Birdchick Blog
My wireless signal in my hotel room is weak, so blog entries will be few during the weekend, but I will make up for it Sunday night...however that will depend on how many people will pay me not to post the incriminating photos I have from the symposium's river boat event and the karaoke party afterwards. Yes, Bill Thompson III of Bird Watcher's Digest, I'm talkin' to you.
I'm off to see a harpy eagle and meet more people so I can name drop in future entries.
Well, I have arrived in one piece in Quad Cities. I saw the longest line of starlings on a telephone wire, the whole line went on for over a mile!
I met the infamous Bobby Harrison. I can't figure out how to upload photos from my new camera onto this loaner laptop I'm using, so I can't show the photo of a long line of mature ladies giddy to meet him. Some women were coming up to him just to say they have touched someone who has seen an ivory-billed woodpeckers.
I met some of my co-workers at Eagle Optics including Mike. I'm trying to talk him and Bobby Harrison into going out to sing karaoke with us tonight. I told them both that they didn't have to sing. Of course, that's just what you say to people when their sober. Once you get them drunk you can get them onstage no problem.
I and the Bird 8 is up and running at TroutGrrrl's Science and Sarcasm Blog. For those who have never checked it out, it's a great read and a wonderful way to learn of new and other bird blogs that you may not have heard of before.
On another note, while preparing for the traveling I'll be doing over the next couple of weeks, I thought it was time to clean out my purse and discovered and owl pellet that I forgot about that had kind of dissected itself from weeks of hiding in one of my purse pockets. The contents were too crumbled to photograph, but there did appear to be tiny bits of insect exoskeletons which makes me wonder if it's not a great horned but a long-eared or even saw-whet. Too bad the pellet crumbled, that was going to be a cool blog entry. I found the pellet at a certain spot on the yellow dot trail at Hawk Ridge and on subsequent visits I have found more pellets. I will probably be in the area in a week or two and check for more pellets.
Well, I am off to Midwest Birding Symposium this morning. Hopefully I will find easy wireless access and have some fun gossip to report.
Cell phone message from Non Birding Bill on the way to catching his bus to work this morning:
The neighborhood Cooper's hawk nailed a pigeon this morning. The flocks on the old folk's home took flight and circled the street. The flock instantly scattered when the Cooper's flew in towards the center and focused on one bird. Both took off back toward's the old folks home, over the roof, the pigeon flew down, the Coop's followed, and then there was a poof of feathers.
I'm sorry I missed that.
Cinnamon is driving me crazy. She apparently is a little bored at home and has taken to a new hobby of climbing every piece of furniture in the house. The other night she climbed to the very top of our lazy boy, teetering precariously on the ledge. So I decided to pop on her leash and take her out for some light birding with me. She's actually not a bad birding partner (except when dogs come by). Standing on a path near some underbrush, I noticed that she suddenly became very focused in one particular direction, I bent down to her level and found a mixed flock of white-throated sparrows, white-crowned sparrows, juncoes and a lone fox sparrow! And here I only thought she was good for attracting buteos.
I wanted to take the time to test a new digital camera that I'll be using. This one is a Nikon Coolpix 7900. It's got so many bells and whistles, it's taking time for me to get used to using it. Without practice I wasn't quick enough to
photograph the sparrows Cinnamon was watching, so I decided to focus on some wigeon and mallards instead. I need practice.
I have so much to do, I'm heading to the Midwest Birding Symposium Thursday. I just got word from some reliable sources that karoake parties are schedule for Thursday night and quite possibly Wednesday night. I'll miss Wednesday, hopefully that will just be a warm up session.
I'm starting a new job and a new chapter in my life. I'm going to work for Eagle Optics, a binocular and spotting scope company (I have to include that because I told a couple of non-birder friends and they looked at me quizzically and asked "But I thought you loved birds, why are you going to work for an opthamologist?").
Part of me is a little sad about about leaving the All Seasons Wild Bird Store, I've been there 8 years, I've made some great friends and Al and Dave have been great guys to work for. Since I won't be working there though, I do plan on being a regular customer. The job at Eagle was simply an offer I couldn't refuse. Part of the job will include traveling to bird festivals and talking about birds with people from all over--I can't believe I'm going to get paid to do that--I feel like I've won the birder lottery. I'll also have the opportunity to work with Mike McDowell whose blog I have always been a fan of and I'll get see the friends I've made from around the country a little more frequently.
Jeff Corwin gave a talk at the O'Shaughnessy Education Center at St. Thomas University. Of all the Animal Planet hosts he is my favorite because one he made a reference to an old TV show Maude (anyone who can make a Bea Arthur reference in an animal show is okay in my book), two I really like his animal ethics and three he has found a way to earn a living doing what he truly loves: working and learning about animals and educating the public at the same time.
His talk was pretty good, it was more of him just recounting fun stories behind the scenes of his shows and it was very relaxed like you were talking to him at a party. He left the last half open for questions and it was so fun to listen to the range of questions. Those under 10 asked things like "What's the scariest animal you've ever encountered?" (his wife in hour 19 of her 26 hour labor for the birth of their daughter) or "Has anyone gotten killed working on your show?" (one tracker did get eaten by lions). Those between 19 and 25 asked things like "What do you think of PETA?" (doesn't know enough about them to say one way or the other) "Are you a vegetarian?" (used to be but can't really do it with all the travel, hard to find vegetarian in all countries). He just seemed like a genuine guy who is happy with his life, has a great time doing it and loves to share how cool animals are with the world. If his talk is coming to a town near you , I highly recommend checking it out.
I wanted to buy his book Living on the Edge but they sold out very quickly so he was kind enough to pose or a photo. I do have to admit, of all the animal planet hosts he certainly is the easiest on the eyes.
I just got a call from Kelly Larson, she used to work at All Seasons Wild Bird Store and now has her own bird store called Northern Flights up in Bemidji, MN. She's having an open house this weekend and all sorts of fun events, so if you're up in the area and enjoying the fall color stop in and say "hi". Kelly is kind of kooky like myself (maybe even a tad kookier) so if you enjoy this blog, you will certainly enjoy her.
When Kelly worked at All Seasons, she worked at the Bloomington Store while I worked at the Minnetonka location. I always enjoyed getting interoffice mail from her because I just never knew what to expect. She's an expert at finding edible mushrooms and once sent over a bag of freshly collected oyster mushrooms. Mmmmmmmmm. I also remember a time when I went out birding with Kelly and Val Cunningham and we found a den of snakes just emerging from hibernation. Val and I watched with cautious interest, Kelly went right in and picked up one of the snakes. Birding with Kelly is never dull.
I asked what kind of birds she was seeing in the area, there's the Big Bog that is just great for birds and when the boardwalk opens up there I think it will become a huge birding hot spot. She said not too many birds besides the usual suspects just yet, but she has been seeing wolves--which is pretty darn cool in my book.
White-throated Sparrows are just everywhere! I'm practically tripping over them in the woods. I got the photo at right at Hawk Ridge when I set up the camera near their cracked corn pile, although I did tempt them with a little extra white millet and sunflower chips. White-throats and white-crowned sparrows are popping up at Twin Cities feeders too, although I imagine that my mother will be seeing them soon in Indianapolis.
A "shroom" who knew? I got this informative email from a fellow blogger:
I think I have seen the mushroom in your latest blog post (red one with white spots) in Bavarian Alps: the biologist who was with me told me that it was used in Hindu rituals. I see that this page corroborates what he told me.
Probably, you already knew that this mushroom could cause hallucinations. I guess your friend Neil did give you a smart suggestion:-)
Guru
Thanks, Guru for filling me in. I was incredibly curious as to the type of fungus we had come across and had no idea where to begin in identifying it. Good thing we didn't eat it...or maybe I did and that explains the previous post (da da DAAAA!)