Bird Watch America

Wow, this has been an exciting week, figuring out my coming travel schedule. I'm going to a Bald Eagle Festival in Connecticut in February, Detroit Lakes in May (doing a digiscoping workshop and seeing Scott Weidensaul), Potholes and Prairie Bird Fest in North Dakota in June and the ABA Convention in Utah in June--whoot! I'll have to try and schedule a Birds and Beers in all those places. If anyone has suggestions, drop me a note.

So, I've been sorting through all my notes from Bird Watch America to see what is exciting to the birding consumer in the coming months. Here are some things on the horizon.

The coolest thing that I saw that appealed to me as a birder is the Remembird--which I was surprised to see at the show. I've heard of it and it's popular across the pond, but they are now going to offer it in the US. It's pretty darned sweet. It's a microphone that can be attached to your binoculars. You can use it to make audio notes as you are watching birds and it is capable of recording some bird songs (depending on how close) so you can take it home to compare to your cds--and the software that comes with it allows you to keep it organized on your computer (and a big plus for me--it's Mac compatible--whoot). As if the recording potential weren't cool enough, the device comes with a card of North American bird calls from Cornell. It comes with headphones, but I'm sure you can find away to attach it a portable audio speaker if you are so inclined. I did get one and I can't wait to play with it--it was tested in northern Minnesota and the device works in sub zero temperatures--I'm just not keen to bird in that kind of weather.

Feeders made out of recyclable material seems to be a growing trend. These are some of the hopper style feeders offered by Woodlink, but many major bird feeder companies are offering feeders made of recyclable plastic.

Speaking of Woodlink, last year they offered the Martini Hummingbird Feeder, this year they have the Sundae hummingbird feeder--cute.

When I worked at a bird store, customers would come in complaining about the seed mess under their bird feeders and why couldn't someone design something to catch it. I would answer that it would have to be huge. Well, someone in Utah took those complaints to heart and came up with an idea, it's called the Seed Hoop and it can be mounted to most feeders like the one on the pole above or on a hanging feeder and it catches the bird seed that the birds kick out, leaving a mess.

Here is a three day sample. The full jar on the left is all the seed that was caught by the seed hoop and the jar on the right is what was on the ground. It's been tested at bird stores in Utah and appears to be making customers happy...one small note, they don't have huge amounts of squirrels in Utah so it hasn't had a heavy duty squirrel test. One squirrel has been found eating the seeds on a seed hoop and it was able to support it's weight, but still, it might make squirrel proofing your feeder somewhat tricky, but it's a cool idea if it helps keep the area under a feeder clean.

Squirrel proof feeders are still a popular item. This was a new one called the Birdie Banquet and promoting itself as "aesthetically, one of the most pleasing bird feeders available, at any price." It's cute and my concern was that it looked like it was made out of hard plastic and chewable by squirrels. The company assures me that it's made of "space age polycarbons with additives for durability" and not chewable by squirrels. I'm skeptical, but I was told it has a lifetime warranty, so what do you have to lose. I'll be curious to see what happens to it under field conditions.

Continuing along the squirrel repellent category, we have the Squirrel Stopper baffle system. They've been at Bird Watch America before, but now have made some adjustments to their design. The above photo is the inside of the baffle system. It attaches to a pole and has springs, so it bounces, making it almost impossible for a squirrel or raccoon to get past. You can get the baffle or the whole pole system. It costs about the same as any other standard (well made and sturdy) pole and baffle system. I think when the ground thaws out that I'm going to give this go in Mr. Neil's yard.

This is called the Two Bowl Bird Bath. The idea is that if you have a bath shallow enough to accommodate all sorts of bird sizes from large to small, it will evaporate quickly. This system allows you to have a deep bath and the second bowl inside allows a smaller amount of water for small birds to bathe in. If you don't want the whole bird bath, you can get just the inner dish and use it with a bath you already have. The company that designed it is located in Iowa and they have tested it in winter weather with a heated bath and it works well.

Here is a phrase that will get your attention--Nite Guard: Solar Powered, Night Predator Control Light! This is designed to keep all sorts of predators from your yard: keep coyotes out of chicken coops, keep great horned owls away from your purple martin houses, keep raccoons and deer from raiding bird feeders and gardens. The idea is that red is a natural danger sign and other predatory animals perceive it as the eye of another animal watching them. I'm kinda curious about how this would work with skunks around our beehives. It's solar powered so you don't have to use batteries and the company is based in Minnesota so it should work in all kinds of weather.

This Just Makes Me Larf

Here's a series of images captured by the Wingscapes Camera. One of the fun things about these types of cameras is that even if you don't use the video mode, the series of photos still tell a story.

On a side note, that baffle needs to be removed from the pole, it's below five feet, so the squirrel can jump up on it and use it as a means to get to the feeder. Even though the squirrel appears to have trouble getting food out of the feeder, it's using the baffle to stand on while it can avoid setting off the lever that closes of the food. If the baffle was removed, the feeder would keep the squirrel out.

US Birding Industry Finally Getting A Sense Of Humor?

Okay, the US birding industry has had a sense of humor, but nothing really out of this world since The Mad Bluebird and the squirrel dressed as a blue jay image, but I think I finally saw hints of some naughty humor at Bird Watch America.

Is this a double entendre I see? Shocking! And a refreshing change.

I don't think this is that shocking, but my mom has a thing for Albert Einstein, so I figured she might like it.

Delving into pop culture here. Impressive.

On a side note, would anyone care to identify what US bird this is supposed to be? It has a Gary Larson quality to it.

Dawn, It Takes Fish Oil Out Of Your Way

Thanks to Michele Hope for sending me this link for an update about the eagles that got stuck in some chum. I must say, Dawn is getting some mighty fine publicity according to this quote from the article:

"Cleaning the eagles requires scrubbing them off with unscented Dawn dish detergent to remove the fish oil and slime that soaked their feathers, then rinsing them in a wood-framed structure covered in plastic to keep things hot and humid."

Another interesting note about this case, all the eagles involved in the incident and recovering Bird TLC are male. I'm not sure what about that means. Be sure to check out this slide show of eagles getting a scrub down.

The Long Road For Peregrine 568

WARNING! Some of the photos in this entry deal with a bird injury and some surgical techniques to heal that injury. If you are eating a meal or are kind of squeamish, you may want to stop reading this entry after the third photo. Just an FYI.

After the Holidays and my travel schedule, it was time to get back to my volunteering at The Raptor Center and an update on our favorite peregrine.

They were busy in the clinic and while I was waiting, I checked out some of the other birds the vets were working on. This was a falconry bird that got injured in the field. This peregrine falcon was out hunting and she got into a thermal and was soaring high. An adult red-tailed hawk tried to soar into the same thermal. The peregrine looked down, saw the red-tail and stooped! The falcon dove down and hit the red-tail, locked onto it and the falconer watched the birds disappear out of the sky. It took him fifteen minutes to track them down and he found both the red-tail and the peregrine on the ground (and a couple of prairie falcons nearby). The red-tail flew off when the falconer walked up, but there were puncture wounds on the peregrine's face--indicating that she had been footed in the head by the red-tail. Fortunately, the falcon did not lose an eye, but her face did swell up. She appears to be healing well and remarkably did not suffer any broken bones.

Check it out, another way to use that handy tool known as the Dremel--trimming beaks. Above, a vet trims the beak of a young Cooper's hawk. As birds are recovering at TRC, they don't always rub their beaks well like they do in the wild and they can get kind of long, so the vets have to trim them--this is called coping a beak. It's better for the bird and a little easier on the vets when they get bitten by a bird.

So, while I was in Atlanta at Bird Watch America, I got a call from Dr. Julia Ponder the Associate Director of TRC. I knew that there was only one reason for the call--something was up with Peregrine 568. She is still alive, but had to have some surgery. It turned out that her leg healed improperly, causing some long term foot problems. It's at this point that the photos might get a little gross for some people.

Even thought the fracture was healed, the vets noticed that the falcon kept getting bumblefoot on both feet (that's some cleaned up bumblefoot in the above photo). They did some checking and it turned out that when the broken leg healed, that it was a little bit shorter than the other leg. Peregrine falcons are designed for extreme precision, this a bird that can dive over 200 miles per hour and needs everything perfect when hunting prey at that speed. The shorter leg was also affecting how she was perching and aggravating the bumblefoot. So, Dr. Ponder said that they had two options: 1. Put the bird down or 2. Try an experimental surgery that has been tried successfully on a parrot: fracture the leg again and as it's healing, periodically separate the bone, forcing length. Perhaps you have heard of limb lengthening surgery? It's like that.

They did the surgery last week and Dr. Ponder said that if something went wrong they would know right away. They did the surgery and it went well. Now came the hard part of lengthening the fracture once a day of 0.7mm. Since this is painful, Peregrine 568 is put under anesthesia (That's Dr. Mitch putting the falcon under while a clinic volunteer holds the falcon in the above photo).

Here's the fixator on the outside of her leg--she's got some bruising (notice the green, birds bruise green). I'm not sure if you would call her a cybird or frankenbird, but she's got some heavy duty metal works attached to her leg.

Here's what it looks like in the X-Rays. Check out the toes--they are wrapped in duct tape, but it kind of looks like eggs.

Here is an X-Ray that was taken not long after all the apparatus were put in last week.

I think this one was taken yesterday, so you can see that there is a tiny bit more space between the fracture.

So, here's Dr. Mitch doing the extension--although the official surgical term is called "distraction." They kept talking about doing the distraction all morning. I wonder what the origin of that is? Let's distract the bone into growing longer?

After the distraction and all of her bumblefoot areas were cleaned she was wrapped up. They put padding on both feet and seal that with duct tape to help with the bumblefoot. Then they have to clean and put padding around the fixator and then wrap it with duct tape--I swear, they used half a role on this bird. So, now we have to see how that fracture heals. If that heals well, she will need further surgery to correct some of the bumblefoot issues.

Miles to go before she flies. Some may ask, why go this far for one bird. Number one, thanks to the blog--lots of people know about Peregrine 568 and have a vested interest in what happens. Number 2, what we learn from this experimental surgery in birds could help someone's beloved pet in the future. Number 3, she's a young bird with several years of survival ahead of her.

So, not the best news, but not totally crap news either.

So Much For "Sensitive" Owls

Not too long ago we had a whole kurfluffle on the Minnesota birding listservs when a long-eared owl was reported. The emails inevitably spiraled into the "someone got too close to the owl and flushed it causing it severe stress and ruining it for the rest of the birders." However, this story about long-eared owls found roosting in Chicago makes you wonder just how sensitive these birds are. Be sure to check out the photo gallery.

Catching Up

Boy, it's taking me a lot to catch up from my trips. It was so cute, when I came home Sunday night, Cinnamon hopped right up into my lap--followed by Non Birding Bill (it's nice to be missed).

Email is taking me forever to sift through. I thought I had made progress yesterday, but this morning the Inbox was at 103. Sigh. If you've sent me an email in the last week--I'm getting to it, I swear.

Right now I am at The Raptor Center and got an update on Peregrine 568. She's had more surgery and I'll put photos on that up later today.

Don't for get that this Thursday is Birds and Beers at Merlin's Rest. I'll be bringing some of the stuff I picked up at Bird Watch America. And Sunday, I'm doing a program at The Raptor Center on owls--and it will be indoors, so something to do in the sub zero weather.

Eagle's Opportunistic Nature Gets Them In Trouble

UPDATE: I'VE ADDED SOME MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS STORY FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. THE NEWS IS IN BOLD, MY COMMENTS ARE IN REGULAR TYPE

From the Seattle Times:

ANCHORAGE -- Most of the 30 bald eagles who survived a disastrous dive into a truck full of fish guts are close to recovery, said officials at Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge.

Two birds have died, but most of the remaining may soon be released.

Another 20 eagles died Friday after dozens swarmed an uncovered truck full of fish waste outside a processing plant in Kodiak, Alaska.

The birds became too soiled to fly or clean themselves, and with temperatures in the midteens, began to succumb to the cold. Some birds became so weak they sank into the fish slime and were crushed.

The truck's contents had to be dumped onto the floor of the Ocean Beauty Seafoods plant so the birds could be retrieved.

Workers from the seafood plant and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service washed the birds in dishwashing soap to help remove the fish oil. The birds spent the night drying out in a warehouse space, Gary Wheeler of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge told the Anchorage Daily News.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officers are investigating the incident.

Eagles are protected under federal law and killing them is a crime.

It is still to early to determine what penalties, if any, the seafood company may face, said Kim Speckman, a special agent who is part of the investigation.

Officers consider numerous factors looking into incidents such as this, including intent, she said.

"It's pretty obvious in this case nobody intended to break the law," Speckman said. The seafood plant has been very responsive and cooperative, she said.

HERE IS MORE FROM THE ALASKA DAILY NEWS:

Era Aviation and Alaska Airlines are bringing the birds from Kodiak to Anchorage so they can be cleaned and cared for by the Bird Treatment and Learning Center before being returned to the wild.

Six of the eagles arrived on afternoon flights Sunday and 12 more were expected on evening flights, said Cindy Palmatier, director of avian care at the center.

The rest of the birds should arrive on flights today, said Gary Wheeler, manager of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, which has been caring for the birds since Friday's bizarre episode at the Ocean Beauty Seafoods plant in Kodiak.

Twenty bald eagles died when about 50 of the birds dived into an uncovered dump truck filled with fish guts.

Most of the dead birds were drowned or crushed in the gooey substance, which one wildlife official in Kodiak likened to quicksand. Two died later Friday night, but the rest appear to be getting better, Wheeler said.

"They're getting a little feisty now," he said. "They're feeling their oats, for sure, so you can tell they're feeling better. They're more perky. They're wanting to fly."

Wheeler said wildlife workers in Kodiak planned to wash the eagles again this weekend when a bird biologist with the International Bird Rescue and Research Center recommended sending the birds to the rescue center in Anchorage instead.

"The folks there have more expertise," Wheeler said. "This is the first time since the Exxon Valdez oil spill that we've had to handle this many birds. We've kind of improvised."

No one's certain where the eagles will be released once they have recovered.

The city of Kodiak -- home to about 500 eagles, Wheeler said -- would like them back. But the logistics of flying the eagles back to Kodiak -- three on this flight, five on that flight, until all 30 have made the trip -- could mean they're released in Anchorage, Palmatier said.

At least there's no rush to determine the birds' fates. The eagles are likely to remain at the recovery center for at least two weeks, Palmatier said.

If bird lovers want to help, she added, they can do so in two ways -- by donating salmon (frozen is fine; processed is not) or cash.

The salmon will help keep the eagles fed and the money will help pay for the center's utility bills, which are expected to soar as high as an eagle with so many birds to take care of.

Workers at the center cranked up the heat this weekend to between 75 and 80 degrees to keep the eagles warm, and it will use a lot of hot water in the coming days to wash and rinse the birds.

Keeping the birds warm is as important as getting them clean, Palmatier said, because the birds can't stay warm by themselves with feathers soiled by oily fish guts.

"They don't have a lot of thermal regulation because of the oil," she said. "They're very cold."

And stinky.

"It's a new form of aromatherapy," Palmatier said with a laugh as she described the scene at the center. "It smells very fishy."

What I want to know is, what made the eagles fly into the tank? Most birds have a poorly developed sense of smell, but were the eagles able to smell the fish oil? When the first bird got in and stuck, did that activity to get out attract more eagles? Are they able to see the fish oil in the ultra violet spectrum and that's what attracted them to the chum? Has anything like this happened before? I wonder if this has happened with birds people don't care about like double crested cormorants but because it was a few dozen bald eagles this time it gets media attention? I'm curious to see where this goes.

I also think that's it's speaks volumes about the company that it helped get the eagles out by dumping the nasty contents onto the factory floor and the workers helped clean the eagles.

Also, that's a whole lotta birds for a rehab center to get in all at once. If anyone has a spare few bucks, you might consider sending a little to the Bird Treatment and Learning Center. Given the daily readership here, if only a third of us gave $5 bucks, that would be a good size donation towards fish purchases.

Violent Kingfisher

Well, getting Internet access in Atlanta didn't pan out quite like I thought it would. To have wireless access at the convention center, I would have had to have paid $50 a day. I don't even pay that a month at home. I have wireless access at the hotel, but I was hardy there. But, I'm packing now and and will catch a flight in a few hours and I can get back to regularly scheduled updates. There are some cool products on the horizon that I will mention in the next few days some of the hard core birder, and some for the backyard birder. Wingscapes had a booth with their camera up and running and Bart showed me some footage that they've been getting with hit. You can do video as well as still images. Here's one of a kingfisher going for the camera and beating the crap out of a fish:

Viera Wetlands

Here's a great egret head.

Well, I'm in Atlanta right now and the drought is still on--the grass is very brown and there are water conservation notices in the hotel rooms. However, as I type this, there is one heck of storm raging outside, so maybe this is a sign for the better? So, time to finish up the Florida entries:

So, Viera Wetlands (again, just a fancy name for a wastewater treatment area--yeah, I mean sewage) wasn't just about the cool bittern loaf. No, there were other birds there, they were just all over shadowed by the cool brown heron like bird. What else could be so cool?

Brown ducks! This is an exciting duck since it can be found in most places around the US. It's a relative of black ducks and mallards and that plumage in the above photos is about as flamboyant as it gets for the mottled duck. I can hear Non Birding Bill smirking all the way in Minnesota.

The wetlands were chock full of herons and egrets. Above is a flock of cattle egrets threatening to block the road as we were driving through.

Here is a pair of sandhill cranes near the road. Again, I would like to point out how birds in Florida are mellower than birds up north. There's no way sandhills would stick near the road if a vehicle slowed down near them. How close were they? For one thing, I didn't digiscope this photo. Here's another comparison:

That's my buddy Clay Taylor in the driver's seat watching the cranes--these birds just don't care about humans. Maybe it's the vacation atmosphere in Florida? Everybody, even the wildife is chillin' out.

Here's another anhinga, drying out its wings in the sun while surrounded by blue-winged teal. It kind of threw me to see it with blue-winged teal, a species we have nesting in Minnesota.
Here is an adult anhinga (note the white on the wings). The anhinga is another kind of celebrity bird for me. I remember staring at their illustrations in my field guides when I was a kid, in all the books, there was at least one showing it with its wings out. It's fun to see them when I am in Texas or Florida.

Speaking of birds throwing me, here's a savannah sparrow. I wondered if I was driving Clay crazy by second guessing so many birds. I kept asking things like, "Is that really a savannah sparrow I'm seeing?" I'm so used to seeing and hearing them in open areas around the Minnesota, I wasn't expecting to find them lurking in the grasses of some wetlands in Florida.

The birds weren't all brown at the wetlands. Check out this striking fellow--kind of like a coot in drag. It's a common moorhen. These birds are very grunty, belchy and farty sounding. They make a variety of noises, but it's the grunty sounds that stick in your mind.

The moorhens were mixed in with the coots. Many of the coots formed a tight raft and fed in the water. With the black bodies and heads, accented with the white bills, it was kind of hypnotic. Here's a video:

Here's another Dr. Seuss looking bird. This is the glossy ibis. Viera was just fun, everywhere you scanned you find something cool, if not on the water, then in the grasses and shoreline. There's something for everyone. And you might be surprised what you find as you're scanning:

Oh hey, what's that on the shore? Why, it's an alligator. And this wasn't the only one, they were ALL over.

Now, these birds must like life on the edge. Here are two sizable alligators and near them on the shore is a glossy ibis and a few moorhens feeding away. Are these birds just not the brightest bulbs on the tree or does their diet make them taste so nasty that an alligator just doesn't want to bother.

You could get fairly close to the alligators. Above is a member of our group named Andy getting a photo with his point and shoot. I noted the alligator was longer than I am and decided to digiscope it from where I stood behind Andy (if the gator decided to come our way, it would get Andy first).

Not a bad photo and much like the bittern photo, I could only get a head shot of the gator to fit in my field of view. Perhaps, that means I'm too close to it.

We did see some non lethal animals like this red-bellied turtle and a river otter that came running out of the water and was entirely too fast for me to digiscope.

Here's a rabbit--this poor thing was frozen and hunkered to the ground, there was a young red-shouldered hawk hunting nearby and the rabbit was using its camo ability to evade becoming a mean for the hawk. One of the guys on our trip was a Florida naturalist and he said that this was a marsh rabbit. They can swim, although, I wouldn't advise it with all the gators in the water.