Phriday Photo – Rock Cut State Park in HDR
June 20, 2008
Article in: Photography
One of our favorite birding spots is Rock Cut State Park. It consists of over 3,000 acres of prime birding habitat and attracts a lot of visitors (which is good and bad).
This photo is HDR – High Dynamic Range – which is a unique way to photograph by merging various exposures into one, “high dynamic range” shot.
Note: Birdfreak and Arizona are camping this weekend and hope to find a lot of nesting warblers along the Sugar River in western Winnebago county.
Duck Stamp Success
June 18, 2008
Article in: Bird Conservation
Every time a Duck Stamp is bought, precious bird habitat is conserved. For every Duck Stamp purchased, 98 cents of every dollar goes directly to purchase land.
We found more proof showing how wonderful Duck Stamps are for conservation. The Mirgratory Bird Conservation Commission approved 18,118 acres of wetland and grassland habitat for Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge along with quite a few other grants.
From the U.S. Department of Interior Press Release: As part of a suite of wetlands acquisition and conservation grant approvals, the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission today approved $4 million to purchase more than 18,000 acres of prime prairie wetland and associated grassland habitat for the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Minnesota – one of the largest purchases ever using dollars generated from Federal Duck Stamp sales and import duties on firearms and ammunition.
This huge land purchase shows how hunters and conservationists can come together and proof that Duck Stamps work.
This acquisition also secures habitat for three other National Wildlife Refuges.
- Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge – Oregon – 180 acres
- Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge – North Carolina – 1,481 acres
- Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge – Maine – 1,129 acres
Also approved:
- $24 million in federal funding to protect, restore, enchance and manage over 107,000 acres of habitat in North America under the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA)
- $1.67 million for 27 projects affecting 28,657 acres in 24 states under the NAWCA Small Grants program
- $19.7 million for four Canadian projects affecting 80,000 acres
- $640,000 for two projects protecting 2,470 acres in Mexico
Focused Bird Conservation – Saving At-Risk Birds Through Citizen Science
June 16, 2008
Article in: Bird Conservation
What is Focused Bird Conservation? Each time we as birders go out we have several goals: see more birds than last time, find a life bird, find a rare bird that was reported, get a great photograph, or just get out to enjoy the weather and birds. Often, these goals are what help expand our love of birding, but something’s missing when our sightings are kept secret; unintentionally hidden away from others.
Wood Thrush
But what if each time we went birding we had a new purpose: to find specific birds in need of conservation help? Focused Bird Conservation is exactly what it sounds like. By targeting birds of special concern like Cerulean Warblers, Henslow’s Sparrows, or Dickcissels, birding becomes more meaningful. Also, certain parks and preserves can be targeted for specific time periods to better understand the bird populations and what areas are better suited for birds.
The data collected from this studies can be used to further conservation efforts. Special localized plans can be set up to help declining birds. Important Bird Areas can be designated through this same process. We are currently working on a project to name the Kishwaukee River Corridor (one of the cleanest rivers in northern Illinois) or at least Deer Run, an IBA.
Golden-winged Warbler
We have spearheaded a project with our local bird club, NCIOS, to count 14 declining birds in our area:
- Bell’s Vireo
- Bobolink
- Dickcissel
- Henslow’s Sparrow
- Red-headed Woodpecker
- Sedge Wren
- Blue-winged Warbler
- Cerulean Warbler
- Golden-winged Warbler
- Hooded Warbler
- Kentucky Warbler
- Prothonotary Warbler
- Whip-poor-will
- Wood Thrush
Blue-winged Warbler
The goal is to get a baseline status of these birds in our county and the surrounding counties. We’ll be updating periodically through the spring and summer and have a full report in October.
Deer Run Birding Field Trip-Survey
June 15, 2008
Article in: Bird Conservation
Saturday we were part of a wonderful field trip to Deer Run Forest Preserve, the place we have been surveying since December 1st. We had around 15 birders and saw quite a few nice prairie birds REALLY well.
Spiderwort
Over the last few days Veery and Birdfreak have each been out to Deer Run but not for an official survey. So for the field trip, we decided to merge all the birds sighted into one “mini” survey.
One of the big highlights was a new bird, a Clay-colored Sparrow, the 16th species of sparrow found here. This was found the previous day, but not relocated on our field trip. However, everyone had scope-views of Grasshopper and Henslow’s Sparrows and also great views of Dickcissels and Eastern Meadowlarks.
There were numerous Lark Sparrows, a confirmed nester as we witnessed them carrying food and feeding their young.
Eastern Kingbird (taken a few weeks ago)
Another new bird for the survey area was one of our prairie favorites, Dickcissel. We had both males and a female but heard them more often than we saw them.
We have now tallied 5,962 individual birds of 141 species.
Dickcissel
Winnie the Whimbrel’s Record Flight
June 14, 2008
Article in: Bird Conservation
The College of William and Mary along with the Nature Conservancy have recently recorded a wayward Whimbrel, which they named Winnie, completing a record flight. In 146 hours this radio-tracked shorebird traversed 3,200 miles [nearly 22 MPH].
Whimbrel
Photo from Mike Baird (Flickr Creative Commons)
“This discovery sets a new distance record in the flight range of this species and highlights the hemispheric importance of the Delmarva Peninsula as a staging area for migratory shorebirds. The flight documented this spring challenges some long-held assumptions and raises several new questions about Whimbrel ecology.” – Bryan Watts, Director of the Center for Conservation Biology.
As these transmitters get smaller and lighter, this sort of tracking will prove crucial to all sorts of migrant birds and bird conservation. Read the entire article from W&M News.
Phriday Photo – Killdeer Crossing
June 13, 2008
Article in: Photography
This Killdeer parent was discovered at Deer Run Forest Preserve and had four young chicks. The chicks mistakenly came out in the open, but were well protected by their aerial mom (or dad).
CNP Update: Downy Downies
June 12, 2008
Article in: Birding
Sometimes, you don’t have to do much to get kids excited about birdwatching (or adults for that matter). The “common” birds are a great way to show off how awesome birds are to anyone. Caring for these commoners helps build a lasting desire to protect the creatures you care about, creating future and lasting conservationists.
As luck would have it, the Callaway Nature Preserve was blessed with a pair of Downy Woodpeckers attempting to nest in our birch tree. Over the last two weeks we have observed at least two young woodpeckers (a male and female) peering out of their hole in eager anticipation for their parents to arrive with food. The variety of insects brought to them has been astounding – from green caterpillars to spiders to things with more legs than we’d like to count.
Sammie and Dakota, two of the young Birdfreaks, have come home from school all last week, eager to run out to the “Downy Chairs” we set up for them to watch the action. They have noted that the Downies will “clean up their house” and that the young Downies get loud and excited when food arrives.
Cleaning the nest hole
Downy Woodpeckers might be common, but they are one of the most common species of backyard birds that may be encountered. They are easily observed and relatively fearless (our Doberman would sprint by on his invisible race track while a feeding would be taking place). Even if you aren’t a birder yet, it doesn’t take long to be impressed with the actions of these wonderful woodpeckers.
Female Downy Woodpecker
Male Downy Woodpecker
With many eyes watching the past few days, it was Dakota who alone witnessed the young male Downy fledge. The woodpecker made his way high up in one of our maples before sallying to the giant elm where he could be heard but not seen well. The family has since quieted down and become nearly impossible to see, but from our viewpoint, they were successful and provided us a great learning tool for the kids (and us too!).
Video Wednesday – Cleanup on Aisle Downy Hole
June 11, 2008
Article in: Videos
Our backyard Downy Woodpeckers have been busy the last few weeks feeding and taking care of their young. Here the male does a little cleanup. Includes slow motion!
Downy Woodpecker Cleaning Up from birdfreak on Vimeo.
