Bird Blog Variety
June 19, 2007
Article in: Birding
Birding blogs are fun to read (and fun to write!). Birds, birding, birders…a wonderfully huge topic, which means the variety of bird blogs is huge. Many Bird Bloggers have joined Fatbirder’s WebRing. We love Fatbirder‘s goal to link birders together, worldwide.
Bird Blogs can’t really get boring because they are always jazzed up with awesome bird photos! Birds are always photogenic, even if the photographer is not a pro!
Our goal here at Birdfreak has been to write about the fun of birding as well as promoting conservation that helps birds so we can continue to be birders in the future. We hope to be Bird Bloggers and conservation promoters for years to come. We haven’t been blogging very long yet and as we learn and grow, we love reading and talking about all the other blogs out there. They are so very different, some with a specific focus and great detail and some with large ranges and just general bird love.
One example we reference quite often is Bird Advocates. They focus on one specific, very real danger our birds face every day all over the country – Feral Cats. — An often overlooked topic.
There are some blogs that focus on a species of bird, such as Ivory-bills LiVE!! and others that use a bird name within their blog such as Antshrike’s Bird Blog who bird on the Texas/Mexican border.
A blog name may not be a sign of a good blog, but with names such as Birdchick and Mon@rch…you can’t go wrong! And they are just more proof that good birders are EVERYWHERE and that is awesome.
Birders know that the coolest thing about birding (and blogging) is that you can do it anywhere. From Swampblog in the south to Birding in Westcliffe, Colorado to Connecticut’s Brownstone Birding Blog to birding inArizona, birders are actively blogging in the United States and we think it is so terrific.
Hondubirding from Honduras, Trevor’s Birding from Australia, The Icelandic Birding Pages, Fraser’s Birding Blog from London, Birding Mongolia, and the Bird Ecology Study Group from Singapore prove that bird blogs are truly international (and so are birders).
It would be great to have a bird blog for every single country.
We even have our own carnival, I and the Bird, created by 10,000 Birds, which is always fun.
But if you want to find links to almost every bird blog out there? Visit Birds Etcetera because he is working on finding every bird blog in the world and the list is HUGE.
Birding is for everyone!
Who Was Alexander Wetmore?
June 18, 2007
Article in: Birding
Born on June 18, 1886, in the state of Wisconsin in the United States, Alexander Wetmore was an ornithologist who led many trips to find birds. Trips to Spain, South America, Central America, and North America. He became the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and was the director of the U.S. National Museum. He worked as an avian paleontologist as well.
Alexander Wetmore published The Migration of Birds in 1926. He studied birds in Puerto Rico and in Panama. He was also a bird bander who helped prove that lead was poisoning ducks at Bear River Marshes in Utah.
More New Natives at the C.N.P.
June 18, 2007
Article in: Birding
The Callaway Nature Preserve is expanding again in the never-ending process of grass removal. Little by little, the C.N.P. has grown with a few new natives every year. Small in size and surrounded by houses and streets, this little preserve houses numerous backyard birds and provides a safe stopover for plenty of weary migrants.
We received some of our plants a little late this year due to a cold start to spring, but all were intact. This is our second year ordering from WildOnes, who promote the use of native plants around homes and businesses. WildOnes is a good organization with more chapters opening in new areas all the time.
Downy Mint planted in 2006
Going native is for the birds! As we get more involved in our local forest preserves and birding clubs, we also want to keep promoting native landscaping. It really is the best way to go, and the birds love it.
Wild Senna planted in 2006
Eating Bison Helps Conservation!
June 16, 2007
Article in: Bird Conservation
Want a new way to help with bird conservation? Buy bison (buffalo) meat!
Bison once roamed all over the west and were part of the natural landscape of grasslands. The Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Co. states the benefits of buffalo meat over other red meats, such as less fat and the fact that they roam naturally in the landscape they’ve lived for thousands of years.
By promoting bison ranches we promote conservation. Bison need large, open grasslands to thrive and ranches that work together with conservation groups can ensure their land is well kept for the bison and birds that share the grasslands.
The Old World Nuisance
June 15, 2007
Article in: Birding
House Sparrows have been around so long, it is impossible to imagine North America without them. In Britain, they are on the “red list”, it is too bad we can’t send them a few. We decided to share this old poem (wrote by Fred Mather in 1881) found in Kim Todd’s Tinkering With Eden, A Natural History of Exotics in America
The Old World Nuisance
The Poet may sing in the sparrow’s praise,
But our great ornithologist, Dr. Coues, says,
In language of truth and very plain prose,
That the sparrow’s a nuisance and the sooner he goes,
The better we’re off, so to me it’s quite clear,
That the Old World Sparrow is not needed here.He defiles our orches, there’s no denying that;
He has ruined my wife’s dress and spoiled my best hat.
He hangs round the bird cage to pilfer the seed,
And gives the canary a foul insect breed.
He never eats worms, let us tell it abroad,
This Old World Sparrow is a terrible fraud.
Kirtland’s Warbler Nesting in Wisconsin!
June 14, 2007
Article in: Bird Conservation
Great news from our home away from home, Wisconsin. The endangered Kirtland’s Warbler, famous for nesting in Michigan, has been confirmed to be nesting in Wisconsin.
The nest was discovered on land in central Wisconsin owned by the Plum Creek Timber Company.
This was from a press release from the Fish and Wildlife Service. Read the story at Wisconsin’s eBird site.
Questions on Tracking Bird Migration
June 14, 2007
Article in: Birding
Where did this Chestnut-sided Warbler migrate from?
Back in 1965, an ornithologist from the Illinois Natural History Survey, Richard Graber, pioneered a new way to track migrating birds. His method involved placing a small radio transmitter on the back of a Gray-cheeked Thrush, their size more able to carry the extra weight than other songbirds. Graber followed the bird by airplane, tracking it across many miles but never discovered where the bird ended up.
After abandoning the method, Graber asked his friend Bill Cochran to continue with the project. From 1965 to 2004, Cochran chased migrating birds, this time from a car, over 150,000 miles (Living Bird, Spring 2006). The project collected tons of valuable data but was difficult and time consuming (not to mention costly).
Radio tracking is getting better and better and not too far in the future, we are sure there will be new ways to track bird migration. Imagine this: a bird is banded in High Island, Texas and equiped with a tracking device. The bird can be tracked in real time and accessed by computer to determine when and where it is. Maybe the bird stopped over in a city park in St. Louis or was blown of course by a storm on the great plains. The possibilities are virtually endless.
While this might sound impossible, some of the equipment is already in place. Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) are being used to track products for inventory purposes. The tags can be made small enough to fit on termites and thus would have little effect on even some of the smallest birds (although that would need to be tested first). The products are costly but could provide much better results.
But how would this type of tracking affect birding? Say birders had access to a massive database of birds that have been equipped with tracking devices. Key in a bird you need for your lifelist and up comes a map plotting the path. There’s one at a nearby park right now! Would this harm birding or help it? Would lifelists be abandoned or increase rapidly? Would rare birds become less of a big deal or easier and more fun to find? Would big days be cheapened, big years a thing of the past?
What about conservation? Wouldn’t it be spectacular to know exactly where the birds are? No more guessing what routes birds take during migration. As long as the bird is caught and equipped with a way to track it, new information could be collected daily. Ornithologists (and birders) could discover bird locations and even deceased birds to get accurate knowledge of lifespans, nesting cycles, and more. Suddenly bird banding wouldn’t be about retrapping birds but catching them once and then monitoring them.
This may be futuristic or revolutionary… what are your thoughts?
Kudzu is on the Menu
June 13, 2007
Article in: Bird Conservation
How does the fast-growing weed Kudzu affect our wild birds? Well, since the plant grows so rapidly and kills all native plants in its way, birds lose their habitat and natural food sources. And our birds are already losing enough habitat as it is.
Kudzu has claimed seven million acres of land in the Southeastern United States and is currently consuming 120,000 acres per year. –Kudzu-Free Communities
So, how do we stop it? Well, for a fraction of the chemical and manpower cost to remove Kudzu, goats are taking over. Apparently, they love the stuff and can clear an entire patch in a day or two. Effective!
In Chattanooga, a local farmer allowed his goat herd to graze on the kudzu with dramatic results. A television show called Dog With Jobs featured a goat-herding dog that worked with kudzu. A cool, environmentally safe idea.
This weed is one of the best known invasive plant species in the United States and goats seem to be one of the best ideas to eliminate it. No chemicals, no hard labor, and inexpensive too. There are some other non-chemical alternatives that are effective as well.
A common belief is that the only way to eliminate kudzu control is to spray with herbicides. The Kudzu Coalition has learned over the past four years that there are many effective methods to control small infestations of kudzu without using chemicals. — www.kokudzu.com
Spartanburg, South Carolina is one town that is fighting hard to eliminate Kudzu from its city. Kudzu is in the news often and it is a very large problem to many southern areas.
Strangely, there are some who do not think kudzu to be a problem (such as the mayor of Peachtree City, Harold Logsdon), but we hope this program keeps on growing and more people get involved!
