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.

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.

Weekend Bird Blogging #7

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:

BLOG POSTINGS:

• 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]

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!

Weekend Bird Blogging #6

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:

BLOG POSTINGS:


• Being and Bloginess – Birding in the Desert
  
• Color Me Kyra – It’s For The Birds [sounds a little paranoid to me]
  
• Elephas maximus – Sunday Birding
  
• Environmental Almanac – Appreciating Turkey Vultures
  
• GUBO – My world’s gone to the birds..
  
• Iceland—Life on the Rock… - Nesting Season
  
• Improbable Research – Bored of wrestlers, back into birds [John E. DuPont]
  
• Kindling for Him – The ornithological trip that turned criminal! [the kind of behavior that reflects badly on real birders]
  
• Living the Scientific Life – Why Don’t Woodpeckers Get Headaches? [book review]
  
• Naturespeak – See Gull? [gulls and baseball]
  
• The Beach – Plovers: Editors and Models “Terrorize” Birds, May Cost Ralph Lauren $$$
  
• The Nature of Robertson – Bird Watching in 1961—a more innocent time
  
• The Nightjar – The Curse of Eugene P. Bicknell Part II
  
• The Real Oregon – The new state record! [Big Day Count]
  
  VIDEOS:
  
  
• Bird Cinema - Sharp-tailed Sandpiper [Ventura, California]
  
• Spaz Video – For the Birds [animation]
  
  FOUND BIRD BLOGS:
  
  
• Birding North Central Massachusetts…and beyond [North American]
  
• Blurred British Birding [European]
  
• East Ayton Birding [European]
  
• NCIOS—North Central Illinois Ornithological Society [North American]
  
• The Blue Chaffinch [European]
  
• West Coast Birding (formerly Gone Birding) [North American]

Tallywhacking Birds

In the world of field biology, a tallywhacker—as it has come to be affectionately and universally known to those who have had reason to use it—is a simple, hand-held mechanical device for counting things. Technically, it is known as a tally counter.

In my days of conducting seabird surveys in coastal Alaska some 30 years ago, the tallywhacker was an indispensable piece of field gear. Armed with a tallywhacker or two and a pair of binoculars, observers would, depending on the situation, (a) sit in a boat below a colony of cliff-nesting seabirds or (b) position themselves at a vantage point above the cliff face where they had an unobstructed view of seabirds on the nesting ledges. Many of the colonies contained multiple species (cormorants, kittiwakes, and gulls), so the general procedure was to place a tallywhacker in the palm of each hand, scan a selected section of the cliff face with binoculars, and tally the number of attended nests. For example, one might keep track of cormorants on the left-hand tallywhacker and kittiwakes on the right-hand tallywhacker, while keeping a mental running total of gull nests. And so it went, slowly moving down the length of a colony one small section of cliff face at a time until all nests were accounted for.

Tallywhackers are useful for more than just counting seabirds. They are still commonly used, for example, to count salmon as they pass through weirs on their way to spawning grounds in Alaska.

Weekend Bird Blogging #5

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:

BLOG POSTS:


• Chicken Spaghetti – Bird Books for Children
  
• Cryptomundo – The Lord God Bird Trailer
  
• Mon@arch’s Nature Blog – Opening of the SWAT Station
  
• Murmuring trees – Birds on a wire…or is that birders on a rail?
  
• Nature Knitter – A Bird Hike
  
• Pheasant Hunters Blog – Microsoft Funds the Anti-Hunting Movement
  
• The Nightjar – The Curse of Eugene P. Bicknell Part I
  
  MAINSTREAM MEDIA:
  
  
• Republican (MA) - Devoted birders bask in symphonic rituals
  
  VIDEOS:
  
  YouTube – Birding with Brekke: Episode 2
  YouTube – Pelagic Birding in Peru
  YouTube – The Best Route for Bird Watchers [Peru]

Birds in North American History—June 4th

An accounting of significant events in the history of North American bird conservation and ornithology, and of the people who helped shape those events.

Deaths:


• 1962 - Charles William Beebe [.pdf] American ornithologist and oceanographer (born 1877) – also see Wikipedia

If you are aware of other significant avian-related events that occurred on this day, please leave a comment or contact me by email.

Random Gleanings from the BirdSphere #46

Introduction: A daily (or as often as I can find time to compile it) feature that highlights recent entries from North American bird blogs listed in my blogroll; also see here.

Today’s Featured Bird Blog:

BirdWatchers Blog – “We’ve added this Blog so that you will always know the latest at BirdWatchers.com,” by Debbie Lea in Grand Rapids, Michigan (online since January 2005) {Note: This blog has been inactive since February 3, 2007]

Today’s Featured Bird Blog Entry (excerpt):

[No Title]

Today is the first day in many that the sun has been out. It has been another month of rain! I decided since it was not raining I would take some trash out to the dumpster which is located at the back area of our retail store. It seems every time I do dump trash I see lots of birds back there, and I always tell them “go out front, there’s lots of food in the feeders for you”. The only ones who listen are the goldfinches, house finches and mourning doves. As I was walking back toward the front where our store is, I heard a bluebird singing. I looked up and on the top of the parking lot light was a male Eastern Bluebird. . . . [click here to read the rest of this entry, as originally posted by Debbie Lea on October 24, 2006]

<< Previous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Next >>

Weekend Bird Blogging #4

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:

BLOG POSTS:


• Andi Wolfe’s Blog – More birding and other stuff, too
  
• Bugs for Thugs – This week in birds…
  
• Dharma Bums – Now, The Inelegant Solution
  
• Living the Scientific Life – Anting with Cigarette Smoke?
  
• Mental multivitamin – On the corner of my desk [A Guide to Bird Watching]
  
• Migrations – Icons of Migration: The V-formation
  
• Morning Glory 2 – Birdwatching Fool!
  
• Pocahontas County Fare – Wood Thrush
  
• The Clueless Gardener – Roger Tory Peterson vs. David Sibley
  
• The Scratching Post – Uncle Jack and the Gulls
  
• UW Libraries Blog – Old Books Are For the Birds
  
• What’s that you said? – the consequences of bird watching
  
  VIDEOS:
  
  
• NicePooch – Birding with Brekke: Episode 1 [comedy]
  
• Texas Country Reporter – World Birding Center
  
• YouTube - Windex Crows [I laugh every time I see this ad]

Random Gleanings from the BirdSphere #45

Introduction: A daily (or as often as I can find time to compile it) feature that highlights recent entries from North American bird blogs listed in my blogroll; also see here.

Today’s Featured Bird Blog:

Birdinggirl – “Adventures in New England birdwatching,” by Birdinggirl in Boston, Massachusetts (online since November 2006)

Today’s Featured Bird Blog Entry (excerpt):

The Big Island: Waipio Valley Birds

We ended up changing our flight from Oahu to the Big Island so we could have a full day of hiking and be able to set up camp before it got dark. It was pretty rough catching the 6:15am hotel shuttle to HNL (especially after being out really late) but it was worth it when we arrived on the Big Island

Unlike Oahu, the minute you leave the airport you are greeted with breathtaking views of volcanic lava flow. We picked up some groceries and then headed straight to the trailhead at Waipio Valley. . . . [click here to read the rest of this entry, as originally posted by Birdinggirl on April 18, 2007]

<< Previous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Next >>

Known North American Bird Blogs #6

This list was last updated on April 20, 2007, when the addition of 30 blogs brought the list of known North American bird blogs to 208.

This update (a) adds 20 blogs, (b) deletes 5 blogs that are no longer available, and (c) includes 203 blogs previously listed (178 active and 25 inactive); resulting in (d) a total of 223 known North American bird blogs.

Criteria for inclusion on this list are found here.

(a) New Blogs (n=20):

• Backyard Birding – “Welcome to backyard birding where we will celebrate the winged visitors to our own backyard,” by Dana Hanley (online since May 2007)
  
  
• Badbirdz – Reloaded – “Keeping Noel’s dream alive, one migrant at a time,” by David La Pluma (March 2007)
  
  
• Birding – “This blog will share my experiences as a ‘hardcore’ birder. I’ll write about the birds I see, the people I meet, the places I visit – and more; because there’s no such thing as ‘just’ birding,” by Richard in New York (February 2007)
  
  
• Birding Notes – “Reflections on birds and other wildlife on the edge of a southern woodland,” by Sigrid Sanders in Watkinsville, Georgia (April 2005)
  
  
• Birdinginyelapa.com – Combining yoga and birding, by Cody Jo Wahto Sontag in Yelapa, Jalisco (September 2006)
  
  
• Birds on the Brain – by DeeAnne in Georgia (March 2007)
  
  
• BirdWatchers Blog – “We’ve added this blog so that you will always know the latest at BirdWatchers.com,” by Debbie Lea in Grand Rapids, Michigan (January 2005)
  
  
• BPBO Research Station Blog – The Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory fosters “the study, appreciation and conservation of birds and their habitats on the Bruce Peninsula,” by BPBO Station Scientist in Cabot Head, Bruce Peninsula, Ontario (October 2006)
  
  
• Craig’s Birds – “Birding and photography of Minnesota birds,” by Craig K. Marble in Minnesota (April 2006)
  
  
• eBirdseed.com – “Learn about birdseeds, suets, feeders and techniques for attracting a variety of wild birds to your backyard,” by Gordon Moe (January 2006)
  
  
• In a Cabin by a Wood – “The view from my cabin door – sometimes looking out, sometimes looking in,” by Stormy in Brookshire, Texas (April 2006)
  
  
• Nebraska Birding – “Because I love to birdwatch…,” by Kayleen in southeast Nebraska (May 2007)
  
  
• News from the field….Lucky Peak and Camas NWR – from the Idaho Bird Observatory (September 2006)
  
  
• Prairie Ice – “This is a collection of thoughts and photos of my life and work in Antarctica and the northern Great Plains of North America,” by John Carlson in eastern Montana (December 2006)
  
  
• Quebec year list 2007 – by Mark Dennis in Quebec (December 2006)
  
  
• SitkaNature – “An aspiring naturalist learns his place,” by gogg in Sitka, Alaska (February 2003)
  
  
• The Shore Bird Project – “Following the activities of an international team of shorebird researchers as they survey and monitor populations and conditions of Red Knot and other shore bird populations between Bahia Lomas, Chile, and the Canadian Arctic,” by the Shore Bird Team in the Western Hemisphere (January 2007)
  
  
• The Tiny Aviary – “For several months I have been volunteering at Chicago’s Field Museum preparing bird specimens. I mainly work on birds that have met their ends impacting downtown buildings. Every week the species I have prepared are recorded in watercolor sketches, and added to this avian memorial on a regular basis,” by Diana Sudyka in Chicago, Illinois (January 2007)
  
  
• Tick Magnate – “The tattered field notes of an urban rustic,” by Paul in Hoboken, New Jersey (April 2007)
  
  
• Trumbullbirder’s Bird Blog – “Birding Ohio and beyond,” by Ethan Kislter in NE Ohio (April 2007)

(b) Deleted Blogs/No longer available (n=5):

• Audubon’s Daughter
  
• Birdtography
  
• Geobirding
  
• Ivory-billed Septic
  
• Kyle’s Blog

(c) Blogs Previously Listed (n=208)

(d) Complete List of Known North American Bird Blogs (n=223):

• “Witchities” World Series of Birding Blog INACTIVE
  
• 10,000 Birds
  
• 2 Birders to Go
  
• 2007 Big Year Blog
  
• A DC Birding Blog
  
• A View from the North INACTIVE
  
• Aimophila Adventures
  
• Alan's BirdCam Blog
  
• Alis Volat Propiis
  
• Antshrike's Bird Page
  
• At the Bird Feeder
  
• Avian Tendencies
  
• B and B - Birds
  
• Backyard Birder
  
• Backyard Birding NEW!
  
• Badbirdz - Reloaded NEW!
  
• Bay Area Birding
  
• Beakspeak - The Big Bird Blog
  
• Beginning to bird
  
• Bell Tower Birding
  
• Betsy's Bird Journal
  
• Big Country Blog
  
• Big Spring Birds
  
• Bill of the Birds
  
• Bird Advocates
  
• Bird Blog
  
• Bird brained stories!
  
• Bird Couple - Love ... birds
  
• Bird Notes from West Houston INACTIVE
  
• Bird Photos
  
• bird QUIZ
  
• Bird the Planet
  
• Bird Traveling
  
• Bird Treatment and Learning Center
  
• Bird Watchers Notebook
  
• Bird Watching for Birders INACTIVE
  
• Bird Watching in Westcliffe
  
• Bird Watching: How to Study Birds
  
• BirdBlog - ruffling feathers
  
• BirdBreath Blog
  
• BirdChick Blog
  
• birdDC
  
• Birders on the Border INACTIVE
  
• Birdfreak Birding Blog
  
• Birding NEW!
  
• Birding and Mountain Biking
  
• Birding Bytes
  
• Birding in Chico
  
• Birding in Maine
  
• Birding is NOT a crime!!!!
  
• Birding Life
  
• Birding Notes NEW!
  
• Birding on Broadmeade
  
• Birding Sonoma County
  
• Birding Virginia
  
• Birding Watching in South Florida
  
• Birding/Wild Birds
  
• Birdinggirl
  
• Birdinginyelapa.com NEW!
  
• BirdNote
  
• Birds
  
• Birds and Climate Change
  
• Birds Etcetera
  
• Birds of Plymouth Gardens
  
• Birds on the Brain NEW!
  
• Birds, Bats and Beyond
  
• Birdspotting
  
• Birdwatch INACTIVE
  
• BirdWatchers Blog NEW!
  
• Birdwatchin' Buzz
  
• BirdWatching INACTIVE
  
• BirdwatchingBlog
  
• Bloomingdale Village
  
• Blue Lizard Birding Blog
  
• bootstrap analysis
  
• Boreal Bird Blog
  
• Born Again Bird Watcher
  
• BPBO Research Station Blog NEW!
  
• Brandon’s Birding Blog
  
• BRDPICS - Bill Schmoker's Birding Blog
  
• Brinkley Birding INACTIVE
  
• BrooklynParrots
  
• Bur Oak
  
• California Birding
  
• Carolina Ivorybills INACTIVE
  
• Central Park Wildlife Photography
  
• Chicago Bird Watching INACTIVE
  
• Chickadees, Juncos, and Jays Oh My!
  
• Citizen Science Projects - Ornithology
  
• Coastal Georgia Birding
  
• Coffee & Conservation - Birds
  
• Craig's Birds NEW!
  
• DC Audubon Society
  
• Drew's Birds
  
• Duncraft's Wild Bird Blog
  
• East Bay Birders INACTIVE
  
• eBirdseed.com NEW!
  
• Eric’s Birding Blog
  
• Eureka Nature
  
• Fairfax Birding
  
• falconstars
  
• Feather Weather
  
• Feathered Ghosts
  
• Field Notes
  
• Field of View
  
• Florida Big Year
  
• FluidFive Birding
  
• For Elect Eyes Only INACTIVE
  
• Gone Birding
  
• Greensboro Birds
  
• Gulf Coast Bird Observatory
  
• Hamilton Birding INACTIVE
  
• Home Bird Days INACTIVE
  
• Home Bird Notes INACTIVE
  
• Home Conservation...for the Birds INACTIVE
  
• I and the Bird
  
• Illinois Birding Blog
  
• Illinois Birds
  
• Imprints
  
• In a Cabin by the Wood NEW!
  
• Introduced Birds Weblog
  
• It's a bird thing
  
• Ivar's Birds
  
• Ivory-bill Skeptic
  
• Ivory-bills LiVE!!
  
• Jeff Gyr Blog
  
• John C. Robinson's Birding Blog
  
• Julie Zickefoose
  
• Laura’s Birding Blog
  
• Limeybirder's Diary
  
• Little Big Year
  
• Lord Garavin's Bird Blog
  
• Lovely dark and deep
  
• Mad Birders
  
• Magnificent Frigatebird - North America
  
• Maine Birds
  
• Marie Winn's Central Park Nature News
  
• Midwest Birder
  
• migrateblog
  
• Mike's Birding & Digiscoping Blog
  
• Mobile Search Team Travel Log - IBWO
  
• Mokka mit Schlag - Birding
  
• My Backyard Birds
  
• My Birding Journal
  
• Natural History Artwork
  
• NaturalVisions - Birds
  
• Nebraska Birding NEW!
  
• News from the 2007 Search - IBWO
  
• News from the field....Lucky Peak and Camas NWR NEW!
  
• Night of the Kingfisher
  
• North Coast Diaries
  
• Notes from soggy bottom
  
• NYC Nova Hunter
  
• Ocellated (Birding)
  
• Ohio Birding Blog
  
• Omar's Birding
  
• Operation Migration - In the Field
  
• Ornitholature INACTIVE
  
• Ornithology INACTIVE
  
• Osprey Project
  
• PAHawkowl
  
• Palemaleirregulars
  
• PhilsBirdingBlog
  
• Prairie Ice NEW!
  
• QCbirding2006 INACTIVE
  
• Quebec year list 2007 NEW!
  
• Ravens in Hollywood
  
• Recent Bird Reports from Quebec
  
• Remembering New Jersey
  
• rkbirding INACTIVE
  
• San Diego Birding and Photography
  
• Saskatchewan Birding, Nature, and Scenery
  
• Search and Serendipity
  
• Semipalmated Llama
  
• SE Colorado Birding
  
• SitkaNature NEW!
  
• Southwestern Birding Tales
  
• Sparroworking in Quebec
  
• Stokes Birding Blog
  
• Susan Gets Native
  
• Swampblog
  
• Tails of Birding
  
• The bird nerd's avian adventures
  
• The Birdchaser
  
• The Birdist
  
• The Brownstone Birding Blog
  
• The Choctawhatchee Search
  
• The Chronicles INACTIVE
  
• The City Birder
  
• The Egret's Nest
  
• The Firefly Forest - Arizona Birds
  
• The Flycatcher
  
• The Hawk Owl's Nest
  
• The Incorrigible Birder INACTIVE
  
• The Leica Birding Blog
  
• The Nemesis Bird
  
• The Origin of Species
  
• The Plover Warden Diaries
  
• The QUBS Review
  
• The Rookie Birder INACTIVE
  
• The Shore Bird Project NEW!
  
• The Tiny Aviary NEW!
  
• The Urban Pantheist - Birds
  
• Thoughts of an Iowa Birdwatcher
  
• Tick Magnate NEW!
  
• Today in NJ Birding History
  
• Toronto Bird Observatory Blog
  
• Towhee.net Birding Blog
  
• Trumbullbirder's Bird Blog NEW!
  
• Updates from Florida - IBWO
  
• Urban Birder
  
• Urban Hawks
  
• Vagrant
  
• Veracruz Hawkwatch
  
• VINS Conservation Biology Blog
  
• Whooper Happenings
  
• WildBird on the Fly
  
• Windy City Birder INACTIVE
  
• Winged Wonder
  
• Woodcreeper
  
• Woodsong - Avian
  
• Words on Birds
  
• Xenospiza INACTIVE

Previous Posts in This Series:

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)

Random Gleanings from the BirdSphere #44

Introduction: A daily (or as often as I can find time to compile it) feature that highlights recent entries from North American bird blogs listed in my blogroll; also see here.

Today’s Featured Bird Blog:

Gone Birding... – “News blog for Gone Birding…notes from the field, trip reports, news and announcements,” by Rich Mooney in British Columbia (online since July 1994)

Today’s Featured Bird Blog Entry (excerpt):

Lazy Saturday

This morning Lori and I headed out for a slow paced birding day! Our route took us to the Little Qualicum Estuary, Riverside Resort, Qualicum Beach, Parker Road, The Englishman River Estuary and Rivers Edge Road in Parksville. Though we didn’t plan it that way we were trying for some year birds en-route. Our target birds were: Willow Flycatcher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Black Swift and Caspian Tern! We lucked out and got them all, with lots of other great birds as well!! . . . [click here to read the rest of this entry, as originally posted by Rich Mooney on May 26, 2007]

<< Previous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Next >>

Random Gleanings from the BirdSphere #43

Introduction: A daily (or as often as I can find time to compile it) feature that highlights recent entries from North American bird blogs listed in my blogroll; also see here.

Today’s Featured Bird Blog:

It’s a Bird Thing – by Judy in New Mexico (online since January 2007)

Today’s Featured Bird Blog Entry (excerpt):

Birds and Geology in Socorro

“Are you interested in a geology lesson as we drive down the freeway?” Larry, former president of New Mexico Tech and a renowned geologist, asked those riding in our car. As we traveled down Interstate 25, he animatedly pointed out the basalt flows, plateaus, granite outcroppings and layers of caliche.

Our first stop to scout for birds was Turtle Bay, a large pond on the New Mexico Tech campus. A large mulberry tree was a magnet of bird activity, the most interesting and colorful being Western Tanagers and Cedar Waxwings. . . . [click here to read the rest of this entry, as originally posted by Judy on May 27, 2007]

<< Previous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Next >>

Literary Encounters With Lord God Birds and Their Kin

Lord God Bird is a colloquial name that has been widely applied to the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) since the ‘rediscovery’ was announced in 2005, even though there is evidence that the name was historically restricted to the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) (see here and here), or, perhaps more likely, applied indiscriminately to both species (see here).

Thanks largely to the magic of Amazon.com's "search inside" feature, which will search the text of selected books for key words or phrases, I was able to locate 28 books that make mention of Lord God birds or woodpeckers, their close kin (Good God birds or woodpeckers and Great God birds or woodpeckers), and more distant relatives (God-a-Mightys and Lord-to-Gods). I searched these books for the appearance of each of these key words or phrases. Each mention of a key word or phrase was considered an "encounter."

From 1938-2000, in 17 books by 13 authors, I found 40 encounters with God-like woodpeckers of various kinds (29 Lord Gods, 6 Lord-to-Gods, 2 Good Gods, 2 Great Gods, and 1 God-a-Mighty). The God birds were identifiable as Pileated Woodpeckers in 26 encounters, Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in 5 encounters, and unidentifiable in 9 encounters.

From 2001-2006, in 11 books by 11 authors, I found 38 encounters with God-like woodpeckers of various sorts (30 Lord Gods, 6 Good Gods, 1 Lord-to-God, and 1 Great God). The God birds were identifiable as Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in 28 encounters and Pileated Woodpeckers in 10 encounters.

The shift in the frequency with which Lord God birds and their kin are described as Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (16 percent 1938-2000 versus 74 percent 2000-2006) is statistically significant (Chi-square = 22.5, p<0.001, n=69, df=2).

This shift can be quite clearly attributed to Christopher Cokinos, who invoked the term 15 times in just 57 pages in Hope is the thing with feathers. Other authors (especially Phillip Hoose in his brilliantly titled The race to save the Lord God bird), and particularly the news media, have subsequently picked up on this evocative term and applied it with liberal abandon to the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

The 28 books that I searched are listed below in chronological order along with selected text to indicate the context of each usage:

The yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1938; 50th anniversary paperback edition 1998) – 1 encounter:

pp. 207-208: "'The wood-ducks tried to nest there,' he said. 'They’ll see a hole in a tree, and don’t matter do it belong to a Lord God woodpecker or one o’ them big woodpeckers with a ivory bill, or a swarm o’ bees, they’ll take a notion to it and they’ll try to nest in the hole. The bees has done drove these uns out.'"

Go down, Moses, by William Faulkner (1942) – 1 encounter:

p. 202 in the short story The Bear: ". . . he stood against a big gum tree beside a little bayou whose black still water crept without motion out of a cane-brake, across a small clearing and into the cane again, where, invisible, a bird, the big woodpecker called Lord-to-God by negroes, clattered at a dead trunk."

The keepers of the house, by Shirley Ann Grau (1964; reprint edition published 2003 November 11) – 1 encounter:

p. 67: "The swamp all round him burst into activity. Egrets and herons and starlings and robins rose up screeching and frightened. Even the great noisy black bird that people called the Lord God Bird sailed up from the top of a peaked cypress tree."

Love in the ruins: the adventures of a bad Catholic at a time near the end of the world, by Walker Percy (1971 May, paperback edition published 1999 September 1) - 1 encounter:

p. 112: "For him the ivorybill, which the Negroes used to call the Lord-to-God, is the magic bird, the firebird, the sweet bird of youth."

Savannah, by Eugenia Price (1983; paperback edition published1997 April 15) – 1 encounter:

p. 306: "'He’s like a quite handsome bird, actually,' Mark told her [describing the recently-arrived British architect]. 'He has thick red hair that springs up from his high forehead like the crest of that woodpecker Hero calls the Lord God bird.'"

To see your face again, by Eugenia Price (1985; paperback edition published 1997 April 15) – 1 encounter:

p. 263: "On the rising wind, he could hear pounding all the way from the old Cherokee capital of New Echota. He listened more closely. It was either a man hammering or what Rich Joe Vann’s Negro slaves used to call the Lord God Bird, the huge woodpecker with a flaming crest that could hammer at a dead tree so that it imitated almost exactly the sound of a man pounding a nail."

Bright captivity, by Eugenia Price (1991; paperback edition published 1996 July 15) - 14 encounters:

p. 3: "She came awake so fast she thought it must be the comical, huge red-crested woodpecker, which Papa's people called the Lord God Bird chopping away on the old live oak at the corner of the cottage where the Coupers were living until Papa's fine new house could be finished."

p. 47: "First light had now broken across the low, cloud-scudded rainy sky above Cannon’s Point. He could see swirls of white mist above the river, and Anne’s Lord God Bird was hacking away already at the old dead live oak she’d persuaded him to let stand just for the convenience of the comical, handsome woodpecker. 'I love that big bird, Papa,' Anne had insisted. 'He not only makes us laugh because he’s so huge and awkward, he has a red crest just like yours. Don’t’ argue with me. Leave the tree. Every fancy, rare kind of tree or bush you plant grows and thrives. It won’t hurt one bit for my Lord God Bird to have one fine dead one for bugs.'"

p. 132: "Now that he had come, Cannon’s Point was dearer, somehow more familiar. She glanced outside the open door beyond where he stood and smiled. On the thick, gray trunk of a big old oak, the Lord God Bird landed sideways, gave one comical blast from what had always sounded to Anne like a rusty tin horn, and flew off.
"Anne laughed softly. 'Do you know what a Lord God Bird is?' she asked."

p. 139: "After a handshake, the two men stood looking out over the bright, almost glasslike waters of the Hampton River toward Little St. Simons Island and the ocean beyond. A somewhat awkward silence was broken abruptly when a Lord God Bird in a pine above them sounded what Anne called his tin horn—three short toots.

"'That’s a pileated woodpecker,' Couper said lamely. 'My son insists that I call him by his correct name.'

"'Miss Anne’s Lord God Bird,' Fraser said warmly."

p. 140: "'Aye, Miss Anne has educated me about Cannon's Point in more than the habits of the Lord God Bird, sir.'"

p. 454: "'. . . I caught her last week drawing Anne's favorite big red-crested woodpecker!'

"'Annie's Lord God Bird?' he asked, brightening more than at any time since they'd sat down at the table."

p. 597: "Dear Miss Anne: This be Lord God Bird I done paint fer you and yer man. . . . . I hope you like it and ain't forgit your favrite Lord God Bird."

p. 598: "Anne was hungrily studying every stroke of Eve's painting of the big, red-crested woodpecker John knew she had always loved. She'd told him even while she was his captive on Cumberland Island that her papa's people called the huge woodpecker the Lord God Bird. In Scotland, they'd looked and looked for one. Maybe Lord God Birds lived only on Georgia coastal islands."

p. 600: "I caused those sobs when you looked at Eve's painting of the Lord God Bird."

Where shadows go, by Eugenia Price (1993; paperback edition published 1996 July 15) – 5 encounters:

p. 261: "'You’re the one who painted Mrs. Fraser’s picture of a woodpecker—the Lord God Bird—and sent it to her in London, aren’t you?'"

p. 298: "'Yes,' he chuckled. 'I knew, beloved Anne. Your big Lord God Bird told me late yesterday just before I started my ride home from our south field.'"

p. 528: "When young Fanny Fraser took her mother’s hand, Anne said, 'Fanny, I see Pete hurrying back from the stable. You and John Couper, go with her to find Eve. This is the day when Eve teaches you all how to paint the Lord God Bird.'

"Fanny Kemble Buttler laughed. 'And what, pray tell, is a Lord God Bird?'

"'That’s what our people call a huge, pileated woodpecker,' Anne said, taking her guest’s arm to lead her up the steps to the veranda, where they both took chairs."

p. 576: "Shadows and sun-streaks were as much a part of life on St. Simons as her family, as much a part of Island life as wrens and flycatchers and nonpareils and Lord God Birds and vines and moss and woods tangles."

Eugenia Price's South: a guide to the people and places of her beloved region, by Mary Bray Wheeler (1993 May; paperback edition published 2005 July 20) - 1 encounter:

p. 50: ". . . and grief-filled sobs broken only by the crisp call of the painted bunting or the thunderous hammering of the Lord God Bird (pileated woodpecker) far into the deep, dark woods of yesterday."

Go down, Moses: annotations, by Nancy D. Taylor (1994) – 4 encounters:

p. 188: In reference to Faulkner’s use of Lord-to-God on p. 202 of Go Down, Moses, Taylor says: "Brown [a reference to Calvin Brown’s A Glossary of Faulkner’s South, Yale University Press, 1976] identifies this as the pileated woodpecker, 'a magnificent crow-sized bird (Drycopus pileatus) colored black and white, with a large, flaming-red crest in both sex' (Glossary 123).

"John T. Hiers believes [as he wrote in American Literature] the names Lord-to-God bird, God-a-Mighty bird and Lord-God bird indicate 'the spontaneous awe its sudden appearance usually evokes.' His suggestion that the bird might have been the now-extinct Ivorybill rather than the pileated woodpecker is less convincing (636)."

Diamond mask, by Julian May (1994 March 22; paperback edition published 1995 January 30) - 1 encounter:

p. 304: "In the middle distance I heard an authoritative tunk-a-tunk-tunk-tak-tak that could only be the work of the rare feathered pile driver that backwoodsmen call the Good God Woodpecker, an amazing bird nearly half a meter in length with black and yellowish-white plumage and a jaunty red crest.

"I couldn't help perking up and opened my pack in search of my camera."

Beauty from ashes, by Eugenia Price (1995; paperback edition published 1996 June 15) – 2 encounters:

p. 85: "A Lord God Bird, the huge, awkward, red-crested woodpecker who had been her childhood friend, sounded his tin-horn call from somewhere above here head in the top of the tall hickory. Lord God Birds squawked often, but normally at a distance. She had never heard one so close."

Iowa's wild places: an exploration with Carl Kurtz, by Carl Kurts (1996 July 15) - 1 encounter:

p. 152: "The pileated woodpecker has been called the 'Great God Woodpecker.'"

Last days of the dog-men, by Brad Watson (1996; paperback edition published 2002 August) – 1 encounter:

pp. 119-120: "Watching Junior you could see that this dog was aggressively stupid. A reckless, lumbering beast with no light in his eyes, floundering onto old Buddy’s back, slamming into the boy and knocking him down. The boy is about ten or eleven and named Ulysses though they call him Lee (sort of a joke), thin as a tenpenny nail, with spectacles like his mama. He was eating it up, rolling in the grass and laughing like a lord-god woodpecker, Junior rooting at him like a hog."

The black flower: a novel of the Civil War, by Howard Bahr (1997 April; paperback edition published 2000 May 5) – 1 encounter:

p. 233: "Other creatures lived in the shadows among the twisted branches and vines. These the Negroes told about, down in the Quarters summer nights, when they sat on up-ended oak slabs by a smudge fire. The Wampus-cat, they said, would get you if you went in there, and rip your belly open with his tushes. There was a Great Pig, a hundred years old, that stole bad children and left their bones gnawed and white in the blow-downs. There was the Lord-to-God bird, and a silver dog that came on the full moon before somebody died. There were plat-eyed, too—restless things risen out of the old slave burying-ground."

The backyard bird-lover's guide: attracting, nesting, feeding, by Jan Mahnken and Jeffrey C. Domm (1998 April) - 3 encounters:

p. 174: "Pileated woodpeckers are known by some interesting names, including logcock, Wood Kate, and (a series I can only assume resulted from first impressions) Great God woodpecker, Good God woodpecker, and Lord God woodpecker."

Prodigal summer: a novel, by Barbara Kingsolver (2000 October 17; paperback edition published 2001 October 16) – 1 encounter:

p. 202: "For a minute she watched this pileated woodpecker couple playing checkers with themselves. They were huge, as big as flying black cats, and impossible to ignore their big, haughty voices and upswept red crests. She received a vision of ghosts, imagined for a moment the ivory bills—dead cousins to these pileated woodpeckers that had been even bigger, with nearly a three-foot wingspan and a cold, white-eyed stare. Lord God birds, people used to call them, for that was what they’d cry when they saw one. Never again."

Hope is the thing with feathers: a personal chronicle of vanished birds, by Christopher Cokinos (2000 November; paperback edition published 2001 April 1) - 15 encounters

p. 61: "Two of its nicknames announce the awe that this bird inspired--the Lord God Bird and King of the Woodpeckers. Observers impressed with the huge Ivory-bill would blurt, 'Lord God!'"

p. 64: "Painting the Ivory-bill stayed utmost in [Alexander] Wilson's mind, but he gleaned from the esperience a powerful story that pits the feisty dignity of the proud, wounded bird against the resless encroachment of pioneering settlements, embodied in the fact that it was hotel room in which this Lord God Bird died."

p. 65: "Would there be--could there be--another resurrection for the Lord God Bird?"

p. 67: "Could the Lord God Bird remain with them long enough to reveal mysteries of its life and, therefore, long enough for scientists to understand how it might be protected?"

p. 75: "With temperatures in the 80s, the men spent 36 hours on foot (and perhaps in canoes) as they looked for the Lord God Bird."

p. 84: "I like to imagine Allen, Kellogg and Tanner driving through my state, through Kansas, through the worst of the Dust Bowl's haggard territory, with their captured light, the virtual representations of the Lord God Birds."

p. 89: "He [James Tanner] bean to show drawings of the Pileated and the Ivory-bill, calling the bird by colloquial names like Old Kate or Lord God or Woodcock."

p. 95: "What all this means is that the Lord God Bird existed in a niche almost as slender as a feather."

p. 97: "A nongame-protection act passed in Florida in 1901 did little to protect the Lord God Bird in that state, though a jury found at least one dealer guilty of peddling dead Ivory-bills."

p. 99: "Having seen a female and a young Ivory-bill adjust to the presence of loggers in 1941, in John's Bayou, Tanner believed humans and Lord God Birds could co-exist in the Singer Tract."

p. 106: "Both the Pileated and the much smaller Red-headed Woodpecker have been visually mistaken for the Lord God Bird."

p. 108: "The supposed presence of Lord God Birds in South Carolina's Santee Swamp drew crowds of noisy birds, scientists and duck hunters in 1971. . . .

"In 1987, Jerome Jackson, one of the world's authorities on Ivory-bills, heard, with a student, what they considered to be a Lord God Bird."

p. 111: "The Lord God Bird may not be extinct, though it has vanished from the gaze of all but a few who have claimed to see real, living, breathing Ivory-bills. For the rest of us, uncertain and expectant, Ivory-billed Woodpeckers remain rumor, specter and desire."

p. 112: "Until his death on January 21, 1991, Tanner could watch the eyes, staring and precisely yellow, of his Lord God Birds."

Tree castle island, by Jean Craighead George (2002, April 30, paperback edition published2003 April 30) - 4 encounters:

p. 9: "'Probably a Good-God, way out in the swamp,' I said aloud. A Good-God is that huge pileated woodpecker. At least that's what they're called by Georgia Crackers, folks like Uncle Hamp whose great-greats were born and raised here. The woodpeckers stand almost two feet high and scare you out of your skin when they call to each other."

p. 32: "I was rolling up my blue jeans when I heard a Good-God woodpecker drilling."

p. 55: "Like islands that sail in the wind, like sounds that turn out to be Good-God woodpeckers, that cry had to have a natural explanation, I told myself."

The ghost with trembling wings: science, wishful thinking, and the search for lost species, by Scott Weidensaul (2002 June 15; paperback edition published 2003 June 11) - 3 encounters:

p. 49: "Many country folks called it the 'kent,' 'kint,' 'caip,' 'kate,' or some other derivation of its raucous call. But more often, the names they used for the ivorybill reflected the dazzle of seeing one of these huge birds rowing through the light-splashed swamps on powerful wings. King of the Woodpeckers, they called it. Log-cock. King Woodchuck. Giant woodpecker. Log God. Like the smaller but similar pileated woodpecker, it was sometimes called the Lord God bird, or the By-God, because that's what a breathless greenhorn said when he first saw one: By God, look at that bird."

p. 59: "Shively describes himself as 'officially agnostic' on the subject of Lord God birds in the twenty-first century, trying to straddle the fence for as long as possible in order to keep himself open to evidence, pro or con."

The way to the salt marsh: a John Hay reader, by John Hay and Christopher Merrill (2002 September 3) – 1 encounter:

p. 140: "A big pileated woodpecker hitched up the bark of a pine, an erect, black body with a flaming, scarlet crest, giving a raucous, clarion shout. They called it the 'Lord God bird' in parts of the South."

The bird-lover's backyard handbook: attracting, nesting feeding, by Jan Mahnken, Hugh Wiberg, Rene Laubach, and Christyna Laubach (2003 April) - 3 encounters:

p. 242: "Pileated woodpeckers are known by some interesting names, including logcock, Wood Kate, and (a series I can only assume resulted from first impressions) Great God woodpecker, Good God woodpecker, and Lord God woodpecker."

In search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, by Jerome A. Jackson (2004 August; paperback edition published 2006 May 9) - 2 encounters:

p. 2: "It is no wonder that early settlers in the southeast referred to them as the 'Lord God woodpecker.' I can easily imagine that on seeing such a woodpecker for the first time one might silently exhort, 'Lord God, what a woodpecker!'"

p. 230: "Literature also abounds with references that are unquestionably or likely references to ivory-bills. It seems highly likely that rural African Americans in the American South knew of ivory-billed woodpeckers, and it also seems likely that there were unique cultural ties linking African American culture to the ivory-bill. One of these might be found in William Faulkner's story of 'The Bear.' In the story, Faulkner refers to a big woodpecker called 'Lord-to-God' by the 'Negroes.'"

The race to save the Lord God bird, by Phillip Hoose (2004 August) - 6 encounters:

p. 93: "They [loggers, hunters, trappers, poachers, and wildlife officials] gave him still more names of old-timers who knew the land. He [James Tanner] dutifully looked most of them up. But everywhere the story was the same--yes, Ivory-bills, or Log-cocks, or Lord God birds had been there, but not for a while."

p. 110: "The Chicago Mill and Lumber Company's giant band saw in Tallulah was devouring the last nesting, roosting, and food trees of the Lord God bird as fast as logs could be fed in. Time was running out fast for the Ivory-bill."

p. 118: "And so the race was on: could the last Ivory-bill forest be saved before the Lord God bird ran out of food?"

p. 130: "With too little light left to sketch, [Don] Eckelberry just watched, awestruck, until dark. He felt like he was staring at eternity. This single unmated female was all that remained of the Lord God bird that had commanded America's great swamp forests for thousands of years."

p. 153: "So the Lord God bird remained a ghost. And as these words are written, it still is. But no one wants to give up on it. The bird may be extinct, but our connection it isn't."

p. 155: "Now it's our turn to do all we can to keep other species from sharing the ghostly fate of the Lord God bird.

Looking for Mr. Gilbert: The reimagined life of an African American, by John Hanson Mitchell (2005 January 9) – 1 encounter:

p. 39: "A jay called, and then a large dark bird swept by, landed somewhere out of sight, and began hammering on a dead tree trunk—a pileated woodpecker, a bird the local blacks used to call the Lord-to-God bird. High above, lit from beneath by the lowering sun, a vulture tilted past a clearing in the butternuts."

The grail bird: hot on the trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, by Tim Gallagher (2005 May 18; paperback edition published 2006 April 18) - 3 encounters:

p. 18: "Just as the Cornell team had grilled Mason Spencer about his [Louisiana] ivory-bill sightings in the 1930s, [John] Dennis cross-examined the man who had guided Whitney Eastman [to a nesting pair of ivory-bills on the Chipola River in Florida]. 'No sirree,' said the man, 'this ain't one of them good gods. This here's an ivory-bill for sure.' Pileated woodpeckers were often known colloquially as 'Good God' birds, because that's what people said when they came across one. The ivory-bills, in contrast, were called 'Lord God' birds, because people who saw one were likely to exclaim, 'Lord God, what a bird!"

Common life (Notable voices), by Robert Cording (2006 May 31) – 1 encounter:

p. 97: "Lord God Bird—a nickname for the ivory billed woodpecker" [title of a poem]

Pete Dunne's essential field guide companion, by Pete Dunne (2006) - 1 encounter:

p. 390: "The Second Coming of the Lord God Bird . . . .

"An impressively large, crested, black, white, and (males) red woodpecker whose size and splendor was enough to provoke observers to exclaim: 'Lawd Gahd!'"