Louie Uses a Tool and a There's a Wood Duck Where?

A fascinating avian moment from long time contributor Robin of Illinois-
I have a friend here in East Peoria who has four rescued big birds -- cockatoos, parrots of various kinds, including an African Gray. She sent this photo of Louie using a shed wing feather to scratch himself. Does Silver do that kind of thing too?

Silver will chew the ends of molted feathers and sometimes play with them but using them to scratch himself as in tool use hasn't happened while I was watching at least so far.

Which brings up a whole new area of interest in the parrot area. We know that there are other species who do use tools but are there other reports of tool use in parrots? Is using something to scratch oneself officially considered tool use?

I can't wait to find out! More to come!


Pat Gonzalez was photographing wildlife in her favorite place, the New York Botanic Garden when she ran across an interesting duck.

Odd duck is down right in this photograph.
She thought it might be a female Wood Duck and sent it along to me to see what I thought.

I agree with her. This hen certainly looks like a Wood Duck, Aix sponsa, though most of her kin will have gone south to likely somewhere in the Carolina's by now.

Of course, we've all seen or at least been reading about how migratory birds have begun to fly less far south, sometimes as far as a couple hundred miles, likely due of climate change. Though Mrs. Wood Duck still seems to have stopped short. But that is part of the magic of the artificial habitats of NYC, sometimes because of the specialized habitats and the open water a bird who ordinarily would go further, for whatever reason, whether physical, disoriented, or just that perhaps she liked the look of the place, will stop for a longer sojourn than the others.

Wood Ducks are beautiful. I'm told that their scientific name translates into "waterbird in a bridal dress". Who says all scientists and naturalists are sticks in the mud?

Well Folks, there was much more wondrous news in my email box today from many contributors-- including copulating eagles, more on Louie the Amazon, hawk sightings in Morningside park, the Blackwater Eagles, more Morningside Park history from Winkie....the wonders continue. But it is 4:30am currently and your bloggist is a bit under the weather so it will not be coming to you this minute but rather COMING SOON!

DONEGAL BROWNE

The Lump, the Parrot, and the Very Black Cat

Quicksilver the African Grey Parrot was bored. Not only was he bored, he was tired and out of sorts. A tired bored out of sorts parrot is much the same as an overtired two year old human. They fret. They fuss. They just can't find a way to get comfortable and therefore fall asleep which is what they really need to feel better.

In a parrot, or at least in this parrot, his fussing isn't whimpering and wiggling, it consists first of saying he wants up insistently, frequently and loudly. Okay we can do that, but wanting up to go where is the problem. None of the places are satisfying. Now remember satisfaction isn't going to be anything besides sleeping but he doesn't know that and he'll want to attempt all his different perches, ferried by the human to see if it helps. It doesn't. The human will eventually tire of being the ferry boat, put him on a perch, give him a toy, make sure he has food and water and then with determination attempt to go do whatever it was the human was attempting to get done in the first place. Still unsatisfied, the parrot graduates to making all the noises that ordinarily bring humans in a household in at a hustle ---dinging like the timer on the oven, the ping of the microwave, but best of all when all else fails there is the maddening beep of the smoke alarm which with duration increases in volume and pitch. I begin to understand how the Red-tail Hawk parents might feel about the incessant begging of eyasses anytime their little ones lay eyes on them even when their crops are stuffed full. One can't win.

Eventually the human, not being fooled by any of these, but driven a bit round the bend by the beeping, will arrive exasperated and say,"What do you want?" Silver will then get frantic eyed, listen to the human's question, begin beeping some more while playing the pathetic card. What is the pathetic card? Bringing his wings an inch from his body and doing bitty little begging flaps like a chick.

This doesn't happen frequently but yesterday evening was a dandy. When finally put into his cage in a vain attempt to get him to nod off, instead of mumbling to himself while standing on his perch when getting ready to sleep, he climbed round and round the cage on the bars while running his beak across said bars, much in the way that prisoners created a racket by swiping their tin cups across their bars in old movies. He'd worked himself into an anxiety attack. And he was quickly giving me one.

Okay, okay! I went in, got him out of his cage, went into the dining room which was dark, though the open patio curtains allowed some illumination from the park lights, put him on his perch, and was turning around when I realized that Pyewacket, the cat, was making strange little mrrp, mrrp, noises with her face plastered against the glass. Hmmm. AND Silver had suddenly clammed up and was staring fixedly through the glass himself.

What was I to do? I went to the glass and peered out too. Wow, there is a big lump a few feet from the door by the glider that wasn't there earlier. Gosh. I flip the back light switch.


The lump continues his business. It isn't Fluffy the opossum this time it's a chunky raccoon who doesn't seem a bit fazed by the sudden illumination.

I'd dumped the Nutri-berri remnants, a seed and fruit parrot food, out of Silver's bowls for the birds earlier in the day, and raccoon seems to be finding them delicious

Raccoon has begun vigorously digging in the snow and is chewing something which seems to stick in his teeth periodically which must be dislodged by a paw.

Pyewackit now having backup from a human and a parrot, begins mrrp-ing much more loudly.

Raccoon is finally disturbed but instead of taking off, takes the offensive and heads for the glass. Whoa! Pye scrunches down a little but holds her ground.

Oh my! It's Rocky Raccoon. Complete with a split ear and irregular "fingers". We stare at him and he stares at us. Either feeling we've been properly menaced or that we're harmless--

...he turns around and goes back to chewing. Pyewackit has decided to stop mrrp-ing, take a low profile, and stare at him sideways.

Silver on the other hand has become, very very still--and blessedly quiet. He is giving me a "You see that, right?" look.

Then a change of posture which says, "No really, I think that something absolutely must be done." But still not a sound.

Rocky being otherwise occupied, Pye sits back up. Silver turns his head to keep one eye on me to check for my reaction and one eye on Rocky. Not having watched much Raccoon behavior, in Silver's mind Rocky's behavior is likely a big mystery and he truly does bear watching. But Silver has to keep one eye on me as well, because he will take his cue as how to feel about and react to Rocky from me. Pywackit doesn't even get a glance. Every bird knows that you can't trust cats for that sort of thing at all.

Rocky has switched food excavation areas. More eating, and mock washing motions even though there isn't any water right there.

More digging.

More chewing. Rocky seems to have been in a relatively recent fight. He has two areas on his rump where the hair is missing. Raccoons are known to have interactions with coyotes, domestic dogs, and sometimes other raccoons.

I'm not sure why, but Rocky suddenly takes notice again. Silver says, "Wanna go cage" sort of under his breathe.

Whatever the issue, Rocky begins walking further towards the far side of the yard. Silver repeats a little louder, "Wanna go cage!"

And wonder of wonder, Silver really does want to go to his cage. He immediately settles in, says, "Brush your teeth" to me, sends a couple kiss noises my way, and his eyelids almost immediately begin to close.

Now if Rocky could only be trained to appear whenever Silver is having trouble going to sleep...

Donegal Browne

Red-tail Update-Morningside Park Hawks, Plus NYBG

Isolde by D. Browne
From newest hawkwatcher and fire escape hawk presence contributer Nara regarding Morningside Park Hawks Isolde and Norman--

Hi Donna,

Well, our friends have decided not to spend the night the last two nights. I assume they sought alternative accommodations as it was warmer. We saw a flutter of wings at sunset out the window yesterday, but then nothing. One of them may have been in the tree right across the way in the park, between 119 and 120, but we couldn't see well as it was dark.
So unlike the rest of the city, we're hoping for cold temps again so they come back!

It turns out the guy I thought was the handyman is one of the security guards that patrols Morningside Drive (we just moved here in September so I'm still figuring out who everyone is). So he's outside all the time looking around, including at the birds, and noted that they were around a lot in the fall. I ran into the people who previously lived in this apartment (and are now down the hall) and asked them if they'd ever seen the hawks on the fire escape. They hadn't, so this seems to be a new haunt for them.

Nara

From Pat Gonzalez, this is a flight shot of the mystery mature Red-tail from yesterday's post. Anyone who knows this hawk, please get in touch.


Immature Red-tailed Hawk at the NYBG

Also from Pat-

Donegal:

I went back to the NYBG yesterday. I saw our mystery hawk again, but couldn't get a decent shot, but in another section I came across a younger hawk that let me take a few pictures.

Black-capped Chickadee

After four visits, I finally found some chickadees! Waaaaaaay out, by the Bronx River. I even got some of them to land in my hand. Sadly, the wild wetland trail is now a temporary wasteland, still frozen with hardly anything for the birds to hang out. Looking forward to all this settling down so our fine-feathered pals can return.

Speaking of return, the mystery farm duck is back!

{Long time readers will remember the lengthy discussion about this duck in particular as to what kind she is and farm ducks in general as to what kind they are.
I'll be heading back to the garden next week, the battle plan is to go on a sunny day and get a bright, clear photo of a perched red-tail. My zoom lens is working O.T. Still no sign of the GHO [Great Horned Owl]h. Scanning the native forest with my binoculars and nada.

To be continued.

Pat Gonzalez


And that's today's catch folks!
Donegal Browne