Only 200 birds were found dead in Arkansas this New Year's as opposed to the thousands found last year. Really cool snowy owl video from Cornell:
Happy 2012!
Turns out that my first bird digiscoped in 2012 is an American robin and I got it by holding up my iPhone to my scope. I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season. Non Birding Bill and I tried to take some time off but with his show, it was a bit more action packed. When he takes Man Saved By Condiments to New York at the end of February, I'm hoping to come out and visit for a few days, maybe even try a New York Birds and Beers.
I've been trying to figure out what my resolution for 2012 should be. No matter what I come up with it cannot compare to the smashing success that was 2011 (eat more cultured butter). But I thought this year should be more bird related. So I think I'm going to try and be a better contributor to eBird. I started off okay with it in 2011 then ended up doing survey work where I wasn't allowed to submit some of my observations (until the project is finished) and got out of the habit.
But as I looked to my BirdsEye App on my phone to see what birds are being reported in my area, I noticed that there are several birding hot spots that haven't had any reports for over a year or in some cases 2 or 3 years. I think I'm going to do my part to submit observations for those areas to eBird and check out areas that are under reported. There are a ton of places to watch birds and these places wouldn't have been listed on eBird the app as birding hot spots had there not been some activity going on. So I'm hoping that I find some habitat and interesting bird observations for 2012.
Again, hope your year is off to a great start.
Birdchick Podcast #86: Mathematical Pigeons & One OLD Chickadee
OMG, we can all finally relax, someone claims to have solved the mystery behind The Birds (the Hitchcock movie and the Daphne du Maurier story). A black-capped chickadee banded in Minnesota is the oldest on record...by four months.
Pigeons (aka flying rats) can do math and are smart like monkeys.
That wacky North Korean media claims that roosting magpies are really hanging out to mourn the death of Kim Jong-il.
Random Willet
I'm mostly using this post to test out using a bluetooth keyboard with an iPad for blog updates.
Birdchick Podcast #85: Birding Apps
This podcast is mostly NBB and I talking about birding apps and NBB giving advice on what to do first if you get a Droid or iPhone for Christmas. These are apps that tickle my fancy, if you would like to add your favorite and why, feel free to do so. Apps mentioned in the podcast:
BirdsEye bird finding app
Audubon Guides apps
iBird apps
I didn't mention it in the podcast, but there's a company called Bird Guides that has some excellent European birding guides too. The have a Birds of Brazil and I'm hoping they'll be adding other countries. How awesome to not have to pack a giant field guide when traveling abroad.
Birding Around The Golan Heights
Whenever I see an article or hear a person dismiss birding as boring, I think, "Oh, bite me." I mean, how often does a person have an opportunity and good reason to be near a mine field? If anything will take you to those sorts of places, it's birding. One of the areas we visited while in Israel was the Golan Heights an area just under 700 square miles that is right along the Israel/Syria border and includes Mount Herman. The above photo was taken in the Valley of Tears an area marked in Israel's recent history by being the site of a huge battle during the Yom Kippur War. Our purpose for visiting the area was to find a snazzy looking bird Finsch's wheatear and Calandra larks which we did get but I was unable to get close enough for a digiscopable shots (so follow the links to see what awesome birds those are).
Another bird we got was a Syrian woodpecker which can be found throughout Israel but this one was especially exciting being so close to the Syrian border. How close were we to that border at the Valley of Tears?
Literally down the road. The buildings you can barely make out ahead...that's Syria!
Here's a digiscoped image of the city across the Syrian border. We had to really work for the birds in the Valley of Tears but I think part of the challenge is that you are surrounded by so much history and strange terrain and you can't help but stop and think, "Holy crap, we're on the border with Syria and not only does this seem a little dangerous, the surrounding area is incredibly beautiful!"
We saw several interesting mammals too. Above is a rock hyrax which I thought was another fancy term for groundhog or marmot but turns out the closest relative of the hyrax is the elephant. For realz! We also foxes running around the Valley of Tears too.
Another spectacular part of the Golan Heights is Mount Hermon. The highest peak is over 9000 feet and we got to about 7300 feet where you can view various observation posts that watch the mountains, since this borders Lebanon, Israel and Syria.
You can visit this area on your own, even if you are not an Israeli citizen and you have a rental car. Because it is a military outpost, you have to get permission from the guards to let you in. But if all is safe and clear they will let up no problem.
And you just can't help but take time for wacky photos (like the above of Tim Appleton snapping a photo of Bill Oddie). This was actually on top of Mount Hermon. This was one of the most beautiful spots we visited. Have I mentioned how grateful I was that Bill Oddie was on this trip? If you've never met me face to face, you may not realize that I'm only five feet tall. I'm generally the shortest person in the group and not being used to high elevation, I have a tendency to fall behind as taller, more eager to list birders race ahead. Mr. Oddie is very similar in height to me so it was nice to have some company in the back of the group.
While birding around this military base we saw lots of familiar birds: horned larks--the birds who were a constant companion to me during my eagle surveys this summer and fall! But we also did quite a bit of birding at a nearby ski area.
One of the target birds here was a rock nuthatch (I dare you not to sing that like the B-52s song Rock Lobster). Like our nuthatches here in the states only a bit bigger and they forage around rocks rather than trees. They also sound a bit like canyon wrens.
We actually got to see a rock nuthatch nest. And unlike our nuthatches in the States, they build these crazy burrows onto the sides of rocky cliffs. They construct them out of mud and dung (lovely). In the above nest you can even make out some beetle casings, our guide told us that they rubbed those on the outside, perhaps as an insect repellent.
While we were watching the nuthatch, some of our group go very excited when they found a wolf. I got the above photo holding my iPhone to my scope. When I saw it I said, "That looks like a coyote." Our Israeli guide has spent some time doing bird work in the US and said that the wolves in Israel are much smaller than the timber wolf that I'm accustomed to in Minnesota. It was still a really cool mammal to add to our trip list. There were actually two wolves but I was only able to get a shot of one.
Another bird people were really excited to see and we worked really hard to get was a sombre tit (insert 13 year old giggle here). Which I had a tough time seeing and when I finally did it was because Pete Dunne said, "Chickadee." And sure enough, the somber tit looks an awful lot like our black-capped chickadee here in the states. The head and bill shape is a bit different but this bird did look somber compared to all the great tits working the same area it was (insert another 13 year old giggle here).
This is Nimrod Fortress which you pass on your way up to the Golan Heights, it was built in the 1220a. Most of my photos from this portion are of scenery than birds, but you can get some great ones. We also got imperial eagle, golden eagle, mistle thrush, black redstart and rock bunting.
Again, don't let the proximity to the borders make you nervous. This is a very safe and welcoming area...and unlike fam tours that I've had in a few other countries, we didn't have a police escort the whole time.
And don't worry about asking the border guards at the border--they are really friendly...and did I mention that I'm only five feet tall?
A couple of notes about clothing for Mount Hermon--our guide warned us to pile on the clothes because the mountain weather is unpredictable, no matter what the forecast says. I didn't have long underwear on, but had it been a smidge colder I would have wanted it. Take layers, take a scarf, ear muffs, gloves and wool socks.
Birdchick Podcast #84: Grebmaggedon, Taped Calls & A Hooded Crane
Thousands of eared grebes crash landed in Utah winding up on football fields, a Walmart parking lot and highways in Utah. At least 3000 live grebes were collected but a low estimate of 1500 grebes died on impact. You can listen to Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Kevin McGowen talk about it on NPR. An article about song sparrows and how taped predator calls affect them. An interesting article, but how often is a bird like a song sparrow going to be exposed to predator calls 24 hours a day, four days in a row by birders?
A huge discussion was started on the American Birding Association's group page about birders and why the uniform appears to be ill fitting khaki pants, vests and floppy hats. Why is this our uniform? Why the vest?
Remember the mystery hummingbird in Chicago (they one they tried to ID based on poop)? Well, they got a feather and they now know exactly what species it is based on DNA testing. Find out the id here (or listen to the podcast).
A hooded crane has been reported in Tennessee. Now the question is if this bird is truly a vagrant from another country or an escapee from a private collection.
Best Place To Watch Cranes On Earth
A large part of my trip to Israel was spent at the Agamon Hula in northern part of the country. The story of the cranes in the valley is quite amazing and quite recent. I've seen crane migration several times in the US, it's one of my favorite things to watch and encourage others to do (I've got a sandhill crane tattoo designed by Paul Johnsgard in the small of back, I love it so much).
But the Agamon takes to you see cranes in the way you've always wanted to view them. Close.
And I mean REALLY close. This is the closest that I've ever been to large flocks of cranes and it's really incredible how the whole situation works.
The story of the cranes at the Agamon started in the 1940s. There was a huge shallow Hula Lake was drained so the land could be farmed. All was well and good for about 10 or 15 years and then the peat dried out. Whole planted fields failed as dried peat combusted--some farmers lost tractors that sank in the combusting dried peat. In the late 1980s to early 1990s they began to rehabilitate the peat and the lake gradually returned, though not quite as large as it originally had been. As the Hula Lake reformed and several birds started using it on their migration south. Some had shown up in the lake's previous glory but nothing like this.
The first year, about 15,000 common cranes used it as a staging area. Many people came to view the cranes and the area began to grow as an eco-tourism site and at this point, roughly 30,000 cranes use the area. It's an incredible site. But what makes this special is that the cranes have developed a fondness for the surrounding farm fields which presents both an incredible wildlife opportunity and a challenge.
On the one hand it's incredibly amazing that the cranes are all wedged into this area and they have grown accostomed to farm equipment. Someone caught on to this and noted that people wanted to view the cranes and thought, "What if we attached a big box that holds 50 - 60 people to a tractor and drove it through big flocks of cranes in the Hula Valley? And it works! The cranes are very used to the equipment and as the tractors tote around groups of crane watchers, the birds casually walk out of the way but stay relatively close. In the above photo you can see the view from our blind and beyond the cranes is a tractor pulling another blind. As you can see, the cranes are relatively nonplussed by all the humans watching them.
It's not 100% an ideal situation. The cranes should be using the area for staging (gathering and feeding like crazy to continue their migration south). However, the cranes have found ample forage and several thousand are spending the winter in the Hula Valley roosting on the lake and foraging nonstop in the surrounding field. This is a problem, both for cranes and for farmers, as cool as the birds are, the farmers don't want to lose their income and really, the cranes should be migrating.
So, Israel has come up with a unique idea. There are fields where supplement food is set out for the cranes and a squad who patrols the area and flushes cranes from farm fields where they shouldn't be feeding by using loud noises like fireworks and gun shots--the cranes are not harmed, but flushed from areas where they shouldn't be, keeping the farmers happy and the cranes safe.
It's quite amazing how acclimatized to humans the cranes are despite being flushed from certain fields. In Nebraska, you can't get as close to the birds and if you went out into the fields where they forage during the day, the sandhill cranes take off. In the Hula Valley in Israel, you can get quite close and the refuge is happy to help you get there. It's great for getting photos, for sketching or for just sitting there and enjoying the spectacle of thousands of cranes.
Even in the hides built around the refuge to visit birds throughout the year are visited by cranes. You don't even have to keep quiet. While I was in the above blind several people were inside chatting animatedly in Hebrew. Even when we were in our tractor blinds our guides had microphones and speakers and spoke at a very normal level when close to the cranes and the birds were not perturbed.
Common cranes are only part of the magic of viewing birds in the Hula Valley, but they are a great part. To view them at their peak you need to visit in early November. There are always great birds at the Hula, but for a crane migration spectacle, plane on early to mid-November. After visiting the Hula Valley, I may have to adjust my tattoo.
Oh and to give you an idea of how similar they are to sandhill cranes in North America, check out this video, they sound almost exactly the same:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTw6fp6JB_4[/youtube]
Birdchick Podcast #83 Ostrich Penises & Rare Bird Alert Gone Awry
This week's news! Has 2011 been the year of the bird penis? I feel like it's been in the news a lot...at least with ducks. This time, it's about how ostrich penises reveal that the evolution of a lymphatic erection mechanism likely occurred in the ancestor of all birds rather than within birds.
Have you heard of Birds Be Safe before? It's a collar for people who insist on letting their cats roam outdoors and is supposed to reduce the invasive species ability to kill native birds. Does it actually work or is it just feline humiliation?
Remember the mystery hummingbird in Chicago? They tried to id it based on poop but that failed, but don't worry they have a feather!
An uber rare bird called a red-flanked was found...and then eaten by a shrike.
Winter Surveys
I'm still doing some of my bird surveys. And up until this week I was having a cheery time in the field, but now it's so incredibly silent. I can't believe this is the same spot that was chock full of bobolinks not so long ago. It's so strange to suddenly have a spot that was so vibrant with sound from breeding birds then switch to crickets then to chips of secretive migrating sparrows and then to nothing. It makes those hour long point counts feel like a long time. And though the landscape is beautiful, it's bleak and lonely...and not nearly as much fun to scramble under electric fences as the snow piles up.
We've even been able to squeeze in another aerial waterfowl survey this week. Half the Mississippi River is frozen and reminds me a bit of a lunar landscape.
It snowed lightly while we were flying and the ending result made it seem as though we were flying right through a holiday card. I suggested the pilot attach a bright red nose to his plane and I'm not sure he found that nearly as funny as I did.
Swans fly like shimmering ghosts through the snow. The numbers of swans has dropped on the Mississippi and I'm not entirely sure that a majority of them are tundras. In early and mid November, I watched huge strings of swans fly over while I did my eagle surveys. I could hear their calls well before I saw them and knew they were tundra swans heading to the staging area on the Mississippi. Last week, I had smaller groups of swans using the exact same route, but listening to them, they were distinctly trumpeter swans. It's hard to tell the 2 apart in a plane at 100 miles an hour.
They are easy enough to count and id on the open water...
But much harder on ice and snow. This was as we were doing a high pass to see if there was enough open water to warrant a fly by. At fist, I though there are a few swans but not many...then I noticed how many of the whiter spots were moving on the ice, there were still hundreds of swans to be counted.
Canada geese are in large numbers, the biggest numbers I've seen all season. Considering all the waste corn in farm fields and all the places that have open water along the river, it's no surprise.
Here's part of a flock of bald eagles, there are at least 29 in this photo. I saw some very interesting behavior that I've not seen bald eagles do this week. Common mergansers are in huge numbers on Lake Pepin, but I was able to get a shot of them. Where ever we had huge flocks of mergansers, we had sizable flocks of bald eagles hunting them. It was crazy, we would have 10 bald eagles actively trying to nail a mergansers over open water. One spot was so active and dicey with mergansers and eagles, our pilot skillfully dodged around the flock. Our pilot doesn't like eagles to be directly over head because they can suddenly drop, through in a few thousand panicked ducks and barely freezing water and you have a dangerous situation. It was cool to get a fleeting glimpse of the behavior. Lake Pepin is so huge, it's not something easily viewed from shore. I'd be curious how successful this technique is and if any bald eagles ever end up drowning after catching a merganser on water. I know eagles are capable of swimming some distance to shore by paddling wings, but I don't think an eagle could make it from the center of Pepin.
Not as many ducks, but what a treat to get to view the bluffs in Minnesota and Wisconsin on either side of the Mississippi River. This was our last flight for ducks. I might do one ground survey next week, but that depends on if Pepin stays open. To view our waterfowl numbers check here. If this week's numbers aren't up yet, they will be up by Friday.