MRVAC Action Tonight!

I can't remember if I have put this in the blog, but tonight I will be at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center at 7pm in an auctioneer capacity for the Minnesota River Valley Audubon Chapter.  This fundraiser helps MRVAC with their educational programs.  I'm a big fan of this Audubon Chapter, when someone new asks me about a birding club with fun field trips--this is the group I steer them towards.  Nice, easy going folks, especially for those new to birding.

Bird ID Webinar Tonight!

My Beat Writer post is up over at 10,000 Birds.  It's about an interesting Cooper's hawk in my neighborhood.

And if you are asking yourself how did I know that the above birds was a Cooper's hawk and not a sharp-shinned (or any other hawk) there's a webinar that you might be interested in!  My buddy Clay Taylor from Swarovski Optik and I are guests on Johnathon Robinson's Identify Birds by Sight and Sound webinar.  Clay and I will discuss different birding tips (probably argue a bit) and you can ask us questions on identification.  It's a fun way to spend a Wednesday night, I think there will even be some sort of giveaway.

FourCast Interview

Man! A lot going on this week!

I flew in from South Texas (aka the land of the above green jay) Monday afternoon and hit the ground limping!  The limp was from the closing party at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival...I twisted my knee while singing karaoke--yes, that's right, that's how hard I bring it to fake singing!  Boy you know it's a good vacation when you come home slightly injured.  I think I aggravated the injury I got banding birds in May, or perhaps my body is trying to subtly tell me that my table dancing days are over?

Monday evening I recorded a podcast with one of my fellow Geek A Week cards, Tom Merritt.  He is cohost of a podcast called FourCast.  They have guests on and we discuss future predictions.  First we discuss something that will happen soon, something in about a 100 years and then a bizarro one that could be millions of years away.  You can listen on their site or even watch it on YouTube (it's about 52 minutes long):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkRL8Bc57AE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

It was a fun way to spend an hour.  When I posted on Twitter that I would be doing this, one of my nieces was excited and knew of the podcast, so I was honored to do something she thought was cool.

Ecuador Birding Job Includes A Horse!

Want to go to Ecuador?  How badly?  If you answered the way most people do for a Klondike Bar, then this might be for you: TEMPORARY RESERVE MANAGERS

Life Net is searching for a mature, very fit, and responsible couple or two friends with strong interests and/or educational backgrounds in reserve management, nature conservation, tropical ecology, birding, sustainable agriculture, ecotourism, environmental education (all or some) to steward a small (50 ha) but very bio-diverse nature reserve in Western Ecuador.

Due to the remote setting and challenges with visas we offer the position at the Las Tangaras Reserve for only 3 months to non-Ecuadorian citizens. We provide $300/month cost of living stipend, housing, and use of a rather unpredictable horse named Guapo.

The reserve is an incredible place to live, and research and photographic opportunities abound. Life Net monitors and researches bird communities, and current stewards, Steve and Amanda, are describing plants and insects, respectively.

Duties include, reserve improvements and stewardship, upkeep of trails, marking of trails, water system upkeep, septic system upkeep, maintenance of cabin, tools, equipment, research materials, small library. Options exist to develop visitation and earn additional donations from visitors to the area for birding trips and hikes, etc.

Desirable qualifications include ability to communicate well in Spanish, experience with care of horses and interest in them, college degree in a topic related to the position, related experiences with wilderness biology field work in the tropics, interests in research and nature interpretation, experience with guiding nature or birding tours, simple bio-regional living experiences, wilderness, leave no trace camping ethics, carpentry and building skills, financial management experience, business sense, etc.

Current managers finish their term 18 Dec 2010. An Ecuadorian will steward the reserve until new managers begin. We desire a pair to start early Jan, 2011 (by 10 Jan), to be on site and working through 10 Mar 2011. Send resume and cover letter to DR. DUSTI BECKER and DR. TONY POVILITIS. We want to decide on new stewards by Jan 1 and we had 300 applicants last round, so apply ASAP if you are qualified and serious about the adventure and responsibility.

How could you turn down the bonus of an unpredictable horse named Guapo?

I Hired A New Orleans Street Poet To Write A Titmouse Poem

I took a slight detour from my Texas birding vacation to meet up with Non Birding Bill for some non birding shenanigans in New Orleans.  It's fun, it's like we're on some strange, romantic hook up in a weird little city.  Walking around the French Quarter turns you into a dial of the great big live radio.  People looking for money, don't stand by passively with a cardboard sign, they sing or play music...or write poetry.

We walked over to a place called the Spotted Cat where we ran into a friend who was with a voodoo priestess.  The VP was telling me about a healing she's doing this weekend for the Gulf Spill (should be good for birds?) and then she pointed out a gent with a desk across the street who was a Poet for Hire.

So, I asked how much, he said he's like between $10 - $20, but whatever is good.  We negotiated style (he does haiku) and I told him to write in his favorite style.  He asked for a subject and I said that I wanted tufted titmouse, he asked a couple of questions then requested 15 - 20 minutes to work...leaving us plenty of time to be serenaded by a man singing like Sam Cooke on a bike.

He handed me a brown piece of paper with his typed up poem, we handed him $15 and thoroughly enjoyed the results.  I typed up the poem below:

Tufted Titmouse by Matt, New Orleans Street Poet for Hire.

No mere reedling, the tufted titmouse; it's crest announces its nobility among oscine kin

And well it should be respected, regal feathers over tiny eyes

and the observer debates which is keener... the attentive point of the crest, soft as a pillow, or the snappy beak, tougher than a nut of gourmet seed

You can band these birds but they won't be banned as they drop titmouse turds and nip at the crimping hand

I Bird. I Vote.

Very interesting blog post from the new American Birding Association president Jeff Gordon (birder, not racer) who attended the Rally for Sanity and/or Fear over the weekend toting signs that read "I Bird, I Vote." How many times have we seen bumper stickers that read "I Fish, I Vote" or "I Hunt, I Vote" so why not one for birders?  It's supposed to be the second fastest growing hobby in the nation.  And from the many voters I meet, it crosses all political lines and parties.  I personally don't vote based on a particular party.  I tend to put my vote to the person I think will do the most for birds and wildlife and I think we need to waive our bird flags a bit harder in the future.  We are the voice for birds and wildlife...or at the least the translators and interpreters.