I'm having some birding withdrawal, but it's just too darned cold for me to want to go out and my camera batteries would just go on strike if I did. No, this is the type of weather where you stay in with a large cup of shade grown coffee and surf the net for birds.

Last night's Birds and Beers was a great time--I was amazed at the turn out despite the weather. For the Twin Cities Birds and Beers we seem to have a group of regulars and always a group of new people show up. The next Twin Cities one will be either February 21 or 28. I'm going to be in Essex, CT around Feb 16 & 17 if anyone has suggestions for a Birds and Beers there, please let me know.

When I came home last night, Non Birding Bill was watching his favorite game show called QI which is some sort of quiz show with Stephen Fry as host with a bunch of British comics as contestants. He asks hard questions and comedic answers ensue. Last night they were referencing the red-capped manakin familiar to many online birders as the Moonwalking Bird. I think most birding blogs have covered it already, however, if you've missed it, here it is:

Here is the reference that was on QI last night:

And as if those guys have you longing for the song A Night To Remember, some clever person on You Tube remixed it with that song:

I posted that mostly for NBB. And, here is the original snippet from Nature that brought the red-capped manakin to the tv viewing public. This researcher is actually talking about a couple of different species of manakins--and do watch it, some of the ways they make sounds are really quite interesting--plus you actually get to see the birding researcher attempt a moonwalk: