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]

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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]

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