It's Good To Be The Bird Chick

I'm getting some great swag from the ABA Convention. When I checked in at registration I got a new bag (I'm sure Cinnamon will fit in this one too), a note pad in a waterproof cover, a puffin pin, a new name badge with pockets and a local shorebird guide.

I also got an advance reading copy of Julie's upcoming book Letters from Eden courtesy of the Houghton Mifflin booth. I'm really having to force myself to work and not read it. That totally makes up for all that went wrong yesterday!

If you're wondering if the book as cool as you think it is...yes! It's good to be the birdchick (okay, I'm done referring to myself in the third person now).

Yikes! Just realized that I am on an 11 hour pelagic field trip tomorrow before working the binocular booth. Vomit city, here I come! I should really rack up some life birds on this. I'm severely lacking sea birds.

Early ABA Report

I have maintained that the Utah landscape just isn’t ugly. Maine is giving Utah a run for its money. Doesn't the above photo just make you want to break out into Barry Manilow's Weekend in New England? Okay, the start to the ABA Convention his still a little wonky for me. Apparently, we had the hottest day in Maine in recent memory—it was 90 degrees yesterday and the Civic Center wasn’t prepared for that kind heat, so the air conditioning didn’t get kicked on in time. My boxes weren’t at the Civic Center for set up, because they were clearing out the Legionnaires' stuff (those guys are just causing problems all over the place). And one top of that, the power chord for my G4 broke and no one in nearby Maine carries Mac products and the soonest I can get one is on Tuesday. Blog entries may not be as frequent until I get the power adaptor.

I won’t be a complete whiny pants, my optimistic nature is kicking in. Even if the Legionnaire’s hadn’t caused a gum up with boxes being brought over, it would have been too hot to function in the Civic Center, so that was kind of good. And my power adaptor broke right where it connects to the Powerbook, at least it didn’t get stuck inside. I’ve also had some iPod issues the last week and the wonderful folks at birdPod are helping me out until I get my warranty repair squared away—they do have GREAT customer service. The birdPod program I'm using this week is different than the one I have--this one has photos. When I get more power for the computer, I'll describe it in more detail. It's pretty nifty.

Since set up couldn’t happen, I spent time at Acadia National Park. I did get two new birds yesterday! This funky looking duck: a common eider (that's the male on the left and if you look close in front of herring gull you should see three females laying ont the vegetation) and a black guillemot. Sweet! Acadia is a beautiful park, but I must say that places like North Dakota, Utah and northern Minnesota have completely spoiled me rotten. I'm so used to being the only person around. Acadia was jam packed with people on Sunday, and that irritated me. Didn’t they know that I wanted to listen to all those black-throated green warblers in peace? If I ever do that park again, it will be on a weekday. It reminded me so much of Duluth, only instead of having Lake Superior, it has the Atlantic Ocean. Could this view get any better? It actually did, while I was taking it in, I heard the call of a wood thrush echoing up followed periodically by a winter wren. Nice.

This is a cliff with a peregrine falcon aerie. Some of the young birds were fledging that day. They are in the photo, just so high up, you can't see them. Really, trust me, they are there.

Not much to report gossip wise yet—although, during dinner at a fine establishment called Captain Nick’s I noticed two birders sit at a table diagonally behind us. One of them had a shirt that showed a trogon—that’s how I knew it was a birder. Mr. Trogon Shirt was trying to get his paper wrapping off his straw. He kept blowing and blowing but the paper wouldn’t budge. He finally blew with all his might and it sailed off the straw and narrowly missed hitting a boy in the back of the head at a neighboring table. He and his dinner companion giggled and he looked to see if anyone noticed. He caught my eye and I gave him a thumbs up.

 

Bangor off to a Bang!

It's been an odd 24 hours.

Things started off with a bang yesterday at Carpenter Nature Center. We got in a male yellow warbler. I never realized just how yellow they are, even their toes are yellow. Hm, one of the few birds that actually matches the name ornithologists gave it. I wonder if that was a mistake? It's a bird. It's a warbler. It's yellow. Hm, if only they could have applied that logic to red-bellied woodpeckers.

We later got in a male rose-breasted grosbeak. Doesn't he look kind of...evil? Look at those eyes, that bird looks remarkably pissed off considering it doesn't have the protruding supraorbital ridge hawks have. Granted, I don't blame the birds for being irritated when being banded. After all, they don't know what the heck is going on, that we're doing this to track them and help them.

You'll note in this photo, we aren't holding the grosbeak like we do the other birds post banding. It's too dangerous with a grosbeak. Look at the size of that bill. They are huge (hence the name grosbeak, gros is French for fat). That bill is meant to crack open hard shells on seeds, but can also act as a great slicer of flesh when the need calls. So this is the best look we can get of a grosbeak in the hand without drawing blood. Even when you let grosbeaks go, you have to give them a toss. If you just open your hand, they will sometimes turn around and bite before they take off.

After the banding, I tied up all my last projects at The Raptor Center and drove home to pack. I could see rain was coming but didn't realize how bad it was going to get.

This is 35w right in the heart of Minneapolis going into hwy 94. Traffic is at a standstill because of nickel-sized hail that was falling down--right at rush hour. I stayed there for about 10 minutes. Non Birding Bill called to see how I was and as I was talking to him he and his friend just encountered half a tree laying in the middle of the road where they were. Flash flooding was all over the place, but I eventually made it home in one piece, as did NBB.

"Wait, what do you mean I'm not coming?"

As I was packing last night, Cinnamon decided to help. She didn't understand that she wasn't coming on this trip. She greatly disapproved. It wasn't pretty and no amount of parsley could contain her.

I'm now in Maine and getting ready to go to sleep to prepare for the week. Some birders are here, but currently the hotel is overrun with Legionnaires. Tonight I was in the elevator going to meet a friend for dinner. We stopped on the third floor and about ten Legionnaires loaded on to the tiny elevator. I don't do well in cramped spaces but figured we only had tree floors to go so I pressed against the back wall. Two Legionnaires well past their 60s were right in front of me. Suddenly, I felt something. I looked down and one of the older gents was patting my thigh! I thought it was a mistake but the patting continued and proceeded to go higher. So I said as loudly as I could without yelling, "Hand check!" All eyes turned in our direction.

The older gent turned in surprise, apologized and said, "I'm sorry, I thought you were a wall." Now, I love the idea of having rock solid thighs, but in reality, they are quite soft. What kind of walls was this guy used to? Padded?

I smiled and said, "I've heard about you Legionnaires. Now, hands off the display case." He removed his hand (remarkably with all his fingers intact). I couldn't get off that elevator fast enough. I better get some really good life birds on this trip.

Bear With Me...again

I just found this slide show of a black bear trying to sleep on a hammock on the WCCO website.

Also, I have report from Marcie that she has an update to her mourning cloaks. Awesome photos!

Thursday night, Non Birding Bill and I headed out to Chit Chaturday. An event hosted by fm107 where you can meet the on air personalities and get free food. The event was held near the bird store I used to work at and is called the Bayside Grille, right on Lake Minnetonka. While there, I got a big hug from Ian of a Balanced Breakfast.

I also found a robin lurking suspiciously under some bushes--does it have a nest, I wondered. On closer inspection, I found a nest, but not a robin's nest. Just outside the nest were two chicks just ready to fledge and all the people around were feakin' them out. The smallest one flew the coop right away:

Can you tell what it is? I shooed it back to the bush with the nest, but did not put him in the nest. It landed safely on a higher branch. Once a chick flies out and discovers how mobile it can be, it won't stay in the nest any longer. Sometimes they leave a day or two early, but the parents will help guide it. If you can't guess the chick, it's a toughie--this species is known to be a "chipper" little fellow. Get it? CHIPper? It's a chipping sparrow.

Here's the second chick...looks like it got knocked around with the ugly stick a few times. Notice how the shape of this bird is different from the chick above? Look at the way the eyes are bulging. Is this a young chipping sparrow? No! It is a brown-headed cowbird.

For those who don't know, cowbirds are nest parasites, the adults lay their eggs in the nest of host birds and often the host birds loses some, if not all of their brood to caring for a chick twice their size. Cowbirds are a native North American species and are protected under the Migratory Bird Act. However, because cowbirds now follow sedentary humans and not roaming buffalo, their parasitism is speeding the decline of warblers, thrushes and sparrows.

I know how many people feel about cowbirds and I know many people will dispatch a young cowbird. I'll admit, I have removed cowbird eggs from nests, but I just can't dispatch a chick that far along in the growth process...especially at a large outdoor party with many people who don't know birds well but know me as the "bird lady" or "Birdchick". How would that look if someone came up to me while I was dispatching a baby bird?

Cowbirds are a huge debate and I don't know what's to be done or how it's to be solved.

Excel Raptor Bowl

This looks like so much fun!

Brit's Pub is hosting a lawn bowling tournament sponsored by Xcel Energy and presented by KARE 11 and WCCO Radio to benefit The Raptor Center July 12, 2006. Gather friends and join Doug Woog, Dave Lee, Stan "the Crusher" Kowalski, Brian Bonin, Ron Coomer (these must be sports people because I don't know who any of these guys are) and other local celebs for some lawn bowling fun! Corporate and individual teams are welcome.

I so want to be on a team, but I'm the only company employee in town, so alas I can't. If your company is interested in being a team sponsor it's $1500 and you get the chance to entertain clients as part of a four player team at Brit's Pub lawn bowling venue, team photo with a raptor, premium gift bags for each team member, prizes for the winning team and your logo on the site of The Raptor Center. This fundraiser has EVERYTHING: birds, beer, Brit's food (come on, you know you love those scotch eggs), fun AND you'd be helping injured birds of prey who come for medical attention and don't have health insurance.

If anyone out there needs an extra team member let me know.

Too Excited To Work

For fun, I'm just going to add some gratuitous owl photos in this post, because it's fun to look at owls (and I haven't had a chance to take other photos).

"Owls? I don't approve of owls."

I'm sorry about the lack of entries this week, I'm trying to get my loose ends tied up before I leave town. This weekend I fly out to Bangor, Maine for the ABA Convention and then I leave the following Saturday for Indianapolis, Indiana for vendormart...and a visit with my mom--why did I think that wouldn't be stressful? I'm excited, but I'm not thrilled to away from Non Birding Bill for ten days. But if we can survive my two week trip to Arkansas with hardly any contact, we can do this. This will be fun, there will be great birds (I finally get to see puffins in the wild!) and great friends. Wow, was it really only last July when I was at the ABA Convention in Tucson, Arizona and I said aloud over some drinks with friends, "I wish I could be an optics rep." Careful what you wish for out loud, it does come true.

So, here are some updates to past entries. First up, Gayle Deutsch did an informal survey around the office to see who could hear the "silent ring tone" (which is developed by the same company that made the sound to keep teenagers from loitering in front of shops). Here were the results:

Can't hear the tone:
48-year-old woman (my boss)
25-year-old man (whom I mentioned below)

Can hear the tone:
50+ woman 41-year old woman (me)
35-year old woman 24-year old woman (can hear very lightly)
24-year old woman (claps hands over ears)

This reminds me of when I volunteered at Richardson Nature Center in Bloomington and would help with bird/nature walks. To me, the high-pitched calls of Cedar Waxwings were quite clear - but a number of the 60+ age group could not hear them at all. Perhaps birder's should have their own brand of the mosquito phone ring, but have it be the Cedar Waxwing's call? ;)

I also have reports from others who cannot hear the tone, but they are well known birders, and I don't want to out their audio abilities.

Okay, I need to give a big shout out to Morgan Pittman of The Wren's Nest in Michigan in regards to the black-crowned night-heron foot stinking up the office:

And here I thought I was the only adult who took home animal parts they found... Anyway, the BEST way to dry them, I've found, is to place them into silica gel crystals.

These can be found at craft/floral stores (if you have JoAnn Fabrics or Michaels Crafts, these are good places to get it inexpensively -- in the floral-arranging aisle). The best kind to get is the 'color-changing' type. These silica beads are blue, then you put them in with your thing to dry (flowers, dead toads found in the driveway, heron's feet, etc...) into an air-tight container (I use quart or gallon size zip-lock bags a lot for these crazy projects!) when they turn pink, your item is dry! And, even better -- they're re-usable! You just put the pink crystals into the oven in a pie pan, warm 'em up, and they're blue again, ready for your next find! Happy drying!

That's the foot in the vase surrounded by gel in the above photo. Flanked by the container the gel came in and the air freshener. I bought some of the silica gel and followed the conventional directions for dried flowers. I'm supposed to cover the item and seal it up in an air-tight container and leave undisturbed for 3 - 7 days. I started this Wednesday and will just leave the foot in there until I return. I figured for a larger foot and not a delicate flower it might need a few extra days. One thing is for sure, it's smelling better around the desk! Thanks for the tip, Morgan. The noses around the office sure do appreciate it.

And finally, I got a response from Marcie O'Connor about the mourning cloak caterpillars:

I just saw your post about the Mourning Cloak caterpillars - I had exactly the same experience last week. I picked up 3 of them and they immediately started making chrysalises. Here's the link to my blog story. They should hatch in 10 days or so - I'll post photos when they do. I've noticed before that some years seem to be especially good for certain butterflies - this looks like it will be a good one for Mourning Cloaks!

She actually sent this last week, so keep an eye her blog for emerging mourning cloaks.

How Good Is Your Hearing?

Tonight I was sitting here innocently reading the current issue of Winging It when this horrible high pitched sound attacked my ears. I about jumped out of my skin. Non Birding Bill was playing a sound file of a silent ring tone that teenagers are using on their phones to secretly send text messages. The frequency is so high that adults aren't supposed to be able to hear it. NBB couldn't hear a thing, but I could. Try out the link, can you hear it?

Today's Thoughts

You know a book is going to be great, when it gets an endorsement like this. I can't wait until fall, I want to read it now!! I shouldn't whine too much, after all I did get a sneak peak this past April.

I did my first segment on the new morning show called Showcase Minnesota. I was on with Rob Hudson and he officially has street cred with me. When we were introducing ourselves he said, "I love birds, I used to feed hummingbirds when I lived in San Diego, I loved Costa's hummingbirds."

"Wait, you know what a Costa's is?" I asked, surprised. "I've never worked with a host that knows birds before. You're officially cool in my book."

We clicked well together, although he didn't tell me a dirty joke right before we went on air like Pat used to, but he's a nice easy going guy.

When I was driving home I got a great compliment. I was listening to Kevyn and Colleen in the car and they were talking about a new book about great white sharks that just came out. Neither had a huge interest in sharks but commented that sometimes a book is so good, you get interested in that subject. Kevyn then said, "You know, it like that woman on Ian and Margery's show that's always talking about birds. I've never been interested in birds, but I hear her and I think, wow, that's interesting, I'd like to know more."

Thanks, guys, that made my day!

Now I have to face my apartment. This morning before going to KARE 11, I couldn't find my keys. I knew they had to be in the apartment, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get in the building last night. Poor Non Birding Bill had tidied up the place so I would have a clean home to welcome me. All that was destroyed this morning as I went on a frantic search for my keys. Somehow they fell into the couch and ended up deep in the center. It only took dumping every bag and laundry basket, and moving every piece of furniture to find them in time to leave for the station. NBB took the afternoon off to spend with me. I warned him not to come home, to just maybe go for a nice walk instead.

Moments in North Dakota

During quieter times during the trade show, I let Cinnamon run loose. She kept heading over to a wood carver's table. At first I thought she was just after wood chips that fell on the floor. But after observing her assume this position, I realized she was hoping they would carve a figurine of her. They just smiled and patted her head.

Can I just say how much I heart Eldon Greij? He gave a wonderful presentation at the banquet about birding moments. He shared slides he'd collected from photographers over the years and told about special moments with certain birds he had seen in his lifetime. He's so funny, every time the audience would go "Awwwww" at a cute photo that looked a tad anthropomorphic, he would say, "Stop that!" Yet, at the same time, some of his birding moments were so personal, he himself get a little emotional recounting the stories. He's a wonderful presenter at festivals, not too dry and boring, but not saccharine sweet either. Just the way I like 'em.

Cinnamon and I worked all day Saturday and had a great time at the binocular booth at the Potholes and Prairie Bird Festival. I love the friendliness of the town. Since I had decided to come to this festival at the last moment, I didn't really research what birds to expect in the area. I had heard people say they were seeing lark buntings, Baird's sparrows and Sprague's pipits--three I have never seen before. I mentioned in passing that I would like to see those species and all day Saturday between customers people came up to me to give me directions to find them. BT3 gave directions to a large pile of barbed wire that would guarantee lark buntings. Paulette of Arrowood NWR gave me a PLOTS map with marks on it. Stacey Adolph-Whipp told me of a spot where there would be so many Sprague's pipits singing, that it would be hard to hear the Baird's. A few other people gave directions.

I decided to go look for them before I drove home on Sunday. When I followed Paulette's directions and map, I discovered a huge pile of barbed wire--the pile BT3 must have been talking about--low and behold lark buntings. The area was so beautiful and isolated, I decided to chuck any further directions and just experience the prairie and meander here and there.

I found this dilapidated house right off of 14. I took a walk down the "minimum maintenance road" to take a few photos. Dickcissels, grasshopper sparrows and savannah sparrows surrounded me. As I had the house and landscape in my viewfinder, I noticed some movement.

A doe was walking right towards me. When she was within 20 feet of me, she could sense I was there. The wind blew my scent straight for her. She started raising and lowering her head. It reminds me of something Cinnamon does when she's uncertain. We call it her bunny pushups, as she crouches down and rises up, trying to size up the object. The deer knew I was there, but she couldn't see me because I wasn't moving. I wanted to stick it out and see how close she would get, but my nose had other plans. I sneezed and she took off. It was a beautiful moment until the snot interrupted.

I love taking time out in these isolated spots. We're fortunate to live in a country where you can find places and pretend to (or in some cases actually) be the only person for miles. I used to think birding in boreal areas was my favorite habitat, but more I spend time on prairies, the more it is my favorite. I was so overwhelmed by the songs.

As I meandered, I found a spot engulfed by the songs of Sprague's pipits--this must be the spot that Stacey told me about. You couldn't hear any other birds, not even the bobolink. Their song reminds me of a canyon wren song, the way it spirals downward. I was so overcome, you couldn't see them, but you could hear them all around you. I decided that I didn't care if I didn't see or hear a Baird's, this moment was more than enough for today. I got back in the car and reconfirmed some birdcalls. I decided to drive around and do some digiscoping with a car window mounted scope. As I drove, the arrangement came loose, and I had to pull over and tighten it up. I absently noticed I was hearing a Baird's sparrow singing. I though I left my laptop playing songs and I turned to shut it off. My laptop was closed. There was an actual Baird's singing near the car. As I stood outside I could hear three different birds singing. I found one teed up on some grass but he flew down before I could take his photo. Three new birds--sweet!

Swainson's hawks were all over the place. It totally seemed like a switch had been flipped when I crossed from Minnesota into North Dakota. As soon as I crossed the border, all the red-tails turned into Swainson's hawks.

Check it out, east meets west in North Dakota:

Here on these rocks we have an eastern kingbird on the left and a western kingbird on the right. I've never seen this before, I don't know if this was just a meeting of the minds or some potential hybridization or what. I wasn't pulled over in the safest spot, so I couldn't stick around to find out.

With the wind blowing, the western kingbirds were kiting quietly over the grass. I wish I could have photographed that, but they were too quick for my digiscope setup. I did enjoy watching them hang in the air silently.

Speaking of kiting, there was an actual kite festival going on in town during the bird festival. When I drove by, I could hear some of the house sparrows in the neighborhood giving warning calls. I wondered if it was over the kites? They're clever fellows, I'm sure they eventually figured out that the giant octopi weren't going to get them.

I did learn that several people at the ND fest will be at the ABA Convention next week. Eeep. I need to prep for that. I leave Saturday for Maine. Part of the time, I'll be working with the Stokes. Whoot! I'm so stoked about the Stokes.