Common Nighthawk Medical Exam

Nighthawks are migrating like crazy through the Twin Cities right now.  I've seen them when we've been grilling this week and on Saturday we were on the St Croix River with some friends and a steady stream passed over the boat all afternoon and well into the night (I'm not ready to face fall migration). Injuries are inevitable during migration and here's a video of a common nighthawk medical exam at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota this week--watch how big that mouth gets with the bird starts fussing during the exam:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpBWTZmkoSQ&feature=uploademail[/youtube]

Singing Wood Thrush LOL

So the other day I posted a short video showing a hermit thrush singing from the folks over at Music of Nature.  I noticed that they also have a wood thrush video on their YouTube channel too (this is another bird that is a moral imperative to listen to): [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrmxlez2cAg[/youtube]

This video cracked me up.  Did you notice how many times the bird sang a phrase and then flew? I was actually surprised that the videographer got the bird perched for more than one phrase--but noted how the bird was always obscured by a branch or leaves.  It reminded me of when I was a kid and my parents moved to a new home and we had one of these singing in the yard.  You didn't have access to all the bird id CDs and apps back then like you do today.

So one Saturday morning my mom and I spent an hour trying to track this bird down in the tops of the trees.  After each song phrase it fluttered to another leafy branch, hiding in obscurity.  The longer it took, the more I fantasized this would be something cool and so beautiful it HAS to hide, maybe even a painted bunting.  I remember feeling like such a chump that that it was brown and fairly colorless.  How could something so brown have a song so pretty?

Now I know better and it's one of my favorite songs and sometimes I get to hear it out around the beehives.  But all that searching we did to see it makes me appreciate all the work the videographer went through to give us such a wonderful glimpse to a secretive singer.

 

 

Hermit Thrush via Music of Nature

I'm posting this for my mom because I know she'll dig this.  A short video showing a hermit thrush singing from the folks over at Music of Nature.  If you know what a hermit thrush sounds like, I know you'll listen, if you haven't--YOU MUST WATCH AND LISTEN.  It's a moral imperative--for realzies. C'mon, the bird harmonizes with itself, you know you want to listen:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9vHS6JdHog[/youtube]

 

Final two rescued herons released

Photo by Brian Peterson.

Hello all, NBB here.

The StarTribune has a story about the final two heron chicks that were rescued after a tornado destroyed their rookery on the Mississippi River. Sharon's been involved with this story as one of the first people to investigate the damage, to being part of the rescue team, to helping release the birds.

The Strib talks about the rehabilitation process for the birds:

The nine chicks had spent much of their three-month respite in a 20-yard-by-5-yard kennel, on property in Inver Grove Heights that belongs to Vance Grannis. Their kennel, originally built for rehabilitating swans, also held a pool stocked with fish, giving the birds a vital chance to practice hunting. They also could spread their wings and fly, though not far. The nine young were lucky. They came in healthy, if a bit stressed. The center's staff and volunteers worked hard to keep them that way until they were old enough to care for themselves.

Check out the Strib site for more on the release, and some great pictures of the birds.

Birdchick Podcast #31 Duck Stamps, Warbler Madness and Window Collisions

Birder's got served by this sign in Ohio.  Many birders don't purchase Duck Stamps because "they don't want to be lumped in with hunters" despite the fact that 98% of the money from the purchase of a Duck Stamp goes to habitat acquisition for breeding, migration and wintering grounds.

Cuyahoga Falls City Councilman Jerry James tries to legislate keeping bird feeders clean.

Screen shot 2011-05-17 at 9.09.34 PM
Screen shot 2011-05-17 at 9.09.34 PM

A unique and mysterious guinea-pig-sized rodent, not seen since 1898 despite several organized searches, bizarrely showed up at  the front door of an ecolodge at a nature reserve in Colombia, South America. The magnificent red-crested tree rat (Santamartamys rufodorsalis), stayed for almost two hours while two research volunteers took the first photos ever of a creature the world thought would never be seen again.