What Is That Sharpie Carrying?

While exploring the trails at Hawk Ridge with my mom and sisters, we noticed a sharp-shinned hawk catching a thermal (a warm current of air that raptors glide on).  This hawk appeared to be carrying something in its talons.

I wondered what it was carrying and my sisters wondered why a bird that wouldn't be feeding chicks would carry food during migration.  I wondered if it had just killed it's prey and was looking for a safe place to eat it--but why would it catch a thermal to go so high up?  Usually these hawks tuck into a tree to eat.  I also noticed that the sharp-shinned hawk appeared to have a full crop--why would it hunt if it had already eaten.  Sometimes at the hawk blind, Frank Taylor will get in sharp-shins with full crops that fly in for the bait pigeon.  Frank said that even though the crop is full, the message hasn't hit the rest of the body that it's full of food and further hunting isn't necessary.  Sharp-shins are accipiters like Cooper's hawks and that's very much a group of hawks that tends to act before it thinks.

In this photo you can really see that full crop.  Also, it looks like it's carrying a wing--a robin's wing maybe?  I wondered if the sharp-shinned had just killed and eaten a robin.  Since this is a smaller hawk, it could have eaten its fill and have some leftover.  Perhaps it didn't want to leave the remaining food behind?

Cleansing Goshawk

Alright, Non Birding Bill's cartoon post and my pelican post may have been a bit much, so how about a nice, cleansing northern goshawk release shot to start Monday morning?

Some of my family from Indiana came up for a visit last week and got a whirlwind tour of the hives and a trip to Duluth.  On Friday, we stopped at Hawk Ridge to walk the trails (LOVE the Summit Trail) and when we arrived, I saw someone walking down from the banding station with a bird in a holder, ready for release.  I glanced at the feet and tail and said, "Is that what I think it is?"

Debbie Waters, the naturalist for the Ridge said, "Yep."

My mom and sisters asked what it was and I said, "What do you think it is?"  They've been to Frank Taylor's banding station a few times and they do a bit of birding themselves.  They all speculated goshawk and they were correct.  We watched the program and someone had adopted this goshawk for the chance to release it.  I got a photo and love how her arms mimics the bird's wings.

I just showed this photo to NBB and said, "Isn't this cool."

He looked over from his computer, pointed to the lady and said, "FAME!"

Which I guess means the immature goshawk in this photo is now lighting the sky like a flame.

Fame.

More Pelicans Eating Birds

I've linked before to videos of pelicans eating pigeons, but if you haven't seen on, watch the video below: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNNl_uWmQXE[/youtube]

The Daily Mail recently posted an article with some pretty incredible photos of the pelican attack.  I'll just link to the article so that way if you don't want to see a pigeon in a pelican beak, you can avoid it.  But if you love a good animal train wreck...follow that link.

Random Red-bellied Woodpecker #birding

This red-belly is a messy eater--check it out, you can even make out the hard tip of its pointy tongue!

How are your digiscoping skills?  If you like to do it as much as I do, keep an eye on the Swarovski Optik Facebook page for opportunities to put your photos to use.  Their Digiscoper of Year Contest still has time for you to enter.  The contest ends at the end of this month.  Also, Clay and I are going to do another Digiduel next week and we are looking for teammates.  You can partner with me or Clay! Check Facebook for details.

Talking Raven Videos

Despite the fact that I have a mile long to do list before some of my family arrives sometime tonight or tomorrow for a visit, I have found a slew of talking raven videos.  They are five kinds of awesome because, the ravens sound a little creepy. Ravens are in the corvid family and that group can mimic other birds--think of blue jays imitating Cooper's hawks and human speech is not out of their reach.  Ravens and crows have been kept as pets in the past, although in the United States, it is no longer legal. This video of Julian the talking raven is from a bird at a wildlife rehab center:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GusdG_SSWw&feature=related[/youtube]

But I think my favorite is Terry the Talking Raven from across the pond who not only sounds rather polite with his accent but scores major points for going "Arrrrrr," just like a pirate!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZyBNWVD70w[/youtube]

Geek A Week

So what is this whole Geek A Week Trading Card thing all about?  Good question!  Here's what happened...it all started at a crazy thing called W00tstock Minneapolis.

This blurry photo is me meeting Adam Savage from the MythBusters at W00stock...and then a whole bunch of people decided to photobomb it including Hans (the groundskeeper who mows around our beehives), Mr. Neil, Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi and Len Peralta.

If you have not been to a W00tstock and one is coming to your town--GO!  It's put on by Paul & Storm and it advertises to be a three hour music and all around geek event, but the Twin Cities W00tstock went on for 5 hours.  Each show has a roster of different guests with some regulars.  Wil Wheaton reads from his books, Adam Savage told stories and sang I Will Survive in the voice of Gollum, the dudes from Mystery Science Theater 3000 sang and riffed some old educational movie shorts, the Science of Superheroes guy did a math demo--really a little of everything and fun.

Non Birding Bill and I hung out backstage a bit (NBB more than me because he was with his own kind). I must admit, my absolute favorite moment of the whole thing was Wil Wheaton asking me, "You're married to the THAC0 guy?  I love that script!"  I beamed with some major wifely pride.

This is me with Len Peralta (getting photobombed by Bill Corbett...who looks remarkably like Father Jack from the Father Ted tv series in this photo).  Len spends the show onstage and creates an original poster for the show--it's different from town to town.  If you order it and pay a little extra, he will even insert you in the poster.

Len is a FANTASTIC artist.  He recently illustrated the Trace Beaulieu book Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children. Above is one of my favorite rhymes for the book.  I follow Len on Twitter so knew who he was and knew about his Geek A Week project--what he calls a one year art challenge to connect with 52 influential geeks from different disciplines (art, movies, TV, computing, science).  He records a podcast and through the interview, designs a superhero or villain for the card.  Paul and Storm write all the cool facts and geeks attributes for all the card backs.  Some of the other cards include:  the guys from Rifftrax & Cinematic Titanic, Grant Imahara (another Mythbuster) and Weird "Al" Yankovic" just to name a few.

When I met Len, he said, "Birdchick!  I wanted to ask you to be a one of the cards but I saw the tag line on your blog was, 'To show the world that you can be a birder without being a geek' and thought you might be offended if I asked.

Non Birding Bill said, "That's really more of a goal that she fails at miserably."

Len later emailed me and we talked some more about it.  He thinks of geeks something different than I do.  He sees geeks as people who are passionate about a subject and felt birding wise, I was a good card candidate.  So I did it.  Here is the podcast and here is the front of the card:

I'm so relieved I'm not wearing a vest or a Tilley hat!  I feel like I'm in some sort of odd brotherhood and I told Len that he should have a show where all of us dress up as our alter-egos and have a battle royale.  Here is the back of the card:

I love everything about this--I love that the National Park I work for is mentioned in it, I love that my Swarovski spotting scope is my primary weapon--and I'm not wearing a vest!  I don't think this is going to make any big splashes in the birding community, but anything that gets non birders to give birds a second thought is worth its weight in gold, so if someone sees this on Len's sight and thinks, "Yeah, bird watching, maybe I should try that, I'm all for it."

So, thank you, Len for being kind in your illustrations and thank you for including me in such a fun list of people.  I feel like I'm in some sort of weird brotherhood or secret society.

Yellow-rumped Warbler On The Windows

For the last week, a butt load of butter butts (aka yellow-rumped warblers) have descended on my neighborhood.  They are fueling up before they head south and they are an end of the warbler migration.  You may have heard them in your neighborhood, their migration call chip note sounds a bit like a kiss.

This morning, one flew right up to my window screen.  Of course this happened just as I sat down to coffee at my computer, my camera was in the kitchen and my cell phone was charging...how to get a photo?  I supposed it wouldn't have made a difference because all I could see was the tail on the screen and periodically a tiny bill going for some tiny insect that hangs out on our window screens this time of year.  Eventually, it flew to a wire outside the screen and a little bit of pishing kept it in one spot for enough time for me to digiscope a few photos.

The yellow-rumps were covering trees, stucco walls and windows for bugs to build up their fat stores for migration.

Though I was unable to get a shot of the yellow-rumped warbler on my window screen, I was able to get one gleaning insects off of my neighbor's window.  At this point, I did wonder if any of my neighbors noticed the big scope out of my kitchen window--really, I'm taking photos of birds.  Honest.

After the yellow-rumped moved on, a young house sparrow flew up.  One of the things that makes house sparrows so adaptable is their ability to find food.  I've watched them watch chickadees when I add a new feeder.  They seem to study how the chickadees land and find food and after a day (or a few hours) give it a shot themselves.  The house sparrows watched all the warblers in the trees and clinging to buildings in my neighborhood and then would flutter in the same spots the warblers had been looking for food.  The above bird hung out on the corner, searched the frame and then continued to watch the surrounding warblers, it was almost as you could see the thought bubble, "How are these guys finding food, I don't see what they're after."

Ah, yellow-rumps, I love them but they are the sign that migration will soon be winding to a close and winter will be in full throttle.  Enjoy them while they last.

Random Angry Titmouse #birding

We were banding birds at Mr. Neil's yesterday.  I have quite a few photos of angry titmice--we got three in the nets.  These are exciting birds for us because my buddies Mark and Roger band mostly around the Twin Cities metro area and we don't have titmice there, it's just out of their northern range, but Mr. Neil is loaded with them.

I love tufted titmice--the general lack of them in the Twin Cities metro area is what keeps it from being the perfect place to live.  It could be argued that before beekeeping, I was using my friendship with Mr. Neil for a titmouse fix.  But as much as I love titmice, I kind of dread them in the bird banding nets--those tiny feet so well adapted for clinging upside down on a branch, cling tightly to a wad of mist net.  As you try to pry open those clamped toes to untangle them from the nets, they wail on your fingers with that hard beak--aiming for cuticles and knuckles.  I don't blame them, how are they to know that we are simply checking their weight, feather condition and attaching a small band. For all they know, we are no better than a sharp-shinned hawk about to eat them and they aren't going down without a fight.

Their call is very interesting too.  Up close, their angry whistles have an almost mechanical buzz beneath it.  It's hard to describe.  I tried to get a video of Roger getting nailed by the titmouse as he was getting photos of its molt pattern.  The titmouse's calls even made Lola the dog bark--she was locked in her pen and desperately wanted to investigate the sound:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VilCkwt5UjU[/youtube]

Titmice are the personification of attitude.