Outside My Window

Did you ever wonder if it’s the same chickadee visiting your feeder time after time … or one of his relatives?  How many trips does he make every day?  Does he stay away longer when the weather’s nice?  How long?

These questions puzzled the Cornell Lab of Ornithology so Dr. David Bonter of Project Feeder Watch and a team of students to set up special bird feeders and banded the local feeder birds with radio frequency identification tags.

First invented in the 1970′s RFID tags are tiny chips that broadcast unique numbers, one number per chip.  Anyone with a scanner can read the chip’s code.  The chips are so small they can be used to catalog merchandise or be inserted just under the skin of pets to identify them if lost.  My cat got her “chip” at the animal shelter before I adopted her.  If she’s ever lost a shelter can scan her chip, look her up in the cat database, and reunite us.

Cornell Lab taped RFID chips to the birds’ bands, then replaced the perches on their feeders with a coil of wire that can “read” the chips and record the date, time and chip code of each banded bird.  When they download the data they find out who visited the feeder and how often.

They know their feeder birds as individuals now and have the answers to those puzzling questions I asked above.

Watch the video and see.

(video from Cornell Lab of Ornithology)

Now that you know how to recognize cranes (see the crane quiz), here’s a Game Commission video about the sandhill crane population in Pennsylvania with some really cute footage of a baby crane being banded.

(video from the Pennsylvania Game Commission)

Good morning, “Hunter!”

That’s the nickname Bill Powers gave to this eastern screech-owl roosting in an owl box in his Murrysville backyard.

Bill is founder and CEO of PixController, a company that specializes in wildlife streaming webcams.  PixController set up the National Aviary penguin cam, the Gulf Tower and Pitt peregrine streaming cams, and the famous Lily The Bear cam which will be live again soon.

To demonstrate PixController’s expertise — and for fun — Bill has four streaming cameras set up at home.  Three are at ground-based feeding stations.  The fourth is in this owl box.

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In October Bill noticed an eastern screech-owl roosting in his only owl box so he set up four more boxes in hopes of attracting a nesting pair in the spring.  At first the owl preferred box #1 but he didn’t roost there every day, though he sometimes left food for later consumption.  One day while the owl was away a squirrel built a nest over the owl’s cache and the owl never used that box again.

Now what?  Bill waited and watched until he knew which of the other boxes the owl like best.  Here’s how he figured it out:

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After Hunter chose a new box, Bill installed the streaming webcam with an infrared light so we can see the owl even when the box is dark inside.  That’s why Hunter looks white in the webcam snapshots.

In today’s photo (at top), Hunter is facing the hole with his head bowed a little while he sleeps.  We see the top of his head and his back.  Reddish sunlight is brightening the box hole and two cracks at the front corners of the box.  Today Hunter brought a dark-colored mouse-y snack with him which he cached on the right.

Here are more pictures of Hunter sleeping, looking up and flying out.

You can watch Hunter live today (December 18) by clicking here or on the first photo above.  If you miss him today and he’s not there when you look for him, check back the next day.  Hunter doesn’t use this box every time.  He has other places to roost, but he’ll be back.

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(photos by Bill Powers and PixController Wildlife Camera #4)

p.s. Click here to see all four PixController cameras on one page.

This video is sweeping the Internet.  If you haven’t seen it yet you’ll love watching this huge starling flock, called a murmuration, swirling above two girls canoeing in Ireland.

Starlings flock in large numbers in the winter when they’re getting ready to roost.  If the flock sees a predator, each bird pulls in closer to his neighbor until the mass of birds looks like a solid swirling ball.

This flock must feel threatened — they’re flying that close!

And I wonder  … where’s the peregrine?

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(video by Liberty Smith and Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.  Read about their encounter in this article at the Huffington Post.)

Very cool video of a falconer from ParaHawk USA flying with his Harris’ hawk in San Diego County, California.

Awesome!!

See ParaHawkUSA.com for more information.

(video from ParaHawkUSA via YouTube)

My two favorite species at Henderson Bird Preserve are American avocets and black-necked stilts.   Both are long-legged wading birds with delicate bills but the stilts’ bodies are so small and their legs so long that they look fragile.

When I visit Henderson in April the avocets and stilts have arrived from their wintering grounds and they’re courting.  They fly by, ignoring me, so intent on their social interactions that I’m able to get quite close.

This video from Cornell Lab of Ornithology gives you an idea of what it’s like to be at the Bird Preserve on an April morning (though I’ve never encountered a flock as large as shown here).  It perfectly captures the beauty and grace of the black-necked stilts.  

I’m glad I came to Nevada to see them.  And now I’m coming home.

(video from Cornell Lab of Ornithology)

There’s a new 360^o view of the National Aviary penguins on the Post-Gazette website.  The P-G uses a special video camera…which the penguins jump up on.  You can hear them chirr at it.  Very cool!

Sometimes a bird picks a dangerous place to nest.

In Tampa Bay, Florida a male osprey began building a nest to attract a mate but he chose a railroad signal tower as his ideal location.  It looked good to him, but it was a big problem for the railroad. 

Fortunately volunteers from the Audubon Society of Clearwater Florida had a better idea.  Watch the video to see how they worked with CSX to move the osprey’s nest.

Would the osprey accept the new location?  You bet!   Moving Day was a success.  Here he is perched at his new home. 

Now all he has to do is unpack the sticks. 

Thanks to Bob O’Malley for sending me this happy news.

(video and photo by Bob O’Malley)

If you’ve read this blog for a while you’re familiar with Steve Gosser’s beautiful bird photos.

Late last week Steve sent me a link to a YouTube video of his favorite photos of 2010.  It’s so gorgeous I had to share it with you.

The video lasts 9 minutes and covers his entire year in chronological order.  Steve set it to the music of Strauss’ Blue Danube waltz.  How fitting!  The waltz is a New Year’s tradition in Vienna.

Enjoy!

(all photos by Steve Gosser)

p.s. The bird above is a blackpoll warbler.

This video is so cool you really must see it.

It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the making of PBS’s NATURE show Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air.  In it the producer describes how they filmed these tiny birds and what they learned.

Bird watchers and photographers can relate to their experience, how hard it was to capture what they were looking for and how rewarding it was when they did.  I felt a kinship when the team spent days trying to get a split-second video of a hummingbird catching an insect. 

And what an expensive video endeavour!  You’ll be amazed by NATURE’s cameras and lenses.

So click on the video and enjoy.  You’ll be dazzled.  I guarantee it!

(video from PBS NATURE)

p.s. If you didn’t see Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air when it premiered last January 10th on PBS’s NATURE or this month when WQED re-broadcast it during our year-end fund-raising effort, you can view its entire 50 minutes online here.