Chickadee Damage

I was trying my hand at digiscoping in the woods of tiny birds that move very fast. Not an easy feat. This was my best golden-crowned kinglet. It was fun to just hold in one spot and listen to the changes of bird flocks as they moved through in the morning having just flown in the night before looking for various food sources. One minute the woods are alive with sounds of hundreds of birds and just as suddenly as they appeared, they will disappear and ten minutes later the woods are silent. I first saw a brown creepers zipping up a tree and I thought, "Where's the kinglet, they seem to go hand in hand (or wing and wing)." Sure enough, a kinglet appeared on the branches, then more creepers and more kinglets.

I heard a "twee" that almost sounded like a towhee, but not quite. I scanned and found hermit thrushes lurking among the brush. They were taking advantage of the wild grape that has draped over some of the dead trees. Even though I was wearing a bright red sweater, I was standing still and the birds moved in fairly close. A mixed flock of chickadees and nuthatches moved in to the area and one chickadee flew right to me and at the end of my spotting scope. I couldn't see it, but new it was right in front of the objective lens at the end of the barrel (the big lens that lets in the light, not the small one you look through). I thought about turning on my camera and getting a very blurry photo, then I heard a "tap tap tap" coming from the chickadee.

I love chickadees. I won't argue that they are one of the cutest birds out there--look at that face in the above photo. What's not to love? But there is no pecking on a Swarovski 80 HD Spotting Scope! I shouted, "Hey!!" and the bird poked it's head above the barrel and suddenly noticed the big human attached its new found perch. It then jumped on top of the scope and gave a little sputter and flew to a nearby tree going into full blown mobbing sounds and angry "chick a dee dee dees!"

I looked at the lens and found no visible damage and was grateful that it's very sturdy equipment. I wondered if the Swarovski limited lifetime warranty covered chickadee damage...and how embarrassing would it be to call in and request repair because of a chickadee--"seriously, it pecked the lens, honest, the bird had it in for me." It'd be way cooler to say that your scope was damaged by something like a lammergeier who mistook the scope for a large bone. Although, I suppose it wouldn't help the Swarovski rep if the chickadee had damaged the scope. Bottom line, the scope is fine and a heart attack on my part was avoided.

I didn't get a good look at the feet, but I wonder if this was one of the chickadees we banded last weekend?

Cold, Quiet Bees


First, a big shout out to Jennifer Tanner! Thank you so much for sending me the bee song! I love it! I have been listening to it all week. Go to Mirah and Spectratone International and download the song "Community" (it's free and legal). I now imagine the bees singing that while we're working the hives.

There's not a huge amount going on with the bee hives right now. We're feeding them, trying to get the girls fully stocked with honey for the winter. Today, the temps were in the forties and the girls were clustering together for warmth and moving very slowly. I even took a video to show how quiet they are. A month ago there would have been loud buzzing, now there is this:

Very quiet. Compare that to this.

We're feeding them a nectar solution to substitute the current lack of natural nectar sources to build up their stores. Olga is chock full, her hive is very busy, but I'm feeding her anyway because the book says I'm supposed to. Kitty is a different story. We didn't harvest any honey from her hive, but even still she is behind on comb and honey production from swarming this summer. Her hive is light. I don't know. If we have a warm winter with milder temps, she just might make it. But if we have the type of winter this part of the northern United States is known for, I'm afraid we will lose her. Ah well, we're doing all we can to keep her going and the bottom line is that this year is our first year beekeeping and it's all a learning experience.

I will say that Kitty has done an outstanding job of gathering pollen. In this undeveloped comb, you can see on the other side of the comb, all the many colors of pollen that is in the bottom of honey cells.

Since the bees were calm and we were feeding them, I had Mr. Neil try his luck at hand feeding the bees. The bees were happy to feed from his fingers. Non Birding Bill learned from the QI tv show that bees can recognize individual people, so this hand feeding business may prevent future stings. Here's the blurb from the Telegraph:

"Bees can recognise human faces. Given that many humans struggle with this once they have turned 40, it seems utterly remarkable in a creature whose brain is the size of a pinhead. Yet bees who are rewarded with nectar when shown some photos of faces, and not rewarded when shown others, quickly learn to tell the difference. Not that we should read too much into this. Bees don't "think" in a meaningful way. The "faces" in the experiment were clearly functioning as rather odd-looking flowers, not as people they wanted to get to know socially."

In a couple of weeks, I will have to close up the hives for winter. How long this winter will seem without being able to look in on the girls.

Sigh.

Bonus While Removing Buckthorn

And maybe just a tad of personal vindication.

This afternoon I was doing some half hearted buckthorn removal in Mr. Neil's woods. It needs to be done, but at the same time I was making mental apologies to the woods and wildlife that areas of thick brush would go through a drastic change but would be made up to them in future years with better plants. I fell in love with this woods the first time I walked through it. I remember the spot in the above photo being a particularly perfect place to find a saw-whet owl. Every single time I pass it, I comb the branches with my eyes for small owls but have never seen one there. I've even been taunted by a saw-whet owl feather a wren used in lining a nearby nest box.

Today, I found tiny owl poop beneath one of the trees. I started scanning the trunk but didn't have my hopes too high. After all, I have found owl poop before and no owl. I stood right on top of the poop and looked straight up. The branches revealed nothing. I took a step back and to the right. An oval shape and then vertical lines came into view--saw-whet owl! Finally, a saw-wet! I dashed back up the trail to gather my digiscoping equipment to get a photo of this tiny owl:

It was not the best light and the wee owly was not in the least bit threatened by me and continued its snooze. I left the scope on him and called Lorraine to see if she was working at the house. She was and I insisted that she join me on the trail to see an owl. How could she refuse? We both marveled at the owl and then it did the craziest thing! It woke up, faced away from us and started bobbing its head. We changed our position to get a better look. Without the scope, it looked as though it was about to cough up a pellet. But when I looked in the scope it was opening its mouth and moving as though it were making sounds? What was it doing?? Lorraine and I strained to hear and finally we made out very high pitched, almost inaudible squeaks and clicks--almost bat like. I tried to get a video, but there was no way to get the sound on that microphone. Here you can watch it move:

You know, I've worked with an education saw-whet owl at TRC and have never heard that sound or have seen or heard it in the wild. I couldn't find anything like it on BNA. I did find something sort of like it on Cornell's Owl CD (a must have for any person remotely into owls) and there are a couple of tracks on there listed as "unknown winter vocalization". If there are any owl experts out there who would care to share their knowledge of saw-whet owl vocalizations, I would love to hear it.

We waited for Mr. Neil to finish some writing and insisted that he and Cabal come join us to watch the owl before it got to dark. The owl didn't vocalize but took a direct interest in the large white dog. It's now night, and I hope the saw-whet is finding plenty of tasty mice and voles around the feeding area. I put out some extra bird seed on the ground to encourage small mammals for it.

I guess you never know what you'll find when removing buckthorn.

Watch Out, Finches

I have been trying to do this entry all day and so many cool and blogable things keep happening. I will do this and begin working on my very exciting discovery in the woods entry.

Okay, now we are getting some proper fall temps--blustery wind with fifty degree temps--now that is what I call buckthorn removal weather! On my way out to Mr. Neil's this afternoon, I noticed several raptors bouncing and soaring in the wind. Mostly red-tails and eagles, but peregrine went bombing over the highway in hot pursuit of something over the fields.

I have noticed a significant increase in purple finches at the feeder in the last few days. A family group had shown up a few weeks ago, but on Sunday when I was photographing the cedar waxwings, I could hear dozens and dozens in the surrounding woods. In the fall, they have such a quiet little chatter as they flit from tree to tree and squabble over perches at the feeder in can be easy to miss among the din of blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches and titmice.

I love this photo--it looks like the goldfinch is trying to eavesdrop on the male purple finches. "Hmmm, what are they plotting?"

Ron Pittaway, of the Ontario Field Ornithologists has an annual Winter Finch Forecast with Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) and the observations of regional birders, Pittaway tries to make predictions about finch movement in southern Canada and the northern United States. Birds are always a tricky thing to predict, but this year I did notice an increase in purple finches, so I thought I would see what he had to say:

"Most Purple Finches will migrate out of Ontario this fall in response to the low seed crops. Currently, Purple Finches are migrating south through southern Ontario. Very few or none will stay behind at feeders in southern Ontario."

You should check the rest of the report, he describes conditions in the northern boreal forests and how that relates to individual species like redpolls, grosbeaks, finches and siskins. He does predict that white-winged and red crossbills and pine siskins will not be irrupting south out of Ontario as they do some years. However, other winter finches such as pine grosbeaks, evening grosbeaks and redpolls are supposed to get out of Ontario and down south into the United State.

It's been interesting to watch the purple finches interact with the other species. Here a male purple finch got into it with a black-capped chickadee--they are not very tolerant of other species feeding with them. When I worked at the bird store, customers would tell me that house finches drove other birds away, but I have never seen them be as aggressive as these thugs.

They're even hanging out on the tray feeder like this female purple finch and flushing away juncos. They're pretty, but man, don't mess with them.

Don't worry, goldfinch, you're still pretty too. Even in winter plumage. What's interesting is that the purple finches are seemingly preferring the sunflower feeders over the Nyjer thistle feeders, so the goldfinches do have a quiet place to feed at the moment.

Injured Peregrine Update

Quick update on the injured peregrine falcon, I went to check on her and she was resting. Steve, one of the participants on the bird trip that picked her up called The Raptor Center and got a rundown from Dr. Jane Goggin:

"The Raptor Center left a message on Friday, Oct. 5, about Falcon 568. Jane said our girl was doing pretty well at this time, but it would be 3-4 weeks before the splint would be removed. She'll probably spend the winter a TRC. Jane suggested calling back in a couple weeks for an update. Sounds pretty good to my untrained ear and her appetite certainly seems fine."

I'm at TRC every Tuesday and will do a check in. They have my number to give me a call with any developments if something happens when I'm not there. Honestly, no news at this point is good news. Here's hoping that in a few weeks, I will have photos of her upright in a flight room.

In other news, no one has stepped up to claim ownership of the eclectus. TRC has tried everything--all the local parrot organizations, parrot stores, vets, Craig's List and no one is coming forward as the owner. I wonder if something happened to the actual owner? When you see the bird, it is in excellent health and well trained. Someone spent a lot of time, energy, love and money on this bird. A bird like this can outlive the owner. I'm wondering if the actual owner died and the surviving family not wanting to keep it, let it go outside--sounds crazy, but I've had people tell me about doing this kind of thing before. They know nothing of birds and they think it's a tribute--to set grandma's bird free. Who knows. Again, there is a long line of folks at TRC ready to take him in, I just wish we could find out who it belongs to.

Autumn Cedar Waxwing Goodness

Holy Crap! As I'm starting this entry, I'm sitting on our couch which faces the windows in our apartment. An adult Cooper's hawk has just landed on a wire outside the window and we are pretty much face to face. The hawk is having a tough time, she wants to focus on the pigeons eating near my feeder, but with the lights on in my apartment, she has also noticed the human facing her. I wonder if I can reach for my camera without her flying away? Nope. She just flew. Cool start to the morning though! Now, on to cedar waxwings:

Here is a cedar waxwing eating berries off of a showy mountain ash, or as Mr. Neil calls them, rowan trees. Now that there are great birds established on his land and thriving honey bees, we're trying to find ways to help both out by improving the quality of the surrounding woods.

The woods have some great plants, but some invasive buchthorn is moving in which in a few years will choke out all the great native plants like Jack-in-the-Pulpit and sumac. So, I know from reading books what plants birds like, but I don't have much in the way of practical knowledge--it's hard to put that into practice in a one bedroom apartment, but helping with the project will let me put some of that book learnin' to use. I found a nursery near Carpenter Nature Center that specializes in native plant landscaping called Out Back Nursery. The first time I went there just to look around, I noticed a guy named Pete staring at some pots of soil and some plant growth. After a few minutes, I went over and asked what he was up to and he replied, "My mix. There's something I'm doing wrong with my mix. These aren't growing the way they're supposed to, so I'm trying to figure out what I need to change in my soil mix."

That is my kind of guy--he feels about native plants the way I feel about birds. I found the right nursery. I also like how they group some of their displays by habitat. If you want to turn your yard into oak savanna, they have a whole grouping of the types of native plants that you would need for an oak savanna habitat. Nice! I highly recommend this place if you're looking for some native plant ideas.

So, I've gotten some trees from them to put in this fall, including this showy mountain ash that had a few berries left on it. The waxwings found it on Sunday. It was SO cool. Sunday, the light was perfect and the autumn leaves made for a lovely background for photos. I spent most of the day outside coughing and digiscoping. I watched a small flock of cedar waxwings fly over, kind of slow in mid flap, and circle over the feeding area--some bird in that flock noticed the bright berries. They circled a second time and landed high in an oak, carefully scanning the area for predators. After a few minutes, one by one, they descended on the showy mountain ash. The adult in the above photo is being watched by a younger waxwing.

The younger cedar waxwings are distinguished by the vertical striping down the front of their breast...and their lack of grace and elegance when scaling the branches for berries.

After watching an adult eat its fill of this cluster of berries, this younger waxwing struggled to reach the few remainders. You can't see it in the photos, but there was much flapping and slipping.

Eventually, the young waxwing figured it out and began to eat the last three berries.

The first two berries went down quickly, but there was some hesitation going for the last. Was the bird getting full? Had it eaten too much? But, never to leave an uneaten berry go uneaten, the young waxwing took the last berry.

Sure enough the bird's crop was bulging with berries after eating that last bite. See the pinkish blob along the neck? It may look like this bird has a huge tumor, but it's just a muscular pouch (now full of ash berries) used to store food awaiting digestion.

Snowbirds Despite The Heat

Man o man, the humidity and high temps today made it feel like there was a gravitational smack down instead of the usual pull that secures you to the Earth's surface. That combined with my stuffy nose and coughy chest made me forgo buckthorn removal around Mr. Neil's property. But I did do some digiscoping and found some of the juncos that I have heard lurking in the trees. The snowbirds are moving south.