Protection Farm Journal

1-11-11

What a Neat Bird Day!

Most of these photos were taken today at Protection Farm. The first picture, the close-up of the White-breasted Nuthatch and the Red-breasted Nuthatch photos are from a few weeks back.

For the past week the weather has been cold and it has snowed almost continuously. It always snows here at Protection Farm. We are in a microclimate just above a large wetland marsh area and the prevailing wind blows in from Lake Erie 40 miles away. The wind often warmer than the ground temperature crosses over the marsh, creating marsh-effect precipitation.

We keep the bird feeders pretty well stocked and are rewarded daily, hourly with a wide variety of beautiful winter birds. todays include:

Nuthatches

-White-breasted Nuthatch:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-breasted_Nuthatch/id

-Red-breasted Nuthatch:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/id

Jajean refers to the Nuthatches as "Squeak-toys. Listen here to find out why:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/sounds

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-breasted_Nuthatch/sounds

White-breasted Nuthatch

WB Nuthatch with an attitude

Red-breasted Nuthatch

White-throated Sparrow

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/white-throated_sparrow/id

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-throated_Sparrow/sounds

Cardinal

Red-bellied Woodpecker

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-bellied_Woodpecker/id

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-bellied_Woodpecker/sounds

Red-bellied Woodpecker

You can see here the rarely seen "red belly"

Black-capped Chickadee

hese little cold weather machine are constant companions whenever i walk outside or visit the feeders. they gather around me and go on and on and on about one thing or another

This is just an unusual photo of the barreling Black-capped Chickadee

Downy Woodpecker

Not exactly hibernating

I think that it is really difficult to get a good photo of a junco. there is just too much contrast. But this one is pretty darned good.

Blue Jay

One of my favorite birds. they have such style and attitude.

View of deer tracks in the morning

Home Sweet Home

Back stairway and garden

My Ornithology Students

These two have been ornithology students of mine for their entire lives. They are dedicated to the science and interpretation of ornithology, and spend most, or much of their waking time studying the subject.

"Red Cat", or "Fat Cat", or "Paws", to the left and "Rosie" to the right. the cat perch is local bird expert, Professor Jay

By "waking time" I mean about two hours each day, when they are not sleeping. This is especially the routine, now, in the winter. However, I am reliably assured that when these students are engaging in their "sleep time" they are often dreaming of the that days study.

Our class room discussions are often informal, and the students can be quite creative and expressive

Like any good students they are curious about many disciplines. They have crossed over into intense interest in certain small mammals, and a sometimes comical investment in "studying" the insect world.

I have seen them frolicking with butterflies, chasing bee’s and mercilessly attacked (at least the red cat) by enormous night-borne moths that invade the summer house. We shall not mention the unfortunate incident with last summers preying mantis that almost cost the red cat an ear. Let us just say that Professor Jay was on the scene to mediate any, well, disagreements between the unhappy (both) parties.

All parties survived the episode. this preying mantis really gave it its all and is in somewhat of a state of dishabille. With my gentle but cautious intervention, eventually all of its parts came back to perfect working order.

Neither student was particularly enthusiastic about marsh study. They got the amphibians all right, or so they thought until a particularly egregious encounter involving a leaking toad, and the fish fascinated them. They made good friends, we all think, with a turtle.

Didn't say much but didn't run away either. Students studied this Eastern Painted for hours one afternoon.

This non-matriculating but occasional student sometimes visits our outdoor lectures, workshops, and walks. Usually staying in the background, listening intently. This day we were really engrossed with the marsh study and didn't noitce our friend right away.

At one point our friend decided that it was lunch time. We thought it wanted to share lunch with us but we were not THAT hungry.

I am not sure if it was a lack of understanding, or a misunderstanding, or what exactly happened but after what seemed like an eternity of attention grabbing aquatic acrobats the students leapt into the water near these "dancing" frogs.
Although the water was not that deep, the students immersed and then exited not so quietly. They reached the shore and beat me back to the home classroom.

The students decided that they absolutely hated the marsh studies. For some reason it just didn't motivate them.

After the Marsh class while discussing the days diving in the marsh, this student didnt have a lot to say but listened intently to Professor Jay

We all had a light meal after a short review of frog biology.

Red Cat is a very erudite botanist. Here he is tending to his patch of catnip. If he looks wet it is because it is raining hard. Talk about dedicated, he just refused to stop working. Check out that glaze in his eye!

Sharing a moment with adjunct professor of day to day planning, Jamie R, after a long day in the catnip garden!

Red Cat is dreaming about the sun!

Rosie pulled a student prank when she (and this is a true story) sat on the copy machine in the office and photcopied her ass. Found 25 copies of this on the floor the next morning. She is a prankster!

Traveling Professor of Foreign Bird Studies Jajean discusses copy machine incident with unaplogetic Rosie

He truly prefers the live workshops in the window room. he does a great deal of independent study here, and sometimes actually sleeps at his station!

A bird a squirrel and a stone! who comes up with this winter madness?

Rosie is such an exemplary student. Here she is watching a tape of a Red-breasted nuthatch in our garden. Not only does she like to study the birds, but Rosie is very focused on the technical aspects of producing video. She helps me shoot and edit and is very opinionated about the proper way to tell a story. She is great! She insists that visual action paired with authentic sounds is the most profound platform for her kind of video. It works for me. Professor becomes student!

More Niagara River Birds

My friend Jim Grimaldi and I went out to the Niagara River in order to get some good HD footage of birds for a video we are producing about the gull migration. We were very lucky to find this spot at the north end of Bird Island, where the Army Corps of Engineers lock is located.

Jim Grimaldi in action!

Looking north toward Grand Island. Thousands of gulls, mostly Bonaparte's, some Great-black-backed and a variety of waterfowl were hanging out.

About 1,000 Bonaparte's were flying in and out of the lock channel. This is just a small part of the overall flock.

This location is at Rich Marina where the Miss Buffalo is berthed for the winter.

They flew into the end of the lock channel, landed, and appeared to be feeding. They floated out with the current, rose again into the air, and repeated the activity.