One Last Laugh

The captain's binoculars, compared to mine. It still makes me chuckle. In hindsight, I wonder if I should have offered to sell him a harness.

Wrapping Up The San Diego Fest

Here is a photo of Katie and I having a blast on our whale watching trip.

Katie has already left for the airport this morning, but my flight doesn't head out until afternoon so I'll catch up on some work and maybe sneak out for one final sunny walk before heading to Minnesota. So, as I type this, I'm listening to Ian and Margery over the internet and learned that Barry Manilow's latest album is number one--here's to you Barry! They just said "hello" to me on the air over the internet--love those guys.

We've had a quite a time here, albeit a more subdued time than at other fests. Perhaps word has spread of my incriminating photos that I have been collecting, so people are on better behavior. The most exciting photo I have of antics, is magnetic Clay Taylor lifting the end of a fork with the end of his butter knife (pictured right)? Perhaps this explains his birding ability, the birds are just attracted to him?

One interesting thing, was a water main broke down the street and on Saturday our hotel had no water. I felt bad for all of the people who had all day trips in the desert only to come back to the hotel to clean up for the festival banquet and discover that there was no shower to be had or toilets to be flushed. The water came back late in the evening, and Katie, Amy and I thought we would take advantage of the hot tub, only to discover lots of towels and bars of soap outside of it. Apparently, some guests decided to chance bathing in the chlorine filled waters. Ew.

Below are some of the great times we have had here:

Okay, you're looking at this photo and thinking, "Birdchick, they're pigeons, you have them at home, what gives?" Look close, there is a male Brewer's blackbird mixed in with the flock at about 11 o'clock in back. Those dudes are much more leary in Minnesota, so I fed some pigeons to coax over the male Brewer's.

Here is a (let's hope I get it right this time) western gull trying to get some cat food put out for all the dock cats. Free roaming cats were all over, which surprised me, but can you blame them, what with the smell of fish every where. None of the cats seemed to be interested in the gulls or pigeons, if anything they were a tad irritated the gulls would come down for their food.

Here are some sea lions we saw on our whale watching trip. I don't know what it is about these guys, but as soon as I hear them barking I have an uncontrollable urge to bark myself. That may just be me.

We heard hummingbirds all over the place, which seems odd in February to this Minnesota gal. I found this black-chinned hummingbird on one of my morning walks singing (or more accurately, hoarsely twittering and sputtering his song from his perch). I took this photo through my DLS binoculars.

Purse puppies are spreading everywhere! This cute little guy nestled in that fabulous purple bag was having a great time at the festival. Watch out Chet Baker.

I end with this beautiful photo of our warm and sunny trip. I just got off the phone with Ben at Eagle Optics. We are traveling to an eagle festival in Connecticut next week and he just informed me that we will have our booth outside. Eeeeep! Yes, on the east coast where all the snow just got dumped. I'm not real sure how heated a tent will be in February in Connecticut, but sounds like I will be wearing my typical Minnesota clothing.

Sigh.

Making Connections

One of the fun things at bird festivals are all the connections that are made.

I think Keens are becoming the official birding shoe. I was wearing mine and Katie started pointing out all of the people walking by with Keen Shoes. We corralled all the Keen wearers we could find for a photo.

The booth next to us is the PullUin Software booth, the company that makes the Handheld Field Guide to birds. The lady running the booth was working by herself, so if she needed to step out to powder her nose or grab some lunch, I knew enough about it to answer questions as people came by in her absence. It's fun to be helpful and goodness knows I love to talk about gadgets.

I was excited when I noticed a participant wearing a Sky Hunters t-shirt. Four or five years ago, I went on a trip to Idaho with Birds of Prey Expeditions and met the owner, Nancy. We had a wonderful time on the Memorial Day Weekend trip, the birds and scenery were fantastic. We met an old woman who was the local bird lady who, bless her heart, was out in the middle of nowhere and had limited access to bird handling training, but was one of the worst bird handlers I either of us had ever seen. One of the things she did was blow in a bird's face to calm it down. I also learned on that trip that sixty year olds set in their ways are not likely to take advice from frantic twenty somethings. Nancy, on the otherhand knows what she's doing and talking about when it comes to birds, so if you find yourself in the San Diego area, do be sure to check out her facility, and like many raptor rehabbers is run on donations, so if you have spare change, Sky Hunters is a great place to make donations.

Tonight it looks like a group is heading out to dinner: Amy from WildBird, Jim from Brunton, Clay from Swarovski, Steve from Zeiss and maybe a couple of others, I don't know who. There's no Bill from Bird Watcher's Digest or Jeff from Leica so I think karaoki is out. But I so happy enjoying the fresh seafood-mmmmmmmmmmm.

What Really Happens at Rio Grande Bird Fest

Okay, finally the word on what happened people-wise at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival. First of all, there were more kids at this festival than any I had seen before. These two guys were so cute, they came to get outfitted for a field trip. They selected Energy Binoculars, which fit well in kids hands and on kid faces. They were so cute, as Ben (tall guy behind the boys) was taking the binos out of the box and putting the straps on, one of the boys exclaimed, "They come with a case, we get a case?" You know you're getting serious when you binoculars come with a case. Welcome to the fold boys!

On the left we have party animal and Bird Watcher's Digest editor Bill Thompson. On the right is Jeff Gordon who co-wrote Identify Yourself (I'll have to add Jeff to the author sightings list). They were part of a book signing at RGV. Interesting thing, Bill pointed out that Jeff was also selected to go on the Cornell Ivory-bill search. I asked when and he said "First Two Weeks of December." When I asked which team, it turns out we are on the exact same team! I'm so relieved. When you do these things, you never know what kind of mixed bag of people will be involved and if the personalities will be compatible. After meeting Jeff, I will know that there is at least one person on my team who is fairly normal and easy to get along with.

Don't forget, while I'm out searching for "the great cock of the woods", Bill Thompson's talented wife Julie Zickefoose will be guest blogging for me.

There were a number of Bills at the convention--which was nice since I was away from Non Birding Bill. This Bill pictured here is Bill Clark who co-wrote Photographic Guide to North American Raptors with Brian Wheeler. Now I have both autographs in my book. He was offering a trip to band white-tailed hawks during the festival which I had to miss. What would my friends say if they found out I gave up hawk trapping for some birding elsewhere.

This is Dennis Paulson who wrote Shorebirds of North America. Like a dork, I didn't bring my copy of the book to be autographed so I missed out on that. Dennis was supposed to be sitting between Bill Thompson and Bill Clark during the signing, but apparently his talk was running late (or he was mobbed by shorebird groupies, we all know how fanatical those people can get). So I took a break from the Eagle Optics booth between the Bills, and took the seat for Dennis. Wouldn't you know it, but a nice lady came up to have me autograph her book. I was so tempted to continue the charade that a short sassy redhead was the true identity of Dennis Paulson, but I confessed that I was not the desired author. The woman said that she thought it was possible that I could be a "Dennis" since there were other guys with female names at the convention like Kim Eckert. For a moment in someone's eyes I was an authority on shorebirds. Dare to dream.

Tim Gallagher gave a presentation and signing at the RGV Fest too. Watching his footage of the Lunnaeu video was a very different experience than having watched it on the internet or tv news where it's blown up to grainy proportions. Having watched it on a large screen at regular speed, it makes much more sense as to why this is an ivory-billed woodpecker and not an albinistic pileated. Whether or not you believe the bird in the footage is an ivory-bill, I will tell you this, it is for sure not a pileated. It doesn't have the flight pattern a pileated does--this isn't someone speaking from behind a computer, this is someone who has considered a pileated a favorite bird since age seven and has watched it for hours in the field. If anything you could argue that the footage is an albinistic wood duck from the way the wings flap and the speed that the bird in question leaves the tree--it doesn't have the flight pattern of a woodpecker at all. What keeps it from being a wood duck is that you can see the bird clinging to the side of a tree before it takes off.

Oh dear, I just realized that went off on an ivory-bill tangent...sorry, back to the convention happenings.

Anyway, Gallagher was merrily autographing books, I have to say it was a different experience than Bobby Harrison's talk. Ladies weren't lining up to touch Gallagher. Perhaps it was his professorish air (not that that is a bad thing) and Bobby is an incredibly friendly southern gentleman? After I got my book signed I went with Amy Hooper of Wild Bird to Jeff Bouton at Leica and asked what the plan was for the rest of the evening. Jeff wanted to wait for the signing to be over and take Gallagher out for a drink. I looked at our group, even though Amy had a connection with Gallagher through Wild Bird (he used to edit the magazine too), we needed more of a presence. Bill Thompson had gone to Africa with Gallagher so I told Jeff, we should rope him in when we ask Gallagher to add credibility to our offer. Bill informed us that Gallagher would probably be tired from all the speaking engagements, but noted that Gallagher was being shuttled around and would need a ride back to his hotel. The plan was set. We would offer to drive him back to his hotel and perhaps stop for a refreshing beer. We added a few more people to our posse, waited for the signing to be over and ambushed.

Tim Gallagher came out with us. Although, Jeff did have an idea of sneaking him across the Mexican border and demand the exact location of ivory-bill sightings in Florida before returning him. It was a great time and it turns out that Gallagher is even cooler than I thought--he's a falconer. As soon as Jeff and I discovered that, the conversation quickly left talk of ivory-bills and on to the exciting flights of peregrines and Cooper's hawks.

One interesting note: Gallagher has only seen the ivory-billed woodpecker the one time--the famous time. No matter how you slice it, this is not an easy bird to see. But in a way, isn't that the nature of woodpeckers. You don't find them, they find you.

We tried to find a place for karaoke while in Harlingen and if you can believe it, there wasn't a karaoke bar big enough to fit our large group. I think at future bird festivals we are just going to have to make it an official event and hold it at the convention center. We did have a "danceteria" as a festival staff member's home. That's Katie, my coworker at Eagle Optics doing the fish in the middle. She and I are two peas in a pod and are working on an official dance when someone buys binoculars at our booth. It was a good time, especially when Katie, Bill and I did an interpretive dance to Shaft. We're bad mother birders. Right on.

I can't wait to go back next year: November 8 - 12, 2006.

Rio Grande Valley Report on Birds

Yesterday 87 degrees, today sloppy drizzle that has just turned to snow. Wow. I'm not feeling sorry for myself, I love cold wet weather. Yeah snow!

At left is a photo of a Great Kiskadee that coworker Ben Lizdas digiscoped with my camera and Kate's Swarovski scope.

The Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest was a great time. If you have never birded south Texas this is a great way to get an idea of how to bird it. You may not see every target species while there, but that's okay you will want to return. These are places I birded:

Bentsen Rio Grande State Park where some of the highlights for me were Plain Chachalacas (pictured below), Green Jays, Great Kiskadees, Olive Sparrow, Least Grebe, Common Moorhen, Glossy Ibis, Altimira Oriole, White-tipped Dove, Javelina and Black-crested Titmouse. There was so much more, but that's all I can remember at the moment. The park has a really cool hawk tower where you can look down on the Olive Sparrows and ducks, grebes and herons on the water. As it gets later in the morning, raptors come up on the thermals. I so want to go back and watch for Gray Hawks.

Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge was my favorite I think. Lots of birding by car, especially for raptors. Katie, my cohort at Eagle Optics pulled over to some water to look for kingfishers and pointed out an alligator. I thought she was just messing with me, but for sure it was an alligator--sweet! Bird highlights for me included - 20,000 coots, White-tailed Hawk, Crested Caracara, Green Jays, Northern Harriers, Osprey, Loggerhead Shrikes, Merlin, Osprey, Roseate Spoonbills, Reddish Egrets, Sandwich Terns and Snow Geese. I missed seeing the Aplomado Falcons that are possible there, but that just means another bird for another day.

Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge was small but chock full of birds. Hook-billed Kites are possible, but I missed them--again, another bird for another day. Bird highlights here for me were Green Jays (sensing a pattern here-they were EVERYWHERE), Red-shouldered Hawk, Harris Hawk (pictured left), Couch's Kingbird, Ground Dove, Black-necked Stilt, American Bittern, Great Kiskadee, Common Moorhen, Mottled Duck, Olive Sparrow, Altimira Oriole and Golden-fronted Woodpecker.

Frontera Audubon Preserve was a quick little stop but is one of those magical urban oases where you can get a good fallout. Here the highlights were Black and White Warbler, Summer Tanager, Buff-bellied Hummingbirds, Inca Doves, Great Kiskadees, Plain Chachalacas and lots of mosquitoes--still scratching.

Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley

This morning before work Katie and Maren Phillips took me to Bentsen- Rio Grande Valley State Park. It was pretty much sensory overload for me because life birds were literally dripping off of the trees. Birds that I had seen in field guides with outlandish names were all over. I finally got to see in person things like a plain chachalaca and a great kiskadee. Of course green jays (above) were everywhere, apparently they are "trash birds" down here - nickname for birds we see in our own yards all the time like grackles and cowbirds.

Okay, for all you people who think squirrels are a pain at the feeder, imagine having javelinas (right) show up? These wild pigs were all over the place. We watched a line of ten cautiously leave the woods and walk across the road in a very orderly fashion.

I just love being in another state, it was so weird to be in Minnesota yesterday with our 29 degree windchill and to be sweating it up in Texas the next day. There was a nice spicy desert smell in the air too. We ran into one of the festival tour groups down while birding. The trip was being led by Bill Thompson and Minnesota's own Kim Eckert. Thanks to both I got an unbelievably good look at an olive sparrow. This is typically a bird you hear more than see and here we were on this great look out tower watching the greenish brown bird sing on branches and scurry around in the grass looking for food. Yes, Non Birding Bill, I was watching a brown bird and loving every minute of it.

Tonight's festivities were low key. We found a karaoke bar, but they were completely filled up so we had to head down the street for some quiet evening chat at Chuck's Ice House--no singing. Even though we didn't sing, I still had a great time and a totally weird coincidence. I met a guy who is also going on the ivory-bill search, but is also going at the same time and is on the same team. He seems like a nice guy so I'm relieved to know that there will be at least one sane person down there. Part of me worries that with all those people staying in a small research station it might become like an Animal Planet version of the Real World tv show.

The Fun Has Begun

Well, barely off the plane and met up with booth buddies Katie and Ben and already have life birds. My new birds are Harris hawks (which I have seen several times but only in a falconry capacity, so this is a lifer) and white ibis.

There are great-tailed grackles everywhere singing into the night--they sound like dolphins in the trees. Katie and I were just settling into our room when Amy from Wild Bird Magazine called and asked, "Does it mean I'm a birder if I'm sitting in a parking lot of the HEB watching black-necked stilts?" The only answer Katie and I could give was to go directly to the HEB and join her. Sure enough a family group of four black-necked stilts were roaming the parking lot near a gas station for bits of food. I tried to take photos (above), but in the dim light they aren't the show quality. This was, hands down the best view of stilts I have ever gotten but incredibly odd at the same time since they were in such an unnatural environment.

I got to meet Bill Clark who co-authored Photographic Guide to North American Raptors with Brian Wheeler. Always nice to have a geek out moment at a bird festival. Bill Thompson did in fact make it in from Ohio and is busy organizing the parties for the rest of the week with Amy. Looks like karaoke Thursday night, general jam session Friday night and someone is kind enough to host a dancing party in their drive way on Saturday night.

Tomorrow Katie and I are up early to do some birding and then to work the booth. Can't wait to see the birds and to get to work talking to people about optics. Woo hoo!

What Really Happens at Birding Symposiums

Who says birders don't know how to get down and party? For those curious, that is Alicia Craig shaking her money maker in the front row.

Well, the Midwest Birding Symposium was a blast. For me that birding wasn't that exciting, most of the birds in and around the Quad Cities I can see easily here, but the workshops were interesting and the opportunity to ham it up with fellow birding nuts from around the country was just loads of fun. A really cool moment for me was getting a hug from Lillian Stokes congratulating me on getting a job with Eagle Optics. I also got to meet Mike and Katie who I will be working with at EO. Mike (of Mike's digiscoping blog) was kind enough to let me sit in on one of his optics talks. We did manage to drag them out for karaoke, but could not get them to sing...I'll have to work on that. Another highlight was getting to meet Julie Zickefoose. I have always been a huge fan of her writing and discovered that she's a mischievous woman who could probably out sing a wood thrush if she tried. When we went out for karaoke, she brought down the house.

Other Symposium Highlights:

Don Kroodsma author of The Singing Life of Birds proves that he's not just a fantastic author, but also isn't a stick in the mud. He was kind enough to let me sit on his lap and give him a kiss. This is a fascinating book on the how and why of bird song and includes a cd that accompanies the text in the appendix.

Bobby Harrison was certainly a popular attraction at the convention, women were lining up for miles. He was like Sting for birders. It was very cute, one woman walked up and said, "I just want to touch you, you've seen an ivory-billed woodpecker."

It was a nature writer's dream, editors of the major birding magazines on a river boat loaded with alcohol--what better time to pitch a story? From left Eldon Greij founding editor of Birder's World, Amy Hooper editor of WildBird Magazine, Bill Thompson III editor of Bird Watcher's Digest, and Chuck Hagner editor of Birder's World.

I discovered a kindred spirit in Eldon Greij. He knows his birds and is quick witted and likes an occasional naught joke. Plus, he likes reading Bent books and I love any guy who loves Bent.

Yes, that's Bill Thompson dressed like Bubbles of the Powerpuff Girls (or is it Penny from in Inspector Gadget?) And of course, that's his lovely wife Julie Zickefoose next to him. Looks like she's the one who wears the hats in the family.

Bill Thompson rocks the crowd at the Commodore Tap's karaoke night. He sang a really rockin' version of I'll Stop the World and Melt with you. This bar was up and ready for karaoke. They had a table of wigs, hats, scarves and percussive instruments for everyone to use. The bar regulars thought our group was a traveling choir. When we revealed we were birders ie people who travel around and watch birds, an older gent next to me nudged my arm and asked, "No sh!t?" When we closed the bar, we were applauded and hugged and told that we rocked the place.

Jeff Bouton of Leica Optics wowed the crowd with My Maria. He also does one heck of a Wicked Game by Chris Isaak. I discovered that not only do Jeff and I share a similar sense of humor, we also shared a job--we used to dress up as Chuck E. Cheese. We both have much better jobs now.

Here's a prey's eye view of the coolest bird to be seen at the symposium! Neil Rettig's education harpy eagle.

Amy Hooper looks to be involved in suspicious activity at an eagle nest. Is she raiding the nest?

More photos will probably come soon. I took 230 this weekend and haven't sifted through them all, but all this weekend has worn me out and I need to sleep. All in all it was a great time.

I don't know where I am

My wireless signal in my hotel room is weak, so blog entries will be few during the weekend, but I will make up for it Sunday night...however that will depend on how many people will pay me not to post the incriminating photos I have from the symposium's river boat event and the karaoke party afterwards. Yes, Bill Thompson III of Bird Watcher's Digest, I'm talkin' to you.

Iowa birding is good; there are quite a few pelicans here and some good ducks. On yesterday's trip to Sloane Slough we found green-winged teal, pintails, blue-winged teal, a redhead, gadwall and wigeon. We found some interesting sparrows including vesper and a first year chipping sparrow going into winter plumage. I heard through the grapevine that some of the field trip descriptions for the symposium were a little vague. So vague in fact that one of the field trips was actually a boat excursion that wasn't included in the original description. When tour participants arrived, a trip leader stepped out and asked, "Are you ready for a boat trip?" The group was not, but it sounds like they saw good birds and it did warm up later in the morning so things turned out okay.

I'm off to see a harpy eagle and meet more people so I can name drop in future entries.

So, What Exactly Happens At Bird Conventions?

And people think birders don't know how to get down and have a good time. We have our own fun. That is not to say we don't have time for stimulating conversation about pressing bird conservation issues and the finer points of gull id and that sort of talk but after a day of getting up at unnaturally early hours to watch some great birds we like to unwind! Now that I think about it, there was quite a bit of singing going on. Jeff Bouton of Leica Optics kept trying to sing snippets of The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkle and Sheri Williamson and Tom Wood were singing a version of the song I'll Fly Away but with a birding theme. Both sang it and was just lovely. Sheri has a beautiful throaty voice that blended well with Tom. I tried to maintain some decorum by sticking to Barry Manilow songs, although I did come up with the idea of singing American Woman, but changing it to American Bittern. However, Sheri came up with a better idea of chaining it to American Wigeon so that way you could make the song into a lament of really wanting a Eurasian Wigeon...I know, I know you're thinking of that line Judd Nelson had in The Breakfast Club, "Demented and sad, but social."

I think I managed to meet Scott Weidensaul (pictured right) without scaring the dickens out of him. He was incredibly gracious and nice and I learned that he has a new book coming out in the fall. I'm really bummed that I'm going to miss his speech since I have to go back to the bird store but few minutes just shooting the breeze was pretty darned cool. He kissed my hand at the end of the evening--in a very courtly and gentlemanly way, not like a smarmy guy making a move. I think it will be at least 72 hours before I begin to think about washing that hand.
I got the coolest thing from Bill Thompson (pictured left--that must have been taken during one of the few thoughtful birding discussions we had about upper tail coverts) He has a band and he burned me a CD. They are called the Swinging Orangutans and his talented artist/writer wife Julie Zickefoose is on there too.

Wow, looking through all these photos I realized that I need to update my author sighting page, I got a few lifers this weekend with Sheri Williamson and Tom Wood and I can change Weidensaul's status from heard only to actually seen.

I've gone to my share of conventions, but I'm thinking that this ABA Convention was the best ever. It was almost as good as getting an adult female goshawk in the nets at the hawk blind.