Pesticide

Back in 2009, while living in San Isidro, Teresa and myself woke up from an afternoon nap to a man in a spacesuit wandering around in our house.  My Spanish was much worse back then, so confusion set in.  Eventually we realized, after being chased out of our house, that they were fumigating the place for pests.  The store below us had apparently arranged this without our knowing.  As we stood outside of our now toxic house, we watched as swarms of swallows started to gather to eat the moribund insects collecting around the property.  Mostly they were feasting on non-target bugs that had been affected such as butterflies and dragonflies.  We were certain that the birds must have been suffering as a result as well, but we didn’t find out one way or the other.

Well, people are spraying nearby now, and I can now say for sure what the results are.  I have pictures for this blog post, but I’ve decided they are just gratuitous.  They are of dead and dying birds found around town in the past couple of days.  The dead are lying out in the open, and the dying are struggling to breathe.  In total there have been about eight of these birds found, mostly blackbirds and inca doves, and there are certainly more.

I guess there is a moral to all of this, but I don’t feel like pushing it one way or the other.  There is just a long way to go towards environmental awareness.

A couple of entries for my eventual video field guide to birds of prey

Since raptor ID is mostly based on in-flight gestalt, it is very hard to identify anything based on field marks.  Regular bird guides are of little help, because you actually have to see the bird to get a feel for it's behavior and flight style.  I thought it would be useful to have a video field guide to birds of prey somewhere online, so I'm going to slowly start one.  I don't have much for equipment in order to make this, but I'm doing what I can for now.  I am getting video faster than I am capable of uploading it, but bit by bit I will have it up.

Mississippi Kite

Cooper's Hawk

A Blast From the Past

I've posted this doodle before, but since I took everything down from my blog awhile back, I think I should re-post it. It explains (kind of) the name of this blog.

Also, I've just been missing the other members of the raptor squad.

Recent Painting

In honor of the Aplomado Falcons living on the dunes of Cansaburro who taunt the banders endlessly.

Rescue Mission

The other day we received a call from Suffield Base range control. They called to provide us with the UTM coordinates of a injured hawk that was found on the base. From their very vague description it sounded like a Swainson’s Hawk, and it sounded bad. I immediately went to go look for him.

Scheduled to pass through Veracruz October 29

When I got there, this is who I found below the flare stack of a gas plant. I was so relieved to see that the sum total of the Swainson’s injuries were just a set of badly burned flight feathers. After hanging out in my garage for several days sharing Cecil’s food, the little guy was delivered to the Edmonton Wildlife Rehab Center six hours away for a new set of feathers.

Replacing flight feathers is surprisingly easy, and falconers have been doing it for well over a thousand years. Rather than waiting a full year for new feathers to grown in or risking a total alteration in the bird’s molt cycle by pulling the damaged feathers out, a person can do what is called imping. You simply cut the damaged feather low along the shaft, leaving a little bit at the bottom, and then find a corresponding flight feather from a dead bird or a previous molt and cut it at the same point as the old feather. Using a small piece of bamboo placed in the hollow tube of the feather shafts, you can connect the old and ‘new’ feathers with a dab of five minute epoxy. This new imped feather will work just as the old one did, and it will molt just as the old one would have, because technically it is still there.

That means that this Swainson’s can be released before the migration season starts, and he can make through Veracruz and down to Argentina with all the others.

Relatively Speaking

As a prompt to get some people to visit, here is a video that demonstrates a poor view of what is considered a "small" kettle of raptors moving over - and it is still awe-inspiring to the perspective of a midwesterner such as myself.

These guys are Mississippi Kites, and they are only the first wave of migratory raptors that comes through Veracruz. They nest relatively far south in areas such as Texas and along the gulf coast so they are done with breeding and ready to go south long before most other raptors. Soon broadwings, and then later Swainson's Hawks will be joining in, and they will be coming in much greater numbers. Get your clickers ready.

Swallow Tailed Kite

Swallow-tailed Kites are an early season migrant that can be seen in small numbers, often migrating alongside the far more common Mississippi Kite. Usually one or two will be seen accompanying a flock of thousands of Mississippis. They will sometimes be seen flying lower near the coast, where I took this short bit of video.

I have a personal fascination with the Swallow-tailed kite, because it is the very first diorama you seen when you enter the Bell Museum of Natural History in Minneapolis. I went to that museum as a child and later on worked there for many years. I have spent many hours admiring that diorama thinking I would never see this birds in life. In the early days of the Bell Museum, swallow tails were often seen along the Mississippi river, but they have long since been extirpated from their historical nesting sights along the river valleys of Minnesota. I'm glad I can still see them somewhere, and maybe one day they will return to their historical range.