For Non Birding Bill--Brown Mammals!

Here is a post from the American Birding Convention for my dear husband, Non Birding Bill:

I stayed at the Cliff Lodge in Snowbird, Utah for the American Birding Association Convention. As you can see in the above photo, they keep a tidy lawn. What's the secret to this well kept lawn?
Why the lawn services of Nosey Q. McFurryPants aka a family group of yellow-bellied marmots.

The marmots were a popular attraction outside the lodge. They pretty much looked like what we in the east call a woodchuck, but I think this is a higher elevation species. At any point during the day, you could see six to ten marmots feeding on the grass.

Even the babies were a part of the family business of keeping the lawn nice and trim.

After all that lawn service work, rest is good! Several mammals could be found around the lodge including various types of ground squirrels, moose, mule deer, and I heard that if you took the lodge tram up another two thousand feet, pikas!

WildBird on the Fly and I took the tram up to see what we could find. Note the snow? I must say that this Minnesota girl felt right at home in the still snow covered Utah mountains.

It was interesting to note the hardcore locals, like the above young woman. Note that she is about to ski down the side of the mountain in a mini skirt. Get down, girl, go 'head get down!

The view from the top was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! As of yet, Utah remains the most beautiful state I have visited. Alas, the bird life and the mammal life was a tad on the sparse side.

I searched and searched and did not see any pikas--bummer, but we did find a few golden-mantled ground squirrels who looked quite similar to the chipmunks we have in our yards in the east.

The view was so good, I told WBOTF that it would be perfect for one of those bird author poses. You know the ones I mean, where the bird author is toting a spotting scope and looking over their shoulder, ready for adventure. So, Amy took the photo and called me a Cheese Ball. Here is the Pete Dunne as an example. Above, I tried to do my best Pete.

Alas, no pikas, but he marmots were cute. Here's some video of the yellow-bellied marmots. Here is the adult marmot (FYI, the sound behind the wind is the raging river from the snow melt):

Here is the baby marmot:

American Dipper

One of the target birds for me on this trip was an America dipper. I've always wanted to see one of these guys and no, not because in the photos it looks like the dullest bird ever. It's super cool.

First, you look for dippers in this type of stream. They actually move around the water's edge and even walk under water to get at all sorts of aquatic invertebrates. I'm actually standing on a bridge, taking this photo and a dipper nest is under my feet. The water is incredibly cold, full of freshly melted snow.

One of the striking things is that you will notice a white eyelid. They use this when they are in the frigid water looking for food to keep insulated. One of the cool things about the American dipper is that they kind of fit their name: they dip...they constantly dip. I went to Cornell's BNA to see if I could find out what the dipping is all about and under the "Priorities For Further Research" it reads, "Why do American Dippers dip? This remains one of the biggest mysteries about the species, with many theories but no answers. Why do South American species not dip or dive? How does the American Dipper compare with other stream birds in North America (Spotted Sandpiper, Louisiana Waterthrush [Seiurus motacilla], wagtails [Motacilla spp.]), in Europe, and in Asia?"

Some things that even Cornell doesn't know. I can't wait until some hard working graduate student unwraps the code of all the bobbing birds out there--what is that all about? And here are some videos I took with my digital point and shoot camera and spotting scope of a dipper dipping and preening and scratching. You can hear our field trip group in the background. If you click on the YouTube link, there's a link under the video that gives you the option of watching it in high quality and see the dipper in more detail:

As if that isn't cool enough, it even dips on one foot:

Flammulated Owl Adventure

Ah, a few minutes to blog at the Salt Lake City Airport.

One of the best parts of an American Birding Association Convention are the sub parties. There are field trips, but there are people who may have missed birds or need birds that are not part of the offered field trips, so people come together and form little posses to get target birds. A target bird for me (and several others) that was not offered on any of the trips was flammulated owl--a tiny dark eyed owl that would make screech owls look big. They are in the mountains and are best found at night. I can understand why the ABA may not want to risk a night time mountain hike...but that doesn't stop some of us from doing it on our own time.

The guys working the Leica booth went out and scouted it the night before. Jeff Bouton came back the next day with dizzying tales of how close this hard to see owl was--it could be digiscoped! Another posse was assembled. Now, here's the kicker to this story. We were driving out to see an owl after dark and may of use had field trips meeting the next morning at 3:45 am or 4:00 am. But, this is a once in a lifetime bird for many of us, so off we went.

We loaded up three vehicles (thanks, Barb, from Borderland Tours for letting me ride with you), drove to the mountain the canyon that was about 45 minutes away, then up we went--we had to cover five switch backs and for those of us not used to that altitude, it was strenuous.

We made it up there and I found myself surrounded by good friends and soon hooting flammulated owls. There were at least four surrounding us in the dark. Soon, one came in, we shined the flashlight and viola:

Isn't it cool! Now Jeff would like to clarify:

"The autofocus picked up the stick above and in front of the bird (it is perfectly focused). Too bad, I had one shot though and it is at least a documentation shot. If I’d gotten one more shot off I would have nailed him! maybe next time…"

He doesn't need to apologize, it's an INCREDIBLE shot considering he was digiscoping on the side of the mountain in the dark with only a flashlight to show the owl. It's a cool, cool shot. When I saw the owl I shouted, "Holy Crap!" and a sixteen year old birder named Erick said, "Holy Crap is right!"

We both got lifers. Flammulated owls are birds of mountain pine forests and eat almost entirely insects (although a few tiny mammals and birds are possible). They are a unique small owl because they have brown eyes (like a barred owl) so that makes them look freaky and according to Cornell's BNA the "specialized syringeal anatomy in these small birds (males < 60 g) produces hoarse, low-frequency notes sounding like those of much larger owls." It's true, they have a bass voice.

What a trip life is! Going up a mountain, in the dark, on trails that have a steep enough drop off that one mis-step could garner you an injured limb, being surrounded by tiny, tiny owls hooting, not hearing any human traffic (apart from the group), a distant breeze, the mountain air, fragrant wildflowers, and great old and new friends.

I love birding. Although, I did not love only getting three hours of sleep before meeting my field trip. But hey, flammulated owls are worth it.

I must get to my gate, I am so looking forward to some sleep tonight. Hope their are not too many typos in this...

At Work Trying To Get Black Swifts

Bird Uganda Safaris (is here with their primo give away) and got a shot of me and another convention participant trying to get our lifer black-throated swifts:

Beats the heck out of "swift neck."

Word On The Street At The ABA

Above is a beautiful Bullock's oriole we saw on a field trip in Vivian Park yesterday. See, Non Birding Bill, they aren't all brown and gray out here. So, here are some of the topics birders are discussing at the American Birding Association Convention in Utah:

Falcons are more closely related to parrots than other raptors??

Yes! That is the word on the street here at the ABA Convention and on the birding listservs and blogs. There's an article about at the Chicago Tribune and Grrl Scientist has a bit more detail here in her blog.

So, what does this mean to you? Your field guide orders are going to change. But aren't they always changing anyway. I still get confused seeing waterfowl up front instead of loons and grebes.

The other interesting deal going down is that a man attending the convention has scanned in his National Geographic Field Guide and placed it on his iTouch! He said that it took him three weeks and he showed me how he can zoom in on the illustrations and you can easily view the text. He also used the Thayer Software for birding and has all the North American bird calls to go along with it. Now, because it's proprietary to National Geo, he can't sell it, but he has offered to mail a disk of the scanned guide to anyone who wants it--for FREE! He doesn't want money and he just seems to enjoy getting a good guide on an iTouch.

I was going to blog out loud to National Geographic and say: "Yo, dudes, why aren't you doing this--getting a good field guide onto an iPod, iTouch, or iPhone? You did such a fun job with the Palm Pilot thing." And when I checked email yesterday, I got this in my Inbox:

Introducing National Geographic Handheld Birds Online

Now all of the power in National Geographic Handheld Birds™ is available Online! Access Handheld Birds™ from any full-featured web browser on a computer or mobile device such as the iPhone. With the new online features Handheld Birds™ is a must-have for any bird enthusiast!

Here are just some of the new Online features:

-Compare species side-by-side
-Search on multiple selections for criteria
-Search with new “family” criteria
-Add notes to checklists and individual species observations
-Manage your checklists and lifelists
-Set date ranges for checklists for a single day or over months
-Order species in checklists by name, taxonomic order, and count
-Download checklists to your desktop or store them online
-Set personal preferences
-Manage up to 100 checklists at a time

For a limited time only, you can get a full 1-year subscription to Handheld Birds Online for only $25. That’s a 50% savings off the regular price!

This now makes it compatible with an iPhone or iTouch when you are online.

Techno Birding is getting interesting folks.

Now That Is A Hardcore Birder

Double binocular harnesses!

Birds Non Birding Bill Won't Understand

Just a quick and dirty entry:

Got some exciting life birds today (and just in case there is still a question, a life bird or lifer is a bird that you observe for the first time in your life and add to your life list):

A cordilleran flycatcher--I can hear how overwhelmed he is in my head. Check out that buffy/olive goodness.

And an American dipper. This bird was nesting under a bridge and would come out and swim around in the water and periodically dip its tail while grabbing who knows what for food.

And though the birds were brown, the views were spectacular. This was from our stop at Sundance--it's not just for movie festivals and skiing. I've enjoyed Robert Redford movies, but I've never been so grateful to him as I was today looking at the beautiful land that be bought and preserved.

Wednesday In Utah

When I first arrived, I tried to do a quick blog post and kept getting error messages. I called Non Birding Bill and he looked into it. Apparently, I had used up all the space on the server. Ooopsie. He cleared some space and I should be good to go over the weekend, but we're going to have to change next week.

I have the potential to get many lifers on this trip. So far, I've been too overwhelmed saying hello to old friends and hanging out at the Swarovski booth to really dig in. Clay, the Swarovski Rep when to a local bird store (which also does not have mealworms at the moment) and picked up a droll yankee feeder, some sunflower hearts and hummingbird feeder for people to test scopes on. Two key birds that I needed were showing up to them (Cassin's finch and black-headed grosbeak). However, they had the knack of showing up when I wasn't looking. Every time I went out, it was just pine siskins. I eventually did get one (above). Here's an even better shot:

It's hard to tell from the light in this photo, but you can tell them from purple finches by this little brown mark on their cheek that resembles a mutton chop style beard. Tomorrow, I get to go out on the reasonably timed 5:45am field trip and will surely rack the lifers up. Saturday, I have a brutal start time of 4am...ah well, it could be worse, there is a field trip leaving at 3:45am too.

Hey, if you are interested in some up to the minute updates, Born Again Bird Watcher is blogging from the floor to his blackberry.

Look Out ABA

I just checked into my room for at Snowbird for the American Birding Association Convention. Check out the view:

I think this is the fanciest place I have ever stayed at for a birding convention. Also of note: my first bird in the state was a black-billed magpie. Beats the usual house sparrow, starling, or rock pigeon.

The place is packed with birders. Everywhere I turn there's either floppy hats or khaki.

Final Utah Entry...Probably

Granted, I haven't been with Eagle Optics that long, but this booth was the busiest one I have worked by myself thus far. What really made my smile about the Bear River Grand Opening was the number of kids that showed up and the number of parents getting optics for their kids. One family was planning a trip to Yellowstone National Park got their kids some monoculars and pocket binoculars. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with the monoculars. Those 7 power Insights are great. I use one when I walk around Lake of the Isles. I'm on my exercise walk but I want something handy in case a cool warbler pops up. The Insight fits right in my pocket and isn't too heavy at all.

The other binoculars that were really popular at the festival were the Talons. Hands down, I think these are the best binoculars that you can get for under $200. They produce a good, clear image, are purged so they won't fog up on the inside, can close focus within four to five feet, are waterproof and come with an unbelievable warranty (unconditional, short of theft). These are excellent starter binoculars or for someone into birds who can't afford to spend a lot of money at the moment.

While at the festival I found a new use for a tripod, apparently, they're not just for spotting scopes anymore:

If you're not strong enough to hold a ten to twelve pound bald eagle on your arm (they feel more like 50 to 60 pounds after ten minutes) then just rest your hand on a tripod for added stability. Who knew?

I have to say again that you must find a way to visit Bear River Wildlife Refuge in the spring, the western grebe mating is so fun to watch from your car:

Also, if you love harriers...

and western meadowlarks...

then this is the place for you. Utah is lousy with both, and what great birds to be lousy with! Oh, and all the midges flying around make this a great place to watch for swallows. This flock was mostly full of tree and rough-winged swallows (this photo shows about a quarter of the entire flock that was buzzing around my car):

One of the things that I appreciate about other birders is the generosity. When I arrived at Bear River to set up the binocular booth, I met one of the volunteers named Jean. They weren't quite ready so I said that I would just go to lunch, Jean invited me to go with her, which I was grateful for. I'm such a social creature, I hate to eat lunch alone. She took me to a great local restaurant called Ricardo's with authentic Mexican cuisine. Turns out Jean is an artist and was leading one of the workshops at the grand opening.

I admired this hat when a gentleman walked by my booth. I asked, "Is that a Cooper's hawk on your head? I love Cooper's hawks! What a cool hat!" Then he gave me his hat right then and there. I ended up having dinner with his family and that's when I learned he was not only a rocket scientist, but an award winning rocket scientist as well. He's head of a project to help astronauts repair the shuttle while in orbit. He and his wife told me that periodically in this area of Utah, rockets are tested and that one night while watching a rocket being tested, the roar woke up the birds and they saw all the bird silhuettes against the lights from the firing rocket. His wife is on the board of directors for the local art museum and their kids are either writers, artists or bird researchers (one bands flammulated owls in Idaho). They were just a neat family and if I didn't have a really wonderful family myself, I would want to be adopted by them. That is one of the coolest perks of my job is that I get to meet people with such interesting lives.

As part of what I do for Birding Business, I stopped into a local Wild Bird Center in Layton, Utah. This man really knows how to run a bird store. I overheard the owner, Bill, talking to a customer and informing them about bird walks scheduled by the store. The customer asked, "Is there a cost for the bird walks?" And Bill simply answered, "The only cost is your enthusiasm." What a great way to get people interested! If you find yourself in Utah, I highly recommend you visit his store. Bill is kind of cute. He reminded me of the actor that played the voice of Kit in Knightrider and was on St. Elsewhere only dressed like a birder--complete with vest and Tilly Hat.

I have always wanted to visit a western bird store. I knew they would have some different mixes than we do out east. Check this out:

Birders in the eastern region are looking at this mix aghast. Why would anyne want to feed this to birds. Eastern birds would not care for this mix, too much millet and milo (FYI, if you are in the eastern region of the United States and you are not getting many birds at your feeder, compare this photo to your seed mix. Cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches and finches do not care for this type of mix). However, this is Bill's Dove and Quail Mix. Out west this type of mix works well with the birds, chukars, quail and doves will eat this like there is no tomorrow.

As I was reviewing the store, I came across a paperback version of Raptors of the World. I was so excited to see this book I bought it on sight. I've wanted it for awhile but had purchased it. I was hoping Non Birding Bill would buy it for me for my birthday or our anniversary, but hardcover was $60 and I hadn't gotten yet. The paperback was only $30 so I picked it up. I like how this Wild Bird Center catered not only to the backyard birder but to the hardcore birder as well.

Okay, I think I almost have the Utah trip out of my system.

Grrr, blogger spell check isn't working again!!! What is a sloppy typer to do???? Sorry for the typos.