Hazards Of Nesting In A Metal Box

As reported last week, there was trouble in the bird feeder that the house wrens had chosen to use as a nest cavity.  Today, I got the conclusion of the store:

The one remaining nestling was dead.  Most likely it died not long after I took it's photo the previous week.  It does not look like it was the victim of a predator and chicks that young can die quickly from exposure or lack of food.

In today's ninety degree temperatures, I suspect heat had a great deal to do with the failure of this nest.  This feeder gets direct sun in the afternoon and it's made of metal--not the best nursery in late July and August, even in the northern US.

I was amazed at how quickly the chick had decomposed and marveled at the delicate beauty of the minute skeleton.  I also noticed that the nest was lined with clear plastic as well as feathers.  I knew house sparrows did that, but this is the first time I have seen it in a house wren nest.

It's a sad end to the bird feeder nest, but that's the way it goes sometimes for birds.  They try something new and if it works, they continue to adapt to an environment continually changed by humans. If it doesn't, well they can always try twice again next year.  And it's a lesson for us to make sure that this feeder stays closed all the time to prevent some other wren family from engaging in this lethal experimental nest.

Honey & Swollen Dog

It's that special time of year when Lorraine extracts a little early honey, follows the strict codes, guidelines and fees of the county fair and submits it for approval.  I know we aren't the only ones entering honey because fellow beekeepers in the same county made some noise when we won last year that they intended to "serve us" and that this year it was "on" and we had better "bring it."

Bring it we did and got the blue ribbon!  That now makes three years in a row for extracted honey and two years in a row for comb honey.  Our bees rule!

Above is Storm of Paul & Storm sampling comb honey fresh from the hive earlier this summer.  I know our honey awesome and when friends visit and we force them to partake of the honey they also agree it is awesome.  But it is so nice to get the county officials behind you who say, "Indeed, mighty fine honey you got there, ma'am!"

An individual who is probably not as impressed with this victory is Lola.

If you missed it on Twitter, Mr. Neil's puppy got nailed by the bees.  We took her to the hive and didn't have any idea she had been stung.  When the other dog Cabal has been stung--you know.  He yelps, runs and if bees follow him, he tries to fight them by snapping wildly.  For the most part, the dogs understand to stay away, but here and there they get stung.  Interesting thing though about Lola was that we never heard any yelping at all.  When we were back at the house, I noticed that she kept wiping her face with her paws.  I asked Mr. Neil, "What's that all about?"

"Don't know," he said.  "Dog dream?"

She continued to rub her face against her paws and when she paused, I thought her eye looked swollen.  We immediately went to her to check that no stingers have been left behind.  I think we found where she was stung, but it looked like the stinger was gone.  Her face was so itchy, she rubbed it against anything she came in contact with: paws, carpeting, grass, rear ends--you name it.

Here you can really see the swelling, Mr. Neil said she looked like a cartoon dog.  He checked out what we could do to help the poor thing--turns out over the counter antihistamine medication.

Here's what Lola should look like for comparison.  Her swelling went down a few hours after Mr. Neil gave her some meds. Swelling is normal for bee stings.  Many people think that they have a fatal allergy to bees when they swell up from a sting.  That's a normal reaction.  When you really want to worry is when you itch in weird places.  If you get stung on the hand and soon after the bottoms of your feet or armpits are itchy--that's a sign of a fatal allergy and you should hightail it to the emergency room ASAP.

This is my favorite photo with a Hans inspired caption.  Poor Lola, she looks like she's wondering why her nose is so big.  That's got to be weird for a dog that uses smell the way we use sight.

Some good with the bad.  Glad Lola is better and happy that our bees still reign supreme in the county.

Unexpected Afternoon Owls

I am terrible with people names--bird names are generally not a problem.  However, if I've met someone at a bird festival in Texas and see in them in winter in Minnesota, I have a tough time remembering them.  Same with meeting one of Non Birding Bill's friends at the grocery store--totally clueless.  Sometimes that happens with birds too.

Saturday, NBB and I met up with some friends who live along the St. Croix River and were gracious enough to take us out on their boat.  It was the perfect low key way to spend the summer day.  What was especially fun for me was cruising through this area for fun, not work.  I've been on this stretch when we've banded bald eagles and as we coasted along, I recognized nests.

The area was chock full of herons, egrets and osprey--we even had fly by of a family group of sandhill cranes.  Above is a great blue heron perched on top of a snag.  We marveled at how peaceful an area so close to the Twin Cities can be.  The back waters were still with lush patches of arrowhead and cottonwoods.  Green frogs sounding like a bunch of musicians trying in vain to tune up for a 21 banjo salute called from the vegetation.  Taking in all the sounds of summer, I heard a familiar screech. I knew instantly that the screech sound was a raptor...but what kind...the little hamster wheel in my head churned...I'd heard it before...but where...it was a begging call...it was daytime...but I knew it wasn't a hawk...owl...it was an owl...daytime...late afternoon and time of year could be barred owl...but barred owl doesn't sound like that...it sounded...like...a great horned owl.

Our friends eased their boat into a small channel and one owl flushed but then we found another perched on the side of the tree--it was a total great horned owl (all the way).  Since we were in a pontoon boat, I thought I would give digiscoping the owl a try.

Getting the great horned owl in the scope was a challenge because any slight movement on the boat moved the scope view and then the darned bird was looking way.  As I lined up my camera, I whispered to Non Birding Bill to sound like an injured mouse.  He helpfully said in a less than enthused manner, "Ow."

But that did the trick and the owl turned to look at us.  There are plenty of times when I suspect an owl is nearby or I can hear a sound and know what bird is there, but I don't always get the opportunity to show friends that what I saw is actually there in the trees.

There were at least three different owls in the area based on the screeching calls and the directions the vocalizations came from.  Great horned owls make several sounds besides the expected hooting.  They screech, they twitter, they bark, heck, they even snap and hiss.  I realized that the screech I heard was the same sound  I have heard imprinted great horned owls give at The Raptor Center when they beg for food--I generally don't hear it in the wild, especially in the afternoon.  I thought it odd that great horneds would have begging chicks right now, that seems late for Minnesota.  But if there first nest failed, the adults could have tried a second clutch.

I thought this was interesting too because we were near one of the bald eagle nests that in 2009 was used by great horned owls.  I wondered if the parents of this group of owls had been the ones to use the eagle nest last year?

Always appreciate an unexpected owl.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper Video

Okay, here is someone using YouTube for the powers of good.  They digivideoed a Dr. Seuss looking bird called a spoon-billed sandpiper doing its mating display.  Incidentally, this was done via digiscoping, the bird was filmed using a Swarovski AT80 HD scope and a Canon EOS 500D--and it was handheld.  Awesome video of an awesome bird: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmEaCj60mF8&feature=youtube_gdata[/youtube]

Shorebird Workshop

Hey, Lorraine has grabbed some honey for the county fair!  Will we continue our blue ribbon beekeeping streak? My buddy Doug Buri in Milbank, SD has space available on his shorebird identification workshop this weekend.  This is one of the best birding workshops I have ever attended.  Doug literally gets you within five feet of least sandpipers and his easy going and fun techniques will have you sorting your way through the common peeps seen in the midwest.

Least Sandpiper photo from Doug's Workshop. They were sometimes too close for digiscoping!

It’s fairly inexpensive to stay in Milbank which is just over the Minnesota border and Doug will take you to some gorgeous remote mudflats.  This is a great place to get photos of shorebirds because Doug wants you to get the birds in the best light for id which also means they are in great light for photos.  I digiscoped the crap out of the area!  The workshop is in early August and details can be found here.

If you need help with shorebird id, this workshop will help you.  And truly, South Dakota is beautiful this time of year.

Illegal Bird Killing On YouTube

The Internet is a weird and wonderful place.  You Tube especially.  You Tube appears to be the place to find the extremes of the human condition.  You can find the best in people and laugh along with Double Rainbow Guy, Trololo Man, Baby Porcupine Eating Banana with Hiccups and where would be without Maru the box stalking cat? But YouTube has a dark side and sometimes the darker side of humanity can be found there too.  Many of us have stumbled upon it accidentally.  For me, it's innocently looking up rabbit videos and then the next thing you see in the suggested videos are people feeding live rabbits to their pet snake (who laugh about it).  But it even gets darker.

Several months back, Mike McDowell brought to my attention that there were several videos of people shooting birds--not duck hunting, but people (kids and adults alike) shooting swallows, woodpeckers, herons, brown thrashers, cardinals--you name it.  Then putting the videos on YouTube. Mike expressed his frustration that YouTube would not take the videos down, even though they were in blatant violation of federal law.

The idea of blogging this was kicked around and I suggested that we wait.  Perhaps US Fish and Wildlife was doing an investigation and if we blogged it, the people might take down their videos and interfere with the legal process.  Mike had even tried asking YouTube to remove the videos since they showed blatant illegal activity, but YouTube ignored his flagging.

I sent some emails to US Fish and Wildlife along with links (follow the links at your own risk) to videos including a video of a kid shooting what appears to be cliff swallows (documented by his dad), a video of a someone shooting a mockingbird, a video of someone shooting a yellow-rumped warbler.  This is just the tip of the iceberg.  If you have the stomach for it, you can easily find more.  Including birds that have been shot and the person asking what they are because they don't know that they've shot white-throated sparrows (and given the wrong id information about the birds in the comment section).

Here was the answer I received from US Fish and Wildlife:

"Two of the three, and possibly all three of these videos show only evidence of children shooting birds. The Federal government does not prosecute juveniles, except for the most heinous of crimes. Lot's of these types videos floating around the web and not enough agents. Took us several months and hundreds of investigative hours (including numerous interrogations and lab work) to catch the whooping crane shooter, only to discover DOJ would not prosecute the juvenile shooter (he was 17). Some of our agents do pursue these types of investigations when time allows. Thanks for passing along."

Wow, who knew they found the whooping crane shooter?  All I ever saw was the reward going up and up, never heard anyone was apprehended.  Guess because it was a juvenile, they wanted to keep it on the down low.  But shouldn't a juvenile get some some sort of consequences?

The response read to me that the enforcement employee was just as frustrated as I am.  They know there is a problem, there's not enough man power to deal with the Internet and even if they could, kids would be ignored.

So, what can we do?  I don't think leaving comments on the videos telling them they are illegal jerks (or whatever profanity you choose) for posting this will do anything but reinforce the behavior.

I do think if YouTube got more flagging and complaints about these videos, they might be more willing to remove them quickly.

I do not think blaming US Fish and Wildlife agents is the answer either.  They have a tremendous job as it is.  They would like to do more, but by the above response, their hands are tied, regardless of what the federal law states.

But I think a deeper problem exists here.  We hear lots of complaints about the kids not spending enough time in the outdoors and here we have several kids outdoors but not seeing the value wildlife other than being moving, noisy targets.

I think if anything, this is one of those opportunities where hunters and birders need to work together.  I know many birders don't want anything to do with hunting, but true hunters do not condone wanton shooting of any living creature.  These kids need a good and responsible hunting role model and someone who won't judge them for hunting yet can show them the value of going out in the woods and enjoying birds in a different way.

What else can we do to stop this problem and help US Fish and Wildlife?