1,000 Photos on Flickr!
May 22, 2007
Article in: Photography
We started using Flickr back in January of this year and have reached 1,000 photos!!
Our 13-year-old Blue Healer mix–Socks!
Flickr is a wonderful place to find cool photos and to share your own photos. We’ve met many great photographers and birders through Flickr and have enjoyed wonderful comments on some of our photos. Over the years we’ve taken many more photos than 1,000 but a lot of them never made it past the electronic trash can.
After 1,000 photos, here are a few of our favorite shots!
An Ovenbird in our backyard (2005)
Grand Teton Mountain Range, Teton National Park, Wyoming
American Golfinch at our backyard bird feeder
Arizona Doberman, our new puppy
Question: Do you think he caught the frisbee??
Blue Mockingbird in Texas
Feel free to check out all our photos at the Birdfreak Photostream on Flickr. We don’t pretend to be professionals, but just like carrying a camera while out birding!
Also, we offer ALL our bird photos to be used free of charge for bloggers, websites, print media, etc. They aren’t all the greatest quality, but sometimes it is nice to be able to add a picture to a post or use a photo while giving a presentation. We would like them to be credited to our website, but nothing else. No prior permission needed.
Here’s to thousands more photos on Flickr!
National Birds — Costa Rica
May 21, 2007
Article in: Birding
A rare and wonderful find in the United States, the Clay Colored Robin is abundant in Costa Rica. Costa Ricans declared the Clay Colored Robin their national bird in 1977, whose strong, musical call marks the beginning of their rainy season. The Clay Colored Robin is in the thrush family and they are very similar to the American Robin.
There are 850 different kinds of birds in Costa Rica. In the U.S., southern Texas is a great place to find this cool thrush.
Brood XIII Map
May 21, 2007
Article in: Birding
According to our local Rockford newspaper, the Birdfreak team may have to search and travel a bit to find the Brood XII Cicadas when they come out. Looks like there will be pockets of them in our immediate area. There will be up to 1.5 billion of them, but they won’t cover the entire range.
We’ll get some 17-year cicadas, but many of us won’t notice any difference from a normal year when we get the annual “dogday†cicadas. Our neck of the woods just isn’t in the heavy 17-year cicada territory. Rockford Register Star
We are still going to talk them up, however, because of one very important reason; bird food! There are a few places close by where theses periodic cicadas were seen seventeen years ago. We will check them first. Between today and June 1st is the projected arrival time frame. According to Cicada Mania, it has begun!
This is what we think may be our first Brood XIII Cicada (aka bird food).
Links to other cicada posts
Cicadas Are On The Menu
Brood XIII Interactive Map
72-Hour Birding Event – Day Three
May 21, 2007
Article in: Bird Conservation
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
To complete our 72 hour birding event we hit up one of our favorite birding locations, Sugar River Forest Preserve. This is a great location for warblers, flycatchers, and a nice variety of wonderful birds. We added a Blackburian Warbler, Acadian Flycatcher, and Red-shouldered Hawk. We struck out on Hooded Warbler and any other empidonax flycatchers (Least, Yellow-bellied, & Willow).
Lupine at Colored Sands
After Sugar River we moved on to Colored Sands to check out what birds had been banded at the Sand Bluff Bird Observatory. They had a few birds to add to our list including a Wilson’s Warbler, a bird we would later find at Nygren Wetlands. Up on the hill we heard a Black-billed Cuckoo calling! We hiked aways back to hear it better but could not sight it.
We headed to Nygren Wetlands to try and find a nesting Orchard Oriole (success) and also found a Black-throated Green and Blackpoll Warbler.
Pending any further sightings from area birders, our total list for the birding bonanza stands at 123 species.
Check out Day One and Day Two of this event.
72-Hour Birding Event – Day Two
May 19, 2007
Article in: Bird Conservation
Eastern Kingbird
On day two of our 72-hour Birding craze, we added 22 more species.
Early this morning, the Birdfreak Team headed out to Nygren Wetlands to find Soras and Sandhill Cranes (success!). We missed the Marsh Wren and Orchard Oriole that had been spotted there earlier in the week, but plan to go back tomorrow. As a bonus we saw Bobolinks.
After the wetland walk, we headed on to Rockford Park District’s BioBlitz at Anna Page Conservation Forest in Rockford Illinois. We added a few new species to our growing list: Broadwing Hawk and Hairy Woodpecker and also saw another Yellow-breasted Chat.
Fellow birder Jack Armstrong spotted a Kentucky Warbler and Mourning Warbler. After a rather long afternoon break (we were feeling a little ill from ultra-birding), we traveled back to Deer Run Forest Preserve (one of our stops yesterday) and headed to the big field.
Sparrow Jackpot!
Grasshopper Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Savanna Sparrow
We also saw Henslow’s, Field, Swamp, Song, White-crowned, and Lark Sparrows.
Socks patiently waiting for the sparrow fiesta to end
Our total list is growing!
72-Hour Birding Event – Day One
May 18, 2007
Article in: Bird Conservation
In the wee hours of the morning began the Birdfreak’s 72-hour Birding Weekend. We are entering Winnebago County, Illinois in America’s Birdiest City/County contest. As far as we know, this is the first time our county has been entered.
One of our highlights was a Cerulean Warbler.
Why are we doing this? Our main reason is to promote the “birdiness” of Winnebago County. Our other main reason is to find habitat types that are missing within the county, and then do something about it. We have noticed that shorebird habitat is one of these areas that we don’t have much of.
Olive-sided Flycatcher was another highlight.
So far we are up to 84 species with a lot of area left to cover. Some of our favorites of the day were Yellow-breasted Chats, Yellow-throated Warblers, a Chestnut-sided Warbler and a Canada Warbler. Two more days to go and plenty more to find….we are still a ways from our goal of 150 species.
We were lucky to find plenty of Baltimore Orioles!
Our total list is growing!
Nicolet National Forest Bird Survey
May 18, 2007
Article in: Bird Conservation
The Nicolet National Forest is located in northeast Wisconsin. This forest is 360,000 hectares and has a large variety of ecosystems including coniferous forest and glacial lakes.
In 1987, the Northeastern Wisconsin Audubon Society realized that there wasn’t much information on breeding birds in northern Wisconsin. They started the Nicolet National Forest Bird Survey to collect the necessary data to find out how forest management affected bird populations.
The 21st NNF Bird Survey is done every year on the second weekend of June. Anyone can volunteer to help.
Computerized results are used to guide forest management policies and have been the subject of numerous scientific research articles and master’s theses. Results also provide visitors with information about habitat preferences and “hot-spots” for northern Wisconsin’s bird species.
The Nicolet National Forest Bird Survey also compiled maps of breeding bird information. The map below is for the Alder Flycatcher.
Northern Wisconsin is one of the best places to bird, since much of the area is coverd by national forests.
The American Redstart is One Cool Bird
May 17, 2007
Article in: Birding
This week we spied our first American Redstart in the Callaway Nature Preserve. Our 2007 list is growing quickly.
This might be one of the more common of the warblers, but it is no less gorgeous.
This species is commonly seen especially during its migration periods. Breeding Bird Census data shows that populations have been declining, but it is not known if this is a cyclical trend or a sign of something more ominous. Christmas Bird Count data shows a population increase.Chipper Woods Bird Observatory
Last year, Birdfreak, Veery, and Veery’s son, the Little Kingfisher went to the Upper Penninsula of Michigan to search for birds. One highlight or our trip was when we came across some young American Redstarts flitting around and begging for food. It was spectacular to watch them being fed.
This weekend, the Birdfreak Team will be counting as many bird species as possible within a 72-hour period for the 2007 America’s Birdiest City/County. We are also participating in a BioBlitz where all species of plants and animals will be documented. It will be whirlwind but fun!
Counting birds is definitely good for conservation, but it is so much more fun to just watch and enjoy them. The American Redstart can be fairly easy to find and really fun to watch.
