Sir Paul McCartney: Twitcher?

THE GULL IS MINE

EXCLUSIVE Heather cabin to go in deal to save bird-watching hut
By Louise Ford, Sunday Mirror

SIR PAUL McCartney has struck a deal with planners to demolish estranged wife Heather's country hideaway - so he can save his own bird-watching hut.

The former Beatle has been getting over his bitter marriage split by spending hours alone viewing rare species on his sprawling estate.

Macca's bird-watching hut and Heather's £1million log cabin were built three years ago in the grounds of his home in Peasmarsh, East Sussex.

But council planners threatened to bulldoze both buildings, because they were built without permission. Sir Paul begged for a compromise, saying flattening Heather's former hideaway would "more than compensate" for keeping the wildlife pavilion.

He promised to use the platform for recreational purposes only. The cabin was used by Macca and Heather for romantic nights.

He let the ex-model live there after they separated last May, so they could both have regular access to two-year-old daughter Beatrice. But as their bitter divorce battle raged on and Heather, 39, rarely visited the McCartney estate, he decided to get rid of it.

Macca, 64, is now an expert at spotting the many rare species - including long-eared owls, grey wagtails, red kites and bearded tits - who nest on his 933 acres.

Bird-fancier Macca - who sang The Girl is Mine with Michael Jackson on a hit duet in 1982 - was said to be overjoyed after the hide was saved from demolition by council planing bosses.

A source said: "Paul is a real naturelover and finds sitting down by the lake, watching all the rare birds and creatures, really relaxing.

"He is going through a tough time at the moment so it is a great place to go to get away from things.

"Paul was a bird lover as a kid and has now become a real expert at spotting all kinds of species."

Heather, meanwhile, is surrounding herself with close friends to get through the divorce.

Last week, she and 40 loyal pals, including at least two former lovers, celebrated her 39th birthday at a remote Slovenian hotel.

The source said: "Heather and Sir Paul are relaxing in their own way before the biggest divorce showdown in history."

louise.ford@sundaymirror.co.uk

Wowsers!

I just bought a used camera from one of the Leica guys, a Nikon Coolpix 4500. I bought it for digiscoping and because it's supposed to have an incredible macro feature. I tried it out banding at Carpenter Nature Center today and was VERY pleased with my close ups.

It was a cardinal bonanza today in all the traps, much to the chagrin of the banders' fingers. Those bills are so perfect for ripping open sunflower husks are quite capable of slicing flesh.

We trapped and banded the above male cardinal on September 15, 2006. Note, he was going through that gawky stage transitioning from brown juvenile plumage into is adult male red plumage. Look at all those pin feathers--aka bird acne. He even has a sad little stubby crest. Hmm, this is taking me back to my seventh grade school photo. Shutter.

Here is the same bird retrapped today! What a difference four months make! He looks like he's thinking, "I can't believe how good I look!"

Just take a moment and soak that bird in. Breathe in. Breathe out. Ahhhhhhhhh.

Good night, how red do you need to be? Interesting to note, this bird had a birthday on January 1, 2007. Even though he was probably about two or three months when we first banded him, according to banding rules all wild birds turn a year older the first of the year. He is now an official second year bird--even though it has been less than a year since he hatched. I don't make the banding lab rules, I just follow them.

I'm really digging the macro feature of this Nikon Camera--it really picks up great feather detail. I could just get lost in this female cardinal's patchwork of reds and tans.

Here she is head on. I'm fascinated by the area where all the feather connect with her bill. Such a combination of heard, bright, and shiny contrasted with soft, gray, brown, red, subtle. I just want to run my finger right along that line...I can't because of the whole biting issue, but still...

Well, can't wait to see further results with this camera and future banding sessions.

Of course the fun part of purchasing used cameras is that sometimes not all the old photos are deleted. I found this photo:

It's Pete Dunne and it looks like he's visiting Panama's Canopy Tower. I wonder if he got in?

Just A Show

Hey, if you're not doing anything this Sunday, come to The Raptor Center for an owl class I'm teaching. You'll get to see our ed birds up close--and (keep your fingers crossed) if all goes well with training you might get a glimpse of our new education boreal owl---oooooo, ahhhhhh. Seriously, please come, it will be fun and I can tell you where to see some owls. Afterwards, you could carpool to see the snowy owl hanging out on cargo road at the Minneapolis/St Paul Airport (remember to stay six feet away from the fences).

So, I got Cinnamon to the TV Studio in Burnsville for her segment on Just A Show last night. Above she's sitting in my lap in the audience watching the host Keith King and Sidekick Shawn do their opening dialogue.

She seemed antsy so I set her on the floor--bad idea. She made a bee line for all the expensive camera chords--naughty butthead. We watched the segment about Keith's recent visit to the Virgin Islands and it was very chuckle-worthy. I asked Cinnamon what she thought:

She did not approve and almost looks as if she's saying, "What the heck did you bring me to anyway?" I thought she was fairly relaxed, she was happily nibbling parsley in my lap and under my chair, but during the actual interview, she got nervous. When rabbits get nervous they create a cloud of fur not unlike Pig Pen's cloud of dirt. This typically happens when Cinnamon is at the vet, but apparently tv appearances make her just as nervous. Every time either Keith or I would stroke her a puff of fur irrupted into the air. By the end of the interview we had it everywhere--it was even stuck to my lipstick. Pitooey!

Keith was really nice and I can't wait to see the final edited show on the Internet. We'll be sure and let everyone know when it is available. Keith is rather an attractive guy and it sounds like he's recently single. Any ladies in the Twin Cities looking for a well groomed, quick-witted guy might want to check into getting audience seats to his show.

Before the show I had to stop and try to photograph a bunny for the Disapproving Rabbits book. One of the downsides of taking book photos with the Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society?

Resisting the urge to take home cuties like the guy above. This is Buster who is currently waiting for a home at the Richfield Petco. He's a neutered lion's head rabbit and has this crazy fur on his neck that looks like a lion's mane. I've forgotten what it's like to spend time with an energetic bunny who is under a year old--he is SO active and popcorned (or binkied) like crazy. Cinnamon will be seven this year and I guess her age is showing more than I realized. At three pounds Buster is so tiny compared to Cinnamon. Oh dear, did I just infer that my rabbit is old and fat? Good thing for me she can't read.

I had to laugh at this shot. I inadvertently got a photo of a disapproving manager of the Petco. Seriously, he really is a nice guy and runs a good pet store, don't let that stance fool you. He was very friendly and kind to me.

Embracing Techno Birding

I think I'm almost done talking about Bird Watch America--I've been trying to space the entries out with other bird stuff so it's not all product review. As you can tell by this post I survived the nuclear disapproval of grooming Cinnamon. More on her tv appearance in the next entry.

The most interesting and encouraging trend I noticed at Bird Watch America this year is that some wild bird specialty stores are finally beginning to embrace technology. This year birdJam (that's Denese Van Dyne on the left showing MN nature writer Val Cunningham her software for iPods), National Geo's Handheld Birds and of course WingScapes (the motion sensitive camera the company I’ve been helping out) all had booths.

The camera exceeded my expectations as far as interest from bird stores. Bart had set the booth up very well with a video playing of photos we’ve taken with our test cameras. Bart got a great video at his house of a Carolina wren and a junco. He set a suet cake on the ground next to a seed ball. When you watch the video, watch the seed ball—I love that junco head that pops up and looks around, almost like it has its own little fort--it's not even thirty seconds long, you must watch it. Cracks me up every time.

Let's talk about the iMainGo. It’s cool and of all the speakers I’ve tried so far it’s the best quality speaker for the price (around $69). I tested it out this morning at Carpenter and got some chickadees calling back and even a cardinal flew up over my head. I’m curious to try it with some owls. I might give it a go with the owls at The Raptor Center.

The speaker runs on 2 AAA batteries. It has an on/off switch and even an option to use it as an alarm with your iPod. You do need to make sure that the speaker is turned off when not using the iPod so as not to eat up batteries. It comes with a little wrist holder like you would get on a digital camera, but I think I’m going to switch that out with a carabiner. Of the speakers I’ve found, this one is the smallest with the best quality. It can handle great gray owl hoot and grouse drumming almost as well as high pitched warbler.

A few of the birds store owners I spoke with had said that customers are coming in and asking about some of the new software and programs available. Part of what really sells these are people having them in hand and playing with it. During the retail workshop, Mitch Whitten (editor of Birding Business Magazine) showed three or four different birding tech devices available and I had all of them. I still love my Handheld Birds and feel so cool when I whip it out when someone asks what a bird sounds like.

Other software news is that you'll be able to purchase gift subscriptions to Birds of North American Online for family and friends--this is a great gift for students into birds. I'm amazed at how much I use it, it's great for finding quick nesting information and it's updated when necessary. Thayer Birding Software is finally coming out with a Mac version. I've never really played with it since I'm a loyal Apple user so I'm curious.

Bunny-pocalypse

I really don't know what Cinnamon's problem is. Tonight is her big first Disapproving Rabbits interview so we took extra steps of a total home grooming. I love getting my hair done, I just did that last week and had a fabulous time. Not Cinnamon. I had to wrap her in a towel to stifle some displaced aggression

"I'm too angry to even give you a disapproval."

Boy, you can just see the deep hate in those eyes. I think I'm going to pay for this later, perhaps even worse than the boingy boingy santa hat incident.

Here we have her on her back to trim those toe nails. She looks so pathetic, doesn't she know how great a pedicure is?

Hopefully she will get over this in time to make a splash on Just a Show. I'm not sure about when it will air on Twin Cities Cable Access, but as soon as it's up in iTunes, I will link to it for all you Cinnamon fans. We're also going to try and have it here on the site as well.

Currently, Cinnamon is under the bed. When I walk into the bedroom, I can only see her nose sticking out. If I try to get too close, she grunts and retreats out of view. Yeah, I'm totally going to pay for the brushing and nail trimming later.

Finally, More Bird Products For Kids

I've long thought that there just wasn't enough product for kids interested in birds. I can't tell you the number of times customers would come in the bird store asking for a field guide for kids--even little cardboard books on a cardinal for a two year old--get them started young! The closest and certainly most popular book with kids are Stan Tekiela's books, but there is a market for even younger field guides with good, accurate information (Yo authors and publishers: HINT, HINT, HINT).

That is starting to change, every year there is a little more new stuff geared towards kids. Many know Wild Republic from their Audubon singing birds.

Among many things, they offered a set of birds that you can paint into your own species. I saw a finished product and it looks like you can paint a cardinal, hummingbird, chickadee and goldfinch (American, not the European pictured on the box). But really, with enough paint the possibilities are limitless, the cardinal could also be a titmouse, the hummingbird could be anything from a ruby-throat to a green-breasted mango, and the two smaller birds could be painted into warblers, juncos, and dare I say it--a Henslow's sparrow? Hm, I think I would love this gift as much as any kid. I do remember that at some hobby store, someone found a plastic peregrine model for me to paint, I labored over that thing with all sorts of detail. Anyway, these are supposed to be sturdy enough to play with once the kids finish painting them.

Two different bird card games were being shown. Above are cards from Share Nature which looked to me to be a sort of bird baseball card collection. One side is a cool bird photo, the back side is a little natural history info.

The above young man is Chris, who is Vice President of Artistic Creations Limited, but is a natural born networker and eager to help out other booths. Above he is happily being a guinea pig with the Share Nature cards to brush up his western bird identification. The cards are based on Montessori teaching methods and help hone identification skills and give kids a general appreciation of birds. Kids can quiz themselves and read up on general information. Though this is geared towards kids, I could totally see this hooking some adults as well. Especially if they end up being sold like baseball cards. Some species could be rare an hard to find, "Hey, dude, I'll trade you my Baird's sparrow for your northern jacana."

Cornell also had a curriculum called Bird Sleuth. You know with all the ivory-bill craziness, I think we sometimes forget all the other cool projects that Cornell has going down. The front of the card has full color photos and the back has cool facts, sounds, size, etc. There are even questions that can be asked to help aid in the id. In the case of the killdeer card above the questions are:

Q: If a person comes near my nest, I might try to do this to lure them away?
A: Act like I have a broken wing and walk away from nest.

Q: True or False. If a cow or horse comes near my nest, I fluff myself up, put my tail over my head, and run at it to try and make it change its path.
A: True--(I didn't even know they did that--that's so cool, I must get to a cow pasture this spring).

Q: How did I get my name?
A: My call sounds like "kill-deer!"

Part of the curriculum is that kids learn about bird identification using the cards, field guides, and a bird identification CD-ROM. They learn to observe and count birds and to share that info on eBird.

I'm not sure if the two card games are going to be showing up at bird stores or are only available to teachers, but it certainly doesn't hurt to ask your local bird specialty store if they plan on carrying these items. Otherwise, I would contact Share Nature or Cornell directly.

New Feeders for 2007

I'm impressed with how well all of you blog readers were able to id Lillian Stokes from the back. You guys are good. I'm sure she and Bobby Harrison were talking all things ivory-bill, but I did like the suggestion by one commenter that they were actually discussing Cinnamon.

Okay, I think I have figured out a way to divide up all the fun stuff I saw at Bird Watch America. I'm still getting emails with photos and information so some reviews are waiting in the wings. I just want to say for the record that products I talk about are ones that tickle my personal fancy. I'm not paid to talk about items. I have been hired by companies to consult on marketing and product development but I'm fortunate to be in a position that I only work with a product (and people) I genuinely like and one that I personally would use.

I'm tough on bird feeders and squirrel proofing from my years working at a bird store. I can spot a loophole for squirrels and raccoons at first glance. It's hard to impress me with feeders. I try to avoid talking about products that don't appeal to my personal sense of style or that I think will not work well--unless it's potentially harmful to birds. But just because I don't care for something, doesn't mean that it won't work well for someone else, so it's just best I keep my mouth shut.

There weren't too many bird feeders that really bowled me over in innovation. One that really sticks out is the Squirrel-Off, the solar powered bird feeder. There have been solar powered squirrel proof feeders in the past, but they were very expensive. I believe this one will retail between $150 - $180--which isn't bad for what this feeder does and how much food it holds. It has a solar panel on top and when a squirrel touches either the two bottom perch bars or the roof and one of the perches it gets a zap--nothing lethal, about like licking a 9-volt battery (yes, I've done it). Birds will not get zapped by the feeder due to their biological make up in their feet.

It has many of the features I look for--comes apart for easy cleaning, holds lots of seed and can see if the feeder is full or empty, can be hung or pole mounted, has an attractive design that allows for several types of birds to feed. The company has been making solar powered feeders for years, I carried one when I was at the Minnetonka Wild Bird Store but I want to say that it was about $500. It's nice to see it has come down to a more affordable price. The electronics have a one year warranty which is pretty standard with that type of feeder, but I know people who have purchased solar feeders in the past and they last a long time.

The other feeders that caught my eye were the Happy Hour Hummingbird Feeders at the Woodlink booth. I have to hand it to Woodlink, they are working their hardest to come up with interesting and different designs in feeder. The designs don't always appeal to me, but it's nice to see someone getting away from the traditional design and working hard to be creative. This year, their new hummingbird feeders really struck my eye--they are designed to look like martinis and daiquiris!

Here I am with Dalia Hussein of Wild Republic (more on their stuff in a later entry) sharing a couple of hummingbird feeders at the Woodlink Tiki Bar. I love these things, I can see them showing up at Urban Outfitters and what's nice is that Woodlink has been making feeders for years so they have a good idea of how to make a decent feeder that looks very unique.

News from the Readers

Christine writes: "Thought you'd be interested in this recent article that's hit a lot of the news shows this week in Chicago -- especially in light of your recent posts about Starlings as pets. (Ugh!) This one is known for whistling the Chicago Bears Fight Song, which is especially timely due to the Bears upcoming big game. This link should also have video and audio so you can hear Twinkle "in action." "

Mr. Neil sends us this link from the Committeee for Skeptical Inquiry about Joe Nickell investigating a 1955 Kelly, Kentucky incident when "little green men" made an attack on a farm family and his conclusion is that it was actually nesting great horned owls.

And my sister Monica sent this story from the Indianapolis Star about an influx of bald eagles drawn to a buffet of fish at Starve Hollow Lake.

It's So Great to Have Norbert Back

I'm at a meeting for some new educational displays that are going up at The Raptor Center.

I love having Norbert back so I can do quick blog entries on the sly...

While looking for some photos of great gray owls for one of the education panels, I came across the Flickr account of Mariah Tigger. It looks like she used to be a vet in the TRC clinic, I recognize the treatment room:

Here is a great gray owl in the TRC treatment room. Notice how big and puffy the head is. You can also see the puffy head of a great gray in my profile shot on the blog.

Now, here is a photo of a great gray owl in the anesthesia cone on its head before it's examined. They really are just giant balls of fluff.