Remote Control Pigeons

Neiry Pigeon

From Medusa:

Russian neurotechnology company says it can steer pigeon flocks with implanted brain chips

The Russian neurotechnology company Neiry claims to have begun field testing a flock of pigeons with chips implanted in their brains, allowing researchers to steer the birds from the laboratory into the wild and back. According to reporting by Forbes Russia, Neiry says its operators can upload flight patterns to pigeons by stimulating specific areas of the brain. Neiry spokespeople said that through this process, the bird itself “wants” to fly in the directions chosen by researchers. “There’s no training required: Any animal becomes remotely controllable after the operation,” the company claimed.

The surgeries are performed on a production line with a precision-guided setup that inserts electrodes into targeted regions of the brain. Neiry says its researchers “seek a 100-percent survival rate for the birds undergoing the procedure,” though it did not provide current survival figures. The device emits signals that influence the bird’s impulses, prompting it to turn left or right. The bird’s location is tracked by GPS, and the onboard electronics run on solar panels affixed to the bird’s back.

Neiry says its “biodrone” technology has applications for monitoring power transmission lines, gas distribution hubs, and other types of infrastructure.

Burrowing Parrots

Burrowing Parrots, Las Lajas, Argentina

Very difficult puzzle, though I don't understand why. You might think that all the pieces of birds would give useful clues, but they didn't. Even when I was down to the last few dozen pieces, I could not find a place for some. I think maybe I'll go back to cars. They are much easier.

I do like parrots though. I wonder if I should get one. Kids seem to think I need a dog. We shall see.

Biologist Juan Masello studying the world’s largest parrot colony, at Balneario El Condor in Argentina. Don Priesler

Burrowing Parrot Range. Yellow is nesting area, orange is area of seasonal food migrations.

Kyrgyz Eagles

Kyrgyz hunters ride horses with golden eagles during the Traditional Eagle Hunting Salbuurun Festival on the southern shore of Issyk-Kul lake, 213km (132 miles) southeast of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. [Vladimir Voronin/AP Photo]

Kyrgyzstan is in the middle of Asia, just west of the giant desert that forms most of western China.

Kyrgyzstan

Google Map here.

Eagle Master in Mongolia

Eagle Master in Mongolia

Birds Lungs

Birds Don't Have Lungs Like We Do - They Have Something WAY Better!
Clint's Reptiles

The business of about geese flying over Mt. Everest is a little iffy, but not by much. From Wikipedia:

The bar-headed goose is one of the world's highest-flying birds, having been heard flying across Mount Makalu – the fifth highest mountain on earth at 27,825 ft – and apparently seen over Mount Everest – 29,029 ft – although this is a second-hand report with no verification. This demanding migration has long puzzled physiologists and naturalists: "there must be a good explanation for why the birds fly to the extreme altitudes... particularly since there are passes through the Himalaya at lower altitudes, and which are used by other migrating bird species." In fact, bar-headed geese had for a long time not been directly tracked (using GPS or satellite logging technology) flying higher than 21,460 ft, and it is now believed that they do take the high passes through the mountains. The challenging northward migration from lowland India to breed in the summer on the Tibetan Plateau is undertaken in stages, with the flight across the Himalaya (from sea-level) being undertaken non-stop in as little as seven hours. Surprisingly, despite predictable tail winds that blow up the Himalayas (in the same direction of travel as the geese), bar-headed geese spurn these winds, waiting for them to die down overnight, when they then undertake the greatest rates of climbing flight ever recorded for a bird, and sustain these climbs rates for hours on end, according to research published in 2011.

The 2011 study found the geese peaking at an altitude of around 21,000 ft. In a 2012 study that tagged 91 geese and tracked their migration routes, it was determined that the geese spent 95% of their time below 18,976 ft, choosing to take a longer route through the Himalayas in order to utilize lower-altitude valleys and passes. Only 10 of the tagged geese were ever recorded above this altitude, and only one exceeded 21,300 ft, reaching 23,920 ft. All but one of these high-altitude flights were recorded at night, which along with the early morning, is the most common time of day for geese migration. The colder denser air during these times may be equivalent to an altitude hundreds of meters lower. It is suspected by the authors of these two studies that tales of the geese flying at 26,000 ft are apocryphal. Bar headed geese have been observed flying at 23,000 ft.

Pelican

Pelican

This puzzle was a little tougher than average. The bird itself was relatively easy, but the brambles and the water gave few clues as to their position.

Bird's Eye View

Hairy Eyeball

I didn't know that birds had eyelashes and whiskers. Weird, man. Not quite sure where I got this pic, maybe daily timewaster, maybe The Feral Irishman.

Hummingbird

Hummingbird

He's right in the center, facing right with wings swept forward. They are regular visitors to the patio. I think they like the Bird of Paradise flowers.

Hummingbird

Here he is all blowed up.

The Goose Whisperer

Flock of geese flying with an ultralight aircraft

The Spokesman-Review has a story about the origins of this business.

Pic of the Day

Hunting with an eagle in the Altai Mountains. Photograph by Tariq Zaidi

The Altai Mountains are found in Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan come together. - Wikipedia

Via daily timewaster

Big Bear Bald Eagle Cam

Big Bear Bald Eagle Cam
Via Posthip Scott

Sun Dogs

Roadrunner

Iaman reports from somewhere in Arizona:

Had a couple of road runners ouside my window yesterday negotiating a catch of a lizard.
Went on a hike with Randy last evening, there are old mines here, one is filled with crystalline water.  The dogs Brill (old cow dog) & Pup run amok in the cactus and rocks seemingly oblivious to rattlers which this is prime habitat for. Both have been bitten.
One neighbor who has no dogs suffers with Coati running on his roof at night, and mice chewing his trucks wiring.  He miss- identified them as ring tailed cats which are  native here too.  A new neighbor who doesn't like dogs, has trail-cams of mountain lions padding around his house.  Randy's dog Pup, big german shepherd, has been ambushed and mixed with up with coyote packs a couple times. 
Weather perfect in morning till 10, then heat is relentless till 7PM.  Randy, a desert rat, goes out shirtless hatless in midday UV walking the dogs on the near vertical hills, I'm attempting to acclimate to the Chihuahua desert life.  Houses relatively cheap here,  may have something to do with no water and relentless solar assault.  Pools scarce, neighbor has one but is always on guard against monsoon winds and debris.

Storks

Storks nesting on a rooftop in Puente La Reina

I'm reading The Note-Books of Captain Coignet. Chapter 3 finds him traveling. He crosses the border from France into Spain near the west coast:

We started for Bayonne; the distance was great; we suffered from the heat, but at last we reached the bridge of Irun, Our comrades found a stork's nest and took the two young ones. The authorities came to the colonel to reclaim them; the alcalde requested him to restore them, because these birds were necessary in that climate for the destruction of serpents and lizards; he said that the galleys was the penalty for those who killed storks in that country. Consequently they are seen there everywhere; the plains are covered with them, and they walk about in the streets of the towns. Old wheels are put up for them on the top of high posts, and they make their nests in the gable-ends of the buildings.

Reminds me of a story I read when I was a kid. I can almost see the pictures in my mind's eye. I thought it was set in Holland though, not in Spain. Rooting around I find that Hans Christian Anderson wrote a story about storks. I wonder if that could have been it. Problem is the story doesn't mention wagon wheels and I remember that bit very distinctly.

Puente La Reina (site of photo above) is about 50 miles south of Irun.

Drone Security

Hawk vs. Drone! (Hawk Attacks Quadcopter)

The snafu at Gatwick a few days ago got me thinking about drones. My first thought was that every drone that could be a hazard needs to carry a radio identifier of some sort. My next thought was what do you do about a drone that is misbehaving? If it is carrying an identifier, then you can track down the owner and call the kid's mom and let her bring the smack down on him. But what if it isn't carrying an ID? You might be able to jam the control signals, or possible even override them, but that assumes it is being controlled via radio. What if it's not? Then you need some way to intercept it and bring it to the ground. Birds can be employed for this. The Dutch police have squad of birds and bird men for this purpose. I can see where that there could be situations that a bird could not handle. Night flying, for instance. In that case you are going to want an interceptor drone. I suspect we are going to have an escalating drone war. DARPA may already be working on one. If they aren't, they should be.

Update January 2019. We have visited this issue before.

Harz versus Hartz

Harzer Roller

Stu takes his motorsickle on a tour of the Harz mountains. Harz? That sounds a whole lot like Hartz. Did Stu make an error? No, Harz (without a t) is the name of the mountains. Hartz (with a t) is the name of the pet product company, but there is a connection.

Hartz Mountain Corporation was founded by two guys who emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1926 with five thousand (!!!) singing canaries. - paraphrased from Wikipedia

The Harz Roller is a breed of domestic canary bred in the Upper Harz mountains of Germany. The birds were bred in the middle of the 19th century and achieved European-wide fame. 

With patience a breed of canary was produced that had a very pleasant, melodious song, full of variety and delivered with an apparently closed beak. In the second half of the 19th century the breeding and sale of these canaries boomed. 

The birds were used as a warning system to indicate the presence of poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide and low levels of oxygen in the surrounding air. Canaries were especially good for this purpose as, unlike finches, doves and mice, they reacted very quickly to carbon monoxide. While a mouse would not have a noticeable reaction until after up to 70 minutes to a carbon monoxide concentration of 0.77 % in the air, a canary will fall off its perch after as little as 2.5 minutes from a concentration of 0.29 %. For this reason canaries were not only used in normal operations, but especially to protect rescue units in the case of an accident. - paraphrased from Wikipedia

I looked for a YouTube video of a singing canary, but I didn't find one I liked. The ones I listened to didn't sound very melodious or pleasant, but maybe that's just a limitation of YouTube.

Go Eagles!

Short Teaser Guard From Above HD | Birds of prey to intercept hostile drones
Reminds me of Magnus, Robot Fighter. Via IBT.

Company's Comin'

My wife looks out the window today and notices our old Christmas tree lying at the edge of the dismal swamp. When I dumped it there back in January it was the greenest thing there. Now the swamp is full-tilt green and the ol' Christmas tree, well, it's kinda orange, like a sore thumb. We might be getting company this summer, and sweetie pie decides something needs to be done about this eye-sore. So I take my hand clippers and start cutting it down to size and, lo and behold! What do I find?

Bird's nest with two eggs. Apparently abandoned, no mama bird in evidence, near or far. Surprised the 'coons didn't get them, they were only a foot or two from the ground. The nest was in the middle of the tree, so maybe that made it too much work. I surprised a 'coon in front of the house today. He high tailed it around the corner, quick as his fat little butt could waddle.

Update: I just corrected a bunch of typos. I can't believe how many errors I made in the original.
Seven months later: I just found another typo. Will I ever learn to type?
Update February 2017 replaced missing picture.

Tree Goose

Look! A new species of goose! Oh, wait. It's spring. Never mind. From the swamp.

Update February 2017 replaced missing picture.

Hawk

Second time I've seen a hawk in the swamp in back of the house. Don't know if it's the same one or even the same kind. This photo is a good example of why birders are second only to sports photographers in their consumption of high end optics.

Update February 2017 replaced missing picture.

Bird of the Day

I saw this bird in my backyard yesterday. He is really big. I think it is an eagle. Haven't seen one of those here before. We get lots of hawks around here and he is at least twice as big (tall) as a hawk. He was probably about 75 feet away, shot at 12x zoom.

Update: I sent a link to the Cascades Raptor Center and I got a note back:

It’s an adult red-tailed hawk – in the photo with his back to us, you can see the red tail. You are right – eagles are larger, and their wingspan is too. A red- tail’s wingspan is 4-4 ½’; an eagle would be 6-7’. Louise

Update February 2017 replaced missing picture.