Angry Birds

The new Nature's Classroom facility at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.

I was down in the Florida panhandle a while ago, helping to open a wonderful new building at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge called "Nature's Classroom." This facility will serve as a resource for area residents, teachers, students, birders, photographers, and nature enthusiasts, giving them a place to meet, learn, explore, and a base from which to enjoy St. Marks NWR.

Some of the team responsible for the new Nature's Classroom building at the ribbon-cutting.

While there I gave three talks and lead a couple of bird walks, one of which was on the Plum Orchard Trail behind Nature's Classroom. We had 30 or so folks along, including some keen young bird watchers, and the birding was fairly good, considering it was a hot, muggy afternoon. We had lots of red-eyed vireos, eastern kingbirds, a green heron, immature white ibis, little blue heron, tricolored heron, pine warbler, four woodpecker species, and a noisy flock of brown-headed nuthatches. But the most interesting sighting happened right at the end of the walk on the sandy pool of water behind Nature's Classroom.

As we returned on the loop trail, one of our group spotted two shorebirds out on the pool. We initially thought they were spotted sandpipers because there were lots of spotties around and because they were teetering their tails the way that spotted sandpiper often do. But as they came out of the vegetation and walked closer it was clear that they were the larger solitary sandpiper. And they were really behaving weirdly: running around excitedly, bobbing almost constantly, looking into the grass.

Solitary sandpipers doing their best Angry Birds impression.

That was when the object of their attention slithered into view: a banded water snake came gliding toward the birds. The birds seemed to be conflicted about this: should they run or should they fight? As soon as the snake would head away from them, the solitaries would chase it. If the snake came toward them, they scampered away. Certainly the snake was too large for them to kill and eat, and I'm not sure that the snake could have subdued the sandpipers, so they were left to perform pantomime parries and thrusts with no actual attacks.

The whole scene lasted just a few minutes, but it was interesting to watch. I guessed that these birds might have been youngsters migrating south with the fall, and this might have been their first snake encounter.

Solitaries and the water snake.

This was my first trip to St. Marks—one of our oldest national wildlife refuges. What a fantastic place it is! I'm certain I'll be back again for another visit.

Birds & People at MBS 2011

I want to share some images with you from the 2011 Midwest Birding Symposium held September 15 to 18 at Lakeside, Ohio. If you were there, you know we had a really great time. If you weren't there, I hope these images will give you some idea of what the MBS is all about. I'll be posting about the MBS a few times in the coming weeks, but for this initial post, let's just take a gander at some of the birds and people. The image above is a male American redstart. The symposium was held at the peak of fall warbler migration along the Lake Erie shore.

Hoover Auditorium was filled with MBS attendees for both morning and evening keynote presentations by folks like Al Batt, Bridget Stutchbury, Peter Dunne, Julie Zickefoose, Kenn and Kim Kaufman, and Greg Miller (one of the three real characters from the book The Big Year). During the MBS, Hoover Auditorium was sponsored by SWAROVSKI OPTIK.

These are our friends Hugo, Irene, and Rafael from the Guatemala-based tour company Operador Latino. They were displaying their tours and materials in a booth in the Birder's Marketplace in South Auditorium. We had more than 60 vendors this year!

Avid Ohio birder/naturalist Sandy Brown keeps her birdmobile loaded with all the gear she needs to enjoy the natural world. Her license plate says it all.

Out at the six MBS designated birding sites, we had volunteer guides stationed, ready to take people out for some bird watching. All guides sported the official MBS guides' trucker hat: black with the MBS Caspian tern stitched on the front panel.

Over at Magee Marsh, many MBS attendees enjoyed looking at the trumpeter swan families. These birds are part of a reintroduction program that is aimed at restoring a viable population of these elegant birds to Ohio.

In South Auditorium on Saturday afternoon lots of bird book authors lined up to sign copies of their books. Shown here from right to left are: Mark Garland, Marie Read, Julie Zickefoose, Connie Toops, and Jeff Gordon.

Another fall migrant, a magnolia warbler. This beauty was photographed at Meadowbrook Marsh and official MBS birding site on the Marblehead Peninsula.

Bird sound expert and Zen master Michael O'Brien lead a walk to the Lakeside pier to listen for the sounds of migrant birds overhead. This was a nice add-on to his MBS talk "Things That Go Seet in the Night."

Super volunteers Marc Nolls and Mike and Karen Edgington helped to organize and run the MBS bird checklist as well as the conservation raffle. Thanks to their efforts, the generosity of our sponsors and donors, and the avid participation of our attendees, the 2011 MBS conservation raffle raised more than $11,000 for bird conservation causes. The Ohio Ornithological Society agreed to match up to $10,000, so our MBS conservation fund total was $21,000! I'm extremely proud of this.

Among the incredibly hard-working MBS staff were, from left to right: volunteer Sheryl Young, Jim Cirigliano, managing editor of Bird Watcher's Digest, and Ann Kerenyi, BWD controller and goddess of ossumness in charge of details for the MBS.

Guides from MBS sponsor Field Guides Birding Tours lead groups of MBS attendees at Magee Marsh. A total of 137 bird species were seen during the 2011 MBS, including a fly-by red-necked phalarope spotted by Cameron Cox at the Leica Lake Watch on the Lakeside pavilion.

My gratitude to the following photographers who took the images above during the 2011 MBS: Ernie Cornelius, Ann Oliver, Liz McQuaid, Sherrie Duris, Micki Hendrick, and Sandy Brown.

A Boy, A Dog and Their First Dove Hunt

How many of you remember your first dove hunt? I’m not talking about just getting to go along and be a dove chasing water boy, but to sit with a shotgun and get to really hunt. I will always remember my first hunt and all the shells it took for me to kill two dove. It may have taken nearly a box but they were shot out of the air even if they were slowing to land on a dead tree near the stock pond.  I did not have a dog on my first dove hunt and in fact I was grown and out on my own before I ever hunted with a trained dog.  What an experience to get to hunt with a dog that could find the dove I dropped in tall sunflowers and retrieve that dove to hand.  I was to spend many years hunting with trained dogs and all of them are special memories.  It must be wonderful to go on your first hunt and have a great bird dog.  Not only to have a great bird dog, but a great bird dog that thinks you are the greatest hunter in the world.  From their looks in the picture above Hunter and Doc know that feeling.  For some reason I don't think they will ever forget it, Wild Ed

St. Marks Morning

It's been a wild few weeks here at Bill of the Birds international corporate headquarters. Apologies for the mostly unavoidable dead air here on the blog. So, as an attempt at making this up to my patient readers, here's a much-needed Moment of Bliss for you and me.

The image above was taken yesterday morning along the road to the St. Marks lighthouse. The air was cool and humid, with that whiff of brackish marsh. Birds dotted the sky as though the heavens spilled its pepper mill and I took a moment to feel my feet on the ground, to fill my lungs with sweet morning air, to count the glory rays striking skyward from the rising sun. It was so peaceful. Life at that moment, well, it was very good.

Then my camera battery ran out.

More soon.

Fishing In Port O' Conner

I haven't had the time or opportunity to go fishing at the coast in quite a while so this week I am living my fishing through my younger brother.  Hopefully I will get to go in the future, but in the mean time maybe Mike's story will feed your fishing need, Wild Ed

POC Trip

We left the dock around 7:00am on Sunday morning heading for the jetties in Port O’Conner. With storms lurking all around, POC was about the only place it wasn’t raining. The seas were rough as we headed around to the surf side of the jetty. Due to the large sets of breaking waves, we could not anchor too close to jetty. The first few minutes, we hooked into a couple of nice reds followed by two large jacks and the long battle required to boat them on small tackle. The reds continued to bite for the next two hours. All together we boated 11 slot reds, tagged three slightly oversize reds and released 3 large oversize reds. The reds slowed down, but just as quickly the Spanish mackerel and trout took their place. We managed to land 8 nice smacks and 3 nice specs up to 24”. The seas were getting rough and the thunder getting closer, so we moved to the inside channel and soon got into the black drum, sheepshead and large ladyfish. The 3 sheepshead were undersize but we managed to catch 7 nice eating size black drum and release several large ladyfish before the lightning started getting too close for comfort. On the way in, the temperature dropped quickly and we could see the green-tinted clouds getting nasty all around. One boat told of being caught in a hail storm. Back at the docks around 11am, it became clear that we had caught the lion’s share of the fish that day. Boats were lined up in the rain trying to get out before the storms got any worse. To top off a perfect day of fishing, a large shrimper followed us into the docks and we bought 20 pounds of huge white shrimp for $4 a pound. Another awesome fishing trip at POC. (Yes, the wives had us book another trip week after next!) This was only my 2nd trip to POC and both times have been awesome.

Give Capt. Marty Medford and his son Capt. Matt Medford a call at “Fish of A Lifetime Guide Service”  361-983-3474  They did all the work and we just had to reel the fish in! After it was all over we went by Capt. Marty’s place and Momma had us a piece of the best pecan pie I have ever put in my mouth and that ain’t no fishin story! Wild Ed and I are going to have to make POC one of our regular fishing spots.  Mike

Great story and adventure that makes me jealous, but I am glad you guys had a great time in the Texas Outdoors. I think Marty will owe me a piece of Momma's pecan pie.  Wild Ed

Beginning Home Brewing

Last year, when it used to rain, wild mustang grapes made a fair crop at our family place in Lampasas. We had always made this wonderful grape jelly from them. My wife cooked up a batch of jelly for the season and we were set for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. My next trip up I found a new growth of ripe grapes so I picked a couple of buckets full and took them home. My wife informed me that she had made all the jelly she cared to make for a while so I decided to use the grapes and try an old wine making recipe. I ended up making my first batch of wild mustang grape wine and it turned out wonderful. I was looking forward to making a second batch this year as the sixteen bottles from last year are all gone. Since there has only been 2.75 inches of rain this year there were no grapes to harvest so I will not be making wild grape wine.

This brings me to my current project, I have a friend that is an accomplished brewer and makes craft beers and ales along with classic wines. He offered to let me come over and watch him brew up a batch and put it into the carboy fermenter. I learned about mini mash recipes, malted grains and malt extract along with the wonderful smelling plant, hops. All of this was steeped, mixed, stirred and cooked. It is rapidly cooled and special yeast is added before it is poured into a fermenter and an airlock placed on top to let the fermentation process begin. There is a lot to making a premium craft beer or ale but there are complete recipes for the beginner and homebrew enthusiast to follow step by step. We also mixed a batch of Chilean Merlot to start fermenting. This came in a kit with all the ingredients along with complete directions.

After a trip to Austin Homebrew Supply with my friend, I am watching the classifieds for used brewing equipment such as carboys, Cornelius kegs, air locks and other brewing and wine making supplies. There are all sorts of places online where one can learn about this process along with suppliers of equipment and kits with enclosed recipes. Here is the link to the homebrew supply I visited in Austin. http://www.austinhomebrew.com/  I had never been in the store, however I found the staff to be very helpful.  I wondered through the isles of wine kits, equipment bins, books, cheese making supplies, grain bins, malt extracts and other supplies that I do not have a clue what they were, but I will learn.  The helpful staff answered all my beginner questions and acted like I was a long time valued customer.  It was so great to go somewhere that the staff appreciates customers and does not treat them as though they are doing them a favor to wait on them.  Austin Homebrew Supply can supply complete equipment kits and recipe kits along with printed instruction sheets for making your favorite craft beers, ales or wines. I am sure they would be happy to ship right to your door.  I am getting ready to make their Texas Red Ale my next project, Wild Ed

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Vireotown

Red-eyed vireo

We have three species of vireos that nest on our farm here in southeastern Ohio: red-eyed, white-eyed, and yellow-throated. There are three others that we see each spring and fall, just passin' through: blue-headed (formerly solitary and I can't seem to remember to use the "new" name), warbling, and Philadelphia. If we really stretched our birding fantasy list to the extreme I suppose we could one day see a Bell's vireo here at Indigo Hill, but if we do, that sighting will get its very own blog post.

White-eyed vireo

All summer long we hear the red-eyeds singing almost constantly. Yellow-throateds seem to be more selective singers, but when they do sing, they do it a lot. Their hoarse-sounding question-and-answer song seems to come mostly from our oak woods.

White-eyeds sing a ton during courtship, then not at all during nesting it seems. I wonder if the tree-top-loving red-eyeds and yellow-throateds sing more regularly (or the white-eyeds less) due to their relative exposure to predators. A red-eyed vireo singing in the top of a tulip poplar is very hard to find. A white-eyed may be skulking in the shadows, but it's usually at eye level or below in a patch of brushy habitat. Does this make them more susceptible to predators?

Yellow-throated vireo

Now that fall migration has started, these vireos can still be heard singing, though with nowhere near the intensity of the earlier seasons. The other notable behavior of fall migration is the aggressiveness of the red-eyed vireos. They zip and swoop from tree to tree, often chasing other birds. I imagine these other birds thinking "What the heck? Leave me alone!" I'm sure this behavior has something to do with the fluctuation in hormone levels brought on by the end of the breeding season and the onset of fall migration.

The red-eyeds remind me of teenage boys who, when they find themselves just standing around doing, nothing get the sudden urge to punch a nearby shoulder. This punch often elicits another, and so on.

Our vireos' aggressiveness sometimes pays nice dividends, like this morning when a pair of (probably young) red-eyeds chased two warblers out of deep cover in our sycamore tree: one was an adult male black-throated blue (my favorite North American warbler) and the other was a yellow-throated warbler—both firsts for this fall.

Philadelphia vireo

Later in September we start sorting through the vireos more carefully, looking for a Philadelphia vireo. We see far more of them in fall than in spring migration. It's one of the many treats of autumn that makes the leaving of summer just a little easier to take here in Vireotown.

Chicken Spaghetti and Taste Bud Changes

As a kid growing up in a West Texas town with three church colleges I went to a lot of church socials and pot luck dinners. It always seemed like the church ladies would make casseroles for these group meals. By my count, about six out of every 10 meat dishes were some form of Chicken Spaghetti. You would think in West Texas they would cook beef. I hated Chicken Spaghetti with a passion. It would literally make me sick. I got in trouble several times as a kid because I would not eat the awful dish. I remember getting sent to my room because I would not eat mom's Chicken Spaghetti, but that was ok as I would just go read a book. I became an avid reader. I was happy to go to my room just so I did not have to eat that terrible dish. If I came in and my mom was making Chicken Spaghetti I would head down the street and try to find a buddy that could invite me to dinner.

As I got older it became harder to avoid Chicken Spaghetti when served. I was often in environments where it would be difficult to not at least pick at the dish. In some cases I would have to eat some of it just to be polite and make a good impression. Then one day something magical happened. I was at a dinner with my girlfriend’s family and guess what her mother served, Chicken Spaghetti. I had to eat it, there was no where to dump it, hide it or do anything else with it. I would have to eat that whole pile of pasta with chicken and who knows what else that had been heaped on my plate. I tried to eat the Chicken Spaghetti in minute amounts mixed with salad, green beans or rolls. As I ate dinner a strange thing happened. The dish that I had hated with such passion was actually starting to taste pretty good. I could not believe it, I felt ashamed like I was doing something wrong as I savored the flavors in that dish. I thought it must have been a strange phenomena or maybe my taste had been messed up by something else. I pushed the dinner to the back of my mind until several weeks later when I sat at the table with my family. I had just come in and mom was fixing plates in the kitchen.  She told me to sit down at the table and she would bring me a plate. Guess what was heaped on the plate she set down in front of me, yes it was Chicken Spaghetti. A whole plate full of Chicken Spaghetti with nothing else but a piece of garlic toast to help mask the taste. I started out with a small bite with toast, it was good. I took a bigger bite with no toast and it was wonderful. My mom’s Chicken Spaghetti was fantastic, what was wrong with me.

I later read the taste buds change about every seven years. My oldest daughter, who has three kids, uses this story to get her kids to try new foods or old foods they did not like again. I was reminded of this when my seven year old grand daughter called me the other night and told me “Papa, today is the day my taste buds change” she was turning seven and was all excited to try all the foods she did not like. The moral to this story is to try new things or even to re-try old things. You might find something you like. I thought a fitting ending to this story would be to give you my favorite Chicken Spaghetti Recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does, Wild Ed



Wild Ed’s Fantastic Chicken Spaghetti


Ingredients


• 3 cups Cooked Chicken


• 4 cups Dry Pasta or Spaghetti


• 1 can Cream Of Mushroom Soup


• 1 cup Cream of Chicken Soup


• 1 cup Velveeta


• ¼ cup Finely Diced sweet Green Pepper


• ¼ cup Finely Diced sweet Red Pepper


• ¼ cups Finely Diced Onion


• 2 Cloves of Garlic diced


• ½ cup black olives diced


• 1 small can of mushroom pieces


• 1/2 jar (2 Ounce) Diced Pimentos, Drained


• 1/2 teaspoon Brisket Rub


• 1/4 teaspoon Poultry Seasoning to taste


• Salt And Pepper, to taste


• 1/2 cup Grated Cheddar Cheese


Preparation Instructions


Cook and cut up chicken, at least three cups. Save the stock from the chicken to add to dish as needed


Sauté vegetables in olive oil and add spices, stir in and melt Velveeta, cans of soup and cheddar cheese. Add cooked chicken to mixture.

Cook spaghetti or pasta, I have become partial to fixing the pasta that looks like sea shells. When pasta is cooked, combine with remaining ingredients and mix well.  Add chicken stock to reach consistency you prefer.  Sprinkle with parsley and paprika for color.  Enjoy.

Texas Wildfires

Texas fire fighters were fighting over 60 different fires in Texas over the Labor Day weekend, many are still not under control. Over 3.6 million acres and 1,000 plus homes have been burned since the fire season started. Some 600 of the homes in the last weekend. There are people and livestock all over the State with no place to go. Many people did not get anything out of their homes as the fires moved so quickly in the high winds we had this last weekend. Over 80,000 people have been evacuated from their homes.

The State was already in terrible shape for wildlife and livestock as most pastures have nothing to eat. Feed and hay prices have gone through the ceiling due to the drought. The fires have destroyed ranches and farms that have livestock that which will not be able to survive on the scorched land. Many Central Texas livestock operations are in need of feed and water. Wildlife rescue people are being taxed to the limit with wildlife victims of the fires. If you have the means to help any of these please get involved and do what you can.


Firefighters, many are volunteers, have been working long hours in fighting the fires. They also need food and supplies along with places to rest. Many families could use anything extra that people use day to day. I am not listing the help centers as they are different all over the State.

This is a link to a site to send aid to the firefighters.
http://txwildfirerelief.org/

Or you can contact the Red Cross of Central Texas


Many churches and other organizations are setting up help for families and firefighters. Landowners in the area that were not burned have been donating pastures for livestock that has no where to go. If you contact officials you can find out where to help in your area. Do what you can, Wild Ed