It's Official: The Endangered Species Act Is Broken

From the Associated Press:

The Bush administration is reducing protections for endangered animals and plants.

Just six weeks before Democratic President-elect Barack Obama takes office, the current Republican administration is changing endangered species regulations.

Some mandatory, independent reviews that government scientists have performed for 35 years are being eliminated. The scientists' advice from such reviews can delay or block dams, highways and other projects.

The new rules will take effect in about 30 days. The rules also prohibit federal agencies from evaluating the effect on endangered species and the places they live from a project's contribution to increased global warming.

Obama has promised to reverse the new rules. Congress also could overturn them. If Obama doesn't do something to reverse this, he will be no different than the current administration.

Birds and Beers Tonight!

Birds and Beers is tonight at Merlin's Rest at 6pm! We'll have a raffle for some prizes courtesy of Woodlink.

Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of birders of all abilities--if you're interested in birds, you're invited. You can meet other birders--maybe find a carpool buddy, ask about where to find target birds, share cool research projects you might be working on, ask a bird feeding question, share life lists, share some digiscoping tips, promote your blog--the sky is the limit. It's low key and it's fun.

And if you need another laugh today, Non Birding Bill sent me this link to Kung Fu Squirrels. Enjoy!

Black Dog Lake Gull Watching

When it comes to gull id, I've always depended on the kindness of strangers to point out what birds are in the flock. I haven't had a huge interest in them, they all looked the same and when someone would point out the differences they were seeing on a particular gull, I wasn't seeing those differences and felt that they may have been on some mood altering substance.

Part of the problem is that gull id is hard and not easy to explain. And quite honestly, no one has done a good job of making it understandable to a general audience. All the books that I have found are written by hardcore gull people for hardcore gull people. The books that are currently available are not organized in a way where you can easily do side to side comparisons. They are big clunky and well, just not organized for someone starting from square one. I've even tried looking at websites and haven't found any that are easy to navigate, at least for species in this area. Seriously, I just looked up "gull mantle color" and found this chart--oy! It's not easy for someone to get into. I wish there could be a book with side by side comparisons, a little less natural history info, maybe even flash cards. I'm seriously thinking of scanning my Sibley and making some flash cards.

That said, I'm forcing myself out to get to know gulls. Partly because I want to get over this hump and partly because I'm helping on a gull trip at the Space Coast Bird Festival in January. I really lucked out on Tuesday and ended up having an 8 species of gull night, which for the Twin Cities is pretty darned good.

And might I add that gull watching in Florida in January is going to be 10 times more fun since it will be warm whereas here in Minnesota it's snowy and the temperature is in the teens. I was bundled up, but still got numb fingers while watching gulls the other night.

The power plant keeps the water open and gulls and other waterfowl come in to feed and roost as nearby lakes and the Mississippi River and Minnesota River freeze up. Part of the problem with gull watching is trying to find a place where they are fairly close to try and id. This road next to the power plant is turning out to be an okay place. The birds are fairly close and easy to see...if you have a scope. In the evening, the sun is behind you and you can get some beautiful light on the birds.

So here are some answers that may even lead to debate on the hidden gull in the photos. My goal was to jut be able to pick out a bird that looked different from the expected herring gulls and ring-billed gulls. That's all I wanted to be able to do. I was surprised that I was actually able to mentally id a couple on the spot.

In the first photo, here is the gull in the red circle that is different from the herring gulls and ring-billed gulls. It's in its first-cycle or immature plumage but it's different from what a herring or ring-billed would look like.

Here in the profile, you can see a big difference (and a male common merganser). The bird is pale and it's wing tips are roughly the same color as the back, not dark like the bird below:

See bird in the front that is all gray has dark wingtips? This is a young herring gull.

So, back to our gray, yet very pale gull. The coloration in some ways reminds me of gyrfalcon coloration. When I arrived, another woman was at Black Dog scanning for gulls and she had spotted this one. I scanned and was pleased that I was able to tell it from the other gulls. I noticed that it was pale and I noticed that the wingtips were the same color as the back. I wasn't sure if it was a Thayer's gull or and Iceland but thought I would watch and take photos and check the id when I got home. Other birders arrived and MN gull guru Jim Mattsson came in and called it an Iceland gull. He said that the bird's overall paleness, the wingtips being the same color as the back and having a frosty appearance, as well as a rounded head make this an Iceland gull.

When I first arrived, I found a very large gull, bigger than any of the others. With its large size, checkered back and blunt bill, I felt confident in calling this a great black-backed gull. All the gulls got up and disappeared for a bit so at first I was the only who saw it. Fortunately, it landed again and the whole group got to see it (and I got confirmation which felt good).

I also noticed another super large gull that was really, really pale. Can you pick it out in the above photo?

Here's another photo of our large pale bird. This is a glaucous gull. I really felt good that I was actually seeing different gulls and figuring them out. This is a BIG step for me, I think just picking up gulls here and there at festivals and spending the last week studying Sibley and the overwhelming Gulls of the Americas has helped as well. I'm not as bad off as I thought.

Other birds did distract me a bit. While we were there, we watched the gulls soar around the smoke stack at the power plant. Jim pointed to a pepper speck at the top and said "peregrine":

Sure enough, looking through the scope, you could see an adult peregrine falcon. At one point it even called out. Not sure what that was all about, but it was nice to have the distraction from the gulls. We got a total of eight species that evening: ring-billed gull, herring gull, Iceland gull, Thayer's gull, glaucous gull, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull and...

...a Bonaparte's gull. This one flew in and I heard a member of group call it out. I found it right away and breathed a sigh of relief that this one was easy to pick out from the numerous gulls on the lake. It was super tiny compared to the others, had a dainty bill, and a little black spot behind the eye. All in all, I felt as thought I would have positively identified all the gulls in my photos when I came, except maybe the Iceland gull (that one I would have struggled between Thayer's and Iceland).

Quite a few other species of birds were out on the water including the trumpeter swans see above and white pelicans.

As the sun began to set, the water became more and more pink--it was quite beautiful.

And don't panic, the usual birds will resume on here soon!

Gull Mental Note

NOTE: I swear this blog will not turn into one of those endless gull discussions, just a note on a minor breakthrough I had with my birding ability.

I had a breakthrough in my gull watching ability at Black Dog Lake Power Plant yesterday! Number 1: I enjoyed doing it yesterday and number 2: I was actually able to pick out gulls that looked different from the bazillions of herring gulls and ring-billed gulls and made tentative mental ids, and had them confirmed by both a field guide and a guy who knows WAY more about gull id than I do.

So, I'm going to post a few photos and see if you can A: pick out the gull that is different and B: can you id the gull? There's not prize, just an easy going series of photos to see if you can find the bird that is different.

The first photo will be big a big flock. The second will be a closer view (and if you are new to gull id, if you can just pick out the different gull and why--that is a triumph of the birding spirit).

Here's the first photos. I think if you click on it, you might get a larger view. Can you figure out which bird is not a herring gull or a ring-billed gull? I show it in a later entry, just see if you can mentally find it. A bigger hint will be in the next photo:

And no, it's not the duck in the front, although if you can id that bird, pat yourself on the back. So, which bird is different, why is it different, and what species is it?

More later.

Misunderstood Birder Underwear


Wow, that was a title I never thought I would write.

Playing around on Magnificent Frigatebird, I found some underwear that might be confusing if you were dating a non birder. I should mention that all of these are available as either boxers or thongs.

First, in England, birders are called twitchers and instead of birding you go twitching. So, if you didn't know that, the following underwear could be interpreted as a warning label:


Something else is that in England, bird is another name for woman. So, this could be considered a bit randy:

I bet we won't be seeing that at a Wild Birds Unlimited any time soon. Also falling under the category of "you're just asking for it" would be this:


I'm just sayin'.

In some circles pishing can mean something other than making a "pish sound" to attract birds. It can be slang for urination. So this underwear might also be interpreted as some kind of odd warning or declaration of strange ability:

That's great. You go with your ability to pish anywhere. Or then there's this:

No, I don't want to hear a big pish story! Yikes! And then there this:

If you don't know what the device is pictured in the silhouette, this could be especially frightening underwear to a non birder. And let's not forget about the life list, not everyone knows what that is, so this could imply an entirely different meaning:

And it would just get worse as the number goes up:

Just kind of makes it sound like you've been around the block way too many times. Here's another:

Let's not beat around the bush on the above underwear, it kind of makes the wearer sound like a lot of birders have had a good time in that area. 'Nuff said. I think the following would go one step further for causing a non birder to run screaming from the boudoir:

The above is technically bird bander underwear, but terrifying to anyone not in the know to see that on a pair of panties.

And then this pair. Well this pair might make the person think that you want to do things with birds that you only read about certain movies stars doing in tabloids:

Just a warning to all you birders out there from someone who has been married to a non birder for a long time. Careful about your choice of underwear.

Ghost Bird Movie

Well, well, well, ivory-billed woodpeckers are still in the news! If you're not tempted to get one for the $50,000 reward, there's a movie called Ghost Bird coming about the whole IBWO phenom. Here's a trailer:

Two things struck me about the trailer. Number one, the use of the song "Where Is My Mind." I think the first time I heard that song was the movie Fight Club (love that movie). And for some reason I always thought of it in association with the ivory-bill. When I would listen to it, I would imagine what it would be like seeing one (and this was before the whole rediscovery thing). So, kudos to them for using it.

The second thing that struck me is that the Ivory-billed Skeptic blogger is in the documentary. I giggled aloud when I saw that. Man, that was a blog that stirred the pot and then totally disappeared. If you're wondering what happened that blog, now that people have lost interest in woodpecker skepticism, he's moved on to climate change skepticism (you go, boy). My fondest memory of that blogger was that once I linked to him in a very tongue and cheek manner and he sent me an email informing me that I need to take him a bit more seriously because David Sibley and Jerome Jackson read his blog. Oooooooooo.

Ah, good times.

Looks interesting, perhaps even a little bit Waiting For Guffman-ish. I think the press release says it will be out in January 2009.

Non Birding Bill Has Been Digiscoping

I was out at a meeting today and when Non Birding Bill picked me up he said, "We had a visitor while yo were away today. Then she showed me pictures on his iTouch of...

...a Cooper's hawk. I asked how he got the photos and he said he used my digiscoping equipment. Which is pretty incredible since he's never used my camera, let alone my birding equipment. I've shown him birds through my scope and he's been around when I digiscope, but he's never put the equipment together, let alone got a bird in scope view--which can be challenging if you haven't used one before.

He had a dickens of a time with it when he started. First, my camera batteries were about dead, but fortunately I always have some charging so he was able to put some fresh ones in. His second challenge was trying to figure out how to put the adaptor for the camera on--which only took three tries (and a couple of zoom errors).

Once he had the camera and adaptor together, had it on the scope, and zoomed out the vignetting, he had the challenge of shooting through the window pane, the storm window pane, and heat shimmer coming off the windows from the radiator.

But he got a few good shots and with a little tweaking in iPhoto on my part he got some VERY blogable photos for a husband who claims to be uninterested in birding. I asked how he noticed it and he said he was on the futon and saw it fly right into the tree outside the apartment windows. A few crows flew into the tree but were not seriously mobbing it. He got a video of it too and when it moved, you could see that it had a full crop and must have eaten recently. Also, the bird is sitting on one foot, I think it was digesting. NBB also said it perched in the tree for a good ten minutes. He tried to open the windows to get even better shots, but as he was lifting the storm window, a screen slammed down and startled the Cooper's hawk.

I love this kind of confused look the hawk is giving the camera in this photo. I wonder if this is the same hawk who showed up as an immature bird last year and took a bathe on the apartment building roof across the way from our apartment? Since she's not banded, there's no way to know for sure, but it's fun to wonder.

So, with a little tweaking and a good stationary bird, even a non birder like NBB can use my digiscoping set up.