12 Great Backyard Bird Count: Year of the Siskin

Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society's 12th annual Great Backyard Bird Count had a record number of pine siskins and participants.  More than more than 93,600 checklists were submitted and identified 619 species.

One of the big stories coming from the GBBC this year was the massive invasion of Pine Siskins and White-Winged Crossbills over much of the eastern United States.  According to the GBBC,  "These feisty little birds moved southward because of seed crop failures in their usual wintering grounds in Canada and the boreal forests. GBBC participants reported 279,469 pine siskins on 18,528 checklists, compared to the previous high of 38,977 birds on 4,069 checklists in 2005.

Hey, check out this shirt design for the winter finch invasion that Magnificent Frigate Bird came up with.  You can see all the products available with the logo here.  I love birders with a sense of humor.

White-winged crossbills were not as common, but their invasion was still impressive with 4,824 birds on 589 checklists representing a new record over the previous high of 2,854 birds on 135 checklists in 2007."

In downer news, the GBBC showed continuing declines in some common birds, like loggerhead shrike.  However some species that have been in decline like northern bobwhites and eastern meadowlarks were both up slightly from last year.  Though an increase is positive, their numbers are still lower than they were in 2004.

Species reported for the first time during the GBBC included two oceanic species--Pink-footed Shearwater and Xantus's Murrelet, both in California. Other first-timers included Baird's Sandpiper, Black-billed Cuckoo, and Blackpoll Warbler. Two rare Mexican species appeared on GBBC checklists from Arizona for the first time: the first Sinaloa Wren ever found north of the border, and a Blue Mockingbird.

For a more detailed summary of this year's results, visit the GBBC website.  You can explore 2009 data, compare with other years, and find the exact counts for each species in a particular state, province, or town.

If you didn't participate this year, you can sign up next year to be part of this big count. The next Great Backyard Bird Count is February 15-18, 2010!

Top 10 most-frequently reported birds in the 2009 GBBC: 1)   Northern Cardinal 2)   Mourning Dove 3)   Dark-eyed Junco 4)   American Goldfinch 5)   Downy Woodpecker 6)   Blue Jay 7)   House Finch 8)   Tufted Titmouse 9)   American Crow 10) Black-capped Chickadee

Test

Just testing with this barn owl clip to see if I can set this post to pubish at a later date. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0uerPJInU0&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Fabulous Guatemala Hummingbirds At Cabana Suiza

I have some serious Guatemala blogging to catch up on! And this Sunday morning when I read that on the calendar that is was April 5, yet looked out the window and saw snow covering the ground, I was longing for those 10 days in that tiny country.  I wanted to think back to stopping at a coffee shop called Cabana Suissa where I got to savor tiny dudes like the berylline hummingbird above.

I mentioned earlier when I first came back that there were some digiscoping challenges due to shade and just not being used to the way the birds moved.  Above is a female cinnamon-bellied flowerpiercer, I couldn't get a great shot of one of those birds to save my life, but thank goodness for bird feeders providing predictable perches.

Here's that berryline again.  Check out those awesome hummingbird pants.  I'm used to the standard ruby-throated hummingbird with green on the back, white on the front and the males have that splash of red on the throat.  This guy is a gorgeous green, with glossy rust and bright white pants!  Although, if we're going to talk in ornithology terms, those white feathers are covering the toes and feet, so this hummingbird would have white socks.

The azure-crowned hummingbird also had some white pants going on, but not nearly to the degree that the berylline did.

While getting shots of the azure-crowned, I was able to see a bit more of the spectacular colors of the magnificent hummingbird behind it.  Note the purple, the emerald green on top of the other shiny greens of the white-eared hummingbird.

Here's a better shot of the white-eared in all its glory.  I was having such a blast getting photos of birds, I never made it into the coffee shop.  They guides were kind enough to grab the coffee for me and bring it out.

I could have spent all afternoon at Cabana Suiza, watching the none stop activity of the hummingbirds and getting photo after photo.  It was fantastic to be out with such great guides keeping us on the move to add birds to our list, but it's all a treat just to stop and savor great birds in great light.

Hey, check out this hummer.  This was the largest hummingbird that game into the feeders called a rufous saberwing--it was huge compared to the others, almost twice the size.  I felt if it were any bigger, it would have been lethal around our heads.  It was harder to get shots of the larger saberwing, it was more easily bullied by the smaller hummingbirds.

These are just some of the great birds that you can see in Guatemala.

Swarovski 60th Anniversary Sale

Still trying to figure out wordpress.  This was supposed to publish two day ago and just saw it was still in drafts. Swarovski Optik is celebrating their 60th anniversary this year. I got a couple of interesting press releases yesterday.  One was announcing the anniversary from Swarovski and that they would be offering discounts as a celebration.  The other was from Eagle Optics announcing that starting today they would have some shocking Swarovski discounts.  Just checked their site and their are some pretty good deals.  You can get a litte more than $400 off of ELs.

Tracking Golden Eagle 42

My buddy, Mark Martell who works for Audubon Minnesota is working on a project with the National Eagle Center, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Nongame Program, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources – Endangered Resources Program studying golden eagles wintering along the Mississippi River.

Golden eagles do not breed in Minnesota and Wisconsin and have not been considered regular users of the Mississippi River during the winter, but in the last few years, there have been several reports, especially near the Wabasha area. The National Eagle Center organized a volunteer survey program and have counted as many as  60 golden eagles using the coulees and bluffs along the Mississippi River from Red Wing, MN to LaCrosse, WI. This wintering population does not mix with the much larger and better known population of wintering and breeding bald eagles found in the same area. I actually got to see one of the golden eagles last winter whenn I went out with Joan from the Eagle Center.

Many who have counted the golden eagles wonder, where are these birds coming from?  They could be breeding in Canada and the size of the breeding population in northern Ontario is thought to be small and thus vulnerable. If the birds are moving from western breeding areas they could be severely impacted by wind generator projects proposed for the Great Plains and western Minnesota.We need to find out where they go and what their migratory route is.

One of the ways they are going to do that is by putting satellite transmitters on golden eagles.  This winter, a golden eagle that was found injured in a coyote trap (a nice name for a leg-hold trap--can't we ban those types of traps please) on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River where the golden eagles are wintering. It was treated at The Raptor Center and was released on March 25, 2009.  When the bird was let go, Mark was able to attach a transmitter and given the name, Golden Eagle 42.  You can read about it and watch video on MPR or the Star Tribune.

While in Indianapolis, I got this email update:

"After its release the bird spent the evening of the 25th near its release point then began moving north. By the evening of the 28th it was in northern Chippewa County (Wisconsin)."

If this map is hard to read, just click on it and you can see a larger version.

"On the attached map the release point and evening stopover sites are noted by a circle and text. Circles not marked with text are other points were the bird was tracked in between those times. The black line indicates the shortest route between known points where the bird was, but we cannot be sure the bird actually took that route."

Maps and other information will be posted on the Audubon Minnesota website, their goal is to update every 3 days as the birds makes its way north.  I'll add links and updates here and on Twitter as I get them.

New Phoebe Snetsinger Biography

There's a new biography out about Phoebe Snetsinger.  I haven't read it, but it looks interesting.  Here's a promo for the book by Olivia Gentile: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MnQ_HyyTp4[/youtube]