Endangered Species condoms

Yes you read that right. Endangered Species Condoms. In a brilliant marketing move. The Center for Biological Diversity has initiated a campaign of condom distribution to increase awareness of the link between overpopulation and endangered species. The condom packages will have images of six different endangered species that don't have the ability to increase their population will-nilly because of the growing pressure of the human population. Three species mentioned are the spotted owl, polar bear and the Puerto Rico rock frog. Unfortunately I can't locate a lot of information about the campaign online or even a photo of these condoms. This may be because they are still looking for people to distribute them and have not kicked off the full PR campaign yet.

If you would like to help distribute condoms to help educate people about the connection between global population and endangered species there is still time to sign up. 900 people have signed up so far and they are looking for 300 more. YOU MUST SIGN UP BY FEBRUARY 1st.

Go ahead and do your part. Have fun and save some species. There's too many hairy apes running around this planet anyhow.

~Kirk

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Snowflake Generator

I stumbled across a really cool flash based snowflake generator recently. Everyone should go make some snowflakes! Mother nature seems to be wimping out this weekend and we've gotten zero inches of the predicted snow. Plenty of rain though. This is going to destroy snowshoeing for the rest of the season unless we get some real snow real fast. The photo in today's post is from local twin cities artist Chelsey at Silverbug Studio. Check out her blog for cool photography, jewelry and craftiness.

~Kirk

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The Complete Ivory-billed Woodpecker Ad

As promised, Joe Hepperle sent me the complete version of the ad placed on Craigslist for the Photographer and Travel Assistant. He says the ad was placed on Craigslist in both Ames, Iowa and Houston, Texas. I can see it was also posted to iowajobs.org. Mr. Hepperle as sent me two versions, one with the names removed and one complete but has asked that I not use people's names as their inboxes are filling up. This seems pretty silly as the original press release is now copied in dozens of places around the internet such as here for one example. I have kept in the names of institutions but omitted individual's names even though they are the same people mentioned in the press release. Also, anyone can find the names with google the same way I pieced together the original parts of the ad so it isn't like this is secret information.

I present this purely as documentation and will leave the speculation over hoaxes to others aside from pointing out that healthy skepticism is the bedrock of science. I'd be skeptical anyone claiming to have seen an Ivory-billed Woodpecker regardless of their qualifications as should we all. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. So far we have the claims.

Here is the complete ad, presumably as it appeared.

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Two Week Wildlife Research Expedition - in Texas
Photographer and Travel Assistant Needed

(December 21 - January 3, 2010)

Thank you for your inquiry about the expedition and this "Photographer and Travel Assistant" job offer.

The first thing I need to tell you about this job is that the assignment goes from December 21, 2009 until January 3, 2010. So as you can see it covers over the Christmas and the New Years Holidays. And the second thing you need to know is the expedition's location is along the south eastern Texas Sabine river border area down to the Gulf of Mexico and covers over that afore mentioned time frame. So... if you cannot commit to the forgoing conditions (missing the holidays and being in Texas) this position may not be for you. A third thing to note, I might add, is that you would be the only other assigned person on this trip, for those fourteen days. So please consider these three points carefully prior to applying any further for this expedition's work.

Some of the expedition's tasks will require extensive canoe trips for several days on the southern Sabin River, some backpacking and hiking will be needed too, with both day and night camps prepared and established. Camouflage requirements will apply most of the time. You will be outfitted with all those things. (Uniform, hat, camouflage body paint, et cetera…) Chronological record keeping and note taking in the trips log, as instructed, is to be maintained by the Photographer and Travel Assistant along with navigation and location of where pictures and videos were taken along with the dates and times recorded. Base camp will be established at Niblett's Bluff State Park, on the Sabine River, in Vinton, on the Louisiana side of the river; Mr. ===== ========= and his wife are the park's managers. Camp set up, tent, cooking fire, meal preparations, caring for all equipment and other stuff (helping as needed) are included in these duties. Will provide training for right person.

Other noted things and some other information about this expedition are; all expenses will be paid with a final added pay compensation of $1,500.00 for the Travel Assistant position - upon completion of the trip. You do not have to do anything to prepare for the trip's 14 days except virtually "bring your tooth brush" as that everything is been planned, prepared and will be made ready.

The job's main and only goal is to get photographs, along with possible video, of a discovered population of Ivory-Billed woodpeckers along the Sabine River bordering south eastern Texas and Louisiana. This time of year with a lot of leaves off the tree canopy there in Texas makes it an ideal time to see them and capture their pictures, the birds are seasonally more active at this time too in preparing for their early southern spring nesting season; being more noisy (vocal) being easier to locate. Other pictures of the birds' location, natural habitats and surroundings also will be needed for inclusion into the book (to be published) titled, Ivory-Billed. (There is a $10,000.00 reward to claim for a successful identifying picture or video footage of the birds also, of which reward will be divided equally; being $5,000.00.) Please keep in mind any pictures and videos taken on this expedition are the property of this work exclusively and not any photographer's.

Dr. ==== =. =======, Department of Natural Resources, 124 Science II, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa holds the $10,000.00 reward poster for this expedition and Dr. ===== =. ======, Museum of natural Science, Foster Hall 119, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana will act as communication liaison for this expedition's assignment (called "Indigo") along with Ithaca University in New York.

I hope this gives you a good overview of this expedition's goal and project. Over all it will be a very adventurous, exciting, fun and enjoyable work assignment with a lot to experience and see in the warm southern Texas' outdoors. And the fishing is great too! If you want to continue with your application for this Photographer and Travel Assistant assignment please submit a request with a letter of interest and/or a resume for an interview to: Rainsong4@hotmail.com; before December 18, 2009 (No phone calls please). I will be happy to provide further details and answer any questions you may have.

Again, thank you for your interest in this expedition project.

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Mystery Dots in the Snow

Can you see the pepper-like dots on the ground?


While out for a hike this week I discovered some small black pepper-like dots on the snow. My first thought was Snowfleas! The more technically correct term for these little animals would be springtails. They are thought to be one of the most abundant macroscopic animals in the world but most people have no idea they exist. I'd had some false alarms with kids earlier in the week so I took a closer look at these black dots on the snow.
.
From this distance they still looked like snowfleas though there were a LOT of dots and their distribution was very even. Let's get closer.


At this magnification you can see that these are clearly not snowfleas. What are they then? The clue is in the first photo. The dried plant sticking out of the ground is mullein and these are mullein seeds. A group that had walked by earlier bumped the stalk and released the seeds. It was strange to see mullein seeds in the forest but they are an opportunistic species that likes light and disturbed soil. They were growing in an area where a tornado passed through a little over a year ago. The canopy was torn open and the increase in sunlight has meant a number of plants we don't usually see in the forest have temporarily gained a foothold.

I'm still watching for the springtails.

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Daniel Rainsong's Craiglist Ad about Ivory-billed Woodpecker Expedition!

News broke today that someone by the name of Daniel Rainsong claims to have seen and photographed an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. There is much skepticism. One interesting tidbit is that there was a Craigslist ad by Rainsong on the Houston craigslist. It has been deleted and there is not a cached version on Google.

Or is there?

When you do a search for Daniel Rainsong you get the following

$10000.00 Reward - Wildlife Research Expedition
Dec 3, 2009 ... My name is Daniel Rainsong. The first thing I need to tell you about ... Daniel Rainsong. Location: Texas; Compensation: All expenses will ...

Above is the snippet of text google shows. What I noticed was that as I did more searches with other words the summary changed slightly. It seems the whole page is in fact cached but Google only shows you what it thinks you want to see. So, I undertook a painstaking process of searching for “Daniel Rainsong” plus a bunch of other words one at a time and more and more of the original ad appeared a few words at a time. (I did the same thing on Yahoo)

Just when I thought I had a whole thing I would stumble upon a new sentence or direction. Turns out it was a long ad. I’m likely still missing pieces but it is late and I’m going to bed. It took me a little over and hour to get this much. If you do use my searching technique and come up with more of the ad let me know and I’ll update this.

I should note that I have no way of knowing if these sentences are in the correct order.

---

"$10,000.00 Reward - Wildlife Research Expedition in Texas
Photographer and Travel Assistant Needed (December 21 thru January 3, 2010)

Thank you for your inquiry about the expedition and this “Photographer and Travel Assistant” job offer.

My name is Daniel Rainsong. The first thing I need to tell you about this job is that the assignment goes from December 21, 2009 until January 3, 2010. So as you can see it covers over the Christmas and the New Years. If you cannot commit to the forgoing conditions (missing the holidays and being in Texas) this position may not be for you.

This time of year with a lot of leaves off the tree canopy there in Texas makes it an ideal time to see them and capture their pictures…[section missing]…nesting season; being more noisy (vocal) being easier to locate.

Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa holds the $10000.00 reward poster for this expedition and Dr. John M. Burnett, Department of Natural Resources, 124 Science II…[section missing]

You do not have to do anything to prepare for the trip's 14 days.

The job's main and only goal is to get photographs, along with possible video, of a discovered population of Ivory-Billed wood peckers along the Sabine River bordering south eastern Texas and Louisiana.

Other pictures of the birds' location, natural habitats and surroundings also will be needed for inclusion into the book (to be published) titled, Ivory-Billed.

Base camp will be established at Niblett's Bluff State Park, Mr. Keith Armstrong and his wife are the park's managers.

Some of the expedition's tasks will require extensive canoe trips for several days on the southern Sabin River, some backpacking and hiking will be needed too, with both day and night camps prepared and established.

And the fishing is great too! If you want to continue with your with your application for this…[section missing]

Other noted things and some other information about this expedition are; expenses will be paid with a final added pay compensation of $1,000.00 for the Photographer and Travel Assistant position - upon completion of the trip

Daniel Rainsong. Location: Texas.

---

That's what I have so far. See if anyone can fill in the missing pieces.

~Kirk

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Subnivean Tunnels Exposed!

The recent weather warm-up has revealed some interesting winter animal signs. The snaking line in the middle of the photo above isn't a line of tracks like we normally find when an animal runs or bounds over the top of the snow. There are mouse tracks on the left hand side of the photo. You can see how it jumps. The winding line is actually a collapsed tunnel. Many small rodents spend a good portion of the winter under the snow in what is called a subnivean habitat. Sub meaning under and nivean meaning snow.. The subnivean world is often deep under the crusty top of the snow but sometimes the tunnels are just barely under the top. When the weather warms up the roof collapses revealing the location of the tunnels.

~Kirk

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Signs of Spring-Maple Buds Already!

I noticed something unbelievable this weekend while I was out for a snowshoe hike in the woods. I was searching the tree's for owls when an unexpected sight caught my eye. The red maple trees already have swelling buds. I think I smiled. I have to admit I'm a little sick of winter. It has been a pretty cold one thus far and the darkness is really getting to me this year. I welcome the return of the sun.
Maple trees with swelling buds is one of those signs of spring that tells us to get the maple syruping supplies ready. The weird thing is we don't usually see much swelling until it is time to tap the trees in March or maybe very late February. It seems the little warm spell we've had is getting the trees thinking about spring. It isn't just the trees either. I heard the first Black-capped Chickadee of the season singing a spring courtship song in the treetops. Spring is coming, spring is coming, spring is coming.

~Kirk

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Barred Owl Hunting in the Snow

While out snowshoeing with a group of cub scouts on Saturday we came upon this owl imprint in the snow. It was a cool experience as I had been talking about owl imprints in the snow earlier on the hike. There were no small mammal tracks on top of the snow so I'm assuming it was going after an animal in a subnivean tunnel. Imagine the surprise when the tunnel collapsed and an owl came crashing through. You can see the hole where the owl's talons and body crashed through to the layer underneath.


There are really two prints in this photo. One print is from the initial impact of the bird and the other is from the take-off. In the initial impact, the owl's wings were more tucked in and it landed facing the top left corner of the photo. The leading edge of the wings dug in and made an arc on each side of the hole. When the bird took off it rotated so it was facing the top of the photo and with one strong wing flap took off. For take-off, the wings were fully extended and you can see the imprint from every primary feather (especially on the left wing.)

Saturday evening I taught an astronomy program and there were at least two barred owls calling in response to our captive owl. As near as I could tell it was our owl that started the calling. It was magical to be standing under a clear star-lit sky showing the Orion Galaxy to kids while owls called from the dark woods. It's a rough job but someone has to do it.

~Kirk

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Squirrel Obstacle Course

My video of a squirrel doing upside down ab crunches to get food from the bird feeder at work has been getting more hits lately after my friend Birdchick linked to it.

When she linked to the video it made me wonder if this is a common thing. I did some looking around online and it turns out this is a fatal flaw in these Droll Yankee feeders. Here's another squirrel that has figured it out.



Here's my original video for reference.

All these squirrels raiding feeders got me thinking about this old clip from a BBC show where they set up an elaborate obstacle course for squirrels to see what lengths they would go to for food. Have a look.



I'm thinking it would be fun to set something like this up some day in my yard or at work. We're feeding the squirrels anyhow, might as well make it interesting.

~Kirk

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The Birds of The Great Outdoors

My wife and I sat down tonight to watch the classic movie "The Great Outdoors" with John Candy and Dan Aykroyd. The movie takes place in "the north woods." It isn't clear exactly what that means. They mention Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The family is from Chicago. There is one mention of one of the characters being one of the oldest men in Canada so perhaps they are just over the border. I liked that the owner of the resort wore an "I've been to Duluth" t-shirt. Of course, you can buy one online. The film has lots of bears in it and they switch between grizzly bears and black bears as though they are all the same. That didn't bother me as much as the birds though. Where on earth did they get these? I'm a total dork so I went through the film and did screen captures of all the birds that appear.

First off, here's that familiar Northwoods species the, uh ...


Please please correct me if I'm wrong gentle readers but isn't that a Red-crested Cardinal? You know, that common species from South America! Hell they don't even have Northern Cardinals in the Boreal forest let alone these guys.

Okay, how about these ducks swimming in the lake during the water skiing scene. They must be authentic, I mean, anyone can find some Mallards to take shots of right I mean, oh no...what the hell are those?


Those are domestic ducks. The dark one on the right looks like a Cayuga duck which is a breed of domestic duck that was developed from wild mallards. This one looks like a male. Note the curled feathers on the tail. The really weird looking duck on the left is also a domestic duck. It is an Indian Runner Duck which comes from, well, India and not the Boreal Forest. Sharp-eyed observers will notice a third duck behind the Cayuga.


It is pretty plain except for the white tail. I have no idea what breed it is. Nice of the filmmakers to go to the trouble of re-creating the great northern forest. Of course, what Boreal lake is complete without a flock of domestic Graylag geese?


The Great Outdoors is a great movie but Hollywood is pretty pathetic when it comes to their choice of animals in films. Maybe most people won't notice but it takes so little effort to get it right.

~Kirk

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Big Pecker Video

Now that the post title has your attention let's talk woodpeckers. This male Pileated Woodpecker came to the feeders at lunch on last week. The sunshine has been beautiful and welcome. This same bird has been hitting the suet feeders pretty much every day in this cold weather. In my experience, the pileated woodpecker is the shiest of all the woodpeckers we have in Minnesota. I can stand at the window and watch downy, hairy and red-bellied woodpeckers as they feed and they don't seem to care about my presence. I've even seen Downy Woodpeckers eat out of people's hands. Pileated Woodpeckers, however, seem to fly away at the slightest detection of movement. I find this surprising as they are such a large bird. My natural instinct is to assume that larger birds need not be flighty as their size offers some protection in terms of predators. It could be though that larger animals present a larger more easily seen target. Little birds can blend in so well and hide that perhaps they need not be as flighty.

I decided to do a search of the literature and see if I could find anything. The first study I came across was this one titled, Does intruder group size and Orientation affect bird flight initiation distance in birds? (links to pdf) The answer is Yes. This study was on the size of the predator though so it doesn't answer my question.

This research suggest that at least in fish, the larger the animal the larger the Flight Initiation Distance. That's the technical term for how close you can get to an animal before it get's the heck out of Dodge. While I couldn't find anything on Pileated Woodpeckers I did find this interesting paper about downy woodpeckers. Vigilance and foraging substrate: anti-predatory considerations in a non-standard environment. This paper talks about the size of trees they use and behavior. It talks about how woodpeckers will continually peek around a tree to keep an eye on their surroundings. Pileated Woodpeckers do this in a seriously overly dramatic paranoid fashion.

The last study I found was Developing an evolutionary ecology of fear: how life history and natural history traits affect disturbance tolerance in birds. This one is great. I just had to include the entire abstract below.

When approached by humans, virtually all species flee, but we lack an understanding of the factors that influence flight response among species. Understanding this variation may allow us to understand how ‘fear’ structures communities, as well as to predict which species are likely to coexist with humans. I used flight initiation distance (FID) as a comparative metric of wariness and examined the relative importance of life history and natural history traits in explaining variation in FID in 150 species of birds. In a series of comparative analyses, I used independent contrasts to control for phylogenetic similarity and regressed continuous life history traits against flight initiation distance. Body size had a large and significant effect in explaining variation in flightiness: larger species initiated flight at greater distances than smaller species. After controlling for variation explained by body size, there was a nonsignificant positive relation between the age of first reproduction and FID. There were no relations between FID and clutch size, number of days spent feeding young, longevity, or habitat density. I used concentrated changes tests to look for evidence of coevolution between flightiness and dichotomous traits. Flightiness evolved multiple times and some clades were flightier than others. Flightiness was more likely to evolve in omnivorous/carnivorous species and in cooperatively breeding species. These results suggest that body size and age of first reproduction are important in explaining variation in disturbance tolerance in birds, and that species that capture live prey and those that are highly social are relatively wary. The results suggest a novel mechanism of how anthropogenic disturbance may contribute to extinction.

Did you catch the key sentence there? "Body size had a large and significant effect in explaining variation in flightiness: larger species initiated flight at greater distances than smaller species." Great, so the reason Pileated Woodpeckers are flightier than other woodpeckers is that they are bigger. Now then, why! Why is there a correlation between body size in birds and flightiness. Also why is it the exact opposite of what we see in fish?

~Kirk

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What's the Difference Between a Hairy and Downy Woodpecker?

When people I meet are just getting into birding they sometimes ask me about the difference between Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers. If you look in a field guide they seem virtually identical. The main difference is that Hairy Woodpeckers are bigger than Downy Woodpeckers. The silly way I kept the names straight when I was starting out was that you have hair on the top of your head which is up high and makes you big so the bigger woodpecker is the Hairy and the Downy is down low and smaller.

If the two birds are kindly sitting side by side it is easy to tell them apart. If you have a good feeding station with lots of suet then you do sometimes see them side by side. However, this is not always the case and people get confused. The problem is compounded when looking through binoculars as it is hard to get a size reference. Everything looks big though binoculars. Now-a-days I can tell in an instant which is which because I see them so often. Here are some tips for those who are still unsure and need to know what they are looking at. Look at the beak of the bird in the photo above. It is relatively long and has a stout strong look to it. Compare that beak to the one in the photo below.

You can see in comparison, the beak on the bird above seems dainty. It is slender and pointy like delicate tweezers. This is the smaller Downy Woodpecker while the first photo with the much thicker beak is the Hairy Woodpecker. There are a few other subtle differences but I find that the beak is a good way to tell these two apart. Once you see enough of them on various trees you'll simply get a feel for how big the bird should look and you'll be able to tell at a glance which species you are looking at. Test yourself below. Which photo shows which species?

That's all for today. Since woodpeckers are some of the most conspicuous visitors to the feeders this time of year I'll be back later this week with more posts about woodpeckers.

~Kirk

(Photo Credits: all photos in this post were taken by me)

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Sexy Grandmas for Science

Hat tip to Christie Lynn of Observations of a Nerd for this one. This is an ad for Science World in Vancouver. They have a whole series of them and they are real attention grabbers. I work for the Science Museum of Minnesota and I wish we had such fun ads simply designed to get people in the door.



~Kirk

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Northern Hawk Owl at Crex Meadows

Northern Hawk Owl Hunting from Dale Bohlke on Vimeo.

This video of a Northern Hawk Owl was shot by Dale Bohlke at the Fish Lake Wildlife Area which is part of the Glacial Lake Grantsburg Wildlife Management Complex in Wisconsin. Fish Lake Wildlife Area is close to Crex Meadows for those familiar with the area. The land is 3 miles from Grantsburg, WI and just an hour and a half drive from the Twin Cities.

The video was shot on December 27th 2009. At last report (1/5/10) this bird is still at this site. It can be found two mile south of fish lake road in the Fish Lake Wildlife Area. The close proximity to the Twin Cities makes it a great target for birders who want a chance to glimpse this northern species.

Here is a link to the google map for the area.

~Kirk

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Educators Workshop on Wolves

Join Adrian Wydeven, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Mammalian Ecologist and Conservation Biologist, for an engaging lesson on the wolves of Wisconsin in a free educators workshop on Saturday, January 23, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Cable Natural History Museum in Cable, Wisconsin. (About a 4 hour drive from the Twin Cities)

During this workshop participants will learn about wolf biology, including pack dynamics, food habits, breeding habits, and dispersal patterns. Participants will also become familiar with the ecology of wolves and their role in the ecosystem. There will be a discussion about management issues, including the legal status of wolves and wolf depredation on domestic animals. Weather permitting, participants will participate in wolf monitoring.

This workshop is the third in a series of six workshops on the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway that will be held during the 2009-2010 school year. The workshops are designed to increase awareness of the Riverway as a teaching resource by providing experiences that focus on using the Riverway as a learning laboratory for integration across the curricula. The series of workshops will also include discussions from biologists and teachers on how students are conducting scientific research on the river, a presentation and lessons on aquatic invasive species, a birdwatching session, and other hands-on activities, field work, observations, and lesson plan development.

While the workshops were designed for classroom teachers (grades 3 – 8), all educators at any level are welcome to attend. Educators may attend any or all of the workshops in the series.

Space is limited and registration for the workshop is required. Please call Park Ranger Branda Thwaits at (715) 635-8346, ext. 425 to register or for more information. The registration deadline is Tuesday, January 19.

(photo credit: NPS) 

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Where My Finches At?

I've been keeping my eyes open but where are the winter finches? Where are the purple finches and the common redpolls? Where are the pine siskins and the crossbills? I demand satisfaction!

Winter finches (not actually all finches) tend to be irruptive. Last winter was great with many redpolls, siskins and crossbills in the Twin Cities due to a good crop of seeds. A neighbor of my parents almost had a twenty foot tall spruce tree tip over it was so heavily laden with seeds. I'm guessing this winter will be pretty quiet but hope I am wrong. So, where my finches at?

~Kirk

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Photo Caption Contest

Have a better caption for this photo?

I'm holding a photo caption contest. Go ahead and grab the photo from the link below and then add in your own caption. I used Captioner. Sorry no prize other than the respect and admiration of your peers. Contest ends January 15th. You can either put a link to your submission in the comments or email me the file at kirkmona (at symbol) yahoo (dot) com.

If you are feeling particularly lazy today you can also just leave a suggestion in the comments. 

Click here for the un-captioned photo.

~Kirk

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New Year's Resolution

I looked out my front window at home this morning to see what the first bird of the year would be. There weren't any birds but I noticed this nest a mere 25 feet away in a green ash. It is the only tree in my yard and I managed to miss the fact that a bird was nesting in it. My new year's resolution. Be more observant. How on earth did I miss this? Any guesses on the species? I'm thinking maybe American Goldfinch but nests are not my strong suit.

~Kirk

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