10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2012

Nick Sly, a friend of 10,000 Birds who writes intermittently at the thoroughly-recommended Biological Ramblings , is an ornithologist who graduated not so long ago from Cornell only to be cast out into the real world where he keeps a wry eye on all things biological! Back in October 2008, in his first field job out of school, he helped a Cornell PhD student, Karl, with his dissertation on vocal communication in Green-rumped Parrotlets Forpus passerinus.

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Eggs Venezuela Porcupines 2008 268

4 The Love Of Animals

JULY 31, 2012

We are excited about this update to a story we brought to you in April. If you remember, SeaWorld Orlando had been caring for two baby hawksbill turtles that were rescued. They have now been returned to the sea off the coast of Florida! What great news! Watch the video below for more information and to see the adorable juvenile turtles in action!

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Turtles Rescue Florida Wildlife 212

Critter News

JULY 27, 2012

From the Portugal News Online.sad stuff. Thousands of pets are being abandoned across Portugal, either being dumped at the gates of charitable associations or simply taken far from home and left behind, as owners struggle to make ends meet due to the continuing financial crisis. Figures released by the National Veterinary Authority, Direção Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária, show that in the Lisbon area alone, a total of 5,629 stray cats and dogs were caught last year, up from the 4,442 caught

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Portugal Abandon Abandoning Abandonment 109

Animal Ethics

JULY 24, 2012

The initial attractiveness of utilitarianism as a moral theory on which to rest the call for the better treatment of animals was noted in an earlier context. Because animals are sentient (i.e., can experience pleasure and pain) and because they not only have but can act on their preferences, any view that holds that pleasures or pains, or preference-satisfactions or frustrations matter morally is bound to seem attractive to those in search of the moral basis for the animal rights movement.

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Los Angeles Animal Rights Movement Factory Farm Factory Farming 63

Speaker: Steve Romanco

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10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2012

A common question that I get from the eastern region of the US in midsummer is, “Where have my hummingbirds gone?” or “I only have one, did they all die in that recent storm?” My first question is, “How old is your nectar? Hummingbird nectar goes bad after two days if it’s in direct sun and five days if it’s in the shade.

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Raised ALA Family Cats 250

10,000 Birds

JULY 14, 2012

Hot on the heels of recent mainstream birding movie The Big Year comes another new ‘birding’ movie A Birder’s Guide to Everything (ABGE). ABGE is currently in pre-production and is being produced by Rob Meyer. It would appear to be a ‘coming of age’ movie aimed at the teen market, more background is available at Rob Meyer Films here or from the teaser video below.

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Birds 246

10,000 Birds

JULY 12, 2012

Author Sherrida Woodley finds inspiration in bygone birds; the dearly departed Passenger Pigeon plays a pivotal role in her award-winning bio-thriller, Quick Fall of Light. However, equally inspiring to Sherri are renowned birders and naturalists from earlier times. After experiencing the Rachel Carson Commemorative in Duxbury, MA, she was moved to share some little-known facts about this tremendously influential nature writer’s interest in birds… I was thirteen when my mother

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Pennsylvania Massachusetts Sanctuary 2009 235

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2012

A large roost of Purple Martins at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum is considered a nuisance because of their droppings so they are being sprayed with fire hoses. Seriously. You can email the director of the memorial at kw@oklahomacitynationalmem orial.org and you should, but don’t expect any remorse or concern, just a form-written response about how gross the bird poop is. a.

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Oklahoma City Oklahoma Birds 228

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2012

It is not every day that a birder gets to play with a prototype scope made by one of the premiere optics companies in the world. Yet, somehow, that is what I found myself doing on the grounds of Tisza Balneum, the gorgeous hotel on the shore of Lake Tisza in Hungary where Swarovski Optik had decided to unveil to a gathered group of European and American birders the scope for which we had all been waiting, even if we didn’t know we had been.

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Hungary 2013 Groups Game 225

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2012

Any worthwhile discussion of baby birds will wisely lean heavily towards young shorebirds, which are surely among the most adorable of all immature avifauna. And despite our evident New World bias here at 10,000 Birds, we have a fondness for Old World shorebirds like thick-knees. We’ve shared plenty of pictorals of adult thick-knees, also known as stone-curlews or Dikkops, from Senegal Thick-knee ( here ) to Beach Stone-curlew ( here ) to Bush Thick-knee ( here and here ).

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Senegal Cats South Africa Experience 215

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10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2012

Bufflehead ( Bucephala albeola ) Female at Cavity Entrance photos by Larry Jordan “Some 85 species of North American birds excavate nesting holes, use cavities resulting from decay (natural cavities), or use holes created by other species in dead or deteriorating trees. Such trees, commonly called snags, have often been considered undesirable by forest and recreation managers because they are not esthetically pleasing, conflict with other forest management practices, may harbor forest insect pes

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North America America Barn Owls Falcons 214

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2012

Several years ago, I was asked to visit my nephew’s preschool class and talk about birds. I was delighted by the invitation and spent hours going through my photos, printing them out, imagining fifteen 4-year olds entranced by egrets, herons, and Burrowing Owls. Jake lives in southern Florida, so he and his friends had to be interested in learning about these birds, which they saw everyday, right?

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Birds Owls Switzerland Lions 212

10,000 Birds

JULY 15, 2012

When most people think of Broome and Roebuck Bay they think of migratory shorebirds. There are thousands of shorebirds that visit Broome each year and the majority of them are now in the northern hemisphere hopefully sitting on eggs. Not all of our shorebird species migrate and those that reside here are also currently sitting on eggs, or thinking about laying eggs in the upcoming weeks.

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Eggs Raised Birds Breeding 211

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2012

Most readers of 10,000 Birds know that nature is full of surprises and that we aren’t the only ones with a lock on intelligence and creativity. Still it is always nice to add to the evidence of animal intellect. This all happened as I was suffering from the photographic affliction known as “light denial,” where I’m convinced there is still some light but sadly the day has ended and darkness reigns.

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Raccoons Abandon Abandoning Abandonment 207

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10,000 Birds

JULY 15, 2012

Eurasian Wrens are very common in forests throughout Germany. They owe their awful name to the fact that the former holarctic ”Wren” or “Winter Wren” was recently split into several New World and one Old World form, producing the need to add a geographic reference to the new forms’ respective names. Clearly, the “Eurasian” wren came off worst, with the most boring of names imaginable.

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Germany Europe Eggs Birds 206

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2012

I live near a small zoo. All of the animals, birds and reptiles who live there are native species who were once injured, have gone through rehabilitation, and ended up with a permanent disability which prevented their return to the wild. Local people who unexpectedly end up with injured wildlife in their cars tend to beeline for the zoo; especially if they have no cell phone.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Wounded Zoos Reptiles 205

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2012

As soon as I knew that I was heading to Spain, my mind jumped to Lammergeyers. In fact, I believe that I may, possibly, have sent my boyfriend a chat message containing just that one word and and exclamation point. Then I sent him a picture to explain my excitement. I still don’t think he quite got it, but that didn’t matter. Lammergeyers!

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Wildebeasts Spain Turkey ALA 203

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2012

I’ve written before about the two near identical plovers that breed here in Arctic Bay, The Semipalmated Plover and the Common Ringed Plover. I live in one of the few places in North America where both species breed and occur regularly. Conventional wisdom, up until a couple of years ago, was that the two birds’ breeding range overlapped only in a narrow area in the middle of Baffin Island.

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Seals North America Breeding Species 189

Speaker: Gabriel Wagner Presenter

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2012

Baby Bird week couldn’t come at a better time for someone in the High Arctic, suddenly there are birds hatching everywhere. Baby birds here, as everywhere else fall into two broad categories, altricial and precocial. Precocial birds hatch in a relatively developed state. They are covered in down, mobile and able to feed themselves immediately.

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Eggs North America Breeding Europe 187

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

Every part of the world has it’s suite of parking lot staples, those urbanish species that seem to prefer to linger about humanity subsisting in no small amount to the magnanimity, or more likely the laziness, of humankind. With the proliferation of those erstwhile invaders, House Sparrow , European Starling , and Rock Pigeon , there a lot of homogeneity among these species, which is a shame because what parking lot birds generally lack in beauty they more than make up for in charisma.

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North Carolina Fast Food Sparrows Birds 185

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2012

Do you know what the luckiest little bird in the world is? It is a fledgling Song Thrush being attended by a parent outside of the wonderful Nomad Hotel in Hungary’s Bükk Hills. Food for a fledgling thrush is abundant in June with everything from ripe cherries on the trees to loads of snails crawling through the leaf litter. A diet of perfectly ripe cherries and escargot sounds great for humans and for a baby bird it is practically paradisaical.

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Hungary Litter Humane Experience 183

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2012

I’ve already written about trying my hand at iScoping through my binoculars using the Meopta MeoPix iScoping adapter and, since then, I have spent quite a bit of time coupling my iPhone with my Swarovski scope using a slightly larger version of the handy new adapter. I must say, I like the results! Using the 55 mm adapter with the 20-60X zoom eyepiece on my scope means that the adapter is rather loose, so I used a strip of folded paper bag wrapped around the eyepiece to make it large enoug

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Rights Birds 183

Speaker: Steve Romanco

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2012

Baby birds are on the brain this week. I recently helped out with an American Kestrel nest box program and got some close encounters with the beautiful baby birds while checking their health and banding the ones who were old enough. Here are a few photos from that lovely day in the hills. They are slightly too cute to band at this stage of development.

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Falcons Birds 181

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

Life Along the Delaware Bay: Cape May, Gateway to a Million Shorebirds , by Lawrence Niles, Joanna Burger, and Amanda Dey, is a book with a mission. Cleverly disguised as a gorgeous photographic celebration of the birds, horseshoe crabs, and ecology of the Delaware Bay, from Cape May to Heislerville to Port Mahon to Lewes (the subtitle is deceptively narrow), this book actually contains a lot of information about the way this natural world works, and how it is now failing to function as it once

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Delaware New Jersey Research Eggs 179

10,000 Birds

JULY 14, 2012

Somehow it seemed fitting that after our last theme week – Bird Love Week – that we should spend a full seven days examining what could be the results of that theme. It’s Baby Bird Week on 10,000 Birds and the adorable, fuzzy-wuzzy, itsy-bitsy, baby birdies will be everywhere! Can you handle the cuteness? Of course, this week will largely focus on the adorableness that baby birds bring.

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Birds Eggs Humane Experience 179

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2012

On a recent visit to the Poo Ponds we came across a White-bellied Sea-Eagle enjoying lunch. These eagles are generally seen soaring along the coastline looking for food or nesting inland at the ephemeral lakes. They are a magnificent sight with their wing span at approximately 2 metres and their distinct upswept wings. They chase and successfully catch shorebirds as well as ducks and can be seen taking fish from the ocean as well.

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Eagles Meat Ducks Fish 179

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10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2012

Have you ever enjoyed one of those brilliant birding expeditions, the outing where every target species takes its cue with machine precision? Of course we’ve all experienced the excruciating opposite of such an excursion, but when waves of new birds practically clamor for attention in quick succession, the feeling is exhilarating. Such was my introduction to Aripo Savannah in Trinidad.

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Trinidad Birds Fast Food Cattle 178

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2012

This is our thirteenth year of observing Pied Oystercatchers breed along the coast near Broome and it gets easier every year! They are so predictable! They always nest from the end of June and they always nest in the same place or within a few metres if there is disturbance around the breeding territory. We have had a pair move due to human traffic increasing through the dune system and others have had to adapt to the changing landscape.

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Eggs Turtles Feral Cats Investigation 177

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2012

Midway Atoll has hundreds of thousands of Laysan Albatross …it is the biggest nesting colony of Laysan Albatross in the world. During my legendary tenure there, I saw a lot of albatross chicks. They are pretty much everywhere. I can’t even really fathom how many I saw. But there is one that I remember better than most…Moby Dick, The Great White Albatross Chick.

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Albatross Birds 177

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2012

The Killdeer is a wide-ranging plover. It breeds across much of North America, is present year-round in the Caribbean, northern Central America, and the west coast of northern South America, and in winter is found across the rest of Central America. Their insistent calls help explain their scientific name, Charadrius vociferus , and are an easily recognizable sound to most birders in the Americas.

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Eggs America South America North America 176

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