Blog Transfer

Hello, all, NBB here. We're going to be transferring Sharon's blog over to Wordpress this weekend, so you may experience some difficulty getting to it. It should all be resolved shortly.

State Of The Birds Address

Well, yesterday started the media onslaught of the State of the Birds Report. I feel like I'm supposed to be super excited about this big report,but I find myself cautiously optimistic.

I think part of it is that every few years, you see a bunch of high profile birders and organizations get together, create a group like "Conservation Through Birding" and a couple of years later it disappears. Usually because there's so much going on, everyone is so spread out, there's not enough money, and another project comes up. So when I see a list of government and well know conservation and academic institutions comes together to release a report about bird population declines, I wonder, "How is that going to work? How will all those organizations play together?"

Here's a list of the organizations:

International Bird Conservation in the US
American Bird Conservancy
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
National Audubon Society
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Klamath Bird Observatory
The Nature Conservancy
US Fish and Wildlife
US Geological Survey
Partners in Flight
Partnership for Shorebird Conservation
North American Waterfowl Management Plan
Waterbird Conservation

That's a bunch of big groups, with their own projects (for the benefit of birds) but big groups can be unwieldy and hard to work with. Will this work?

Basically, birds in the US are in trouble. It's nothing new to anyone interested in birds and you can see an overview of the bird report here. I watched the fancy video, skimmed the report, noted the organizations involved (noticed Ducks Unlimited was not involved and wondered if they declined or is this a case of birders not inviting them and wanting to create their own group away from hunting--which I think is a mistake, the birder and the hunter should be friends and working together will do far more than working apart).

I went through the material asking myself, what is the point of the State of the Birds address--just trying to get the average person's attention?

But then I found the What You Can Do section.

Great Backyard Bird Count, Avian Knowledge Network, eBird, the Landbird Monitoring Network, HawkCount, Project Feederwatch, just to name a few. There are also 6 million note cards housed in a US Geological Survey cabinet with migratory records dating back to the 19th century. Using an online entry form, volunteers (you) can turn scanned cards into database entries, bringing the invaluable data into the 21st century. Anyone care to enter in two records a day or maybe do five a week?

Those are all great projects and relatively easy things that the average person can do. These are a bunch of big organizations with big projects combining their resources. Now this is pretty exciting and I'm curious to see where it goes. This is a way that anyone, any group could help with research and maybe give a clear handle on how to help some of these bird populations.

I also really like that I got press releases out the ying yang from many of the groups involved. I think it's encouraging that they are trying to harness the power of the internet to get people involved with birds they may never had heard about and get the message out.

Questions are still in my head: Can these groups really work together in the long term? Can we keep the momentum going?

We don't know until we try.

So pick a project or two and see if you can jump in and help improve the State of the Birds.

State of the Birds

In case you missed it, here's the link to the video on and info about the state of the birds in the US.

Upcoming Events

Don't forget, tonight is Birds and Beers at Merlin's Rest at 6pm. Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of people of level of interest in birds to get together and talk some birds.

Also, I'm getting excited about the Indianapolis Digiscoping Workshop that will be held at Eagle Creek Park, Sunday, March 29. We'll start with a bird walk at 9am and afterwards do some digiscoping (that part will start at around 11:30am or when the walk is finished). Should see some great migrants.

Also, it looks like we will be moving the blog this weekend from blogger to wordpress. Yikes! Things may look weird on Saturday or Sunday but I'm hoping that the move will help with archiving posts and make it easier for people to search for older blog posts.

And any peeps going the Woodward, OK Lesser Prairie Chicken Festival? Looks I'll be at that one too. I met a someone at the San Diego festival who said her local bird club was making a special trip for it. Looks like it'll be a great time to see a cool bird.

Ghost Bird Movie

I've kind of hesitated blogging this for a few reasons. One being that whenever the ivory-billed woodpecker is mentioned in a blog post (mine or other blogs), it brings out arguments. You can't even bring it up without someone launching into some off beat augment, sometimes it isn't even about whether the bird is alive or not and I just don't like dealing with that. The other thing is that I'm kind of torn on the whole movie. I like all the people involved and I worry no matter what I blog about, someone involved is not going to like it.

However, I just got an email notice that there is a new Bird Watch Radio podcast and it features The Ghost Bird Movie. I look forward to listening to it.

So, here it goes.

Sometimes I have moments when I ask myself, "How the heck did I end up here?" Above is one of those moments. This is a picture I took during the San Diego Bird Festival when there was a preview screening of the Ghost Bird movie. Afterwards there was a panel discussion with David Sibley (dude with the mic), Scott Crocker, the filmmaker (the dude in the middle) and a surprise appearance by Dr. Jerry Jackson (who said I could call him Jerry and who also made a surprise appearance to the screening on his 25th wedding anniversary). I found myself bleary eyed after a day of field trips and watching a documentary about the search for the ivory-bill standing in front of a crowd of people. The three other men were involved with the film, I was just involved with the search. At first I felt strange and out of place (and really wished in my fatigue that we were sitting instead of standing--at Sci Fi Convention panels, you get to sit).

When the panel started, in my sleep deprived state, I had to get a photo--how did I end up on a panel with Sibley and Jackson--weirdsville.

The movie is interesting (definitely watch for it in Netflix or better yet, try to get a showing at your bird club). Basically it chronicles the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker, the boom that happened in Brinkley, AR, the skepticism that soon followed, and then the let down in Brinkley since. It also breaks down how Sibley, Jackson and ornithologist Richard Prum came to the conclusion that the physical evidence for the ivory-billed woodpecker is not reliable and how the woodpecker's rise and fall of fame, mirrors that of Brinkley, AR. And the film brings up good questions like was money funnelled from other bird research projects to go to the ivory-billed woodpecker at the expense of other species like Kirtland's warblers?

Several things occurred to me during the film. When residents of Brinkley were interviewed and talking about changes to the town and all the merchandising that came about, audience members were laughing. I felt really bad, it seemed it was more "Oh look at those wacky southerners who don't get birds." I think had I not known some of the people personally, I would have been laughing with the the rest of the audience. Perhaps the people interviewed are laughing right along with the audience, but sitting there in the dark, I just felt weird.

It was noticeable was that Cornell Lab or Ornithology was not part of the project. The only time you saw John Fitzpatrick (head of Cornell) or Bobby Harrison and Tim Gallagher (dudes who rediscovered it) was in segments from news conferences and 60 Minutes. As mentioned earlier, Cornell declined interviews.

There was some interesting editing in the film. One that made me chuckle was towards the end. A rather colorful Brinkley resident says something to the effect that he hopes they didn't make up the sighting to get a big pile of money. As he says this, the film cuts to Fitzpatrick, Harrison, and Gallagher leaning in during a press conference and smiling. It's edited in slow motion, not unlike what you would see on a tabloid tv program.

But what struck me most, was that the ivory-billed woodpecker is really important to birders and not so much to the rest of the world. It struck me when they started talking about the skepticism on the Internet about the ivory-bill. They interviewed the guy who used to have the ivory-bill skeptic blog (which has now moved on to other topics). He said in the film that he gets as many as 300 hits a day. Now, 300 hits a day is a drop in the bucket compared to my blog. And if you compare my blog with popular mainstream blogs like Mr. Neil or Dooce or Cute Overload, well that's an even tinier drop in an even bigger bucket. The mainstream really didn't care about the ivory-billed woodpecker nearly as much as a handful of hardcore birders. It kind of weirds me out sometimes to realize that birding might not be as popular as I would like it to be.

The panel was interesting as audience members asked questions. Most noticeable was someone from Cornell who happened to be at the San Diego Bird Festival with a booth was in the audience. The film was shown as a last minute addition to the festival and I got the sense that Cornell was a little blindsided by the showing. The Cornell rep said that they felt it was unfair to say that the filmmaker couldn't get people from the Lab to participate, but Crocker said that he had interviews lined up and after speaking with a rep from the lab, all the interviews cancelled.

I could see how that would happen. When I was part of the ivory-bill search, I pretty much had to sign an agreement that any photos I took or writings about my experience on the search team would end up property of Cornell Lab. At the time, I figured it was worth it for the adventure. However, I know people who didn't go on the Cornell search because of that nasty little ownership issue. There are several agencies involved with the ivory-bill search: Cornell, The Nature Conservancy, US Fish and Wildlife--when you have that many big players involved with one species, everyone has to be extra careful, so I could see how with the lack of concrete ivory-bill proof, Cornell might want to step away from this documentary.

When the panel wrapped up, I watched in fascination as someone approached Jackson and asked if he had received the notes on their ivory-bill sighting. The person named the date (they saw it last year) right off the bridge over the Cache River. The tone seemed to suggest that the dared Jackson to disagree with their sighting. He was so smooth and so gracious in the interaction. You could tell he had experienced this moment several times before. He non committaly acknowledged the sighting and then said flat out, that with out photographic proof or him being there next to the person at the time of the sighting, it's difficult to prove. It was impressive.

So, those are my thoughts about the documentary. It's worth a look.

Although, I would really appreciate it if someone could get some shots of the Cache River or Brinkley, AR in spring or summer, I'd be curious to know what that place looks like when there are leaves on the trees.


Birdchick, Dr. Jerome Jackson, Scott Crocker, David Sibley.

State Of The Birds Address

A bunch of boys are getting together to tell us about the state of the birds in the US:

On Thursday March 19th, 2009, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will release the first ever U.S. State of the Birds report.

The report was developed by a partnership among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, state government wildlife agencies and non-governmental organizations. The report documents the decline of bird populations in many habitats due to habitat loss, invasive species and other factors. At the same time, it provides heartening examples of how sustained habitat conservation and other environmental efforts can reverse the decline of many bird species.

Here's the list of participants:

Secretary Ken Salazar
John Fitzpatrick, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Darin Schroeder, American Bird Conservancy
John Flicker, National Audubon Society
John Hoskins, North American Bird Conservation Initiative
Robert Benndick, The Nature Conservancy

Signs of Spring

The red-winged blackbirds are arriving in larger and larger flocks in Minnesota--spring. I got this photo on Monday while filming a segment with weatherman Rob Koch from KSTP. We were doing a segment on migration and I figured our best bet would be at the Minnesota Valley NWR--sure enough, there was a flock of red-wings. This female downy woodpecker hopped over to a male red-winged blackbird and the two birds stared at each other for a moment. It was almost as if they were having a conversation:

Downy: Oh hey, when did you get back in town?

Red-wing: Just arrived last night, still gotta go another 70 miles north Hinckley, any good grub around here?

Downy: Not to many insects in season yet, but the peanut suet isn't bad down at the feeders.

Red-wing: Score.

Random Trumpeter Swan

This is a trumpeter swan (that is banded, haven't heard back on the origin of the neck band yet). The bird is preening (think of it as brushing its feathers). It's rubbing its head over its preen gland on the back of its body and rubbing the oil from the gland all over the rest of its feathers to keep them waterproof.

Although, between the pooping and the crazy head rubbing, it looks kinda drunk. Needs some wacky music in the background.

St Patrick's Day Cooper's Hawk

Some fun odds and ends: my buddy Amber was on the Nebraska news. She was co-leading a trip to see the massive amount of sandhill cranes in Nebraska. The group came across a huge flock of snow geese...and a local Nebraska tv station. Click here and you can see this Minnesota girl give a sound bite on how awesome it can be to watch snow geese in Nebraska, go Amber!

In other news, here's another interesting link about business people sneaking in a little birding when they are in another town for work.

And speaking of sneaking in a little birding. Non Birding Bill and are currently at a St. Patrick's Day gig that our buds Lorraine and Paul. I picked up NBB from his place of work in down town Minneapolis and we headed on our way. While stopped at a traffic light--a Cooper's hawk flew right over the hood of our car! I could see in the rear view that it landed on a sidewalk nearby and whipped the car around.

There it was on outside a liquor store off of Washington Street near 35W! It stayed there until an unsuspecting driver pulled up to park next to it.

From the looks of things, it appeared to have taken a starling. It was a nice healthy looking adult, looked to be male based on size.

So, after our birding detour, we made it in plenty of time to the gig! What a fun St. Pat's animal sighting. Totally beats the giant dogs dyed green that I saw before I picked up NBB.

Oh, and speaking of St. Patrick's day, Hasty Brook sent me a link to the Irish Dancing Nuthatch. Enjoy.

Great Horned Owl Nesting In Planter

So, with all my crazy travels, it's been tough to keep up with all my back emails. Boy, have I missed a whopper! Thank you, so, so much to Robbyn Spratt for sending this my way! Brace yourself, are you ready for this? Okay, here it goes:

There's a great horned owl nesting in a planter in Viera, FL.

Yes, you read that correctly. Viera, FL home of one of my all time favorite birding spots, Viera Wetlands has an owl nesting in a pot! Apparently, a pair of great horned owls chose to use a planter outside of the Brevard County Commission and the eggs have hatched--there is even a LIVE owl cam. The camera does not appear to be visible at night, however, there are clips that you can watch any time, so bookmark the Brevard County Owl Cam for some on the job entertainment.

This is an awesome diversion, especially since the owls at the Valmont Owl Cam appear to be having issues.

Common Western Birds Seen At The San Diego Bird Festival

I thought I had planned my bird festivals so well this winter. Florida and San Diego--what better places could a Minnesota girl go to in January and March? Alas, both were a bit chillier than I expected. Florida had a record setting cold snap. And well, San Diego was still really warm at 50 degrees compared to where I live, but not shorts weather. Part of it was that I did many field trips where it's expect to be chilly, like on a boat or in the mountains.

While on the woodpecker trip for the San Diego Bird Festival in the mountains we looked through my scope, we could see the top of the mountain was covered in frost. Glad we weren't going to the top. It was pleasantly chilly enough where we were. I have to say, I had some of the best field trip grub ever at this festival. The best part was all the Laughing Cow Babybel Cheese. Nothing like enjoying great birds in the mountain and eating cheese.

I'm so excited! I found another photo of a Brewer's blackbird that I forgot I took in my iPhoto stash. He's so pretty, shining in all his iridescent glory of the full sun. This bird was part of a flock hanging out at a picnic area. I got to feed them as I tossed bits of my sandwich to the flock. Ah, one person's trash bird is another birder's treasure.

Another bird I was excited to spend time with was the western bluebird. We get tons of eastern bluebirds where I live and westerns are different because their rufous coloration extends to their backs. Eastern bluebirds just have the sky blue down their backs. I was happy to find a male western bluebird that wouldn't turn around and just show me his back.

Check out this super cute dark-eyed junco (the western version sometimes known as Oregon junco). They were flitting around all over the ground and this one paused to get a sip from a small puddle of water. It's the same species as the dark-eyed junco I see here, just a different color. Dark-eyed juncos used to be divided into five different species, a few years ago, this would have been a countable bird, but now the five are lumped into one. I wonder how long until they are divided again?


There were some common birds for me that others on the field trip where excited to see, like this male purple finch. He's beautiful, but he was a lifer for several people on my field trip. And we had to work to see this dude. I'm used to peering out at the feeders at Mr. Neil's and there they are. This one was singing at the top of a tree and it took some time to find the right angle for folks to see him. I giggled at working so hard for a feeder bird. He was singing his territory song, and I managed to get a video of him singing:



Such a pretty song and it's lovely to hear territory song after a long winter.

Anna's hummingbirds were all over the place and we found a female who appeared to be incubating eggs on a nest. She must be well habituated to humans. This nest was at about my eye level in a bush. The bush was in the corner of a "V" where two well travelled paths intersected and people walked by unaware as we watched.

We saw quite a few red-tailed hawks. Many were grabbing thermals and starting to do pair bonding activities. In Minnesota, these guys are setting up territory now. Females should be laying eggs soon. The red-tails in San Diego looked like they were on about the same schedules.

We did see some mammals out on the trip. This was a ground squirrel watching the birders as we were watching the birds. Something about his posture made it look like he was plotting our demise.

The Woodpecker Field Trip At San Diego Bird Festival

Don't forget that this Thursday at 6pm at Merlin's Rest is a Birds and Beers (Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of birders to sit down, have a beverage, and talk some birds). If you are remotely interested in birds, from the hardcore lister to the backyard birder to someone who saw a bird once, this group is for you.

I was really excited to do the Woodpecker Field Trip at the San Diego Bird Festival. I was hoping to see some new species like white-headed woodpecker or Lewis's woodpecker. I got skunked on both but had a fabulous time--that's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise when birding. Ah well, another bird for another day. I did have a great time with all of the acorn woodpeckers and several other species.

We had a great moment with a western variety of northern flicker (this is a red-shafted variety). Where I live, we get the yellow-shafted version of this species. The red-shafted version of the northern flicker is different, the shafts of wing feathers are red and the males have a red moustache and not a black moustache. Note the above male. Now, here is a photo of the yellow-shafted that I'm used to. See the difference?

We had paused for a break in the trail and could hear this bird in the distance. We played its call once and it flew in and immediately flew in and started to drum on the trunk to announce territory. I got a video of it:



What amazes me most is how little movement the flicker appears to be making and still manages to create quite a sound. The birds look for a good, resonant tree but still the sound is remarkable.

We had a spectacular time, the view was beautiful up in the mountains surrounded by burnt trees. One of the field trip leaders was Steve Shunk head of Paradise Birding. He's got a woodpecker festival going this June in Oregon and says that he could easily get me white-headed woodpecker there...was that his plan? Maybe he was keeping the white-headeds away on this trip, so I'd have to go to Oregon in June? Doubtful, since I've never met a man so gung-ho on woodpeckers...ever. Seriously, this guy needs to be seen to be believed. I have never seen a grown man get so excited over seeing a downy woodpecker, as Steve Shunk.

I did get one new woodpecker species and that was a Nuttall's woodpecker. This is such a cool woodpecker at least the one I was was watching. She was gleaning insects off of the leaves. They do peck like other woodpeckers, but some do go for the bugs crawling on the foliage. I got a video of her foraging. In the background, you'll hear Steve talking about a sapsucker, he's not talking about the Nuttall's--you can hear his excitement (that's the same excitement he would have for a downy woodpecker), he was on the trail of an odd looking sapsucker:



Did you hear Steve's excitement?

The Woody Woodpecker Controversy

While at the San Diego Bird Festival, I got to enjoy one of my favorite bird species--the acorn woodpecker (this is a female above, she's just as handsome as the male). I love this species, the first time I ever saw one was years ago in San Francisco. They look like they are about to tell you joke at any moment. Actually, they look like Groucho Marx to me. I think she needs a cigar and say things like, "From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it."

This species lives in family groups and one of the interesting this is that the group will select one tree for food storage. This tree is called a granary tree. They drill a hole and put an acorn into that hole.

Actually, they drill LOTS of holes. One granary tree may have up to 50,000 holes in it. The woodpeckers fill the tree in the autumn when acorns or plentiful and feed off of their cache through the winter. The tree we saw during the festival was very empty since it's practically spring in San Diego. But acorn woodpeckers may not be fun for everybody, especially if they choose a house as their granary tree.

While I was enjoying the great birds at San Diego, a whole woodpecker discussion started on a hardcore birding listserv called ID Frontiers. This is not the type of listserv where you email a blurry photo of a house sparrow and ask what it is. This is the type of listserv where you discuss gulls for days on end and the differences in their primary projection and whether or not the gull in question is just an aberrant herring gull or some hybrid no one has ever imagined before.

Well, a more light hearted discussion start came up: What species is Woody Woodpecker? As a kid, I always thought he was an ivory-billed woodpecker. Okay, the ivory-bill isn't blue and Woody's white patches don't match up, but you can't argue with Woody's size, his crest and his light colored bill. When I worked at a wild bird store and we had to listen to bird identification CDs all day, I heard an acorn woodpecker call and it gave the "Ha ha ha HAAA ha" call. I realized that sounded a little familiar. Here's an example that you can hear over at Xeno Canto. Can you kind of hear it the laugh sound. From then on I figured that Woody was a hybrid between an acorn and an ivory-billed woodpecker.

Well, I guess NPR's "All Things Considered" program referenced Woody Woodpecker in a story recently about acorn woodpeckers damaging houses in California and said that acorn woodpeckers were the inspiration for Woody Woodpecker. My favorite blogger and frequent contributor to All Things Considered, Julie Zickefoose sent a note that Woody was in fact a pileated woodpecker.

ID Frontiers went nuts over this.

Kimball L. Garrett, the Ornithology Collections Manager of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County started it by stating that Walter Lantz (the creator of Woody Woodpecker) personally gave him a copy of his biography published in 1985 and that it reads that Woody Woodpecker was inspired by acorn woodpeckers seen during his honeymoon in 1940. Apparently, Lantz's new bride suggested he should turn the woodpeckers into a character.

So, then Julie had to give an on air mia culpa, which you can listen to or read here. So, case closed, Woody is an acorn woodpecker, you heard it on NPR. Right?

But not so fast. Leave it to the wonderous Alvaro Jaramillo (the guy who can truly make watching and identifying gulls seem like fun) to find the video/photographic proof as to Woody's identity--proof so dramatic that David Luneau would weep. Alvaro said, "There is a Woody Woodpecker episode where someone is trying to hunt down “Campephilus principalis” and Woody looks him up in a book, and there he finds a picture of himself. I remember seeing that when I was a kid."

And just to go that extra mile, Alvaro found the proof. "Episode is from 1964, called “Dumb like a Fox.” Here is the magic screen capture. The story is that the museum will pay $25 for one Campephilus principalis."

And if you're not down with your latin names, Campephilus principalis is also known as ivory-billed woodpecker.

So, there you have it. Proof of Woody Woodpecker's ID and proof that even the most hardcore birders can have a sense of humor. And now I leave with a video of a male acorn woodpecker looking for food:

Birds Around San Diego Bird Fest

One of the cool things for me, being a Midwestern girl is that when I go to the coasts, just walking out the door of my hotel room brings exciting birds for me like the young Heerman's gull (it was foraging on the lawn and pandering for a handout). Have you ever seen an adult Heerman's gull? Check out this link, it's a pretty classy lookin' bird.

Okay, mallards are not the most exciting bird on the planet but I did think it was funny that a pair was hanging out at the heated pool at night--yes the pool was heated, it did get down to 40 degrees at night. This male must have quite the line going with the hens, "Hey, baby, I know a place we can relax. It's fenced, far from predators, we can get some snacks, and nothing but class all the way."

Okay, this I thought was very cool. At first, "I though, are those cell phone receivers tacked onto palm trees?" Then I realized that the trunks were wide and realized that they were fake palm trees. Cell phone towers disguised to blend in with the landscape--and no guy wires to kill birds. Check it out, there a bird perched on top of one of the trees.

Thanks to the magic of digiscoping, we can see that it's a Cassin's kingbird. That must be a great place to watch for insects.

My buddy Clay chuckled when I got a photo of a Brewer's blackbird. "You can tell those Easterners gettin' a photo of a Brewer's blackbird." What can I say, it's different.

Black skimmers were roosting in the afternoon on a beach near the convention center where the San Diego Bird Festival was held at Mission Bay.

A pleasant surprise for me was seeing brant swimming around near shore. This is one of those birds I could never see, but once I finally saw them, I see them everywhere now. They were on their northward migration.

Willets were all over. I took this photo off the San Diego river, it was foraging and when another willet walked nearby, it stopped feeding and then sat down and was still until the other willet passed. Was this some sort of submissive behavior?

There are also the numerous brown pelicans, anyone can get an award winning shot...

So why not get a shot where they look really goofy and not unlike that rarely remembered Showbiz Pizza Place character, Uncle Klunk.

Kind Of Gross Western Gull and Fish Post

Well, if you are in the mood for something that you know will be gross, but you just can't look away, here is a video I got of a western gull eating what looks like someone's discarded catfish. Warning: entrails ahead:

The Flying Bill

Can you believe how deep it's able to plunge that bill? Love those long-billed curlews!

Wild Birds Unlimited's Wildlife Blend Recalled In Some States

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Food and Drug Protection Division issued a statement that Burkmann Feeds is voluntarily recalling a seed blend that they make for Wild Birds Unlimited called Wildlife Blend, due to concerns over deaths of wild birds due to salmonella.

The bags carry the manufacturing date code of 81132200291608124.

You can read more at MSNBC and Wild Birds Unlimited has issued a press release.

“Wild Birds Unlimited is committed to keeping everyone safe and informed about issues that may affect the hobby of bird feeding,” said Jim Carpenter, founder and president of Wild Birds Unlimited. “People’s safety and the health of wildlife are our primary concern.”

The press release went on to say that initial tests have established no correlation between any bird deaths and the recalled food; a different strain of Salmonella was found in deceased birds in North Carolina than what was detected in the recalled food.

Customers who purchased WBU Wildlife Blend or WBU Woodpecker Blend are advised to contact their local Wild Birds Unlimited to determine if their product was manufactured by Burkmann Feeds and is part of this recall. Recalled products should be discarded. Consumers are also advised to avoid touching unsealed product and to wash their hands thoroughly after touching any unsealed product. A full replacement, credit or refund for these recalled Burkmann Feeds products will be made available at the store of purchase.

You can read the full press release here.

This is also a good reminder to keep your bird feeding area clean, especially with the influx of large flocks of pine siskins and common redpolls. Dirty feeders do more damage to birds than not putting any food out at all.

San Diego Digiscoping

Back to more fun at the San Diego Bird Festival! Last time I talked about all the wood duck action at Santee Lakes. I did get quite a few photos of wood ducks, but the main bird species seen at Santee Lakes (and my hotel) was the American coot. While we were at Santee, families came to "feed the ducks." I thought about pointing out that they were actualely "feeding the rails" but abstained. The coots get an odd diet of bread and I even watched a kid toss them some gummy bears. Perhaps gummy bears are kind of like the aquatic insects and animals they are supposed to eat?

Santee Lakes is a beautiful little chain of lakes. The palm trees were a welcome site to this Minnesota girl. The San Diego Bird Festival originally was held in January. Last year they were kicking around the idea of moving to March. Someone asked, "Who wants to come to California in March, when it's practically spring?" I added my two cents worth by saying in my area of the US, it's still very much winter in March--and it is. As I type this, it's five degrees in Minnesota.

A treat for me was being able to watch ring-necked ducks up close and not freezing my tail off! Some readers of this blog may remember a series of photos I put in the blog last year from my buddy Clay Taylor of a ring-necked duck trying to swallow a snail. Clay got that footage here at Santee Lakes.

We were so close, we could kind of see the ring around the neck for which the duck was named...again, those wacky ornithologists naming a bird for a hard to see feature and some something obvious like ring-billed duck.

Keeping with the theme of ultra-mellow birds, our group found a rather easy going pied-billed grebe. In many places, you so much as make one furtive sidelong glance and they dive. Not this grebe, it went as far as to go into a ten minute preening session.

Then came the stare down. It was fun and I never really noticed the black chin on a pied-billed grebe before.

There were some ruddy ducks out on the lakes too--but they were much more camera shy, or just tired. Many of the males with the bluest bills were more interested in sleeping and preening. I started to video a male as he was swimming around and towards the end of it, he started doing his mating dance--he raises his tail and two little tufts on his head. He creates some bubbles underneath his body and then slaps his bill against his chest several times while making To attract a female the male swims around her, his tail tilted forward and neck outstretched. He then slaps his chestnut-colored chest with his bright blue bill while making his courtship call. The video didn't capture the call, but you can hear it at Xeno-canto. Here's the video:



The park is used by several members of the public, it's not a quiet park, but there's room for everybody from birders, duck feeders and people who like to go fishing. As we were working the lakes for digiscoping, there was a guy who was fishing--his line even got stuck in the tree and Clay helped him get it out. But we birders must have out stayed our welcome because he started to complain about us. I heard him behind me mutter to his friend, "I think watching birds is stupid, you can just go to the pet store and buy them. Why don't these people go and just buy some birds and leave us alone."

Irritated that he was complaining about us, even after Clay had helped him, I started to defend our group by saying, "You can't buy these birds in a pet store."

And he retorted, "Yes you can, bird watching is stupid."

I turned to look at him and he was not facing me.

But based on what I saw, I chose not to engage any further with a man whose butt was hanging out of his trousers. Perhaps he is not the world's authority on whether or not bird watching is stupid.

I was grateful when a western scrub-jay popped up as a nice cleansing bird.

Good Bee News Day

Well, I got some fun bee news today. The City of Minneapolis is considering allowing beekeeping in the metro area (although with a license). There's a hearing on April 15.

I also just got a copy of the second edition of Beekeeping for Dummies and one of my photos is in it. Whoot. It's the one of me hand feeding the girls and you can tell it's my finger--green nail polish!

Upcoming Digiscoping Workshop

Hey, any people from my hometown in Indianapolis free on Sunday, March 29, 2009? I'm doing a digiscoping workshop at Eagle Creek Park right after the Sunday morning bird walk!

The bird walk starts at 9am (there's a fee to enter the park, but the walk and digiscoping workshop are free) and then I'll do a brief powerpoint showing my photos (the good, the bad, the downright weird). The workshop will most likely start at 11:30am (or when the walk is finished). I'll show you how to do digiscoping, help you where I can with your equipment and afterward, we'll put it to practice. Bring your equipment or if you don't have it yet, but you are thinking of getting started, bring your digital camera or your scope and we'll look them over and see what would work best for you.

Digiscoping is a fun way to get souvenier photos of birds at the feeder or on bird walks!

Upcoming Birds & Beers

The next Birds and Beers is scheduled for March 19, 2009 at 6pm at Merlin's Rest.

Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of birders of all abilities--if you're interested in birds, you're invited. You can meet other birders--maybe find a carpool buddy, ask about where to find target birds, share cool research projects you might be working on, ask a bird feeding question, share life lists, share some digiscoping tips, promote your blog--the sky is the limit. It's low key and it's fun.

San Diego Wood Ducks

Well, the San Diego Bird Festival put on by the San Diego Audubon Society has wound down to a a close and it was an action packed festival from workshops, to games to, movie sneak preview to even David Sibley himself. One of the field trips I went on was with my buddy Clay and it was in depth digiscoping. He did a class (above) and the next day he took a group out for field trip that was geared to getting shots of birds in great light. I must admit, it was a refreshing change for me, to just be able to go on a field trip and really take time with birds, not just go out and tick off as many species as possible.

We went to Santee Lakes for part of it and I was going over my photos, I noticed I had several shots of wood ducks!

The wood ducks were used to people coming around to feed them. As I was standing on a bridge looking out at the waterfowl, this male wood duck swam up and gave me an expectant look. I didn't even need to use the digiscoping equipment, he was too close. He stared momentarily and when I failed to produce anything remotely resembling food, he moved on looking for accommodating human.

Everyone in our group found a drowsy adult male wood duck on which to practice their digiscoping mojo. Another case of a bird behaving differently in another state. Wood ducks in Minnesota are rather cagey, but have a friendlier attitude in sunny San Diego.

As we were taking his photo, he suddenly perked up. You can't see in the photo, but not too far in front of him, a pair of wood ducks is waddling by. He started doing his wood duck whistle. As the pair continued without paying him too much mind, he started to settle back down on one foot, but still continued to whistle. I took a video. You'll hear Clay talking in the background as well as a great-tailed grackle:



Did you catch the size of that great-tailed grackle walking behind the wood duck?

I think this is my favorite of all of them. I love head-on shots of birds. More San Diego Bird Fest fun (and Guatemala) is on the way.

Gulls Stealing Ice Cream

I don't know why, but I can't stop looking at these photos of gulls stealing ice cream.

Sampling Of San Diego Beach Birds

How many species can you see in this video clip?

Thanks for the reminders about Daylight Savings Time! I'm doing a pelagic trip on Sunday, keep your fingers crossed, I'm might get to see some brown boobies (and maybe even a blue-footed booby)!

Ghost Bird Preview

Here are just some initial notes about the sneak preview of the documentary about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker phenom shown at the San Diego Bird Festival:

It's more about the human side of the story, how the rediscovery and promotion of the IBWO mirrors the fate of Brinkley, AR.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology is kind of missing from the movie--the official statement is because Cornell "their people" to not participate in being interviewed.

The movie doesn't focus on whether or not the IBWO sighting was a hoax, but focuses more on the lack of concrete proof and the media attention surrounding it.

I found some of the scenes where Brinkley, AR locals were interviewed for the movie came off like Christoper Guest characters and I felt a pang of guilt when they were laughed at.

Jerome Jackson showed up last minute to be part of the panel discussion.

I had fun picking out people I know shown in the background of the movie. People like Steve Moore and Pete Dunne.

More on this when I'm not suffering from field trip fatigue. Here's a link to the trailer.

Friday Morning

I got totally punk'd by my alarm on Friday morning. I was supposed to be at the San Diego Bird Festival headquarters by 5:30 to film a couple of morning live shots for KUSI with Karen Straus. My iPod alarm went off at 4:30 am, I gradually woke up, brushed my teeth and opened my laptop to check the weather. The laptop read 2:38am. I thought that was odd. I checked my hotel room clock and it read 2:36am. It was then that I realized that my iPod was still on Minneapolis time and not San Diego time.

Karen and I did a few segments with weatherman Joe Lizura--he and his camera man were a hoot. I think we may have startled them and they were afraid we would say "I'm here to see a pair of brown boobies!" on air, but we kept it mild. I even managed to video a couple of minutes of Joe interviewing us live (and demonstrate digiscoping). I stop just as he's about to ask me about the World Series of Birding:



Here's an actual digiscoped photo of the black-crowned night heron right outside the festival vendor area:

Lazy Coot

Active coot tells lazy coot to get moving:

Welcomed By Coots In San Diego

We interrupt the entries about Gautemala to talk about the San Diego Bird Festival! I'm in sunny SoCal for the next few days to speak and go on some fabulous field trips. Guatemala needs to be put on hold because I need to have all my notes nearby to make sure I get my species correct.

I have a whole herd of coot (I figure if they are out of the water, they no long qualify as a raft) right outside my hotel room door.

Last night as I was digiscoping them, a woman came up to ask if I saw anything good. I told her that to me, coot feet are exciting--I so rarely get the chance to see the feet. Another case of a familiar bird in a different habitat acting incrediby mellow. Minnesota coots do not put up with foot fetishests like myself.

This musts be the laziest coot ever. It would rather stretch out to get that last little snippet of grass then walk around.

Also right outside my hotel room is a brown pelican, or Old Blue Eyes as I have dubbed him. He sticks close to shore and does mini-dives for fish. I love the colors in the sunlight.

Such a change from the American white pelicans I'm used to. The red, the brown, the buttery cream on the head--gorgeous!

But I need to wind up my hotel digiscoping. I'm putting the final touches on my programs. This afternoon I'm doing an "attracting birds program" and tonight I get to do some storytelling. I'm going to do my "The Woman Who Could Talk To Birds" story based on one very persistant caller we had when I worked at the wild bird store. Good times!

If any of you are at the gathering tonight, stop by and say hello!

Can You Guess What Bird Has These Toes?

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Horned Guan Death March Part 2

And now back to the continuing saga to see a horned guan. If you missed Part 1, it's here.

I need to start this by dedicating this post to Gustavo Cañas-Valle of Neblina Tours in Ecuador (that’s him above on the right with one of our local guides, Hugo Enriquez on the left). I had actually met some of the guides from Neblina at the Space Coast Bird Festival, they had a booth there. I have an interest in going to Ecuador, but based solely on the kindness (and humor and bird knowledge) of their guide, Gustavo, should I ever make it to Ecuador, I will use Neblina, you'll learn why a few paragraphs in.

Our local guides up Volcan San Pedro were fabulous. We were escorted by Hugo Enriquez (in the above photo with Gustavo) and Irene Rodriguez of Operador Latino. Irene made sure we were as comfortable as we could be as well as knows her birds. Hugo knows his birds, but I gotta say that if I were a single lady, he’s not a bad companion to have in the woods. He has an easy-going manner, a warm voice with a Spanish accent, and beautiful eyes. When asked about where we’re going to bird for the day, he’ll say things like, “Well, it is up to you, we can do what you want.”

Just sayin', ladies. But I digress from the horned guan!

We started our trek on Volcan San Pedro looking for the horned guan with a few stops to look for local bird specialties, but then we didn’t stop for birds anymore and the trails became much steeper. It was switchback after switchback. It was dry and the volcanic dust made for powdery walking conditions. I toiled up the trail and began to question my sanity. As my pace slowed, the sound of our group ahead became more and more faint, I realized I was loosing ground. There was another person in our group who seemed to struggle with the climb along with me. I was grateful for the company and to not to be the pokiest of the little puppies.

Local farmers loaded with burdens of fire wood, corn or coffee moved swiftly passed us on the trail. Many looked to be twice my age which made me feel worse. I bike ride, I lead nature hikes (not just bird walks), I haul bee equipment and this trail was turning my legs to jelly. It was relentless in its incline. I was desperate for a flat surface.

After much sweat and panting we caught up to the group at another resting spot. I hoped that we were half way up and was saddened to learn that we were only a third of the way, with another three hours to go. It was at this moment that Gustavo from Neblina Tours told me the sweetest lie, “I’m having trouble staying balanced on this steep trail. Would it be alright with you if I took your scope and used it as a way to balance myself on the trail?”

I knew it was lie. He carried more on this trip than I did: he had two massive field guides (yeah, he carried Howell and Webb (a bird guide so thick, it makes the Sibley guide look like a pamphlet) and the National Geographic out in the field besides his binoculars, lunch, water, recording equipment, etc). I knew it was a lie and I was too sweaty and tired to care. I gratefully accepted his offer and continued my slow lumbering walk up the trail.

We eventually made it to a halfway point. I sat on the floor of the observation deck and used the wooden railing to prop my head up and looked out at the beautiful view. It was at this point when I realized how much I hated birds. I likened myself to a drug addict who puts themselves through terrible tortures, for what? For the high of seeing one rare bird. I was not forced to do this, I signed up--willingly. What’s worse is that I could have stopped at any time. I could have just stopped walking on the trail and said, “No more, I’ll wait here in the shade, watch some foliage-gleaners and pepper-shrikes and wait for you on your glory walk down the trail after seeing the guan.” One of our group already had given up the trail due to a bad knee. It was the honorable and safe thing to do.

But I willingly continued. Quitting this steep upward battle was never an option to me. I looked at Jen and said, “I need psychological help. This is like hitting yourself with a hammer because it feels so good when you finally stop.”

We both laughed and Mike Bergin warned that we should probably save our oxygen.

There were three of us lagging behind now, Jen and I practically held on to each other to stay upright. Ana Christina from INGUAT sensed our waning resolve and anytime Jen and I paused she would call in her sweet Spanish accent, “Jen, Sharon, come on, the horned guan is right up here.”

We fell for it once and scrambled up, but realized she was really a cloud forest sprite beckoning us forward. It worked. At every switchback we would pause to try and get some order to our respiratory system, Ana Christina would be another switchback ahead of us calling, “C’mon Jen. C’mon Sharon, horned guan is waiting for you.”

Our group did flush an owl on our way up. I never got a headshot of it, but the back looked like a barred owl. It’s the Guatemalan version called a fulvus owl.

We finally reached the horned guan appropriate elevation. I sat in the dust. Gustavo smiled and pointed out how dirty my face was. I really hated birds and really hated cameras. Part of our group rested, while the rest did an initial search. No guan. We needed to go higher.

WTF?? Higher? Noooooooooooooooo!

Up we went. It dawned on me that we could go all this way and not see the horned guan. Or only see a tiny bit of it. I really, really hated birds now. I couldn’t imagine doing this climb more than once. We actually passed other hikers, oblivious to the guan. They took the trail simply for the view. You know, there are a lot of views out there. I don’t know if I need to go through all of this muscular torture for this particular view.

We paused once more. Hope was fading in the group. Mike of 10,000 Birds (above) still held out some sweaty hope, but the rest of worried that we’d been talking too much or paying more attention to our body and foot aches and completely missed the turkey sized tree chicken that was our quarry.

Then an anxious whisper came from above the switchback in front of us—Mel de Piñeda a participant in our group found the guan (Mel’s an awesome dude, he takes blind people birding in Texas). All of us suddenly forgot body fatigue and dashed up the switchback—where had this new found energy come from? The light broke through the trees and shown down upon us, as we watched the horned guan in all its glory.

Wait, I can make out the body, and the foot! That’s totally a horned guan foot, it’s countable.

Finally, a little head poked out. I see the horn, the little red horn where the guan gets its name! Whoot! And check out at crazy yellow eye. I can’t believe I saw the face and got to digiscope the face. This was a great look, worth the climb. It was a challenge to jockey for position for a photo of the guan on the narrow path with my tripod. But thanks to Gustavo, we got the guan in scope view several times.

Even our police escort was impressed. Did I mention we had a police escort? And that they came with us everywhere in Guatemala? And that they even climbed the volcano as if it were nothing? It was sad the many times I would be doubled over panting, waving the officer on, but he would stay by me so as not to get too separated from the group.

Eventually one of the flock came out into the open and Gustavo set up my scope to get this shot. I would not have gotten it without his help, I would still be struggling up the side of the volcano had he not offered to take my scope. This was more than could be hoped for! The future of the horned guan is uncertain. There is so much we don’t know, but we think we know some things like there are less than 2500 in the wild, their populations are severely fragmented and they face several challenges: farmers using their habitat for firewood or subsistence farming or using the guan themselves as a source of food. You can read more about it at BirdLife International.

At first we thought there were two guan, but eventually, more and more came about. They even started vocalizing, making strange clucks, bill clacks and even a few flatulent sounding tones. Chris Benesh has a great guan photo and recordings of the vocalizations here.

Below is a video I got of the horned guan. You can see the bills moving, but my little point and shoot could not pick up the sounds. I think the horned guan move like dinosaurs, or at least what I imagine dinosaurs probably moved like way back a few million years ago.



So, how did we react?

Well, my little head exploded with birder wonder and awe. It was worth the climb and I got better looks at this rare tree chicken than I ever expected.

And after all of that, we had to go back down! Certainly it would not take the four hours that it took to get up to the guan, but it would still take time. My legs are only used to flat surfaced and had been trudging uphill for four hours non stop. And now I had to go down, something I still wasn't used to. Every muscle in my legs vibrated at any moment I stopped. I kept going, but the decline and volcanic ash still caused me to slide and fall. Every time I did fall, a large cloud of dust preceded me, causing Hugo to cross his arms and shout, "Safe!" as if I were a baseball player sliding into home. Thanks, Hugo. After watching me do this twice, Gustavo refused to give my scope back. He was skeptical that the Swarovski would be able to survive me.

Some way, some how we made it back down the trail to our meeting point with the vehicle, our water bottles depleted and lunches eaten. Ana Christina and Irene took us to a local watering hole for some refreshments.

In our dehydrated state, we should of have water, but what better way to celebrate a rare tree chicken like the horned guan than with a chicken themed beer. Giddiness soon set in with most of us, especially for me--I NEVER HAVE TO DO THAT CLIMB EVER AGAIN. It occurred to me that a horned guan is a bird that I will only see once in a lifetime and I had a pang of pity for guys like Rick who would have to lead a tour here again and take people up that volcano. Ah well, that's one of the many reasons I'm not a pro bird guide, and I'm okay with that.

Our groups' giddiness was soon detectable to the locals and many swarmed our table with scarves, skirts, sunglasses holders, headbands, you name it to try and sell us.

I think almost all of us ended up getting some souveniers. When it was time for us to catch our boat back to the hotel, I stood up and a Mayan woman wrapped a skirt around me and tied it on telling me how pretty it was and it was great because it had pockets. It was beautiful, but I laughed at what a dusty mess I must have looked like with this gorgeous light blue skirt askew on my waiste. I had spent enough money that day and had to decline a skirt.

I felt dirty and battle weary on the ride back. I turned to look at Vulcan San Pedro and the sun shone down on it, almost as if illuminating where we had seen the mysterious horned guan. I couldn't believe we actually went up and had great looks at the bird.

It took a very long shower and lots of scrubbing to remove the dirt. After I finished showering, I took my Swarovski binoculars and scope and ran them under the shower. When you've got great waterproof optics, you can safely run them under the shower to get the dust out. Jen had Leica's and her focus wheel got stuck, I advised her to pop it up and run some water in there to get the grit out. Again, waterproof optics allow you to do that. She rinsed them and the focus wheel was fine for the rest of the trip.

That night we sat down to a fine meal (some of the best food I've ever had). We discussed the next day's birding. After getting our stuff together at 4:15am that mornign and birding almost 12 hours, I was delighted to hear that we were meeting at 7am for breakfast before birding (we'd get to sleep in). Bless Mel's heart who asked, "Hey that means we won't get birding until 8 - 8:30 am, anyone for starting earlier?"

Hugo said, "Well, it's whatever you want..."

There was a pause, I decided to break it. "I gotta say that I'm not in favor of that idea and would rather sleep in and rest after today."

I'm not sure if everyone agreed, but after a day like the horned guan death march, I could live with a later start the next morning.

You can read Mike's account of our journey and see his guan photo over at 10,000 Birds.

If you would like to hear the flatulent vocalizations of the horned guan, Chris Benesh has them here.

I also started a Facebook Group called I Survived The San Pedro Horned Guan Death March if you have made a trek to see the guan and would like to share the tale.

Horned Guan Death March Part 1

I'm not sure how much to tell you about the horned guan. I had a vague idea of the challenge of the trail to the guan, but I really don't think I fully grasped how hard it would be to see this bird. Now, I debate with myself: "Do I go on and on about how hard it was and will that prevent someone from going to see this amazing bird?"

Because, honestly, if I truly understood what was ahead of me, I don't know that I would have gone for it. That's right, you read that correctly, I don't know if I would have gone for one of the more rare species one can see in the Americas if I had truly understood the work in front of me. Oh, I had heard the stories from Julie Zickefoose on NPR and on her blog regarding her horned guan adventure. I read and heard of Bill of the Birds on his horned guan search. There were tales from some of my buddies on the bird festival trail that it was a brutal climb. I heard of well known, great birders, who I considered to be incredibly physically fit, having to crawl that last part of the trail just to see the bird. I think a part of me thought that was just a bit of exaggeration.

The hike up Volcan San Pedro was saved for one of our final days of birding in Guatemala. Our group had been mentioning it to each other, "Do you think you're going to be able to do it?" or "Sharon, do you really think you can take your scope up the volcano, I'd leave it here."

I heard that Jeff Bouton and Bill of the Birds had brought their scopes, so I should be able to do it too. Right?

I didn't get very scared until the day before. I had found some wireless internet at our lodge in Los Andes and put up a status update on Facebook: Sharon is nervous about tomorrow's climb up the Volcano to see the horned guan. I got a comment from Chris Benesh who works for Field Guides--travels all over the world to show people birds. He was also on the same Ivory-bill Search Team I was on. I considered to him to be very physically fit. He left a comment to the effect of the climb being the toughest he had ever done, it was brutal, but the got the guan.

Okay, if Chris called it brutal, maybe those stories of birders panting and crawling to the top weren't just exaggerated fish tales. I decided to be all Scarlett O'Hara about it and, "I'll not think about that right now, I'll go crazy if I do. I'll think about that tomorrow."

We had one more field trip planned at Los Andes to look for some mannikans, I opted to take the afternoon off, relax a bit so I could be fresh the next morning. I was a rough schedule. We had to be ready to go by 4:15 am, take a bus to Lake Atitlan where we would take a ferry to San Pedro for the climb. The hike up to the guan was going to take four hours, who knew how long the hike down would take.

Gulp.

Initially, all went well. We arrived at Lake Atitlan and watched in amazement at how the local used it. As we were loading our ferry, one man drove in his tuk tuk (tiny taxi car) into the water for a wash, another drove in his truck, a couple of people were bathing right on the water's edge.

We boarded boat, marveled at the beautiful volcanoes that surrounded the lake and laughed as the cool water sprayed us as we hit waves. Outside the boat we looked to pad our species list with lesser scaup, brown pelicans, and ruddy ducks. As we approached the other side of the lake, we watched in amazement as Volcan San Pedro loomed over us. Yes, we would be climbing this extinct volcano. Hugo, our guide tried to alleviate our fears since many of us were not accustomed to this altitude. In his quiet, spanish accent he said, "Yes, we will go slow. It will be slow, slow walking, then looking at birds, slow, slow walking, then looking at birds."

I felt some comfort in this. Perhaps the four hours was not all climbing but just such a slow pace of birding that it would seem steep, but not be that bad.

When we landed in San Pedro, I saw more tourists here than in any other town. Peddlers were ready for us, a Mayan woman greeted us with a basket full of baked goods. I looked at the steep streets in front of us and wondered if we were going to start right away, but Irene and Ana Christina said that a bus was coming to take us.

As we waited for a bus, we noticed some expatriots in a nearby cafe, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. Mike tried to ask were the gentleman in the shorts was from, he replied, "Mexico." in a rather non-Mexican accent. He the answered, "I'm from nowhere, man." Gotta love those expats!

I made friends with a great gal on the trip—Jen Sauter. She’s helping to organize the Midwest Birding Symposium this fall and has a wonderful, giggly sense of humor. We noticed a truck stopped and several locals including school kids loaded into it. Jen said, “There’s our bus!” We laughed at the prospect of standing in the bed of a pick up truck to go see a bird…then our vehicle arrived.

And we laughed some more! We were going to stand in the back of a pickup truck afterall, piled with 10 birders.

I love this photo. We’re all so happy, so giddy, so blissfully unaware of the horrors and sweat that await us. That’s me with Mike Bergin of 10,000 Birds, Jen Sauter, Hugo our guide and even a part of Rick Wright. It was all just an exciting adventure then.

We began our drive through the narrow cobblestone streets of San Pedro, up and up we went.

We passed many locals taking the route on foot, many carrying heavy burdens of goods on their backs. What is it like to be acclimatized to this? This poor guys was carrying what appeared to be drippy wet blankets.

We arrived at the reserve for the horned guan. We readjusted our packs with our lunches and our bottles of water and began the trail. The day was sunny, the birds were numerous and we made some stops.

We found a spotted a load with western tanagers (more of those North American breeders).

I was excited to get the rufous-capped warbler. I had actually seen one of these earlier in our journey, but was the only one who had. I was glad others got to see it and this time I even got to digiscope it.

We also got great looks at this ginormous squirrel cuckoo—it was much bigger than the black-billed and yellow-billed cuckoos I see. And so beautiful too—reminiscent of a brown thrasher. As we stopped for this birding, I started to think, “This isn’t so bad.” I have short legs and I was not used to the elevation. I did lag behind the group but managed to catch up with enough time to rest along with them before pressing forward. I felt that I could do this.

This didn't seem too bad...

Part 2 can be found here.

Bird Dancing To Ray Charles

This one is better than the bird that danced to the Backstreet Boys and screeched. This one gets its groove on to Ray Charles--you have to see the head spin to truly appreciate this one:

Swarovski Optik Guest Blogging Contest: Finale!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we're here to announce that the winner of the Swarovski Optik Guest Blogging Contest is...

Lynnanne Fager! 

You can read Lynnanne's entry on an unusual hybrid here. Special thanks to Swarovski Optik for providing the prizes for our contest: all the posted entries will get a Swarovski binocular cleaning kit, and Lynanne will also get a nifty new pair of Swarovski Crystal Pocket Binos! If you were one of the entries we posted, we'll be sending your address to Swarovski shortly.

Thanks again to absolutely everyone who entered. We had a hard time picking just ten entries!

More Fun At The Finca El Pilar

I'm trying to do the posts about Guatemala in order, but I may have to switch around. I really want to write about the horned guan experience, but that was later in our trip. I think when I finish up the El Pilar part, I'm gonna dive right into the guan. Writing is kind of like dieting. If you deprive yourself writing on a topic you are craving, you can't stop thinking about it and start to cheat on the project you think you should work on. Even though I have not blogged the guan here, I have "cheated" and talked about in the radio (I love that I got a radio station to post a horned guan photo on their site) and I've created a Facebook group dedicated to it. But we need to finish Finca El Pilar, a great place to visit if you are staying in Antigua.

Needless to say, more on the guan is coming.

But back to Finca El Pilar, the shade-grown coffee farm that is being converted into a private nature reserve. It was exciting for me on many levels--I love coffee, I appreciate shade-grown coffee because of the habitat benefits to birds, and El Pilar was chock full of familiar birds like Wilson's warbler and the unfamiliar birds like bushy-crested jay.

Which, let's take a side not to the name bushy-crested jay. For the most part, the birds in Guatemala had fairly accurate names like ruddy foliage-gleaner. The bird was ruddy and appeared to glean foliage for insects (what kind of strange world is this where birds resemble their names?). I was beginning to think that would not be the case with the bushy-crested jay, it looked like a grackle with blue wings to me. However, I was informed that when excited, they do have a bushy crest and do live up to their name.

Part of the reason we were in Guatemala was part of a conference on tourism to the area. It was hosted at Finca El Pilar and they set up a gorgeous welcome breakfast for us on a wooden deck with canopy. In front of it was another smaller wooden deck with canopy that housed about a dozen hummingbird feeders that buzzed with crazy looking birds!

For me, this was a refreshing site since I come from the land of mono-hummer. All we really get in Minnesota is the ruby-throated hummingbird. Not that a ruby-throat is a shlub of a bird. It's cool, but what a treat to see a hummingbird suddenly flash a purple cap and green gorget! That's a magnificent hummingbird, living up to it's hyped name.

Let's a get a closer look. For a hummingbird, it's rather beefy. According to Sibley, a ruby-throated averages 3.75" and a magnificent averages 5.25". It's a species that does occur north of the Mexico border into the US, it's possible to see it in southern Arizona and Nevada.

These two beauties are an azure-crowned hummingbird on the left and a berylline hummingbird on the right.

Even though there were tons of feeders to go around, the birds would continuously fight. There would be periods of absolute silence, but then all of a sudden one would appear and dozens more would come out of the trees to jockey for position at a particular feeder.

One could easily spend the day planted at the hummingbird feeding station waiting for the light to strike their feathers at just the right moment to get the great flashes of color. While there, we also saw many other species like the golden-olive woodpecker and heard my new favorite bird call: the brown-back solitaire. I have to give Non Birding Bill some props--he put the solitaire on as my new ring tone. He may not be a birder, but he sure knows how to make one happy.

El Pilar also has a newly installed stair way down into the coffee farms. We had some of our guides drive us up and drop us off so we could take the stairs all the way down. I figured it would be a piece of cake, going down is way easier than going up. However, this Midwestern girl is used to a flatter landscape and I found my legs felt like they were make of Jell-O by the time we reached the bottom. It was well worth it, we had emerald toucanets, spot-crowned woodcreeper, yellowish flycatcher, and a whole host of warblers, including a personal favorite--black-throated green warbler and Townsend's warbler. If ever I saw a benefit of shade-grown coffee to birds who nest in my home country, it was in Guatemala.

Everything about the forest surrounding the coffee farm was interesting to me. I couldn't help but check out the erosion along the soil walls on the way down. We visited during a dry season, but past rain had left its mark.


When not birding the crap out of El Pilar, we listened to some great speakers about local wildlife and tour operators and sampled some of the coffee. We learned that ever since the certification program to designate a coffee farm as a "shade-grown" farm had been put into place, 98% off the coffee grown in Guatemala was shade-grown. Another incentive for me too make sure that label is on my coffee. I did notice that some farms were shady than others, but it beats no trees whatsoever.

Thanks, President Obama

Remember when the last administration wanted to change the Endangered Species Act? They wanted to relax the rules to eliminate the input of federal wildlife scientists in some endangered species cases, allowing the federal agency in charge of building, authorizing or funding a project to determine for itself whether the project is likely to harm endangered wildlife and plants.

Well, President Obama has changed it back. Thanks, dude! And thanks to everyone out there who voiced their concern over this proposed change! From the Washington Post:

Today President Obama will restore rules requiring U.S. agencies consult with independent federal experts to determine if their actions might harm threatened and endangered species, according to an administration official who asked not to be identified, marking yet another reversal of President Bush's environmental legacy.

In December 2008, the Bush administration changed a longstanding practice under the Endangered Species Act by issuing rules that allowed agencies to move ahead with projects and programs without seeking an independent review by either the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Environmentalists and scientists said this shift could allow agencies to press ahead with plans that could hurt already-vulnerable species across the country.

Today Obama will issue a presidential memorandum, an administration official said, that will direct departments to yet again consult with the two agencies on decisions that could affect imperiled plants and animals "while the Interior and Commerce Departments review the Bush rulemaking."

The move, the official said, "will restore the status quo ante and allow the Interior and Commerce Departments to determine whether a new rule should be promulgated that will again codify the longstanding consultation practice under the" Endangered Species Act.

You can read the rest of the story here.

How Would You Like These At Your Feeder?

A bird feeder at Los Tarrales in Guatemala. Would you like a blue-gray tanager and golden-fronted woodpecker coming?

Finca El Pilar Birding In Guatemala

Don't forget, there's still time to vote for your favorite guest blog entry!

So, what the heck was I doing in Central America? I was part of the Fifth International Birdwatching Encounter in Guatemala. It was group that included bird guides and bloggers from Japan, Denmark, the US, and even Ecuador. One of the participants was Rick Wright of WINGS Birding Tours and I felt like I got some kind of great deal because he's a walking field guide. What a treat to have his bird knowledge along. He really is a birder's birder, we were talking popular culture and he didn't know what a Cosmo Quiz was. You want to be out in the field with a guy who has his head filled with the finer nuances of empidonax flycatchers as opposed to "What Kind Of Sexy Are You?"

Where do I begin with my Guatemala adventure? I think with volcanoes. This was the first time I had ever been to a place so chock full of volcanoes. Let's face it, this was the first time I'd been out of the country (at least to the point where a passport was required). The whole time, I kept looking around and asking myself, "How the heck did I get here?"

Our first day of birding was at Finca El Pilar, a private shade grown coffee farm being converted into a nature reserve. We went above the coffee farm to get some of the local specialties and incredible views of the surrounding volcanoes. We birded a few days here so I'll have lots to tell you.

Some of the volcanoes that we encountered during our visit, like Fuego are active and you can see little puffs of smoke coming off the top all day long. I digiscoped some of Fuego's smoke above. How can you not feel like you're not on an adventure if you're surrounded by active volcanoes?

I was expecting a complete and total sensory overload when it came to the birds, but was incredibly surprised by the number of familiar faces down there, like this eastern bluebird. It had a bit of a different accent than the eastern bluebirds I hear up in Minnesota and one of the guides mentioned that it was a more local variety, down to having a duller look than the bluebirds I'm used to. Still, the first few days, their calls really tripped me up.

When I wasn't seeing species I could see at home, I was at least seeing species similar to what I can see at home. There were all kinds of crazy looking thrushes, check out this pair of rufous-collared robins (be prepared for rufous to show up a lot in species names, whoever named the birds in Central America really liked that in their names). It's a highland thrush and looks similar to robins we see in the US.

Another somewhat familiar bird was the black-headed siskin, here's a pair above. While the siskin irruption still rages in the US, I was still able to see some siskins at El Pilar.

Check out this rufous-collared sparrow (there's that rufous again). It's a great looking bird, reminiscent of a white-throated sparrow. These birds were seen all over. Speaking sparrows we did see some introduced species like house sparrows and rock pigeons, but this was the first birding trip that I ever been on where I did not encounter one single starling. No starlings here...can you imagine? Ten days and not seeing a starling--crazy!

While we were doing all this birding, I at one point could have sworn I heard several bees buzzing. I looked and could not see any hives nearby. I started to wonder if elevation sickness was closing in or if my tinnitus had switched from its usual high pitched ring to buzzing. Then I noticed a small water basin and took a peak...

There they were, a small swarm of honeybees gathering water for the hive. You sometimes can get honeybees coming to birdbaths or ponds when it's try, water is necessary for comb construction. I asked the owner of El Pilar and he said that he did not keep bees, but perhaps they were his neighbor's bees. Or they very well could have been from a wild hive. It was fun to hear that familiar buzzing.

We found a camper while above the coffee farm and I got a giggle at the Ron Paul sticker on the back. I didn't know anyone in Guatemala would be pro Ron Paul?

And now it is time for me to head into the Park Service. More on Finca El Pilar and Guatemala later.

And don't forget to vote for your favorite guest blog entry!

Still Time To Vote

Don't forget to vote for your favorite guest blog entry that was up while I was away!

David Sibley & Birdchick, It's On

Well, this was an interesting development that came about while I was out of the country.

The 2009 San Diego Bird Festival has been selected to host a sneak preview screening of the documentary, Ghost Bird, about the search for the legendary ivory-billed woodpecker. The annual bird festival, hosted by the San Diego Audubon Society, is being held March 5 – 8, at Marina Village in Mission Bay Park. The sneak preview is set for Friday, March 6, beginning at 7 pm, also Marina Village.

According to the press release, the movie "wades into a murky swamp of belief and obsession in this cautionary tale about birders, ornithologists and the citizens of Brinkley, Arkansas, who are certain they keep seeing a giant woodpecker that’s been extinct for over half a century."

But here's the kicker, after the movie, there is an informal panel discussion with the filmmaker, Scott Crocker, me (because I was on one of the ivory-bill search teams), and David Sibley.

So, if you're coming to the San Diego Bird Festival, you can check this out on Friday night--should be interesting. I've had the trailer for Ghost Bird in the blog before, but if you missed it, here's a link to it. Wonder if I'll be able to Twitter during the discussion?

Digiscoping Challenges

Hello blog readers! Or should I say hola lectores del blog? I am back from my Guatemala birding adventure and am sorting through photos. I want to thank everyone who entered the guest blogging contest. There were many fantastic blog entries and I'm sorry that we couldn't post them all. Be sure to check out the voting for the top ten and select the entry you liked best (I'm having readers decide because Non Birding Bill and I had a tough enough time picking the top ten, let alone the best of all 53 entries).

I had a great time and learned something very interesting while birding in Central America: digiscoping is really hard! I'm pretty good at digiscoping, I'm fortunate to be able to do it often and I'm very familiar with my equipment. I can set up the shot and get my camera on the right settings without really thinking about it. I'm also very familiar with North American birds, I can sometimes predict how they will move on a perch to get a shot.

It was not the same in Guatemala, I had all new vegetation to figure out and the birds moved in different ways.

When I give digiscoping workshops, one of the things I hear the most is how someone can't get their equipment to work--usually because they've taken (at most) 20 photos that all turned out crappy and they don't understand why. You have to take dozens, if not hundreds of photos to get one decent shot. The more you work with your equipment, the more prepared you will be when a bird shows up and in the "perfect" pose. I've helped out at enough optics booths to know that many people buy their scope and digiscoping equipment right before they leave for a trip of a lifetime, barely enough time to get familiar with their equipment. If I had a tough time, how could someone with new equipment possibly get anything good going to a new area, with new birds, and not know how to work the camera and scope?

So, here are some conclusions that I came to while birding in Guatemala:

First, I had to pick my battles. I figured out quickly that I was going to be in sensory overload being around so many new species. The group we were with was very much a listing group, not so much a photography look. We'd try like the dickens to see certain species, but not really try for photos. So, when a cool ass bird like a pink-headed warbler was found, I needed to decide, "Do I want to try and aim the scope on a warbler, quite possibly missing it completely or do I want to really savor and watch this amazingly colorful warbler?" With most new species, I chose to watch the bird instead of trying to digiscope it. I did go for the pink headed warbler after a minute and the best I got was the above photo. You can see part of its head and vent from behind a leaf in the above photo.

Second, the lighting conditions in the neotropics were rather crappy. In the forest canopy, it's shady and many birds had a knack for perching with the sun directly behind them. Add incredibly tall trees and precarious scope angles and you end up with a blurry shot of a collared trogon (above).

However, there were many times when birds perched nearby, the lighting was not too bad and I could get that great shot of a berylline hummingbird--right down to its little white socks. So, I didn't get photos of every single bird (or even very good ones) but I do have some great stories and amazing birds to share.