No Birds and Beers April 29

Due to the pending storm tonight's Birds and Beers is CANCELED.  We'll go with the rain out date of next Tuesday April 26 same time, same location.  Even if it's light snow, the woodcocks won't sing.  We'll meet up next Tuesday.  

 

Attaching A Spotting Scope To A Bike

I've had a couple of question sent in via email and Facebook asking how I attach my spotting scope to my bike.  I had Non Birding Bill take a few photos to show what I do.  This is for my Swarovski ATM80 mm scope, Nikon D40 and Swarovski 8x32 ELs.  The set up that I'm going to show is primarily for traveling to a location and then walking around to observe and digiscope.

I have a Swarovski backpack (that is at least 5 years old) but any good outdoor backpack should work.  This one has fasteners that hold my scope firmly in place and is fairly weather resistant.  I've had it since 2006 and use it on a daily basis.  It has become my mobile office.  Anyway, if you have a good weather-proof backpack, that should work.  I also store my Niko D40 in here.

I have a basket that's attached to the back of my bike. I put the backpack in the basket and I slide one of the tripod legs through the straps on the pack.  I secure the tripod for the spotting scope to the back of my bike with bungee chords.  My reason to sliding the tripod legs through the backpack straps is to make it difficult for someone to just grab my backpack from my basket if I were stopped at a traffic signal.

When I get to my birding destination, I simply lock up my bike, undo the bungee chords, take my scope out of the pack and attach it to my tripod and go birding.

I wear my binocular harness while ridingon my bike.  It allows for me to comfortably wear my binos while I ride my bike.  I keep my spotting scope stored on the back of my bike.  I'm sure this isn't the only way to do it, but for those curious, it is possible to tote a scope, tripod and camera with you on your bike.  I'm not worried about damage, Swarovskis are good, sturdy scopes and meant to take on wear and tear in the outdoors.  It helps that they are waterproof and come with a lifetime warranty (though if the the glass on the eyepiece is scratched, I'll have to pay a minimal fee to get that repaired).  Otherwise, I feel safe with it on my bike.

This is just my method that I have come up with via trail and error.  If you have tips for toting scopes and cameras on a bike, feel free to share in the comments.

Incidentally, this is the set up I have used when biking to the owl nest in my hood and to observe the waterfowl on the area lakes near my apartment.

 

 

 

Red-bellied Woodpecker Excavating Nest Hole

Just a head's up that I'm keeping an eye on the weather for Tuesday's Birds and Beers (the Woodcock Tailgate Party).  Right now, all Twin Cities tv stations are predicting various amounts of snow and or rain.  Weather Underground is reporting an 80% chance of rain for our woodcock party.  I think we may have to cancel.  If there is any form or precipitation, consider Birds and Beers canceled and we'll go with our make up date of April 26.  I'll wait until tomorrow to call an official cancellation...regardless of weather, Mr. Neil and I will be hiving 3 packages of bees.

Speaking of Mr. Neil, now that the snow has finally melted and created swampy pools of muck in his woods, I went down in there and to some exploring.  They had a nasty ice storm over the winter and several trees are down blocking trails.  While I was inspecting some downed trees, I kept hearing a red-bellied woodpecker.  The bird sounded like he was right over my head, but I just couldn't see him.  Then I backed up and scanned the holes in the trees and bingo--I got the above photo.  Sneaky, sneaky the male red-bellied woodpecker was hidden inside.

I looked down and saw the ground was covered in wood chips from the woodpecker's excavations.  I found red-bellies nesting last summer right in Mr. Neil's backyard, this is down the hill a bit.  This tree is very old and dead compared to the tree that was used last year.  Hopefully it will last the summer.  This blog post is partially for Mr. Neil's groundskeeper, just so he's aware of the tree and won't take it down.

I went on my way through the woods and when I walked back, I saw the male red-bellied still excavating a cavity. He froze when he saw me.  I was hoping to get a shot of him spraying out wood chips, but when it became clear that he was going to stay frozen as long as my scope was on him, I went on my way.  A mouth full of wood chips can't be comfortable.  And someone staring at you while you excavate your super secret nest spot might make you feel uneasy about your nest choice and look for another.

So, Hans, this is the tree.  It's near the lemonade stand--wink wink, nudge nudge.

 

Birdchick Podcast #23 Gulf Oil Spill, Osprey Nest Removal & Ash Canyon B & B

Here are links to some of the topics we covered in today's podcast: News:

It's the one year anniversary of the Gulf Oil Spill. HBO Documentary Films presents the story of the effort to save the 895th surviving oiled pelican in Louisiana, showing how conservationists, government agencies and wildlife activists joined forces to preserve this one life.  An inspiring bird’s-eye view of the rigorous process of rescuing thousands of oiled birds, SAVING PELICAN 895 debuts Wednesday, April 20 (9:00-9:45 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO.

Also, Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a series of videos documenting the spill and the Mississippi River Delta--fantastic HD bird footage.

Marine contractor Jani Salonen and a member of the Audubon Society gathered three eggs from an osprey nest built atop his crane, and relocated the unhatched birds to a rescue center--without permission of US Fish and Wildlife.  Fine is being negotiated.

More on American Birding Associations Young Birder of the Year, Rachel Butek.

Birds under attack in Malta.  Would you be willing to go on one of the Spring Watches held by BirdLife International to document illegal hunting?  Or should Malta be boycotted?

Blogs:

Life, Birds and Everything on the Ash Canyon Bed and Breakfast--will birders lose this awesome hummingbird spot?

We Love Birds photo contest.

Events:

Junior Duck Stamp live today at 10 am eastern time!

Watch for live tweets at Birdchick this weekend from the Swarvoski team during the Great Texas Birding Classsic.

Birdchick Podcast #23


Birds and Beers Woodcock Tailgate Party

Just a reminder that next Tuesday night is the Birds and Beers Woodcock Tailgate Party! We head out to Lebanon Hills Regional Park, have some laughs and then 15 minutes after sunset try to watch the woodcock display. The woodcocks start their display about 15 – 20 minutes after sunset, which means they will start around 8:30pm. Since the display area is next to the visitor center at the park, we’ll meet there starting about 6:30pm and have an old fashioned tailgate party–you can come early to mingle or come closer to magic hour.  Bring your own food and beverages and we’ll laugh until it’s Woodcock Time.  The park closes at 10pm, so this gives us plenty of time to get some great birding done.  Last year we had a great horned owl show up and still got great looks at the timberdoodles (aka woodcocks).

Recommended to bring: lawn chair and boots, might be a little muddy.  Dress in layers, it could be warm when the sun is out and gets cool quickly when it's dark.  Binoculars and a flashlight are a good idea too.

If it rains on Tuesday, April 19, our make up date will be the following Tuesday, April 26, 2011–same bat time, same bat channel.

Owl Chick, Finally!

As I was working my way around my neighborhood the other day on my bike, I made one final stop before heading home to check on the great horned owl net.  I hoped that since it was so warm that the female would be up and out of the nest and maybe I'd get a glimpse of a chick.  She did seem to be up a little higher but I couldn't see any sign of the young.  I tried scanning the trees where I usually see the male perched as a sentry over the territory, but couldn't find him.  I decided to get an establishing shot of the nest.

That's when I noticed him--he was perched right out in the open above the nest!  Do you see where the nest is in relation to the male?  The nest is in the lower right hand corner in the crotch of the tree.  You can see her little tufts stick up out of the nest.

It was interesting to me that even though he was out in the open and I had my scope on him, a few people walked past me and didn't seem to notice.  Yo, people, huge owl up here.  As I took this photo, a Cooper's hawk flew in, circled the tree to buzz the owls and then continued on its way.  It didn't vocalize but it was as if the fly by was letting the owls know, "Yeah, I see you, you're not fooling me."

The male kept a hairy ball in the direction of the Cooper's hawk.  He never looked at me again after that, but watched the fast little hawk. A few other birds came in to mob them as well.

This flicker was my favorite.  She slowly worked the branches for food and then suddenly noticed the owl (that photo is right when she noticed the male) and started giving a warning call.  She even dove at the male a few times.  I wondered if she hadn't seen the nest because all the mobbing in the world by a flicker is not going to get that owl to move.  And let's face it flickers can't even drive out a starling.

The female wasn't too worried.  She seemed to be snoozing in the sun, paying no attention to me or the flicker.

I started to leave and I turned to take one last look and then I saw the female adjust herself.  I aimed the scope and up popped a baby owly head!  So cute and fluffy!  It shook its head a few times and then disappeared under the female again.  Nice to know that there's at least one chick in the nest.

Check out the baby, see the little white dot on the tip of its bill?  That's an egg tooth.  Something birds have in the egg that helps them chip out of the shell.  It usually sheds not long after hatching.  I checked over at Cornell's Birds of North America Online and looked up owl tooth development on great horned owls: "Young show remnants of yolk sac and retain egg tooth for 4–6 days (Turner and McClanahan 1981) or traces of both egg tooth and yolk sac for up to 2 weeks (Hoffmeister and Setzer 1947). Eyes remain closed until 9-11 days of age"

Young owls don't always hatch at the same time, there can be a day or two difference.  I wonder if this is the youngest owlet in the nest?  It's a safe bet that these birds are less than 9 days old or hatched early last week sometime.  Exciting!

Oh and I found this empty wrapper not too far from the nest tree.  I wonder what kind of shenanigans the owls witness at night?