Curious Waxwing

Oh dear, I may be coming over to the dark side of digiscoping...a Canon digital SLR, the Rebel XSi. There are certainly advantages using an SLR, but I like the small, pocket size and ability of taking video by using a point and shoot camera for digiscoping. I will say, feeling the click of the camera with every shot is oddly satisfying...let's see if I can get the photos there.

I went to the Minnesota Valley NWR to give it a test run and a most accommodating cedar waxwing flew down to the fly thru feeder. That's not supposed to be a seed eater, what's up with that? Sometimes during migration you'll see warblers and vireos at feeders. They're attracted by the general bird activity and flying to check out the food source. In some cases, they'll go for fruit or even suet if it's cold and there aren't enough insects available. Like this pine warbler at Mr. Neil's.

But this cedar waxwing had its eye on other things. It made sure the area was clear and then flew down to the bird bath for a sip. Alas, I did not get a photo of the waxwing on the bath, a herd of retired US Fish & Wildlife Employees (at the refuge for a convention) came out. One told me a rather naughty joke about mullen. He said that if you saw mullen growing in a field, then that meant that the soil was so bad, two Irish men with a bottle of whiskey couldn't even raise hell on it.

I think he doesn't like mullen.

I can't believe I forgot to blog about the turkey!

I stopped at Richardson Nature Center the other day to see if the feeders had any activity worth some digiscoping--some wild turkeys were there, about three toms. The above dude made me chuckle. His body was in the sun and his head was in the shade.

Periodically, you would see him pant, meaning he was hot. Birds do not sweat they way we do. To expel excess heat, they pant. I wondered if it occurred to this turkey to put its whole body into the shade, rather than just the head? But then again, that is a small brain controlling a large body.

It's feathers gleaming rust in the sun were quite beautiful.

The neck was another story. Ew.

While watching the turkeys, I noticed quite a few bugs flying around. At first, I thought the bugs were either box elder bugs or some type of wasp creating a hive on the side of the nature center. Then I noticed the dull hum--honeybees!

Richardson has a couple of beehives near their bird feeders. It looked as though someone had extracted some honey from some frames and left them out for the bees to "clean up." The frames were right next to the window, so I had a chance to watch the bee activity without being hindered by a veil.

There were a few other species coming in to take advantage of the unprotected honey. While I was watching the intense activity, I noticed several "balls of bees" start to roll around. At first, I thought they were fighting, but noticed that no one was using a stinger and that the were all licking each other. I think what was happening as that the forager bees would go into get some honey and get covered in honey themselves. Other bees would sense the honey on them and come in to lick it off. The bee would try to fly away, but another bee would have her tongue stuck to her leg from trying to lick off all the honey. I got a video of a bunch of girls, covered in honey,...and...licking each other:

and here's another:

Nothing To Grouse About

I dedicate this post to my banding buddy Larry who is having a rough grouse season:

Oh dear, I just realized the inadvertent pun in the above sentence. That even hurt me a little.

After the big fat bummer of discovering an empty hive, I went for a walk in Mr. Neil's woods. Non Birding Bill came along with me, I think to try and cheer me up. We heard ruby-crowned kinglets, palm warblers, and yellow-rumps all around us...well, I did, not so sure about NBB. While walking up the trail near the MimiKo and Kelli hives, I spotted a moving lump up ahead in the middle of the trail:

It was a ruffed grouse! We appeared to notice each other at the same time. The sun and clouds kept changing by the minute, so I decided to just concentrate on trying to get a shot in focus. I couldn't believe that the bird stayed on the trail long enough for me to take 6 out of focus shots and one in focus! We've heard grouse drumming near here and Amber and I have found some grouse roosting spots but this is hands down the best look I've ever had at a ruffed grouse in Mr. Neil's woods. Finally, NBB and I were just a little much for the grouse to take, especially with a giant spotting scope lens aimed in its direction during grouse season and it hopped up into a tree:

It was such a cool bird and NBB was even enjoying it--he digs larger birds that are easier to see. He was helpful because I would look into the scope and try to focus and he could keep an eye on the mobile grouse letting me know where to aim. It was interesting, I would look outside the scope and find it, look through the scope and lose it, look out again and just be astonished at how the grouse could disappear in the branches right before my eyes.

Ruffed grouse like mixed-deciduous forest. That is certainly here, there are oaks and old pines for cover and aspens for good. I wonder if we could plant more? I also wonder if we could create an idea grouse drumming area. This way, I could set up one of my motion sensitive cameras to get shots and video of it. Larry has told me what to look for in a grouse drumming spot and I've seen it, but what are the characteristics that a grouse sees that I may need?

Anyway, the grouse was a good cleanse for me. And after some thinking, no matter what the outcome of the hive (still hoping that burning is not an option) I have had a silver lining. I've been laboring through the first draft of the bee book--people say it's a good idea, but I personally was not clear in what my message in writing the book was: a more in depth version of the bee blog posts? As I've been writing it, the tone has been getting weird and a bit schmaltzy. I was worried that my beekeeping book was becoming a Lifetime Movie event: My Beehive Of Hope. I figured I just needed the draft out and would rework it from there.

But last night, I was thinking about all the things that have gone wrong with the beekeeping. And one of the many things NBB said in an effort to cheer my mood, "You know, I admire your tenacity. When you want something and you try it or pitch it and then it doesn't work, you go back to it from a different angle until you can get what you want."

Mistakes. Tenacity. Mistakes. Tenacity. Mistakes.

And then it hit me around a little before midnight. Panic At The Beehive: My Many Beekeeping Mistakes. A new outline fell into place, mistakes, lessons learned and something that is truly in my voice and not a Lifetime Movie event.

Big sigh of relief.

Skywatch Friday With Migrants

Hey, have you sent in your comments regarding the proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act yet? Don't let it slip away (and yes, I'm gonna be a pest about this).

Well, it's Skywatch Friday again. You can visit their site and click to all the links to every one's photos of sky and if you wish, you can participate by creating your own blog entry with a photo of sky, adding the Skywatch Friday link to your post and then adding your link to their site. As you can see, the vivid blue skies still continue to enhance the gorgeous fall colors at Carpenter Nature Center.

I tell ya', with the all the negatives adds (on all sides) of the upcoming election and news of the economy it's hard not to get down. If you are anywhere near Hastings, MN make a trip to Carpenter, the colors do not disappoint and the grounds full of birds and a few bees give you peace of mind that money just cannot buy. And if you have a few bucks, now is the time to load up on apples from their orchard--Honeycrisps are in and they have apple cider made right on site (I'm enjoying some now as I type this entry).

The bright blue sky, mixes with the changing reds and yellows of the trees to make the perfect back drop for photographing or just enjoying birds. Not that downy woodpeckers are fugly to begin with, but their black and white coloration is oh so enhanced with the fall colors. I don't know if anyone needs a cleansing downy woodpecker, but here you are.

Later, I'll blog more about the banding bonanza that we had at Carpenter today--I banded a lot of birds and I don't think I worked with the same species twice, it was a parade of sparrows, finches, and warblers and note the bird above: I took my first junco (aka snowbird) of the season out of the nets today. I call this my first junco of the season, but it really is not. I have heard there chip notes in the bushes on the bike trail and I have chosen to ignore the blatant sign of winter.

But if we are talking sky, it's only appropriate that we talk about migration and birds that are pouring out of the skies on their journey south. Carpenter was loaded with white-throated sparrows today (like the bird above) so watch for sparrows lurking under your feeders--and it wouldn't hurt to put out a bit of white millet for them. One of my favorite things about the fall are the nights up at Frank's hawk banding station in Duluth and you can hear white-throated sparrows chipping to each other overhead as large flocks head south. Some of my favorite moments in life have included listening to night migrants with friends...I remember laying on a bench in Cape May, NJ a few years ago do that same thing WildBird on the Fly. Good times.

Here's a tan morph of white-throated sparrow. Look at those gorgeous rufous feathers mixed in with other shades of brown on its back--what a classy little brown bird! Speaking of migration, blog reader Tammy sent over this news link from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about night migration:

"Right around sunrise Tuesday morning the NWS Milwaukee/Sullivan radar (MKX) showed some curious circular reflectivity returns. The echoes developed suddenly and then grew in size between 6:45 AM and 7:30 AM. The MKX staff suspects these to be birds taking off right at sunrise. Some of the echoes initially show returns as high as 30 dBZ, which would equate to a decent shower if the returns were made of rain drops. These are likely dense clusterings of geese heading out early to feed in the fields."

You can read the full story and see the radar images here.

So, keep your eyes and your ears to those fall skies!

What I Enjoy About Digiscoping

First, Birds and Beers will be Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 6pm at Merlin's Rest. I'm sorry to people who can't make it to Tuesday and only on Thursdays, but my Thursdays are a little nutty for the next few weeks. The next one will be on a Thursday.

Birds and Beers is an informal gathering for people interested in birds to get together, have a beverage, maybe a few eats, and talk some birds. It's open to anyone who might be interested in watching birds to the hardcore lister and anyone in between. It'll be a great way to ignore the nasty political adds on tv, the baffling candidate choices, and the state of the stock market and focus on birds.

Speaking of not wanting to turn on the tv or visit news sites, I'm so grateful to birds and digiscoping. It's nice when the news starts to sound too terrible, that I can find a place and simply watch birds. I love visiting a well traveled feeding station and the Minnesota Valley NWR is just one of those places. I needed photos of woodpeckers and just really took a moment to focus on birds. When someone asks what drew me to birds, I can only answer, "It's the way I'm wired, I love everything about them." Even just watching their natural daily functions. Take a look at that down woodpecker above. This small woodpecker as the ability to hang on the bottom of the feeder, use that stiff tail to prop itself up, and still manage to work out a peanut from just that position. I wonder if I would be willing to do that for a Klondike Bar? Although, that would be a messy way to get one.

I know some "pro photographers" who poo poo amateurs like myself. "You can't get a head on shot of a bird, that's not going to sell." But it's the imperfect shots that I appreciate more--because that's how you actually see birds in the wild. There's a reason that the Mad Bluebird photo is one of the most commercially successful bird photo ever taken--it has character. Again, I take comfort in this nuthatch getting ready to fly of this feeder, the way The Stranger in The Big Lebowski takes comfort in "The dude abides." The position, the shape, the ability of this bird to survive for years in the wild being despite being tiny and sometimes enduring temperatures well below zero degrees Fahrenheit. I'm not looking to sell images, just enjoy birds.

Here's another photo that would never sell, but I take a moment to appreciate how all these functional colors work into a beautiful pallet. Sure black and white blends well with trees and a little flash of red serves a purpose in mating and territoriality, but it's just beautiful. I could stare at that red, white, and black for a good half hour.

Again, it's just nice to find something to take your mind off all the gloom and doom in the news.

On a fun note, yesterday on Big River Journey, our boat was just coming into downtown St. Paul and we watched a very healthy looking coyote drinking from the river. I wish I had my digiscoping set up then. The coyote in perfect sun with the St. Paul high rises looming behind it.

Conversation With Non Birding Bill

Birdchick: Man, this house finch I took a photo of today looks really peaked.

Non Birding Bill: Is it okay?

Birdchick: Yeah, it's just molting, see the pin feathers.

Non Birding Bill: Well, it doesn't need those breeding feathers this time of year.

Birdchick: Well, it's actually growing in those pink feathers now.

Non Birding Bill: You just can't let me have anything, can you?

It Was About Quality, Not Quantity

I met up with my buddy Rick and we carpooled up to Frank Taylor's hawk banding station near Duluth, MN last weekend. The plan was to have a great weekend of hawk banding, timed right during the big broad-winged hawk. I thought we were off to a bang when one of the first birds in was an early morning red-tailed hawk. This immature bird (because it's lacking a red tail) came in not long after the nets were set up. I didn't take that many photos of it, I figured more birds would come.

But not many birds were moving that day, my friend, and we spent a good deal of time scanning empty skies and chatting (still a great time). The clouds came in, the winds were not in our favor and started blowing so hard they billowed the nets, making them easy to see to a keen eyed raptor. Eventually, the clouds cleared, but by that point, the few hawks that were moving through were way too high to even consider coming into our nets.

Warblers, especially yellow-rumped warblers (like the one above) were swarming around some nearby bushes, hawking insects and sipping juice from the red berries off this bush. If anyone recognizes the berry bush in the warbler photos, please feel free to drop a note in the comments. We were thinking they were honeysuckle, but were not sure. Whatever they were, the berries were a bird magnet--we even saw a Swainson's thrush lurking among the leaves to partake of the fruit.

However, it is indeed a slow banding day if I can tear myself from the blind to go out and do a bit of digiscoping--and warbler digiscoping at that (not easy to get those little dudes to stay still), but manage I did. However, it is indeed a slow banding day if I can tear myself from the blind to go out and do a bit of digiscoping--and warbler digiscoping at that (not easy to get those little dudes to stay still), but manage I did. We closed up the blind a little early and headed over to the Lighthouse for dinner. After sitting in a blind with cold winds blowing on your face, a hot meal was in order--I ate a lovely pork chop with sour kraut and mashed potatoes (insert Homer Simpson donut noise here). It's amazing to me that I can be a good two and a half hours north of the Twin Cities freezing my tail off and the Twin Cities themselves will be close to eighty degrees. That night, I curled up in my sleeping bag in Frank's van. Again, I would like to say how grateful that despite my girliness, I can still spend the night in a van.

The more I join the guys at Frank's station in the fall, the more I can relate to deer hunters. You may not always get all the birds you hoped for, but you enjoy just being with your friends and staring at birds. There were other things to keep us amused: friend's of Frank popped in for visits (and cookies), an elder hostile showed up and Frank gave them a tour, listening for trains...

And Rick Dupont--who is the master of pulling the bait pigeon made a special friend. A Richardson's ground squirrel is living under the blind and the entry and exit hole is on Rick's side of the blind. Rick is generally a quiet guy anyhow, I wondered if he was forming a special bond with the squirrel...was it telling him things like how to pull the pigeon on the harness or that Free Masons rule the country? If you have been to Hawk Ridge, you might have seen Richardson's ground squirrels near the counting area, under the sign.

We set up the next morning and Rick hoped we would do better than the day before. I was hopeful and said that we only needed two birds and our numbers would have been twice as good as the day before. Frank has a second blind set up on his property that is run by his friend Todd. We can sometimes see birds pop up and head towards the second blind--we'll even radio over potential birds. We watched this immature sharp-shinned hawk pop up and then dive down towards Todd. Frank, Rick, and I wondered if Todd got. Ten seconds later, Todd radioed that he had a shin. There were a couple of times we watched merlins bombing across the field and then they would disappear. Just as we would wonder where the merlin went, Todd would radio a few seconds later that a merlin passed his net twice and moved on. Those tiny falcons make speed look so effortless.

As the morning wore on, the chances of getting any birds looked bleak. While watching a shin that was totally ignoring us, a harrier made a sneak attack from behind the blind and dove down on the pigeon. Fortunately, Rick is always ready to pounce was able to prevent the harrier from getting the pigeon. He harrier had no intent of going into the net, it was very much trying to get the pigeon inside this strange fence. It just didn't realize humans were that close. We debated about what time to close the blind--noon? I said we should stay until 12:30pm, something good was going to come. Well, we noticed some snipe moving through (that's something). One landed fairly close to the blind, so Frank and I thought we would head over to get a shot. We were wandered for about twenty minutes. Rick came out to join us. We looked up and a merlin flew low right above us. We were all too far from the blind and totally missed it. Doh! We walked back to the blind and debated if it was time to close shop. When we were about ten feet from the blind, Frank shouted, "Peregrine!"

I set my scope behind the blind and darted in. Rick just made it to the pigeon line and pulled, Frank whispered to freeze. I saw the large, dark bird approach from the north, it was set and made a beeline for the pigeon. The peregrine made the decent from a low angle and then dropped it's feet like a red-tail would--we call this lowering the landing gear. Usually peregrines do not do this, so it was interesting to see. Two seconds later the bird hit the nets and Rick exploded out of the blind (a peregrine got away from him the weekend before, he wasn't letting this one go).

There she is--and it's another tundrius peregrine falcon, like Peregrine 568. You can tell by this young bird having a light blond head. Other young peregrines like anatums will have a dark head. She was unbanded and tundrius peregrines come from way up north on the tundra, she could be from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (you know that place where Michele Bachmann said there's no trees and wildlife).

So, I wasn't just talking out of my butt when I told Frank and Rick that we should stay until 12:30pm because something good was coming. All told, for two days of waiting, we got in only 3 birds. But they were quality birds. A red-tailed hawk and a peregrine falcon are great birds to watch fly in. As a matter of fact, I've never watched a peregrine fly in. I've seen them after they were trapped--usually at Todd's net but never got to watch the full flight in. It was pretty awesome. I'm looking forward to making another trip. I'm hoping October will be a busier month than September, but not all years can be epic days of bird after bird flying in.

And just one more photo because she's so beautiful!

Fall Transitions

Watch out, Buckeyes! I'm coming to Bellville, Ohio next month! On October 18, I'll be giving a presentation on how to start your own nature blog for the Audubon Ohio State Assembly. It would be fun if we could work out a Birds and Beers there. Suggestions anyone? Non Birding Bill is coming to Ohio with me ( but wants to make it clear that he will not be participating in any birding). His family lives in nearby Mansfield, so I'll get to visit the in laws as well...and enjoy some of the frightening dolls of small town Ohio. Oh hai, and for my Mom, here is an article about the assembly. I'm actually really excited about this, Kim Kaufman and Jim McCormack are leading field trips on the October 19th and I'm hoping to tag along.

Boy howdy, I need to be careful about going out with librarians on a Tuesday night for dinner and drinks. I have a librarian friend who is...your fantasy librarian you would see in 80's music videos. Business by day (glasses and smart clothes) but in the evening, the pencil comes out of the bun, the hair falls, the glasses disappear and well, you find yourself a tad hungover on a Wednesday morning. So, I did some light Wednesday morning digiscoping. The above great blue heron perched on the wood duck box somewhat mirrored my state of mind.

I found it interesting that after a few minutes, the great blue heron went to sleep, above the reeds, out in the open. I wondered if this bird had migrated in the night before from Canada or northern Minnesota and was just that exhausted. Migration is going in full force. Yesterday while workin' on my fitness on the bike trails, I realized that this was the first day I did not see any swallows along the trail. Come to think of it, I didn't see any while out birding, they have moved south.

But other birds were moving in. I heard the chip notes of white-throated sparrows and sure enough, I found a pair hidden in some trees. This is sort of that denial time of late summer early autumn in the Twin Cities. It's still fairly warm, lots of insects are making sounds: katydids, cicadas, crickets, but key birds are gone like the swalllows and migrants are pushing through--warbler waves are hidden in the tops of many trees. Even as I type this, I can hear yellow-rumped warblers making their chip notes in the trees outside my apartment. In another month or two, the trees will be silent. Sigh.

Lots of young birds were learning the ways of the flocks, like this young cedar waxwing. You can tell this is a bird that was hatched this summer by the vertical stripes down the breast--that's one way we tell immature from adult raptors. Immatures tend to have vertical striping, adults tend to have horizontal (or no) striping.

Anyone else noticing fall transitions out there?

Oh, and for international birders who read the blog, did anyone see this photo over at Cute Overload? Some of their readers suggested it was a red-tailed hawk--which I know for sure it is not a red-tail. Is this a snake-eagle? Anyone want to hazard a guess?

Fall Banding At Carpenter

The warblers are just drippin' off the trees in Minnesota. We had a great day of banding on Friday at Carpenter Nature Center. Note this palm warbler giving itself a scratch in among the autumn leaves. Again, I have to say that the color at Carpenter is peaking right now, and it is a GREAT time to visit.

One of this first birds in the nets was this male American redstart. This was one of the easier birds to id--looks kinda like a miniature oriole.

Some were more challenging--even in hand. Here's a magnolia warbler.

I missed this, but my buddy Larry sent over a photo of a Wilson's warbler that someone banded.

A surprise thrush of the day, was this Swainson's thrush...didn't they just arrive, I feel like I was just listening to these guys sing as they were migrating north through my neighborhood. After I downloaded my photos onto my computer, I noticed the weird little spot behind the thrush's eye. I zoomed in on iPhoto, and I think those are ticks.

Here's a little bit closer view--and a shot of the bird's nictitating membrane (extra eyelid that protects a bird's eye in flight or while eating). Man, I'm also just noticing how large this bird's eye is in relation to its head--it could give an owl a run for its money on big eyes.

We got in a plethora of vireos and normally this time of year, it's a bunch of red-eyed vireos, but didn't get any of those. But seemed like we were getting anything but. The above bird just confused me. It had a bunch of yellow, so I thought "Ah, Philadelphia vireo!" Alas, no, it's a warbling vireo. That's a vireo I just don't pay that much attention to, the first time I really worked to get a look (you tend to hear them more than see them) I was rewarded with a really drab gray bird. But they can have some splashes of yellow--these are the birds that some birder's describe saying, "If I could seize one, I would squeeze one, and I'd squeeze it 'til it squirts." Not sure what exactly it wants to squeeze or what that birder had on his mind when they made that one up.

Now, here is a Philadelphia vireo--the yellow goes down the chest. We got in a few of these.

And then we got in a dazzling yellow-throated vireo. Not a bad day of banding.

Fantastic Banding At Mr. Neil's

Quick notes first: My buddy Amber can be seen in an odd photo I took of a Mandrake Carrot at Lorraine's blog and Mr. Neil's blog. Rumor has it that the MC is working it's way towards our home for a sacrifice to the great Disapproving Rabbit.

Tea and Food linked my Chicken of the Woods post. I have not found any in the usual places this year. I think it's been too dry. I'm worried about not finding my all time fave wild edible - Hen of the Woods. But that's one of the reasons wild food is such a delight when it happens, you just never know for sure if you'll have it.

Sunday was the day I always knew we could have at Mr. Neil's. I always knew there was great banding potential and great things to be learned. I've asked Mark and Roger to band and they've been out a couple of times and we've gotten some birds, but nothing like this past Sunday. It was good timing with the migration and placement of the nets.

We had some nets set up around the feeders and another set down in the woods near the creek (but far from the beehives). The nets were so busy around the feeders that after we got birds out, we would furl the nets up so we could quickly process the birds we had. I think we banded a total of 53 birds on Sunday.

The most common species banded that day? Goldfinches! I'll have to double check Roger's report, but I think he said they banded a total of 27 goldfinches? It was insane around the feeders, they would unfurl the nets and in less than 3 minutes, there would be 6 goldfinches. These are fun to band and I noted some things that banders look at when a bird is in hand. Notice the rough and beat up look of the primary wing feathers? Those are older feathers that have been worn with use. Then notice how some are fresh looking and not too beat up.

You can do this with all birds and Mark's research with banding is the aging of down and hairy woodpeckers based on feather replacement symmetry and wing feather color. According to his research, you can age a downy or hairy up to four years. Next time you see a downy or hairy woodpecker on your feeder, take a minute to look at the wings. Sometimes, you'll notice that some of the wing feathers will be brownish instead of black--that's all part of Mark's aging system.

At one point, we had so many birds in the feeder nets that Mark and Roger told Amber and I bag only non banded birds, any birds that already had a band, we were to note the number and let it go. A could were found and Mark and Roger were able to figure out if it was banded last spring or fall. I took out the above goldfinch and noticed right away that the band was on the right foot--we normally put it on the left. I assumed that this was probably a bird they let me band last fall and spring when I was still learning and somehow managed to put it on the wrong foot. I read off the number. Mark and Roger looked at each other and said, "Bag it!" Turns out, this banded goldfinch was not banded by Mark and Roger--it wasn't wearing one of their assigned bands! This is the type of excitement that banders live for. It's exciting to get any of your birds recovered and get the data, but to get someone else's bird is just as exciting. The bird had a brood patch (meaning she's nesting nearby). The band looked fairly new...is someone nearby banding birds? Or did she get banded this past spring and did she travel a good distance? Mark and Roger are going to submit the band number to the Bird Banding Lab and we'll have to wait and see on the results.

UPDATE: We now know where that finch came from!

It will be interesting to note how many banded goldfinches will stick around--27 is a lot of finches. But towards the end of the day, Amber and I were noticing non banded finches at the feeder--how did we miss you? Finches do wander in the winter, but I'll be keeping an eye out for them at the feeders--and for one with the right foot banded.

The feeder nets were pretty hoppin' but we also had the nets in the woods. Mark and Roger could hear LOTS of birds in the woods, but they were high in the canopy and we weren't sure if they would come down. We got one bird right away--recognize the species? I wasn't too surprised to find it in the nets, they have nested near where the nets were placed. It's an ovenbird!

The ovenbird is the species that goes "teacher teacher teacher" in the woods. I got some footage of Mr. Neil's ovenbird earlier this year. Here's the link to that blog entry. I doubt it's the same bird, but nice to know some are still here this week.

As Amber and I were taking in the beauty of the ovenbird, Amber and I took note of the feathers on the back...hm, kind of olive...

...kind of like the olive feathers found stuck to the toes of a sharp-shinned hawk at Frank's banding station the day before. I have to say that if I were a sharpie, I would target an ovenbird--that's one beefy warblers. They are chunky and feel like they would fill you up a lot better than some tiny yellow-rumped warbler.

The ovenbird is a brown bird, but they do have that crazy rusty cap on their heads and it's a bird that you rarely get to see from the top down and it was fun to just take in every nook and cranny of the feathers. After the ovenbird, the woods net wasn't getting any traffic. We could hear warblers and vireos passing overhead, but couldn't get them down. I started to think about how Hawk Ridge uses owl calls to bring in birds for owl banding in the fall. Why not try that on Mr. Neil's property? Territory song will not work this time of year, but some chip notes would work. I grabbed my iPod and iMainGo Speaker. BirdJam has a new warbler playlist that not only has tracks of songs, but tracks of chip notes for each warbler species. I also have Cornell's Voices of North American Owls which has each type of owl call for every North American species on individual tracks. So, I made a quick mobbing playlist: a single eastern screech owl trill followed by chip notes of a few warbler species I know could be found in Mr. Neil's woods. The whole playlist lasted less than two minutes. I hung my iPod near the nets and walked in the woods a bit with Amber. We walked back to the nets:

A northern waterthrush! It was so strange to see this bird in hand being so still. When you see them along creeks, they are always bobbing their tails like little Fergies.

It was a good chance for me to really work on telling northern waterthrushes from Louisiana waterthrushes. This one is for sure a northern because of the yellowish wash and the spotting on the chin. The only other way I did it before was with song, having them in hand is a chance to hone your id skillz.

We tried the playlist once more and when Amber and I returned to the net, we saw a flycatcher perched just in front of the net. It looked young and we tried walking towards it to see if it would flush into the net. It flew over, but the reason why it flushed was that another bird was already in the net--a great crested flycatcher! After Amber took this guy out of the net and walked it back to the banding table, the other flycatcher kept following us. I think it was a young bird wondering what was going on with its parent, but without DNA tests, can't know for sure.

This bird is a beauty. They are also cagey as all get out, I always have a tough time digiscoping these dudes and was surprised we got one in the nets. Check out all the yellow on the belly and along the wings.

And where the bird is brown, it's not just regular brown, it's a beautiful rust. These birds are cavity nesters and I have seen them use a Peterson bluebird box. Periodically, birdhouse manufacturers will try to make great crested flycatcher houses but they never seem to catch on. I think there's a block. When people think flycatcher, they thing drab brownish gray. Wouldn't you love to have a dynamite looking bird like this--and like bluebirds, they're insectivores!

Even the inside of their beaks are colorful. These guys are known for their loud "reep, reep" call. This guy gave a much whinier version of that. He also snapped his bill a few times, similar to what an owl does when threatened. Just a cool insect eating bird all around.

Alas, we tried our mobbing playlist two more times and the birds seemed to have figured us out. "Hey, did you notice that screech owl trills the exact same way every time? Hmm, and did you notice that when it's mobbed, the same birds go in the same order, never overlapping each other...call me bird brained, but that is suspicious." Even though we didn't get huge amounts of birds, we got some awesome birds. I'm going to definitely watch the ovenbirds that nest around there next spring and see if either of the pairs are banded.