The Fat Birder Top 500 Birding Websites has finally exceeded the 500! When I first signed up to Fat Birder I don't think there were even 250 sites listed. I remember mentioning to Non Birding Bill that I wanted to add Birdchick to the list and he was leery. I can get overly obsessive about rankings. I'm no longer privy to my stats page because I get too involved with it over silly things like "Yesterday I had 5 visits from Seychelles and today only 2! What's wrong, why aren't they reading today?"
Anyway, my expectations with my ranking have been far exceeded and I thank everyone who takes time from their day to read about birds or my disapproving rabbit.
While looking at the new additions today, I came across Kids for Birds. It's for New Zealand but still a great idea.
Boy, can I tell I'm deadline this week. I'm finding all kinds of distractions between You Tube and Bird Forum. Why is it that when I have plenty of time, I want to do anything but the work I need to do? It's not like the work isn't fun--I'm enjoying the heck out of working on this Audubon Minnesota River birding finding guide. I think I like the magic and sweat of last minute work. Mark, if you're reading this, don't freak out. I'll make that deadline.
The weekend in Rhode Island was filled with mostly meetings and wasn't intended to be a big birding trip. But Clay found a way Sunday morning to allow us to not only sleep in, but get an hour's worth of great birding ...
Holy crap, a Cooper's hawk just tried to pop a crow outside my window--sweeeeet.
...sorry for the bird interruption of this entry. Anyway, Clay took us to Beavertail Park for a quick look at some seabird specialties. It was very windy and the ocean was crashing on the rocky coast. But out beyond that we could see scoters, gannets, harlequin ducks, eiders, gulls and even a red-throated loon! When we arrived, Clay whipped out a case of Swarovaki binoculars and asked us to pick a pair to play with. I chose the 8x32 ELs. To quote Ferris Bueller, "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. "
I finally got to see gannets for the first time on the pelagic trip during the ABA Convention in Maine this past June. You could make them out in the distance as they flew by. At Beavertail, I got AMAZING looks. I took this with my new Fuji E900 as if flew by and that doesn't do my view justice. Also, since I wasn't on a boat going up and down, I was able to really savor the gannet with binoculars. We even got to watch the gannets do their spectacular dives in the water. Here's an extreme example from the movie Winged Mirgration (it's one minute and 34 seconds long):
We didn't see that many birds but the few saw dive were really cool.
I wanted to give digiscoping with my new camera a try. I had hoped to do it with the harlequin ducks, but they were really out there. The eiders were much closer and larger targets to practice on. I'm still trying to get the hang of all the bells and whistles on the Fuji, but I was excited at the early results.
Here we have a herring gull creeping up on a male common eider. The eiders dive down into the water after fish and the herring gulls lurk nearby to try and steal the eider's catch. Darn gulls, don't mess with the pretty sea ducks!
I big part of the fun this weekend was meeting some new birders and some hunters. I love hanging out with hunters. I met a woman named Gray Farnsworth and she was awesome. She hunts everything from deer, to wild boar to ducks. She enjoys the challenge of bow hunting the best. I asked her if this was something she learned from her father and she said, "No, I'd never been hunting a day in my life. When I turned 35, I felt I needed to kill something."
Some days, I can totally relate to that.
There's something about sharing stories with hunters that is very different than hanging with birders and I don't mean the obvious difference between that activity is to watch and the other is to kill. I remember once years ago being on a field trip in Detroit Lakes. The bus full of birders was heading back after a long day in the field of watching great birds. I was tired and zoning out while I listened to conversations around me. Kenn Kaufman was a few seats away talking about his first draft of Kingbird Highway (the story of how he left high school early and hitchhiked his way across the country to see as many birds as possible in a year). Kenn was talking about how macho the first draft of the book was since he wrote it from a young man's perspective and how we went back and retooled it a bit when he was older.
I started to think of all the male birders I had ever met and none of them qualified as macho. I had a Homer Simpson moment of saying the quiet part loud and the loud part quiet when I announced, "I don't think I've ever met a macho bird watcher."
All male eyes within earshot fell on me. I suddenly realized what I said out loud and the men weren't thrilled with what I said. I'm sure knew they weren't macho, they just didn't want it pointed out.
Hunters are very confident in what they do. Male hunters are macho and it's fun to hang around that manliness for awhile. Even Gray with her cute street clothes had a confidence that is evident in any hunter I have ever met. They know who they are, they know what they can do and there is a power in that. We had a great time sharing stories on a level we could relate to: the serenity of being out the woods or a quiet lake and finding strength in that, the excitment of sneaking up on quarry, a desire to maintain habitat so the creatures we love will be here now and for future generations, and an appreciation for the taste of pheasant.
Here's a photo of some of our group. Of these three men, can you tell the birders from hunters?
This video is only 1 minute and 34 seconds. It's worth it for the last twenty seconds. I don't want all the cute pet starling videos to inspire people to get one without knowing all the facts.
Earlier this year, bird flu panic was in full swing: The French feared for their foie gras, the Swiss locked their chickens indoors, and Americans enlisted prison inmates in Alaska to help spot infected wild birds.
With the feared H5N1 virus -- previously confined to Southeast Asia -- striking birds in places as diverse as Germany, Egypt, and Nigeria, it seemed inevitable that a flu pandemic would erupt.
Then the virus went quiet. Except for a steady stream of human cases from Indonesia, the current bird flu epicenter, the past year's worries about a catastrophic global flu outbreak largely disappeared from the radar screen.
I was really put through the ringer with airport security. I was informed while in line that I was pre-selected for a more in depth search. Which was fine, that's why you get to the airport early. Interesting to note, the gel deodorant that was not in my one quart plastic bag but tucked in my carry on bag was not confiscated even though the guy checking it saw it and handled it. My new slippers apparently had something suspect on them because they caused the machine to beep but after even more in depth inspection, I was allowed to keep them. This didn't bother me so much but I did get some odd hassling from the teenage security guy. When he pulled out my iPod he asked, "Is this an iPod mini?"
"No," I said. "It's just a regular sized iPod."
"How long have you had it?" he asked.
"About a year and a half." I replied.
"Well, you're gonna need a new one because the battery on this is going to stop working." he informed me.
"Why, because of the inspection today?" I asked somewhat alarmed.
"No, that's just what happens to iPod minis, their batteries quit working." he told me.
"Well, it's a good thing that's not an iPod mini and that I have a warranty."
He then pulled out my sudoku book and showed it to one of his coworkers. "Man, this sudoku is really popular."
To which his friend replied, "It's ridiculous. People."
Hello?? I'm sitting right here as your rummaging and judging my stuff. After I was cleared as safe to allow on the plane I went to the Dunkin' Donuts which I miss so much in Minnesota. I ordered some coffee and a vanilla creme donut and the lady at the counter told me that the don't have the vanilla or chocolate creme filled only the Boston creme filled. "That's disappointing." I said.
"That's your problem not mine." she informed me. "We're a small store."
I decided not to press my luck any further at the Rhode Island Airport and just pay for my coffee and wait for my plane.
I was in Rhode Island this weekend hanging out with my friend Clay Taylor and got to tour the Swarovski Optik United States Offices. Here's the modest outside. Here's an interesting bit of trivia for you:
Right across the street from Swarovski is a maximum security prison! Hm, I bet they get to test those optics on some interesting doin's a transpirin' when the inmates are outside. As if a hardcore correctional facility isn't weird enought, on the other side of Swarovski is:
A historic cemetary! Wonder if it's ever haunted in the warehouse? But don't let all this creep you out.
The inside is what you would expect, here we have a board room with a scope and feeders right outside and nothing says Swarovski like crystal--check out those light fixtures on the ceiling.
I was very excited to see that they had the fancy crystal pocket binoculars. I've seen these on the internet and just think these would be too cha cha for words. I love the idea of being on a pelagic and then whipping one of these babies out.
I was allowed to handle a pair and try them out. They are beautiful and for pockets these have exceptional clarity, but much like a sexy pair of shoes, they aren't very comfortable. These are meant to be opera glass and held by ladies wearing gloves.
The fun part for me was seeing the assembly and repair area. I got to handle the insides of Swarovski binoculars including the prisms--those were pretty an if put on the proper chain could be worn as jewelery. Above we have a columnizer (I hope I'm spelling that correctly). From my understanding, this contraption aligns your binoculars, I would imagine working here would be like working in mad scientist laboratory.
I didn't realize that if you need to get your binos tuned up, they can do it right here in the United States and have a fairly quick turnover time. Spotting scopes need to be sent to Austria, but the binos can be done right here. I was looking at the repair shelf and they had a pair of binos that had been run over by a truck. The incredible thing was that the case was still intact--the objective lenses were FUBARed and the prisms probably need to be replaced but the casing of the bino was still intact (yes it was repairable).
Believe it or not, there are people who keep starlings as pets in North America. Because they are non-native to the United States, it is totally legal. Goodness knows we've got enough of them. They are incredibly messy birds, but since they are related to mynah birds and are amazing mimics (think of all the times you thought you heard an unusual bird only to discover a starling on territory nearby) they can be trained to talk. Check this video of Weewoo the Starling. There are several videos of this talking starling on You Tube, I liked this one the best, it's the shortest at about a minute long. If you want to watch other Weewoo videos, keep in mind he asks for kisses A LOT. I think I dated Weewoo once.
I heard a rumor once that there was a pet shop in Roseville, Minnesota selling starlings for $75--seriously that's highway robbery!
I am on the road again. This time I am traveling to Master Dragon Digiscoping Academy which is secretly known as the backyard of the Shaolin Monestary by the 18 Brass Men. Seriously, I am in Rhode Island and hopefully by the end of this weekend I will have a better grip on the art of digiscoping. Good grief, Rhode Island! How many states have I been to this year?
I had a layover in Philadelphia today. My, was it festive! I want to say for the record that I am in favor of this trend of putting rocking chairs in airports. It rocks--literally and figuratively. What really adds to this scene which you cannot see is a man with a karaoke machine singing South of the Border behind the column. Karaoke lounge singers in airports--who knew? I had heard that airports were hiring musicians and magicians to walk around and sooth the savage crowd during the Holiday Season, but was not expecting the karaoke, it's not as much fun if you can't jump in line to sing a song yourself. The Minneapolis airport has a piano player. Philadelphia has a professional karaoke singer. Compare. Contrast. In fairness, he did really work it when he sang Feliz Navidad.
On to Birds:
I’m pretty picky when it comes to the latest craze of bird seed ornaments. Some of them are very cute, but some are so full of filler seeds that I’m not quite sure even a squirrel would eat them. Of course, if you want a cute ornament made out of seed that won’t be devoured in ten seconds, perhaps using millet and milo for a $40 bird ornament is the way to go after all.
I did find this cool pine cone at Ed and Angie’s shop the other day. I grabbed it for Mr. Neil. I was impressed because it’s a giant pinecone and it’s covered with mostly fine sunflower chips. I believe the seed is held on with some sort of gelatin. As a matter of fact, after I too this photo, and walked back about five feet, a black-capped chickadee immediately landed on the cone and began to feed. If you have a hardcore bird feeding friend, this would be a good hostess gift. They will be impressed at you finding an ornament with fine sunflower chips.
It’s been kind of a bummer up here with all the harsh cold temperatures and no snow crunching uner your feed. We’re getting a few flurries, but it’s just not sticking. While at Mr. Neil’s one heck of a flurry blew in and just made everything light and beautiful. I love those big fluffy flakes.
I set the Wingscapes camera on the ground and got some photos of the juncos. Whoot.
Speaking of snow birds, I got an email from Joe who is fun guy I just run into all over the place--bird trips, fairs, festivals, etc. He also loves to visit The Raptor Center. He was at Lake Phalen the other day and captured a photo of some cute looking snow buntings. Joe is Japanese so it’s natural to me that he captured them looking especially cute. They just look like little jelly bowls.
I'm tired, I think that concludes my jet lagged, disjointed post.
