More on Golden Eagle vs. Fox

Remember that photo we were debating about before Christmas of the golden eagle attacking a fox? I know goldens will go for foxes--no debate from me on that one. But this has the signs of an internet hoax since no one is claiming (with a first and last name) to have taken the photo. I found someone on BirdForum with a "raptor" username, but no photograper saying, "Yes, that is me. My name is ...."

Also, the photos are said to come from a variety of places like a hunter in Montana, a hunter in Colorado, a photographer in Canada--again, no name. I'm also bothered by the lack of back story. Was this actually filmed on a deer carcass? Was this staged with a falconry bird on a game farm? What is the story?

Well, now there is a series of photos on Tarisger.com and it's said that the photos were taken in Finland by Pekka Komi. Still no back story but at least we have a name to go along with the photos.

Merry Stiteler Christmas

Non Birding Bill and I are going through our Holiday traditions. Yesterday we went to the Mall of America to watch all the men scramble last minute for gifts for mothers and wives. There weren't as many men as in past years. I really do hate going to the MOA, but NBB loves it, and since I'm not going for the purpose of shopping it wasn't so bad. Plus it helped that NBB brought along a flask of whiskey that I used to add flavor shots to my coffee.

I have to say one thing that I REALLY miss about working the bird store is helping all those lost men. Helping them select their gifts. We hung out in a few book stores and every time I meandered to the nature section I would run into someone trying to work their way through books as a gift. Before I could stop myself, I immediately went into retailer mode and helped give them books, "No, you don't want the Reader's Digest bird guide for a beginner. They live near Yosemite? Go with this either this Sibley Western Guide or better yet, check the bird store on the third floor of the Mall, sometimes they have a Birds of California book in stock."

"You grandson likes that fantasy owl series? This Owls of the World book that came out last year has tons of great photos and easy to read info. He should totally dig it."

"Okay, your mom likes nature books but you don't know what she has? Two new ones that are really popular right now are Letters from Eden or All Things Reconsidered."

After all that helping, we decided to try out the new sushi restaurant at the Mall called Tiger Sushi. Did I mention that I travel travel about with my boingy boingy santa hat (above)? I love this hat, it bounces with every step and you can't help but be in a good mood when wearing it. The crowd reaction is great too. I think that helped put people at ease when I was helping them select books.

The sushi sure was festive looking but far too fruity for my taste. I really wasn't prepared for strawberry sauce with my unagi.

We stopped at a Barnes and Noble that had been carrying my calendars and I was excited to see that they had sold out of the Minnesota Calendars and had only one Wisconsin version left--whoot!

We are in the process of watching the Star Wars Holiday special--nothing says Christmas like a bunch a wookies and Bea Arthur. Since NBB took me to the Mall yesterday, I'm taking him this evening to see all the short-eared owls hanging out at Carlos Avery. He gets to be the tipsy one this time.

Meanwhile, we're having a bit of a problem under the tree:

"I didn't do it."

As much as she denies it, we know that she is the only one who could have ripped open some of the presents under the tree. We had to come up with an appropriate punishment. Nothing says, "You've been naughty!" like good old fashioned humiliation on the Internet:

Cinnamon disapproves of wearing my boingy boingy santa hat.

Big Ass Golden Eagle

Check out this story from the Jackson Hole Daily:

A female golden eagle captured as part of a research project in Buffalo Valley might weigh more than any other scientists have found in the United States.

The bird, captured Nov. 13 by Beringia South researchers, weighed 18.5 pounds. Female golden eagles in America typically weigh 8 to 13 pounds.

Bryan Bedrosian, one of the researchers who captured the bird, said the animal’s crop, a muscular pouch in a bird’s throat used to temporarily store food, was “about the size of a softball” and full of meat at the time of capture, which may have contributed an extra 1.5 pounds.

But even without the full crop, the animal still has a shot at the record books.

The rest of the story is here.

Anyone who has worked with birds of prey (yo, Susan) is reading this thinking Uff Dah! The golden we use for education at The Raptor Center is between 11 - 12 pounds. I can't imagine an 18 pound golden eagle.

Yikes!

More Birder Gifts

How in the heck did I miss this online store for birder gifts? Today at Carpenter, someone had received this bumper sticker as a gift:

Oh dear, some birders can't play nice. This is from a website called Servopuff which caters to birders, scuba divers and "more"! It has a whole birding section and appeals to all types of birders, why I even found something that I think would appeal to BirderBlog. If you are like me and are known for sending gifts late or if you get some money for Christmas, you could spend it here. My favorites include this raptor shirt, this iBird shirt, and the iLive tank.

Since Servopuff is using Cafe Press it links to other birding designs. I did some checking and there are over 29,000 "bird" related products. Some interesting designs include:

Great-gray owl design
Vulture design
Priceless Falconry design
Owl Porn design
Eat Like a Bird design
Self Esteem design
TVs Rock design
Real Men design

Disapproval Was Tucked Under The Tree With Care

Best Bill Ever

Christmas has come early to the Stiteler household. Non Birding Bill just presented me with the Doctor Who Soundtrack. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Best Bill Ever. Now, the next time I go for a stakeout bird I can blast this in my car pretending I'm whirring along in my own little Tardis and the bird I'm searching for is actually some alien bent on controlling the human race while on the look out for young companions. I always thought I would make a great Doctor, but NBB claims I'm a better companion with my penchant for mischief.

Ug, the Doomsday music is playing now. I bawled like a baby at the end of that episode, courtesy of Mr. Neil. For those across the pond who read the blog, they still have not officially shown that episode in the states on tv. The Sci Fi Channel is finally up to the David Tennant seasons, but BBC America is just now showing the Chris Eccleston season. Ah well, at least it's on tv.

Progressing To A White Christmas

This morning was not looking promising for a white Christmas. Weather forecasters had been clinging to signs of freezing rain for hopes of snow. But I was skeptical.

This is the view outside our bedroom window. It was raining. I decided to go out and run some errands this morning and as I was doing it, I noticed some ice on the roads.

Here is the view at 1pm. Ice had started sticking to the trees. I was worried, ice storms are nasty for everyone including wildlife.
Here I zoomed in and you can see the ice sticking to the branches.

Round about 1pm, the rain turned to giant fluffy fakes and as of two pm we have actual snow falling on the Twin Cities. If you are reading this and still at work, brace yourself for long commute home.

Year in Review Meme

I found this meme on HawkOwl's Nest and have decided to give it a whirl. You just go to your monthly archives and post the first sentence of the first post of each month of 2006.

January: When I was in Arkansas in December, the first thing I heard when I got out of the car at the research station was a pair of barred owls hooting a duet.

February: Birding is Not a Crime blog has been keeping close tabs on our Florida gent, so check out what he has to say regarding our latest self proclaimed ivory-bill expert.

March: Couple of quick announcements: 1. The Stokes now have their own blog.

April: I just heard that the Pope has bird flu.

May: Now, I enjoy my neighborhood, we have an ecclectic crowd to say the least.

June: Seeing such grave disapproval from ones so young gives me hope for the future.

July: Shuttle team shoos away vultures.

August: Here is one heck of a photo!

September: Hey, what's in this box?

October: An juz wha makes you tink I got into some of yer Nyquil (hic)?

November: The blog, the blog, the blog is back!

December: So, I got the coolest photo of starling today with the Wingscapes Camera. You can view it here.

Golden Eagle vs Fox--is this real?

Every now and then I'm sent an incredible photo and a warning bell will go off. The last one was the photo of the black bear going after some bird feeders. The person who had sent me the photos had gotten if after a long line of forwarding. No one knew who originally sent the photo, but was sure the photos were taken near Detroit Lakes, MN. After some digging on "the Google" I found that some websites had it, but no one was taking credit for the photos. Hmmm, were they photo shopped? I found one message board where people were arguing about the trees in the background. This site said the photos were from Canada, but a tree expert said the trees weren't native to North American and someone else anonymously said the photos were taken at a zoo in Russia.

I still have no idea where the photos came from or what the story is.

Here is the latest:

It's a golden eagle in the middle of an altercation with a fox. The photo comes with a note "Taken by a hunter in Montana." My assessment of the situation is that the fox and magpie (small bird flying away on the right) were checking out the carcass and the golden decided that it wanted the food and made an attack on the fox to scare it away.

What makes me suspicious is that no one seems to be taking credit for the photo and there is no back story to go with it. Is it photo shopped? Was the eagle landing on the carcass and then someone added in the fox later? Was the scene staged on a game farm? With the position of the bird and fox, jesses on the eagle's feet could easily be edited out.

I've been sent the photo from a few sources and no one seems to know who took the photo. I did some checking on Google and found that there is no entry on Snopes, but the Snopes message boards are talking about the photo. At this time there doesn't appear to be a clear consensus on the photo. I have no doubt that this is possible. Golden eagles will go after large prey--especially younger eagle learning what they can and cannot hunt. I have seen young goldens take pot shots at deer and turkey. A few years ago there was golden that several people witnessed attacking white tailed deer. Usually, the young birds learn that it takes a lot of energy and rarely a food reward so they give up and end up going after easy to kill prey.

I hear stories from all types of people of goldens taking all sorts of animals. If someone tells them they witnessed an eagle carrying away sheep, deer, antelope, etc I don't believe them. Eagles are only able to carry half their weight in flight and considering goldens average between 10 - 12 pounds, it's not possible for them to carry away anything too heavy. Can they kill something bigger than they are that is on the ground and eat it gradually--you betcha! However, the risk of going after healthy prey is a danger to them, they tend to go for weak, injured, or young who do not have parents smart enough to protect them.

I kept searching for more on the photo and found a discussion on a hunting blog about golden eagles going after mule deer and other odd prey (someone in the comments section also references the young golden we had in MN that went after the deer and turkeys).

Here's an example from You Tube. This looks to be a Spanish video on falconry techniques with a golden eagle. From my limited understanding, they were taking the golden out to hunt and weren't aware of the fox and the golden decides to go for it. The falconer freaks out and goes to intervene. The eagle has a firm grip on the fox but the fox is putting up one heck of a fight. If the golden's feet get injured by bites from the fox, the bird will be at a huge risk for infection and probably die. The video is about a minute and a half long, watch it at your own risk.

THERE IS NOW AN UPDATE TO THIS POST HERE. THE PHOTO IS REAL.

"Pac-Man is not a safety concern"

Those wacky Minnesotans are at it again!

They've started a project on some of the Minnesota Highways with white ovals painted on the road to slow tailgaters by showing drivers how far apart to stay. According to the Star Tribune, the 7-foot dots are 225 feet apart, the distance needed at the 55-mile-an-hour speed limit, to stop in three seconds without rear-ending the vehicle ahead. Accompanying signs tell drivers to keep two dots apart in the stretch, traveled by an average of 16,000 vehicles a day.Recently, someone took the time to draw in:

Pacman! My favorite quote in the article is by Tom Dumont, the area traffic engineer for the Department of Transportation. "Pac-Man is not a safety concern," he said, "except for the people who painted it and apparently have touched it up once or more."

"I'd hate to say positive things because I don't want to encourage people to try to paint something on a busy highway. But at least it's made the project a little more noteworthy," Dumont said.

You can read the rest of the article here.