Great Backyard Bird Count

Once again this weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count...and once again I will not be able to participate because I'll be at a bird festival in Connecticut. But there is a GBBC Blog and you might see some familiar faces writing it.

So A Drone Walks Into a Bar

That subject line was totally taken from Belinda who gave me an idea when I expressed my nervousness. Thanks, Belinda!

I'm feelin' a bit nervous. Tonight, I'm speaking to the Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers Association. When I was asked, I hesitated--what could I possibly have to share with experienced beekeepers apart from my mistakes? The person booking me was interested in how I document my bees--types of cameras, video, etc. That is something I can easily talk about--but I'm still nervous. I've done so many bird programs that I have a good sense of the audience, I have some tried and true bird jokes, I have a sense of when to use my phalarope joke and when to leave it unsaid. I know how to work that audience and give a bird talk at a moment's notice and know that I will slay the audience. I have no idea which jokes will work with beekeepers--this is new ground. But, it's good to shake up my program giving skills.

Speaking of bees, last time we were at the hives, Mr. Neil pointed out some new tracks around the hives. I think these are possum tracks and not skunk, so I'm not too worried, but if anyone has any ideas, I'd sure love to know what you think.

Birds Drawn To The Wealthy?

Okay, here is another odd little study from the Brits (British that is, not Spears) that was in The Telegraph:

Bird populations in urban areas of Britain are directly affected by the wealth of residents, scientists say.

They discovered there are more birds in affluent urban areas than in poorer ones because wealthier people are more interested in birds and more inclined to feed them.

Scientists say they have discovered that a high density of bird feeders and bird tables raises the overall numbers of birds in urban areas, independently of factors such as the presence of parks and large gardens.

However, the "bird feeder effect" found by researchers from Sheffield University varied markedly according to the social and economic status of the households in the area.

The study found that both affluent suburbs within the Sheffield city boundary and sought-after areas close to the city centre had far more birds than deprived wards, where bird feeding was less common, possibly because it would dent family incomes.

The researchers included some of the richest and the poorest wards in Britain.

The study, published in the journal Diversity and Distributions, says bird feeding had no effect on the range of birds, only on the populations of species, such as blue tits, great tits and coal tits, commonly attracted to bird feeders.

It has been estimated that 60,000 tons of food a year are left out for birds in Britain.

Eagle Additions

I got an email from Joan clarifying Beef Slough:

Beef Slough is a historical name and place. The Buffalo or Beef river comes into Riecks Lake, and then on the other side of hwy 35 forms beef slough. Here's a quote from the WI Historical Society.

Term: Beef Slough War
Definition: conflict, ca. 1868-1875, over access by logging companies to the Mississippi from the Chippewa River; Frederick Weyerhaueser squeezed out small independent loggers and put control of the industry into the hands of a conglomerate of large companies.

[Source: Wyman, Mark. The Wisconsin Frontier (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998).]

She also clarified that the total for the golden eagle count was 60. 37 birds the day of the count and 23 seen during the week at different locations. Thanks, Joan.

And here is a video of the eagles eating the (hopefully) chicken parts mixed with manure. I love how the young eagle seems really uncertain about what it's trying to eat:

Eagles Along The River

I went south of the Twin Cities on Wednesday to give a program and to watch some eagle with my friend Joan. I took a leisurely route down and gave myself plenty of time to stop where I found some good eagle watching. I pulled into Colville Park to take a quick scan. Some of the trees closest to the marina area are gone, I'm not sure if that was from a storm or if they were taken down, which was kind of a bummer because the eagles were a little further away.

While there, I had an interesting interaction. There were people around looking at eagles and walking through the park. I set up my scope right next to my car to take a quick scan. I found one bird that I thought would make an okay photo and turned around to my car door to grab my digiscoping equipment. As soon as I had turned around, a guy who had been walking nearby immediately stepped in front of my scope. I stood and waited to see how long he would look through it--a good two minutes. On the one hand, I don't blame him--I have a GREAT Swarovski spotting scope, I'd want to sneak a peak at an eagle through it if I didn't have one. On the other hand, I would never look through a stranger's scope if they stepped away without asking first and I certainly wouldn't stay there for more than one minute. The longer the guy stood there, the more irritated I got and I tried to figure out just what was bothering me--I lead trips and love to share my scope and when I'm out birding alone and meet up with other people, I'm happy to offer views from my scope--was my irritation simply that this guy assumed he could look through and take so long to do it? I have to admit, I'm getting more protective of it--especially when it comes to digiscoping. I like to let people experiment with the technique, but I'm not thrilled to have someone do it without an adapter and press their camera lens up against my scope's eye piece and scratch it up. I think what was really bothering me was that he was being a scope hog (without having been offered) and I wanted to try and get a photo. Again, I can't blame him, once you look through a Swarovski scope, it is hard to look away.

I also had a chance to stop by the new National Eagle Center in Wabasha--WOW! I knew Mary Beth, the founder when she worked at The Raptor Center and it's so cool to see how she took this idea of an eagle center that started in a small shop and is not a big building with fun displays, live birds and wild eagles soaring around outside the building. If you have cabin fever, this is a great day trip.

Here is Joan with one of the center's eagles...I think this is Angel. When I was asked to come down and speak, Joan offered to let me sleep in her guest room and if I would be interested in driving around the river bluffs looking for eagles (maybe even a golden eagle. Oh, and if I wanted, we could go to wear some of the chicken farms dump their dead birds and could see a bunch of eagles, if I wanted. Dead chickens and eagles?? Who could say no to that?

There were quite a few common mergansers (above) and even a few goldeneyes out on the open patches of water. I was surprised to see so many this time of year, but they were a welcome site.

When Joan took me out Thursday morning, the habitat on top of the river bluffs was just spectacular. Some light clouds would burst with snow and stick to the trees, frosting them white. We didn't see many birds, but the trees more than made up for it. We did see a couple of rough-legged haws and their plumage was the perfect accent to the bluffs.

Our main goal was to spot a golden eagle amidst all the hundreds of bald eagles. The spot in the above photo was in Wisconsin and reliable for finding goldens. A few winters ago, birders around Winona, MN and right across the river in Wisconsin were reporting golden eagles. At first, the reports were ignored as many assumed people were mistaking young bald eagles for golden eagles. Photos were taken, sightings were documented and a few more were seen the following winters. Now, there is even an organized count that happens every January and this year, they tallied 60 golden eagles--37 birds the day of the count and 23 seen during the week at different locations.! Where do they go in the go in the spring? Where are they breeding? Will the winter population continue to grow? So many questions.

Joan scanned the bluffs, and at the top of this bluff, she found a large dark lump in a tree. You could even make out the perched lump with the naked eye. We put or binoculars on it and could see it was an eagle, but we put the scope on it:

With the sixty power zoom, you could tell without a doubt it was a golden eagle--you could even see the golden hackle feathers. Mission accomplished!

We continued to drive around and found bald eagles all over. Here are a couple of adults working a deer carcass. This was someone's yard and there were a couple of deer carcasses for eagles and they were also full of starlings.

Joan took us out in search of fields spread with fresh chicken manure--they would be full of eagles of all ages. We found one field that had 35 bald eagles foraging! So, what's the interest in the manure?

The birds were eating something. This photo looks like the adult is eating from a pile of crap and the young eagle is looking down as if to say, "We seriously don't have to eat chicken poop to survive...do we?"

Here the adult eagle clearly has a chunk of something--there must be chicken carcasses mixed in with the manure. I can't imagine that just chicken excrement alone would be enough to feed an eagle.

Whatever is in the field, the eagles are diggin' it. So, if you're going along the river and you're not seeing eagles, find out where the chicken farms are located and check that out.

At the end of the day, I headed back towards the Twin Cities. It's fun to pass through the little towns on the river and still see the eagles hanging out over the roads and neighborhoods.

Speaking of river towns, doesn't this little shop sound interesting? Because when you think an appetizing sounding phrase of confectionery, coffee, and gift collectibles, you think Beef Slough.

Screech Owl vs Sharp-shinned Hawk

I'm still chillin' in Winona. The wireless situation is iffy here but I'm using a friend's computer. The following just came in through email. Thanks, Andy, for sending this my way! Do watch the video at the bottom, at first it's hard to make out the owl, but you'll see it soon. I once saw a screech owl with a blue jay and a friend told me about a barred owl that took out a Cooper's hawk, but I've never heard of a screech taking on a sharpie!

I just got the e-mail below from my father, who lives in west Michigan
and keeps tabs on the birding listservs there. He doesn't send me
this sort of thing very often, and this one is extraordinary. This is
video taken immediately following the strike of a Sharp-shinned hawk
by a Screech Owl. That seems like huge prey for a Screech, but there
it is on film.

If you're looking for some material for your site, feel free to post
this. I don't know the e-mailer referred to, so you may want to
contact them to see if they mind having their e-mail posted on your
web site, or you could just edit that out. Up to you. This post was
from the Mich-Chat listserv, so you might be able to just google it
and find it independently.

Stay warm in Minnesota! And watch out for those abominable Screech Owls. ;-)

Andy Pedler

Shorebird Workshop

Hey, remember that shorebird workshop I attended last August? You can read about it here, here, and here. Doug Buri is offering it again and this time he's teamed up with Bob Janssen. Due to last year's popularity, they are offering the workshop twice. One of the benefits of this workshop is that they keep the number of participants low, so you can get lots of individual attention. I emailed Doug this morning and he said the first workshop is already full and the second is filling fast. If you would like to learn your shorebirds in the Upper Midwest, I highly recommend it. If you'd like to look at the above photo and say with confidence, "Why that's clearly a semi-palmated sandpiper behind a least sandpiper," then this is for you.

Another benefit is that Doug gets you up close to the birds--least sandpipers within three feet of your shoes and short-billed dowitchers in spitting distance. It's great. Here is Doug's site if you would like to learn more or sign up.

Linkage and Interesting Anna's Hummingbird Story

The photos through out this blog entry are from the Wingscapes Bird Cam. I'm half tempted to to take it up to Sax Zim and place it around some of the deer carcasses. I'll have to see if I have some time before I leave for Connecticut.

Looking at books coming down the pike this spring, I cannot wait to read Falcon Fever by Tim Gallagher. I love his writing style and falconry is one of my favorite subjects.

I got a note from the Hiawatha Valley Audubon Society that my talk is open to the public, so if you would like to come, it will start at 7 p.m. at Holzinger Lodge in Winona, MN Wednesday, February 6. The talk will be about attracting birds and taking it a step further--cool things you can do once all the birds start flocking to your yard.

This photo is kind of blurry, but you can clearly see that this chickadee is banded and is one of the birds that was banded last fall at Mr. Neil's. Speaking of which, Mark, who is one of the banders sent me this interesting story about a couple of Anna's hummingbirds--that's the same hummingbird that has the tail feathers that make sounds when they fly during courtship. Richard Kowalski wrote:

"I walked into my living room a short time ago and saw these two hummers on the patio under one of my feeders. I grabbed a few images. It did not look like they were mating (as can be seen in this image). I thought fighting, but the female seems to be laying on top of the male.

Once I opened the door to step out to see if maybe they were tangled is something, they both flew off. If anyone has any ideas about what was going on with these two, I'd appreciate your input."

If you didn't click on the link to Richard's photo, go back and do it, it's pretty incredible. Hummingbird expert Sheri Williamson answered:

"Cool photo, Richard! This certainly looks like a mating attempt gone awry, quite likely nonconsensual from the female's side. The male seems to have a tight grip on her back feathers and may have grabbed her while she was perched and just hung on like a rodeo bronc rider when she tried to escape. Between the extra weight and the confusion of two pairs of wings trying to go different directions, it's likely that the only place to go was down. Male Anna's are
usually heavier than females, so that could explain how he ended up under her.

Several years ago at Paton's I saw two in-flight mating attempts by violet-crowneds. The pair (I think it was the same male both times, not sure about the female) managed to stay airborne a few inches off the lawn for at least 30 feet, and the male's tail seemed to be in the right position for copulation, but I think if the female had been a willing party she wouldn't have dragged him across the yard."

Thanks for the insight Sheri!

And on a final and non birding note, thanks to Let The Dog In, I have learned of a wickedly funny blog called The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. I giggled for a good twenty minutes over the "Ice Scoop" entry.

Owl Sunday

Enjoying the warm up in temperature, I used today to play with some of my new tech gadgets. The more I'm getting used to my Remembird, the more I am loving it. It's a digital recorder that attaches to your binoculars and you can use it to make field notes without moving your binoculars from your face. You can either listen to your notes with the provided ear piece or load them onto your computer. So, as you're watching the bird in question you can whisper all the details that you are noticing. Remembird also has a setting for recording bird calls, and I'm anxious to give that a test run when warblers come back. Right now, it's nice now to have the time to get used to pressing the right buttons.

With the sub zero temperatures, the creek at Mr. Neil's place is completely frozen. We decided to cross it explore the area on the other side. I really wanted to check it out, that's where I've heard great horned owls hooting and this morning, crows were mobbing something in the pines.

There were all kinds of tracks along the frozen creek. Above are some turkey tracks, and you can see where the bird slipped a bit on the ice, complete with a wing print. Animals like to use this to move around--it's easier than going over the deep snow. When we got across the creek and up the hill with the pines, I started exploring. A great horned owl was flying around the area. It didn't appear to be flushed by me. I was a distance away and had already passed it and wouldn't have known it was there if it hadn't flown. It went from tree to tree, almost as if it were looking for something. Eventually, it paused on top of some trees and then hopped quite awkwardly into the top of one of the pines.

It was tucked in here and I could barely make out the owl's shape from where I was standing. A flock of crows flew over and one crow dropped to mob the great horned. The rest of the flock was about 10 yards behind me. Since the flock was concentrated there, I wondered if the crows had found the nest? I made an arrow in the snow to remind myself where to stand if I came back to look for this owl and when towards the louder mobbing.

I came around to the rest of the crows and couldn't find anything that looked like a nest. The other crow off by the great horned, increased the urgency in its calls and the rest of the flock joined it. I continued my search and then found the second owl, but was incredibly surprised. It wasn't a great horned owl:

It was a barred owl! I have never seen a wild barred owl so close to a wild great horned owl before. Usually the barred owls at Neil's are very people wary. Once you make eye contact with them, they bolt. Most of the time I unknowningly flush them even from a good distance. This bird stayed put. I think this bird realized that this was great horned owl territory and was laying low to avoid being caught in the territory of "the tiger of the woods." I now wonder if the reason the great horned owl was flying the territory when I arrived knew this owl was here and was on patrol for it.

I left the barred owl alone and went back to look for my arrow. The crows were gone and I placed my tripod in position and just started scanning the tree.

Eventually, I relocated the great horned owl. The bird waited for th crows to leave, walked out towards the edge of the branch, searched around the area and then few in the direction of the barred owl. I couldn't find it and didn't stick around too much longer after that. I figured those two had enough to sort out without having a human underfoot.