Warbler ID

Susan Gets Native correctly identified the Tennessee Warbler first so she wins the lens pen.

Email me your snail mail address! Congrats!

Larry Saves The Day

You guys are the best, you're my think tank coming up with great suggestions and chuckles and even temporary solutions. Presently, the photos in the blog are brought to you by Larry Sirvio who offered to let me borrow an extra camera that he is not using. Apparently, he says that the blog is in serious trouble if I'm cranky. Thank you, Larry, for helping me keep the photos in the blog and sparing the readers from my "art" work. Yes, without Larry I wouldn't have been able to bring you breath taking photos like this:

Yikes! This cardinal is still a bit scary looking and seems kind of angry. It's a young of the year bird still growing into his adult plumage. I didn't find out if it was the same male that was banded earlier this summer. Should have paid closer attention.

Okay, after a scary cardinal, we need something cute. So, how about this:

"With a simple cock of my head, my cuteness renders you powerless against me."

Any guesses as to this warbler? It's in fall plumage. Here are a couple of other angles:

Here's a profile shot. First correct answer and answer in the comment section wins a lens pen.

"I am proud to be part of this blog."

Stupid Digital Camera


The blog might be a little sucky over the next few weeks.

So, the latch that holds the battery on my Nikon Coolpix 7900 has been giving me problems for the last month. It's been slightly ajar. Something I should have gotten fixed sooner, but who has time to send the camera away for two to six weeks with the blog? Well now it's completely crapped out and there's a problem with the lens. Of course this happens right when hawk banding is underway.

I have no idea what I'm going to do, I don't want to buy a new camera while it's being fixed but at the same time the blog is so much more fun with it. At the moment all I can do is sit in a big pile of frustration.

Because A Dead Pigeon Falling On You Isn't As Bad As Pigeon Poop Falling On You

TEXARKANA, Texas (AP) -- Poisoned pigeons began nose-diving into pavement and dying on downtown sidewalks, marring the city's annual festival.

Authorities cleaned up more than 25 sick or dead birds that apparently had eaten poisoned corn from the roof of a nearby bank branch.

"The death of these pigeons was more than an unfortunate accident," local CapitalOne Bank President Lacy McMillen said in Tuesday's online edition of Texarkana Gazette. "It was not the intention of the bank to harm any of these birds."

McMillen said the bank hired an exterminator to handle its pigeon problem after a bird entered the bank and defecated on a customer.

The company, which hired Anti-Pest Co. Inc. of Shreveport, Louisiana, said its goal with the treated corn was to sicken pigeons, so they would leave the rooftop. Death was sometimes an unfortunate side effect, company president Jarrod Horton said.

The full story is here.

Wow, that's news to me that sometimes death is an unfortunate side effect of poisoning--WHO KNEW? The best part of the story that was omitted at CNN.com can be found at Metro.co.uk:

CapitalOne – which amusingly was one of the sponsors of the pigeon-blighted festival – has apologised for raining dead pigeons upon the city. Reports suggest that the birds continued to sicken, plummet and die throughout the course of the weekend.

That just ties it in a nice little package, doesn't it? CapitalOne was the sponsor!

Anyone Want To Go Look For an Ivory-billed Woodpecker?

While sifting through a mountain of email I came across a request for volunteers for another Cornell ivory-bill search season:

We're gearing up for another season of IBWO searching and would like to invite you to become involved in a volunteer capacity again this season. We value your expertise and hope you'll consider continuing with us. Please visit this web page for more information. It should tell you all you need to know initially. You'll see that there is also an opportunity to volunteer in South Carolina this season. I do not have any information about the volunteer situation in this state. I am merely sending all the applications from interested people to their IBWO state coordinator. He/she will be in touch with you separately if you choose this state instead of Arkansas.

If you're interested in volunteering in Arkansas, please go to the application and fill it out again. For questions #7, 8, and 9 you can simply write returning volunteer since we're familiar with your qualifications. This will shorten the process dramatically. We do need an application on file for you so we have your updated contact information and preference for volunteer period. If you're applying to South Carolina you should complete the entire application to the best of your ability.

I will be in contact with you sometime in November to discuss dates and send out more details about Arkansas.

Interesting that they are searching South Carolina this year and there is no mention of Florida. I say that because of Birding Is Not A Crime's post about the Florida ivory-bill rumors. I have heard about this rumor in various forms from various sources (one VERY credible) all year and was threatened to within an inch of my life not to blog about it. However, since BINAC already has it out there, and I have had three people in the last month who shouldn't have heard about it ask me what I know I figure the cat is out of the bag.

This rumor has nothing to do with the crazy guy who was putting decoys in trees and calling it an ivory-bill, this is pretty credible. I wonder if this means Cornell is not part of the Florida bit or if it really is a "ground zero" and they are only sending staff and not volunteers?

Expanding Your World List

In case you have not heard, a new bird has been discovered in India--just goes to show, there are still great birds to be found and by amateurs no less. Hmmm, wonder if there will be blogs started about how this is a hoax?

An amateur bird-watcher has found the first new bird species to be discovered in India in over 50 years.

The strikingly colored species was identified from feathers and photos taken in remote forests in the northeast part of the country.

No specimen was taken, because "we thought the bird was just too rare for one to be killed," said Ramana Athreya, the bird's discoverer, in a statement.

Named Bugun liocichla, the small bird is described as a type of babbler, a diverse family of birds that usually live in tropical forests.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Bunny Naughtiness and a Gull

I know Cinnamon has this rep as the conservative disapproving rabbit, but she is after all only a lagomorph and therefore not the brightest bulb on the tree. Case in point:

Sitting on the lid of a container of bird seed that she wants to open. It took a good ten minutes for her to finally give up. Sigh. On top of that, she keeps tripping all the "cruelty free" mouse traps around the apartment (I have to use those so a certain bunny butthead doesn't get caught in any of the other kinds: no poisons, no snap traps--bunny nose and ears are a big risk, no sticky traps--I've never cared for those anyway, not to mention I don't want to deal with a sticky disapproving rabbit).

I wonder if the mice are bribing her?

"I disapprove of my naughty behavior being displayed to all my fans on the internet!"

We had a ring-billed gull dropped off at The Raptor Center today. TRC doesn't generally take non raptors but the person who dropped the gull off thought that the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center was still right across the street from us. Someone at TRC took the gull over at the end of her clinic shift.

You will note in the above photo that there is a hook sticking out the side of the bill. Here is the lure that was attached to that hook:

That is my hand next to the lure for a size comparison. The gull has not eaten since it had this blocking its mouth. It looked like someone snipped off the lure and placed a can of cat food in the crate with the gull. Though well intentioned, it's never a good idea to feed an injured bird or animal. Number one, they may need surgery and the stomach should be empty and number two as in the case with the gull, it thrashed around so much it was now covered with cat food that will at some point have to be cleaned off its feathers.

Hopefully the gull will be okay and it has an excellent chance at the WRC.

Ack--Too Distracted

I'm trying to get ready for my shift at The Raptor Center and my neighborhood is covered this morning in robins and cedar wawings. They must have come in last night. This usually happens every year, but I didn't see the waxwings last year.

The apartment building right behind ours has a really bad roof that always has a puddle. It works as a great makeshift bath for this apartment dweller.

I'm trying to digiscope, but the morning light is still to dim and my images are dark. The waxwings and robins should be here all day so hopefully I'll get better shots this afternoon. Even Non Birding Bill looked through the scope to admire the waxwings.

Waxwings look like female cardinals with heavy make up on. Here's an adult and a young of the year.

Isn't this a lovely fall picture? Okay, I really am running super late to TRC. Good thing we don't have programs scheduled this morning. The crew leader will begrudge you being late for a good raptor sighting but not songbirds. Maybe I'll say the Coops came in and that will get me a get out of jail free pass.