Back Again

The blog was out of commission for a few days. Something to do with the hosting site putting up new fire walls that didn't allow blogs coming, it was a whole thing with the deal.

Scissor-tailed flycatchers are being reported as are solitaires. Birders across the state (as well as birders across the country) are frantically chasing them in hopes of increasing their year list. There's nothing quite like fall migration, young birds from out west or down south that don't take their parents advice ending up hundreds of miles out of their way. The lesson to be learned: If you don't listen to your parents or instincts what does it get you? Alone in middle of no where being stalked by a bunch of weirdos in khaki.

Flamingo

See what happens when boys are left alone.

Dream Job...with vomit

Okay, one quick post and then I have to write a suet article.

So for the last two years I get an email once a month from Cornell that lists various "bird jobs". I'm more curious than anything else. In the birding industry there are very few well paying jobs. Some may say that I have "sold out" by working at a bird specialty store, but where else is conservation to begin? Bird store employees are working with people on a daily basis helping customers to identify birds, answer wildlife questions and maybe encourage people that there are other means of controlling pest species than with a gun.

Anyway, most of the jobs that show up on this list are "internships" and the applicant is lucky if it pays $500 a month. Today a fantasy job showed up. You'd be working with condors so there is a vomit factor but you get to hike, boat, fly, play with big birds that are practically extinct and make the occassional presentation to the public. Not only that, you get paid an actual salary! According to the San Diego Zoo condors can weigh 18 - 31 pounds, considering they are vultures and hurl when scared, that's a big bird to have puke on you.

In case anyone is interested in the job, here is the info:
CALIFORNIA CONDOR PROJECT COORDINATOR for the Arizona Game and Fish
Department. Wildlife Specialist I. Field Operations Division/Region
II/Flagstaff based/Limited Position. Salary Grade 17($27,626 - $44,577).
Announcement # 56-04EDA / Closing Date 26 Oct 2004. Duties:
Radio-tracks, traps, marks, monitors activities, and assesses health of
California Condors. Backpacks in remote areas over rough terrain.
Coordinates activities and meets with Condor project cooperators as well
as local landowners and other project stakeholders as needed to identify
and address issues and concerns. Tracks project progress and recommends
improvements and changes. Communicates California Condor project
information to internal customers, cooperators and the public. Prepares
written updates, articles and reports. Reviews, evaluates, and edits
work products. Makes presentations at scientific conferences, workshops
and training sessions for Department personnel, cooperators, and the
general public. Operates and maintains a variety of specialized office
and field equipment common to terrestrial, aquatic, and habitat-oriented
wildlife work. Operates and maintains 4WD vehicles and watercraft and
conducts low-level aerial surveys from fixed-wing aircraft and
helicopters. Attends staff and project-planning meetings. Performs other
duties as assigned. Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities: The ideal candidate
will have experience working with the California Condor. The preferred
candidate will have experience with radio-tracking; off-road and
back-country travel; raptor handling; GPS; GIS, spreadsheet, database,
and word-processing software. The preferred candidate will also have
skills in public speaking, popular and technical writing, photography,
and basic desktop publishing. The candidate must have a Bachelor's
degree in a wildlife science or a closely related field from an
accredited college or university. A medical/physical evaluation is
required prior to appointment. HOW TO APPLY: A Wildlife Series
application Form #007 may be obtained by calling (602) 789-3321, or
through our web site http://www.azgfd.com. A completed application, a
current resume and college transcripts (unofficial or photocopies are
accepted) must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on the closing date
by the Arizona Game and Fish Department, 2221 W. Greenway Road, Phoenix,
Arizona 85023, Attention: Human Resources, indicating the correct
Announcement Number. Permanent or limited permanent Game & Fish
employees applying must submit a current resume, accompanied by a
Wildlife Resume Supplement Form 9021, no later than 5:00 p.m. on closing
date. If you have questions about the job, please contact SUSAN MACVEAN
(PH: 928 214-1250, EM: smacvean@gf.state.az.us). An equal opportunity,
reasonable accommodations employer, the Arizona Game and Fish Department
complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. If you need
accommodation in the employment process or this document in an
alternative format, please contact our office at (602) 789-3326 or TTY
1-800-367-8939, prior to the closing date of the job in which you are
interested.

The Good With The Bad

Aaron asks:

"What I want to know is, what does it take to be the offical Bird Lady for the President of the United States? And would I, as a taxpayer, have to take care of your stipend..."

If I'm not mistaken Laura Bush would be the official Bird Lady for the President of the United States--she's quite the birder. I feel the urge to make a blue footed booby joke or dicksissel/Dick Cheney joke, but I just don't have it in me right now.

It's been one of those weird days where some things go completely wrong and others go completely right. On the upside, Mike the vending machine guy at KARE11 brought me green tomatos and home made peach wine. Mike's a creative fellow who keeps photos of his spectacular gardens in the vending machine, makes such fun things as tomato wine and gives me free french vanilla coffee before my segments. I don't know what I did to be in his favor, but anyone who gives you free coffee and free alcohol is okay with me.

I'm thinking of starting a bird author checklist. I've met quite a few and this month I will get to meet Brian Wheeler who is one of the authors of a Photographic Guide to North American Raptors and the two volume set of Raptors of the American East and West. Amber and I have fanagled an invitation to sit with him while he photographs raptors at a private location in hawk ridge. Apparently the requirement is that we wear lots of camo and hide under a camo tarp. What better way to spend a day off then out in the cold in Duluth under a tarp watching hawks fly over. I'm so excited I don't know if I'll be able to sleep for the next two weeks.

Indianapolis Star

I think the Indianapolis Star is cutting back on their outdoor articles. Since I grew up in Indianapolis I daily check www.indystar.com to see what's going on in my home town. There have always been great articles on different outdoor features and now they aren't there so much. I think this goes back to the usual, birders aren't speaking up and so the articles are going to the wayside. I think I'll give them a call and anyone else who can should do the same. I imagine you would speak to the managing editor and say, "Hey, I really enjoy reading those out door articles. "

I hope the falcon web cam sticks around, that's my favorite spring and summer soap opera.

Indianapolis Star Toll-free (outside local calling area) (800) 669-7827.

Tired Sharon

Getting up at 4am the last few days is catching up to me. This morning I was on Ian Punnett's Balanced Breakfast at 5:45am on fm107. His producer Darcy is always so nice when she calls me on the phone and says, "Hello, dear." it's very sweet. It's fun and challenging doing this segment. Whenever I'm on his show I do harbor a tiny bit of guilt (curse my two years of Catholic School).

As many of you know I'm a stickler for bird accuracy. Watching a movie is no fun for me if the cowboy posse is resting at night in the Arizona desert and all of a sudden an eerie cry of a loon can be heard in the distance--LOONS AREN'T GOING TO BE FOUND ALIVE IN THE ARIZONA DESERT.

Ian's family crest is a pelican piercing it's breast so it's blood spills into the mouths of it's young and reads "We die for our own". It's based on the story that in times of famine, pelicans will cut themselves so that they bleed to death and the blood serves as nourishment for the young and they can survive. This isn't true. I even double checked with a couple of ornithologists. Ian one day asked me on the air if this was true and I fudged a little and said that North American pelicans don't do that, but the truth is, no pelican on the earth does that. Bill said that I just should have bit the bullet and told him that, but I felt that I couldn't tell a nice guy that his family crest is based on a myth. Bill said I was being ridiculous since many family crests feature unicorns and dragons.

I've never knowingly given out false birding information...well, except for the time my mom and one of my sisters started asking questions about when Bill and I are going to have any kids and I pointed out the window, "Look, it's a blue gray gnatcatcher." Sure, one could have been out there based on location and time of year, but I just used it shift their short attention spans elsewhere.

That Good Bird Smell

Me smelling a red-tailed hawk. Photo by Amber Burnette

I love the good, warm, feathery smell of a bird. Not all birds have this, eagles for example smell like an empty 35mm film cansiter. (I know, you thought I was going to go for the obvious vultures smell like vomit joke but I'm very serious about the good bird smell). Great-horned owls frequently smell of skunk or at the very least three day old road kill. If you are a bird handler and you have a great-horned owl on your fist you know that when they get stressed they pant and then they have rat breath. Bottom line is that owls, though very cool to look at, stink. Ring-billed gulls and osprey aren't much better as they always smell like fish.

Nothing however beats the smell of a bird that has been in the sun. Red-tailed hawks have a wild alive smell, but it's not pungent. It's definitely an animal smell and lacks the pungent urine aroma that accompanies many wild mammals. Mmmmm.

Today I heard a rumor that just makes me hang my head. I know quite a few people that go grouse hunting in the fall. The word on the street (or should I say path) is that grouse are in low numbers. This year is part of the grouse ten year cycle. Grouse populations peak and are in good numbers and the numbers drop since their isn't enough habitat to support them all. Gradually over 8 years, the population builds itself back up and then by the tenth year the numbers are high and the cycle starts all over again. Since northern goshawks hunt grouse, people unfamiliar with the concept of the food chain often think they are the reason for the decline, however the goshawk population is on a similar cycle. When the grouse population drops, the goshawk population drops and when the grouse population rises the goshawk population rises. This year, someone said they heard from a DNR worker that the reason is that the bald eagle population in Minnesota is so high they are eating the grouse. Though it is possible for an eagle to go after grouse--it's highly unlikely, they just don't have the hunting tools a goshawk has. Grrrrrr.

Forgot one photo

Okay, so several photos will be showing up on here from hawk trapping in the next few days after Amber and I start swapping, but I forgot to post the peregrine falcon with a a weird bill photo:

Who knows what happened to this bird. The injury to the lower mandible looks like it broke long ago and healed at an odd angle. Because of this the top mandible didn't get worn down as it should have and became overgrown. My personal theory is that the bird probably flew into something like a building when learning to fly or chasing after prey. Looking closey at the falcon you could make out a line on the lower mandible where it had been bent back. The bird still managed to feed as the injury healed which is a testament to how well birds get on, even at times without human intervention.

This peregrine was banded and released as is.

Home Again

I'm home from another weekend of hawk trapping. For the first time I got caught in nasty traffic on 35 south from Duluth. At one point it took Amber and I an hour to go ten miles. They had part of the highway down to one lane to work on a bridge.

There are always heroic tales at a hawk banding station. Some hawks sneak up into your nets out of nowhere, some hawks start as pepper specks in the distance and gradually appear before your eyes and into the nets, and some birds seem like they are sure things as they fly straight to the net and veer off away at the last second. Hands down, my favorite birds was an adult male goshawk that came into the nets out of nowhere. Amber and I were behind the blind taking photos of a recently banded red-tailed hawk when Rick told us to be quiet as he drew in a hawk in the distance. He yanked the bait pigeon, and before any of us could breathe the goshawk was in the net. Rick had been targeting a different hawk all together when this guy dove in. We've never gotten one of these in the net when I have been there and I have always wanted to see one up close, they are one of the most beautiful hawks on the planet:

Look at those blood red eyes, they just say "must kill".

We also got in three juvenile goshawks. Goshawks don't get their gray adult plumage until they are two years old. The young are brown and white with yellow eyes instead of red:

Note how the mouth is wide open? These birds are screamers. Literature on the goshawk will say that they are usually silent, this is true unless you are holding one in your hand. In that case they will give a piercing scream that makes banding tricky and the desire to take numerous photos wane.

One very photogenic and compliant species is the red-tailed hawk. This bird will always keep it's mouth open during the banding process but makes no noise.

I tried to do an arty shot with this red-tailed hawk to give the impression of what prey must feel like before it's captured and eaten.

Hawking!!!

Today I was up at the blind and oh joy of joys we got in an adult goshawk. If no one knows what an adult northern goshawk looks like, get a field guide now and look it up. It's my favorite of the hawks and I think the most gorgeous. We don't often get adults in the net (usually too smart) however we often get juvenile goshawk (young and stupid).

We also got a peregrine falcon who looked like Fish from the old cop show Barney Miller. Looked like something had happened to its lower mandible--perhaps flew into a building, and broke it. The bird managed to survive and still feed but the bill grew in funny and caused the upper mandible to grow in extra large. It was hard to take the bird seriously as being fierce, but we did have to admire that even with such a potentially fatal injury it had survived at least two years.

I will be posting lots of photos when I get home Sunday night.