Love Affair With A Green-winged Teal

My non birding New Orleans fun is finished and I'm back in Texas to enjoy some time with friends at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival.

I had a brief love affair with a green-winged teal.  I don't normally get the above view of a teal.  Generally, they are fleeing from our plane when we count them.  So to see a green-winged teal chilling in the evening sun was quite the treat.

At first glance, they may appear brown, but their heads rival any mallards with the rich rusty read accented by a swath of iridescent green behind the eye--like eye shadow gone wild.  This is the smallest dabbling duck in North America, so besides the color, they are quite cute.  They will forage for aquatic insects on the water's surface or dip below for vegetation.

This bird went into full on bathing mode while I was digiscoping it.  I think I will let the photos speak for themselves.

After a good bathe, a nice preen is in order.  I love this shot, you can see the green patch from where the teal gets its name.

And then a nap.

Oh, More Ducks

Here I am, on the first day of vacation in south Texas and what did I spend digiscoping?

Ducks.  Thousands of redhead ducks.  Never mind that I count them for work this time of year.  I still watched, photographed and counted them on my first day off.

I am a sick woman.

What's Happening, Hot Stuff?

Just a reminder that this weekend is the Minnesota deer opener.  All my Minnesota friends birding in the woods--don't forget your blaze orange!

Okay, the duck blog posts are about finished...for awhile.  I'm winding up work this week and next week I'm off to the magical birding land that is South Texas.  If you've never been to the Rio Grande Valley, find a way to go.  The Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival is one of my favorite bird festivals in the country--I love it so much that next week I'm on vacation and I'm going to the festival--not working a booth, not giving a workshop, not leading trips--just hanging with my friends.

Meanwhile, ducks are on in Minnesota.  I got a call from Avian Images asking if I would like to meet up after work for the long-tailed duck on Lake Vadnais.  Some girl talk and ducks--perfect end to a work day.

Here is the long-tailed duck mixed in with a pack of goldenye.  I was not prepared for how close or how cool this duck looked.  When I've seen the long-tailed duck show up in Minnesota before, it wasn't such a snazzy specimen as seen here or here.

This was an adult male in winter plumage, which I think looks better than his breeding plumage.  There were still a ton of ring-necked ducks on Vadnais, but it was easy to figure out where the long-tailed was being observed--you just followed the pack of birders with large lenses and scopes.

One of the gentlemen with what looked like a 600mm lens asked us what the light colored duck was. I was surprised that A. no one else in the group told him and B. someone with a huge lens like that was taking photos of birds and didn't know the species.  He said he had a guide and couldn't find it.  I told him that it was a long-tailed duck and depending on the age and type of guide, it may be listed by the politically incorrect name of oldsquaw.  Personally, I always call it Long Duck Dong (bong) in my head.  But that maybe because I was raised on too many 80's movies.

Trumpeter Swans vs Tundra Swans

I have my first post up over at 10,000 Birds.

When I was at Lake Vadnais last week looking for the long-tailed-duck, I took advantage of the close up trumpeter swans to get some swan shots.  Note the swan in the back.  I was watching that one and noticed it was a wee bit smaller than the two in front.  After the preening, the swans started dipping for vegetation.

The swan in back came closer to the other two and side by side, it was noticeably smaller (the smaller swan is the one on the right).  Was this a female?  In swans, females are smaller than males.  Or...was this a tundra swan mixed in with the trumpeter swans?

They both popped up at the same time and look at that--the smaller bird has a touch of yellow on its beak--it was a tundra swan!  Tundra swans nest in the tundra, not in Minnesota.  They are in the midst of their migration and this time of year, hundreds can be seen flying over on their way to the coasts for the winter.  Trumpeter swans nest in Minnesota and many will end up staying here for the winter, wherever they can find open water, many in Monticello.

It was fun to have an opportunity to really get a close look at the difference between the two swan beaks.  Above is the trumpeter swan (with a little white feather stuck on the beak)--all black, no yellow.  It's also a little bit of a bigger beak compared (up close) to a tundra swan.  It's hard to tell them apart at a distance.  If you can hear the call it's a no brainer.  Here is a trumpeter swan call (like a kid playing a toy trumpet).  But if your driving and it's during migration and you see a flock of swans fly over--how can you tell.  I've heard some say that if you see a huge flock of 50 or more birds high up, chances are good it's a flock of tundra swans.  If it's a small family group of 3 - 5 flying low, it's probably trumpeter swans.

Here's an up close of the tundra swan beak--with the little bit of yellow right in front of the eye.  This is a tundra swan call.  This bird would do a periodic bark, but I'm used to hearing a whole huge flock with they migrate, so it sounded strange.

Since I saw my first tundra swan in the Twin Cities last week, I figured I'd get to see them on my surveys on Monday and sure enough, there are tundra swans gathering on the Mississippi River.  We found some on Pools 4 - 7.  I'm sure there are a few trumpeters mixed in, but not really an easy way to separate them from the mostly tundras.  If you have never seen the tundra swan migration in this area, you should really check it out.  You can get info from Alma, Wisconsin but a great spot to view them for the next two weeks will be at the viewing platform in Brownsville, MN.  You should get some other species too.  This week we had lots of canvasbacks, buffleheads and ring-necked ducks--just to name a few.

Hey? Any Food In There?

I found this nuthatch meticulously searching beneath each shingle for insects to eat.  Woodpeckers aren't the only birds looking for insects off the sides of houses.

Digiduel 2 Results

Clay and I both posted albums of our five favorite photos from Digiduel 2 on the Swarovski Optik Facebook page.  You can vote on your favorite Clay photos here or my photos here.

This photo of rock pigeons balancing on thin branches of a hackberry to eat the fruit was one of the photos that didn't make it in to the deadline.  It's weird to for me to see pigeons in a tree--I'm so used to them on buildings and sidewalks.

My eventual goal with this Digiduel Project is that we can open it up for other people to play all over the world-you have a digiscoping set up and Twitter account--you can take a turn at a Digiduel.  Clay and I wanted to do a few against each other to work out some kinks...and boy were there kinks to work out this time around:  We usually use Twitpic to upload photos onto Twitter but it was down for a good portion of the day.  I switched to Plixi as a back up but eventually Twitter refused photos from any photo site.  I had about ten images (like the above rock pigeons) that never made it up to Twitter in time and Clay had a few come in after the deadline of 4pm Central time, even though he sent them in well before the deadline.

We also decided to add a new component to the competition.  There are now two ways to win.  You can try to take as many species photos as possible in the time allotted or you can go for "quality images" or really try to get the bird in a pretty pose with some nice fall color behind it.  By adding the photos to the Facebook site, people can vote on their favorites.  And the above European starling did not get uploaded to Twitter before the deadline and I didn't include it in the album on Facebook.  It's just as well, I don't see a lot of people voting for a starling, no matter how cool they look in their winter plumage.

If you are interested in participating in a digiduel, let me know.  Clay and I will try to work you in to the competition.  The keys are to find a spot where you can get photos of birds and have internet access.  It appears to work best if you can do it from or from a park with reliable internet access.  I tried doing it from a park and popping over to a coffee shop periodically.  Doable, but annoying and a waste of gas.

Hooded mergansers flying away.

What Is That Sharpie Carrying?

While exploring the trails at Hawk Ridge with my mom and sisters, we noticed a sharp-shinned hawk catching a thermal (a warm current of air that raptors glide on).  This hawk appeared to be carrying something in its talons.

I wondered what it was carrying and my sisters wondered why a bird that wouldn't be feeding chicks would carry food during migration.  I wondered if it had just killed it's prey and was looking for a safe place to eat it--but why would it catch a thermal to go so high up?  Usually these hawks tuck into a tree to eat.  I also noticed that the sharp-shinned hawk appeared to have a full crop--why would it hunt if it had already eaten.  Sometimes at the hawk blind, Frank Taylor will get in sharp-shins with full crops that fly in for the bait pigeon.  Frank said that even though the crop is full, the message hasn't hit the rest of the body that it's full of food and further hunting isn't necessary.  Sharp-shins are accipiters like Cooper's hawks and that's very much a group of hawks that tends to act before it thinks.

In this photo you can really see that full crop.  Also, it looks like it's carrying a wing--a robin's wing maybe?  I wondered if the sharp-shinned had just killed and eaten a robin.  Since this is a smaller hawk, it could have eaten its fill and have some leftover.  Perhaps it didn't want to leave the remaining food behind?

Random Red-bellied Woodpecker #birding

This red-belly is a messy eater--check it out, you can even make out the hard tip of its pointy tongue!

How are your digiscoping skills?  If you like to do it as much as I do, keep an eye on the Swarovski Optik Facebook page for opportunities to put your photos to use.  Their Digiscoper of Year Contest still has time for you to enter.  The contest ends at the end of this month.  Also, Clay and I are going to do another Digiduel next week and we are looking for teammates.  You can partner with me or Clay! Check Facebook for details.

Yellow-rumped Warbler On The Windows

For the last week, a butt load of butter butts (aka yellow-rumped warblers) have descended on my neighborhood.  They are fueling up before they head south and they are an end of the warbler migration.  You may have heard them in your neighborhood, their migration call chip note sounds a bit like a kiss.

This morning, one flew right up to my window screen.  Of course this happened just as I sat down to coffee at my computer, my camera was in the kitchen and my cell phone was charging...how to get a photo?  I supposed it wouldn't have made a difference because all I could see was the tail on the screen and periodically a tiny bill going for some tiny insect that hangs out on our window screens this time of year.  Eventually, it flew to a wire outside the screen and a little bit of pishing kept it in one spot for enough time for me to digiscope a few photos.

The yellow-rumps were covering trees, stucco walls and windows for bugs to build up their fat stores for migration.

Though I was unable to get a shot of the yellow-rumped warbler on my window screen, I was able to get one gleaning insects off of my neighbor's window.  At this point, I did wonder if any of my neighbors noticed the big scope out of my kitchen window--really, I'm taking photos of birds.  Honest.

After the yellow-rumped moved on, a young house sparrow flew up.  One of the things that makes house sparrows so adaptable is their ability to find food.  I've watched them watch chickadees when I add a new feeder.  They seem to study how the chickadees land and find food and after a day (or a few hours) give it a shot themselves.  The house sparrows watched all the warblers in the trees and clinging to buildings in my neighborhood and then would flutter in the same spots the warblers had been looking for food.  The above bird hung out on the corner, searched the frame and then continued to watch the surrounding warblers, it was almost as you could see the thought bubble, "How are these guys finding food, I don't see what they're after."

Ah, yellow-rumps, I love them but they are the sign that migration will soon be winding to a close and winter will be in full throttle.  Enjoy them while they last.

Bee Deals & Roosting Vultures #birding

October is going to be insane schedule wise.  There's bee stuff to tend to, migration to watch, park service shifts, waterfowl surveys, deadlines, speaking engagements, family visits--aarg!  I was coming to this realization yesterday and last night over dinner, made a deal with Non Birding Bill:  I'll do laundry on Friday if he will go out Saturday while I'm working at the park service and harvest the rest of the honey and feed the bees.  Deal accepted.  Sometimes after a conversation like that, we stop and ask, "Is this what you imagined married life to be like?"

Some of our hives are a little behind on their honey production for winter survival and we need to help them have enough for winter.  It's not unusual for beekeepers to add a nectar pail this time of year to give them a little extra.  It's weird, hives that filled a honey super have a few empty frames in their brood boxes.  Ah well, I no longer question what the bees do, I offer help and if they want it, they can take it.  If  they don't want it, I do not take it personally...anymore.

I harvested some honey on Wednesday and set up a few other hives for harvest before I left.  Mr. Neil bought this really cool trap door system for the hives.  You put it on the bottom of a box you want the bees to vacate--they can crawl out but cannot crawl back in--it's slick and is the best for harvesting honey.

I headed out to the hives around 10am and found some vultures roosting in a nearby tree.  I'm sure they roosted there the night before--a rest in the middle of their migration south.  Birds that rely on thermals (warm currents of air that spiral upwards) for migration don't need to fly early in the morning.  It takes a few hours for the sun to warm up the ground to create the thermals the vultures will want to glide on.  These birds were loafing until the thermals were just right.

Some turkey vultures were already testing out the sky, trying to find a thermal to glide on.  If you look closely at these two birds, you can see a hatch year and an adult.  The vulture on the left has a dark beak and the one on the right has a white beak.  The bird with the darker beak is the younger bird.

When the vultures noticed me in my beesuit, I got their attention--the white suit kind of sticks out.  The spotting scope makes me very suspicious to vultures.  Turkey vultures around here to do not trust a spotting scope and even though I was a good distance away, the scope did not set well with them and the rest of the flock decided to join the others already in the air.

But it gave me a chance to test out digicoping birds in flight.  Above is another young turkey vulture with a dark bill, even the head is still a little dark and not completely red.

Here is an adult turkey vulture.  I wondered how far south these birds would go?  Florida?  Would they go to Panama and visit my friends at Canopy Tower?

Incoming vulture!  Speaking of Canopy Tower, my buddy Carlos posted a video of raptor migration seen from the tower that includes quite a few vultures, hawks and kites.  Check it out.  I need to get there for fall migration next year...and not overbook myself for fall.