Birdchick Podcast #23 Gulf Oil Spill, Osprey Nest Removal & Ash Canyon B & B

Here are links to some of the topics we covered in today's podcast: News:

It's the one year anniversary of the Gulf Oil Spill. HBO Documentary Films presents the story of the effort to save the 895th surviving oiled pelican in Louisiana, showing how conservationists, government agencies and wildlife activists joined forces to preserve this one life.  An inspiring bird’s-eye view of the rigorous process of rescuing thousands of oiled birds, SAVING PELICAN 895 debuts Wednesday, April 20 (9:00-9:45 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO.

Also, Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a series of videos documenting the spill and the Mississippi River Delta--fantastic HD bird footage.

Marine contractor Jani Salonen and a member of the Audubon Society gathered three eggs from an osprey nest built atop his crane, and relocated the unhatched birds to a rescue center--without permission of US Fish and Wildlife.  Fine is being negotiated.

More on American Birding Associations Young Birder of the Year, Rachel Butek.

Birds under attack in Malta.  Would you be willing to go on one of the Spring Watches held by BirdLife International to document illegal hunting?  Or should Malta be boycotted?

Blogs:

Life, Birds and Everything on the Ash Canyon Bed and Breakfast--will birders lose this awesome hummingbird spot?

We Love Birds photo contest.

Events:

Junior Duck Stamp live today at 10 am eastern time!

Watch for live tweets at Birdchick this weekend from the Swarvoski team during the Great Texas Birding Classsic.


Birdchick Podcast #22 Osprey, Young Birder of the Year, Lake Superior Boat Cap'n

News 1960s Lake Superior boat (and birding) captain has crazy migration stories (must read story).

It's the American Birding Association Young Birder of the Year, Rachel Butek.

Mallard hen lays her eggs outside of a Chik-Fil-A.  Crazy duck or insanely clever camo? In other waterfowl nesting news, a deer protects a female Canada goose incubating eggs in a cemetery...no, I seriously did not make that up.

Franklin Institute Red-tailed Hawk nest (if you get tired of the Decorah Eagle Nest all 3 of those chicks hatched)

American Bird Conservancy commercial on wind farms using a video of a griffon vulture from Crete.

United States college student Edwin Rist charged for stealing rare bird skins from a museum and selling them for fly fishing lures.

Bald eagle tried to fly off with a toy poodle.  (If your pet is under 10 pounds, understand that it has a very important place on the food chain and if you don't want your pet to fill that place, take responsibility and watch it when it's outside).  An eagle getting a small dog or cat is rare, coyotes are a far bigger danger.

I got shade-grown coffee from a Roller Girl (Joan of Dark) in Indiana who runs Strange Brew.

Blog

David Sibley talks about the use of digital audio devices in the field.

White wagtail spotted in Michigan, this is a rare bird, an ABA Code 3 rarity!

Event

Horicon Marsh Bird Festival in Wisconsin--I'm going, are you?



Birdchick Podcast #21: Red-shouldered Hawks Running Amok

This will be the final podcast for this week, we're opening a show, The HMS Pacific Princess Boat at the Bryant Lake Bowl on Thursday and I have a feeling that any podcasting we would do after the performance would be torture to listen to. So, here's what we covered in this podcast:

NEWS

Red-shouldered hawks that attack people during nesting here and here.  What can you do?  I'm not sure, this tends to be an aggressive species.  Do you duck and cover or do you "remove the hawk?"

Ruby-throated hummingbirds are on the move, how close are they to you?

Are more ring-billed gulls hanging out at Wrigley Field than spectators?

Highlights of the 2011 Great Backyard Bird Count.

BLOG

B is for Buisness, Blogs and Birds (not 100% this isn't spam).

BIRDING EVENT

The Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds--Drew Wheelan is the Keynote!

You can follow me on Twitter or Facebook and if you have any questions or suggestions for the podcast, email me at sharon at birdchick dot com.

Non Birding Bill is on Twitter under @bstiteler...but he's really non birding, follow at your own risk.  He doesn't recommend it.




Birdchick Podcast #20: Pranks, Pelicans & Penguins

Non Birding Bill and I are going to experiment with a longer podcast this week.  We are opening a show that is a paroday of The Love Boat at the Bryant Lake Bowl this week and chances are good we will not be able to keep up with doing three shows this week.  Let us know if you would like this to be shorter and more often or once a week and longer. You can follow me on Twitter @Birdchick (ask me bird questions) and you can follow NBB @bstiteler (do NOT ask him bird questions).  You can always email me sharon at birdchick dot com or connect with me via Facebook here.

Non Birding Bill's great horned owl butt he took holding his iPhone up to my Swarovski ELs:

Screen shot 2011-04-03 at 7.03.06 PM
Screen shot 2011-04-03 at 7.03.06 PM

Speaking of Swarovski Optik, have you seen Pete Dunne's review of their new 10x50 and 12x50 ELs.  He loves 'em!

Bird Blogs:

In today's podcast, we talk about some of my favorite online birding pranks for April 1, 2011 as well as one of my all time favorite bird pranks--that still gets traffic today.

This year's top pranks:

I think Non Birding Bill will love this: Discount Bird Calls

American Birding Association Checklist Changes

Earth, Wind and Water Blog announces plans for ESPN8 to host American Birding Big Day tv show (I totally fell for this one)

Win a Free birding trip to Thailand with David Sibley and ABA President Jeff Gordon at 10,000 Birds

A prank I aided in pulling with another blogger who wishes to remain anonymous (but if you buy me a single malt scotch at a Birds and Beers, I'll gladly verbally out this person) about the "rediscovery" of a Carolina Parakeet.

Bird News:

This unfortunately is  not a prank.  An Arkansas Delta flight hit a flock of birds.  They were not identifiable according to the news article, but I think many birders can see from the photos (WARNING GRAPHIC) that they are American white pelicans based on the upper bill, yellow skin in front of the bill and black wing tips.

We mentioned the oil spill threatening rockhopper penguins on an island chain located halfway between Africa and Argentina in the podcast a couple of weeks ago and in more hopeful news, there are at least 5000 penguins that have been gathered for rescue. The death toll so far appears to be 300 penguins but it sounds like state officials and local volunteers are working as hard as they can to help this breeding colony.  Here's a great video of one of the first people on the scene...it's sad to note that the penguins are not the only ones affected by the spill.  If you want to help, send money to International Bird Rescue Research Center.

Dacorah Live Bald Eagle Cam gets so much traffic with chick hatching that it crashes the site.  Here are highlights of the hatching.  Early on  you can see the beaks "pipping" out of the eggs and by the end there's a floofy eaglet.  You can try and watch the live cam here...if it's not too overloaded with traffic.  It is nice to have on as background to your work day--it's excellent video quality and the sounds of surrounding birds is awesome.  Here's a screen shot from Sunday night and you can see quite the buffet: rabbit feet, crow and a fish:

Screen shot 2011-04-03 at 6.31.13 PM
Screen shot 2011-04-03 at 6.31.13 PM

Who knew bald eagles were fast enough to catch a crow?  Thanks to BosqueBill for pointing it out on Twitter.

Spring Migration is seriously on! Check out this animated RADAR from BadBirdz from Saturday night.  Get the latest updates here.  Did you see any new birds on Sunday or Monday?

Feathers are in the news twice:

Using chicken feathers as a basis for plastics?

Pigeons with darker feathers are healthier than pigeons with light feathers.

Upcoming Birding Event:

American Birding Association young birder camps.  One in Colorado and one in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas.  They seriously need to offer these to adults.

You can subscribe to the Birdchick podcast on iTunes

Birdchick Podcast #19

Hey!  It's Non Birding Bill's zombie video.  Warning: there are zombies, some parts may make the queasy unhappy: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81qIUuExQmQ[/youtube]

Petrels migrating long distance...leads to the question: if a radio tagged bird flies over your state and no one sees it but he telemetry says that it was there...does it count?

Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Big Day for Conservation!

Michigan wildlife rehabbers may not be able to treat injured non native/invasive/habitat destroying mute swans.

Charlie Moores is now at Birding Blogs!

Looking for fun birding times?  Check out the Acadia Birding Festival!  You'll get all the Pete Dunne and Kevin Karlson you can handle.  I haven't been to Maine since 2006, but here are some past blog entries.

You can subscribe to the Birdchick podcast on iTunes.

Why Podcasting?

If you haven't noticed...we started a podcast.  The response has been surprisingly positive as Non Birding Bill and I navigate our way through this, but we've had some questions and I want to address those: 1.  Why all the podcasting, is that all this blog is gonna be?

No, that is not all this blog is going to be.  The Internet is constantly changing. Blogging is not the same thing it was when I started in September of 2004. When I started, there were a handful of birding blogs and now there are a TON. The way people interact with blogs has changed and I've tried to alter my content to work with that, especially as Facebook and Twitter came into prominence. My goal has always been to get people interested in birds and I will experiment with any medium I can to do that.

2.  I'm not in to podcasting, will I miss something?

Maybe.  The podcast will focus mostly on news links and interesting blog entries.  Occasionally, we'll interview people.  It's designed for people who don't read blogs and is also supplement to mine. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, chances are good you'll have an idea of what's going on in the podcast.

3.  Ugh, who has time to listen to this 3 times a week?

I based this podcast on how I use them. I tend to listen to podcasts when I'm tidying my home, cooking or driving.  These are designed to be stand alone, you can listen to one here and there or if you subscribe you can listen to all of them each week.  You can get a look at the title and get an idea if it's one you're interested in.

4.  I wish you would do "blank" differently in the podcast.

Please tell me!  I don't listen to them after we record them, so if you have suggestions/recommendations email sharon at birdchick dot com.

5. Wow, I could do a birding podcast so much better!

Please do!  I started this because I couldn't find a birding/nature podcast that came out on a regular basis that I liked, I want one to listen to so I hope others start soon. Wouldn't it be great to have so many nature casters out there that it could warrant having it's own channel?