Stella Hamilton Documents Fledgling Bugsy's Big Moment and Attention Bats-Mayflies Swarm Over the Midwest

 Photo courtesy of www.palemale.com/
                                     Pale Male keeping watch.


 Stella Hamilton actually got photos yesterday of Bugsy's big moment. 

 6:24 PM  I saw Bugsy catch and kill this squirrel

                     6:36 PM  Hawk and yummy squirrel.

 6:40 PM  Bugsy jumped off a low branch like Batman and boom! He killed it instantly.

In other words a perfect kill.  Bugsy is good.


And just in from Robin of Illinois, the mayfly hatch is so huge you can see it on radar!
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/mayfly-hatch-overwhelms-minnesota-wisconsin/ 

"Mayflies swarm Mississippi river

 

"On the evening of July 20, 2014 mayflies hatched along along the Mississippi river between Minnesota and Wisconsin in such great numbers that they were picked up by radar resembling light rain. the hatch began around 8:35pm. According to the National Weather Service: "this particular emergence was that of the larger black/brown Bilineata species. The radar loop below shows the reflected radar energy (reflectivity) from 8:35 pm to just after midnight. The higher the values (greens to yellows) indicate greater concentrations of flies. Note how the swarm is carried northward over time."

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne

When Last We Saw Little Brown Bat....

2:12 PM When we last saw  Little Brown Bat he was climbing the house, I assume so he could get out of the too hot sun and away from me.  Look at his beautiful eye.

2:12:06 PM Much closer to the eaves and shade now.

 2:12:09 PM  He gets his right foot up next to a right
 finger and PULLS!

2:12:25 PM  And he's made it round the corner.

2:12:35 PM  See him way way up there next to the eave spout? And he made the whole climb in less than 2 minutes.

 2:12:45 PM  What is Little Bat doing now?

2:12:51 PM  Little Brown Bat is TURNING!

Keep in mind the whole time he is doing all this...

...I'm down here.  I'm seeing him move but that's about all.  I've been cropping down the previous photos in a huge way to see what he's doing.

2:14:09 PM Now what?

2:14:30 PM  No more wiggling that I can see from the ground.

At this point I decide that Little Bat might like his own bat bath close by...just in case. And while I was at it, decided to grab my other camera that has a longer lens and maybe I could see what Little Bat was doing up there in the moment.

2:16:25 PM  Looks like he's sleeping quite peacefully.

3:34:24 PM  Still sleeping, but he's moved a little higher on the wall.

7:24:01 PM  Crapola!  Where did he go?

 7:24:24 PM There he IS!  Around the corner sleeping in the late day sun.

7:24:59 PM Out of the corner of my eye I see a very big bird fly by and swing the camera up.

A horrible picture but good enough for an identification.  Little Brown Bat and I had a mature Bald Eagle fly over us.

 7:30:51 PM Look how protuberant Little Bat's eyes are under his eyelids.

 8:31:40 PM Good grief!  Now where?

8:32:09 PM  Ah!  Around the corner masked  by the eaves spout...he's moving.

 8:32:14 PM Finger stretching down

8:32:19 PM  Ah Oh!  Little Bat is moving again.  I begin to wonder if  the click from the camera, the auto focus bouncing, or just my mere presence gets him going.

8:32:46 PM And around the corner he goes. 

8:52:59 PM  See him up there hanging by his feet in the corner?  Then the big surprise...another bat comes whipping out of the opposite corner of the roof on that wall.  WOW!  Has to be a hole up there somewhere.

8:54:27PM  Another one!  But they're too fast for the camera in this light to nab them.

8:55:02PM  I hear faint scratching and chittering but still can't catch the other bats with the camera.

 8:57:12 PM  Little Brown Bat stretches out his wings but still doesn't fly out.

9:00:26 PM   Little Bat starts crawling right.  More metallic scratching noises and chittering from the other bats, likely less than a dozen, making their way out of where ever they are

9:04:21 PM And then he was GONE!  One or two more bats came from the secret exit and they were done flying out to eat their 6000 mosquitoes per hour.  I didn't get a good count of the new bats but let's say conservatively that there were 10 and that they eat mosquitoes for 8 hours...that's 480,000 mosquitoes.

Glad I'd already ordered a 20 bat, bat house for Little Brown Bat.  He can invite a few more of his friends for daytime sleepovers.

Donegal Browne

The Fledgling Bat?

I was running over to drop off a flash drive yesterday evening and while sitting outside on the friend's glider digging it out of my bag, PLOP, suddenly there was a little bat sitting right there beside me.

Hmm, I wonder if he's alright? He's just, well, sitting there.

Then he begins to use his long sharp front toe on each front foot to pull himself across the fabric cushion toward the back of the glider. Then he grips with his rear feet, stretches out and uses his front toes again. Good. All appendages seem to be working properly. But why is he here in the first place and why didn't he just fly off?

When he reaches the back of the glider he begins to climb that cushion using the same technique.

Having reached the top, he perches for a moment, looks around and then WHIRRRRR, he heads for a small tree not far away. Wait, he didn't gain any elevation to speak of. Is it possible I've just seen what passes for "branching" in bats? Do some fledgling bats have some of the issues that young hawks do straight off the nest? They can't yet gain elevation so they go for an object climb it, go for another and that's how he will eventually get back to where ever all his relatives spend their days?

Maybe?

Not having done any bat identification in decades I'm taking a shot in the dark here. No pun intended. As this little guy was only a couple inches long, whether that's because he's young and will get bigger or because that's just how big he's going to get. I don't know. Wisconsin has seven species of bats and according to the literature if a bat's body is under three inches here it is a "Pip", an Eastern Pipistrelle, Pipistrellus subflavus.

And no Karen, I didn't have my camera bag with me as it was a quick trip and at night. You're right-- at least a little point and shoot camera should live in my car at all times. I was reduced to taking my first picture ever with my phone, in the pitch dark. Bad photo but then I never let that stop me when it comes to documentation. But as we know, good photos are just better for any use than bad ones.

Besides you just never know when a little bat might come along and nearly land in your lap.

Donegal Browne

P.S. Any bat people out there who can correct my tentative ID, please chime in.

Orphaned Squirrels, Goldfinch Swimming, and a Red-tail with a Squirrel on his Foot

Photo by Carol Vinzant
Rehabber Carol Vinzant's current charges--

I’ve got 2 baby squirrel sisters. But one is in really bad shape and probably won’t make it. I think they were all attacked by a cat. A woman in Queens found four of them, one dead already. She waited an hour for the mother, then took 3 home. One died on the way here. One girl is completely fine. One has a deep bite wound on her belly and maybe a broken foot.


Jolly is of course very happy to see them. They’re about four weeks old maybe, eyes still closed. Both are very noisy.

(Jolly is Carol's wonderful dog who absolutely loves having squirrel company--or opossum company-- or just about any kind of beastie company when it comes down to it. D. B.)

Carol Vinzant

animaltourism.blogspot.com
http://us.mc311.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=editor@animaltourism.com

Long time blog contributor Betty Jo of California sent me the following email concerning a Goldfinch, the one above is in the Wisconsin backyard up to usual Goldfinch activities while the one Betty Jo is watching seems an unusual fellow, with unusual habits. Lets hope she gets that photo!

Donna,

I am sitting at my computer with one eye on my "vase" style front yard fountain. The birds perch on the 1 and 1/2" rim to drink and bathe as the water cascades over the rim. A goldfinch is swimming! It dives into the water (which is a 3' deep jar--swims to the middle where the water bubbles up, swims back to the edge and pulls itself out with its beak! It has repeated this 8 times! Once it slipped off the edge, down the curved side of the jar and flew back to the top. So wonderful. I will try to get a picture to send to you. None of the other goldfinches do this; the Michael Phelps of goldfinches!

So wonderful!

Betty Jo

(This Goldfinch is amazing. So now we know that Goldfinch participate in play also. D.B.)

FROM CAT RESCUING JUDITH OF MA --

Donna,

The following email came into our state cat rescue email list:

"One of our foster moms called: a hawk somehow got his claw caught in a dead squirrel - it took him more than an hour to dislodge the squirrel from his claws, and has been perching on a swing set, favoring the foot, and not flying away. The ACO in that town would dispatch the hawk if called. Tufts isn't too far from us, but none of us have any skills in trapping wild predatory birds."

Several people emailed with suggestions on contacts and the writer has promised to keep us updated. My 2 questions: Wouldn't it be illegal as in a federal offence for the local Animal Control Officer to kill a redtail? (we cat rescue people areas hesitant to call them as you NYC redtail people are to call Animal Care and Control). What kind of injury could the bird have from catching his talon in a squirrel?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I had a redtail in my yard a few weeks ago, I think it might have been a parent trying to coax a fledgling along from the way it was calling. I've learned a lot reading all the CPS hawk blogs!

Judy

http://home.earthlink.net/~judycat/id2.html

Hi Judy,

This sounds like John Blakeman’s cup of tea so I’ll send it off to him but in the meantime here’s my take.

One can't just go around zapping federally protected species for no real reason even if you are Animal Control. A permit would have to be granted and as far as I can tell in this case there would be absolutely no reason for one to be given. I suppose there might be some leeway for emergencies but this isn't one. In fact I can't think what might be construed as a Red-tail being so dangerous that it would have to be killed on the spot. I mean, it isn't as if they hold human children hostage.

Trapping a particular Red-tail is extremely difficult while it is still flighted as you may have read about when we were attempting to get our hands on the RT fledgling, Hous, when he was sick.

There are foot traps used to snare raptors for banding but that is also permit only and you have no control over who you might catch.

Squirrels take real skill on a Red-tail's part to capture safely. They're dangerous sharp-toothed little buggers with very tough skin.

Donna

JOHN BLAKEMAN WAS OFF GUEST LECTURING AND WORKING ON HIS PRAIRIES BUT MANAGED TO RESPOND BRIEFLY--

About the hawk with the embedded talon.

It would be a decided violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and almost surely also of any state raptor protection statute, for an animal control officer to kill any hawk, with the possible exception of if such a bird had it's talons entangled in a human. In a squirrel? Not a chance that this allowed.

Young red-tails can get their talons so deeply embedded into the skull of a squirrel or other similar-sized mammal that they don't know how to rub off the talon-clasping head or skull. Usually, though, the bird sooner or later rips away the enclosing bone tissue, freeing the talon.

John Blakeman

DO YOU REMEMBER YESTERDAY'S P.S. ASKING IF ANYONE KNEW ANYTHING ABOUT OWLS HUNTING BATS OR OTHER NIGHT FLYING CREATURES? GRAND RESEARCHER R. OF ILLINOIS, CAME UP WITH SOME VERY INTERESTING GOODIES--

JSTOR: Food and Habitat of the Spotted Owl Concerning the capture of bats, it is possible that the Spotted Owl is sufficiently agile flier to take bats on the wing, at least the slow-flying ..links.jstor.org/

Food Habits — Spotted Owl — Birds of North America Online Figure 2. Spotted Owls hunt primarily at night in dense forest. ... hawks for insects and moths and will hawk and capture bats on the wing (ABF, RJG)....Also, apparently RTHs do it to: (link attached)

We had watched a Red-tail Hawk floating motionless over the hill behind the bat cave. Someone mentioned that the bats would be out soon; the hawk knew it. Once the bats started pouring out, the Red-tail started feeding, taking bats on the wing. The hawk’s mate and a Sharpie later joined the hunt. Both Red-tails took out at least five bats. http://thebusinessbirder.com/the%20business%20birder%20big%20rio%20grande%20adventures.htm

The reason I 'd asked was, the other evening, I was driving down a rural road in Wisconsin after dark, after just leaving Thresherman's Park where I watch the Crows and the mystery Raptor. I drive slowly at such times as I really don't want to hit a deer. Collisions being dreadful for everyone involved after all, when suddenly just as I was going under the action I saw what I took to be a mid-sized owl flitting around above the car catching something. I had seen bats earlier so my first thought was the flying mammals.

ALSO FROM R. AND THE BBC, Birds can do it and now it turns out that cows and deer do it too. They can tell North/South.

Why is that an evolutionary advantage for cattle. It's an advantage for migrating birds, so perhaps as cattle's progenitors long ago migrated too...?

Here's the link--

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7575459.stm

THANKS TO ALL THE CONTRIBUTORS!

D.B.