Red-tailed Hawk Encounter

I just have too many photos that I took Tuesday during what the local weathermen are calling "an inconvenient snow" (because it was only 2 inches that fell, but it hit during rush hour snarling traffic in the worst way). The first was the snowy owl and then I headed over to the Minnesota Valley NWR Visitor Center. I figured the feeders would be active between the snow and the sub zero temps.

They were so active, I have to divide up what I saw, otherwise we might get 45 photos in one blog entry.

One of the coolest things that happened was as I was leaving the visitor center. A young red-tailed hawk (young because the tail is brown and stripey, not brick red like it would be on an adult) was perched on the parking lot security camera. I wanted to get home because it was after 3pm and I knew with the snow, traffic would be snarled. I took a few shots and walked to my car.

I tried not to stare at the hawk while I walked to my car. Staring can make a bird nervous and this one seemed to be actively hunting and I didn't want to add to its effort in the cold and snow. It paid very little attention to me and I digiscoped one more image before my aching, freezing fingers alerted me that they had had enough. I opened my car door and turn to load in my scope when I heard what I can only describe as hawk wings hitting something (I hear it from time to time at The Raptor Center and at the hawk blind). I looked up and saw that the red-tail was no longer on the camera post and at first thought that it had flown away, but that would not account for the sound I heard. Then I looked to my left and just a few yards away in the grass I saw...

The hawk with some sort of prey, I think it's a mouse! Fortunately, my scope was still up, I quickly slid the camera adaptor back on the scope (thank goodness for that DCA adaptor) and got the above photo. My camera batteries finally died right after I took it but I watched the hawk swallow the rodent whole and then it took off.

It took a good five minutes before feeling returned to my fingers and I got stuck in traffic, but it was so worth it to see that!

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.

Somebody Wanted A Long Weekend Off

Gorgeous, isn't it? I went to the Minnesota River Valley Visitor's Center to do some digiscoping today. We got some snow on Friday and there were a few flurries on Saturday and I figured I could get some fun shots in the snow.

But the center was closed. Now, come on--the sign reads about bad roads and winter weather and it's true that we got about 3-5 inches on Friday--but, this is Minnesota, that's nothing. I could understand if this was a remote park miles from a town with a gravel road, but this center is right off a major highway in the south metro area of the Twin Cities across from the airport. And to prove my point, here is the road the visitor's center is on:

Pretty darned cleared off if you ask me. I think it was Easter Weekend and the employees wanted an extended weekend off--and who can blame them? But it was a balmy thirty degrees and I went to get some photos anyway. All the feeders were empty and many had been taken down (I assume put away for the weekend to prevent theft), but as always, I have an emergency bag of bird seed in the car and scattered some around the feeding area.

The two platform feeders were way too high for me to fill with seed, so I just scattered it on the ground--and the birds came in for it right away. The cardinal and junco were eating peacefully side by side, but when the female house sparrow flew down, the cardinal wanted none of her. I just love that little tableau above.

Ah, look at this! It's the rarely seen woodpecker worm tunneling out from the snow to get some mixed nuts. It's so weird to see a downy woodpecker hopping around on the ground like a robin. I'm sure there's a Dune reference to be made here, but I can't think what it is. Oh! And that reminds me, someone asked in a previous entry what a snow flea is. They are a bug you can see even in summer weather, but since they come out early while there is still snow on the ground, they are easier to see in winter. You look at the base of a tree on top of the snow and if you see what looks like dust moving--that's snow fleas. You can read more about them here. Believe it or not, there is also a snow mosquito and I've already seen one of those this week too.

I could hear red-winged blackbirds all over and I saw this flock in the distance, but when I looked at them through the scope, I realized they were brown-headed cowbirds.

And the males were wasting no time in displaying to the females. In the above photo, there is a female cowbird on the left and the male is in mid chirp on the right--cowbirds, hold off, there really aren't any nests for you to deposit eggs yet...except for bald eagles and red-tailed hawks and they aren't gonna buy your tiny eggs in their nests. I tried to get a video of the cowbird display through my scope. You can watch it below, but the cowbirds get almost completely muted by the red-winged blackbirds and robins singing around them. Towards the end you will hear a western meadowlark--that's my cell phone, not the actual bird. As migration progresses, I may have to switch my ring tone to a sound I won't actually hear in Minnesota.

Afternoon Buteo Call

Yes, I did just make that joke.

It was hard to contain any Twin Cities resident indoors today. After sub zero temps, the weather really warmed up to the twenties and thirties over the weekend and today it got to the low to mid forties--whoot. And we need to gather our rosebuds while we may, because tonight it's rain that turns to ice as the temperature is supposed to plummet to a low of 3--which as coincidence would have it will be our high for tomorrow, with the temps going somewhere in the neighborhood of -14. That's about a 60 degree change in the next twenty-four hours--how do we not a get winter tornado with that?

So, it was take the spring like day while you can. I took a quick jaunt over to the Minnesota Valley NWR. When I arrived, I could hear an angry red squirrel squeaking and general angry bird chips. I wondered if the sharp-shinned hawk was around and dashed behind the Visitor's Center.

Well, it wasn't a sharpie, but a young red-tailed hawk (not the yellow eye and the lack of red in the tail). It was half heartedly preening its feathers and bobbing its head watching was moving below. It was close, but not in the best light.

Some of the birds seemed to sense that they weren't high on the prey item list for this species of hawk and returned to the bird feeder. But, young hawks are unpredictable because they'll try anything once, so birds that did brave the feeders, keep a watchful eye towards the hawk.

I think the red-tail got tired of the squeaky red squirrel and it flew down the hill towards the river--which was great because I could get a photo with a better background. The only problem was that it was facing away from me. So, I did my best whistled impersonation of a red-tailed hawk scream and it looked at me. Great day with a great hawk. And with that, I left it to hunt in peace.

Fun Birds 10 Minutes From Uptown

First, Birds and Beers will continue, I just haven't scheduled January yet. I will get it squared away after the first of the year. I just needed to get the holidays out of the way.

Second, a BIG THANK YOU to Metro Magazine for including my blog in their list of "The Best Homegrown Blogs We Read Just About Every Day." It's nice to know a non bird related magazine is interested in birds...and bees...and disapproving bunnies.

Third, someone reminded me to mention The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up in February. I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm tentatively booked at a bird festival that weekend. But if you're not doing anything that weekend, count the birds in your backyard.

I did have some time to do some birding today and headed over to the Minnesota Valley NWR Visitor's Center about ten minutes from my apartment.

I was hoping I could do some digiscoping from inside, but the visitor's center was closed. I wasn't wearing as many layers I should have for the outdoors, but I had some emergency hand warmers stashed in my coat and tucked those in my gloves and gave it a shot.

Light snow was falling and many birds were tucked in the bushes awaiting their turn at the bird feeders, like this female cardinal. When I arrived, I met a fellow digiscoper out in the parking lot, he was leaving as I was arriving. He showed me photos of a sharp-shinned hawk he had just photographed perched near the feeding station. I was bummed that I had missed that, but a cardinal is still a very cool sight in the snow.

The birds were still very wary about coming to the feeder. That hawk must have been fresh in their minds. The cardinals would come to the feeder, but the slightest chip note would send them flying back to the shrubs.

I found one downy woodpecker with a band on his foot (its male, they way the head is turned, you cannot see the red spot on the back of his head).

I've been trying to get better photos of tree sparrows. This little one cracked me up with its snow mustache over his bill. As I was following this bird around with my scope, I noticed a rusty brown bird about twice his size. I looked it up and it flew to the brush.

Holy crap! Is that what I think it is? Is this a fox sparrow? The upside about finding this bird at this point (besides that I wasn't expecting it) was that I got so focused on the bird, I no longer paid attention to how cold I was. Whoot. Even better, I am super-duper sore right now, I signed up for yoga again and am in severe pain after the first class. The last time I took yoga, I remember having such intense pain for three days after the first class. I thought it was just exaggerated in my memory. No, it wasn't an exaggeration...I'm in pain in places I didn't know could feel pain. At least this time I won't make the mistake of having Non Birding Bill rub Icy Hot all over my entire body to ease the sore muscles. That wasn't pretty. Icy and hot all over, I couldn't get comfortable for hours--take my advice: only use Icy Hot on one body part at a time.

Anyhoo, back to the fox sparrow. At first the fox sparrow started feeding kind of like a chickadee: it would fly out under the feeders, grab at a seed and then fly back into the brush. I usually only see this species during migration when there are all kinds of dry leaves and they do that characteristic kicking with their feet, but this bird wasn't doing that in the snow.

I love looking at sparrows head on (it doesn't have to be fox sparrows, it can be any sparrow). They have such great masks. It was interesting to see how the rusty browns on this bird just popped out of the brush, especially since it was surrounded by the more muted colors of juncos and tree sparrows. At times, this bird was about as bright as a cardinal. Right after I got this photo, my batteries died in my camera and I put in my spares. As I put the camera back up to my spotting scope, the sparrow was gone and I suddenly heard a loud flutter of wings, all the downy and hairy woodpeckers gave sharp "cheeps" and their wings flapped with such intensity, you could hear each distinctive flap. I looked over to the feeders, they were bare. I thought that the sharp-shinned hawk must have returned and I glanced around:

There it is in the top of the tree. Note where my scope is in relation to the hawk. I didn't move the scope from here for the photos--just keep that in mind for the next two photos. Let's look at it through the scope:

It was a haggard bird and I wondered if it was the same sharp-shinned hawk that hunted the feeders here last winter?

When I took the first photo and my camera focused, the hawk turned and looked right at it. There is not beeping sound on my camera, this was just the sound of the lens adjusting. I know harriers have a great sense of hearing...I wonder what the stats are on the sharp-shinned hawk sense of hearing? It was at about this point that the batteries on my camera totally died and I had to go back to the car, which was good because my fingers were numb. I don't know if the sharpie ended up getting any of the birds, it was still perched in the tree when I left.

UPDATE: Check out fellow MN Blogger EcoBirder, he has photos on Dec 13 and Dec 29 at the same spot of an adult sharpie--perhaps the same bird?

Preempting The Turkey

Boy, does that title sound like a euphemism or what? I have some photos that I took yesterday but this morning, there was a lovely soft snow coming down and I really felt the need to go to some bird feeders and take some photos. Also, I got exciting news from Harper Collins, Amy Sedaris sent a note (on some completely adorable stationary--and oh so appropriate for me and my wild fungus tastes) and said that she loves the Disapproving Rabbits book. It's blowing my mind that someone with that much comedic talent looked through the book and liked it. WHOOT!

I went to the Minnesota Valley NWR Visitor's Center and there about 18 cardinals lurking in and around the feeders. Nothing quite like seeing those pops of red in a fluffy snowfall.

Okay, except maybe a fluffy junco in a big soft snowfall!

There was a surprise in the heated birdbath. Can you tell in the above photo what the surprise is?

Is this dude right here! Common grackles should have flown the coop by now (at least from Minnesota). This one looks as though it's been having some issues. Note the whitish feathers on the wings. I'm not so sure that's albinism or leucism (or whatever we're calling it in birds these days). I think these are stress feathers, maybe from lack of nutrition? The bird did look like it had seen better days--it was very puffed up, but could fly well enough to get to branch, albeit slower than the other species hanging at the feeder.

The suet and peanut feeders were in high demand. This hairy woodpecker was keeping the downy woodpeckers away and eating the suet. But soon, this hairy was chased off by...

a starling! Surprise, surprise. I have to admit, I do really enjoy a starling in winter plumage--it's a very striking bird, and so evil looking. I would love to have an education starling for programs, but knowing my luck and its ability to be a great mimic, it would learn all sorts of phrases that would make it unsuitable for programs with small children. I figured the starling would be here a while, but was surprised...

to see a red-bellied woodpecker land on the feeder. There was some flapping, some pecking, some squealing. But! Only one would come out on top. Who will remain victorious on this episode of Iron Suet?

The red-bellied! Go, red-belly, go! Eventually, a hawk flew over and all the birds cleared out, and about three downy woodpecker flew in to try and take advantage in the lull in bird feeder activity. They spent so much time squabbling with each other that they barely had a chance to actually eat the suet.

Okay, now I have to get a bit more work done. Thanks to HellZiggy, I'm going to the Jonathon Coulton concert tonight. I liked him for the song Re Your Brains, about zombies, but I loved him when it he sang it in French. If you're interested in listening to his other songs, I highly recommend Skullcrusher Mountain, Baby Got Back (yes, it's a cover), and Tom Cruise Crazy.