My friends who volunteer for the Girl Scouts tell me that parents are now chasing after their kids with hand sanitizer, and warning their kids not to "touch anything".  So I guess that's another irrational fear we're passing on to the next generation, who will be scared of the Great Outdoors because of the scary germs that are out there (those germs that help us develop healthy immune systems, of course).

Oh wow, now she picks at it. Must be itchy after 3 years....like a cast. We had 3 very very good years of tracking her. Wonder if she and Kendal will stay the Winter or move around. I'm sure he's thinking right now where to go, (on his own), with all that nagging she's doing. Maybe he's having 2nd thoughts!! I would.

Having worn neoprene before...I have to think it's HOT as well!

Peanuts should be out of the shell (and unsalted, preferably; the salt's not any better for the birds than it is for us).  Chickadees love the shelled peanuts.  Some birds will take peanuts in the shell (blue jays, tufted titmouses (titmice?), but during summer at Mendon Ponds you're going for chickadees.  On my visits to Mendon Ponds Park I usually have peanuts and sunflower seeds so they'll have a choice, and 90% of the time they go for the peanuts.

Oh, and here's a photo album from my 2006 Rochester Falcon Watcher's Weekend...I got very lucky with the chickadees that year...other years I've had some luck or no luck...
http://classic.kodakgallery.com/bellhanley/main/falcon_watch_2006

I have a dumb question;  peanuts?  Are they peanuts in the shell?   
I usually pull them out of my parrot's bird seed because I don't like to feed them to him, and save them for the bluejays and chipmunks in my yard.   The jays swallow them whole -- three or four at a time,and the chipmunks just store mounds of them in their mouths!     I'll bring my supply as well as the left over bird seed  I have. 
I am looking forward to meeting Ei and seeing some of the other folks I've only met once or twice in person!   
What time at Wild WIngs?

Peanuts should be out of the shell (and unsalted, preferably; the salt's not any better for the birds than it is for us).  Chickadees love the shelled peanuts.  Some birds will take peanuts in the shell (blue jays, tufted titmouses (titmice?), but during summer at Mendon Ponds you're going for chickadees.  On my visits to Mendon Ponds Park I usually have peanuts and sunflower seeds so they'll have a choice, and 90% of the time they go for the peanuts.

Make sure to take some peanuts and sunflower seeds and take a stroll through the paths at Mendon Ponds Park...I've managed to get chickadees to feed from my hand even on my summer visits.  I just walked around until I heard chickadee(s) calling, put my hand out and waited patiently...not as easy to do when the mosquitoes are biting!

Jeane and I went to a Girl Scout camp reunion this weekend, and one of our friends there had rescued some young American Robins whose nest blew down in storms about a week ago.  She's a stay-at-home mother, so she decided to take on the task of raising these young birds, and has been doing feedings every 30 minutes until nightfall.  Since she needed to continue this regimen over the weekend, she brought the birds (in a cage) to the G.S. reunion and I helped her with one of the feedings (she invited me because she knows I like birds). 

There are three nestlings, and one is significantly less developed than the others; she's concerned about its health because it's developing more slowly, but it seemed to have a very healthy appetite!  She'd brought a coffee can full of worms (still alive in the dirt), so we pulled worms out, tried to clean as much dirt off of them as we could, and then stuffed them down into the baby robins' throats.  They were very obliging about opening their wide beaks, but it still took a couple of tries to get my technique right...it helped to sort of fold the worms to make them slightly more compact.  Carol said last week when they weren't as fully feathered, you could watch the worms wriggling in their crops...ewww.

The more developed two were very active, and I think are very close to being ready to fledge.  She's hoping that if she releases them near there original nest, perhaps their parents (or any robin parents, really) will find them and take care of them as young fledglings...otherwise I guess she's hoping they'll return if they get hungry.  She always takes them out of the cage for feedings, which gives her a chance to clean the cage (baby robins make quite a mess), and gives them a chance to exercise, which they were all taking advantage of...quite a bit of hopping around and wing-flapping.

One of the birds hopped onto my lap once s/he'd had his/her fill, then flapped from there onto my shoulder, and sat on my shoulder for a long time, seemingly content, while the other two got fed.  It was really fun!

So, I just wanted to share, 'cause it was a really great experience for me!

That was fun; I love the head tilt!

That is truly bizarre!

It would be great to see Falcons in a natural setting.  Neil Grubb has posted beautiful videos on here of them on cliffs in Scotland.  Hope you get a chance to see yours there!

I've gotten to see peregrines three times now in settings where they were nesting on cliffs, and have pictures of two of the scrapes, but in those cases we saw the falcons fly in and out, but the scrape was inset into the cliff so you couldn't really see into it.  The first time was in Yellowstone, the second time was this spring in Sedona (a very excited forest ranger who had been monitoring the nest kept borrowing my binoculars to get a better look), and the third time was just this past Memorial Day weekend.  There is a pair nesting on a cliff in the Smokies, on our favorite trail, but the bluff on which they nest is under a rock overhang...and you can't see the nesting cliff from the trail.  You can get directly under it, but the view is blocked by the overhanging rock...so you can just watch overhead as they fly in and out...or listen for the screeching!  We're 98% sure that they had already fledged juveniles because as we were walking down the trail toward the scrape we saw a light-colored falcon flying in toward the scrape, and another fly out from the direction of the scrape, screaming bloody murder; the second falcon was much darker and looked like it had juvenile coloration, where the first falcon definitely had much lighter coloration on the underside.  The presumed adult flew high above the juvenile.  It reminded me of when Mariah or Kaver would fly in with a food delivery and the juvenile(s) would fly out to greet them.

That's one thing I learned, NW, is how to tolerate the heat.  Since I did not have a car for 5 years, I had to walk everywhere.  And what you do next winter, is walk everyday for about 45-60 minutes.  And wear blue jeans.  Then every day walk 45-60 minutes, no matter how hot it gets--still wearing blue jeans; no shorts!  When the first cool day in the fall occurs, believe me it will feel cold!  That's when you know that you've gotten used to the heat. 

I follow the same strategy with running and exercising in the heat...I just keep running as the days get longer and hotter, and, given the chance to acclimate gradually, my body adapts to the heat.  We also eat dinner every summer day outside on the deck, which keeps us out of the air conditioning for more time.  Of course then I freeze to death at work and anywhere else since people air-condition their buildings to ridiculous temperatures.

There are some days (today was one) that I get up early to run in the morning to avoid the inevitable ozone alerts...I'd rather not subject my lungs to too much damage when the air quality is really bad...we get those alerts often in the summer because of Louisville's location in a river valley.  I'm not a morning person so this is really hard on me!

[This post came through my KY birding list...in case anyone is interested in expressing their disapproval about the Sandhill Crane hunt]

This post came through my KY birding list...in case anyone is interested in expressing their disapproval about the Sandhill Crane hunt

I assume everyone saw Linda Craiger's post regarding the unanimous vote by the Ky Wildlife commissioners to approve the crane hunt, thank you for posting Linda. 

The process is not over with and the hunt plan will be filed with legislators on June 15.  It's important to voice your opposition now by writing to Governor Beshear and the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet Secretary, Marcheta Sparrow. 

If you believe the cranes are more valuable as a wildlife-watching resource than as a game bird, tell them.  If you feel that the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) should have followed the International Crane Foundation's recommendation of delaying the hunt for 2-3 years, tell them.  If you feel that Kentucky being the first to hunt the eastern population of Sandhill Cranes in nearly a century does not cast the Commonwealth in a favorable light, be sure and tell them.   

If you threatened to withdraw your support from KDFWR if the hunt was approved, do it; I am, and tell the Governor and Secretary Sparrow that you are.  If you reside in another state and will boycott Kentucky by not spending money here, tell them.  They need to be aware of the magnitude of opposition.  Their contact information is copied below.

Governor Beshear online contact link here:
http://www.governor.ky.gov/contact/contact.htm

Mailing address:
Governor Steve Beshear
700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 100
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601

Secretary Sparrow email address here:
Marcheta.Sparrow@ky.gov
 
Online contact for her office here:
http://commerce.ky.gov/officesecretary/contact.htm

Mailing address and phone number:

Marcheta Sparrow
Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet
Office of the Secretary
24th Floor, Capital Plaza Tower
500 Mero Street
Frankfort, Kentucky  40601
(502) 564-4270

Additional contact information here:
http://kyc4sandhillcranes.wordpress.com/call-to-action/

More info on the cranes and proposed hunt here:
http://kyc4sandhillcranes.wordpress.com/

Whether you reside in Kentucky or another state, please send letter/emails and phone calls expressing your opposition and urge others to do the same.  We still have work to do.

David Roemer
Bowling Green

oh, orange footed megapode, your song is so sad---

Sounds a little like my cat when I step on his tail accidentally...

I'm reading this outside where there is lots of glare from the sun, and the photo looks pretty dark, so I'll admit this could be completely wrong based on not being able to see the picture very well, but they look starling-ish to me...

I assume she already tried to find the nest and return the babies, or put them up high nearby where the parents might find them?

There was a huge and well-organized effort by my local birding club, the Kentucky Ornithological Association and the local and national Audubon societies to call, send emails, and write letters to the commissioners of the KY Dept of Fish & Wildlife, but it seems we were all outnumbered by a very vocal contingent of hunters who supported the season.  To be clear, there are plenty of hunters who think this is a bad idea and will put hunters in a bad light...

There was a web site that presented, in a very well-reasoned way (not just a general anti-hunting approach, which would have been immediately discounted by the commissioners) the arguments against a hunting season, and provided all of the addresses and emails for the commissioners, as well state senators and representatives...I sent out snail-mail letters to all of the above when the local bird club sent out the first call for help, and then recently fired off emails to the same just prior to the vote this week.

Of course, as Paul mentioned, the possibility of accidental Whooping Crane shootings is one of the arguments, among others.

They're planning to limit the number of permits to hunt to a fairly small number, and I think they're planning to have a lottery to give them out; the activists in my local birding club are planning to apply for permits because if any of us is lucky to get one, that may be one less crane that gets shot!

There are lots of downsides for the cranes, but the personal downside to me is that there are populations of cranes who are fairly laid back and easily seen at strategic locations during migration not far from home...just south of me and just north in the cornfields of Southern Indiana (here are photos from one of those spots an hour from Louisville in late winter: http://tinyurl.com/5vvah5b), and if this eastern population begins to be hunted, they'll quickly learn to be much more skittish around wildlife watchers just like waterfowl have learned to be.

Bummer...

Thanks, I enjoyed the banding photos!