Elderly Eagles still gettin' busy

40 year old eagles produce 16th chick

A pair of bald eagles at the Winnipeg Zoo, likely in their 40s, have had their 16th chick.

“The significance is not only that the birds have reached this advanced age—probably into their 40s—but the fact that they're still reproducing, and I can’t find any record of either wild or captive birds ever successfully raising chicks at this advanced age,” said Dr. Bob Wrigley, zoo curator.

The new enclosure didn't have a nest box, since staff figured the eagles were past their breeding days.

But the birds surprised staff by building a ground nest from straw bales and laying an egg, something eagles normally only do on the tundra.

"Swan Lady" warned to stop feeding birds

Hello, everyone. This is Sharon's husband. While Sharon's off at Gamefair this weekend, the plan was for me to be providing you with fun and fascinating updates.

However, Sharon insisted I put up things related to birdwatching instead. Alas.

So, here we go.

Stop feeding birds, swan lady warned

THE 'swan lady' of Ware has been ordered to stop feeding her beloved wild birds, as an animal warden believes the £50 worth of seed she spreads every week is attracting rats

Louise Bathe has been feeding them twice daily for the past 10 years.

Despite being unemployed, she uses her savings to buy 55lb (25kg) sacks of feed each week to give to birds every morning and evening.

But now she has been ordered to stop — and fears that sparrows will die without the food.

Louise, who drives a Land Rover Discovery with 'Swan Patrol' on the spare wheel cover, warned: "A lot of towns no longer have sparrows. Now I can't feed them they could disappear from Ware."

There's a story for you; sparrows leave an area because one woman isn't feeding them.

Sick Birds Reported Around Minnesota

If you note the house finch in the above photo, you will see that its eye is swollen. It more than likely has the form of conjunctivitus that house finches are very prone to. This bird was at my feeder last week.

Some people have noticed dead birds at their feeders in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It's not just the usual crows and blue jays that are expected with West Nile Virus but also house finches, purple finches, goldfinches and chickadees.

IT IS NOT AVIAN FLU. IT IS NOT BIRD FLU. IT IS NOT H5N1.

The ladies at Cardinal Corner have been trying to find out if anyone is testing the dead birds to see if it's WNV or any other bird related disease, but cannot find any agency interested in testing any bird other then crows or jays. They have had reports from customers as has All Seasons in Wayzata.

I got an email from Le saying a man from the Pollution Control Agency said the problem of dead birds at feeders is wide spread (they are getting calls also) so it is probably not a chemical. It could beWest Nile Virus but the percentage of chickadees and goldfinches contracting it is usually smaller. It could be a form of avian cholera from birds using the same water source because many water sources are dried up. It could also be a toxicity- birds spreading diseases amongst themselves such as salmonella like we saw during the last redpoll/siskin irruption.

The bottom line is right now we do not know what it is and there are LOTS diseases that can affect birds.

The best thing to do right now (or when diseased birds show up) is thoroughly clean bird feeders and bird baths. During the months when we get West Nile Virus, make sure you do not have any standing water in your yard. It would be a good idea to dump out bird baths on a regular basis. Another option is to just put one day's work of seed in bird feeders then wipe down feeders or dip them in a 5% bleach solution--rinsing them thoroughly when finished. Some people also stop feeding for two weeks when finding sick birds so the diseases won't keep recurring.

Right after I published this post, I checked Birderblog and sure enough Laura Erickson is hearing the same thing.

Where's the Shorebird Guide Review?

The original review of The Shorebird Guide is removed momentarily because I misidentified some of the shorebirds. Guess that means I need that book than I realized! It'll be back up after I redo it. It's not fair to the authors to say it's a great book for id and then have my misidentified photos along with it.

Lesson learned from this? You can't always be sure that the tiny object running around in your view finder that you're squinting at with the direct sun on you is the same bird. Just when I thought I could care about shorebirds again, I get this setback. I'm gonna learn to enjoy shorebirds, I will overcome this. Some how.

Now, I have to go get stuff set up for Game Fair.

Speaking of Cleansing

For those who might want a follow up to my grisly post this morning, here it is:

Boy howdy if the guys from At Home Apartments got the place fairly cleaned up. You can tell it was a hasty paint job, but at least now instead of the stairwell smelling like blood, it smells like paint and Pinesol.

All the local stations are reporting on it, although the details are a little different in each story.
KARE 11
WCCO
KSTP
Star Tribune

The weird thing is that when we got home from work, two news stations were still parked out in front of the building, KSTP and FOX 9. I'm not sure why they needed to be in front of our building since it was all cleaned up, but there they were taking up parking spaces.

Here's what seems to have happened as I understand it. At least two (maybe three) guys got in our building and then forced their way into an apartment on third floor. The intruders had a gun and the guy living in the apartment grabbed his roommate's sword and tried to fight of the attackers. The attackers fled the scene and eventually went to the emergency room where they were apprehended.

My mom, of course wants us to move out tonight. I tried to calm her fears by saying, "Hey no one was murdered, the worst that happened is that someone lost some digits." That didn't work. I also tried to point out what others have said in the comments that a sword fight in an apartment building really is a fluke and a once in a lifetime event. She's not buying it.

A Much Needed Cleansing Post

Okay, I need something pretty and birdy to recover from this morning--what better than one of the Larry Sirvio's red-headed woodpecker photos. Breathe in the woodpecker, breath out. Breathe in the red-headed woodpecker, breathe out. Haaaaaa. Cleanse. Better.

So, remember when I mentioned that Larry had one heck of a photo for bird id? Here it is:

First correct answer gets a copy of Pete Dunne's GISS book (stop giggling you!). It's called Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion and it's a great book to help you increase your identification skills based on General Impression Size and Shape. I haven't had a chance to really sit down and review it (the book I'm giving away is a spare, not the one I intend to review). After a quick skim, I must say that I love the descriptive folk names Pete comes up with such as: The Pallid Grinning Longspur.

Although, if you can id this bird, maybe you don't need Pete's book. Maybe I should give the prize to the worst answer. No! It will go to the first correct answer.

I'll watch for the correct answer in the comments section.

My Mind Is Blown--Not Bird Related

WARNING! This blog entry is not for the squeamish. It is in no way bird related but is just a slice of my life...I can't believe I just used the word "slice". Be warned and keep reading at your own risk.

Those who know me well, know that I have neighbor issues. The house next to our apartment building is owned by a man who has a soft spot for those in the music industry and we get neighbors who like to show movies on the side of their house out 1am, play frisbee at 3am or just sit out and laugh and joke all night.

Last night at about 3am I heard sirens just outside our building and at about 4:30am I heard some talking and poked my head out the window. It wasn't the usual neighbors but a whole group behind our apartment building drinking and talking about EMT's coming down the stairs and CSI guys all over the place. I shouted down "Hey can you keep it down to a whisper!?"

"Sorry, dude, it's the beer." was the lame apology.

"I don't care, I just want to sleep!" and went back for another hour and a half of sleep.

When our alarm went off Ian and Margery were talking to "Waldo" a reporter from KSTP who is on about as regularly as I am. An odd assault had happened in the Uptown area of Minneapolis. Waldo reported that one to three people had been injured by a samurai sword in an apartment building on Lake and Lyndale. Non Birding Bill and I looked at each other--that's our block. I recalled the sirens and the strange conversations of the drunks behind our building. NBB asked, "What other apartment building is on our block besides ours?"

We turned on the news and sure enough, there was our apartment building--the scene of the samurai sword attack! I dropped an email to Ian and Margery telling them that was my building in the story. I walked out into the hall:

First, I find that crime scene taped has been used in our hallway. I walked to the front stairwell and WOW!

The trail of blood went from the third floor all the way out into the street. There was purple stuff splashed on the wall with the blood, which I can only assume must be from investigators trying to find prints. There were also wrappers and towels all over the third floor from crime scene investigators. I could see the KSTP news truck outside and said hello to Waldo--we later ended up on Ian and Margery. Margery commented that she loved how their guests connect under the oddest circumstances and how is it that I'm always in the thick of things?

NBB and I walked around as other neighbors were coming out of their apartments for work, not prepared for the bloody mess in the stairwell. We told them what we knew and then one of our neighbors came out who had witnessed some of it. It happened in the apartment above him. He heard a huge fight, he saw at least three injured people, two of whom took off. He called the police and when they arrived one of the injured who couldn't get away was taken to the Emergency Room. Body parts like fingers were bagged and walked out of the apartment. It was 7am at this point and our neighbor had a beer. He apologized but said it had been a rough morning. I now wonder if he was one of the drunks I yelled at around 4:30am?

According to news reports right now, the two other injured people showed up at the Emergency Room, with injuries consistent with a sword. I think they've been arrested.

Ian and Margery both wondered who the heck would have a samurai sword in their apartment...well, we do. They are very dull and probably couldn't slice chilled butter, but we've used them for shows. NBB wondered if his friends saw the story. "Great, Aaron and Dale are going to see that it's our building on the news and a samurai sword and think I've finally snapped."

We've lived here 8 years and it's always been a really nice building with great neighbors...except for the noisy bands next door. Now the stairwell smells like blood. What a way to start your work day. This just blows my mind. Perhaps it's time to move?

Test

Okay, can I put in photos?Hmm, interesting product name. Because when you think of hot meats, you think of birds... Actually, the ladies at Cardinal Corner say this brand of sunflower hearts with hot pepper on them works well for keeping squirrels away. Note that I said, this brand--I know some of the earlier versions and brands of this did not work because they were chock full of milo but Cole's is supposed to be pretty darn good.

Ah, I can finally post photos--shorebird book review, here I come!

Name That Shorebird!

I took The Shorebird Guide out for a test drive. In honor of the review coming within the next few entries I offer this shorebird I took a picture of at 180th Street Marsh in Dakota County. Anyone care to try and id it?

Today's prize is a Vortex Lens Pens that can be used to clean binoculars, spotting scopes, glasses and camera lenses:

Wasps Out of Hummingbird and Oriole Feeders

I have a Showcase Minnesota appearance this morning and I'm talking about how to minimize wasps around your hummingbird and oriole feeders. They won't 100% keep wasps out of your yard or feeding area, but these tips can help reduce your wasp numbers. All of the wasp catchers that I have with me this morning are from Cardinal Corner.

I asked owners, Pam and Le which were their favorite hummingbird feeders they both chose different ones. Pam chose:

A feeder called the Best-1 Hummingbird Feeder--good name, huh! It's for sure in my top five, easy to fill and won't drip. It's fairly easy to clean but one that I think is even easier is:

Le's favorite the Mini Hummzinger. The whole top comes right off to allow easy cleaning of the whole feeder. It also has a built in ant moat to try and keep ants from getting to the rest of the nectar...although in the spring sometimes I fill it with mealworms or grape jelly for orioles.

Another reason I like both of these feeders is that neither of them have any yellow on them, and wasps appear to be more attracted to the color yellow. So, avoid having yellow on your nectar feeder if you can--even if the yellow is supposed to be a wasp guard (sometimes called a bee guard).

One thing you can do is to rub a small amount of vegetable oil or Vaseline around the openings of the nectar feeders making the area slippery and unattractive to the wasps. I had someone criticize me once for this advice that hummingbirds could get the oil on their feathers and die from exposure, but really the only way a hummer could get that one their feathers would be if you grabbed the hummingbird and rubbed it against the oiled openings.

Pam and Le also recommended putting this around the edge of jelly dishes to keep wasps from taking over grape jelly. Of course we all agreed that the best solution for wasps in grape jelly feeders is to just switch to feeding life mealworms.

In conjunction with the Vaseline and oil use a wasp catcher. It's a container that wasps can fly into but are unable to fly out of. Because they are attracted more by smell than hummingbirds, you fill this with a small amount of a heavier sugar solution than you would your hummingbird nectar. You can use equal parts water to equal parts sugar, Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi, syrup, apple cider, etc all of these are heavier than sugar than the four parts water to one part sugar of hummingbird and oriole nectar.

Wasp catchers come in a variety of colors, yellow being popular because that is a color that attracts them, but it certainly isn't necessary. They can be plastic or glass (like the ones in the above photo). Hang these in the same general area as your nectar feeders.

Anyone else have any tips for keeping wasps away from hummingbird and oriole feeders?