Birdchick Podcast #157: New Sibley? Toys R Us are jerks.

Brace yourselves, kids, there's a new Sibley coming. The company Toys R US has an advertising department that is full of complete and total jerks because of this ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5SXybm6bss

Funny article about rules for the 20 something birder.

Did you enjoy my post on Austria? Want to have a similar trip? Sign up with my friend Ben and Clay and go on their digiscoping tour of Austria.

Here's Carl Sagan

All the illion's from Cosmos by Carl Sagan. Millions, Billions, Trillions and 1 Quadrillion. For all the other words that aren't those ones. Please watch Cosmos.


Rehydrating A Baby Snapping Turtle

Baby Snapping Turtle  

We have had a bit of a dry season here in Minnesota. Some would even say we are in a moderate drought. On one of my bike rides in September, I noticed some freshly hatched snapping turtles on the Cedar Lake Trail--most of them were in various states of flatness from bikers running over them.  I paused to examine one of the smashed one and noticed one in the yellowing grass that hadn't crossed the paved trail yet.  I nudged it with my shoe and it barely moved. I picked it up and it was very dry, I wondered if it was dehydrated and wouldn't make it to the safety of water. Cedar Lake was closer, but all the smashed turtles seemed to be heading towards another nearby lake called Lake of the Isles. I placed the nearly immobile snapper in one of my many travel cups in my bike satchel and poured in a little water. With in ten seconds the turtle perked right up. I didn't put a lot of water in, just enough to stand in and keep its head above water.

Baby Snapping Turtle Rest

 

Not sure what to do I took the tiny snapper home, made a make shift pond in a giant pasta bowl, filled it with some small pieces of turkey and a few pieces of earthworm.  It took bites of both. I placed some lettuce leaves in from my farm share and the turtle seemed content to hide under that. When I moved, the snapper would dart under the lettuce. If I stayed still while typing, it would slowly creep out and extend its neck just enough so its tiny nostrils were above water.

Non Birding Bill came home and saw it on the kitchen table and said, "We're not keeping it...right?"

"No," I said, "just wanted to give it a bite or two before I send it off to Lake of the Isles."

I posted some pictures on my various social medias and a friend who doesn't know animals very well but loves all things cute sent a message, "Tiny turtle! Wait, turkey? They're not vegetarian?"

I then had the fun task of informing them that snapping turtles are omnivores and those baby ducks they find so cute...snapping eat those too. Something so tiny and cute will grow up to be a monster in dark murky water. But that's ok, ducks have their own dark sides when they grow up--every animal has a dark side.

Baby Snapping Turtle Release

 

After a night at Chez Stiteler, I took the tiny snapper to Lake of the Isles.  I found a nice shallow spot with lots of vegetation for it to hide in and some good insect larvae potential. The turtle was anxious to get away from me and start life. I stuck around a few minutes to watch how it would acclimate to such new and large surroundings. It wanted as far away from me as possible.  Understood, big things mostly mean to eat you, tiny turtle.  Here's some advice: don't trust a heron.

Baby Snapping Turtle Takes on the World The last photo. Tiny turtle surveys the big world of Lake of the Isles.

 

Private Digiscoping Tours

Digiscoping People have asked for it and I can only be in so many places at once, so here it goes. Would you like to have some one on one time with me for digiscoping practice? I'm now offering private digiscoping workshops. If you are in the Twin Cities metro area and would like to have a half day or full day with me to practice the technique with a smart phone or digital camera with your spotting scope, email me at sharon at birdchick dot com. If I am available we will visit local areas that are good for practicing the technique.

These are not tours specifically to get you life birds. We might get some new birds for you while you are with me, but if you are looking to add a bunch of flycatchers to your life list--I am not the droid you are looking for. If you would like to get sharper images of birds, get birds in better light, get closer to birds without stressing them out, learn some basic editing techniques, learn more about how exactly your camera phone works--I am the girl you are looking for.

Rates vary based on where you would like to digiscoping and how long you would like to spend time with me. If you are not in the Twin Cities and you'd like to hire me for a birding/nature festival or a class, I have rates for that too. I digiscope quite a bit and teach workshops all over the world.  Many of the images in my birding books are digiscoped by me.  Here are some examples:

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

How to use your iPhone headphones as a remote shutter release.

Digiscoped Grosbeak Rose-breasted grosbeak digiscoped with Nikon D40, DCA adapter and Swarovski ATM 80mm spotting scope.

Digiscoped with an iPhone

Common cranes digiscoped with an iPhone 4s and Swarovski ATM 80mm spotting scope.

Digiscoped Wood Duck

Wood duck digiscoped with Nikon V1, TLS APO adapter and Swarovski ATX 85mm spotting scope.

iPhone

Common yellowthroat digiscoped with iPhone 4s, PhoneSkope adapter and Swarovski ATX 85mm spotting scope.

We can even play with video if you'd like. I'll even show you how to send your photos around on the various social media sites.

Email me at sharon at birdchick dot come for more details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birdchick Podcast #156: Black Birder Rules and Pokemon

Birdchick Podcast #155: Boobies, Women and Zombies

Mom stories--"don't you know who my daughter is" or visiting NWR and it's closed. I was interviewed by a college newspaper and the article is just so darned cute. Love those college reporters.

What bothers me most about the zombie genre is addressed in this article on Boing Boing.

A brown booby in Buffalo.

Alpine swifts are CRAZY flyers.

How predatory sounds can affect an ecosystem.

Record holding teen birder in the Chicago Tribune.

Revisiting sexism in science and nature careers. A science writer is asked to write for Bio Online for free by an editor, she declines and gets called a whore by the editor. This is not acceptable as the now former Biology Online editor has learned.

How many of these 13 essential outdoor experiences have you done?

Cool photos you should check out: Bald eagle vs great blue heron over a fish and the 2013 Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners have been announced. I thought this noddy photo was the most intriguing:

Screen Shot 2013-10-16 at 9.48.43 AM
Screen Shot 2013-10-16 at 9.48.43 AM

Bird To The Max with The National Eagle Center

In Minnesota we have this very cool event called Give To The Max Day. It is a one day fundraising event for nonprofit organizations in Minnesota where people are encouraged to donate to their favorite organizations and just about anyone I know from birding, wildlife and arts community participates. There's a lot of media and people in this state are incredibly generous. Non-profits also have the chance to double or get their donations matched by various contests with sponsors on Give Mn. Screen Shot 2013-10-15 at 2.04.38 PM

 

This year, I'm going to help the National Eagle Center with their fundraising efforts by having a Big Day competition against the NEC's Scott Mehus and you'll be able to follow us online! To learn more, check out the NEC's Bird to the Max fundraising page.  If you're in the area, we are even going to have a Birds and Beers and you can celebrate with us. So mark November 14, 2013 on your calendar.

Here's one of the promo videos we  made for the event. I say, when life hand's me a furlough, I am having fun making furlough-aid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9-l-02iTjs

Furlough Family Visit

trololo

I took some of my own advice on being furloughed and headed out of Minnesota to visit with my family in Indiana. I joined my mom and some of my sisters for time at one of the family cabins in Brown County State Park. Above I am lip synching to the Trolololo song at one of the scenic overlooks...which none of them knew.

todays office

 It was actually a good plan, I could do some writing and put out freelance feelers out while they would do things I don't care for like going shopping in nearby Nashville. The deck of the family cabins have a beautiful view and lots of birds for inspiration.

Friendly titmouse

The birds are so used to guests putting out food for them that all you have to do is scatter some seeds and birds like the above tufted titmouse had no problem flying in to join my office. At one point I had a both a titmouse and a white-breasted nuthatch taking nuts from my hands. It was a bit nostalgic for me to be here. When I developed an interest in birds as a kid, this is where my mom used to take me as a kid as it was only an hour away from where we lived Indianapolis. She and my aunts would book a few days in the off season. It was intended as a sisters' getaway for them but since I spent most of my time outside, it wasn't too much of an imposition to bring me. instatowhee

It was so nostalgic that the few birds I digiscoped I did using Instagram like the above eastern towhee. I know I tend to rail against that social media platform for showing pictures as old and faded but since this was a sort of childhood revisit, it only seems appropriate.

instagramed pileated

The pileated woodpecker was the bird that got me interested in birding--I saw it in a Peterson Field Guide when I was 7 and thought how cool it is to know that there is such a thing as a crow sized woodpecker. Brown County State Park is where I first heard and saw one. It was a few years after I had been watching birds, but that was a bird really wanted to see and I'll never forget that pair that flew low in front of my aunt's van and landed low on a tree (just like the book suggested, they tended to forage low on the ground). But we had a family group hanging out regularly outside our cabin and they didn't mind us at all.

girls in the woods No matter where we went around the park I remembered first birds or birding lessons learned. I learned the call of the red-bellied woodpecker by following one "kerring" relentlessly outside of Abe Martin Lodge. When stopped by Strahl Lake in the above photo, I remembered the time I took laboring over the id of a Louisiana waterthrush working the edges of the creek that trickles from the dammed up lake. My mom even stopped me at one point and said, "Hey, Sharon, do you remember the time you were here and you found that Louisiana waterthrush?" I know my mom is aware of my interest in birds and she was there learning right along with me as a kid but I didn't think she remembered all of them and I was impressed that she remembered that particular bird. Perhaps because I stayed there so long staring down a brown bird and worked to try and separate it out from a northern waterthrush?

Birding Sisters

I know full well that hardcore birding is not something I'm going to do with my sisters. But usually they bring binoculars. Alas, mom left her's in the cabin when we went out and my sister Terri left her's at home. This was a spot that had a tree chock full of warblers and there was no easy way to get my scope on one so I passed around my Swarovskis (perhaps it was their intent all along--to use my binoculars). My sister Angela (in yellow) seemed to content to to simply wonder what the heck it is we are looking at.

Mom and the pawpaw

I loves me some wild edibles and mom was excited to find some paw paws still left in the park. If you have never read Julie Zickefoose and her love and harvesting of paw paws, you should really check it out. My mom got a little too excited about finding paw paws (I should never have shown her twerkers gone wild in Walmart). But we all got a chance to taste the delicious Indiana Banana.  My sisters were not as enthused by the texture as I was. But the big excitement for me was noticing people gathering some fruit under trees near the camp store. I went to investigate and low and behold the trees were laden with persimmons and I chowed down!

mom and shaz

 

I picked up as many as I could and ate them with every meal at the cabin.  They have the texture of plum with large seeds inside. The flesh is like a very mild orange flavored with cinnamon. There are different types of persimmons. Sometimes in stores you will find the larger, flatter Asian style for sale and when I was in Israel we had one of their varieties with every meal--it was not lost on me that in Israel they are called Sharon Fruit, but then again my name is Hebrew for a great and fertile plain.

American Persimmons

 

But these persimmons are the North American species (Diospyros virginiana), the ones I remembered tasting as a kid.  They were fantastic.  I couldn't get enough of them. On our way out of the park we stopped again so I could load up a container and take them back to Minnesota. I wanted to try them out on Non Birding Bill.

Persimmon Pancakes

He enjoyed the flavor as well and the next morning I chopped them up and combined them with pancake batter and a couple of dashes of cinnamon. I dare say they were the best pancakes I have ever made. Make sure when you try a persimmon or if someone is offering you one that it is a bit soft.  Hard unripe persimmons are a cruel joke in your mouth, they will suck the moisture out of it and they are very bitter. But ripe ones falling off the trees are fantastic.

Chicken of the Woods

 

I also found quite a bit of sulphur shelf aka chicken of the woods growing in the park. I suspect my freakout over all the wild edibles had my family concerned for my well being during the furlough. I ended up coming back to Minnesota with far more food than I took (I"m responsible for supplying honey and cheese on trips with my sister since I have easy access to things like Sartori Espresso Cheese, brun-uusto and a new morel jack that I found). But my sister Monica sent me home with two sacks of veggies from their garden (including green tomatoes--my all time favorite), Terri sent me home with 2 jars of jam made from her cherry and other berry trees in her yard and even my Aunt Lynne had cookies and fudge at the ready for me to eat on my way back to Minnesota.  I'll take it.

gossiping in the woods

Speaking of the furlough, I was having a conversation with my sister Terri about house sparrows. There were a few birds mating in the rafters of Abe Martin Lodge in Brown County State Park and we chatted about bird breeding habits. A woman walking by overheard us and asked about them. I started describing them to her and noticed she gave the look of, "Wow, yeah, I was just asking a question and hoping for a one sentence answer and not an encyclopedia answer."

I know that look well and know when to stop talking, "I'm sorry," I said, "I'm a furloughed National Park Ranger and I'm having a bit of interpretation withdrawal." We laughed, everyone said how sorry they were about the situation and then went about our day.

That's really all you can do with this stupid situation, laugh at the ridiculousness of it.

Sisters

 

That and make sure some of those laughs are from having time well spent with family.

How To Survive A Furlough

Wow. I wrote this for the last shutdown in 2013. At the time I was only a part-time federal employee. Now I am a full-time federal employee. One thing that has changed from over four years ago is that I'm way more prepared for a shutdown this time. I still have some freelance projects but I also have an emergency fund just for this inevitability. I'm more than a bit nervous that this furlough is going to last as long or longer than the last one. I'm even more worried that I will get no back pay for this--basically being put out of work by people who will still get paid during a shutdown. I'm lucky in comparison with fellow federal employees I know who have massive student loans, mortgages, expensive medial bills for themselves or their children, are in the middle of a major roof or furnace repair or just living paycheck to paycheck. 

So, if you are new to a furlough, here's what a wrote last time and I hope you find it useful as you spin your wheels trying to fill your day without spending money. Here's hoping that by me posting this today it will mean the shutdown is over before the day is done. 

Immature rose-breasted grosbeak.

Immature rose-breasted grosbeak.

Sometimes, I just need a cleansing look at a bird.  That is what gets me through the day. I love this immature male rose-breasted grosbeak.  Barely a few months old and he eats at the feeder on his way to a marathon flight into Central America.  Good luck, dude.

With the federal government shutdown, many employees are out of work with an uncertain financial future.  For those who do not know, I work part-time as a National Park Ranger. The rest of my work is made up of various freelance projects--articles, speaking engagements, the occasional book, consulting, bird surveys, etc. My part-time position in the park and my freelance means that I will not qualify for unemployment during this time and a chunk of money that I count on is not there.  If the government decides to give out back pay to employees for the shutdown, anyone who used unemployment will have to pay it back. However, there is no guarantee and it looks unlikely that any furloughed employees will get back pay when this is all said and done.

Being without work with no clear sign of when money comes in is scary. As a freelancer, I know. What I find funny for me is that as much as I love and enjoy the park service, I saw it as a cushion for when my freelance times were lean and now it's as uncertain as the rest of my career. Ah, life!

Freelance definitely is a feast or famine sort of lifestyle. I always describe it as, "Freelance is great because you can set your own schedule, unfortunately so can the people who send you your checks."

I've developed some strategies in my seven years as a freelancer and perhaps some of these might be helpful to you if you are furloughed at this time. These are also guidelines for anyone who ever emails me to ask, "How can I do what you do?"

Down Time = Idea Time

What is something you have always wanted to try? What is some crazy career scheme, idea that you always wanted to do but "real work" always got in the way? Maybe it's watercolors? Maybe it's self publishing dinosaur erotica? Maybe it's learning how to cook Thai food? Maybe it's writing a Barry Manilow biography? Maybe it's creating your own YouTube Channel and producing easy 2 minute how to accounting videos? Start working on it. Now. You have the time, you may never have this chunk of time to flesh out the idea and it could lead to something. Or not. But the point is, you are working on something. You are improving your skills.

Screen Shot 2013-10-05 at 7.14.00 AM
Screen Shot 2013-10-05 at 7.14.00 AM

Beekeeping was started with a friend during some down-time in my career.

Speaking of improving skills, is there some program you don't know how to use well and you've been faking it or relying on spouses, friends, interns to do them for you? Is an Excel spreadsheet baffling to you? Find free online tutorials, they are out there. Give yourself a new marketable skill.

All of the above activities can be done without any additional expense. You can find classes for watercolors and cooking online. You can set up a self publishing account on Lulu.com or a YouTube channel for free. You can film a whole movie with your average smartphone. Where there's the Internet, there's a way. And if you don't have access to the Internet, there's always the Library and books.

Stay Active

This was a hard one for me to learn but made a huge difference. Especially in lean times, you think you need to always be working, always find the next project, do something useful for your household. It's easy to fall into a pattern of zero activity and that does not help your mood. Get out of your house. Walk, bike, run, skip, just get out and get physical. You don't have to join a gym, but you may need good shoes for the type of activity though. Also for some of the work that I do like bird surveys, it's important that I maintain a certain level of fitness. Even if you are a writer, programmer, designer you need a level of fitness too.

I don't like joining a gym, I feel guilty about the expense. And I like the sort of exercise that is outdoors.  I have a bike and I use that for going to meetings as well as exercise. I love my bike riding time because it clears my head and I use to flesh out articles or come up with strategies.  I'm essentially doing the things to get work that I would do on the futon at home with my laptop, but doing it while burning some calories.

I don't like to bike ride at night and living in Minnesota, the night last 16 hours in winter. So I took up running in winter. Let me be clear, I hated running. Hated it. But many of my friends and family have taken up running and they claim to enjoy it, so I started a couch to 5k (there are several out there, even my husband took it up after I did, but he used a zombie game to do it). On days when you have no work, running gives you a sense of accomplishment. You got up, you got out of your home, you challenged yourself.

Birdchick
Birdchick

Couch to 5ks are a great way for someone who has been mostly couch surfing to get up to running.  And you will never be as bad as your first day doing that program.  When I started it, I couldn't run for 60 seconds. The first time I ran for 3 minutes straight and the timer on my app told me I could walk but I felt like I could run a little longer had me squealing for joy and jumping in the street.

So find an affordable activity plan--yoga exercises online. Even if it's just walking at a brisk pace outside in the rain. This is still contributing to your family. Maintaining your health so you are around longer to be there for your family is the best gift you can give. The Oatmeal sums it up best.

Find Free Fun Stuff

Find out what your town offers for free. We have the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The general exhibits are free.  You can go and sit in front of a Picasso...for free. During the furlough, some places like Huge Theater are offering free shows. Google around, get out, breathe. Get inspiration.

Don't Avoid Your Friends

ALL OF US HAVE HAD LEAN TIMES. All of us have been unemployed, have been in tough financial straights. If your friends offer to go out, don't avoid them. Be honest about not having money. They will either say, "Hey, I can spring at least one beer," or "Well, come to my house for some Battlestar Galactica board game fun" (it's an awesome game even if you haven't seen the show). You have most likely been there for friends, paid tabs, bought dinners, been the designated river, etc-- let them return the favor. And someday, you will be able to pay tabs again. Let your friends help you if they offer. They feel bad for you too, they want to help, let them do what they can.

I have wonderful friends, Joan of Dark and Dill Hero even offered me work in their coffee shop Strange Brew while on furlough. That's amazing to even offer considering all I know about coffee is how to drink it.

Get Comfortable Having Some Debt

You may have to use your credit cards. This can be frightening because of the interest rates or maybe you got yourself in a terrible debt situation in college with credit cards. These are not replacement paychecks, these are there for you to have some cash flow when you really need it. It's important to keep your debt limit in mind (see below). This is not for a night out drinking with friends to celebrate hump day, this is for when you have about $6000 worth of checks that are supposed to come in any day and you need to put gas in your car or buy some macaroni and cheese for dinner.

Pay it off as soon as the checks come in. Don't just schedule massages, buy five pairs of shoes or that expensive fleece you've been eyeing. Pay it off ASAP.

And when you have debt, you are more than just your debt. It can be a stressor and a motivational tool but it does not define you as a person.

Specific to freelancers (not necessarily the furloughed):

Set A Debt Limit

If you want to freelance full time, the first thing is to set a debt limit. How much are you willing to bear if you are going through a lean time? How much are you comfortable putting on your family? If you have a family, make sure your spouse/partner is ok with that amount. Stick to that, once you reach that debt point and there's no sustainable job coming in for a month, it's time to find a new job. What is that amount? $1000? $5000? $10,000? I don't know, that is up to you, your resources and whoever else has a stake in your household income.

I hope some of this helps.  I hope all of us get back to work soon.  I hope someone out there forms a "Reasonable Party" where politicians share ideas and concerns rather than shout hyperbole and focus more on political posturing in front of the cameras than an actual solution.

Update for 2018

If  you are like me and you are absolutely terrible as setting aside money for rainy days, two apps that have really helped me prepare are Stash and Acorns. They're not advertisers for my site, but you get a sign up bonus and I get a referral bonus if you use the links I provided. If you'd rather just go to their page rather than using my links, that's cool too. If you have your savings account strategy set, you don't need these. But if you're like me and prone to buying rounds for friends, drunk Amazon ordering or seeing an extra $50 in your account as permission to buy more yarn or fancy scotch rather than setting it aside...these will work great for you, they did for me.

You can set Acorns to automatically deduct money from your accounts or set it up round up to the nearest dollar when you make any purchase and it will set that money aside. I forget about the account and then I open it every couple of months and see either a safety net or some fun money I can use for travel down the road. Stash is similar but you can create a portfolio where you can choose to invest your money for better interest rates. I'm a big fan of the Roll With Buffet option. If anyone out there has been using similar apps and like them better, I'm definitely willing to listen. 

My to do list for each day of the shutdown is:

Tidy
Rage Knit
Birding
Be Physically Active
Write
Art Project
Avoid News Commentary (they don't get your job, or you as a person) 

 

Birdchick podcast #154: Government Shutdown and Eerie Birds

We can't let Non Birding Bill know about this story. Family releases "baby bunny" and it lasts maybe 10 seconds in the wild. Here's a cleansing albino chickadee photo.

Calcified bird photos by Nick Brandt.

9 leading causes of bird deaths in Canada.

Crazy lady writes about...dinosaur "love."

How not to handle criticism.

Ducks Unlimited beard app fundraiser.

NBB's other podcast.

This is a picture of Kabuki, our cockatiel who you sometimes here in the podcast:

kabuki
kabuki

Amsterdam Birding

I know what some of you are thinking after reading that subject line, "Wait...there's something other than the Rembrandt House, Van Gogh Museum and Red Light District that people like to do in Amsterdam?  Really?" Yes! Really! After all of the non birding in Paris, I took the train up to Amsterdam to visit my nephew who lives there.

amsterdam lizards I'm actually closer in age to my nephew than his mother (there's a ten to eighteen year difference in age between me and my siblings). He's an amazingly cool individual who among many things designs iPhone apps (one app that worked with wallpaper ended up being an exhibit at the Louvre) and has such fun hobbies as playing the theremin.  As I settled in to his apartment, he casually shifted into a speech I'm sure he's given to any family for friends from the states about visiting his town, "Now, I know when everyone gets here that they want to go to the coffee shops and I just want to warn you..."

I cut him off right away. "That particular activity really doesn't do anything for me and that is not on my agenda."

"Good," he said, "because (family member name not revealed in the blog) went and threw up all over the place and (friend not revealed in the blog) had a bad trip."

"But the Red Light District is, I want to see the ladies in the windows," I said. He agreed to take me, though I suspect reluctantly.

And for the record--I don't judge people who toke up, I actually think it should be legalized in the US. But, it literally is wasted on me,   doesn't work on me at all (and yes I've tried more than once). Whiskey works well and smells better to me so that's what I stick with.  As a matter of fact, one of the really special parts of my trip was that my nephew too me to WhiskeyCafe L&B.

scotch heaven

A small dark bar filled with nothing but scotch whiskey--that's one of the wall in the bar in the above photo...every wall was like that. As a thank you for for his hospitality, I ordered my nephew and I scotches for our respective ages. It was a lovely moment and I felt so happy sharing the success of my last year writing with his success of owning his own company in Amsterdam. We both grew up in Indianapolis and our lives have taken us to strange and far flung places neither of us could have ever imagined when we were kids.

I told my nephew not to worry about me during the day, as long as I had a key and knew where the public transportation was, I could keep myself entertained and we could meet up for dinner and hang out with this friend in the evening. Ever the tech guy, he made me a super useful map for my phone:

Screen Shot 2013-09-29 at 11.15.04 AM

He's not really a birder, but his mom indulges in the habit and he's been around me, so he has a good idea of what we are looking for. And between the rail, bike rental and walkability I was out and about on my own without any problems whatsoever. And unlike Paris, I felt just fine walking around along with my 65mm spotting scope and camera. I even got turned around a bit and stopped into a Turkish coffee shop for directions and they good naturedly made fun of me for losing my way when I should be able to see everything with my scope. And they were happy to offer me suggestions of birds they knew of in the area.

Park near bryan

I had a fabulous morning of birding just in the Oosterpark down the block from my nephew's apartment and managed to get quite a few birds for my digiscoping big year.Grey herons were all over the place.

ring-necked parakeet

As were rose-ringed parakeets, an Indian species that is a popular pet bird but has feral colonies established in Europe, especially Amsterdam. This cavity nesting species occurs naturally in the foothills of the Himalayas, so they can take a bit of winter.

cormorant

Here's a great cormorant that was drying off. I think I ended up adding 14 species to my Digiscoping Big Year challenge while in Amsterdam.

magpie

Magpies were all over the place too. I had thought originally that getting a magpie in Europe would mean I wouldn't have to worry about getting black-billed magpie in northern Minnesota, but those scamps over at the American Ornithologists' Union decided that black-billed magpie is not a conspecific of the Eurasian magpie (at one time both had the Latin name pica pica). Eurasian magpie is still pica pica while the black-gilled magpie in the US is pica hudsonia because the AOU thinks its mitochondrial DNA sequence is closer to yellow-billed magpie rather than Eurasian magpie. Sheesh.  I really do not like listing. But at least I have a magpie on my Digiscoping Big Year.

blackbird

I think one of my favorite European species is the blackbird, what a lovely singer. It looks like a melanistic robin and has the haunting tones of a hermit thrush. What a great bird to serenade you all over the city.

I never had to worry about an alarm clock while I was in Amsterdam...my nephew's dog Weezer worked great. Even if he didn't make any noise. I would just have this vague notion that was being watched and would open my eyes to this:

weezer

Weezer giving me the stare down.  I think Weezer normally gets the guest bedroom and so waits patiently until said guest wakes up and then...

wheezer nose

Commandeers the bed and blankets for himself. I thought Weezer and actually had a great time together.  Amsterdam was the last leg of this particular European trip and at this point I had emails or articles to deal with. He'd snuggle up behind me in a chair while I would type away.  I felt like we had developed some sort of bond, but while taking a selfie to send to Non Birding Bill...

Birdchick and Weezer

I discovered that Weezer did not trust me as much as I thought--perhaps the best dog photobomb I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

I had the Van Gogh Museum on my list while visiting Amsterdam. I decided to forgo being super cheesy by wearing my Exploding TARDIS t-shirt to the museum. But I did look for the Vase with Sunflowers and didn't find "For Amy" on it. The museum was more interesting than I thought.  I love Van Gogh, I wasn't sure if I was up for a museum that was nothing but, however this museum covered his history and who he worked with and included fun things like a portrait of Van Gogh by Toulouse-Lautrec or the same painting Van Gogh made, but done by other contemporaries like Gaugain at the same time. I didn't expect to see Starry Night because I came across it while it was on loan to Metropolitan Museum of Art just a few months earlier. I was there for the Edvard Munch exhibit and when I turned around to leave, there it was, nonchalantly hung in a hallway.

crows over a wheatfield

But I did get to see one of my favorites: Crows Over A Wheat Field--the color use is spectacular and it reminds me a bit of seeing crows in autumn right before a storm rolls in like I would see on my bird surveys. And I took this for no other reason than to capture the woman next to me taking a photo of it.  I am baffled by all the people who go through museums and only look at the art through their phones and their iPads as they collect photos of it rather than actually enjoy being in its presence. I wonder if people think the same thing about me when I'm bird watching? But I almost always get the bird in the scope before I hold up the phone and if it's a really great bird, I take the time to enjoy it rather than just get photos.

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There's no way my phone can capture all the detail and texture of this piece, so I just capture it by purchasing mug in the museum gift shop. But it was a treat to get to see this particular bird painting on my travel.

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In the evenings, I would join my nephew for dinner and had such traditional dishes like white asparagus with wild boar...a rather phallic looking dinner now that I take a good look at my photo. Eesh. This particular dinner was partly a birthday party for him and several of his colleagues arrived. Fortunately for me, everyone in Amsterdam speaks in English so it was easy to chat. Periodically my nephew would pop by, "Are you ok, are you having a good time?"

"No worries," I said, "these are all programmers, it's like being a sci fi convention, talking Game of Thrones is universal."

amsterdam streets

Amsterdam was  a lovely city and after you have your fill of the art, cultures and debauchery there are fun birds to be had in the park and along the many canals. We had dinner in one of the large houses that line the streets. For some reason, I had the impression that all those tall houses were lined up side by side with more houses behind them. If you ever have the chance to go in one and look out back, you will discover that all those buildings are fencing in block-wide parks that all the surrounding buildings share and they are chock full of birds.

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You can see it a bit better if you look at the satellite images of Amsterdam on Google Maps--all those trees and green space and trees hidden behind tall buildings.

woodpecker

Great-spotted woodpecker digiscoped in Amsterdam taking advantage of the many trees.

Two side notes about visiting the Red Light District in Amsterdam and seeing the ladies in the windows:

anatomy shop

1. The types of ladies in the windows are very different depending on the time of day. My nephew took me at night and they looked like, well what you might see on the cover of Maxim or on Cinemax or some such. My nephew said during they day...they were...well not quite the same. Of course I had to go back and see for myself and let's just say that there is lid for every pot and the ladies in the windows during the day did not look that different than what I might see working East Lake Street in Minneapolis--a little rough to say the least.

2. I found it incredibly amusing to watch how the ladies in the windows responded to my nephew as opposed to me. I even slowed my pace so he was about five steps ahead of me (he wanted to get through there quickly, I'm sure taking your aunt through the Red Light District is one of the weirder things you can do). When he walked past the windows, they were all smiles and wiggling various parts of their bodies. When I walked by, the smiles vanished, they turned around and started texting and there was no wiggling of any body parts. They clearly know their target market.