September, 2013

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Shutting Your Trap

10,000 Birds

'This is the kind of insanity that goes on with leghold traps. A few years ago my friend Astrid called me on the phone. She had taken her border collie for a walk in the woods in the local 1200-acre state park, and her dog had stepped on a leghold trap. Astrid’s dog howled as she pried it off. Luckily it had not broken his foot, although he limped for a week.

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#LightForPets Remember Me Thursday

4 The Love Of Animals

'This Thursday, you can be a light for pets waiting in shelters. The message of Remember Me Thursday is to remember the millions of orphan pets who lost their lives over the last year. By uniting animal lovers across the world on one very special day, we can help raise awareness about animal adoption, and hopefully save the lives of more pets. If you are active on social media, please help spread the message.

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Kristof

Animal Ethics

'My friend Mylan linked to an op-ed column by Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times. Let me make a few comments. Kristof says that "SeaWorld [marine park] denies the claims [of mistreatment], which isn''t surprising since it earns millions [of dollars] from orcas." This is cynicism. Kristof should address SeaWorld''s argument, not question its motives.

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The Everglade Snail Kite Is Making a Comeback

10,000 Birds

'The critically endangered Everglade Snail Kite ( Rostrhamus sociabilis ) is making a comeback aided by an unintended introduction of an exotic snail. Over the last weekend, I was at Lake Kissimmee in Florida, observing Snail Kites at an area kites were not present or rare just a few years ago. Kites now nest there and are fairly common. The threat of extinction of such iconic Florida bird prompted State and Federal agencies to find solutions to stop and reverse the declining trend.

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Webinar & PDF Test

Speaker: Steve Romanco

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Hitler’s 700th Bird

10,000 Birds

'Though we have already covered the addition of the Nutmeg Mannikin to the official California state checklist we neglected to let you know that the ABA Checklist Committee quickly followed suit. This had bad results for Adolf Hitler, as the video above proves.

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Eagle Deaths by Wind Turbines Increasing, Study Finds

10,000 Birds

'Wind turbines at Altamont Pass in Northern California (a known eagle-fatality site not included in the study); image by Bonita de Boer/Flickr/Creative Commons License. . The use of wind turbines, often deployed on large scale in “wind farms,” has many benefits–wind power is a renewable resource with minimal impact on the environment.

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More Trending

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Fall Migration is in Full Swing!

10,000 Birds

'Though spring migration brightens birders’ days with its colorful and singing birds after the long, cold winter I prefer the fullness of fall’s migration. Not only are there more birds because of the hordes of youngsters fresh from the nest but the plumages that birds display in autumn are far more variable and challenging. The crisp, cool air in the early morning signifies the end of another hot and humid New York City summer, the end of air conditioning, and the return of cool bre

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Soon to be an Armchair ABA Tick – Nutmeg Mannikin in California

10,000 Birds

'Finally! As of 27 August 2013 the California Bird Records Committee has voted to add the introduced Nutmeg Mannikin to the state checklist. Or, as Seagull Steve puts it : The dreaded Nutmeg Mannikin has been added to California’s official state list by the California Bird Records Committee (aka Bird Police). Not only is this earth-shaking, pants-wetting news for the numerous hardcore state and county listers that reside in California, this courageous decision has implications for the enti

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Pelican Release with International Bird Rescue

10,000 Birds

'There are advantages to being a “Pelican Partner” for International Bird Rescue ! First, you get to tour one of their California centers , you get a special opportunity to see a Pelican getting its final medical exam and numbered leg band, plus you get the honor of releasing one, or in my case, two of their rehabilitated pelicans! International Bird Rescue is famous for their oil spill response team and saving oiled birds but many of the birds that come to International Bird Rescue&

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Spoonbills are ibises with big flat bills

10,000 Birds

'Spoonbills and ibises are stocky, colorful wading birds with distinctive bills: downcurved and pointed in the case of ibises, flat and paddle shaped in the spoonbills (above is my shot of Roseate Spoonbills ( Platalea ajaja ) near a breeding colony in Louisiana). Together, they are placed in the family Threskiornithidae, and they’re related to herons and egrets, pelicans, and the strange Hamerkop and Shoebill.

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PDF 9.21.23

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Savanna Nightjars prove that growing old is a process of becoming increasingly disillusioned

10,000 Birds

'I am starting to feel my age. To be clear, in my early 40′s I really am not complaining. However, I feel the wind of an increasingly fast downhill ride in my face now: I notice that I should probably get myself some reading glasses soon. My left knee occasionally hurts after a long day in the field. Overall, I can’t do things anymore that I could do just a few years ago, both physically and mentally.

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BIRDING ACHERON: Hell is closed for renovation

10,000 Birds

'We tried yesterday to visit the Nekromanteio of Afyra , the very entrance of ancient Greek’s Hades, but the world of the dead was locked up (well, not really for renovation, but for further research and digging at this archeological site). Still, it is somehow reassuring to know that Hell is closed (one Albanian proverb says that there are no keys for the Hell’s Gates – they are open to all).

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From Russia With Birds: The World’s Biggest Owl, “Zombie” Pigeons

10,000 Birds

'Blakiston’s Fish Owl (image by Robert tdc/Wikimedia Commons) . Sometimes, on the bird news beat, you find gold at both ends of the rainbow. That would be the serious, thought-provoking “news” side, and the lighter, kookier, “what the heck?” side. Today’s post includes two such stories, brought all the way to you from Russia.

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Raptor Map Suggests Best Spots to Scan the Skies

10,000 Birds

'Calling all hawkeyes! North America is in the prime of raptor migration season, with millions of hawks, accipters, and buteos flying south for the winter. But for the average birder, these soaring raptors may not always be easy to see; lots of patches that are good for seeing other birds feature trees and other impediments to the wide-open skies that are necessary for the best raptor-watching experience.

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I and the Bird: What is a Swallow?

10,000 Birds

'If birders say they love birds ostensibly because they can fly and we cannot, then there must be no more beloved group of birds than the swallows. These aerial acrobats are among the most impressive flyers in the bird world, darting this way and that over open country in pursuit of flying insects. They’ve lived among us for millennia and we’ve appreciated their cheerful attitudes and unquenchable appetites for annoying pests , bestowing the friendliest among them with qualifiers lik

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Best Bird of the Weekend (Second of September 2013)

10,000 Birds

'Were there any birds about this weekend? The only ones that concerned me were Ravens, Falcons, Seahawks, Cardinals, and Eagles. Welcome back, NFL football! Of course I still kept my eyes out for other types of birds. This time of year is perfect for finding juvenile Eastern Bluebirds , which I was happy to do. Corey’s BBOTW was a Blackburnian Warbler on Saturday in Alley Pond Park in Queens.

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The Problem with Eagles

10,000 Birds

'So last night, for reasons that seemed good to me at the time, I decided to watch the pilot of the new Kurtzman/Orci show Sleepy Hollow (Mondays, 9/8 Central on Fox.) It wasn’t bad, if you like your horror with a wink and some eye-candy and a heaping dollop of good old-fashioned American cheese (and not so much with logic or historical accuracy.).

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Lakshmi’s Owl

10,000 Birds

'As we pass the autumnal equinox, days shorten and nights become colder and longer. Many countries have celebrations to stave off the cold of approaching winter. In the UK we are eternally pleased that Guy Fawkes chose November for his fireworks party, which we commemorate annually by blowing up the Houses of Parliament. Around this time, Hindu devotees of the Goddess Lakshmi look forward to Diwali , the festival of lights.

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Gabriel PDF Webinar

Speaker: Gabriel Wagner Presenter

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The Beach Falcon

10,000 Birds

'An afternoon is already growing old while I am driving downhill to the Livadi marsh at the island of Kefallonia, Greece. Behind the marsh is a quarry, in front of it the Gulf of Argostoli, a small pine wood to the right and some eucalyptus trees to the left. I am watching from the main coastal road and do not see much – several Little Egrets and Grey Herons , one Common Kingfisher … is he going to be my best bird here?

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Squirrel Buster Wild Bird Feeders: A Review

10,000 Birds

'There are bird feeders and then there are squirrel feeders disguised as bird feeders, a fact known well by those of us who have committed a part of our lives to our yard birds. I came to the art of bird feeding late, having spent my adult life in apartments that forbid the hanging of anything, even a cake of suet, from the fire escape. And, although I grew up in a house with a great yard, my parents were not of the bird-feeding persuasion.

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The Elusive Goal of Bird-Safe Skyscrapers

10,000 Birds

'Or perhaps I should say “illusive.” That’s because an American architecture firm is planning what’s billed as the “world’s first invisible building” in South Korea. (Hat tip to Pat O’Donnell for the story; the image above is by GDS Architects, via CNN.) The skyscraper would apparently be cloaked in LED panels projecting an image of what’s on the other side of the building, for a pretty nifty see-through illusion.

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Transit in Dubai

10,000 Birds

'Dubai is a huge international airport, perfectly placed for connections around the world. Many people find themselves with a few hours to kill during transit and could potentially add a few ticks to their trip list as they pass through. This post might give you a few ideas for what to see during a stop in Dubai and a few tips on where to go and how to get there.

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Webinar 5.9.22

Speaker: Steve Romanco

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Birding the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve in Newfoundland

10,000 Birds

'Julia Zarankin is on her way to becoming a birder. In her other life, she is a writer, editor, writing coach, and lecturer to later-life learners in Toronto. In her former life, she worked as a professor of Russian literature and culture at the University of Missouri. She contributes regularly to Ontario Nature , reviews books for Birding, and also blogs about her misadventures in bird identification while offering trenchant analysis of avian coiffures on her own blog Birds and Words.

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A Gray Tree Frog in the Garden

10,000 Birds

'I spent this weekend at my parents’ house in my hometown of Saugerties, New York, which is nestled nicely between the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River. It is always nice to visit and give Desi a chance to have a yard to play in and cousins to play with, to say nothing of eating some of my mother’s delicious home cooking. One of Desi’s favorite things to do when we are visiting his grandparents is wander around the yard looking for bugs, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mamm

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Where Are You Birding This Third Weekend of September 2013?

10,000 Birds

'Keep your eyes to the skies for flying pink birds like these Roseate Spoonbills , which are really ibises with big flat bills ! Excited about the equinox? One half of our global population will be surrendering minutes and then hours of daylight for darkness while the other half enjoys the inverse transaction. Those dark days of December are still far off, however, and migrants fill our skies in light and darkness.

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Kayak Birding in Northern Maine

10,000 Birds

'Erika Zambello is a self-proclaimed ’new birder,’ still equally excited by Robins, Blue Jays, Mergansers, and Flamingos alike. She has lived in Maine, California, France, New York, and currently makes her home in Virginia Beach Always bringing her camera along, Erika is building her life-list by trying to check off at least one new species each week in her field guide.

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Test

Testing

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A Lark Sparrow at Robert Moses State Park

10,000 Birds

'This past Friday I was out birding the coast of Long Island for most of the day with Seth Ausubel and Rich Kelly. We started at Jones Beach despite the reports of some good lingering birds at Robert Moses State Park, mostly because we wanted to find our own good birds. Sadly, despite nearly three hours of effort, we didn’t manage to pick up anything exceptional.

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Bird Number 300 in Queens and the Winner of The Warbler Guide Giveaway!

10,000 Birds

'Today was a long day of birding Long Island’s barrier beaches and lots of time in the field finally paid off some time after 3 PM. Seth Ausubel, who you probably will recall from quite a few birding outings described on this blog, and I were at what we had already agreed would be our last birding stop of the day, Edgemere Preserve. This former landfill in southeasternmost Queens has become one of my favorite places to bird lately and it did not disappoint.

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The Easiest Hard Bird

10,000 Birds

'Let me apologize in advance. I realize that there is nothing more tiresome to hear about from a birder than their own county list. It’s too much like fantasy football. You can discuss an actual team’s merits for hours among like minded fans. But the minute you bring up your fantasy team, a collection of paper players with no relationship outside of your computer screen, you can see the shock register on your companion’s face as they rapidly seek out the nearest exit.

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What makes a Great Patch?

10,000 Birds

'For a birder, having a great local patch is a real luxury. We all have those days when we want to get out and go birding, but can never quite decide where we want to go. A local patch removes the mystery, makes the planning easier. And if that local patch is productive (and why else would it be your local patch if it’s not?), alls the better.

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New Production Test

Speaker: cha cha dwyer

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