Entries Tagged 'Birdfun' ↓

Murphy’s law is an adage in Western culture that broadly states that if anything can go wrong, it will. “If there’s more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way.” It is most often cited as “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong”.

That is the general description for what Murphy’s Law is. But how does this adage relate to birding? Here are some examples:

1. If the least-experienced birder in your birding group wants you to identify a bird they spotted in their binoculars and you take the time to help them out, the bird will turn out to be a Brown-Headed Cowbird, and you will have missed out on that rare migrant you have been trying to spot all day.

2. If you are the least-experienced birder on your expedition, and you’re too embarrassed to ask a veteran birder to help you identify a bird because you’re worried they’ll say, “Oh, that’s a Northern Cardinal,” you’ll realize, as the bird is flying away, that you were looking at what would have been a life bird, if only you knew what it was!

3. You decide to make a spontaneous stop at a hot birding locale on the way home from work. As you are climbing out of the car, you can tell it’s going to be a real birdy day out. That’s when you realize you left your bins at home!

4. After that last time, you make sure to have your bins on hand, but…where are all the birds?

5. Your group has been trying to spot a Blackburnian Warbler all day, but no one sees it…until you make a quick trip to the outhouse, and you’re the only one who misses it!

6. Rain, wind, snow, sleet, hail, extreme heat, extreme cold…whichever one you were dreading the most is what you get on the first day off to go birding you’ve had in weeks.

7. Muddy boots, sunburn, wood ticks, mosquito bites, sore feet…these are the elements that are a part of birding that you could do without, but you will always get!

8. One for the bird photographers and one that has happened to us one too many times: you have that skulking White-eyed Vireo finally out in the open, posed in perfect lighting and your camera battery goes dead.

So birding has its downs, that’s for sure, but no true birder would ever give up their passion because of a few pitfalls. Sometimes the biggest disasters make for the most memorable stories to share with other birders.

Feel free to share some of your own “Murphy Moments” in the comments!!

We were tagged by Birdchick for a 6 word meme describing your inner birder. Here is what we came up with:

To continue the fun, we must tag five others:

1. Iowa Voice
2. Teach Me About Birdwatching!!!
3. Hondubirding
4. Sandpiper’s Place
5. Sycamore Canyon

Here are the rules:

1. Write your own six word memoir

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere

4 .Tag five more blogs with links

5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Back in January, 2007, we posted the following video clip we made of an American Robin to music. It would be so wonderful if there were more videos that put birds and music together (as they did in Winged Migration). So here it is again, an American Robin shaking it to the song Dare by the Gorillaz

While thumbing through the April issue of Birder’s World, we came across perhaps the coolest article ever published.

Ralph Eldridge, a year-round lighthouse keeper near the coast of New Brunswick, Canada, has been witnessing incredible migrant activity on a little treeless island. The island is more famously known for Atlantic Puffin, Razorbill, and tern colonies, but during migration it becomes a vital stop in inclement weather for songbirds.

Eldridge’s photos capture the amazing sights of many species together in one place. Have you ever seen an Ovenbird and a Spotted Sandpiper side-by-side?

Check out Ralph Eldridge’s migrant collection !!!

Here are our top ten blue birds, enjoy!

1. Eastern Bluebird - This is the state bird of New York and Missouri, and it’s a good choice. Eastern Bluebirds are cool birds that are not too elusive, making them easy to find.

Eastern Bluebirds can be found in Northern Illinois year-round, though they are less common in winter (we get pretty excited about winter sightings). Although they were declining in the 60s and 70s, they rebounded quickly with the help of vigorous nest-box campaigning and are easy for children to observe.

2. Blue Grosbeak - This uncommon bird hangs out in shrubby areas, unfortunately, very rarely in our area. The female is brown, but also very beautiful.
Continue reading →

Birding has come a long way since the days of shotguns and musty museum specimens. With advances in technology and the internet, birders are now able to not only find birds easier but also share their sightings with others.

Birdstack is a new website that allows users to submit sightings from anywhere in the world and “communitize” with other birders. The process is pretty simple: submit a sighting after choosing a location and build your life list online. You can then create a widget to post your sightings on your blog or website that will update as you add more sightings.

American Goldfinch - added to our Birdstack!

Birdstack uses the International Ornithological Congress’s list of birds of the world. Any updates or revisions to this list will automatically adjust as species are split or lumped.

We’ve just started using Birdstack and have had a few “difficulties” with the sighting submission process:

• Currently, you seem to only be able to submit one sighting at a time although there is an import function that we haven’t tried yet
• You are required to include the latitude and longitude with your location sightings which is somewhat annoying Bug fixed!!
• Google maps are integrated in the submission process yet seemed to not let us zoom in far enough to pinpoint a location of the birding spot we wanted Update: Working fine now; Google issue

The submission process will undoubtedly get better, especially as Birdstack is working with eBird to integrate bird sightings. What we really love so far are the sidebar widgets and hope they will offer more customized looks soon.

The site just launched on January 20th, so join now and keep up-to-date as they evolve.

Birdstack was created by David Ringer and Curtis Hawthorne.

We did the Top 10 Black Birds, and though how about doing Top 10 Blackbirds too? The blackbird family consists of 25 species, including meadowlarks and orioles.

Here is our Top 10, in no particular order:

1. Red-winged Blackbird - Abundant, fierce, and loud would be a decent description for this blackbird. They are everywhere in open areas and if you stray too close, you might get a peck on the head! (Veery has had a dive-bombing incident before.) The males and females are both beautiful, but they look nothing alike.

Male Red-winged Blackbird.

2. Bobolink - One of the coolest things about a Bobolink is their metallic, jangly flight song. We can see the Bobolink in Winnebago County, but Horicon Marsh’s Bud Cook Nature Trail is a consistent place to find this great-sounding bird.

Male Bobolink
Continue reading →