Birdchick Podcast #75: Micro Brew Seed, Bird Researcher Convicted In Poisoning Cats

This is a real shame.  I had hoped that this story was false but it appears that Nico Dauphiné, former researcher at the Smithsonian National Zoo's Migratory Bird Center has been found guilty of misdemeanor attempted cruelty to animals for sprinkling poison atop cat food intended for feral cats living in Washington, D.C.  This does nothing to reach some sort of reasonable understanding with the misguided yet well intentioned cat lobbyists. Non native cats living in feral colonies is habitat destruction by humans.  Cats living in the environment are the same as birds hitting windows or someone bulldozing nesting and feeding habitat.

There's a reward for creating Bird Friendly Glass!

Paraglider ran into a griffon vulture (ignore how the "news" calls it an eagle, it totally is NOT).  Both survive!

Micro batch bird seed.  You can even create your own.  But the really interesting thing is that they are outing pesticide companies who carry seed for wild birds.

Dude creates a website to track road kill in California and Maine.  I so want to do this with my smart phone!  Here's a link to Wildlife Crossing.


Birdchick Podcast #74: Bird Grammar, Duck Stamp Winner

Texas couple ignore warnings to evacuate their home during wildfires and feed hundreds of hummingbirds. Birding the Net, the Audubon-sponsored campaign that has thousands of people scouring the Internet for birds, is benefitting from the largesse of more than 100 websites — including AOL, Slate, and Discovery Channel — that have donated a combined $700,000 in prime ad space for the imaginative and engaging project.

500 birds died at West Virgina wind farm.  Jim McCormac says they were mostly blackpoll warblers.

Fascinating story from Audubon about a wood thrush banded in Nicaragua that was found dead in Pennsylvania.

There's a new book coming Pale Male and the Infertile Girl...

Do birds have grammatical structure?

Oh, Pine Tree Farms, what were you thinking when coming up with product names? Nutsie? Log Jammers?  Oy.

Prizes to be given away in this podcast:

Backyard Birding

And the Hummer Swing.


Birdchick Podcast #73: Where Can A Birder Go

Two VERY interesting articles on my list this week.  One from the American Birding Association's publication called Winging It.  Go to the Winging It page and click on Vol 23, no. 5 and look for Birding With A Conscience. Also, check out this article on Birding While Black--Does It Really Matter? He was part of the Focus on Diversity birding conference.  You can watch some of the speakers here.

oiled duck
oiled duck

Fidelity Exploration & Production Co., of Denver agreed to plead guilty and pay a $1,500 fine for killing a solitary sandpiper that was found in a waste pit during drilling operations in western North Dakota.

When I was in North Dakota this past June with fellow bird bloggers we saw the above oiled duck (I think it's an oiled pintail).  I'm now wondering if was oiled in similar circumstances and wish we'd documented it better.  It was far away on private property and mobile enough to get away from us.  There was no safe way to retrieve it, but wish I documented it better.

Human encroachment on the Tundra (like oil refineries) are creating an imbalance in the predator/prey balance.

From Nature Canada, Birds at Risk: The Importance of Canada’s Boreal Wetlands and Waterways:  "The North American boreal forest supports more than 50 percent of the global populations of 96 bird species, including landbirds, shorebirds, and waterbirds.10 The boreal is critical to the majority of iconic species such as the Common Loon, Whooping Crane, Canada Warbler, and White-throated Sparrow."

And if you don't understand why the tar sands are a bad idea, take a look at this before and after photo of what happens to the area when they go in for the oil.  This is terrible land stewardship, short-sighted and a terrible option.

And now a really cleansing link:

Really awesome homemade kestrel Halloween costume.

Birdchick Podcast #70: Big Year, Birding The Net

There was a movie about birds...not sure if you heard about it... Audubon has unleashed a birdwatching game on the Internet called Birding The Net.

Ornithologist claims to have developed an app called WeBird which will allow you to record bird song with a smart phone and id them for you.  I am dubious.

Teen kill whooping crane.

Awesome series of photos of a gull eating a starfish (warning...this does not end well for the starfish).

Article about the high cost of bird feeding.

Birdchick Podcast #69: Big Year midnight screening, Project Runway, and Cornell's contest

Birds and Beers: Midnight Screening of The Big Year (Facebook Event) on Friday! You can also get the info on The Birdchick Birds and Beers Page. Why were these birds on Project Runway?

project runway birds
project runway birds

There's a rare original copy of Audubon's Birds of Americaon display at Trinity College in Connecticut.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology is having a "Close Encounters of the Bird Kind" contest.

Wild Turkey chases a TV reporter. What more do you need to know?

Will bird poop ruin your car's paint job?

Famer who destroyed thousands of protected pelican eggs claims he "just snapped."

Birdchick Podcast #68: Eagle Shenanigans & Field Guide or Checklist

Immature bald eagle causes some serious shenanigans at Santa Barbara Zoo.  On a side note, Karen pointed me towards another wild eagle that got flirty with a captive eagle at the Orange County Zoo. Guys who make bird repellents say they can cut down on bird deaths.  Both Flock Buster (here's the ingredients) and Bird Bright ultraviolet paint say they can help.

Steve Dale from Cat Channel tries to extend an olive branch to birders over the whole feral cat issue...all while still getting in a good poke at bird advocates.

Birding is Fun is now a multi-author blog!

photo 1
photo 1

I'm very confused.  I love stuff from Princeton University Press, but illustrated field checklists confuse me.  This book is an illustrated checklist of the Birds of North America and Greenland by Norman Arlott.

photo 2
photo 2

It looks like a field guide...but it's not.  I like the illustrations but I don't understand it as a checklist. But if you're looking for a book with all the birds in North American (and Greenland) you'll find this book handy.  Although, if it's a checklist, where are the boxes to check?

Birdchick Podcast #67: Hummingbird Smuggling and Other Idiots

This is an old story (about a year ago) but there are photos of some jerk trying to smuggle hummingbirds in his underwear. Blake Richard Riede was a complete idiot and released several permanently injured birds of prey from their enclosures in Florida.  Species released from Boyd Hill Nature Trail Park include red-shouldered hawk, bald eagle and turkey vultures. All but one of the injured birds (a red-shouldered hawk) have been recovered.  You can TRY to watch the YouTube video that incriminated him but it's really long.  You don't see shenanigans happen until at least 10 minutes in and it's totally worse at 30 minutes in.

Ned Brinkley sent an awesome letter on behalf of the tagged whimbrels who were legally shot in Guadeloupe about the importance of these birds to the rest of the world. Maybe Ned's letter (along with several others) will be  step in the right direction to get to set hunting limits during migration.  Go Ned and go ABA!

Praying mantis kills another hummingbird.  It has happened before.

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

Excellent clip from the Big Year movie--opens October 14!!