Birding The Tien Shan Mountains Part 1

I've blogged quite a bit about the first part of my amazing trip to Kazakhstan.  We spent the first half on the Steppes (short grass prairie) and then flew from Astana to Almaty.  I think my favorite part of the trip was exploring the Tien Shan Mountains near Almaty--beautiful, remote, rugged.  Everywhere you went, even in downtown Almaty (above) you felt that adventure was just around the corner.

And for people who think birding is boring, I submit this photo.  How can you see birders perched on on a peak surrounded by snow capped mountains in Kazakhstan and say that bird watching is boring?  Especially with the types of birds we saw.

Look at this little beauty.  This is a Himalayan rubythroat singing on territory--I love that I saw birds with the word "Himalaya" mixed into their name.  Some of the other birds our group saw on this glorious day included red-mantled rosefinch and fire-fronted serin.

After an interesting breakfast of cold cuts, tomato cucumber salad, porridge, various breads, really white sausage, and Nescafe we loaded up into vans and took some very vertical and rutted dirt roads into the Tien Shan Mountains.  We were on our way to Ili Alatau National Park (follow the link to the park and take note of the wildlife species list).  It was a warm May day outside our hotel but I noticed that the mountains in the distance had snow, so I wore my convertible pants, socks with my Keens, wore a fleece and kept a scarf around my neck.

Everywhere we looked, we were surrounded by grandeur.  We made a few stops for soaring raptors and found black kites and a non raptor called a chough (pronounced "chuff").  All kinds of smaller birds could be heard echoing from the mountains.

We made a stop here for brown dipper.  It was cumbersome getting a large group of eager digiscopers around the rocks, we were all impatient for this cool life bird and anxious to get a photo.  I got a brief look and the bird flew round the bend.  Some of the group followed, but I opted to stay in my spot.  If this dipper was like the dippers in North America, it would be back.

While I waited, a grey wagtail perched nearby.  One of the British birders made a comment that I shouldn't be wasting time with that species, there were more exciting ones to be seen.  Wagtails in all sorts of color variations are prevalent in Europe and since I hadn't been anywhere near Europe up to that point, it was very exciting to me.

The group that followed the brown dipper got great looks at a mating display.  All of us ended up getting photos of this little brown bobbing bird.

We eventually made to our destination--Big Almaty Lake.  Our target bird was a shorebird called an ibisbill.  The birds have nested in this area in the past.  Alas, we did not see it on this trip, but who cares when you have scenery like that to take in?  Despite all the snow and ice, it was perfect hiking weather.  I even had to remove the fleece because I got so hot.

There was a pair of common kestrels hunting over our heads (above is the male).  That was not the only falcon--there was also a pair of Eurasian hobbys screaming and flying overhead--I was so excited to see those and they totally make up for the lack of ibisbill.  I have always wanted to see a hobby ever since I was a kid and watched an episode of the Leo the Lion called The Falcons when an angry flock of hobby falcons get dropped off in Leo's jungle via a tornado and attack all the animals.

While we were walking, we could hear Himalayan snowcocks calling all around us.  They sound kind of like loons or perhaps a bit more like elk.  I scanned the tops of the mountains wondering where they were when Philippe Jacques Dubois (the dude in the above photo) actually found them with the scope!

The arrow is pointing to roughly where the snowcock was standing and calling.

And there is the snowcock and here is a link so you can what they look like close up.  There was also a female who would pop up and down causing the male to go into full display mode--it was awesome.  I was so excited to see these birds here in their native habitat.  We actaully have a population of these birds in Nevada...a snowcock introduction program was started in the 1960s because Nevada felt there weren't enough native game birds to hunt, so why not bring in an Asian species?

But being surrounded by the gorgeous mountains while listening to the lonely wail of the snowcock made for a perfect day.

More coming.

Some Phalarope Fun

I found some phalarope photos that I had forgotten about.  These are some red-necked phalaropes that we saw on the Steppes in Kazakhstan.  When you are learning shorebirds, phalaropes are ones that can be easy to distinguish from the others, they have a unique shape, can be quite colorful and they are just plain fun to watch.  They spin around in the water kicking up sediment and food below.  No matter what country you are in, you can spot that spinning characteristic easily if they are around.

Plus, phalaropes are so pretty, look at that burgundy highlighted with delicate gray and white, touched off with some black.  Above is a Wilson's phalarope seen in a pothole just outside of Arrowwood NWR in North Dakota during the Potholes and Prairie Bird Festival.  That's a great thing about North Dakota, just driving to your destination will reveal great birds.  We couldn't get into the NWR because of the flooding, so we just drove around it and in the puddles were birds.  I was with my friend Katie and she would pull the van over while I sat in the back, opened the side door and digiscoped the phalaropes.  Birds tend to not mind vehicles, just what comes out of a vehicle.

Here's a pair of Wilson's phalaropes preening. If you are not familiar with phalaropes, you might think that is the male in the front of the pair.  It's not, that's the female.

In phalarope world, you have a great term to use that you can impress your friends with at parties: reverse sexual dimorphism.  The females are more colorful and they pursue the males.  They defend a territory and once they have attracted a male and mated, she lays the eggs and heads south to get a head start on migration while the males stays behind to incubate the eggs and raise the young.

Here's a shot of just the male, he is not colorful since he's going to be the one sitting in one spot to incubate the eggs.  It's interesting that the female doesn't partake of any of the chick rearing duties.  She doesn't bring food to the male while he incubates, she doesn't give him a break, nothing.  It's wham, bam, thank you ma'am, she lays the eggs and then says, "See ya!"

I wonder if female phalaropes ever get guilt for putting their migration before their offspring?

Playing With The New Swarovski Digiscoping Adaptor

Now that spring migration has settled down a bit, I can talk more about Kazakhstan.  I took out a group this weekend for some birding and one asked, "Why did you go to Kazakhstan?" There were several reasons, the biggest was that I have always wanted to go ever since I read about the country years ago.  It sounded wild, remote and untamed.

The other reason was a bird called the sociable lapwing (kind of a very snazzy killdeer--seen above).  Swarovski Optik is a species champion of this bird through BirdLife International.  It's a bird population that has dramatically declined in recent years and is of great concern.  It's not certain what the original population was on the Steppes of Kazakhstan.  There was a count of 5,000 birds in 1990 and another count in 2002 put their numbers at 1200 in 2002.

Current research suggests that the decline of the sociable lapwing is due in part to unevenly grazed habitat.  Sociable lapwings used to live among ungulates known as saiga (do click on the photo of the saiga, that is one crazy looking ungulate). As the saiga declined, so did the sociable lapwing numbers.  Incidentally, there were about 2 million saiga on the Kazakh Steppes in the 1950s, but a dramatic decline hit in the 1990s because of poaching--Saiga horn is used in traditional Chinese medicine as a fever cure.  The lapwings apparently really liked the way the Saiga grazed the grasses to make watching for predators good for them when they are nesting.

Swarovski and BirdLife International has made it possible for teams of locals to come out and monitor the lapwings, work with the locals to appreciate the birds and hopefully avoid the nests, and to work with cattle owners to graze in a way that mimics saiga grazing and is favorable for the lapwing.  Note the young faces who are part of the Kazak research team, it's local people working with their birds and their communities, not a bunch of foreigners coming in and telling people how to manage their land.

Swarovski is also coming out with a new digiscoping adaptor called the UCA.  It's a bit more universal in the sense that many different cameras (even small video cameras) can be attached to the scope and it slides off easily.  When we were taken to the sociable lapwing area, we were asked to test out the new adaptor.  I have to admit, being on a trip of a lifetime and seeing unbelievable life birds, that last thing I wanted to do was learn a new adaptor for my camera and scope.  But it was surprisingly easy to figure out.

Now, the challenge became how to get twenty some odd birders close to skittish ground nesting bird when there isn't a lot of cover.  I don't think we were all that sneaky behind that power pole.  The researchers had us march in a single file line towards the lapwings, but the rightly suspicious birds just kept walking in the other direction.

We had to be careful, because the females easily flush of the nest and the research team did not want to risk losing one valuable nest of this declining bird.  We were getting great looks at the birds, but they were too far away to get great photos.

Plus, heat shimmer was really starting to become a factor.  The area behind the cow looks like a van Gogh painting.  I even took a video and it looks like a raging forcefield is behind the cow.  You'll note that a lone man walks behind the cow, apparently oblivious to the rare and sensitive birds nesting around him.  That's part of the research team's job is to work with locals and let them know about these cool birds and hey, maybe don't walk right through their nesting territories right now.

We went out in search of other birds around the Korgalzhyn State Natre Reserve with the adaptors and we were able to get some cool shots.  Above is a citrine wagtail--isn't that a fabulous little yellow bird and so accommodating to perch out in the open.

I was even able to digiscope a warbler with the new adaptor--and those aren't easy.  I have to say, warblers over in Europe and Asia aren't anything like our warblers here in the Americas.  Above is a booted warbler and it pretty much looks like all the other Euro warblers: small, brown and fairly non-descript.  Other warblers you can see over there are reed warbler, Hume's warbler, and Savi's warbler--brown, brown, brown.  I'm used to prothonotary warbler and blue-winged warbler.  I'll never complain about fall warblers in North America again.  Even an orange-crowned warbler in the fall is more colorful than a booted warblers.

I also got some amazing shots of a female common redstart...they look a bit different than our American redstarts.  It's not a wood warbler like what we see in North America, it's more like a flycatcher.  The males are quite snazzy, but so are the females with their red tails.  Since she was so accommodating, I thought I would get some video of her with the UCA.  My Fuji FinePix E900 does video as well as photos:

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

While on the preserve, we also found a nice mudflat to check out for some waterfowl.

Above is Corey from 10,000 Birds and Dale from Discovering Alpine Birds getting some shots of the ducks and shorebirds.  Some of the species we saw included spotted redshank (gotta love a black shorebird), red-crested pochard, white-headed duck, and white-winged black tern.  There were some familiar birds too.  I heard gadwalls calling and I went to grab my cell phone (gadwall is one of my ringtones).  Then I remembered that my phone didn't work in Kazakhstan and looked overhead.  There were three gadwalls flying over--ah the familiar in a strange land!

We also saw black-winged stilts and pied avocet (that's the avocet pictured above, distinctive with their long, upturned bill).

As we ended our time on the Kazakhstan Steppes, an Isabelline shrike popped up.

I was surprised at the photos I got using the new adaptor that I had not worked with before in a place where I was unfamiliar with the birds.  I don't think I will trade in my DCA for digiscoping with my Swarovski scope, but if my current camera craps out and the next one I get does not work with the DCA, I could see myself using a UCA.  It's a bit larger, so doesn't fit in a pocket as neatly, but it is light in weight could be hooked around a finger.

More on Los Andes in Guatemala

Look at this pygmy-owl outside of Los Andes lodge! This one perched right out the front door. There was some debate as to whether this was a ferruginous pygmy-owl or mountain pygmy-owl. The debate seemed to center around the spots on his head. Ferruginous pygmy-owls should have streaks, mountain pygmy-owls should have more spots. To me, it looks streaky. Bottom line, it was a tiny owl.

Pygmy-owls were all over the place in Guatemala, this was a pygmy-owl that was spotted as our bus was passing through a small town. You know how in the US, some people will try to whistle like an eastern screech-owl, in Guatemala, birders whistle like pygmy-owls to get smaller birds to come in closer. One day our group saw a yellow-wing cacique fly over. In trying to get it to come back, someone in our group started the pygmy-owl call and I noticed something small and brown fly up to a telephone pole with a hole. At first I thought it was a wren, but it was a ferruginous pygmy-owl--we actaully called one in.

How's this for a Guatemala sunrise? This was just off of the organic tea farm at Los Andes Private Nature Reserve. The tea is bordered by cloud forest where resplendent quetzals can be found. I'm generally not a fan of early rising (I know, I know, I'm a birder, I'm supposed to enjoy getting up in the dark, but I don't). However, when I'm forced to get up, what a treat to get a fabulous sunrise.

Here's a zoom in, you can see the puffs of smoke coming off the volcano--beautiful. We took our time walking in to the forest, many birds were already singing. I mentioned early on that digiscoping was a challenge in Guatemala--digiscoping in the tropics is hard work and this was a trail where I had to make a decision: spend a few wasted seconds trying to get the camera an scope lined up, or use those precious seconds to enjoy the bird. One was an antpitta, I can't think of any way to describe it but maybe, combine an American robin and a nerf football with long legs. It was a bird I expected to only hear and not see, but as our group made it through the forest, one was walking along the path searching for food. What a treat to see this secretive brown bird.

Here's the view of the tea farm outside of the forest with the quetzal. This was a cool spot to stand in and just watch birds go by.

We searched this forest more than once for the quetzal but I only heard it, I did not see it. I heard two different versions of quetzal sounds. One was a rather pleasant, almost ticking call. The other scared the crap out of me. I found a very distant version of it on Xeno Canto, you'll hear this kindy of shrieky gobble, that's what I heard, only it was right behind me and ten time louder. I literally ducked when I heard it. Alas, did not see the quetzal, but we saw their nest boxes scattered about. We saw so many other birds including azure-rumped tanager, emerald touchanette, blue-crowned chlorophonia, and collared trogon that I could live with living to see a quetzal another day.

They did have resplendant quetzal tail feathers on display at the lodge. I stood next to one to give some perspective as to how long their tails can get. I'm five foot and that tail is over half as long as I am.

I should mention that the road to the quetzal area is quite adventurous. Our group was packed into the pack of this truck and we had to stand...I had to be careful where I stood. My head was at the top bar level and if I stood in one of the corners, I would end up hitting my head.

The ride is about about twenty minutes long on what I would call minimum maintenance roads...and the above was about as flat as they got. There were curves and hills and large rocks and we were bounced all over in the back. It was nerve racking enough to watch when it was daylight and even more so when it was dark--our drivers were great, they knew how to drive on those roads, but to me who is not used to those types of mountain road--it was exciting. But the upside of when it was dark was that we'd periodically stop for pauraques sitting in the road, I'm sure they followed our vehicle a bit as toddled down the road, going after insects kicked up.

I have to get back to Los Andes. At least to see the quetzal, but also because it's a cool place.

Los Andes Private Nature Reserve In Guatemala

Why, hello there, Mr. Clay-colored thrush! I totally forgot about this photo I took of you at Los Andes in Guatemala!

While working on another project, I discovered a huge backlog of blog posts--I have parts of Guatemala that I haven't blogged about yet--one of them was my absolute favorite lodge we visited. Doing some real digging in my photos, I have entries from last year's Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival--doh! So, we're going to catch up on a few spots as well as talk about Kazakhstan over the next week.

If I ever have the chance to return to Guatemala, I want to return to Los Andes Private Nature Reserve. It's a farm that supports 80 families and grows organic tea, shade-grown coffee and quinine. Surrounding the farm are several rubber tree plantations as well. Parts of it are left untouched and you can find quetzals there. The most common bird I saw while we were there was the yellow-winged tanager (above).

The lodge itself offered a cozy, family atmosphere. Comfortable couches, tons of books, info on the rich family history--an even Internet access. I was able to use Skype here to call Non Birding Bill free over the Internet. Dinners were family style and prepared on premises. You knew when each meal was almost ready, you could hear the cooks in the kitchen patting out the homemade tortillas. Olga, the owner, was quick to offer us samples of their own coffee and tea. She even made us fresh chai--what heaven to drink those beverages while slowly meandering around outside the house...

...and watching dynomite birds like socail flycatcher and red-legged honeycreeper. I could easily spend two weeks at this place. If I ever write a birding romance novel, I would set it here.

There were some familiar sites, like tons of monarch caterpillars. I've read that there are six generations of monarchs in a year. Since it was February, I wondered if this was the first generation after the one that over-winters?

There were also quite a few great kiskadees around--a bird I see quite a bit in south Texas. They look very similar to the social flycather. Note the large heavy bill on the above kiskadee.

Note the smaller dainty bill on the social flycatcher. The also sound quite different. The kiskadee seems to shout, "kisk ka DEE!" Here's a social flycatcher singing:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb91w3TDeEc[/youtube]

Almost like the kid brother of the kiskadee trying really hard, but comes off a tad whiny. Cute birds and a treat to watch while sipping organic tea.

This is a holding pond on the property and it was chock full of birds, again some familiar like indigo and painted buntings. So exciting to see where are breeding birds, party and hang out in the winter. I don't blame them for coming to Guatemala at all--beautiful and lots of seeds and insects to eat (Los Andes also have sunscreen and insect repellent ready to grab at a moment's notice). There was even a great-tailed grackle hunting and eating small lizards around the water.

This is a white-collard seedeater lurking in some of the grasses.

Check out this crazy looking bird! It's called a masked tityra. Follow this link for a better photo of one, so you can really see how striking this bird looks. I think there are some issues as to where this bird belongs in field guides. It used to be considered a tyrant flycatcher (those are the classy, somewhat easy to id flycatchers like kiskadees and scissor-tailed flycatchers, not the mind-numbingly hard to id empidonax flycatchers--incidentally, those are not all the same bird in that linked photo). However, there still seems to be some debate as to where it belongs, how to call that category and what other birds would fit in there. Bottom line, it's a crazy looking bird.

I saw many types of trogons while in Guatemala, but getting photos of them proved more challenging that i realized. Above is the beautiful backside of a violaceous trogon, perched in a tree right outside the lodge. We did explore other parts of the reserve and that is in a coming post. However, if you are looking for a place to do some relaxing birding, eat great local food, drink tea and coffee that is good for birds, and just visit with good people--Los Andes is it. Don't get me wrong, you can do hardcore birding and there are some strenuous trails here, but it was just such a joy to slowly work around the lodge itself and soak in so many colorful birds.

Even when it rained, you could stand at the window and enjoy the view.

More on the wonders of Los Andes later.

Bioblitz Buntings and Prothonotary Warblers

Watch out! It's the world's angriest indigo bunting!

Last weekend's MN Bioblitz was great fun--if you don't know, a Bioblitz is an event where people try to document as many living species in a 24 hour period as they can: birds, fish, mammals, insects, plants, fungus, reptile--everything that is alive. I was sorry that I didn't get a chance to see some of the other non birding events, but the banding station ended up getting quite busy. I was so happy that Mark Newstrom volunteered his time to set up his nets so banding could be part o the day's activities.

We started with a morning bird walk around Crosby Park where we saw a ton of great birds, in particular, the above cedar waxwing (who is scratching his neck). Our small, but dedicated group on the walk was hoping for a prothonotary warbler...and we found a few. At first we heard what sounded to be two singing. I was anxious to try and get a photo since my only photo was the sad blue I got at the World Series of Bird last year. We listened to try and determine where the bird was, we were in a high traffic area and kept looking in the bushes. There were several birds perched and singin on the wire, one looked like a really bright goldfinch and then I realized...that was where the song was coming from. I aimed my scope and...

...Holy Crap! There's a male prothonotary warbler singing...out in the open...in perfect sun! Apparently, this guy did not get the memo that warblers are to skulk and hide and unlike children, they should be heard and most certainly not seen. He was so accommodating, I was able to get a video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUqJOKEj_-M[/youtube]

He's just one of the coolest warblers ever! Bright gold in front, delicate sky blue wings in the back! Did you notice that in the video he was kind enough to show both sides? Again, he must not be part of the official warbler union.

And the beauty did not end there, we ended up getting three male indigo buntings in the nets! Crosby Park is just loaded with buntings, they like to nest on the edge of woodlands and their active song is noticeable. I'm quite certain that one of the tree birds we got in was the bird that I digiscoped the other day at Crosby. One of the nets was near his territory and after we captured the buntings, we didn't hear him sing for awhile. He had to preen that greasy human touch off of his feathers.

What a treat to be able to show a kid an indigo bunting up close. My favorite part is when it's time to let the bird go. If a kid is nearby, I look down and ask, "You want to release it?"

Most kids say yes and all get a combination of glee and anxiousness in their face. When I placed the above male in that little girl's hands she gasped, "Oh! He's so soft!"

Take that, nature deficit disorder!

Another thing that is fun to do with kids (and frankly, adults) is when a larger bird comes in (like the above female cowbird) and put them up to their ears so they can hear the bird's heartbeat--it sounds like a cat purring. What a great way to open the conversation up to talk about a bird's metabolism and how much they eat and how they can survive in various temperatures.

This cowbird hit the net the same time a female common yellowthroat did. I wondered if the cowbird had been about to make her move to the yellowthroat nest and deposit an egg. Mark blew on her feathers near her vent:

You could see the area was swollen and an egg beneath her transparent skin. Normally, when banding birds during nesting season, we release them near where they were trapped so they can go right back to the nest, but in the cowbird's case, we let her go in the opposite direction.

As we were about to wind up our banding station, we had three redstarts hit the nets. At first, we though we had two males (that's a male above) and one female. Males are kind of like mini orioles--small and orange black. Females are more grey and yellow.

The bird that I took out of the net and thought was female, ended up being a second year male. It takes redstarts two years to get their black and orange plumage. This bird was in transition. Still mostly in his immature plumage, but his tail feathers were already showing black. It was fun to show kids how you can sometimes get a very good idea of how old a bird is in hand.

I have to say that I have new respect for Crosby Park--even though it's in a very urban area, lots of great birds are there. We also heard both yellow-billed and black-billed cuckoos, broad-winged hawks, saw a beaver, someone else reported a river otter. It's a great place that I'll have to visit more often.

Cardinal With A Receding Featherline Singing

On Saturday, I was taking some video on a bird walk and this cardinal caught my attention, he's starting to lose his head feathers.  It's an occurrence that happens often enought that it's a question on my FAQ, usually in late summer someone will email me about a crazy looking cardinal and it's a bald one.  Here's a collection of all my blog entries involving balding birds.  I think I have photos of cardinals, a goldfinch, a grackle and a screech owl.  The above bird is about to lose his head feathers and you can see some of his black skin around his bill and his crest is half the size it should be.

However, what really caught my attention what the way the back of his neck puffed out as he sang--he has a little bubble popping up and down back there.  Check it out:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLCO0xvVm2Y[/youtube]

Swarovski Digiscoper of the Year Contest

This is—quite possibly—the coolest contest that I have ever been able to offer on my blog.  There are super sweet runner-up prizes and there is one-giant-spanky-mondo-super-cool prize. I present you with the Swarovski Digiscoper of the Year Contest.

These are the official list of rules (and make sure to read them carefully) for entering the contest but essentially, anyone over 18 years of age who uses a camera (either point-and-shoot or an SLR) with a spotting  scope to take a photo is eligible to enter.  The scope does not have to be a Swarovski scope, it can be any make or model and you can do it by borrowing your friend's equipment.

DO NOT SEND ME YOUR ENTRIES FOR THE CONTEST. You are supposed to enter your photos here.

Digiscoping images must be pictures of animals living in the wild that are created using a digital camera through the eyepiece of a field spotting scope.  Above is a western meadowlark that I digiscoped as an example.

Here are the prizes: The best 10 images (places 1 to 10) will be published with the photographer’s name on the Swarovski Optik homepage.

The three entrants chosen as “Digiscoper of the Year North America” will receive the following prizes from Swarovski Optik:

1st PRIZE: EL 32 binocular (I use an 8x32 EL) 2nd PRIZE: Pocket Tyrol 3rd PRIZE: Swarovski Crystal Spoonbill

In addition these pictures will take part in the international Swarovski Optik Photography competition, so enter today.

And remember, this does not have to be a Swarovski scope or even your own scope to enter.  Just get a cool photo of a bird or other animal with a scope.  And don't limit it to photos, go for video too, get creative and get outside.  You have nothing to lose and some great prizes to gain.

I am totally shocked to be offering these prizes... these are like birding magazine prizes.  So take advantage of this contest!

Ranger River Walks

We have a new activity we're offering this summer at the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area called Ranger River Walks.  We meet at different parts of our park and show whoever is there around.  There's an asterisk next to the list of parks that denotes if it's a specific birding ranger walk, but if I'm leading any of them, they will automatically be a birding walk, I can't help it.  I did one yesterday at Lock and Dam 1 to see the peregrine nest box (above).  Unfortunately, the nest failed, but the adults are still hanging out.

The lock and dam is a fun place for some light birding anyway.  There are usually herons and waterfowl hanging out right under the platform and it's fun to look right down on them, it's your chance to see those great long heron toes.  The dam is a great spot for them to go fishing, you'll also see cormorants hanging out around the dame too.

This poor black-crowned night-heron was trying to fish but the great blue herons kept chasing him off.  It finally found a spot around some rocks to fish in peace, but just another fun bird that you can find in our very urban park.

I think the next ranger walk I lead is on June 24 at Minnehaha Falls if you would like to come along.  Maybe we'll find a merlin, they've been around there in the past.

After the Ranger Walk, I headed over to Crosby Park to help get things ready for the bird banding that we'll do this Saturday at the BioBlitz.  There were indigo buntings all over the place, if you've never seen one or had a good look at one, you'll get it this weekend if you show up.  Above is the same bird that I got the video of yesterday.

While I was there at about noon, I head some barred owls hooting and a black-billed cuckoo.  I doubt we'll get those in the nets, but still there are some great birds to be found in that park.

And I leave you with a video of that peregrine falcon preening:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXVj6TuEXR8[/youtube]

Random Links

I'm currently in North Dakota at the Potholes and Prairie Bird Festival giving workshops and leading trips.  Today was awesome, I did what I would call a slow and easy trip.  It's intent is to be a digiscoping workshop, give people a chance to try and take some photo of birds without feeling rushed like you do on regular field trips, but it was just such a joy to have a chance to sit and spend an hour with a great bird like a Baird's sparrow (above), really get to know this elusive sparrow.

And yes, my darling husband who is reading this from home, that bird is different from all the sparrows you see at the feeder.

Also, on Twitter today, someone was passing around to a link to a disturbing set of photos.  A bull frog eating a Eurasian tree sparrow.  If you would like to see the disturbing set, click here.  If you would like to avoid that image being burned into your brain, focus on the happy Baird's sparrow above.