Nine Warbler Morning

Had a nice walk at Peace Valley this morning, and picked up nine warbler species, as well as FOS Eastern Kingbird and Great Crested Flycatcher and Swainson's Thrush. Most of the warblers were silent, so it took a lot of looking up into the bright new oak leaves to find them.

Ended up with 52 species in two hours, not too shabby for here.

Location: Peace Valley Park (IBA)
Observation date: 4/30/10
Number of species: 52

Canada Goose 10
Double-crested Cormorant 45
Black Vulture 5
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Broad-winged Hawk 3
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Mourning Dove 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Phoebe 2
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Blue Jay 7
American Crow 5
Fish Crow 2
Tree Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 1
Carolina Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 6
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 3
House Wren 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Eastern Bluebird 2
Swainson's Thrush 2
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 4
Gray Catbird 8
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 3
Nashville Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 5
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
American Redstart 1
Ovenbird 2
Common Yellowthroat 5
Chipping Sparrow 6
Field Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 7
White-throated Sparrow 15
Northern Cardinal 12
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Common Grackle 5
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
American Goldfinch 6
House Sparrow 1

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

Audubon Birdscapes Blog RIP

When I was working for Audubon, I wrote an Audubon Birdscapes blog (www.audubonbirdscapes.org) to promote urban bird conservation. Shortly after I left Audubon last year, the site was taken down. I can't even find it archived anywhere out there. This screen shot is one of the last visible signs it ever existed.

So, RIP Audubon Birdscapes. And stay tuned, as next month I'm going to resurrect my old Urban Birdscapes blog on a new site. It's going to be better than ever!

FOS Chimney Swifts

I just heard my first Chimney Swifts of the Spring! Yeah!

Artificial Nesting Islands for Terns

This idea has been around for over 50 years, but here's a good example of a recent project in California.

Birdchaser in Vogelnieuws

For those of you who read Dutch, I just had an urban bird conservation article published in Vogelnieuws, the magazine of Vogelbescherming, the Dutch BirdLife partner. Let me know if you want a pdf.

Wild Turkeys on the Move

This time of year, Wild Turkeys are very conspicuous and active. Males are strutting, and females are gathering to check them out. I'm seeing a big gathering along Hwy 322 in New Jersey on my way to Rowan University each afternoon. On Sunday, I saw a lone female cross busy County Line Road in suburban Philadelphia. Hard to believe that 100 years ago there were maybe only 30,000 Wild Turkeys left--due to conservation efforts there are now over 6 million running around!

Cornell Ends Search for Ivory-billed Woodpecker

News here.

Peace Valley Morning

Stopped by Peace Valley this morning for an hour or so and had 33 bird species, including First of Season (FOS) Barn Swallow and Brown Thrasher. Some of the White-throated Sparrows are looking sharp, the one above was at the bird feeders at the nature center feeders.


Down by the Chapman Road bridge there were 192 Double-crested Cormorants hanging out in the water and on some trees. A few were preening each other and making a lot of weird dinosaur-like noises. Pretty cool.


On my way back home I noticed a male American Kestrel on a pole with a kestrel box on it. There aren't many nesting kestrels around here, so I took a look and noticed that the bird had a yellow wing tag on. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good enough look to read the number, but hopefully the bird will stick around and someone will be able to read the tag. I think it will stick around because after it flew from the box it landed in a low tree next to a female kestrel. Would be great to see them nest here this year!

(Sparrow and cormorant shots with Canon Power Shot SD780 IS through my Zeiss 7X42s, kestrel shot through my Bausch & Lomb Discoverer. Time to get a better scope?)

How to Save Birds from Windows

The American Bird Conservancy has a new handout on how to protect birds from flying into your windows. Check it out online here.

Hummingbirds support Darwin's theories

Perhaps the dumbest headline ever, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Sort of like "Falling Man supports Newton's theories of Gravity".

Move along people, no news here...

Bad Photos of Good Birds: Tufted Duck

Today was the first time I've had a chance to slip over to see the female Tufted Duck that's been hanging out at a small sewage pond in Chester County. When I got there about 9:30 this morning, a couple of guys were already watching her. For the next hour, the duck mostly slept or loafed on the pond, only occasionally swimming actively for a few seconds or preening.

Unfortunately, I was only able to get some ugly photos of a sleeping duck.


Not much to look at. The Tufted Duck is the dark one in the middle, flanked by a female (left) and male (right) Ring-necked Duck. Notice how dark the bird is compared to the female Ring-necked Duck: no white on the face, colder chocolate coloring, etc.


But here's my field sketch and notes.


Sometimes you get great looks and satisfying photos. Other times, not so much. But a great little bird and I'm glad it has stuck around long enough for me to drive over to see it.

Birding with Steve Martin, Owen Wilson & Jack Black

Rumor has it that Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and Jack Black will be starring in a movie production of The Big Year, based on Mark Obamscik's book about three men trying to set the North American Big Year birding record. I'm guessing Steve Martin will play an acerbic Sandy Komito ("a retired industrial contractor from New Jersey who loves birds, winning and getting people's goat")? I love all these guys. Can't wait!

Grackle flocks=Spring

So this week I've been seeing the Common Grackle flocks moving through the area--one of the earliest bird signs of Spring in the Mid-Atlantic States. Of course, birds have been singing for months now, especially the cavity nesters, checking out territories. And Mourning Doves have been cooing since January, and Great-horned Owls are on nests. There may not be any leaves on the trees, or flowers out yet, but the birds know--Spring has sprung!

Cell Phone Birding

So I couldn't find my digital camera when I headed out to Peace Valley this morning, so I thought I would play around with my cell phone. Shooting through my old scope on a window mount in the snow and rain wasn't optimal, but an interesting experiment. My scope eyepiece wasn't ideal for the job. I'll have to play around with that some more.




Not too bad, until I tried the digital zoom, which I suspected would be pretty worthless, and really just made for a smaller image.




This last photo was through my bins with the digital zoom set at the highest setting. It was easier to hold the phone steady against the binocular eyecups, but at least on zoom I didn't get much to work with.


Of course, since it's about time to get a new phone, I can look into getting one with a better camera. I'm on Verizon, so any suggestions would be welcome :-)

Hunting Wolves with Eagles in Central Asia

Cool Pygmy Owl Video

Check out this story about Northern Pygmy Owls from Oregon Field Guides. Fantastic video of these little birds. If this doesn't make you want to bag your job and just head out to study birds for three years, you're either missing the birdloving gene or you've got a fantastic job already :-)

Phrase Origin: For the Birds

Ever wondered where the phrase "for the birds" came from? Check it out here.

Great Backyard Bird Count Withdrawals

For the past five years, my favorite part of working for Audubon was working behind the scenes of the Great Backyard Bird Count. Almost as soon as I was hired, Paul Green (now with Tucson Audubon) put me in charge of the regional reviewers and customer service emails during the count. I loved spending the whole weekend connecting with thousands of people out counting birds. Doing everything in my power to get more people out counting more birds.

Since I was let go by Audubon last summer, I'm obviously not working the GBBC this year.

I miss it. A lot.

This weekend during the count, I find myself looking at the GBBC website. Wondering how the numbers compare with last year at this time in the count. Wishing I still had access to the behind the scenes metrics to know how the count is going. Looking at the count now from outside.

Serious GBBC withdrawals.

The Taming of the Turkey

Latest study published yesterday on the domestication of the Wild Turkey has it occurring at least twice--first in Mexico about 800 BCE, and then again in the American Southwest about 200 BCE. See a news story about this research here, the actual article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is here.

Conservation Biologists must oppose Feral Cat Colonies

Ten conservation biologists have just published What Conservation Biologists Can Do to Counter Trap-Neuter-Return: Response to Longcore et al., an article in the latest issue of the journal Conservation Biology, urging conservation biologists to oppose the establishment and maintanence of feral cat colonies through trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs.

The article is not available for free online, but here are some quotes:

"By way of example, those of us who are conservation biologists should look to the evolutionary biology community. When local policies or regulations are put forth that promote the teaching of creationism or intelligent design, the evolutionary biologists have responded in force from across the nation and world. Such responses have been successful in defeating the attempts to favor the teaching of creationism or intelligent design and serve to remind the public that the scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports the theory of evolution. We the conservation community should consider the issue of TNR in the same light and challenge such propositions when they are raised. Without such challenges by those of us who are knowledgeable about the subject, we simply allow the use of tNR to grow and thereby gain further acceptance"

And this:

"The animal welfare community opposes "cat hoarding," whereby people care more for pets than they can adequately support, because it is considered inhumane. Trap-neuter-return is essentially cat hoarding without walls. Considering that most communities have laws banning animal hoarding, we should consider the same standard for outdoor cats as those that are in a person's home."

Here are the actions the authors propose:

1) Conservation professionals should "open dialogues with the animal welfare, sheltering, veterinary, adn public-health communities" to "promote animal welfare and reduce cat overpopulation"

2) Challenge policies promoting feral cat colonies and TNR

3) Advocate for policies that endcourage responsible pet ownership--including "requiring licenses for cats, substantially decreasing unwanted breeding of pet cats through mandatory or subsidized spaying and neutering, and requiring cats to be kept under their owners control at all times when outdoors."

4) If needed, seek legal recourse against TNR and feral cat colonies as violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered Species Act, as well as laws prohibiting animal abandonment

5) "Seek laws making it illegal to maintain cat colonies on public lands"

6) Increase public awareness about responsible pet ownership

7) Recognize as conservation professionals that depredation of wildlife species is still a major concern even where wildlife populations are currently still intact--the time to reduce predation is now before the problem gets even worse.