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Woodpecker"},{"term":"Goat"},{"term":"Golden Eagle"},{"term":"Goldenrod"},{"term":"Goldfinch"},{"term":"Green"},{"term":"Halloween"},{"term":"Harrier"},{"term":"Hawk Ridge"},{"term":"Hoary Redpoll"},{"term":"Hornet"},{"term":"Hunting"},{"term":"Hypostome"},{"term":"Imidacloprid"},{"term":"Interpretation"},{"term":"James Fisher"},{"term":"Jamie McBride"},{"term":"Joe Kane"},{"term":"Kauffman"},{"term":"Kids"},{"term":"Kon-tiki"},{"term":"Language"},{"term":"Laural Sphinx Moth"},{"term":"Lichens"},{"term":"Lightening"},{"term":"Liz Harper"},{"term":"Lyme Disease"},{"term":"Maple"},{"term":"Mayflies"},{"term":"Midwest"},{"term":"Milk Carton Race"},{"term":"Minnesota Master Naturalist"},{"term":"Mold"},{"term":"Monarch"},{"term":"Moon"},{"term":"Mountain Bluebird"},{"term":"Mouse"},{"term":"Mullein"},{"term":"Music"},{"term":"Myth"},{"term":"National Park Service"},{"term":"Northern Cardinal"},{"term":"Northern Hawk Owl"},{"term":"Northern Research Station"},{"term":"Northern Waterthrush"},{"term":"Oil Spill"},{"term":"Olivia Gentile"},{"term":"Ovenbird"},{"term":"Owls"},{"term":"Pesticide"},{"term":"Phoebe Snetsinger"},{"term":"Pictographs"},{"term":"Pileated Woodpecker"},{"term":"Pitcher Plant"},{"term":"Plants"},{"term":"Pleistocene"},{"term":"Poetry"},{"term":"Pumpkin"},{"term":"Ragweed"},{"term":"Rain"},{"term":"Rain Barrel"},{"term":"Raptor Release"},{"term":"Rattlesnake Orchid"},{"term":"Red-bellied woodpecker"},{"term":"Red-tailed Hawk"},{"term":"Roger Tory Peterson"},{"term":"Sandhill Crane"},{"term":"Savages"},{"term":"Screech Owl"},{"term":"Sewage"},{"term":"Sex"},{"term":"Sharp-shinned Hawk"},{"term":"Shrike"},{"term":"Skunk"},{"term":"Solar Decathalon"},{"term":"Solar House"},{"term":"Solstice"},{"term":"South Dakota"},{"term":"Springtail"},{"term":"Sprites"},{"term":"Starling"},{"term":"Stomach"},{"term":"Survey"},{"term":"Swainson's Thrush"},{"term":"Technology"},{"term":"Tibet"},{"term":"Time-lapse"},{"term":"Tips"},{"term":"Tracks"},{"term":"Training"},{"term":"University of Minnesota"},{"term":"Volunteer"},{"term":"White Nose Syndrome"},{"term":"White Oak"},{"term":"Wild Turkey"},{"term":"Wind"},{"term":"Winter Finches"},{"term":"Winter Wren"},{"term":"Woodpeckers"},{"term":"drawings"},{"term":"endangered species"},{"term":"nuclear power"},{"term":"nuclear waste"},{"term":"prairie island"},{"term":"twitter"},{"term":"wolf"},{"term":"xcel energy"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Twin Cities Naturalist"},"subtitle":{"type":"html","$t":""},"link":[{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.twincitiesnaturalist.com\/feeds\/posts\/default"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6896212391193095248\/posts\/default\/-\/Brown+Thrasher?alt=json-in-script\u0026max-results=5"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.twincitiesnaturalist.com\/search\/label\/Brown%20Thrasher"},{"rel":"hub","href":"http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kirk"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/15821760169329951459"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"generator":{"version":"7.00","uri":"http://www.blogger.com","$t":"Blogger"},"openSearch$totalResults":{"$t":"2"},"openSearch$startIndex":{"$t":"1"},"openSearch$itemsPerPage":{"$t":"5"},"entry":[{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6896212391193095248.post-2560012933963527673"},"published":{"$t":"2009-07-20T11:30:00.000-05:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-09-24T09:00:34.326-05:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Baltimore Oriole"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Birds"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Brown Thrasher"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Doland"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Lifer"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Mountain Bluebird"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Orchard Oriole"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"photos"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Storms"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"South Dakota Road Trip"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"Twin Cities Naturalist on the road! I spent last week in South Dakota. It was a family reunion trip for my wife' side of the family. All birding and natural history behavior thus had to be done in little stolen moments or while careening down the highway at 75 mph in a rented minivan. While I didn't return with a multitude of new western bird species sighted I did make some nice observations and saw a few lifers.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOur first stop was Doland, SD. Aside from numerous mourning doves and house sparrows, there were some other birds hanging out at the edge of town. I quickly spotted a kingbird but even without my binoculars I could see the white stripe on the tail indicating that it was an Eastern Kingbird. I see the Eastern pretty much every day on my way to work. I was hoping to spot a Western Kingbird. I thought maybe we weren't far enough west. Realizing I had a few minutes while my son napped, I went inside to get my binoculars and camera. I was glad I did! The Eastern Kingbird was gone but it was replaced with a beautiful Western Kingbird just a short distance away.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/Sl9-KuUkefI\/AAAAAAAABYs\/-JdRSFgfTAQ\/s1600-h\/IMG_2647.jpg\"\u003E\u003Cimg style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/Sl9-KuUkefI\/AAAAAAAABYs\/-JdRSFgfTAQ\/s400\/IMG_2647.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359140804292278770\" border=\"0\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EIt stuck around for the two days we were there so it much have been nesting nearby. The Western Kingbird was a lifer for me.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI walked along a row of trees and saw a bird fly in and land. When I put up my binos I was rewarded with not only an American Robin but an Orchard Oriole. We have Orchard Orioles at home and we band them once or twice a year at work but I have never stumbled into one in the wild so this was a lifer for me as well.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/Sl-cCMHLQCI\/AAAAAAAABZE\/P1kQia2xhrU\/s1600-h\/IMG_2634.jpg\"\u003E\u003Cimg style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 325px;\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/Sl-cCMHLQCI\/AAAAAAAABZE\/P1kQia2xhrU\/s400\/IMG_2634.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359173643019173922\" border=\"0\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EHere's a photo of the Orchard Oriole sitting next to the American Robin for comparison. The Orchard Oriole is smaller than a Baltimore Oriole. It's also brick red instead of bright orange. Another difference is that the tail is all black whereas a Baltimore Oriole also has some orange on the tail.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/Sl-cBxrmZ3I\/AAAAAAAABY8\/aLnLbL3PUTE\/s1600-h\/IMG_2629.jpg\"\u003E\u003Cimg style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/Sl-cBxrmZ3I\/AAAAAAAABY8\/aLnLbL3PUTE\/s400\/IMG_2629.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359173635924191090\" border=\"0\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI also saw this Brown Thrasher in the same area. This would have been a lifer last year. For a while this was a nemesis bird of mine. I could never find them. Now, for whatever reason, I've seen something like three or four of them this year.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/SmSd9tslVHI\/AAAAAAAABZU\/tTWlQtT2Hdg\/s1600-h\/IMG_2624.JPG\"\u003E\u003Cimg style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 264px;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/SmSd9tslVHI\/AAAAAAAABZU\/tTWlQtT2Hdg\/s400\/IMG_2624.JPG\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360583140041905266\" border=\"0\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhile doing a little yard birding I heard a Western Meadowlark and followed the sound out to the road where he was perched on a power line. He was facing away from me so I didn't get any good photos. Out on the road it was fun watching the Western Kingbirds chase the Killdeer. There were numerous killdeer around and the kingbird would chase after them if they flew under the powerline he was sitting on. I snapped a few photos of the pursuit, this was the only one that came out. They were moving really fast. You can see the bottom of the city's population sign, \"Pop. 297\" There are probably more birds than people. Heck, there are probably more house sparrows than people.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/Sl9-KbPZYgI\/AAAAAAAABYk\/l4Rxf-6rSuo\/s1600-h\/IMG_2638.jpg\"\u003E\u003Cimg style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/Sl9-KbPZYgI\/AAAAAAAABYk\/l4Rxf-6rSuo\/s400\/IMG_2638.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359140799170306562\" border=\"0\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWe pushed on a few days later to the black hills for the family reunion. We narrowly avoided a forming tornado along the way. I had my eye on this storm cell for a while and as we drew closer I could see this interesting looking area on the tail end of the storm. When we got closer I could see little tendrils spiraling down out of this area. They would form and disappear pretty quick so I didn't catch them in photos very well. Luckily we were traveling perpendicular to the storm at 75 mph and we cleared the area without so much as a drop of water on the windshield.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/SmPHXYmZ_oI\/AAAAAAAABZM\/7ouka9Cr2Mo\/s1600-h\/DSCN1784.JPG\"\u003E\u003Cimg style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/SmPHXYmZ_oI\/AAAAAAAABZM\/7ouka9Cr2Mo\/s400\/DSCN1784.JPG\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360347186055478914\" border=\"0\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EThere wasn't really any time for birding when we reached the Black Hills but I did manage to see a Spotted Towhee outside the entrance to Sitting Bull's Crystal Caverns and a number of these gorgeous Mountain Bluebirds at the Rushmore Shadows Resort.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/Sl9-KgTgGpI\/AAAAAAAABY0\/TDdxrRhlzok\/s1600-h\/IMG_2694.jpg\"\u003E\u003Cimg style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/Sl9-KgTgGpI\/AAAAAAAABY0\/TDdxrRhlzok\/s400\/IMG_2694.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359140800529701522\" border=\"0\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E~Kirk\u003Cdiv class=\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/button.php?u=kirkmona\"\/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\nCopyright © 2012-2015 Kirk Mona, TwinCitiesNaturalist.com \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.twincitiesnaturalist.com\"\u003EOriginal post here.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.twincitiesnaturalist.com\/feeds\/2560012933963527673\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=6896212391193095248\u0026postID=2560012933963527673","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6896212391193095248\/posts\/default\/2560012933963527673"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6896212391193095248\/posts\/default\/2560012933963527673"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.twincitiesnaturalist.com\/2009\/07\/south-dakota-road-trip.html","title":"South Dakota Road Trip"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kirk"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/15821760169329951459"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/Sl9-KuUkefI\/AAAAAAAABYs\/-JdRSFgfTAQ\/s72-c\/IMG_2647.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6896212391193095248.post-3656057356052587879"},"published":{"$t":"2009-05-07T21:49:00.001-05:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-05-07T21:52:41.556-05:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Bird Banding"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Birds"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Brown Thrasher"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"How old's that thrasher?"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"It was a beautiful Thursday at the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.warnernaturecenter.org\/\"\u003ELee \u0026amp; Rose Warner Nature Center\u003C\/a\u003E where my co-host of the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/tcnaturalist.blogspot.com\"\u003ETwin Cities Naturalist Podcast\u003C\/a\u003E, Paul and I work as naturalists. One of the fabulous things about being a naturalist is that you get to spend time outside on beautiful days. Many new migrants showed up today and the school group coming out took the Spring Birds class so that means banding! Fairly early on, the banders caught a beautiful large Brown Thrasher. What a gorgeous bird. Check out that gold eye! I usually think of thrashers as desert birds since that's usually where I see them. There are Brown Thrashers at the nature center every year but for some reason I never seem to stumble upon them. It was a thrill to see it up so close. The photo doesn't even begin to do this bird justice.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/SgL3JQ_SlTI\/AAAAAAAABOw\/yeuuBMjIpmg\/s1600-h\/P5070065.JPG\"\u003E\u003Cimg style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/SgL3JQ_SlTI\/AAAAAAAABOw\/yeuuBMjIpmg\/s400\/P5070065.JPG\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333096647311398194\" border=\"0\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe next photo gives you a real idea for the size of a Brown Thrasher. This particular bird had an interesting feature that can be used to age the bird. Banders need to know all kinds of tricks to figure out how old a bird is. Look carefully at the tail of the thrasher. Notice anything?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/SgL3JE-qczI\/AAAAAAAABOo\/zIX5SJVzVBk\/s1600-h\/P5070068.JPG\"\u003E\u003Cimg style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/SgL3JE-qczI\/AAAAAAAABOo\/zIX5SJVzVBk\/s400\/P5070068.JPG\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333096644087542578\" border=\"0\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003ESometimes banders look at the condition of tail feathers, the fresher and less frayed, the newer. This tail is a little worn but that isn't the important thing to notice. There's a faint light colored band on all of the feathers about an inch or so from the tip of the tail. Can you pick it out? A variation in color on a feather is not uncommon. Sometimes there are series of bands that correspond to feathers growing at night or during the day. In the case of this thrasher though, there is only one band and it was likely caused by a change in diet while the tail feathers were growing. Most likely there was a minor deficiency in nutrients. You see this from time to time on single feathers. The key thing to note, however, is that the band appears on \u003Cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003Eall\u003C\/span\u003E of the tail feathers in the same location. For this band to appear at the same place on all of the feathers, they would have all had to form at the exact same time. Adult birds don't molt all of their tail feathers all at once or it would be very hard to fly. Unless there is some freak accident where a bird is attacked and loses all of its tail feathers, the only time all of the tail feathers grow in at once is when the bird is born. Since the band appears at the same place on all of the feathers we can tell that they all grew at the same time. Since the only time that happens is at birth, we know that these are the original tail feathers this bird grew. That tells us this is a first year bird that was born last summer.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis young male was banded and released. Hopefully he'll go on to have a long successful life. From now on, even when he gets new tail feathers, if anyone catches him again they'll know when we was born because of his band.\u003Cdiv class=\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/button.php?u=kirkmona\"\/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\nCopyright © 2012-2015 Kirk Mona, TwinCitiesNaturalist.com \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.twincitiesnaturalist.com\"\u003EOriginal post here.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.twincitiesnaturalist.com\/feeds\/3656057356052587879\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=6896212391193095248\u0026postID=3656057356052587879","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6896212391193095248\/posts\/default\/3656057356052587879"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6896212391193095248\/posts\/default\/3656057356052587879"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.twincitiesnaturalist.com\/2009\/05\/how-olds-that-thrasher.html","title":"How old's that thrasher?"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kirk"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/15821760169329951459"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_TwyI2AUl8U0\/SgL3JQ_SlTI\/AAAAAAAABOw\/yeuuBMjIpmg\/s72-c\/P5070065.JPG","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}}]}});