BirdCast Predictions For 9/11 Memorial

As migration is in full swing and most everyone I know in the US has thoughts of what happened on September 11, 2001 on their minds today, I can't help but think about the 2010 memorial. For people who may not be familiar with this story, in 2010, after a week of lousy weather for migration, the winds were favorable on September 11 and as the lights for the memorial were lit, literally thousands of birds that migrate at night and use the stars for navigation were caught in the beams. Here's a sample of the video: [youtube]http://youtu.be/EZAQSw0qCAI[/youtube]

The video and images found around the Internet are hypnotic. I always wondered what the skies would look like if we could see the thousands of warblers, vireos, thrushes and other species passing overhead on night migration and this gives us a glimpse of that.

What's hopeful about this situation is that Audubon's New York City Chapter was able to step in with organizers and they managed to turn off the memorial lights for a 15 minutes, encouraging the flocks of birds to move on. Otherwise, the birds would have circled the lights all night and lose valuable fat stores needed to continue the marathon south.

Apparently, the weather today could pose could migratory conditions for birds and a similar situation could happen. Hopefully, Audubon will be on hand again and if we get a crazy glimpse of night migration caught in the lights this year, the lights can be turned off for a few minutes, giving birds a chance to move on.

Wait, That's A Bird Name & Not A Disease?

One of my favorite parts of travel is when I find myself in a completely different habitat from where I live. It's amazing to think how much there is to see and how different area terrain can be in the United States. I can travel from one end of the country to another, wake up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit at my home and then a mere few hours later be sweltering in 104 degrees Fahrenheit at Agua Caliente Park in Arizona. We mercifully didn't bird the whole afternoon in the heat but went up Mount Lemmon to look for birds where the higher elevation was much kinder temperature-wise.

Along with being in completely different habitat, it's fun to find things like a gila woodpecker excavating a saguaro cactus as opposed to a red-bellied woodpecker working on an old as tree like I would at home. Other birds we found on our way up included a blue-throated hummingbird female feeding young, Scott's oriole and canyon towhee.

Though it is fun to run into familiar faces even if I am 1600 miles away, like the above Cooper's hawk. I'm used to seeing these birds dodge dumpsters and hipsters in my flat urban neighborhood. This bird took full advantage of the canyon walls when it finally took off and used a little bit of a different flying technique, but it had more open space than the hawks in my neighborhood.

I was hoping for a few life birds on this trip, I didn't expect tons, I'm running out of places in the US where I can really rack up the life birds. I was surprised to knock out 10 new birds on this trip (it is quite possible that my disinterest in listing contributed to that as my listing records are haphazard at best and I"m sure I have forgotten what birds I've seen). One bird I know for sure that I was missing was the phainopepla (pronounced fay-no-PEP-la). This has been a target bird for a long time, they look some crazy black cardinal with a tiny beak and red eyes. I love saying the name over and over. My buddy Clay got me one at Molino Canyon Vista on Mount Lemmon. And though I was grateful...it wasn't an adult male--I know for some that is birding elitism, but the first time one sees a crazy bird like a phainopepla, you want to see the best plumage possible.

Now that's what I'm talking about, that's a phaino-freaking-pepla! You may be wondering what the deal is with the crazy name, does it sound like it says, "phainopepla" when it sings? No. It's Greek for "shining robe." Yeah, I don't get it either, but where would North American birding be without weirdo bird names that make little sense? Non Birding Bill seems to think it sounds like some sort of venereal disease when I announce, "I got phainopepla in Arizona!"

These birds belong in the silky-flycatcher family and if wikipedia is to be believed...kind of related to waxwings? Which I suppose one can kind of see a waxwing like beak on this bird. Silky-flycatchers aren't quite like the tyrant or empidonax flycatchers that can be their own source of identification grief. There are only four species in this family and they all look noticeably different different.

I posted a picture of this bird on Twitter and someone noted the maniacal red eye.  This is not the craziest looking bird you can see.

How evil looking is this guy? Up in the higher elevations we got yellow-eyed juncoes bebopping around in the parking lots. A bit more of a maniacal looking bird than what I'm used to. As we went along the road, Clay would see a bird fly across, make us stop and before we knew it we'd be surrounded by painted redstarts, black-throated gray warblers and Hammond's flycatchers.

Even if we weren't getting great birds, the view on top of Mount Lemmon would have more than made up for it. While we were perched here, we could hear distant peregrine falcons echoing off the walls and a band-tailed pigeon. The pigeon is in the above photo, a mere speck on one of the dead conifers.

This was taken through the new Swarovski ATX on full 60 power zoom by holding my iPhone up to it. It's not bad for a documentation photo! As we were watching this bird, it suddenly took off and we looked up to see a zone-tailed hawk in a full on dive from high above. Zone-tails are awesome, they are shaped and fly like turkey vultures...giving protential prey a false sense of security. I wasn't able to digiscope a shot of the hawk, but it was fabulous to see.

 

 Mount Lemmon is not a bad way to spend an afternoon if you find yourself in Tucson.

 

 

Guidelines For Minimizing Killing Birds At Oil Field Waste Pits

This is a fascinating video put out by US Fish and Wildlife for oil and gas facility managers and staff. It's to advise ways to reduce bird and other wildlife mortality through "best management practices." There is no implication that if managers choose not to follow these guidelines that they will be prosecuted via the Migratory Bird Treaty.  That may be a conscious choice by the video makers to make this seem helpful rather than "the law will come down on you hard." http://youtu.be/Az0Uwrq6s2g

Not that birders can access any of these sites, wouldn't it be interesting to have someone monitoring them?

Obsessed Podcast & River City Revue

I have a couple of events going on this week: One is the River City Revue, a trip on the Mississippi River via one of the Padleford Boats with a variety of presenters on science, nature and art.  I think some of my former park ranger buddies will be there too and the view on the river should be beautiful.  That will be this Wednesday at 7pm.

And we've talked about this on the Birdchick Podcast, but I'll also be a guest on the Obsessed Podcast with Joseph Scrimshaw...talking about how I don't consider myself obsessed with birds. The show will be recorded live at the Bryant Lake Bowl this Saturday.  If you can't make it, you can download it later, but if you can, the BLB is a great time--have a drink and great food and laugh.  I believe John Moe will also be a guest on this episode too.

Bird Blogger Meet Up In Arizona

One of the perks of being a birding blogger is that from time to time, companies will invite you out and brainstorm ideas with you. These are not only beneficial to the company, but most certainly are to the bloggers as far as having a chance to meet in person and generate ideas.

Here we are, ladies and gentlemen: the bird blogging giants! We have Robert Mortensen from Birding is Fun, Mike Bergin from 10,000 Birds, Rue Mapp from Outdoor Afro, me, Tom Wood from Southeast Arizona Bird Observatory and there off to the right chimping away is Laura Kammermeier. Swarovski invited a gang of us out to Arizona this past weekend and it was a blast. I know some of your might be reading this and thinking, "Really, a Minnesota girl went to Arizona in August? She's nuts!"

That may be, but there are some spectacular birds to be had in Arizona and despite the reported high of 105 degrees Fahrenheit in Tucson, AZ we managed to find some cooler times and areas for birding. Though brief, we had time to hit some great birding spots. One was Huachuca Canyon at Fort Huachuca.

On top of connecting with online friends, a big portion of of the fun was getting to see a few birds I missed when I when to my very first American Birding Association convention in Tucson way back in 2005 (man, that was quite a few hair colors ago). One of the birds I missed back then was an elegant trogon and though I've seen quite a few trogons in Central America, what fun to get a trogon in the US! These birds were incredibly cooperative, I got to hear them calling as well catch glimpses of adults feeding young trogons hidden in the leaves.Other birds we loaded up on here included red-faced warbler, painted redstart, gray hawk, and sulphur-bellied flycatcher.

Though most of the birds we found I had seen before either in Arizona or other areas, I always love the opportunity to see birds that I don't get to enjoy often like this acorn woodpecker. There aren't many places left in the US that I can really rack up new life birds and I only expected to get maybe three, I ended up getting 10 new birds which was a bonus.

One of the bloggers to come along was Nate Swick, a name you may recognize from the American Birding Association blog and The Drinking Bird. On top of being a great birder...he likes to pick stuff up from herps to bugs. This was after he had picked up a stink beetle...his finger was rather ripe (and I was the lucky girl driving the car Nate and his stink finger were riding in).

And since my mother is currently without a computer, I blog this next part without too much hassle. Let me tell you about what Nate was smart enough to not pick up:

It's a black-tailed rattlesnake--my lifer rattlesnake. And on the off chance my mother is reading this on one of my sister's computers, do not freak out.  I was not laying on the ground with my iPhone up to it's face, I digiscoped this with my phone and the new Swarovski ATX scope.

See, here's the objective lens of the scope and the arrow is pointing to the rattlesnake. Digiscoping not only helps you get shots of distant birds, but also allows you to safely enjoy your first look at your lifer rattlesnake.

The snake was roughly 3 feet long, which I thought was rather impressive for my first time seeing one. I certainly wasn't expecting such a yellow snake. It went about its business and we all gave it plenty of space. Nate even noticed some dog walkers and warned them away.

It was an action packed weekend, but it's totally worth the sore calves and the mild lethargy I feel at my desk today.

Common Nighthawk Freakout

So we've had a common nighthawk completely freaking out in our ally the last week.  I'm not sure what's going on, I'd almost think it would be nesting, but these guys should be about to migrate from our neck of the woods.  But it started when Non Birding Bill noticed it.

Yes, I know, stop the presses: Non Birding Bill noticed one of the browniest birds out there.  Above is what a common nighthawk looks like. In some areas they are a common city bird in the summer but in Minneapolis they have had a dramatic decline. We've had only one pair successfully fledge a chick in the 14 years we have lived in our neighborhood. This summer we had a nighthawk displaying and it seemed he found a mate but then he started displaying about three weeks ago and I wondered if he was attempting to re-nest and if a crow had gotten the chick.

Sunday NBB came in after pilfering some green tomatoes from an accommodating neighbor's garden and asked, "Nighthawks are brown, right?"

"Yes," I said.

"And when they fly they have those white wing stripes?"

"Yes..."

"I just saw one in the ally and it was making this strange kind of chatter sound.  I got video of it. It landed on the wire above my head but sat along the wire," he said while trying to load his video.

"That's what they do when they perch," I said, intrigued that a nighthawk would be active in the morning daylight hours.  While NBB searched for his video, I played common nighthawk's "alarm calls near nest UT" on my Sibley app and he said, "Yeah that's the sound!"

And we've heard it two or three more times this week. One night I was soaking in the tub and I heard it, so I got out and went searching for the nighthawk.

The nighthawk alternately landed on our neighbor's driveway or circled the ally as it chittered in agitation.  I never saw a chick or heard one begging so I'm not quite sure what is causing the nighthawk freak out.  Perhaps we had an owl in the vicinity?

Here's what it sounds like (the video is terrible because it was dark out, but you can sure hear that bird):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU2hk24pjJQ&feature=youtu.be

Pledge To Fledge

There was a movement started last week called Pledge to Fledge.  I saw all the Twitter and Facebook updates with that in the title, took a casual glance at the website, thought, "cool, get kids into birding," and then tunneled back into the work hole I've dug myself this summer. Then I got a call from Richard Crossley...and Dave Magpiong, the two movers and shakers getting this global birding movement off the ground. Both noted my lack of mention and both wondered why since this is the sort of thing that I do. I said I noted it, was busy and that I'm all for getting kids into birds and was going through a PG-13 phase at the moment. Both corrected me that this is not just about kids. So here is what Pledge to Fledge is all about:

The weekend of August 24 - 26, 2012 you must promise to casually introduce someone (adult or child) into birding. You can do it in a variety of ways. Invite someone who has had a passing interest in birds out in the field with you, give away an old bird book you are not using to friends, plant yourself and a spotting scope someplace with a good amount of foot traffic like a beach or lake shore path and share what you see to passersby, or if you are on Facebook or Twitter, write a few updates about birds or if you are so inclined, post photos of birds. You can be as extroverted about it as you like, but the key is to put it out there and see if you can generate a spark.

This is something that I do on a day to day basis. For example, one of the first things I did at my new job was to put up some bird feeders outside my office window and on days when I'm not in the field, I'll set up my spotting scope so anyone walking by can take a look.

They might get to see a goldfinch on the tongue feeder I just put up or any number of species. Watching birds through my scope is all well and good, but I wanted a bit more.  In the last week I have added a suction feeder to my office window...which started quite the debate.  Several people came by and said, "A feeder on the window? Won't that make birds fly into the glass?" From this I was able to talk about how that's a strategy to use to prevent window collisions. Others are dubious that a bird will actually come up to the window.  We've already had one brave house sparrow check it out, so I know it's a matter of time till the chickadees, nuthatches and finches take it over.

We also have the office turkeys who visit our parking lot too. Half the office gets excited about this and will come over and tell me about them. I love that word is spreading that if someone sees a turkey flock, they alert the environmental department so we can enjoy the too. I love when somebody sees something bird related and thinks of me.

So, how about you? Can you "pledge to fledge" a new birder? Another way you could do this is to host a Birds and Beers. I know I started it, but I simply cannot visit every state (or city) and host one.  I can't drink that much! But you could host one in your town.  We always have new people show up to Birds and Beers and many are very new birding, it's a fun casual way to bring others into the fold.

Don't worry that you may not know everything is to know about birds...no one does. Some of us know more about certain species than others, but there's still a lot we don't know and there's no harm in ever answering a question with, "I'm not sure about the answer to that, what a good question.  Let's look that up!"