Birdchick Podcast #164: More Owl Controversies!

Mya Rose Craig is an 11 year old lister...she's already hit 3000 and has optics sponsorship. Now that is what I call an upper echelon birder. Because, you know, birders don't have enough to argue about, here's a totally unexpected development. It's legal in Wisconsin to trip snowy owls for falconry...and some guy did. Boom! I wrote up my thoughts about it over at 10000 Birds.

There's a cool contest over at Birds & Blooms for a free trip to the Biggest Week in Birding.

Audubon President David Yarnold on the Colbert Report to talk about culling barred owls in favor of endangered spotted owls.

Interesting behavior documented by Corey Finger of what appears to be a lesbian pairing of Nanday parakeets.

In some excellent news, the wind turbine project on Lake Erie has been halted. There are good places for wind farms but a major migratory corridor like that one isn't one of them.

Dudes, it's an albatross live web cam in Hawaii--perfect escape from this long hard, Winterfell like winter.

ABA announces this year's award winners and my friend Laura Erickson is one of them!

Hey, did you see that we are doing another contest on the blog in the form of a web series? Check out this trailer--you might win a Swarovski Spotting Scope this spring!!

 

Birdchick.com & Swarovski Optik North America have teamed up to make web series with birding and photography tips. What's unique about this web series is that it is also a puzzle. The birds in each episode are a clue to the theme of the series.


Birdchick Podcast #96: Snowy Owls Harrassed by Humans & Peregrine Falcons

Warning, this podcast has a joke that's a little blue.  If you listen with kids you may have to explain some metaphors/similes of human anatomy.  I blogged earlier that there's an interesting trend this winter of birders taking photos and videos of people ignoring signgs and getting way too close to snowy owls this winter and posting them online.  Is this the best way to police ourselves?

Speaking of getting too close too close to snowy owls, NA Birding has an AMAZEBALLS blog post about a peregrine falcon and snowy owl encounter. If you do nothing else today, go to that blog, read it and be wowed by the great photos.  One of the photos is begging to be part of the meme Come At Me, Bro.

Come At Me Bro
Come At Me Bro

And since we're showing photos, here's one everyone sent me last week:

Screen shot 2012-02-12 at 6.06.05 PM
Screen shot 2012-02-12 at 6.06.05 PM

Oh and for those who wondered what happened to the Hey Girl I made for American Birding Association president, it was taken down for being to racy so I'll post it here.

Hey Girl Birding
Hey Girl Birding

And finally, The Birdest doesn't want any of these emails to show up on his birding listserve...because it's too hard to hit a delete key.

Birdchick Podcast #81 Snowy Owls!

Snowy owls are in the news!  They are everywhere.  Here's a link to my Google News with "snowy owl" typed in!  Some of the most interesting stories:  over 100 snowies are reported to be in Wisconsin! And of course the obligatory "a snowy owl killed my dog." Wondering how to find a snowy owl near you?  Try typing in your state's name and the words "bird listserv" to see if there are reports in your area or check out the handy dandy map that eBird has set up based on user reports.

Check in with us on Wednesday...we're going to have a really cool bird contest courtesy of Larkwire!

Also, have you ever considered signing up for a Christmas Bird Count?  If not you should, find one near you!