Thursday, December 31, 2009

My Top 10 Birds of 2009

Posted by Kirk
I saw a lot of good birds this year. In fact, I set a new year list record helped in no large part by a trip to Arizona. Sitting here at the end of the year I can see that I added 33 birds to my life list as well. There won't be many years where I can say that. It is hard to pick my top ten birds of the year. Some are because they were just so beautiful while others were just exciting to find or a long time coming. Eight of the ten were lifers.

10. Partially Leucistic Purple Finch

Starting off at spot number 10 is something a little weird. I saw a lot of partially leucistic birds this year. One of my favorites was this female purple finch that had a strange white collar around her neck. It was very distinctive. I wrote a post about it. I wonder if this same bird will show up this winter? That would be really fun.



9. Eastern Towhee
The Eastern Towhee is one of those birds I see most years but they don't stick around and if I miss them in the spring then I've missed out. This spring was one of those years where I didn't see any. Imagine my surprise when I learned one was still hanging out in Minnesota in December. I took part in a Christmas Bird Count this year and got a lead that a towhee was hanging out just a mile or so from where I work I headed out with my camera on the count day and sure enough here was a crazy Eastern Towhee in Minnesota in December.




8. Varied Thrush
I haven't done a whole lot of twitching in the past. That's running after rare birds for those not familiar with the term. I see reports of strange birds all over the state but I don;t have the time to go running after them. Last winter there was a report of a Varied Thrush just a mile from my house though so with the inlaws in town to help watch my toddler son I grabbed my bins and field guide and made the short drive to the site. I saw the bird from a distance and managed to catch the photo below. Paul and I also talked with Liz Harper who lives on the street where it was hanging out about what it was like to live at the center of birding madness. You can listen on the pilot episode of our podcast.





7. Sedge Wren
The Sedge Wren was a cool discovery close to home. No travel necessary other than going to work. I took a photography class out on a hike to take landscape shots and a little wren teed up on a tree and chatted at us. I knew it was a wren immediately but something seemed off. It didn't feel like a house wren. I looked closer and was delighted to discover it was a Sedge Wren. I didn't even know they were on the property so it was fun to see them.




6. Orchard Oriole
The orchard Oriole made the list because I've been trying to see one for a while and they have eluded me. We get them at work but for some reason I can never find them. I finally stumbled into one in the yard of my wife's grandmother in South Dakota. It was completely unexpected and delightful.



5. Canyon Wren
Another wren! The Canyon Wren made the list because it was such a fun discovery. I was in Arizona birding unfamiliar habitat looking for unfamiliar birds. I found the Canyon Wren in the Superstition Mountains. It was teed up perfectly on this rock slab and was very cooperative when it came to photos. What a cool bird.




4. Loggerhead Shrike  
Just before seeing the Canyon Wren I spotted a bird teed up in the canyon we were hiking though. It was fun because it was one of those moments where I could feel my birding skills evolving. A few years ago I would have had no idea what this bird was. Now though I instantly recognized it as a shrike. I studied it though the bins and then snapped some photos before studying it more. What struck me was that the bill seemed shorter than the bills of the shrikes I'd seen in the winter at home in Minnesota. I double checked the field guide I had with me and sure enough, Loggerhead Shrikes have a shorter bill than Northern Shrikes. It felt good to have not only seen a new species but have correctly made an ID like that in the field.



3. Harris Hawk
The same hike as the shrike and the wren yielded a handful of other lifers. The most exciting was a Harris Hawk but it technically came after the hike. We were heading back to town when I almost put the rental car in the ditch. I had spotted a large raptor flying in our direction. I rolled down the window and it landed in a saguaro cactus maybe fifty feet from our car. A second then flew in. We could see a nest in the cactus. The birds flew off one by one and I got some decent photos. Even my non-birding wife thought it was pretty cool.



2. Black-necked Stilt
I just loved these little guys. This Black-necked stilt was hanging out at the water treatment plant in Gilbert, AZ. These are just gorgeous birds and I could watch them for hours. They are fun to photograph too.



1. Mountain Bluebird
Sure, it isn't the rarest bird nor was the adventure to find it the most exciting. I just love this photo though. I took it while on a family reunion trip out to the Black Hills in South Dakota. We stayed at a campground and this little guy was hanging around the whole time we were there. I ended up making him the desktop image for my computer at work.  There's something incredible about that blue that just makes me happy every time I see it. This was the same trip where I saw the Orchard Oriole. The post I wrote about it won a contest for writing about birding and life listing. The prize was Olivia Gentile's book Life List. If you're interested in listing it is a must read.



Well, that's it for 2009. In just a manner of days I'll be back to 0 birds for the year and the adventure begins again.

~Kirk
Read More

Sunday, December 27, 2009

December 2009 Twin Cities Naturalist Podcast

Posted by Kirk 2 Comments
We can't believe the year has already gone by. Here's our year-end edition of the Twin Cities Naturalist Podcast. We're debuting our new style of player this month so check it out and let us know if you have any problems. Don't forget to answer the trivia question!



Links for things referenced in this podcast episode:

The global climate change map
.

The Octopus using a coconut tool.

Saw Whet Owl Print.

Saw-whet Owl Release.

Brown Pelican flies off Endangered Species list
.

Photos of dead albatross chicks on Midway with bodies full of plastic.

~Kirk & Paul
Read More

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

OH MY GOD! SNOW! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Posted by Kirk 3 Comments
Horde food!

Stock up on candles!

Buy Extra Kitty Litter!

It might snow!

Okay so people aren't panicking too much yet but I have heard people are mentioning "snowmageddon" simply because the forecast calls for 8 inches of snow. Really?

This is winter. Put on a scarf and enjoy the ride. Here's the latest graphical forecast for the Twin Cities area.



~Kirk
Read More

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Dancing Snow

Posted by Kirk

We got our first big snow of the season a week back and a new dusting today. I took some photos on the drive in to work. This photo is from County Road 96 in Washington County. I love this drive as I go through these great stands of Burr Oak. I actually don't see this too much anymore as I now take a shortcut to work. The day of the snow I stuck to the bigger roads. I actually went to a coffee shop for the first couple of hours in the day to work on grant writing and wait for the roads to get more cleared.

I love how the snow dances across the road when the wind blows. I tried to find some good video of this online but came up short I. If you live in a snowy area you already know what I am talking about. If not, check out this video. It is just so-so quality wise but you can start to get an idea for how the snow drifts across the roads.



Maybe I'll shoot my own drifting snow video this winter.
Read More

Friday, December 18, 2009

Winter Solstice Sunset Celebration

Posted by Kirk

Looking for something fun to do in the Twin Cities Saturday night?

Dec. 19, from 3:00-5:30 p.m., the Lowry Nature Center  is having their Winter Solstice Celebration
The fee is $5 and the event is for ages 5 and up. Reservations are required.  Call 763-559-6700 or on register online.

Here's their description of the event:
Celebrate the longest night of the year, and discover the cultural history of the Winter Solstice. Savor a peaceful walk with the Solstice Quest to reflect on the passing year. Meet a creature of the night, a live barred owl, create an owl mask and silver spider web, and listen to a solstice story. Then follow Old Man Winter to "tie down the sun" at the bonfire. Sing ancient winter carols and enjoy cookies and wassail (cider), symbolizing the hope that summer will return. Reservations required.

Winter Solstice is the day the sun seems to stand still; after this, the days begin to lengthen. Mark the turning of the year through ceremony and songs celebrating the darkness and return of light. This celebration can bring you new insights, a connection to ancient ritual and peace at the Winter Solstice.

~Kirk

(photo credit: Glide)
Read More

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Squirrel Nuts

Posted by Kirk
I have a toddler so I'm a big fan of Melissa and Doug toys. They are very creative and made of wood. My kid loves them. One of the toys he really likes to play with is their latches box. Sadly I don;t think it is made anymore. It has eight doors on it and each one has a different kind of latch. Last night he spent about half an hour working on the diferent doors. Since I was with him it gave me lots of time to admire the art on the box. The birds are great, you can actually identify the species. I'm particularly fond of the Scarlet Tanager. But really, really. Did the artist need to put the acorns right there?

~Kirk
Read More

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Flying Eurasian Eagle Owl Video

Posted by Kirk
My co-host Paul forwarded on this awesome high speed video of a Eurasian Eagle Owl coming in for a landing. If you are wondering how they happened to get this shot look carefully at the legs. This is a captive bird. Still wonderful and stunning. I keep watching it over and over.

Eurasian Eagle Owls are closely related to the Great Horned Owls we have in North America. I love those orange eyes though! Great Horned Owls have yellow eyes.

Be sure to watch it in full screen mode!



~Kirk

Enjoy Twin Cities Naturalist?
Get a FREE subscription and have each article delivered to your inbox.
Enter email address:

Read More

Monday, December 14, 2009

Owl Imprint

Posted by Kirk
In between teaching classes on Saturday I noticed a cool bird imprint in the snow near the bird feeders at work. You could see it clearly from the upstairs classroom window. It looks like the mark in the snow made by a hunting owl. (click for larger images)

I've seen these before but usually imprints from a Barred Owl. This imprint was too small for a barred owl. I measured the wingspan and it was 15 inches. The closest owl wingspan to that is the Northern Saw-whet which Sibley lists as having a 17 inch wing span. We just released a rehabilitated saw whet owl here less than a month ago. Could this be from the same bird? Saw-whets are known to live in the area but we almost never see them as they hide so well. I'm assuming the bird that made this was was after a vole.


We usually see red-backed voles under the feeders picking up the scraps. There were vole tracks all over out there.


I'll have to keep my eyes open for saw whet owls staking out the feeders this winter.

~Kirk
Read More

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Where did the Facebook Updates go?

Posted by Kirk
In the past, becoming a fan of the Twin Cities Naturalist was as simple as clicking on the "Follow this Blog" button over on the left hand side and, voilà, the feed would appear in your facebook feed.

Sadly, those simple days are gone as Facebook re-designed how content is displayed. Many people have not caught on to how the new "news" feed works in Facebook. It only shows select content, not everything like the old feed, so the most recent posts from blogs you follow or even status updates from friends may or may not show up. You can click on Status Updates on the left hand menu in Facebook but then you only see status updates and not posts from blogs you follow or from fan pages you follow on Facebook.

To make sure you see the most recent posts from blogs you follow though the Networked Blogs application you need to click on Pages in the left hand menu in Facebook. This will show all of the feeds from the pages and blogs you follow. Facebook has essentially split content onto different "channels" and you now need to select which channel you want to watch. Many people are confused because the "news" feed which looks like the old feed where you saw everything is actually a much abridged feed and Facebook somehow decides what you should and should not see.

So, to follow the blog be sure to click on the Pages link to view that content. If Pages isn't one of the options listed you can also click on "More" and it will appear. Once you have clicked on More you can then re-arrange the order of the navigation options by dragging them around. I was surprised how much content I used to see in my regular feed is now in this alternate Pages feed.

While you are viewing the pages feed, be sure to leave comments on stories or click the "like" button. The more you do that the more likely the Twin Cities Naturalist feed is to appear in your general news feed.

~Kirk
Read More

The Podcasts

Posted by Kirk
Well friends. The podcasts are once again not working. In order for them to appear on the site a little snippit of code must be loaded off of a separate server and for some reason we've had loads of trouble with this. If the server doesn't respond quick enough then the little player doesn't appear which is what is happening right now. I am beyond annoyed. I'll find a new host and hopefully this will not continue to be an issue.

Update: Everything seems to be working now. I had to re-load all of the episodes onto the server. Some had disappeared. Very strange. Maybe they migrated south?

~Kirk
Read More

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Book Review: The Arch of the Kerguelen

Posted by Kirk
With cold winds once again blowing across the land I thought it was time to finally write a review of the book The Arch of Kerguelen: Voyage to the Islands of Desolation. I first cracked it open last winter. What I read was the 1993 translation of the work. The book suffers from some problems to be sure and I don't think they have anything to do with the translation.

Kauffman travels to the furthest, most difficult place to reach on earth and then shies away describing it to us in too much detail. He has a disdain for the scientists that work there that comes though clearly in the text and he goes out of his way to not describe the details of their work on the island. The scientists working on the island are the only inhabitants and their work reflects the unique nature of the place but he seems uninterested. More insight into why they are there would have enriched the narrative of his journey by better helping the reader understand the nature of the place. He is not particularly interested in the geology or ecology of the island either though they are arguably the most sensational and interesting aspects of the place. The only thing he seems to describe in detail and with poetic beauty is the ever present wind.

Another fault of the book is that while Kauffman seems engrossed in the history of the land he doesn't do a very good job of passing that history along to the reader. You can tell he has read everything there is to read on about the island and references these books frequently but largely assumes you will seek out those same books and read them yourself.

Kauffman was held prisoner in Beirut for three years before making the journey to Kerguelen and this probably shapes his desire to go to this desolate lonely place in a fascinating way but he makes no comparisons to the desolation and isolation of the island to his personal experience. This was a personal choice of his to be sure and he is free to remove himself from his writing to whatever degree he sees fit but it would have made the book far more compelling if he had been willing or able to let us into his personal experience more. The book fails as a personal tale as we gain little insight into Kauffman as a man. It fails too as a tale about Kerguelen as a place as we don't get as rich of a total picture as we wish we could get. I think Kauffman meant the book to be a story about a personal quest but to be truly successful and moving the author needs to be willing to fully open himself up to the reader. Kauffman either isn't willing or able to do that.

What Kauffman does do well is describe snippets of desolation. There are moments of brilliance in the book that make you viscerally feel the driving wind that pervades every moment of life on Kerguelen. These moments alone make the book worth a read. Reading the book on a wintery night I stood up and went to the window. A blizzard was raging to the north but we were being mostly spared.

It had rained earlier in the day and as night fell the light rain turned to a snow that hung in the air like fog. I could only see it as it drifted past street lights. No moon shone though the clouds and the world was lit with the eerie soft yellow glow of sodium vapor street lights. Across the street I could see a row of large trees, merely gray silhouettes against a background of nothingness. The book made me reflect on the world I live in and that's a positive thing. I just wish the book could have provided more. It is a worthwhile read as long as you are aware of the shortcomings up front. Kerguelen itself is a fascinating place, I just wish I felt I knew it better after reading this book.

In the end, what we are left with is a description of Kerguelen almost as strange as the place itself.

~Kirk
Read More

Win a pair of Leupold Binoculars!

Posted by Kirk
There's a cool opportunity right now to win a pair of Leupold Acadia Series 8x42 Binoculars through Cornell's CamClickr program. CamClickr is a distributed computing project that taps into citizen scientists across the world to help look at photos captured by bird nest web cams. When you log in you are given a series of photo to look at. You then tag the photos based on a few categories. Computers have a very hard time figuring out what is going on in the photos but the human brain can do it quite quickly. Participants first tag photos to say how many birds are present and then in a second round of tagging can assign behaviors. It is a lot of fun and many people have taken part. The project is closing in on having one million tags on photos. If you are the lucky person to add the one millionth tag then you win the binoculars!


What are you waiting for? Head on over to the CamClickr website and start clicking.

~Kirk
Read More

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Winter Storm Update

Posted by Kirk
Here's the latest national map of the big winter storm. The action is over out west but sitting on top of Minnesota now. I went to sleep to the sound of snowplows last night.

Here is the local "weather story" graphic from the NOAA. The blizzard area has increased since yesterday It includes parts of the Twin Cities Metro. The north-south divide seems to be Interstate 94 which is probably a bit arbitrary. The main difference is wind that will cause drifting snow and near zero visibility in the red areas. 



The predictability of what is yet to come seems in question. The winter storm warning area to the right said 7-12 inches yesterday and now says 5-12.

~Kirk
Read More

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Cougar in Twin Cities

Posted by Kirk


There's been another cougar sighting in the Twin Cities. The first sighting was a few days ago in Champlin near the Mississippi River and 169. This would seem to indicate the cat might be using the riparian area of the river as a corridor. The second sighting was last night at about 9:00 pm in Vadnais Heights. The best description of the area I could find was that it was in the 694 and 35E area.

What I find really interesting about this is the possibility this cougar was in downtown Minneapolis. Bear with me here. The most likely place this cougar came from (assuming it is a wild cougar) is South Dakota. Young cougars have been known to wander in from the west as the territories become too crowded out in South Dakota. Evidence tends to suggest that they follow rivers. The assumption is that this cougar came down the Minnesota river valley and then met the Mississippi at Fort Snelling. If it was on the north side of the Minnesota river it would seem natural to take a left hand turn and keep following the river. The left turn woudl put it on the Mississippi. The first sighting of this cougar was NORTH of downtown though. If the cougar really did end up in Champlin by following the river then it must have gone right through downtown Minneapolis to get there. If true, it says a lot about the quality of habitat along the river.

Now, to be fair, there is a chance this is an escaped animal that someone was keeping as a pet and there is also a chance that it was not following the river at all. The most recent sighting in Vadnais Heights certainly wasn't along the river. I guess I just like the idea of this big cat ambling along the river bottoms in the shadow of downtown.

I'm curious to see how this plays out over the next week.

~Kirk
Read More

Monday, December 7, 2009

Here Comes Winter

Posted by Kirk
There is a massive storm that blew in off the Pacific ocean earlier today. Here's a radar capture from NOAA as of 6:30 CDT Monday.


I know, it doesn't look THAT bad right? Here's the weather warning map that goes with the above radar though.


The teal color in California is a freeze warning. The light purple color that extends from there and touches 13 states is a Winter Storm Warning. The dark purple/blue in the middle of the country is a winter weather advisory and it includes a bunch of states that have thus far escaped the warning. The red spots are Blizzard Warnings and they are active in 6 states including Minnesota. The purple in the middle of Texas is freezing rain. There are winter storm watches in six additional states on the East coast. All told, the map above shows watches or warnings in 22 states related to this system and the number will likely climb in the coming hours as the storm progresses.

Before posting this I went outside and did some repairs to the snow thrower and fired it up. That's one of these for those readers in warmer climates. It finally started on the seventh try and belched smoke down the alley. In honor of the climate talks in Copenhagen starting today, I'll discuss the evils of two-stroke gas engines in a post later this week. Forgive me, my back is awful and I can't afford a new more eco-friendly snow thrower.

Here comes the snow.

~Kirk
Read More

Presenting: TwinCitiesNaturalist.com

Posted by Kirk
Hey everyone, as of last night the domain name twincitiesnaturalist.com now brings you to the blog. There may be a few technical difficulties as the switch is made and I'm working to resolve those over the next few days. Some of the photos have gone AWOL in the process so I'm tracking them down. Enjoy!

~Kirk
Read More

Friday, December 4, 2009

Geminid Meteor Shower December 13-14

Posted by Kirk
The Geminid Meteor Shower will be visible this month in the Twin Cities (the rest of the world as well.) The general "peak" of activity is considered to be on December 13, 11:10 pm central standard time. The good news is that the peak is early so you don't have to be up in the wee hours. The radiant of the shower in the constellation Gemini will be about 50° up in the sky at 11:00 which isn't too shabby so we should see some good action. The closer to the zenith (90° or straight up) the more meteors we see. The "peak" or time of greatest intensity of the shower is actually fairly wide so viewing should be good all night. There is some reason to hope that the Geminids may peak out at up to 120 to 150 meteors per hour this year! Keep in mind though that it will be hard to actually see this many unless you can get ery far awya from city lights. The Moon will be a complete non-factor. Not only will it be only a slim crescent at the time it will also be well below the horizon. The meteors all seem to radiate from the direction of Gemini but they can be heading in any direction from there do you don't need to stare in any particular direction.

The Geminids are a fascinating meteor shower as they are relatively new. They have been increasing over the decades from when they were first discovered. The shower has only been known for the last 150 years. I know I always think of meteor showers as stretching back to antiquity so this is fascinating. Most meteor showers are caused by active periodic comets that circle the sun and leave behind dust trails. The planet intersects these dust lanes and we see "shooting stars" as the particles burn up in our atmosphere. Aside from being new, another reason the Gemenids are interesting is that they are not caused by a comet but rather a strange asteroid called 3200 Phaethon. The source of the Gemenids was a mystery until Phaethon was discovered in 1983. Phaethon has an orbit that takes to from near Mars to extremely close to the Sun. It comes as close to the sun as half the distance from the Sun to Mercury. Phaethon's orbit is slowly changing which is why the shower is becoming more intense. After some time around 2100 the orbit will have changed enough that this meteor shower will have disappeared.

People have asked me where the best place is to view meteor showers in the Twin Cities metro area. That's a tough question. It all depends on how many you want to see. I've seen plenty of meteors from my light polluted St. Paul back yard. Shield your eyes from any stray light such as street lamps and turn the lights off in your house. Most of all, let your eyes adjust to the dark. Fifteen to thirty minutes of letting your eyes adjust to the dark will let you see many many more meteors.

Suppose you want to drive a little though to get a good view? Since my last posting about the Leonid meteor shower earlier this year, I've since discovered a wonderful resource for finding the darkest sky near your location. Check out this wonderful interactive map.

If you look at the map and center in on the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, you can see light pollution is pretty bad anywhere near the metro. What direction to travel depends a little on where in the metro you live. Heading out to an area in the yellow zone on the map will at least give you somewhat darker skies. You need a minimum of a two hour drive to get to a truly dark site and likely it will take even longer. Think boundary waters for true darkness! At any rate, you can most likely easily see a few good "shooting stars." from your own back yard.

The Geminids are beautiful but come at a cold time of the year. Dress warm and post a message in the comments if you see anything good!

~Kirk
Read More