Hoosier Owl Nest

I'm still kickin' it Hoosier style in Indianapolis.

So, there is an owl nest in a sycamore tree near my mom's condo, we went to visit it yesterday with my Aunt Lorelei. The tree is very light in color and on the top is a place where a large branch ripped off years ago. My mom said that for years when she would pass that tree on her way home from work that she thought it would be a good place for a raptor to nest. Last year, a family member noticed a great horned owl up there and my family has been watching it ever since.
Through the spotting scope you could see the female owl--man, she really blends in with all the dark wood. Even when she was preening and stretching her wings, you really couldn't make her out with the naked eye. You can also see how well her tufts work with the camouflage to look like broken pieces of wood.

Periodically, you could see one of the young owls pop up. I went over and talked to the home owner who had the tree on his property--a very nice man named Steve. He said that he had lived in this house for ten years and the owls always nested there. Neighbors told him the nest was there ten years before that. He was grateful that someone else had noticed the nest besides him.

We did have one guy who drove up, stopped and asked what we were looking at. When we said, "Owl nest." he replied that they make good burgers. Before he drove off, I shouted, "Eagles taste better!"

Disapproving Rabbits Book Is Coming!

My niece Laura offered to be a model for my website--she's so cute, I wish that we had more shirts for her to model. Nice to know that she is spreading the Disapproving Rabbits culture around the Indiana University Campus!

Right before I left for Indiana, we got a proof of the Disapproving Rabbits book so we could check captions and photos--this book is barreling ahead at great speed. I think it really is going to come out this fall. We gave it to Cinnamon for her approval, but she's dismayed that she is not the only rabbit in the book--she has the most photos, but it's not all about her.

Wow, I'm officially a kept woman--kept by her pet bunny.

Strangers On A Train

This blog entry was supposed to be about the glories of traveling by train and how much fun it is to watch great birds from a lounge car. Here is where I started with my notes:

Oh, I have forgotten how much I enjoy birding by train! I documented over 40 species, the highlight being all the eagles and sandhill cranes. We’ve passed three eagle nests so far--whoot. That's one above and if you squint enough, you can make out an eagle landing in the nest. A pheasant flew over the car and landed as the train passed. Red-tailed hawks watch the train with little interest as we speed by.

Almost every little pond and lake is full of waterfowl and it’s fun to test id while going by at train speed.

Instead of being coach I have reserved a little sleeper for myself. I love the little sleepers—it appeals to my inner seven year being all old-tucked away in my little fort. I can spread my stuff around, prop up my feet and the sound is so much easier on my ears. I can actually listen to music from my laptop speaker. I love being tucked away, writing and glancing out to see great birds. When I need company, I venture to the cheery lounge car to meet fellow travelers.

Cut to several hours later.

First: the train from Minneapolis to Chicago is awesome! Love it, highly recommend it, will do it again. The train from Chicago to Indianapolis—not so much love. I switched trains and there have been issues. First, the ticket read that there would be food and beverage on this route and right before boarding I heard the conductor mention that there would be no food or beverages of any sort, so I may want to grab a snack and a bottle of water. Apparently, I was the only one who heard that and most everyone else was understandably none too pleased.

It was not as classy of a crowd here on this train. There was a young couple ahead of me relocating from Palm Springs, CA to Indianapolis, IN (can we say culture shock). They have a baby named (I kid you not) Princess. They had befriended a gentleman along the way who looked like a member of the E-street band after a hard weekend bender. He was quite upset about the lack of food, but brightened when he remembered he had a bottle of tequila he could drink. He offered some to the rest of us, but apart from Princess’s parents, everyone else declined.

I have never heard so much profanity before in my life as between these three people. I’m very curious to know what little Princess’s first word will be…I have a feeling it will start with an F or quite possibly S. I have to say, Princess is much better behaved than her parents but then again, she’s only a few month’s old. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the use of a good four letter word, but wow. These people have it down to a Quentin Tarantino level.

The train made a few unexpected delays and that combined with lack of food started making passengers even angrier. Princess's parents got into a huge fight. I got to hear every single word from the beginning because A. They were in the seats in front of me and B. They were loud enough that anyone within a five mile radius could hear what they were saying. I learned early on that Princess’s mother’s name is (are you ready for this) Star. Yes, you read that correctly, Star. Her father’s name was not yet clear, for awhile it appeared to be any number of four letter words, the most frequently used being Dick and Dawg. I do feel for him: he has a daughter named Princess with a woman named Star—he doesn’t stand a chance.

If I thought there was a lot of profanity earlier, I was so, so terribly wrong. If it weren’t for the poor use of grammar, I would say that this type of creative profanity use would require at least a master’s degree.

Our entire car could hear the fight. Apparently, there were some issues about who is more important in the relationship: Star or Princess. There was also an issue of the father scheming with an old girlfriend on the side--she was also one of his "baby mommas" implying that this guy has two other children out there.

Remember the guy with the tequila who was their buddy? He was not taking the fight well at all. He was kitty corner from me and I noticed that he was chasing his tequila with some prescription meds. When the fighting got very heated, he pulled out a very curly fifty dollar bill. He wrapped it up very tightly and placed it to his nose. Just as I was thinking, “Hey, is he doing what I think he’s doing?” He bent over and there were distinct snorting sounds as the bill switched from the right to the left nostril. Yes, he was doing what I thought he was doing.

It was about this time that an older woman decided to step in and play Dr Phil to Princess’s parents. “Now, you two shouldn’t be talking to each other this way, especially in front of everybody.”

Her voice was entirely too soft and the stream of obscenities from the arguing couple completely drowned her out. They were on a roll and were not going to be stopped. She continued, “Everyone knows your business now, you need to stop, this is not how to behave.”

A man’s voice from behind me shouted, “C’mon, enough!”

I looked over to tequila man, he now had his laptop out and was writing what looked to be a poem with the title “Sometimes Crying Doesn’t Help”. Who needs crying when you’ve got cocaine?

Princess’s mother had had enough and decided she was not going to Indiana and would call her own mother. Symbolic though this may have been, it was futile because the train was not going to stop. When the phone call started, Princess’s father started in with, “Baby, please don’t leave me.” And eventually marital bliss was restored. The screaming and shouting switched to smooching and giggling sounds.

After it had been quiet for half an hour, tequila man stood up—albeit a little unsteady and took photos of the couple and said, “See, you guys can’t break up on a train, nobody breaks up on a train. You’re just tired. Once you get to where you’re going, it’ll be great. Just don’t break up now, not when you’re on your way to Indiana.”

Sage advice from a man high on at least three different substances.

After that it was relatively quiet. Princess’s father got into a minor altercation with one of the conductors who took him to task for using profanity. He didn’t seem to understand what the conductor’s problem was and the conductor said, “Sir, you can’t talk like and use that kind of language here. We’ve got women and children on this train.”

I was grateful that someone pointed out his profanity, but amused that the excuse of women and children were being harmed by it. Profanity around children is not a good thing, but really, do I need to be protected from it?

The blog entry was supposed to end here. I typed this up after the argument was finished but Princess's parents got into one more fight (and I learned her father's name is Cornbread--Princess, Star and Cornbread--are these real names? For Indiana--sure.). This time the fight was so heated that two conductors came to remove the couple and relocate them to the back of the train since according to the conductors they did not know how to behave. Cornbread didn't go quietly but did eventually go, upset that no one was giving him any respect.

I would make a mental note that next time I should take the train to Chicago, grab a rental car and drive the rest of the way down, but where would I ever get stories like these? I love taking the train.

Sunday Bees

Sunday was another unconventional holiday for us. Since we do not live near family we create our own fun. We ended up hooking up with the Fabulous Lorraine for some Easter Brunch and painting the bee hives.

Yes, we are adding the finishing touches for our honey bee welcome wagon, the hives are painted—we asked the ladies whom the hives are named after what colors they wanted: Olga—orange, Kitty green. We went pastel and the colors are actually creamsicle and pesto.

I practiced using my smoker. The beekeeping instructors said that they would rather work their hives without a bee suit than without a smoker. It will be an important tool to keep the bees calm, and I need to know how to light it and make sure I have enough fuel inside to keep it going while I work the colony. The smell of wood smoke make the bees think there is a forest fire and they go deep into the hive and eat hone. Also, if a bee stings you, it releases a phermone that communicates to other bees, “Hey, guys, I found something nasty over here and I stung it. Call in the cavalry to sting more!” If you puff smoke over the sting, that masks the phermone and keeps your from getting stung further.

Just another few weeks and then I get to hive my bees—can’t wait! The instructors said that when we install the bees that we really won’t need the bee suits—they even showed the video and the instructor only had on jeans and a t-shirt—no gloves. They said it’s more important that we be comfortable so if we want to wear the full suit for the installation we can, I wonder what I’ll do. Right now I am thinking I can install the bees without the suit, but that may change when I’m holding a buzzing box full of three pounds of honey bees.

I checked all the nest boxes around Mr. Neil’s property while we were there and they are all unoccupied at the moment. I only found one bluebird pair, but others may be further south waiting out this cold spell.

While digiscoping the bluebird, I had the feeling that I was being watched. Do you see anything in the above photo? Let me bring it closer:

In the middle of all that was a wary woodchuck giving me the hairy eyeball. Good grief, give this guy some floppy ears and he could qualify for a disapproving rabbit.

When we arrived, one of the feeder poles was knocked down and all the feeders empty. I was worried that they bear had returned that destroyed all the feeders last year, but all the feeders were relatively intact, no punctures from large teeth. Some smears on the baffle confirmed my suspision. With all the rain we’ve been having the ground was wet and we had noticed a few weeks ago that it was leaning. It looks like some raccoons tried to climb it and knocked it down. Even so, I think we will get an electric fence for our hives. Once we got the feeder pole back up, the birds moved in right away like the above chickadee.

And I think nuthatches are now my new favorite bird to photograph, they just strike all these great poses that seem to say--photograph me now! Remember from the pileated woodpecker post that it had white on the underside of its bill? Nuthatches have the same thing.

Friday's Adventures Part 2

So in Part 1 of Friday's adventures I mentioned that it was windy--sheesh. This cardinal photo isn't the best, but you can see how the wind is blowing his crest up. I was kind of the wuss about the cold. When Hellziggy and I were watching the tree swallows being whipped over the water, I suggested lunch and then birding from a nature center. Sensible and warm.

We went to the Minnesota River Valley Headquarters and did get quite a show from the turkeys. A tom and two hens came by and you could see another young tom keeping his distance. One of the females stayed behind to eat when the older tom left with a female. The young tom made his move, gradually foraging closer and closer to the hen. She was flirting right back, working her way towards him though appearing oblivious.

It looked as though he had her attention as he started to walk toward the left and she followed...

But then the older tom reappeared--fluffed out in all his glory in hot pursuit of the younger insolent tom.

The hen returned to the older tom and the younger tom skulked away keeping the hen between he and the angry older tom.

We weren't the only ones who had the idea of birding from a nature center. An older gentleman from Sweden came in. He was in town visiting his month old grandson. Come to find out that years ago he banded osprey and golden eagles. When I shook his hand--he had a firm grip--much needed for banding goldens (there were also a few scars from fast talons). He was very excited with just the basic birds, especially this red-bellied woodpecker.

As someone mentioned in the comments earlier, there is a great horned owl nest at Wood Lake Nature Center. We ended our day there. We only saw the female precariously perched on a small squirrel nest. When I met up with Stan Saturday night for our woodcock trip, he showed me photos he had taken that day with a half grown chick sitting next to the female in the nest. I think with the cold wind, she was incubating it when we were there.

Now, before anyone gets their undies in a bunch about me posting this owl nest let me clarify that the nest is right over an intersection of three paths right next to the nature center. Wood Lake naturalists are taking groups out there daily to look at the nest--many walk under it and the owls don't care. These owls made the informed decision to take over a nest in a well traveled area--these owls are not worried by humans. We watched a group of 14 walk right under the nest while I took this photo and she did not freak out.

I was surprised by how small the nest is, but I was told that it was much larger until last week when the wind started taking it away blow by blow, leaf by leaf. Based on Stan's photo of the chick, it is old enough for the "brancher" stage. This is when young owls still are unable to fly but have very strong feet--strong enough to stay on a branch in a stiff wind or to climb a tree trunk if they get blown down. Young owls are more in danger of being imprinted when raised by well-intentioned but uninformed people worrying they are out of the nest too soon.

I ended the day by going to a book signing by Mike Farrel (yeah, that's BJ from MASH) at Magers and Quinn. Our friend Ari Hoptman (very, very funny man--listen to his stuff on his website) is a huge MASH fan. He and Non Birding Bill share MASH trivia all the time. Mike's book is about his life from actor to activist. I wasn't sure if Ari could make it, so I went over to grab a book and have it autographed--the book store was packed. I lurked in the bird book section and listened during Mike's talk--it was interesting, he did a Q and A and he said first thing that he was happy to answer MASH questions, but my socially conscious neighborhood was more interested in his activism. Mike more than once said, "Please, I'll take MASH questions, don't hesitate to ask." The serious questions continued and then I heard Mike say he'd take two more questions and one of them turned out to be a MASH question--I also recognized the voice as Ari's. When it was over the signing started, Ari hadn't had a chance to buy the book yet so I gave him the copy I picked up and was even able to snap his photo while Mike signed away (above). Ari tried to say to Mike how much he appreciated his work and I said, "Oh Ari, don't pretend, you know you're here for the MASH."

Mike smiled and Ari called me a scamp and didn't kill me. Ah, good times.


Robin 'Splosion

I woke up to the sound of hundreds of robins outside my window this morning. I rolled over and looked out the window while watching flocks of hundreds of birds flying from the north descending into my neighborhood. All the trees were covered with robins.

The boys who have staked out territory are happy, female robins are mixed in with this flock. This photo isn't the best, but you can see the female has a lighter colored breast in the above photo.

Two of the apartment buildings next to mine have roof issues. This roof has water that collects like crazy in spring (this is the one that used to have the circular saw sitting there for years). The robins are drinking the water, eating the snow and flipping the leaves looking for insects.

The other roof has water too, but it's almost dried out at this point. There's all kinds of leaf debris and berries that's creating a sort of mush. The robins drink the water but then barf up the berries that take in with the water.

A neighborhood full of robins is a wonder start to Easter Sunday.

Another Hare Brained Pigeon Removal Scheme

From the Pioneer Press:

A longtime loser in the war against pigeons, St. Paul City Hall is gearing up for another battle.

This time, city warriors hope a new tactic will turn the tide against the downtown menaces. Their plan: Lure the birds to new rooftop nesting grounds and then steal their eggs.

"We'll build them little condos. We'll keep taking the eggs, and they won't have little ones," said Bill Stephenson, the city's animal control supervisor. "Slowly they'll die off, I guess."

The pigeon problem is just one of many housecleaning chores the city is tackling in advance of the Republican National Convention, which will come to the Xcel Energy Center next year. Flocks of pigeons have laid down their glop on skyway ledges and sidewalks and have sullied downtown's image, officials and property owners say.

Stephenson said he's not entirely sure the "condo" scheme will work, but he's willing to try anything. In the past, the city has turned to sticky foam, blow-up hawk balloons and a notorious trapping program in the late 1980s.

Netting the birds was a bust - in practical and public relations terms. After capturing thousands of pigeons, the collectors handed the birds over to gun clubs for target practice. That didn't fly with animal-rights activists. Not to mention, it was ineffective.

"What we learned is that you can't control the number of pigeons by killing them. They're like rats - they just reproduce," said Bob Kessler, the city's director of licensing, inspections and environmental protection. "You have to learn how to co-exist with them."

Mayor Chris Coleman ordered Kessler to lead the charge against the feathered loiterers. Kessler has requested that the city pay $280,000 for pigeon reduction and other skyway improvements, including paint jobs and better signs.

You can read the rest of the story here. Yeah, this totally sounds like it will work. Sigh, do they think that pigeons live less than a year and won't come back next year? Do they think Minneapolis pigeons won't come over to fill in the gap of the missing St Paul pigeons? Do they really need to spend $280,000 on a plan that the average birder could tell them won't work? Do they think all these politicians have never seen pigeon poop before in their lives?

Another reason why I'm glad I'm on the Minneapolis side of the Twin Cities and not St. Paul. Oh, St Paul, will you ever learn? I'm not opposed to curbing a pigeon population, I would just like to see a sensible plan in place.



Friday's Aventures Part 1

Holy Cow! A big thanks to Leanne for nominating me for a Blogger's Choice Award! I'm up for best Animal Blog--I have two votes already--whoot! Although I wonder if I should say Cinnamon is up for best animal--she has a very loyal fan base. We're celebrating with some parsley. If you enjoy the blog, please consider voting. That would be pretty cool to get recognition for birding...and disapproving rabbits.

Friday was an action packed day, I'm to have to divide the entries up. We started at Carpenter, which at first seemed like it was going to be a morning of nothing but juncos but then some excitement came in with a sharp-shinned hawk (above). We were watching a fox sparrow hop and kick around one of the traps and I was trying to use my mind power to get it to go into one of the traps, when all of a sudden all the birds flew towards the window, missing it and ducked for cover. One of the staff announced: "Hawk!"

Hellziggy took the above photo. A junco had already come into a trap further away from us and an adult sharp-shinned hawk was trying to get it in the trap. I wonder if this is the same sharp-shin that nailed a junco in a trap from last December? The hawk spent quite a bit of time flying and clamping down on the trap--it did not seem to understand that it was not going to be able to get the junco out. Jim Fitzpatrick dug around for a balchatri trap (works well for raptors), bated it and set it outside. When he went out, the hawk flew up in the tree, but as soon as the bated trap was out, it went right back down for the balchatri.

After about fifteen minutes, but the hawk finally got caught on the trap and we brought it in for banding. Before it got its toes caught in the nooses on the trap was on the trap, I digiscoped a few photos.

The bird was an adult male. Isn't he beautiful. It's kind of strange, I'm sued to seeing these guys up close when we band them in the fall, not in the spring. He did not have a full crop, but he did have some meat on this chest, he'd been eating well this winter.

Hellziggy made it to banding and we ended up going to lunch and birding in a few other areas. I was glad she made it today, she got to be the one to release the sharp-shinned hawk. New people at banding always seem to bring good luck and cool birds into the traps!

Incidentally, the junco that had been in the trap that brought the sharp-shin in was let go--it had been through enough that morning, it didn't need the added stress of human handling and banding. Although, when he gets to his mating territory, he will pretty fierce thinking, "Yeah, I did a round or two with a sharp-shin, I can take on any male junco in a territory battle." Although, banding must not be too stressful, the above junco we trapped yesterday has been re caught NINE times since it's original trapping in December of 2004. Nine times and it still goes into the the potters traps and hangs out around Carpenter in the winter. It's not like the traps are the only places on the property with food and seed, there are plenty of feeders and spilled seed for juncos to get to without being trapped.

After banding I thought we would check open water for ducks. We stopped at the St Croix and the wind was brutal. It's been below freezing the last for days and today the wind was twenty - thirty miles an hour at least. The river was covered with hundreds of tree swallows (above) trying to glean what little food they can from just above the water. This is the weather that separates the strong from the weak. Usually tree swallows are already nesting, but this cold has put a stop to that. This report came in yesterday from Wisconsin by Patrick Ready:

Today while monitoring my state park trail boxes I opened a box I was concerned had a house sparrow nest in it. Instead of house sparrows about 12 Tree Swallows came bursting out of the nest box.

These birds are under severe stress with this frigid weather and are bunching up in nest boxes to stay warm to survive. The magnitude of this behavior is very unusual due to the fact that so many tree swallows returned very early this year.

Kent Hall in Stevens Point reported finding 17 in one of his boxes this afternoon and promptly quit monitoring. Anyone needing to check nest boxes during this cold spell should stop and look into the entrance hole to see if any tree swallows can be seen before proceeding. Even this is risky as some boxes may only have 3-4 birds and may not be visible until the box is open and the they'd take flight. Better to hold off monitoring until temperatures return to normal. When night time temps drop below freezing avoid checking boxes until later in the morning in case swallows have gathered inside to stay warm.

I don't know if anyone saw Julie's post last month about dead bluebirds in her box, but I think this is a good warning to readers who have bluebird trails. One of the risks that birds take when arriving back in early spring is dealing with low food supplies and harsh temperatures--this helps ensure the strongest survive, but it hard for us to watch. If you would like to help a little, now is an excellent time to stock up on mealworms at your local bird store and attach cups full of worms to your bird houses or just mix some in with your tray feeder. I also scatter suet into my tray feeders to for migrants.

More on Friday's birding adventures later.