Focus On Diversity Conference, Be There!

If you are within a day trip of the Twin Cities, you should put this on your calendar. If you remotely work to promote the outdoors with the public, you should attend this event!

The Focus on Diversity Conference is coming to the Twin Cities October 13, 2012 at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Bloomington, MN (right next to the airport).

The objective of this event is to promote effective outreach to more diverse audiences with birding, outdoor recreation and conservation messages.

We all know how homogeneous birders can look on the trail, we need to change this and we have some great thinkers coming together to try and tackle this issue. Enjoying the outdoors shouldn't be just a "thing white people do."

The forum and discussion will include Dudley Edmondson, Flisa Stevenson, Dr. Drew Lanham, Kenn Kaufman and even Duck Washington (if you've been to a Birds and Beers, you've met Duck). Put this on your calendar now, be a voice, learn, engage in this discussion.

There will also be a special Birds and Beers Friday night before the conference at The Corner Bar inside the Embassy Suites in Bloomington near the Refuge.  Birds and Beers starts at 6:30 pm.

Pledge To Fledge

There was a movement started last week called Pledge to Fledge.  I saw all the Twitter and Facebook updates with that in the title, took a casual glance at the website, thought, "cool, get kids into birding," and then tunneled back into the work hole I've dug myself this summer. Then I got a call from Richard Crossley...and Dave Magpiong, the two movers and shakers getting this global birding movement off the ground. Both noted my lack of mention and both wondered why since this is the sort of thing that I do. I said I noted it, was busy and that I'm all for getting kids into birds and was going through a PG-13 phase at the moment. Both corrected me that this is not just about kids. So here is what Pledge to Fledge is all about:

The weekend of August 24 - 26, 2012 you must promise to casually introduce someone (adult or child) into birding. You can do it in a variety of ways. Invite someone who has had a passing interest in birds out in the field with you, give away an old bird book you are not using to friends, plant yourself and a spotting scope someplace with a good amount of foot traffic like a beach or lake shore path and share what you see to passersby, or if you are on Facebook or Twitter, write a few updates about birds or if you are so inclined, post photos of birds. You can be as extroverted about it as you like, but the key is to put it out there and see if you can generate a spark.

This is something that I do on a day to day basis. For example, one of the first things I did at my new job was to put up some bird feeders outside my office window and on days when I'm not in the field, I'll set up my spotting scope so anyone walking by can take a look.

They might get to see a goldfinch on the tongue feeder I just put up or any number of species. Watching birds through my scope is all well and good, but I wanted a bit more.  In the last week I have added a suction feeder to my office window...which started quite the debate.  Several people came by and said, "A feeder on the window? Won't that make birds fly into the glass?" From this I was able to talk about how that's a strategy to use to prevent window collisions. Others are dubious that a bird will actually come up to the window.  We've already had one brave house sparrow check it out, so I know it's a matter of time till the chickadees, nuthatches and finches take it over.

We also have the office turkeys who visit our parking lot too. Half the office gets excited about this and will come over and tell me about them. I love that word is spreading that if someone sees a turkey flock, they alert the environmental department so we can enjoy the too. I love when somebody sees something bird related and thinks of me.

So, how about you? Can you "pledge to fledge" a new birder? Another way you could do this is to host a Birds and Beers. I know I started it, but I simply cannot visit every state (or city) and host one.  I can't drink that much! But you could host one in your town.  We always have new people show up to Birds and Beers and many are very new birding, it's a fun casual way to bring others into the fold.

Don't worry that you may not know everything is to know about birds...no one does. Some of us know more about certain species than others, but there's still a lot we don't know and there's no harm in ever answering a question with, "I'm not sure about the answer to that, what a good question.  Let's look that up!"

Jonathan Franzen Cannot Be The Most Annoying Bird Watcher In The World

I'm fairly certain that there are people out there who would gladly place that sash over my head and if it's going to be a cage match, Franzen, I warn you now, I may be a girl, but I fight dirty, know my way around a folding chair and I'm not afraid to attempt a Pile Driver. There's an article about the documentary on HBO about birding called The Central Park Effect.  I haven't seen it yet, I would love to have HBO cause I loves me some Peter Dinklage on Game of Thrones however, I'm not willing to pay over $100 to get one channel and a whole host of others that I'm really not interested in. I do want to see it because birdspot is in it and I'm generally interested in the subject.

However Jonathan Franzen is in it and well, Laura Helmuth over at The Slate has some harsh criticism for him in her article Jonathan Franzen Is The World's Most Annoying Bird Watcher. Which I have mixed feelings about. She gets off some great quips and it's clear that Franzen has given her some fantastic ammunition, from the article:

"And here’s Jonathan Franzen on birding: 'I thought it was embarrassing. I still think it’s embarrassing, a little bit. You’re basically defenseless. You’ve got your binoculars up and you’re looking at something nobody else is looking at, and everybody else is looking at you and thinking, what a dweeb.'”

 Jonathan Franzen, nobody is looking at you. You're in New York City. A guy in cowboy boots and underpants plays guitar for tips in Times Square, and another guy walks around town with a cat perched on his head. Carrying a pair of binoculars is not exactly letting your freak flag fly."

I love that that sentence about the freak flag. I think all of us birders are tired of the "birding is stupid and something only old people do" and let's face it, we are in the era of the Nerd/Geek/Dweeb so it really shouldn't be an issue. If Franzen has shame issues, I suggest he check out Brony culture.

But let's face it, whatever issue one my have with Franzen (I've never met nor birded with him so I have no idea how annoying he could be) I think the bar has already been set very high as to most annoying bird watcher on the planet. Not that the two gents in the above picture are the most annoying bird watchers ever, though, Non Birding Bill has pointed out on more than one occasion that when the three of us are out in the woods, I tend to stay several paces behind so I can hear birds and see the ones they flush.  But I love this photo because there they are in the woods with their phones and I've overheard more than one bird watcher grumble behind me that all I do is text when I'm birding--even tho I'm usually sending photos of birds we see in the field to Twitter and those same people who complain love my phone when they want to know football scores.

As cringe inducing as it is to have someone well known to the non birding public talk about his birding shame, that's not that annoying.  When I think of annoying bird watchers, I think of scope hogs or people who walk/stand in front of spotting scopes, paying not attention to the group behind them.

Or I think of the awful field trip leader who waded into alligator infested waters to wander through a bunch of reeds to clap and flush a bittern so people could see it (where if we had just exercised a bit of patience a fantastic view of a stationary bird in full sun could have been had by all.

I also think of the know it all types who rip beginning birders a new one because they don't know all the unwritten rules of the birding listserv and post something they shouldn't have or ask a question that's far too basic.

Or the birding related companies that offer trips to introduce new product and only invite male writers and editors because why would you want females out in the field?

There's a whole host of most annoying bird watchers in the world.

I also think we should be careful with well known people who watch birds and the standard we hold them to. For most of us, bird watching is a hobby, a form of relaxation, a release. I know there are several celebrities who watch birds and for them, that is their break, their time to unwind. They may not want to be the poster child for birding, they may just want to hang out in the park and enjoy those kingbirds.

Granted, Franzen did bring this on himself by writing and being interviewed about his deep birding shame.

Lost Weekend

This weekend wore me out. I am not a creature meant to spend lots of time in high temperatures and hot sun, but I found myself in it quite a bit. The upside is that I don't notice while I'm having fun and observing birds, but the downside is that when I get home, I am exhausted down to my bones.

Check it out, the monarch chrysalis on our radiator came out this weekend. That was timely because I had my Monarch Ranchin' class on Saturday morning at Staring Lake Outdoor Center. Stan helped out a little...well, actually he started out by distracting the group by releasing a chicken in the outdoor center--wacky boy. But after we had been out searching for monarch eggs and caterpillars, he put them under the Outdoor Center's microscope-it was very sweet to see the details of the eggs up close.

As soon as I was done at the Outdoor Center, I had to zip right over to meet my buddy Amber to do 2 back to back bird programs for The Raptor Center at CONvergence. This is our third year doing it, you may recall some of my photos from last year. I didn't have time to do the parties this year. After we finished our programs and drove back to TRC to put the birds away, I had to zip home and get ready for a friend's birthday party.

This is one of my favorite bird programs that I get to do as a volunteer. For one thing, people at a science fiction and fantasy convention are happy and in a good mood, they are seeing old friends and discussing a favorite topic--and they're in costume (note the lovely lady dressed as a fairy in the above photo). This year, one of the new staff at TRC came along to observe the program and at one point she leaned over in surprise and said, "I just saw a Dalek! I mean, a life sized actual Dalek!"

I was really impressed that she knew what a Dalek was. She already had cool points in my book anyway, she's the one who has been rehabbing the young porcupet.

It's fun to try and guess different costumes, (I think the one in the photo above is an Andorian) I also recognized Dr. Who, Brak, Sailor Mercury, and I saw at least four different Indiana Joneses at four different ages. I even saw someone dressed like Young Frankenstein! The woman who arranges for us to come is named Erin. As we were packing to leave, we thanked her for having us out and the generosity of the group (we always get great donations from this group on top of the program fee). I asked that she keep us in mind for next year. She said TRC would be back and added, "I always ask for you and Amber because you guys get us and what we're about." What an awesome compliment and it totally made my day.

This morning I was back at Staring Lake to lead an "urban bird trip". I would have advertised in the blog, but it was a last minute trip for me--I was subbing for the original trip leader. I took the group to couple of spots on the south side of the metro area, near the airport. There were a couple of unusual birds (for Minnesota) reported there and also, they are just great general birding spots. We heard and glimpsed and Acadian flycatcher at The Old Cedar Avenue Bridge and we heard and glimpsed a Bell's Vireo at Black Dog Preserve. I find that both of those species are more exciting to hear than to see.

The real star of the show ended up being Virginia rails. We passed another birder while listening for the Acadian who told us that the rails were putting on quite a show, so our group hightailed it out to the observation deck. When we arrived, a sora scuttled out of the way and is wasn't long before we heard the Virginia rails grunting. We were able to glimpse an adult chasing a younger bird. I played the Virginia rail call on my birdJam and the adult gave up the chase and came straight for us. He ran under the deck, around us, and zipped in and out of the reeds. It even paused to give its grunt call right back. The bird was moving way too quick for me to digiscope it (I snapped the above photo with my point and shoot), however someone in our group had a nice camera and...

Rob Grant got the above shot of the Virginia rail! Thanks, Rob, for letting me use your image in the blog. I have to say, I've called rails out before but these were hands down the best looks I've ever had at a Virginia rail. The bird soon ignored our group and continued its chase of the younger bird. We stayed for quite some time observing other species of birds and still the rails would scurry about us.

We also had great looks at marsh wrens--this guy popped up and sang for so long that everyone in the group got a good look through my spotting scope and I had a chance to digiscope it. Wow, a wren sitting still--who knew? I really enjoy doing these low key birding trips where we just enjoy the usual birds and get a few surprises in the process.

After the trip, I came home, took a long hot bath and napped a good portion of the afternoon. Tomorrow, I have to do Showcase Minnesota and then it's off to check the bees. Last week, Non Birding Bill and I put in some frames from the healthy Olga hive that were full of eggs and larvae in the hopes that the queenless Kitty hive would raise one of the eggs into a queen. I'll check for queen cells and if there aren't any, I'll have to combine what is left of Kitty with Olga.

Dakota County Bird Trip

Saturday, I led a field trip with my buddy Stan Tekiela to Dakota County, through Staring Lake Outdoor Center. It was a small group and loads of fun. I love birding this place because it's just south of the Twin Cities metro area and you can see some great birds: loggerhead shrike, dickcissel, grasshopper sparrow, indigo bunting, even a Swainson's hawk (they're not really supposed to be in Minnesota).

We started the morning by checking one of the Outdoor Center's bluebird boxes. Some of the participants got to hold a young bluebird--what a great way to start a Saturday morning!

I had driven our route on Friday looking for target birds and didn't find all of them but hoped for the best on Saturday. I did find lots of song sparrows (above). It's interesting to note the abundance of corn growing in many of the fields and I wondered how much more there will be in the coming years with the popularity of ethanol. One spot that has traditionally been great for yellow-headed blackbirds was all corn.

I like going with Stan, because he likes to help put the adventure in a trip.

Case in point, the above photo. Note in the background the sign reads "Road Closed"--that's where we parked. Well, this was our unplanned last stop of the day. We had seen all target species except for dickcissel. I had an email with me that someone in the past week had seen dickcissel off of Hwy 52 and 117th Street--just off the exit. That was on our way back to the Outdoor Center, so we decided to stop there, what did we have to lose? As we drove on the exit, I had my window down and I immediately heard, "dick dick cissel cissel" and there on the exit sign was a dickcissel. Stan pulled his vehicle over right on the exit, I went a little further ahead to an area blocked off for construction. We hopped out and everyone got a good look at the dickcissel.

Incidentally, we were across the highway from the Koch Refinery. Even though we were far away, my spotting scope though aimed at the dickcissel, was pointing towards the refinery. Two security vehicles approached us in less than five minutes to insure that we were not taking any photos--I opted to not try and digiscope the dickcissel.

One of the target species (and on that put on the best show was a northern shrike). I had seen one along this stretch of road on Friday and at first I drove past it, but Stan called out on the two way radio, "Shrike." We pulled back and there it was perched on a telephone pole.

Look at that little shrike loaf. The bird was totally dosing off--slacker. It was hunkered down and periodically the eyes would close--certainly wasn't too stressed out by us humans. I even pulled out my Handheld Birds and played the call of the northern shrike versus the loggerhead and it still continued to dose off.

Eventually, the shrike did wake up and went through a series of stretches. Here is your basic wing stretch.

And this? I don't know, perhaps a bird version of downward dog? I'd never seen a shrike stretch quite like this before--kind of a butt up pose. Boy, it doesn't look anything like it does in field guides. After this stretch it flew across the street to some spruce trees and teed up. It looked like it was on the hunt. I wonder if the shrike was thinking, "Alright, you got your pictures, you got to see me, I'm off the clock, so buzz off."

Another highlight of the day was watching some young kestrels that had recently left the nest learning to fly and hunt. The young birds would fly and perch right over us...that is until the adults showed up and started screeching a warning.

All and all a fun time. Up next is a bee entry. Brace yourself, we find out what happened to Kitty.

Early Thoughts on Bird Watch America

Have I really been in Atlanta one day and am I already this exhausted? I love this show--so many great friends to catch up with, so many new people with new ideas to meet and so much new product to see. All this is on top of my actual duties that I have to perform here.

Non Birding Bill was kind enough to check out a laptop pc for me from the university he works at since Norbert was not ready from having his hard drive replaced. I can't get the darn thing to connect to the internet or hold a battery charge, but somehow I have landed a very spanky executive suite with office privleges. I'm currently tucked away in a quiet corner on the 17 floor of the Hilton using their complimentary computers and internet access. Incidentally, accessing in my room is $13.95 a day--nuts.

My lunch time presentation went over better than I expected. It's odd, I feel perfectly natural most of the time in front of a crowd, but I found myself incredibly nervous--my left leg and right hand were uncontrollably shaking for most of my talk. I think it was because I was debuting some new material (crazy customer stories--like the woman who used to call the bird store and tell us about the peewees she could communicate with psychically) and I get more nervous talking in front of peers than people I will never see again. The audience seemed to enjoy it, and I think I kept it brief--whew.

The best presentation that I observed today was by Peter Marra about urban ecology--he has been doing some interesting research on common birds found in urban areas. I think this is something that can be used in several major cities. One of his most interesting findings had to do with nest predation in urban areas compared to forested areas. I think the general thought is that nests are less safe from predators in urban areas because we think of raccoons, crows and cats. Marra's research found that urbans nest were preyed upon a little over 30% whereas nests in forested areas were preyed upon closer to 80%! The main reason appears to be that we have fewer nest predators in urban areas--sure there are crows, raccoons and cats but not nearly as many snakes or smaller predators because we can exterminate them more easily.

He also had studies of catbird survival rates once the young leave the nest. Interesting to note that in neighborhoods with more cats, had fewer fledging catbirds survive.

Tomorrow I get to go in to the trade show and see what's nifty and new. Some sneak peaks that I found today: solar powered squirrel proof feeders, newer ant moats for hummingbirds, suet pellets, and a new book from Houghton Mifflin with tips from 50 top birders (hmmmm, I wonder how many people are going to glance at the list of 50 top birders and then take offence that they weren't invited to submit an essay--incidentally, there are a lot of essays by women in the book).

More soon.