foxfeather

Keep those feeders clean! How to help keep your backyard birds healthy.

 (CC Photo By Sharon Mollerus)

**Warning** This post contains some medical images of live birds with with avian pox, disfiguring boils on their bodies, so please take care in continuing to read if this sort of imagery will upset you. 

You feed the birds ...

Farewell and Fair Winds, Ruby

I released my hunting partner, Ruby, this weekend. 

I took Ruby, the red-tailed hawk, to a lovely, heavily wooded area some distance from where we live. The trees were blossoming with new, budding leaves and a warm breeze was in the air, heralding the arrival of spring. Ruby waited patiently while I removed her equipment (the leather anklets, bells, and federal ID band on her legs) as she sat on my gloved hand. I lifted my fist to the sky and she paused, waiting....

Stream-mu update and Feel Good Linkapalooza!

I have moved the emu stream over to Twitch which can be found now at : https://www.twitch.tv/thefoxloft 

I am trying to learn this new system and hope to offer some fun streams there! I have a few ideas for Patron-only streams I can schedule and offer for you as well. 

Since my talks and classes were cancelled for the next few months I’m working on some scripts for sh...

Emu egg hatching livestream!

Current: https://twitter.com/foxfeather/status/1242197854879432704 

 Archives: https://twitter.com/foxfeather/status/1241405041623302144 

3/20/2020 Part 2: (watch the 3rd egg hatch at about 1h:30

  2020-03-20 17:25:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Emu Eggs Part 2: The Hatching Process

A quick note: the science of egg development and hatching is extremely complex, and can vary quite a bit between the over 10,000 species of birds. I am simplifying many things to the basics, here, and the information is specific to emus – which hatch mechanically differently than many other birds. For instance, many birds have an ‘egg tooth’ (a sharp, horny growth on the beak that falls off soon after hatching) with which they ‘unzip’ or score a cut in the egg, th...

Do Honeybees Harm Native Bees?

Early in my beekeeping adventure, I saw a lot of alarming articles and opinions that honeybees are harmful to native bees; that they were dangerous competitors and love for honeybees was shifting focus away from actual bee conservation efforts. As someone with a deep passion for the natural world, I had great concerns about this; I didn’t want to be adding to an environtmental problem by hosting honeybees.

2020-03-11 22:12:03 +0000 UTC View Post

"Anyone Can Learn This" - The Romanticizing or Dismissal of Farming

It makes me sad to see so many people lately expressing opinions that farming is for stupid people – that folks with any intelligence give up this simple, mindless, manual labor and move to the city for better, smarter opportunities. A presidential hopeful just said “I could teach anybody to be a farmer. It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn.”

This general attitude goes even deeper with the common ...

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Emu Eggs!

These beautiful, deep emerald green eggs weren't laid by a dragon, but by an emu! I find people are often surprised at their size and rich color, and ask a lot of questions about them; especially how they taste and how they are incubated, so I thought I'd delve into this topic here on Patreon. 

Emus are the second largest living bird (beaten only by the ostrich) and their eggs are correspo...

The Scoop about Poop: Everything you ever wanted to know about Bird Poop (and then some)

I get asked quite constantly about if the birds in my house, like Sev and Stormfly, are bathroom trained, and how I keep them from pooping on everything. I figured, with the frequency of this question, that it was about time for a down and dirty post about bird poop.

TLDR: Birds can be bathroom trained! With some caveats and complications

Birds poop, a lot. If you have birds, you are familiar with the fact it feels like a constant. From an evolu...

Feed the Birds

I get asked a lot what Sev the vulture eats, and as your patronage here helps me feed my flock (and rehab wildlife patients), I thought I'd answer some questions about what everyone here eats! 

Question #1 - Does your vulture prefer rotten meat? Do you have to leave it out for a week for him to be interested in it?

This is a common, understandable question. Vultures actually prefer fresh food!  Both yellow-headed vul...

International Vulture Day Excitement! T-shirts, art, and more!

Amazing art by the fantastically talented Anastasia 'Balaa' Korochansckaja! 

With the help of Balaa who created this adorable design,  I am offering special 'Best Baby' vulture t-shirts in honor of International Vulture Awareness Day, September 7th!

2019-09-02 21:01:28 +0000 UTC View Post

Why is there a vulture in your house?

The pitter-patter of tiny feet in our house means something different than it does for most people; the baby vulture is on the loose, looking for adventure.  I get asked a lot “Why do you have this bird?  What species is it?  Why are you imprinting it instead of raising it for release?”

Sev, (short for Severus Snape) is a yellow-headed vulture, a species native to Mexico, Central, and South America. They are not found wild in the U.S., or Minnesota where I ...

What it takes to be a Wildlife Rehabilitator - Part 1

     When I was in college, I volunteered for the Minnesota wildlife rehab center. Back then it was a shabby condemned-for-normal-use building on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. There were places where the exterior bricks had crumbled so badly a thin board was all that kept you from being able to stick your head outside.  You had to wait when you first turned on lights in the food prep room because the roaches were so thick, watching a blanket...

Feathers and Bone: The Migratory Bird Treaty Act

(Pictured above: left to right: legal non-native and domestic bird feathers (macaw and turkey), a replica barred owl skull, naturally shed red-tailed hawk feathers kept under my falconry permit for use in feather repair)

 This weekend I was asked to give a presentation about the Migratory Bird Treaty Act - the law behind why it's illegal (without special permit) to keep most native birds as pets, or own their feathers, nests, or eggs. Lots of people, including the group of environm...

Getting back to my roots

"We only conserve what we love,

    we only love what we understand,

    we only understand what we know,

    we only know what we are taught."

                                          &nbs...

All the Colors of the Yak Rainbow

One of the most fun things about traveling to Tibet, from a yak-keeper's perspective, was seeing the wide range of yak colors, many of which are not available in the U.S.A. The yak's history in North America started in the early 1900s when a few zoo animals were sold from Canada, and there has been little to no importation for the past 100 years (live animals and semen are currently banned from trade), so the North American population comes from relatively few animals (estimated to be between...

Special Offer for Patrons - Kickstarter Exclusive Goodies!

I'm excited to announce a big project years in the making - a sequel to our first art and travel book, Creative Sojourn! 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/foxfeather/creative-sojourn-volume-2-artists-journey-to-wild

For any of my patrons who are backing this project, please send me a message (here or through Kickstarter) and let me know...

The Wisdom of Birds

One of the critters I'm owned by is a parrot, an African Grey named Vegas.  She's named Vegas because she's 'lucky to be alive'; she came into the world with a very difficult start. 

Vegas is almost 30 years old now, but the night she hatched there was a bad thunderstorm. Her parents, new to parenthood, attacked their babies in fear of the storm, killing her siblings and gravely injur...

Emu Sumi Art and DNA gender sexing

Hi everyone!

      Thanks to my awesome patrons, I was able to order a DNA test to see if our emus are he-mus or she-mus,  I should know soon!  I would like to breed them eventually, so this will let me know if I need to order a few more eggs soon or not. Emus breed over the (US) winter time, so eggs are available now until about March. I would incubate them in the house again and have a few new babies. If I do have a pair, I would wait until they eventu...

June Update - What's on the drawing board?

Hi everyone!

    Thanks for putting up with me in this time of transition - I've finally got my studio reorganized and sculpting area set up again, so I'm devoting regular time to drawing/painting/sculpture once again (in between farm chores).

    I was lucky enough to bring home some amazing art supplies from China, including new inks I am very excited to try out.  My friend (and extremely talented artist!) Vantid sent me some sketches to paint an...

Thank you to all my patrons!!

Greetings!

*Please message me with your mailing address, I would like to send you a thank you card for your support and sticking with me through a big (good) upheaval in my life.*

    I want to say an extra special thank you and give you my heartfelt gratitude for sticking with me - this past year has been an especially crazy one for me. I moved, started a farm (adding Tibetan yak, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys to it), spent three weeks ...

May Pendant Raffle Winner!

Congratulations to Valerie Occulta who has won the free pendant drawing for May Patrons! Contact me to pick out your new pendant. :) The next drawing will be held at the end of the month for all of June's patrons! Thank you again so much for your support!