Birdchick Podcast

What? A stunt husband? Well, kinda sorta.  I spend the week in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, and spent some time with all around cool chick Marci Fuller (who is the head of the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival).  We talk some news and some of the cool parts of birding in the Valley. The lady who narrates and studied the Moonwalking Bird is coming to the fest this year! In the news: A crested caracara is in Nova Scotia?  What's that all about?   Some female humming birds are a tough id.  A first state record in Delaware ends up being a record for no one as the bird molts.  

Bird Jobs Unbelievable (and graphic) footage of a red-tailed hawk's fatal mistake--attacking a bald eagle nest   Get it now while supplies last: owl skirt! Playtex is using a hairy woodpecker to advertise "intimate wipes." Audubon and Ted Williams: reunited and feels so good. If you like this video, share it.

This is an emergency and short podcast about The National Audubon Society severing ties with writer Ted Williams due to pressure from feral cat groups. How many feral cat people are Audubon Members? Somebody, send this guy to a writing class.

Recent bird jobs. Hey, remember how we talked about Georgia hanging up fake vultures to scare away vulutres...well New Jersey is hanging up real dead vultures. Ambient traffic noise can kind of emasculate singing male birds. Also, some species change their songs over the years. Remix your birdsong contest. Huh, crystals can be formed from birds poop.   The New York Times just doesn't care about the sage grouse issue because they illustrated their article with this: The Gunnison sage grouse should be on the endangered species list. Please consider commenting on it to US Fish and Wildlife. If you haven't seen this on Facebook, check out the yellow cardinal in Ohio.

  The latest in bird photography shaming on YouTube. A guy teases a great gray owl with live bait (he didn't even give the bird the food--what the heck, jerk wad?) So...if you want to get rid of vultures...you hang out dead vultures? Is someone going to try and "de-extinct" the passenger pigeon? (I apologize for the amount of times the blog author uses the word "hip." Oy. What's up with the whooping crane that was shot in Texas by a hunter? Hilarious take on Duck Duck Goose. The grossest cowbird photo series you'll see this week! So cool.  Prairie Birder has created her own digiscoping adapter! Swarovski, give her an internship! NBB has another podcast: Drinking With Geeks!    

An internship for someone who is a furry and a bird watcher! 10 huge discoveries about migration discovered with geolocators. Somebody in Ohio sees Jesus in bird poop...so of course he's going to auction it. Weird looking redpoll in Alaska. Grouse attack!! Crow article. In case we didn't know this...pesticide over use is REALLY bad for birds. A general owl article that I saw Johh Cusack link to on Twitter.

From the ABA blog--Rise of the Young Birder Clubs. Eye rollingly bad story about blackbirds roosting in a Kentucky town. Bird watchers not happy about proposed zip line. Man who accidentally shot a whooping crane turns himself in.  

FYI: the subject of nudity as in "I used to be a nude art model in college" kind of way comes up in this podcast.  Just so you know in case you listen with your kids. Did you see the finalists for the worst bird photo contest? Bird jobs this week. Need a laugh? Just watch this. 62 year old albatross still laying eggs! In other crazy nesting news, bald eagles laid eggs in the Twin Cities in January and there's a live cam. In other news, a great horned owl took over an eagle nest that's on a live cam. Speaking of great horned owls, a great horned got caught in the grille of someone's SUV and a red-tailed hawk got caught in someone's Civic. Somebody (not me) is claiming to do a nude big year of birding. Did you know you can see submissions to eBird in real time? Interesting theory of how starlings monitor each other when in a murmuration. A good article on why you can't exactly trust using Google Images to id birds.

This week's crazy bird jobs: Bavarian Blue Tit study. Montana Bird Technicians. Hawaii Bird Banding Technicians. Birds and Beers is in the news! Hurricane Sandy could continue to have a devastating impact on migratory birds, including the red knot. Also there is a petition to continue the moratorium on harvesting horseshoe crabs. Listing Rules...at least from the American Birding Association rule book. Um...it's National Bird Feeding Month. Google Maps inspired bird house. Brian Williams gets catty. Whoa, whoa, whoa...I got a press release from the American Bird Conservancy and it was good news.  What the heck is going on. There's still time to enter to win my spotting scope!

Hey!  Did you know that I'm having a contest to give away my Swarovski ATM spotting scope? Yes, you could win, just send me your worst bird photo (but please read all the contest rules first). This week in crazy bird jobs: Volunteer Field Assistant for the Blue-throated Macaw Couples encouraged to apply for land bird surveys! TOMKAT Ranch field assistant Reader responds to the new bird job segment about cougars in California and you should check out biobabbler blog post on a cougar in her yard...and her creative defense. A new comprehensive study about cats effect on wildlife has staggering results. Another fossil is supposed to make us look at birds differently...don't all fossils, I mean, c'mon? Oh and here's a story about scientists figuring out that a fossil was a female bird that was ovulating...maybe that makes me look at scientists differently... Swamp sparrows are way more aggressive than you may realize. Here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zo12PP3PZpo#! It reminds me a lot of the book Birds Fighting.

Crazy Bird Jobs: Polish Bird Job   Klamath Intern Kittlitz's Murrelet "job"   Top 10 Birding Taboos... Speaking of which, the American Birding Association has a whole new listing website called Listing Central! Man claims to have photographed a red-tailed hawk that ate too much. Sax Zim Bog in the news! Some people are weirder about birds than I am. Image from the National Audubon Society Gala...

Stuff that happened while Non Birding Bill and I were out of town: Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Black Swamp Bird Observatory launched a website to try and connect young birders called Young Birders Network. Ornithologist forced to participate in reality tv show. Some gruesome but awesome images of a lanner falcon and chanting goshawk...that does not end well for at least one of a flock of turtle doves. The American Birding Association announced the 2013 Bird of the Year and Robert Mortensen of Birding is Fun fame made a hilarious video.  This man knows how to commit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VIo2wqeS46o And this video led to this: And then this: Sometimes, there are just plain weird projects on Kickstarter and it may be best to quietly navigate away from the page. The Hitler Hoary Redpoll video...(man, if you're not a birder, that probably sounds weird). You can use a pigeon to deliver your mail...but not feel guilty about it! And you think you have a crappy job...  

For when we can't podcast or a good primer to give you an idea for what our podcast is like.

Hey! You have until December 31, 2012 to get your nominations in for the American Birding Association's annual awards: 1. ABA Roger Tory Peterson Award-Promoting the Cause of Birding 2. ABA Chandler Robbins Award-Contributions to Education/Conservation 3. ABA Claudia Wilds Award-Distinguished Service to ABA 4. ABA Robert Ridgway Award-Excellence in Publications in Field Ornithology 5. ABA Ludlow Griscom Award-Outstanding Contributions in Regional Ornithology Get your nominations in now! Nemesis Bird has a good article for people who may have gotten iPhones or iPads over the holidays and want to know what apps are useful. This video claims to be ravens playing in snow...but it looks like bathing behavior to me (though weird that they are upside and rolling). Really cool photo series of all sorts of animals but quite a few birds where you can really see how their camouflage works. Some birders are dismayed at a habitat restoration project in CA. Study that involves headphones on finches is a bit controversial for some. This is noteworthy for the last paragraph.

This podcast is not brought to you by Goosinator, but we're gonna talk about it anyway. Golden eagles flying off with children is not true...this is the proof...and this is why. Non Birding Bill offers a video of a golden eagle rescuing a kid. However, catfish eating pigeons is totally true. Researchers are studying bustard poop. I need to get that gig. Crazy invasion of north Atlantic seabirds in Florida, what's up with the razorbills? I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you want to rehab birds, get a permit so you want have to go through this. Cool video of a whip-poor-will trying to defend its nest from a browsing deer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/qubsoutreach/5910008758/