Other raptors at Starved Rock

by Amy Posted on 27 January 2011

Last Sunday, Arthur and I drove down to Starved Rock State Park for the 14th Annual Bald Eagle Watch. Although the Bald Eagles that winter at the Starved Rock Lock & Dam are the big draw, one of the highlights for me was a raptor awareness program by the World Bird Sanctuary. We attended the same program two years ago, but this time I enjoyed the program with a very different perspective.

Like last time, an exciting part of the program was free-flying raptors, swooping over the amazed crowd. This time, four birds flew for us: Harris Hawk; Eurasian Eagle Owl; American Kestrel; and Barn Owl. If I understand it correctly, many of the birds that WBS uses in programs are reared from hatching by the sanctuary, meaning they are extremely accustomed to humans. I guess the training process for these birds is different than that for older birds who come into education after an injury sustained while living wild and free.

Eurasian Eagle Owl
Eurasian Eagle Owl (possibly Bogart)

The program’s Bald Eagle, Liberty, came to the Sanctuary after sustaining permanent injuries as a juvenile wild bird in Florida. I was interested to learn that as a southern bird, Liberty is smaller than the average male Bald Eagle living up here in Illinois.

Bald Eagle
Liberty and handler Jennifer

I was really impressed that the program was put on by just two handlers, one of whom spoke the entire time while occasionally handling and flying birds across the room. The whole operation was really smooth and the program was filled with great information, extremely impressive and beautiful birds, and a lot of humor. Right on cue, Tsavo the Bataleur even took a bow as his portion of the program ended!

Share the birds, share the love!
Posted in Festivals & Events, Illinois, Illinois Audubon | Leave a comment

Starved Rock feeder birds

by Amy Posted on 26 January 2011

I haven’t been able to get out birding as much as I’d like lately, so I was really happy that Arthur and I could visit the 14th Annual Bald Eagle Watch Weekend at Starved Rock State Park on Sunday. We hiked a short trail but the most bird activity we saw (off the river) was at the feeders by the visitor center. We were happy to see Tufted Titmice for the first time in over a year. There were also lots of Brown-headed Cowbirds and a few White-throated Sparrows, two species we haven’t seen since last fall. It was nice to just chillax and watch the activity at the busy feeders for a while. Here are some of the birds we saw.

Black-capped Chickadee
Black-capped Chickadee

White-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch

White-throated Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow

Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

Pine Siskin
Pine Siskin

Northern Cardinal
Northern Cardinal

Starved Rock Feeders
The feeders at the Starved Rock Visitor Center

Share the birds, share the love!
Posted in Festivals & Events, Yard Birds | Leave a comment

Sin Cardenal

by Amy Posted on 25 January 2011

Less than four weeks ago, I felt pretty good about my prospects for taking the Bird-a-Day Challenge in 2011. It seemed like great motivation to get out into the field more often and a fun way to spice up the birding routine. I even started out pretty strong… but then on Monday, January 3rd, a new, unexpected challenge suddenly loomed. All dreams of a little big year were completely dashed. Things got desperate pretty quickly after that, with back yard birds hitting the list in the first week. By mid-month I was relying on them more often than not. My list of go-to birds shrunk alarmingly fast, and some regular feeder visitors failed me in the end. Yesterday I pinned all my hopes on a sometime visitor, the Northern Cardinal, but the crimson beauty let me down. Naturally, a pair spent the entire evening in the yard today, casually dining on mixed seeds at the platform feeder for well over a half hour. Thanks, guys! The photo below was taken on the 23rd at the Starved Rock State Park feeders. Am I being paranoid, or is he mocking me?

Northern Cardinal

Even though I didn’t make it out of January, I’m pleased to have made it past January 20th. That’s as far as my dad thought I’d get!

If this new “challenge” works out, I’ll be working on a new yard list later this year. That should make up for the premature end to the Bird-a-Day Challenge. Plus I have an easy target to beat for next year’s Bird-a-Day.

Share the birds, share the love!
Posted in Yard Birds | Leave a comment

The Amazing Journey

by Amy Posted on 22 January 2011

Today, a very special hawk made his first public appearance as an education bird with Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation. Veteran education birds were part of the FCWR display at Northerly Island’s Polar Adventure Days today, but for about a half hour, a Ferruginous Hawk named Journey was the star of the show.

Journey

Journey was discovered in the plow of a train at a Chicago train yard in the fall of 2009. A western North American species, the hawk is thought to have collided with the train somewhere in western Canada! It is estimated that Journey was stuck in the train plow, in a painfully awkward position, for at least 1400 miles. The hawk was carefully removed from the train plow and began a long and difficult recovery, from injuries including a badly dislocated shoulder and severe head trauma. Nursed back to health but left with a permanent wing injury, Journey has been in training in order to join the FCWR education program.

Journey

Today was his official public debut, and he was an absolute STAR! The Polar Adventure Days crowd was large and loud, so Journey and handler Dawn stood just behind an open door inside a small, safe space, with an adoring crowd able to take photos and admire the beautiful western raptor. Despite being new to the program, the young bird was a champ during the short viewing and even roused* twice!

*Rouse (v): [Falconry term] To ruffle the feathers and cause them to stand briefly on end (a sign of contentment)

Share the birds, share the love!
Posted in FCWR, Festivals & Events | 1 Comment

Upcoming Local Events

by Amy Posted on 17 January 2011

I want to let my readers know about a couple of interesting local events that are coming up. One is this week and the other is in March.

Profiles of Nature Exhibit & Fundraiser

Local photographer Jerry Goldner will be having a photo exhibit at the Whole Foods in Deerfield. The event, which takes place on Thursday, January 20th from 6pm to 9pm, benefits Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation. The exhibit of Jerry’s fine wildlife photography will include wine and snacks provided by Whole Foods. Education birds from Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation will also be in attendance. UPDATE 20-JAN-11: Due to predicted extreme cold & windchill, education birds will not be in attendance at this event. The photo exhibit will take place as scheduled. A $10 minimum donation is requested for this event. RSVP on the FCWR Facebook page or by contacting FCWR directly.

http://www.facebook.com/jerry.goldner?ref=profile&pub=2305272732#!/event.php?eid=177321112288960

Wild Things coming to Chicago

The fourth biennial Wild Things conference is coming to Chicago this March 5th. Attendees have a huge selection of workshops, lectures and panels from which to choose. From the official website:

Wild Things will feature the region’s best conservationists in a variety of large and small-group sessions drawn from real-life experiences with everything from the nitty gritty of habitat management, botany, and zoology to advocacy, education, art, culture, history and back yard and neighborhood ecology. This will be a great day for anyone who likes nature, conservation, gardening, restoration or who cares about the environment.

The day will kick off with a keynote speech by Curt Meine: “The Legacy of Aldo Leopold in the Chicago Region.” Six breakout sessions follow, with 10 or more different choices for each session.

A variety of topics are covered, from community gardening to land stewardship to effective environmental lobbying. There are plenty of sessions to keep keen birders interested. I’ll be attending “Breeding Birds of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie,” “Why do yellow-breasted chats sing at night?,” and others.

Register for the conference by the early bird deadline (the reason for this early blog post) of January 30th and pay just $28 per attendee. After that, the regular registration fee is $40. The conference will take place at the Student Center East at the U of I at Chicago. See the Wild Things website for more details.

Share the birds, share the love!
Posted in Charity, FCWR, Festivals & Events | Leave a comment

2011: The Year of the Bird Movie?

by Amy Posted on 14 January 2011

This year, birders are looking forward to a big screen adaptation of a popular birding book. The Big Year looks to be a big comedy, with stars like Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Rashida Jones, and others. Birdchick got a great scoop back in December when she heard from someone who saw an early preview. Check out her post here: Big Year Movie News & Rumors. It was recently revealed the film will have an October 14th release date. (h/t Greg Miller via Facebook)

But The Big Year isn’t the only movie coming out in 2011 that may interest birders. IMDb shows another intriguing title, A Birder’s Guide to Everything, with a 2011 release date, though the director’s personal website shows the film to still be in development. This looks to be a coming-of-age-with-rare-birds family film. Bryan Cranston and Ben Kingsley are named as stars.

An animated feature which looks to have a conservation theme, Rio, will come on out on April 15th. The story follows the last two Blue Macaws on Earth, one a household pet living in Minnesota and the other living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The two are brought together and mayhem ensues. Here’s a trailer:

Finally, another animated movie, Rango, will come out on March 4th. This doesn’t focus on birds, but looks to be a standard animated family flick, centering on a chameleon and a posse of desert misfits. I just thought it was worth noting some of the birds I’ve seen in the trailers: a Burrowing Owl mariachi band; Greater Roadrunners doubling as horses; and a Red-tailed Hawk depicted as the ultimate villain. Learn more at the official Rango website.

Are you planning on seeing any of these movies? Are there any other films you’re looking forward to seeing in 2011 (bird-themed or not)?

Share the birds, share the love!
Posted in Movie | Leave a comment

Streaming Dutch back yard birds

by Amy Posted on 12 January 2011

Last week the Dutch branch of BirdLife International, Vogelbescherming, introduced a new website featuring four different bird cams. Beleef de winter is the non-breeding season’s answer to the hugely popular series of nest cams run by Vogelbescherming each spring, Beleef de Lente. Viewers from around the world can watch Dutch feeder visitors on four different cameras.

Like the springtime nest cams, the live streaming winter cams are available 24 hours. Highlights from the cams are archived, so if there isn’t any action when you take a peek, you can still see some resident Dutch winter birds.

My favorite is cam 3, which is pointed at an open water source. The bubbling water is pretty popular bathing site for birds like Great Tits, Blackbirds, and European Robins. The clip “02-01 Populaire badplaats” shows a robin having a quickie bath and a cute Blue Tit who seems content to just wash its face in the water. Another great clip features a pair of Long-tailed Tits, which are like chickadees only fluffier, bigger-headed, and sporting little white Mohawks and super-sized tails: “05-01 Staartmezen.”

Nest cams are popular in the spring breeding season, which for most local birds is still months away. These feeder cams from Holland are fun to watch while we wait for those nest cams to fire up again. Do you have any favorite winter bird cams that are running right now?

Share the birds, share the love!
Posted in Netherlands, Webcams, Yard Birds | Leave a comment

Milestone birds

by Amy Posted on 10 January 2011

Holy cowbird, I fulfilled one of my 2011 goals already! I planned to work on updating my life list by entering old checklists into eBird over several days, possibly spread out over several weeks or even months. Somehow, though, when I got started on January 1st I really felt an urgent need to finish, which I did on January 3rd. My life list tops out at 543 species. I thought it would be fun to look at what some of my milestone birds were.

World 100: Common Pochard (Flevoland, NL)
World 200: Gray Woodpecker (Gambia)
World 300: Long-tailed Tit (Flevoland)
World 400: Brown Creeper (Lake Co, IL, USA)
World 500: Thayer’s Gull (Lake Co, IL, USA)

My ABA list is at 248. I’m still at that newbie-ish stage of birding and listing where it’s not too hard for me to pick up lifers locally. I think I’ll be able to hit world lifer 550 and Illinois lifer 200 (12 to go) this year.

I also had a look at birds I’ve seen in more than one country. The winner seems to be the House Sparrow, seen in six countries: India, Spain, USA, Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands. This pathetic list is a testament to my poor list-keeping skills in my early years of birding. Are House Sparrows a good enough excuse to (re)visit much of Europe?

Share the birds, share the love!
Posted in Life List | Leave a comment

Raptor Internship 2.0

by Amy Posted on 8 January 2011

This week the new classes of raptor interns started their 12-week course with Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation. I wrote about my experience on my own first day exactly one year ago: Raptor Internship Week 1.

Today I helped out a bit as the Saturday group had their first class, along with my new good friend Kim. We did some (icky poo) cleaning up after showing the interns six of FCWR’s education birds. I handled spry 0511 (Red-tailed Hawk), lovely large lady Pennsylvania (Great Horned Owl) shortly, and the distinguished senior Darwin (American Kestrel).

While I was waiting to “go on” with 0511 and Darwin, I waited in another room and took the chance to snap a few pictures with my Android phone.

0511
0511

Darwin
Darwin

Check out this extremely cool plumage adaptation in American Kestrels – a false face! As Darwin is looking the other way you can see his extra pair of “eyes” on the back of his head. The illusion of a face is even aided by the beak-shaped dark triangle in between the eyes. Pretty neat, right?

False Eyes

This plumage adaptation is found in other bird species, too. Mr. David Sibley writes more about false faces in birds here and here.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to help out each week of the internship. For most of the day today I was sure it was Tuesday, so that may be for the best. 😉

Share the birds, share the love!
Posted in FCWR | 1 Comment

Birds of the Year

by Amy Posted on 31 December 2010

Earlier this month, the Barn Owl was named Audubon California’s 2010 Bird of the Year by popular vote. Although not one of the six birds nominated by group, the Barn Owl won as a write-in candidate with nearly 70% of the total vote. The species probably got a boost via an extremely popular Barn Owl nest cam that ran over the spring. Molly the Owl got worldwide attention. The Barn Owl is doing relatively well in California; local populations suffer from habitat loss. The species is endangered here in Illinois for the same reasons.

Meanwhile, Dutch bird research partners including the Dutch branch of BirdLife International named 2011 the Year of the Barn Swallow. The population of Barn Swallows in the Netherlands has been cut in half over the past 40 years. Researchers are asking for the public’s help in reporting Barn Swallow sightings as well as previous and potential nest sites. Dutch friends can visit this site to learn more.

While I can’t predict what my bird of the year for 2011 will be, I can say that 2010 was the year of the Barred Owl. I got to meet a very special education Barred Owl named Meepy, and I am looking forward to spending more time with her in 2011.

Meepy the Barred Owl

And one of my most exciting bird sightings of the year took place on November 13th, when Arthur and I attended an Owl Prowl at Ryerson Woods in Lake County and saw our first Illinois Barred Owl! The owl was a lifer for many on the trip and a county tick for everyone except the trip leader (I think), including a friend who has been birding in Lake County for over 40 years. It was so exciting and I regret that I didn’t blog about it at the time (because I didn’t have any photos to share).

Share the birds, share the love!
Posted in FCWR, Illinois, Lake-Cook Audubon, LCFPD, Netherlands | Leave a comment