Gyrfalcon Antics In Cape May

Some may recall from last year that I blogged about John Wood and The Raptor Project his bird program that he does at Cape May. One of the highlights is that he flies his white gyrfalcon out on the beach. He flies to a lure (an object with some meat attached to a long line that he lassos overhead to get the bird to fly down.

This year, things went a little different. Saturday, as blogged earlier, it was wind and rain, but John flew the falcon anyway. Apparently the bird decided, "screw this" and instead flew after one of the many wild pigeons and to find a nice, warm place to eat. So, off the bird went, it nailed a pigeon and flew out of site. John, being a wise and experienced falconer, had a radio telemetry unit on the bird and was able to track it to town. After the bird flew from sight, it found a shoe store with doors open and landed in the store with a decapitated pigeon and began to rip it apart. Imagine that you know nothing of birds and you are absorbed in shoe shopping when a bird the size of a red-tail, but all white flies in with a headless pigeon--out of nowhere...needless to say, it caused a stir. The shop owner called 911 and Animal Control (I think Animal Control might have given John a hard time about his falcon killing a pigeon--apparently, they didn't know that pigeons are non native and not under any protection in the US). Anyway, John returned to the convention center with his bird safe in hand and with a headless pigeon.

He tried to take the gyrfalcon out Sunday and as soon as he and the white bird emerged from the convention center, the pigeons were off, instantly recognizing the bird from the day before.

John tried to get the falcon to focus on the lure, the bird was having none of it. It tasted pigeon the day before and it wanted more. You can see the bird in the above photo ignoring John and focusing on the fat, winged, tasty delights circling on the other side of the beach.

No matter what John tried, the falcon just really wanted pigeon and kept trying to take off after them. He opted not to fly the bird and risk losing it in town again. Smart move, but still pretty to see the bird in a beach setting.

Gratuitous Goshawk

At first when I was looking at my schedule and budget for the fall, I was worried I just wouldn't be able to get to my friend Frank Taylor's hawk banding station--my favorite bird activity I do all year. I was very down that I would not get to see a northern goshawk (my favorite raptor and next tattoo) fly into the nets But thanks to help from my great friends, I managed two trips. And I got to see a first year northern goshawk fly in! Whoot!

Frank asked me to hold the young goshawk so he could get photos and I gave my camera to a wonderful woman I've been getting to know at the blind named Joan. We were working as swiftly as possible with the goshawk so we could send it on its way.

Why would we want this magnificent bird away so quickly? Because the moment it hits the nets to the very second it is released, it give a loud, piercing, melt-your-eardrums shriek over and over and over. All we're doing is holding it, it's not in any pain what so ever. Such a big bird, such a big whiner. Even the smaller cousins of this accipiter, the sharp-shinned hawk and the Cooper's hawk take the banding process with stoicism. Frank wanted to try and get a photo of the goshawk with its mouth closed--not an easy feat.

I think this photo that Joan got about sums it up. Yes, here I am with my favorite raptor and you can see that I'm clearly thinking, "Are we done yet? Can we move on?" I bet you're now curious, just how awful this sound is, aren't you? Okay, here is about five seconds of ear-splitting goshawk (those you cannot view video should be grateful):

Annoying, huh? As if that weren't bad enough...

The goshawk started attacking my coat. It was time to set this bird free and continue on its way.

I tossed the bird in the air and Joan got this great shot which actually looks like the bird is reaching out to attack me. Actually, what's going on is that I tossed the goshawk out to the field, but being the type of hawk that hunts in the woods, the bird is turning around in mid air so it can fly into the safety of the trees behind me. Still, I love how it looks like I'm reaching out it and the goshawk looks like it is going to nail me.

More banding fun to come!

Birdchick and Barn Owl

There was a request to see video of me giving a Raptor Center program. I don't have that, but Tuesday when I was feeding the education barn owl during my volunteer shift, I had fellow crew members, Maddy and Sue take some video with my camera and just ask me questions. This is not like one of my usual programs--I'm WAY more animated in front of a large audience, but I thought it would be fun to watch the barn owl eat. For those curious, I'm feeding her cut up pieces of mice.

The video cuts off before I can answer that last question. The barn owl is a captive bred bird and imprinted on humans. I think The Raptor Center got her from a facility in North Carolina, who breeds them for release in the wild.

Banding Young Raptors

A question came up in the previous entry about banding young raptors, do we worry about being bit and do we band the adults (and if so, how do you get the adults)?

Let's talk about handling raptors: If you have ever noticed from my fall hawk banding photos, we always are holding the hawks and falcons by the feet. It's the same with the young osprey, note Reier in the above photo. It looks like he is cuddling the bird, but he's keeping the feet safely away from his body and since the bird is pressed to his body, that prevents it from flapping around.

We're not really worried about the the hooked beak. The feet on raptors are the business end of the bird--their powerful toes are what separates them from other predatory birds--they grab and kill with their toes. So, when a raptor (eagle, hawk, owl, falcon, kite) feel threatened, their instinct is to always defend or attach with their toes and sharp talons. The beak is a last resort, it's too close to their eyes, and eyes are so crucial to their hunting ability that they don't want to risk putting them near danger.

In the last few years, researchers have also been taking blood samples from the birds. This could be useful for future DNA studies--especially if the populations fall low again and a reintroduction is necessary. Again, in the above photo, note how Amber is holding the young osprey's feet, and has her other hand over the bird's chest to hold it in place while mark takes its blood. Osprey are about five weeks old when we band them, they have learned to stand up and walk a little, but their wing muscles are weak. They also haven't figured out quite what their feet are for. As we are holding them, sometimes they will weakly and slowly make grabs with their toes, but they aren't nearly as swift and as strong as the adults.

Even when its time to put the bands on the legs, one person needs to hold the large chick while another places the band on the legs. Above, Amber holds the bird and feet steady as Mark places the band on the young osprey. Already, osprey banding is a two person job. However, that's just putting the bands on--getting the chicks out of the nest is another matter altogether. You either need...

...a cherry picker to donate their time and truck to go up and retrieve the chicks and put them back. Or you will need...

...a professional tree climber to donate their time and skills to go up and retrieve the chicks. It's a group effort to band osprey--at least two to three people are needed. Note that the climber in the above photo is also having to climb past a slick metal raccoon baffle to to get to the top.

As to the adults, they don't band them anymore in Minnesota. They used to do that when they first started the reintroduction program in the Twin Cities, but I've never observed it. To my understanding, it's not easy. It's not like other raptors where you can put out a bait pigeon and some mist nests--osprey only eat fresh (live) fish. From what I understand, they would take one of the education eagles from The Raptor Center and perch it out near the osprey nest. The adult osprey would fly in to chase off the eagle and either get tangled in nets surrounding the eagle, or some other type of trap. I remember a few times that adult osprey were brought in to TRC from banding because after they trapped it, they found fish hooks in their talons and were able to remove them and return the adults to the nest that day.

And for those curious, no education eagles or wild osprey were hurt or got hold of each other during the banding process.

Now, on to get check the the doin's a transpirin' out at the Kitty hive.

Lost Weekend

This weekend wore me out. I am not a creature meant to spend lots of time in high temperatures and hot sun, but I found myself in it quite a bit. The upside is that I don't notice while I'm having fun and observing birds, but the downside is that when I get home, I am exhausted down to my bones.

Check it out, the monarch chrysalis on our radiator came out this weekend. That was timely because I had my Monarch Ranchin' class on Saturday morning at Staring Lake Outdoor Center. Stan helped out a little...well, actually he started out by distracting the group by releasing a chicken in the outdoor center--wacky boy. But after we had been out searching for monarch eggs and caterpillars, he put them under the Outdoor Center's microscope-it was very sweet to see the details of the eggs up close.

As soon as I was done at the Outdoor Center, I had to zip right over to meet my buddy Amber to do 2 back to back bird programs for The Raptor Center at CONvergence. This is our third year doing it, you may recall some of my photos from last year. I didn't have time to do the parties this year. After we finished our programs and drove back to TRC to put the birds away, I had to zip home and get ready for a friend's birthday party.

This is one of my favorite bird programs that I get to do as a volunteer. For one thing, people at a science fiction and fantasy convention are happy and in a good mood, they are seeing old friends and discussing a favorite topic--and they're in costume (note the lovely lady dressed as a fairy in the above photo). This year, one of the new staff at TRC came along to observe the program and at one point she leaned over in surprise and said, "I just saw a Dalek! I mean, a life sized actual Dalek!"

I was really impressed that she knew what a Dalek was. She already had cool points in my book anyway, she's the one who has been rehabbing the young porcupet.

It's fun to try and guess different costumes, (I think the one in the photo above is an Andorian) I also recognized Dr. Who, Brak, Sailor Mercury, and I saw at least four different Indiana Joneses at four different ages. I even saw someone dressed like Young Frankenstein! The woman who arranges for us to come is named Erin. As we were packing to leave, we thanked her for having us out and the generosity of the group (we always get great donations from this group on top of the program fee). I asked that she keep us in mind for next year. She said TRC would be back and added, "I always ask for you and Amber because you guys get us and what we're about." What an awesome compliment and it totally made my day.

This morning I was back at Staring Lake to lead an "urban bird trip". I would have advertised in the blog, but it was a last minute trip for me--I was subbing for the original trip leader. I took the group to couple of spots on the south side of the metro area, near the airport. There were a couple of unusual birds (for Minnesota) reported there and also, they are just great general birding spots. We heard and glimpsed and Acadian flycatcher at The Old Cedar Avenue Bridge and we heard and glimpsed a Bell's Vireo at Black Dog Preserve. I find that both of those species are more exciting to hear than to see.

The real star of the show ended up being Virginia rails. We passed another birder while listening for the Acadian who told us that the rails were putting on quite a show, so our group hightailed it out to the observation deck. When we arrived, a sora scuttled out of the way and is wasn't long before we heard the Virginia rails grunting. We were able to glimpse an adult chasing a younger bird. I played the Virginia rail call on my birdJam and the adult gave up the chase and came straight for us. He ran under the deck, around us, and zipped in and out of the reeds. It even paused to give its grunt call right back. The bird was moving way too quick for me to digiscope it (I snapped the above photo with my point and shoot), however someone in our group had a nice camera and...

Rob Grant got the above shot of the Virginia rail! Thanks, Rob, for letting me use your image in the blog. I have to say, I've called rails out before but these were hands down the best looks I've ever had at a Virginia rail. The bird soon ignored our group and continued its chase of the younger bird. We stayed for quite some time observing other species of birds and still the rails would scurry about us.

We also had great looks at marsh wrens--this guy popped up and sang for so long that everyone in the group got a good look through my spotting scope and I had a chance to digiscope it. Wow, a wren sitting still--who knew? I really enjoy doing these low key birding trips where we just enjoy the usual birds and get a few surprises in the process.

After the trip, I came home, took a long hot bath and napped a good portion of the afternoon. Tomorrow, I have to do Showcase Minnesota and then it's off to check the bees. Last week, Non Birding Bill and I put in some frames from the healthy Olga hive that were full of eggs and larvae in the hopes that the queenless Kitty hive would raise one of the eggs into a queen. I'll check for queen cells and if there aren't any, I'll have to combine what is left of Kitty with Olga.

Bald Eagle Is OFF The Endangered Species List

Well, it's about darn time in my book.

I'm happy to see that in my lifetime that today we have gotten something very right with conservation and that the national symbol for the United States of America has been taken off of the Endangered Species List.

The move is important on so many different levels--number one, bald eagle numbers increased from 417 breeding pairs in the lower 48 states in 1963 to an estimated new high of 9,789 breeding pairs today! The longer the eagle stayed on the list, the more critics could point to it and say, "See, it doesn't work, the bald eagle is still on the list. Let's get rid of the Endangered Species Act."

I know some are arguing that the delisting means that there could be loss of eagle habitat, but at the same time, bald eagles are choosing to nest in areas that previously weren't considered eagle habitat. Case in point, the bald eagle nest that 10 minutes from my house that's in a residential neighborhood, bordered by two major highways, and right across the street from the Minneapolis/St Paul International Airport.

These birds don't care as long as they can find food like fish, injured waterfowl, and roadkill. The eagles are also still protected under the Bald Eagle Act and the Migratory Species Act. And individual states can still keep the bald eagle on state threatened or endangered lists, but it is time for eagles to be off of the federal list, so we can concentrate on the other 1,300 species still on the list.

There are still concerns like bald eagles ingesting lead --lead is something that needs to be taken out of the environment for several species. Bald eagles are exposed to lead in gut piles of deer during hunting season, the common loon (Minnesota's state bird), trumpeter swans are exposed to it via lead sinkers in the bottom of lakes and streams. Lead isn't good for anybody--including us. We need to quit putting it out there.

And if you're still not convinced that the bald eagle delisting is a good thing, rather than sending me an email or comment telling me that I'm killing eagles and I have no business calling myself a bird lover (which I don't think I have ever used that phrase to describe myself anyway), I encourage you to read about what Rhode Island is doing and start a similar program for habitat preservation in your area.

A Quick Burrowing Owl

Let The North Dakota Blog Updates Begin!

I have so many updates, where do I begin? I think I'll just be blogging all day long today and tomorrow. I must admit, the intense rain and cold winds on Thursday really put a damper (har har) on my excitement to go birding in North Dakota, but the rest of my time outdoors at the Potholes and Prairie Bird Festival was nothing short of magical. Everyone should experience dawn on a prairie at least once in their lives.

Aren't we such a colorful group? That's Julie Zickefoose, Bill Thompson, Paul Baicich, and me having a great time on the prairie. I love being able to see my friends face to face as opposed to email, but really all of us were so busy giving programs, leading trips, meeting people, and answering questions that we barely had time to say hello to each other. I wanted to head home early Sunday, I really missed Non Birding Bill but I tagged along for part of a Julie and Bill's field trip to spend a little time with them and to see...

a burrowing owl lurking in the grass. This particular owl was standing guard at a hole in a colony of Richardson's ground squirrels. The owners of the property have seen two owls, and chances were good the female was inside incubating some eggs. They also said they had a second nest on the land but it was not easy to access. The owls probably took over an already excavated hole, although burrowing owls are capable of digging a burrow by kicking backward with their feet and digging with their bills--but why dig when an excavating mammal already did the work? Burrowing owls eat mostly insects and invertebrates and are not a primary threat to the ground squirrel colony. However, burrowing owls will eat small mammals so a tiny, young ground squirrel would be fair game.

When our group had arrived at the colony looking for the owl, we could see a low flying buteo flying away with a Richardson's ground squirrel dangling from its talons. Not sure which one it was, it was flying directly towards the sun and could have been a red-tailed hawk or Swainson's hawk.

Out beyond the burrow with the owls, we could see some very old box cars. The family that owned the property said that the dilapidated box cars were home to Clark Gable's grandparents and father--and Clark probably visited. As it was time for the rest of the group to press on, the family was kind enough to give me permission to explore them, warning that there really wasn't much left inside--but how could I resist?

They weren't lying. There was nothing left inside. There were no faded and weathered Clark Gable dressed as Rhett Butler glossies with an autograph reading, "Nana and Grampy, thanks for the memories! Love, Lil' Clarkie" tacked to the walls. The floors inside were covered with several layers of mud and cow pies. Any walls that remained standing were nesting sites for barn swallows. I wondered about the family times that were spent there, did they notice the birds singing outside? How did they survive the winter in a couple of box cars before the invention of Gortex? What made them choose this site to spend their lives? What were the families hopes? fears? What were evenings like at the end of the day? As I was marveling at this, I started to hear an incredibly high pitched "seep". It was akin to the sound of night migrants calling to each other. What bird could that have been?

A quick scan with the binos revealed barking Richardson's ground squirrels. Apparently, I was grounds for alarm. I love the shot that I digiscoped above. The ground squirrel's mouth is open so wide for such a high pitched little bark. Eventually, the squirrels settled down and started their feeding and chasing despite the human lumbering around them.

As I came around to the front of the box cars, I was surprised and delighted to see a burrowing owl in flight! I've never seen one fly before, only roosting outside a burrow or perched on top of sign posts. What a cute little bouncy flight--an it even hovered like a kestrel! I think I surprised it as I came around the front of the cars, it stopped mid hover and took off well over to my right and stood on the ground. You can't see it in the photo, but the bird is near some stones and with the naked eye, the bird looked like a smaller stone. I apologized to the owl for interrupting the hunt and headed to my car and home and NBB.

Colonnade Peregrine Banding

Yesterday they banded the peregrine falcon chicks at the Colonnade Building in Minneapolis. This week has been so insane--I just can't seem to keep up with the schedule. I had a business meeting this week and the poor woman and I were trying to get our schedules to sync up, I finally asked, "Dawn, do you want to meet at a peregrine falcon banding event?" Lucky enough, she did! I wasn't sure, she's one of Non Birding Bill's friends.

Here is Bud Tordoff, holding up one of the four chicks that got bands yesterday. There's a video of it here, you can see one of the adults flying around the nest ledge above Bud. You can also hear the adults screeching in the background of all the chick screaming noises.

There were two males and two females (researchers can tell them apart by size--even at 21 days old). Dawn and I watched a couple of the chicks being banded and then went inside to go over our actual meeting. As we were wrapping things up, the banding crew were coming back into the building. The person in charge is Jackie Fallon, who I know through The Raptor Center so I begged, "Hey, Jackie, can I come up to get photos of you putting the birds back from the floor the nest box is on?"

She said yes. Dawn gave an understanding look and I dashed into the elevator with the peregrine banding posse.

There were some maintenance people taking advantage of the absent chicks to do some minor repairs around the nest. Even though the chicks were gone, the female adult peregrine falcon was giving him the hairy eyeball:

Note the woman in the window well with the padded stick--to keep the falcon from nailing the repairman. There were some interesting leftover prey items around the nest:

This is a chord from the repair man, but under it is a rail head. I'm thinking Virginia rail.

There was also this pellet and I'm so bummed that it didn't turn out so well! There's a hummingbird bill at the top of it! Peregrines--eating hummingbirds? How? I know they are fast, but hummingbirds? Why? Wouldn't it be too much work for so little food? It's gotta be like eating a jolly rancher. I begged the banders to bring it in, but their priority is getting the banded chicks back in the nest swiftly and not getting hit by the adult falcons. It was not in an easy to grab area from the window well, and really, I was lucky just to be there watching the nest platform.

Which reminds me, I ran into HellZiggy and Hasty Brook at the banding. I got this photo of them while I was upstairs. Hi guys, sorry I didn't have more of a chance to chat.

While I was getting their photo, the male came up to see what was going on and to look for the chicks. The repairs were finally finished at the nest...

And the chicks were put back on the nest ledge. As soon as they were put down, they scrambled to the back corner of the nest and screamed together. The female falcon swooped back and forth as she could hear her chicks screeching.

As soon as the window well went up, the female flew in. Both the chicks and the female are looking up towards the well like, "What the heck was that all about?" Here's a video of the female looking over the chicks:

You can almost see her trying to work out in her tiny little brain what just happened. You can also see that she has an urge to feed the chicks. That begging cry stimulates the adults to hunt and feed the chicks.

We left the female alone with her chicks to get back to the business of rearing them. Ultimately the birds get a sense of "I won". They kind of are thinking, 'This big scary thing came in, took the chicks away, but all the falcons screaming and swooping frightened the big scary thing so much, the chicks are back."

Okay, now I have to load up the car and hit the road to North Dakota.

That's One Dirty Bird

Tonight, I was putting away groceries and Non Birding Bill was talking on the phone He came into the kitchen flailing his arms at me while still carrying on his phone conversation. After a few seconds of wild flapping, I finally understood that he wanted me to look out the window. Much in the same way Timmy would talk to Lassie, "What's that, girl? You want me to look out the window? Timmy's stuck in a well again?"

Lo and behold, there was a young female Cooper's hawk sitting in the puddle on the roof of the apartment building across the way. We had our screens down and I tried to take a few photos through the spotting scope as well as a video. She appeared to be nervous and taking her time with bathing. We slowly lifted the screen to get better photos. The above photo was taken after we lifted the screen, she appears to be aware that we are watching her.

The only birds we could hear out and about were chimney swifts. When they would fly over she would follow them--always an eye on potential food! She was so big and so close, I had trouble fitting her whole body into the frame with my digiscoping equipment--I was backed up against the wall as far as I could go and still could barely fit her whole body into the shot.

It was funny to watch all the squirrels hopping on to the roof to drink from the puddle, realize there was a hawk in front of them and then sprint off back in the direction they came from. Whoopsie! The hawk eventually was completely soaked and she flew off--albeit a bit unsteady into the trees.

We did get some videos of the Cooper's hawk bathing. She was doing this very weird kind of butt slap against the water. I apologize for the narration...you may want to just keep your computer on mute while watching the one minute video--I was just kind of excited and caught up in the moment.

There are two other videos you can watch here and here (this was the first video we took with the screen still down). Each are about a minute long.

The Latest Craze

Raptor Skiing!

Check out the photos here, here (sweet doubles!), and here. They'll have fun, fun, fun until daddy takes the red-tail away.

Alan Stankevitz got photos of a red-tailed hawk while it was being harassed by red-winged blackbirds chasing it out of their nesting territory.