Mergansers At Wood Lake

I love this time of year. Loons are migrating north and this is one of the few times you can find them on the lakes near our apartment. This was my Friday morning loon.

I had a spare hour this morning and headed over to Wood Lake Nature Center. Now that the ice is finally coming out of some of the Twin Cities lakes, people are reporting waterfowl all over. When I arrived at Wood Lake, I was surprised to see a tree sparrow still hanging around. How soon will we see chipping sparrows in their place?

When I got down to the lake, I noticed some waterfowl dotting the surface. Across from me, a coot started splashing around. It poked its bill a couple of times in the water and then took off. I wondered if a large fish was going after its feet...

I was surprised to see a pied-billed grebe pop up where the coot had been. Not long after I took this photo it gave its territory call. Perhaps the grebe plans to use this as its nesting territory and feels that no coots should be allowed.

There was a robin lurking in the reeds--check out that beakful of nesting material!

I continued to scan the lake and found this pair of hooded mergansers. They drifted over to the other side where there is another dock. I wondered if I could get over there to get a closer look. They can be kind of cagey, but the male would be interested in the female and maybe wouldn't notice me.

I walked over to the dock and moved slowly, using the reeds to hide my body. They noticed my movement, but didn't seem too alarmed.
Every time they dove under water for fish, I would take a step closer and try to anticipate where they would pop up and have my scope and camera ready.

This seemed to work well. When the birds would come up with a fish, they were so interested in trying to swallow it, they didn't care if I came right out in the open.

Some mallards came out towards the mergansers. The males were chasing a hen, oblivious to the smaller ducks around them. It's weird seeing the mergansers head on.

Eventually, the female swam over to a log and began to preen. The male soon followed and did a little display of raising his crest. And either because I'm incredibly tired or have been sipping too much scotch, I leave you with an anthropomorphic cartoon of hooded mergansers:

The Benefits Of Relieving Yourself In The Woods

This is the post that I was debating about: is it too much information? But Non Birding Bill said that is was gold...hm, interesting choice of words in hindsight.

I was bebopping around in Mr. Neil's woods on Sunday. I was in hot pursuit of a ruffed grouse and the report that a black-backed woodpecker had been seen (I did not see it). After spending so much time trying to get photos of fox sparrows on Saturday, I was amused at how abundant and cooperative they were for my camera. Note the guy above. He just perched right above me in the woods and sat for several minutes. We're banding at Mr. Neil's on Sunday, I hope a few stick around.

It did seem to be a brown bird bonanza day. I was trying to get a photo of a brown creeper, but boy they just do not sit still. I got this shot and then aimed my scope up a few feet higher in anticipation of getting the perfect shot...

...however, just as it was perfectly centered in the frame, it took off! Curses!

The woods were full of hermit thrushes foraging on the ground. I love these birds. They are so secretive when they feed, it's hard to remember that they are the glorious singers we'll soon hear up north. I lost total track of how long I was in the woods chasing down all these brown birds. As I was following the thrushes, I heard a red-tailed hawk call from not too far behind me. It's sound I hear the education red-tails at The Raptor Center make in their mews. I wondered if there was one on territory nearby. I know a pair is nesting nearby, but did not think that the nest would be in this direction. I soon found myself far off on a path I do not normally travel looking for the nest. The sound of the red-tail was getting louder and louder, but I couldn't see anything in the bare trees that looked like a hawk nest. I reached the end of the path, it ended right at a bend in the creek. I noticed that I had a dire need to pee. There was a place just right for needs, and I assumed the position. From that angle, there was a clearing in some tangled buckthorn with a view of some pines across the creek:

Oh hey! check out that lump in the pine. I couldn't see it when standing on the path, but from this lower angle, it was quite visible. I finished what I started and then got the large lump in the scope.

I watched for about five minutes and then saw a large lump emerge. That looks like a hawk. Then to confirm it, I heard the loud, scratchy "keeeeeer" of a second red-tail--right over head. Then a third bird appeared. There was lots of screaming and it looked like a territory skirmish was underway. The red-tail in the nest took to the sky and the two hawks drove out the third.

After the intruder left, both red-tails returned to the nest. I was excited to find the nest, but a tad bummed that it is not in a place that is easy to photograph from a distance. Once the buckthorn leafs out, it will be well hidden.

I worried about posting this because, me peeing in the woods might be too much info and really, do you need that image floating around in your head? But as I said, NBB said "How can you not blog about peeing in the woods?"

Anyway, it led to finding a cool nest.

Sapsuckers And Grouse

I woke up this morning hoping to dash out to look for a grouse drumming log. I put on a cup of coffee and was chit chatting with Non Birding Bill when I looked behind him and saw a male yellow-bellied sapsucker--I was so excited on a nearby pine! It was low and in great light. I grabbed my scope and NBB grabbed my camera and I went to work trying to get a photo. I was getting some okay photos, but it was through a window and it wasn't as crisp as I would like them. Sapsuckers have never been a very cooperative bird for me and I didn't want to scare it off.

But it continued to peck when I went outside so I got some great shots. It's weird, I was trying to find information about sapsuckers and tree health and I couldn't find a conclusive study about whether or not sapsuckers damage healthy trees or go after trees already in ill health. There did seem to be information from tree people calling them pests and information from bird people saying that we don't know for sure and most trees survive. Looks like more study needs to be done.

I did go out to look for grouse and NBB came with me. Mr. Neil told me that a week ago he heard strong drumming. We went to the area he described and sure enough we heard the drumming. We slowly followed a trail up the hill and I spotted this tangle. I saw a log...I saw a grouse shape--we found the grouse! It was frozen, it knew we there and we were not going to get to see it drum. After about thirty seconds it took off.

In spring, male ruffed grouse find a log and beat their wings against their chest to attract a female. If you've never heard it before, let me tell you, it's a crazy sound. It's such a low resonance, I tend to feel it as opposed to hear it. My friend Larry from banding has been giving information on what to look for in grouse drumming sites. This one fit the bill--it was a clearing, but the log itself was surrounded by some branches.

We found some grouse poop, but not a lot. I wonder if this isn't the usual log? I wanted to set up the motion sensitive camera, but the log is on someone else's property and in full view of a cabin. No one was home for me to ask and I momentarily thought of setting it up anyway, but NBB wisely pointed out that leaving a motion sensitive camera for someone to find might freak them out. I'll try again next weekend. Nonetheless, it is a goal realized--I've always wanted to find a grouse drumming log. Now I just need to get some footage of it in action.

And now I leave you with a video of the sapsucker drilling. There's a bee entry coming up, we did our first big spring hive inspection. I also have an idea for another entry, but I'm not sure. NBB says it's gold. I'm worried, that it might be too much information. I'll sleep on it.

Taunted By Fox Sparrows

Non Birding Bill went out with me today to Staring Lake Outdoor Center with Cinnamon. We were there for the open house and when we arrived, there were a ton of sparrows under the feeder. I tried to take a break here and there to get photos of fox sparrows, but the closest I came was getting a vent shot.

We had kids giving Cinnamon lots of love, completely oblivious to the disapproval. I got a kick out of the people at the table next to me showing snakes. They kept making a point to say within ear shot that it was a good thing they didn't bring the big snakes. Apparently, the big snakes would have been overly excited sensing a rabbit--that's food after all. One in particular was making a big show of staying as far away as possible from the rabbit. The first time I heard them it was amusing. After the thirteenth time, it was just tiresome and I said, "Yes, I get the food chain. I understand."

Oh well, I'm sure I've done the EXACT same thing when doing raptor programs. "Oh, better keep that purse puppy away. That's making the hawk awful interested."

I tried a few more times to get photos of the fox sparrows. I did get this lovely grackle. A whole flock discovered our apartment feeding station yesterday and made short work of the suet. Guess it's time to switch to safflower.

I did get a lovely song sparrow, but the fox eluding not only my digiscoping but the motion sensitive camera. After we finished at Staring Lake, NBB and I head out to Mr. Neil's for dinner. We arrived just as the afternoon sun was hitting my beloved brush pile.

I scattered some seed on the larger branches and nestled my body and my spotting scope in some of the surrounding shrubbery and waited. The chickadees and juncos flew in first. Note the disapproving junco above. Next flew in the song sparrows and finally...

A fox sparrow popped up and perched on one of the branches and gave me a few minutes to get the fluffy bird. Love those sparrows!

Early Spring Sparrows

Winter storm warning starts today, April 10 at 4pm! We might be getting 4 - 6 inches of snow sometime within the next 48 hours. I shouldn't complain...Duluth is supposed to get blizzard conditions (not blizzard like, just blizzard).

While I was checking the traps yesterday, I heard my first field sparrows of the year (above). When we finished banding, I took a few minutes to go out and look for them--there were several. That is such a sweet sound of spring and summer.

There were a few song sparrows (above) around too. They've been around for a couple of weeks now. Although, some song sparrows don't leave the Twin Cities in winter. When I worked at a bird store on the west side, we had them at the feeder all winter long.

The field sparrow is such a cute brown bird! I was really enjoying the time with the field sparrows yesterday. Tax time has been rough this year. We put it off (our own darn fault) and we're gonna have to pay and it's going to hurt and we've irritated our accountant--just all those crazy things that many of us go through this one week in April every year. I loved just standing out in the prairie at Carpenter Nature Center surrounded by the sweet songs of the field sparrows, soaking it in. And no matter how late we are with our taxes or how much we end up owing, birds are always a comfort. I tried to take a video through my scope of the field sparrow singing for people who may not know what they sound like (it reminds many of a ping pong ball bouncing on a table). There's a little heat shimmer, but you get the idea:

Junco Goodness

Today has been such a weird day. So what do you do on April 1 and you wake up to eight inches of snow?

Well, you could go a little crazy like Lorraine did and melt some beeswax and drop globs of snow in to watch it form hard yellow clumps of wax.

I opted to spend some quality time with a brush pile. It's covered in juncos as usual and I was surprised to find a Lincoln's sparrow lurking among them. Alas, it moved way too quickly for me to digiscope it.

I scattered some seed on some of the branch ends that were sitting in the direct light of the setting sun. As soon as I would turn my back and walk ten feet back to my spotting scope, the juncos would hop out to feed.

A few chickadees flew in to partake of the seed as well.

If you look closely at the above bird, you might notice little pin feathers around its face--it's molting. I always wonder what it must be like to molt and feel little pin pricks where new feathers are poking through--and some species do this twice in a year. Do you suppose there's bird PMS (pre molt syndrome)?

Speaking of PMS, my goodness the snow made some people cranky. It's funny because in November we smile and welcome the snow, knowing more is yet to come. By the time it's mid March we have run out of love for the snow. I felt the crankiness coming over me and decided that I just need to pay attention to the juncos, after all they will be leaving our area soon.

The juncos are getting a bit more tetchy lately, there's a bit more fighting over food and you can hear some of them start to do a territory song which they haven't done all winter. Soon they will be gone and I'll be swooning over warblers and vireos, only to be tired of those in September and longing for juncos once again--it's a vicious cycle.

Grouse Hunt & The Bossy Purple Finch

So, I've a small goal this spring to see if I can find a ruffed grouse drumming log. I've heard them drumming in a few places on Mr. Neil's, but I've never found the log itself. Yesterday, I went out with my buddy Amber to try and find the log. She's one of the few people I know who doesn't mind some challenging hiking conditions on deer trails. When we arrived, we found the above male goldfinch well on his way through his molt into breeding plumage--which is a welcome site this morning as eight inches of snow is falling.

We found a stand of pines that had some kind interesting story to tell, but couldn't quite suss it out. We found owl pellets and owl poop. It looked like good potential for saw-whet. But then we found a bunch of owl feathers. From the size and shape, they looked like long-eared owl feathers...and it looked like something had attacked the it. We couldn't find any other owl but wondered if one of the larger owls like a great horned or barred owl had killed it. There were also other feathers mixed in with the owl--cardinal and junco, which made us wonder if it a Cooper's hawk had been eating here too.

We flushed a ruffed grouse from a thick tangle of buckthorn and water horsetail. I started to step inside and found a turned over tree, but it was way too thin and not hollow. One of the guys I band birds with at Carpenter (Larry) knows a lot about grouse and he's been giving me tips on what to look for.

There were some healthy piles of grouse poop, so the grouse has been spending quite a bit of time. I sent Larry the photos and he said that this looks like it was siting under that pile of brush - using it for cover from overhead predators. Even though we didn't find the drumming log, I heard some distant drumming across the creek. I may have to break out my chest waders from the Ivory-bill Search and cross the creek to find the drumming log. Larry said that peak drumming time is in the next three weeks and that foggy mornings are best because that helps to carry the drumming sound. I'll see if I can make it out there this weekend.

We ended up spending the rest of our time trying to get photos of birds at the feeders. They were empty when we arrived and we filled the feeders first thing. It took no time for the birds to fly in. It's fun to watch the red-bellied woodpecker chip out a large chunk of suet to eat in safety up in the branches. There were lots of birds on the move. Amber heard and saw sandhill cranes fly over and then we heard a distant high pitched barking...hmmm...more sandhills? No. Snow geese? Not quite...

When they finally flew over we saw that they were tundra swans--sweet! I hadn't seen any since last November and then it was only while I was driving so I couldn't hear their barking sound. A few flocks passed over our heads throughout the day and above is a photo that Amber got as they passed overhead.

We didn't see the common redpoll that I had seen about a week and a half earlier, but we did see a male purple finch. I haven't seen one of those guys since last fall.

He was a bossy little bird too. I had heard people speculate that the influx of introduced house finches had pushed out the purple finches, but I have to say that watching this one male, he didn't look like the kind of bird who would take any guff from a house finch. Above, he is lunging towards a chickadee.

In this photo, he drove out a white-breasted nuthatch.

A second nuthatch tried to fly in, but the purple finch gave it the hairy eyeball and the nuthatch darted away from the tray towards a tree instead. He did tolerate a goldfinch, but if it came to close, the purple finch lunged at it too.

Time To Clean Those Feeders

I got this rather arty photo of house finches with the WingScapes Camera. The female house finch flying in behind the domed feeder looks like she's doing some weird interpretive dance. Speaking of finches, there are some reports this week in the news that there is a salmonella outbreak going on in Arkansas and New York. I linked to a couple of articles over at the Birding Business News Blog--now is would be a good time to clean you bird feeders and you'd be doing a tremendous service to migrating birds. Here's a goldfinch and purple finch sharing a tray that I digiscoped yesterday. Birds can spread salmonella by depositing fecal matter in trays (or on the ground) and then it gets mixed in with spilled seeds. Cornell Lab has some good tips of what to do if you see diseased birds at your feeder. If you can't keep your feeders clean, consider paying a kid to do it or find out if you local bird store offers a feeder cleaning service. If you can't keep your feeders clean...then you probably shouldn't be feeding birds.

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.

Checking The Olga Hive In Winter

Hey, I did end up getting a photo of Mr. Neil's common redpoll. I wonder how much longer this bird will stick around. It has been the only redpoll in his yard--separated from a flock further north. I'll be curious to see how long it stays.

Non Birding Bill went out with me to the beehives last weekend. There he is with a worker climbing up his fleece. We had the following conversation before we went out to the hives:
NBB: Aren't we going to put on bee suits?

BC: Nah. We won't need it.

NBB: What about the smoker, shouldn't we take the smoker?

BC: Nah. They'll be calm enough, we shouldn't need it. We're just going to put in a pollen patty for some extra protein.

When we got to the hive, NBB held his ear next to the hive to see if he could hear them buzzing inside the hive. We could see that the bees had been out in some of the warmer weather--pooping like crazy. Not all the little spots on the black insulation--that's bee poop! Bees don't go potty while they are in the hive to help keep it clean. That's fine in warm weather, but takes remarkable self control in winter. Then in spring when the weather is warm enough, the fly out to release all that they have been holding during the winter, these are called cleansing flight. Can you imagine having to hold it all winter long--and I'm not talking one of those southern winters, I'm talking a serious and long northern winter! Ah, bees, you never cease to amaze me!

As we were taking the hive apart to put in the pollen patty, we noticed that it was sealed with propolis and I regretted not bringing along the hive tool to pry it open. We did some knocking and that kind of alerted the girls. To hear NBB tell it, when a few flew out at us, I ran off squealing "Don't flail!" while running like a two year old and flapping my arms. I think I more dashed back cautiously. The few bees that flew soon fell to the ground and we tried our best to pick them up and put them back on the hive. Bill had one on his gloves and she tried to sting him. Fortunately, her stinger didn't get stuck in his glove so he put her back on the hive alive and intact.

The bees were in a loose cluster and when I was at the Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers meeting was told that they could even have brood inside! Whoot. We put the Olga hive back together and I felt a pang of excitement that in a month or so I would be installing two new packages of bees. When I was at the meeting, I learned that lots of keepers up here lost hives over the winter, some to the cold temps like we did and some to possible Colony Collapse. I met one woman who said that she lost five of her six hives. I was incredibly grateful that we still had Olga--and SO grateful that we started our beekeeping adventure with two hives instead of one. It gave us a much better frame of reference. NBB and I also took home a couple of jars of the now defunct Kitty hive that Mr. Neil had extracted. My goodness did it taste good!

On our way back to the house, I found a hawk pellet. I'm pretty sure this is from a large red-tail that has been keeping watch over the fields at the front of the driveway. I can tell that this is a hawk pellet and not an owl pellet by the lack of bones--owl pellets are fun to take apart because they tend to swallow prey whole and and have weaker digestive acids than hawks so you find bones in the pellets. Hawks tend to rip and shred prey and when they do swallow bones, their stronger digestive acids dissolve small bones.

I walked by the bluebird house to see if any early returning bluebirds had left a calling card.

A calling card was left--but not from a bluebird. It looks like a downy woodpecker has been in here and pecking the floor. I'm thinking the woodpecker has been using this as a winter roosting box and not a potential nest site, but I'm going to leave it alone and see what happens in the coming weeks.

I went to check some of the bushes and trees we planted last fall and found that some unauthorized pruning was going on. Gee I wonder who did this?

Or this?

Well, speaking of calling cards, I find that a bunny left one around the dogwood. I didn't need the rabbit poop to confirm it, you can tell bunny damage by the perfect little cuts that their teeth make. For once, I disapprove!

Rabbits weren't the only pruning offenders. This one looks like it has both bunny damage and a bit of deer damage. Ah, the joys of planting for wildlife...sometimes the unintended wildlife eat it before the birds do.