Yellow billed kite video

Yellow Billed Kite from Ben Mongold on Vimeo.



Here's a cool video produced by our friend Ben Mongold.  Shows the yellow billed kite in action.  Slo mo is cool!  Plus a cool Neil Young tune. Groovy.  Enjoy

Meet me in Zihuatanejo

I have had a busy few weeks.  With several events, trainings, trips, etc, our schedule at the Center has been packed.  When you add the beginning of the raptor breeding season, vacations and the fact that there just aren't enough days in the week for us to get everything done and have time to recharge you end up tired.  Satisfied, but tired.  I will share a few experiences from these last few weeks along with photographs from my new camera.  I hope it is educational and enjoyable.

It seems that no matter how hard I try not to, I always schedule some big program and neglect to avoid scheduling three other big programs on the weekends surrounding it.  It is not my strength.  I can however power through them after having done it for years.  Last Thursday, I spoke with over 1000 students in Beaufort County including a brand new charter school (that I was highly impressed with!) and a boys and girls club group with great leaders, and finally, a full house on Fripp Island for the Audubon Club meeting!  Beginning to end, it was a 13 hour day.  I took our marvelous black vulture, Harris' Hawk, Spectacled Owl, and Tawny Eagle.  I had help with loads and unloads from Pete Richards and some others from the Audubon Club.  Next year, plan to have an assistant.

"Meet me in Zihuatanejo"

Eggs really are the rage this time of year.  Everybody is either laying them, hunting for them, dying them, scrambling them or trying to break out of them.  Very popular.  At the Center, the eggs that are getting the most attention are those which remind me of scenes in two of my favorite movies.  Think "Shawshank Redemption" and "Raising Arizona."  Both have great jailbreak scenes concluding with some sort of rising from a pool of sewage.  Chicks hatching are not quite as wet and messy, but the scene is filled with excitement just the same. There is always the chance you won't make it.  

We breed a limited number of birds at the Center every year for education.  It is now officially the time of year when owls hatch chicks.  I was corrected by a friend at the Audubon meeting that owls don't have "babies" only people have "babies". I appreciate correctness and therefore now call the man who corrected me a friend despite having spoken to him only once.  At any rate, owl eggs started hatching last Thursday while I was away.  Things have not been easy for those trying to get out of Asian Brown Wood Owl (Strix leptogrammica) eggs over the last few attempts.  In fact, only one had made it out alive and only lived a few minutes on the outside.  Young pairs often take a few trys to get things right.  We did what we could to help, but the breakout can only be executed from the inside.  Blood vessels in the egg membranes must be gradually pinched off by the chick's beak (with egg tooth) movements.  Outside help, while well intentioned, can cause death from "external" bleeding.  Yikes.  

Several had reached the pipping stage (seen in picture above), but had failed to turn in the egg and therefore failed to break out.  The chick must rotate and chip a "belt" around the egg separating it into two halves.  We weren't sure if it was an issue of humidity or some congenital defect.  We fixed the humidity issue and were patiently awaiting this egg's pip.  36 hours went by with little rotation.  Aargh.  But he had started with 2 cracks.  He had rotated some.  A step in the right direction.  Keep going little fella.  Keep going. 

When I arrived Saturday morning, we were almost there.  Like most good escapes, the bulk of this one happened under the veil of darkness.  Just a little way to go.  Don't give up.

Saturday afternoon, I could see the egg flexing as the chick stretched its legs and wings.  I could not resist assisting at this point because I knew all of the veins had been closed.  It was only a tiny application of pressure and with a snap, the chick rolled out onto the hatching incubator's surface, mostly wet, but with a small fluffy area that had been exposed to the outside world for a day.  Notice that the egg must serve as a sewer as well as a home. I think it looks most like John Goodman covered in mud.  

The final shot is of our new Asian Brown Wood Owl chick lying on the beach in Zihuatanejo with its old friend Andy Dufresne.  Freedom is sweet.

A couple of cool experiences

Had several cool experiences this last week.  One relates well to the bird side of the blog and the other touches on another theme and that is music.  I have not had any moving food experiences recently, so that should be coming soon I hope.

Getting the message out ( in ever increasing concentric circles around the Center)   is one of the most challenging components of our job in the education department.  Whenever someone wants to talk to you for a TV show or a newspaper or a webcast, you say sure.  Most are perfectly well meaning, but sometimes the process is irritating.  Schedules don't match.  You need something difficult from a bird.  Challenging, but often energizing.  I do it a lot.  Talking with Leslee Johnson was fun.  She listens well.  Is able to converse intelligently (which isn't a given)  and writes nice stuff about the environmental topics I enjoy.  Here are some links to articles she wrote based on our conversation.  Brevity is not my strength, and fortunately, she had 3 stories planned.  I guess 300 words is what humans are reading now a days before switching off.
Fierce canaries in a huge mine (how about that title!).  Nice  chatting Leslee!

The second cool experience happened the other night at the Charleston Pourhouse.  I have been playing music for a long time.  I started my true professional career in a group called Wheelhouse in 1997.  Matt Weldon and I played acoustic music to lots of drunks in many fine establishments with bartenders named Randy.  While I often jest about my songwriting prowess, I have only ever recorded two original songs.  One about my dog that I wrote while playing in a band with my friend Ray Murphy.  The other I wrote during an art history class as an undergraduate.  At the PoHo gig, we had a small, enthusiastic crowd.  We had requests for songs from  the record.  There was a young lady who knew all the words.  She sang the melodies and we could have harmonized to them.  Every word.  Started with a duet with Chris on "Montana Cowboy" a high lead solo tune.  All the words to my song "True Wisdom, " all 7 minutes of it.  And she sang on key.  Felt really cool.  This video reminded me of it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZoJJeBeStg .  No pictures in this edition.  Deal.  Thanks Flatt City fan, for liking our record.

Snow, Red-Tailed Hawk Sex, Wildlife EXPO!

So, I will finally give a brief report on the Wildlife Expo. I can blame the delay in posting this report on lots of things, but I won't.  Just be happy it happened before the original predicted date of 2016!

We had a great year this year as usual.  It was stressful as could be throughout, but despite rain, snow, and several local birds, all went off without much of a hitch.In our first rehearsal, a wild coop gave our lanner falcon (Falco biarmicus) a flyby on the ground and then landed on the A-frame perch just a few feet away and looked at us for a minute or two.  Audrey debated trying to catch another one bare handed, but decided to let this guy go.  We saw him periodically throughout the weekend, but fortunately, no more close calls.

As if on cue, the aforementioned lanner took a 30 minute leisurely stroll around the city on Thursday in his second rehearsal.  While he was never out of radio range, he was out of visual contact for longer than I would have liked especially considering the recent appearance of the coop and the onlooker on the church steeple.  I tell you, my life gets shorter by years with each passing EXPO.

The same onlooker and her mate gave the audience a show again this year on Sunday afternoon.  They sure do like to be watched.  On a church steeple?  And on the sabbath no less.  The nerve.  Another example of the really important fact that birds don't observe the same set of "rules" that humans do!

We also had snow this year for EXPO.  Friday night was a virtual whiteout for Charleston with 4+ inches of the fluffy stuff.  It made for a beautiful drive into the Center to load birds and added a nice touch to the events at Marion Square.

As with all EXPO's past, the best thing about this one is that it is over.

Fast as Lightning

OK.  A lot happened in my little bird world this week. Today was the first day of the Southeastern Wildlife EXPO here in charleston.  It was a nice, slow first day. I had interesting conversations with several nice folks on topics ranging from litter, to murder suspects from the genus Bubo, to our friends Bombycilla cedorum. More on that later in the EXPO report (available in late spring 2016).

photo from http://www.beaconhillparkhistory.org 

Cooper's Hawks (Accipiter cooperii originally from the Latin accipere "to understand" or "to grasp" and William Cooper (1798-1864) zoologist, collector, conchologist, and author) have been on my mind a lot for some reason the last week or so.  Some of you chuckle. These are some of the coolest, most often seen raptors.  Like a flash.  Short wings, long tail, bursts of power, unmatched agility, bird killing toes (see above photo).  We had a rogue coop around the Center last week with a penchant for kestrels.  He attempted to eat them all.  We found evidence that he killed a wild eastern screech owl (Megascops asio   the big little eared owl owl) as well. New word for the day: Raptivore.

We tried to catch him with a Bal Chatri (wire box covered in monofilament nooses containing bait.) He flew inches over the nooses directly to the kestrel in the enclosure.  This happened more than once.  I was less that 10 feet away from him more than once. On Monday, Audrey caught the bird bare handed.  She's fast as lightning.  He was hungry, sure, but I did say bare handed.  OK, she had her falconer's glove on, but she used here right hand to catch him.

Psychology and Second Graders

Funny story.  I was visiting with some second grade students at Sangaree Elementary school earlier this week during the last flooding rainstorm here in Charleston.  It was a fun visit full of interesting questions and insights from the young minds in the room.  They have been watching birds as a part of project feeder watch and my visit was the culmination of their bird unit.  I was flying one of our Harris' Hawks around their classroom when an astute young lady asked me how I trained the bird to come to my glove.  I explained to her that it was by using a training method that their parents probably use on them all the time (meaning positive reinforcement.) She interrupted saying, "Oh, reverse psychology."

Stephen:  "Don't soar endlessly up to 1000 feet."
Black Vulture: "I'm heading up to 1000 feet now."

I wish.

Some of my favorite birds

People, kids mostly, always want to know about the superlatives in the bird world.  Which one is faster?  Which one is the biggest?  Which one would win in a battle?  Which one is your favorite?  I can do a pretty good job with all but the last one.  It might even be fun.

Little Bobby:  "If a Great horned owl and a Bald Eagle had a battle, who would win?"

Stephen: "Well, it depends on the battlefield.  Are we talking about in a muddy field by a pond during the day or the pine woods at dusk?  I think the woods at dusk is a better scene for a battle."

Little Bobby: "What is dusk?"

At any rate, you see how it works.  Fun.  That was a made up conversation.

The last of the questions is one I hate to answer and most often dodge nimbly (as nimbly  is the only way I roll). But there are a few that I really like.  Several of those popped into the picture this week and fit quite well into the theme of my blog.  So, i'll talk a bit about them and the people and places involved.

In the vain of the last post, this one involves my day off.  I decided to take advantage of the free "Tourist in Your Own Town" passes since the Center has been filled with participants and I had yet to visit one attraction.  Emily and I took off Wednesday morning for Charlestowne Landing.  I had not visited since the renovations, so I was excited.  Emily had one visit under her belt, and every detail was fresh.  Nice to have a guide.

We headed toward the animal forest preparing to see, lions (cougars), tigers (bobcats) and of course bears.  Oh my, the excitement was palpable.  On the way, I spotted a bird in a tree in the old cemetery.  It was only 20 feet away, but since it wasn't a raptor, I misidentified it initially.  I thought it was a tufted titmouse (Baeolophus = having a small crest bicolor = you can figure this one out, right?).  Neat birds.  I was wrong.  I looked through my binoculars at the solitary bird and realized it was one of my all time favorites, back from the south.  As I put the binoculars down and looked at the bigger picture, I realized he was not alone at all.  A total of 11 cedar waxwings (Bombycilla = silk tail cedorum = they like to eat cedar pine cones) sat peeping quietly in the tree.  Not many birds have the elegance of these little fellas.  Your best suit can't touch the grey on these birds.  Then add the yellow tip on the tail and the Makers' Mark bottle drip on the wing as some of the best flair in the business and you have quite a handsome package.  I go out of my way to experience large numbers of these birds.  Fortunately, they are typically all over the Center in spring and if they are not here, they will likely be between the old College of Charleston library and Maybank hall feasting on holly berries while zipping amongst the college kids.  Nothing like it.


While the waxwings have not arrived on the Center's campus yet, we have been swamped with visitors from the TIYOT pass program this month.  It has been nice to have big crowds for the demonstrations and tours and I have had several nice conversations with guests about birds.  On Thursday afternoon, I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a gentleman named Rusty Denman.  I noticed him during the demonstration because he had on a sweet hat (he had some good questions too, but the hat was sweet!)  Mr. Denman was highly complementary of the work we were doing and was genuinely excited about what we are doing.  As I was heading back to the owl wood, he asked me where I was going to be in a few minutes and told me that he had something for me in his car.


Stephen:  "I'm excited already" not knowing whether it was a box of dirty socks or a sock full of diamonds.


Rusty: "Oh buddy, you should be!" 


A couple of minutes later, a smiling Rusty arrived in the owl wood carrying a paper Piggly Wiggle bag.  He pulled out a loaf of bread.  OK, not a sock full of diamonds, but homemade bread is pretty nice too.  It smelled awesome.  His wife makes it, labels it and gives it away.  Under the bread was a Styrofoam food contained labeled "Rusty's Famous Barbecue Chicken" in blue sharpie pen.  He told me about the process.  Pressure, seasoning, more seasoning, grill.  Then there was the sauce.  It looked and smelled great, but it is hard to impress with barbecue sauce.  And there was the little issue of taking random car food from a relative stranger.  Who carries boxes of chicken and loaves of bread in their trunk and gives them to strangers?  


I should mention that the domestic chicken (Gallus domesticus) is pretty high on my list of favorite birds.  They make eggs, which are nice.  They also taste great in a large number of recipes.  I know that the poultry industry leaves a lot to be desired in the the eyes of many (including myself), but for the sake of this blog, think "tasty!"


It will be difficult to describe effectively just how tasty it was.  Monty and I devoured the box of chicken and sopped up the sauce with the bread.  Quite literally, the best BBQ chicken I have ever tasted.  As a musician, I have had every caterer's attempt and while some are really good, none are in the same league.  Thanks Rusty and "Mrs. Rusty".  If I had skills like that. I would carry bags of it everywhere I went.  Now that we're not strangers, I hope that I have many more opportunities to take food from Rusty!