Mississippi River FloodCam 2011

I just got word that the Science Buzz team down at the Science Museum of Minnesota once again has their time lapse Flood Camera set up taking daily photos of the Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul. (The feed is live but they haven't linked to it yet on their site. I'll share the link once they make it public.) Last year the camera captured the flooding downtown as the waters rose up and covered Harriet Island. While the flooding is still a few weeks away at this point, the camera has already revealed some interesting finds.

Here's the first image taken on February 4th. Snow covers the ground and the river is covered in ice.

Eight days later, on the 12th, the river ice starts to crack and break up.

Blocks of ice move downstream for a few days and then when this photo was taken on noon on the 17th, the river is free of ice.

It will be very interesting to see what happens when the river crests. Come on back for more analysis and river flooding news or subscribe by putting your email in the box at the top right of the page. You'll automatically receive updates via email.

~Kirk

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Phoebe Nest is a Total Loss

On the morning of the 28th the Eastern Phoebe that we have on our webcam at work laid a third egg early in the morning. I grabbed this image on my way out the door at 6:53. It is hard to see as the camera was in infrared mode but there are three eggs in the nest.


When I got to work at 8:00, things had changed. There were only two eggs in the nest. The web cam caught this Brown Headed Cowbird stealing one of the phoebe eggs at 7:33.

This was sad to see but even more frustrating was when she came back the next day and destroyed the two remaining eggs. Here's what the nest looks like now.


There is just a little piece of broken shell. Cowbirds have gone after this nest in past years but they have always just added their eggs to the clutch and let the phoebe raise them. Cowbirds are brood parasites. They do not create their own nest, they lay their eggs in other birds nests and let the other birds raise their young.

A first I wondered if what we're seeing here could be an example of Mafia behavior. Research by Jeffrey P. Hoover and Scott K. Robinson shows that cowbirds will retaliate against other species for rejecting their eggs. The researchers showed that birds who rejected a cowbird egg had their own eggs destroyed 56% of the time while those who accepted them only had their eggs destroyed 6% of the time. This is actually a really interesting example of evolution in action. This behavior of the cowbirds helps drive evolution of other bird species in a direction beneficial to cowbirds. They are selecting for those birds who can't tell the cowbird eggs are in their nest while destroying the offspring (and genetic material) of those birds that have figured out what the cowbirds are up to.

This doesn't seem to be what happened in this nest though since it appears that the cowbirds just came in and destroyed the eggs having not laid any of their own first. This could be an example of what Hoover and Robinson call "farming." The cowbirds are trying to create more opportunities to parasitise the nest by making the phoebes start over. We'll see if they do.

I'm very conflicted about this. Nest parasitism is natural. I don't have a problem with it. However, the Brown-headed Cowbird is an edge species. It is a bird that historically hung out on the edge of the forest. It does not like the thick middle of a heavily wooded habitat and so those birds that do not live in edge areas have not had to compete with cowbirds. The problem is that humans simply adore edge. It is our favorite habitat probably owing to our own genetic heritage. We're slowly turning everywhere to edge as we open up forests while at the same time planting trees in open areas. We've allowed the cowbird into areas where it historically has not been and we've pet it into contact with species who have not had to deal with it in the past.

Cowbirds are just doing what they have always done, it is becoming a problem though because we've changed the playing field.

~Kirk

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Phoebe Day 3: No new egg?

I was teaching all morning so I didn't have time to check out our Phoebe Webcam before heading off to a local school. When I returned, I checked the image expecting to see a third egg. Songbirds typically lay one egg per day and do so in the morning. When I checked the camera all I saw was a bird. The phoebe was on the nest.


Or so it seemed. The time stamp on the image seemed to be about 15 minutes off. I waited twenty seconds and refreshed the image but sure enough, it was frozen. I went down to nudge the computer that uploads the images and when I did I could see the live image below.


There are still only two eggs in the nest. Why didn't the phoebe lay a third egg this morning? When I spoke with staff who were on-site all day they indicated that the phoebe had spend much of the day sitting on the eggs and moving them around. It would seem incubation may have begun. Usually birds do not sit on the eggs until all of them have been laid. This way, incubation starts at the same time and they all hatch at the same time. Why start incubation with only two eggs? A usual clutch size is four or even five eggs. Because the old nest in this location fell down, the phoebes had to build a new one. Building a new nest is energy intensive and in some cases can mean a reduced clutch size. Two eggs may be all we get in this nest.

I did notice two male and two female Brown-headed Cowbirds hanging out in a tree very close to this nest. Cowbirds lay their eggs in other bird's nests. There's a good chance that if another egg does appear it will be from a cowbird and not from the phoebe.

Check back to find out. Tomorrow morning should be interesting.

~Kirk

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Two Eastern Phoebe Eggs in the nest.

I had my suspicions when the mother was roosting on the nest all weekend. Sure enough when I got into work this morning there were two eggs in the nest.


Eastern Phoebes lay one egg per day, usually in the morning. This means that one of these eggs was laid this morning (Monday) and one was laid yesterday (Sunday.) Eastern Phoebes typically lay four to five eggs. It should be interesting to watch the nest for the eggs of Brown Headed Cowbirds. This particular nest site was parasitized by cowbirds last year and while walking in to work this morning I could hear cowbirds calling very near this nest.

Brown-headed Cowbirds do not make their own nest, rather, they lay their eggs in other birds nests so the other bird will raise their young for them. Last year the Eastern Phoebe must have realized there were too many eggs in the nest because she kicked two eggs out of the nest. Unfortunately, she picked the wrong two eggs and threw out two of her own.

We'll see what happens this year.

You can also follow our Eastern Phoebe nest on Cornell's NestCam site.

~Kirk

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Eastern Phoebe Webcam shows bird now sleeping in nest...

I just checked the webcam on our Eastern Phoebe nest and it looks like the female phoebe is now sleeping in the nest at night. In case you are wondering, the camera is equipped with infrared lights so we can see the nest at night. Will she lay an egg tomorrow? It should be soon now. I'll be posting regular updates from egg laying through fledging. Be sure to stay tuned!

~Kirk

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Eastern Phoebe Nest Building Video

I mentioned in a post a few days ago that we were testing the web cam out for the Eastern Phoebe nest we have at the nature center. The camera is part of a partnership with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

On Friday, we changed the angle of the camera to get a better view. We then noticed the very next day that the nest that had been there for several years was gone. It either fell down or the birds knocked it down. This was not a bad thing, it was probably getting too high as the birds added on each year anyhow. The entire thing was probably seven inches high which is overkill. I was talking with co-workers near the window on Monday when I noticed birds flying into the corner of the building where the nest is.

I headed to the computer that runs the web cam and took some video. The camera usually only operates in still mode and uploads one photo to the Cornell nest cam website every 20 seconds. By capturing video, we gained not only a new perspective but new information as well. More on that after the video.



What you see here is not real time. I have edited out gaps between the birds visiting though those gaps were not long. These birds were really working. The next bird would appear about 20 to 30 seconds after the first bird left. We're seeing both the male and the female building the nest. There are a couple of cool things to note. First off, there are clearly TWO birds building this nest. I find this very interesting as my handy reference The Birder's handbook clearly states that for Eastern Phoebes, only the female builds the nest. I know these are two birds coming in because I could see them out the window but it is also documented in the video two different ways. First off there is behavior. If you watch closely, the two birds clearly have different skill levels at nest building. One bird carefully brings back mud and tucks it onto the base (an old electrical junction box) while the other bird comes back and simply drops nesting material and it usually just falls to the ground. This difference can be seen several times in the video. The other clear evidence that these are two birds is this screen capture.

One of the birds is banded. This bird is wearing a bird band, no doubt it is one of the bands from our active bird banding program at the nature center. We have banded the adults from this nest in the past. It would appear that one of these birds has used this nest site before though we will have to re-capture the bird at some point to be sure.

It will be fun to watch this nest site again this year and I'll be sure to let everyone know when Cornell starts posting the feed from this camera on their nest cam site.

~Kirk

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Phoebe Nest Cam Preview

Every year we have Eastern Phoebes that nest at the nature center where I work. I know of at least five locations where they nest on the property and I'm sure there are more. The photo above is of an Eastern Phoebe shortly after it showed up this spring. I took this photo out the window of our front entry way. I was excited to see a phoebe in this tree as it is the closest tree to a nest that has been occupied for several years. This is also the nest we have wired up with a nest camera in a joint project with the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

The camera is not "live" yet but I have access to the images. I thought I saw the bird fly to the nest on April fifth but by the time I got to the computer to look there was nothing on the nest.

I checked an hour later and it did look like some things had been moved a bit. Interesting but not conclusive.

This time of year the phoebes are still checking out possible nest sites. Eastern Phoebes are one species that will reuse nests from previous years.

This morning, one of our naturalists, Kelly Amoth, came to me and said she had just seen a bird fly to the nest. I quickly brought up the webpage and sure enough there was the bird. It was captured on at least three screen grabs and the camera takes them every 20 seconds.



This is a good sign and I hope the pair of birds hanging out near this nest choose to use it.

I'll be sure to keep everyone up to date on what happens with the nest.

~Kirk

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Live Red-tailed Hawk Nest Cam

Hat tip to Silverbug Studio for pointing out this excellent Red-tailed hawk nest cam. The nest is in Philadelphia, PA on the Franklin Institute building. The camera is very high quality and it is a live streaming video. You can see the bird move around and watch the traffic drive by. If you watch long enough you can also see the hawk come back to the nest with lunch a.k.a. pigeons.

~Kirk

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Phoebe Web Cam Back Up

After some strange server problems, the live Eastern Phoebe Web Cam is back up and running. The Eastern Phoebe has been on the nest every night this week cooking up a new batch of eggs for round 2 of nesting. So far so good. Four days, four eggs. We're really hoping the Brown headed Cowbirds don't come back to the nest. We checked the phoebe nest about 400 feet from this one and it currently has cowbird eggs in it. I expect the phoebe will lay one more egg tomorrow morning and then start incubation.

~Kirk

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The Second Clutch

Looks like I was a day late on this. Paul pointed out today that there are two new eggs in the phoebe nest. Since they lay one a day that means the first egg of the second clutch of the year was laid on Sunday morning. I'm holding out hope that Cowbirds won't lay eggs in the nest again but only time will tell on that.




~Kirk

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FLEDGED!

When I came into work this morning there were still little Eastern Phoebes in the nest. An hour later, I clicked on the site again and they were all gone. Now the question is, will the phoebe lay a second clutch of eggs?

My previous question has been answered. According to the Cornell site, the bird's hatch date was May 22. That was 20 days ago which means having the Cowbird in the nest did indeed slow down the development of the phoebes. They usually fledge in 15 to 16 days.

~Kirk

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Day Three: Egg Three

Another lunch-time update. Right on schedule, day three and the third Eastern Phoebe egg is now in the nest.

~Kirk

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Day 2, Egg 2

Following the typical pattern, the Eastern Phoebe laid a second egg this morning. Last year the first eggs was laid on June 16th with incubation starting on June 20th. Last year was a second nesting. Some years the birds use the same nest twice. You can view last year's highlights online.

Here's the data from 2008
First Egg Date: June 16
Clutch Size: 5
Incubation: June 20
Hatch Date: July 4
Length of Incubation: 14 days
Fledge Date: July 21
Days to Fledge: 17
Number of Nestlings: 4

Here's the data from 2007
First Egg Date: May 2
Clutch Size: 5
Incubation: May 5
Hatch Date: May 21
Length of Incubation: 16 days
Fledge Date: June 8
Days to Fledge: 19
Number of Nestlings: 4

I think the most interesting things we seen data-wise from the nest cam project is that every year the birds have laid 5 eggs but only had four birds fledge. This seems pretty typical. Also, the length of incubation and time to fledge can vary. In 2007, incubation took 16 days but in 2008 it only took 14 days. This is flip-flopped with the time to fledge. In 2007 it took only 17 days to fledge but in 2008 it took 19. That's a two day difference for each value so in both years the combined incubation+time to fledge was 33 days. Interesting coincidence? Could there be a connection wherein a shorter incubation means a longer time till fledge? We'll know more when we can look at this year's data as well. The 19 days to feldge seen last year is longer than the typical range of 15-16 days listed in The Birders's Handbook.

~Kirk

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Eastern Phoebe Update; Egg!

Just a quick lunchtime update here. I checked out our Eastern Phoebe Webcam this morning when I got into work. We've been expecting an egg soon. The female has been roosting in the nest at night but absent during the day. This morning, I came into work and checked the live feed. Voila! The first egg. The bird should lay one egg each morning now for the next four days or so. She does not begin incubation until all eggs are laid.

~Kirk

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Migration Updates and Eastern Phoebe Webcam

The chimney swift migration pushes ever onward and upwards. Chimney Swifts have now been reported in Missouri and Illinois. You can track the migration at the Driftwood Wildlife Association Chimney Swift Migration website.

Another migration website to keep an eye on is the Ruby-throated hummingbird migration over at migration.net. I was pretty shocked to see that there are reports already of hummingbirds in Minnesota and up into Canada! Clearly though, the mass of birds is keeping to the south and east. Follow the migration here.

The 2009 Phoebe Cam is now officially up and running and the feed is available to the public. The Lee & Rose Warner Nature Center where Paul and I both work is a partner with the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology on the Nest Camera project. Live images from our Eastern Phoebe nest are sent out around the world via the Cornell Nest Cam website.

Here is a live image from the nest. The blog automatically uploads the most recent image when you land here so to see the next image taken you'll have to refresh the browser window or go directly to our bird's page at Cornell. New photos are uploaded every 20 seconds on that page and you can leave comments in the forum about what you are seeing. You can also show the camera in self-refreshing Pop-up that you can leave on your desktop.



This is the same nest site used last year. A tornado came though last memorial day with 110 mph straight line winds and while the web feed went down because of a power failure, when it came back up in the morning all the birds on the nest were safe so this is a proven good location to build a nest. We keep the nest up each year and the birds re-use it. Enjoy!

~Kirk

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Phoebe eggs in progress?

I checked out the internal link tonight to the phoebe cam at work. The feed is not yet live to the public. That's up to Cornell to decide on. They won't go live until we see eggs. Check this out though. At 9:00 tonight I went to the feed and saw this image.


What is that? It looks like a curled up red squirrel.

I went to the feed because I was curious if the female phoebe was spending the night on the nest. That would be a good indication that eggs might be in the works.

I refreshed the feed and it just twitched a little. Finally, after about a minute it switched to this.



Interesting, more bird like.
I refreshed again and finally I got this image.



Woo hoo! The phoebe is spending the night on the nest. I would not be surprised to see an egg in the morning. She quickly went back to sleep. I wonder what woke her up?

~Kirk

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Ready for the Phoebes

We've been seeing the Eastern Phoebe's around for a week or so and we thought it was time to get ready to fire up our nest camera. Each year, the Lee & Rose Warner Nature Center tries to get a web cam set up on a bird nest as part of a partnership project with the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. We've been successful the past two years getting the camera set up on an Eastern Phoebe nest. The same nest has been used for a number of years so we haven't had to do much in the way of moving cameras.

After fixing a minor technical communications glitch with the Cornell server we are now sending a still image of the nest every 20 seconds. Here's an example I pulled off the server at lunch. As you can see, the nest is empty.


This is the same nest site that has been used a few years running so we're hoping the birds will simply re-use it. A pair of phoebes has been seen checking out the nest and hanging out in the area so our fingers are crossed.

Around 2:00 today I saw a bird fly up toward the nest while I stood by the window talking to someone. I ran to the office and grabbed this image off the server. I'd say we have a very good chance of them using this nest.


In years past, people have been a little confused about the location and what exactly they are looking at in the image. The camera is pretty much directly above the nest and the pipe heading down to the nest in the lower right portion of the image is a disused electrical conduit that leads to an old junction box where an outdoor light used to be. We haven't used the light fixture in many years but it is a perfect platform for a phoebe nest. Here's what the set-up looks like from the side. The camera is an infrared equipped unit with a ring of IR LEDs around the lens so you can see in the nest even at night.

Here's the wide shot of the location. The nest is under the overhang of the roof and is quite sheltered from the elements. In the overhead shots it looks like it is really high above the ground but is is only about 8 feet high.


If and when the phoebes start to nest we'll be sure to post updates and let you know where they are featured on the Cornell site. Keep your tail-feathers crossed.

~Kirk

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