Birdchick Podcast

Snowy owls are in the news!  They are everywhere.  Here's a link to my Google News with "snowy owl" typed in!  Some of the most interesting stories:  over 100 snowies are reported to be in Wisconsin! And of course the obligatory "a snowy owl killed my dog." Wondering how to find a snowy owl near you?  Try typing in your state's name and the words "bird listserv" to see if there are reports in your area or check out the handy dandy map that eBird has set up based on user reports. Check in with us on Wednesday...we're going to have a really cool bird contest courtesy of Larkwire! Also, have you ever considered signing up for a Christmas Bird Count?  If not you should, find one near you!

Jet lagged and full of stories, Sharon talks about her birding trip to the Hula Valley in Israel.

I have no idea what's going to happen with the podcast over the next week and a half.  I'll be in Israel and though I'm assured that there will be Internet access-I have no idea about what kind of free time I'll have and so we may have a podcast before December 1 or we may not.  Speaking of traveling, I have a post on 10,000 Birds about essentials all birders should back when traveling. In the meantime, check out Twin Cities Naturalist--he has a contest! Right now if you order a pair of binoculars from Eagle Optics, you can get an ABA membership for $15 instead of $45.  Listen to the podcast for a discount code to Eagle Optics. Dead found in a salad bag.  What species could it be? Non Birding Bill's Kickstarter Project! Birders who are protesting the Sandhill Crane Hunt in Kentucky are buying a license and a lottery ticket.  Only 400 will be given out and it's only $13 to enter if you are a non resident.  This same strategy was used by Paul Johnsgard in the 1990s to protest a prairie chicken hunt and was successful. Some western marsh harrier males have permanent female plumage. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa? Fascinating article about veery migration--where they go, how long they stay.  Wow, if we found this out about veeries, what else don't we know.  This is what a veery sounds like.  If you have never heard one in the wild, it is a moral imperative that you rectify this:    

Interview with Jeff Gordon over at 10000 Birds. (I'm irritated about one of the comments) A proposed bird feeding ban in a development community shows a terrible lack of science education. From Craig we get this story: Owls accused of eating pets in New Mexico. Sometimes artists just hurt my head.    

Red Rock Audubon wants you to help remove mining claim pipes in Nevada--this really does help birds! 10000 Birds brings up the pipe dream of having a non hunting duck stamp. Starbucks is discontinuing it's shade-grown coffee line.  If you don't have a place that sells shade-grown coffee near you, I like to order the Chestnut-sided Warbler blend from Birds and Beans. The American Birding Association wants YOU to contribute to Wikipedia. Laughing gull tries to steal food from a great egret. I haven't read the story but the headline involves the words "hawk" and "escalator" and it can only be a Cooper's hawk. Burly Bird is unleashing some cool new stickers.  Check them out and if you want one...you know what to do.

Warning.  This podcast gets a bit BLUE at the end.  If you listen to this with kids or at work...may not be the best one for you. Really cool video of starlings wheeling and spinning. Sometimes even super common birds unleash their awesomeness.  Here's another video from @sfraster My buddy Amber has an an op-ed piece in the Star Tribune about using lead alternatives when deer hunting. Red-tailed hawk with the nail through it's face has been released--yay! The duets of long-tailed wrens in Ecuador.  Be sure to watch the video with the article. There's now a Kickstarter site for people doing science projects called Rocket Hub...and of course there's a research project on duck penises that needs funding.

This is a real shame.  I had hoped that this story was false but it appears that Nico Dauphiné, former researcher at the Smithsonian National Zoo's Migratory Bird Center has been found guilty of misdemeanor attempted cruelty to animals for sprinkling poison atop cat food intended for feral cats living in Washington, D.C.  This does nothing to reach some sort of reasonable understanding with the misguided yet well intentioned cat lobbyists. Non native cats living in feral colonies is habitat destruction by humans.  Cats living in the environment are the same as birds hitting windows or someone bulldozing nesting and feeding habitat. There's a reward for creating Bird Friendly Glass! Paraglider ran into a griffon vulture (ignore how the "news" calls it an eagle, it totally is NOT).  Both survive! Micro batch bird seed.  You can even create your own.  But the really interesting thing is that they are outing pesticide companies who carry seed for wild birds. Dude creates a website to track road kill in California and Maine.  I so want to do this with my smart phone!  Here's a link to Wildlife Crossing.  

Texas couple ignore warnings to evacuate their home during wildfires and feed hundreds of hummingbirds. Birding the Net, the Audubon-sponsored campaign that has thousands of people scouring the Internet for birds, is benefitting from the largesse of more than 100 websites — including AOL, Slate, and Discovery Channel — that have donated a combined $700,000 in prime ad space for the imaginative and engaging project. 500 birds died at West Virgina wind farm.  Jim McCormac says they were mostly blackpoll warblers. Fascinating story from Audubon about a wood thrush banded in Nicaragua that was found dead in Pennsylvania. There's a new book coming Pale Male and the Infertile Girl... Do birds have grammatical structure? Oh, Pine Tree Farms, what were you thinking when coming up with product names? Nutsie? Log Jammers?  Oy. Prizes to be given away in this podcast: Backyard Birding And the Hummer Swing.  

So the Federal Duck Stamp contest is going on today and well this one is the best and weirdest.

Two VERY interesting articles on my list this week.  One from the American Birding Association's publication called Winging It.  Go to the Winging It page and click on Vol 23, no. 5 and look for Birding With A Conscience. Also, check out this article on Birding While Black--Does It Really Matter? He was part of the Focus on Diversity birding conference.  You can watch some of the speakers here. Fidelity Exploration & Production Co., of Denver agreed to plead guilty and pay a $1,500 fine for killing a solitary sandpiper that was found in a waste pit during drilling operations in western North Dakota. When I was in North Dakota this past June with fellow bird bloggers we saw the above oiled duck (I think it's an oiled pintail).  I'm now wondering if was oiled in similar circumstances and wish we'd documented it better.  It was far away on private property and mobile enough to get away from us.  There was no safe way to retrieve it, but wish I documented it better. Human encroachment on the Tundra (like oil refineries) are creating an imbalance in the predator/prey balance. From Nature Canada, Birds at Risk: The Importance of Canada’s Boreal Wetlands and Waterways:  "The North American boreal forest supports more than 50 percent of the global populations of 96 bird species, including landbirds, shorebirds, and waterbirds.10 The boreal is critical to the majority of iconic species such as the Common Loon, Whooping Crane, Canada Warbler, and White-throated Sparrow." And if you don't understand why the tar sands are a bad idea, take a look at this before and after photo of what happens to the area when they go in for the oil.  This is terrible land stewardship, short-sighted and a terrible option. And now a really cleansing link: Really awesome homemade kestrel Halloween costume.  

I got an iPhone 4S with HD camera and video.  I'm testing out ways to use it for digiscoping with my Swarovski Scope and DCA adaptor.  I'm pretty impressed with the initial results.  Will this cause me to give up my SLR? App I'm playing with this week: BirdBeat--kind of a field sketch book.  Might be ideal for kids who would like to learn more about looking for field marks on birds.  Also, it's an alternative to someone who doesn't have the ability to digiscope. Knitters around the world answers the request to knit jumpers for oil soaked penguins. Red-tailed hawk with a nail through its face has been captured and is in recovery. With the rising cost of sunflower seed we are seeing some interesting alternative mixes for birds show up on the market. Project FeederWatch is about to start in November, have you signed up? Articles on bird tourism money in both Florida and Texas. Julie Zickefoose is awesome and if you haven't read her before, start now!  

This is a podcast without links, due to our busy schedule. Topics include The Big Year at the box office and the recent story of the exotic animal park in Zanesville, Ohio. We'll return to our normal (?) podcast format with the next one.

There was a movie about birds...not sure if you heard about it... Audubon has unleashed a birdwatching game on the Internet called Birding The Net. Ornithologist claims to have developed an app called WeBird which will allow you to record bird song with a smart phone and id them for you.  I am dubious. Teen kill whooping crane. Awesome series of photos of a gull eating a starfish (warning...this does not end well for the starfish). Article about the high cost of bird feeding.

Birds and Beers: Midnight Screening of The Big Year (Facebook Event) on Friday! You can also get the info on The Birdchick Birds and Beers Page. Why were these birds on Project Runway? There's a rare original copy of Audubon's Birds of America on display at Trinity College in Connecticut. Cornell Lab of Ornithology is having a "Close Encounters of the Bird Kind" contest. Wild Turkey chases a TV reporter. What more do you need to know? Will bird poop ruin your car's paint job? Famer who destroyed thousands of protected pelican eggs claims he "just snapped."  

Immature bald eagle causes some serious shenanigans at Santa Barbara Zoo.  On a side note, Karen pointed me towards another wild eagle that got flirty with a captive eagle at the Orange County Zoo. Guys who make bird repellents say they can cut down on bird deaths.  Both Flock Buster (here's the ingredients) and Bird Bright ultraviolet paint say they can help. Steve Dale from Cat Channel tries to extend an olive branch to birders over the whole feral cat issue...all while still getting in a good poke at bird advocates. Birding is Fun is now a multi-author blog! I'm very confused.  I love stuff from Princeton University Press, but illustrated field checklists confuse me.  This book is an illustrated checklist of the Birds of North America and Greenland by Norman Arlott. It looks like a field guide...but it's not.  I like the illustrations but I don't understand it as a checklist. But if you're looking for a book with all the birds in North American (and Greenland) you'll find this book handy.  Although, if it's a checklist, where are the boxes to check?