Bird Banding at Carpenter Nature Center

Every Friday the folks over at Carpenter Nature Center catch and band birds. On the last Friday of the month they open up the banding to the public so that ordinary people can get a close up look at the birds and learn how and why people band birds. Birding has been a bit slow lately, on most trips I just keep seeing the same birds, and we just got a bunch of snow dumped on us so I figured that watching the banding would be a different change of pace. So today after I got of off work I stopped over to check things out. The snow seemed to bring the birds out, as quite a few birds were caught while I was there, even though the variety was not that unusual. Most of what was banded were juncos with a vicious female cardinal and a redpoll being the exceptions. Even though I did not really take any pictures I did have fun talking with people who have spent a lot of time looking at birds close up and in great detail.

This was not my first visit to see the banding, I try to go 5 or 6 times a year, so I do have some pics that I took back on September 26th. Each fall we are lucky to see both white-crowned and white-throated sparrows as the migrate from Canada down to the southern United States.
The field sparrow is a common resident in Minnesota, except during the winter, which is why they are frequently caught and banded.
White breasted nuthatch are year round residents but they are not caught as often during the winter. This is mainly because during the winter birds are trapped using ground cages which are less likely to catch birds like nuthatches. During the warmer months mist nets are used to catch the birds, and they are much more likely to snare a nuthatch as it flies between trees or to a feeder.
Late September is a fun time to check out the banding because there are many different types of birds that are migrating through the area at that time. When Nashville warblers migrate south most of the younger birds follow the east coast while many of the mature birds will take a more westerly route.
An unusual catch this day was a brown creeper. While creepers can sometimes be seen on the trees around the park they banders typically only catch a few each year.
While the banding is always very interesting I never like to spend too much time inside when I am at an amazing place like Carpenter Nature Center. So I took a short hike around the grounds during a lull in the banding. I did find a couple of interesting birds to photograph that were very unlikely to be captured for banding, like this northern flicker.

I also spotted a passing turkey vulture. Since Carpenter is situated on the bluffs of the St Croix River just north of where it joins the Mississippi it is common to see raptors flying over. They usually take advantage of the air currents caused by the river bluffs to fly using less energy.

Welcome to Spring 2008

Today is officially the first day of spring, finally! It has been a long hard winter here in Minnesota and I, like a lot of people who live here, am looking forward to the change in the season. The weather has only recently begun to change. We finally have started to get highs in the low 40s in the past week or so and some of the snow has begun to melt. This last weekend the weather was pretty mild so I did a bit of birding around the area. I was hoping to see a good deal of spring migrants but I am afraid it is still a bit early for that here. I did see a couple of robins in our neighborhood but only as I was driving by with out my camera. On Friday, the 14th, I got out of work early and headed over to Carpenter Nature Center. I did not see any new spring migrants but I did witness what I believe was some unique spring behavior.
I found two downy woodpeckers that I believe were in the midst of courtship.
Although downy woodpeckers are pretty common here I am not all that familiar with there courtship and mating behaviour.
But for a good half an hour these two birds would continually face each other and bob their heads swaying slightly back and forth.
When one bird would take off and move to a new branch the other would quickly follow and land on the same branch or one near by.
Then they would start the bobbing and weaving again.

I believe that one was male and the other female but it was hard to tell because they would constantly change positions. It was fascinating and I watched them for about 30 to 45 minutes.
I did find a few other birds in the park. There were plenty of black-capped chickadees, at least one red-bellied woodpecker, and a couple of white-breasted nuthatch.
On my way home from the park I spotted a red-tailed hawk perched looking for prey. We still have a lot of red-tails hanging around.

MN Valley headquarters 2-21

Winters in Minnesota tend to last a long time and can get some what depressing. Sure we have some cool winter birds but most of them are only in the northern part of the state. Down here, in the southeastern part of the state we mostly see the same birds through out the winter such as dark-eyed juncos, tree sparrows, crows, goldfinch, white breasted nut hatch,

downy and hairy woodpeckers
and northern cardinals.
But in the last couple of weeks of February I started to notice some differences on my frequent trips to the Minnesota Valley NWR visitors center. There have been some changes and some new visitors to the feeding stations that they maintain there. One noticeable change is that the goldfinches are beginning to get there color back. Goldfinches molt twice a year, once in the winter, into the drab olive color and once in the spring into the brilliant lemon color that most people identify with goldfinch.

A new visitor to the feeders have been house finches. Originally house finches were a resident of the southwestern US and Mexico but in the 1940s they were introduced to the eastern US. Since then they have spread and are now year round residents for most of the US, including most of Minnesota. I have not seen many around this winter and I have not seen any at the MN Valley NWR this winter, until now. Anther year round resident that has been noticeably absent until recently have been house sparrows. House sparrows were introduced to North America from Europe in the 1800s.
The most exciting new visitor has been a fox sparrow.
While I remember some reports on the list servers back in December about a fox sparrow at the MN Valley NWR I have not seen any in my many trips here. Fox sparrows are birds that we usually only see during migration. There wintering grounds are in the southeastern US where there is less snow making ground foraging easier. Their summer breeding territory is in the western US, northern Canada and Alaska. Spotting a migrating fox sparrow is usually a good sign that the spring migration has begun. Let's hope so, we can certainly use a bit of spring up here in the frozen north.

The Beginning of February at the Minnesota Valley NWR

February began with a nice sunny day. I stopped off at the Minnesota Valley NWR Visitors Center after work I was hoping to spot the sharp-shinned hawk that has been hanging around but he did not show up while I was there. I did take the opportunity to photograph some of the feeder birds though. The peanuts in this hanging feeder where very popular.
First the white-breasted nuthatch were fighting over them.
Then a downy woodpecker came in for his share.
The European starlings alternated between the peanuts and the suet feeders. Birds seem to naturally know when bad weather is coming. Right before hand you can usually find them gorging on protein and fat.
The birds were not the only ones out grabbing a meal while the sun was still shining. This little red squirrel was pigging out on seeds that had fallen to the ground.
It was a good thing for the squirrel that he was on the back side of the visitors center because when I left I found a red-tailed hawk perched out front. That red squirrel would not be very much of a meal for a hungry red tail but during the winter you have to take what you can get if you want to survive.

Carpenter Nature Center

Thursday the sky was clear and blue. I had Friday off and they were scheduled to do some winter banding at Carpenter Nature Center, so I decided to check things out after work to see what I might get to see during banding. There were a lot of passerines around the feeders, mostly juncos, tree sparrows, white breasted nuthatch and woodpeckers. I took a few pics but nothing outstanding.

So I decided to head over to my favorite spot at Carpenter. In back of the buildings is this wonderful crag that sticks out from an evergreen bush. When I first saw this bush I thought that it had blown over, because the crag sticking out looks a lot like it could be the roots of the bush, but I was mistaken. The crag gets good evening light and is a natural perching location for a lot of birds.

The birds that I see in this location typically are nothing unique but even common birds perched out in the open and bathed in the early evening light can make a mighty pretty picture. On this occasion my subjects were a white-breasted nuthatch and a red-bellied woodpecker.

It was still light out so I decided to leave Carpenter and try to make another run at finding the snowy owl that has been hanging out at the MSP Airport.

Carpenter Nature Center

On Tuesday January 15th I made a quick stop at Carpenter Nature Center between jobs to check out the feeders. I didn't have a lot of time, since I still had to get ready for my entertainment gig. There was a nice assortment of winter passerines visiting the feeders. The most exciting bird of the afternoon was the red-breasted nuthatch.
We seem to have more red-breasted nuthatches around this year then normal. There have been lots of people who have seen them at their feeders this winter but I have not been able to get many good shots of them so getting these pics made it worth skipping my nap, its a long day working 8 1/2 hours and then going out and working another 3 hours so usually I rest in between. Usually when I am out all that I find to take pictures of are the white-breasted nuthatch. There were plenty of those around too.

There were also the typical chickadees, juncos, tree sparrows, and northern cardinals.I also found a pair of house finches hanging out.Unfortunately I did not have enough time to check out the river for the harlequin duck or Barrow's goldeneye that have been hanging around. Guess that will have to wait for a future trip.

Sharp-shinned adventures at the Minnesota Valley NWR

Last Thursday we actually had some clear weather so I headed over to the Minnesota Valley NWR Visitors Center to check out the feeders. When I arrived I noticed right away that everything was quiet at the feeders. I knew that the Sharp-shinned hawk, that I have seen on numerous visits must be around. A quick scan of the trees reveled the small but deadly predator.
The sharp-shinned hawk is an accipiter. The accipiter family includes sparrowhawks, which we do not usually see in North America, goshawks, and a few other hawks including the sharp-shinned and coopers hawks. Accipiters have broad, short wings and a long tail which helps them maneuver when they fly. Accipiters also have relatively long legs which come in handy to hunt and capture passerines.
After a while the sharpie flew off and the birds began to return to the feeder.

Northern cardinals

White-breasted nuthatch

Red-bellied woodpecker

Downy woodpecker

Even a pileated woodpecker. I think that pileated woodpeckers are pretty cool but when talking to other birders I am never sure which way to pronounce it. Some people pronounce it pill-ee-ay-tid and other people pronounce it Pie-lay-tid. Usually now I call it both, because some birders are crazy and can get hostile if you do not pronounce it the way that they do.

Then suddenly all of the birds at the feeder scattered except one lone downy that was stuck frozen at the feeders.I knew that the sharpie was back before I ever saw it.Fortunately he perched in a pretty good spot for me to get some pics before he spotted the left over downy.And the chase was on. Fortunately for the downy he was able to out maneuver the sharpie and escape, this time.

Another sharp-shinned at MN Valley NWR

After work on Thursday I wanted to go out and do some birding but the skies were overcast and it was lightly snowing. Since I really wanted to keep my camera dry I decided to head over to the headquarters of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge where I could watch the birds at the feeders through the windows. When I arrived around 3pm there was a small group of people there from the US Fish and Wildlife Service shooting some kind of video. They were setting up to do a shot, using the feeders outside the window as a backdrop, when the camera man pointed out that all of the birds that had been around the feeders earlier had left. I went over to take a look and he was right, the feeders were pretty much empty of birds. I began to scan the neighboring tree tops and it did not take long to find the reason for the empty feeders.
A sharp-shinned hawk was perched in one of the trees behind the feeders. I pointed the hawk out to the people who were filming who were very excited. The woman who was in charge, Valerie, was surprised that all the birds had left the feeder when the hawk arrived. She had heard that the small birds will freeze when a hawk is in the area. I explained that most of the birds probably headed for the brush when the hawk arrived and were now keeping low and still in the cover. Then I pointed out one downy woodpecker that had not gotten away quick enough and had been standing frozen for several minutes on the side of one of the feeder poles.
A few minutes later the sharpie took off and flew up over the building. I expected that all of the passerines would return fairly quickly but the feeders continued to stay empty. I looked at the downy, who had moved to the back side of the pole where it had again stopped moving, and determined that the sharpie was still in the area, possibly on the roof. Another minute or two went by and still no passerines came to the feeder. The downy decided to make a quick break into the woods and about 30 seconds later the sharpie flew back down from the roof to land on a branch right in front of the window.We were all pretty excited since this time the bird was up close and pretty much in the open. It was a good thing too, because with the cloud cover and shooting through the windows, to avoid flushing the bird, I had to open up my aperture to be able to get any descent shots. If the bird had been further away it would have meant even less light.

The sharpy stayed for around 5 to 10 minutes doing some preening and watching for a good meal. Since none of the passerines were around any more he finally took of over the building. I am guessing that this might be the same sharpy that I saw around Thanksgiving in the same area. Maybe I will stop by on New Years Day since this bird seems to likes to visit on holidays. I knew that the sharpy had really left this time because with in a minute or two the area around the feeders was bustling with bird life. There where a couple white breasted nuthatch.There were also quite a few northern cardinals.Both male and female.I spotted red-bellied, hairy and downy woodpeckers, like the one above. There were also black-capped chickadee, dark-eyed junco, American tree sparrow, and starlings.