My flew into Edinburgh, Scotland, a few weeks ago and immediately took a cab to Dalhousie Castle and their falconry program. For a 9-day trip this was the one activity I went to the trouble of arranging beforehand. It was the thing my daughter was most excited about before and after the trip. And it was totally worth it.

Falconry Scotland offers you a chance to handle falcons, eagles, hawks and–get this–owls land on your gloved hand. We ended up showing up early, had coffee in the castle then came out to see the two falconers getting 37 birds out of their cages and boxes for the day. What was most delightful was how well the women knew each of the birds. Some birds wanted a cuddle, some keep-away from the keepers.

My daughter Ginger, 7, was particularly fascinated with a talkative barn owl. I mean, this bird chatted non-stop. I asked one of the falconers, Allie, if the bird was just hungry or what. No, she explained, that owl, named Jeanne, just likes being with people.

Eventually four of us went out in the field to do falconry. Again, the most amazing thing about this place is how much our falconer Allie knew of each bird and the back-and-forth she had with them. Allie explained the tail-swishing meant the bird was ready for flight. The Harris Hawk would easily–ever so delicately–land on each person’s gloved hand to eat the meat held between the fingers. Except when it came to Ginger. For Ginger the bird swooped around, every once in a while trying to steal the meat. Ginger laughed but held steady.

We gave up on Ginger doing falconry with that particular bird, who is sometimes afraid of children. Instead, Ginger got a fabulous consolation prize: she got to hold and feed the friendly owl Jeanne. I cautioned Ginger to keep her fingers away from Jeanne’s mouth, but Allie corrected me. This is a gentle bird and would only nibble affectionately. Which she did.

Americans don’t get to do a lot of hanging out with owls. Every once in a while you might see one at a falconry display (probably not flying) or, more likely, in a wildlife rehabilitation center. Birders have a self-important etiquette code of not revealing the location of owls in the wild.  But people are constantly wanting to see and even touch owls. (Japan meets this need with their peculiar owl cafes. Animal advocates say they’re skeevy because owls don’t want to hang out with humans or in cafes.)

Other places nearby like Elite Falconry actually go hunting. (They are mainly targeting game birds because rabbits are in trouble. Also, Elite Falconry breeds owls.) And there are even a few places in the U.S. where people can go do falconry (also usually at luxury hotels). But to get to become a falconer in the U.S., you have to go through many levels of training, permits and nonsense. So it is going to be a much stricter atmosphere. If you want to befriend an owl, best go to Scotland.

DSCF9304

Puffin swims by tour boat

Puffins are one of the oddest, most charming and hardest to see birds to see in the United States, but it’s getting easier. The birds spend almost all their time on the ocean, but for a few months they nest on three islands off Maine during the summer. Most of the action is about five hours’ drive Down East from Maine’s southern border. Eastern Egg Rock, by far the easiest island to see if you’re a human just an hour from Portland, now has enough puffins that it’s worth the trip.

Puffins once lived on six islands off Maine, but were nearly wiped out by people eating them and wearing their feathers. By 1901 there was only one pair on Matinicus Rock. Protection brought them back hundreds to the upper islands.  Since puffins return to the island where they hatched to breed, it seemed unlikely they would ever reclaim their old territory. But biologist Stephen Kress had the idea to transplant chicks from Newfoundland, where they were still all over the place, to Eastern Egg Rock. No one was sure what mechanism they used to find their way home or when it kicked in–was it when they hatched or when they swam out to sea?

Kress and the National Audubon Society started moving chicks in 1973 in what became Project Puffin.  The first adult came back started in 1977 and their numbers have climbed steadily to 148 nesting pairs as of 2014. That’s an all-time high, but it comes after an alarming dip for a couple years when higher water temperatures cut their food supply and nesting success dramatically.

Courtesy of Project Puffin newsletter

I’ve wanted to see a puffin in the United States, but didn’t really think I had much of a chance. When I went to book a cottage near Boothbay Harbor, even the guy who owned it and stood to make money off my visit tried to talk me into going further up north. “It is about a 5 hour trip from Boothbay Harbor, but it is so worth it.  You land on the island and get to go in blinds to [photographically] shoot the puffins,” he told me.  “The tours out of Boothbay will get you near to some puffins in flight but that’s about it.”

If I were travelling alone on a puffin safari, fine, I’d make the trek to Machias Seal Island, which Audubon calls the “grandaddy of the puffin islands,” and get to see puffins from a blind. That’s if could swing a reservation. And if a dinghy from the boat would be allowed to land, which it often can’t in the rough seas. But I was travelling with a reluctant birding husband, a toddler and two beagles. The best choice for us all was Cap’n Fish’s puffin cruise, despite a name that is embarrassing to say. They even let you buy a $10 ticket for your dog–which is a huge deal because it means we don’t have to leave one adult behind or chance leaving the beagles alone in a strange hotel (lest Huckleberry should cry.)

In preparation for the trip I read my three-year-old daughter Ginger the kid’s book Project Puffin over and over. She was so excited to see them. On the way out she started fussing and we figured she was a little seasick. Then she mercifully fell asleep.

We got to the island there were plenty of birds to see. Puffins, terns, guillemots swarmed the island. They swam in the water near the boat. They hopped up and down on the rocks, where each pair took care of one chick, hidden away in a burrow. I tried to wake Ginger up, but she wouldn’t have it. A puffin fly just a few feet over out boat, where Pete Salmansohn, the education coordinator for Project Puffin, told us about the colony’s history. When seabirds were first protected, gulls took over these islands. Part of the project was to remove the gulls to make way for puffins. And terns. Ginger would have been delighted; he’s the co-author of her puffin book. At any rate, we saw plenty of puffins doing all kinds of puffin things: flying, flying with fish, swimming, hopping, hanging out together. We circled the island twice and got a good long look.

Ginger woke up as we neared the harbor. She thought we were just getting to the puffin island, then started crying when she realized she missed them. Salmansohn consoled her with puffin keychain. I asked him why Project Puffin doesn’t start reclaiming more of the old puffin islands (Western Egg Rock, Large Green Island) He must get asked that a lot. Puffins were never really in danger of extinction because there are so many of them in Canada and Europe, he said. Terns, now there’s a bird in trouble.

Yeah, I don’t think Project Tern will ever really catch on. Does that mean that the whole Project Puffin was just something to give Americans our cute and charming puffins back and make us feel good about fixing a past wrong? A symbolic win for the green team? And I’m just a typical American, excited about the cartoonish puffin while the serious tern is boring people to death? Well, maybe.

The biggest threat to puffins now may be climate change. As Mother Jones reported last year, the water temperature has been rising so much in the Gulf of Maine, the puffling’s favorite fishes (hake and herring) aren’t around. There isn’t enough plankton to feed the fish that feed the pufflings. In 2013 one-third of nest burrows went unoccupied and only about 10% of chicks survived long enough to fledge, or leave the nest, on Machias Seal Island. But in 2014 puffin numbers turned around: 85% occupancy and 75% success in fledging.

The water temperature rise may have been a fluke. Maybe. We hope so. Because, if not, there’s no easy fix. Transplanting an entire colony of elusive seabirds will seem easy compared with lowering the temperature of the ocean by a few degrees. So get out there and see those cute puffins while you can.

Puffins hop near their nest holes, where their pufflings are hiding, waiting for delivery of fish and to grow up.

Puffins and terns fly over their nests on Eastern Egg Rock.

Allan D. Cruickshank Wildlife Sanctuary on Eastern Egg Rock

Cap’n Fish’s boat cruise out of Boothbay Harbor lets you buy a $10 ticket for your dog.

One of the biggest points of the film is that Leonardo was born a bastard and therefore outsider. If he had been in a conventional family, maybe he would have gone to a fancy school and bought into the system. Instead, he taught himself from nature–watching animals–and experience and viscerally hated men who had wealth, standing and education but none of his creativity or charm.

The nature part of his thinking explains why Leonardo was so into animals. In the film he also speculates why dogs sniff each other’s butts (to see the class of food they’ve been eating, he guesses.) He looks at birds to figure out how humans might fly. And, though not in the film, Leonardo was a great lover and sometimes liberator of animals. According to one of his earliest biographers, he would buy caged birds in Italian markets just to set them free (and wrote animal fables, including one of a goldfinch who poisons her offspring so they won’t live life in human captivity.)

If you’re looking for some guy to play the smartest guy on the planet, Peter Capaldi is a fantastic choice, given his experience on Dr. Who and The Thick of It. Capaldi lets him be angry, funny and more human than you are used to seeing him. The documentary comes close to saying that he was probably gay and did religious paintings so as to stay in the church’s good graces after a brush with the moral police. Oddly, there have been a bunch of Leonardo movies lately, some of them action movies. Capaldi as Leonardo doesn’t fly, dance with fireworks or even paint. He just sits in a flouncy shirt and coolly delivers da Vinci’s own words from his diaries, written in a mirror that the Vatican recently revealed. The effect is that,  regardless of what you knew or didn’t know about da Vinci, you come away impressed and maybe a little creeped out.

Dogs have been enjoying drinks at NYC bars forever–until cat people spoil the fun

The Gate, one of the most famously dog-friendly bars in New York City, posted a sign Sunday saying that it’s been busted by the Health Department and will no longer allow dogs. Thousands of dogs and dog lovers have been enjoying the outdoor patio of Park Slope’s divey bar for decades with nobody catching rabies or even cooties, but as the sign points out, the outdated law is forcing them to stop the practice.

This sad outcome is only possible because New York City has an outdated health code that reflects medieval superstition rather than infectious disease science. Chicago passed a dog-friendly code in 2012 and has since seen no calamity. Restaurants don’t have to allow dogs, but they can if they want to. The whole state of California officially decided in August to allow dogs in outdoor seating. European bars and restaurants have welcomed dogs for centuries and they seem to be doing fine.

I happened upon now New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio back when he was a long-shot candidate at the Grand Army Plaza Farmer’s Market in June, 2013, and I asked him about New York allowing dogs at outdoor cafes like Chicago. He said New York is “more dense” so he didn’t know if it would be feasible. Really, Park Slope is more dense than the Loop? Than L.A. or San Francisco? Frankly, I like that the mayor supports getting rid of horse-drawn carriages in Central Park, but this law (along with maybe banning the sale of puppies and stronger spay-neuter rules) would do a lot more to improve the lives of New Yorkers and their animal friends.

The Gate points out that it has been “not endangering human health” since 1997. Often it seems like you have to have a dog to sit out on the patio. It’s the whole point of going there. For me and many others, the dog policy is the main attraction. People sit outside on the patio, bring their dog, and the staff, who have always been really nice, even let you bring in food from area restaurants since The Gate doesn’t serve food.

Dogs sadly no longer allowed at The Gate in Brooklyn’s Park Slope.

New York dog lovers and their favorite bars have been doing a dance around the law for decades. The Scratcher in the East Village was the favorite bar of dog people for years–until one day someone who didn’t like dogs came in and didn’t like it. Then, instead of going to any other bar in the city that didn’t allow dogs, they called the health department. Other places make you tie the dog outside the fencing–which creates more problems for dogs, their people, and anybody walking by than its worth.

There are so many things New York City could do to make restaurants stop spreading illnesses–more hand sanitizer, fewer bathroom doorknobs, maybe some bleach solution on condiment containers and menus. But if I want to have a beer–or even a salad–with a dog at my feet, I should be able to do it in what is America’s most sophisticated city.

No shelter dog was acceptable.

Ok, so the first time around I was willing to give the Obamas a little slack. They got their first dog and got it from a breeder. But now it’s been a few years, they’ve gotten over their historic win, they’ve gotten to know Bo, the Portuguese Water Dog, as a friend, and they’ve been exposed to a world of animal issues and animal politics.

By now the Obamas should be a little aware of the 2.7 million adoptable shelter dogs and cats euthanized each year.  They’re aware that they have let down anyone who cares about wildlife, wolves, getting a fair price for ranchland, etc. They are aware enough of how detrimental it is to animal welfare to support businesses that breed dogs instead of non-profits who adopt them out to make a donation to the local shelter.

But what do they do? Get another purebred dog.

Oh, I’m sure there will be some complicated story about how this is another “second chance dog.” Sunny was born in 2012 in Michigan, where there are a few Portuguese Water Dog breeders. If this were really a rescue the White House would have mentioned it and they wouldn’t have had to make a pity donation to the Washington Humane Society.

Let’s remember the fishy story about how Bo came into their life. Sen. Ted Kennedy loved Portuguese Water Dogs and somehow just as the Obamas moved to the White House a family decided that their puppy from Kennedy’s breeder wasn’t working out. Oh, I’m sure that Kennedy didn’t have anything to do with that. Back in 2009, dog people were disappointed they fell for all the American Kennel Club branding. But, really if a gravely ill Sen. Kennedy arranged to get me a dog, I’d pretty much take that dog, too. At the time I talked to some big time dog trainers, like Bash Dibra, who had volunteered his services to take any hypoallergenic shelter dog they wanted and train it to be a presidential pet.

But, seriously, a second one of the same obscure breed? It seems like these days it’s not enough for people to have stupid AKC papers on their golden retriever. No, they’ve got to get themselves some breed of dog that was almost wiped out, was down to a handful and then is having a current douchebag revival. And what ever happened to that shelter dog Joe Biden so desperately wanted to adopt after he bought a dog from a puppy mill?

As if a dog that meets the American Kennel Club’s random physical requirements is better than other dogs.  This is a terrible example to set for their girls and the country: just get whatever you want and don’t worry about how you contribute to a problem. If you feel bad, give a donation and forget it.

Courtesy of Island Marine

Blackfin and spinner sharks are passing by Palm Beach, FL, this time of year–so many and so flamboyantly you may be able to see them from the shore.

The sharks are migrating through and will spend the summer along the east coast. (They have similar patterns off Africa and Europe.) The sharks, which average about 6 feet, mate in early summer then carry the young 12-15 months and give birth to 3-15 pups that are already a couple feet long. Because the US shark population is in decline, the inland shark nurseries are important. Oddly, the sharks don’t entertain residents on the way down south. Tellman says the current may make them travel far from shore.

Tellman has another Florida shark watching tip: off Jupiter scuba divers can see lemon sharks. Normally sharks flee from the bubbles of scuba tanks, but these don’t seem to mind.

	Where to SEE SEALS (and sea lion and walrus)
	Where to SEE SHARKS

Where to see animals down south

Narcisse snakes / Photo courtesy of Steve McCullough, stevemccullough.ca

How far would you drive or fly out of your way to see a bunch of snakes? In a roundup of the best travel possibilities for 2013, Lonely Planet editors picked the best 10 spots to see snakes around the world.
The Narcisse snake dens of Manitoba is their top pick. You may have seen this amazing spectacle on nature programs: in May tens of thousands of red-sided garter snakes wake from hibernation, slither out of dens and mate in a writhing ball. This a destination snake spot, definitely not something you’ll pass on a roadtrip since it’s a couple hours north of Winnepeg.  But after the trek, it’s kind of tame. You can see these tiny snakes, often kept as pets, from the safety and convenience of a viewing platform.
Most of the other spots on Lonely Planet’s list are far more exotic cultural experiences, like a Hindu festival with cobras in India (though NPR says snake charmers are considered cruel and are fading fast from the scene), a temple for snakes in Benin, west Africa, and a snake pagoda in Myanmar.  A few are snake spots in name only, like the serpent mounds in Ohio, a mythical snake in Australia (but inexplicably, the list lacks Loch Ness, home to the planet’s favorite crpytozoological serpent).

While the list makes a fun read and may inspire some dreamy vacations, it could do with a few more natural locations, like the one they include in the Panatal, Brazil or Isla Pájaros in Costa Rica’s Palo Verde National Park, which has the largest concentration of boa constrictors.

To find spectacular snakes in the wilds of the U.S., head to Everglades National Park, which is the epicenter of the explosion of abandoned pythons not lucky enough to make it into one of the sanctuaries. They have so many, the state of Florida started a hunting season. If you go during a cold snap, you might find them stunned and sleepy.

Many of the big hot, dry parks out west have rattlesnakes, if that’s what you’re into. Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah notes that you may see them on  “Under-the-Rim Trail, Riggs Springs Loop, and the Fairyland Loop.”

For the United States, I would add a few good options for families and thrill seekers:

Snake Sanctuaries take in nonreleasable wildlife and forsaken pets, are a way to see snakes more intimately than a zoo and with less guilt about their captivity. Just as there are places that take in the wolves, big cats and monkeys some idiot thought would make an attention-getting pet, sanctuaries have sprung up to take in the unfortunate snakes that you might have once seen on some attention-seeker’s shoulders. Midgard Serpents Reptile Rescue & Sanctuary in North Carolina, the Colorado Reptile Humane Society, Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary,  Indiana Turtle Care, Inc., or VA Reptile Rescue. 

Lonely Planet wisely left out a couple of the most cruel and unseemly snake events, like the 3,000 year old Italian Cocullo Snake Festival, for which local non-poisonous snakes are rounded up and de-fanged and all of those Texas rattlesnake round-ups, which go down pretty much as you’d think.

But there are a few peculiarities of American culture that could have made the snake list. If you’re going to cultural attractions in India, you might be interested in a popular U.S. tourist destination that features snakes: South of the Border, the cheesy, ever-expanding roadside stop along Route 95. Better known for giant animal  statues, the place also has a real reptile house with an African black mamba.

And while you’re down south, maybe check out some Pentecostal snake-handling pastors. Now, I have no idea which is the most exciting or easiest to access as an outsider, but I’d love for Lonely Planet to find out by visiting La Follette, TN, or  Greenville, NC. If you’re going to see an incomprehensible religious spectacle that uses snakes as props, wouldn’t one in the U.S. be even scarier than those in India?

Lonely Planet mentions that this is the Chinese Year of the Snake, so I’d like more details about snake-themed festivities in Beijing for the New Year in February. But this is an excellent primer on where to see snakes.

More snake stories

Where to see Turtles or Weird Animals

A lone barnacle goose  (Branta leucopsis), who apparently took a wrong right turn from Greenland and ended up in Brooklyn, is charming lots of birders. But his fans don’t include the flock of Canada geese he’s glommed onto; they hiss and flap their wings at him.

Dozens of birders tried to get a glimpse or picture of the smallish, striped goose. I overheard chatter about him making their life list. He cruised between the peninsula and illicit duck-feeding area in the southwest corner of the lake.

I’m just assuming here it’s a young male–as so many wandering pioneers of many species are.

Yesterday he lost himself in the flock of Canada geese. Today he was by himself, then with a swan, then back with the flock. Though, in just twenty minutes I saw two birds try to drive him off. I don’t know if it was territorial or about the hierarchy within the group, but so far he doesn’t seem to be making friends.

He’s much smaller and prettier than the big Canadians. He has a teeny bill but eats the same leaves, roots and seeds that the lumbering Canadiennes do.

Barnacle Goose migration map. They don’t go that far. From Planet of Birds.

The Canada geese migrate much further south than barnacle geese. The ones you see on the east coast may also start in Greenland, but on the northwest coast, and migrate all the way down to the Carolinas–more than 2,000 miles. The Barnacle goose, however, is from the southeast coast of Greenland and flies about half that distance to Northern Ireland or Scotland. (Each species has many migration routes, stopping points that sometimes become permanent, birds that have decided to just stay in one place, geese that escaped from captivity and all kinds of complications).

Canada goose migration map, courtesy of City Birder and NE Game and Park Commission

The RSPB says there are only about 370,000 barnacle geese in the world, including roughly 100,000 that winter in the northern UK from Greenland and northern Russia.

He seemed thoroughly uninterested in the food being thrown by park goers. Maybe he’ll catch on and stick around. Otherwise,  he’s got a long trip ahead, flying into hunting season.

Read about the Greenland goose’s appearance

Where to SEE WEIRD BIRDS (All the interesting birds: pelicans, puffins, prairie chickens, vultures, hummingbirds)

Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis)

The Barnacle Goose migrates among many countries in northern Europe, with its biggest territory in Greenland and lots of little outposts in the UK, Russia and on cold islands you’ve never heard off, stretching all the way to Russia, according to a map from the IUCN Red List.

How big of a deal is this?

Peter, who runs Brooklyn Bird Club, noted in an email to a yahoo group that it’s probably the first ever seen in Prospect Park.

But people have posted sightings on ebird as far south as NC. Out on Montauk, people had a rash of sightings of a solitary Barnacle in 2006 and 2007. In 2010 one showed up at the other end of New York City, in Pelham Bay Park.

So, it’s not the first Barnacle Goose to end up on the wrong side of the Atlantic, but it’s still a pretty big deal.

	Where to SEE MOOSE
	Where to SEE WEIRD BIRDS (All the interesting birds: pelicans, puffins, prairie chickens, vultures, hummingbirds)

Here’s a much better picture.

Predictably, there is a minor backlash, what with innocent wild animals being used as a prop in a stunt for the Venice Bienalle architecture show. Not helping calm anyone, Charrière gave a vague, clumsily translated, robotic description of the painting process: “A «pigeon apparatus» was build with this purpose. The machine works as a bird trap with a conveyor belt mechanism, ones inside the machine the pigeon get automatically airbrushed in different colors. The machine was installed for a week on a roof.”

I have to believe that description was just part of his fun in provoking outrage.  He and his collaborator, German photographer, Julius von Bismark, previously painted pigeons in Copenhagen as part of a project “Some pigeons are more equal than others.” He says he wanted to upgrade the hated birds’ status. On another occasion, Charrière, 25, significantly downgraded the social status of a white dove by painting it gray like a pigeon. If the colored pigeons were JCPenney shoppers suddenly upgraded to Missoni, that poor dove suffered a reversal of fortune at Charrière’s hands (except that he was set loose.)

The Italian press says that he stuck to a baffling script in interviews that did not reveal anything about the painting process. Some Italian stories say he kept the birds in boxes and feeding them something that will wear off in a few months. Seems unlikely. They’re pigeons, not carnations. If you could just add dye to their food, can you imagine what Chicago pigeons would look like for St. Patrick’s Day?

Do people treat the pretty pigeons differently? Absolutely. In 2008, Venice banned feeding the birds, which are a huge tourist attraction in St. Mark’s Square. After the paint job, Japanese tourists chased the colored birds down, favoring especially the rare red one. I would not be surprised if some broke the ban and offered food.

Right now birders are chasing down rare warbler species, whose main distinction seems to be whether they wear eyeliner and if they have a splotch of yellow, green or blue and where.

His point isn’t so much to mess with the social lives of individual birds. The birds in the experiment were, in effect, paid for their effort with the extra food they surely got. True, they didn’t choose the paint. But if given the option, they absolutely would have. Being biased by good looks is by no means a uniquely human fault. What I want to know is whether other birds treated them better. In many bird species it is the female who choses the mate and she often uses looks, the more splashy, the better. I can imagine many Venetian pigeon moms disappointed when the eggs hatch.

Where to see Odd Birds

Find wildlife to watch in Europe