Goldfinches Showing Signs of Spring

Someone said to me yesterday that days like these are why we love Minnesota. These glorious teaser days that promise spring will really return.

Today, when I looked out at our feeders, I noticed that goldfinches are starting to show signs of spring, too: they're undergoing their winter molt, changing over to their bright yellow plumage.

Look at those bright yellow feathers!

Goldfinches are the only cardueline finch to undergo two annual molts: one in the late winter and one in the fall. The Carduelis genus includes redpolls, crossbills and siskins.  Note that Purple Finches and House Finches are not part of the Carduelis genus.

The molt will continue through the spring, with the heaviest molt occurring in May. Birds will continue to molt all the way into June when the males finally become decked out in all their bright mating colors.  Watch for the males' caps to begin appearing in the next few weeks.

Researchers have long pondered the relationship between the goldfinches' late breeding cycle and their prolonged molt. Many believe that since goldfinches' diet is more heavily seed-based than other finches, their molt takes longer to bring out these vibrant colors. For science geeks, here's a pretty cool research article.

Take a close look at your finches, breath in the warm spring air and celebrate the fact that spring is quickly approaching!

Fun Friday Video

I found this video doing research on another project today.  The project?  Well, one of our vet techs at WRC is getting married next week and her bachelorette/shower is tonight. Being science minded and working with animals, combined with the fact that it's a bachelorette party, led to let's just say a certain themed trivia game for the evening, of which I did the research.

Maybe QGirl will share the trivia quiz on her blog tomorrow...  check back.

But, this video was so cute and funny I just had to share.  It's of the Red-capped Manakin, a bird of Central and South America.

Dark-eyed Juncos

Everyone appreciates the splash of color that cardinals, blue jays and flickers bring to the winter feeding station, but for me it's all about the subtle colors.  The incredible detail in the female cardinal's plumage, the soft look of the gray jays and then, my all-time favorite, the dark-eyed juncos.

Those drab little gray birds you say? Take a good look at one through your bincos some time. The white to dark demarcation lines are graceful and soft, the line from their heads to their necks is rounded and gives them a "bundled up" look. The outer tail feathers are bright white and flash as they fly from the side of winter roads into scrubby trees just to let you know that yes, that flock of birds you startled were indeed juncos.

And then there is the junco's beak. Seriously, their beaks are what sold me. Juncos' beaks are a soft pearly pink, in fact I think they look just like the inside of seashells. Many of them even have a slight swirl of white throughout. Set in their soft gray faces, the pink is even more stunning. What a surprising delicate finishing touch to this diminutive bird!

If their looks don't do it for you, how about their sound? Walking outside on a spring day as they're flocking up to migrate north is like walking into a room filled with old Atari games (minus the crinkle of Cheetos bags). Multiple tones of buzzing, rattles, trills and pipping fill the air as the birds busily flit about the yard gleaning leftover Nyjer seed.

Yes, Nyjer seed. For years it was believed that white millet (not to be confused with the yucky red millet that very few birds eat) was the preferred seed of juncos. Recent studies by the Wild Bird Feeding Industry (WBFI) show that juncos actually prefer Nyjer seed. To be honest, I always thought juncos did prefer Nyjer seed since they've always been under our Nyjer seed feeders. I've even had them perch on our Nyjer tubes with the finches. They don't do well with the cling feeders, so I keep a mix of Nyjer tubes and metal mesh feeders around. A handful of Nyjer seed tossed under all the feeding stations twice a day keeps our flock of more than 60 well fed and happy.

The Metro

How do Red Squirrels (Pine Squirrels to those of us who have migrated West from Wisconsin), not sink in deep, fresh snows?  They actually excavate and use tunnels throughout the winter! (Grey Squirrels do not.) Their own private Metro good for not only navigating in deep snow, but for escaping dogs.

Here's one of their favorite tunnels - you can see all the traffic it gets.  Think Chicago's Union Station.

The quarter is there for a scale/size comparison.  This Metro runs from under a Norwegian Spruce, down our sloping garden, exits into the driveway (where apparently they pick up a transfer) and then back into the Metro, up the sloping garden on the other side of the driveway direct to...  yes, you guessed it: our front yard birdfeeders!

This is what the tunnel looks like from above:

What do they do when they come to a tree?  Easy!

All told, the Red Squirrels have excavated probably 40-50 yards of tunnel throughout our snow piles this winter.  The patterns vary from year to year, too. The ones in the front creeping juniper by our steps are gone, replaced by one that runs parallel to the steps. Maybe a new squirrel? Just a different route?

Once the tunnels are in place, they're of course used by other tiny critters, namely voles and mice.  I've seen them scampering in and out of them in order to get to their own unique tunnels that are just under the snow's surface.

Now if only I could get a photo of the squirrel popping its head out of the tunnel...  I never seem to have a camera with me when they're scampering through their Metro.

Non-hibernating Opossums

It is true: Opossums do not hibernate.  Unfortunately for them, their feet, ears and tails have no fur so they frequently suffer from frostbite in our northern climate. You'll spot them in alleys, along the streets and especially under bird feeders.

Officially named "Virginia Opossum," opossums have gradually made their way northward and are now even found in Canada.  In fact, most literature is still outdated and shows the northern range of opossums to be just north of the Twin Cities.

I find it fascinating that there is one striking difference between our opossums up here and their southern relatives: the southern opossums are furless on their bellies, probably to help them keep cool during the summer.  Our opossums? They have furred bellies.  I think of it as actually being able to watch a species evolve to better their survival odds. How cool is that?

Unfortunately for opossums, they don't survive long in the wild: 3 years is considered maximum life expectancy. They are slow moving, and as noted above do not hibernate so they struggle through the winter.  And, even with the most number of teeth of any North American mammal (50!), they still fall heavily to predation. They really do play 'possum, rolling onto their sides and playing dead.  Alas, this makes them sitting ducks for coyotes, fox, dogs, wolves and other larger mammals.

Young opossums are preyed upon by owls, hawks and even squirrels.  In my opinion, this is when opossums are at their very cutest stage:

The opossum is unique in two other ways: 1) It's the only marsupial in North America. The female gives birth to 9-16 babies, but only has 13 teats in her pouch. Babies who do not immediately latch on to a teat die. And, 2) the species-standard number of teats is 13, an odd number, as opposed to an even number.  The majority of mammals have an even number of teats as the standard, although individuals often have an odd number.

One of the most impressive things I learned when first working at WRC is that people will actually stop at the side of road to check the pouch of a roadkill opossum.  It's amazing to me that people take the time to rescue these tiny babies - no wonder Minnesota has such remarkable parks and wildlife, it has great stewards. To be honest, the thought had never crossed my mind to stop and see if there were live babies in an opossum's pouch. 

Opossums are nocturnal as a general rule, but it's not unusual to see them out in the early evening hours or early morning. In fact, this post was prompted by an opossum enjoying spilled birdseed in the middle of the afternoon today. 

Live Hummingbird Web Cam

This Friday's Fun Coffee Break is a live Web cam from California of two baby Allen's Hummingbirds. Not only is the cam just an amazing (and addicting) stream, for those of us in cold climes it's a most welcome dose of floral greens in the middle of a snowy winter. 

Here's info on Allen's Hummingbirds from Cornell. 

Just wait until you see the mom hummingbird come in to feed the babies - she looks huge!  Yep, completely addicting stream...

Squirrelly Colors

While up in Brainerd we enjoyed watching the antics of the resident black squirrel.

Black squirrels are not a separate species of squirrel, rather they're most often a color variation of the Eastern Gray Squirrel (EGS).  In fact, you can have albino, melanistic (black), and gray squirrels all in one litter.  I've only seen that happen twice at WRC, but seeing all three in one tiny litter is a pretty amazing sight.

Looking closely at these photos, I actually began wondering if this might be a melanistic Fox Squirrel rather than a gray.  See how orange its sides and face highlights are? And how large it is? This points toward it being a Fox Squirrel, which are quite common in Minnesota, although you tend to see more of them outside of the Twin Cities metro area.

Research revealed that there is a relatively high incidence of melanism in Fox Squirrels, especially in the southeast United States where they're more common. If we could actually measure the squirrel we'd know for sure: EGS max out around 20" in length whereas Fox Squirrels average 24."  Since we can't measure it, I've showed the photo to a few other experts and all agreed it's most likely a melanistic Fox Squirrel.

Brainerd Ice Fishing Extravaganza III

I've returned from a fun weekend at the cabin in Lakeshore, which is a computer-free zone btw - sorry for not posting in a few days.  Where is Lakeshore?  It's just north of Brainerd, Minnesota home of the world's largest ice fishing tournament: 10,000 strong this past weekend!

It's our third year venturing out onto this frozen slab of water with thousands of other hopeful souls.  Our 1st year air temp when we hit the ice at 11am was -27, last year it was raining and turned to snow just as we got to our holes. When standing around on ice for three hours, rain is bad, snow is good. Our timing was perfect.

The big news last year though was our friend Jon, our northwoods neighbor from Tom Lake in Hovland, placed 7th out of 12,000 people with a 2# tulibee. What's a tulibee you ask? We asked the same thing and now, thanks to Jon embracing the ecstasy of his win ALL year long, have it burned into our brains that it's a "commercially important whitefish." huh. Ugly fish, didn't know they even existed, but it did win him a very nice bright red Strikemaster ice suit (proudly displayed below) that kept him toasty warm this year when air temp was -15, windchill of -31.

Immediately after the canon-fire kickoff at noon people all around started reeling in fish. It was amazing to watch. The crowd of nearby ice-fishing hopefuls all cheer as soon as you start reeling in the fish, then yell to put it into a bag of water (catch and release of course), then yell at you to run. The "run" chant is picked up by hundreds, then thousands of other hopefuls as you slip and slide over ice to the check-in tent for official registration of your fish.

Why run? The only thing I can figure out, other than that it is amusing to watch some of the more inebriated hopefuls try to run across ice while they're bundled up like the Michelin Man, is that it sets you apart from 10,000 other people so everyone can look on longingly, curse their own iceholes and keep a loose track of how many fish are heading into the registration tent.

Alas, I only lived all this vicariously through my neighbor fishermen. Not a fish to be had in our group of four. Strategizing for next year has already begun: looks like we'll be in shallow water hoping for a passing northern (a 7.1# won this year) or a tiny perch (a .43# one captured the final spot on the leader board this year winning the lucky fisherman a brand new Arctic Cat ATV).

Check out the official photos and the winners on the Brainerd Area Jaycee's site.

A Fine Physique

I was flipping through recent photos on our new Nikon and was surprised to see that I've actually captured a hint of a pileated's tongue in one of the photos.

Considering that a pileated's tongue is so incredibly long that it actually coils up in the back of its head, you would think that it'd be more common to see their tongues.  Alas, their lightening quick flicks are far faster than my slow synapses!

Up close, a woodpecker's tongue looks like a nasty weapon which, if you were an ant, it would be.  Just take a look at the amazing woodpecker tongue photos Hilton Pond Center has on their site. They even have one of a woodpecker skull so you can see how the tongue wraps around the inside.

Pileateds, like all woodpeckers, are physically designed to withstand pounding into trees while searching for insects (in the pileated's case, preferably ants) and excavating nesting cavities (2' deep!). They have a specially built skull that cushions their brain, a barbed tongue, incredibly strong toes that can cling to nearly anything, and a long tail that they use as a balance point.

I've always been fascinated by these large woodpeckers, but getting to know their actual physique and how they're built to do what they do just makes them even more amazing.

A Fun Friday Coffeebreak

Every now and then you need something to take you away from your current project, something to just break up the day. I found my distraction for this morning: tracking the movement of Minnesota and Wisconsin loons.

The Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC), working with scientists, the USGS, and state DNR programs, has embedded dozens of transmitters into loons to track their migration patterns.  You can learn more about the study here.

But, the best part, and the true distraction, is to watch the loons actually move around their breeding lakes and then take a giant migration flight to Lake Michigan, before heading southeast. Just click on one of the loons for the animated migration pattern.

MPR has a full story, plus audio and video interviews on their site.

A Sidetrip

Took a break today and crossed over to Hudson, Wis., to see the migratory waterfowl and, of course, hoping to catch a glimpse of 88F (the rehabbed swan who reunited with his mate in Hudson).

Unfortunately no sign of him, but it was nice to see approximately 100 other swans in the wild. A surprising lack of other winter waterfowl: only mallards, geese and one lone white farm duck that has heeded the call of the wild.

Trumpeter Swans, like the ones in Hudson, travel in family units and usually not more than 4-6 in one flying flock.  If you see a "v" of swans flying overhead numbering more than a dozen, those are Tundra Swans.

Juveniles spend their first year with their parents and are grey like the one above, gradually becoming fully white by their first birthday. Adults do mate for life (but they will find a new mate if the original mate dies) and return to the same nesting area each year.

Spring Songs Celebrate Perihelion

This morning, at a brisk 12 degrees, I heard the spring songs of our black-capped chickadees. Yes, it's sunny. I suppose you could try to fool yourself into thinking it's warm outside. Or that spring is just around the corner.  But we Minnesotans know better. We have another 3 months of snowy weather ahead of us.

So, exactly what is the chickadee fee-beeing about?  I learned that today we are at perihelion: the closest we'll be to the sun all year. And somehow the chickadees know it.

From today all the way until July, we'll be gradually moving farther away from the sun in our elliptical orbit. You can read more about this, and see some cool photos of the sun at both perihelion and aphelion (when we're farthest from the sun) on Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy site.

Smart chickadees.

A Not-so-Bright Red-bellied

We have a saying in the family: "He (or She) is so pretty."  Basically, this is uttered in response to something you've said or done that you wish you could immediately take back.  Often accompanied by a pat on the head, it's a way of saying "Oh honey, don't worry - you're so pretty no one expects you to be smart."

Well, this gorgeous red-bellied woodpecker definitely earns the phrase, "You're so pretty."  Not only is he truly a gorgeous bird, but he's been trying to figure out how to cling to our Droll Yankees seed feeder for FOUR days.

The feeder hangs in front of our second story bedroom window and traditionally is the "little bird" feeder: chickadees, nuthatches and finches, with the occasional downy or hairy swooping in to steal a peanut.

The "pretty" red-bellied has camped out on the window ledge and continuously buzzes the feeder attempting to land, so not only is he not enjoying the tasty treats - neither are the feeder's usual clients.

Will day 5 be the magic day he figures it out? We'll see, but in the meantime it really is a treat to see such a pretty bird up close.

A Green Solstice

 
Tender, young, bright green plants. Contrast that with the gently drifting snowflakes and the ice-covered trees outside my window and you have a great way to celebrate today's Solstice: Our shortest day of the year, but one that marks the coming of spring.  For every day from this point forward will be minutes longer.

So, today's project was to transplant nearly a dozen young tomato seedlings into bigger pots. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the 1st day of winter and the lengthening days.

Will they survive? They should. Will they actually bear fruit? That's the big question.  As we prepare to move fully off the grid in a few years, one of the requirements is the ability to grow our own food.  Of course, a greenhouse will be a key component, but we've never tried growing tomato plants in the winter before so this is a good first step.