Rainy Morning Entry

Some random photos of cranes, because, hey, that's about all I got.

Sometimes you just can't help but take pride in your work--I had that moment in spades yesterday. I really enjoy leading bird trips, they are exhausting but it's so much fun. It's kind of like hosting a mobile party that lasts all weekend. Many people don't realize that bird identification is the smallest part of the job. A more important factor is customer service and anticipating the groups needs and being sensitive with their comfort. The number one priority is not the bird, it's food. People will be forgiving if a target bird doesn't show or if you were planning on seeing 600 swans and only 4 are present. They know that you cannot control the birds. However, you can control food and if you don't have enough and people get hungry. If they don't get fed soon they get hangry (deadly combo of hungry and angry).

Having led a fair share of birding tours of the years, I've picked up on some little tricks and tasks that need to be done. I usually lead tours with my friend Amber and she is the best organizer. We have our trips planned down to the minute. Doing this trip with Stan has been very different, he's very...shoot from the hip, keep the schedule flexible and just do whatever. I think we're making a good combo as I play Julie to his Gopher (yes, that was a Love Boat reference).

The breakfast situation on Friday morning was up in the air, I knew we were going to Perkins, they don't really do reservations and I wasn't sure of our exact arrival. We have to stay in the crane blind until all the cranes take off which can be anywhere from an hour to two hours. I did call Perkins last week and say "Hey, sometime between 8:30 am and 9:30 am nest Friday you will have a group of about 13 people come in for breakfast. I'll give you a call a half hour before we arrive so as not to overwhelm your staff."

They appreciated the heads up. Yesterday we left the blind, I called, they said the were ready. As soon as our group arrived we were whisked away to a table and the waitress was pouring the coffee--and they were busy too, almost all the tables were full. Just as the last of our group came in, another tour bus arrived with 21 people who had been to a crane blind and they were ready for breakfast--but the tour leader had not called ahead and they were turned away. I smiled to myself and thought "Amateurs." I pitied the tour guide, the bus was looking a little hangry and restaurant options for a large group with no reservations are tough. We've seen the group a few times and they've been having a few glitches here and there. Even if you get great birds, a hangry group can be brutal.

As I'm typing this, it's pouring down rain--the worst weather for bird watching on minimum maintenance roads. According to Weather Underground it's not going to stop until tonight. Prairie chickens are not Gene Kelly and will not be singin' and dancin' in the rain. We're contemplating canceling the dawn prairie chicken watch this morning and perhaps even heading back to Minnesota today instead of tomorrow. From my table in the hotel lounge I can see the group with the glitches loading onto their bus...surely they are not going out birding in this weather? Not only is it hard to see the birds, but the gravel roads are much too dangerous and slick. Another part of being a tour leader is to "know when to fold 'em" as Kenny Rogers is known to sing.

Have We Seen Any Sandhill Cranes Yet?

In case you were concerned whether or not our group had seen any cranes yet, here is your answer:

Oh, just a few...thousand! Once we got past Grand Island, they were all over in the fields. The group was antsy for them too. I forget how exciting the multitude of sandhill cranes can be. I was assuming after our nine hour drive that the group would want to unwind at the hotel, but as soon as we started seeing cranes, no one was interested in checking in to the hotel, they wanted to just sit and watch and listen--I was the same way my first time too! So, stop and admire we did.

We stopped at Fort Kearney and found a large flock that was spooked into the air and looked like a cloud of smoke off in the distance--pure magic!

Another highlight in Nebraska for all the Minnesota birders was all the Harris sparrows mixed in with the juncos. Boy, you know it's a hardcore birding trip when people are excited about sparrows. I must admit, I do enjoy Harris sparrows. They always remind me of Bluto...or Pavarotti.

Assembling the Hives

I'm starting this entry with the tufted titmouse photo above. Non Birding Bill really liked it (that's sayin' something). I set some mixed nuts in a tray of one of Mr. Neil's feeders and EVERYBODY flew in right away. The titmouse is contemplating the large Brazil nut. Look at the size of that food morsel! Alas, it is way to heavy for this mere titmouse to carry away in flight.

Today we decided to assemble our bee hives. The bees won't ship until late next month but that gives us plenty of time to prepare for their arrival. This gives me time to order anything that I discover is missing after assembly.

We were told that we are supposed to name our hives (with women's names) so NBB put together Olga...

While I put together Miss Kitty. Some readers my recall that I was thinking of using screws, but thanks to Old Drone's assurances we went with nailing the hives together and he was right, it was easy. The wood was soft and many of the nails were small so I didn't have much chance to smash my fingers.

We had to put everything together: the boxes, the floor, the top, the individual frames where the bees will build the comb for larvae and honey--ten frames for each box! It was tiring. The wax in each frame is there to encourage the bees to build their comb in an easy to access form so I can check the hive and partake of the honey.

Between frames I did sneak away to watch the birds...

The juncos sure were frisky. Lots of chirping and chasing while feeding. You could see pin feathers on some of them, I'm sure molting in fresh feathers for the breeding season was bringing on a surge of hormones in them. I enjoy their mechanical twitters in early, early spring.

"Ugh, I don't know if I'm in the mood for that much nut."

Another bird flies in to contemplate the Brazil nut. This black-capped chickadee gave it some serious thought, but instead went for half a pecan. A hairy woodpecker ended up flying away with the large prize nut.

We did finish both of our hives, and after assembly I realized that our starter kit only came with two brood boxes for each hive. The class that I took recommended that for over wintering bees in northern states that I should have a third brood box for each hive, so looks like I'll be doing a little ordering this week.

I have to admit, I was really not looking forward to assembling these, fearing it would be really complicated. I think this stems from having to assemble aluminum purple martin houses at the bird store. I hated those things! Don't get me wrong, I think aluminum martin houses can work well to attract martins, but assembling them is about as fun as stubbing all ten toes. You have to follow the directions EXACTLY and if you get something wrong at step five, you won't notice until step 487 when the roof won't line up with the box--and you have to take it apart and start over. Whereas with a bee hive, if you make a mistake or split the wood--the bees will just fill it with propolis.

Ah, martin house assembly is coming back to me now...ahhhh....I would always try to tell customers that it was important for them to assemble their own martin house so they could truly understand it and I also would lie and say how much fun it is to put together on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Putting the hive together was much more simple and quite pleasant and I'm looking forward to assembling the third brood boxes.

Incidentally, if you're thinking of getting a purple martin house, get the plastic gourds, they are usually cheaper, are easy to snap together (if not already assembled at purchase), are more resistant to predators and save bird store employees (and you) hours of assembly grief.

Cardinals and Owls

I have not found the chrysalis of the swallowtail butterfly in my apartment, but I did find a bunch of frass on the kitchen widow frame around a very dried out parsley plant. The plant had been chewed down to mostly nubs by Miss Cinnamon and I am sure that this was a wayward caterpillar that came in on some grocery store parsley and found its way to the dried pot. I wonder if I will ever find the chrysalis? Based on the frass it managed to live on the dwindling parsley in the window. I feel bad that I never noticed it.

I had a meeting with Stan at Staring Lake Nature Center for our trip to go see sandhill cranes in Nebraska next week. I got there an hour early to do some digiscoping in the evening light.

There was a small flock of cardinals hanging around the bird feeders. I was surprised that the males were still tolerating each other and not more territorial, but I suppose we have a few more weeks of winter left. This bird popped up when I whistled a cardinal call.

Even some of the female cardinals popped up to check out my calls. I either have mad skills in speaking the cardinal language or I said something really offensive.

Stan told me that he has a great horned owl nesting nearby--right along one of the trails. He pointed it out and I set the scope up on it. The owl nest is in the center of the red circle above. It's a great horned owl that took over an old crow nest.

Here is what she looks like through the scope. As people arrived for the meeting I had them look through. It was almost like a magic eye puzzle trying to make her out from all the branches. People would look through and say, "Well, I see a bunch of sticks...oh, OH! I see her!"

This bird made an informed decision, it nested right on a well used trail (even in winter) near a parking lot. So much for owls being skittish at the nest.

And now for some light reading...

Non Birding Bill picked me up a boxed set of Casino Royale from Target that includes a booklet on the making of the movie. I'm not kidding when I say light reading--it's all photos. Mostly of Mr. Craig, but a few to make it more artistic, like a photo of Dame Judy Dench. You know, to make it classy and not just about beefcake.

Another Break

You know what's fun? That bee people really aren't that different than bird people. During the bee class there's been a guy behind me answering questions loud enough for all in the immediate area to hear. He hasn't raised any bees but has read so much, he is an expert (his words, not mine).

So, we're at another break in the bee class so I thought I would catch up on the doin's that transpired at Carpenter banding yesterday.

It was a veritable junco 'sploxion. we trapped and banded a ton yesterday. And they were a little chirpy. I wonder if the warmer weather was stimulating them? They will be heading north soon.

We didn't have the mist nets up, only the Potter's traps to get smaller birds. Somehow this female mourning dove lumbered her way in. Interesting: you can sex mourning doves in hand by checking their neck. If there is quite a bit of iridescent rosy pink the bird is male. If there is mostly tan coloration then it is female. She had mostly tan on her neck.

After banding, it was so warm out I couldn't just go home and decided to head down to Red Wing to take a quick look at eagles. I passed a bank sign that said the temperature was 47 degrees. I ditched my coat, gloves, earmuffs and scarf and wandered around the marina.

The warm weather was helping the eagles feel the love and there was some flirting going. Above are two eagles on the same branch. That's the raptor equivalent of second base. There is a nest at the marina and I did see an eagle sitting inside the nest.

Many were across the marina, but a few lurk in the trees right over the walking path at Colville Park, fairly oblivious to humans. That's what I love about this area, these eagles are not delicate flowers to be given distance. They see the humans, they get what we're about and they will hang out fairly close to us. Heck, they nest right off of highways and here at the marina with high boat traffic. These birds made an informed decision and will nest in an open area, easy for humans to watch and enjoy. Raptors nests aren't always as fragile as some would like you to think.

While at the park an eagle picked off a large fish, probably a carp. As soon as it landed in the tree all the other dozens of eagles in the trees were screaming and squeaking. I'm not sure if they are saying, "Way to go, dude, nice catch!" or they are saying, "Aw man, I'm so hungry. It's not fair, I was thinking of going for that fish."

While this guy was eating, another eagle came over to check out the situation (above).

This eagle was really, really interested on watching the other eagle eating its fish.

It kept looking down at its toes. Our eagles at the Raptor Center do that all the time. I wasn't sure if this bird was watching fish bits fall and debating with itself if it would be worthwhile to go get them or if it was hoping that at some point a fish would magically appear in its talons.

Breaks over.

Signs of Spring

So I headed out to Mr. Neil's today to check out our bees supplies. They have been shipped, sans bees (we won't get those until April) but I tried on some of the gear and looked over the hives. They need to be put together, which looks like it's going to be an all day project that I will put off until next week. The instructions say that I am to use nails to put the hive together, but I'm wondering if I can use screws instead? I like screws because A. I have a tendency to split wood and put nails in crooked when using a hammer and B. I tend to smash my finger tips. Plus, who doesn't love using a power screw driver?

Mr. Neil's yard had ample helpings of snow, but if I aimed my camera just right I could get photos that reminded me of summer. Check out this tufted titmouse, that background could pass for green summer foliage. The weather today was terrific, a perfect day to play in snow. It was in the forties and bright and sunny. These are the times when we think, "Wow, winter really isn't that bad!"

Because of Non Birding Bill's rehearsal schedule I haven't been out and tending to the bird feeders as often as I usually do. When we arrived, I swear the birds recognize our vehicle and started swarming the feeders. This bird in the tree (above) caught my eye, I haven't seen one since last winter. This is the female of the species, can you guess what she is? Here's the male:

Purple finches! Early on in my birding career I was just frustrated trying to tell purple finches and house finches apart, but now I just know them as soon as I see them. Female purple finches always look like mini female rose-breasted grosbeaks to me.

The finches were just a delight. They were all over the sunflower chips. Look at this guy above, you can see some of his yellow starting to come in--breeding plumage--whoot!

On this little dude you can see the black cap starting to come in on top. It's weird, these are one of our latest nesters. Goldfinches don't get busy with the eggs until July but they start getting patches of their breeding plumage in February. By July, some house finches will be contemplating a third brood for the summer.

I finally get to go back to banding tomorrow--it's been weeks between snow storms and my travel schedule. And then this weekend it will be off to a weekend course in beginning bee keeping.

Per advice from the comments section, we have named the hives after two other friends that were visiting at Mr. Neil's today: Kitty and Olga. I wonder which will be the better honey producer? I just hope I don't kill them.

Sunny Day

The roads were moderately clear today and the sun was out! I headed back to the Minnesota Valley NWR. It's right off the highway and easily accessible. A turkey spent most of her day at the feeding station. She kicked up quite a bit of snow under the feeder to get at the spilled sunflower seeds.
This was to the absolute delight of the juncos and trees sparrows. The turkey also kicked up quite a bit of spilled Nyjer which these birds love to eat.

There were a TON of woodpeckers--mostly downy (above), hairy, and red-bellied. These two just cracked me up. They were eating on either side of the peanut feeder and if they noticed each other would get in a fight. While two woodpeckers would be on the peanut feeder, two more would be on the suet feeders. Then you would see at least a half dozen more woodpeckers waiting in the trees for their turn at the food.

All of a sudden, all of the birds flew off except for this one female downy woodpecker. She remained frozen where she was. I noticed some snow shoers taking off their gear outside the nature center and wondered that were it. No, her attention was elsewhere. There must have been a hawk nearby. Then someone in the building spotted it.

An adult sharp-shinned hawk had flown in. In the above photo are both birds. The female downy is in the yellow circle, the hawk is in the red circle. Both sat still waiting for the other to move. Finally, the hawk relaxed, and tucked in one of its feet (something birds do when they are totally relaxed or about to sleep). The downy saw her chance and flew to safety.

That allowed me to digiscope LOTS of photos of the sharp-shin! You could see those bright red eyes! I took about 120 photos, entranced by those deep red eyes. More snow shoers passed and this hawk didn't pay them any attention. Even a chickadee was brave enough to mob and scream a warning within a few feet of her. I learned from one of the staff that this bird hunted this area quite often, which confirmed my suspicion (on Wednesday I wondered about some curious cardinal feeding behavior and I wondered if it was because of a hawk). Eventually, some small birds flushed and the chickadee that had been mobbing her got nailed and became sharp-shin dinner.

About five minutes after she flew off with her prey the birds returned to the feeder and the original feeding frenzy continued as before--see hawks don't keep birds away from a feeder permanently. Just for the time they are present in the yard. Prey knows that as soon as the hunter gets its fill they are safe for the moment.

It was a different experience being at the nature center on a Saturday instead of a week day. I spent a good chunk of the afternoon giving a digiscoping presentation. It's strange to me that being on the road and going to bird festivals, I get the sense that EVERYBODY knows about digiscoping and it's sweeping that nation. However, to most at the nature center it was very new and different. I had quite a few people ask what I was doing with a "telescope"--was that really for watching birds?

Perhaps I will set myself up there more on the weekends with all my bells and whistles: binos, spotting scope, Handheld Birds, birdJam with speaker...yes, step into my parlour little flies...let me show you how cool birding can be...mwa ha ha ha ha ha.

Prepping For Snow

This guy was in front of me when I was walking home from the YWCA...I think he is having a rougher day than me.

Knowing that we are going to get socked with another 8 - 14 inches of snow, I decided to make a break for it and went for an hour's worth of digiscoping. One thing I appreciate where I live is that eagles are only a 15 minute drive away. I headed for the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge to practice taking photos at their feeders.

The peanut feeder was getting the most action with a steady stream of nuthatches (above) and woodpeckers attacking it from every angle. Birds love peanuts out of the shell, almost as much as sunflower.

Of course, where there are peanuts there can be starlings. They love nuts out of the shell too.

This guy was really quite striking with our pre-snow gray background. I got quite a few photos until a hairy woodpecker shooed him away.

There were some tray feeders at the feeding station and it was fun to watch this female cardinal feeding along side an American tree sparrow. One interesting behavior was from a male cardinal. He would fly up to the tray feeder, take a sunflower seed and fly back to the woods to eat it--much the same way a chickadee grabs seed at feeders. Normally, cardinals will stay at the feeder to eat their fill, keeping a watchful eye out for potential danger. I have seen quite a few Cooper's hawks and sharp-shins at this feeding station, I wonder if the male cardinal developed this feeding technique to avoid hawk predation or if he's just a freak?

Well, round one of the big snow has gotten off to a late start. The snow was supposed to start by noon and give us three inches before 6pm. Thankfully, for the evening rush hour the snow didn't start in earnest until after 6pm. The worst is supposed to be tomorrow with blizzard like conditions. Should be interesting.

Birding Misidentification By Car

I had a meeting today to sort through directions for one of the Audubon guide books I'm helping with--tedious, hard to stay focused work but I tried to set the goal of a varied thrush. One had been reported near the Audubon Offices in St. Paul so I thought I would go look for it when we finished the meeting.

After the meeting, I drove over to the reported area and didn't see it. I stuck around about a half hour to forty-five minutes but no varied thrush. I suppose I could have lurked in the neighborhood longer but I've seen this species in San Francisco and didn't have to work that hard, I was getting hungry and decided to head home.

I drove by the airport to see if I could find one of the snowy owls perched out and I did:

However, it was not in a spot where I am allowed to park, bring out my scope and digiscope the bird without a stern talking to by airport security. I snapped one photo, rest assured that the lump on the corner of that building is indeed a snowy owl.

After dodging around in rush hour traffic I got back to my neighborhood. When I was about a block away waiting at a traffic light, I noticed across the street a bird perched high in a tree:

The shape and size made me think "pigeon" but it seemed strange to see one of the neighborhood pigeons sitting out in the open and high in a tree at dusk. The traffic light was still red so I aimed my binos for a quick glance on the bird and could see that it was a small falcon. My friend Amber told me that she had seen a female kestrel the other day (in winter only the males tend to stick around in Minnesota). Curious, I drove around the block to get a view of the bird in better light--was this a female kestrel?

I had my scope handy and pulled up to a corner, aimed it on the falcon and took some fast photos in the dwindling light. In the small view finder the bird looked to be a merlin. Not common, but not unheard of in my neighborhood either. I was really hungry and the light was dimming fast so I went home. When I downloaded the photos from the camera I found the bird to be something quite different:

Look at that huge malar stripe (vertical stripe under the eye). Also notice how the wing tips go all the way to the tip of the tail--that's no merlin, that's a peregrine falcon! This has to be the smallest male I have ever seen in my life (for non birders, in the raptor world, females are larger than males).

Now, some of you may be wondering how on Earth could I mistake a merlin for a peregrine--aren't peregrines noticeably larger? Wouldn't that be obvious? Not always. A female merlin can be 12 inches in length, a male peregrine falcon can be a small as 14 inches in length. I don't know about you, but I have trouble determining length at a distance--especially hashing out a couple of inches here and there.

Also, this bird was out of context for me. Most of my peregrine falcon experience is seeing them on buildings or cliffs, not sitting perched on a branch in a tree. It didn't occur to me right away that a falcon perched in a tree could be a peregrine. I wish I hadn't been so hungry at the time I took these photos, I would have been curious to see the bands on his legs.

No varied thrush but cool birds today. And a good lesson for me to pay more attention to what I'm focusing on in a view finder--not just making sure it's focused.

Gyrfalcon and the Family

Whoo Hoo, our earliest migrant is back in Minnesota, the horned lark! I actually took this photo on Monday in Connecticut but yesterday while toodling around Dakota County I flushed quite a few flocks along the road.

I was trying to go see the gyrfalcon that has been hanging around south of the metro area. There are a couple of fields where thousands of mallards and Canada geese come in to feed late in the afternoon and the falcon likes to hunt them. There are some great videos of the gyr at the MOU website. One in particular is of the falcon eating a mallard while surrounded by thousands of live mallards. Periodically the gyr will lunge towards the flock, spooking them into the air. I wondered why it would do that, but after watching this noisy flock of geese and ducks yesterday I could see how they gyr might long for some silence while it ate. Incidentally, notice the dark line behind the geese in ducks in the above photo? That's thousands more waterfowl.

I did find the gyr but was not able to photograph it. I saw it high on a power pole off of a busy county road. I pulled over and it kept flinching as ducks flew in--it was hungry and trying to decide on which mallard to take. The gyr had it's wings outstretched and almost looked like a weathervane with an eagle on top of it. Finally, they gyr descended on the ducks, but none would flush, seemingly knowing that if one of them did, they would be falcon food for sure. The gyr flew over the grounded flock, banked towards my car and then flew just on the other side of the road, right at eye level! It was SWEET! That's the closest I've ever been to a wild gyr--well worth the drive down and back during rush hour traffic.

Ah, it's good to be home. Here is my family: Non Birding Bill, Cinnamon, and Kabuki piled on top of the Love Sac watching a Douglas Sirk movie. Good times.

Well, Cinnamon has finally disapproved of the fake bunnies. She has resumed digging in her litter box and ignoring the fake bunnies altogether. If I try to pet them, she lunges and grunts at me, and then hops away with even more grunts. It's as if she's irritated that I'm paying attention to the fake bunnies--don't I know that they aren't real? If I try to pet her after petting the fake bunnies she grunts and spins around. I don't want to irritate her, but I have to admit that I love the sound of her grunting. She's like a cute, little, furry piggy. Grunt grunt.

This weekend is another bunny adoption event at Minnesota Valley Humane Society in Burnsville from 12pm - 4pm both Saturday and Sunday. I'm going to try and get more photos for the book but we have narrow it down to 160 and have all the photos and captions decided and turned in By March 1--ack! Harper Collins moved up the deadline which I'm willing to do since I know that it will take time to get this together and really want the book to be out this fall.

Looking at what is going on with the two different publishers, it looks like the Disapproving Rabbits book is going to come out sooner than my City Birds/Country Birds book. It's very weird to me, the bird related book has been in the works almost a year and a half and the rabbit book was started four months ago and the rabbit book will probably be printed first. Different publishers have different styles I suppose.