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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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?

Packing for Connecticut

Monday morning I took a walk in this:

This morning it's below zero so I'm choosing not to take a walk in this:

We were supposed to have piles of snow this morning, and just south of the Twin Cities they are getting a few inches, however there is a freezing cold front that is pushing the snow to just south of the Cities. Yesterday's forecast said we could have five to seven inches in the Cities, now they are saying maybe one inch by 5pm but the below zero weather is here to stay through the weekend. The same snow is hitting my cohorts in Madison and all of us are flying out early tomorrow morning for the Connecticut Bald Eagle Festival, so it will be interesting to see if we all get out. I'll find out in Detroit.

For all of those who may be missing Cinnamon's disapproval, I did get my fair share in San Diego. This is the California ground squirrel and they are everywhere. I didn't notice them while I was working at the convention center, but when I took a walk before my flight, the ground was squirming with them. They kind of looked like scruffier versions of the gray squirrel that we have in Minnesota, and they weirded me out because they aren't bouncy like our squirrels, they just scurry around. They're not interested in trees but burrow little holes in the ground right along the water.

I'm trying to get packed for this weekend and get things prepared for what I will need to bring to the Arkansas Ivory-bill Celebration next week (my first time running a binocular booth solo) and Cinnamon is being no help whatsoever. I have supply of binoculars with me for use in bird walks and other programs and I will need to take some of them with me to Brinkley. I was just double checking my supply when Cinnamon decided she needed to get involved and give instructions. I kept trying to shoo her away, but back she came. She was very interested in the yellow Typhoon binocular, especially the strap. She kept trying to rearrange it to lay on it. I don't know what that is all about. I think she must be acting out, since I'm not home as much. I was thinking about taking her with me to the Rivers and Wildlife Celebration in Nebraska, but I'm still undecided if I want to do the drive by myself. I often do most of the driving on the trip, but I have others in the car for conversation. Non Birding Bill really wants me to fly, but it's such a fun drive and great way to watch for all the different color morphs of hawks--I'm torn. It would be fun to take Cinnamon to her first bird festival. I think she'd have a good time.

The Sibley Difference

I decided that when I went to the west coast I would take my National Geographic Field Guide to Birds. It's a little smaller than the Sibley Guide to Birds, and fit perfectly in a pocket of my carry on suitcase. I also chose it because I keep little check marks next to birds that I have seen so I could have an idea for target birds. Oh, lamentable choice, it steered me so wrong! I misidentified another bird in the blog--that's two birds in a week. Uff-dah.

The gull misidentification was not field guide related, that was Kate and I trying to remember a gull with no field guide handy over dirty martinis. Lesson learned: don't id birds in a blog at a bar without a field guide. The hummer id, I blame on the guide, I should have checked Sibley before I posted, yet I was impatient.

Here is the hummer photo that I posted (granted, not a great photo):
Now, having only the National Geographic I narrowed it down to either an Anna's Hummingbird (below)...

...or a black-chinned hummingbird (below).

Thinking the bill was a tad off, I chose to go with the black-chinned, based on how dark the throat looked, the white spot behind the eye and that the throat color didn't appear to go as far back in the photo as it appeared to do in the National Geographic illustration. I took a chance and posted...

...then I got an email from fellow Minnesota birder Terry Brashear:

Your Black-chinned Hummingbird appears to be a Male Anna's. A black-chinned this time of year would be unusual for San Diego since the majority of them are in Mexico. When they are found in San Diego in spring they are usually in the foothills in the east part of San Diego County. I birded there 25 years and saw one Black-chinned in the coastal area of San Diego. I took a look at the CBC data for San Diego and none were reported this year. Thought you'd like to know.

Doh! So, as soon as I got home (well, after a warm greeting from Non Birding Bill) I checked ye olde Sibley to see where I went wrong. Here is an Anna's hummingbird in the Sibley Guide...


...and here is a black-chinned hummingbird in the Sibley Guide:

Looking at the Sibley guide, I see the bill shape is incorrect for a black-chinned the light pattern on the head more closely matches the Anna's. So, from now on I will pack Sibley.

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.