Hi Donna,

You described our "sinterklaasfeest" very well.I personally don't celebrate it because it is especially for the children,and we don't have little children in the family.But I have to admit that I was in Dusseldorf (Germany) with my daughter for three days to visit the christmas-markets where we did drink the Gluhwein,Heiser Met,and eat lots of German speciallities.(Bratwurst)(Reibekuchen)(Spatzzles)etc...

Greetings Carla

You and Janet need to hook up. She  German food and 

[Happy Sinterklaas Carla...hope it was fun!!!!]

Happy Sinterklaas Carla...hope it was fun!!!!

 Think of it as a ghost, passing silently through Duneland’s forest fastnesses and deeps on cold clear nights in October and November on its way south to a winter roost.

It may as well be invisible, for it’s rarely seen. If it tarries here, as it sometimes does, it goes to ground in secret stands of evergreen, and if you’re optimistic enough to search for it—look for its whitewash on trees—take a compass and be prepared to get lost.

It’s the Northern Saw-whet Owl. For ornithologists it’s something of a mystery bird whose behavior, migratory patterns, and even numbers are largely unknown. For birders it’s a highly prized because so reclusive target species.

And, just for the record, it’s arguably the cutest bird in the world.

This fall the naturalists at Indiana Dunes State Park (IDSP) inaugurated a Saw-whet Owl banding operation, only the fourth such station in Indiana, in the hope of adding data to ornithologists’ slim store of information about the bird.

“It’s a bird we know so little about,� IDSP Chief Interpretive Naturalist Brad Bumgardner says. “We don’t know how far south they go, they’re such a secretive bird. We don’t know the ranges of their breeding and non-breeding grounds. And it wasn’t until we started banding them that we began to learn even a little about their habits and how many there are.�

Of the eight owls commonly or uncommonly seen in Indiana, the Saw-whet is by far the smallest, about the size of a fist. Around 95 percent of its diet is comprised of small mammals, usually Deer or White-footed Mouse. It doesn’t hoot but rather gives a series of short whistles and very occasionally a rasp like the sound of a saw being whetted. The field guides describe it as tame and easily approachable (once it’s been located) but in fact, Bumgardner says, the Saw-whet’s default response to danger is simply to freeze.

Until seven years ago, no one had any idea how many Saw-whets were migrating through Indiana in any given year. The entire birding community might stumble across only a handful or two in a season, with the presumption that most—scores more? hundreds more?—were ghosting through the state undetected.

In 2002, however, Ross Brittain established a Saw-whet banding station in Yellowwood State Forest near Bloomington and then in later years added two more stations with Jess Gwynn. And the data they collected proved startling: between ‘02 and 06’ 434 Saw-whets were banded, for an average of around 90 per year; then, in ‘07 alone, fully 447 were banded, more than in the five prior years combined.

Turns out, every four years the rodent population spikes, with a concomitant spike in the number of Saw-whet migrants. More owl food, more owls.

Here’s another fact gleaned from Brittain’s work: fully 80 percent of the owls caught are females. The presumption: over the winter the males stay close to the breeding grounds, protecting their territory, in the hope of hooking up with the same female next year.

And another: Saw-whets are short-range fliers. Most migrating birds will travel hundreds of miles a night. Saw-whets, only 20 to 30 miles.

IDSP

The setup at IDSP works like this. Once it’s dark Bumgardner and his team rig a series of three virtually invisible mist nets—30 feet long and 12 to 15 feet high—in a thickly understoried woodland near Tremont Shelter, then play a recording of a Saw-whet’s calling at 110 decibels. Every hour, sometimes into the early morning, they check the nets. A Saw-whet which lands in a net won’t be injured but Bumgardner needs to be vigilant and punctual anyway because a Barred Owl would cheerfully steal a meal if given the chance.

After catching a Saw-whet, the team measures it, sexes it (if possible), attaches an individually numbered identifying band to its leg, then releases it.

Unfortunately, after several weeks of late nights at Tremont Shelter, the banders at IDSP succeeded in catching only 19 Saw-whets: a disappointing number but nevertheless much higher than the six banded by Brittain downstate.

Why the drop from previous years?

Bumgardner attributes it largely to the weather: 19 of 31 days in October saw measurable rainfall, while early November was brightly moon-lit. Chances are, he suspects, a lot of Saw-whets haven’t even left their breeding grounds in Canada and Michigan yet. “It looks like a lot are being held up north, bottled up, waiting for clear weather.�

Still, Bumgardner has culled some intriguing data from those 19 owls (15 female, two male, and two unsexed).

For one thing, nearly all of the Saw-whets were caught before 10 p.m., leading Bumgardner to suppose that they had actually flown Lake Michigan the night before, had roosted somewhere in the park during the day, and were only just becoming active in the early evening.

More intriguingly, though, nearly every one of the Saw-whets was caught on a clear night with light winds, leading credence, Bumgardner says, to the theory that this particular species is a “celestial migrant,� which is to say that, like certain other birds, it uses the constellations to migrate. “They may orient themselves by star patterns, not as we know them, of course, but as they see them. And they tend not to fly on a given night if the star patterns are obscured by cloud cover.�

So rare is the Saw-whet, Bumgardner noted, that these 19 represent fully 25 percent of all Saw-whets ever reported along the lakefront, according to local birder Ken Brock’s voluminous database.

Bumgardner has not yet heard of one of the IDSP Saw-whets being caught elsewhere by another banding operation. But one of his 19 had been previously banded in Stevens Point, Wis., while another—a female—actually ended up in the banders’ nets at IDSP three times, the second and third time fully two weeks after it was first caught.

For the record, virtually every one of the 19 birds was officially adopted by a member of the public, who were invited to participate on several nights of the operation. For $25—which will go to support further banding operations—a person receives a detailed letter and certificate about the specific owl and will be notified whenever and wherever it’s netted again.

The operation is being partially funded by the Northwest Indiana Migratory Bird Association (NIMBA), and Bumgardner says that NIMBA is considering a spring banding operation as well, in mid-March through mid-April, to supplement the almost total lack of data on Saw-whets’ flight to their summer breeding grounds.

“For me the banding operation is a dream come true,� Bumgardner said. “I’ve grown up loving owls.�

Pic caption: How cute is that? A Northern Saw-whet Owl, caught in a mist net for banding near the Tremont Shelter at Indiana Dunes State Park (IDSP), perches on the head of IDSP Chief Interpretative Naturalist Brad Bumgardner. This fall the naturalists at IDSP inaugurated a Saw-whet banding operation—only the fourth in the state—to acquire data about the numbers and behavior of this notoriously reclusive owl. In fact Saw-whets are not as tame as the photo would suggest. Instead, Bumgardner says, their instinctive response to perceived danger is simply to freeze. A total of 19 Saw-whets were caught, measured, banded, and released this fall at IDSP.   

Mike DeBonis took these great pictures of a Bald Eagle capturing a hapless Green-winged Teal at Brigantine. Here are his comments about the event:
 

"  On Saturday, November 28th, 2009, I went to photograph the Ivory Gull at Cape May. After having my fill of taking pictures of this very cooperative visitor, I decided to stop at E.B. Forsythe NWR (Brigantine) on my way home. I was at the end of my first go around when I saw a Bald Eagle in the water. My first thought was that it had caught a very large fish and could not lift it from the water. Well to my surprise, the Bald Eagle had taken a Green-winged Teal. Please enjoy the photos! "

http://www.howardsview.com/EagleAndTeal/EagleAndTeal.html  Photos from start to finish...wow!!  Poor Teal though 

[HAPPY SINTERKLAAS....Aafke]

HAPPY SINTERKLAAS....Aafke

Hope your having a fun day with family!

[This young sheerwater was found floating in the ocean...rescued]

It's turning into another busy season for wildlife officials saving stranded seabirds.

The young birds, including ua'u, or Hawaiian petrels, and ua'u kani, or wedge-tailed shearwaters, leave their home burrows and make their first flights out to sea during the fall months. State officials are asking people to reduce outdoor lighting to protect the fledglings and to report any downed birds they find.

"It's been busy, and it will go on pretty much until mid-December," said state wildlife biologist Fern Duvall.

The Department of Land and Natural Resources office on Maui received at least 19 petrels earlier in the season, and so far has received 25 wedge-tailed shearwaters, whose fledging season is still under way. Those numbers are "fairly normal" compared with previous years, he said.

Because the birds use the moon and stars to guide them out to sea, they can be disoriented by bright man-made lights. Many young birds crash into buildings streetlights or other bright objects and end up grounded, where they are hit by cars or killed by cats and mongoose, according to a DLNR news release.

Several of the birds recovered by the Maui office were already dead or had to be euthanized because they were injured or too weak to survive, Duvall said.

State wildlife officials are asking residents and businesses to help the birds by keeping outdoor lighting to a minimum and aiming it toward the ground. People can also replace bare spotlights and floodlights with shielded fixtures and more wildlife-friendly nonwhite bulbs. Other steps people can take include setting security lights on motion detectors; installing commercial or man-made shields on outdoor lights to reduce glare, and closing curtains and blinds at night.

Man-made lights can have a greater impact on the birds on nights with a dark moon and stormy and voggy conditions, Duvall said.

"Responsible lighting practices play a critical role in protecting Hawaii's seabirds," said Jessica Reed, environmental specialist at Maui Electric Co. "Maui Electric continues to work toward mitigating impacts on seabirds through the Maui County Street Light Installation Program where seabird-friendly lighting shields are installed on existing county roadway lights."

Maui Electric has met with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources' Division of Forestry & Wildlife to discuss seabird impacts and what could be done to make the birds more safe around electrical facilities.

In addition to dimming their lights, people can help Hawaiian seabirds by carefully putting grounded or injured birds into a ventilated box and immediately calling state officials to pick them up.

However, people should not approach and should leave in place shearwater chicks that are found outside their burrows in coastal areas, unless they are in imminent danger. It is normal for the chicks to sit outside their burrows to exercise their wings and "imprint" the area where they were hatched before venturing out to sea for their first flight, officials said.

While both petrels and wedge-tailed shearwaters are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which prohibits civilians from approaching or handling the birds, picking them up to get them out of harm's way is allowed, said Jay Penniman, Maui District endangered species research specialist with the University of Hawaii.

People who find a grounded bird should secure the animal and not try to care for it themselves, but should call authorities immediately, he said.

"It's so important for people to call," he said. "The biggest threat to these birds is when they're disoriented and on the ground, feral cats and mongoose predate them."

Penniman's work includes caring for and rehabilitating some of the recovered birds.

He said he keeps the birds in boxes on his lanai at home and feeds them thawed smelt until they are ready to be released into the wild. The animals are used to living in their burrows, so they are comfortable in the boxes, and Penniman lets them out regularly to stretch and exercise their wings - an important part of their preparation for first flight.

When the birds are strong enough, he releases them near the ocean.

"For the most part, it's just light distraction that brought them in, so there's little rehabilitation needed," he said. "Once they're away from the light and they calm down, when they're near the water, they just go."

This young sheerwater was found floating in the ocean...rescued

[Listen]

San Jose Peregrine Falcons Given Out of Box Holiday Present


falcon camSAN JOSE (KCBS)  -- Bird researchers rappelled down the side of City Hall Friday to install a new bird box on the 18th floor, filled with new gravel.

Glen Stewart with the Predatory Bird Research Group at UC Santa Cruz said there's new evidence that egg hatchability is improved if the gravel is changed out every few years.

The city had just two falcons in 1970, when the species was nearly extinct.

These wild falcons, Clara and Esteban Colbert, have successfully hatched 10 falcon chicks during their three years nesting next to the highest levels of city government.

Like city officials, they are heavily scrutinized. Thousands have thrilled to even their mundane activities via webcam.

Perhaps conscious of all the raptor attention, Mayor Chuck Reed went out of his way to note that no taxpayer money was going to the birds.

http: //www.kcbs.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=4211688   Listen

In this month's NYS DEC Conservationist

Fight or Flight
Falcon and owl aerial battle caught on camera...

Amazing, thanks Ei...glad the Snowy is fine..

I watched Beauty on Mercury from 3:00pm till 5:00pm.  She was still there watching over the city when I left.  Here are some pics.

http://tinyurl.com/y88o2g7

 

Beautiful pictures of Beauty granny...thank you.

 Urban Peregrines Braving the Canadian Winter
December 04, 2009 - Toronto - King Street
CPF Postmaster Reports:

Last week, Ranka noted that the peregrines in the King St location are still active, and visible on our King Street webcam feed.  With this information, Mark Nash informed us that this pair are still territorial and will be staying all winter this year, again.

toronto king st peregrines - winter

Mark explains…

Unlike the “non-urbanâ€� peregrine population in other parts of northern Ontario, the southern Ontario urban pairs have historically stayed on territory and on site throughout the winter.  This has been consistent with many of our urban pairs since 1995, both at the King Street nest site as well as the 12 other urban nest sites that we are monitoring.  These urban guys are a hardy bunch indeed!

While it is unfortunate that we are having camera problems with the MEC and Etobicoke nest sites, my recent visits of the two buildings over the last week has confirmed that the resident adults are also again staying for the winter.  Recent reports of the Burlington Lift Bridge pair have confirmed that they are also holding firm on territory and are being seen in the nest box on a daily basis.

All in all although, this is very good news for our southern Ontario peregrine population, as they still have an abundance of food and protection.  The migration south is usually a “hi-riskâ€� dispersal for many of the non-urban population and constitutes high mortality, especially for the first and second year aged juveniles.  By having adults stay the winter, they too avoid the dangers of this long dangerous roundtrip flight down south.  The peregrine wintering grounds in Central and South America are still very dangerous, many birds continue to be poisoned and shot.  This makes ups a large part of their mortality.

Sadly, when our peregrines are out of the country, especially in the far south, there is no protection for them as many of these countries have no laws to protect many of our species at risk, including the peregrine falcon.

The Turtle Bay eagle cam, which is focused on Patriot and Liberty's nest in downtown Redding, went live Wednesday afternoon after a premiere at Turtle Bay Exploration Park.

The beefier camera is connected to a server by fiber-optic cable and should withstand the north state's harsh elements better than the first eagle cam did earlier this year. That camera sent a wireless signal to the server that became blocked by vegetation and weather, stopping the show before the pair's young eaglets took flight.

"We have confidence that this picture will last even during the ugly part of winter," said Phil Baker, manager of the Dana to Downtown Project for the California Department of Transportation.

Despite the problems, the eagle cam Web site still drew close to 1.2 million page views between Dec. 1, 2008, and May 30, said Toby Osborn, spokesman for Turtle Bay.

Please download the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, or enable JavaScript for your browser to view the video player.

About 55 people came to the premiere, including an inquisitive third-grade class of 20 students from Turtle Bay Elementary School. Their questions varied from the scientific to personal - how do you tell male and female eagles apart to what is a bald eagle's favorite color?

A panel of three eagle experts answered the questions.

Sharon Dale, animal programs manager at Turtle Bay, said female eagles are typically larger than their male counterparts.

Craig Martz, an environmental scientist for the state Department of Fish and Game, suggested the birds are likely fond of a brown-and-white color scheme. One of the students said yellow also might be in the palette.

The pair of bald eagles came to prominence in fall 2007 when Caltrans attempted to move them away from the Dana to Downtown construction project along Highway 44. The eagles rebuffed the effort and have since raised five eaglets in the two nesting seasons despite the nearby construction commotion.

The eagle cam was installed as part of a monitoring effort by scientists on contract with the state, Martz said.

"Our goal is to make sure we have eagles in downtown Redding for the foreseeable future," Martz said.

And while they're there, the webcam will be recording from about 6 a.m. to approximately 5:30 p.m. daily.

The new armored fiber-optic cable linking the camera to its server is designed to resist the pressures of 550 feet of ocean water, said Jonathan Foster, senior environmental consultant at ICF Jones and Stokes in Redding. Caltrans contracted with the company to keep watch on the eagles.

"Our hope is that it will last 25 years," Foster said. "We want this to be a long-term thing."

The $64 million bridge construction project should be finished in February 2011, Dale said. Turtle Bay plans to keep operating the eagle cam as long as there are birds in the nest.

"It's in our backyard," Dale said.

http://www.turtlebay.org/eaglecam

A groups of shocked twitchers found themselves on the end of startling insult as thousands of starlings flipped them the bird.


Reacting like a furious celebrity when faced with a gaggle of paparazzi outside a night club at 3am, the birds showed the assembled twitchers exactly what they thought of the invasion of their privacy.

The flock of hundreds of thousands at Gretna Green in Scotland were heading back to roost at dusk after a long day feeding and clearly were in a twitchy mood.

The birds constantly change shapes in an attempt to outwit predators - any actual insult to the twitchers or the world in general is unlikely to have been intentional.

Photographer Fiona Exon said: 'There were fantastic flowing formations and shapes.'

Did you see what's out there in the water?  On Nov 28 and Dec 2 it looks like she might be hanging around a light house, and a historic one at that!

http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=316

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Charity_Shoal_Light

~Joyce

What a beautiful Lighthouse...that girl has taste. 

I will be making some changes shortly that will break the Quick-N-Dirty 30 page, but everything else will work properly. I'll fix the QD30 next week.

The Quick-N-Dirty 30 page is fixed, and the Dailies are current.

Ur da BEST!!!

[Tomorrow starts the big celebration for out friends over in the Netherlands. I know Aafke, Carla and the others are very busy getting ready.]

In mid-November Dutch television broadcasts the official arrival of St. Nicholas and his helper Zwarte Piet live to the nation. Coming by steamer from Spain, each year they dock in the harbor of a different city or village. Wearing traditional bishop's robes, Sinterklaas rides into town on a white horse to be greeted by the mayor. A motorcade and a brass band begin a great parade which leads Sinterklaas and his Piets through the town. Nearly every city and village has its own Sinterklaas parade.

In the following weeks before St. Nicholas Day, December 6, Sinterklaas goes about the country to determine if the children have been well-behaved. He and his Zwarte Piet helpers visit children in schools, hospitals, department stores, and even at home. The bakeries are busy making speculaas molded spice cookies of the saint. During this time children put out their shoes with wish-lists and a carrot or hay, or maybe a saucer of water, for the horse. When St. Nicholas happens by, the next morning children may find chocolate coins or initial letter, candy treats, pepernoten, and little gifts in their shoes. Everyone hopes for sweets, not coal or a little bag of salt.

The Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas on December 5th, St. Nicholas Eve, with festive family parties when gifts and surprises are exchanged. In the Netherlands, unlike other places, adults as well as children join in the fun. As the Dutch like an element of surprise, a small gift may be wrapped in a huge box, or it may be hidden and require following clues to discover where it is.

Gifts are prettily wrapped in special Sinterklaas paper or they may be hidden, for example, in a potato or an old sock. Each gift, anonymously signed "from Sinterklaas," comes with a clever rhyme that may point out a person's shortcomings in a humorous way. (For the less creative, there are books with suggestions for making rhymes and packaging disguises.) Originality, not value of the gift, is what counts.

Children sing traditional Sinterklaas songs while waiting for the saint to appear. A knock comes on the door and a black gloved hand appears to toss candies and pepernoten inside. Children scramble to gather up the treats. A large burlap bag, "de zak van Sinterklaas," also appears filled with gifts. At the table, decorated with speculaas and other sweets, guests may find their initial in a chocolate letter at their places. Food is apt to include hot chocolate, Bishop's wine, and letter banket.

The Dutch feast of Saint Nicholas is about giving, for "it is in giving that we receive." The fun is in trying to surprise people, to tease in a well-meaning way, to make a good joke, to produce a rollicking rhyme. The gift itself is just a bonus, as the fun is in the doing.

Sinterklaas is the most important tradition for the Dutch, a 2008 Centre for Dutch Culture survey found. Celebrated the evening of December 5 with traditional tasty foods, it is the main time for family gift-giving. The second ranked tradition is decorating a Christmas tree, followed by Queen's Day, April 30. Blowing out birthday candles and eating raw herring were also in the top ten.

Tomorrow starts the big celebration for out friends over in the Netherlands. I know Aafke, Carla and the others are very busy getting ready.