Stranded Eagles, Peregrine 568, Mealworm Shortage, and Interesting Hummer Story

Remember that eagle nest caught in some river flooding in South Dakota? Just got an update from Amber:

"Those eagle chicks in South Dakota that I wrote you about were successfully taken to the Oahe Wildlife Center facility in Pierre, SD. I gotta say I am proud of my dad - he made lots of calls. My dad said that the first land/tree was about a quarter mile away from the nest, so bet that first flight out would just land them in the river."

So, that's some good news for those eagles! Thanks for the update Amber and thanks to your dad and all the people who helped them out! Someone also sent me this news link about the story...it's worth the read especially for the typo in the last paragraph.

Hey, remember Peregrine 568 (she's the one with the lighter head in the above photo)? The falcon that flew into a banding station with an injured leg and our field trip group dropped off at The Raptor Center? Well, she has gone on a test flight and I was told by one of the vets that she flew BEAUTIFULLY...however, her feet are still a problem--bumblefoot strikes again. Here is the challenge: she is a tundrius peregrine falcon. They only show up in Minnesota during migration which won't be until late September/early October. As long as she is in captivity, bumblefoot is an issue, but we can't release her in Minnesota when it's not the right time...or can we find a way to fly her to northern Canada?

There have been lots of people commenting on the mealworm shortage. It's not only a problem for bird feeding, but also for wildlife rehabbers who need them for baby birds and reptile owners. I've been trying to call around to several companies and find out the answer and let me tell you, the mealworm industry isn't too interested in answering the questions--it's almost as if companies seem to prefer wild speculation on the Internet as opposed actual answers. One company who sells mealworms to retailers told me that their supplier just can't grow them and doesn't know why. I asked what the name of the supplier so that I could call and ask my questions and the person said, "I don't know."

To which I responded, "You're telling me that you only get your worms from one company and you don't even know the name?"

She transferred me to someone else and I still didn't get the answer I was looking for. Anyway, the bottom line is that mealworms died, no one knows why, and isn't hesitant as when they will be available again. Here's a little write up that I did for Birding Business Blog.

And finally, there's a fascinating story over at Hilton Pond regarding ruby-throated hummingbird migration. It's worth scrolling through the whole entry, but it's about a banded hummingbird and where it was found after it was banded. Cool stuff!

2nd Annual Bird Blogger Conference

Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival November 5 - 9, 2008 is the site of the Second Annual Bird Blogger Conference.

What does this mean? Well, a lot of bird bloggers in one place at one time to meet face to face, share ideas, watch some birds, and maybe even meet some potential advertisers and sponsors for your birding blog! Bird bloggers are eligible for a 10% discount and Born Again Bird Watcher and I would like to organize a sit down where we can meet, ask questions and share ideas for better bird blogging--the rest of the time is up to you to go out and enjoy the oh so cool birding!

This is one of the top birding festivals in the country and south Texas is a relatively inexpensive area when it comes to food and lodging. Even if you are not a bird blogger, this is a GREAT festival to attend--here are some of my past entries. Think of it--warm temperatures, green jays, authentic Mexican food, chachalacas, kiskadees, butterflies, javelinas...

Here are the qualifications for the discount:

1. Your blog must have been started sometime before January 31, 2008.
2. Your blog must have regular updates at a minimum of five times a month.
3. If your blog has been inactive for more than 30 days, it will not qualify for the discount.
4. You must promote the Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest periodically in your blog--not every day or every week, but periodically remind your readers that you are going and that it would be great if they came along too--seriously, it really is a great thing to come to. I've been going there for the last three years because it's SO fun.

Speaking of readers, this is a great chance for all of you to come and meet some bird bloggers out there. So, start signing up for some south Texas birding now.

Bloggers who would like more info on the discount rate, please email me at Sharon at Birdchick dot com and I'll help get you set up.

Birding and Listing

Okay, how can someone look at this photo and still say that birding is geeky? Seriously, going up a mountain with your digiscoping equipment is geeky? That's my buddy Clay Taylor from Swarovski. He and Bruce Webb took me out in Utah to help me get to my goal of 500 birds.

Here's a lifer Clark's nutcracker. I needed so many basic western birds, it was easy for me to get twenty lifers on a trip--not too many places I can do that anymore. Alas, I only made it to 497, but I'm sure I will hit 500 before the end of the year. I'm going to Rhode Island at the end of July and the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival in November and there are a few species I can still get in both places. Once I reach 500, I may have to give Ben over at 600 Birds a run for his money...he wants to reach 600 by the January 2010. I'm booked for the Space Coast Festival and San Diego Festival next year already...there are several pelagic species that I need...hm...

There are some challenges to me being a lister. For one thing, I can be kind of picky about how I like to experience bird species. One of the target birds was a black-rosy finch. And the way to find it was to scan the mountainside in the above photo for the flocks. If you're lucky, you might get to see a flock of blackish birds against the snow. But I'd rather have this kind of look at a black rosy-finch. And I don't know how much of an effort I wanted to put up for glimpse of tiny blackish birds.

Bruce, Clay, and I scanned the mountainside for well over an hour. I didn't see rosy-finches but I did get a look at a lifer mammal--mountain goat! Whoot. The longer we were there, and the less we saw the rosy-finches, I decided it wasn't worth it and we moved on. I think I lack the singular tenacity that many listers have and that will prevent me from really getting my list up to where it could be.

Another thing that can slow me down is digiscoping. Take this beautiful black-billed magpie. We have a small pocket of black-billed magpies that live in Minnesota. I've seen them several times and enjoy them. However, this one was perched so perfectly and in such good light that Clay, Bruce and I decided that we couldn't pass it by without trying to photograph it.

When I do see a new bird, like this red crossbill, I want to digiscope the crap out of it too, perhaps spending too much time with the species and "wasting" valuable minutes getting photos missing the chance to see other new species.

Here's a female crossbill--they were so much fun to watch fly in and take apart all the pine cones on the trees. There were so many and they were so close, it almost sounded like a strange bowl of Rice Krispies as they would snap apart the cones to get at the nuts on the inside.

This photo is blurry, but check out that scary looking bill!

You can really see that strange bill that so perfectly designed to get between the teeth on the cones and access the nut meat. And I couldn't just get photos, I had to digivideo the crossbills too:

We found my lifer crossbills when we arrived at the mountainside for the rosy-finches. Clay pointed out the crossbill and we spent quite a bit of time digiscoping and digivideoing them. Perhaps, the rosy-finches were all over that mountain side while we were focused on the much closer trees loaded with crossbills and moved on by the time we went to look for them. No matter, another bird for another day, I always say.

I've always thought that any day with time spent on a boat automatically felt like an adventure, but I think I'm going to have to amend that to include mountains too. Utah is an awesome state and I hope I get to back. The lowlands are beautiful and the mountains spectacular.

Plus, it's fun to be out and about in snow but not bundled up. I had on some pants and a short sleeved shirt and my Keens with no socks and was perfectly comfortable. I think this might finally be my last Utah entry...Have I blogged it out of my system?

Although, I forgot to mention the zip line that was outside of the Cliff Lodge where Amy and I were staying. I really wanted to do it, but I do have a fear of heights. But being the pack animal I am, I knew if I stuck with Amy, she would get my scaredy cat butt up there and on the ride. It was so much fun and I totally felt like a goshawk zipping in for prey--I even held out my feet as if trying to capture unsuspecting prey...

Good times.

Hello, all, NBB here. If you can see this post, we're on the new server.

Blog Migrates Again

We're gonna switch over the server for the blog sometime within the next day or so and there's a chance that it may be inaccessible for 24 - 48 hours. Non Birding Bill tells me that I'm running out of disc space or something to that effect and we need to move it.

What A Crazy Weekend!

This weekend completely fell out of my hands.

Non Birding Bill and I went to CONvergence and he premiered his movie Thac0--and it was a hit! I was bummed that I missed the initial premier because I had to help set up for a Raptor Center program at the convention. However, the movie was so popular that it ended up being reshown Sunday night--I was so proud of him. It is so cool to sit in a packed room and listen to people be entertained by something your spouse worked so hard on with all of his friends. Above is a photo of the second movie audience. It was packed both times it was shown, standing room only. I think he's going to reshow it later this month.

Go, NBB!

Our TRC program was action packed! Above is Gail Buhl toting our turkey vulture Nero. We had an hour to go through four birds and one heck of a panel to present the bird information:

Here we have Erin from MISFITS who books TRC for CONvergence, Mercedes Lackey, Gail from TRC (who you might recognize from the oh-so-viral baby porcupine video), my buddy Amber (whose photos periodically show up in the blog), me, and Larry Dixon. Between all of us, we had some fun bird stories. Amber, Gail and I were just as excited to hear Mercedes and Larry's tales of wildlife rehab as we were to talk about the birds we brought.

Once again the sci fi and fantasy community treats TRC very well--everyone donated during the program and we took home an additional $200 on top of the actual off site program fee. Misfits also makes it possible for TRC to make appearances at area schools and we are so grateful for their support.

Seeing How The Other Half Lives

I think my favorite organized field trip that I took at the 2008 American Birding Association Convention was the Upper Deseret Ranch Field Trip, in part because there was a double Bill for field trip leaders: Bill Fenimore and Bill Schmoker. They are two of my favorite Birding Bills and was excited to watch them as field trip leaders. Fenimore leads trips regularly to Deseret Ranch, so if you are in or near Layton, UT, I highly recommend contacting him for his daily guiding rates. He's pleasant company and he knows the area and birds like the back of his hand--also, it's privately owned by the Mormons and you're really not getting in without him. However, it is SO WORTH IT--absolutely gorgeous.

Here is a life bird that I got on the trip--a MacGillivray's warbler. I decided to see how the other half lives on this trip--I became a lister for this convention. I've always just made little checks in my field guides for new birds and about a week before the con, I decided to count them. I learned that I was 25 species away from 500 birds on my North American bird list--who knew? I also did some research and found that there were close to 40 potential species I could get in Utah. I decided to go for it.

Check out this pack of birders, focused and ready on a cool bird. One of the cool things about going to an ABA event when you are close to a birding goal is that EVERYONE comes out of the woodwork to help you. Even though I was there helping at the Swarovski Booth, some of the Leica guys came over to go my bird potential list and give tips on where to go--heck they even invited me on the flammulated owl posse. The man who organized every field trip for the convention came by to offer pointers on my list, field trip leaders made it there personal goal to get me to my 500--it was wonderful camaraderie and really reminded me of why I love the birding community. Listing is not bad and I wish more listers and casual birders would get along. They are two different types of birding but each fun in their own way.

There were some familiar birds around, like cedar waxwings. I wasn't paying much attention as everyone was watching them and Fenimore came over to me and said, "Sharon, these birds are so close and a great shot, can you get a photo?" I think that because I was so focused on getting as many species as possible this trip that my digiscoping suffered a bit for it. Thanks for the reminder, Bill.

It cracked me up that super colorful birds like this western tanager always managed to be just out of reach for a great photo...

...but the brown birds like this nesting cordilleran flycatcher were up close and almost seemingly eager to pose.

But where many of the birds lacked color, the Deseret Ranch landscape more than made up the palette. I sat in the back of the bus with Father Tom (well known Texas birder and one of the organizers of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival that I'll be going to this fall). FT and I had both been on the owl posse the night before and were both operating on three hours of sleep but each kept pointing out the magnificent views and colors of the landscape.

For lunch, we stopped by a mountain stream to relax. The stream was made up of freshly melted snow and ice in the surrounding mountains. It was 90 some odd degrees out, so after lunch, I stepped in the water.

It was toe numbing cold, but felt so, so good.

Here's a golden eagle chick. Golden eagles in Utah were about as common as bald eagles in Minnesota. It was fun to scan the cliffs for patches of white--indicating lots of poop and raptor nests. We also found a prairie falcon aerie too. You really felt like you were on some sort of adventure riding around in these mountains.

Funny Moment In Sundance

One of the funniest moments I witnessed during the ABA Convention was at Sundance Resort. Our field trip had the option of wandering the property or taking a 45 minute chair lift ride to get a lay of the land. I opted to do the chair lift--despite my fear of heights but I had WildBird on the Fly with me and Gail (the woman who is in charge of repairs at Swarovski) with me to keep me focused on the natural beauty.

The view from the chairs was spectacular and many were aiming their cameras to get the mountain landscape and even try to get shots of birds flitting around the tops of trees, including western tanagers.

I was watching the birders in front of me snap photos and watching the people on the opposite chairs. Some on the other chairs were leisurely reading, others were coming up with mountain bikes to ride down the side of the mountain, and others were on their way up for a hike. I noticed a young attractive couple coming towards us on the opposite chairs. They were completely decked out in skin tight spandex bicycling wear. The birders in front of me were aiming their cameras towards the mountain vistas. The young woman of the biker pair struck a pose worthy of a sage grouse. She puffed out her chest, stretched out her arms and stuck one of her shapely legs high in the air, the chair moving her right into the birder's field of view of the camera. The birder put down his camera, and young attractive bike girl relaxed her pose and said with a disappointed giggle, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you wanted a picture of me!" while her male companion shook his head.