In today’s podcast, we tackle Sharon’s experiences looking for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker and other viewer questions. Craig, thanks for your questions and do know that we kid because I love.
[audio:http://www.birdchick.com/wp/podcast/podcast-2.mp3]
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Categories: Ivory-billed Woodpecker
[I should totally be working now]
Cute. Thanks for answering the questions; I feel very honored to be mentioned–twice even!
I do read your blog, for the record.
When I first encountered it, via NG with regards to bees, I went back and read the archives. My recollection of your talking about the Ivory-Billed was the run-up to the trip, and then afterwards saying that you couldn’t talk about specifics because they were going to be published, and not a lot else. I may have missed a post somewhere, though. (A brief Google of your site does points here, http://www.birdchick.com/wp/2006/05/over-birded-and-ivory-bill-updates/ which says there’s a write-up at the Eagle Optics site, but the link it points to is broken.)
One last question about the IBW; I take it it has a distinctive double-drum that you were listening for?
And thanks for the info on the Raptor Center. That’s what I was looking for. Sharon often talks about specifics, but I was interested in the press-release, single paragraph blurb about it, and that was good. Beyond that I guess I need to look at their web site.
Huh…so I guess that I’d better hold up my end and come up with some more questions. Ok, here goes…
I must admit, that the idea of birding is only of peripheral interest to me. (I’m with NBB; I want some sort of internet connection so I have something to do when I’ve seen the birds. Oh, and they’re something I want to try to avoid when I’m flying an airplane).
HOWEVER, gadgets are right up my alley. So could you talk a little about digiscoping? It seems, from what you’ve said, that it involves some sort of telescope/binocular/optical something that you can look through, but then hook a camera up to to take a massively magnified picture (of a bird, or whatever). But do they have to go together? Does the telescope thing have to have a special mount for the camera to go on the back of it? Is the camera like a digital point-and-shoot, or an SLR sort of camera, or what? If the camera isn’t a digiscoping-only camera, does it have to have special focusing mode so that the optics work right?
So what about bird names? You (BC) and NBB have talked back and forth about bird names. It seems that birds have technical names that, even if they don’t quite make sense, are in english. Organisms in general have latin scientific names; do birds have those too? Are the Autoban/english names in parallel with their latin names? Are birds unique in that they have an english-language naming scheme? Does that make sense? I’m just curious as to how the two naming systems relate, and if the naming scheme for birds is unique among scientific classification.
Ok, I really need to review this paper. Keep up the podcasts! Have a good weekend up there in the Great White North!
Oops! I just ran across the FAQ at the top of the page, which I hadn’t seen before and haven’t read thoroughly, but it contains a bunch of specific details about digiscoping. So please belay my digiscoping question until I can post a revised version. Thanks!
- Craig
I love NBB’s conspiracy theory. Those IBWO’s are high-tech.
Ok, so between the FAQ tab and the “Digiscoping” tab, you have a ton of stuff up about digiscoping already. Anything I would ask about it beyond what’s in those places would be too specialized for a wider audience. I withdraw the digiscoping question.
Here’s another try:
How did you end up with thepark ranger gig at the science museum? Did they seek you out, or did you decide that would be a good job? Aside from the groovy uniform (which you’ve said you liked), are you liking the park ranger rock-and-roll lifestyle? Anyone cool/exciting/famous that you’ve met while on that job or because of it?
Craig Steffen