Choices

I struggled with a decision the last few days. When I originally registered for the Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest, I must not have been birding for a few days because I signed up for as many field trips as I could schedule. When I arrived and looked over my schedule, I saw that I had registered for a trip that was to last 11 hours to get a rare bird called a white-collared seedeater. I thought to myself, "Do I really have an 11 hour bird trip in me? One that has a two and a half hour drive out there and the same on the drive back?

No.

I worried that this was a sign that I had reached my birding threshold. Did this reluctance for the trip mean that I'm getting "too old" for that kind of birding? Was I loosing my edge? I tried to justify that the trip wouldn't have been that great for bird photos for the blog and not a very interesting entry. I exchanged the 11 hour trip for a bird banding demonstration instead, still wondering if that was the cool thing to do. Here is the answer:

Oh yeah, I made the right decision. More dazzling photos coming within the next two days.

Another Quick and Dirty Post

Okay, got my two articles sent off! Whoot. This morning I bailed on my scheduled trip and just drove out on my own. I love going in groups and sharing the birding experience, but I really needed a day away to bird without a group dynamic. I did a quick stop to South Padre Island and had some fun with some laughing gulls. There's something just so fun about feeding gulls. The above photo was taken right outside my minivan window with no zoom.

The gulls were coming from far and wide for bits of sausage. I ran out of sausage and grabbed some tasty chocolate chip cookies that WildBird on the Fly made:

Check it out, a wild bird on the fly enjoying WildBird on the Fly's cookies! Sweet.

Tonight we listened to JeffGyr give the talk as the keynote speaker for the Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest. It was his "top ten birds of the last thirty years". The first part was just amazing birds that popped up in North America, the last part was focused more on birds that have caused HUGE controversy. He even brought up the infamous pygmy nuthatch incident from 1996.

Pygmy Nuthatch Incident Sidebar: In 1996, a pygmy nuthatch was visiting a bird feeder in North Dakota right on the Red River border to Minnesota. One intrepid birder played a pygmy nuthatch call and got the bird to fly across the river and become the first Minnesota state record. This lead to huge amounts of debate: you shouldn't call birds, why can't you use calls to attract birds--the nuthatch was visiting a bird feeder and that's as artificial as taped calls, it wasn't a natural movement into the state, it was only a couple of dozen feet the bird flew over to get to the other side of the river it's no big deal, blah, blah, blah.

Jeff added a nice touch of what Minnesota Ornithologists' Union Records Committee meetings are like and showed footage of a cowboy shootout, a huge bar brawl, sword fighting, Civil War battles--it was hilarious and a tad accurate.

The talk wound down to the ivory-billed woodpecker of course. As Jeff was showing the footage of the Lunneau video, I was thinking to the first time I saw it last year at the Rio Grande fest and how I was excited and full of hope and couldn't wait for the adventure of going to Arkansas. Now watching the footage again and being slowed down I was a tad jaded and depressed--we didn't have better footage to show for it yet, I truly thought it would be different this year, hope can be so fleeting sometimes. Plus, watching the slow motion of the wing beats on the video compared to a pileated woodpecker reminded me of the whole "back and to the left" of the Kennedy assassination. Come on, Florida, get us a GOOD photo.

The talk was interesting, but I truly enjoyed listening to all the birding controversies best. I told Jeff he should do a book on it, fascinating stuff. I must get to bed, we're banding tomorrow.

Oh, so I tried out a Swarovski digiscoping set up today...I realized that I have never truly digiscoped, I only think I have digiscoped, I've been faking it until now. Here's a preview:

Black vultures!

Yeah, Baby, That's What I'm Talkin' About

I'm going to get a new digital camera and I'm testing out a Nikon P4. I want something that does great macro and is good for digiscoping. Today I got this photo of a zone-tailed hawk at Anzalduas Park at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest:

Here I took the photo through a Leica field scope (sweet shot of the "I'm gonna poop or maybe just turn around.")

And this one I took through a Brunton Eterna scope (super sweet shot--the zone-tailed staring down the paparazzi). I love how the bird is looking right at us. This is a very good species for the valley, I saw it last year at the ABA Convention in Tucson, still sweet to see. The bird is part of a controversy. On one of the field trips on Wednesday, a pontoon was taken to this area for birding and a common black hawk was reported and photographed (super rare for this area). Now, there's talk that it was actually this zone-tailed hawk (unusual but not unlikely for this area) that people saw. There's some "spirited discussion" going on. I saw one of the photos of the reported black hawk posted in the lobby and it looks like a zone-tailed to me, but I'm not going to arm wrestle over it, I wasn't there when they saw it.

I have more entries planned but discovered that I forgot about a looming Birding Business deadline so all spare time must be devoted to those articles today. Once I get them sent off, I can resume regular posting. Coming relatively soon: bugs of the Rio Grande Valley, more fabulous birds and a very special post: "How Paul Baicich schooled the Birdchick."

Upper Rio Grande

This quick and dirty blog entry is brought to you care of Leica. For some reason, I can only pick up a wireless signal at their booth--a clever plan to get people to come over and look at their optics.

Today was an AWESOME day--lots of new life birds for me. I was worried about heat, but we birded in the morning and it was cool and foggy along the Rio Grande River. The river is very swollen, they've had 40 inches of rain in the last six weeks. It was foggy and I loved seeing neotropic cormorants (above) and ringed kingfishers (they're HUGE) and green kingfishers (they're so tiny)!

We stopped at a trailer park to see an elusive brown jay that visits feeders there. No brown jay, but oodles of great-tailed grackles. For all those people who think they have it bad with common grackles, don't complain--great-tailed are MUCH bigger and MUCH noisier. One was feeding at a tray feeder and about a dozen house sparrows landed around it. The great-tailed hopped in the air and spooked all the sparrows away. So, they are good house sparrow control but only if you only want to have great-taileds at the feeder.

Eventually the sun did come out and I was amazed at how well all the birder khaki blended in with the sandy landscape. I did get some intriguing bug photos, which I will post later.

Side Note - Cinnamon, you are the best rabbit ever and I love you. You'll be getting a huge carrot top when I get home...and stay out of the kitchen.

I'm running into lots of Minnesota people here. One is Kim Eckert (one of the few Minnesota birders who doesn't have a blog).

All New Disapproval!

Here is a page of some bunnies that have been submitted for Disapproving Rabbits.

Also, notice the WingScapes link on the side, that's one of the companies I'm working for now. It's cool stuff and more about it will be coming.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Well, I made it to the Rio Grande Valley. Today was just going my way. It wasn't too cold so I was able to go with my plan of wearing a skirt with some tights and sensible shoes and then as soon as I hit Houston, TX I went to powder my nose and ditched my tights and sensible shoes and put on some sandals. As soon as the plane landed in McAllen, TX I grabbed all my luggage got my rental car (and got upgraded free to a minivan WHOOT!--I LOVE driving minivans--police tend to ignore them and who wants to steal a minivan and go joyriding?) and I got a ton of work done on the Minnesota River Guide on the plane.

I followed Bouton's helpful instructions to the northern jacana and found it right away--as well as a whole gaggle of birders I know (Bouton's photos are better than mine). As more and more people arrived from the airports to get the jacana before checking in, it was almost like cheers: "Jess!", "Terry!", "Birdchick!". The bird put on quite a show, lifting it's wings to see the yellow primaries and secondaries, lifting it's giant feet, showing it's super cool wing spurs. Someone told me they could hear me squealing from the other side of the marsh. Terry from Leica casually pointed out an anhinga flying over head and I casually observed a new life bird.

I have always wondered what it would be like to be a hardcore ticker--someone who hops a flight to get a life bird, sees it and leaves after five minutes. That was almost me today. After watching the jacana put on quite a show I had to leave, my body was not adjusting well to going from 40 degree weather to 88 degrees--sweat was literally everywhere on me.

I love being in such a different habitat. Instead of red-tails on telephone poles, it's Harris hawks, instead of blue jays all over, it's kiskadees--I love this bird festival! It's awesome and if you only go to one festival in your life, make it this one.

I did have a close encounter with danger today. While walking towards the jacana with a group we heard loud buzzing and saw a loose swarm of bees moving fast over our heads. Someone warned, "Don't look up and move swiftly the other way!"

"Are those what I think they are?" I asked.

"Yep, Africanized honey bees."

Eep! I hope that the last I report on those this trip. I like adventure as much as the next gal, but it can be kept to a minimum.

Crap, my power is running out. More later.

House Sparrow Resourcefulness

Can you see the house sparrow in this photo?

The golden eagle above looks like she doesn't have any feet. She's actually sitting on her mailbox perch behind her pedestal perch. Do you see the house sparrow yet? It's camouflaged in the pea gravel in front of the pedestal perch. A pair of house sparrows have taken to scavenging in the mew of our education golden eagle at The Raptor Center. It started with a male and now a female joins him. I've seen them quietly lurk in some of the great horned owl mews as well. They behave in such a different way when foraging for food near the raptors than when I see sparrows visit the feeder. A few muted chirps will be given right before they land inside but once there, they keep a cautious distance from the birds of prey and keep silent as they feed on leftover rat bits. The sparrows seem to have a sense that these are larger and dangerous critters near this valuable protein source. This is a true testament to how resourceful house sparrows are and shows their uncanny knack for finding a good food source.

The golden eagle watches with some interest as this male house sparrow searches for meat scraps on her pedestal perch (we know for sure our education golden eagle is female--she lays infertile eggs in spring). It's unlikely that she will ever go after the sparrows, though even with a broken wing and being blind in one eye she is still able to nab the occasional small squirrel or young rabbit that foolishly find their way into the education courtyard. Sparrows are small and fast and the effort it would take for a golden eagle to grab one would not be worth the small meal reward she would get.

Too Excited to Concentrate

I am so excited and happy today! I'm trying to get as much writing accomplished as I can before leaving for Texas. I thought I was leaving Thursday but double checked my reservations and found that I am in fact leaving Wednesday morning. I should be working on revising birding loops for the Minnesota River Pomme de Terre and Kandiyohi regions but I keep thinking of kiskadees (like one above that I saw at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest last year).

I'm also excited because a northern jacana that was found at Estero Llano in Weslaco in August is still apparently hanging out. WildBird on the Fly and I are sharing a hotel room again and she gets in later than I do on Wednesday, so I plan on going from the airport to the jacana and then to the welcome reception. The jacana is one of those birds that have always stuck out to me in field guides that I thought would be so cool to see.

Last week in Cape May was one of the few times when I could tell my friends, "I'll see you next week." Since they have to work the RGV bird fest too, I get to hang with them again. So, besides looking forward to all the birds, I get to see great buddies like Jim Danzenbaker the Brunton binoculars rep. Who has the most awesome profile shot ever. In the above photo Jim is enjoying a giant heap of meat--oh besides friends, now I am looking forward to all the food--the cheap and oh so spicy food of Harlingen.

Meanwhile, I am finding the internet a huge distraction with memes, Julie's post about blogging and caring about what you do, and some sparring going on between BirderBlog and Birding is Not a Crime. I'm not sure what happened there, but it started with a Kirtland's warbler sighting and then someone got served and now apparently "it's on".

And now, with much love to both, I dedicate the following to BirderBlog and Birding Is Not A Crime!!! (The clip is two minutes and eighteen seconds and doesn't have swearing.)

Birder Survey

Have you seen Patrick's Birder Survey? It's pretty cool and good for new places to bird and books you may not have heard of.

Glow Possum

Took this photo last night. Either Mr. Neil has some freaky animals coming to his feeding station at night or I'm still feeling the effects of the Godsmack after party.