Top 10 ways to be a better birder

10) Skip work to go birding. Seriously. Unless your job is to find and identify birds, it isn't helping your birding as much as going outside to look for birds.
9) Take regular birding breaks from work. OK, so you can't skip work. You still get that 15 minute break every four hours, right? Go outside, look up, and see how many birds you can see during your break.
8) Make sure you get your Bird RDA. That's a minimum of 20 species every day. If that seems like a challenge, you need to rearrange your schedule a bit. Ideally, you should get those 20 species before arriving at work. If you work the graveyard shift, that means owling (but hard to find 20 birds at night), or taking the long way home in the morning (even better).
7) Load up your iPod with bird songs and calls. Get as many birds as you can on there. If you are downloading them from CDs, you can use Audacity to strip away the human voice announcing the names of each bird, and split up the tracks so that you have just one bird per track. Then you can quickly flip to any species you want to hear, either on the run, or on your computer at home or work.
6) Take a friend birding. You never learn as much about birds as you do when you are teaching somebody else how to find and identify birds. Nothing like those "what color are the legs of a Song Sparrow?" type questions to help you realize how much you still need to learn about birds!
5) Use eBird. Keep track of all the birds you see, no matter where you are. eBird will keep track of all your state, county, and yard lists so you don't have to. Then you can go back and see all your sightings. Its way cool. Its great to click on the name of a bird in your eBird life list to see all the times you've ever seen that bird listed there!
4) Play birding games. Nothing like a big day or a big year to sharpen you up, to make you learn how to find and identify birds better and faster. Keeping a county list will force you to explore all those nooks and crannies in your area that might have birds you haven't seen yet. Go exploring. Have fun. See more birds!
3) Draw birds. Sketch them while you watch them. Take notes of their plumage and behavior. Again, nothing like a "how many colors of blue are on a Blue Jay?" type questions to get you to really look at and better appreciate even the common birds around you.
2) Have fun. The best birders are the ones that have the most fun. So do whatever it is that makes you happy. If chasing rare birds turns you on, go for it. If you just like to spend hours watching the feeder out your kitchen window, spend an extra 15 minutes doing that.
1) Turn off the computer right now and go birding! What's more fun, reading about birding or heading out to see some birds? Go now! Have fun! Be wild! Stop wasting your time on the computer! Especially if you don't even have your Bird RDA yet today!

Full disclaimer: I'm entitled to blog about birds right now because I've already got my Bird RDA and entered today's bird sightings on eBird!

Heading to Guatemala

OK, not yet. But just got my ticket to head down there again in August for more ethno-ornithology work with speakers of a couple different Mayan languages. Last time was great, so looking forward to more fun!

Birdchaser's Texas Birding Record

Texas has a great new website to list Texas birding records. Right now I have the highest reported Travis County list and Travis County Year List (2002). I need to go through my records to see how many Texas counties I have 200 or 100 species in. For all you birdwatchers who think listing is kooky. Sorry. Its just a whole load of fun!

Ottoman Bird Houses

Do they not abserve the birds above them, soaring and beating their wings? None can uphold them except God most gracious: Truly it is He who watches over all things.
—The Qur'an, Sura 67 ("Dominion"), Verse 19

In addition to algebra and much of the sciences, Islamic civilization helped bring something else we enjoy to the West--birdhouses!

From at least the 13th Century, Ottoman architecture featured ornate multi-compartment birdhouses on their buildings. Much more sophisticated than the later Western bird bottles that early colonists brought to the Americas, these birdhouses have a long and storied history. See also this article, concluding with this poem:

Bird Houses
The outer walls of houses should be bird houses
That take wing when children laugh.
Even if it’s winter outside,
The summer sun should rise inside the walls
And happiness will also warm the birds.
--Mehmet Zaman Sacliolu

Glossy Ibis Run

Just before I had to leave work, I saw an email that a Glossy Ibis was being seen in a small retention pond near one possible route home. When I got to the given intersection, there was no pond to be seen. I drove around for a bit, and fortunately saw the ibis flying around a little ways away. I then drove into a new subdivision, and was able to see the pond, and the bird, there in the shadow of the new neo-colonial homes. A new county bird for me, one that I'd missed a couple times before elsewhere in the area. So a nice bird to get on my way home from work.

Stealth birding in Virginia

This past weekend I had to go down to Lexington, Virginia for a family get together. Not a lot of time for birding. Actually, no real time for birding, so I had to get my Bird RDA on Saturday and Sunday on the sly. Not many birds on the freeway. Fortunately, birds were singing in Lexington, so I was able to get such goodies as Great Crested Flycatcher and Gray Catbird while nobody was looking! Eastern Bluebirds outside my hotel window, and a Pileated Woodpecker flying across Highway 11 right in town were highlights.

Birdathon in the Rain

Today was my annual birdathon for the Wissahickon Watershed Association, and it was pouring rain most of the day. When I woke up I was thinking we were going to have a rough day, but we ended up having a great day and finding as many birds as usual--but getting some great looks and having a blast.

Started the morning at Four Mills, and it was wet and miserable, but did manage to see the Northern Waterthrush hanging around there. A stop by the Ambler Reservoir got us three species of swallows, as well as the expected Green Heron. Then we headed over to a known rail marsh and called out two Virginia Rails--they came within five feet of us and we could see them calling. I don't think I've ever seen the inside of a Virginia Rail beak before! Very cool.

We were wet, but continued to find birds--including five shorebird species at the Morris Arboretum pond--including two parents and four baby Killdeer. Nice! We ended up having five Solitary Sandpipers at three locations today.

After lunch we went back to Four Mills, and the best bird of the day was a Prothonotary Warbler I heard singing by the bridge over the creek. Tough bird to get in these parts.

We ended the day at Militia Hill at Fort Washington State Park. Not as birdy as I might have hoped, but we did get a few more warblers including Blackpoll Warbler. We ended the day with a nice red Eastern Screech-Owl in a roost cavity. I tallied 73 (365% of Bird RDA) species for the day, and thoroughly enjoyed getting soaked in the rain. Made me remember Christmas Bird Counts in Oregon as a kid!

Wood Sandpiper, yeah baby!

So last night I got the email that a Wood Sandpiper was in Delaware (check out my buddy Jeff's photos here). So, as a dedicated birdchaser, the only real question was how early would I have to get up to chase this baby before work!?!

The answer, 4am. A 140 mile drive got me there about an hour after sunup. A couple guys said they saw the bird right at first light, but by the time I got there, it had disappeared.

Finally, after over an hour of searching, we finally found it across the road from where it had been seen before. What a beauty!

After half an hour of watching this Asian shorebird, it was time to get out of the rain and head back to the office. I made great time heading back, until Dick Cheney's motorcade locked up traffic on the PA Turnpike for over half an hour! Luckily I was perched on top of the Hwy 611 overpass where I had a direct look at his motorcade when it pulled onto 611 at the Willow Grove exit. Fortunately, I was still pretty jazzed about seeing the rare bird, so my grumbling about the VP-caused gridlock was kept to a minimum (that is to say I stopped fuming about it fairly soon after it was over!).

Birdchaser and Bird RDA in the Star-Tribune

The Bird RDA concept got a mention in a Minneapolis-St Paul Star Tribune article. Thanks Val, for the nod.

When Shrikes Attack

On my lunchtime walk yesterday, I heard a noise I hadn't heard for a few years and looked up to see a Loggerhead Shrike buzzing past, having just flown up out of a brushy field, through some trees, and out into the open area near the hike and bike along the creek by my house. Just a quick look, and the distinctive buzzy, burry, call notes of the shrike as it went by. These guys have really declined in the Northeast, and its been probably 20 years since one has been reported in my county, and I'll have to do a write-up for the Pennsylvania Ornithological Records Committee. Hopefully it will stick around so I can get an even better view!

Birdchaser 2008 BIGBY turns 100

During my lunch break today I took a walk down to the creek at work. Pretty quiet, but Baltimore Orioles and Warbling Vireos were singing. A Solitary Sandpiper took off from the creek bank, and a female Common Merganser popped its head up over the bank around a bend upstream. Walking back, I flushed up a Veery (BIGBY #99). At least it looked like a Veery, but it sounded like a Wood Thrush. Actually, that's because a Wood Thrush was singing from back behind it. BIGBY #100. Clear skies, gentle breeze. A beautiful day to be out by the creek.

Day List: 37 species (185% of Bird RDA)
2008 List: 360 species

Cumbia birds

Nice morning walk, but there were too many birds around to do any power walking, so most of the exercise this morning was from lifting binoculars, rather than a proper cardiovascular workout. Lots of new birds for the year. Great to see all these birds coming back from the Caribbean and Latin America. Maneuvering through the poison ivy to see these little guys is a lot like a dance, a neotropical migratory bird cumbia.

Location: Perkasie, Bucks County, PA, US
Observation date: 5/2/08
Number of species: 57

Canada Goose 12
Mallard 7
Wild Turkey 1
Great Blue Heron 2
Turkey Vulture 2
Osprey 1
Solitary Sandpiper 2
Rock Pigeon 1
Mourning Dove 8
Chimney Swift 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Downy Woodpecker 4
Northern Flicker 1
Blue-headed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 15
Fish Crow 2
Barn Swallow 8
Carolina Chickadee 8
Tufted Titmouse 10
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 2
House Wren 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Eastern Bluebird 2
American Robin 30
Gray Catbird 5
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 25
Blue-winged Warbler 1
Northern Parula 1
Yellow Warbler 2
Chestnut-sided Warbler 2
Magnolia Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 55
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 7
Black-and-white Warbler 4
Ovenbird 2
Northern Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 2
Scarlet Tanager 1
Eastern Towhee 2
Chipping Sparrow 14
Field Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 15
Swamp Sparrow 4
White-throated Sparrow 8
Northern Cardinal 35
Common Grackle 5
Brown-headed Cowbird 8
Baltimore Oriole 1
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 14
House Sparrow 7

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Eoconfuciusornis

Welcome to the ancestral bird family tree Eoconfuciusornis, a 131 million year old bird described recently from China. Read all about it here.

Fresh Spring Arrivals

Not much time for birding today, but between shuttling the kids around and a quick walk down to the creek, I got 36 species and four new BIGBY birds--Gray Catbird, Northern Waterthrush, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and Black-throated Green Warbler. Nice to think of these birds, which spent the winter in the Caribbean or South America, hanging out along my local creek on their way north.

Help Save Birds from a Bad Idea

Sign Audubon's petition to stop the border fence.

Salamander on the brain

I seriously must have had salamanders on the brain. After not seeing any this afternoon at work, when I got home I fortuitously dug up a Red-backed Salamander while working in my garden. The kids have it in a plastic container, we'll watch it for a few days and see how it does.

Meanwhile, I had fun throwing the giant beetle grubs I dug up onto the back alley, hoping a starling, robin, or Song Sparrow hopping around out there might go for them. Made me wonder if I could make a grub feeder (like a mealworm feeder)--a flat platform with a tray on it where I could put these grubs. Has anyone out there experimented with a grub feeder like this to feed their lawn or garden pests to the birds?

COYE

Down near the creek at work, a Common Yellowthroat (COYE) was singing during lunch--#71 for my 2008 BIGBY.

Walking through the woods I had a dark and lonely thought--out of over 1 billion people, am I the only person in the industrialized world that is bending over to look for salamanders under a rock at this moment (12:30pm EDT)?

In the Yard

Got a new yard bird today while gardening--a distant singing Field Sparrow. All in all, 22 species from my 18 x 40 foot back lot this morning. Forget asking how many angels can dance on the head of a pin; the real question is how many birds can I see from this postage-stamp sized yard? As of today, its a mere 60 species.

Big BIGBY Walk

Last night I noticed a lone Ring-necked Duck on a pond near the middle school, and also saw that the local Purple Martins had returned, so this morning I took an extra long walk to see those birds for my 2008 BIGBY list. I also picked up my FOS House Wrens singing in three spots along the creek. A nice way to pick up 39 species in the morning.

Bird and Windpower Resources

For folks interested in the impacts of windpower development on birds and other wildlife, the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative (NWCC) has a lot of online resources that might be of interest.

NWCC is a U.S. consensus-based collaborative of agency, nonprofit, and business interests formed in 1994 to identify issues affecting the use of wind power, establish dialogue among key stakeholders, and catalyze appropriate activities to support the development of environmentally, economically, and politically sustainable commercial markets for wind power. Over the past 14 years, the NWCC has developed a wealth of resources addressing the impacts of windpower on birds and other wildlife, most of which are available on the NWCC website.

As a matter of full disclosure, I'm currently on the NWCC Steering Committee and a Core Member of the NWCC Wildlife Workgroup.

Links to most of the NWCC wind and wildlife resources are here:
www.nationalwind.org/workgroups/wildlife

These include the following recent publications:

* Assessing Impacts of Wind-Energy Development on Nocturnally Active Birds and Bats: A Guidance Document (the Journal of Wildlife Studies Paper November 2007)

* Critical Literature Review: Impact of Wind Energy and Related Human Activities on Grassland and Shrub-Steppe Birds (October 2007)

* Songbird Protocol (Updated June 2007)

* NWCC Mitigation Toolbox (May 2007 - 962KB PDF)

The toolbox describes various mitigation measures or tools that can be used in the decision-making process. To help guide future decision making, this toolbox provides information about existing mitigation policies and guidelines, as well as on whether strategies are based on sound scientific research. It indicates the effectiveness of various methods of avoiding, minimizing, or compensating for direct and indirect impacts on wildlife caused by wind power facilities. The toolbox is a living document and is updating twice annually.

There are also minutes and reports from meetings, and powerpoint presentations on a lot of issues, including a recent presentation on Lesser Prairie-Chicken impacts in Texas.

There's an embarrassment of riches here, one could easily spend a week just reading all the great material here.

So bookmark the NWCC wind and wildlife resources page and make it a point to check there as a starting point when looking for good information on wind and wildlife issues.

NWCC puts out a brief bi-monthly email update, so if you want to keep up with the latest NWCC happenings including events and resources under development, you can subscribe by sending an email to Taylor Kennedy (tkennedy AT resolv.org).

Twitching

Does this look like fun or what!

New Stuff

Spring is here! New BIGBY birds I've seen during the last week or so include Tree Swallow, Black-and-white Warbler, Broad-winged Hawk, and Northern Rough-winged Swallow (nesting at work).

I've also got an Eastern Bluebird nesting in one of the nest boxes at work. Very cool.

I've continued to get my Bird RDA each day (so far every day since the beginning of the year). I may have to start doing more than the minimum, as after a couple months I know where enough birds are to get my minimum of 20 species on my commute to work. Rock Pigeons on the barn, check. Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the lake, check. Song Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Northern Cardinal singing as I drive with the windows down, check.

Birdchaser at IATB #73

My interview with Howard Cosell is included in the latest version of I and the Birds (#73) over at A Snail's Eye View. Check it out.

Palm Saturday

After torrential rains last night, there were at least 3 Palm Warblers (a new BIGBY bird) on my walk early this morning. Also a singing Field Sparrow. 27 species (135% of Bird RDA). Spring is in the air.

When Penguins Dream

We've all seen this by now. But I still like it!

Six Word Birding Meme

I've been tagged by BirdingGirl. What is birding, for me, in six words?

Grasping the glorious fourfold of being.

Lets take this as a rough draft. If you are into Heidegger, this might mean something for you. For the rest of us, a little explanation is in order.

In his later writings German philosopher Martin Heidegger described the world in which we live as the interplay between what he calls the fourfold: earth, sky, divinities, and mortals.

So lets look at my six word definition of birding, word by word.

Grasping: Tough to find the right word here, but in birding, I do think that we seek to possess or somehow seek a connection with the birds. And if we are really into it, not just birds, but the whole everything that birds are, including all of their connections. But more on that in a minute. To grasp is not to hold delicately. Birding is not a delicate operation. It is a visceral activity that somehow connects my inner soul to...well, the glorious fourfold!

The: this might seem like a wasted word, but it somehow conveys the unity that underlies all things. Being, if you will.

Glorious: There is something about birds, and everything around them, that radiates, that goes beyond their merely being present for us to see. A glory, power, electricity, energy--something that charges you up and shakes your whole soul.

Fourfold: So here we go--birds unite earth, sky, divinities, and morals.

Earth: Birds are of the earth. Earthy. They have solid substance, feathers, bones, sinews. Their colors reflect their surroundings, they are tied to the ground that gives a support for the places they build the nests from which they emerge.
Sky: Birds more than many other creatures seem to embody the sky as well, through flight. Who doesn't like to watch birds soar through the air, or hasn't dreamed of joining them there?
Divinities: In some cultures, birds are messengers from the Gods. In some of the Mayan communities, the word for bird is the same word for spirit. Regardless of your views on that, I see something eternal, a spark of the divine, when I stare into the eye of a bird. A reflection of a shared eternal existence.
Mortals: And birds are mortal. Like us, they die. We can kill them. In rare cases, they might even kill us. Just as we share a spark of the divine, we share a mouldering future as our bodies slip back into that from which we came.

Of Being: We are all part of the all, of being, mere reflections of each other and parts of the whole. The Cooper's Hawk crashing through the tree in pursuit of the robin is in some sense myself. As is the robin. And the tree. Bound together. Birding is just a recognition and celebration of that. Through birding we embrace, in a dance of being. Wrestling together. Its not about the birds. Its about us. All of us. Sealed together for the eternities.

So, how's this for my 'final' draft--what is birding?

Embracing earth, sky, divinities, and mortals.


Image: avians.net

Economic Incentives: Conservation's Weakest Link

As noted in this NY Times piece on the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), any conservation program that depends upon economic incentives will fail when there is a greater economic incentive take a less environmentally friendly position.

In the 1990s we saw this with ecotourism. If someone can make more money developing a golf course community than leaving their habitat in place for birders, guess what they are probably going to do?

Now that agricultural prices are climbing, we can't pay farmers enough to keep them from plowing up habitat to cash in on the latest boom.

Paying people to do the right thing only works until someone is willing to pay more for something else. In the end, if we are willing for it to be all about the money, then the money will win and the birds will lose.

Cosell Interview with the Birdchaser

From the archives, a short interview with Howard Cosell. Not sure how we did this one, since he died thirteen years ago this month. But what the heck, good fun for all.

Cosell: Those of you at home may not know this, but birdwatching, or birding as the binocular-sporting crowd calls it, is more popular than golf and tennis combined. Millions of folks out there spy on birds for fun, but only a relative few have actually taken it to the level of a sport. I'm joined today by one of those curious few who think they can convince the rest of us that watching birds is actually a sport. Please join me in welcoming The Birdchaser.
Birdchaser: Pleasure to be here.

Cosell: Lets start out with a simple question. How would you convince me that watching birds is really a sport, and not just a mild obsession for folks who prefer feathers to felines?
Birdchaser: There's no question that for most people, watching birds is just a curious pastime. But just like there is a difference between playing catch with your kid, and playing Major League Baseball, there is a difference between birding and birdwatching. Watching birds is an idle pursuit. Birding--chasing around to see how many birds you can see in a given area over a limited period of time--is a serious sport.

Cosell: If its a serious sport, are there fans? Why don't we see birding competitions on television? Sponsorships of birding events? Cash prize winnings?
Birdchaser: Ah yes, as a sport, there are many events and contests--such as big days, big years, and team events such as the Great Texas Birding Classic and the World Series of Birding...

Cosell: World Series of Birding? That sounds like wishful marketing to me...
Birdchaser: Perhaps so, but in all seriousness, there are events out there. As for prizes, well, we tried over a decade ago to get serious cash prizes for the Great Texas Birding Classic, but purists on the planning committee didn't want to take birding down the road of professionalization--actually they called it corruption--like we saw in surfing back in the 70s. So it remains mostly an amateur sport.

Cosell: So it doesn't even rise to the level of bowling, as a professional sport?
Birdchaser: Well, sadly, no, but...

Cosell: So why should we take it seriously, as a sport?
Birdchaser: Because there are tens of thousands of people out birding at any given time--competing to see how many birds they can see, posting their sightings on the internet for other birders to see...

Cosell: The internet? So its an online sport?
Birdchaser: Maybe. But the real birding takes place out in the field.

Cosell: So can we follow these guys around? Who would watch such a thing on TV?
Birdchaser: Perhaps not the same folks who watch golf, but if you can watch a guy hit a little white ball with a stick, you should be able to watch guys scoping out shorebirds on the mudflats...

Cosell: Shorebirds? Mudflats? Doesn't sound like the makings of a Wide World of Sports special to me...
Birdchaser: But what if there was a $500 cash prize for the team of birders that found the most birds during a competition on the Texas Coast? What if there were major automotive sponsors who wanted to showcase birders rushing around in their SUVs? What if there were a standardized course, where folks could stand and wait for the teams to arrive and see how many birds they could see there compared to the other teams? What if...

Cosell: Sounds like you're dreaming there, Birdchaser.
Birdchaser: Perhaps, but...

Cosell: Meanwhile, let me know when you get those million dollar prizes lined up, and the major sponsorship for an event we can televise. In the meantime, I wish you the best of luck. To you and all the bird watchers at home, have fun out there!

Yucatan Bird Festival

Here's a chance for some birding fun in the sun, as well as a way to help our friends (both birds and people) south of the border. More details at www.yucatanbird.org.mx

BIGBY Pine Warbler

You'd think after several days of solid birding on the Upper Texas Coast, I could take it easy. Maybe take a day off from getting my birding RDA. But no. At 4pm, with only a Carolina Wren and House Finch on my day list, I had to go for my 3 mile walk. Lucky thing I did, as I was treated to two new BIGBY Birds--a nice Pine Warbler and an Osprey. I also saw a young Cooper's Hawk take an American Robin on the ground, and carry it off. All in all, I picked up 33 species on my walk.

Day List: 33 species (165% of Bird RDA)
2008 BIGBY List: 63 species
2008 List: 344 species

Whirlwind Tour of Upper Texas Coast

Last Thursday I flew down to Beaumont, Texas for two and a half days of birding the Upper Texas Coast with some Audubon donors and board members. Here's a quick look at where we went:

Thursday afternoon
Texas Point
Sabine Woods
McFaddin NWR

Friday
Anahuac NWR
Bolivar Flats IBA

Saturday
Boykin Springs
Jasper State Fish Hatchery
Martin Dies State Park
High Island

Sadly, we missed the Yellow Rails on one of the scheduled rail walks at Anahuac (a very rare occurrence indeed on those great walks). We did have a mystery rail that might have been a Yellow Rail, but it didn't have the white wing patches that these guys usually have. Not sure exactly what that bird might have been, some options:

1) strange Yellow Rail without wing patches (unheard of?)
2) juvenile Sora that didn't molt into adult plumage last fall (unheard of?)
3) A strange Latin American vagrant, such as Yellow-breasted Crake (never before seen in USA)

Not a lot of good options there, so a real mystery at this point.

We did get great looks at a lot of the regular Upper Texas Coast species, though the landbird migrants were extremely thin (we got 4 species of warblers in two hours at High Island!). Highlights were great close looks at Clapper, King, and Virginia Rails. Snowy, Piping, and Wilson's Plovers at Bolivar Flats (as expected). Glimpses of Bachman's Sparrow, LeConte's Sparrow, and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Great looks at Red-cockaded Woodpeckers at Boykin Springs. And finally on the mowed runway margins while taking off from Beaumont, an Upland Sandpiper--perhaps my favorite "shore" bird.

Non-bird highlights were my first ever River Otter at Texas Point (a jinx mammal finally in the bag!) and catching a Speckled Kingsnake at Smith Oaks at High Island.

And last, but for sure not least, the sights, sounds, and smells of some great parts of the country--including saltmarshes, pine woods, bottomland forests. Also a memorable dinner at Bryan's 797. Due to a lack of migrant landbirds, we only managed about 160 bird species. But a great couple days all the way around.

Last Great Auk

Latest photo from Canada! Looks like while we were wasting all that time on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker the last few years, we should of been doing more bird surveys in Nunavut!

cute little murderous fur balls?

My Little Chickadees?

I don't know for sure when I saw my first Black-capped Chickadee, but for sure knew them as a kid in the early 1980s when I started more actively keeping bird lists. I didn't see my first Carolina Chickadee until 1986, when I traveled out to visit a girlfriend in Georgia.

I've now lived about as much in the Carolina Chickadee range as I have in the realm of Black-capped Chickadees. Looking at the feeder out my window at work today in the rain, I have both species, and maybe some hybrids. Which species should I now consider "my" chickadee? After all these years, its hard to say. Maybe by now I'm bi-parid?

And then there's those Mountain Chickadees that I miss from my college days in Utah and my summers of bird surveys in Montana. Now that's another sharp chickadee!

Did your shopping list kill a songbird?

New York Times Op Ed piece here.

Outdoor Cats=Poachers

Hunters can appreciate how much of an impact free-roaming cats have on birds and other wildlife. Check out these posters from ReMaine Wild:

Long-tailed Ducks at Peace Valley

tiny icebergs
arctic visitors
floating on my lake

Morning Commute

Started off the morning with a Great Blue Heron and Fish Crows flying over my kids' preschool. On the drive into work, I pulled over to watch 27 Wild Turkeys in one field, including one Tom turkey displaying without attracting too much attention from all the hens around him (image:wikipedia).

At Peace Valley Park, most of the ducks and geese have moved north. Highlights were the lingering Common Loon, a couple Lesser Black-backed Gulls, and five Bonaparte's Gulls that flew the the length of the lake and kept going while I watched. The only ducks I saw on the lake where three Green-winged Teal. By the time I got to work I'd found 17 species, and got my Bird RDA within minutes of walking in the door and sitting at my desk overlooking my bird feeders.

Not a bad way to start my day. How was your commute this morning?

BIGBY Wood Ducks

(image:wikipedia)
This afternoon I took a short walk down to the creek behind my office and was able to find 3 Wood Duck, new for the BIGBY list. Very sharp looking two drakes and a hen. Takes me back to the first time I saw these birds as a kid, back in April 1982 at Eastmoreland Park in Portland, Oregon. They nest along the creek here at work, and have probably been back for a couple weeks, but I haven't had a chance to get down to the creek for awhile.

Birdchaser in the News

A few papers are starting to run the GBBC results news release, including the Environmental News Service. I also have a short write up of GBBC results on the official GBBC site here.

Blast from the Past: When Wrens Attack

April 2002

Dried leaves rustle as a Carolina Wren pursues a large brown spider across a dry creek bed. The spider, seeking an escape, darts out of the leaves. Half way across the stream channel, exposed in the open, the spider freezes momentarily. The wren is on it immediately, grabbing it in its beak and shaking it repeatedly until all of its legs have fallen off. Without legs, the spider lays helpless on the ground. The wren rises up above the arachnid and, using its dagger-like bill as a pile-driver, repeatedly attacks the spider’s head and thorax. After pulverizing the spider’s head, the wren picks up the remains, which appear larger than its own head, and quickly swallows it belly first. Immediately after consuming the spider, the bird disappears into a greenbrier tangle above the creek bed.

It isn't enough to say that wrens eat spiders. They hunt them, track them, and completely mangle them before wolfing them down. It may not be a scene from nature that we see every day--but only because maybe we aren't watching closely. After watching this spectacle, I can't help but see wrens in a completely different light. If they were as big as cats, we wouldn't let our kids anywhere near them! If they were as big as horses we'd have to hunt them all down, like we did with saber-toothed cats!

Its a very cool world out there, when wrens attack! (image:wikipedia)

Boyds n the Hood

Birds were really active on my street this morning. Where I only saw two birds and heard another a couple days ago in the wind, this morning I was able to find 20 different species--all on three blocks of row homes and small suburban lots. A Red-tailed Hawk sitting in a neighbor's tree was the highlight, I suppose. It for sure warmed my heart more than the pair of Brown-headed Cowbirds making mating motions on a powerline. Otherwise just the common local birds. By the end of my walk, I'd spotted 35 species, including the first Hairy Woodpecker I've seen in over a month.

But the coolest thing I saw today was probably the "wing-shivering" display of the Tufted Titmouse, where the female bird crouches down and flutters its wings while making an incessant series of high-pitched calls. She does this to get a mate to feed her, as part of the courtship before nesting. Yes, its springtime in titmouse land! image:wikipedia

Common Loon

In spite of being in lots of places that should have had Common Loons this year, I hadn't seen one yet in 2008 until my drive home from church on Sunday. A beautiful breeding plumaged bird floating 150 yards out on the lake at Peace Valley, it was too far away to really do much with, but great to see. I love how wide loon bodies are when they are sitting on the water. image:wikipeda

Easter Bird Legends

There are a couple Easter legends and stories involving birds. Unhappily, sparrows betrayed the location of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane by flying straight towards him, while swallows supposedly tried to lead his enemies away with irregular flights.

But here's my favorite about the crossbills, said to have tried to pry the nails from the hands of Jesus on the cross, and their red plumage derives from getting blood soaked in the process. image:wikipedia

The Legend of the Crossbill
by Julius Mosen
translated from the German by Longfellow

ON the cross the dying Saviour
Heavenward lifts his eyelids calm
Feels but scarcely feels a trembling
In his pierced and bleeding palm

And by all the world forsaken
Sees he how with zealous care
At the ruthless nail of iron
A little bird is striving there

Stained with blood and never tiring
With its beak it doth not cease
From the cross t would free the Saviour
Its Creator's Son release

And the Saviour speaks in mildness
Blest be thou of all the good
Bear as token of this moment
Marks of blood and holy rood

And that bird is called the crossbill
Covered all with blood so clear
In the groves of pine it singeth
Songs like legends strange to hear

Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Happy Easter, everyone!

BIGBY Fox Sparrow

A somewhat shortened morning walk today, with snow falling in huge flakes that disintegrated upon hitting the paved hike and bike path. Without a huge amount of time, I only went two miles, but checked out a side path I never take. Since it had a lot of multiflora rose bushes along the path, I hoped there might be a Fox Sparrow there, since they are moving through right now, and sure enough I was able to spot one--first flying away and then perched up for a good look.

image:wikipedia
Perhaps the most mysterious thing today were two flocks of 20+ Blue Jays all calling and hanging out together in the trees. I never did really figure out what was up with that!

Day List: 29 species (145% of Bird RDA)
2008 List: 287 species
BIGBY List: 60 species

BIGBY Rusty Blackbird

The wind was still blowing this morning, but the birds were much more active, and I ended up with 30 species on my walk--including the elusive Red-breasted Nuthatch that I see occasionally in my neighborhood, and a singing male Rusty Blackbird, which is new for my year list and my 2008 BIGBY list. I'm used to seeing this bird in its winter colors, so nice to see that glaring yellow eye against the glossy black breeding coat (image:Glen Tepke).

Birding in the Wind

Only thing harder than birding in the rain is birding in the wind. By 4:30 this afternoon I realized I'd only seen Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Mallard, Turkey Vulture and American Crow. A far cry from my Bird RDA! And the wind was gusting over 25 mph. For a split moment I thought about flicking in the whole Bird RDA streak (80 days and counting!). But then I came to my senses, got on my coat, and headed out for my walk. (image:wikipedia)

A block later, I'd only managed to hear a Song Sparrow (weakly singing in a bush), and seen a Northern Mockingbird drinking rainwater from someone's gutter and a lone Mourning Dove huddled on a powerline. Slow pickins!

By the time I got to the hike and bike path, I'd picked up a Carolina Chickadee, a calling House Sparrow, a field full of American Robins, and one flyby Rock Pigeon. You know its slow when your highlight after 20 minutes is a Rock Pigeon.

It was looking very grim, but I shouldn't have worried. My little feathered paisanos always come through in the end. By the time I got home, I'd wracked up 26 species (as compared to 28 yesterday in the rain). Luckiest sighting was probably the Sharp-shinned Hawk blowing through--I only happened to see it while double-checking a distant Turkey Vulture.

Day List: 27 species (135% of Bird RDA)

Cats Kill Over 1 Billion Birds Each Year in U.S.

Hopefully my last cat and bird post for awhile!

Some folks don't seem willing to accept the magnitude of the cat predation problem. While it is a bit tricky to come up with solid numbers of birds and other animals killed, we can make estimates based on a growing number of studies of cat predation.

The trick is to come up with a calculation based on:

a) The numbers of cats roaming the landscape
b) The number of birds killed by the average cat

There is no agreement about either of these two figures, so the trick is to try and come up with a fairly defensible number.

Here's one quick look at it.

Number of cats
Really there are three important numbers here, the number of pet cats, the number of those cats that are allowed outside, and the number of feral or stray cats. The first figure is the easiest to come close to. The American Veterinary Medical Association provides numbers of pet cats (and other animals)

They calculate that in 2007 there were 81,721,000 pet cats in the U.S.

Now you have to determine how many of those cats are allowed to roam outside and potentially kill birds. According to the $1,195 American Pet Products Manufacturers Association survey 43% of cat owners allow their pets to roam outside (as quoted by the Cat Fanciers Association).

If we accept these numbers (and they are probably the least controversial of all the numbers here), that gives us:

35.1 million outdoor pet cats in the U.S.

Now we have to add the number of feral and stray cats. This number is a lot squishier. We need better numbers here for sure. I haven't seen a good study on this, but the numbers published by feral cat advocacy groups seem to range between 60-100 million cats. In the absence of good numbers, for now it is probably safe to presume that there are as many feral and stray cats as there are owned cats. So lets say 81 million again.

So that's 81.7 million + 35.1 million = 116.8 million outdoor cats

More realistic might be a range of 95.1 to 135.1 million (based on possible feral range). But for simplicity and for arguments sake, lets just stick with 116.8 million cats for now.

How many birds killed by cats?
Here's where it gets trickier, but here are some good options--

According to a study in Michigan by Lepczyk et al, outdoor pet cats across an urban to rural gradient killed an average of .683 birds each week during the breeding season.

IF you can extrapolate that across the full year, that would be an average of 35.5 birds killed by each cat/each year. IF you can use that figure for all outdoor cats, you get a calculation of 4.1 billion birds killed each year.

But maybe cats don't kill birds at the same rate all year long, or at the same rate everywhere that they do in Michigan. But, for example, if we presume that cats everywhere ONLY kill birds during a 22 week breeding season (and we know THAT isn't true!), that would still be 1.76 billion birds killed per year.

Another study in San Diego (Crooks and Soule 1999 cited here) found each cat to kill an average of 15 birds per year (and 41 other small animals). IF you multiply this number by the number of outdoor cats you get 1.75 billion birds killed per year. And that's just in the U.S. and doesn't take into account our migratory birds killed by cats in Canada or Latin America.

You can play this game all day, based on numbers from various studies. The cat advocates will try to cast doubt on these predation rates, but there are arguments to be made that real average predation rates may be higher (these are mostly studies of owned cats which may hunt less, owners may not be seeing all birds killed by their cats and consumed or left elsewhere, etc.).

So what's the number? A calculation of 1.7 billion birds based on either the San Diego study or the MI study seems reasonable. A more conservative statement might be "at least 1 billion birds a year and quite probably higher". That's what I generally say. That would still be an order of magnitude higher than many people will want to accept. But it seems to be a conservative calculation. You can read what the cat advocates think in a series of articles here

From my perspective, the cat advocate positions linked here seem to make many more unwarranted assumptions than these quick calculations based on the best available science. Cat predation of birds in the U.S. seems to be on the magnitude of a billion birds a year, rather than any lower numbers reported elsewhere.

Birdchaser post at IATB #71

I and the Bird (IATB) #71 is up at The House and other Arctic Musings. Host Clare Kines is one of my favorite online blogging buddies, and one of our Great Backyard Bird Count regional reviewers. Thanks to the Internet, has something else to do in the Winter besides search for Common Ravens in the Nunavut darkness. Spring is coming, Clare. Enjoy!

Cat People Win, Birds Lose

This week a property management company in Virginia caved into pressure from Alley Cat Allies, and will allow over 200 feral cats to remain on their property (story here). That means there will be hundreds, or more likely thousands, of birds and other small animals killed by cats in their community over the next year.

Alley Cat Allies essentially has a rigid bottom line--no euthanized stray cats. I can understand and mostly support that. But will they also accept the bottom line of bird and wildlife experts that birds and wildlife killed by free ranging cats is unacceptable?

There is a way to satisfy both the bird and cat lovers--trap, neuter, and restrain stray and feral cats in fenced sanctuaries where they pose minimal risk to birds and other wildlife. Of course that will take raising money to create cat sanctuaries. But I'm sure if the bird and cat people worked together on this, we could create a place for unadoptable stray cats in every community, and protect the birds and wildlife that are otherwise threatened by cat predation.

Whatcha say Alley Cat Allies? You ready for a real solution? A win-win solution? One that protects both cats and birds?

Naked Birding in the Rain

OK, not birding without clothes, but stripped of binoculars. Since it was raining this morning, I just put on the rain coat and went for my three mile walk without binoculars. I find this a fun and refreshing way to get my Bird RDA sometimes--making me pay attention to the bird sounds around me, rather than just getting lost in my own internal music soundtrack and monologue. Without binoculars I still managed to see or hear 28 species. Best bird was a Field Sparrow on the side of the path--a bird I've only seen on my morning walk a couple times.

Birdchaser in Mexico, by proxy

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to this conference in Mexico, but I was a co-presenter of a paper on birds and bird knowledge among the Ch'orti' Maya of Eastern Guatemala:

Los pájaros y el prognóstico en la vida diaria de los Ch'orti' Maya de Guatemala (Birds and Prognostication in the Daily Life of the Ch'orti' Maya of Guatemala). Paper presented at the XVIII Coloquio Internacional LAILA/ALILA, March 10-14, San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico. Co-presented with Kerry Hull.

Hope to get back down for more field work in Guatemala this summer!

BIGBY Wild Turkey

It had to happen eventually. Today a co-worker called me over to watch a Wild Turkey feeding just outside the window under one of our feeders. There are at least a dozen of these birds running around the 160 acres here, but I hadn't run into them yet since starting the 2008 BIBGY. I'll take a 10 minute break for a Wild Turkey any day!

Save birds, play with your cat!

We all know that house cats allowed to roam outside kill hundreds of millions, and perhaps even billions, of birds in North America each year. The solution to this is to keep your cats inside. But what do you do with an energetic cat that is used to running around in the woods chasing birds?

Cat aficionado Elissa Wolfson has written the perfect book to help your cat make the transition to healthy indoor living. In 101 Cool Games for Cool Cats, she specifically addresses the issue of keeping cats indoors for their health, and the survival of local wildlife. She discusses outdoor cat enclosures, and a host of ways to help your cat make the transition to indoor living. But this book isn't preachy. It's about how to have fun with your cat, indoors!

Most of the book consists of the promised 101 cool games to play with your cat--each one with a very fun drawing by Stephanie Piro. Some of the games even sounded like fun for me to use with my kids! It was great to see how much joy and fun could be crammed into each of the 143 short pages.

So if you own a cat, or have friends who own a cat, this book is a quick must read. Since it is originally published in the UK, you can get a copy directly from the author (see website here). Save birds. Have fun. Play with your cat!

Here's a little teaser to get you started!

Most Fearsome Creature in the West

Check out the Washington Times story here. No matter what you think about the Endangered Species Act, the Greater Prairie Chicken is in trouble, due to over 100 years of abuse to its sagebrush habitat across the West. Its no time for handing out blame, its time for our sharpest minds to figure out a way to protect this bird, and the ability of rural folks to make a living off that land. As for corporations seeking to make somebody rich by destroying grouse habitat, well, its not like they have a constitutional right to destroy the world, right?

Sometimes I wonder if folks are really afraid of this bird because it threatens their livelihood, or if they're really just made uncomfortable by a male bird with inflatable boobs!

Hitting the Minimum

Most of the last month I've been just barely hitting my minimum recommended daily allowance of birds. For instance, today it when I picked up my kids from school I realized I'd been on the computer almost all day and hadn't seen more than just a couple birds. So at 5:30 I headed out for a quick walk down along the Perkiomen Creek hike and bike near my house.

Late in the day, the birds aren't calling nearly as much as in the morning, so it was slow going at first--just European Starlings, House Sparrows, a House Finch, and a couple Mourning Doves by the time I hit the end of my street.

Near the head of the hike and bike trail I finally picked up a Blue Jay, a couple American Robins, a Carolina Chickadee, Song Sparrow, and Tufted Titmouse. Several pairs of Mallard were feeding in the flooded field near the trail, an American Goldfinch and a couple White-breasted Nuthatches flew overhead, and Northern Cardinals chipped in the woods.

Off in the woods, a Red-bellied Woodpecker called, then another. A Downy Woodpecker call gave me another woodpecker for the day, and an American Crow off in the distance padded the list. One female Eastern Bluebird and a Northern Mockingbird brought me within a few birds of my needed goal. A Carolina Wren finally sang briefly off in the distance, and a pair of Yellow-rumped Warblers calling just off the trail brought my walk to a reasonable 20. What with a few other birds seen earlier in the day driving my kids to school, I ended up with 24 species, 120% of my Bird RDA.

Nothing overly unusual, but more than I'd have seen today if I'd just stayed inside on the computer all day.

Timberdoodles with kids

Last night I took my kids out to look for the woodcocks that are displaying at Peace Valley near our house. In the gathering darkness, me and my kids stood shivering in the cold, listening as the Canada Geese settled down on the lake, and American Robins called from the woods. Eventually, we started hearing the loud "bzeent" calls of the American Woodcocks in the tangles around the edge of the field. Then the whistle of wings. There were at least six birds calling, but they didn't do any close flights my kids could see. I saw three birds off in the distance, but it wasn't the best showing.

Interestingly, though we did this last year, it seemed like my kids didn't remember it. Too many video games, not enough birding!

Local jinx no more

Everybody and their dog has been seeing Red-shouldered Hawks up at Lake Nockamixon by my house, but I've missed them every time I've been up there (about once a week for the last month). Finally, today, on a short hop up there to check out the lake, I finally saw an adult hawk in a tree on the side of the road. I whipped the car over and took a look--sure 'nuff, Red-shouldered Hawk. It flew off a few dozen yards and landed in another tree. Nice to finally get this bird on my county list.

No other real surprises on the lake. A drake Red-breasted Merganser was nice and unexpected. Then a drake and two female Hooded Mergansers on a small pond in Blooming Glen on the way home made it another three merganser day.

Day List: 37 species (185% of Bird RDA)
2008 List: 284 species

Birdchaser in the Washington Post

Check out the story here.

Early Spring at Peace Valley

After several days of just barely getting my Bird RDA from home and around town, I headed over for an hour to Peace Valley to catch some early spring birding. Common Grackles have been moving through the area for a couple weeks, an early sign of spring. Fox Sparrows have been seen at the bird blind at the Peace Valley Nature Center for a couple weeks, but I'd missed them on a couple visits. Today there were four of them hopping around. Nice to see their rusty bodies and gray faces shuffling along under the feeders and bushes. (photo:wikipedia)

At the bridge on Chapman Road past the nature center, there were three Horned Grebes hunting in the lake. One bird was already molting into breeding plumage, and I watched it kill a small frog and eventually swallow it whole. The other two birds were in their black and white winter plumage, and spent most of the time underwater.

Not a lot of other surprises, but its a good day when you see a Bald Eagle, so it was fun to see one try to grab a fish out of the water and then fly off empty-taloned. I ended up with 36 species at the lake and nature center. Not bad for a quick morning trip.

On the porch

Pressed for time this morning, I did a point count while working on some writing on my back porch. European Starlings and House Sparrows are the most conspicuous birds in my tiny urban backyard. But a Northern Cardinal and Song Sparrow were singing back in the alleyway, and an American Robin hopped onto the ground near my compost bin.

Within a few minutes, I could hear a distant flock of Canada Goose, and a calling Mourning Dove down the block. Then a Tufted Titmouse started singing. An American Crow flew over, then another. A flock of House Finches landed in a neighbor's tree, and I heard a few chips of a Dark-eyed Junco at the base of a large tree in the alleyway.

A pair of Carolina Chickadees worked its way down the block, checking out the entry to the cross-pipe of my neighbor's clothes line pole. Scanning the horizon, a distant Great Blue Heron was flying downstream along Perkiomen Creek, and a pair of Mallards flew past. A White-breasted Nuthatch started calling from the trees down the block, and far off towards the creek, I could just make out the song of a Carolina Wren.

Scanning the skies, a Cooper's Hawk was circling over the creek. Then another bird, larger chested, with quick and heavier wingbeats, bull-neck, and more pointed wings caught my attention as it powered through--a Peregrine Falcon, the first I've seen from my house, and a new BIGBY bird for the year. Three Ring-billed Gulls also flew over.

Finally, as I needed to get back inside, a Blue Jay started calling back by the creek. That made 20 species in just under half an hour of sitting on my porch. Not a bad way to get your Bird RDA, and to start the day.

Birdchaser in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Quoted in GBBC story here.

New BIGBY birds

In addition to the FOS Eastern Phoebe on my walk this morning, I picked up another two new birds for my 2008 BIGBY List: Ring-necked Pheasant and Killdeer.

Ring-necked Pheasants are native to Asia, and have been released by hunters and fish and game departments all across the country for over 100 years. Its not clear that there are any really established populations of these birds in my county, so perhaps this was just a released bird that survived the annual hunt this year. As I was walking along the hike and bike path, a male pheasant strutted across the trail about 100 yards ahead of me, and disappeared into the trees along Perkiomen Creek. (photo:wikipedia)

Killdeer are rather uncommon nesting birds in this part of the world. They were much more common where I lived in Austin. Here I mostly hear them at the local high school, where there are large athletic fields for them to feed in. Today I heard one flying over the field across the creek from the hike and bike path, perhaps a half mile or so from the school where I heard my FOS Killdeer a couple weeks ago.

Day List: 36 species (180% of Bird RDA)
2008 List: 284 species
BIGBY List: 56 species

First of Season (FOS) Birds

One of the joys of birding is to keep track of the changes in birdlife through the seasons. The first bird of each returning migratory bird species that a birder sees is considered a First of Season (FOS) sighting. FOS sightings can be of northbound migrants or arriving breeding species in spring, southbound migrants in fall, or arriving wintering birds in late fall.

Today on my four mile walk, a heard a FOS Eastern Phoebe near one of the bridges over the Perkiomen Creek near my house. I've written before about how these birds are probably direct descendants of the phoebes that John James Audubon watched closely at his farm 20 miles downstream on this same creek. They leave for the winter, but its nice to see them back.

Why birds are being killed by cats

For over 100 years, birdlovers have complained about cats killing wild birds. But now there seem to be more cats roaming around out there than ever before. Here's one reason why. Take a look at the income and expenditures of Alley Cat Allies, the leading feral cat advocacy group (from their 2007 annual report)--



$4.2 million spent last year to promote the caring for free-ranging cats. Nobody who cares about birds is spending close to that amount of money to protect birds from cats.

I'm not a fan of killing cats. I'm all for TNR (trap-neuter-release) of feral cats--as long as the cats are released into a controlled situation where they can do only minimal damage to birds and other wildlife. Alley Cat Allies, and other feral cat advocates, need to realize that they've only gone 80% of the way to fixing the feral cat problem. Unless they find a place to put the feral cats where they can't roam willy nilly over the landscape, TNR is a flawed and incomplete solution.

Mom and Dad's House

Playing around on Microsoft Virtual Earth, I was able to get nice images of my parent's home in Oregon. Amazing how much the neighbor's trees have grown up since I lived there as a kid. No wonder my folks got a Pileated Woodpecker visiting their yard last year. You wouldn't have seen that in my yard when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s.

Back on 21 December 1999, while visiting my folks, I had a Eurasian Collared-Dove fly over the road and my neighbors house (on the left). The Oregon Bird Records Committee eventually accepted my sighting as the first accepted record of that bird in Oregon.

Birds and Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan has a radio show on XM that presents songs based on a certain theme. Last night's show had the theme "Birds." If you don't have accesss to XM radio, the shows are unofficially archived at Dylan's Blindwilly.

Last night's show is a 98M download, but check it out if you are a Dylan fan, or just in it for the birds.
(image:Wikipedia)

Internet Bird Collection

I have to admit, it had been awhile since I'd been over to the Internet Bird Collection. Taking a look at it now, its quite impressive! If you haven't visited there lately, take another look. There are now videos up for over half of all the bird species in the world. You can easily find videos of most birds you might be interested in. What a great online resource!

Cape May: Waking from Catatonic Shock?

Apparently, under duress, the Cape May city council is starting to make at least small moves towards keeping feral cats off the beach where they can threaten rare bird species. But what about all the other birds? Read news story here.

Movie Bird Lore

What most American's probably know about bird migration. And coconuts.

Bringing Nature Home on NPR

This morning NPR Radio Times talk show host Marty Moss-Coane interviewed Doug Tallamy about planting native plants in our gardens to provide food for wildlife. Professor Tallamy is the Chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. He is also the author of Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens. You can listen to this great interview, with lots of insights into the relationships between plants, insects, and birds, via Real Audio at the Radio Times archive site.

Birds on the farm in New Mexico

Saturday afternoon I did an hour and a half workshop on birds for the New Mexico Organic Farming Conference. Started out with a review of birding--how to identify birds, and how to keep track of your sightings using eBird. Then we talked about the birds of conservation concern in New Mexico, and finally how to help specific birds on the farm--focusing on Barn Owl, Burrowing Owl, Western Screech-Owl, American Kestrel, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Western Bluebird, and Bullock's Oriole. Most of these are Audubon Birds to Help--birds that while perhaps not of the highest conservation concern, are species that are easily helped by providing food, shelter, and habitat plantings. For most people, its going to be easier to get them interested in helping birds by encouraging them to try and help these species, rather than more rare or difficult to help species. Lots of good feedback from the workshop, its always a lot of fun to talk birds and swap bird stories!

Rio Grande Nature Center, Albuquerque

Saturday I slipped out of the New Mexico Organic Farmers Conference for an hour before giving my talk in the afternoon. With only an hour to get my Bird RDA, I headed over to the Rio Grande Nature Center. A couple of small ponds and bird feeders in the riverside forest are the main draw here, and I quickly got over 30 species there. Highlights were four species of geese--Cackling Goose, Canada Goose, White-fronted Goose, and Snow Goose. But the show-stopper for me had to be the flocks of Sandhill Cranes flying overhead. I love these birds. When I lived in Austin, huge flocks would migrate north right over town. But living in Pennsylvania, they are a rare sight for me now. There are strings in my soul that only resonate now when stirred by the calls of cranes circling overhead. Hearing them in Albuquerque for the first time in a couple years, I was rejuvenated.

Day List: 39 species (195% of Bird RDA)
2008 List: 284 species

Rosy Finches

Saturday I had to give a talk to the New Mexico Organic Farmers Conference, so Friday I flew out to Albuquerque, got my rental car, and headed up to Sandia Crest, the best place in North America to see all three species of Rosy Finch. Sandia Crest is at the top of the Sandia Mountains adjacent to Albuquerque. From the top of the mountain, you are only a couple miles away from the streets and buildings of town, but you are 7,000 feet higher. It takes an hour to drive up to the top of the mountain, and you climb from pinyon juniper flats through ponderosa pine, douglas-fir, and spruce forests before reaching the lodge at Sandia Crest at over 10,000 feet elevation.

I was starved when I got there, so I ordered chicken quesadillas, and started my vigil at the bird feeder on the lodge deck. No rosy finches. Mountain Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches, and "Gray-headed" Dark-eyed Juncos made up most of the feeder visitors. My lunch arrived and I ate it while watching the feeder through the window.

After lunch, I went back out on the deck just in time to see a flock of 150+ rosy finches flying around, circling the lodge. They never settled down. I could see some were a bit larger looking and darker--Black Rosy-Finches. The others were swirling around too much to tell. Then they dove down the mountainside and were gone.

Fortunately, ten minutes later a few came in to the feeder. Then almost out of nowhere, there were dozens of them milling around the feeder and on the ground underneath. Perfect looks at all three species--Black Rosy-Finch, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, and Brown-capped Rosy-Finch. The brown-capped, which only lives at high elevations in NM and CO was a lifer for me, but all three were great to see. There were two types of gray-crowneds, the interior ones with the small bit of gray behind the eye and back around the head, as well as a few of the Hepburn's subspecies, with the mostly gray heads. For several minutes the birds graced us with their calls and frenzied feeding. Then, quite abruptly, they were gone.

Driving back down the mountain I saw a few other goodies, including a pair of Williamson's Sapsuckers. But it was the magic of the swirling rosy finch flock flying over, 7,000 feet over, the streets of Albuquerque that will stay in my mind for a good long time.