More Birder Gift Ideas And A Little Holy Crap

Okay, I have found a few more items that would be great gifts for those who are bird inclined. I've also added some bird organizations to the list as I was rightfully taken to task for excluding those great gift opportunities.

One is this REALLY awesome book called Owls of the North that just came out by Minnesota birder Dave Benson. The publisher had a table at the Paper Session on Saturday and I got a chance to check it out. At first glance, I thought this was a kids books, but it has great information and unbelievable photos. It covers the owl species you would find in Minnesota, but some of the species--like great horned owl can be found all over the US. It covers basic northern owl natural history, hunting habits, studies, albinos, and the irruption of 2004 - 2005. A great book for owl enthusiasts of all ages.

And then I got an email from Birder's World that they are offering a t-shirt for sale with an image of Samantha the arctic phase great horned owl at The Raptor Center that I took! Whoot. Above is the back of the shirt.

And here is the front of the shirt. If you like it, you can order it from Birder's World Cafe Press page. UPDATE: Birder's World just added a girl sized t-shirt too.

Speaking of The Raptor Center, they would make a great place to make a donation (especially if you have been enjoying following the saga of injured peregrine falcon 568). You can adopt one of our education birds (imagine adopting a turkey vulture for your mother-in-law) and you get a color photo of the bird, a free tour and opportunity to visit the bird you adopted, a certificate, and the raptor's bio.

Operation Migration has both a membership program and their Mile Maker (purchase a mile of crane migration). Supporting members will receive the INformation magazines, the EarlyBird email, and member pricing on selected Operation Migration merchandise. You might also take a peek at the gift store, they have some cute crane shirts and jewelery.

The Peregrine Fund has a neat gift shop with some great books and pins. Some of the raptor pins I have, but I just found a red-tailed hawk pin that totally rocks. Oh, and um, should Non Birding Bill or any friends or family members be reading this...um, I know a certain birdchick that would just totally love something along the lines of this nifty goshawk hat...especially since my harpy eagle hat has been commandeered by a an NBB. And if you are planning on doing a lot of shopping at P Fund, you might want to become a member, you get 10% off of the gift shop and it helps support raptor reintroductions like California condors, harpy eagles, and aplomado falcons.

Audubon is another organization that needs support and for those in the Minnesota area, there are three great guides about where to go birding in the state that just came out that were put together by several Minnesota birders (like me and Laura Erickson): Minnesota River Valley Birding Trail; North Shore Birding Trail: Duluth to Grand Portage; and the latest, Great River Birding Trail: Mississippi River from Headwaters to the Minnesota – Iowa Border.

Does anyone know of any other non profits that have some cool gift shops with some cool bird merchandise?

Does This Female Cardinal's Beak Look Goofy?

I got some photos of female cardinals at Hyland Park the other day and the beak looks strange. At first, I noticed the smudge on the beak. It looks like she's been eating berries. Here's a close up:

That looks like berry juice, don't you think?

Then she turned her head and it looks like the beak is bent awkwardly. Here it is up close:

So, I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the beak or is she maybe missing some black feathers that would normally be covering that patch up.

Here is another female cardinal head on, I took this photo the same day, her beak looks okay, but she appears to have more black feathers around it.

Here's a head on shot of a female cardinal that I took last winter and it doesn't appear to have that bump.

I wonder, is this just the way her beak has been growing or did she fly into something?

And once again, a bird leaves me with more questions than answers.

Saturday Happenin's and Shocking News From the Bell Museum

The hungry birds at Hyland Park yesterday did not lie--it be snowin' buckets here. I wonder if we will have a proper Minnesota winter this year? The first year Non Birding Bill and I lived here, it snowed in November and there was snow cover until April--no lie. I remember thinking at the time, "Can I really handle this?" However, we haven't really had it since.

This is what it looked like outside the Bell Museum (where we had the MOU Paper Session) right before I gave my presentation. It didn't look so bad, but I stuck my head outside and it sounded like some ice was falling.

This is what it looked like about an hour later and throughout the morning, the visibility got worse. The decision was made to kind of move the proceedings along quickly so instead of rounding out the day by 4pm, we ended up wrapping up around 1:30pm. NBB was doing some work near the museum and he and his buddies picked me up.

This was the view of I-94 on our way home--and yes that is the Dude on the dashboard (that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing). It's still snowing as I type this, so we have holed ourselves up and are watching movies (Radio Days and Troy thus far) and drinking martinis.

So, here was kind of some shocking news at the Paper Session. The Bell Museum of Natural History is planning to move to a new location and they are in the process of designing a new building. So, the museum director shows the MOU members plans for the new building and it's got a HUGE glass design so we can look out of the museum and see all the landscaping that will be done for birds...while birds slam into the windows and die. There were audible gasps heard in the audience when the design was shown to a bunch of birders. Now, I would just say that perhaps the Bell Museum just wasn't aware of the problem of birds flying into windows...however, they have been one of the partners with Bird Safe--as a matter of fact, Bob Zink, curator of birds at the Bell Museum of Natural History, is helping coordinate Project Bird Safe!

Bell Museum--what were you thinking? Well, perhaps when they have school groups over and they are doing a Bird Safe program they can just use the giant glass wall as a teaching tool, "See kids, you don't want a wall like we designed, because birds fly into it during migration and die." Or maybe this is way for them to study birds hitting windows up close?

Sigh.

Jim Stevenson Going Underground?

From the Galveston County Daily News:

GALVESTON — Ornithologist Jim Stevenson fled town Thursday after telling police someone took a shot at him.

Stevenson, who shot a cat but walked free after a jury deadlocked in his animal-cruelty trial, reported to police that someone fired a shot at his head Wednesday night while he was standing on his porch. He said he fell backward but wasn’t injured.

Stevenson has said he’s received death threats since the trial, which drew international attention, ended two weeks ago. He’s left the state for now but plans to return, he said.

Read the rest of the story here.