[mou-net] [mou-rba] MOU RBA 29 January 2010
-RBA *Minnesota *Minnesota Statewide *January 29, 2010 *MNST1001.29 -Birds mentioned Barrow's Goldeneye Thayer's Gull Iceland Gull Glaucous Gull Great Black-backed Gull Snowy Owl Northern Hawk Owl Great Gray Owl Black-backed Woodpecker Boreal Chickadee -Transcript Hotline: Minnesota Statewide Date: January 29, 2010 Sponsor: Minnesota Ornithologists' Union (MOU) http://moumn.org Reports: (763) 780-8890 Compiler: Anthony Hertzel (r...@moumn.org) This is the Minnesota Birding Report for Thursday, January 28th, 2010. On the 28th, the BARROW'S GOLDENEYE was still on Lake Superior across from Leif Erickson Park in Duluth. Several GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULLS, ICELAND GULLS, THAYER'S GULLS, and GLAUCOUS GULLS were at nearby Canal Park earlier in the week. In Lake County, GREAT GRAY OWLS was seen on the 28th along the Whyte Road, 2.5 miles and 4.8 miles east of the Stony River Forest Road. A third was along the Stony River Forest Road, 5.3 miles south of state highway 1, and a NORTHERN HAWK OWL was 5.2 miles south of highway 1. Another NORTHERN HAWK OWL was along Lake County Road 2, 18.2 miles north of state highway 61. A SNOWY OWL was in Silver Bay, Lake County on the 25th. It's being reported between the entrance to North Shore Mining and the traffic light on highway 61. In the Sax-Zim Bog of St. Louis County, BOREAL CHICKADEES were seen along county road 788. About a mile to the west, BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKERS were reported on the east side of McDavitt Road, two and a half miles north of Sax Road. The next scheduled update of this tape is Thursday, February 4th, 2010. Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
[mou-net] Birding about the Metro
Yesterday I spotted a Crow carrying a recently killed Deer or White-footed Mouse. This is the first time I have every seen evidence of Crows hunting mammals. Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
Re: [mou-net] Birding about the Metro
If we get mice in the house in the fall, I trap them and put them out in the yard for food for birds. They are always gone the next day. Maybe it was already dead. I have a lot of crows in the yard and for several years they nested in the rooftop of a foreclosed house next door. (House is now occupied so I probably won't have that show this year). In the summer they would soften their bounty in one of our large bird baths. I saw a large mass from across the yard floating in there and was apprehensively going towards it to see what it was going to be this time. It was the head of a bull head fish. Glad I did not see it when they were "softening" it up. Pat Burnsville - Original Message - From: "Steve Weston" To: MOU-NET@LISTS.UMN.EDU Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 9:57:00 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central Subject: [mou-net] Birding about the Metro Yesterday I spotted a Crow carrying a recently killed Deer or White-footed Mouse. This is the first time I have every seen evidence of Crows hunting mammals. Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
Re: [mou-net] [mnbird] Birding about the Metro
I have seen crows carry off a very alive baby squirrel, and attempt to snatch a baby rabbit, in the alley and street by my house. I have also seen one pursue and grab a running mouse right off the sidewalk in my backyard. Though I can't guarantee the mouse was in good health, we have never used a poison aimed at killing rodents. Given their affinity for capitalizing on roadkill and their capacity for learning, crows seem perfectly likely to hunt for live sources of protein, especially during breeding season (which is when I witnessed all 3 incidents). Linda Whyte On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 2:32 PM, wrote: >>How do you know the crow hunted and killed the mouse? > Perhaps it found it dead, on the snow, killed by D-con or something > similar.. However, I have seen in my yard crows attack a summer > (leaf and branches) squirrel nest and fly away with a baby squirrel. > So, even though it was an infant, it was hunted and killed. As an > aside,one of the other infant squirrels fell to the ground. I > brought it to a friend of mine whose Springer Spaniel had just lost a > litter of new born puppies. The spaniel adopted the squirrel, nursed > it to a very plump adulthood, and it was later released. > > Don Grussing > Minnetonka, MN >> >> >> Original Message >>From: swest...@comcast.net >>To: mnb...@lists.mnbird.net, mou-net@lists.umn.edu >>Subject: RE: [mnbird] Birding about the Metro >>Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:57:00 -0600 >> >>>Yesterday I spotted a Crow carrying a recently killed Deer or >>White-footed Mouse. This is the first time I have every seen >>evidence of Crows hunting mammals. >>> >>>Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN >>>swest...@comcast.net > > > ___ > mnbird mailing list > mnb...@lists.mnbird.net > http://lists.mnbird.net/mailman/listinfo/mnbird > Unsubscribe: %(user_optionsurl)s > Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
[mou-net] song sparrow in Richfield
A song sparrow is feeding beneath my bird feeder. Wonder if it is the same one that was here last January? (Not birds, but: 2 flying squirrels are visiting my feeder, about 10:30-11:00 at night. Fun to watch!) Ruth Hiland --- Get FREE High Speed Internet from USFamily.Net! -- http://www.usfamily.net/mkt-freepromo.html --- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
Re: [mou-net] [mnbird] Birding about the Metro
Hi Steve, Up at our cabin in NW WI, our 2 dogs love to hunt mice, chipmunks and SQ's - they have been quite successful too. We try to discourage them but the "lab" in them says hunt, hunt, hunt ...even though we are not hunters ourselves. A couple of years ago, I took a 2x2 foot piece of plywood and screwed it down to the top of a low-lying tree stump. We called it the "alter" and had many offerings of the perished critter kind. We found that the Blue Jays had no problem carrying off and consuming the mice, but the Crows would come in too and grabbed any (or all) of the 3 different critters. I once saw a Crow chasing a bat, pecking at its wings and he eventually caught it. What shocked me most, this was in the middle of the afternoon, so I would guess the Crow found the bat's hiding place and woke him up. Amazing corvids they are. It was so nice finally meeting you last week at WBU, stop in again when you can. Cathy - Original Message - From: Steve Weston To: mnbird ; Mou-net Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 9:57 AM Subject: [mnbird] Birding about the Metro Yesterday I spotted a Crow carrying a recently killed Deer or White-footed Mouse. This is the first time I have every seen evidence of Crows hunting mammals. Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
Re: [mou-net] Birding about the Metro
Over the 10 years I volunteered in the Avian Nursery of the Wildlife Rehab Center, I came to hold crows in high respect. They - and their relations, the jays - are very smart, and amazing to watch. The volunteers were always cautioned to not talk around the birds because crows can try to mimic language. After I had worked a few years with crows - - and consequently spent more time noticing them in the wild - - I stopped one day while walking my dog and watched a crow fly between a tree branch about 15-20' high and the sidewalk. On the sidewalk was a hurt baby squirrel (I don't know how it got hurt or how the crow "found" it.). The crow picked up the baby from the sidewalk, flew up to the branch and dropped the squirrel, over and over again - - as if he was trying to kill it or at least stop his meal from squirming. Fascinating! I wish that had been in the days of call phone cameras! Jeanne St. Paul - Original Message - From: "Steve Weston" To: Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 9:57 AM Subject: [mou-net] Birding about the Metro Yesterday I spotted a Crow carrying a recently killed Deer or White-footed Mouse. This is the first time I have every seen evidence of Crows hunting mammals. Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html --- Get FREE High Speed Internet from USFamily.Net! -- http://www.usfamily.net/mkt-freepromo.html --- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
Re: [mou-net] Birding about the Metro
Steve, This summer I watched one hunt an kill what I think was a very small baby rabbit in my front yard!! It flew off with it so fast I didn't get a great looks at it but by the size it had to be a rabbit, it was right in the middle of the yard in the grass. Andrew -- Andrew Longtin Corcoran (Hennepin Co.) Minnesota See my WEB pages at: www.birderguy.com Email: birder...@comcast.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewlongtin Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory Supporter http://www.hawkridge.org Minnesota Ornithologists' Union Member http://www.moumn.org Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) Member http://www.hmana.org Cornell Lab Member (PFW) http://birds.cornell.edu/pfw -Original Message- From: Minnesota Birds [mailto:mou-...@lists.umn.edu] On Behalf Of Steve Weston Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 9:57 AM To: MOU-NET@LISTS.UMN.EDU Subject: [mou-net] Birding about the Metro Yesterday I spotted a Crow carrying a recently killed Deer or White-footed Mouse. This is the first time I have every seen evidence of Crows hunting mammals. Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
[mou-net] best bird images from a British photo competition
no accompanying info about the BGP comp'n ** In pictures: Beautiful birds ** A selection of the best images from the BirdGuides Photo of the Year 2009 competition. < http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/8487031.stm > Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
[mou-net] plumage color & speciation in monarch flycatchers (& "related stories")
monarch flycatcher in Solomon Is. (If you click on an article in "Related Stories" on the right, more articles will appear in the list on the subsequent page. Interesting reading about study of avian evolution.) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090714104000.htm speciation in monarch flycatchers Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
