While doing some online research, I came across The Bird Feeder Hat. Now this isn't a fashion trend that you'll be seeing in your local bird store or at bird festivals. This is an event organized by Friends of the Ten Mile--a chapter of Redwood Coast Watershed Alliance and this is not just about birds landing on your head, according to the website it's a way to "learn to create sustainable interspecies relationships with members of your watershed."
OK.
New Field Guide
This is for the days when the birding is slow...
Squirrel 'Splosion
I headed over to Richardson Nature Center to take a few minutes to enjoy their feeders and found the whole feeding station inundated with squirrels. It was mesmerizing to watch all the bouncing and romping and crawling and chasing. The above photo has at least 8 squirrels, but I did count 17 grays and 2 red squirrels out all at one time. Between the snow and wind, the baffles were lower and the squirrels had figured out how to jump past them. I chuckled at one point as a squirrel dropped like a stone from above onto a feeder.
This chickadee paused for a moment of grabbing some black-oil sunflower seeds to watch two squirrels fighting. All of the squirrels had some type of open sore on their bodies that many of them kept chewing at. I thought about posting a photo, but thought better of it after the TLC show link--lol. I think that whole herd could stand a few visits from a great horned owl or red-tailed hawk.
This male cardinal flew in to eat out of they fly thru tray feeder. He kept waiting for the squirrel to leave but the furry thing refused to relinquish his prime seat in the middle of the sunflowers.
It was while he was sitting on the roof of the feeder that I was able to get some head shots of him. It was fun to just drink in the patterns of his feathers, like the brown edging along the edges of his back...hm...I wonder if Pyle would call that light brown or dusky brown (banders will get that joke).
He eventually flew to a nearby bush to wait out the squirrel. He looks almost dejected in this photo. "Oh, will I ever get to eat sunflowers again. Sigh. I feel like a lonely asparagus."
Alas, he did not get oilers while I was at the nature center, but did get some hard core posing in. He could have gone to the tube feeders--not a cardinal's first choice, but I have seen them on the tube feeders here before, perhaps this one does not have the hang of it yet?
The Poop On Caterpillars Looking Like...Poop
Kinda sorta bird news here. Some readers may remember from the black swallowtail butterfly ranching that I did last summer that the caterpillars dramatically changed colors as they grew. When first hatched, the black swallowtail cats looked like little bits of finch poop--which I thought was incredibly interesting because unlike monarch caterpillar who stay on the underside of a milkweed leaf, swallowtails hang out on the top of a parsley plant--what a great disguise, who would want to eat something that looked like bird poop?
Well, according to National Geographic, new study by Japanese researchers shows that a single juvenile hormone is responsible for the changing of colors. The hormone levels drop when the caterpillar leaves the bird-droppings stage and begins its green color transformation.
Read the rest of the story here.
Cleansing Cardinal
Okay, here is a cleansing cardinal dedicated to all the readers who clicked on my TLC link and got a little more than they bargained for this morning. If it's any consolation, Non Birding Bill can't stand to be in the same room when I'm watching those shows and thinks I'm nuts.
Totally Digging The Lunar Eclipse
I hope you guys had a chance to step out and enjoy the lunar eclipse tonight. It's pretty cool. I went out to try and digiscope it and Non Birding Bill came with me. He didn't have to, but I think he wanted to keep an eye on me out in the cold and using a spotting scope on the sidewalk at night. He was a trooper and I remembered the last time I took him to see something celestial. Mars was the closest it would be to Earth in years and we went out in the dark to watch. He said, "Wow, I never thought you'd find something more boring than birding, but here we are, starting at the sky, looking at a pink dot."
The eclipse was a nice way to round out today. This morning when we woke up, it was -11 outside and the heat was out in the apartment building. We also had a house guest and I felt bad that she woke up to a general lack of heat. I turned on the oven and we huddled around for warmth--oh to be Cinnamon and naturally fur covered. She seemed unaffected.
When I was driving our guest to the airport today, I was pointing out red-tailed hawks along the way. One was flying along the highway towards us and I noted an adult red-winged blackbird chasing it...then I realized, hey! It's a bit early for red-winged blackbirds, what's that guy doing here? I know it's advantageous to return from migration early and get a head start on primed territory, but I bet even this male was questioning that wisdom in today's temperature.
And now I must return to my favorite tv channel: TLC. Tonight is My Shocking Story: Half Man Half Tree.
Towers and Birds
Hey, this is actually some encouraging news about a federal ruling on towers from the LA Times:
WASHINGTON -- When considering new communications towers, a federal court ruled Tuesday, officials need to consider whether they pose safety risks -- to birds.
The Federal Communications Commission must study the effect of rapidly sprouting communications towers on migratory birds and give the public a chance to request environmental reviews on new tower applications, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says that millions of warblers, thrushes and other birds die each year because continuously burning lights atop those towers can disorient them in bad weather.
The 2-1 decision affects only towers along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida, a major route for migrating birds.
But environmentalists hope the ruling will spur the FCC to approve proposed rules that would mandate white strobe lights on new towers nationwide. Studies have shown that those lights aren't as disorienting to birds and could cut deaths by 70%.
Read the rest of the story here.
Connecticut Audubon Bald Eagle Fest Report
Photo by Clay Taylor
Yesterday, I woke up to 50 degrees and heavy rain. Today, I woke up to -4, but at least it was sunny.
Photo by Clay TaylorThis entry is going to have a combination of photo from both Clay Taylor and myself. Clay is playing with some mad new digiscopin' skillz. For example, he took the above photo using a Pentax K100 attached to a straight angled Swarovski scope and he hand held the whole system!
Photo by Clay TaylorClay even tried this technique while leading one of the river boat tours at the Connecticut Audubon Bald Eagle Fest and got the above photo of a rough-legged hawk.
Photo by Clay TaylorI love this shot of the rough-legged hawk while it's in mid-hover, intently searching the ground for some unsuspecting small mammal. What a cool looking hawk. There were three hanging around on the Connecticut River--two light ones like the birds in these photos--and one dark morph.
Photo by Clay TaylorHere are some great cormorants that Clay got on the boat--note how birds are still roosting despite the Nixalite placed on the rails? Birds always find away around that stuff.
So, I was haning out at the Swarovski booth for the festival, but the added bonus for me was being next to one of my favorite bird photographers--Jim Zipp (the dude with the beard on the left--that's Clay in the back in the green coat and hat). If you have any bird magazine subscriptions, you have more than likely seen some of Jim's work. As a matter of act, his blackpoll warbler is on the cover of the current issue of WildBird Magazine.
The temps Saturday and Sunday were in the twenties and thirties in Connecticut and if you combine that with being right on the river and standing in one spot all day--it gets chilly. But I get spoiled rotten with Swarovski. Clay and his wife Debbie have a heater that keeps the booth (and our feet toasty). This year there was even power in the booth, so we brought a hot pot and had hot tea and hot chocolate (I had some powdered miso soup and sipped on that). Combine that with the fresh waffles Clay make in the morning and the spaghetti dinner Debbie made at night, I was a well fed booth worker.
There are no shortage of characters at the eagle festival, here's a lady sporting a moose hat--I bet her head was nice and warm. She was tame compared to the woman who walked by wearing a fur coat dyed bright neon yellow toting a tiny dog with a light green fur trimmed dress. Another highight at the festival was getting to meet MsGeek--a blog reader and commenter--it's always fun to meet a blog reader face to face.
Taking photos of this ring-billed gull, I was reminded of my Dunkin Donut heartbreak of last year--none of the DDs in Connecticut make the creme filled donut that I used to get when I was a kid. We tried another DD and no, the vanilla creme donut was not available. Sigh.
I did see one interesting ring-billed gull feeding along the Connecticut River. It was a juvenile bird and had red patagial tags (I wasn't able to get a photo). The bird was far out and I thought I could read the number 41 on the tags. I can't find any info on tagged ring-bills apart from a study on gulls in Chicago--they may have to start sort of population control of the gulls. However, those birds don't have numbers on their tags. I emailed the Bird Banding Lab and am still waiting to hear if they know of anyone tagging gulls.
Photo by Clay TaylorSpeaking of tagged birds, when I was going through Clay's photos, I noticed one of the adult eagles had bands on both feet. Here's a closer photo:
Photo by Clay TaylorSee the tags?
We may not have see great numbers of eagles at this festival, but there were a couple of nests across from where the optics booths were set up. The nest in the upper right corner is the original nest--the male flew up at one point to feed. The nest in the lower left corner is the newer active nest. If you look close at the above photo, you can see a small speck of white--that's the female incubating some eggs.
Right next to the booths was the Connecticut River Museum. We ended up purchasing a day pass to the museum so we could use the restroom. There were port a potties in the parking lot, but when you're working out in the cold all day, that's really the last thing you want. The museum had volunteers stationed all over and were very strict about non paying members using the restroom. And at $4, it was worth it to have an all day pass for a warm restroom. I took a few moments to check out the actual museum and they had a cool HO train set on display on the top floor.
The best part of the display was the camera train. One of the cars had a remote live feed video camera that would transmit its signal to a tv, so you could see the minature town from the toy train's perspective--it was really, really cool. I could have spent hours watching this. Alas, I could see myself really getting into this hobby if I didn't have twenty million other things occupying my time at the moment. Life is just too full of fascinating projects and places to go.
Photo by Clay TaylorAnd I wrap up this entry with one final photo of the really cool rough-legged hawk. Thanks, Clay, for the use of your images.
Upcoming Events and Trips
Bees are taking over my life more and more. I got an email about being booked as a speaker for the Northwest Sports Show in April. They originally wanted two bird relasted programs and I sent them my list of programs that I thought would be good for that audience. After the fun at the MN Hobby Beekeepers, I included that topic in the list too. They booked me for two bird programs and then asked if I would be willing to do a third on beekeeping! Whoot!
Hey, if anyone wants to see a butt load of trumpeter swans, we space left on our Trumpeter Swan Trip this Saturday. We'll drive to Monticello to see swans and then go look for other birds afterwards. Cont
And if you have never see the sandhill crane spectacle in Nebraska, join Stan Tekiela and me for a weekend trip in early march where we will see a few thousand sandhill cranes, a million snow geese, a few dozen prairie chickens, some prairie dogs, and maybe even get to hear the spring song of the western meadowlark. Cont
And the next Birds and Beers is 6pm on February 28 at Merlin's Rest. There's been some discussion on spotting scopes on the birding listservs and I might bring mine. Anyone else is welcome to do so for a side by side comparison. Birds and Beers is a fun get together of people interested in birds and we can have a drink and talk some birds. It doesn't matter what you're experience level is. If you are interested in birds, you are welcome.
Harbor Seal or Harp Seal?
Hmmm, well we may have a mammal misidentification in the blog. The seal that I blogged about on Saturday night and said was a harbor seal, may be a harp seal (lifer mammal for me). In the past when I have been at this festival, we have seen a harbor seal swimming in the Connecticut river--one year it was very close and had a fish that a bald eagle kept trying to swoop down and steal from it.
This year we watched a seal on a very distant log across the river. It was entertaining to watch it roll around and slide onto the log and slide off. We kept noticing when it rolled that we could see white and that it seemed to have a dainty nose.
Turns out that a harp seal was spotted about ten miles up river from the festival at the East Haddam Bridge. Could this be the same harp seal?
Any seal experts who can discern harp from harbor with our distant photos?
Oh, and an FYI to readers who want to do a google image search: harp seals are the ones who get clubbed, so if you are squeamish, search carefully.