Shreve Migration Sensation
March 31, 2010
Article in: Birding
March 27, 2010 was the Shreve Migration Sensation in Shreve, Ohio. Registration began at 7 and programs were held all day. Dakota and I (Jennie) spent most of our time on the Ohio Young Birder Club‘s field trip exploring the area. The Shreve area is beautiful and hopping with birds. Waterfowl and shorebirds were the main focus and I am positive no one left disappointed! 
Many of the event attendees were Amish and they hiked and rode bikes as well as rode in caravans to go birding over the area. It was very cool to see so many birders on bicycles.
Both Kim and Kenn Kaufman spoke at the event. The Ohio Young Birders gave a presentation called Birding Basics. They did a wonderful job discussing equipment, new birder tips, and busted up common stereotypes of the “typical bird watcher”.
As well as seeing Northern Pintails, Hooded Mergansers, Greater Yellowlegs and Pectoral Sandpipers, we were able to see a large number of birders in one place and meet wonderful people. This event is a true celebration of birds and birding.
Many young birders also love snakes!
Good birding!
Review – Princeton Field Guides: Birds of the Horn of Africa: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and Socotra
March 29, 2010
Article in: Book Reviews
The “horn” of Africa consists of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and Socotra, an area that is under-birded and thus less known than other parts of Africa. Some of this geographical area is “off-limits” to birders, yet with over 1,000 species recorded, is still an interesting and diverse place.
Many of the species found in Birds of the Horn of Africa
Birds of the Horn of Africa
The species accounts are detailed and a bit crowded, a necessity to fit in so many birds. The range maps are tiny but color-coded for efficiency.
Each section of birds (groupings) or specific families is introduced with a generalized description. This is a great aid to birders in familiarizing with unknown groups of birds.
The full color plates (illustrations) are well organized and spaced better than the facing text. However, the text, while crammed, provides a great deal of info including habitat and habits, voice, alternative names, identification keys, and remarks on what data is still lacking.
This is the first field guide to birds of northeast Africa and will hopefully encourage more birding trips and research to a truly amazing place.
Birds of the Horn of Africa: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and Socotra (Princeton Field Guides)
Nigel Redman, Jerry Stevenson, and John Fanshawe
Illustrated by: John Gale and Brian Small
Princeton University Press
ISBN13: 978-0-691-14345-3
Disclosure: we were given a copy of this wonderful book by the publisher to review. However, we were not persuaded to say or do anything other than give an honest review, which we have.
Bird Photography Weekly #83
March 28, 2010
Article in: Bird Photography Weekly
Join in now on the 83rd edition of Bird Photography Weekly!!
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Review – All About Birds: A Short Illustrated History of Ornithology
March 25, 2010
Article in: Book Reviews
Birds have captured the attention of humans for all time. Their colorful beauty, musical voices, mysterious migrations, intriguing behaviors, and effortless flight make birds a popular attraction. Plus, they are relatively easy animals to study.
All about Birds: A Short Illustrated History of Ornithology
Cover to cover, All About Birds is loaded with illustrations, photographs, and diagrams of the people, birds, and events that have advanced ornithology and led to modern day birding. Learn about the famous names like John James Audubon and Alexander Wilson as well as lesser known but important players such as John Ray and Francis Willughby.
Reading through The rise and influence of American ornithology you come across names like Cassin, Baird, Nuttall, and Bonaparte, all people with birds named after them. Reading about their backgrounds is enlightening to the influence they had on ornithology.
Of course, bird study was conducted all over the globe and All About Birds does an excellent job covering all corners of the globe.
However, All About Birds does seem to lack in the coverage of the 20th Century. While this time period is covered, including a section on Roger Tory Peterson, more information could have been included. The last century has been huge in terms of ornithology, conservation, and the popularization of birding. Of course, many of these great people are still hard at work and not yet part of “history”.
Regardless, All About Birds provides a great reference to the wonderful history of ornithology and the great discoveries have ultimately built the foundation of today’s modern birder. Birders can learn a lot from this book: where we came from and how we can become a part of ornithological history.
All About Birds provides bold face type for important names and organizations as well as annotations in the sidebars describing the illustrations and important events. Included is a color-coded timeline that assists in following history from 340 B.C. to the year 2002.
All about Birds: A Short Illustrated History of Ornithology
Valérie Chansigaud
Princeton University Press
ISBN13: 978-0-691-14519-8
March 21, 2010
Disclosure: we were given a copy of this wonderful book by the publisher to review. However, we were not persuaded to say or do anything other than give an honest review, which we have.
Birding Ohio – Skydance (American Woodcock)
March 23, 2010
Article in: Birding
Saturday March 20th, Dakota and I (Jennie) visited the Black Swamp Bird Observatory and Magee Marsh Wildlife Area in Northwest Ohio for the first time (but not the last!!). We were there to attend a program and field trip on the American Woodcock and got there early for some chilly spring birding.
It couldn’t have been more than forty or fifty degrees and I would describe the wind as fierce. A mile-long boardwalk trail gifted us our very first Ohio Brown Creepers and Fox Sparrows, and we witnessed Downy Woodpeckers squabbling over mates and territories. Dakota pointed out a Mink (we think!) and some sunning turtles.
Downy Woodpecker female – Photo by Dakota
Lake Erie was beautiful and cold, but we took the beach trail anyway. Dakota was in search of small animal bones but after about twenty minutes we decided enough with wind and headed back.
Dakota and chilly Lake Erie
The marsh was great; we found swans, Great Blue Herons, Ring-necked Ducks, American Coots and some groups of waterfowl too far out to identify. By seven we headed over to the Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO).
The American Woodcock program was great. Such a nondescript bird, but what a display it puts on! Mark Shieldcastle, Master Bander and Research Director of the BSBO, gave us the low down on the species and then led us out into the twilight.
We were not disappointed! In addition to seeing the bird in flight and hearing the calls, our entire group would see it land ten or fifteen feet in front of us directly on the walking path! It was an amazing sight. I could not describe this bird as well as Aldo Leopold, so I decided to include the excerpt from A Sand County Almanac below:
“Knowing the place and the hour, you seat yourself under a bush to the east of the dance floor and wait, watching against the sunset for the woodcock’s arrival. He flies in low from some neighboring thicket, alights on the bare moss, and at once begins the overture: a series of queer throaty peents spaced about two seconds apart, and sounding much like the summer call of the nighthawk… Suddenly the peenting ceases and the bird flutters skyward in a series of wide spirals, emitting a musical twitter. Up and up he goes, the spirals steeper and smaller, the twittering louder and louder, until the performer is only a speck in the sky. Then, without warning, he tumbles like a crippled plane, giving voice in a soft liquid warble that a March bluebird might envy. At a few feet from the ground he levels off and returns to his peenting ground, usually to the exact spot where the performance began, and there resumes his peenting.”
It is with utmost excitement that I encourage anyone and everyone to take a trip out to this area. In addition to Magee Marsh, next door is the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. No lack of birding and conservation here! When I am missing Illinois and the trips to Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin, I will feel very at home visiting these places.
Good birding!
Review – Princeton Field Guides: Birds of Europe, Second Edition
March 22, 2010
Article in: Book Reviews
The long awaited second edition to the Birds of Europe: Second Edition (Princeton Field Guides)
Birds of Europe
713 species of birds get full coverage with an additional 59 species (that are occasional visitors) get partial coverage. 118 rare visitors are also included.
Birds of Europe
The opposite-facing text is complex and compact, describing in great detail the habitat and key identifying marks. The species voice is given excellent coverage.
The range maps are small, making it a bit difficult to fully grasp ranges, especially limited ones.
With over 3,500 color illustrations and a vault of information on a vast geographic area, Birds of Europe
Read the press release from Princeton University Press’s Blog.
Birds of Europe: Second Edition (Princeton Field Guides)
Text and Maps by: Lars Svensson
Illustrations and Captions by: Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterström
Princeton University Press
March 31, 2010
ISBN13: 978-0-691-14392-7
Disclosure: we were given a copy of this wonderful book by the publisher to review. However, we were not persuaded to say or do anything other than give an honest review, which we have.
