Birdchick Blog
Bird watchers on a cruise spot stranded fishermen and ignored by the captain of the Star Princess. Non native Mute Swan kills 37 year old man in a kayak in Illinois.
Some weirdo in Indianapolis steals a bird feeder and pole from a dentist office.
Terrifying cartoons about animals. Birders will be interested in the shrike.
Well, my avian survey work may become obsolete. This is an incredible story about counting the emperor penguins in Antarctica via satellite! Watch a video of it here on ABC. An article about how much we don't understand about bird migration...ie we can't prove that they sense magnetic fields in their beaks.
Listen to WITS on Minnesota Public Radio.
NBB will rejoin the ABA if 10 more people renew or join. Owl raises chicks in a potted plant.
Playing taped bird songs compared to drinking wine.
Is tail-pumping a predator defense?
Great Blue Heron nest attacked by owl while on a webcam.
Will the Nuthatch be divided into 4 species?
A sandpiper in a gorilla enclosure.
On a quick non birding note, if you or someone you know is considering getting a kid a rabbit for Easter, please, don't. They are a lot of work and are often surrendered to shelters. Also, MSNBC noticed Disapproving Rabbits. There's a photo of an octopus eating a gull (Thayer's?). The problem is that with one photo, some are calling fake. However, there is a series of photos and for whatever reason the photog isn't sharing on the Internet. But when you see the full series, it doesn't look fake.
Oprah.com selected Julie Zickefoose's The Bluebird Effect as Oprah's Book of the Week. Awesome! You can order it here.
There's a turkey vulture cam! OMG! It's new and vultures have been seen there grunting (a mating thing) but you may have to check back a few times as it gets going.
10000 Birds has an interesting bird. Is it a junco? Is it a hybrid? Who knows?
A 22 year old female osprey returns for nesting season.
There's a great blue heron cam!
Pelicans growing at an alarming rate!
An ABA post on the agony of bird taxonomy changes. Though and April Fools prank, I'm sure some of the lamentation of listing birders is real.
And finally:
But the best part of this video is the reaction some birders had.
Cornell wants you to vote on the names for the male hawk on their live cam. I'd encourage you to write in a name. BirdsEyeLog finally came out with their app for iPhone that allows you enter bird sightings in the field. It's currently only $9.99 but will go up to $14.99 soon, get it now. It's also available for Android.
Are you seeing hummingbirds, the internet thinks it's up for debate.
Speaking of controversy...The American Birding Association is going all Exlax by starting to some stuff and discussing app and phone etiquette in the field.
There's a salmonella alert going on in Oregon, an excellent remind to one and all to clean your bird feeders!
Dueling press releases! The Department of the Interior has released new voluntary guidelines for wind farm developers to minimize the chance of killing birds. National Audubon Society says, yay while the American Bird Conservancy says boo. Can't we meet in the middle somehow?
It's that special time of year when male birds fight their reflections. There's no easy solution to this apart from covering up the offending window (on the outside) for a few days.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a live red-tailed hawk cam, check it out!
Remember the whole Scott's Wild Bird Food fine? GrrlScientist gives an in depth report and Wild Bird Marketing suggests it might be overblown. Who to believe?
Bird Proof Gel, Bird X, Bird Off Gel and Tangle Foot type bird repellents are dangerous to native birds.
Experimental nest tubes are supposed to be bluebird and swallow friendly but keep starlings out.
Incredibly mild winter leads to interesting sightings from this year's Great Backyard Bird Count. You can read the full newsletter here.
10,000 Birds asks if people actually go birding when drunk...I see a videocast experiment coming. Perhaps something along the lines of my favorite YouTube Channel: My Drunk Kitchen?
We really only talked about sandhill cranes and these crazy pictures of a black vulture getting a little too friendly with a crested caracara.
How did we get here to the 100th Podcast? Thank you for listening! Someone in the New York Daily News was really excited to use the phrase "vomit bird" in a headline.
Community upset about vultures roosting in their neighborhood and running amok. The reporter calls them turkey vultures but they sure look like black vultures to me.
In other vulture news researchers say vultures are changing the way we should age dead bodies left in the wild.
It was so sweet the way The Monitor wrote up about the awesome webcam at the Sabal Palm Sanctuary...too bad they didn't link to it. Don't worry, I will. Check it out here (you might see a green jay live). Tho all we've seen is at night and it's full of raccoons:
Birds are found dead on the University of Central Florida (migrating birds hitting windows). I almost ignored the story apart from this guy, Adam Hull and what does he have to say about it? "Birds are known to do that. They're kind of stupid." I'm guessing he's not a biology major...and looks to have a promising career in establishing guidelines for the TSA.
For those with two brain cells to rub together this a good reminder that it's migration and time for Lights Out. Learn more at FLAP.
Remember last summer when some Minnesota farmer claimed he snapped and destroyed a pelican colony with thousands of chicks? He actually got a large fine for doing it. Across the pond, Matthew Gonshaw who specializes in stealing wild bird eggs for his personal (and highly illegal) collection has been banned from visiting Scotland for 10 years.
FINALLY, the red knot has been put on the Endangered Species List for the State of New Jersey. It's not perfect, it's needs surrounding states to do the same and it needs to be on the Federal list. The population for this birds has fallen 90% in the last 2 decades going from 100,000 to 15,000...because of over harvesting of horseshoe crab eggs for fishing bait.
Artist Enrique Gomez De Molina charged in trafficking highly illegal birds to create his amazing artwork. He is claiming vigorously that he didn't know, but his email would indicate otherwise. This is the video we reference in the podcast and this is the reason why people LOVE slow loris.
In a similar story, there's a quandary over what to do with a late art collector's piece from Robert Raushenberg which features a VERY illegal bald eagle as part of it. Since it is so illegal to have a stuffed eagle and the sculpture was created after the Migratory Bird Treat and Bald and Golden Eagle Act it was valued at $0 in the estate's tax return. But because the IRS is aware of the artist's fame and that the piece could be sold on the black market illegally for a lot of money, they say it's $65 million.
You can find Sugar Bean Ice Cream on Twitter.
You can find Ken Plume singing on A Site Called Fred!
