"My kids...they never call."

Long-time readers of this blog will remember my obsession with the Lake Isabella Great Horned Owl family. These ever-fierce, powerful avian predators have nested at the man-made nest site continuously for years, and I have been watching them since 2006.

At the end of this nesting season, banding of the single owlet brought out many dignitaries of the Cincinnati blogging community. Added to the nest was a "foster" owlet who needed a nest with a step-sibling the same age.

Baby owls go from small piles of dryer lint to tall, slightly fuzzy predators fairly quickly, "branching", i.e. leaving the nest and hanging onto large branches shortly after reaching adult size. And once they fledge, we may never see them again.

Enter Jack Verdin, Owl-Stalker.
Just got an email from him...he saw both of the six-month old owls today, bleating like goats at their parents. (Great Horned Owls, for their first year, will food-beg nearly up to the next nesting season, so just because their babies have left the nest doesn't mean the adults get a lot of peace and quiet.)
Jack couldn't make out the band numbers on the young owls, so he couldn't say who was who.


But a sighting of these once-fuzzy owls is a fine thing. A fine thing indeed.




























They look all grown up, don't they?
(I think they need to work on those plumicorns, though.)
:)

So let's dance...the last dance...Let's dance....the last dance...*

*You're singing that song now, aren't you?

As songbird nesting season comes to a close, so do the nets at Les' M.A.P.S. banding station.

It's hard to believe, but I shivered through most of the morning. The day started humid and warm, but a cold front quickly put an end to that.

Banding is fun to watch, but for the bander, it's time to work and concentrate.

I have to wonder if my constant babbling got on his nerves.

Some highlights from the day:

This hummingbird wasn't banded. Just ooh'ed and ahh'ed over and then released.


I stared and stared at this "screech owl" for 5 minutes before I realized it was a tree stump.

Well, you can't blame me! The goofy thing even has ear tufts!!


There's always more than birds in the forest...like this coral fungus:


A huge colony of this was overtaking a fallen tree. It was beautiful and delicate...

...like skeletal fingers clawing through the loam underfoot.
:)

Adult Blue Jay:

And for all their bravado at your feeders, they are remarkably docile in the hand.



I could look at the back of a Blue Jay all day.


Hatch year Eastern Towhee:

Kathi did a Bird ID quiz on her blog, and that's how I knew what it was. I felt very smart.
Look at the different parts...a "sparrowish" head and chest, with contrasting black and white wings.

Eastern Wood Peewee:

ID tip to tell Peewees from other flycatchers...Peewees have a "blank" face, i.e. no eye ring.

Red-eyed Vireo:

Feisty birds.


I could look at the back of a Red-eyed Vireo all day. Rich olive green, like moss in a primeval forest...with hints of a reddish wash. Just a hint.

So we say goodbye to the birds of Miami-Whitewater Forest until next Spring.


Laura? Laurrrrraaaaa???? Blueish-green nail polish! Are you FREAKIN'??
: )

Banding a big one

Since he is no longer a stranger, I wonder what nickname we can come up with for Les?
I'm sure I will think of something.

After dropping the kids off for a sleepover at Mom's, I headed out to Les' M.A.P.S. banding site.

The weather was perfect today...in the seventies with little humidity. Much of the eastern U.S. has been enjoying lower-than-average temperatures, and this gal is NOT complaining about it.


Did you know that young birds (like this HY [Hatch Year]White-breasted nuthatch) have fluffy butts?

I very much wanted to kiss this sweet little nuthatch...

...but given the force behind the bill, I chose to keep my lips to myself.

The "cool" bird of the day, a first for this site:

A HY (and very pissed off) Pileated woodpecker.
Check the crest...I wanted to rub it and make a wish.

These birds are massive, at least for a non-raptor (hee hee)...

Though not dependent on its parents anymore, it nonetheless gave out some pitiful and creepy calls to them as they waited in the trees. (The sound was akin to someone squeezing a squirrel)



All that drama must have made it hungry, so it decided to eat Les.



Nets have to be taken down every day, so an errant deer or turkey doesn't go galluping through them....





Did you know that mist nets also make great Halloween wigs?

Not a sad story

To tell this tale, we need to go back to August 9, 2007.
During a crazy busy evening, I took a call for an injured bird way out in New Richmond, about an hour from our house. I did tell dispatch that I would go "anywhere", and "anywhere" usually means about a 100 mile round trip.
This red-tailed hawk had been caught in a net fence, almost like a mist net that banders use.
After a few weeks of rest to rehydrate, heal some bruising, and also to chow down some free meals, RT07-18 was ready to be released.

(To explain that code..."RT" means Red-tailed hawk. "07" is the year it was admitted and "18" means it was the 18th Red-tailed hawk to be admitted that year.)

The hawk was banded, boxed up and driven back to the capture site.

I instructed the homeowner on what we were about to do and how to release the bird.
We like to take pictures of releases, because it is the climax of many hours, days, weeks, of hard work and dedication from our rehabbers. It is a feeling that blends joy, relief and a tinge of sadness and worry.
Will they make it?
Were our efforts in vain or will this bird go on to live, reproduce and do the job it was put on this earth for?




And so RT 07-18 was free to haunt the skies above New Richmond once again.

Most of the time, we never know how a released bird has fared.
A bird is considered a successful rehab if it survives at least three months after release.

Last week Dan, one of our volunteers and president of the board, got a call about a Red-tailed hawk that had been hit by a car....in New Richmond. Guess where this is going?

This bird was banded. The number was looked up, and yep...it was RT 07-18.

After examination, the bird was deemed too severely injured to attempt rehab, and it was humanely euthanized.

Now, you might be wondering why I would entitle this post "Not a sad story"?
But if we look at it from a broad view, this was a success. This particular bird lived for an additional two years after it was released, and who knows? Maybe raised a few baby hawks to send into the world? RAPTOR, Inc. gave this hawk another chance to try and survive on this human-riddled planet. Our cars, our poisons, our fences, all represent obstacles for birds to navigate. Rehabilitation gives these birds a way to fly again, for however long they can.

Being a rehabber is enormously difficult, both physically and emotionally. All the rehabbers at RAPTOR have convinced me that I don't want to do this. It has been described as a "labor of love", yet it is so much more than that.

Support your local wildlife rehabilitation center. (For a list searchable by state, click here.)
Donate funds and supplies.
Pitch in when you can.
It makes a difference.

A walk in the woods with a complete stranger, RELOADED

A few more photos from my walk in the woods with a complete stranger:

A robin was extracted from the nets, but was not banded:

This is the leg of a robin infected with avian pox. As you can see, this leg ends in...mostly nothing.
Avian pox is caused by a virus that infects the mucus membranes, and featherless areas of the body (eyes, beak and feet). Transmission can be via mosquito bites and through direct contact with an infected bird. (This is NOT a disease that has been shown to affect humans).

There is no known treatment. Captive birds can be vaccinated with a live virus vaccine, but wild birds are on their own.


The disease had begun on the other leg, too. The skin of the right leg showed signs of skin breakdown and a few of the toenails have degraded.
This is also NOT avian conjunctivitis.

This robin was released without a band and we wished it well.


A band recovery:

For the life of me, I can't remember what kind of bird this was. (UPDATE: Female Wood Thrush)
Les can tell us. And he can also tell us if he got any info on when this bird was banded. (UPDATE: Last year)

Ever wonder what a brood patch looks like? Well, here ya go:

(Les is blowing the feathers while I shoot the photo)

Brood patches show up on birds during the breeding season. This featherless bit of skin is highly vascularized to transfer heat to incubated eggs. Most birds lose the feathers in this area automatically, but some species like ducks and geese, pull the feathers out themselves and line their nests with them.
As Les so eloquently put it, "It's like a coat with a zipper." :)

The position of the brood patch varies by species. Some species have a single patch, like the above bird, while others, like shorebirds, have a patch on either side of their belly.
Gulls and galliformes (game birds) can have three patches.
Gannets, pelicans and boobies (stop laughing) do not form brood patches, but cradle the eggs on their feet while incubating.
If the male and female of the species both share incubation duties, both of them can develop brood patches.

All that you ever wanted to know about brood patches, but were afraid to ask.



There is so much more in the woods than birds:

I seem to have gotten over my oogie-ness with holding bugs, I guess since Paco handed me a huge inchworm at Muddlety.

Even the evidence of long-ago bugs is cause to grab the camera:

Can't wait to get back out there....

A walk in the woods...with a complete stranger

I take chances in my life...but I'm not stupid.
When I "Friended" this guy on Facebook, I knew that he had once volunteered at RAPTOR and he was a bird bander. That alone would have made him okay in my book, but in a conversation with my husband, I also found out that Geoff had interviewed this bander for a Cincinnati Post story about 10 years ago.
A sign at a church I passed yesterday gave me my new motto (okay, so it's always been my motto):
TAKE A CHANCE. YOU MIGHT LIKE IT.


Well, I like it.


When Les Peyton asked me if I would like to come out during one of his M.A.P.S. banding sessions, I jumped on it.
I made the mistake of telling my Mother that I was going out into the woods with a strange man for a whole day.
BIG MISTAKE. I may never hear the end of it.

Today dawned very early...why is the prettiest part of the day the time when I least want to be conscious?
I knew the day would be good when I encountered a fox (Yard Mammal!) as I backed out of the driveway:



I accidently came between her and her breakfast of yard bunny, so I apologized and headed out.


Here's Camp Les, in the middle of Miami-Whitewater Forest:


Les has been working this site for 11 years...with 10 nets spread out over 20 acres.
That didn't sound like a big deal...

The tools of the trade...Peter Pyle's Identification Guide to North American Birds, ruler and banding pliers:

I whispered to him, "Raptor banding pliers are bigger..."

We headed out to check the nets, and the walk was okay, even pleasant...until Les told me the last leg would be "challenging".

Hurrumph. What am I? A SISSY??

That thought stopped in its tracks when I saw the large tree we had to walk over...oh, and did I mention the deep ravine that is under the tree? Or that the tree had no branches to hold onto in the middle of it?


Crap.....deep breath. You can do this.
Halfway across, Les took my camera and got a shot of me doing the tightrope thing:

I did okay until Les made me laugh and I almost went over.
Me: "Stop making me laugh! I am GONNA FALL!!!!!"
Les: (hee hee hee)...."Sorry!!!"

So here's the maybe-lunatic that I spent the day with:


He's very fierce.
(And he actually has a blog...The Lamest Birder...but there is NOTHING on it. If we work at him, he might get it started...So now you are going to get blog traffic, Les. Time to start writing!)



He went out a few more times to check nets, but after sweating every drop of water out of me and crossing the Tree of Despair, I bailed on the net checks.
There was plenty for me to photograph and enjoy while I waited for Les to return with bags full of birds:

Mayapple, with huge fruits just waiting for a box turtle to come along...


Jack-In-The-Pulpit fruits...


Jewelweed...I have seen this plant on plenty of nature walks, but I never knew what it was.

(Les is also pretty darn knowledgeable about botany, so he was very helpful in identifying all the greenery. He showed me how jewelweed seeds will actually explode from their pods when you touch them, so I collected some to scatter in the yard. Good food plant {NATIVE!} for hummingbirds)

The birds caught were common species, but fun to see up close. Cardinals, lots of robins, chickadees, titmice, wood thrushes:

Is that gorgeous or what? "Oh-la-leeee...oh-la-laaaay..."


This was the "highlight" bird of the day:

An Acadian Flycatcher! If it was countable, that would have been a lifer for me. Oh well.

A beautiful little bird...

Look at those cute little rictal bristles around the bill!


And they aren't just cute...they think they are ten feet tall:

"Fear me! For I am the Big, Bad, Frightening Acadian FLYCATCHER! Roarrrr....???"

So I may never hear the end of it from my Mother, but a trip to the woods with some strange man...was worth it.
Thanks, Les! Take me out there again!
But could you build a rope ladder for that ravine?