Rare Extinct Imperial Woodpecker Footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OCd6b1aXU According to a press release a biologist from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology tracked down a 16-mm film shot in 1956 by a dentist (who was riding a mule at the time) from Pennsylvania.

The footage, which captures the last confirmed sighting of an Imperial Woodpecker in the wild, has now been restored and used to describe the species' behavior and its habitat—determined by tracking down the exact filming location during a 2010 expedition. The research appears in the October 2011 issue of The Auk, the scientific journal of the American Ornithologists' Union, and the cover features a painting of the woodpecker adapted from the film.

It's really hard for me to watch these sorts of things.  So close, so far away.  And as much as I like to focus on how well we have done conserving some species, we continue to think things like this Tar Sands Pipeline is a good idea.

Bluebird Not Thrilled With Woolly Bear Caterpillar

There have been a ton of eastern bluebird flocks milling about when I've been doing my fall surveys.  Their calls follow me everywhere on my surveys...and they always sound like they are apologizing for something.

One of the birds caught my attention because he was just wacking the crap out of something on the fence post.  I've seen birds do this with large mealworms or other bugs.  I was curious about the prize the bluebird had.

It was a woolly bear caterpillar. I figured the bluebird wanted to subdue the large caterpillar before swallowing it but seeing that it was a woolly bear and that the stripe in the center of a woolly bear is supposed to predict the how harsh the coming winter will be, I can only assume that this bluebird is still bitter about how long and snowy last winter was and is not thrilled with the prediction for this winter.

Hey, if you're not squeamish about handling live mealworms, here's a video I found of someone who uses them to hand feed bluebirds:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjxJgxQVd3w[/youtube][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjxJgxQVd3w[/youtube]

 

Emergency Camera Repair

Someone asked to see my MacGyver-like camera battery door repair.  This is what I came up with when the camera door broke in North Dakota:

I used a couple of hair rubber bands and a wad of paper to keep the battery in place.  The hair rubber bands stretch out too quickly so I've switched to regular rubber bands.  I kind of like it, it makes my camera look like it's about to fail and not worth stealing.