Birdchick Podcast #44

Did you guess the movie that we referenced in the podcast?  If you did, we're gonna send you something special! Fabulous article about a study conducted on pigeons and their use of a "flap run" rather than flying.  This energy saving practice could be the key to the evolution of flight.

Tourist injured in PNG.

Careful with your camera when you travel! Macaque steals camera and takes an epic self portrait.

Most terrifying nature camera ever?

The inaccurate article I referenced.

Here's Pigeon Disturbs Cat Nap.  It's a video making the rounds on the Internet and it actually shows a ringed turtledove singing to a cat that is trying to take a nap.  If you ask me, the dove is looking for a little lovin'.   Don't worry, the cat doesn't kill the dove.


Birdchick Podcast #43 Vulture Fail

Sorry about all the cockatiel noises in this one.  Kabuki was very put out about our absence over the weekend.  

Remember how the Germans were gonna use turkey vultures to seek out missing dead bodies...it's not working out so well.  Insert Sad Trombone.

Broken pipeline on the Yellowstone River pumping thousands of gallons of oil in Montana.

Male Swainson's hawk protecting nest is nailing bicyclists in Oregon.

Move over crows, pigeons can recognize faces too...

Swarovski has their Digiscoper of the Year contest open!

Birdchick Podcast #42 Gulls, Penguins and Birding Trails

Mist net study finds that trapping birds is not as fatal as some people thought. Birding sites for people with limited mobility.  Are there other states doing this?

Lost Emperor Penguin that ended up in New Zealand taken in for veterinary care.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIu5B3Fsstg[/youtube]

Gull steals camera in France and flies with it while it is recording.

Non Birding Bill's reference to an octopus that steals underwater camera:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5DyBkYKqnM[/youtube]



Birdchick Podcast #41 Endangered Birds Nest on US Fish Buidling

Wildbird Magazine redid their website and they have contests going on. Threatened roseate terns establish a nesting colony on the roof of a government building in Marathon used by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Study shows penguins are "afraid of the dark" or more realistically all the things that will eat them after dark.

Starlings giving the bird.  No wonder birders don't like them.

Sibley talks about the end of the warblers as we know it.  If you're a hardcore birder, you're freaked.  If you like your backyard birds this will be confusing and eye roll inducing.


Birdchick Podcast #39

Crazy rare birds showing up and making news:  a Cassin's sparrow is in Ohio and a willow ptarmigan is outside a nuclear power plant in Ontario. Lead poisoning is still killing reintroduced California Condors in the Grand Canyon.

This Friday is the first day to buy the new Duck Stamp for the year.  Purchasing stamps doesn't mean that you support hunting.  It means you are giving money and over 98% of the money from the stamp purchase goes to habitat acquisition for National Wildlife Refuges and they essentially get you access to any NWR without paying a fee.  It's not just ducks who benefit from this, several species of birds, plants and mammals benefit from this.  Just because hunters are forced to purchase one doesn't mean birders are making a good statement by not purchasing one.

It's a Dalek Squirrel Feeder.  Why can't we have one these in North America???

Some pelicans cleaned up from last year's BP Oil Spill are breeding this year.

eBird has updated their list entry system.  Are you submitting your bird observations to eBird?

Birdchick Podcast #38 Birdfeeding Ordinances & Showing Your Birdiness