Music of the Birds iPad Book Review

I think I have found the missing link between the traditional paper copy of a bird book and an electronic bird book. Kudos to the awesome that is Lang Elliot and Marie Reed for coming up with Music of the Birds, a multimedia guide to 20 favorite North American species. If you aren't familiar with these two authors, you may recognize Lang's voice as the narrator of several bird song ID CDs and Marie is a a fantastic photographer. I've linked to some of the incredible footage their site Music of Nature.

This $7.99 book for the iPad available on iTunes is great for adults and kids, people who go birding all the time, the casual birder or someone you would like to get into watching birds. It takes 20 popular birds (like the above indigo bunting) gives you incredible photos, stunning video and some background information.

Here's a sample of one of the videos of a Veery--how many of us have heard that song but never actually saw the bird that can harmonize with itself?

[youtube]http://youtu.be/cK1gaTqBRRk[/youtube]

I can really see this book appealing to kids. They love to play with iPads and with fantastic photos and videos of many birds that can be found it backyards, it may help inspire them to actually look for them.

I do think that some day we will see field guides that will also incorporate video of birds to aid us in id, rather than relying on illustrations and calls only. I'm really excited to see someone take this on and come up with a such a user friendly and beautiful iPad book.

So if  you have an iPad and an interest in birds, definitely check this one out.

Dickcissel Invasion

Holy cow there are a lot of dickcissels in my neck fo the woods this year. Last year on my surveys I had one dickcissel pair, this year, I'm practically tripping over them. They are by far the most abundant bird outside of red-winged blackbirds on those same survey routes. One of my final duties at the park service was a banding program with Avian Images (and for those who missed it, one of my freelance clients hired me full time and I'm now an Avian Field Ecologist with Westwood Professional Services). The banding program was at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary and we even found a breeding pair of dickcissel there.

The birds have been noticed here in Minnesota and Wisconsin and a challenge has been issued to try and document them in every county. Checking out dickcissel information online, this is par for the course for this species on the outer edges of its breeding range. According to Birds of North America Online:

"...this species is notorious for regular seasonal movements within its primary breeding range and for irregular movements outside of this core range to breed in surrounding areas where extensive grassland habitat exists. These erratic, semi-nomadic movements result in dramatic year-to-year changes in distribution and abundance, especially in peripheral and sporadically occupied areas."

And Minnesota and Wisconsin definitely fall on the outer edges of the dickcissel range.

I can't help but wonder how an influx of dickcissel works with other species. Do they drive out bobolink and frustrate savannah sparrows?

I did some more poking around on Birds of North America Online and if you don't have a subscription, you should really consider it somtime and read up on your favorite birds.  You never know what little gems you will find in there.  Some of my favorites about dickcissel on BNA include:

"Nothing remarkable about defecation."

and

"Dickcissels show resource-defense polygyny (Zimmerman 1966b), as do a few other grassland species (Verner and Willson 1966). Polygyny in Dickcissels is not based on a skewed sex ratio, but on spatial heterogeneity in grassland habitat, such that some males hold territories of higher quality and attract more mates than others."

As if the name dickcissel weren't provocative enough.  I wonder if anyone has tried to use the above as an excuse for infidelity? "Really, honey, it meant nothing.  It was just a little resource-defense polygyny, nothing more.  You know how great of property we have? How could I say no?"

Lawrence's Warbler

I took a quick trip down to Indianapolis to visit my family. On the way, I made a stop at Mr. Neil's and got a big surprise. I went to the spot where blue-winged warblers have nested in the past and sure enough heard the familiar 2 note, buzzy call of a blue-wing. I was excited to see one, but when I got it in my binoculars I was surprised to see something golden-winged warbler-ish...it was a hybrid!

This is a Lawrence's warbler which is some sort of mix of blue-winged warbler and golden-winged warbler. These two species are known to hybridize, the more familiar hybrid is the Brewster's warbler. This bird really threw me for a loop because it sounded so much like a blue-winged warbler. Here's a video so you can hear what it sounded like (there's also a common yellowthroat singing in the background):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XffAG983LY&feature=youtu.be

I was kicking myself that I didn't wander the trail for bird watching until so late in the evening, I wished I had better light. I took both the photo and video with my iPhone through my scope...incidentally, I used the Meopix iScoping Adaptor to secure my iPhone to my spotting scope...more on that later.

I found an interesting article by by David Bonter and Irby Lovette on these two hybrids. It reads, "The most common hybrid form is known as a "Brewster's" warbler; the rarer form is known as a "Lawrence's" warbler. We currently believe that a "Lawrence's" warbler results when two "Brewster's" warblers mate, or when a "Brewster's" warbler backcrosses with one of its parent species, but research into the genetics of hybridization between these species is underway and many questions remain unanswered."

I haven't paid attention to this spot in the last few years because of my work and travel schedule. Did a golden-winged warbler mix it up with a blue-winged warbler? I can't imagine this bird coming to the exact territory where a blue-winged has nested in the past unless it hatched here. One thing is for sure, I'll be checking it more closely this year.

Here's a an article from the American Birding Association's Birding about the hybrids with lots of great photos.

The Anniversary Of The Great Blue Heron Rookery Destroyed By A Tornado

This has been an action packed week for me, it's the one year anniversary of the Minneapolis Tornado that ripped through a great blue heron rookery, destroying all the nests (and almost all the offspring) and displacing most of the adults. The herons ended up renesting, some at an older rookery at Coon Rapids Dam and then other establishing a new rookery downriver at the Head of Navigation on the Mississippi River, near Marshall Terrace Park. To our surprise and relief, some of the birds ended up fledging young last year.

And to my utter delight, they came back this year and nesting is again well under way. Tom Crann from All Things Considered asked if there was a way to go out and visit the rookery. The superintendent of my park (MNRRA) Paul Labovitz offered to drive the boat and try to safely land on the island. So off we went under the threat of rain and lots of wind to visit the new rookery. Above is Jayne Solinger, Tom Crann, Paul Labovitz, Jeffery Thompson and Brian Valentine. Tom was getting a photo of me getting a photo of him.  It was all very meta on Twitter.

This is a shot beneath the rookery from the boat, look at all those those nests.  Even though it was windy, if you took a moment, you could hear the chicks begging for food. Paul found a safe place to land the boat and we walked around on the island. I was able to count about 40 nests, most of which were active. I wasn't sure if some of the smaller ones were starters or leftover from last year. There's still plenty of room to grow on this island, so I'm sure we'll see more nests in years to come.

We had fun on the island and I even taught Tom how to digiscope with his iPhone and my Swarovski scope.

This is one of our iPhone scoped photos, we were sending them to Twitter, but Tom also added them to the story on the MPR site. Awesome. These young herons look like they are about to leave the nest. I think that mild March allowed the great blue herons an early start on nesting.

I couldn't help but notice how much poop was on the island. As I understand it, Xcel Energy owns the island and you're not supposed to land on it, but people do.  Last year I found some campers and a local tour operator landing under the rookery. I couldn't help but think this a foolish situation, fish reeking heron poop is no fun to have on your clothing...or to camp under--ew. While we were on the island, we felt some moisture and we thought it had started to rain...

Then I noticed that the speckles were white and realized that I just got the MPR crew covered in heron poo! Way to go, Ranger Sharon! I had to call and ask Swarovski what the best and safest method is for removing heron poop from my spotting scope body. Typically I just run it under the shower but I think this will need a little elbow grease...and quite possibly a toothbrush.

Thanks to the super windy conditions on our way back to shore, everybody got sprayed with Mississippi River water, so that did kind of help clean off the heron poop...though everybody had to go back to the studios a little wetter than expected.

The peregrine falcons who use the nest box flew around us on the island a few times.

You can see they are still using the island as their plucking perch. We found all sorts of bird parts from several blue jay wings, killdeer wings and catbird parts.

There was even a disembodied killdeer head!

Canada geese nest all over the island, but many of the nests were abandon. I wonder if people landing on the island or the constant barrage of heron poop was the cause.  I wasn't able to get a photo but there are also at least three spotted sandpiper nesting territories. You know, if it weren't for the heron poop factor and parent freak out factor, this island is a naturalist's dream and I would love, love, love to use it as an outdoor classroom.  So much to explore and every bit of it is a teachable moment.

So, here is the story from All Things Considered and Tom also found that Xcel has set up a heron cam, so you can watch from the safety (and less stinky) area of your desk.

Hummingbird Reminder

It's the time of year when I get hummingbird questions so I thought I would do a quick reminder about hummingbird nectar. Here is the recipe:

4 parts water 1 part table sugar (not honey, not corn syrup, not Splenda, not Stevia, no artificial sweetner)

Don't bother with red dye, it's not needed, could be harmful (we don't know for certain but it's best to err on the side of caution). Your feeder should be red enough to get the hummingbirds' attention.

Mix until the sugar is dissolved. One thing that I do is add in a little hot water from our tea kettle to the sugar, just enough to dissolve it. Once it's dissolved I add in cool water so the nectar won't be too hot and can go right in the feeder. You can make a big batch and store the excess in your refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Remember to keep the nectar in the feeder fresh. If you feeder is in direct sun, change the nectar every two days. If it's in the shade, change it every five days. If the nectar looks cloudy or if you see black on the inside of the feeder or around the feeder points--clean the feeder and change the nectar. A clean feeder is essential.

If the idea of keeping a feeder clean is daunting, use flowers to attract hummingbirds instead.

http://youtu.be/JhTSjgwKzUo

How Easy Is It To Get A Kirtland's Warbler Shot At Biggest Week?

So, how easy is it to get a shot of a Kirtland's Warbler at the Biggest Week In American Birding? This easy:

Video taken by holding my iPhone 4s up to my Swarovski spotting scope (with a 25 - 50 zoom eyepiece). Kirtland's warbler female observed at Magee Marsh during the Biggest Week In American Birding 2012.

The Canada Incident

So, I was supposed to be at the Point Pelee Festival of Birds this weekend, something I was really looking forward to doing--both as a presenter and field trip leader and as a birder to the area.  The warbler watching is legendary. But Canada refused me entry to their country. I've been to a lot of places.  I'm not as well traveled as some of my professional bird guide friends, but Kazakhstan, Israel, Guatemala--no problem. The country immediately north of the state I live in?  Easy, laid back Canada? They're the ones who have a problem with me? What the heck?

So here's the story. I'm not putting this in to make excuses for missing a festival, but I've had more than one person ask about my criminal record or if I had something naughty in my vehicle.  No, it was simply a clerical error.

Swarovski Optik is a sponsor of my blog and periodically, they will send me out to bird festivals to help demonstrate product--especially for digiscoping. They are also very generous when a bird festival has a small budget and would like to bring me in as a speaker and will sometimes help cover some of my costs. For Point Pelee, Swarovski paid my travel and lodging, while the festival paid my speaking fee. And let's be clear, I charge a livable wage, not David Allen Sibley rates.

When this was coming together, I asked if there was anything I needed to know about coming into Canada.  I asked several people, including my travel agent. Everyone felt there would be no problems with this.

My plan was to be at the Biggest Week in North American Birding and then drive up through Detroit into Canada and spend a weekend in Point Pelee National Park. The two areas are fairly close, so I spent Friday morning at the Biggest Week helping people get looks (and photos with their phones) of a hidden eastern whip-poor-will.

I took this with my iPhone through the scope, see it? If you don't see it right away, don't feel bad.  Taking this with my phone actually helped because I could show people this and point to exactly where they needed to look to see the whip-poor-will.  Most would exclaim, "Oh, wait, I thought that was the log."

Kudos to whoever found this bird in the first place, it was really hidden.  I just managed to get my scope on it so everyone could have a chance to view this little nightjar.  I had to chuckle while watching it. The last time I had a whip-poor-will encounter it was on skinny dipping trip that resulted in one of the worst reactions to poison ivy I've ever had in my life.  Remember that night, NBB?

As you can imagine, lots of people wanted to see a whip-poor-will and since it was so hard to find, it was times easier to line up behind my scope.

Bird guide, Erick Bruhnke got a photo of my solution to my claustrophobia on the Magee Marsh boardwalk when birders would crowd together: perching up on the railing.  I wanted everyone to have a chance at the whip but I also kept my eye on the time because I needed to head north to Canada.  Eventually, I got a friend to set his scope up in my place and I headed out to Canada with the knowledge that if traffic wasn't bad, I could do some lovely evening birding before leading a trip the next morning at 7am.

I got to the border and as I pulled my car up, the first customs agent had some questions:

Customs: Is this your first visit to Canada?

Me: Yes.

Customs: Why are you here?

Me: Bird watching.

Customs: Where?

Me: Point Pelee

Customs: Why there?

Me: There's a bird festival.

Customs: What will you be doing at the festival?

Me: Leading field trips and giving a photography workshop.

Customs: Is that what you do for a living?

Me: More or less.

Customs: Are you getting paid?

Me: Yes.

Customs: Who is paying you?

Me: The festival.

Customs: Since this is your first trip to Canada, please pull into the parking area and step inside.

Inside I had another customs agent question me more thoroughly and then she said, "You need a work visa, you have to go back to the US."

Perplexed, I asked what she was talking about and said, "Since you are getting paid to come here, you could be taking work away from a Canadain. The festival needs to get a work permit for you and prove that no one else in Canada can do what you do. What? You're a photographer? There could be a Canadian who could do that."

A combination of panic at missing a field trip and a little indignation I said, "I teach a very specific technique of taking photos of birds with an iPhone and a spotting scope."

In a very no nonsense tone she said, "Anybody could take a picture of a bird with an iPhone."

"Not the way I do it," I said, and my brain kicked in and said, "Back off, Shaz, don't cause a scene."

I asked if I could just pay the visa fee now...even though it was half my speaking fee and she said no, that it has to be applied for ahead of time.  I asked, "So, what if I don't get paid, what I refuse the fee?"

She said, "You've already stated that you're going to get paid, it's too late."

"What can I do so I can fulfill my duties at this festival tomorrow?"

She handed me a sheet of paper with a bunch of uses numbers that the festival organizers could call to try and speed through a visa for me but since it was Friday night...no one was answering those phone lines.

Sarah Rupert tried very hard all weekend to get hold of someone but it just didn't happen. Poor thing had her own duties with the festival and had to take over my field trips and cancel my workshops.

I think if I had a reasonable customs agent, things could have gone a different way, but I had the no nonsense, no sense of humor agent and my Jedi mind tricks would not work on her.

As I related my tale via text and Facebook to friends as the situation was going down, people suggested alternate borders and trying to get in on Saturday.  Since I was questioned so thoroughly and they had a computer record, I really didn't want to risk any further trouble.

I ended up going back to Biggest Week but didn't enjoy it nearly as much because I felt like I was shirking my duties at Point Pelee.  This is the first time I've had this kind of utter failure with a festival.  I feel especially bad because I met so many people at Biggest Week who were coming to the digiscoping workshop in Point Pelee.  One woman said she had signed up for one at a different festival and when she arrived the organizers told her that the instructor just didn't show up.  I tried to explain that there may have been mitigating circumstances for the instructor like illness or family emergency.  She seemed dubious and said she looked forward to mine...wonder what she thought when I didn't show up on Sunday?

Again, I apologize for any inconvenience for people who showed up to the festival.  We're going to try and make it happen again in the future.

Point Pelee Bird Fest

I regret to inform that due to a clerical error I will not be at the Point Pelee Bird Festival tomorrow, Saturday, May 11. I'm really steamed about this, it's a customs issue. The Fest is going to try and get me in for Sunday. I apologize for any inconvenience.

What Happens When North America's Rarest Warbler Shows Up At A Bird Festival

There really aren't many more life birds I can get in the Eastern US. Sure, there are some birds I saw when I was a kid that I'd like to see again, but for the most part, I can count on one hand the species I need to get from this part of the US. One of those is the Kirtland's warbler, which is a possibility at the Biggest Week In North American Birding, but I wasn't going to hold my breath. Wednesday morning, still in a sleepy haze, desperately hoping the caffeine from my coffee would finally jump start my metabolism, I made my way to the quieter east end of the Magee Marsh boardwalk. I noticed a small cluster of people up ahead, one of them turned around and I recognized Mike Watson from BIRDQUEST and he asked, "Hey, Shaz, didn't you need a Kirtland's warbler? It's right here."

To which I replied something to the effect of, "Get the frak out of town!"

I dashed over and after some jockeying for position, Mike got me on it.  He wisely said, "Here, hand me your scope, just get you bins on it."

With a rare bird like this that is endangered and a lifer, I wanted to get a great look at it before I attempted digiscoping.

The above photo of the Kirtland's warbler is by Mike Watson and that's the bird he showed me and pretty much what I saw in my Swarovski ELs.  There it is, folks, North America's rares warbler. There were only about 15 of us on it and immediately the stories were buzzing. The bird was found by a couple visiting the marsh for the first time and one of them said, "Huh, is this a magnolia warbler?"

Bobby Harrison happened to be there, took a look and said something to the effect of, "Holy crap, no, that's a Kirtland's."

This is one of the few festivals where Twitter is being used as much as walkie talkies to spread the word about birds seen on the board walk. People can either follow the @BiggestWeek feed or the hash tag #BiggestWeek for bird updates. Within minutes of tweeting, birders were sprinting towards us.  Alas, the Kirtland's flew across the canal and Mike and I tried to follow it but couldn't keep our bins on it.  I started getting the sinking feeling of, "Danger, Will Robinson," as the crowds formed on either side of me on the boardwalk.  I'm claustrophobic in crowds and I need to see an exit strategy to feel safe...I was not getting it. Sarding birding was happening and that's not my style.

Like a salmon going up stream to spawn, I darted and dodged my way to a boardwalk intersection and climbed up on the wooden railing, watching the hoard assemble.  This isn't even half the crowd, this is just what was visible from my vantage point. The crowd anxiously awaited another glimpse of this target bird and then over the walkie talkie came the report that the warbler was heard out in the field.

And as quickly as the birders assembled, they herded towards the new report. Birders were fast walking/running to get to the field.

As people were texted, tweeted, emailed, facebooked and called, more cars arrived to get on the bird.

The group spread out, desperate to hear the song of the Kirtland's. Would it be found again? I was happy I got to see it, but it's not that much fun to be the person to say, "Oh, yeah, Kirtland's, I got that like 15 minutes ago," while 400 people kink their necks for a glimpse.

I decided to go back to the boardwalk and digiscope other birds. I just lining up on a really sweet mourning warbler when my buddy Clay called and said, "Get your butt back out here, you can totally digiscope this thing, we're on it!"

And I went back to the field (I have to say, this is one of the few bird festivals where I've lost weight from darting back and forth so much on the boardwalk).

The hoard of birders marks the spot! I had to giggle when I came out and watched the crowd, it really was like a swarm of bees, especially the way the crowd moved and clustered together once they were back on the Kirtland's warbler.  I immediately found my buddy Clay and started scanning the trees.  In the center of the crowd was the American Birding Association president Jeff Gordon, using his booming voice to call out instructions to find the bird. Around him you could hear excited squeals of, "I got him!" or still desperate, "Where is he, where is heeeeee?" It seemed so appropriate to have our country's club president leading the way on this rare bird.

Clay and I tried to train our scopes on the Kirtland's and had people line up behind us and we'd dodge to the side while they would jump in for a glimpse.  As other people shared their scopes, I took the opportunity to digiscope the warbler. And as great as I am getting at using my iPhone for digiscoping birds, I didn't want to play around and went straight to my SLR to get photos.  That my best and fastest technique and the bird was high and far, I wanted all the power I could get my fingers on to get a souvenir shot of this awesome life bird.

Not bad considering how far away the bird was.  I can't believe I freaking digiscoped a Kirtland's warbler surrounded by 500 people.

The rest of the day was spent regaling each other with how we finally got on the bird. Word soon spread that while we were out in the field, another Kirtland's was heard.  Jeff Gordon and others speculated that there may have been more than one.

Mike and I ran into each other and we compared photos of our birds, since he got a photo of the one close and low on the boardwalk and I got my photo with the one high out on the trees.  Here's a comparison:

My photo is on the left and Mike's photo is on the right.  The streaking appears to be slightly different, especially on the lower streak. Kinda looks like there was more than one male Kirtland's at the festival.

Again, I'm not one for huge crowds, but it was a blast being in the center of that melee and feeling the energy and excitement. It was a full on twitch as British birders would call it.

And I would like everyone to take notice that I avoided using the eye roll inducing phrase, "Birders flocked to the Kirtland's warbler." News media, please take note. That sort of headline is dead and used to death.

Woodcocks At Biggest Week

Part of the fun of birding at the Biggest Week is I get to see my friend Dale Forbes.  I met him a few years ago in Kazakhstan and since then he's moved on to working full time for Swarovski Optik as a products manager.  This is Dale's first time in North America...so you can imagine he's about to explode getting tons of colorful life birds. Jeff and Liz Gordon are also here pimping the American Birding Association and they tipped us off to some hot all woodcock action over at Maumee Bay State Park.  We hightailed it over there after one of my programs so Dale could get the full on woodcock lekking experience.

Before we started, we could hear an eastern screech-owl trilling outside their cabin. I of course had to experiment getting a shot of said owl with my iPhone.  Considering the only light was a flashlight, this wasn't too bad.

Dale got the full woodcock treatment.  The bird skydanced and timberdoodled several times.  He even landed so close at one point that there was no way for me to digiscope him--but what a thrill, we even heard the little crazy inhale sound before they explode out their peent.  Most of the time though he was in a position to not only get shots like the above with my iPhone and scope but also video:

http://youtu.be/vup4FGTGoAM

Jeff also got a video of the woodcock and the sound quality is much better, though he was using an actual camera with video and not an iPhone...it now kind of makes me want to investigate mics that are available for the iPhone.

Woodcocks are all over, one has been found foraging near the boardwalk and appears to have a nest hidden in the leaves.  Some of us have tried to scope her but she's so well hidden, almost all you see is that eye.

So it's not just all about the warblers here at Biggest Week.