowl and we found some coyotes on patrol across the river. There was a third, but it was further back in the woods. We got to watch the two above poop and since they were in the boundaries of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, I guess we know who pooped in this park.

Monday Morning Redpoll

A Little Post Holiday Banding A Carpenter

After several days of butt chilling temperatures, we finally had some warm weather. It started on Christmas Day. Non Birding Bill and I noticed the temps were in the twenties and then stepped outside. It was so warm, we took a walk to Lake Calhoun. By Friday morning the temps were down right balmy in the thirties. The snow started to melt and fog took over the landscape as did a little freezing drizzle, but it made for somewhat pleasant weather banding birds at Carpenter Nature Center. We had several juncos in the traps (like the bird above).

I processed one that had a very odd eye! It was oval instead of round. It looked as though there was some type of swelling above the eye and feathers out of place. The bird had been banded earlier this winter, but there was no notation that it was injured when it was originally banded. I had to look at the eye color under a light to try and determine age and the pupil seemed fine. We let it go. I'll be curious is to see if we get it again.

Among all the juncos, we got in a few of the dreaded cardinals. Dreaded because of that bill and their ability to squirm just right and nail one of you digits. Owie. One of the nice things about cardinals is that you can sex them fairly quick--this is a male based on plumage color. But aging is a different story. I wondered if he was hatched this summer since he had a bit of black on the tip of his beak (juvenile cardinals have black beaks). Our banding leader, Jim Fitzpatrick had me look at the iris of the cardinal and it was dark brown. That coupled with feather condition of some wing and tail feathers made this bird an AHY (After Hatch Year, which basically means we don't know exactly how old it is, but we know he didn't hatch this year).

While I was processing the male cardinal, Jim was processing a female cardinal. They came into the traps at the same time. We had some members of the public watching us process the birds and they asked if the cardinals were a mated pair. It's not the breeding season and cardinals are typically in large winter flocks this time of year. However, there can be pairs in a flock and according to Birds of North America Online, some cardinal pairs will stay on their same territory all year. I wasn't sure if these two cardinals were in the same trap, but my guess was that were. We also couldn't say for sure if they were pair, but it was a possibility.

After we processed them, I tried to get one more photo before we let them go. Note the male is still giving my thumb the what for. We opened our hands and off they flew. Sometimes when we release two of the same species like that, they split in different directions. These two not only took off in the exact same direction, but landed on the same branch of a tree! I dashed back into the center to grab my digiscoping equipment.

They adjusted themselves in the tree and by the time I got my scope on them, the female had perched a bit higher. They seemed relaxed with each other and I think it's a good guess that this is a mated pair. They stayed that way for several minutes. The clouds, fog, and drizzle did not make for the best photo, but it's bloggable.

I took a few more shots of the male I had just banded while he perched in the tree. I noticed that he had some brown feathers on his flanks. I showed the photo to Jim and the other banders. I asked if we should rethink whether or not he was a hatch year bird since there was some brown. Jim wisely pointed out that the base feathers for cardinals are brown (I assumed black, since their skin is black). He also reminded me that the male's eye color was dark brown. Had he been a hatch year bird, we would have seen gray brown. Only Peter Pyle can take a seemingly easy bird to id (like a cardinal) and make it a challenge!

After I let the cardinal go, I got a shot of my thumb--check out the indentations he left! It's now turned to a minor blood blister. Thanks, dude. After banding, we went down to where the Mississippi River and St Croix River meet along the Minnesota/Wisoconsin border to look for ducks and gulls.

There had been a a harlequin duck reported and we had little trouble finding it among all the goldeyes. The fog made for terrible digiscoping conditions and I'm going to have to go back to see if I can get it on a sunnier day. That's a cooling looking duck that deserves a better photo.

Birds & Beers & Banding

The last Birds and Beers was a huge gathering. Some regulars and some new peeps came to join in the fun.

We had a drawing from some prizes courtesy of Woodlink. We gave away a few of their "Happy Hour Hummingbird Feeders." They're nectar feeders in the shape of a daiquiri, margarita, and martini--how appropriate! In the background of this photo is Liz Stanley who runs The Overlook Circle Feeder Cam. She warns on her site that images are uploaded every 30 seconds during daylight hours, Central Time. During the winters here, days are short so daylight is only 7:30am to 4:30pm. In the summer, it's much longer, lasting from 5:30am to 9:30pm. If the image is completely dark, please check back in the morning. Check it out! There's also Jim Ryan in the background who runs Jim Ryan Outdoors Blog.

The big excitement came when Mark Newstrom arrived with extra copies of the new Peter Pyle book, Identification Guide to North American Birds Part II. Some readers have seen Pyle referenced in this blog before, it's a sleep inducing tome essential to aging and sexing birds if you are a bander. Up to this point, we've only had Part I which had warblers, chickadees, sparrows, vireos, etc. This year part II was released which tells banders how to age and sex waterfowl, boobies and spoonbills. We took turns doing dramatic readings of Part II. There's a bit more talk of distended cloacas (great band name) and duck penises in this volume, but that's about as exciting as it gets. Here's a sentence from the zone-tailed hawk section:

"Shape and color pattern to the retrices by feather generation and sex in Zone-tailed Hawk. R5 is shown and is usualy the last feather replaced during molts and the most likely to be retained during the PB2 and DPB."

Or there's this on molt in Canada geese:

"PF partial-incomplete (Sep/Nov-Jan/Apr in HY/SYs), PB2 complete (Jun-Nov in non-breeding SYs), DPB complete (Jul-Dec in breeding AHYs); PA absent."

And if you can understand either of those sentences, then you'll want a copy of the Peter Pyle book. If you don't, take heart that you have a life and run before you get sucked in to the point of no return.

Speaking of banding, we had an interesting and busy morning at Carpenter Nature Center on Friday--lots of juncos! I think they sensed the impending blizzard that was about to hit. Above is a Potter's Trap and it has 2 doors and usually only gets 1 or 2 birds at a time. This trap had three juncos in it!

We also got in some chickadees and a blue jay (the blue jay got in the traps before I arrived, so no photo).

We did get another interesting retrap. I was processing this black-capped chickadee that already had a band. When I read the number to Mary who helps us track the data, she looked it up and found that we originally banded this chickadee on November 10, 2006. I checked the archives of the blog to see if I had a photo of when it was first banded, but discovered that I was in Harlingen, TX at that time and wouldn't have been there on its original processing date.

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."

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?

The Difference Of Birds In The Hand

Man oh man, the migrants are all over the Twin Cities right now! The trees are just full of them. Above is one of the many yellow-rumped warblers that can be heard if you listen close for their kiss sounding chip note. I had originally planned to go up to Duluth for some hawk banding, but the winds were supposed to be the worst for banding and the winds in the Twin Cities were pretty good for migrant trapping--Friday at Carpenter was pretty amazing.

And warblers were the main order in the nets. Here's a rather indignant looking yellow-rumped warbler in hand. It's always amazing to me how different birds look in hand. We use mesh bags to hold the birds after they have been taken out of the net. You look through the mesh to figure out what is inside--the species tells you what size band you use. I at first looked at this bird through the mesh and lamented, "Aw, couldn't I have gotten an identifiable bird?" However, the bird fluttered in the bag, and I soon noticed the yellow rump and knew what it was.

We got in a few Nashville warblers too. After this bird was banded, I went to take a photo before letting it go and it just looked so non warbler like-just not feisty enough, almost looks like a child that's been naughty. Many of the birds take on a much different posture in hand than they do the wild.

But, pish at it a few times and it perks right up--feistiness returned.

And then it gives you as mighty a peck as a tiny insectivore can deliver before flying off.

This golden-crowned kinglet is another example--a bird that is full of vim and vigor when hopping about from branch to branch, but completely deflates when in hand.

Check out that buttery-yellow crown, though--drink that in. And again, as soon as this bird was let go, its sassy nature returned.

One of my favorite birds of the day was a brown creeper...or the hunchback. Looking at the above photo, don't you expect it to say in a Peter Lorre voice, "This way, master." But think about the last time you saw a brown creeper...you never see one perched on a branch like a robin, they are always creeping down a tree, perhaps it is essential for their posture.

It's fun to take a close look at all the little bits that make a creeper a creeper--bits that you don't get to see when they are against a tree. Look at how long the toe nails are--each nail is almost longer then the toe itself, essential for life on the side of a tree. Check out that beak, perfect for squeezing into tiny bark crevices to glean spiders and insects. Hm, between the hunch and the diet, this really is the Igor of the bird world.

The tail is pretty incredible too. It's long with pointy feathers, but unlike woodpecker tail feathers, the creeper tail feathers are quite soft. Perhaps the reason is that a brown creeper isn't chiseling into trees like a woodpecker. Strong, stiff tail feathers to prop the woodpecker body are needed if they are hammering open a hole, but a creeper just needs to slink up the bark of a tree.

After getting a bunch of tiny birds that looked small and sad in the hand, it was kind of a treat to get a robust white-throated sparrow with a little bit of an attitude. These birds feel so beefy in the hand and have a bit more kick to their bite, since they need that heavier bill to crack seed shells.

The whole bird is a lovely palette of brown, rust, white, black, yellow and gray. For a brown bird, it's got it going on. Watch for them under feeders (they actually like millet) and around ragweeds, sumac, wild grape, highbush cranberry, mountain ash, dogwoods, and rose hips.

More weekend banding fun to be continued.

Skywatch Friday With Migrants

Hey, have you sent in your comments regarding the proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act yet? Don't let it slip away (and yes, I'm gonna be a pest about this).

Well, it's Skywatch Friday again. You can visit their site and click to all the links to every one's photos of sky and if you wish, you can participate by creating your own blog entry with a photo of sky, adding the Skywatch Friday link to your post and then adding your link to their site. As you can see, the vivid blue skies still continue to enhance the gorgeous fall colors at Carpenter Nature Center.

I tell ya', with the all the negatives adds (on all sides) of the upcoming election and news of the economy it's hard not to get down. If you are anywhere near Hastings, MN make a trip to Carpenter, the colors do not disappoint and the grounds full of birds and a few bees give you peace of mind that money just cannot buy. And if you have a few bucks, now is the time to load up on apples from their orchard--Honeycrisps are in and they have apple cider made right on site (I'm enjoying some now as I type this entry).

The bright blue sky, mixes with the changing reds and yellows of the trees to make the perfect back drop for photographing or just enjoying birds. Not that downy woodpeckers are fugly to begin with, but their black and white coloration is oh so enhanced with the fall colors. I don't know if anyone needs a cleansing downy woodpecker, but here you are.

Later, I'll blog more about the banding bonanza that we had at Carpenter today--I banded a lot of birds and I don't think I worked with the same species twice, it was a parade of sparrows, finches, and warblers and note the bird above: I took my first junco (aka snowbird) of the season out of the nets today. I call this my first junco of the season, but it really is not. I have heard there chip notes in the bushes on the bike trail and I have chosen to ignore the blatant sign of winter.

But if we are talking sky, it's only appropriate that we talk about migration and birds that are pouring out of the skies on their journey south. Carpenter was loaded with white-throated sparrows today (like the bird above) so watch for sparrows lurking under your feeders--and it wouldn't hurt to put out a bit of white millet for them. One of my favorite things about the fall are the nights up at Frank's hawk banding station in Duluth and you can hear white-throated sparrows chipping to each other overhead as large flocks head south. Some of my favorite moments in life have included listening to night migrants with friends...I remember laying on a bench in Cape May, NJ a few years ago do that same thing WildBird on the Fly. Good times.

Here's a tan morph of white-throated sparrow. Look at those gorgeous rufous feathers mixed in with other shades of brown on its back--what a classy little brown bird! Speaking of migration, blog reader Tammy sent over this news link from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about night migration:

"Right around sunrise Tuesday morning the NWS Milwaukee/Sullivan radar (MKX) showed some curious circular reflectivity returns. The echoes developed suddenly and then grew in size between 6:45 AM and 7:30 AM. The MKX staff suspects these to be birds taking off right at sunrise. Some of the echoes initially show returns as high as 30 dBZ, which would equate to a decent shower if the returns were made of rain drops. These are likely dense clusterings of geese heading out early to feed in the fields."

You can read the full story and see the radar images here.

So, keep your eyes and your ears to those fall skies!

The Beauty Of Carptenter Nature Center

I just got the biggest chuckle out of this photo. Apparently a group of people were protesting Scientology in New York (all wearing masks) and two were holding signs that read, "Down with this sort of thing" and "Careful now." This is a reference to one of my all time favorite tv shows...

Father Ted--it's a series about a couple of Irish priests who get into all sorts of scrapes and mischief. In one episode, Ted (guy with the gray hair) and his assistant priest Dougal were ordered by their bishop to protest a dirty movie that came to Craggy Island--and these were the signs they held during their protest. This series is worth a look through Netflix, my two favorite episodes are The Plague and A Song For Europe.

Okay, folks, Carpenter Nature Center is still several shades of gorgeous. It's not too late to visit it yet this fall. The asters are still blooming and the sumac is turning red.

The orchard bees are making the most of the late fall bloom and can be found on asters or goldenrod.

We did not get huge amounts of birds in the nets at our Friday banding session. There were tons moving through, but a combination of strong winds that billowed the nets and a steady stream of sharp-shinned hawks migrating through, seemed to keep the birds away. On very windy days, the nets move and the birds can usually see them.

We watched quite a few birds fly towards and then up and up and right over the nets. Ah well, that left more time to photograph the landscape.

A large flock of bluebirds were hunting for insects in the grassy areas. They just added a little dazzle to the landscape.

So, again, I say, if you have not been to Carpenter Nature Center this fall, do go check it out, it's one of the prettiest spots in the Twin Cities.