Hot Toucan News

There's some exciting research coming out about toucans and why they have those big crazy bills.

According to the research detailed today in the U.S. journal Science the toucan's beak may be a sort of thermal radiator, releasing body heat when the bird needs to cool down--kind of the way rabbits release heat through their ears. The photo above is supposed to show how hot that bill is compared to the rest of the body.

"By altering blood flow to the bill's surface, toucans can conserve body heat when it is cold, or cope with heat stress by increasing blood flow," said study lead author Glenn Tattersall of Brock University in Ontario, Canada.

You can view a video of the thermal temperature change here.

I've Seen Some Inaccurate Bird Movies...

But this one takes the cake.  It's a preview for Birdemic and I think it's on the top of the list the next time Non Birding Bill and I have a Bad Movie Party: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrw2FQ7mLyQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Ffilmdrunk.uproxx.com%2F2009%2F07%2Fbeware-the-birdpocalypse&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Birding The Tien Shan Mountains Part 2

If you'd like to read the first part of this leg of our Kazakhstan trip, visit here.

I think the Tien Shan Mountains were my favorite, check it out in the above photo--glaciers! One of the people in our group had been to this area before. He said that his group started earlier than ours and he knew of where we should be and at what time. After we spent the morning enjoying great birds like brown dipper, Eurasian hobby, and Himalayan rubythroats, it was time for lunch. Our guide found a nice clearing in the sun with a great view and not so much snow. However, the other birders wanted to go higher and staged a bit of a mutiny.

We drove up to a higher elevation that was covered in snow. If you were willing to walk up a very vertical and rocky ledge, you wound up at this abandon research station. And this was where other birds like white-browed tit-warbler. All the birders scattered in various directions. I tried, but there weren't very many clear paths. The few that were there, were covered in very deep water. I opted to walk through the snow and discovered that in some parts, it wen all the way up to my hips. I think I have said it before in the blog and I'll say it again, I have a new appreciation and respect for the REI convertible pants.  I stayed fairly warm and the material dried out quickly. It was hard work toting my scope, pack, recently acquired bagged lunch through such deep snow and rather than struggle to keep up with the tenacious long-legged birders in hot pursuit of tit-warblers and accentors, I decided to answer the call of my stomach and eat. I trudged my way to the building's steps.

Above is my provided bag lunch.  The food in Kazakhstan was not what I would call exciting--edible, yes. A sensation for the taste buds, not so much. What struck me most was that every single meal (even breakfast) included cucumbers and tomatoes. Usually in the form of a salad with a light dill vinaigrette, but in the bagged lunches, we got a whole tomato and a hunk of cucumber. The above lunch included a boiled potato, apple, hard boiled egg, a chicken thigh with a lot of paprika, and  four rolls (one of which reminded me of the female anatomy). Breads were common at meals too. The favorite to eat was a fried bread, kind of like a donut with out the sugar, which is a good way to describe a lot of the Kazak food. At some meals a plate of rice and meat would be in front of you and being fairly close to China, you expected it to be spicy. Not the case, it was quite bland, but if you wanted fuel to keep going, then this food did accomplish that goal.

This was my view during lunch. I could hear several Himalayan snowcocks singing all around me in the crisp mountain air. It was nice to take a break from the birding and just admire the beauty of the remote region I was in. I thought about what I would be doing if I were home, what others were doing. I thought about how huge and beautiful our planet is despite what we hear in the news and how little time any of us have to see it. Sometimes I get to a location and realize that my chances of ever being here again are next to impossible, I want to burn them into my brain. It was already pretty amazing I had made here in this lifetime.

Northern wheatears were all around too. What a treat to see this bird up close! Rarely, one will come down out of Alaska and hit the very northern tips of Minnesota, but never in sleek breeding plumage. And what funny noises they made! This one made sounds like a camera shutter going off. I don't know much about wheatears to know if they are a mimic species. I do know that they make all sorts of crazy sounds, but this one really had my attention.  I did manage to get some video with my digiscoping equipment, you may have to crank your volume to hear it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91JBg6ZzJog[/youtube]

My buddy Clay came over and digiscoped it too. He pointed to the mountain side behind the wheatear where we could hear snowcocks chasing each other and said, "See the Batman?

And there it was, the Batman Insignia made of a collection of fairly large mountain rocks. If I had to guess, it was about 40 feet long. Those researchers at the abandon station must have gone pretty darned stir crazy sometimes. I love how I'm in one of the most remote regions on the planet and yet, cannot escape Western culture.

Much to the reluctance of our group, we had to begin the slow decent down the mountains. It was early afternoon and we had to get down to the bottom in time for dinner and for part of our group to leave. I stayed for a couple more days, but most of our group was leaving that night and getting a large group of birders to move, especially in a place where once in a lifetime birds are packed, is no easy feat. Above was one of our target birds called a black-throated accentor.  This little bird just refused to perch in better light, but you can see a photo of it here. The higher we went, the less variety we had, but still cool birds nonetheless. I don't think anyone in our group got the tit-warbler, so I do have some excuse to come back.

This was lovely little bird that we saw flitting about called a blue-capped redstart. I'm not sure where the redstart comes from, but at least it had a blue cap.

Magpies were common on the Steppes in Kazakhstan and common in the trees in the mountains.

As the day became later, the light became perfect. We saw less and less snow and our faster pace made us warm up.

Tim Appleton (the guy who started the British Bird Fair) and is one of the most interesting birders I have ever met) came over to us and said, "There's a ruddy shelduck in perfect light for a photo." He was correct, what lovely color this duck was. We had seen them earlier on the lake, but they were very far away, this one was much closer and Tim was correct, in perfect light. It was about this time that I was starting to fade. Kazakhstan is about eleven hours ahead Minnesota and we'd been hitting hotel beds at midnight and getting up by 5am pretty regularly. Fortunately, Corey Finger became my pusher man with his oh so tasty cappuccino caffeine pills--bless that man. They did have some coffee in Kazakhstan but it was more int he form of NesCafe.

After perking up, I was able to enjoy the birds, like this mistle thrush perched in perfect view taking a preen. You can view a video of this large robin like bird here.  We eventually made our way down the mountain, but moving a group of birders is like herding cats, we made it to the restaurant late and many of the people taking flight that night had to change clothes and repack carry on luggage in the parking lot.

The restaurant had all kinds of Kazakh symbols around, even part of  a replica of the Independence Monument found in Independence Square in Almaty. The full monument is a golden man holding what I think is supposed to be a golden eagle and the golden man is riding a flying snow leopard. I know the bird is dinky for a golden eagle, but hey, this is a golden man, chances are if a dude is made of gold, he's going to be bigger than your average male. When I told people that I couldn't believe I had the chance to go to Kazakhstan, one of the first reactions was, "No one ever goes there." The truth is that I have always wanted to go, ever since I had read about tours to see Kazakh tribesmen hunt with golden eagles. We didn't get to do that on this trip, but we did see wild ones flying over.

Here is one of the dining rooms at the restaurant. We didn't get this one, our room had chairs, but it's basically the same decor and color in a huge outdoor gazebo. All of our chairs had blankets we could drape over ourselves as the darkness brought with it the cold mountain air.

By the time the food arrived, I was so hungry that I could eat a horse, which was fortunate, because that's some of what they served us. They also had chicken, beef, and something tougher that I suspect was goat, but the horse was a surprise. It was mixed in with a cucumber and tomato salad (again with the cucumbers and tomatoes) but it was pleasantly marinated and was quite possibly the tastiest thing I had the whole week (outside of the odd pizza that had no sauce but had carrots as as a topping).

After is was quite dark, one of my favorite bird names dropped in to our gazebo--a great tit. The bird fluttered right over us and began hawking for insects attracted to the light bulb. Clever bird, ignoring the usual convention of roosting at night and taking advantage of an abundant food source.

Have You Seen The Ohio Pink Katydid?

Check out Jim McCormack's blog, they were out on a birding trip when they found a pink morph katydid!  Cheryl Harner has photos of it where she found this dynamite insect. I have always wanted to see one of those, ever since I first got my copy of Lang Elliot and Wil Hershberger's Songs of Insects and saw a photo of one in there.  The insect is apparently going to be on display this weekend at the Midwest Native Plant Conference. If I were anywhere near this, I would make a special trip to look at this amazing creature. Not much is known about pink katydids apart from knowing that they exist and it's darn cool when you see one.  I found this article from the Chicago Gardener on the subject:

Katydids are green (usually) to hide among the leaves from predators such as birds. But scientists say that there is a certain amount of normal variation in katydid colors, and pink is one of the possibilities. Speculation is that this variation might allow katydids to extend their range -- from living in trees, say, to moving out into a prairie where there are pink flowers in late summer.

It's an example of the genetic variation that drives natural selection and the continuing evolution of every species. And without that, we would not have the fabulous array of forms, shapes and colors we love in our gardens.

If you want to have some fun, just type in "pink katydid" on Google's image search and you'll find all kinds of crazy photos.  I even found a link to a yellow katydid.

Now That's Some Hardcore Birding!

Talk about tenacious.  According to a story from NPR, two guys are trying to identify a bird, quite possibly a new species, based on a wing found 20 years ago: Their subject is a bird Gerry Nicholls says no birdwatcher has ever seen. Twenty years ago a researcher found it dead and decomposing in a remote Ethiopian plain and brought back just a wing to the Natural History Museum in London.

"Halfway up the wing is a big, beige patch, so it was very distinctive," Nicholls says. "And on the basis of just one wing, it was described to science as a new species, Caprimulgus solala — solala meaning 'only a wing.'"

Now that is an interesting story in and of itself.  It's my kind of birding: find a big piece of a dead bird and realize that it doesn't match anything in the field guides--how cool a mystery is that? But then the story takes an odd turn:

Nicholls, 61, grew up in England, but now lives in Connecticut, where he works as a nurse. He's been all over the world trying to get a glimpse of rare species. His fellow adventurers included Ian Sinclair, a South African author of several bird field guides, and buddies Vernon Head and Dennis Weir — whom Nicholls mostly refers to by their nicknames, Winky and Fruitcake. They knew finding the bird, which is more commonly called the Nechisar nightjar, was a long shot.

Winky?  Fruitcake?  This so does not help the cause of birding being for the nerdy/geeky.  Although, I've been a little irritated that the American Ornithologists' Union is changing some bird names because of the widespread dislike of long cluncky names like Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrow (it is now just Nelson's sparrow).  I'd like to know who is this huge population of birders who can't handle six syllables?  Most of the birders I know don't care or actually liked the name Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrow.  I don't know, perhaps the AOU is in collusion with field guide publishers so new guides can be published.  Or perhaps they are odd little people.

Anyway, I digress.  If this piece of wing turns out to be a new speices of bird, I think they should abandon Nechisar nightjar and just go for Winky's beige-patched nightjar.  You can read the full story and see photos of the wing, Winky, and Fuitcake here.

Man Saves Osprey With "Mouth To Beak" Resuscitation

From the Columbian (as in Washington state) comes the story of a man who went the distance to save an osprey tangled in fishing line (this is also a good reminder to all who enjoy fishing to not leave their old line behind): When Chuck Needham waded into Lacamas Lake and saved an osprey that was tangled in another fisherman's line and drowning, it felt like a mystical connection with animal spirits and his ancestors.

"To me, it was a little miracle," said Sue Cappoen, Needham's girlfriend.

It happened about 5:30 p.m. on July 6, a Monday, as the two were fishing for trout on the north side of the lake. Using worms and marshmallows flavored with anise, they were at a spot called "the rail."

Looking to their left, Needham suddenly told Cappoen, "Look at that bird!"

The osprey, with striking golden eyes and a wingspan estimated at 5 feet, had dived into the murky lake, possibly for a perch. But the raptor was trapped in the water, tangled with another fisherman's line. The line was wrapped around its neck, the hook embedded in its wing, and some discarded fishing line was tangled around its legs.

"I saw it flapping," Cappoen said. "It was trying to keep above water with its wings. It couldn't go forward and it couldn't go back. We said, 'Oh, God!' We couldn't let it die."

"I just jumped into the water in my cowboy boots," Needham said. "It was up to my knees."

Seizing the large bird, Needham used nail clippers to cut the line away from the osprey.

"It was dead by that time," Needham said. "It was gone. It just had no life to it."

So he decided to try some mouth-to-beak respiration while massaging the bird's throat and chest.

"I cupped its head in my left hand and turned its beak toward me and breathed into its beak. I gave it about five or six deep breaths and, all of a sudden, it started coughing up water and foam and perked up a little bit.

Carrying the bird closer to shore, Needham said, he put it on a rock. Wary of the dazed bird's powerful talons and razor-sharp beak, he gently poked it with a stick to see if it would move.

"It just pecked at the stick, and it just turned around on the rock and took off."

You can read the whole story and see photos of Needhan and the osprey here.

Digiscoping Workshop This Saturday

Want to practice some of your digiscoping skills this Saturday?  Come out to Carpenter Nature Center in Hastings, MN from 9am to 11am for a digiscoping workshop.  I'll start showing some of my images and video, show some techniques and then we'll practice.  We'll perch out the education raptors so you have a chance to practice technique on birds that won't move around too much, maybe you will get some great shots with your camera and scopes.  If there is time, we'll get some shots of birds at the feeders and trails. This will be a great time to practice and maybe get some shots for the Swarovski Digiscoper of the Year Contest.  Call 651-437-4359 to reserve your spot.

Goldfinhes On The Grill

I'm going to link to a graphic photo.  If you love goldfinches and if you have a tough time with dead animals or are just a softy, please believe when I say to not follow the link. I have a few deadlines and I was tucked away at a coffee shop on Friday when I received this image as a text on my phone from an unrecognizable phone number asking if it was for real.  At first, I was a tad taken aback.  Why would someone send me dead birds to my phone...and in such a gross manner (and on my birthday too).  Then I realized that it very well may have been a legit question.

One thing that has always amazed me is that when someone finds out that I'm a birder or have a rabbit as a pet, that is their cue to tell me the most horrific experience they have had with a bird or rabbit.  I'm not sure what it is with rabbits--is it some kind of odd confession and they need you to clear their conscience?  I really don't care that you went on vacation for a week, forgot to get a pet sitter and found your rabbit dead, or that you wanted to see what would happen if your rabbit met the neighbor's dog and then give a blow by blow description of the carnage, or of the awful tumors and growths they had--really, I don't want to hear it.

So, I wondered if this was someone I actually knew who found this grisly scene and had a question.  So, I texted back, "Who is this?"

Turns out that the image came from a co-worker, Abby who was at Coon Rapids Dam and noticed the scene in the parking lot.  At first, she thought it was some kind of odd grill ornament on the truck.  It's not out of the realm of possibility, has anyone else seen those testicles that hang off the back of trucks?  She asked if they were real.  I told her that yes, that person had probably hit that pair of male and female goldfinches and probably had no idea the birds were wedged in their grill.

It is mating season for goldfinches and they are flying erratically.  I'm sure this male was in hot pursuit of this female and both flew in front of the fast moving truck with a tragic end.  When I was driving back from the beehives last week, I had several pairs of goldfinches pass in front of me on the country roads which I could have hit had I been going faster.  All the more reason to keep our heads up and pay attention when on the road.

Interviewed By MPR At The Beehives

Yesterday was an interesting day.  A couple of people from Minnesota Public Radio accompanied Lorraine and I out to the hives.  We've had Euan Kerr out before, but he was interviewing Mr. Neil.  For some reason, it really didn't register to me what we would be doing when they asked to come out.  I love to show off our bees and I love to take people who have never been to a beehive out to our hives, but it didn't register to me that Lorraine and I would be interviewed.  In my brain, they were out to interview the bees not me and I did not prepare for it the way I would prepare for a bird segment.  There were two people, Jessica Mador who took the audio and asked most of the questions (and was apparently a bit scared at the hives) and Tom Weber who came along to get video footage to go along with the story on the website.

Our hives were on their best bee-havior.  All four of our new Italian hives have been so mellow this bee season, they were perfect to introduce to newbies.  They pretty much just let Lorraine and I talk while they asked questions that most people ask the first time they visit our hives.  As I understand it, the gist of the segment is about the recent change in the law that allows beekeeping in Minneapolis.  One of the reasons that I started with bees at Mr. Neil's was because it's illegal to keep bees in Minneapolis when we started.  Since our operation is going well out there and my building manager doesn't want anyone on the roof of the building, we will not bee keeping any hives on top of the roof of my home.

One theme of questioning that we seemed to get over and over again was something along the lines of, "How dangerous will this be for people if hives are in their neighborhood" and "what should you be worried about."  As I said, Jessica did not seem comfortable around the hives--and that is totally understandable.  She kept her distance from the hives and even had Tom put her mic in front of the hive entrance for her.  Lorraine and I totally freaked the first time we worked with our bees, so I could understand her nervousness. Plus, I'm sure Euan had told her how he got stung right through the beesuit (the suit was a hair to small on him and the bee found the breach where his bicep was flexed...and we also made the mistake of taking him out to a very angry hive.

But I wondered if this was an article more along the lines of--are bees something really scary that people need to worry about in their neighborhood and I hope we conveyed the answer of, "Not really." Bees are kind of like the big scary guy at the bar.  If you go about your business, stay polite, you'll be fine and if you play close attention, might learn a thing or two.  However, if you go up, punch and kick him, he's going to get defensive and quite possibly hurt you.

The bees were so chill, Lorraine demonstrated how to hand feed the girls.  I asked if Jess and Tom wanted to feed them.  Jess politely declined but Tom was all over it.  We also had another friend out named Beth (she was visiting from out of town and it was her first time at a hive too) and she was ready to hand feed the bees. I got a photo of it here.  Tom is the one filming his hand and Beth is the one in back.  Incidentally, Beth was a natural at the beehive.  Lorraine and I would be busy showing frames and larvae that when we'd ask for some puffs from the smoker or an extra hand--she was right there ready to help.

We did get into this whole weird conversation about talking to our bees and I really hope I don't come off sounding like a hippie.  I was talking about all the times I have found comfort in our bees.  One of the awesome things about being a freelancer is that you can set your own schedule, the downside is that so can the people who pay you.  There have been times when we've been financially strapped because of waiting for a check or wondering what the next project will be.  Going out to the hives, watching the girls go about their work really comforts me.  I think it's getting wrapped up in watching the live natural science right in front of me.  We also talked about the different personalities of all the hives and sometimes I even talk to the bees.  But for the record, I want everyone to know: I do not expect the bees to talk back to me.  I'm more of a Clint Eastwood type singing, "I talk to my beeeeeeeeeeeeees, but they never listen to me."

I love this shot!  Beth is tasting honey freshly scraped right off the frame, I think she likes it.  She's enjoying the flavor and her fabulous hair color works with the bucolic palette of our bee yard.  I think my favorite food period is honey freshly scraped off of an active hive in summer.  The wax is soft and warm.  Right now, our honey has a delicate sweet flavor with a hint of something peppery and surprise flavor of mint.  Earlier this summer, it totally tasted like lilacs.

All in all, it was fun to take people out and both Jess and Tom said we made them feel at ease visiting their first hives.  Which is good.  The last thing I want to be is the snarky and judgemental beekeeper screaming at a nervous newbie, "Get your butt over here and stick you hand in the hive.  Why are you crying?  There's no crying at the beehive! Wuss!"

I know they're going to interview some other beekeepers too and I can't wait to hear how it's all going to come together...I just hope I don't sound like the hippie beekeeper and I hope more people will be excited to take up beekeeping.  One thing is for sure, they will get a lot of different opinions.  Talk to three different beekeepers and ask them the same question, you're likely to end up with seven different answers.  This should be up sometime next week and I'll put up a notice.

Fledglings Crashing The Feeders

Like rambunctious kids at a restaurant, young birds are learning the ropes at Mr. Neil's feeders. Above is a female rose-breasted grosbeak who I thought was an adult female, but she engaged in some begging behavior with a male and sat for awhile on the pole above the feeder watching the other birds feed, working out how to do it. Most of the adult females know how to feed--they are all business when they come to the feeder.  They perch on a branch, make sure the coast is clear of predators, land on the pole, take another look and then jump right down to the feeders.  This one seemed unsure of how the food came out of the feeder or what to make of the smaller birds around her.

This young oriole ate some of the grape jelly, but also made a haphazard landing on the thistle feeder and took a few pecks at the feeding port.  I'm sure it had been watching the goldfinches and thought, "Well, if those dudes are getting food out of there, I'm sure I can too."

And much the same way I felt about catfish, thought to itself, "Seriously?  You think this is good? Bleh!"

Here's a recently fledged red-bellied woodpecker.  They're just so awkward and bald (bald in the sense that they have no read on their heads, not that they are missing feathers).  The suet log was empty and he was watching another red-belly perched on a peanut feeder and wondering if it has the landing skills necessary to be able to land on the nut feeder too.  This young bird was very nervous and seemed a poster child for hawk bait.  It was continually begging in the trees, following the parent birds (who were over feeding it at this point) and then made all kinds of strange loud squawks as it flew.  I'm sure it's saying, "I don't know what I'm doing, why is this happening to me?  How to I move, I'm hungary, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Of all the boisterous youngsters visiting the feeders, the blue jays were the most refined diner.  I love this photo, I was shooting from the kitchen window and the young blue eyed me warily wonder what that sound was (and why my lens was aimed at it).

I have mixed feelings going through the woods right now.  Some birds have finished their territory songs for the season, others are going for a second brood, some are just getting started, but six months from now, the sounds at the feeder and in the wood will be softer, occasional caws of crows, sweet contact notes of chickadees, a few laughs of nuthatches.

I wonder if the winter birds enjoy the quiet of winter without having young birds crashing around at the feeders...the rowdy college kids leave the woods leaving all who stay with a peaceful neighborhood until the next breeding season.