Birding Is Not A Crime (unless done naked...in certain areas)

Birding is Not a Crime blog has been keeping close tabs on our Florida gent, so check out what he has to say regarding our latest self proclaimed ivory-bill expert. Word on the street though, is that some birders are going to check the area. I just hope they find an ivory-bill and not a decoy.

My mother, my dear, sweet, wacky mother sent me a card. People wonder where I get my sense of humor and other wackiness, it is pretty much from her. As a matter of fact, I am down right tame compared to my mother. Non Birding Bill once referred to her as Sharon Squared. To get an idea, I'm posting a card she sent. Here is the cover:

Here is the inside note:

And here's Cinnamon's disapproval:

The sweet thing is that my mother is praying for me, in her own Christian Science way (and that's Christian Science, not to be confused with Scientology--I don't think Tom Cruise or John Travolta combined are prepared to handle my mother). The card truly did sum up our relationship. Good one, mom, and thanks for the prayers and for makin' me smile!

I got an email from a BirdForum reader about the Florida gent who claims to have an ivory-bill photo:

Sharon, the latest pic (and the first) from the Florida fellow have been discussed on a BirdForum thread and pretty well concluded to be fake (unless he can provide further details/explanation to the contrary); just a few of the points made:
1. white wing patch is too large and wrong shape for a real bird
2. pose or posture is very odd and sitting in a citrus tree, also odd
3. tail is not braced against branch as normal for a woodpecker
4. bill possibly too thin
5. possibly a building visible on left side of photo (with magnifying glass) beyond foliage
6. the guy's whole website and writing style is quite peculiar, and filled with advertising; even the url containing the phrase "Bill is mad" is a bit odd.
So far he hasn't responded to any of the points on BirdForum, where some sleuthing about his possible background was also put forth.

always possible the guy is on to something and just has a very odd way of communicating... but, so far doesn't seem likely.

In other news, ABC got this scoop:

Bird Waching is Popular (Birdchick says: DUH!)

By DAVE CARPENTER

CHICAGO, Jan. 31, 2006 — Entrepreneur Vernon LaVia spends $15,000 a year on birding trips and can reel off all the diseases and misadventures he's had pursuing his favorite pastime in 33 countries.

Group benefits salesman Todd Birutis' idea of a good time: Hanging out on a frozen beach in Lithuania all day for the chance of a new ornithological sight.

Financial reporter Christine Williamson has a not-so-hidden agenda when she travels to meet with money managers: grilling them for information on local bird sightings so she can add to her "life list."

What the three baby boomers have in common is an expensive passion for birds shared by countless others with the wherewithal to pursue it from Antarctica to Zimbabwe. While the cost of chasing birds to the far corners of the earth is high, virtually everyone afflicted with this obsession says the rewards — beauty, mystery, awe and longer lists — are well worth it.

"They [birds] are so totally cool," said the 46-year-old Williamson, who, like the other two, lives in Chicago when she's not off on international birding expeditions.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Ivory-bill Photo Claim

I posted a while ago about a gent in Florida who had claimed to see an ivory-bill. He had a teeny tiny photo posted which wasn't convincing at all and got weird and defensive when asked to enlarge the photo. Well, he has a new photo that has birders all over buzzing about "is this the real deal" or a decoy. Check the site out and and see for yourself. He's kind of a fish expert, now ivory-bill searcher.

When he had the first photo up that was too tiny to determine if it was an ivory-bill or pileated, I requested to see a larger version. Something that was at least bigger than a postage stamp. I got a long response, here is an excerpt:

"I posted the picture on my site as an experiment
really, and my conclusion is what I predicted. Most
people are more interested in dissecting information
to see if it is real or not,,rather than utilizing the
information that is available to go out and find the
bird for themselves.

I have put in many laborous weeks and months searching
for these birds.

It has been my contention that they are not extinct,
and that if laypeople would simply not be ignored then
you can go out and find them.

They are just birds,,the woods are big, you must spend
ALOT of time in the woods to find them, and the people
who sit at home on the computer will never find them.

I have recieved hundreds of e-mails and many are just
simply ignorant, many just want me to give locations
away, they do not want to work to find them.

The birds have been doing fine without interference
from people, and having university scientists putting
search teams in their habitat during nesting cannot be
good for the birds."

That part sounded all well and good. Then I got little suspicious about the overall intention of the website with the end of the email:

"I will be releasing a book soon that will be alot more
detailed, but I suspect it will be met with as much
skepticism and arrogance as every report has been met
with since the 1940's.

Be patient and I expect by this time next year there
will be no more reason to "dissect" pictures and most
of the "mysticism" surrounding this bird will be gone."

So, personally I am torn. Is this someone with a legitimate photo? Is this someone just seeking attention and doing some early book promotion? When the website first went up, I was sent an anonymous announcement asking me to check it out. Within 24 hours of the email I received, I noticed that a couple of other bird blogs were mentioning the site, which tells me that someone was sending out emails to get PR for this site. It's entirely possible that there could be ivory-bills in Florida, but can this photo be trusted? I don't know.

I also take issue with the assertion that "lay people" not being taken seriously. Lay people are taken seriously all the time in the birding world! It's one of the sciences where contributions from the general public are welcomed and taken seriously. I think it's one of the reasons why so many people get involved. I'm a prime example--I'm not an ornithologist, I do not have a doctorate in ornithology (my doctor today called me and ornithophile--I think that fits). I do have a degree--in theatre (explains a lot doesn't it). But I have a bird book library that would rival several nature centers and some small colleges and I spend a lot time out in the field with various researchers and engage an as many banding projects as I can. Arthur Cleveland Bent, is another great example, he compiled one of the earliest and most thorough collection of life histories of North American birds, that is stiff referenced today. It's not a matter of being a lay person, it's being able to talk the talk as well as walk the walk, if you can justify an observation based on personal experience in the field or by citing reliable sources (I mean books, not just blogs) then you will be taken seriously in the birding community.

Something in my gut is telling me that this photo is not legit--oh how I wish it was, but I think are chances are better in Arkansas.

Maybe Jeff Bouton of Leica who lives down in Florida will do some searching for us. What do you say, Pretty Boy?

Who wants to collect blackbird poop for sperm?

"You want to collect my WHAT for who?!!!?"

Once again an interesting request, this time from Stefan Luepold has shown up on Cornell's Bird Job Email:

REQUEST FOR SPERM SAMPLES FROM ICTERIDS--I plan to collect a large number of sperm samples from birds to study whether differences in mating systems and other ecological factors can explain the diversity in sperm size and shape we find across different species. The icterids (meadowlarks, grackles, orioles, cowbirds, blackbirds, bobolinks, etc.) form an ideal group of birds for this study because mating systems vary considerably even between closely related species, indicating different selection pressures on different species. I am now looking for bird banders or researchers who are handling birds during this breeding season and are willing to collect samples from different icterid species. During the breeding season male birds produce sperm almost continuously and some of these sperm pass into the birds’ cloaca and are excreted with the feces. Collecting these feces is an easy and harmless technique for obtaining sperm from wild birds. If you are interested, please contact Stefan Luepold (s.luepold@sheffield.ac.uk) for more details on the project and instructions for the collection of fecal samples. I will be happy to provide the material needed to collect and preserve the samples.

I Got Bent!

Here's one of the female education peregrines at TRC. When I finished the program and took her out back, I accidentally passed by our male education peregrine's mew. As soon as he saw the female, he bent low and started his squeaky "per-chup call" as a way of flirting. The female on my fist bent low and spead her wings to join in on the mating ritual too. We're not set up for breeding at TRC so the birds never "get together", plus the situation is so unpredictable. Our male peregrine looks to me to be half the size of our females and I wonder if he were put in with one of them, if they just would try to eat him instead.

While I was talking about birds of prey, Non Birding Bill found a couple of volumes of Bent that I am missing for my collection, so I give you this entry from Life Histories of North American Jays, Crows and Titmice Part Two with an observation of an enemy of the chestnut-backed chickadee (as if a chickadee could have an enemy!):

"...according to Mr. Bowles (1909), another unusual enemy, which "is no other than the common black-and-yellow bumble bee. This insect has a veritable mania for living in holes in trees, and a chickadee nest appears to be the acme of its desires."

Why don't we see that in Valentine's cards: "Oh, baby, you are the acme of my desires."

Speaking of enemies, Cinnamon has taken to a violent disapproval of my motion sensitive blue jay. I got it for our cockatiel Kabuki, as blue jays seem to set her off to singing, but it freaked her out (I think it was the unnatural mechanical movement). The blue jay migrated to various places around the apartment to where it was currently sitting on our window near Cinnamon's new cardboard cottage. She has taken to using the box as a mean of access to the window frame and swiped the blue jay and took it down to her little fortress of solitude and started chewing and flipping it around. Not sure what that was about, but took it away before she hurt herself tearing apart the mechanics.

I had an odd moment yesterday. I planned on some light birding before the rain hit and Non Birding Bill asked if he could come with me. I paused and looked at him. "Why?" I asked. He simply said that he just wanted to spend time with me. I studied him for another minute and asked, "Wait, are you just using me as an excuse to go birding and you don't want people to know?" He denied this and came along. We didn't see the target birds I was going for but did see an eagle, several red-tailed hawks pairing up and one of his favorites: mallards. Regardless of the birds, it was fun to spend time driving around Dakota County with him.

A Sign I Talk Too Much About Birds?

I gave a program at The Raptor Center today and realized that I forgot to bring out one of the birds when I finished the program. I said, "Oh no, I forgot to bring out and talk about the barred owl!" An older gentleman came up with a serious look and said, "Don't worry, it was enough."

A Morning at Hyland Park

Something I never noticed before until today: there is a difference between the red on the back of a male hairy woodpecker vs the back of a male downy woodpecker. Can you tell from looking at the red on the two photos below, which one is a downy and which on is a hairy?

The answer will be at the end of this blog entry.

When I used to have a job with regular business hours, I always thought of all the things I would do if I ever had the opportunity to have a job where I could set my own hours. For some reason, I always thought that I would have unlimited time to go birding. It's not that easy.

Since I work from home now, I feel I have to really put my nose to the grindstone and hole myself up in the apartment. My first two weeks were a rough transition. I thought that I would have no problem working in my new dress code of pajamas--that was a failure and led to me paying more attention to reruns of ER and other tv shows I'm afraid to admit to (okay, I'll admit to one: I'm a sucker for Little House on the Prairie--what can I say, I love Dean Butler, sue me). After that I decided that if I was going to actually work from home, I would need to get dressed for work and put on clothes. The real topper that makes sure that I feel like I'm working is to always wear shoes around the home--that really feels like you mean business.

I remember once being at Hyland Park with a friend thinking how cool it would be to have a laptop and set up in one of their rooms for watching their bird feeders and write all day long
I remember thinking, "Wouldn't that just be the best job ever?" Alas, I have not done that, since I started my new job. So, today I thought I would give it a try. I really didn't get much writing accomplished because of the lack of internet (boy if nature centers ever offer wireless internet, I will be the happiest girl in the world). But I think I might actually hole myself up at Hyland Park on days when I need to get some serious writing accomplished without the distraction of the internet--Don't get me wrong, I love the internet and find it a valuable tool for work, but it can easily be a distraction--like an interactive television.

When I arrived at Hyland, there was a group of volunteers conducting a Project Feeder Watch count for the nature center. I tried my hand at some digiscoping. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the steady feeder activity at a nature center's feeding station: the steady stream of chickadees, the surprise and awe of a pileated woodpecker, the unexpected surprises like a hermit thrush or a white-throated sparrow skulking about the winter feeders. I really, really love the rush hour at a feeding station. As I was photographing the birds with my camera and scope I noticed that hairy woodpeckers have a different pattern of red than the downy woodpeckers. This may have been an obvious field mark to many birders, but since I could always tell downy and hairy apart by bill size and overall woodpecker body size, I had never really paid attention to tall the field marks. It was certainly a lesson and a reminder that sometimes the little things really do make a difference.

Photo on the top: Downy Woodpecker
Photo on the bottom: Hairy Woodpecker

Minor Apartment Gardening

Today was an odd day--in the 40 degree range in January in Minnesota. These are typically days that you get in March that make you want to run out and buy every plant imaginable for your garden. I however, kept things sensible and purchased a "watch 'em grow" daffodil-crocus-tulip-hyacinth basket and a few other odds and ends plants--one being a pitcher plant (pictured left). Periodically, we get little gnats or fruit flies in the aparatment and this pitcher plant is supposed to be a natural and safe solution. We'll see, I hope I don't kill it before it can work it's magic. Well, it was only $10 and it was worth the price to see Non Birding Bill's face when he saw it. I was warned by the nursery staff that I need to make sure to put a little water inside the pitchers to make sure they do not dry up. I'll let you know my progress. For those interested in where I got this odd little beauty, it was at Bachman's in Minneapolis.

I also started a little something that I picked up at Bird Watch America. There was a woman selling these little bags full of what looked like clay balls (that's one of the balls pictured to the right). They are actually full of seeds held together with guano. You place the balls in your containers and they grow into bunches of wild flowers. The company makes different varieties, but I picked up the package labeled for hummingbirds and butterflies. I only started one ball today, but when spring gets underway, I'm going to start my window baskets with some of the balls to see if I can attract any butterflies. These balls are pretty nifty and I'm sure they will be showing up in bird stores or as impulse items at nurseries fairly soon.

Pelletpalooza

Yesterday I got an email from the glycol manager at the Minneapolis/St Paul Airport asking if I knew anyone that might be interested in snowy owl pellets. ME! I went over as soon as I could and collected the four fat beauties. These guys have some heft to them and they're about as long as my iPod. I used them as bribery to arrange lunch with a friend I haven't seen for awhile. I wrote, "I have snowy owl pellets, how can you say no to lunch with me now?"

After we dissect them and id what is inside, they will either go to The Raptor Center or the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union collection. They're like little unopened presents in my fridge right now, I can barely stay away form them.