Birdchick Blog
Elders of the Internet, save us all. The American Birding Association opened up a debate about using taped calls of birds to find them in the field. Also, we can see how people voted about what areas could be included in the ABA listing field.
Study muses that some species of birds use cigarette butts to deter parasites in the nest.
For the birder who has everything...
For some reason, Non Birding Bill will talk about this sketch from SNL.
WARNING: Some people may find a photo in here gross...especially if you are of the Disapproving Rabbits persuasion.
I know this may shock some of you, but it's December and we got SNOW in Minnesota! In the Twin Cities we got roughly 12" from Winter Storm Caesar. Much to the chagrin of the National Weather Service, the Weather Channel has started naming winter storms. On the one hand that seems silly, but on the other, in this day and age of social media and climate change bring about more extreme weather and storm systems, it makes sense. We can't call every snow storm Snomaggeddon or SnOMG.
But we got our first real snow of the season in the form of 12" and not the expect 4 " - 6" that usually is our first dusting. It was beautiful snow if you didn't have anywhere to be and was warm enough that a walk through the neighborhood yield gorgeous views like at Lakewood Cemetery yesterday. Not much in the way of bird action, but I imagine birds had staked out feeders and thick bushes to wait out the storm.
As I was walking home, a lump on the unshoveled but well trampled sidewalk caught my attention. At a distance I wondered if someone had lost a scarf or as is becoming all too common in my neighborhood, a wayward hair weave.
Closer inspection revealed it to be the remains of an eastern cottontail rabbit. A few nudges with my boot showed the carcass to be fresh and malleable, not stiff and several hours old. Hm. I, of course, had to study the surrounding tracks. I noticed right away boot prints and crow tracks and was wondering if someone's dog got the bunny and the crows came in for the ample food source (we're withing five miles of a large crow roost). But I couldn't find dog paw prints with the bunny prints.
Then I found what I was looking for, rabbit tracks with wing prints. What struck my attention was how the wing prints seemed short next to the rabbit tracks and that the rabbit tracks didn't stop. I would expect that a red-tailed hawk would be the raptor going after a rabbit in my neighborhood (we have a few urban residents). And when red-tails nail a rabbit, the bunny track usually stops.
These tracks went all over from the sidewalk to the yard, you could even see where the rabbit tried to turn around. Based on the short width of the wings and the tracks, I wondered if what killed the rabbit was a Cooper's hawk? That's a very common hawk in our neighborhood too and yes they are large and can go for rabbits, they do not have feet suited for dispatching a bunny quickly. They have skinny toes meant for crushing songbirds and pigeons, not the big beefy toes of a red-tail. That rabbit wouldn't have gone gently into that goodnight.
The corner where I found the bunny carcass and evidence is well traveled and close to a coffee shop. I suspect once the Cooper's got the rabbit, it couldn't eat that much as there would be people walking by, flushing it. The several crow prints makes me wonder if they got more of the bunny than the hawk.
Survival continues even in the most urban of neighborhoods.
OK, kids, it's time to polish those bins and put on your Sunday best convertible pants! A national cable network is looking for birders to appear on a new television series about birding. If you are an avid birder – bordering on obsessive – we want you. You do not need to have a degree in ornithology or a book coming out (although if you do, we want to hear from you). Please send your contact information, a short description of your birding experience (where you bird for instance) and a photo (if you have one) to natgeocasting@gmail.com. (Please put “Bird” in the subject line.)
Send it now. Because, after all, the early bird... well, you know the rest. I personally hope that this morphs into an Amazing Race style show with Kenn Kaufman, David Allen Sibley, Richard Crossley and Lillian Stokes all sharing the same vehicle. But this is probably what we'll get:
I have been surveying the same patch for on and off for the last three years in southern Minnesota. I really enjoy watching how the patch changes during the seasons: seeing when certain birds arrive, listening to all the birds on territory, noticing when certain birds leave and when winter birds arrive.
But every December I'm always surprised at how lonely I find myself during my many hours in the field. Oh sure there's still some crows and bluejays around and there are the bald eagles which I'm watching for but it's still so quiet compared to what it had been the several months previous.
This year I'm getting a bonus. I've had such delights as the above common redpolls and a few white-winged crossbills too. And they're large flocks of Lapland longspurs all around and they're now being joined by large flocks of snow buntings. But these birds are predator wary and not like feeder birds. However, these birds are different. They are wary and distrustful of someone watching them. It's not like the birds that were singing on territory that were so focused on proving that they were the best male for breeding. These birds are constantly on the alert for predators. I don't blame them, I've seen plenty of merlins, northern harriers and Cooper's hawks around here even make me worry for their safety.
But combined with the wind, these fields are now a lonely place.
Really awesome birding bumper stickers and mugs at BirdNerdz.
There's a petition to create a "duck stamp" for birders so the money will go to more non game species and not lump birders into hunters on wildlife surveys.
Check out SciStarter. Kind of like Kickstarter but instead of looking for funding, they're looking for people to participate in research projects. They have a section just on BIRDS!
Hmmmm...energy companies are not in favor of the lesser prairie chicken being put on the Threatened List. That's not suspicious at all...
A crane in New Mexico is debatable for some, clearly a sandhill crane for others.
Should birds have an expiration date on your list? Whatever.
