Great Horned Owl Nesting In Planter

So, with all my crazy travels, it's been tough to keep up with all my back emails. Boy, have I missed a whopper! Thank you, so, so much to Robbyn Spratt for sending this my way! Brace yourself, are you ready for this? Okay, here it goes:

There's a great horned owl nesting in a planter in Viera, FL.

Yes, you read that correctly. Viera, FL home of one of my all time favorite birding spots, Viera Wetlands has an owl nesting in a pot! Apparently, a pair of great horned owls chose to use a planter outside of the Brevard County Commission and the eggs have hatched--there is even a LIVE owl cam. The camera does not appear to be visible at night, however, there are clips that you can watch any time, so bookmark the Brevard County Owl Cam for some on the job entertainment.

This is an awesome diversion, especially since the owls at the Valmont Owl Cam appear to be having issues.

Urban Birder Video and a little Holy Crap

Across the pond, Bird Guides has been up to some really cool stuff. One is the first in a video series called "My Local Patch" series featuring different bird watchers and their favorite birding site (the outdoor kind, not the web):

I also found a really interesting and disturbing video on their channel that's up there with the heron vs rabbit photos: it's a video of a grey heron vs a starling. I'm just putting the link to the video, it has a kind of happy ending (depending on your point of view towards starlings) but this video is certainly not for everyone. Incroyable--as the French might say.

Also, in my recent rants about the lack of bird field guides available for iPhones and iPod Touches, Bird Guides sent me a sample of their guides for the iTouch. Before I had a chance to really play with it, Non Birding Bill did a review of it for a site he works for called Appletell. What the heck is the world coming to when NBB is doing bird product reviews?! Anyway, Bird Guides offers video guides (currenty of British birds) but I love the idea of video and photos in a field guide. There are definetly birds that have certain behaviors and postures that cannot be illustrated in a standard field guide. I'll probably do a video review on these guides withing the next few days...that is if Non Birding Bill doesn't beat me to it.

Spider Attacks Bird

WARNING, THIS POST GETS KINDA GROSS!

Maybe you've gotten this story already in your inbox, but according to early reports, it's true!

It's a spider eat bird world out there! I don't know if you noticed Mum Of Critters comment in the previous post, but here is a story of a spider with a bird from Australia! According to an article from news.com.au, a giant orb spider appears to have captured and killed a chestnut-breasted mannikin in Atherton, near Cairns:

There's a much more "heart breaking" photo for those who are squeamish when it comes to cute birds meeting a nasty end at this link.

Joel Shakespeare, the head spider keeper at NSW's Australian Reptile Park said he had seen golden orb weaver spiders as big as a human hand but the northern species in tropical areas were known to grow larger. Mr Shakespeare said that the bird, a chestnut-breasted mannikin which appears frozen in an angel-like pose in the pictures, is likely to have flown into the web and got caught. "It wouldn't eat the whole bird," he said. "It uses its venom to break down the bird for eating and what it leaves is a food parcel." Queensland Museum's Greg Czechura is reported as saying cases of the Golden Orb Weaver eating small birds were "well known but rare".

"It builds a very strong web," he said, but also added that the spider would not have attacked until the bird weakened due to its struggle to free its wings. "The more they struggle, the more tangled up and exhausted they get and they go into stress."

Read the full story here.

This reminds me of a few years ago and Bird Watchers Digest had photos of a praying mantis eating a hummingbird, show at this link. While trying to google the link to the photos, I came across a YouTube video of a mantis with a hummer. Man oh man, it can be a bug eat bird world out there:

H to the O to the L to the Y to the CRAP!! Heron Eats Rabbit!


WARNING!!!


 WARNING!!!


 WARNING!!!

Disapproving Rabbit fans and general cute bunny lovers (that means you, Non Birding Bill) do NOT want to click on any links or even read the following blog post.

STOP READING NOW!

But it is bird related and I find this horribly fascinating as a birder and I think that's enough stahling.

A grey heron has eaten a rabbit--and there's photographic documentation. Yeperooni that is the headline. I just did another Big River Journey today for the National Park Service today and I was just discussing the things that great blue herons will eat: fish, frogs, smaller birds, snakes, nestlings (there's a reason red-winged blackbirds bop the on the head). A little boy brought up that his neighbor told him a heron was chasing chipmunks on their lawn. It's not common, but a small chipmunk is certainly not out of the realm of possibility for a great blue.

Well, according to the Telegraph in the UK, Ad Sprang got photos of the great blue heron's cousin, the grey heron getting a rabbit. Not just a wild rabbit, a domestic looking rabbit.

This is the final photo...as you can make out from the heron's bulge, this did not end well for the rabbit. I'm not going to post all Al Sprang's photos here in the blog, there's just too much of a conflict of interest between the bunny lovers who read my blog and the birders. Just follow this link...

Some Interesting Updates Like Tom Carver Stole Kelly Munday's Images

I did a little hawk trapping over the weekend (emphasis on "a little") and am doing Big River Journey for the next couple of days. I'm using tonight to try and catch up on lots of email and phone messages...why is it that last-minute-OMG-I-need-this-done-now emails come in when I take a few days to go where there is no cell reception or Internet access?

I did just find a couple of interesting updates to old blog posts that came in. One from Kelly Munday, the woman who took the photos of the bald eagle attacking the trumpeter swan. Here is what she had to say:

"I am Kelly Munday the real photographer. The fake person Tom Carver has tried to claim credit for my photos...not sure why??

Anyways, they were taken by myself in April 2008 on Lakelse Lake near Terrace BC. The birds are a bald eagle and a trumpeter swan, both common to Terrace. The series of pictures that I captured are unique in that no one has ever captured this event before. I have talked to other locals that say they have seen signs of a struggle but no witnesses. The whole story can be read here."

In other news, remember the fuzzy leaves at Mr. Neils? Liz Jones thinks she has found the answer at BugGuide.net. Thanks, Liz!

On a weirder note, someone is looking for starlings?! This came in on a really old post, so thought I add it here to give him some more views:

"Hi Starling lovers.

I live in northwest Missouri, and have several starlings. I have seen some white and partially white starlings and have been trying to obtain some. If anyone can help me obtain any white or part white starlings, please contact me.

My email address is glledo@aol.com

Thanks,
Gary "

Now, keep in mind that starlings are an introduced species in the US so it is legal to keep one as a pet, don't send him emails telling him that it's illegal. It may be weird, but it's not illegal. And for the few who have not seen it, here is a link to a Weewoo the talking starling videos.

For all my readers:

Swept Up In An RNC Riot

So, how was my day being a Roving Ranger at The Republican National Convention? Weird.

Since the RNC is in St Paul at the Excel Center, several blocks are closed off--including the Science Museum where I'm based a National Park Ranger for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. My assignment today was to go out with fellow Ranger Caitlin and walk around offering people ideas on how to enjoy the Mississippi River while in town. It's fun, everyone was friendly and surprised to learn that they were so close to a National Park. We based ourselves in Rice Park--MSNBC has rented the park for the week and there was lots of traffic (and law enforcement). It was easy to pass out brochures to people on their way to the convention.

We even had some celebrity sightings--including Tom Brokaw above--okay, it's blurry and Non Birding Bill said that he'll take my word for it that it is, in fact, Mr. Brokaw, but I walked right by him, it was totally him...and yes Mom, he's as handsome in real life as you think he is on the news.

We even had some birding in downtown St. Paul--this is a common yellowthroat that was feeding on some insects up in one of the many trees in the park--this was one bad ass yellowthroat--it chased any house sparrow (about a third the size larger) that came near it. We were impressed.

It was after this point that things got a bit weird. Caitlin and I decided to head towards headquarters to fill up our water bottles, gather more brochures, and eat our lunch. We were looking forward to coming back in the afternoon. We knew the protest was about to start and were curious to watch it. On our way back, several police cars sped past us. NBB sent me a text saying that protesters were being sprayed on Minnesota and 7th Streets--the direction the cars were headed. It was not far from where we were--we could hears some distant screams. We made it to headquarters and NBB continued to send updates. We could see some police activity outside our window. They didn't seem too tense, so we didn't worry. We ate our lunch and headed back outside.

We could see about two or three blocks away, people dressed in all black were marching--they were headed the opposite direction we were at that point and figured we were safe. We got in touch with our immediate boss to tell him that we were safe and not to worry if he heard any news reports about protesters getting arrested or sprayed with pepper spray. He suggested that we call it a day, that we look too similar to police in our park service uniform and could be at risk (it's true, someone pointed to us and said, "Check it out, the National Guard is here."). We felt safe and saw that the group was several blocks away, going in the opposite direction. We told him we would try to press on, but would head back if we felt unsafe.

It's amazing how quickly things deteriorate.

The sounds of police sirens increased, a helicopter followed overhead, crowds were going in every direction. Soon all sorts of law enforcement vehicles were around us on the streets, sirens blaring. Caitlin and I both suddenly felt unsafe. Just as we were about to change direction, I turned around and said something along the lines of "Holy Crap!"

Riot police were running towards us. Now, this photo is blurry because Caitlin sensibly grabbed my arm to drag me away shouting, "No pictures! Run NOW!"

I couldn't help myself, I never thought I would be in a situation to have a large group of riot police running towards me. It was a memorable moment.

We dashed across the street and tried to find an open building to duck into and maybe get up to the sky way and out of the protesters way. I called NBB to tell him we were safe, but with all the people yelling around us and the constant din of sirens, it didn't quell any of his concerns. I learned later in news reports that the VAST majority of the protest was peaceful. Smaller groups broke off to just cause mayhem and that was what was coming our way. NBB kept texts coming of updates where pepper spray and tear gas was being sprayed. Fortunately, we were indoors so we weren't affected--it was very windy, I'm sure lots of people got some residual spray.

We made it to the sky way level and could look down at the forces mobilizing. Two groups of riot police were assembling to direct the coming mayhem makers. They were breaking windows, slashing tires and taking whatever wasn't bolted down and dragging it into the street.

The small crowd went right under our sky way bridge and continued to drag signs and sandbags in the road. There were quite a few photographers mixed in to capture the action. A few guys were throwing sharp metal objects in the direction of the police cars. Watching the crowd swarm was like watching a flock of starlings dart around in the fall. It was hard to concentrate on one person's destruction.

Several squad cars followed. A group of officers walked in front of the cars picking up debris left behind by the melee. It was strange to watch people swarm in with the group to join in the destruction. I could see nothing on them--no signs of why they were mad, no messages, they just seemed to be swept up in causing destruction. Again, I would like to say that this was a small break off group of the protest--the majority of the protesters were peaceful and got their message across--and stuck to the planned route.

When the crowd was corralled to the top of the hill, we could see clouds and all sorts of debris--orange cones and signs being tossed high in the air--it was surreal.

We saw at least one arrest. It was amazing at how well the guys who were breaking windows and slashing tires blended in with the crowd. It was kind of the birding equivalent of picking out a Ross' goose from a flock of 20,000 snow geese. There was a large group assembled in they sky way to watch the protest. I looked to my right and found myself standing next to a Minnesota icon: Klondike Kate

She was in booth near the sky way getting her portrait painted. If you follow the St. Paul Winter Carnival, you'll know who Klondike Kate is. Weirdsville. Talk about a random moment, watching a riot and standing next to Klondike Kate, and me in my ranger uniform.

We eventually made it back to headquarters. We could see some of the damages the rioters left behind--including smashed store windows and slashed tires on squad cars. We debriefed with our bosses and drank lots of water. I couldn't believe how one minute we're talking with out of towners, pointing out birds and the next, dodging unpredictable crowds. Bus service was temporarily suspended and I wasn't sure how I would get home to Minneapolis. One of the admin staff was kind enough to drive me home.

The numbers of riot police greatly increased, large groups were everywhere. It was so strange to see in sleepy downtown St. Paul. When I walked in to our apartment, NBB gave me a long hug, he'd been following the news and Twitter updates. I told him I was so grateful, he really helped us avoid some nasty intersections with the trouble makers that could have gotten us swept up right in the thick of things. We were closer than I really preferred.

Looking forward to a quiet day with birds of prey at The Raptor Center tomorrow.