Happy new year!

Another year gone by, and I guess it's something of a tradition for me to write a new year's post! In 2013 one of Matt's goals was to find 50 new life birds, and I thought he was crazy. Well, he did it! (I think I fell just short, but wasn't really counting anyway). A trip to Hawaii, the West Coast and Arizona probably didn't hurt!

So that brings me to resolutions. I used to hate them but recently have embraced them in that they help me have direction and keep me on track. So I have a few birding goals for this year. Not resolutions per se, but things to work on:

1. Bird topography. After several years of birding I still can't tell a primary from a tertial (ok, as of two days ago I can). But knowing ALL of the parts of the bird should help me with tricky identifications. Sibley has some neat quizzes you can do covering all parts of the bird.
2. Bird calls. I am really, really bad at this. I plan to pay a little more attention to bird sounds and try to remember at least some of them. 
3. Shorebirds! I will do my best not to miss migration and start figuring these out!
4. Local birding. I'm becoming notorious for doing most of my birding away from home. I want to rediscover my local area. That's starting today! And I want to make sure I don't miss spring migration!
5. Target bird for the year? Just one: Tufted titmouse, because it's so cute, and I should be some places in their range. 

What about you? Have you made any birding resolutions, are do have goals you are working towards?

In other bits of randomness, someone posted this on Facebook the other day and I laughed because I thought, I would actually really love to play that!

If you don't get purchase the game, you can always play this alternative online: 
Cornell Bird Trivia Game. But then you don't get to play with someone else.

Also my in-laws gave me a cute little stuffed owl and a necklace with an owl on it at Christmas. Am I becoming the crazy bird lady already? :P
 
Happy birding in the New Year! I'm heading out today...can't wait to see what's out there!

The Big Year and the Big Rescue

THE GREAT SAPSUCKER RESCUE OF 2011

So this is not really news anymore, but I didn't write about it when it happened. Anyways, a coworker of mine, Ron, and I were grabbing coffee when we noticed a bunch of smokers outside the building looking at something. Didn't take long for us to see it was a poor bird shocked and stuck near the entrance of our building. It was a little yellow-bellied sapsucker, seemingly confused that the siding of the building was a not a tree, and apparently very confused about how to get out of that maze of concrete and metal.

I really felt we needed to do something and luckily Ron was there, ready to do a good deed. I donated my cardigan to the cause and Ron managed to get it in my sweater, where it made very loud screeches for a few moments before quieting down completely and apparently becoming quite comfortable in Ron's arms. We debated where to take it, and instead of just releasing it in the concrete jungle we opted to take it over to the nearest park space. On the way Ron casually mentions, "by the way, I took a course on animal rescue."

So we head over and he puts it on the ground, and wants to check its wings when the thing just takes off like a bat out of hell, headed for the closest tree. Judging by how fast he took off, we think it was just fine. Well, my first sapsucker in the downtown core! Although we do have lots of birding stories at the office...another recent on is the peregrine that caught a pigeon and sat on the ledge opposite our office defeathering the thing...amazing to watch!

Hero Ron and Woodpecker!

Oh yeah, so remember what seems like ages ago they came out with a movie about birding? Woops...this post has been in my drafts for a while now...

I'd been patiently waiting for the Big Year to be released. Knowing it was coming out made me acutely aware of just how long it takes for a film to be made and finally released. I found out about it when it was already being filmed, which seems like AGES ago. Matt and I headed out on release night to catch it, not knowing exactly what to expect. I was curious to see how they would adapt a book with so narrow a focus to such a broad audience.

I wasn't sure what to expect--I didn't think this could possibly be a blockbuster--I just couldn't see the general public rushing out to see it, except maybe for the all-star cast. I don't know what a theatre normally looks like on a Friday night these days, but it was pretty quiet in there. We arrived just 9 minutes before it started, and when I asked if there was much room left, the cashier looked at me and said, "well, we've sold 35 seats so far." Hmm, so nobody rushing out to see it on opening night. We headed into the relatively empty theatre, and the previews had already started.

I got a few laughs and chuckles in, and a few when nobody else was laughing (especially when a coworker asks Jack Black what he's listening to on his headphones and he replies "Clark's Nutcracker," partially because I have been known to this in my own cube).

Normally I would have passed this one off as pure fluff, but I was lenient with it because I wanted to be. Would I recommend it? No, probably not. It's not enough for a serious birder, and can't carry its own weight for non-birding fans. Ok, I'm going to go ahead and admit....it was pretty terrible. Ah well. My recommendation would be...just the read the book. It's great.

in line for the movie...had waited for what seemed like forever for it to be released!

Another week goes by....

Hey everyone,

Hope you all enjoyed great birding this weekend!

Sorry, no birds again for me. I feel like I'm really slipping off my game! I think I should have been out scouting for shorebirds...but I ran in Ottawa Race Weekend on Saturday and wasn't up for anything except pacing around my house nervously. The race was great...I completed the 10k in just over 56 minutes...a PB!

Sunday turned out to be a nice day later on, but I got out on my bike instead of birding. Now that it's nice out, there is just so much to do out there!

However, I do have big birding plans for next weekend, so stay tuned!

Jenna

In the absence of bird photos, here's a shot of me whizzing by on my run. Maybe there are some birds in those trees in the background?

Matt didn't see me till I was past him...

resemblance?

and, now for a bit of bird content, some art featuring seasonal birds from the wonderful Charley Harper (love his work..I'm so saving my pennies to buy one):

 

Birdwatching + Geocaching = Just got more awesome

Long weekend, and what have I got to show for myself? Nuttin.  I only went out birding for about an hour over the course of the whole long weekend. Mud Lake was super quiet and the only new bird around that I saw was a great-crested flycatcher.

ANYWAYS, I do have something to write about, a little different than my usual posts. It's kind of about birding, but mostly about something else. Wait! Where are you going? Don't give up on me yet. There's something here for you bird nuts! So hang in there. But warning: You might pick up a new hobby. It's ok though, because you can do it at the same time as birdwatching. Just when you thought you couldn't get any more nerdy...you can.

What is it?

Geocaching

Well I don't quite remember how I got into it, but last year I learned about geocaching. I went out and found my first cache. Actually, come to think of it...I think I mentioned it in passing at the time on this very blog.

If you haven't heard of it, geocaching is like high-tech treasure hunting for adults (and kids). People hide "caches" (a container of some sort with a log that you sign, and sometimes there's other stuff in it). They post the coordinates online and you go find it. Anyone can hide a cache, and anyone can find it. They can be as big as a coffee tin (or bigger) and as small as a film canister (or even smaller).

I hadn't done any caching since last year, but I was out hiking with some friends on Monday and I offered to introduce them to geocaching, since they had heard me talk about it before, and they were curious. The iPhone has an app and a built-in GPS, so I shelled out the $10 for the geocaching app (you don't need it, because geocaching is totally free,but it's useful for logging and searching while you're out) and we used that. Apparently the phone GPS triangulates based on cell phone towers, so it is a lot more accurate in the city than in the woods. So I still need to buy a "real" outdoor GPS.

What does this have to do with birds, you ask?? Hang on...I'm getting to it!

My friends found their first cache, and last night I was on the Geocaching website to see if there are any around Mud Lake (there are lots), and I happened to click on one called "The Bird Brain Challenge." It's really random that I clicked on it because the coordinates posted were not the true ones; you have to solve a puzzle to find it. And then I got excited!

Because I realized that there is Group A, birdwatchers, and Group B, geocachers, and in a little spot where these two intersect, there are birdwatcher-geocachers. And in an even smaller segment there are birdwatcher-geocachers-photographers. Allow me to draw you a nice diagram!

So there are 3 kinds of caches that I can think of that might be of interest to birders. Let me describe them to you.

• The traditional cache hidden at a birding hotspot.
• This one is simple. Basically there are caches hidden all over the place, and I *bet* you that there is at least one at or near your favourite birding location. I bet there is even one not far from your front door. It adds a little something to your walk. Hey, why not find a cache while you're there? It gives you a little more direction and purpose. And if you didn't find the bird you were looking for, at least you found something else.  I would note that there are few geocaches in Ontario Provincial Parks because they are really sticky about it, but you can often find them nearby. A few examples. of many:
• One of the great Ottawa birding spots: Mud Lake Ramble
• Here's one for my Windsor readers: Ojibway Pond (it's a multi cache)
• Upper Canada Bird Sanctuary. This is where I saw my first redstart (looking for this cache!) Knot in the Bird Sanctuary
• Presqu'ile Provincial Park (this one's for you Ronners): Coot's Lookout
• Long Point: Get to the Point! (requires a boat)

• The bird-themed cache
• Sometimes cachers leave little "treasures" in the cache. If you see one you like and want to take it, you have to leave something of equal or greater value. So there are caches out there that have birds as their theme, and the trinkets inside somehow relate to birds. Then there are some people who make "fake" birdhouses and hide the cache in there.
• This one in Washington has bird-related items in it (of course, they have most likely been swapped out, hopefully replaced by other bird items!) GCGC1Q It's a bird thing.

• Finally, the BEST kind, the bird puzzle cache. You have to use your superior birding knowledge to figure out the coordinates of the cache and THEN find it. The puzzles of these caches are based completely on birds. The posted coordinates are FALSE. Ok, these I am really excited about. Because it appeals to so much of the things I like...discovering and figuring stuff out. Seriously, have a look! Even if you don't find the cache, see if you can solve the puzzles!
• Here's one right here in Ottawa: The Bird Brain Challenge GC255R3 I've already solved it but need to go find the cache!
• One in Vancouver: Jericho's Birder Cache GC206H6 
• One in Ohio. This one's for the birds GC2M0K8. I don't know why it's called this (it's definitely not for the birds), because I have no idea how to solve it.
• A cool one in Georgia. A little too far for me, but the puzzle looks fun. This cache is for the birds GC1FHNW

So it's nice to be to combine all my hobbies (and it's not a little bit surprising that some of them lead to others)...a little birding, a little photography, a cache or two, hiking...all at once. Before I could do them at the same time and all, but geocaches fully inspired by birds and birdwatching...now that's awesome.

Want to see if there's a cache near you? Let me know if you find one!

book reviews

Well, I dropped the ball on weekend birding, even though there was a world of warblers and sparrows to be had. I was busy with other things and was so dismayed when I checked Ontbirds and saw the awesome birds I missed south of the airport and on the OFNC outing to Constance Bay. This weekend will be different!

So, quite some time ago, I had mentioned a pile of books that I took out of the library. And I'm a little late on this and they are not quite fresh in my mind, but I'm going to attempt to follow up!

So the first one was The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik. Ok, I really liked this one. Mark has a nice sense of humour and the story moved along well. Basically it centres on three men who tried to become the 1998 Big Year Champion (most birds seen in the ABA region in a single year). In fact, they did so well, the winner's record (745!) has yet to be beat. The activity carried out by these three men could only be described as "extreme birding." Two of them are bigshots of some sort and the other, the underdog (I rooted for him!), was an average joe who had to work full-time while the others could dedicate all their days to the pursuit. This book's got just the right amount of humour, drama, lightheartedness, romantic hope (and let-down), and action. I think anyone could enjoy it, including non-birders, but we birders will definitely appreciate it the most. It was great to recognize the names of some places I know. I would certainly recommend it, and already have!

One of the things that struck me, not really about the book itself but about the whole concept of the Big Year is how incredibly wasteful it is. By the time I got to the end, the whole idea became absurd. These guys would jump on planes at last-minute notice if they happened to be on the wrong side of the continent and a rare bird was reported. This just makes no financial/environmental sense to me. Their lists at the end of the year are pretty much just trophies....not entirely meaningful.

So I was pretty inspired when I read this:

Starting in the summer of 2007, a family of three people; a husband, a wife, and a teenager (Ken Madsen, Wendy & Malkolm Boothroyd), attempted a Big Year without the use of any fossil fuels. They planned to bicycle over 10,000 miles to get over 400 species for the year, which is far from the record set by Komito. They started in their home province of the Yukon Territory, rode down the Pacific Coast, looping back around Arkansas to catch the Texas spring migration, then eastward to Florida. Their primary goal was to raise awareness that, in modern bird chasing, birders are helping to destroy the bird's habitat by our own use of fossil fuels. They dubbed this attempt a "Bird Year," rather than a Big Year, because of its obvious intent for the year to be for the goodwill of the birds, rather than glory for the counter. In the end, they covered more than 13,000 miles by bicycle and tallied 548 species, far more than their goal, raising more than $25,000 for bird conservation in the process. (From the Big Year entry on Wikipedia)

And remember, the movie of this book will be released later this year. I'm pretty excited...I really like Rashida Jones (Karen on The Office, Zooey in I Love You, Man) and Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory). Maybe I'll write a review for it too!

Immediately after that, I read A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All by Luke Dempsey. His writing style is completely different than Obmascik's. Still enjoyable, but I think it definitely comes in second of the two. This book tells the story of birders much like myself and the (mis)adventures they find themselves in. There were several lulls; however, these were interspersed with humour that sometimes made me laugh out loud.  Dempsey has a very hard-to-describe sense of humour: I think it must be British, or just cynical, and he loves his potty jokes.




One part of this book that stuck with me is the journey the birders took to Michigan to see Kirtland's Warblers. Apparently this extremely rare bird is threatened by Brown-Headed Cowbirds parasitizing their nests. To deal with this problem, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service traps and "removes" (read: kills) the cowbirds by snapping their wee little necks. Unless of course a peregrine gets in to the trap and kills them all for them. I can't imagine being a Park ranger who has to kill birds...but it's important to make sure that the Kirtland's aren't threatened. Kind of a dilemma, no?

Both off these books have intensified my "Vogellust." This is German for "bird desire." Actually, I completely made it up. So many birds I would love to see and places to go (Wanderlust) in both books. If anything, they gave me ideas for future destinations. The birding adventures continue!

Well, wouldn't you know? I just found a website that is reviews of bird books ONLY. 
The Birder's Library: Book Reviews for Birders, and more...

Well, that's what I've got for now. This is your captain, signing off...

Hey Lovebirds!

Following Birdchick's wicked series of posts counting down the 14 days to Valentine's Day with videos of the courting rituals of various birds, I was inspired to do a little Valentine's Day special edition post. Because V-day is not just for us right? Cuz why do we say "the birds and the bees" anyway?

 
So aren't I just the happiest girl in this world? Total coincidence that Matt bought this DVD set for me online and it arrived today! Hey, some girls like roses, and some girls like nature DVDs. I was SOOO excited about this when I heard it, although Ron tells me it's old news (the footage is almost 10 years old and it's not HD). It's like Planet Earth but just birds, and it pre-dates Planet Earth by 5 years. It's also by BBC.

580 minutes of birds! Hello, that's like, almost 10 hours!
3 DVDs!
David Attenborough (who doesn't love a dude with a British accent?)!

But our TV broke last night so looks like Matt might just get his Valentine's wish of a flat-screen after all so I can watch this thing in all its glory.

Life of Birds is available at Amazon. If you are interested in some samples from it, there are quite a few in this handy dandy YouTube playlist I've made.

Happy girl. Valentine's Day a resounding success.

Here they are!

Happy V-day everyone!

Birding Bookshelf - Reading List

I'm not foreseeing many opportunities for birding over the next little while, but somehow or another I came across a few books about birdwatching. I mean, what better to do when it's dark, -30, and there are hardly any birds out? I trekked over to the library and couldn't believe the selection they had! Not just guides, but books on specific birds, fiction, entire books dedicated to specialized things like molting and mating and colouring and who-knows-what else. I'm a big fan of of OPL. So I did what I always do: get intrigued by way too much and take out way more than I can possibly read before they are all due.

And so, I'm just over halfway through The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (due Monday) and I have now added these titles to the coffee table pile for once I'm done with Salander and Blomkvist:

The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession; Mark Obmascik

Speaking of, did you know that there is a movie coming out lter this year based on this book? It's also called "The Big Year."

It's got an impressive cast (Rashida Jones, Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Dustin Hoffman)! Ben Stiller is a producer.

Apparently the book has had really good reviews from birders and non-birders alike.
   
 

Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches?: And Other Bird Questions You Know You Want to Ask; Mike O'Connor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
   

A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All; Luke Dempsey

I saw this one at Upper Canada Bird Sanctuary this year but didn't buy it. Looks interesting!

Good Birders Don't Wear White: 50 Tips From North America's Top Birders; Lisa White (Editor), Pete Dunne (Foreword)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
And here are a few more to mark down for later:
 
Kingbird Highway: The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder; Kenn Kaufman
 
Flights of Imagination; Richard Cannings
 
To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession; Dan Koeppel 

Diary of a Left-Handed Birdwatcher: Leonard Nathan
 
Down and Dirty Birding: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous, Here's All the Outrageous but True Stuff You've Ever Wanted to Know About North American Birds; Joey Slinger

Hopefully these will keep me busy throughout the rest of the cold winter months. I suppose you guys can look forward to some book reviews in upcoming posts. Guess I'm branching out!

as promised....bird-blast from the past

No cooperation from the feathered contingent this weekend (what's a cowgirl got to do to find some longspurs? I drove the south Kanata loop looking for you birds three times. I even drove my car into a stupid snowy ditch for you!). So, let's try something else. 

As promised, I'm taking some time to share some winged things that I dug up from the archive. Ok, here's the disclaimer: These were ALL taken with a 5MP point and shoot with measly 3X zoom. In some of them, it's a bit of a struggle to find the birds! So nothing too out of the ordinary...as most of these were seen on the relatively well-beaten path! Yet they all seem very exotic and special.

WHERE: PUNTA CANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

WHEN: February 2007

WHAT: Brown Pelican. One of my fave birds and they are so awesome to watch. So the day we show up they are fishing, tons of them right on the main part of the beach. Dive-bombing right in front of me. So I figure, what's the rush? I'll get pictures later. And what would you know, the darn things don't show up again for the whole week, and when they do it's in impossible lighting and then they are always facing the wrong way! Anyways, one of my favourite things about vacationing down south (*sigh*) is seeing these beauties!

WHERE: CAYO GUILLERMO CUBA 

WHEN: JANUARY 2010

WHAT: Methinks it could be an immature Laughing Gull. Click here for to see what a mature one looks like...a little more interesting!

On the way to Playa Pilar (tan hermosa!) saw this little guy from the boardwalk:
WHAT: Little peeweep/phoebe/flycatcher guy...sorry, there is really no chance I'm going to ID this one....

On the pier at the hotel...that keeps getting washed away, and they keep rebuilding...
WHAT: Some egret or another and some little gull guys behind it. And a bunch of junk on my lens/sensor for good measure.

 WHAT: In the lagoon: Black-necked stilts (I think)...look hard!

 WHAT: Look again....flamingos.

I wonder if this is the same one?
Look really really hard: Pelican and gulls.

Oh boy, all this is making me want a mojito. Better move on to the Northern Hemisphere before I abandon my cubicle and jump on a plane headed to....anywhere but this frigid place. Yucatan peninsula is sounding pretty good right now.

WHERE: London, England

WHEN: May 2009 I think?

WHAT: Hey Ron, It's a coot! A Eurasian/black coot!

WHAT: Mandarin duck.  Que guapo!

And the female Mandarin Duck. Que linda! Oops, I don't think we're in Cuba anymore.
Note the similarities to our own stunning wood duck!

 WHAT: Common Pochard

 WHAT: Grey Heron...just lovely and so elegant.

WHAT: Greylag Goose. So we're walking around Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park and I ask my dad what kind of ducks and geese we're looking at. And to my surprise, he doesn't know. (Bizarre because at home he can name a goose/duck from practically 3 km away).

 WHAT: Egyptian Goose. Well, hello there Mister, aren't you handsome?

WHERE: Seville, Spain (precisely, the Alcazar)

WHAT: One of my personal favourites. A Peacock..officially known as "Indian Peafowl." Pretty sure not native to the area lol.

The story: Nadia was living in Malaga at the time so I went to visit her for a bit. She worked during the day at a school in Benalmadena so I spent my days roaming Spain. On this particular day I found myself having lunch on a park bench in Seville with an especially lovely companion. Actually there were several of them around...it was like personal bliss, and this was before I even realized how much I love birds.

*you struttin'?*

WHERE: Amsterdam

DISCLAIMER: Bad shots...even after trying to fix them. Not sure if I should blame it on taking pictures while riding a bicycle or the cafe stop.

Here a few shots of little green jobs I saw in Amsterdam in Vondelpark. They seemed strange to me at the time...I thought surely they were escaped pets. As it turns out, well, they might have been once, but their population has taken off and they are almost all born in the wild (erm, as wild as a city gets I suppose) now. I believe they are Rose-Ringed Parakeets (article). Since it was such a drab day, they really stood out. 

WHERE: Barcelona WHEN: 2009
WHAT: Little green jobs (monk parakeets?)
Apparently...

"Another Six species de Psittacines [who what now?] currently nest in Barcelona: the rose-ringed (or ring-necked) parakeet (Psittacula krameri), the monk parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus), the blue-crowned conure (Aratinga acuticaudata), the mitred parrot (Aratinga mitrata), the red-masked parrot (Aratinga erythrogenys) and the Senegal parrot (Poicephalus senegalus). All are South-American in origin, bar the ring-necked parakeet which is African and Asian, and the Senegal parrot which is, evidently African" 

Oh look at me...I've still got a little bit of grad student in me, as I feel compelled to provide the reference (and guilty if I don't).

Oh hey, I guess that's all I've got. I won't pretend that I actually went through all my pics...just a few of the more recent ones that involved a digicam and are relatively fresh.

Oh yes, I almost forgot something that I just fell in love with, and really want on a t-shirt or something: 

All I have to say is awe-some! (AWH)

So on my way to class today I had this brilliant idea in which I compare birds to my favourite pairs of shoes. Then I remembered that a lot of my readers are male and will not have any appreciation for this. *sigh*