Sometimes Being Hard and Bulbous Can Be In Your Favor

All the photos in this entry are courtesy of my buddy, the digiscoping pro Clay Taylor.

Well, I had timed my trip in Connecticut to have Monday free to do some birding, but a hard and windy downpour has put the damper on that plan (har har). Instead, I'm catching up on some work and playing with some of Clay's cameras, looking ahead for when my Fuji FinePix finally falls apart (a point and shoot lives the life of ten cameras in one year with me).

Clay does digiscoping with both a point and shoot (like I do) and with an SLR camera. I was playing with his Pentax K100 and downloading photos when I came across a series of ring-necked duck photos that he took at Santee Lakes during a digiscoping workshop at the San Diego Bird Festival:

Here, the mighty ring-necked duck pursues its quarry.

He gets hold of his prey--a large snail.

Now that he has the seemingly defenseless snail in his grasp, how long will it be before he can consume the slimy contents?

His hunger relentless, he finds himself surprised that he has captured a large and nourishing meal, but alas, unable to swallow the snail.

No matter how wide he spreads his beak apart, the snail will not budge any further down towards his crop.

He makes another adjustment to try and swallow...

He tries gently to flip the snail around in this bill, careful to not lose his intended meal...

And he tries to incorporate his tongue into the process...

One big gulp and he should have it...

And with a final pitooey, the ring-necked duck releases the snail who slowly oozes away victorious.

Techno Birding Geekery

Holy Crap! Some enterprising techno geeks out there have figured out how to get the National Geographic Handheld Birds on to other devices besides a Palm Pilot. This message from Jen Korn showed up on TexBirds:

I posted a few months ago to see if anyone had found a way to put the Palm program National Geographic Birds on a phone. Whatbird's website has an excellent tip on downloading the program Styletap which allows the Palm program work on non-Palm devices. They don't list specific phones, but do say it should work on any sort of smartphone, which is basically any type of Blackberry or Pocket PC.

Many of you responded with tips and I thank you. Also many asked to post back if I made it work. I'm a little late posting but I did make it work. I moved my Nextel account to Sprint and purchased the HTC mogul Pocket PC. It is Windows based so I had to purchase Styletap and install it and after a few quirks it works great! Like Whatbird's page says, it does have some cons. On a lot of the identification screen the text is a little garbled so it is hard to read what it says about the colors and such. The pictures themselves are great, every other screen the text is perfect and the sound is amazing. I've used this many a time in the field so far, expecially my thesis work, to confirm something I thought I saw or heard.

I've also heard or read somewhere that National Geographic is working to make a version that will work on non-Palm devices so if you don't have a Palm you can always wait, or upgrade to it if you decide to put it on your non-Palm now.

A Harbor Seal Climbs A Tree In Connecticut

You may have to click on the above photo to see a larger version and read the accompanying caption. Can you catch the mistake made in Saturday's Hartford Courant? If you can't read the caption, I'll give you a hint: I'm at a Bald Eagle Festival...
I did not get any photos of eagles today at the Connecticut Audubon Eagle Festival. Number one, I didn't properly store my batteries and the cold air drained them. Number two, my scope is being used as a display at the Swarovski booth so it's priority one that passersbys get a chance to see a bald eagle nest through a Swarovski scope. I did get a photo of a distant harbor seal that swam up the Connecticut River and hauled itself up on a fallen tree. Oh to be a lardy mammal and loaf on a log! Not quite as exciting as having the Colbert Report here last year, but still mighty fun.

And because I need another bird photo, here's a junco from the yard outside the house. I'm staying with Clay Taylor (the Swarovski rep at bird festivals) and his family. It's fun riding around town with Clay and his wife Debbie--they know the history, geology, birds, buildings--all sorts of stuff. The other day we drove by Morley Safer's house, Katherine Hepburn's old house, and the opera house that first premiered Man of La Mancha and Annie. One of those musicals I could see again, the other would just induce a fit of me banging my head against the wall for relief.

The day though fun has totally worn me out. After being in a booth along the river outdoors all day, we came home to a hot spagetti meal that Debbie made and then topped it off with a chocolate trifle that Clay made--YUM. Tomorrow, we are going to stop at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast before hitting the booth. After last year's heartbreak of being told by an employee that my favorite type of donut had been discontinued, I've been sent lots of emails by readers telling me to give it another go and that it is still available at other various other locations. I'm keeping my expectations low and my options open, but I do enjoy a Dunkin Donuts coffee--it is a vice too, it's not shade grown, but I love it anyway.

Bearded Lady Cardinal?

This female cardinal was hanging around in my buddy Clay Taylor's backyard. She looks like a female, but seems to have a red beard. I checked Cornell's Birds of North America and found this:

"Mix of male and female plumage reported, with red on one side and gray-olive on the other (Laskey 1969); also albinistic individuals (e.g., Hartman 1968, SUL) and a melanistic male with a black head (Brooks 1934). One rare instance of a female that obtained male plumage color in fifth year of 8 yr of recapture; she returned to female color in next year (Baumgartner 1986)."

What?? A female that had male plumage at 8 years old, but then grew back her normal coloration? What is that all about? Anyone else seeing some oddly plumaged cardinals?

Disapproving Sparrow

I have arrived into Connecticut safe and sound. I spent part of the afternoon digiscoping in my friend Clay's backyard. I was loving the forty degree temps and all the white-throated sparrows. For some reasons, they made me miss Cinnamon.


Soon To Be Leavin' On A Jet Plane

I forgot about this photo. The last time we were at Mr. Neil's, the mammals were out in full force. The cottontail rabbit in the above photo was kind of a bad apple. It chased the poor gray squirrel every time it came near. A few times, it charged the squirrel, even when it was keeping a good distance from the rabbit. The red squirrel would watch with interest from the top of the squirrel and even it decided not to take on the bunny.

We got some more snow and tomorrow I fly to Connecticut for the Bald Eagle Festival where it might be in the 30s (heat wave) and be rainy. But, I'll be hanging with the Swarovski guys and their booth has a heater--whoot. I was going to schedule a Birds and Beers, but I don't have my own vehicle at this event and am being shuttled around. But stop by and say hello if you're in the area.

So, I'm not sure if Non Birding Bill can make fun of me for being so into birds. Here is a recent conversation:

NBB: Oh cool, my movie arrived from NetFlix!

BC: What's it about?

NBB: It's a documentary about Helvetica.

BC: Wait, you're excited about a documentary about a font?

NBB: It's getting really good reviews!

BC: It's a font.

NBB: Parasitic Birds and Their Hosts?

BC: That was a great book.

You CAN Help The Red Knot

Photo by DALE GERHARD

For the last few years, I've been tired of the impending extinction news regarding the Red Knot and I love it when people send me items for the blog, but I do try to stray away from posting announcements of everything going wrong. I do like to post announcements about proactive things that maybe I could do or tell my readers about that they can do.

Blatant over harvesting of horseshoe crabs in the spring is taking away a very important migratory feeding spot for red knots. They need this food in order to finish their migration to their breeding grounds. However, commercial fishing needs the crabs as bait. There was a plan for a ban of harvesting horseshoe crabs, but commercial fisheries fought it and the ban was rejected and instead, they are only going to harvest male crabs, not females...because that won't cause any problems at all.

So, what can we do? A bunch of people who don't live in the area calling and writing the powers that be doesn't seem to help. Boycott birding in the area is a lose/lose situation for birds and birding organizations in the area. Boycotting the fishing companies isn't going to help either.

Well, finally, I have met someone who is doing something proactive and all of us can help him help the red knot. Bill Stewart, chair of Delmarva Ornithological Society Conservation Committee teamed up with The Conservation Fund to try and help. The Conservation Fund said that if DOS could raise $15,000 they would be able to purchase five acres of prime Delaware coastline for the knots to feed on horseshoe crab eggs. Stewart and the DOS organized a Bird-A-Thon--that is a contest of individuals and teams who collect pledges and count the number of different species seen or heard in a set time period in a set area. People can make a chunk donation to a team or offer an amount like $1 per bird observed. Teams and organizations are eligible for prizes for most species observed or most funds raised.

Through sponsors and donations, the DOS raised a total of: $28,018.00! They were able to buy up five acres of habitat and used the extra money to establish a registered Hawk Migration Association of northern Delaware. And, they're going to try it again this year.

Every reader of this blog that feels an urge to help red knots avoid extinction can help this cause:

1. DONATE TO A TEAM. Your money will be used for habitat acquisition. Even if you can only do $1, all of us together can add up to one heck of a donation.

2. ORGANIZE YOUR OWN TEAM AND GATHER DONATIONS. If you want to be eligible for prizes, then you must do the bird a thon in the assigned area, but if you aren't in it for the prize but are just in it to raise money, have a team in your neighborhood and then mail in your gathered donations to the DOS. This would be a great way to do the Big Sit this fall.

3. Get the company you work for to help sponsor the event.

4. If you have a blog or website, write about this, let your readers know. Do you write articles for your bird club, local paper, magazines? Do you do radio or tv appearances as a bird person? Get the word out.

5. Donate prizes. Did you write a book? Do you make a cool bird feeder? Do you rep for an optics company?

6. Talk to your employer about being a sponsor or donating prizes to the effort.

Seriously, this species of bird used to be incredibly numerous and is well on its way to extinction if changes aren't made NOW. Some scientists go as so far to say that it may be too late, and this population of red knots will be extinct by 2010. We can keep this from being another passenger pigeon or Carolina parakeet, we just need to be loud and proactive and I congratulate Bill and members of the DOS for getting up and taking action. Habitat is key to any species survival.

Whoot

My goodness today was busy! We had a lot going on at The Raptor Center: programs, inspections, moving birds around indoors because it's too cold for them outside.

This imprinted male kestrel was very fascinated with the doin's a transpirin' outside his crate. We were having a conversation about the morning's activities and he was watching us intently.

Well, my talk at the Minnesota Beekeepers Association went really, really well! The audience was very engaging and my fears about not knowing what I was talking about were quickly relieved and the talk became more of me sharing some of my experiences and mistakes and laughing together. I also talked about the cameras that I use. One of the instructors from the Beekeeping Short Course that I took last year in the audience. He asked if I would send him the above photo for research, he said that he thinks the bees are removing propolis in this photo and not pollen. I told him that I learned so much from that class that he's welcome to any of my bee images.

The best part was that the talk really helped me formulate a book outline. There has been some interest in a beekeeping book and I wasn't sure how I would structure it or what I would have to say, but tonight, it all came together--whoot.

The meeting itself was very different from the county beekeeping meeting that attended last year. It was rowdy and funny and even had a show and tell time where members can show off inventions or ideas that have worked for their hives. The next meeting is going to feature a talk by master gardeners with tips for plantings for your hives. We started some bee plantings last fall, but I hope my travel schedule allows me to come to that one as well.

Here's another photo of those tracks we found outside the Olga hive. I was thinking with the thumb and the smaller star shaped track to the right that these are opossum tracks, but again, if someone has a better idea, I'm open to it.