Seasons of the Robin

I'm a sucker for animal biographies. As a kid I loved Ernest Thompson Seton's Wild Animals I Have Known and still remember finding Fred Bodsworth's Last of the Curlews in junior high school. A while ago I was asked to be a reader for the manuscript of The Seasons of the Robin, the latest addition to this genre by Don Grussing. It tells the story of a robin as it migrates south, overwinters, and heads north to breed. The book is now out, and if you've ever wondered what it is like to be a bird, The Seasons of the Robin provides a well-written and informative insight into the life of one bird and its incredible life.

Ancient man-eating eagle in NZ

Check out this report about Haast's Eagle, a huge bird with a 9 foot wingspan and talons like tiger paws. Could easily have carried of children of the first Maori inhabitants of New Zealand, just as the legends say.

Mayan Deer Dance in Belize

Here's video of the Mayan Deer Dance I got to observe and help document in Belize last year.

Owl Workshop at Hornsby Bend in Austin, TX

I'm heading to Austin next month to lead a workshop on the ecology and life history of the six owl species that regularly occur in Central Texas: Great Horned, Barred, Barn, Short-eared, Burrowing, and Eastern Screech. The workshop will also review methods of finding, attracting, and managing your property for these owl species.

Thursday evening will focus on the ecology and life history of each owl species. Friday evening participants will learn how to attract owls to their rural or suburban property, learn how to build owl boxes, and learn about proper placement and installation of owl boxes and platforms. Optional owling excursions after the workshop each night will search for the owls found at Hornsby Bend.

Date: Thursday, October 8 (7-10:00pm) and Friday, October 9 (7-10:00pm)
Location: The Center for Enviornmental Research at Hornsby Bend in Austin
[see map on HBBO website]
Cost: $60, includes evening snacks and owl life history/box design information packet.

Attendance is limited.

Questions/registration

David Sibley on Tree Watching

Lots of info and more links to videos about Sibley's new tree book.

Virginia Sand Plover Video

This is Robyn Puffenbarger's video of a Sand Plover recently found in Virginia--believed to be a Greater Sand Plover (3rd record for the Lower 48 states).

fLaPpY bIrDdAy!!!

Today's my birthday, so I've gotta get out and see some birds. If you get out you can have a fLaPpY bIrDdAy too!

Feral Cats and Birds

Ted Williams has a succinct article on the conflict between feral cat management advocates and wildlife issues in the most recent Audubon magazine. I'm sure he's going to take some flack for this, but it had to be said, and Audubon magazine should be commended for wading into the fray--it's a very emotional issue for so many people. But lets just get this out of the way--TNR (trap, neuter, return) is based on junk science. It actually promotes feral cats rather than reduces their number and impact on the environment.

We need a better option to protect birds and other wildlife. Feral cats need to be removed from the environment. If the animal welfare folks don't want these cats to be killed, than they need to foot the bill to have them taken care of on their own properties and be licensed for the killing of wildlife that will take place on these "cat ranches". Sure it will be expensive to set up cat ranches for all these animals. But that's the only way to manage them so that they aren't killing wildlife.

Feral cats should not be roaming around in public. They are a hazard to wildlife and human health.

Gulls are Back

OK, here in Bucks County, PA I don't think we ever lose the gulls entirely--you can see a few Ring-billed Gulls up at Lake Nockamixon even in summer. But the wintering gulls are starting to trickle back in. Today I had 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and one Great Black-backed Gull. We still don't know where these lessers go for the summer, which as far as we know aren't nesting in North America.

When is an NBS really an NBS?

Today while canoeing with the family, my NBS (non-birding spouse) said "is that a sandpiper over there?" and sure enough it was a Spotted Sandpiper bouncing along on a a log. So if she can identify a sandpiper, is she really still an NBS? Or do I have to break the news to her that she is really a birder now?

International Vulture Awareness Day from Mayaland

In honor of International Vulture Awareness Day, I thought I'd share this little story we picked up from some Ch'orti' Maya in Guatemala:

One day the chakoroch [turkey vulture] was siting in a tree watching a cow that was sleeping. A hawk spoke to the vulture and told him to go down and begin to eat it because it was dead. Finally the vulture was convinced that the cow was dead, flew down rapidly, and stuck its head in the cow's anus. Unfortunately the cow was still alive, and the vulture was barely able to withdraw his head, which emerged without feathers, and turkey vultures have had bald red heads ever since.

And here's another explanation:

El Kumix, who was the young maize god among the Ch'orti', was tryhing to go to heaven to see his mother, the goddess of the moon. Kumix asked a hawk to carry him to heaven, but he wasn't able to. Then Kumix asked a vulture to carry him. The vulture made a valiant effort using a mexapal, but halfway to heaven he dropped the mescapal and the two fell to earth. When the mecapal broke, it shaved the head of the vulture, leaving it bald and red. Some say that this was a curse that Kumix put on the vulture for not being able to carry him to the sky.

Whatever you think about vultures, they are an important part of our world and deserve our support!

Stories reported in “Los pájaros y el prognástico 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),” Kerry Hull and Rob Fergus, in Proceedings of the XVIII Coloquio Internacional  LAILA/ALILA, March 10-14, 2008, San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico, in review.

New Words for Old Birds: Barred Owl

(photo: wikipedia)

For years we've all been told that the Barred Owl says "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all."

Is that really what it says? First of all, it's pretty much a Yankee description (no self-respecting southern Barred Owl would say "you all"!). It also seems to imply something about servants (or worse?), I mean, you can't even ask who cooks for someone unless they are obviously not cooking for themselves.

So on the grounds that it is regionalist, classist, and antiquated, isn't it time to find some new words to describe the Barred Owl call?

So if they don't say "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all" what do Barred Owls say?

Swallow-tailed Kite in PA

There is a Swallow-tailed Kite that has been hanging around the Militia Hill Hawkwatch and the adjacent golf course for the past week. This afternoon I got to take my sister (visiting from Utah) and my kindergartener over to see it. We got distant views through the scope as the bird soared and swooped around over the golf course. This bird is normally only found in the SE US and points south, so not a bird I was expecting to see in PA (past records are few and far between-see here--and usually birds seen just flying past). Sweet! (photo: wikipedia)

Biggest Threat to Birds?

When I was at Audubon, I frequently had to deal with statements along the lines of "Global Warming is the greatest threat to birds and biodiversity in our lifetimes." Most of the time that would leave me scratching my head. How do we know if this is true or not? What about habitat destruction or modification? These are complex issues that leave most of us concerned but feeling helpless and wanting to just turn off the computer and head go birding.

What should we do about global warming when the issue seems to be so complex scientifically that it is hard to know what is really happening, let alone what we should do about it? How would we know if it is a bigger threat than habitat destruction or modification?

We've been trying to save birds for over 100 years and the news seems to just keep getting worse (a few bright spots like Kirtland's Warblers and California Condors--which we will have to manage forever--aside). Have the issues become so complex scientifically, politically, and culturally that all we can really do now is just enjoy the birds and hope for the best?

Not a Knot?

There's a bird out in California right now that was originally identified as a Great Knot, an Asian shorebird never before seen in California. Now folks are starting to look more closely at the bird and wondering if it really is a Great Knot or maybe a hybrid sandpiper--maybe part Surfbird. Take a look at some of the photos and see for yourself. The bird is molting, so doesn't look like a classic anything. Sometimes birds aren't what the first seem.

21st Century Bird Collectors

I'm bugged about the bird surveyors in Louisiana that shot the first Crowned Slaty-Flycatcher ever discovered in North America instead of alerting the U.S. birding community.

(PS I'm in personal communication with folks from LSU and those involved in collecting this bird. We clearly disagree about the merits of collecting vagrants but we aren't going to change each other's minds through online debate. I'm not accepting further comments on this post since I'd prefer to disagree without being disagreeable and would rather not risk flaming the fires online where passionate words often miss their mark. These are discussions more suited to personal communication, preferably while out in the field enjoying the birds we all love.)

New Words for Old Birds: Carolina Wren

For years we've been taught that the Carolina Wren sings:

teakettle teakettle teakettle (listen here).

That's all well and good, but who in the upcoming generations has any connection to teakettles? Can't we come up with a new up-to-date mnemonic to help us remember the voice of this original Mouth of the South?

I'm leaning towards something like
Braves baseball, Braves baseball, Braves baseball

Any other suggestions?

Birding in the Rain

Been laying low a bit lately, but ventured out for a couple hours in the rain today and found a few fun birds. Best was an adult Black-bellied Plover at Lake Nockamixon. It came in during a shower and landed next to 15 Ring-billed Gulls in a marina parking lot.

At the next boat landing up the lake, three Snow Geese were unexpected by me--two adults (one with a lame leg) and a juvenile. Apparently they've been around for a couple months (like I said, I've been laying low lately!). No bands on these birds, so not sure if a wild (injured) pair or escapes. But apparently breed locally.

At another small local lake (Lake Towhee) I found a Solitary Sandpiper--one of the more regular migrant shorebirds in the county.

Not a whole lot of birds around, but still a better than average day.

Celebrity Birder: Neil Peart

Neil Peart isn't just the drummer and lyricist for the band Rush, but also a birder. Check out his recent recounting of an attempt to find the Island Scrub-Jay. Sweet!

Spirits of the Air

For many of us, it is almost impossible to imagine traditional Native Americans without thinking of feathers, but only rarely, if ever, do we stop to ask why feathers? What is going on with the connections linking birds and traditional cultures? In Spirits of the Air, Brown University professor of anthropology Shepard Krech III explores the relationship between birds and American Indians in what are now the southern United States.

Upon initial inspection, Spirits of the Air is first and foremost big and beautiful; lavishly illustrated with color reproductions of bird illustrations by early naturalists and ornithologists such as Catesby, Wilson, and Audubon as well as portraits and paintings of Native American cultures, Spirits of the Air showcases these wonders in 264 8x11 inch pages.

The text is a thorough compilation of what we know about how Native American cultures in the South talked about, used, and understood the many different birds which shared their world. Chapters include discussions of birds as food, and symbols of power, war, peace, and spirituality, as well as Native American impacts on bird populations. A 16 page bibliography highlights the richness of resources that Krech has drawn upon to weave together a rich tapestry of traditional birdlore. Fortunately a thorough index is included, as references to individual bird species or traditions may occur scattered throughout the book's thirteen main chapters.

I found Spirits of the Air to be a true monument to the connection between Native Americans and birds. Big, beautiful, and informative; a real treasure trove of historical, archaeological, and anthropological information.

However beautiful and exhaustive, Spirits of the Air still left me wanting more. It is hard to criticize a book for what it isn't, but here are some things I would like to see in a future treatment of this topic (a second volume perhaps?):

Historical and Geographical Context: Unless one is an expert on Southern Indian cultures, it may be tough to keep track of where and when each of the many cultures discussed here lived or interacted with each other. While one map shows the location of archaeological mounds, and another shows the 16th to 19th century location of many of the tribes, it isn't always clear what the connections are between the various archaeological, historical, and current Native Peoples.

Cultural Diffusion: While dozens of cultural traits are described and tied to birds (such as the use of feathers for ornamentation or fletching feathers), there is little discussion of how or where these traits developed and spread through the various cultures. This leaves one closing Spirits of the Air still wondering about some of the big and obvious questions such as--why feathers? We are given many, many examples of Indians using feathers, but we are left wondering how this attachment to feathers came about.

Native Perspective: Spirits of the Air more often than not comes across as "a view of Indians using birds, from the perspective of white people." Only rarely do we hear the voices of real American Indians. While much of this may be due to the nature of the historical sources Krech has available to draw upon, I would like to see the incorporation of perhaps more contemporary Native American voices. What echoes of the past birdlore still resonate with the descendants of the people we are reading about?

Again, these perhaps overly critical points are less a criticism of the work Krech has admirably done in this volume, and more a wish list of where I hope he or others will take us in the future. Krech has mined a rich vein here, and there is much more to do to help us better understand, and celebrate, the connections between birds and people. Only then will the true spirits of the air fully capture our imagination, as they apparently did within Native American cultures.

Culling Canada Geese?

Today on the NPR show Radio Times:
New York officials began culling resident Canada geese last month because of concerns over aviation safety. Public reactions were mixed. While some protested the killings, others were happy to see growing geese populations reigned in. This hour, a conversation about how Canada geese became so maligned with waterfowl biologist BRYAN SWIFT of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and JOHN HADIDIAN with Humane Society of the United States.

Listen to the podcast here.

Seriously Funny Bird House Video!

Best Ways to Keep Birds from Hitting Windows

We've all seen birds smack into windows, and now there are several products on the market that are supposed to help birds avoid window collisions. But do they work?

Dan Klem, an ornithologist at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania conducted experiments to find the best ways to stop birds from hitting windows.

The results?
Window Alert Decals: Ineffective when used alone, but effective if almost completely covering the windows.

FeatherGuard: Ineffective unless enough are used to almost completely cover the window

CollidEscape: Mostly effective, though one bird did hit it during trials.

Other useful treatments included glass with a ceramic frit pattern and glass with alternating strips of UV reflecting and absorbing film.

The published study results are online here:

Preventing Bird–Window Collisions. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 121(2):314-321. Daniel Klem Jr.

Birdchaser on Martha Stewart radio

I'll be on Martha Stewart radio tomorrow morning 8:15 EDT to talk about summer birds and birding. Call in number is 866-675-6675 if you want to chat about birds!

Still in Top 10

Surprisingly, I'm still one of the Top 10 eBirders in North America (by species), though not even in the Top 500 for number of checklists submitted. Looks like we still need to get a lot more folks to submit their bird sightings to eBird!

Baked in Alaska

Sometimes life events shatter your psyche, leaving you to pick up the pieces. Other times, they melt your brain, leaving you with a gooey mass and nothing to do but wait for it to recongeal. 11 days in Alaska have fully baked my brain (photos here).

Endless hours of sun, seawater, glaciers, mountains. Too much to absorb.

And hundreds of humpback whales! Sometimes breaching completely out of the water. Often so close you could hear them spout, and once so close you could smell their briny breath! I saw a dozen feeding together, and heard them bugle a trumpeting call that echoed across forests and snowfields.

I saw Orcas! Killer whales! A pod of these black and white beauties surfacing again and again alongside our ship, while a larger cruise liner sailed on by without taking notice. I now live in a world where these beasts aren't just Discovery channel features or performers at Sea World. They seem to have taken part of my heart with them as they slipped below the icy gray waters of Glacier Bay.

And then there were the birds. THOUSANDS of Marbled Murrelets. We called them Bloop Bloop Birds. While a birder is lucky to see more than one or two in a day in the Lower 48, we saw hundreds every day, reminding us constantly of how important it is to protect the Tongass National Forest for these tree-nesting seabirds.

On the upper reaches of Glacier Bay, where trees for nesting Bloop Bloop Birds are scarce, they are replaced by the even rarer Kittlitz's Murrelets--pale versions of their darker cousins that nest on the bare rocky ground around the glaciers. I watched dozens of these swim, dive, and careen across the blue waters of the icemelt. A week later their little feet are still pattering across the surface of my feelings.

Other birds came and went as we cruised over 1300 miles across Southeast Alaska with Cruise West and Audubon Odysseys on the Spirit of Discovery, a small expedition vessel that was our home for the week as we explored the native Tlingit village of Kake, sea kayaked and hiked in Sitka, and wound our way in and out of dozens of mountain-lined fjords carved out by the glaciers. We counted dozens of Arctic Terns, and were visited by an Aleutian Tern as we watched a glacier calving in Glacier Bay. I glanced out the window as we crossed Icy Strait and saw a Horned Puffin on the water. We later saw dozens of Tufted Puffins in Glacier Bay. And on our final night home, in a raging storm in the pale evening light, both Parasitic Jaeger and Pomarine Jaeger sliced through the wind in pursuit of dozens of wheeling Black-legged Kittiwakes.

How do you recover from a week of this? And the hours watching sea otters and brown bears? Take the Grand Tetons, stretch them out over thousands of miles, add the ocean and wildlife and take away any sign of human habitation for days on end, and try to absorb that a week later.

My mind is melted. Baked in Alaska. Not sure how my soul will recongeal, but know that part of it will forever be trying to get back to the whales and wilderness and Bloop Bloop Birds irrevocably forged into my being by a week and a half on the Spirit of Discovery.

Birding Juneau

I'm in Juneau getting ready to board our cruise ship for exploring the Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage. Here I am with a native Tlingit building, raven pole, and a raven on the roof.

Birds right in town are the Common Raven, Bonaparte's Gull, Mew Gull, Herring Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Bald Eagle, Swainson's Thrush, and Pigeon Guillemot.

More from the trip when I get back!

Common Myna

Probably the most abundant and ubiquitous bird on Oahu, the Common Myna was introduced to Hawaii from India in 1865 by Dr. William Hildebrand to combat invasive Army worms. Hawaii has never been the same since. These birds nest in trees but also on buildings and bridges, and are found walking on parking lots, lawns, and beaches all over Oahu.

In the United States, the only other place to see them is in south Florida, where they have become more and more common since first reported in 1983.




I took these shots on Oahu with a Canon PowerShot through my 7x42 Zeiss binoculars.

Birding Oahu

Oahu is covered with birds. That said, birding Oahu can be a challenge!

Upon arriving in Honolulu, one quickly sees Spotted Doves and White Terns (Fairy Terns) all over the city, as well as the ever present Common Mynahs and Red-vented Bulbuls. Birding any of the parks or open areas around the city quickly gets one several other non-native birds (including Zebra Doves, Japanese White-eye, Red-billed Leiothrix, Common Waxbill, and Red-crested Cardinal).

Last weekend I was on Oahu to present a paper at a conference, and spent four days exploring the island. Beyond the common birds mentioned above, most other birds, especially native birds, were few and far between.



To find native wetland birds, I had to journey to the Kahuka area at the far northern tip of the island. The James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge and adjacent sewage treatment facility are gated and closed to the public, but by standing on the sign pictured here, I was able to see some ponds as well as all four of the native birds pictured on the sign (from left to right Hawaiian Stilt, Hawaiian Gallinule, Hawaiian Duck, and Hawaiian Coot). I was also lucky enough to spot three Bristle-thighed Curlews that hadn't yet departed for their Alaskan breeding grounds.



Seabirds were easily found at many rocky headlands--though usually in small numbers. The most plentiful by far were Red-footed Boobies. I only saw one Brown Booby (a flyby at China Walls in Hawaii Kai), and a couple of Red-tailed Tropicbirds and one White-tailed Tropicbird near Makapu'u Point. The picture above is from La'ie Point, where within a few hundred yards of shore I was able to spot Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Christmas Shearwater, and a single Bulwer's Petrel. By keeping my eyes open, I was able to see a Great Frigatebird (while body surfing at Waimanalo Beach Park) and a small flock of Grey-backed Terns (again at China Walls), but around most of the tourist beaches seabirds were few and far between.



The forests above Waikiki (above) are mostly made up of non-native trees brought in to control erosion after the island was mostly deforested in the past century. The birds there are almost all introduced as well. The common birds listed above are also joined by the melodious White-rumped Shama and a small handful of other birds. One is almost continuously haunted by the specter of missing native plants and birds. To think about the dozens of native birds now missing is heartbreaking. It took two hikes up Mt. Tantalus to finally find a single native forest bird (another story completely, and coming soon!). A couple of hours looking for the Oahu Elepaio near Hawaii Kai were singularly unproductive.



A visit to the picturesque Byodo-In Temple (above), a replica of a 900 year old Buddhist temple in Japan, illustrates the sad state of Oahu's birdlife. The place is crawling with birds--but they consist of a dozens of individuals of only a handful of introduced birds, including Common Peafowl, Black Swan, Cockatiel, Red-crested Mynah, and Common Waxbill. Most of the birds are actually the abundant Zebra Dove (below), Spotted Doves, and Common Mynahs that are ubiquitous in the settled parts of the island.



So while Oahu is a fantastic vacation spot, and crawling with birds, it is a challenge to see more than just a couple dozen introduced land birds and the most common seabirds (boobies and fairy terns). To see native wetland birds requires a bit of a drive, and finding native forest birds is probably best accomplished on some of the other Hawaiian islands.

More photos from my trip on Facebook.

40 Days and Nights in the Bird Blogging Wilderness?

It has been two weeks since Audubon let me go, and almost as long since I've posted anything. Enjoyed a trip to Austin with my family, including an afternoon of birding and catching turtles, frogs, and lizards at Hornsby Bend.

Pondering the future of The Birdchaser, and bird bloggining in general. I first started this blog when I found out I hired by Audubon and would be moving to Pennsylvania for the job. The idea was to use the blog as another motivator to keep myself out in the field as much as possible while holding down a "real" job :-)

The bird blogging world has changed a lot in the meantime. Now it is almost more of a photo journalism medium. Blogging has created new birding celebrities. Many blogs have come and go. Few attract a large regular audience.

So I'm taking a sort of quiet time right now, a sort of 40 day fast, to think about where we are headed with all this bird blogging, and where I see myself fitting in.

Any thoughts about the future of The Birdchaser are welcome. Meanwhile, I've got birding trips to Hawaii and Alaska lined up for most of June. Have fun out there!

Classic Birding Bit

If you haven't seen this classic produced by my friend Evan for the Daily Show, treat yourself! Little known fact: Audubon had the chance to hire Evan a few years ago, but they went another way. He hasn't suffered since then, working on some very popular shows. But ya gotta wonder what Audubon might be like if they had more creative folks of Evan's caliber on staff (and could afford to pay them what they are worth!).

Ticked off while birding

While birding this past Saturday I brushed off three wood ticks that got onto me in the field, and when I got home I pulled off one nymph deer tick that had embedded itself in my leg. While I'm a big fan of strange and unusual creatures, I have to admit that these little critters give me the willies--and worse. A couple years ago I got a Lyme disease infection from a deer tick bite. I'll be watching the site of this latest bite to see if it shows sign of an infection, and will probably get a blood test done later this year just to make sure there isn't an undetected infection.

A new movie is just out discussing the controversy around the diagnosis and treatment of chronic Lyme disease. Under Our Skin is well worth watching or even showing in your community. Be careful when you are out there birding. It is often tempting to go crashing through the brush in the quest to see more birds. But that is exactly where the ticks are. Take proper precautions out there, and especially do a good tick check when you come in from the field and get medical attention if you are bit or find signs of a tick-borne disease!

Birdathon Day List

In eight hours today we found the following birds in the Wissahickon Watershed in and around Ambler, Montgomery Co, Pennsylvania. Usually not a lot of water birds around, it is mostly upland habitats. Bob Ridgely joined us for a couple hours in the morning--most productive place all day was Militia Hill in the Fort Washington State Park. This is my fifth year helping out with the birdathon, and I really enjoy birding with my mostly retired birdathon buddies!

Not a huge list, but a very satisfying day:

Observation date: 5/8/09
Number of species: 74

Canada Goose 25
Wood Duck 5
Mallard 8
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Great Blue Heron 4
Green Heron 4
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Rock Pigeon 1
Mourning Dove 28
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Black-billed Cuckoo 2
Great Horned Owl 1
Chimney Swift 12
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 6
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 2
Eastern Phoebe 3
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 5
Blue-headed Vireo 1
Warbling Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 12
American Crow 6
Tree Swallow 25
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 18
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 5
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 1
Eastern Bluebird 3
Swainson's Thrush 1
American Robin 55
Gray Catbird 45
Northern Mockingbird 4
European Starling 13
Blue-winged Warbler 1
Northern Parula 7
Yellow Warbler 3
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler 85
Black-throated Green Warbler 12
Black-and-white Warbler 8
American Redstart 1
Ovenbird 2
Common Yellowthroat 3
Hooded Warbler 1
Scarlet Tanager 2
Eastern Towhee 7
Chipping Sparrow 12
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 11
White-throated Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 9
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 5
Indigo Bunting 3
Bobolink 5
Red-winged Blackbird 35
Common Grackle 15
Brown-headed Cowbird 28
Orchard Oriole 1
Baltimore Oriole 18
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 17
House Sparrow 5

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

Spring--finally!!!

The rain finally stopped long enough this morning for a short foray into the woods on my way into the office this morning (only three more days and counting!). A lot of flooding kept me out of some of the areas at Peace Valley, but it was nice to see the catbirds everywhere and run into a Veery, Yellow Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. Tomorrow is my annual birdathon for a local watershed, so looking forward to a full day in the field!

Birdchaser Moving On

Yesterday I was informed that Audubon was eliminating my position and my last day of work there will be May 11. I'll miss helping run the Great Backyard Bird Count and working on eBird and blogging at Audubon Birdscapes. On the other hand, I look forward to finding new ways to work with folks around the country to make the world better for birds and people. And to more birding and blogging here at The Birdchaser!

The Ultimate Life List

I don't remember when in the early 90s I first heard about Phoebe Snetsinger, the indomitable middle-aged birder who became a legend chasing birds around the world in a quest to see more than 8,000 bird species. I never got a chance to meet her, but her daughter Marmot worked on the same project I did in Montana one summer, and in the mid-90s I house-sat for some mutual friends in Austin as they joined her on a few privately organized birding expeditions. Her persistence, attention to detail, and note-taking were famous and we were proud to see her as a birding hero.

I remember hearing and discussing her death (in a van accident on a birding expedition to Madagascar) in the fall of 1999 when I was just starting my PhD program. My own chasing about after new birds was starting to slow down as I faced the challenges of grad school and parenthood. When the American Birding Association published her memoir Birding on Borrowed Time, I got it from inter library loan and enjoyed what I thought would be the ultimate account of her birding exploits.

Frankly, when I heard that Olivia Gentile was coming out with a new biography of Snetsinger, I wondered why in the world we would ever want or need another book about the late great birder. Birding on Borrowed Time had pretty much covered all the trips and all the birds that she had seen, and seemed like the definitive bio.

Now, having read Life List, I'm grateful that Gentile took the time to revisit Snetsinger's life and times. With much more background on Snetsinger's family and copious details provided by friends and family, we get another view of the determined, and even obsessed, bird lister. A view that contributes to her memory, as well as to the growing literature chronicling the social and emotional toll that so frequently encumbers serious birding.

As with Dan Koeppel's To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime Obsession, Gentile's book shows in heart-rending detail the emotional costs that serious birding demands from those caught by the siren song of increasingly harder to find new birds, and from their closest family members. As we read about Snetsinger's exploits, we birders may feel twinges of jealousy--so many great birds and birding trips!--but also recoil from the emotional devastation that Snetsinger left in her wake.

And we may see hints of these same dual forces in our own lives. I already mentioned how my own bird chasing started dropping off in grad school as I struggled to juggle family, school, birding, and other competing interests. On my recent trip to Europe I fought off temptations to hijack weekend family time towards a pursuit of Eagle Owls and other lusted after avians. Its hard to get enough of both family time and birds--unless you're willing to write off one or the other.

Back when I was house-sitting for friends who were off on birding adventures, and before kids came to my family, some of the tour leaders mentioned in Gentile's book met me for a bite to eat at the Whole Foods in Austin. They told me about how great it was to be in the field, as well as how difficult it would be to have a family as a tour leader. One result of that conversation was that I ended up going back to grad school rather than trying to make a career of bird tour leading.

Fifteen years later, I've got the advanced degrees, a job at Audubon, and still manage to get out and see birds pretty much every day. Sometimes I even get to travel to see birds. Reading Life List, I revisit not only Snetsinger's exploits, but my own birding path, with the inevitable decisions that become signposts along the way. My own life list is far, far smaller than that of many of my friends. We all make choices. Hopefully, as you enjoy reading about Phoebe Snetsinger and her choices, you'll appreciate the ones that you make every day in your own efforts to fully enjoy birds along with whatever else gives you joy.

And if you are like me, it will inspire you to take even more birding trips in the near future!

Rhymes with Bird

For your blogging/poetry needs, from one online source:

blurred, burd, byrd, curd, ferd, gerd, gird, gjerde, heard, herd, hird, hurd, jerde, kurd, leard, nerd, slurred, spurred, stirred, third, word

Missing of course: a slang term for feces. And what about purred?

Any others?

Forensic Bird Photo ID Challenge

So here's the challenge: A) find the bird, B) tell me what it is.

At least as good as published photos of 21st Century Ivory-billed Woodpeckers!

Botched digibin'd shot through my 7X42s. Bird took off before I could set the zoom on my digital camera and get another shot.

Great Tits!

(photo: wikimedia commons)
Ah Europe, you gotta love a place where you can see tits every day and talk about them with a straight face! These little birds are everywhere. And so are their cousins--Blue Tits. Other tits, such as the Long-tailed Tits I saw this afternoon are less common, but not too hard to come up with.

Europe, the land of Great Tits!

Bar-headed Goose

Snapped a photo of this beauty yesterday in Hofgarten park in Düsseldorf. It's a Central Asian bird, and since this is Western Europe, it's just an escapee--not countable by most birding standards. But a beauty nonetheless. Düsseldorf is crawling with exotic birds--I see Rose-ringed Parakeets from India almost as often as the native House Sparrows. A pair of feral Ruddy Shelducks cruise up and down the Rhine near here, and I see Canada Goose and Egyptian Goose almost every day. On the other hand, and ironic I think, I have yet to see a European Starling here, while back in PA they are a dime a dozen.

German Duck Stairs

One of the things I get a kick out over here in Germany are the little stairs in all the fountains so baby ducks can get in and out of the water. Nice!

Birding Benrath Schloss in Düsseldorf

Benrath Schloss, a big pink palace in southern Düsseldorf is a great spot, but maybe not the birdiest set of grounds in mid-April. Lots of Chiffchaffs singing, a Blackcap, and the ever-present tits. Did add Song Thrush to the trip list there, and enjoyed watching a Wren shaking its wings in defense of its territory, and the courtship display of the Great Tits. Otherwise, mostly a big reflecting pool--complete with Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, and Great Cormorant. There weren't any Tufted Ducks there today (there were over a dozen last week), so had to settle for a couple Canada Goose, an Egyptian Goose, and a Moorehen.

Birding Hamlet's Castle (Helsingør, Denmark)

OK, very cool castle. Not many birds. Coot, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan in the mote. Jackdaws on the castle. White Wagtails on the grass and on the shore. Worth a stop for the scenery if not for the birds.

Birding Grenen, Denmark

Spent a nice couple of hours walking out to the northernmost spit of sand in Denmark this afternoon with my kids. Lots of great birds around (King Eider, Common Eider, Common Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, Northern Gannet, etc.). Also some great birding graffiti scrawled on the old German bunker fortification on the beach. Not everyday you get to see birding graffiti!

Birding Hasseler Forst in Düsseldorf

Yesterday I spent the afternoon in Hasseler Forst, a local park and birding spot here in Düsseldorf. I was able to find about 35 species while playing around with my kids--including Middle Spotted Woodpecker (my new favorite woodpecker!). A series of lakes is nearby at Elbseen, which held lots of waterbirds including Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe, and Eurasian Coot, as well as a Grey Heron rookery.

To get to Hassler Forst, take a bus to the Hassels Kirche stop, and take the road and path near the church back to the park. You first go over a highway crossing, and then in about a quarter mile you hit an area with conifers on both sides that is supposed to be good for Goldcrest and Firecrest (I only got the Goldcrest on my short visit).

Beyond the conifers is a train track, and take the path to the right through some oaks, where the Middle Spotted Woodpeckers are found. Also saw Great Spotted Woodpecker and Green Woodpecker here.

At the end of this path is a playground (for the kids), and you can take the path to the left to go under the train tracks to Elbseen. From there take the path to the right to get the best views of the lakes. About a half mile down this path is a viewing tower.

A great place to bird and I look forward to getting back there soon! Thanks to local birder Klaus Böhm for the directions!

Birding Dusseldorf

So far just the usual backyard birds in Dusseldorf: Wood Pigeon, Carrion Crow, Jay, Magpie, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Blackbird, Dunnock, etc. Did see three Yellow-legged Gulls near the Rhine yesterday.

In Belgium, saw Fieldfare at the Battle of the Bulge memorial in Bastogne, as well as a Pheasant on the road, and my first Swallow (Barn Swallow) of the year at St. Anne Chateau. Also Rose-ringed Parakeets at the royal palace in Brussels.

Once I figure out the bus system, should be able to start getting more birds soon.

Birdchaser in the eBird Top 10

eBird now has a new feature where you can see how you rank. I'm currently ranked #8 among all eBird users for species reported in North America (the ABA checklist area). Of course, that standing is only because the more senior top listers in the country aren't using eBird yet. I'd love to see my standing drop if more people were reporting their lists on eBird!

Wordless Wednesday: Swallow-tailed Kite

Shot with my point and shoot (x3 optical zoom) while driving as it flew alongside the highway.

Bad Photos of Good Bird: Snail Kite

OK, so my digiscoping was pretty lousy on this one, but I got over 50 shots of a Snail Kite hunting and eating snails at the end of Joe Overstreet Rd on Lake Kissimmee. Seeing some really cool birds, just need a better scope setup...

Loggerhead Shrike

Digiscoped through my old Bausch & Lomb Discoverer scope on a window mount on my recent Florida trip. You gotta love butcher birds!

Dead Hog

There were at least a dozen Black Vultures on this roadside feast when I first pulled up, but they scattered. Note also the dead 'dillo (click for closer view, if you dare!).

Florida Scrub-Jays

Had a chance to digibin and digiscope some Florida Scrub-Jays on Sunday. The following shots were taken with a hand held Canon PowerShot SD750 through Zeiss 7x42 BTs.

Squirrel Boobs

Not for the faint-hearted, today at work I got an eye full of this gal hanging on my bird feeder showing off all her glory!

Birdchaser on Martha Stewart Radio

Tomorrow morning at 8:30EDT I will be on Morning Living, a Martha Stewart Living Sirius Satellite Radio show talking about what is going on with birds in people’s yards this time of year—early migration, nesting, etc. If you have satellite radio, tune in for a few moments of fun bird news! Or you can get a FREE online trial subscription here.