ebess magazine: 2007

Friday, December 28, 2007

I and The Bird #65

Visit I and the Bird #65, hosted by Amy at WildBird on the Fly, for a Holiday Season carnival full of great posts (32 in all) about birds and birding.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

This is a view of the backyard as seen from the deck of my recently-purchased home in Berrien County, Michigan, as taken on or around Thanksgiving Day 2007 by the previous owner. I'm looking forward to moving back to the area of my birth sometime in January 2008.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Carbon-Neutral Birding—The BiGBY

Are you a die-hard lister? Have you ever fretted about the impacts on the environment of chasing birds around your State in a gas-guzzling pickup or SUV? Well, fret no more, as Sparroworking in Quebec has come up with one of the coolest ways for birders to be green and still enjoy the fun of competitive birding: the Big Green Big Year, or BiGBY for short.

Two types of BiGBY are recognized:

The Walking BiGBY – Includes all species seen in areas reached by foot by walking from home. This is like extended Backyard Birding.

The Self-Propelled BiGBY- Same as above except that cycling, boating (i.e., by canoe or rowboat), skiing, and snowshoeing are included as acceptable modes of transportation.

To learn more about the BiGBY and to sign up to do your own Big Green Big Year, go to the “Bigbying” Web site. You’ll get to know the birds of your neighborhood better, improve your health, and do something positive for the environment and the birds.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Demise of a Bird Blog

The blog formerly known as the Ivory-bill Skeptic was one of my all-time favorite bird blogs. Judging by the number of “hits” that it generated, I gather that this controversial blog was a favorite of many others as well. Initiated by Minnesota birder Tom Nelson in July 2005 in response to Cornell’s announcement of the “discovery” of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) in Arkansas, it provided an important outlet in the ensuing debate for people of a skeptical mind regarding the adequacy of the evidence provided in support of the continued existence of the so-called Lord God Bird. While I didn’t always agree with Tom’s assessment of the situation, his methods, or his motives, I generally enjoyed the posts and embedded links and the comments that they engendered.

In mid-September 2007, Tom announced that he was “quite bored with the current Ivory-bill hysteria” and was changing the name of the blog to Tom Nelson, leaving him “free to post about anything that interests me.” Since then, the focus of the blog has gradually switched over from Ivory-bills to the debunking of anthropogenic global warming, as revealed by the following statistics showing the percentage of monthly posting that were specifically about Ivory-bills:

August 2007 – 97.5 percent (39 of 40)
September 2007 – 46.4 percent (26 of 56 postings)
October 2007 – 37.1 percent (33 of 89 postings)
November 2007 – 11.6 percent (29 of 250 postings)

Tom’s Ivory-bill postings are increasingly being lost amongst his growing blather about global warming. He would have done those of us interested in continuing to follow Ivory-bill events, especially the skeptics among us, a great favor by creating a second blog for his rants on global warming.

Martinson Collinson made a similar argument (here) about the Ivory-bill Skeptic/Tom Nelson blog, noting that 37 posts about Ivory-bills in November 2006 generated 450 comments while 247 posts in November 2007 (“nearly all on climate change”) generated just 12 comments. Sadly, while Tom has continued to post about Ivory-bills at only a slightly diminished rate (i.e., 29 in November 2007 vs 37 in November 2006), his focus on global climate change has caused his loyal Ivory-bill skeptic readers to desert him.

Because Tom continues to post occasionally about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, but especially because of the vast amount of Ivory-bill information still present in his archives, I have decided to retain Tom Nelson on the list of known North American bird blogs.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Life Birds Are Where Your Find Them

In early December I had an opportunity to spend a four-day weekend with a life-long friend in Oakland, California. This was a social visit, not a directed birding trip. The only serious birding was a half-day trip to Point Reyes National Seashore in strong winds, where we saw a nice (but not extraordinary) assortment of birds and enjoyed a notable up-close-and-personal encounter with a very curious Common Raven (Corvus corax) at Limantour Beach. Still, I managed to tally four life birds, a benefit of having spent little time in coastal California. These included two parids—Oak [=Plain] Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus) and Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus)—seen in the neighborhood while walking the dog, a pair a California Towhees (Pipilo crissalis) that awaited us on the front porch when we returned from Sunday brunch, and a Brewer’s Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) foraging for food on the sidewalk at the Oakland International Airport. I guess the moral of this story is, always keep your eyes open and your binoculars handy.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Known North American Bird Blogs #7

This list was last updated on June 2, 2007, when the net addition of 15 blogs brought the list of known North American bird blogs to 223.

This update (a) adds 34 blogs and (b) deletes 13 12 blogs (including 11 that are no longer available and 2 1 that ~~are~~ is no longer about birds); the net result is the addition of 21 22 blogs, yielding (c) a total of ~~244~~ 245 known North American bird blogs currently available online (including 24 with no posts in the past 12 months that are defined as inactivee).

Criteria for inclusion on this list are found here.

(a) New Blogs (n=34):

Arkansas Birding – “Birding & photography of Arkansas birds,” by J. Karl Clampit in Arkansas (June 2007)
Avian Tendencies – by Caleb Putnam in Grand Rapids, Michigan (January 2007)
Bird Year Blog – “a year-long, 12,000-mile fossil-fuel-free journey in search of birds,” by 15-year-old Malkolm Boothroyd and his parents (April 2007)
Biological Ramblings – “Your source for the latest science musings straight from my brain,” by Nick Sly in New York (April 2007)
Colder by the Lake Birding – by Mike Hendrickson in Duluth, Minnesota (August 2007)
~~Craig’s Birds~~ ~~– “Birding and photography of Minnesota birds,” by Craig K. Marble in Minnesota (April 2006)~~
Ecobirder – “Birding, Wildlife, Environment,” by Ecobirder in St. Paul, Minnesota (April 2007)
Fledging Birders Blog – “Reflections and stories of sharing the appreciation of birds and nature with kids,” by Dave M. in southern New Jersey (April 2007)
Fort Jefferson Dry Tortugas Birding Blog – by Debra Hess (August 2007)
From My Perch – “Birdwatching photos and stories,” by Maria Bajema in Michigan (February 2007)
International Bird Rescue Research Center – “News, views and photos from IBRRC on the San Francisco Bay oil spill response,” by Russ Curtis in San Francisco, California (November 2007)
Iowa Voice – “Speaking through the camera,” by Moe in the Quad Cities, Iowa (January 2007)
Life, Birds, and Everything – “Blogging about wild things that make my heart sing,” by Sherri Williamson in Arizona (August 2007)
Minnesota Birdnerd – by a high school science teacher in the Twin Cities, Minnesota (June 2007)
My Birds Blog – “A selection of birds who visited in my backyard and left a lasting digital impression,” by Abraham Lincoln in Brookville, Ohio (September 2007)
Nature Knitter – “Stories and pictures about birds and nature mostly in my backyard, with occasional bits of pets, knitting, weather, food and family thrown in for variety,” by Ruth Johnson in Rochester, Minnesota (March 2007)
NCIOS – North Central Illinois Ornithological Society – the blog of the Rockford Bird Club in Rockford, Illinois (February 2007)
Neo Birding – by Jim McCarty in Cleveland, Ohio (July 2007)
Nervous birds – “One should leave the world they experience not as they found it…they should leave it better,” by Dan Haas in Annapolis, Maryland (April 2007)
OC Warbler – “Birding (mis)adventures in Orange County, California, and beyond,” by Felicia in Costa Mesa, California (May 2007)
Ornitheologisms – by Ornitheologist (September 2007)
Ortego Birds – “Where Big Bird comes to nest,” by Brent Ortego in Texas (May 2007)
Pish – by Bennet in Massachusetts (November 2007)
Roger’s Blog – “Bird observations primarily western Oregon,” by Roger in Oregon (April 2007)
Sibley Guides Notebook – “Bird identification and more related to the Sibley guide to birds,” by David Sibley (August 2007)
The Backyard Birdman – “Who wants to learn more about how to attract wild birds to your backyard,” by Larry Jordan in northern California (September 2007)
The Drinking Bird – “Birding and whatnot,” by N8 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (July 2007)
The Feather and the Flower – by Noflickster in Horseheads, New York (March 2007)
The Houston Birder – “Random tales and thoughts of a birder in Houston,” by Carey in Houston, Texas (April 2006)
The Nightjar - “Where the ancient world meets the modern world,” by HoaryRedpoll in New York (April 2007)
The Zen Birdfeeder – “focuses on the birds and other nature we find in our own yards and the principles of attention, acceptance, and responsibility,” by Nancy Castillo in Saratoga Springs, New York (April 2007)
Vermont Center for Ecostudies – “News and notes from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies” (January 2006)
Vulture Cafe – “Picking up bits and pieces from the side of the road,” by Dawn in the Pacific Northwest of the United States (October 2007)
WBU’s Birding Blog – by the owners, staff, and customers of Wild Birds Unlimited in Tallahassee, Florida (August 2007)
Weekend Shooter – “A Photo Blog,” by John Mikes in Woodbury, Minnesota (June 2007)

(b.1) Deleted Blogs/No longer available (n=11):

2007 Big Year Blog
Bird the Planet
BirdBlog – Ruffling Feathers
Birding Watching in South Florida
Chicago Bird Watching
Eric’s Birding Blog
Hamilton Birding
Illinois Birding Blog
Ohio Birding Blog
TrumbullBirders’s Bird Blog
VINS Conservation Biology Blog

(b.2) Deleted Blogs/No longer about birds (n=2 1):

Fluid Five Birding
~~Ivory-bill Skeptic (now re-titled Tom Nelson, it focuses on climate-change issues)~~ Note: I have decided to retain Tom Nelson on the list of known North American blogs because of it's large archive of material on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

Previous Posts in This Series:

Known North American Bird Blogs #6 (06/02/07)
Known North American Bird Blogs #5 (04/20/07)
Still More North American Bird Blogs—An Update (03/14/07)
More North American Bird Blogs—An Update (12/07/06)
List of Known North American Bird Blogs (11/21/06)
North American Bird Blogs (05/08/06)

Monday, December 17, 2007

Birding Tipping Point

Originally coined as a sociological term in the 1960s, “tipping point” was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his bestselling 2007 book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

One such “little thing” that turned the art of birding, or birdwatching (as it was known in the early decades of the 20th century), on its head was described thusly by Scott Weidensaul in his 2007 book, Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding:

All his life, [Roger Tory] Peterson made a point of crediting those whose encouragement and ideas were crucial to his development as a birder and a field guide author. At the head of the line stood Blanche Hornbeck.

Although she only taught in the Jamestown, New York, schools for a single year, beginning in the fall of 1919, the pretty, red-haired Miss Hornbeck changed young Roger’s life. He’d always been interested in nature, but when Miss Hornbeck started a Junior Audubon Club in her class, distributing the illustrated leaflets from the National Association of Audubon Societies, Roger Peterson fell hard for birds.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Peterson himself described Hornbeck’s influence in a 1996 article in International Wildlife (excerpt):

Had it not been for Blanche Hornbeck, my seventh-grade teacher in Jamestown, New York, my life probably would have gone in a different direction. Who knows? She was a red-haired lady of about 30; I was a rebellious kid of 11.

She started a Junior Audubon Club. Students paid a dime to join, for which we received a button with a Red-winged Blackbird [Agelaius phoeniceus] on it and 10 leaflets, each with a colorplate of a different bird and an accompanying outline to be colored in with crayon. Miss Hornbeck decided this was not the way to learn to draw, so the next day she gave each of us a little box of watercolors and a colorplate by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, one of the leading bird illustrators of his day, from his portfolios of the birds of New York. She gave me the Blue Jay [Cyanocitta cristata], which I copied with care.

Our efforts were put up on the blackboard. I thought I did pretty well, but my Blue Jay was credited to Edith, the girls who sat across the aisle. Discovering my distress, Miss Hornbeck soon put things right. The Blue Jay will always rank among my favorites because it was the first bird I drew.

In his 2007 biography, Roger Tory Peterson, Douglas Carlson writes of Miss Hornbeck’s lasting influence on Peterson:

Peterson and Miss Hornbeck would rediscover each other in an exchange that clearly reveals his sincerity concerning the importance of the Junior Audubon Club and provides a rather touching footnote to the story. In 1950, Miss Hornbeck read a magazine profile of Peterson in which he acknowledged his debt to her. She wrote him enthusiastically to say that she had discovered “that a former pupil was the great and honored Roger Peterson! My joy and satisfaction in your wonderful achievement is unlimited and I am more happy than I can tell you to have played some small part in helping you to discover your life’s work.” She remembered a rainy morning bird walk when she expressed surprise that anyone came. “I can still hear you say, ‘You can count on me, no matter what the weather.’” Peterson sent her two inscribed books, including his collection of birding recollections, Birds over America, which prompted her to write about her joy in “participating vicariously in events which I would like to have had.” Peterson continued to send books to her until he learned of her death.

How many of todays birders have had similar, if not quite so dramatic, tipping-point moments as children: a seemingly uneventful learning moment with a teacher, a fleeting encounter with an adult mentor, or perhaps an influential book that caused them to be turned on by birds? We all owe a collective debt of gratitude to the unsung Blanche Hornbeck's of the world.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

“Shoot the [Feral] Cat[s]”

Let me say right up front that I have no problem with pet cats (Felis domesticus) and the people who own and care for them; I was once a cat owner myself. But feral cats are another thing altogether. Feral cats are a scourge on the landscape. Feral cats are invasive animals (being listed by the World Conservation Union as one of the world’s 100 worst) that, through their predatory habits, do significant damage to native bird populations. Trap, neuter, and release (TNR) programs are not the answer. They are nothing more than a public relations sham. They merely allow individual, free-ranging cats to live out the remainder of their normal lifespan. Meanwhile, the cats will continue to kill native birds and other animals, even if well-fed. The solution to the problem of roaming and unwanted stray cats is euthanasia. Properly administered, euthanasia is completely humane. It’s more humane, in fact, than the slow and painful deaths inflicted on their prey by feral cats.

Bruce Barcott, a contributing editor at Outside magazine, wrote an excellent essay in the December 2, 2007 issue of the New York Times Magazine that examines in detail both sides of the feral cat issue. A copy of this article is available in full at David Quintana’s Lost in the Ozone blog (see Kill the Cat that Kills the Bird).

Much of the article focuses on Jim Stevenson, founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society and “the most notorious cat killer in America,” and the nationwide controversy he caused when he shot a feral cat that was preying on Piping Plovers (an endangered species) near Galveston Island. An excerpt:

Much of the controversy focuses on the nation’s population of 50 to 90 million feral cats (exact figures are impossible to ascertain), former pets and their offspring that live independent of humans. Feral cats may not have owners, but they do have lobbyists. Alley Cat Allies, a national organization founded by an ex-social worker named Becky Robinson, harnesses a fierce coalition of celebrities, cat experts and feral-cat-colony caretakers to fight for the rights of wild cats. Her allies include Roger Tabor, a leading British naturalist; Jeffrey Masson, the outspoken author of “The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats” and “When Elephants Weep”; and, fittingly, Tippi Hedren, the actress best known for starring in the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock thriller, “The Birds.” Which, as you will recall, was a film in which Hedren spent two hours dodging attacks by murderous birds.

Both sides weighed in on Stevenson’s shooting. Cat advocates called him cruel and criminal. The blog Cat Defender (“Exposing the Crimes of Bird Lovers”) labeled him the Evil Galveston Bird Lover. The president of the Houston Audubon Society condemned Stevenson’s “illegal methods of controlling these animals,” but other bird-watchers hailed his actions. One Texas birder, a fourth-grade science teacher, suggested that Stevenson be given a medal for his actions.

I wouldn't go quite so far as to praise Jim Stevenson for his actions, but I do find them to be far more ethical, humane, and ecologically sound than those of the feral-cat lovers. Feral cats need to be removed from the wild in a humane manner, and by "removed" I don't mean live-trapped and relocated elsewhere.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Weekend Bird Blogger #11

An eclectic weekly collection of recent posts about birds, birders, and birding by bloggers throughout the blogosphere—but mostly from sources other than the mainstream bird blogs—that illustrates the universal appeal and attraction of our feathered neighbors, personally selected by me for your reading and viewing pleasure:

BEN—Bama Environmental News – “Kid Birding” in Birmingham
Daily Dolan Geiman – Shop Talk: Ornithological Love
English1001interviews – My Interview with an Ornithologist [Fredrick Sheldon]
First 50 Words – Birders
G-Trove > Journal – Birding out at sea [off Sydney, Australia]
Histomat: Adventures in Historical Materialism – Marxism and ornithology
Little House in the Paddy – ‘Tyro’ Ornithologist
PhiloBiblos – McCormick Ornithology Sale Sets Record
RedV – Audubon: artist, ornithologist, odd duck
The Common Room – The Barred Owl and Education [Frank Chapman]
The Heroine Next Door – Nikon Birding Catalog [birding and sexism]
The San Diego Beat – Birding in San Diego County [interactive map]
Pet Bird – Bird Watching in Your Backyard
Too Many Cooks – Ornithologist

FOUND BIRD BLOGS:
Gallicissa (Asian)
Mark Lewis’s birding blog [European]
Teach me about birdwatching!!! [South American]
Warwickshire Birding [European]

MAINSTREAM MEDIA:
Frederick [Maryland] News Post – Tracking the elusive saw-whet owl
Kitsap [Idaho] Sun – Arizona Birding Jaunt Good for Both Body and Soul [by Joan Carson, the Bird Lady]
Los Angeles Times – Glass wall has birders seeing red
MinnPost.com – ‘Birders’ changing Minnesota’s outdoor image
Outdoor News Daily – Competitive Birding at Bernardos [New Mexico] Big Day
The Independent [U.K.] – The labour exchange: The fisherman and the birdwatcher

VIDEOS:
Brightcove.tv – Wild Bird Banding [Ron Canterbury at the New River Birding and Nature Festival]
Unorthodox Atheism – New Dance Craze: The Ornithologist

OTHER COMPILATIONS:
A DC Birding Blog – Loose Feathers #126
Birding in Maine – Bird Feathers #3
Blog Carnival – I and the Bird #63 (via The Greenbelt)
Living the Scientific Life – Birds in the News #107

Friday, November 30, 2007

I Shot the Sparrow

The time, as I now recall some 43 years after the fact, was the spring or summer of 1964, the year I graduated from high school. The place was a farmyard on the outskirts of Galien, a small, rural village located in extreme southwestern Michigan.

I had pulled into the driveway of my girlfriend’s parent’s house early one evening to pick her up for a date. I was immediately greeted by one of her younger brothers who was in the front yard plunking away with a BB gun at the omnipresent sparrows (Passer domesticus) and starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) that are the hallmark of any farmstead. Knowing of my love for birds, he challenged me to shoot one.

At that point, my adolescent male hormones must have kicked in. To put what happened next into context, you have to understand that I had not been brought up in a family of hunters, so the thought of killing things was rather foreign to me. Heretofore, my experience with “hunting” had been limited to shooting at the ground squirrels (we called them “gophers”) (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus) that burrowed beneath the tombstones in the local cemetery, an activity engaged in by several of the neighborhood boys.

Well, I grabbed that BB gun and said something like “Sure, I can shoot that bird,” as I pointed the barrel at a nearby sparrow perched on an overhead wire. Aiming in the general direction of the bird, but not really knowing how to sight down the barrel and knowing full well that I would soon embarass myself with a wildly inaccurate shot, I pulled the trigger. To my utter shock and amazement, that sparrow fell from its perch and plummeted straight to the ground—dead. I recollect feeling shock, sadness, and remorse at this senseless deed, even if it was only a sparrow.

Needless to say, the brother was astounded at my incredible display of marksmanship. I think I went up a couple of notches in his eyes. My girlfriend, on the other hand, was chagrined that her kind, gentle, bird-loving boyfriend would be so cruel as to shoot an innocent bird. It took more than a bit of coaxing from me to convince her that I really never intended to kill that sparrow, that it was merely a lucky shot—lucky for me, but not so lucky for the poor bird.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Birds Etcetera in the Wall Street Journal

In an article by Beckey Bright entitled “Blog Watch” that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on September 24, 2007, Birds Etcetera is one of just four bird blogs highlighted:

There are dozens of blogs dedicated to birds and bird-watching, but if you only look at those you’ll miss an abundance of good writing on birds that’s scattered elsewhere in the blogosphere. Birds Etcetera provides an excellent compilation of recent posts about birds, mostly from sources other than the mainstream bird blogs.

Recent posts include links to a discussion of the role pigeons may have played in the Minnesota bridge collapse, an item on the mutually beneficial relationship between birds and pine trees, an entry on avian intelligence and essays about personal encounters with birds. There are also photos and videos.

The other blogs featured are Bill of the Birds, BirdChick, and I and the Bird (brainchild of 10000 Birds).

In making note of the WSJ article, Terryorisms (a blog billed as “a collection of flotsam and jetsom from trolling the World Wide Web”) went so far as to call Birds Etcetera a “mainstream bird site,” a gross exaggeration if ever there was one.

Truth be told, there are many other bird blogs out there far more deserving of mention in the WSJ than my modest contribution, but I’ll humbly accept the compliment.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Status Unchanged—Ivory-billed Woodpecker

To their credit, the American Birding Association’s Checklist Committee (ABA’s CLC) has—for the time being—discounted all of the recent evidence provided to support claims of the persistence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) in the ABA Area. This excerpt is from the annual report of the ABA’s CLC for 2007 (Pranty et al. 2007):

We apologize for the confusing statement in our previous report (Pranty et al. 2006) that we had not “decided” whether to vote on the recent reports of Ivory-billed Woodpecker persistence in the ABA Area. The CLC will evaluate the claims and counter-claims of Ivory-billed persistence in the ABA Area, but we may wait another year or two before we do so, either after formal surveys in some areas cease, or at least after another year or two of data have been gathered. We have received copies of the deliberations of the Arkansas Bird Records Committee, which voted in September 2006 to accept the claim (see Fitzpatrick et al. 2005 [.pdf], 2006; Rosenberg et al. 2005) that at least one Ivory-billed Woodpecker persists in the “Big Woods” of Arkansas, but some of the Arkansas votes were cast before alternative hypotheses were published (Jackson 2006, Sibley et al. 2006, Jones et al. 2007). To date, the Florida Ornithological Society Records Committee has not accepted any claims of recent occurrences along the Choctawhatchee River (see Hill et al. 2006) or elsewhere in the state. In the opinion of the CLC, none of the data presented to date proves the continued persistence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the ABA Area. For now, we will continue to treat the Ivory-billed Woodpecker as a Code 6 species that definitely or probably is extinct.

Citations:

Fitzpatrick, J. W., M. Lammertink, M. D. Luneau, T. W. Gallagher, B. R. Harrison, G. M. Sparling, K. V. Rosenberg, R W. Rohrbaugh, E. C. H. Swarthout, P. H. Wrege, S. B. Swarthout, M. S. Dantzker, R. A. Chariff, T. R. Barksdale, J. V. Remsen, S. D. Simon, and D. Zollner. 2005. Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) persists in continental North America. Science 308:1460-1462.

Fitzpatrick, J. W., M. Lammertink, M. D. Luneau, T. W. Gallagher, B. R. Harrison, G. M. Sparling, K. V. Rosenberg, R W. Rohrbaugh, E. C. H. Swarthout, P. H. Wrege, S. B. Swarthout, M. S. Dantzker, R. A. Chariff, T. R. Barksdale, J. V. Remsen, S. D. Simon, and D. Zollner. 2006. Clarifications about current research on the status of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) in Arkansas. Auk 123:587-593.

Hill, G. E., D. J. Mennill, B. W. Rolek, T. L. Hicks, and K. E. Swiston. 2006. Evidence suggesting that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (Campephilus principalis) exist in Florida. Avian Conservation and Ecology 1(3):2-11.

Jackson, J. A. 2006. Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis): hope, and the interface of science, conservation, and politics. Auk 123:1-15.

Jones, C. D., J. R. Troy, and L. Y. Pomara. 2007. Similarities between Campephilus woodpecker double-raps and mechanical sounds produced by duck flocks. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 119:259-262.

Pranty, B., J. L. Dunn, S. Heinl, A. W. Kratter, P. E. Lehman, M. W. Lockwood, B. Mactavish, and K. J. Zimmer. 2006. Annual report of the ABA Checklist Committee: 2006. Birding 38:20-24.

Pranty, B., J. L. Dunn, S. Heinl, A. W. Kratter, P. E. Lehman, M. W. Lockwood, B. Mactavish, and K. J. Zimmer. 2007. Annual report of the ABA Checklist Committee: 2007. Birding 39:24-31.

Rosenberg, K. V., R. W. Rohrbaugh, and M. Lammertink. 2005. An overview of Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) sightings in eastern Arkansas in 2004-2005. North American Birds 59:198-207.

Sibley, D. A., L. R. Bevier, M. A. Patten, and C. S. Elphick.. 2006. Comment on “Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) persists in continental North America.” Science 311:1555a.

Surf Scoters Hit Hard by San Francisco Bay Oil Spill

As reported here, Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata) comprise 40 percent of the 1,000 oiled birds captured alive and 25 percent of the 1,365 birds found dead following the release of 60,000 gallons of fuel after a cargo ship struck the San Franciso-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Why Turkey?

Some turkey trivia for Thanksgiving.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Matchmaker for Birders

I guess it was only a matter of time before someone jumped on the matchmaking bandwagon and tailored a Web site to appeal exclusively to a special-interest group as narrowly focused as birding. Has birding really become this popular, that birders are looking for dates with like-minded individuals, with reasonable expectations of finding that perfect someone within 100 miles? The owners of Birdwatcher Buddy obviously think so. I’m especially intrigued by the image of the cute young chick with the winsome smile that graces their home page. Could it be, do you suppose, that a subliminal message is intentionally being sent to male birders that the female birding “buddy” of their dreams will come equipped with such remarkably well-endowed . . . binoculars?

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Pigeons and Bridges

In the aftermath of the Minnesota bridge collapse, this AP article raises questions about the possible effect that the accumulated dung from Rock Pigeons (Columba livia) might have on the structural integrity of bridges across the country. Pigeons commonly use these structures for nesting and roosting.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Weekend Bird Blogger #10

Casasugar – High Design for the Birds [and pricey!]
COLOURlovers – Colorful Beauty in Nature: Birds
Earth news – Oil spill leads to habitat protections for Pacific shore birds
Eat more cookies – How many birders?!
Laurelines – Good birds, bad bird
NEUROphilosophy – Avian intelligence
Smithsonian—The gist – Birds Inspire Pine Growth
The New York Times Crossword in Gothic – Birds
The Nose on Your Face – Oversexed Hollywood Birds Need Help “Keeping It In Their Feathers”

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Weekend Bird Blogging #9

Blogcritics—Politics – Bald Eagles and Me
Mary’s Corner of the World – Birding??? Challenge
Matthew Hoover’s Blog – Birding Expedition
Nature Knitter – Assignment Completed
The Barcode Blog – Bird in hand may need DNA reference library
The Travel Oregon Blog – Birding in Klamath Falls
University of California Press Blog – American Ornithologists’ Union Taps UC Press to Publish The Auk
WildMaven’s World – Terrorism and Birdwatching

FOUND BIRD BLOGS:
Bill Aspins Birding Blog [European]
Birdwatching in Scotland [European]
Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project – 2007 [European]
Dig Deep [Asian]

VIDEOS:
YouTube – Bird Watching
YouTube – Bird Watching (Part 2)
YouTube – Bird Watching at Presquile Park

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Eight Random Facts

I have been tagged by Amy Hooper of WildBird on the Fly, and Tom and Sheri of Birders on the Border, to play the Eight Random Facts meme. Thanks, Amy, and Tom and Sheri!

So here we go. The rules for Eight Random Facts are simple. Players are asked to post a blog entry that:

Explains the rules of the game,
Contains eight random facts about themselves, and
Lists eight other bloggers who are tagged to write similar posts.

Finally, players should notify (by email or blogpost comment) each person that they have chosen to play the game, referring them to your post for further details.

Eight facts that you probably don't already know about me:

(1) In the spring of 1966 or 1967 I participated in a grassroots volunteer effort to bring attention to an area of marsh and dunes along the shore of Lake Michigan in Berrien County, Michigan, that was being threatened by a sand mining operation. My major contribution, as I recall, was to lead people on tours of the area. That area is now protected as a State Park and National Natural Landmark.
(2) During spring break of my senior year in college, I drove to Florida on my own, not to party on the beaches, but to visit birding hotspots such as Everglades National Park, and the Florida Keys. To save money, I slept in my car and ate Pop Tarts that I heated on the engine of the car.
(3) I spent four years in the U.S. Navy—my chosen alternative to being drafted into the Army for two years during the height of the Vietnam War—without ever stepping foot on a ship, only to later join the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and spend the next three summers plying the waters of the Aleutian Islands in a 65-foot boat and 20-foot Zodiac raft.
(4) One of my first assignments for the Fish and Wildlife Service was to act as caretaker of 30 Aleutian ~~Canada~~ Cackling Geese (Branta ~~canadensis~~ hutchinsii leucopareia) that had been transported from the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland to Attu Island so they could be acclimated prior to a planned release on Island in May. One day in late March, while working on the holding pens that had been erected on the shores of Casco Cove, I was surprised at the approach of a bird that appeared to be a huge immature-plumaged Bald Eagle (Haleaeetus leucocephalus)—except that it didn't look quite right, and besides, Bald Eagles weren't known this far west—and me without binoculars! By the time I was able to retrieve my glasses from inside the old Coast Guard Loran Station the bird had disappeared over the horizon. In retrospect, I now realize that this was probably a Steller's Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus), which has since been documented nesting on the east end of Attu, but that species remains off my life list because I was caught off guard without binoculars handy.
(5) I never paid any attention to the Dixie Chicks until they got into hot water over Natalie Maines's anti-war and anti-Bush comments. But with the release of their Not ready to make nice album, I became one of their most ardent fans.
(6) My three major addictions/obsessions (other than birds) are, in no particular order: the Internet, my blog, and Diet Dr. Pepper (before I retired, I used to regularly consume two 20-oz bottles in the course of a 9-hour work day).
(7) I am a chronic procrastinator and am terribly disorganized. The latter trait has led me to adopt this A. A. Milne quote as my personal mantra:
“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.”
(8) I recently fell in love—with K. T. Tungstall, the Scottish singer-songwriter. For weeks before I finally discovered who she was, I would wake up in the middle of the night to the haunting melody and lyrics of Black Horse and the Cherry Tree playing on the radio.

And now, my eight ~~victims~~ selectees (if they choose to accept the mission) are:

May the Force be with you!

Photo Credits:

The Roseate Spoonbill (Ajaia ajaja) is from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Aleutian Islands scene is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Aleutian Canada Goose is by Steve Ebbert at www.amnwr.com.

UPDATE: The Eight Random Facts meme really seems to be making the rounds.

Friday, July 6, 2007

The Ivory-billed debate

Louis Bevier (here and here) has just launched a new Website, Ivory-billed debate. In it, he provides an overview as to what the debate is and is not about, and what is at stake (i.e., “the credibility of observational evidence”). He also ponders the philosophical question, “Is there hope?”

Next, he examines in fine detail the plumage features detectable in the bird shown in the Luneau video (the one that Fitzpatrick et al. claim shows an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Campephilus principalis), compares them to the features one would expect to see in Ivory-billed and Pileated (Dryocopus pileatus) woodpeckers, and concludes that “it is almost certainly a normal Pileated Woodpecker.”

He then examines the wingbeat frequency of the bird in the Luneau video, compares it to those of the Pileated Woodpecker, and concludes:

Empirical evidence demonstrates that the bird in the Luneau video flaps at the same rate as a fleeing Pileated Woodpecker.

Finally, he provides a video analysis of three Pileated Woodpeckers video-taped in a flight cage in Maine. His finding:

Several launch sequences were recorded confirming precise wing and tail movements that match the Luneau video. Deinterlaced video fields match precisely launch sequence from Arkansas in terms of timing of wing movement and reduced or blurred out black training edge to underwing. These launch mechanics were identical to free-flying Pileated Woodpeckers videotaped elsewhere in Maine.

The Luneau video was the most persuasive evidence that Fitzpatrick et al. had to support their claim that at least one Ivory-billed Woodpecker was present in Arkansas in 2004. Bevier’s Website is still under construction and edits will continue, but it seems to me that his preliminary analysis has done considerable harm to the claims of Fitzpatrick et al. This is sure to elicit much additional public debate, one that will be interesting to follow in the weeks and months ahead. Will Fitzpatrick and others at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology respond to this challenge to their credibility?

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Memorable Movies

Over the years, I would say that well over 95 percent of what I have posted at Birds Etcetera has had to do with birds in one fashion or another. Today, for a change, I am invoking my privilege of indulging in the “Etcetera” side of this blog.

I here present a list of 75 movies that I can remember watching (some more than once) that made an indelible impression on me for one reason or another. Other movies could have been listed (I’m sure that I’m overlooking a few memorable ones), but these are the ones that stand out at this particular moment in time. They are listed chronologically in the order in which they were released, which more or less approximates the order in which I would have viewed them.

In reviewing the list, I am struck by three things: (1) the relatively large number of musicals, (2) the lack of movies about sports of any kind, and (3) only one movie about birds!

1947 – Miracle on 34th Street
1950 – Harvey
1958 – Vertigo
1959 – A Summer Place [the movie my parents wished they hadn’t taken me to see]
1960 – Inherit the Wind
1961 – Breakfast at Tiffany's
1961 – West Side Story
1963 – The Birds
1963 – Lilies of the Field
1963 – The Pink Panther
1964 – Goldfinger
1964 – My Fair Lady
1965 – The Loved One
1965 – What's New Pussycat?
1966 – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
1967 – The Graduate
1968 – 2001: A Space Odyssey
1969 – Easy Rider
1969 – Paint Your Wagon [my all-time favorite]
1969 – The Wild Bunch
1969 – They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
1970 – Catch-22
1970 – Little Big Man
1970 – Mash
1971 – A Clockwork Orange
1971 – Dirty Harry
1971 – Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)
1972 – Deliverance
1972 – Deep Throat
1974 – Blazing Saddles
1977 – Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977 – Star Wars
1978 – Grease
1979 – Alien
1979 – The Muppet Movie
1980 – The Blues Brothers
1981 – Das Boot [German]
1982 – Eating Raoul
1983 – Never Cry Wolf
1984 – Amadeus
1985 – The Color Purple
1987 – Raising Arizona
1988 – Hairspray
1990 – Dances with Wolves
1990 – The Hunt for Red October
1991 – At Play in the Fields of the Lord
1991 – Closet Land
1992 – A River Runs through It
1992 – Medicine Man
1992 – Strictly Ballroom
1994 – Il Postino [Italian]
1995 – Braveheart
1995 – Mr. Holland’s Opus
1995 – Margaret's Museum
1995 – Twelve Monkeys
1996 – Fargo
1996 – Shall We Dance? [Japanese version]
1996 – The Wife
1997 – Men in Black
1997 – Ulee’s Gold
1999 – October Sky
2000 – O Brother, Where Art Thou?
2000 – Songcatcher
2000 – The Perfect Storm
2002 – Bowling for Columbine
2002 – Chicago
2002 – Till Human Voices Wake Us
2002 – Whale Rider
2003 – Cold Mountain
2003 – Open Water
2003 – The Snow Walker
2004 – A Love Song for Bobby Long
2004 – Fahrenheit 9/11
2006 – A Prairie Home Companion
2007 – Wild Hogs

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Birds and Fireworks

The noise from the annual 4th of July fireworks display in Martinsburg’s War Memorial Park caused me to ponder the impact of fireworks on wild birds (they drive our hyper-sensitive dog crazy). Here’s what a quick Google search revealed:

In their advice on “Fireworks and wild birds,” Great Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of birds “particularly urge[s[ firework display organizers to avoid locating near to sensitive wildlife areas, such as nature reserves and roosting sites for wild birds.” That seems like remarkably sensible advice. But they also note that “there is little evidence to suggest that fireworks harm wild birds or affect their conservation status.” That also makes sense.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, spurred by concerns about the potential direct and indirect impacts of fireworks on beach-nesting Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus) [a threatened population] on the U.S. Atlantic Coast, issued guidelines for avoiding such impacts. This has led to the cancellation of fireworks displays in some communities, much to the consternation of local residents (see here and here).

Elsewhere, fireworks displays have been halted or modified to protect a pair of Peregrine Falcon’s (Falco peregrinus) nesting near London, nesting Western Snowy Plovers (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus) [a threatened subspecies] in Morro Bay, California, and nesting seabirds at another California coastal locality.

Mockingbird Serenade

The Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) is not unknown in our urban neighborhood. On the other hand, it is far from a regular resident of our backyard or neighboring properties, though I seem to have seen and heard it about more frequently this year than in the past.

It was with great pleasure, then, that my wife and I enjoyed an extended serenade of a mockingbird singing from atop our neighbor’s antenna the day before yesterday. In addition to it’s own varied song phrases, I heard snatches of songs or calls of at least five other species: Killdeer (Charadrius vociferous), Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata), Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), and Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis).

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Birding Unusual Places

Larry of the Brownstone Birding Blog recently challenged birders ~~to birders~~ to check out a location in their area that they have never birded before and to file a report on what they see. An interesting challenge indeed, and one that I intend to follow-up on soon, but not here. Instead, Larry’s post got me to thinking about some of the more unusual places that birders pick to do their birding.

Birders seem to make a habit of seeking out unusual and often unsavory places in which to pursue their hobby. Landfills (for gulls) and sewage treatment plants (for shorebirds) certainly top the list. And while turf farms aren’t unsavory, they certainly might be considered unusual places to bird, except for the fact that they attract certain species—such as Baird’s (Calidris bairdii) and Upland (Bartramia longicauda) sandpipers—that are often hard to find elsewhere.

Charles T. Flugum, a Minnesota farmer, did all or most of his birding from the seat of a tractor. He even wrote a book about the birds he saw while tending his fields.

And David Patick, a birder from Huntington, West Virginia, recently drove in excess of 350 miles (about 5 ½ hours) to add Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus) to his West Virginia life list. And where did he find the elusive Fish Crow? In the parking lot of the Martinsburg Mall.

My unusual birding place was a 1 to 3-mile segment along the right-of-way of the New York Central System where it traversed the rural countryside of southwestern Michigan between Detroit to Chicago. This didn’t seem unusual to me at the time. In fact, it was my normal stomping grounds (my “patch,” to use today’s British vernacular) in my early teens. The tracks offered many advantages: (1) they provided an elevated vantage point from which to scan the habitats lining both sides of the right-of-way; (2) the rails and ties provided a stable and level surface for easy hiking; (3) they provided me easy access to a variety of habitats that would otherwise have been inaccessible. The major disadvantage, of course, was having to keep my eyes and ears open for approaching trains

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Wikipedia Birthday Meme

I was so impressed with this meme when it first came out that I posted mine six months early. But now, I think it bears reviewing again, on the occasion of my birth some 61 years ago today.

Weekend Bird Blogging #8

a daily dose of design – For the Birds—and in Memory of Charley Harper
Biological Ramblings – Pre-dawn Swallow Shenanigans [adventures in banding]
Calamity News – Beware of Killer Giant Penguins from the Past [spoof]
Daily Kos – Dawn Chorus: Birdblogging [Note to all you birdbloggers out there: take the poll!]
Filling the Well – Alaska #2: Bird Watching
Incredible Art Department – Artist Charley Harper Dies
Living the Scientific Life – Peterson Reference Guides: Gulls of the Americas
Matt’s Sci/Tech Blog – The Case of the Headless Parrot
Outpost Mâvarin – The Fan-Tailed Warbler Disaster
Terrierman's Daily Dose - Balancing Hawks & Doves in Wildlife Management
The Blue Voice – Losing the Birds
the horse’s mouth – Fish on Fridays (2) [it turns out that the Choctawhatchee region of Florida is notable for more than just Ivory-billed Woodpeckers!]

FOUND BIRD BLOG:
Bird Year Blog [North American]

MAINSTREAM MEDIA:
Jerusalem Post [Israel] – Keeping cool, stork-style

VIDEOS:
KQED QUEST – Fatal Attraction: Birds and Wind Turbines [Altamont Pass, CA]
YouTube - Challenge to Evolutionists and Atheists—Woodpecker [creationist nonsense—view at your own risk]

OTHER COMPILATIONS:
A DC Birding Blog – Loose Feathers #105
Blog Carnival – I and the Bird #52 [from The Wandering Tattler]
Living the Scientific Life – Birds in the News #89

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Finger-Perching Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

West Virginia naturalist/nature writer Scott Shalaway recently reported (on the PABIRDS, WVBIRDS, and HUMNET listservs) his close-encounters of the feathered kind at his home in Cameron, in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle.: Shalaway’s written description of hummers delicately perching on his, his wife’s, and his daughter’s fingers to sip nectar from a hummingbird feeder, beautifully supplemented with color photographs of this unusual behavior, has been posted here. Those must have been some hungry hummingbirds!

3rd Annual Purple Martin Festival

The 3rd Annual Purple Martin Festival is being held today (June 30th) at the Mason-Dixon Historical Park in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, located just minutes north of Morgantown, West Virginia.

Among the planned events are demonstrations of martin-house management (including replacement of nesting material “to prevent nest parasites”) and banding of nestlings.

Friday, June 29, 2007

New Book: Birds of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska

I just noticed that Buteo Books is advertising the sale of Birds of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, by Daniel D. Gibson and G. Vernon Byrd. This is “Series in Ornithology Number 1,” the first volume of a new monograph series that is being jointly published jointly by the Nuttall Ornithological Club and the American Ornithologists’ Union.

I had the distinct honor of being asked to serve as one of the peer-review editors for this volume, and was not hesitant in offering the following words of praise on the dust-jacket:

This book is destined to become the seminal treatise on the avifauna of this transition zone between Asia and North America. It will serve as an invaluable reference for anyone with an interest in the birds that reside on or pass through these windswept islands and surrounding waters, including birders, biogeographers, and conservation biologists . . .

The Aleutian Islands have become a mecca for North American birders seeking out the endemic avifauna of the Aleutians, but especially the rare Asian migrants that appear with notable regularity on these remote islands during spring and fall migrations. If you have any interest at all in the birdlife of the Aleutians, you will want to have this treatise on your bookshelf.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Weekend Bird Blogging #7

Birds & Music – Birds: Alaska and More
Judy’s Jottings – A Visit to the Top of the World in Barrow, Alaska
Lost in the Ozone – Chuck-will’s-widow
Ronna’s Blog – If It Quacks Like a Duck
Stop Hushan Dam! – Huben Birding Stories [Taiwan]
The Ohio Nature Blog – Ohio Birds
Windstar Wildlife Institute – I Saw Birds Not Seen in 20 Years!

MAINSTREAM MEDIA:
Chicago Tribune [IL] – Wooded Island booming, not ‘bleak’ [Chicago’s Jackson Park is fine with birders]
The Mining Journal [MI] – Early June mornings are wonderful for birding [in Michigan's U.P.]

FOUND BIRD BLOGS:
Arkansas Birding [North American]
Birding in Asia [Asian]
Hondubirding [North American]

PHOTOGRAPHS (from flickr) [can you tell them apart?]:
American Oystercatcher (Haemaetopus palliatus) [North America]
African Oystercatcher (H. moquini) [Africa]
Black Oystercatcher (H. bachmani) [North America]
Blackish Oystercatcher (H. ater) [South America]
Eurasian Oystercatcher (H. ostrelagus) [Eurasia]
Magellanic Oystercatcher (H. leucopodus) [South America]
Pied Oystercatcher (H. longirostris) [Australasia]
Sooty Oystercatcher (H. fuliginosus) [Australasia]
South Island Oystercatcher (H. finschi) [Australasia]
Variable Oystercatcher (H. unicolor) [Australasia]

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Thinking Back to 1964

My high school graduating class (class of ’64) is celebrating its very first class reunion later this summer, on the 43rd anniversary of our graduation. In anticipation of that event, I recently emailed the following thoughts to my fellow class members:

As the class reunion nears, I can’t help but think back to 1964 and marvel at how we managed to survive without access to such modern conveniences as air conditioners; ATM machines; Ben & Jerry's ice cream; bottled water; cable television; CD, DVD, MP3, and VHS players; cell phones; cup holders; digital calculators and cameras; email; Google; indoor shopping malls; "the Internets;" microwave ovens; personal computers; photocopy machines; plastic bottles and bags of all kinds; pull-tab beverage cans; seat belts; text messaging; and voice mail, to name just a few. We must have been a hardy and enterprising lot, some might say deprived. Times certainly have changed!

That set me to thinking about things in the world of birds and birding that we now take for granted that did not exist in 1964:

American Bird Association; bird identification videos in DVD and VHS formats; bird monitoring schemes like the Breeding Bird Survey, eBird, FeederWatch, hawk migration counts, and MAPS; bird tour companies; birding festivals (other than Hinckley, Ohio’s, vulture festival); birdfinding guides; birding listservs; camcorders; Endangered Species Act; field guides by the likes of Brinkley (NWF), Dunn (NGS), Griggs (ABC), Kaufmann, Robbins, Sibley, and Stokes; International Migratory Bird Day; listing software; major journals like Journal of Raptor Research, Pacific Seabirds, Western Birds, and Waterbirds; popular magazines like Bird Watcher’s Digest, Birder’s World, Birding, and Wild Bird; rare bird alerts; sound recordings in CD formats; terms like bins, birder, twitcher, and pishing; webcams; and the World Series of Birding.

My, what a long way we have come in the past 43 years!

Popular Posts