Friday Feathers

Are we up for a new quiz? (Won't it be refreshing to see a post from me with no dead, gooey things?)

• 18 subspecies
  
• Nearly global in distribution
• Does not build a nest
• Usually vocalizes only during breeding season
• Was nearly wiped out by a pesticide invented in 1837
• Wears a "helmet"
  

This one isn't hard, my gentle readers.

How do I trump that?

Julie chimed in on the Innard Spree from yesterday: cottontail killed by a canine. I concur.
Do I have a choice? I mean, it's Julie Freakin' Zickefoose. : )

After my walk through a CSI episode yesterday, I did the trail loop and ended up at the kiosk for the Clermont County Parks.
It's always interesting to come across a sign about me (well, a program I will be doing):


If you are in the area of Chilo Lock #34 on June 28th, stop by and meet me and our birds.
But I'm wondering how I will even stand a chance against the program coming up after mine that day:


Sam the Bald Eagle from the Cincinnati Zoo. If I am not mistaken, this is the bald eagle who does flight demonstrations at Reds baseball games.
What can I do with "my" birds that will be as memorable as a freakin' bald eagle?
I mean, seriously.

CSI Miamiville (Or, Things that make you go Hmmm....)

At the risk of everyone telling me that I should change the name of my blog to "Susan Gets Dead Stuff"...
I went on a walk today at Kelley's Nature Preserve. Today was Lorelei's last day of school, so I wanted to get out and make this last day count (Geoff said I made it out to be the "Last Supper")

I seem to have the knack (or is it misfortune?) to always find crime scenes. They are everywhere.
I can't help it...and thanks to Julie, aka The Science Chimp, I try to puzzle out what happened and to who.

*Graphic ickies ahead....tread at your own peril*



This was strewn across the path:

Remains. Guts. Innards. Pick your word, that's what it was. Intestines, maybe a stomach?



That ain't worms, y'all.
Small pieces of fresh meat, a slug, green flies...



Here's what I think is the stomach...full of veggie matter. And split open. Ew.
So this is a mammal of some kind. (It didn't look like a bird's digestive system)


There was a beautiful orange/black fly tasting the deli selection.

I didn't find any bones. That might have been helpful in this CSI case.


Macro of the hair stuck to some of the remains. Course, black with pale tips.
Is this from the eater or the eatee?

Tracks around the scene were canine, but that could be either coyote or regular old pet dog.
Things that make you go "hmmmmm...."

******************************
I don't know about you, but I need some cleansing photos.
How about young salamanders?


My Mom's pond is almost a vernal pool...but it usually stays wet most of the year.
(Unless there's a horrible drought) The water never gets more that 2 or 3 feet deep.
I thought this guy was a frog, until it showed us it's profile. I am a newbie at salamanders. What kind is this?


And here's a slightly younger one...still sporting crazy gills. Whenever I see these guys, they remind me of Oriental dragons. (You know the paintings you see of ancient dragons, with all that crazy stuff behind their heads?
And what is up with the dandruffy water there?

These last two are for Nina, our resident Salamander-phile.

Happy RAPTORversary

It seems like it has been 100 years.
Two years ago, I started at RAPTOR, Inc.

It started out as just a thing to do on Saturdays. Wanting to do something real and tangible for birds, something other than just putting out seeds and suet.
When they asked if I was interested in doing education programs, my life took a turn for the better.
The first time I ever held a raptor...the red screech owl. Can you believe I was nervous?

We have a RAPTOR board meeting tomorrow night. I fully expect a card or something.

Konnichiwa!

We celebrated Rachel's (soon-to-be-daughter-in-law of Swami and Swamette) birthday on Saturday night. Her choice of restaurant was SoHo, a Japanese bistro. I had never been to a Japanese place before, so I was worried that I wouldn't like anything (I tend to go for food that would be appealing to a five year old). I had NOTHING to worry about.

This was the type of place where they prepare the food in front of you on a grill in the middle of the table. So much fun....so much fire!


Vegatable rolls, pickled ginger and wasabi paste. I didn't try it...I just took a picture of it because it was pretty. They know how to present food, let me tell ya.
The food was spectacular. I even ate calamari, which I had never tried before. It helped that they disguised the squid in something that resembled a deep-fried onion ring.

My girls have had some experience with chopsticks, but it was more fun to make bridges and play the drums instead of eating with them.






Lorelei insisted on wearing her Cinderella shades into the restaurant:

What can I say? She's a Diva.

Our present to Rachel:

A bracelet made entirely of Swarovski crystals. I had so much fun choosing the crystals for this one....bead stores are my undoing.

Quick video of how they begin the cooking process:

Three Fourths

So much to post, so little time.
*The correct answer to Friday Feathers was a Great horned owl. Laura got it right first!*

Saturday was a jam-packed day. First, I went to RAPTOR to put new jesses on our screech owl, and to also begin my own training with No-No the Barn Owl. The Barn Owl has been jessed up and a few of our members have been training him on the glove. This is a fairly hyper bird, and his wound (amputation at the wrist on one wing) requires that we be gentle and take it slow.
I have been so looking forward to handling him, and at the same time nervous about it.
Cindy, our wonderful Bird Care Director, filled me in, thankfully. No-No will lunge at your face while you try to grab his jesses.

Man, that bird can jump high. And it's not the beak you have to worry about...it's the talons. Barn Owls are all leg and he was able to jump about two feet up, trying to kick at my shins.
I remained calm and confident and after about 5 minutes, was able to grab his jesses. Then the screaming began. Oh. My. God. Barn Owls are very, very good at doing an impression of a woman screaming...or a tea kettle hissing.

We walked around the property for about 20 minutes. When he began to show signs of tiring, I put him back. He was much better than I though he would be. He is not an official education bird yet...he has to be put on our education permit, he needs more training, etc. But the process has begun finally.
After RAPTOR, I met Kathi at Armleder Park. It was officially closed, but we decided to flaunt the rules and go in anyway. (Well, to be honest, Kathi made me. It was her idea.)
We had heard about black terns and bobolinks, so we were panting to get in there and see them.
The first bird we found was not what we expected....
*WARNING: GROSS OUT ALERT. DON'T LOOK IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH*


We came across a wing and a leg.


Surgical-precision cutting...the blood was fresh and still wet. It was some kind of buteo. Could we find the tail, to ascertain what kind?

Yep. About 30 feet away, the tail...and the other leg.



Kathi was good enough to pull aside the tail feathers to show the one, rufus-colored feather.
A second-year red-tailed hawk.

Again, clean-cut but twisted limbs.

About 20 feet further, we found the head and the other wing:

Eyes were still open, showing their sunny yellow color.
The body was twisted but the principal pieces were intact and looked as if they had be cut from the body.

The Chimp would be proud...Kathi immediately realized that this hawk had been hit by a low-flying plane over Armleder Park (which sits just next door to Lunken Airport, a small airport that brings in many planes with propellers.

Now. What do you think the raptor-phile in the group, with a permit to take such beautiful pieces, would do then?
Yep. I took 'em and put them in Kathi's car and take them after our birding walk. I have lots of different pieces of many different species in my education box...but I don't have any RTHA wings. So the pieces were gently, respectfully and quietly put in Kathi's cooler, along with some dead HOSP, starlings and a window-strike cardinal. Her car was the Bird Hearse.

And so the bird walk continued:

We found the Bobolinks immediately.

Not the best picture, but it was windy. Lifer!

And calling on the powers of the Chimp to ID these tracks:


We found indigo bunting males giving chase to each other, tree swallows, red-winged blackbirds, song sparrows, killdeer, etc...etc...
As we were starting to head back, Kathi spotted a small flock (6-8 birds) over head. She yelled out, "BLACK SKIMMERS!!!!!" I thought she had gone off her nut, but she corrected herself and yelled, "BLACK TERNS!" Lifer!
Dickcissels were singing in the grass, and we were able to see a few as they popped up.

It's a dickcissel, I swear.
So two lifers, a bunch of neat local nesters and three fourths of a hawk.

Friday Feathers

It's that time again....
To Guess the Friday Feathers!

The bird that these feathers are attached to, nests in every county in the U.S.

Myths about this bird:

Arctic Circle: a little girl was turned into a bird with a long beak by magic, but was so frightened she flapped about madly and flew into a wall, flattening her face and beak. So the ****** was created.
Cameroon: too evil to name, the *******is known only as "the bird that makes you afraid"
Peru: boiled ******* is said to be a strong medicine.

All you need to ID this bird is here in this picture.