House Sparrows Eating Suet

It's hard enough trying to keep squirrels, grackles, starlings, raccoons and crows out of suet feeders. Now we have to contend with suet eating sparrows too? Last weekend at the Arboretum, I observed several house sparrows (pictured left) and one lone chipping sparrow clinging to the suet log and eating the peanut butter suet. I thought maybe this was a fluke, that this particular flock of birds had picked up a suet habit, but today a customer was telling Melissa and I about the tough time she's having with sparrows on her suet log too. What can't those little dudes do? Here is another case of birds doing something that is not in the bird books. I must get them to read my library of avian information to make sure they start doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Monarch Update

I am happy to report that today was Cinnamon's first day back at the bird store! Melissa hit the nail on the head when she exclaimed that Cinnamon was feeling her Wheaties. She was into all kinds of bunny mischief including sneaking into the back room, trying to eat some milkweed and shamelessly following customers around the store begging for food. At one point she ran intense laps around the bird bath display and eventually kicked out in total relaxation near the card rack (left). There was some minor disapproval over the removal of a favorite deer chow block, but it was the vet's strict order that treats be cut back.

Our monarch ranch at the bird store is just bustling with activity. There are at least seven chrysalises, dozens of caterpillars in all sizes and one egg. We have been able to watch a caterpillar shed its skin (below). You can see the old head coming off at the bottom of the new head and the old skin is the dark stuff being pushed of the back end of the caterpillar.

On Saturday we got to watch a caterpillar go from the "J" position to shedding its skin and becoming a chrysalis. Many people think that monarchs spin their cocoon but they in fact just shed their skin to form they chrysalis. The whole process once started tales less than five minutes. Below is a photo.

On the left is a furry caterpillar that is a milkweed tussock moth, then there is the caterpillar doing the final shed, (down near the head you can see the green chrysalis poking out) and on the right are two fully form chrysalis.
The staff and a couple of customers were watching this little miracle of nature. A little old man walked in and we showed him the excitement. He looked at us, smiled wryly and said, "Doesn't take much to turn you on, does it?" Alas, there is some truth to that since birding-wise there isn't too much going on. Hawk trapping can't start soon enough.

Nose to the Grindstone

Where were these cool toys when I was a kid?!?!?

Have you seen the motion sensitive birds that chirp and wiggle with their actual bird call. These are the coolest things ever to me. Initially I was impressed by the quality (for plastic) and accuracy these guys have. The company that makes them did all the crowd pleasing birds like cardinals, bluebirds and goldfinches but they even have yellow warblers and scarlet tanagers (pictured left) and today I just got a shipment of common yellowthroats (didn't have time to get a photo). A common yellow throat, can you imagine?! I love walking by it and pishing and listening to it go "whichity whichity whichity" back at me. There are eight different birds and since they are all motion sensitive my inner child often gets the best of me. One day I had a bunch of them on the counter facing each other in a circle. I set one off and then the movement of each started them all chirping continuously. Melissa, my assistant manager walked in on this scene, looked at me, shook her head and slowly backed away. If it's a really slow day I'll walk around with the goldfinch on my hand and its almost as if it's gossiping with me. If you haven't seen these things yet, stop in my store and have some fun. I think I'm going to hide the warblers in my apartment this winter and when it's too bad to go birding outside (what am I saying, it's never too bad to go birding) and use them as reminders of spring warbler watching. I wonder if they will ever come out with hawks...that's just too much for me to think about right now.

I need to bring Cinnamon back to the store soon so I'm not talking to mechanical birds between customers. Speaking of which, I think she will be able to come to the store on Saturday. She will be so happy. She keeps following me all over the apartment where ever I go with this sad little look and I keep tripping over the little bunny butthead. Her cut doesn't look so scary so small children shouldn't be too freaked out by her still healing wound.

I had so much fun on Open Source last night and discovered that there are quite a few truck drivers who are birders. It seems a natural transition, you're out on the road so you can't help but notice the hawks, the flycatchers, the little songbirds are rest stops. Very cool.

Birdchick on the Radio

Wednesday will be a busy day. I'll be on A Balanced Breakfast with Ian and Margery at 5:50am and on a show called Passion Thursday on Open Source at 6pm (Minnesota Time). Open Source is aired on a few stations around the country and I believe you can listen to it through the website or in podcast form. It's not just me, the interview will also feature E. Vernon Laux, the guy who found the red-footed falcon at Martha's Vineyard. It's very exciting and sounds like fun. Tune in if you can and if they allow questions call in.

Birdchick Cave Update

I think the squirrel issue is finally taken care of. We relocated five squirrels, replaced the chewed up window screen and Non Birding Bill trimmed some of the branches on the catalpa tree outside the window. The branches are still less than ten feet from the window ledge so I'm sure the squirrels can still jump over, but as long as they don't chew any more holes in the window screen, I'm okay with squirrels on the window ledge. I'm happy to report that we have been squirrel free for the last twenty-four hours in our humble abode. Normal birding activity has resumed and I even had a visit from Zippy the Pinhead (a completely bald cardinal pictured above with a male house finch).

Incidentally, the jury is apparently still out on the cause of complete baldness in cardinals this time of year. It was thought to be molting if a bald cardinal is seen in August or September but some researchers feel that a bird should never be completely bald and that species specific head mites are also to blame. You can read more at Hilton Pond. Be sure to read the post scripts at the bottom of the article.

We have power restored to most of the apartment now. A ceiling fan was to blame for the power outage...how strange.

Cinnamon is more disapproving than ever. She had a vet check up today that was filled with untold bunny humiliation as well as good and bad news. The good news is that she is that her cut is healing nicely. The bad news is that there is still an infection risk and she is to be on antibiotics for another ten days and can't come back to the bird store for another few days. Poor bunny, she is not happy taking medication and so much of it gets on her dew flap that I think most of it spills there and she spends ten minutes afterwards cleaning it off her fur (pictured, above). At least she's getting the meds. To top it off, the vet pealed away the scab to make sure everything was okay and shaved away more fur. So now the cut is all gooey again. The vet had a good reason for doing it, but my sweet little bunny looks like an alien baby should be squirming out of it any second. I'm kind of happy that she can't go back to work right. Even after she gets the all clear from the vet to return to work, she is going to look weird back there with a big scabby line on her haunch. Maybe we can try to comb it over.

This morning I was taking an exercise walk around Lake of the Isles. I really want to get a work out so take my iPod so I won't get distracted by bird calls. Alas, I got distracted today anyway. I was passing one of the islands on the lake when I noticed what looked like an accipiter flying just above the water in pursuit of a bird and then double back to the island. I turned off David Bowie and walked to the water's edge. A small bird took off from a perch--a kingfisher, in hot pursuit was an immature Cooper's hawk. The kingfisher quickly out flew the hawk and dove for a fish. The hawk circled back to the island and the kingfisher returned to its perch empty billed. Again, the kingfisher flew from its perch and again the Coops flew after it. The kingfisher flew too fast for the Coops and went right for a fish. The Coops headed back to the island and soon the kingfisher followed, this time with a small fish. After another minute the hawk flew from its perch straight for the kingfisher who darted out of the way in plenty of time for the Coops to pass. I don't know how many times the hawk had been after the kingfisher but I forgot how much I enjoy watching young Cooper's hawks figure out what is worthwhile hunting. And on that note, I leave you with a link to a wonderful headshot of an adult Coops from Mike's Digiscoping Blog.

Fringe Festival Red-tailed Hawk

Saturday between Fringe Festival shows, Non Birding Bill called me on my cell very excited about a red-tailed hawk that was eating a squirrel ten feet from him in Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis. Official Fringe Festival Photographer Scott Pakudaitis was on hand got a couple of photos of this first year red-tailed hawk with its kill and was kind enough to let me use them in this blog entry.

NBB said that the hawk tolerated people walking around it, but at one point a guy was walking right at it oblivious to the bird and its kill. The hawk flew up into a tree to finally finish its meal when a gray squirrel started racing up the tree. NBB tried in vain to warn the live squirrel not to go in the tree. The squirrel went straight for the branch where the red-tail sat. The live squirrel charged the red-tail forcing it from its perch. As the hawk flew away, the live squirrel raced down the side of the tree and pursued the flying hawk from the ground. Once the hawk was out of site, the squirrel turned to Non Birding Bill. NBB threw his hands in the air and said, "Hey, it wasn't me. I'm just an innocent bystander." The squirrel then returned to its normal park activities. A bad ass squirrel, who knew?

And in keeping with the spirit of my new book purchase a few words from the master avian wordsmiths Forbush and May on the red-tailed hawk:

"When mice are scarce and hens are easily and safely obtained, now and then an individual Red-tail will get the chicken-killing habit and become destructive...It destroys so many noxious rodents and other destructive mammals that it should be allowed to live."

Arboretum Party

I spent the day at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum's Sunflower Picnic answering bird feeding questions and signing calendars with Stan Tekiela. It was like a big birder party. I ran into Roger Everhart and Mark Newstrom the songbird banders at Lowry Nature Center, Val Cunningham and Holly Pierson who were local birding experts and some of the regular customers from the bird store.

The banders got some great birds including white-breasted nuthatches (pictured left), black-capped chickadees (pictured with Mark below), goldfinches, a family of house wrens and a great-crested flycatcher. It was fun day and perfect weather.

Things at the birdchick cave are a little challenging right now, I have removed five squirrels and still had one sneak in the bedroom this morning, we lost half the power in our apartment Saturday morning (the important half is still working like the refridgerator, air conditioner, internet access, phone and tv but it's tough showering in the dark) and the emergency maintenance guy doesn't know how to fix it. With our schedules the apartment looks like a tornado hit it--kinda glad lights our out in half of it, so I can't see how messy it is. But all this was made better as Bill and I went to one of my favorite used book stores and found a Forbush May book. I love the old books that categorize birds as good and evil, it's incredible to see how far we have come in roughly a century in how we regard certain bird species. I leave you with one of the best passages of a description of a flock of blue jays mobbing a screech owl:

In their excessive agitation the jays seem to lose their habitual caution, and it appears as if the mob would annihilate the despised and hated imp of darkness.

Got another one

I got a second squirrel this morning and this one is a tad more aggressive than the one I got last night. It's making all kinds of odd clicks, hisses and squeals. Some of the sounds remind me of Predator.

I think my squirrel problem might be a little bigger than I anticipated. I placed the caged squirrel in the bathtub while I continued to get ready for work and I heard a loud commotion in the bedroom where two more squirrels are fighting inside the window.