Weekend Bird Blogging #9

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:

• 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

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:

• Bill of Notes from soggy bottom
  
• cyberthrush of Ivory-bills LiVE!!
  
• Daniel of Hondubirding
  
• Dorothy of the Backyard Birder
  
• Karl of Arkansas Birding
  
• Kayleen of Nebraska Birding
  
• Larry of The Brownstone Birding Blog
  
• PBurns of Terrierman’s Daily Dose

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.

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?

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

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).

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

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

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:

• 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