Wrens Out Of Control

With all my travels I have been negligent in tending to Mr. Neil's yard. NBB and I finally had a chance to visit today. If you recall, the last time I was in his yard, all of his bird houses had been wrenned pretty hard. Okay, the wood duck box in that post had a few sticks, today it was this full:

Geez Louise! I have never seen a wood duck box so full of house wren sticks. This is insane! Mr. Neil said that he has seen at least one brood come out of the box. I stuck my camera in over the top to get a photo and discovered...

...brood number 2! There they are, two tiny almost ready to fledge house wren chicks. When I checked the second wood duck box about a quarter of mile away, it too was filled to the brim with sticks, but no brooding chamber, it was strictly a decoy nest. You would think filling up a wood duck box would tucker out a tiny house wren.

The wrens in the wood duck box did confirm something I have always suspected. I know Mr. Neil must have saw-whet owls on his property (habitat is so perfect) but I have never been able to find one. Here the wrens have found a saw-whet feather and lined it in their nest. Now, this is the second brood of house wrens, meaning the top nest was made fairly recently. Owls molt in the summer, are saw-whets nesting on the property?? Or was this an errant feather that fell over the winter? I have only looked for saw-whets in winter when they migrate down into this area, not really in the summer, perhaps I shall have to double up my efforts? This would be south of their traditional breeding range...hmmmmmmm. This is a very owly place, I have identified great-horned, barred and long-eared owls here a saw-whet would be nice to add to the list.

More On Game Fair

Here is an interesting firearm. This rifle has a six foot barrel that acts as a silencer. The sign in front of it said that it was developed by the Minneapolis Parks board to be used for culling deer in the metro area. So, all those people who have been upset because they thought they heard gun shots when the deer were culled were hearing something else. This thing does not sound like a gun at all.

Okay, I totally get the fun of gun ownership after the Game Fair. The front of my booth faced oodles of puppies. The back of my booth faced the firing range for shooting clays. Skeet shooting looks so satisfying and so much fun. A little clay disk flies into the air and depending on the skill of the shooter bursts like a firework display, gets chipped and slants off in a different direction or just disappears in a puff of smoke. At the end of the day a trick shooter comes out and throws things in the air to shoot--the best of which included shooting a watermelon and then a cabbage. The cabbage was really cool--it burst and showered the audience in little leaves. I approve of shooting clays and veggies and support a person's right to do it.

I'm pretty sure WildBird on the Fly blogged about this when she went to Shot Show, but the camo lingerie was at Game Fair as well. The interesting thing was that I saw two women actually wearing some out in the summer heat at the Fair.

Here a creative bit of recycling. These guys turned used beer bottles into duck and goose calls.

I truly do believe the birders can find some useful stuff at Game Fair. Check this out, here is something hunters get very right--comfort in the field. These are blinds that you lay in for duck hunting. Why couldn't birders use this for hawk watching? Lay down in your comfy little blind and watch the hawks fly over. Throw in some scotch and I'm there!

Here is a boat that you use to hide your hunting self when duck hunting. How many times has a birder been on one side of a lake seeing distant shorebirds, ducks and waders and just can't get close enough to see the birds, even with a scope? Behold, the camo boat allowing you to sneak up on the unsuspecting birds.

In the decoy section I found a blowup sandhill crane doll...do I really want to know what that's used for? Please tell me it's not like blowup sheep--eeeeew. Actually, this is probably used for sandhill crane hunting. It is legal in some states. I have talked to a few people who have actually hunted cranes and am told that it is some of the tastiest meat you will ever eat in your life--better than turkey, better than grouse, better than pheasant! However, it's one of the hardest birds to hunt, they are very wary, even of decoys.

Speaking of decoys I picked up a catalog for Hard Core Decoys which is making me giggle because it makes geese sound so butch. The different postures come with names like "The Searcher", "The Sentry" and "The Super Sentry". Here's a description for their snow goose decoy set:

"The first plastic full-body snow decoy ever designed to be anatomically correct in overall look and motion. This has become a sure fire replacement to some of the old techniques used to decoy the decoy-shy snow goose. By throwing a Ross' goose into the package we brought realism to the next level."

There is also the Signature Series designed by champions of the goose calling world:

"The two most unique decoys ever constructed--a great conversation piece in any spread!"

Fake geese? A conversation piece?

Birds at the Game Fair

Friday and Saturday were gorgeous sunny days at Game Fair. Sunday it was dark and poured rain almost the whole entire day. And Game Fair goes on rain or shine, so there was no escape. I was at least stationed at a covered tent. The best part of the deal was that this truly was the best time for people to test out binoculars, all the ones I had were all water proof--what a great demo and this kind of light is where you can really separate the men from the boys as far as light gathering ability. Alas, most of the patrons fled the down pour and didn't take advantage of this great time to test optics. It was funny to hand some of the few people who were there a cheaper pair and the hand them a more expensive pair and hear them exclaim--"Oh wow, that IS bright!"

I saw one of the coolest tattoos ever. Check out that blue jay tattoo. She said that she found this photo and took it to Serious Ink in Fridley, MN and they put it right on her leg. That's the best bird tattoo I've ever seen and makes me want to get a new one. I was contemplating another piece of bird art, but there's a goshawk photo that I would just love to have inked on...now to figure out where.

Speaking of blue, check out these feet on one of the birds at the falconry booth:

These gorgeous blue tootsies belong to this bird:

I seriously thought about making this a photo id contest but this one would be really tough. First, it is a falcon but what kind? It's a first year falcon and not in adult plumage. You may say, "Hmmm, peregrine...although something is not quite right." That's because it's a hybrid. Can you guess what this male has been crossed with. That is a clue. For a male, he's large....this is a cross between a peregrine and gyrfalcon. Pretty cool looking bird, and so dark.

Here's another photo of the falconer holding the hybrid and check out the goshawk in the lower right hand corner. It's trying to jump off it's perch to attack the falcon. That wasn't the only time, this gos really wanted to kill that falcon.

Here's a little scene that I captured at the falconer hooded the hybrid to keep it calm:

On the right we have the goshawk and hunched and thinking of attacking the falcon (this is unusual because goshawks generally don't think, they act before thinking--which is why I relate to accipiters so). On the left is the hooded falcon, perched and happy as a clam not to be seeing crowds of people. Between the two birds towards the back is a red-tail, minding her own business.

The falcon scratches at her neck, the goshawk can take it no more...she must go and kill the falcon.

Off she goes, strait for the falcon, tugging with all her might at the perch to just get closer and quench her desire to kill and eat. Through all of this, the red-tail stayed out of it. Sensible red-tail (and a bird I cannot quite relate to).

One of the falconers came over to put a stop to her antics and block her view of the falcon.

Still not convinced that she wasn't done trying to kill the falcon, the goshawk stood her ground while the falconer points to her perch. After a minute, she landed back on her perch and ruffled her tail. Her enthusiasm was appreciated, but this wasn't the time to hunt, nor the prey to go for.

I just loves me some goshawk!

Doh! All the good banding happens when I'm not around!

Okay, I really need to get to bed and get my stuff together for tomorrow, but Larry Sirvio sent me some photos of some pretty incredible birds that they got at Carpenter today. One I'm going to save, I might use it as a contest but this is just a wow:

How the heck do you get a ruby-throated hummingbird out of a net? Remember, banding every Friday morning at Carpenter--free and open to the public. Now that migration is under way, it could get very intersting. I won't be there next Friday again because of Game Fair again so chances are good some more cool stuff will come in.

Quick Update

Even though NBB has been doing a most capable job, I have to take a quick moment to share these photos from Game Fair. I'm right across from a booth that sells puppies called Jorgenson Kennels. When not talking binoculars, I get to watch puppy antics!

This one looks like it's part Groucho Marx.

This puppy was chock full of mischief. Here it's chewing on a chair that some guns are leaning on.

Here is another naughty black lab chewing on some birdhouses an unsuspecting person left near their booth. This particular puppy also chewed on its tent and some purses some teenage girls left on the ground.

All that chewing tuckered the poor thing out. Awwwwwwwwwww. All the puppy action has peaked NBB's interest. He offered to come work the booth with me next weekend. And by work he means running around and playing with all the puppies. Yeah, Cinnamon's gonna love that.

I have to give a big shout out to the Minnesota Falconer's Association! I'm friends with Master Falconer Frank Taylor and his lovely wife Trudy was so kind to come over and sit in my booth and watch the binoculars while I used the restroom. Frank even let me come inside the ropes where the birds were perched and I was surrounded by a sharp-shinned hawk, a goshawk, a red-tailed hawk, a Harris hawk and a ferruginous hawk (above). I didn't know anyone in Minnesota hunted with a ferrug, I've read that they can be a handful.