News From The Mews

As my family waited for our pizza at Lakewoods Resort, I looked out over Lake Namakagon and remembered sharing this view with Aldo the American Kestrel. Ten years ago, I snapped a photo after a raptor program here and turned it into my third News From The Mews blog post. Here's a look back at that post: Sometimes even a kestrel needs time to relax after a busy day of work. Aldo had the opportunity to enjoy the view of Lake Namakagon after an outreach program at Lakewoods Resort this week.  As he watched boaters coming and going on the lake, I had a great view of the back of his head. In this photo, you can see the black spots on his nape. These “ocelli” are thought to act as false eyes. They might protect the kestrel from a predator like a Cooper’s or Red-tailed Hawk. The spots might also prevent angry songbirds from getting too close when trying to chase off a kestrel. In either case, they will wait to attack until they have the element of surprise. If the kestrel’s trick works, t...

In the summer heat, Aldo the American Kestrel likes taking a shower from a spray bottle!

American Kestrels are cavity nesters. They find holes in trees or utilize nest boxes to keep their eggs safe. Then why does Aldo the American Kestrel make a nest on the ground every year? He creates a depression in the gravel and chatters noisily, bowing up and down, to advertise it to potential mates. Meanwhile, his enclosed hutch remains relatively unused during breeding season.  I once worked with another male ambassador kestrel that tried to nest on the ground. Curious! Both of these kestrels are human imprints - they were raised by people. I wondered recently whether that impacted their nesting preferences. Maybe the people didn't raise these birds in a cavity. Perhaps they were growing up on a flat, open surface, like someone's kitchen counter or a rehab facility's clinic. If they imprinted on their caretakers, did they also imprint on their nest type? That's just my speculation - what do you think?

"Please drop the fur," I begged Aldo. It's breeding season and the American Kestrel seems more interested in showing off his food than eating it. Normally I don't mind if he holds on to his meal. But we had special guests visiting the Museum and I did not want Aldo meeting the Governor with a piece of half-gnawed mouse leg hanging from his mouth. Luckily he dropped the leftovers in his crate and we went outside to meet the group. Aldo was able to do what he does best - impress the audience with his tiny but mighty charisma - without a distracting rodent embellishment.

Last week, Aldo, Carson, and I hopped into the van and headed to the Twin Cities for their annual vet appointments. I was excited to unload at The Raptor Center and take the elevator down to the clinic. I knew our birds would be in the very best hands.  During Carson the Red-tailed Hawk's exam, I got to feel squishy fat pads behind her legs. While interesting, it was a sign that she was overweight. I'd have to adjust her diet when we got home.  Aldo the American Kestrel Then it was Aldo's turn. I was perhaps most anxious about his eye exam since cataracts were spotted in the kestrel's eyes two years ago. Luckily, Dr. Annette found the cataracts were the same size and were likely not impeding his vision.  Afterwards, we made our way back up the elevator and I loaded two healthy birds back in the van. And I breathed a sigh of relief at another smooth vet visit.

Aldo comes inside when the outdoor temperatures dip below 10°F, so he has been in the office a lot recently. When people ask why, they often nod and answer their own question: "oh, because he's so small!" But size can't be the only way to explain this bird's winter hardiness.  Both my daughter and my cat delighted in watching chickadees at our bird feeder last weekend. Weighing in at just a half-ounce, chickadees are 1/7th the size of Aldo the American Kestrel. Yet they survived even through our recent -30°F nights.  My whole family was enthralled with watching the bird feeder at breakfast! Chickadees have fascinating strategies to cope with Wisconsin's winters. They ensure a food supply by hiding seeds in the fall, and enlarging the memory portion of their brain (hippocampus) by 30% to remember where those seed caches are located. Small owls, about the same size as kestrels, also overwinter here. They can locate prey under a blanket of snow with their amazing...

  Aldo the American Kestrel has particularly striking markings. I love the black speckles on his lower belly. But his boldest markings are the malar stripes, the black streaks below his eyes. This is characteristic of falcons (and cheetahs) to reduce glare when chasing prey on sunny days. 

Author Fredrik Backman shared a video of his dog's habit of laying in front of the refrigerator, leaving just enough room to open the door. He describes her humorous ability "to ALWAYS be in the way, without TECHNICALLY being in the way." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Fredrik Backman (@backmansk) Aldo the kestrel turned out to have the same skill on Monday when I gave him a larger chunk of food than usual. He tried to fly to another perch with his feast, but the weight of it pulled him down. He landed on the ground and scuttled into the corner to start eating his chick. Unfortunately for me, he chose the corner right in front of my exit door. I was trapped! I slowly cracked the door, hoping he would hop away. Aldo, however, continued ripping at his meal. As I inched the door open, I found that it could swing past Aldo with just a hair's distance to spare. I slipped out the door and thanked Aldo for not technically being in the way. 

We sadly had to say goodbye to our wonderful interns, Katherine and Kylie, last week. In their final days, we made time for them to hold Aldo the kestrel on glove and give him a few tidbits. What a special farewell and thank you for all of their hard work this summer!

I've always thought of Aldo the kestrel as a colorful bird, so I was surprised to find these black and white tail feathers in his mew!

"I'm surprised that the birds seem relatively fine with the construction noise behind the mew," I told my raptor training mentor at our last check-in meeting. "They're little on edge when it's particularly noisy, but generally okay." "That sounds about right," she said. "Noises alone are usually less scary for raptors than seeing the action." A crew and heavy machinery across the street make Aldo a little nervous. Aldo the kestrel demonstrated this to be true last week. An excavator digging directly behind the building, out of sight? No problem. Aldo might pause before hopping on the scale, but he'll get there. A crew doing roadwork across the street, farther away but in view from his window? Scary! I entered the mew to weigh Aldo, but he was much too busy keeping an eye on the construction equipment and screeching his alarm call loudly. Any training would have to wait until the roadwork was done.

Aldo loves showing off his nest during the breeding season. When the kestrel hears me coming, he jumps down to the ground in the back corner of his mew. He trills excitedly, bowing. This behavior is rather inconvenient for me when I need to weigh him or take him out for a program. Since he's looking for attention in his nest, I remove his audience by stepping out of sight. I quietly wait in the hallway. I listen for the flutter of his wings to tell me he has flown back to a perch. Then I know it is safe to enter the mew and give him a treat. I didn't realize how much I rely on my ears during this morning routine until construction started on the library's new building next door. An excavator moving dirt is loud enough to drown out the subtle whisper of Aldo's wings in flight. I shift my strategy and shuffle down the hallway just enough to be able to see the perch through the window. I still remain quiet until I see Aldo appear, giving me the green light to enter the mew...

Normally a rather debonaire fellow, Aldo the American Kestrel was a soggy mess after an enthusiastic bath on a hot and muggy day. I chuckled at his disheveled look. His feathers were soaked and matted together, revealing an interesting piece of anatomy. Just behind his eye was a hole - his ear!  Mammals have prominent external pinnae that stick out from the head to funnel sound into the inner ears. Bird ears are less conspicuous. The simple hole is usually covered by protective feathers, so this was a rare glimpse at Aldo's auditory system!

 Aldo the American Kestrel preened deep behind his wing on this sunny day!

Spring is a busy time for both me and the birds. With the breeding season in full swing, they fill their days with nest building and advertising for potential mates. And I get busy repairing perches that they destroy in their nesting pursuits. I fixed up Aldo's perch this week with extra attachments to give him something to rip other than the base layer rope. He got a few loops of purple Coban bandage wrap, an extra layer of rope, and some newspaper rings. Hopefully that will keep him busy!

Last week I wrote about using the ABC's of behavior to analyze Aldo's challenging behavior of flying to the door when Jenny or Heaven tried to enter his mew. After noting all of the antecedents and consequences that were associated with this unwanted behavior, we had to make a hypothesis and a plan to change the behavior. There seemed to be two consequences that could be driving the behavior. Was he flying to the door to chase the scary trainers away? Or was he trying to access his food more quickly? One of the antecedents on the list stood out to me: his weight was low. That seemed like a good indication that he might be feeling extra hungry and impatient to get his food, so we decided to test out that hypothesis.  Next we needed a plan to reduce the annoying behavior of flying to the door. We decided to: Feed Aldo extra food to increase his weight. Hopefully he wouldn't feel as desperate to get to the food. Remove the perch next to the door. If the perch doesn't exis...

A few weeks ago, Jenny and Heaven let me know that Aldo the American Kestrel was giving them a hard time. Whenever they tried to enter the mew, Aldo flew to the perch in front of the door. They couldn't get in while he blocked the entrance. Normally I would toss out a few suggestions for Jenny and Heaven to try and see what happens, like throwing spaghetti at the wall. But this time I wanted to try a more structured approach.  A functional assessment is a detailed process that analyzes a behavior within the environmental factors that surround it. The structure is based in the ABC's of behavior: Antecedent : This is the "stage," everything in the environment that happens before the behavior. It can be broken down into the Distant Antecedent (relevant background conditions) and Immediate Antecedent (what immediately triggers the behavior).  Behavior : What does the animal do?  Consequence : What happens after the behavior? Does the animal gain something they wanted, li...

Aldo the American Kestrel has been inside for several days during our cold snap. He has a tendency to get bored during these long stretches indoors and likes to destroy his preferred rope perch. It gives me a headache to hear him ripping at the rope because the perch is a pain to repair. To prevent too much destruction, we ramp up enrichment. Newspaper strips to rip, mealworm snacks, and live bird feeder cameras are good ways to keep him busy. I also change out his perches occasionally. Today I removed his favorite rope perch and left him with two perches covered in plastic turf. He doesn't have rope to destroy, it's good for his feet to have a different surface to stand on, and he gets something new in his day.

Aldo the American Kestrel made the most of his time inside this week by splashing in his water pan and drying off in the sun! 

I have written previously about tail pattern variations between American Kestrels. But I became curious whether one individual's tail pattern changed over time. I dug out Aldo's molted feathers from previous years and it felt like a game of "Spot the Differences" in a Highlights magazine.  While we are missing a few feathers from each year (a full kestrel tail has 12 feathers), it seems that each feather is unique. Focusing on the two central feathers that have the most solid pattern, 2023 had more black and slate-blue splotches than 2019. This week I found those central feathers freshly molted in his mew and they seem to be even more patterned than before. I wonder if the splotches will continue to follow this trend and become more pronounced in future years?