Wednesday at the ABA

Since this is a bird blog, we need a bird photo. This is a chestnut-sided warbler digiscoped at Acadia. Sweet bird!

The really nice thing about American Birding Association Conventions is that you have field trips one day and workshops the next. It's nice, you don't have to worry if you're field trip bus is coming back late and you might miss a workshop. You can also run yourself totally ragged watching birds on the field trip day and then be laid back on the non field trip days. On workshop days I stay in the booth to help customers and today WildBird on the Fly at the Vortex booth joined me.

We got to meet the ABA Youth Birder of the Year, and for the life of me I can't remember his name, but he's a great young enthusiastic guy. That's Scott Cronenweth a Maine birding guide with him on the right.

I've been keeping tabs on interesting quotes we've have heard from people walking by the booth today. Here are the top five:

1. "I literally stepped into the shower with all the binoculars around my neck and then stood under the water. They were fine."

2. "Ugh. It's all coming back...this is why I said never again to a pelagic trip...(barf)"

3. "I was peeing when they found the boreal chickadee."

4. "Oh yeah, that's my future wife walkin' around over there."

5. "This is a birder's chance to mate. This convention is basically one big lek, now dance, prairie chicken, dance."

I have spent way too much money this week. I scored some great books, one being a field guide to birds of China that I have found in used bookstores. I've seen this book going for as much as $80 and I got this one for only $35. Score! The other book I was excited about was the Peter Pyle book, Identification Book of North American Birds. It's all about how to identify birds in the hand when you band them. It even teaches you how to age and sex chickadees, something you can only do in the hand. Here' s a quote from the book about eastern phoebes:

Skull--Pneumaticization completes in HY/SY from 15 Sept. Some SYs (and ASYs?) can retain windows at the rear of the skull through spring or summer.

Oh yeah, that's my kind of book! Seriously, that sentence is describing the development of air cells in bones at certain ages of the eastern phoebe. It mostly happens in the first and second year of the bird, usually by September 15.

Our booth is very popular, we have lens pens that we are selling through the ABA gift shop which can be a life saver when you are on the beach or pelagic trip and keep your glass nice and clear.

Round about three o'clock, I was needing a second wind. I was lamenting to WildBird on the Fly how much I could really use a cup of coffee. Then before I knew it, Rusty Harold (pictured above on the right) one of the convention participants walked by with a box of Dunkin' Donuts Coffee--it's really good coffee. He was kind enough to share it with me. Not only is this guy a software genius, but he's helpful to those in need of a caffeine fix. I was so grateful to him; it helped me get through the rest of the day. That coffee at 3pm is the second most important cup of the day!

At the end of the day, Amy and I went out with the Leica folks for some local lobsters. We had a great time sharing stories and spraying each other with hot lobster juice. I don't care how much finishing school you go through, there just isn't a graceful way to eat a lobster.

I got to spend some time with Bill Schmoker (pictured above). I was so glad to meet him, since I periodically link to some of his awesome photos in this blog. He looks much younger than I imagined him and I was surprised to learn that he is a middle school science teacher. I was so shocked, when I was in middle school the science teachers weren't cool at all, so Bill is a surprise.
While eating our lobster, Jeff Gordon (pictured above)--ever the naturalist and gourmand gave us a natural history lesson on how to sex our lobsters. I was pleased to discover with Jeff's coaching that I was eating both a male and a female lobster. Bill Schmoker was REALLY lucky, his female lobster was full of roe.

Tonight a group of us decided to catch up on some work at the lounge in our hotel. There were quite a few locals hangin' out. When we arrived the bartender excitedly asked us to show them the video clip of Richard Attenborough's Lyrebird from the Life of Birds series (if Birding is Not a Crime has already shown this, I apologize). Amy got this photo of me showing them the clip. The whole bar was silenced and entranced as they watched this incredible bird mimic not only other birds, but camera shutters, car alarms and chainsaws. If you have never seen the clip, watch the whole thing. It will blow your socks off. The bartender had seen all fo us birders watching it the night before and thought it was totally cool. She also looked at some digiscoped photos and was impressed by those. It wouldn't surprise me if we covert her to birding by the end of the week.

At the moment we are all awaiting the arrival of Bill of the Birds. He was supposed to be in around 9:30pm, but we've been tracking his flight delays. The last we checked, he was on a flight that was to leave at 9:44pm but according to the airline's website was still waiting on the tarmac. Poor guy. We're rooting for you Bill, hang in there.

Now, it's off to bed, tomorrow brings another field trip. It is a fun part of the job but its still work. I'm not just there to have a good time, I bring along some of our optics for people to use and test out. Even if you are not an official field trip leader you do end up helping id birds on these trips. I wasn't much help with the pelagic trip since I'm such a Midwesterner but tomorrow, the birds are more my speed.

Chum Chuminy Chum Chum Churry

Today was a triumph of the human spirit on many levels. First, I had to meet my field trip group at 3:30 am. That's not a typo folks, that is 3:30 in the am. I don't know how, but I managed to get my stuff together to meet the field trip.

When I met up with the group, I was reminded of a flock of blackbirds coming to roost. The hotel situation in Bangor, ME is a little wonky; we're spread out over three different hotels, and for some reason I'm at the hotel with all the field trip leaders and not participants/exhibitors, so I have to take a shuttle bus to meet the buses that take us on the field trips. When the shuttle bus arrived with all of us, there were about 250 birders waiting in that hotel parking lot. Our crowd joined them and we began milling about trying to figure how who was going on what bus.

Then, just like someone tossed out a peanut butter suet cake to a flock a starlings, someone opened up the breakfast boxes too early. The original plan was that we were to get our boxed breakfasts as we boarded our respective buses, but there appeared to be some sort of bus snafu going on. I'm not sure if someone in charge just left the breakfast boxes unattended and people started going for them or if someone in charge was worried the crowd was getting ugly and decided to throw food at us as a last means of defense.

Once we finally got on the road, things seemed to have calmed down. However, the adventure was just beginning. The sea was angry that day, my friends! I learned later on that our boat was the only one allowed on the water, the swells were six to eight feet and our tour group felt it. I would say that at least half the participants ended up barfing at some point from motion sickness. I don't know how I escaped it, I used a combination of Dramamine, ginger ale, oyster crackers, wristbands and focused on a fixed point on the horizon when I wasn't watching birds. I felt that I won the battle of the bilge. It wasn't easy, especially when they started chumming.

For those who don't know, chumming is tossing in smelly fish stuff to attract sea birds that have a terrific sense of smell. Our chum consisted of fish oil mixed with popcorn (the popcorn helps keep the oil at the surface of the water) and chunks of fish. Shearwaters and storm-petrels came right in.

The second floor of the boat was loaded with everyone who was feeling a tad queasy. I did find these two towards the end of the trip. They looked exhausted, happy about the birds they had seen and a tad in love...awwwwww.

I had a day I haven't had in ages! I got 13 life birds on one trip, I've never been on an eastern pelagic so it was easy to rack 'em up. So many birds were being seen in different directions, I didn't know which one to look at first. Behind me was a gannet, to the right of me was a shearwater and to the left was a razorbill. AAAAARGH! Sensory overload.

Needless to say that in high swells, getting photos of the birds is challenging to say the least. Okay, this isn't anything to write home about, but the above photos is a souvenier to remember puffins and razorbills.

Here are a couple of razorbills flying by. I really enjoyed those birds more than I thought I would. I was ready to go away from this trip with puffins being my favorite birds, but I couldn't take my binos off of the razors.

It was a great day of birding, well worth the early morning rising. One thing about ABA trips, you get your money's worth with birds. The trip leaders are generally top notch and often there are so many leaders on one trip, you can pick the personality you're most comfortable with and hang with them for the day. I chose Jim Danzenbaker, not only because he's a great birder, but because he had a whole Richard Dreyfuss look (from the Jaws movie era) going on. After returning from the trip at 3:30 pm (12 hours after we started) I headed to the vendor area that was opening up at 4pm to work the binocular booth until the banquet at 6pm. Am I bushed? You betcha. Was it a great day? Totally. Did it make up for the Legionnaire incident? So, so very much!

I Got The Power

Thanks to Non Birding Bill and his mad shipping skills, I have a power chord for my Mac. Insert huge sigh of relief. Of course, now that I have it, many birders with Macs are arriving to the ABA Convention. Ah, life.

Now a bunch of us birders are kickin' it in the hotel lounge swapping bird stories. There are at least three bloggers here: Me, Wild Bird on the Fly, and JeffGyr. Word on the street is that Bill of the Birds is arriving tomorrow so the convention should be well covered on the bird blogs.

It's Good To Be The Bird Chick

I'm getting some great swag from the ABA Convention. When I checked in at registration I got a new bag (I'm sure Cinnamon will fit in this one too), a note pad in a waterproof cover, a puffin pin, a new name badge with pockets and a local shorebird guide.

I also got an advance reading copy of Julie's upcoming book Letters from Eden courtesy of the Houghton Mifflin booth. I'm really having to force myself to work and not read it. That totally makes up for all that went wrong yesterday!

If you're wondering if the book as cool as you think it is...yes! It's good to be the birdchick (okay, I'm done referring to myself in the third person now).

Yikes! Just realized that I am on an 11 hour pelagic field trip tomorrow before working the binocular booth. Vomit city, here I come! I should really rack up some life birds on this. I'm severely lacking sea birds.

Early ABA Report

I have maintained that the Utah landscape just isn’t ugly. Maine is giving Utah a run for its money. Doesn't the above photo just make you want to break out into Barry Manilow's Weekend in New England? Okay, the start to the ABA Convention his still a little wonky for me. Apparently, we had the hottest day in Maine in recent memory—it was 90 degrees yesterday and the Civic Center wasn’t prepared for that kind heat, so the air conditioning didn’t get kicked on in time. My boxes weren’t at the Civic Center for set up, because they were clearing out the Legionnaires' stuff (those guys are just causing problems all over the place). And one top of that, the power chord for my G4 broke and no one in nearby Maine carries Mac products and the soonest I can get one is on Tuesday. Blog entries may not be as frequent until I get the power adaptor.

I won’t be a complete whiny pants, my optimistic nature is kicking in. Even if the Legionnaire’s hadn’t caused a gum up with boxes being brought over, it would have been too hot to function in the Civic Center, so that was kind of good. And my power adaptor broke right where it connects to the Powerbook, at least it didn’t get stuck inside. I’ve also had some iPod issues the last week and the wonderful folks at birdPod are helping me out until I get my warranty repair squared away—they do have GREAT customer service. The birdPod program I'm using this week is different than the one I have--this one has photos. When I get more power for the computer, I'll describe it in more detail. It's pretty nifty.

Since set up couldn’t happen, I spent time at Acadia National Park. I did get two new birds yesterday! This funky looking duck: a common eider (that's the male on the left and if you look close in front of herring gull you should see three females laying ont the vegetation) and a black guillemot. Sweet! Acadia is a beautiful park, but I must say that places like North Dakota, Utah and northern Minnesota have completely spoiled me rotten. I'm so used to being the only person around. Acadia was jam packed with people on Sunday, and that irritated me. Didn’t they know that I wanted to listen to all those black-throated green warblers in peace? If I ever do that park again, it will be on a weekday. It reminded me so much of Duluth, only instead of having Lake Superior, it has the Atlantic Ocean. Could this view get any better? It actually did, while I was taking it in, I heard the call of a wood thrush echoing up followed periodically by a winter wren. Nice.

This is a cliff with a peregrine falcon aerie. Some of the young birds were fledging that day. They are in the photo, just so high up, you can't see them. Really, trust me, they are there.

Not much to report gossip wise yet—although, during dinner at a fine establishment called Captain Nick’s I noticed two birders sit at a table diagonally behind us. One of them had a shirt that showed a trogon—that’s how I knew it was a birder. Mr. Trogon Shirt was trying to get his paper wrapping off his straw. He kept blowing and blowing but the paper wouldn’t budge. He finally blew with all his might and it sailed off the straw and narrowly missed hitting a boy in the back of the head at a neighboring table. He and his dinner companion giggled and he looked to see if anyone noticed. He caught my eye and I gave him a thumbs up.

Bangor off to a Bang!

It's been an odd 24 hours.

Things started off with a bang yesterday at Carpenter Nature Center. We got in a male yellow warbler. I never realized just how yellow they are, even their toes are yellow. Hm, one of the few birds that actually matches the name ornithologists gave it. I wonder if that was a mistake? It's a bird. It's a warbler. It's yellow. Hm, if only they could have applied that logic to red-bellied woodpeckers.

We later got in a male rose-breasted grosbeak. Doesn't he look kind of...evil? Look at those eyes, that bird looks remarkably pissed off considering it doesn't have the protruding supraorbital ridge hawks have. Granted, I don't blame the birds for being irritated when being banded. After all, they don't know what the heck is going on, that we're doing this to track them and help them.

You'll note in this photo, we aren't holding the grosbeak like we do the other birds post banding. It's too dangerous with a grosbeak. Look at the size of that bill. They are huge (hence the name grosbeak, gros is French for fat). That bill is meant to crack open hard shells on seeds, but can also act as a great slicer of flesh when the need calls. So this is the best look we can get of a grosbeak in the hand without drawing blood. Even when you let grosbeaks go, you have to give them a toss. If you just open your hand, they will sometimes turn around and bite before they take off.

After the banding, I tied up all my last projects at The Raptor Center and drove home to pack. I could see rain was coming but didn't realize how bad it was going to get.

This is 35w right in the heart of Minneapolis going into hwy 94. Traffic is at a standstill because of nickel-sized hail that was falling down--right at rush hour. I stayed there for about 10 minutes. Non Birding Bill called to see how I was and as I was talking to him he and his friend just encountered half a tree laying in the middle of the road where they were. Flash flooding was all over the place, but I eventually made it home in one piece, as did NBB.

"Wait, what do you mean I'm not coming?"

As I was packing last night, Cinnamon decided to help. She didn't understand that she wasn't coming on this trip. She greatly disapproved. It wasn't pretty and no amount of parsley could contain her.

I'm now in Maine and getting ready to go to sleep to prepare for the week. Some birders are here, but currently the hotel is overrun with Legionnaires. Tonight I was in the elevator going to meet a friend for dinner. We stopped on the third floor and about ten Legionnaires loaded on to the tiny elevator. I don't do well in cramped spaces but figured we only had tree floors to go so I pressed against the back wall. Two Legionnaires well past their 60s were right in front of me. Suddenly, I felt something. I looked down and one of the older gents was patting my thigh! I thought it was a mistake but the patting continued and proceeded to go higher. So I said as loudly as I could without yelling, "Hand check!" All eyes turned in our direction.

The older gent turned in surprise, apologized and said, "I'm sorry, I thought you were a wall." Now, I love the idea of having rock solid thighs, but in reality, they are quite soft. What kind of walls was this guy used to? Padded?

I smiled and said, "I've heard about you Legionnaires. Now, hands off the display case." He removed his hand (remarkably with all his fingers intact). I couldn't get off that elevator fast enough. I better get some really good life birds on this trip.

Bear With Me...again

I just found this slide show of a black bear trying to sleep on a hammock on the WCCO website.

Also, I have report from Marcie that she has an update to her mourning cloaks. Awesome photos!

Thursday night, Non Birding Bill and I headed out to Chit Chaturday. An event hosted by fm107 where you can meet the on air personalities and get free food. The event was held near the bird store I used to work at and is called the Bayside Grille, right on Lake Minnetonka. While there, I got a big hug from Ian of a Balanced Breakfast.

I also found a robin lurking suspiciously under some bushes--does it have a nest, I wondered. On closer inspection, I found a nest, but not a robin's nest. Just outside the nest were two chicks just ready to fledge and all the people around were feakin' them out. The smallest one flew the coop right away:

Can you tell what it is? I shooed it back to the bush with the nest, but did not put him in the nest. It landed safely on a higher branch. Once a chick flies out and discovers how mobile it can be, it won't stay in the nest any longer. Sometimes they leave a day or two early, but the parents will help guide it. If you can't guess the chick, it's a toughie--this species is known to be a "chipper" little fellow. Get it? CHIPper? It's a chipping sparrow.

Here's the second chick...looks like it got knocked around with the ugly stick a few times. Notice how the shape of this bird is different from the chick above? Look at the way the eyes are bulging. Is this a young chipping sparrow? No! It is a brown-headed cowbird.

For those who don't know, cowbirds are nest parasites, the adults lay their eggs in the nest of host birds and often the host birds loses some, if not all of their brood to caring for a chick twice their size. Cowbirds are a native North American species and are protected under the Migratory Bird Act. However, because cowbirds now follow sedentary humans and not roaming buffalo, their parasitism is speeding the decline of warblers, thrushes and sparrows.

I know how many people feel about cowbirds and I know many people will dispatch a young cowbird. I'll admit, I have removed cowbird eggs from nests, but I just can't dispatch a chick that far along in the growth process...especially at a large outdoor party with many people who don't know birds well but know me as the "bird lady" or "Birdchick". How would that look if someone came up to me while I was dispatching a baby bird?

Cowbirds are a huge debate and I don't know what's to be done or how it's to be solved.

Excel Raptor Bowl

This looks like so much fun!

Brit's Pub is hosting a lawn bowling tournament sponsored by Xcel Energy and presented by KARE 11 and WCCO Radio to benefit The Raptor Center July 12, 2006. Gather friends and join Doug Woog, Dave Lee, Stan "the Crusher" Kowalski, Brian Bonin, Ron Coomer (these must be sports people because I don't know who any of these guys are) and other local celebs for some lawn bowling fun! Corporate and individual teams are welcome.

I so want to be on a team, but I'm the only company employee in town, so alas I can't. If your company is interested in being a team sponsor it's $1500 and you get the chance to entertain clients as part of a four player team at Brit's Pub lawn bowling venue, team photo with a raptor, premium gift bags for each team member, prizes for the winning team and your logo on the site of The Raptor Center. This fundraiser has EVERYTHING: birds, beer, Brit's food (come on, you know you love those scotch eggs), fun AND you'd be helping injured birds of prey who come for medical attention and don't have health insurance.

If anyone out there needs an extra team member let me know.

Too Excited To Work

For fun, I'm just going to add some gratuitous owl photos in this post, because it's fun to look at owls (and I haven't had a chance to take other photos).

"Owls? I don't approve of owls."

I'm sorry about the lack of entries this week, I'm trying to get my loose ends tied up before I leave town. This weekend I fly out to Bangor, Maine for the ABA Convention and then I leave the following Saturday for Indianapolis, Indiana for vendormart...and a visit with my mom--why did I think that wouldn't be stressful? I'm excited, but I'm not thrilled to away from Non Birding Bill for ten days. But if we can survive my two week trip to Arkansas with hardly any contact, we can do this. This will be fun, there will be great birds (I finally get to see puffins in the wild!) and great friends. Wow, was it really only last July when I was at the ABA Convention in Tucson, Arizona and I said aloud over some drinks with friends, "I wish I could be an optics rep." Careful what you wish for out loud, it does come true.

So, here are some updates to past entries. First up, Gayle Deutsch did an informal survey around the office to see who could hear the "silent ring tone" (which is developed by the same company that made the sound to keep teenagers from loitering in front of shops). Here were the results:

Can't hear the tone:
48-year-old woman (my boss)
25-year-old man (whom I mentioned below)

Can hear the tone:
50+ woman 41-year old woman (me)
35-year old woman 24-year old woman (can hear very lightly)
24-year old woman (claps hands over ears)

This reminds me of when I volunteered at Richardson Nature Center in Bloomington and would help with bird/nature walks. To me, the high-pitched calls of Cedar Waxwings were quite clear - but a number of the 60+ age group could not hear them at all. Perhaps birder's should have their own brand of the mosquito phone ring, but have it be the Cedar Waxwing's call? ;)

I also have reports from others who cannot hear the tone, but they are well known birders, and I don't want to out their audio abilities.

Okay, I need to give a big shout out to Morgan Pittman of The Wren's Nest in Michigan in regards to the black-crowned night-heron foot stinking up the office:

And here I thought I was the only adult who took home animal parts they found... Anyway, the BEST way to dry them, I've found, is to place them into silica gel crystals.

These can be found at craft/floral stores (if you have JoAnn Fabrics or Michaels Crafts, these are good places to get it inexpensively -- in the floral-arranging aisle). The best kind to get is the 'color-changing' type. These silica beads are blue, then you put them in with your thing to dry (flowers, dead toads found in the driveway, heron's feet, etc...) into an air-tight container (I use quart or gallon size zip-lock bags a lot for these crazy projects!) when they turn pink, your item is dry! And, even better -- they're re-usable! You just put the pink crystals into the oven in a pie pan, warm 'em up, and they're blue again, ready for your next find! Happy drying!

That's the foot in the vase surrounded by gel in the above photo. Flanked by the container the gel came in and the air freshener. I bought some of the silica gel and followed the conventional directions for dried flowers. I'm supposed to cover the item and seal it up in an air-tight container and leave undisturbed for 3 - 7 days. I started this Wednesday and will just leave the foot in there until I return. I figured for a larger foot and not a delicate flower it might need a few extra days. One thing is for sure, it's smelling better around the desk! Thanks for the tip, Morgan. The noses around the office sure do appreciate it.

And finally, I got a response from Marcie O'Connor about the mourning cloak caterpillars:

I just saw your post about the Mourning Cloak caterpillars - I had exactly the same experience last week. I picked up 3 of them and they immediately started making chrysalises. Here's the link to my blog story. They should hatch in 10 days or so - I'll post photos when they do. I've noticed before that some years seem to be especially good for certain butterflies - this looks like it will be a good one for Mourning Cloaks!

She actually sent this last week, so keep an eye her blog for emerging mourning cloaks.

How Good Is Your Hearing?

Tonight I was sitting here innocently reading the current issue of Winging It when this horrible high pitched sound attacked my ears. I about jumped out of my skin. Non Birding Bill was playing a sound file of a silent ring tone that teenagers are using on their phones to secretly send text messages. The frequency is so high that adults aren't supposed to be able to hear it. NBB couldn't hear a thing, but I could. Try out the link, can you hear it?