Which Bees Survived The Winter?

Last summer we had 7 hives: 2 carniolans, 2 Italians and 3 Russians. We had some bumps in the road and had to combine a couple of the Russians and went into the winter with 6 hives. We checked today to see who was alive with high hopes on the Russian bees since they are supposed to be very winter hardy. We discovered that only 3 of our 6 hives were still alive: 1 carniolan, 1 Italian and 1 Russian.

The 3 that are still alive are incredibly active.  We're having one strange winter right now, there's still lots of snow on the ground but it's been over 60 degrees Fahrenheit the last few days so the bees are anxious to be out of the hive and foraging, though there isn't too much to forage.  We did give them some buckets full of home made nectar so hopefully that will keep them busy until flowers start popping up.

To give you an idea of how active the live hives were, I set my iPhone in front of the entrance to record a video.  Apparently one bee was really interested in the phone and her buzzing kind of takes over, but it's a bit hypnotic to watch all the bees flying outside the entrance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1GhapqKiaQ

The Monks of Brooklyn

Hello all, NBB here. I spent some time in New York City recently, more specifically Brooklyn. Since the weather was so beautiful (especially for February) I took advantage of it to walk around the Greenwood Heights neighborhood, so named because of the historic Green-Wood Cemetery (founded in 1838). I expected to walk along its hills, looking at historical headstones and mausoleums, enjoying a quiet day to myself. I did not expect to encounter a colony of South American monk parakeets.

"Man," I thought, "Brooklyn has some noisy starlings. Weird-sounding ones, too." I walked through the double archway to the cemetery, and the noise got much, much louder. So I did what any sensible person, or even a birdwatcher, would do, and I looked up. Here's the entryway:

If you look below the peak of the tallest spire, you'll notice a very dark brown patch. That's a large, communal stick nest that wraps all the way around the spire. And flying away from it where some light green birds that were very definitely not starlings. I mean, even I noticed that. When Sharon showed up a few days later, we trekked down to the cemetery and she did some digiscoping:

Monk parakeets. And lots of them. Though the birds seemed to be screeching at each other nonstop (another reason why they may have settled in a cemetery: the neighbors won't complain about the noise), they seemed to be perfectly happy to cohabitate in their giant, self-made cavity nests.

So how did they end up there? There are theories, and this blog dedicated to the birds lists several: the most likely being that they were released from a shipping container by thieves who were looking for more valuable things to steal.

One particularly trouble thing was that the cemetery is located across the street from an electrical power station, and the birds were building stick nests on the power structures inside. That can't possible be safe, I thought repeatedly, and indeed it seems that other states power companies are euthanizing the birds to prevent them from shorting out the power lines they nest on. Fortunately for the Brooklyn Parrots, they have admirers. The cemetery itself organizes regular bird walks, a group at Brooklyn College is studying the birds' behavior, and they even have their own Facebook page. If you're in the area and want an unusual bird that super-easy to spot, check 'em out!

Birdchick Podcast #99: Lots of Illegal stuff + Karaoke

Remember last summer when some Minnesota farmer claimed he snapped and destroyed a pelican colony with thousands of chicks? He actually got a large fine for doing it. Across the pond, Matthew Gonshaw who specializes in stealing wild bird eggs for his personal (and highly illegal) collection has been banned from visiting Scotland for 10  years.

FINALLY, the red knot has been put on the Endangered Species List for the State of New Jersey.  It's not perfect, it's needs surrounding states to do the same and it needs to be on the Federal list.  The population for this birds has fallen 90% in the last 2 decades going from 100,000 to 15,000...because of over harvesting of horseshoe crab eggs for fishing bait.

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Artist Enrique Gomez De Molina charged in trafficking highly illegal birds to create his amazing artwork. He is claiming vigorously that he didn't know, but his email would indicate otherwise.  This is the video we reference in the podcast and this is the reason why people LOVE slow loris.

In a similar story, there's a quandary over what to do with a late art collector's piece from Robert Raushenberg which features a VERY illegal bald eagle as part of it. Since it is so illegal to have a stuffed eagle and the sculpture was created after the Migratory Bird Treat and Bald and Golden Eagle Act it was valued at $0 in the estate's tax return. But because the IRS is aware of the artist's fame and that the piece could be sold on the black market illegally for a lot of money, they say it's $65 million.

You can find Sugar Bean Ice Cream on Twitter.

You can find Ken Plume singing on A Site Called Fred!

Birdchick Podcast #99

Not Prepared For An Early Spring

I know I'm usually the first to say that seeing an American robin is NOT a sure sign of spring since they are in the US all winter if you know where to look, but yesterday while scouting locations for some spring programming for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area we heard robins singing on territory! On top of that, we heard a red-winged blackbird.  Didn't see it, but heard it and in my book, that means spring in Minnesota. Also, look behind the robin's chin in the above photo--that's a full on bud! As much as I've enjoyed a winter without shoveling and snow emergencies, I plan a lot of my work based on the slow birding of March, that usually still winter for us.  How can I keep my deadlines if spring is going to happen and Minnesota is having 50 degree days already?  Blerg.

I usually do not see or hear red-winged blackbirds until late March so yesterday was a surprise. I will get some of my migration fix on.  Rivers and Wildlife will be the first birding festival I'll attend in my rather action packed program schedule in the coming months (I'm giving my Techno Birding program that talks about the latest and greatest in technology and birding. Even if you've seen this program before, it's different.  Technology for birding changes all the time).  I haven't been to Nebraska for a few years and even though this is work, I'm so looking forward to birding this area again.  I'll admit that Israel has totally spoiled me for a crane blind experience, but it's always a delight to see the huge amounts of cranes foraging in the fields and hear the constant call of a few hundred thousand sandhill cranes...oh and I'll hear my first western meadowlarks of the season--love that bird call!

And I'm going to go to Kearney SLR free--even if I don't have an adapter, I'm very pleased with the photos I get hand holding the iPhone to my scope (both the robin photos are iPhone scoped).  I'm going to use this as a spring board to only digiscope with my iPhone.  I did it in New York but we didn't really do that much in the way of birding. My goal is to be able to post photos real time to Twitter and maybe Facebook.  If it works as well as I think it will, it's going to be a really fun way to report on warblers in real time when I go to The Biggest Week In North American Birding and Point Pelee in May.  Both of these are legendary warbler areas in spring and I'm so excited that I'll get a chance to experience them this year.

Murmuration + Peregrine Falcon + 10th Doctor = AWESOME!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-mCuFYfJdI This is from a documentary called Earthflight from BBC One and it's narrated by David Tennant (aka the 10th Doctor on Doctor Who).  This clip is really cool and explains why raptors don't have an easy time grabbing a starling in a large flock (aka murmuration).

It looks pretty awesome and not nearly as cheesy as that Mississippi River of Death I got from Nat Geo.

Birds and Beers In Minneapolis Tonight @WildRoastCafe

Just a reminder that there is a Birds and Beers tonight at Wilde Roast Cafe starting at 6pm! Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of birders of all abilities–if you’re interested in birds, you’re invited. You can meet other birders–maybe find a carpool buddy, ask about where to find target birds, share cool research projects you might be working on, ask a bird feeding question, share life lists, share some digiscoping tips, promote your blog–the sky is the limit. It’s low key and it’s fun.

Birding By New York Subway

I've used my time in New York for some odd birding. I love all the artwork that can be found around the city and I had a few things on my list to find: a Bansky, an Edvard Munch.  Like birding, I had to follow a series of directions and when I finally got to the Munch:some dude was standing in front of it...3 inches in front of it (and was he too close, stressing the Munch out?).  The Banksy was covered, not unlike a blackburnian warbler in the top of the fully leafed out tree canopy.  The city had painted over it, but there were a few places with loose chips and you could see miniscule pieces of it underneath.

But the subway has all kinds of art and a surprising amount with identifiable birds. This is a mosaic at the Jay Street station by Ben Snead called "Departures and Arrivals."

The birds depicted in it are all non native and invasive species. Above is a starling and house sparrows.  But I love how the artist used the tiles to capture the irridescence of the starling feathers.

The other bird is the monk parakeet which have quite the strong hold in Brooklyn.  We've rented an apartment there that has a view of the Statue of Liberty.  It's an odd sensation to be standing there in the morning, clutching a cup of coffee and taking in that symbol of American freedom and promise...and then have noisy streaks of green fly between you and statue.  Then I have to think about these released cage birds establishing a colony like so many people who have passed by Lady Liberty (though, I'm not sure the parakeets had too much choice to choose to live here).  All the brown stones on a cloudy winter day in Brooklyn broken up by noisy, flashy green parrots is so strange tho.

I'm not sure about the insect and fish depicted in the mosaic but I wonder if they are non natives too?  What is that, a lion fish?  It's a colorful mural and worth a peak if you are ever in New York.  A real treat can be found at the Museum of Natural History Station:

Check out the whooping crane!  Actually, when we hit this stop, I grabbed my camera and said aloud but to myself, "I need photo of that crane and dodo."  Non Birding Bill immediately walked over.  I said, "I didn't mean you, there's a dodo outline behind the crane!"  But he does make a good representation for the scale of the mosaics.

There are all sorts of animals all over the station and it's worth taking the time to explore and see what's there.  It's an evolutionary chain from the Big Bang to the plethora of fauna seen on this planet.  I love the random birds on there. It's not all cardinals and eagles, it's cool birds that perhaps the average person may not be aware are out there like the above black-bellied whistling ducks.

I think this was my favorite--a pileated woodpecker in the subway!  Who knew?

Here's a break down of all that can be found at that station.  The large work is called "For Want Of A Nail." It's interesting to note that some species have a tiny question mark made of really tiny tiles mixed in them.  I think it's supposed to represent a question of whether or not these species will remain with us in the future.  But there didn't appear to be one on the whooping crane so NBB wondered if there was some street artist inserting mosaic tags.

Here are some of the other birds:

Laughing gull.

Kiwi.

Killdeer.

Okay, not birds but still cool--monarchs!

Love that monarch caterpillar!

Ruby-throated hummingbird.