Monday Morning Carolina Wren

I dedicate the following video to Hasty Brook and hope that she got a Carolina wren before she left Cape May to return to Minnesota.

A posse of bird bloggers gathered again for the Cape May Autumn Weekend and since I ended up working the festival, I was able to see them. They had gathered informally and I didn't think I'd get to meet up with them, but when I ended up coming, they invited me along to a dinner for some hearty laughter. Some, I've met before like Hasty Brook, Somewhere in NJ, Susan Gets Native, and Beginning To Bird, but this time I got to meet KatDoc and DC Bird Blog (he's actually banding birds at Cape May this fall--sweet) face to face. Jay Davis from birdJam came along too.

We must have gotten quite rowdy at the table, I noticed that the bar kept turning up the ambient music to louder and louder levels. However, we were able to keep the talking and laughter to new ear splitting level.

A big bonus to this trip is that I hit my 500th bird--I didn't get to digiscope it but I got. And after I saw it, I saw them everywhere. I needed a black scoter, so after the first day of working the Optics Corner at the festival, Jim Danzenbaker, Jeff Bouton, Jeff Gordon, and Bill Stewart (that really cool guy who organizes the bird a thon to buy up migratory habitat to save the red knot). We watched for lines of scoters and after a few lines of surf scoters flying by--a flock that had both surf and black flew by and I could see the difference. Whew! That hump has been passed. Now to work on getting 600. Although, I suppose I should work on padding the 500 on the off chance the AOU is planning to lump some species together.

Oh, and while we were at the beach gettin' my life, a marriage proposal was finishing up. A man made a sand castle for his sweetie, asking her to marry him. There was a small sand treasure chest next to the sand castle that she apparently had to dig the ring out of the chest. It was very cute. We didn't hear what was actually said between the two, but considering they left hand in hand with smiles on the faces and a bottle of champagne, I thinking her answer was yes. Cute.

I and the Bird Reminder

Yo, Sharon, this is your past self who created this post a couple of weeks ago remind you and any readers who have bird related blog posts to submit an entry to I and the Bird.

If you'd like to join forces with some of the world's most powerful bird watchers, send a link and summary of your full report to Mike Bergin (mike AT 10000birds DOT com) or the next host, Ecobirder (tiercel63 AT yahoo DOT com) by 10/28 for the 10/30 edition of I and the Bird.

Gulls On The Rampage At Bringantine

Pintails, I love pintail ducks! So, I'm in New Jersey at the moment for Cape May's Autumn Weekend - THE Bird Show. I'm filling in at the Swarovski booth for my buddy Clay (who is forced to go to Austria). I still have to pinch myself sometimes. Teenage Sharon from years ago dreamed of things like getting a call from a cool optics company asking if I would mind coming to Cape May to do some birding and help out at a booth. When I got into Jersey, Jim from Kowa asked if I wanted to meet for some birding at Brigantine. How could I say no? It was a good idea too, it always takes me a day to kind of get my bearings for birds in a different state. For example, one of the first birds I saw was a small heron looking bird that was all white. Crap, we don't have those in MN, small...white...not a snow egret--it was an immature little blue heron--no fair being white! Anyway, just a good idea to get used to the birds.

While Jim and I were driving around, we saw a herring gull catching something huge--a crab. It was interesting to watch the gull take the large struggling crab out of the water, put in the grass, and hack at it, all while the crab tried to pinch it in self defence.

The herring gull's eye and dark lining just kind of gave this crab killer a maniacal look, much like my beloved accipiters--love those hawks with bright red eyes. Jim pointed out that it was a great day to not be a crab when we found...

...this adult black-backed gull. It was working its way around a mysterious blob in the water...

It was a dead duck. As best we could make out from when the gull would pull the head above water as it tried to rip out a bite, it looked like a female ruddy duck in winter plumage.

We wondered if the duck was already dead or if the gull had killed it. Was she already ill or injured and the gull went after it until she was dead or what. Tough to say, but when nearby mallards realized what the gull was eating, they gave it a wide berth and then flew away when the water's current brought the feasting gull closer.

Peregrines were out in full force at Brigantine. There were oodles of shorebirds and the peregrines would make stealthy attacks from low above the vegetation. This young peregrine was even chased a bit by and adult, you could hear them screaming at each other from quite a distance. The peregrines were a welcome distraction, poor Jim was trying to point out how to tell a western sandpiper from a white-rumped sandpiper. "Notice how the western is lighter in color over all," he asked excitedly.

"Do you want me to answer honesty or tell you what you want to hear? Cause I'm not seeing a lighter color."

We laughed at my shorebird ineptitude. I was able to tell them from the semi-palmated sandpipers, which I felt was a minor breakthrough.

Kickin' It With A Fox Sparrow

I was watching some fox sparrows while practicing with the SLR. You know, you can take some fabu photos with an SLR camera, but I think for blogging, I prefer my little point and shoot camera. It's easier to tote with all my gear and I can take video! Like the fox sparrow below. Note the kicking--that's one of the fun things about watching a fox sparrow (well, there are many fun things about fox sparrows): the rusty reds, they're so big, and as said earlier--the kicking.

Fox sparrows kick away whatever is in the way to get access to seeds. You typically see them do this in leaf litter, but note what the fox sparrow is kicking around in the video--empty sunflower seed shells. This is a good reminder that it is important to keep your feeding stations clean--not only the feeders themselves, but on the ground too. Empty seed shells can get wet and create unhealthy situations. Would you want to eat some forgotten seeds hidden under a pile of damp sunflower shells?

Can I say how much it tickles me that after my fox sparrow video plays, one of my favorite videos of a fox sparrow is suggested by YouTube (taken by the awesomeness that is Mike McDowell, he totally rocks...hm, I watching too much LA Ink). Anyway, if you haven't seen it, check it out. He was filming a fox sparrow and when he went home and downloaded the video, discovered he captured a bonus on video.

Skywatch Friday - Birders Under An Ohio Sky

After the disturbing previous post, readers have been asking for a little cleansing. What better way to get that cleanse than from Skywatch Friday? Bloggers post a photo of sky, link to Skywatch Friday and then add their link to the Skywatch page and there you have a page full of skies to watch on a Friday (what better way to wrap up the last few hours of work)?

I have been at Carpenter lately, I've been travelling. Above is from last weekend's trip to Ohio. It was a cold and frosty Sunday morning at Funk Bottoms NWR. I love the sun shining down on our little field trip.

The morning was all around gorgeousness and as we wrapped things up around noon, turkey vultures tried to catch thermals--warm currents of air that allow them to glide upwards with little effort. The small flock flew in front of the moon--perfect.

Today, I find myself in Cape May, NJ. This afternoon, I met up with a friend and we birded a bit at Brigantine. I found this egret matching well with the clouds overhead.

Spider Attacks Bird

WARNING, THIS POST GETS KINDA GROSS!

Maybe you've gotten this story already in your inbox, but according to early reports, it's true!

It's a spider eat bird world out there! I don't know if you noticed Mum Of Critters comment in the previous post, but here is a story of a spider with a bird from Australia! According to an article from news.com.au, a giant orb spider appears to have captured and killed a chestnut-breasted mannikin in Atherton, near Cairns:

There's a much more "heart breaking" photo for those who are squeamish when it comes to cute birds meeting a nasty end at this link.

Joel Shakespeare, the head spider keeper at NSW's Australian Reptile Park said he had seen golden orb weaver spiders as big as a human hand but the northern species in tropical areas were known to grow larger. Mr Shakespeare said that the bird, a chestnut-breasted mannikin which appears frozen in an angel-like pose in the pictures, is likely to have flown into the web and got caught. "It wouldn't eat the whole bird," he said. "It uses its venom to break down the bird for eating and what it leaves is a food parcel." Queensland Museum's Greg Czechura is reported as saying cases of the Golden Orb Weaver eating small birds were "well known but rare".

"It builds a very strong web," he said, but also added that the spider would not have attacked until the bird weakened due to its struggle to free its wings. "The more they struggle, the more tangled up and exhausted they get and they go into stress."

Read the full story here.

This reminds me of a few years ago and Bird Watchers Digest had photos of a praying mantis eating a hummingbird, show at this link. While trying to google the link to the photos, I came across a YouTube video of a mantis with a hummer. Man oh man, it can be a bug eat bird world out there:

Another Weird Dinosaur Fossil

According to AFP with a headline that reads "Weird Dino Rewrites The Book On Birds"...as if the AOU isn't doing that on a regular basis already.

PARIS (AFP) — A tiny, egg-robbing dinosaur that lived more than 150 million years ago could help explain a key phase in the evolution of birds, scientists reported on Wednesday.

In unusual language for a high-brow journal, Chinese palaeontologists admit the wee dino was, frankly, "bizarre".

The beast was a distant relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex but was no bigger than a kitten. And it was covered in feathers but couldn't fly.

The creature lived between 152 and 168 million years ago, according to analysis of its fossil, found in Daohugou in Inner Mongolia, northern China.

Dubbed Epidexipteryx hui, the mini-dino was a two-footed predator, known as a therapod, that lived in the Middle to Late Jurassic era between 152 and 168 million years ago.

It probably weighed no more than 164 grammes, or just over five ounces, and fed opportunistically on eggs it found or stole, according to the paper, which appears in the British weekly journal Nature.

E. hui lived shortly before the famous Archaeopteryx, which arrived on the scene around 150 million years ago and is generally considered to be the first bird. Despite its many dinosaur features, Archaeopteryx is believed to have been capable of powered flight.

Yet one of the many questions about the "early bird" scenario is exactly why dinosaurs evolved feathers. Did feathers provide warmth, for instance, or a means of flight, enabling a tree-living dino to jump or glide to safety from a perch or to find food?

They believe the unusual plumage was "integumentary ornamentation" -- a decorative attachment that helped in mating. Rather like the peacock spreads out his tail fan to lure a female, this dinosaur would show his feathers in courtship to demonstrate his fitness.

Read the whole story here.

Bird Dance Off

Okay, this isn't wild bird related but if it's a slow day and you need some amusement, you can see the winners and finalists for The World's First Dance Off.

BirdChannel.com announced today the "Top Bird Dancer" and runners-up of its widely successful online-based contest, "The World's First Bird Dance-Off." The winner of "Top Bird Dancer" title went to Poirot, a Congo African grey belonging to Mother Barbara of the Convent of St. Elizabeth in Etna, Calif., with 1,334 votes cast. Second place went to Marley, a green-winged macaw owned by Paula Sloniegora of Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada, with 1,107 votes.

All I can say is that Marley got robbed! Yeah, the African gray threw in a couple of wing moves, but Poirot is bouncing off beat and c'mon, those kinds of moves to Vivaldi. His owner needs to get with the program, that bird wants to listen to some Fergie-Ferg. Marley is at least on beat as well as rocking a couple of different moves.