Birdchick Blog
[Note from NBB: Fixed the echo on this one as well. Big thanks to Olga Nunes for her help.] The latest Birdchick Podcast is up! In this, Non Birding Bill and I discuss teenage songbird song, eBird, the BirdsEye App, the Big Year Movie and Cornell's upcoming Young Birder Event (which I get whiney about).
Here are links to topics we discussed:
You can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes.
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[Note from NBB: I've fixed the reverb problem and reuploaded the audio file. Thanks for bearing with us while we figure out the technical end of things.]
The latest Birdchick Podcast is up. Next one should be up on Monday.
Here are links to some of the stories discussed:
Starving eagles in Vancouver Island.
One of the oldest bald eagles according to banding records recovered in Alaska.
National Eagle Center SOAR with the Eagles Weekends.
Birdemic Shock and Awe Trailer
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There are times, like when I'm sitting in Mr. Neil's sauna trying to thaw out a frozen bucket of honey from our hives on a Friday afternoon, I think, "My life is different from other people's lives and such weird things come out of this."
One of them is the whole Geek A Week trading card. If you spoke to me when I was 12 or even 21 about what I thought I might accomplish, being a trading card in a deck that includes Weird Al Yankovic, Wil Wheaton and peeps from Mystery Science Theater 3000 was certainly not one of them, it's just been one of those nice surprises that life throws your way.
Len Peralta, the artist behind the project has had some great momentum build up on it in the last week--it's even on CNN today: the cards are going to be on sale through ThinkGeek (my one stop shop for gifts for Non Birding Bill for birthdays and holidays).
What's really cool is that Len, ThinkGeek and some of us who are cards have teamed up for a fundraiser. Many of us donated items to be auctioned by ThinkGeek for the charities, EFF and Child's Play (I really like this one, they give kids in hospitals games to play). Neil and I donated some comb honey that both of us autographed and Adam Savage donated some autographed pieces from the Mythbusters set. You can see the full list here.
So, bid on some items or buy a set of cards. Please buy the set, I love the idea of supporting a great artist like Len and he has lots of kids to feed. You can even hire him to draw you your own personal monster!
I get books sent to me all the time and the words, "innovative" and "revolutionary" and "amazing" get tossed around. The books are good, but rarely live up to the hype. Richard Crossley's new Crossley ID Guide to Eastern Birds is a guide lives up to those words. This book is going to be talked about A LOT. Some people are going to dislike this book (there are rumors of "well respected birders" refusing to review it). Some are going to love it. The bottom line is that Mr. Crossley took a huge chance and this is a book that has to be seen to be believed.
I've heard of this book coming down the pike for months. When I saw the first few pages, I thought, "Ahhhhhhhh, A.D.D. birding! Stop the insanity!" Here's why:
This book assaults you visually. The above is the page for the osprey--birds are everywhere, coming from every direction, looking in every direction--everywhere you look: osprey! Ahhhhhhhhhh! I think we are used the very orderly and tidy designs of Sibley and the National Geographic Guide that the Crossley Guide seems almost too intense. But I do like what he is trying to communicate here. He has a photo of the typical habitat that one might find an osprey in and then tries to show you every possible angle at which you could id the birds. It's almost as if this book is the "missing link" between illustrated guides and what I see the future being of video bird guides on smart phones.
It's as if the author went out of his way to make his guide as different as possible. He uses photos of birds in the beginning to show you the different parts of the bird, but rather than using "pretty shots" he goes for more realistic, like using a house finch with conjunctivitis (ew).Despite one really gross (yet realistic and accurate) photo, the photos of birds are very useful tools for showing anatomy.
Here are the pages for common yellowthroat and hooded warbler. On the one hand, I really like how he gives you suggestions for the type of habitat that you mind the birds. However, I could see young birders getting confused. For example, the habitat shown for yellowthroat is the type of habitat I would expect to find them if I were along the coast in Cape May, NJ but not the type of plants I find them lurking in if I were birding in Minnesota. Also, since each bird is in sort of a flock photo, will a new birder think that this is how you find the birds in the wild, are they always in flocks?
I do really like this book, it's interactive, it challenges you to think of birds in their habitat and it gives you so many ways to prep for how you might observe the birds in the wild. Many of the pages can serve as a quiz to help you age and sex each species. For newer birders, I would say to remember that the habitats are just suggestions...you're not always going to see a northern goshawk just when there's a rainbow.
I think this book is best used for study before going out in the field--and that's another thing, this book will most likely not travel with you out in the field. According to my kitchen scale, it's three and a half pounds--three quarters of a pound heavier than Sibley and this guide is only for the eastern region of the US--not a complete North American guide. Unless you are trying to burn some serious calories out in the field, leave it at home.
One thing that might drive a new birder crazy is the use of 4 letter banding codes to describe the birds. Each photo takes up so much space on the page, the text is minimal. Those familiar with bird banding would easily understand that in describing the finer points of ID for the alder flycatcher: "In many respects, intermediate between LEFL and WIFL. Larger than LEFL with longer and broader tail."
If you know the banding codes, that sentence makes sense. If you don't, figuring that info out might be tedious (but in the long run worth it).
This book is definitely worth having your bookshelf.
Word is that Crossley will be working on a western version and a British version too. Oh and speaking of which, I did see on the bird jobs listerv that he's looking for an assistant, so if you'd like to work for this author and help:
CROSSLEY BOOKS has a unique employment opportunity, in Cape May, NJ for a highly motivated individual in a very fast-paced environment. We are presently working on a series of innovative bird books with the first, The Crossley ID Guide being released in Feb 2011. We are looking for a hard working and creative individual. The most important aspect of the position will be to help the author create and edit texts for these books and other publications. This will involve working closely with the author but also requires self-motivation and independent duties. Excellent writing skills are essential along with creativity. Other tasks will be varied and wide-ranging. Duties may include dictation, answering e-mails, Facebook, Twitter, media contacts and all other office support. This is a full-time position, starting immediately. Good knowledge of birds is a big advantage. All resumes and inquiries can be forwarded directly to our email address: (EM: thebrit1 AT verizon.net)
The Great Backyard Bird Count was over the weekend and normally for bird county things I like to do it at Mr. Neil's because he gets better birds at his home than I do. But I never cease to be amazed at what I can attract with some sensible bird feeding choices out of my very urban apartment.
My first day on the count wasn't all that. Oh sure, I had these lovely house finches, but I didn't see any of the hoped for winter birds for my hood like robins, Cooper's hawks or chickadees--not that I don't appreciate that pretty pink of male house finches (I love you boys, really I do).
I was starting to think that all I was going to get on my Wingscapes Camera and on the count were non native species like the above starlings until that blue jay photobombed them. Even the house finches are somewhat non native (western species introduced to New York in the 1940s and they gradually worked their way east). But then, Saturday morning I noticed that my news alerts were saying my town was under a Winter Storm Warning.
And snow hit like crazy on Sunday. I had to laugh when I was filling out the form on the Great Backyard Bird Count site. You had to fill in out much snow you had. I was trying to calculate what we had because we had 61 inches on the ground, but last week we hit 45 degrees and some melted. Fortunately, the highest total was 24 inches or above. Even with the melt, we had at least 30 inches. Then 12 more fell on Sunday.
This is from one of the beaches off of Lake Calhoun...where's the horizon??? The frozen lake and the sky were the same color! It was a bleak horizon on Sunday. Fortunately, that changed the game for how many birds that came to my apartment window.
The chickadees and downy woodpeckers came back in spades. They had to fight their way through some pigeons and starlings, but these hard urban residents were able to hold their own.
Everybody was digging the peanut suet. I have some in a suet log that's outside of the view of the camera, but I slathered some on the wall and sprinkled a few chunks on my window ledge. In the above photo, the female cardinal has a huge chunk of suet in her beak and the white-breasted nuthatch was working on the patch of suet I stuck to the wall.
I had to chuckle at some of the photos the Wingscapes camera picked up. This house finch was trying to beat the starlings to the last remnants of the suet on the wall. I didn't even know they would go for suet.
All in all, we had 14 species show up which isn't bad for how urban an area our apartment is located in.
And now that the count is over, I have to figure out how to deal with another 15 inches of snow dealt to us (no doubt by some vengeance seeking groundhog). I keep reminding myself that this time next month, I may find myself sitting in a cool field of freshly melted snow listening for the "peent" of displaying woodcocks.
Here's the lastest podcast with me and Non Birding Bill. Download the podcast here.
Here are links to some of things mentioned:
Lang Elliot's Snapping Turtle Song
David Sibley on how to tell apart Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers
Richard Crossley Guide to birds (there will be an expanded blog entry about this later this week)
Around the holidays, I finally downloaded Angry Birds. Many of my non birding friends had been telling me that I needed the game for my iTouch but I resisted. Quite frankly, I really don't need another sedentary hobby and I know how I am with "simple games." Where Non Birding Bill will get caught up in more complex games like Civilization, I get easily hooked into solitaire, cryptograms and what would life be without Fruit Ninja?
But Angry Birds was sweeping that nation and as a die hard birder how could I not test it out? I waited until I didn't have hard deadlines and started playing it. The premise is that green pigs have stolen the birds' eggs and the birds launch an all out attack to annihilate the pigs. In turn, the pigs build elaborate forts and put on armor to guard against the furious birds hell bent on destruction. Kind of based in reality...wild boars would eat bird eggs if they found them...but I don't see any wild birds with the ability to explode and take down a fort of glass, rock and wood. You use a slingshot to launch the birds at the pigs and different birds have different abilities. Physics actually plays a part in the game as to how you launch the birds.
If you are wondering why I'm explaining the game, I asked how many people played Angry Birds at a Birds and Beers and was greeted with blank stares from the entire crowd. Not many birders play or are aware of it.
As I played the game, I tried to identify the birds. I wondered...what real birds are the Angry Birds based on? Here' my opinion, how does it compare with your thoughts on the id of the Angry Birds? Some are easy:
The Red Angry Bird is a Northern Cardinal--that's a total no brainer and makes sense. Having had more than one cardinal in my hand, that hard beak is no lie. They are truly angry birds and capable of nasty bites.
The Yellow Angry Bird is an American Goldfinch. In the game, it's special ability is to have sudden short bursts of speed. This would be something more suited to a Cooper's Hawk or Sharp-shinned Hawk but that's not as funny as tiny cute bird being angry and taking out big green pigs.
The Blue Angry Bird (that morphs into a flock of three birds when tapped) has been vexing me. It's tiny and all blue, so that makes me think Indigo Bunting...but that's the wrong shade of blue. Could it be a Mountain Bluebird? Or do we need to look at birds outside of North America and could it be an African Blue Flycatcher? It does have a slight crest and that is about the same color of blue. This bird's special ability is to break out into three birds when you tap the screen after launching it.
This is the Egg Dropping bird. I think it's an artistic version of your average chicken, right down to the little orange patches on the cheek. Note on the above real life chicken that the skin around the eye is yellow. I will say that its face does remind me of a goose, but I think its body is more egg shaped because it drops egg. I feel comfortable calling this chicken.
I think the Black Angry bird that explodes is based on a myna bird, most specifically, the Crested Myna. Look at the color scheme between the two. The Angry Birds version is more stylized but you can see the the little crest and the red and yellow. I think there might be some elements of the Common Hill Myna in there too. And that's a family of birds that always kind of looks angry anyway. Good thing the real life ones do not explode, it would make keeping them as pets incredibly dangerous.
The Green Angry Bird which acts like a boomerang in the game has got to be Emerald Toucanet, a bird that I've seen in Panama and Guatemala. Although, I didn't see actually do anything remotely boomerang like. But compared to the other birds in the game, it's smaller--like the toucanet and has a giant schnoz...or beak.
And then there is the Mighty Eagle, which you never fully see but enough hints are dropped that has to be a Bald Eagle. Number one, you can see that the head is white. But the real key is that you never fling this bird--you fling a tin of sardines and the eagle casts a shadow and bounces in for the tin annihilating every pig in sight in the process. Bald Eagles are capable of hunting but are just as content to eat carrion and dead fish--this so has to be a Bald Eagle. It is hands down my favorite Angry Birds character...even if you do have to pay extra to get it.
So those are my thoughts of the Angry Birds...how about you? Do you agree with the id? Incidentally, I linked to a trailer earlier for the movie Rio. Word from the producers is that an Angry Birds version of the birds in the movie will be coming so you can fling Spix Macaws, Red-crested Cardinals, Canaries and perhaps a Keel-billed Toucan. What really cool is that the game touches on the issue of illegal trapping for the pet bird trade. More awareness of that cannot be a bad thing.
This is Bill, testing out a new bit of podcasting software. The file is an old one, but we'll be creating new ones soon.
