Birdchick Podcast

Twice a year I have some bird banding friends come out to Mr. Neil's place to band the birds around the yard--once in spring and once in fall.  On Saturday my buddies Roger (aka MNBirdNerd) and Amber (aka AvianImages) set up mists nets to collect data and got a GREAT cross section of spring bird activity from migration to breeding.  I hoped we would get a ton of cool information since I've noticed birds like the above red-bellied woodpecker coming and flying away with large beakfuls of suet--do they have young in the nest? They did get in quite a few woodpeckers.  Here's a hairy woodpecker male (note the little bit of red on the head).  Roger gave him a blow and revealed a brood patch.  Both males and females incubate so both would need a bare patch of skin swollen with blood vessels to keep the eggs nice and warm during incubation.  I went to see what Cornell Lab of Ornithology had to say specifically about hairy woodpecker and in the breeding section that mentions, "onset of broodiness" and that "incubation begins in earnest with laying of last egg, but male roosts in nest cavity and de facto incubation may begin with pen-ultimate egg, thus accounting for hatching often occurring over a 2 day period and for some of the size differences noted in nestlings." I love that someone other than my husband uses the word "pen-ultimate"to say that because the male sleeps in the nest cavity at night, incubation could start when the second to last egg is laid by the female. For the past few springs we've had a couple of pine warblers come in to the feeders when the weather is cold and insects are not out in full force.  Warblers generally are not feeder birds, this brightly colored group of birds primarily eats insects--except for the pine warbler.  During a cold, wet spell like we are having right now in the Twin Cities you can find orioles, catbirds, yellow-rumped warblers, scarlet tanagers coming to suet feeders as an alternate source of protein.  Above is a pine warbler eating some no-melt peanut suet.  What makes the pine warbler a little different from other warblers is that they are known to eat seeds and sometimes, I see pine warblers eating sunflower seeds out of the shell as well as suet. I think the rather disgruntled look on the face of this male pine warbler about says it all.  While we banded this bird, a second pine warbler came to the feeder.  It looked more like the bird in the photo above this--either a female or second year male.  I suspect that pine warblers are nesting nearby  since they sing well into June but it's hard to say since they quit coming to feeders so I don't see them feeding young (and I've yet to find the nest). There was a huge brush pile that was chock full of sparrows and they set the nets near that and got a few white-throated sparrows.  When Roger blew on their breasts, he was watching for fat rather than brood patches.  These sparrows are still heading north and birds that showed yellow globs of fat just under their skin were loading up to travel further north. The number of rose-breasted grosbeaks at the feeders have been increasing exponentially this week.  About seven days earlier, I heard one, then three days later, three males were at the feeder and by our banding day, I would say that we had five males jockeying for position on the feeder--and then one lone female.  Males typically arrive first to set up territory, so it was fun to see that in action.  We determined this bird was hatched last year, he had a few brown patches of juvenile plumage that had not molted out yet--not unlike some of the young males I saw in Panama this past February.  I wondered if the grosbeaks who arrived early on territory in sleet and cold temps and think, "I left Central America for this?" Keep your eyes open at the feeders and in the woods.  Migration is in full swing, we have quite a few birds just flying and a few more who have yet to arrive.

One of the things we get to do at my park as a ranger is "roving." Essentially, we pick a part of the park and rove around to answer questions or interpret wildlife.  It reminds me a bit of doing improv work-- you rely on the audience to guide where the sketch will go.  In this case, you walk into to a park and use whatever is on hand as your method of interacting with the public. On Sunday it was my turn to rove and I chose Crosby Park which is great during warbler migration as it's right on the Mississippi River and anything is possible.  There were some great birds there and while I was taking a photo of this song sparrow, I heard a sora.  Tons of birds were recent arrivals like great-crested flycatchers and yellow warblers.  I also noted a pair of broad-winged hawks setting up territory, which is fun because when we do Big River Journey, I always see broad-wings soaring over the park from the boat on the river. The best part of my morning was when I hung out at this shelter--a great interpretive prop presented itself.  It's at a busy intersection of the trails in Crosby--it's actually not a bad spot to sit and listen for warblers.  But as soon as I approached, movement caught my attention...and it wasn't a bird.  Can you make out an animal in the above photo?  If you can't, don't worry, it's hard to see.  But check out that big hole in the trunk of the tree, just above the shelter roof.  It's a raccoon.  When I arrived, all you could see was the body rising up moving around, I think the raccoon was grooming itself.  When people would stop and ask what I was looking at, I'd set my scope on the hole and pish very loudly like I was targeting a huge bird. The large raccoon leaned its head back as if to say, "Yeah, lady, what do you want, I've got things going on in here." It was the perfect place to camp out and interpret.  And a perfect place for a raccoon.  Nice secluded tree with a big comfy hole.  Enough natural food and litter to keep a raccoon fat and sassy. As with birds, the raccoon soon grew tired of my pishing sounds and eventually ignored them, but it was fun while it lasted.  I showed Non Birding Bill the photos and he agreed they were cute but liked this raccoon hole photo series better.  In particular, this photo. As I continued on, I heard a pair of robins raising a HUGE fuss.  Something was in their territory and they weren't happy.  It was a serious alarm sound but not the aerial predator sound.  There was a clump of leaves and I did my best to scan, as best as I could make out, a red squirrel (see the eye and the whiskers in the center of the photo) had found their nest and was eating their eggs.  They did not make it easy for the squirrel, and smacked into it several times with their body.  Fortunately, it's very early in the nesting season, they will find a better nest location and rebuild.  What was interesting was that I heard a new sound made by robins in alarm--bill snapping!  I always though only owls did that, but robins do it too. As the robins were calling in agitation, it spurred the local house wren pair to sing on their territory below their nest.  Here's a sample: I was missing a piece of one of my digiscoping adaptors so I had to hand hold my video camera up to my scope, but you can hear the wren and the robins in the background. I love watching wrens sing, they do it with such gusto! For such an urban St. Paul park, Crosby is great, we did the Bioblitz there last year and not only does it have nesting indigo buntings, but also prothonotary warblers.  I'm a bit concerned about the warbler season.  The leaves are out in full force now and warblers love to hide in the tops of trees, they are going to be hard to find this spring!  Ah well, it will be a good chance to practice birding by ear.

I headed out yesterday with Lorraine to do some serious wildflower walking (what the heck has happened to me, I'm interested in wildflowers now) near our beeyard.  Before Lorraine arrived, I headed down in the woods to see if I could figure out what birds were setting up territory where--I like to get know the neighborhood on the trail to our beehives.  There's a pair of Cooper's hawks that have been "kekking" around the hives, but I cannot find the nest at all.  There's a creek on the property line, so it's possible that it's across the creek, but from the calling interactions, it sounds like the nest is on Mr. Neil's property.  Where ever the nest is, I'm glad they feel welcome (and may they eat lots of deer mice). But, while enjoying birds and vainly pursuing Cooper's hawks, I heard some serious pecking going on--it was loud.  I wondered if it was a downy woodpecker excavating a cavity and was shocked to discover that it was a female red-breasted nuthatch.  That tiny little thing was making some seriously loud pecking sounds! She was actually across the creek and I was still able to hear her.  You'll note a little haziness in these images, with the leaves coming out this nest is going to be well hidden very soon.  I marked where I stood, but who knows if in a week if it will be visible.  I was excited to find my first ever red-breasted nuthatch nest though. Pitooey!  Look at that spray of debris!  She was really going to town.  It was interesting to note that she was not wearing a band, Mark and Roger have not banded her yet and they have banded a few red-breasteds when they come out to Mr. Neil's.  I found it interesting that the female was excavating the cavity, that seems like something a male would do.  I checked the handy dandy Birds of North America Online and it reads that female red-breasted nuthatches select the nesting site.  It did mention that males who had not paired up early on may excavate four different sites to show a prospective female.  The above female worked and then disappeared.  I heard some chattering and soon, a male flew in and took over excavation duties: He was much more vocal as he excavated where the female had been silent.  It reminded me of one of those arguments you can have in a marriage where the male may be doing one thing (like excavating four different holes for you to lay eggs in) and quietly, the female begins work on the place she really wants.  The male then comes over to excavate and mutters, "Dammit, I excavated 4 different holes and then she picks one way at the far edge of the territory and now I have to start over on a new one!  What does she think my bill is made of? A woodpecker bill?  Ratcha Fracka Friker Frack!" They are excavating near where I hear all of the Cooper's hawk kekking.  I hope I'm able to keep watching this nest through the leaves and that the two unlikely neighbors get along.

When I was leaving Crex Meadows last Friday, I drove through Grantsburg, WI and a large, dark swallow flying overhead caught my attention--purple martins!  There were only a few flying, but I drove to the city park to see if I could get better views. ...

There are some birds who are celebrities to me--one would be the potoo.  I was into birds as a kid, I had a ton of books and I remember sitting in my room looking at bird books and there were certain birds that were iconic that I hoped to see one day when I got older and had the means to travel.  The potoo falls in that category. Potoos are nocturnal birds in the order of Caprimulgiformes and that includes nightjars (like nighthawks and whip-poor-wills) but are in their own family. Nighthawks are also active at night and will roost horizontally on the ground or a branch to hide from potential predators. Potoos do it upright and kind of look like a broken off branch.  If you go to Google Image Search, you'll find a ton of photos of potoos in action. When we were birding our first day at Canopy Tower, I asked my guide Carlos Bethancourt if there were any around.  I wanted to see a potoo and when I asked people for bird requests, someone requested that I try and get a photo of a potoo.  Carlos said that they have them but they are not always at the same roosting spot.  During lunch he came up to me and said that a potential potoo has been spotted near the entrance gate to Semaphore Hill (the road that leads to the tower). He was going to check it out to see if it was there and show people on the afternoon field trips and wanted to know if I would like to come along. So I did! The best part was that Carlos took me to the general area and then had me look for it.  My first attempt turned out to be an ant nest but I found it the second time and we set up our scopes on the cool bird.  I was so excited to see this bird, I wanted to ask for its autograph.  I love when I birds doing what I have read about for years--there was the great potoo perched and erect, looking like a piece of branch like all the guides and online photos show.  And this was a great potoo--it was huge!  The great potoo was nothing like a dainty nighthawk, it was the size and shape of roughly a red-tailed hawk.  As Carlos watched me take photos with my Nikon D40 on my Swarovski ATM 80 scope, he asked to try the camera on his Leica scope. He got a pretty cool photo of it stretching its wings and I was stunned at how long they were.  The wings were not pointed like a nightjar and I wondered what it must be like to see something like that fly.  They don't zoom around like a nighthawk.  They grab insects like a flycatcher does.  The potoo will perch out on a prominent branch and fly out at night to grab beetles, moths, grasshoppers and other large insects. While Carlos used my camera, I handheld an HD video camera to my scope and managed to get a few stills.  Look at that floofy face! And notice all the wispy feathers around the head.  I bet it would be so soft to touch.  Alas, like so many birds, not a good pet but such a cool bird to see up close.  I'm glad Carlos took me out during the break time, I was able to get some gratuitous photos of this great potoo without the rest of a birding group getting irritated that I wanted to lolly-gag. I could have stayed and watched this bird all day.   And that is the sign of what a great place this is.  If you have a birding/wildlife request at Canopy Lodge or Canopy Tower and you tell them what you would like to do, they work very hard to accommodate that request, while still be respectful to the wildlife and environment.  I've been to a lot of places that wanted me to cover how great they are for birding, this is one organization that has truly lived up to the hype. Canopy Tower offers night excursions (which I'll blog about soon) and while we were out we got to hear a common potoo.  Here's a link on Xeno-Canto of what a common potoo sounds like (do follow it, that is one of the coolest bird songs ever).  I remembered hearing that on the Biodiversity of Animal Sounds CD from Cornell and always thought, "What must that be like to hear in the wild?

As much as I enjoyed my time at Canopy Lodge in Panama, I was really looking forward to Canopy Tower. I have heard so much about this place from other birders and from one of the guides--Carlos. It has always stuck in my mind as a place I need to go. ...

Believe it or not, it can be a tad humid in Panama leading to a great deal of fog in the upper elevations early in the morning. It was like walking in a strange dreamland and were surrounded by strange sounds. One of them was a bird that excited our guide Tino (the Human iPod) and he said, "Thrush like schiffornis" and casually walked toward the sound strumming air guitar and whistling back at the bird. He whistled, the bird called back and after a few moments at medium sized ball of brown streaked above our heads across the trail and that was it. Now this bird is something of a mystery. It goes by many names in the guides because ornithologists appear to not know exactly how to categorize it. You mind find it in a guide as thrush-like mourner or thrush like manakin or thrush-like schiffornis. So, if you haven't gathered, it has characteristics of a thrush, it's kind of a manakin, well maybe not so let's just call it by its latin name schiffornis who knows.  You would think a spectacular mystery bird like this would be something to behold.  Here's a photo of one.  It's worthy of some Non Birding Bill brown bird ridicule. I giggled later in the day when I read my Panama bird guide about the schiffornis--it said that the only looks you are going to get is of the bird flying away unless you are lucky enough to snare one in a banding net. Ah well, those brown birds, always the heart breakers. One of our targets was the orange-bellied trogon which was very cooperative despite the fog. That bright belly was a beacon in the haze. Another most awesome bird that we got to see was a toucanet or more specific a blue-throated toucanet.  Alas, the clouds steal thunder from how mind bendingly beautiful a small green toucan can be. It was awesome to see this little dude (there were actually three) doing their thing and plucking fruit from the trees...and for the record, the little green guys show no interest in helping you find Fruit Loops or Guinness. And while we were watching some great birds we got to see some interesting bugs. I have no idea what this is, some sort of millipede? I asked someone in our field trip group if they would put their hand next to it for a size comparison because it was huge.  He hesitated...I guess I can't blame him, who knows what creepy defense mechanisms Central American bugs have? Oh and speaking of bugs--check out this trail.  Any guesses as to what made this trail?  If you said leaf cutter ants, you'd be correct.  I have lots of video of those dudes.  Not only do they cut up pieces of leaves for their little farms, but they clear the path for their trail by removing debris to make it easier for the ones carrying the leaves. There was something ominous to me about see the cleared and well worn trails unused.  Where were the ants and what were they plotting? Here was a wonderful discovery in the mist--a hummingbird nest.  This time my friend was happy to use their hand for size comparison--no worries at a hummingbird nest as there might be next to an unknown millipede.  The nest had at least one egg in it.  We're not sure of the species, the female didn't fly in while we were there and we didn't hang around so as not to keep the female away from incubating the egg. So even if fog, there are interesting things to see in Panama.

I really hate car shopping. When we had to go through the process a few weeks ago, I heard through the MN birding grapevine that several northern hawk owls were reported in northern Minnesota, I decided a day up to Sax Zim Bog with my good friend Amber would be my reward. Besides, what better way to get to know our Kia Pet (the named dubbed to our very beige vehicle because it looks like a Chia Pet before the grass grows out) than by taking it on an all day birding trip? Since daylight is short, Amber and I left the Twin Cities early to arrive at Sax Zim Bog just after sunrise and get some great photography light. Our plan seemed to work. The light was great when we arrived, and dark clouds in the distance only enhanced the bog's colorful landscape. Alas, the sun was a total tease and soon hid behind clouds that brought light snow. On the upside, I got to really test out the Kia Pet's brakes and refamiliarize myself with driving on snow and a few patches of black ice. Whoopee, I stayed out of the ditches. I do laugh, we've had this vehicle for a couple weeks now and I still drive it like our old sensitive Saturn, like pausing before I press the gas to go in reverse. You had to give the Saturn a minute to think about it or she wouldn't reverse or would jerk violently into it. I forget with this car, I reverse without pause. Ah, the joy of driving a reliable car! But back to birding the bog... We got a northern hawk owl right away near the corner of 7 & 133 near Meadowlands. If you are interested, there's a google map of where northern hawk owls have been reported which members of the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union add sightings to help those who visit the bog. There appears to be a small irruption of hawk owls this year (perhaps a crash in the vole population on their breeding grounds, pushing quite a few owls south into Minnesota). It's not on the scale of the owl irruption of 2004/2005 but we will never see the likes of that again...or at least not in our lifetime. This bird put on quite a show for us, as it was actively hunting. It dove down into the grasses, we could see it scurry though and then fly back up. This spot is right next to some railroad tracks and is a road that's used quite a bit in the bog. I'm always fascinated by an owl's ability to hear any prey in a spot like that. I must say, I'm loving the Nikon D40 for digiscoping. This photo turned out way better than it should have considering how low the light conditions were. In the past I've used point and shoot cameras for digiscoping with my Swarovski scope and I would have gotten blogable photo, but nothing this clear on a cloudy day. We ended up seeing a second northern hawk owl as we meandered around the bog, but it was much further away from the road and flew off to parts unknown. I couldn't believe we got our target bird so early. But the blog is not just about owls, there are so many great birds to find this time of year! We used the MOU's Sax Zim Bog site maps (particularly the Birding Roads tab) and went looking for birds. Any time we saw a flock of birds land nearby, we pulled over to investigate. We found a small flock of white-winged crossbills working their way through. We also saw about a dozen rough-legged hawks--each one different (we even saw a couple of dark morph birds). We saw many bald eagles as well but we did note that we did not see any red-tailed hawks, interesting change of buteos. The rough legs are very cagey and hard to get photos of. No matter how far away you park, as soon as the scope is trained on them, they poop (a sure sign they are about to fly)... This is a different bird than the one perched above--very dark, almost a dark morph. It's cool to see them in so many different color variations. One of the things I love about living in Minnesota is that a day's drive at the right time of year can give you a completely different set of birds. In the Twin Cities,

We had the Wingscapes Cam up at Mr. Neil's this weekend and I'm fairly certain I witnessed the arrival of pine siskins. I was out and about on Wednesday and I didn't see any. Just the usual suspects like the above tufted titmouse were using the feeders on Wednesday. Then on Saturday, I noticed one or two pine siskins. The pair either jockedy for position at the thistle feeder with the goldfinches or took their chances with the more easy going black-chickadees at the sunflower feeder. Non Birding Bill and I ended up spending the night and the next morning... ...it was pine siskin palooza! I stepped outside and you could hear that distinctive upward trill of the siskins sounding from the tops of trees, they easily out numbered the goldfinches at this point. I wasn't expecting to get big numbers of siskins this year, last winter we had tons and some even stayed around the Twin Cities metro area to breed. I wonder if we'll get a few redpolls again this year? Here's an animated gif of the birds flocking down to the stump covered with sunflower and thistle. I love watching the build up with the photos. It starts with a chickadee and then ends with a ton of siskins.  

You may recall that I took a little trip to Kazahstan in May...I still have a few posts left to write about this wonderful place.  I don't know if I will ever get back, but I hope I do.  I have said it before and I will say it again, if you want to feel like the only person on the planet, you find several spots that will give you that impression. When we first arrived, we stay in Astana, a city still growing and full of new development.  It's on the Steppes which is basically short grass prairie, but the locals do try to grow trees and they are very small.  Above is a photo of Almaty, and older city with established trees and older buildings. I was most curious about my accomodations at this hotel, in my travel itinerary it was described as a "Soviet Style Sanatorium."  However, as you can see in the above photo, the rooms were not padded and did not come with complimentary straight jackets.  They were very clean and simple.  The tubs were huge and even though I was tired and had to get up early, I refuse to let an opportunity to soak in a deep hot bath pass and took advantage of it.  I had a life bird singing the whole time right outside my room, a scops owl--kind of like an eastern screech-owl (here is what it sounds like).  It was not what I would call a soothing and relaxing sound...neither were some of my fellow birders outside my room trying to call it in.  I ended up putting on my headphones in order to fall asleep. The next morning I woke up to some crazy birds outside--like Indian Mynahs.  Alas, it was a tad cloudy and drizzly so I was not able to get the best photos, the mynahs were very striking birds.  Here's a photo of what one looks like. Here was a familiar bird--the Eurasion collared dove.  A bird working its way into the United States as an introduced species.  Again, here I was seeing the bird where it was supposed to be, Eurasia.  Our breakfast at this hotel was an odd combination of cold cuts, white sausages, cucumbers and tomatoes, cheese, some kind of cabbage salad and yogurt.  I was also getting accustomed to NestCafe--instant coffee granuals are not as bad as I thought. We had quite a few destinations this rainy day, but some of the most exciting were around this cemetery.  Not quite as grand as some of the larger ones seen near Astana but still quite cool.  This spot was where we got our first look at hoopoes which were just too darn fast digiscoping on a cloudy day, but man what a dynamite looking bird.  And what a fun word to say.  Incidentally, it is pronounced "who poo" not "who poe." We passed quite a few shrikes on the road and one was teed up in the cemetery.  For a bird that is known to impale it's prey on spikes and sharp barbs, a cemetery seemed the perfect place for it to establish territory. Surrounding the cemetery were huge poppy fields.  We passed dozens of fields with wide swathes of crimson, full of poppies.  When we stopped near the cemetery, we did find an interesting, yet familiar plant growing among them which we all sensibly acknowledged but left behind with knowing smiles. Another exciting species for me (but not as exciting for my fellow European birders in Kazakhstan) were these rollers.  They are kind of related to kingfishers.  They are a striking big blue bird and looked gorgeous over the poppy fields. Another bird that showed up was the golden oriole.  Again, these are just the tip of the iceberg to the amazing birds and scenery that were yet to come this day.

Not sure how it happened, but I was interviewed on Harvard's Radio Berkman about Twitter and how it relates to birds.  You can listen to it here.

I've blogged quite a bit about the first part of my amazing trip to Kazakhstan.  We spent the first half on the Steppes (short grass prairie) and then flew from Astana to Almaty.  I think my favorite part of the trip was exploring the Tien Shan Mount...

Look at this pygmy-owl outside of Los Andes lodge! This one perched right out the front door. There was some debate as to whether this was a ferruginous pygmy-owl or mountain pygmy-owl. The debate seemed to center around the spots on his head. Ferruginous pygmy-owls should have streaks, mountain pygmy-owls should have more spots. To me, it looks streaky. Bottom line, it was a tiny owl. Pygmy-owls were all over the place in Guatemala, this was a pygmy-owl that was spotted as our bus was passing through a small town. You know how in the US, some people will try to whistle like an eastern screech-owl, in Guatemala, birders whistle like pygmy-owls to get smaller birds to come in closer. One day our group saw a yellow-wing cacique fly over. In trying to get it to come back, someone in our group started the pygmy-owl call and I noticed something small and brown fly up to a telephone pole with a hole. At first I thought it was a wren, but it was a ferruginous pygmy-owl--we actaully called one in. How's this for a Guatemala sunrise? This was just off of the organic tea farm at Los Andes Private Nature Reserve. The tea is bordered by cloud forest where resplendent quetzals can be found. I'm generally not a fan of early rising (I know, I know, I'm a birder, I'm supposed to enjoy getting up in the dark, but I don't). However, when I'm forced to get up, what a treat to get a fabulous sunrise. Here's a zoom in, you can see the puffs of smoke coming off the volcano--beautiful. We took our time walking in to the forest, many birds were already singing. I mentioned early on that digiscoping was a challenge in Guatemala--digiscoping in the tropics is hard work and this was a trail where I had to make a decision: spend a few wasted seconds trying to get the camera an scope lined up, or use those precious seconds to enjoy the bird. One was an antpitta, I can't think of any way to describe it but maybe, combine an American robin and a nerf football with long legs. It was a bird I expected to only hear and not see, but as our group made it through the forest, one was walking along the path searching for food. What a treat to see this secretive brown bird. Here's the view of the tea farm outside of the forest with the quetzal. This was a cool spot to stand in and just watch birds go by. We searched this forest more than once for the quetzal but I only heard it, I did not see it. I heard two different versions of quetzal sounds. One was a rather pleasant, almost ticking call. The other scared the crap out of me. I found a very distant version of it on Xeno Canto, you'll hear this kindy of shrieky gobble, that's what I heard, only it was right behind me and ten time louder. I literally ducked when I heard it. Alas, did not see the quetzal, but we saw their nest boxes scattered about. We saw so many other birds including azure-rumped tanager, emerald touchanette, blue-crowned chlorophonia, and collared trogon that I could live with living to see a quetzal another day. They did have resplendant quetzal tail feathers on display at the lodge. I stood next to one to give some perspective as to how long their tails can get. I'm five foot and that tail is over half as long as I am. I should mention that the road to the quetzal area is quite adventurous. Our group was packed into the pack of this truck and we had to stand...I had to be careful where I stood. My head was at the top bar level and if I stood in one of the corners, I would end up hitting my head. The ride is about about twenty minutes long on what I would call minimum maintenance roads...and the above was about as flat as they got. There were curves and hills and large rocks and we were bounced all over in the back. It was nerve racking enough to watch when it was daylight and even more so when it was dark--our drivers were great, they knew how to drive on those roads,

This morning I heard a robin giving an agitated call.  Here's an example (only this one sounded more emphatic).  I hear them give it when a cat is in the neighborhood or when  young are fledging and you get too close.  There's another alarm call that they give for aerial predators like the Cooper's hawk, it sounds like this. Since the robins weren't giving their aerial predator call, I ignored it...until I heard a thud against my bedroom window screen.  The robin's chirp got louder and others joined.  I dashed to my bedroom, could see the feeders swinging and opened the screen to see what was on the ground below. The robin called loudly and two squirrels were frozen against a thin tree trunk. I looked down and in the narrow passage way between my building and the next door neighbor's house was an immature red-tailed hawk perched on the fence.  The bird turned toward my building, took flight and flew up against the wall, flashing its talons. I noticed something crawling on the wall, smallish with a long thin tail.  It wasn't a chipmunk and wasn't quite the right shape for a rat.  The hawk flew back and forth and made a few passes at the critter, each time the hawk went for it, the critter dodged onto a window frame or go in another direction--like a squirrel...and that's when it dawned on me what the critter was.  It was a very young squirrel, so young it was not quite ready to leave the nest and the tail wasn't bushy yet...I didn't know they could move so fast at such a young age. It almost lost its footing a few times and seemed shaky, but for climbing on a brick wall, it did very well. I wondered where it came from and noticed at the front of my building along the street, the city was removing a huge elm tree.  Many branches were on the ground and I caught the movement of another young squirrel.  I'm sure a nest had fallen and the young red-tail just happened to be at the right place at the right time.  I rarely see red-tails on my street, but there is a pair that is getting more adapted to our urban area, I'm sure this is one of their offspring. The young squirrel managed to dodge the hawk at every turn and several other birds had come in to join the angry robin.  Blue jays, grackles and more robins flew in after the hawk and began to chase and dive at it, eventually driving it away. The squirrel won that particular battle, but it's so young, I'm not sure it's going to win the war.  I wondered what that must be like to be the young squirrel.  You've been in a dark nest with your siblings and mother and suddenly screechingly loud noises erupt from below your home, followed by loud buzzing, eventually leading to your home to come crashing down and introducing you to bright daylight for the first time.  Once you get your bearings and run from the humans and machinery, a big feathered things tears out of the sky with sharp talons to grab you.  Hello, world! I wondered about the red-tail too.  Did it just happen to be at the right place at the right time and notice scurrying squirrels?  Is it so urbanized that it hangs around the heavy machinery and recognizes the sounds that come with a falling tree and know the potential food it could find?  It didn't seemed fazed by the tree trimmers and flew over them several times quite low. Did the tree trimmers notice the hawk? How many different kinds of critters and bird nests to they find in trees? I watched them put branches in the wood chipper.  I wondered how many bird nests (and nestlings) end up in there?  Do they just ignore the young animals fleeing in fright when they have to take down a tree? As usual, a wildlife encounter has left me with more questions than answers.

I just returned from the Potholes and Prairie Bird Festival in North Dakota where I go to see some of my favorite songbirds like the above Baird's sparrow.  There was one particular Baird's who did not get the memo on his life history. First, this bird had staked out territory on this tiny patch of grass next to a cultivated field, not desirably Baird's habitat.  What's interesting is that where you find Baird's sparrow, you usually find Sprague's pipits and there were no Sprague's hanging out with this guy. Second his song was just weird. Baird's sparrow should sound like this.  I felt kind of bad, he had little chance of attracting the mate with inferior territory and an odd song.  Last year, I got a great video of Biard's sparrow and you can hear what their song should sound like: Below is a video of the odd Baird's sparro that we heard over the weekend (sorry about the sound, as you can see by the way the bird is whipped around, it was a tad windy on the prairie): You can still hear the basic beautiful tone of the Baird's but the cadence is off.  I'm not sure if he was hatched last year and hasn't honed his song or if he is just an odd little misfit trying to break new ground on strange territory.