Back in Minnesohta

Mental note: A batter fried lobster tail, bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich may not be the best idea on the planet.

Good Grief, I am soooo tired. I came home this afternoon to a fresh layer of snow, single digit temps, news that Norbert was out of the ICU, the hard drive transplant was a success and ready for pickup! Whoot! So happy. Non Birding Bill is reloading everything at the moment. The cold temps come just in time, we're going to a scotch tasting class tonight at Surdyk's--nothing goes better with scotch than cold temps.

Here is Jeff Bouton modeling a smiling lady bug pith helmet available soon at your wild bird specialty store!

Here's my bud, Amy Hooper holding up an advanced reader's copy of Good Birders Don't Wear White--50 Tips from North America's Top Birders. She has it open to her essay, Think Like A Migrating Bird. Note the cartoon that goes along with it. I believe that is the most inaccurate rendering of an Amy Hooper I have ever seen. As much as she loves rubber ducks, I've never seen them follow her. I can't wait to read the essays.

It's weird, she and I shared a room, but between my working the WingScapes booth and her hours at her WildBird Magazine booth, we barely saw each other.

I'm going to do some in depth descriptions of product in the next few days--including an iMainGo that I brought home to play with--initial tests with it--very cool. It appears to handle the transition from great gray owls hoot to black and white warbler call very well.

In the meantime I offer a contest:

Who is Bobby Harrison talking to in this photo? Bonus points if you can name the subject. The prize: An Advanced Birding Peterson Guide by Kenn Kaufman and two original plays on cassette by Mr. Neil: Snow Glass Apples starring Bebe Neuwirth and Murder Mysteries starring Brian Dennehy.

First correct answer with a name attached to it in the comments section wins.

Bird Watch America

I dedicate the following photo to my mother:

Look, ma, it's your boyfriend Gordon (one of the owners of Adventure Publications), telling these two potential store buyers about my upcoming book:

Can I say how much I love the red-bellied woodpecker on the cover? It's exciting to see this early copy. Word from Adventure is that it will be out in April--whoot!

A quick note on a fairly exciting new feeder is the above. It's a solar powered electrified bird feeder. When I worked at the bird store in the past we carried a solar powered feeder that I believe was closer to $500. This one retails for about $150 - $160. It can be hung or pole mounted and has the shocking equivalent to sticking your tongue to a 9 volt battery. It looks very promising for the latest in squirrel proofing. I like the solar idea.

I wish I could put in more photos and updates but trying to load photos on the hotel computer is more daunting than I realized. I will say this, many bird store owners here are opening up to the idea of bringing in technology to the store. Many bird stores are looking into carrying the Handheld Guide to birds, iPod software, and even the Wingscapes camera. It's nice to see some owners willing to try new things.

Early Thoughts on Bird Watch America

Have I really been in Atlanta one day and am I already this exhausted? I love this show--so many great friends to catch up with, so many new people with new ideas to meet and so much new product to see. All this is on top of my actual duties that I have to perform here.

Non Birding Bill was kind enough to check out a laptop pc for me from the university he works at since Norbert was not ready from having his hard drive replaced. I can't get the darn thing to connect to the internet or hold a battery charge, but somehow I have landed a very spanky executive suite with office privleges. I'm currently tucked away in a quiet corner on the 17 floor of the Hilton using their complimentary computers and internet access. Incidentally, accessing in my room is $13.95 a day--nuts.

My lunch time presentation went over better than I expected. It's odd, I feel perfectly natural most of the time in front of a crowd, but I found myself incredibly nervous--my left leg and right hand were uncontrollably shaking for most of my talk. I think it was because I was debuting some new material (crazy customer stories--like the woman who used to call the bird store and tell us about the peewees she could communicate with psychically) and I get more nervous talking in front of peers than people I will never see again. The audience seemed to enjoy it, and I think I kept it brief--whew.

The best presentation that I observed today was by Peter Marra about urban ecology--he has been doing some interesting research on common birds found in urban areas. I think this is something that can be used in several major cities. One of his most interesting findings had to do with nest predation in urban areas compared to forested areas. I think the general thought is that nests are less safe from predators in urban areas because we think of raccoons, crows and cats. Marra's research found that urbans nest were preyed upon a little over 30% whereas nests in forested areas were preyed upon closer to 80%! The main reason appears to be that we have fewer nest predators in urban areas--sure there are crows, raccoons and cats but not nearly as many snakes or smaller predators because we can exterminate them more easily.

He also had studies of catbird survival rates once the young leave the nest. Interesting to note that in neighborhoods with more cats, had fewer fledging catbirds survive.

Tomorrow I get to go in to the trade show and see what's nifty and new. Some sneak peaks that I found today: solar powered squirrel proof feeders, newer ant moats for hummingbirds, suet pellets, and a new book from Houghton Mifflin with tips from 50 top birders (hmmmm, I wonder how many people are going to glance at the list of 50 top birders and then take offence that they weren't invited to submit an essay--incidentally, there are a lot of essays by women in the book).

More soon.

We now pause for station identification

Hello, everyone, NBB here.

Sharon's safely in Atlanta, but alas, the replacement computer she has for this trip is having trouble connecting to the wireless internet. "Dude, your Dell is timing out!" Such is life.

I don't have anything fun to post for you just now, but I thought I'd let you know that Sharon's speech at lunch went very well. She's also anxious to see what's hip, hot, and Now in birding.

To clarify: that last bit was meant as a joke.

If Sharon still can't connect tomorrow, I promise to dig up something interesting for you. Until then, I remain,

your faithful servant,
NBB

Rabbits USA

We just got the lates issue of Rabbits USA and Disapproving Rabbits is in it! We're in a section called "Wonders of the Web" on page 74.

Go out and grab a copy today. We usually buy it at PetSmart, but I'm sure most pet stores carry.

What A Great Day!

I found a new pair of Keens on sale, got a fabulous haircut AND we now know where the green-tailed towhee came from!

The above photo was taken by Dave Cahlander in early January 2007 in Mountain Lake, MN. He sent an email yesterday saying:

"With the help of photos taken by Steve Roman, we now have a complete band number for the Green-tailed Towhee. 8051-98299 I've submitted this to the bird banding lab, but they don't have a record of this band being used. I'll check with them in a day or two and report any information that they have."

And then today Terry Brashear found that the Mountain Lake Green-tailed Towhee was banded at the Long Point Bird Observatory in Ontario, Canada on June 10, 2006.

According to Jon McCracken of the Bird Banding Lab:

"Yes, incredibly enough this is the bird that John Woodcock banded at TCBO on 10 June/06. It was an after second year male (wings = 78mm; weight = 29.0g; fat =trace) captured in the Heligoland Trap. Wow! It would be great to get all the details (incl location) on the MN sighting. Even if it didn't venture very far, it'd make a great "latest news" blurb.

Here is a photo of the exact same towhee taken by John Woodcock, the day he banded him June 10, 2006 in Thunder Bay! You can read the note about this bird at here.

This is the bird banding equivalent of winning the lottery. It's not often you trap and band a bird and find it again still alive and still traveling. To have it be so out of range and a rarity for Canada and Minnesota is very exciting. We have an idea of his sex and age--this is not just a young bird who got lost or has crossed wires. This bird has been around the block and is at least three years old. Where else has he been?

I'm so grateful for all the banders and photographers involved to get to the bottom of this very cool bird mystery...although, now I wonder...where was it hatched?

Okay, now I seriously have to pack for Atlanta, I'm leaving tomorrow morning.

Smart Downy

We have a ton of woodpecker action at our feeders right now. Even Non Birding Bill is impressed. The other day we had a pair of hairy woodpeckers and a pair of downy woodpeckers. They were so funny because each was on its own branch and were warily checking each other out as they creeped higher in the tree. One would inch up and swing its head from side to side checking out the other birds and then another would follow suit and so on and so forth.

As NBB and I were watching this a fifth woodpecker zoomed across the window. It was a male downy who then took advantage of the stand off (or would it be called a perch off?) and went straight for the suet log. I started smushing suet onto the brick wall on the other side of the window to accomodate more woodpeckers at one time and keep things civil. The downy woodpeckers took to the wall suet right away as I found with the Wingscapes camera yesterday.

I have a ton of errands today before I leave for Atlanta tomorrow. It's going to be so much fun and work seeing friends, former bosses, new birding toys and balmy weather.

Minorities in the Outdoors

There's an interesting article this morning in the Star Tribune about Dudley Edmondson, a nature photographer from Minnesota. He recently wrote a book called Black & Brown Faces in America's Wild Places about people of color working and enjoying the outdoors. Let's face it, most of us can count on one hand the number of African American birders that we have ever met. The article brings an interesting perspective of why we don't see more people of color out in the field. Dudley says:

"A lot of it has to do with family traditions. African-Americans were closer to nature when we were in south. As we came north, we left our outdoor culture behind. We cut those ties and never reconnected."

When asked what should outdoor educators and organizations be doing, Dudley says:

"We can make a concerted effort to reach out to communities of color through traditional paths of news and information, through minority-interest magazines and newspapers, through church and community leaders. We need outdoor education centers in communities of color, staffed by people of color."

Bunny vs Snake

Remember the bunny chasing the crow that NBB posted a few months back? Well, reader Sandy sent a video that blows that act of bravery out of the water (this one has a happy ending for the rabbit):

I like the meadowlark in the background observing the smackdown going on the yard. Maybe that's why Cinnamon is so keen to chew on power cords, she's trying to chase snakes out of the apartment.