Cool Yard Bird

We love a good mystery at the bird store. When customers come in with bird descriptions, it's fun to try an puzzle out what bird they are seeing. My favorites are the blurry, grainy photos or even bird parts that people bring in and we try to figure out what species is there. Customer Maria Hafner had a mystery bird and turns out to be a great photographer so this is our latest mystery at the bird store.

Hafner is very good to her ducks. She feeds them lots of corn and even keeps water open for them in the winter. Last week she slowed down her order of corn and said that she had a hawk eating the ducks. Denny and I were intrigued, and asked how the hawk was getting the ducks. The first thought was that the only hawk in the area big enough that could take down a mallard would be a red-tail, but duck isn't their usual fare. Hmmm.

Hafner described how the hawk sits in the tree and watches flock of mallards in the pond. The mallards are so used to her feeding, that as soon as she opens her door they fly up from the pond towards her. The hawk then takes off from the tree and grabs one of the ducks from the air and goes down into the wetland and presumably eats the catch. This had happened three days in a row and Hafner was tired of setting up a situation for one of the ducks to be taken out. She described the bird as brown on back, light with streaking on the front. This narrowed the hawk id a bit, a goshawk was possible, but Denny felt it was too early for one to be seen in the metro area. I thought maybe an immature peregrine since it was catching ducks on the wing, but a mallard is awful big for a peregrine to take down. We asked if she had photos, and she did. She emailed them and the hawk id was revealed. Here are the photos. Can you id the hawk visiting her yard?

Note the large hawk in the on the large snow covered tree branch right above the mallards. The photo has been cropped, there are at least 60 mallards in the original photo.

Great shot of the hawk taking out mallards--my favorite part of this photo? The hint of blood on the tip of the tail.

Owl Page

For those interested I have had the webmaster create a where to find owls page in birdchick adventures.

Also, it looks like we are going to put together a day trip through the bird store on January 22. It will be a one day trip including lunch. We'll probably start selling tickets next week, and I already have a list of people to call as soon as tickets are available. If you're interested, drop me an email. I think this is one of the few trips where I can include in the advertising, "Great gray owls guaranteed or your money back!"

Just Another Day in the Bog

I went up to a meeting in Sax Zim Bog with Amber Burnette, Mark Martell, and Carrol Henderson about how to make the area more birder friendly. It's very exciting to see the community start to realize that there's some economic potential for them in this. Also, the guys in charge of managing the area for timber are genuinely interested in helping to manage the area for birds! This place is really going to blossom in the next few years--I'm so jazzed.

Of course you can't have a meeting near the infamous bog without looking for owls. We got to the area around 10am and birded for an hour and a half. After the meeting we birded for another hour and a half and we saw 1 barred owl, 1 northern hawk owl and 19 great gray owls--what an amazing year!!!!! Photos of a couple of the great grays are below.

Again, if you have been reading this blog and have been thinking, "I've always wanted to see the owls in this area..." THIS IS THE YEAR TO DO IT! We always have a few or even some great grays in the area, but it will probably not be like this again in this lifetime. Do what you have to do and experience seeing over twenty owls of three different species in one day. For those interested boreals are starting to be reported. One was found in Duluth yesterday.

One other note, if you are visiting the bog, please practice common sense with traffic. Avoid parking your vehicle in the middle of the road, setting your scope up in the middle of the road, backing up along curves and hills, etc. This area is remote, however it is well traveled by the locals and things are a tad icy. We'd hate to lose anybody to owl watching under dangerous conitions.

Doh! Pigeon foiled by its own hubrus

It's not a secret that I battle the rock pigeons on my bedroom window ledge. I have had to resort to various weight sensitive feeders in order to keep them from eating everything in an hour. The pigeons have figured out just about every feeder, including some weight sensitive feeders (they flap their wings while sitting on the perch to keep their weight off).

I finally have a system down that seems to keep all the critters happy. As part of my daily routine, as soon as it's dark outside I toss a couple handfulls of Sweet Tweets ( a sunflower, mixed nut, pumpkin seed, dried fruit mix) for the flying squirrels. Well, I never know exactly how many squirrels are going to show up, so I always put out extra and there are always some leavings on the ledge in the morning. Over the summer one pigeon has figured out that if it gets to the window early enough it can have the leavings. Eventually, other pigeons have caught on, but this particular pigeon has started coming earlier and earlier every morning. Its loud thump has awakened us as early as 4:30am as it comes in to feed before anyone else.

Tonight, the pigeon has thought it has found the ultimate solution: sleeping on the window ledge! Alas, I cannot open the window without freaking the poor bird out, and it will wake up in the morning to an empty ledge. I have been watching for the squirrels to see how they react to the pigeon or if they wake it up. The squirrels have access so some of the sunflower chips left in the feeder and the suet feeder is full of mixed nut suet, so they will not be deprived. But I do kind of feel bad for this bird that thought it had the anti pigeon system figured out.

Pale Male Nest going back

There's a tentative deal to get pale male's nest replaced. The weird thing is that some. like the folks at palemale.com are not seeing this as a victory because the nest is probably not going to go back in the exact spot it was due to safety reasons. People are so weird when it comes to birds.

The Birder and the Hunter Should be Friends

In an alarming article by Dennis Anderson of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, it's pointed out that duck numbers are frighteningly low. People who hunt are decreasing and with that the money that goes for duck conservation is decreasing as well. Birders and hunters need to find a way to unite their voices and money to help solve this problem. Many birders are very anti hunting so I'm not sure if this gap can be bridged.

If you're a birder, you need to buy a duck stamp and maybe even a hunting license. You don't have to hunt, but the money will help duck conservation.

Why bird watchers are viewed as odd

As if birders don't have a reputation for being a little strange, now there's this circulating the internet: people gleefully watching red-tailed hawk porn on a sunny New York afternoon. No wonder some of the building tenants wanted the nest removed.

This whole nest removal of the Pale Male in New York is not bringing the best out of some people. Emotions are taking over and misinformation is all over the place. I've read more than one editorial that talks about red-tailed hawks being endangered, they are not endangered! They're are one of the most common hawks in the United States. Granted, it is a charismatic bird, and I'm upset the nest was removed, but come on! These are adaptable creatures, they will rebuild.

Pale Male the NY Red-tail

If you haven't heard yet, the red-tailed hawks that nest in New York City across the street from Central Park have had their nest removed. The red-tails have gained noteriety from the book "Red-tails in Love" and the movie "Pale Male". It's been one of the newest tourist attractions in the Big Apple.

Many people are up in arms at the nest removal and the part of me that enjoys the hawks is a tad bummed out but there's more to the story than that.

The red-tailed hawks nesting on the building is a true testament to their adaptability, they have learned to live and thrive around us. That said, they will survive their nest being removed, this is no different than if a storm had blown it out of a tree or is the nest had become so large over the years the branch it was built on fell down. What would the birds do in the wild? Rebuild. My guess is that if they don't try to rebuild the nest on the building they could rebuild right in Central Park. I love that birds are getting so much publicity but in the long run these birds are equipped to deal with this type of situation in the wild.

I think the real reason why the nest was taken down in the first place had more to do with the people who live in the building not being thrilled with having groups of people with spotting scopes, binoculars and camerals with large lenses outside their building.

St. Paul Great Gray Owl

What an exciting bird day!!!!

First, I planned on going into work late today because Time Warner was coming to install our new digital phone line. They got everything done very quickly and I had an hour and a half before I went to work. The great gray in St. Paul is just a hop, skip and a jump from The Raptor Center so I decided to go for it! I packed Cinnamon up, along with my binos and digital camera. When I turned off of Cleveland onto Hendon, birders were everywhere. There were so many MOU board members combing the streets that we could have had a meeting and voted on a few issues (nothing gets a quorum together like a stake out bird). I walked towards the front of my trusty Saturn wagon and low and behold were copious amounts of avian dejecta--owl sign!

Owl whitewash in front of my car, a good omen (at least for birding).

One of the neighbor ladies was walking her dog and offered her suggestions of where the great gray owl had been spotted. We followed her down the allies looking in every possible tree. We got excited when we heard some mobbing of blue jays, chickadees and a gray squirrel, but it turned out to be a sharp-shinned hawk cruising the hood.

We turned the corner and ran into the neighborhood mail carrier who excitedly asked, "Have you seen that owl? I saw it four times on my route yesterday!" Bob Janssen (bird author and hard core state lister) good naturedly grumbled, "I've been birding and listing birds all my life and the mailman has a great gray owl in Ramsey County before I do!"

One of the neighbors poked her head out her window and asked the lady walking her dog and trailed by six people with binos in hand, "Did you see the owl yet? This morning it was in Sadie's yard about 2 blocks that way." A car pulled up and another helpful neighbor pointed to the house she had observed the owl two hours previous--we were closing in!

Sure enough, Bill George called us over and there was the great gray in full view sitting about 15 feed above the sidewalk. It sat for a few minutes trying to hunt and then flew across the street--I don't think it was afraid of us, but we were making such a racket that the birds was trying to hunt in a quieter spot. For those concerned, the owl was observed at least once taking some prey by Tami. Another good thing is that the bird is being watched by all the neighbors and is mere blocks from The Raptor Center. If it needs help, it will get it quickly.

My photo from my digital camera of the Great gray owl in a St. Paul neighborhood.

Other exciting news includes two goshawk sightings (one out behind our store). More on that later. And an almost complete albino red-tailed hawk is hanging out in Eden Prairie. It was spotted today hunting the marsh behind Buca di Beppo!

The birding is great in the Twin Cities right now, so relieve some stress and chase some birds!

Great Gray Owl in St Paul

Okay, if you're in the Twin Cities and you have been thinking about seeing the owls mentioned but you weren't sure if you wanted to make the trip north, a great gray owl has been spotted in St. Paul!

Here's the email and directions:

A Great Grey Owl was seen in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood in St. Paul
on Sunday afternoon, December 5. It was near the intersection of Hythe and
Raymond Avenues. I don't know if it's been seen since then - I went
looking for it today but haven't been able to locate it. Many people got
to see it, and several took photographs.

It's just west of the St. Paul Campus of the U. From I 94, go north on Hwy
280 to Larpenteur Ave. Go East on Larpentuer to Cleveland Ave. South on
Cleveland to Hendon. Right on Hendon.

The owl was still on Raymond, just north of Hendon at about 11 this
morning. I walked by there a few minutes ago, and didn't see it, but it
would be worth walking around and searching the area. So far it has been
seen on either Hendon, Raymond, or Hythe. These are all streets with a 2
block area.

Good luck.

Here's a link to the yahoo map for the area.

Marcie O'Connor
St. Paul