Birdchick Blog
Well, my avian survey work may become obsolete. This is an incredible story about counting the emperor penguins in Antarctica via satellite! Watch a video of it here on ABC. An article about how much we don't understand about bird migration...ie we can't prove that they sense magnetic fields in their beaks.
Listen to WITS on Minnesota Public Radio.
NBB will rejoin the ABA if 10 more people renew or join. Owl raises chicks in a potted plant.
Playing taped bird songs compared to drinking wine.
Is tail-pumping a predator defense?
Great Blue Heron nest attacked by owl while on a webcam.
Will the Nuthatch be divided into 4 species?
A sandpiper in a gorilla enclosure.
I love all the live nest cams that are available for us to watch online but knowing all the things that can go wrong with nesting, I keep waiting for the day when a nest cam witnesses something violent. Sure, we've had epic peregrine battles, but when we are we going to see something pick off nestlings...we might get that this year with the Cornell Live Heron Cam. Recently, a great horned owl tried to go all Hunger Games on the incubating heron. Check out the video and the heron gets angry and loud, so keep that in mind if you are watching this at work or if you have headphones on (don't worry, it's not bloody):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RBGYPQKt3wA
The birds have just started incubating, but if that great horned is that brazen now...will it return when the chicks hatch? I don't think this is a matter of the owl desiring a nest, I've seen great horneds take a nest in a heron rookery--it was interesting to note that the herons didn't take any of the nests next to the owl nest but seemed to get along fine with a red-tailed hawk nesting among them.
Will the herons be able to protect their young from an owl? A few years ago there was a raccoon that was systematically climbing up trees at a heron rookery in MN and eating the young one by one. The MN DNR got video footage of it and in some cases the parents watched from a nearby branch without attacking the raccoon that was eating the chicks alive.
How will this nest cam end? Happily with all five chicks flying off or brutally with some being eaten by an owl? It certainly has my attention.
In my effort to find ways to incorporate more exercise into my daily routine and cut back on using my car, I've been bike birding when I can. I've written about it before and how I attach my spotting scope to my bike so I can tote it around.
Since I've been playing around with using my iPhone instead of my SLR for digiscoping, it leaves a bit more room for toting in the backpack. In the past I have had to attach my tripod to the back of the bike with bungee chord because my backpack had the scope and the SLR. But if I leave my SLR at home I can slide the tripod into my backpack. The backpack doesn't close all the way around, but enough that it holds the tripod and scope securely in place, especially when wedged into my bike basket.
Although my bag did have one tragic accident this week. Our rabbit Dougal decided he wanted to give chewing zippers a try and he's damaged one of the zippers on the outer pocket. Just like a bunny, they wrap you around their little paw and then when you have fallen for them hook, line and sinker they begin their chewing siege on your home. But thanks to Twitter, I have leads on someone who can repair it...can I get fixed before The Biggest Week In American Birding and Point Pelee Fest though? I love that above photo, he looks like he's been caught trying to use my iPad.
Here's a shot I got iPhonescoping while biking last week of a horned grebe and pied-billed grebe while biking the lakes around my home. I like how having a smart phone reduces what I take in the field. My phone has the ability to hold multiple field guides, the ability to submit sightings directly to eBird from the field and is a camera. The only thing it's missing is the ability to use it as a binocular and a bottle of water.
I will say, it's not quite as easy as getting shots with an SLR, it's similar to getting photos with a point and shoot as far as burst mode goes. But most of my photos end up here or on Facebook and Twitter and for simply sharing shots, I like the portability of using my phone instead of a large camera in the field. When I need serious photos for a book project, I can still take my SLR out in the field, but for general birding or light birding, the iPhone set up works well (although some of my iPhonescoped shots will end up in my next book).
I'm still pining for an adapter to hold my iPhone to my scope. I had high hopes last week when I was sent a prototype for a planned Kickstarter project for an iPhone adapter. I knew it was too small to work with my scope, but it looked like it would work for my binoculars. Alas, my Swarovski ELs are just a hair too wide for it. But it if you have smaller eye cups, a microscope or telescope, it could work well for you. I hope their Kickstarter is a success...maybe it will encourage them to work on another adapter that works with modern field optics with large eyepieces.
But, I do hear there are more in the works, so my dream can't be far off of securing my iPhone to my scope. When that happens, I'll be able to take video and I have a dream of taking off and doing daily birding shows based on what I can get with my scope and phone.
On a quick non birding note, if you or someone you know is considering getting a kid a rabbit for Easter, please, don't. They are a lot of work and are often surrendered to shelters. Also, MSNBC noticed Disapproving Rabbits. There's a photo of an octopus eating a gull (Thayer's?). The problem is that with one photo, some are calling fake. However, there is a series of photos and for whatever reason the photog isn't sharing on the Internet. But when you see the full series, it doesn't look fake.
Oprah.com selected Julie Zickefoose's The Bluebird Effect as Oprah's Book of the Week. Awesome! You can order it here.
There's a turkey vulture cam! OMG! It's new and vultures have been seen there grunting (a mating thing) but you may have to check back a few times as it gets going.
10000 Birds has an interesting bird. Is it a junco? Is it a hybrid? Who knows?
I just did the random drawing for the winner for the Birdchick Photo Contest: Congratulations to Linda Munson, you win the $250 gift certificate form Eagle Optics (they will mail it to you). Linda submitted several photos and one of my favorites was this shot of a great horned owl that took over an osprey nest in Florida:
Thank you to everyone who entered. If your photo appears in the book, you will receive a free copy when it's released in 2013 and a photo credit.
Several people emailed in and very generously offered their photos and didn't want the gift certificate. If anyone else would like to submit photos, please feel free--I especially need photos of African and Australian species but I'm always on the look out of cool bird behavior from any wild species.
Thank you again for everyone's participation, there were some fantastic submissions and I'm excited and honored that you shared them with me and they will make this birding primer book very special.
I've long been a fan of the BirdsEye app, it allows you find out what's been reported to eBird and gives you an idea of birding hot spots all over North America. It's my favorite birding app of all the apps available--even over any of the field guides. It works on either an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android. You need some sort of Internet access, either via wireless or the 3G network. There's been a rumor that the app would eventually allow you to update your sitings from the field directly to eBird and we waited and waited for an update. Those of us with iPhones even felt a wee bit of bitterness when it was announced that the app was available to do just that via the Android and not the iPhone.
Now it is available and boy howdy have I been giving it a workout. One thing to understand, this is a separate app called BirdLog that allows you to enter sitings to eBird from the field, it is a separate app from the original BirdsEye app that allows you to see what is being reported.
Pros of the BirdLog app:
You can enter in eBird sitings directly from the field, as it is happening if you wish.
Let's say you are bike riding on a series of trails and there's a pond that particularly birdy but there's no known birding hot spot there. You can go into "Submit Sitings" and will tell you where you are and even let you know if you are near a birding hotspot. This is also handy if you in someplace like Nebraska and you're driving around and getting birds at various potholes.
I personally don't like hunting down locations in eBird because you have to do it by county, rather than city or township and I think it's a pain the butt to figure out. This app does it for you.
It gives you a list of the most likely species.
It will keep track of how long you are birding in an area for you, so you can start it as soon as you hit the trail (alas, it doesn't keep track of how far you traveled, but there are other apps for that).
The app allows you to make notes, "Red-tailed territory display" or "nest nearby."
You can have more than one list going. I have two lakes that I do as a loop when I'm bike riding and I was able to have both lists going.
Cons of the BirdLog app:
It's separate from the original BirdsEye app.
Doesn't keep track of how far you travel on the trail.
Once you have closed out and submitted your list, it's difficult to go back in and correct it (you might as well do it at home on your computer). You can't edit the list from the app, it will take you into eBird via your phone's web browser and eBird is not set up to be viewed in a friendly way on a phone (at least not on my iPhone 4s).
When submitting sitings, it defaults to numbers, rather than letters, gently forcing you to count how many birds you are seeing. I tend for most species to enter in "x" because I don't want to count how many grackles, red-winged blackbirds or gulls I see on the trail. I think this is more my own personal issue. I so often have to count birds for work and when I'm watching birds for fun, my brain doesn't want to do it. You can still enter in "x" you just have to switch screens.
Best Uses:
Driving around on remote roads and you have no idea where you are. This is ideal for areas like Sax Zim Bog where you are mostly driving down the road and periodically stopping to find birds.
Keeping a running list of what you're seeing in the field.
I'm particularly looking forward to using this in birding programs with kids. I can let one of them keep the bird list and carry an iPad (a good hook for the kid who doesn't want to be in the woods in the first place).
I think this is a really cool app to use with kids at home. Why wait for the Great Backyard Bird Count or Project Feeder watch to notice birds? You could set up a day once a week and have your kids check off the birds in your backyard, you could even use it to keep track of what day you note when certain species arrive--like orioles or hummingbirds.
I worry some people think entering sitings to eBird is only for those who are hardcore birders and are out in the field, but backyard species are important too, especially as the globe's climate is changing and we will see more shifts in bird populations.
Here's an intro video that shows you how it works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNliquYImFw&feature=youtu.be
A 22 year old female osprey returns for nesting season.
There's a great blue heron cam!
Pelicans growing at an alarming rate!
An ABA post on the agony of bird taxonomy changes. Though and April Fools prank, I'm sure some of the lamentation of listing birders is real.
And finally:
But the best part of this video is the reaction some birders had.
Hello all, NBB here. Sharon is in deadline mode, and has asked me to fill in for her. As I have received many thousands of questions about my recent honor, I thought it best to simply post the entirety of my speech here. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, members of the board, Mister President, Your Majesty.
Thank you for attending this gala to celebrate the first time I have been awarded the American Birding Association Bill Stiteler Award for Birder of the Year. This is award is a great honor, not just for me, but for the ABA, and indeed, all of humanity back to and including cavemen, who painted their walls with crude drawings of the birds and possibly dragons they saw soaring high above, creating the first field guides and no doubt the first argument over whether Grog saw a Yellow Chested Uuuugh Uuuugh or a Chestnut-Sided Graaaaah. In those savage days, birding arguments were settled with a sharp rock to the back of the head.
So really, not much has changed. But I digress.
When those Neanderthal-citizen-scientists stared in wonder at the creatures who were not tethered to the earth, they, like us, dreamed of understanding those awe-inspiring creatures, just as they, like us, also dreamed that one day the American Birding Association would give me this award.
It has not been an easy road to this honor that I so richly deserve. Some have said that my relatively recent entry into the birding world, lack of extensive bird knowledge, mocking stance towards birders, and general disinterest in birdwatching itself should have precluded me from winning this award, let alone having it named after me. Well, here I stand before you, wrapped in glory as very definitely the most important birder of this epoch. And where are the naysayers? Lying in a ditch somewhere with a sharp rock in the back of the head.
Birding faces many challenges in the year ahead, not the least of which is the birdwatchers themselves. As we have seen time and time again, fragmentation of the community of birders can only lead to petty squabbles that distract us from the truly important issues of conservation, appreciation, and promotion of the hobby. It is my hope the birdwatchers will set aside the things that divide us and instead choose to focus on the things that unite us.
Namely, me. Because in honoring yours truly, Bill Stiteler, as the recipient of the Bill Stiteler Award for Birder of the Year, the ABA has shown that there are some issues that we can all agree on, like how much I really, really, really, really deserved this. Let us all walk hand in hand into this new Golden Age of Birding, and also make the award bigger when you give it to me again next year.
I thank you.
Don't forget you still have time to enter my photo contest. Rules here. The winner gets a $250 gift certificate to Eagle Optics! I need photos of birds all over the world, especially birds at feeding stations, bird nests, birds at windows (ie fighting reflections), birds flying. The most important thing for submission is that the photos be IN FOCUS. Contest Details here. And I've set the date for the next Birds and Beers and it's that special time of year when it's time to get our timber doodle on!
Thursday, April 19, 2012 RAIN DATE, Monday, April 23, 2012
This is our annual Woodcock Tailgate Party and we head out to Lebanon Hills Regional Park, have some laughs and then 15 minutes after sunset try to watch the woodcock display. The woodcocks start their display about 15 – 20 minutes after sunset, which means they will start around 8:20pm. Since the display area is next to the visitor center at the park, we’ll meet there starting about 6:30pm and have an old fashioned tailgate party–you can come early to mingle or come closer to magic hour. Bring your own food and beverages and we’ll laugh until it’s Woodcock Time. The park closes at 10pm, so this gives us plenty of time to get some great birding done. Some years we’ve had great horned owls show up and still got great looks at the timberdoodles (aka woodcocks).
Recommended to bring: lawn chair and boots, might be a little muddy, insect spray (ticks could be a possibility). Dress in layers, it could be warm when the sun is out and gets cool quickly when it’s dark. Binoculars and a flashlight are a good idea too.
For up to date info, check the Facebook Invite Page.