Melanistic House Sparrow?

Nobody seems to care about house sparrows in North America.  I posted the following photo to the American Birding Association Facebook page and no one really seemed interested in discussing it (granted, it's not as glamorous as discussing one's indignation at adding Hawaii to the official ABA area of countable birds list).

But still, it's a dark house sparrow and I wasn't sure if this bird was melanistic or just dirty. I tried googling "melanistic house sparrow" and found someone in Europe who had a very dark house sparrow, kind of a cool looking bird.

Perhaps if it wasn't non-native it would register more interest? Sometimes birds hatch out of the egg with aberrant plumage--sometimes albino (absence of any pigment) or luecistic (missing some pigment) or melanistic (too much pigment).

Birds and Beers TONIGHT at The Black Forest

Just a reminder that Birds and Beers is tonight! February 18, 2013 at 6pm at The Black Forest Inn in Minneapolis Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of birders of all abilities–if you’re interested in birds, you’re invited. You can meet other birders–maybe find a carpool buddy, ask about where to find target birds, share cool research projects you might be working on, ask a bird feeding question, share life lists, share some digiscoping tips, promote your blog–the sky is the limit. It’s low key and it’s fun.

To get the most timely updates on when the next Birds and Beers will be, become a fan of Birds and Beers on Facebook and when a new event it planned, you’ll get a notification.

Birdchick Podcast #134: Lots of Talking

From the ABA blog--Rise of the Young Birder Clubs. Eye rollingly bad story about blackbirds roosting in a Kentucky town.

Bird watchers not happy about proposed zip line.

Man who accidentally shot a whooping crane turns himself in.

Digiscoping with an iPhone Tip

Not too long ago, I was chatting with someone who had a company that made a camera app for iPhones. They told me how their app allows you to use your iPhone headphones as a remote shutter release. I said, "Well, the camera app that comes with your iPhone does that already." They looked at me with surprise.

I've mentioned this to a few other people and discovered that very few people know this. So, if you have an iPhone digiscoping set up with your spotting scope and your iPhone is secured to the scope with an adapter, you can plug in the headphones that came with your iPhone and use the volume up and down buttons to take photos.  Here's a very short video that demonstrates it:

http://youtu.be/hlWgWaKTOhM

Here are some of the photos that I took while I was making that video:

Here's a shot of the female red-bellied woodpecker and house sparrow. The iPhone 4s already does a great job in low light conditions but this is another way you can make sure your photos are in focus. This technique won't work as well if you don't have  an adaptor to secure your phone to your scope.

I currently only have adapters for my iPhone that work with my old ATM spotting scope and this was the last video I made with that scope before I sent it back to Swarovski to get cleaned up for the contest winner.  I'm trying to find someone who make one to go with the new ATX...but I'm finding it frustratingly difficult...especially since I enquired with a company who claims that they will custom make cases.

My Scope's Travels

In case you missed the drawing, Saundra Martz is the winner of my spotting scope. Above is her bad bird photo of a Cooper's hawk...can you find it? Saundra doesn't get the scope right away, it's currently being cleaned up at Swarovski.

They sent me photos to show that my scope arrived safely (though I suspect they already started cleaning it for this photo...there is noticeable lack of heron poop on the scope body).

Here we have Dean from marketing (he's the guy who was nice enough to say yes to my crazy idea of giving away my old scope) and Kyle from the repair department.  So, Saundra, your scope is in good hands and getting all spiffed up for delivery to you!

Incidentally, Swarovski does encourage people to send in their optics every 3 to 5 years for a good once over.  They do things like make replacements of parts that might need them, double check the alignment or if they've made a change to the optic since your purchase, make that change in for your piece--this is a free service. All you have to do is pay for the shipping to Swarovski.  It's best to call ahead of time and have your optics assigned a number so as soon as it arrives to the clean up department they can know what needs to be done. Also, it's best to avoid doing this right before spring or fall migration--those are they busiest times.

A Little Kleptoparasitism

 

The fun thing about Florida is you can see both American white pelicans and brown pelicans (the above bird). This bird was hanging out near a boat launch in Titusville. Some of the brown pelicans can be quite "tame" around there.  And I've heard different theories that some brown pelicans learn to beg from people, may just be ill or are almost completely blind from cornea damage sustained from their spectacular dives into the water for fish. I can't seem to find any articles to support that but with a pelican's natural ability to barf on you when stress, I can't imagine a ton of people wanting to line up and study that.

This bird did some half-hearded dives, not from very high up, but at one point the brown pelican appeared to have a fish and a laughing gull was ready to steal it. Certain species of gulls and terns will try to steal food from pelicans as they bring their bills up out from the surface and pour out the water from their gular pouch (the baggy part of the pelican bill). This is called kleptoparasitism--fun word. Laughing gulls who are so adept at grabbing oyster crackers in midair as people toss them are also very adept as hovering or even landing on a pelican to steal their catch.

This pelican was wise to the kleptoparasitism routine and kept its bill in the water until the gull got bored and moved on.

"Is the laughing gull finally gone?"

"Finally, I can swallow my fish in peace."

Birdchick Podcast #133: Naked Birding, Albatross, Crazy Owls

FYI: the subject of nudity as in "I used to be a nude art model in college" kind of way comes up in this podcast.  Just so you know in case you listen with your kids. Did you see the finalists for the worst bird photo contest?

Bird jobs this week.

Need a laugh? Just watch this.

62 year old albatross still laying eggs!

In other crazy nesting news, bald eagles laid eggs in the Twin Cities in January and there's a live cam. In other news, a great horned owl took over an eagle nest that's on a live cam.

Screen Shot 2013-02-12 at 7.35.44 PM

Speaking of great horned owls, a great horned got caught in the grille of someone's SUV and a red-tailed hawk got caught in someone's Civic.

Somebody (not me) is claiming to do a nude big year of birding.

Did you know you can see submissions to eBird in real time?

Interesting theory of how starlings monitor each other when in a murmuration.

A good article on why you can't exactly trust using Google Images to id birds.

Photos That Were Too Good

As much as I enjoyed the awful photos for my spotting scope competition, I also enjoyed the submissions of photos that...weren't that bad. Some of them I could see from a photography point.  Ah yes, as a pro photographer, I can see how you would think that minor bit that's out of focus is an awful photo...but some of them were really cool: Poop was a popular submission.  And the poop shots were often in focus. Here are some of the top money shots:

Pam Monahan got an adult eagle releasing a load.

Janet Kissik Hug has a great show of a family of osprey with junior ruining the photo as kids are want to do.

Devin Courture got a cute shot of a shoverler shooting some poop.

Craig Nash got a shot of the elusive woodcock squirt, very nice.

Dead birds were also a popular subject, but most of them were shot in a very artful way--like this coot by Jen Garland.

Kim Robertson got this beautiful dead seabird on the Sunshine Coast in Queenland, Australia.

Here's another kind of arty photo of a crow head from Bonnie Bowen. I will grant you these photos are unique and perhaps wouldn't make the cover of any birding magazines, but they are intriguing.

I thought this was a cool photo from Wayne Price.  But here is my question, what the mantis just chilling out...or was it after the goldfinch?  They have been documented going after hummingbirds.

Mark Robinson sent in this cool and crisply in focus red-tailed hawk.  Not a bad photo..but man, not sure I would want my camera that close to the crap end of the bird.

Liz Stanley got a red-head woodpecker to pose with her good luck charm stuffed red-headed woodpecker. Not bad but definitely a fun photo!

Scott Hawley submitted this strange photo.  He purchased a disc you can put in your heated bird bath that keeps birds from bathing in them in winter.  The black disk is supposed to float on top of the water...unless a female pileated woodpecker decides to land on it and sinks the whole deal. lol.

To see the best of the worst submissions...and well to feel a little better about your own photography skills, be sure to check out the finalists in the Flickr gallery.

Spotting Scope Contest WINNER!

This contest got a little nuts!  It is hands down my favorite contest of all the ones I've ever done, because people made me laugh so freakin' hard! You guys--you are not good photographers.  Out of over 500 submissions, I alas, can only have one winner.  We narrowed down the 512 entries to 151 finalists and you can see the finalist set over on Flickr...along with the hilarious descriptions. From there, we used a random number generator to select five finalists from the 151 and then we assigned our aloof pet rabbit Dougal to select the winner by scattering treats all over cards with the random five names.  Whichever one he ate off of was the winner.  But first! Let's see some of my personal faves from the finalists

...like the above feeder in the Rio Grande Valley by Christine Williams, that is a crap photo!

I noticed that we had some subcategories like...people who were too close to the bird  (they seriously needed a scope):

Dawn Bailey, you were lucky this bird didn't give you pouch lice...

I'm not sure what the turkey had in mind for AJ Zirch.

Deborah Weston, I hope you survived the goose attack.

Chelsea McGlynn claimed this penguin gave her nasty bite.  Hopefully her camera survived.

Another category that cracked me up was the "near miss." We've all been there.

Sharon Hull almost got that bald eagle (incidentally, that was the most submitted bird species).

Almost got that red-tailed hawk Kathy Java!

There were some photobombs, I loved this:

Robin Oxley was trying to get the jay but the lady wasn't thrilled, the jay was stealing her food.

There were some digiscoping fails like poor Melissa Hero's condor picture.

Then there people like Carrie Laben who got shots of their optics as opposed to the actual bird.

Poor Shelley Rutkin had more vignetting in her photo than actual bird.

I loved the people like Saundra Martz who got shot of their screen in focus...as opposed to the Cooper's hawk who is hiding Where's Waldo style in the photo.

This one by Mandy Klehr cracked me up because she labeled it over-exposed gull mouth...which would be a great name for a Courtney Love cover band.

Then there were the photos where I just kind of asked for it (like the guy giving me the bird...well played, sir, I sprayed coffee out of my nose on that one. But other photos from people who have picked up on certain things about me and used photos that they thought would get our attention.

At first, I didn't quite get this photo...then I saw the feet, then recognized my own feet...a birder on a trip with me out in North Dakota submitted of photo of me peeing behind a truck on the prairie...yep, that's a bad bird photo.  You're a dead man, Robinson.  Just sayin'.

Kirk Mona submitted this photo of dead eagle he found...very creative, my man.

And bless Wendy Root's heart.  I do see the eagle, Wendy.  Thank you for pointing it out.  I'm gonna go watch some brown birds now.

Though in focus, Claudia Lee's photo is certainly not the best turkey photo I've ever seen.  Very creative, Claudia!

And there are the ones that just are so cute:

Like people who have to point out exactly where the bird is and yet, I'm still dubious there is an actual bird. Nice try, Deanna Wright.

I love this one because it's a crap photo of a bobwhite and Jen Vieth, bless your little heart, you sent the image in a word document. Some of you may not get the beauty of that, but those who do are shaking their head and saying, "Alright."

This was from Adam Beeler and was supposed to be a bad photo of long-tailed manakins and instead, there was a problem with the encoding of the photo in his email.  I don't know if he sent it to me this way on purpose but either way--THAT is a very lousy photo of a bird.

Be sure to see the full set of the bad photo finalists.

And now, here is the video announcing our grand prize winner! Thanks again to everyone who entered. All of you made me laugh in the best way for days during this contest:

And now for the video of our winner.  Watch Dougal select who wins my spotting scope:

http://youtu.be/A3zadmZv_SQ

Link to the winning photo.

Digiscoping In Low Light

I mentioned in a previous post that I went up North to get a look at all the boreal owls that are showing up. The trip was originally intended for just Sax Zim Bog birding, but we spent some time in Duluth first to see some owls.  Speaking of which, there is some major public shaming going on with a few well-known photographers who are accused of baiting birds across busy highways or just being complete jerkwads and walking in front of large groups of people to get closer to the owls and causing the boreals to fly away. So anyone with a camera going to see owls, I encourage you to follow Wheaton's Law.

We didn't have as much time for the bog as I'd like and we didn't get to see everything, but we saw some cool birds nonetheless. I may go back up again later on to try and get photos of the birds I missed photographing like black-backed woodpecker and boreal chickadee.  If it weren't for my Big Half Year Challenge, I would just say, "Ah, next year." But I'm really digging this challenge I've set for myself.  Our guide, Erik Bruhnke took us to the site where Friends of Sax Zim Bog hope to build their welcome center--this is the site I'm raising money for!  They already have some bird feeders (and a port-a-potty) set up but hopefully there will be a building there soon to help people find the best places to visit to see birds.

By the time we got to the bog, I knew that light would be fading fast for photos.  So long as some of the specialty songbirds like common redpolls would hit feeders in sunshine, I knew I would be fine.

The redpolls were quite cooperative, except for one hoary redpoll who only allowed me blurry photos of it (the light colored redpoll with the smaller bill on the left in the above photo).  But I considered it a triumph that for once I was able to pick out a hoary redpoll on my own.

The pine grosbeaks were also very cooperative and readily perched in the sun...though they may also appreciate the little bit of warmth that comes with it.

We had great views of boreal chickadee, but all my shots are too dark and blurry. That's one of the shots of the snowy road at the boreal chickadee spot...the chickadee photos are worse!  I even tried to experiment using my Nikon V1 in video mode while digiscoping to see if that would get a shot. Usually when it's lowlight conditions, video is a great way to document birds.  But the video on the Nikon v1 made them all too dark. I thought about trying the timer on the Nikon, but the boreal chickadee is not a bird that sits still very long...

Then we had an opportunity when two great gray owls appeared right at dusk along the road.  I HAD to try and digiscope that, even though the sun had set.  I played with the settings on my camera and used it as an opportunity to test out the timer features on the Nikon v1.  The upside about owls is that if they are not actively hunting (or pestered by people) they will stay in the same spot and not move too much. So here is what I came up with by using my timer:

Not too bad.  Don't get me wrong--there were several photos of the owl's head facing the other way or the head in mid spin, but I got about three photos leaving the camera attached to the scope and setting the timer to go off 10 seconds haver I pushed the shutter button. It does have the option to take a photo 2 seconds for 5 seconds later, but I wanted to give the camera enough time to stop shaking after I pressed the shutter.

Since there were two owls and they were being stationary, I tried getting a photo or two with my iPhone 4s.  It actually did very well and this is with me HAND HOLDING the phone to the scope and not using a timer.  Not bad considering that it's dusk.  The 4s handles low light much better than the Nikon V1.

I even tried to video the encounter and realized that if the light is this low, get video with the iPhone and not the Nikon V1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQhd69SAaCw

There is some hand shake because it was 12 degrees with a windchill of 6 degrees Fahrenheit. But still, not bad at all for a souvenir bird.

One last thing about visiting Sax Zim bog...make sure you have a high clearance vehicle that and drive gravel roads that are rarely (if ever) plowed. That's one of the perks of hiring a guide...they usually have vehicles that can handle it if you do not. Again, as far as guides go, I can't recommend Erik Bruhnke enough--he's enthusiastic, full of naturalist info and personal observations. After hearing about what he finds here in summer, I may have to brave the mosquitoes and hire him to take me birding up here in warm weather. Plus, I love supporting a young kid making his way in a birding career. Other guides that I've birded with and highly recommend include Sparky Stensaas (the guy who created the Big Half Year concept) and Frank Nicoletti.

To see my most up to date tally of my birds for my Digiscoping Big Half Year, visit my Flickr set. If you are interested in pledging to the Big Half Year, either to for me or any of the other participants, please do.  It's a great cause for a great birding area and you can even pledge as low as $10.  Thank you to everyone who has donated so far.  I truly do appreciate it!