Birdfreak.com

Skywatch Friday – Cedar Waxwing Aerials

The Birdfreak Team — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:16:24 +0000

BioBlitzing at the Governor’s Mansion

The Birdfreak Team — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:00:46 +0000

Former Ohio First Lady Hope Taft invited the Ohio Young Birders Club to participate in the Ohio Governor’s Residence Heritage Garden BioBlitz on August 28, 2010.

This was an amazing opportunity for the young birders to work with experts in many natural fields as well as network with each other. The Governor of Ohio, Ted Strickland, made an appearance to meet the group and posed for some photos.

Photo Op

We split into three groups and set off to count birds, plants, insects and animals in the garden and two other neighboring houses. Hope Taft was kind enough to give a detailed tour of the garden to each group. She showed us many native plants in the garden, all from the five physiographic regions in Ohio. Different plants, soil and information was posted throughout the grounds from a cranberry bog, to a native prairie to a sand dune.

Sphinx Moth Caterpillar

We saw a great example of how native plants can be incorporated into a suburban yard, large or small. The mansion recycles water and uses solar panels for supplemental energy. Their goal to become energy-neutral or better is a work-in-progress. Governor Strickland plans to install a porous brick driveway to collect recycled water for the gardens and at some point a green roof.

Dew Drops on a Spiderweb

OYBC – Group

What a great experience to promote the Ohio Young Birders Club, native plantings, and energy efficient living. We had a great time and learned a lot!

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

A Birding Adventure in Central Park – Bird Walks From the American Museum of Natural History

The Birdfreak Team — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:40:10 +0000

From the American Museum of Natural History:

Observe more than 50 different species of birds—including resident and migrant birds, water birds, song birds, and birds of prey— during this eight-week bird-watching adventure in Central Park. Join naturalists Stephen C. Quinn (Tuesdays and Fridays), Joseph DiCostanzo (Wednesdays and Thursdays, 7 am), and Harold Feinberg (Thursdays, 9 am) on tours through the park, one of the premier places locally to watch birds during spring and fall migrations. Participants will learn how to use field marks, habitat, behavior, and song as aids in identification. Interested birders, from beginners to the advanced, are invited.

WHEN:
Eight Tuesdays: September 7–October 26, 7–9 am
Eight Wednesdays: September 8–October 27, 7–9 am
Eight Thursdays: September 9–October 28, 7–9 am
Eight Thursdays: September 9–October 28, 9–11 am
Eight Fridays: September 10–October 29, 7–9 am

WHERE:
Walks start across from the Museum on the northeast corner of Central Park West and 77th Street.

ADMISSION $85

Get more info and order tickets online.

Wordless Wednesday – Swamp Sparrow

The Birdfreak Team — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:00:32 +0000

Part of Wordless Wednesday

Great Blue Heron – “I’m In A Tree!”

The Birdfreak Team — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:00:12 +0000

Great Blue Herons nest in trees, often in large groups called “rookeries”. That said, I was still surprised to spot a heronish blob across the prairie at Deer Run Forest Preserve. I quickly confirmed the bird was indeed a GBH but I was intrigued by his preening position, a few hundred feet from the nearby river.

I snapped a couple shots from afar and then tried to approach via what I thought was an inconspicuous trail.

I’m In A Tree!

I approached quietly and slowly but the mosquitoes chomping on my arm were nearly too much and I hastened my pace. The heron obviously wasn’t perching there for my amusement and as soon as I had a clear view of his bare-branched resting spot, he spooked.

I, like many birders, have seen herons hundreds (thousands? millions?) of times but this one let out the loudest heron croak imaginable and I could just feel his disdain for my presence. Nonetheless, a wonderful view of an oft overlooked “common” bird.

Great Blue Heron, spooked

We know herons like to nest in trees but why should one perch there, near a prairie, above a trail when the river is nearby? He was clearly preening but we’d like any thoughts on the benefits of this perch-of-choice. Gotta love bird behavior!!

Bird Photography Weekly #105

The Birdfreak Team — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 05:30:32 +0000

Join in now on the 105th edition of Bird Photography Weekly!!

Help spread the word with these badges:

Copy this code to place this badge:

Wordless Wednesday – Prothonotary Warbler

The Birdfreak Team — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:00:19 +0000

Check it out: Wordless Wednesday

Princeton University Press – Double Field Guide Giveaway!

The Birdfreak Team — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:40:09 +0000

Princeton University Press is giving away two of the finest bird guides out there: Birds of Western North America: A Photographic Guide and Birds of Eastern North America: A Photographic Guide.

The contest ends Friday, August 27th, 2010 but is super easy to enter. Just follow Princeton University Press on Twitter or “like” them on Facebook. You’ll be automatically entered to win!!

We reviewed both books and use the Eastern guide often. They are awesome!!

Bird Photography Weekly #104

The Birdfreak Team — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 05:31:25 +0000

Join in now on the 104th edition of Bird Photography Weekly!!

Help spread the word with these badges:

Copy this code to place this badge:

Review – Princeton Field Guides Birds of Peru

The Birdfreak Team — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:00:33 +0000

Peru is a ridiculously cool place to see birds. With over 1,800 species to be seen in a wide array of beautiful habitats, Peru is on most birders short lists of must-see destinations.

Birds of Peru (Princeton Field Guides) provides a complete and awesome guide to identify Peruvian birds. The guide covers 1,817 bird species, all in full color and, despite the overwhelming feeling of grasping so many birds, manages to keep things organized.

Birds of Peru uses artwork to accurately depict the most obvious plumages and provides descriptive text and identification tips, focusing on using the guide in the field. Distribution maps are included next to the text, and although they are small, provide a great overview of where to find the birds.

The introduction provides plenty of information on the habitat types of Peru, how to use the guide, and a few maps to better understand Peru’s topography and the 24 departments (like states) of Peru.

There is also a wonderful section on conservation that includes a list and locator map of the most important bird locations in Peru.

Birds of Peru is most definitely a must for any birder who badly wants to travel to Peru (like me) and is a gem of information on perhaps the best neotropical birding locale.

Wordless Wednesday – Wood Duck

The Birdfreak Team — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:43:53 +0000

August 18th Wordless Wednesday

Bird Photography Weekly #103

The Birdfreak Team — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 05:33:12 +0000

Join in now on the 103rd edition of Bird Photography Weekly!!

Help spread the word with these badges:

Copy this code to place this badge:

Go Fly a (Mississippi) Kite!

The Birdfreak Team — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:00:11 +0000

Mississippi Kites have invaded Rockford once again and are becoming “regular” breeders. The birds are often easy to find just hanging out at their favorite perch where they sally for cicadas and harass Chimney Swifts. Here are some photos of an early morning visit with my pup Bella.

The following were digiscoped. The quality isn’t quite as good as the ones taken with the 100-400mm lens but I could get closer AND I was able to digiscope behind a couple other photographers, thus not disturbing the bird or their shots.

These are taken with the Canon 100-400mm lens and cropped. (Taken from a different location and angle, slightly closer.)

My favorite shot, although a bit blurry.

Bird Photography Weekly #102

The Birdfreak Team — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 05:26:39 +0000

Join in now on the 102nd edition of Bird Photography Weekly!!

Help spread the word with these badges:

Copy this code to place this badge:

The Future of the American Birding Association (ABA)

The Birdfreak Team — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:00:13 +0000

Of late there has been a lot of discussion about the future of the American Birding Association (ABA). Without knowing too much of the inside tribulations, we hope to provide some thoughts on what the ABA can do to once again become an essential resource for birders and encourage new members to the “club”. The ABA now seeks a new president, one that can reestablish the strengths of what is a first-class organization. We have a suggestion for this too, but that’s at the bottom of this post.

I have been a member for nearly 10 years, my nephew was a winner of the writing module of the ABA/Leica Young Birder of the Year Contest, and I often bird with two past presidents of the ABA. The future of the ABA may be a bit shaky, but they’ve seen worse and I feel there is a lot of hope still.

The ABA has been around since 1969 and has gone through some pretty rough times, including a period in the 80s where it almost went under completely. A lot of forward thinking leaders turned things around. Two of these leaders, Larry Balch and Dan Williams, are currently active birders and members of our very own bird club in Rockford, North Central Illinois Ornithological Society (NCIOS).

Larry Balch was ABA president from 1983 to 1989 and Dan Williams was president from 1993 to 1997. Both are excellent birders and dedicated conservationists.

Dan wrote some wonderful messages about the future of birding and how ABA would be a part of it, especially in his first message printed in the Feb 1994 issue of Birding. This twenty-fifth anniversary issue looked back on the past but with the goal of seeking a positive and successful future. Dan pointed out how ABA would still remain true to its roots—a meeting place for birders. But, as the organization has grown and matured, the ABA has been evolving into something broader (in terms of the initial “lister-based” membership).

It is this broadness that we wish to focus on: as an organization for birders, the need for conservation and education has never been so necessary. In the 16 years since this 25th anniversary, the ongoing discussion of conservation, education, and also increasing membership is still going. And we don’t just mean membership in the ABA, but growing the number of BIRDERS as a group: birders that contribute their time, knowledge, and funding to help new and existing birders as a whole.

What we’d like to see the ABA do is find better ways to tap the resources they already have: their current membership! Thousands of active and knowledgeable birders with information that is lost or poorly broadcast. Numerous members have blogs and are active on Facebook and Twitter but, for all but a few at the top, their words and photos are only viewed by small numbers of people.

If the ABA could incentivize these content producers to contribute to Birding and the ABA website as a whole, imagine the new amounts of information that could be spread in a way that the internet hopelessly can not do: in an organized, well-designed, focused arrangement, with edited and additional professionalism added to it.

Essentially, we think that the ABA could create a sort of print-version of user-generated content from “regular” birders all across the country. The internet has become so distracting that many birders can’t keep up with it all, other than monitoring their local bird sighting list-servs and reading a handful of popular blogs and other websites.

This new approach would cut through the clutter and provide a unique and sought-after resource for all birders, positioning the ABA in such a way that they aren’t competing against technology but embracing it. Not only that, but the ABA would be reaching out to their members in ways never before seen.

Who Should be the Next ABA President?

We think Kim Kaufman would be perfect for the job. Kim is the Executive Director of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory and started the Ohio Young Birder Club in 2006. Most recently she organized The Biggest Week in American Birding, an immediate success.

These are just a few of the “big ticket” accomplishments of Kim. What really makes her stand out is a personality that epitomizes birding. Her attitude to birders is always open and friendly, whether you’re a seasoned expert or brand new to the scene. She has insanely good people skills as well as organizational skills. Her dedication to young birders is unsurpassed, which alone qualifies her for the position in my book.

I met Kim twice, once in the Quad Cities for the Midwest Birding Symposium where she spent a great deal of time hiking with Dakota and teaching him all sorts of stuff about nature. The second time was during the heat of the Biggest Week. She graciously took time out from juggling a bazillion tasks to speak with Stacia, Jennie, and I and even let Bella (my dog) give her a big kiss.

Kim may not want the job, but I know she’d make a perfect president.

Bird Photography Weekly #101

The Birdfreak Team — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 05:39:14 +0000

Join in now on the 101st edition of Bird Photography Weekly!!

Help spread the word with these badges:

Copy this code to place this badge:

Review of Raptors of New Mexico

The Birdfreak Team — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:00:41 +0000

New Mexico is huge—the 5th largest state in the U.S.—so it’s no surprise that there is a great diversity of habitat. Add to this the geographical location of this beautiful state and your bound to find a great variety of birds and lots of them.

Raptors of New Mexico, edited by Jean-Luc E. Cartron, covers all the raptors that occur in the state. This includes vultures, eagles, kites, osprey, falcons, hawks, and owls. This huge book includes tons of information largely inaccessible or buried in scientific journals. But Raptors of New Mexico isn’t just strictly scientific research; it also includes natural history information and aesthetically appealing photographs.

The numerous photos and stories from the field keep the species accounts lively and engaging, just the way real-life birding is.

The individual chapters on each species of raptor also includes maps of breeding and/or migratory movement plus charts and tables displaying data from Christmas Bird Counts and other studies. The information on distribution, habitat, and behavior is especially useful for birders wishing to locate and study particular birds. The sections on status and management is wonderfully useful for bird conservationists.

While Raptors of New Mexico is highly detailed, gorgeous, and full of incredible information, it may not be for all birders. But if you live in or visit the Land of Enchantment or if you have a great love for raptors, than Raptors of New Mexico belongs in your library.

————————
Raptors of New Mexico
ed. Jean-Luc E. Cartron
University of New Mexico Press
728 pages, 744 color photographs
ISBN: 978-0-8263-4145-7

Disclaimer: We received this book from the publisher to review on birdfreak.com.

51st Supplement to the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) Checklist

The Birdfreak Team — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:37:47 +0000

The American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) has released the 51st supplement to the AOU Checklist. Expert birder Michael Retter has an excellent summary of these changes. Bird sound expert Nathan Pieplow has additional info as well, including sounds.

Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis), one of the species “split”

These periodic changes occur when new scientific information is learned about species and their relationships to each other. For “listers” these changes involve refiguring their lifelists and often adding new species.

It is always a good idea to study notable subspecies of birds that are likely or possible to be “split”.

Bird Photography Weekly #100

The Birdfreak Team — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 05:31:46 +0000

Join in now on the 100th edition of Bird Photography Weekly!!

Help spread the word with these badges:

Copy this code to place this badge:

Can it Be too Hot to Bird?

The Birdfreak Team — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:00:25 +0000

We Birdfreaks tend to slow down in July when it comes to birding. Between cookouts and family reunions, music in the park and swimming, the summer can slip by in a flash.

Today was the perfect time to head out to Rock Cut State Park in Rockford, Illinois. Jennie and Dakota are here visiting from Findlay, Ohio (Dakota has spent most of his summer in Illinois).

We arrived around nine in the morning. The sun was hot and the humidity high. We hiked along one of the equestrian trails and headed into the woods. We found a White-eyed Vireo, several vocal Eastern Wood-Pewees, many active woodpeckers, Indigo Buntings and a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Can it be too hot to go birding? When it is so hot and humid, extra precautions should be taken. On hot days, you should bring extra water (more than you think you’ll need), apply sunscreen and bug spray, and dress in light-weight clothing. Be prepared to walk at a slower pace and take breaks if you need to. As long as you come prepared, hot-weather birding can be done.

Are birds even out in hot weather? This time of year many species are less vocal and somewhat more difficult to find. Birding is more pleasant earlier in the day or late in the evening, but birds really can be found all day.

Sometimes, it is good just to get out there and endure. There might not be much to be seen, but once you are sweaty head to toe, you can’t get more sweaty so enjoy! Get dirty! Be one of the brave souls out in the elements. (And then go home and take a shower!)

Wall Poster – Sibley Backyard Birds: Eastern North America

The Birdfreak Team — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:00:06 +0000

David Allen Sibley is one of the world’s top wildlife artists. His detailed birds grace the pages of the beautiful Sibley Guide to Birds and more recently, Sibley crafted The Sibley Guide to Trees.

Now you can get Sibley’s birds as a jaw-dropping wall poster. Measuring 24″ x 36″, the Sibley Backyard Birds: Eastern North America wall poster has a dizzying display of 98 species of birds you are likely to find in your backyard or local park. Hang this poster on a wall or door near your favorite birding window and quickly compare what you find!

This poster makes a super gift for newer birders (especially younger ones!). The impact of seeing so many birds together—sized to scale and full of color—is sure to inspire anyone to take an extra long look into the natural world and all its beauty.

We received this poster from the publisher, Scott & Nix, Inc., to provide a review.

Bird Photography Weekly #99

The Birdfreak Team — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 05:21:31 +0000

Join in now on the 99th edition of Bird Photography Weekly!!

Help spread the word with these badges:

Copy this code to place this badge:

Review – Molt in North American Birds (Peterson Reference Guides)

The Birdfreak Team — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:00:40 +0000

Molt: (of birds, insects, reptiles, etc.) to cast or shed the feathers, skin, or the like, that will be replaced by a new growth. While it is something we are well aware of, molt is a highly complex part of a bird’s life history. There are many questions about why, when, how, where birds molt. Steve N. G. Howell’s Peterson Reference Guide to Molt in North American Birds aims to answer these in a complete and highly scientific reference.

With a large array of photographs accompanying detailed (and technical) text, Molt explains the ins and outs of molt strategies among North American bird families that occur north of Mexico. Topics ranging from the evolution of molt strategies to how plumage is colored is covered. Also included are diagrams labeling the types of feathers on various bird families (primaries, secondaries, scapulars, tertials, etc.).

Molt describes the four fundamental molt strategies:

Simple Basic Strategy (SBS)
Complex Basic Strategy (CBS)
Simple Alternate Strategy (SAS)
Complex Alternate Strategy (CAS)

Howell also goes into how molt can be a critical tool when identifying difficult and closely-related birds in the field. Of course, in many birds molt is not going to be the best key for identification, but having a good basic understanding of how molt works is still valuable for even casual birders.

Molting patterns assist in life-history predictions such as migration distance and breeding seasons. Howell explains how information about Black Swifts and Cave Swallows, for example, have been unearthed because of studying molt. And while a lot of molt is easier to witness in birds captured (either collected or in bird banding), birders can witness molt in the field with careful observations and knowing what to look for.

For the average birder, Molt may be a bit much to digest and surely isn’t the easiest of reads. The science behind it is complex although utterly fascinating. But Howell provides a great reference to study specific bird families or to look up information that has much more complete coverage than other bird books.

The large introduction is especially worthwhile if you can survive it. (I was never good at the more scientific aspects of birding, the reason I got a degree in marketing after switching majors from biology.) The individual sections on families of birds provides some great points especially in commonly hard-to-identify groups like wood-warblers and sparrows.

The book was sent to us by the publisher to review and the links are Amazon affiliate links.

“Thunderbird” T-Shirt From RIPT Apparel

The Birdfreak Team — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:00:57 +0000

Each and every day at RIPT Apparel a new t-shirt design comes out. While there are tons of wicked cool designs in the “graveyard“, today’s design is a cool thunderbird from Seattle-based artist Nick Beery. You only have 24 hours to purchase it but it’s only 10 bucks!!

I have the very first shirt RIPT ever produced: “More Trees for Birds“.

Bird Photography Weekly #98

The Birdfreak Team — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 05:41:38 +0000

Join in now on the 98th edition of Bird Photography Weekly!!

Help spread the word with these badges:

Copy this code to place this badge: