Piping Plover vs Least Tern

Another great link from Jeff that I had squirreled away in my massively overstuffed inbox:

Nesting piping plover vs least tern.

For some reason, the link defaults to the photos being irritatingly large. If you click on "zoom out" above each photo, they fit the frame and are easier to view.

I never realize how small some birds until I see them together. That piping plover looks big compared to the least tern and for some reason I have it sent in my mind that terns are bigger. I remember seeing a yellow-rumped warbler foraging in some reeds next to a least sandpiper and noticing they had the same body size--it blew my mind.

Now to deal with my inbox--I may just declare email bankruptcy and just delete the whole batch that's built up in the last few weeks.

Pigeon Extremists

I originally decided to keep mum on a story that broke in late May about a handful of roller pigeon enthusiasts in Oregon and California who were charged with killing raptors (including Cooper's hawks, goshawks, red-tailed hawks, and peregrine falcons) to protect their hobby. I figured it was a case of a couple of bad apples spoiling it for the rest of the club. You have extremists in anything and the area of birds is no exception. We recently had a debate on the Minnesota birding listservs about whether or not playing recordings of bird songs to find a species is harmful. Some felt ANY kind of disturbance to get birds to pop up is wrong--even pishing! That's a little extreme in my book.

I didn't want to bring attention to the roller pigeon issue, because I figured most of the members and the national organization would want to distance themselves from a few extremists who broke the law and not be that bothered by raptors...then I read the press release put out by the National Birmingham Roller Club. Though they are distancing themselves from the members who knowingly broke the law, the release reads as though they are in support of some kind of raptor control for their clubs. The press release starts:

" The National Birmingham Roller Club's position has always been one of not condoning or promoting the harassment, capture, or killing of birds of prey for any reason. The NBRC in no way endorses or supports any activity that would cause stress, injury, or death to any bird of prey."

That looks good, however, reading further down...

" Many of our Club members have pleaded with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for intervention or assistance to relocate Cooper's Hawks, in compliance with laws protecting livestock predated by endangered species. So far, our pleas have gone unanswered. Our government regularly assists ranchers when their livestock are predated by wolves, coyotes, cougars and bears. However, when thousands of our valuable pet pigeons are killed by Cooper's Hawks whose current numbers far exceed any previous hawk population estimates, our pleas for assistance to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are met with silence."

Hmmmm, here is where I have trouble getting on board with the situation. I understand that a roller pigeon can have a value of over $100, but that is hard to equate that with livestock--these birds are pets, not a food supply for a nation. This particular breed of pigeon is not native to North America, the hawks are. This would be like having a pet starling or house sparrow and asking for protection from raptors.

If you are going to have prey for a pet (no matter how expensive), you are going to have to accept the fact that native wild creatures are going to want to eat it. I understand that--Cinnamon, my beloved pet rabbit is prey, she has a body built for food. And much like the roller pigeon, she has a "unique genetic trait" that makes her fur irresistibly soft to the touch--and rabbits can be expensive pets. She can run like the dickens, and can be incredibly fast and make hair pin turns and dodges. I would love nothing more than to release her in the park or in the field next to where we keep our bees and just watch her go--really see her go fast and far, but I won't do that because of the risk of a red-tailed hawk, Cooper's hawk, bald eagle, etc grabbing and killing her is just too great. Even in my urban neighborhood in busy parks, I've seen raptors take a look at Cinnamon when she's out on the leash. They don't come for her because I stay near when I spot them, they won't come in with a human so close.

So, the idea that pigeon fanciers are releasing birds out to fly in the wild, far from humans and then some get upset that predators are flying in for them baffles me. I would imagine that decades ago, raptors weren't so much of a risk with racing pigeons and roller pigeons--the hawk, falcon, and eagle populations were unnaturally low because of pesticide use. Now that those populations have recovered, the playing field has changed and you probably can't fly pigeons like you used to. The club does acknowledge this further down in the press release:

" However frustrating it may be, we understand and work with the hawk problem by not exposing our birds routinely to hawks when they are present and also by not flying at all during the seasons of the year when hawks are most prevalent, typically fall and winter in North America. This is the only method the NBRC recommends and endorses."

Falconers release their birds in the wild and that is a risk for them too. A smaller raptor can be killed by a larger one, battles can happen if you fly your bird in the territory of the same species, or another raptor could try to fight your bird to steal the prey it just captured. Of all the falconers I know and articles I've read, they take total responsibility for that. If their bird gets killed while out, they feel it was their for fault for not being aware of the habitat, for flying the bird at the wrong time of day, for not paying attention. And while the NBRC acknowledges that they are trying to not fly their pigeons when there is potential danger, the press release still reads that the overall situation is not their fault, it's the Cooper's hawk that has the unfair advantage in the current situation. I would have more sympathy if they weren't tossing prey into the air that is naturally going to stimulate a Cooper's hawk's hunting and survival instincts.

And for the record, I'm not anti pigeon, anti pigeon racing, or anti pigeon rolling. I think they sound like fun sports and I could see myself with a flock of homing pigeons some day. And I give a benefit of the doubt to a majority of pigeon fanciers--that they are not killing hawks. The press release gives me cause for concern--if we start allowing the removal of raptors for hobbies, that is a slippery slope. What about people who don't want hawks around the bird feeder?

I am against removing native wildlife because a pet owner wants to let their non native prey animal loose and not get eaten. If you're going to play with fire, you have a good chance of getting burned. I don't think wildlife should be removed for a hobby and that includes pigeons, bird feeding, beekeeping, etc. You have to learn to live with wildlife and work with wildlife, we are running out of room and just can't afford removal for hobbies.

Maybe rolling pigeon and racing pigeon enthusiasts could hook up with knowledgeable birders and falconers? Maybe working with experts on the raptor species could help them come up with methods of flying pigeons with the hawks? If US Fish and Wildlife is ignoring them, they should try for other organizations or people to help them learn more about the raptors. Maybe this is an opportunity for some birder or raptor specialist out there to reach out and help? Who knows, they talk about the value of the birds, perhaps they'd be willing to pay for raptor consultations? Anyone want to give it a go? Try it out as a graduate project?

Click For Condors

Just got an email from a friend with a request...along with a very weird graphic (not sure how I feel about being ordered around by a bushtit):

Patagonia (the outdoor clothing company) is opening a new store in Palo Alto, CA and as part of the promotion they will be giving away $5,000 to a local charity. Ventana Wildlife Society is one of the candidates, and we need your help! The winner is determined by online voting, so we need all the votes we can get. All you have to do is go to here and vote (you don't have to sign in or anything, just click--and as I understand it, you can click mulitple times). Nepenthe, a local restaurant has offered to match the funds if Ventana wins, so the dtal could go to $10,000!

Why would this be of interest at the Birdchick Blog? Ventana is going to use the money to the California Condor reintroduction program, which is seriously strapped for funds this year. This year there are two Condor nests in Big Sur with healthy condor chicks--it's the first time in over 100 years that condors have bred in Monterey County! This money will go a long way to help ensure the survival of those chicks.

So, if you're feeling in the mood to help birds but are short on time and money--give a click.

Unrest In The Kitty Hive

Five days ago we checked the hives to see if they were ready for some expansion. Olga was very ready and we added a third brood box. Kitty was about three frames behind, so we decided to expand Olga and give Kitty a few more days to build up comb.

We took a look at Kitty today, and I noticed all but one of the frames had comb drawn out. We took out a center frame to check the status of the brood and found something most troubling. Can you see it in the above photo? It's down at the bottom, towards the right...kind of looks like a peanut shell...here's a close up:

The bees have formed queen cells. Now, I'm perplexed as to what is going on. There were about six queen cells formed throughout the hive and most were formed on the bottom of the frame--off of a column of drone cells. Now, here is the deal, queen cells are formed for two reasons--swarming (when the bees run out of room, they raise a queen, divide up and swarm) or supercedure (which means the current queen is failing, injured, or dead and the workers are trying to raise a new queen to replace her).

Now, according to bee literature, swarming queen cells are on the bottom of the frames. Supercedure queen cells are formed on the center of a frame...Most of the queen cells in the Kitty hive were on the bottom, but I did find two that were on the frame towards the center. I could find no eggs, but if the hive is about to go into swarm mode, the queen would have stopped laying eggs. However, it's been weeks since I've seen the Kitty queen. Is she dead? did she get injured or killed when we checked the box five days ago? Now, what do I do? Should I buy a new queen to introduce to the hive?

Check out this frame laden with capped over honey and a small patch of brood. From reading about queen cells in books and bee forums, the only thing that is certain with bee keeping appears to be that there are some guidelines, but really nothing is hard and fast. Sure swarming cells are usually at the bottom of a frame, but according to bee literature and bee forums--anything is possible. All of this may just be the Kitty girls feel crowded and are ready for a third brood box. I started thinking back: We checked the hive five days ago, and all seemed normal--eggs in cells and no queen cells. Today--there are about a half dozen queen cells. It takes fertilized eggs three days from when they were laid to be larvae and queen cells get capped at about seven days after being laid--these can't be more than four days old. The queens don't emerge until nine days after they have been capped. I decided to remove all the queen cells I could find and to add the third brood box and check again in a week. If there are no eggs after a week, then I'll order a new queen.

Ack, this is nerve wracking.

I ended up removing quite a few of the drone cells as I removed the queens. I felt terrible about it, but the hive needs workers to build and gather food,not males to eat honey while they bide their time to fly out looking for queens. As I removed wax, cells got exposed and you can see the larvae oozing out. I really felt bad killing the, but it needed to be done. On the upside, none of the larvae and pupae I exposed had any varroa mites--which means the overall health of the colony is good. After I scraped this chunk off, some of the drones started to emerge (above photo). I'm sure it was panic at feeling the cells being moved. As with any type of farming, you will have to kill some of your stock, but I found myself feeling more guilty about it than I had anticipated. If I'm like this with drones, I don't want to even think about my state at the end of summer in 2008 when I have to let my older colonies die off.

If anyone has advice or insights to my queen situation, please feel free to comment.

In other news, I have three new monarch chrysalises around the apartment. Two were formed about three days ago and appear to be parasite free. Whew!

News and Odds and Ends

So, I stumbled upon a really interesting blog called Pete at Midway, written by a man spending six months on Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean--who knew they had Internet access there? Anyway, he's got some great shots of the birds around there including albatross, fairy terns (also known as white terns), and tropic birds. He started his blog June 9 and you can easily catch up on his adventures. I love this photo of his front yard covered with albatross in his first entry.

In other news, I can finally get my favorite beer that I've had at birding festivals in the Twin Cities: Fat Tire! Whoot!! It's the best, and quite possibly could be the official birder beer. If you live in the Twin Cities and you have never had it, I highly recommend picking one up.

I got a press release today for the Midwest Birding Symposium that's happening September 13-16, 2007 to be held once again in the Quad Cities. The MBS happens every other year, so the last one was in 2005. It's held in an area twice, so this is the Quad Cities second go at it:

"We hope you enjoyed your time in 2005, and we have a whole new experience to share in 2007!

Highlights for 2007:
New venue - Stoney Creek Inn & Conference Center, Moline, IL. The hotel is a northwoods experience on the Mississippi River!
Keynote speaker: Kenn Kaufman
Expanded field trips
Earlier dates for migrating species.

Join us for a great time, free reception, and reconnect with the friends you made in 2005."

I went to the MBS in 2005 and had some fun, I'm not sure if I'm going to go again this year. It's good to see that they listened to feedback from last time and changed when they are having the festival and labeling which trips are boat trips. Although, I did notice that they are still promoting one trip by saying, "Participants may also see the Eurasian tree sparrow." I signed up for that trip last time just for the sparrow and when I was boarding the vehicle, I asked the guides where we were going to see one. They shook there heads and said, "There are no Eurasion tree sparrows where we're going." Hm, I wonder if they will be there this time?

The Loghouse and Homestead Bed and Breakfast

Yo, Mom, Terri--y'all are gonna want to pay attention to this entry. I think we need to do a weekend at this place!

Wednesday, Explore Minnesota started it's pilot project of Bed & Breakfasts & Birds (BBB). What we are trying to do is help teach bed and breakfasts how to market to birders who travel around looking for birds. We also want to help people become local bird guides. Many people guide, but very few are paid what they are worth (if at all). The goal was also to get guides a chance to meet bed and breakfast owners in their area so they could get more business. The B&Bs could offer birding packages to guests or have a guide list on hand for guests who visit and are looking for someone to take them out. The end of the workshop featured a short walk for the guides to show their birding skills.

Bobolinks were a hit with many of the B&B owners--many of whom hadn't really noticed them before. Man, I must say, this year has been the year of the bobolink for me. I remember being a kid and looking through my field guides thinking about how cool it must be to see and hear one of those.

The workshop was hosted at the Loghouse and Homestead Bed and Breakfast in Vergas, MN owned by Suzanne Tweten. This is the Loghouse, it was built circa 1889 by Suzanne's great-great grandparents! There are framed bits of newspaper throughout the loghouse that were found inside the walls, it's cozy and beautiful and perfect for a girlfriend getaway--or birding getaway.

When Explore Minnesota was making my lodging arrangements, they asked if I had a room preference. Being the wiseacre I am, I said that I wanted the least crappy room. So, I ended up in the Fredholm Suite--complete with hot tub, a box of chocolates, and the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. Organic, fair-trade coffee awaited me in the room--at night I could hear loons singing off of Spirit Lake in front of the B&B. It was an almost perfect night--except for the lack of Non Birding Bill.

The property is loaded with ruby-throated hummingbirds, this male is flaring out his wings and tail fighting for his position on the feeder. A female hummingbird had taken hold of this feeder, and some males she allowed to feed and others she chased off. After a little flaring, this male was allowed to stay. Later on, they both retreated to a tree and he started a mating display, his flare up at the feeder must have appealed to her.

Here is the female chasing off a different male. Check out the differences in the tail. You can see white tips to the tail feathers of the female on the feeder. There is no white on the male's tail in the top left hand corner of the photo. Female ruby-throats are kind of little Murphy Browns. They mate with the males, drive them out of the territory, build the nest and raise the chicks completely on their own.

I had timed my travel to this meeting to get some digiscoping done. The meeting and workshop started at 10am on Wednesday morning and was about three and a half hours from where I lived. I drove up Wednesday before the meeting, so that way I could spend the night and digiscope like crazy Thursday morning and take my time driving back to the Twin Cities. Above is Chloe, the Suzanne's spaniel showing me that my breakfast was ready. The food served at this place is FANTASTIC. Suzanne served me a broccoli, cheese, ham and egg dish with olive bread. My favorite part was the warm blueberries with cream cheese. Not only is the food tasty, they also grow some of the ingredients right there on the property and try to buy food locally as often as possible.

Suzanne does what she can for birds on her property, like providing housing for bluebirds (above), being careful with land management and taking dropped off cats to the local shelter.

Chipping sparrows nest in many of the trees. This one was preening his feathers and I have so many weird photos of him--but he was in great light, so I had to post them. Kind of reminds me of Audubon paintings--he was always posing birds in weird ways. Seriously, has anyone ever seen an egret pose like this?

Cedar waxwings acted like they were nesting right out side my window, but I was unable to find it.

The highlight bird for me was this male golden-winged warbler. This was the mellowest warbler I have ever seen. One of the guides had noticed him during the walk and saw that he was carrying a caterpillar around--as if on his way to feed chicks. When I saw him, he was singing on territory and not bothered by me in the slightest.

He was even stretching! Warblers are tough birds to digiscope, so I couldn't believe my luck in this one being so relaxed and easy to see. I think I took about 92 photos of him in all different kinds of light. I was even able to get a video of his song:

Isn't that just a weird song for a bird that looks like that? Many associate warblers with musical twittery calls, and this guy sounds like Froggy from The Lil' Rascals.

The trails are well maintained and you can do a prairie loop or walk though woods. I will warn, it's quite tick heavy this year in Minnesota. Something interesting that I'm noticing is that when I wear fruitier smelling lotions, I get fewer ticks on me. On Wednesday when I was walking around, I had on "Juniper Breeze" and had three ticks--three wood ticks and one deer tick (all attached). Thursday, I wore "Cherry Blossom" spent way more time in tall grass areas and found only one wood tick and it was not attached, but crawling around on my hip. I started noting this at the Detroit Lakes festival when people were really getting ticks, and I was getting very few. I was wearing Cherry Blossom then as well. Something to think about.

And, I have to end this on another bobolink photo. If you're going to be up and around the northwestern end of the state, I highly recommend staying at the Loghouse and Homestead, there's great birding on the property and there are quite a few birding areas nearby including Rothsay Prairie, Fergus Falls, and Tamarac NWR just to name a few.

Okay, I forgot I had a bobolink video, so I'm going to end with a singing bobolink:

A Reason To Visit Fergus Falls, MN

Just came back from a magical experience in Vergas, MN--more on that later, for now, I present Fergus Falls, MN.

And I don't just mean the giant otter statue in the park...at least I think it's an otter since it's in Otter Tail County. But to me, this looks like a weasel. Whatever it is, it's the animal statue in the city park off of State Hwy 59 in Fergus Falls. Anyway, it's not the reason I'm talking about to visit Fergus Falls.

Okay, and this isn't the reason I'm going to point out either, but I did get a kick out of the idea that a local church in Fergus Fall is bribing members to show up with the promise of free coffee and donuts.

This, my friends, is the reason to visit Fergus Falls. It's a little island in the city park. What could be so cool about that?

It's chock full of great egrets, they use it as a nesting rookery. I have never stopped at Fergus Falls--even though I pass quite a bit in my travels, but my buddy Carrol Henderson told me about the rookery in the city park that I stopped by today for lunch, gas, and to digiscope the nesting egrets.

The island is so close to the parking lot, that it's easy to get up close shots or just casual views of all the nesting great egrets. And in case you haven't noticed yet--take a look at those toes, hanging out over the side of the nest! Cute...in an extra terrestrial kind of way.

I loved watching the adult fly in. At first approach, they looked very dignified and heron-like with their necks tucked in, but in the final descent, their necks shot out, their long legs would splay, and they just looked out of control as they tried to land on a branch.

But, when the adults got to the nest, it was all business feeding the chicks and then just standing guard over them for awhile. The chicks actually made quite a bit of noise. It almost sounded like locusts trilling, with their monotonous buzzy, nasally begging calls. I tried to get a video with sound, but the wind was too high and interfered with the mic on the digital camera.

As I was digiscoping the great egrets, I noticed that I could hear some sounds behind me. It was a little different than the call the young egrets were making. I decided to go investigate.

A quick scan of the pine trees in the park revealed dozens of black-crowned night-heron nests. Perhaps the night-herons found the great egrets too noisy, or preferred to be along the shores of the park, as opposed to the islands, but any conifer in the park that was next to the lake had one, if not more black-crowned night-heron nests.

While I was at the city park in Fergus Falls, quite a few vehicles pulled up to watch the egret rookery. Many of them obviously hadn't noticed the night-heron nests---otherwise they wouldn't have parked directly underneath them like the car in the above photo. I love birds, and I know bird poop getting on cars is a fact of life, but when it comes to a bird the size of a night-heron, I would not want to tempt fate by parking directly beneath a couple of nests.

Scanning the ground directly beneath the nests revealed several night-heron egg shells and a few dead night-heron chicks (and poop). From my experience going out to heron and pelican rookeries for banding, I'm always amazed that any heron (or pelican) survives beyond hatching from the egg. Survival is tough--older siblings or other birds try to kill and eat you, if you fall from the nest too early your parents will ignore you and you will starve, all the nests are piled above each other, so birds are pooping all over each other--it's just a mess. But survive, they do...somehow.

So, if you find yourself in Fergus Falls, check out the city park for herons and egrets. It's an easy photo opportunity and one of the most easily accessible heron and egret rookeries I know of in Minnesota.

Still A Bird Blog

Just to keep the bird stuff going around here, I found some photos that were sent to me last month, that I haven't had a chance to post yet. Aaron sent these photos of woodcock chicks. Can you see it in the above photo? If not, here is an up close view.

Can yo see the chick? It's running away in the upper left hand corner. If you still can't see it, Aaron helps us out in the next photo.

Aaron says, "I wanted to send you this photo of some woodcock chicks I found while out looking for Goshawk territories. I know you dig the courtship flight of the woodcock. Have you ever seen the mothers broken wing routine? It's the same kind of thing as a momma mallard dose but weird and I fell for it too. I was just walking threw some open woods at about 6 AM and this wood cock takes off but instead of flying away from me like they usually do she flew at me and over my shoulder kind of appearing to have a tough time of it and then landed very close by. Then just as I was thinking to myself, "hum, maybe there's something wrong with that bird", I heard the peeping cheeping at my feet. I looked down and three little chicks were scattering like a good break on a pool table."

"It was the strangest flight. Like a bird from Mars. Loopy and like a Dr. Seuss cartoon. She flew and flopped/flapped her way around in the air and just plopped down in the grass in front of me and starred right at me several times. I put the chicks down and got out of there and a few moments later I heard her fly over and join them."

Thanks for the photos Aaron!