Surfbirds MIA?

Anybody know what happened to Surfbirds.com? We've had a couple of e-mails on it already, the site seems to be down completely.

Is it site maintenance, hacking, or what?

A look at the stats.

OK, just for kicks, here is a sampling of where our last 1,000 (roughly) readers are from. We'll probably nuke this post if the formatting takes up too much space.

Num
State/Region
Country Name


134
Texas
United States

90
-
-
-

63
England
United Kingdom

63
California
United States

57
Illinois
United States

53
Florida
United States

50
Georgia
United States

35
North Carolina
United States

35
Minnesota
United States

30
Michigan
United States

29
Pennsylvania
United States

28
New York
United States

28
New Jersey
United States

26
Arkansas
United States

21
Kansas
United States

19
Colorado
United States

19
Wisconsin
United States

18
Virginia
United States

18
Iowa
United States

13
District Of Columbia
United States

12
North Dakota
United States

11
Alabama
United States

11
Arizona
United States

10
Maryland
United States

9
Washington
United States

9
Tennessee
United States

7
Ohio
United States

6
Massachusetts
United States

5
Nevada
United States

5
New South Wales
Australia

5
Limerick
Ireland

4
Indiana
United States

4
Alaska
United States

4
Campania
Italy

4
Louisiana
United States

3
Kentucky
United States

3
Ontario
Canada

3
Connecticut
United States

3
New Mexico
United States

3
Montana
United States

2
Missouri
United States

2
Victoria
Australia

2
Zurich
Switzerland

2
Nova Scotia
Canada

2
Alberta
Canada

2
Utah
United States

2
Western Australia
Australia

2
Dublin
Ireland

2
Oregon
United States

1
South Australia
Australia

1
Baden-wurttemberg
Germany

1
Wyoming
United States

1
Tokyo
Japan

1
Buenos Aires
Argentina

1
Scotland
United Kingdom

1
Utrecht
Netherlands

1
Madrid
Spain

1
Mississippi
United States

1
Hamburg
Germany

1
New Hampshire
United States

1
Oklahoma
United States

Bill Pranty on the IBWO, photos, and rare bird committees

It's rare that we catch something IBWO-related before Tom Nelson has it on his site, but here is a very intereting thread from the Tropical Audubon Society Board:

http://www.tropicalaudubon.org/tasboard/messages/13923.html

Nothing earth-shattering, but Bill provides a reasonable perspective on things.

BTW, there is a ton of info on that board that doesn't make it onto the Florida birding lists.

BINAC is back to Florida again in the next week or two so if we're not too lazy maybe there will be an update with some actual birds in it.

Ordinary, average guys.

You can call then the "Hardy Boys." They call themselves the "other guys." To us, they're just "ordinary, average guys." Sure, they look a little unkempt after camping in the swamp for a few weeks (that's Tyler Hicks on the left, I think the guy on the right is Geoff Hill), but they're trying the best they can.

OK, for the 99.9% of you who didn't get the joke, that's not really Tyler Hicks and Geoff Hill. It's actually Joe Walsh and...oh, never mind. Seems to me we'll just "walk away" from this one.

What we're reading--check it out.

We are in the midst of our annual post-CBC hibernation. This has given us a bit more time to check out other birding sites and blogs, some of which are pretty new or not as well known as the "top" birding sites. We enjoy reading these bolgs, and we think you will too. If you don't, well, don't blame us, we didn't make you click-through.

First up is the site from the U.K.'s most infamous birder, Tom McKinney, which we have mentioned in a prior post. This site is funny as shit, even if we don't understand what they're talking about half of the time. Some of the spoof birding diaries are hilarious, and they'd probably be even more hilarious if we knew who those people actually were. Make sure you check out all of the hidden goodies at the site, like the linked videos. Our kind of guy. Here is how Tom describes himself: http://skills-bills.co.uk/about.htm

And here is more his current birding diary: http://skills-bills.co.uk/2007.htm

Make sure that you check out the rest of the site, including all of the linked videos.

Next up, and continuing the Maiden theme (is there a correlation between Iron Maiden and birding skills? Why doesn't Cornell study that?), is Bell Tower Birding. We first found this site from a link at Charlie's Bird Blog. We think. We forget stuff like that. Anyway, this site is run by a European birder who is currently living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We think it's interesting to see how an experienced Eurobirder views birding in an urban (or at least semi-urban) part of the Midwest.

Check it out: http://www.belltowerbirding.blogspot.com/

Finally, we'll give you one more newish site to check out. It's Josh's Around the Globe blog. Josh's blog is probably going to focus on African birding to start out; Josh is working for a major birding company, so he'll get to see the rest of the world again. We think Josh's blog is sort-of the reverse of Bell Tower Birding for us: a local "urban" birder's view of the rest of the world, including some places most of us will never get to. So check it out:

http://oxypogon.blogspot.com/

IBWO update from "the other guys"

Well, since the two IBWO sites haven't picked this up yet (we're sure they will soon), here is an update from the Auburn folks in Florida:

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/cosam/departments/biology/faculty/webpages/hill/ivorybill/Updates.html

Sounds promising, but it always does.

Has Rancho Naturalista Gone Downhill?

We would be willing to wager that a large percentage of U.S. birders have made Costa Rica their first neotropical birding destination, and for many years, birders flocked to Rancho Naturalista for their introduction to Central American birding. We've been there, and virtually every birder we know who has done foreign birding trips has stopped there at least once. Who can forget the talks over dinner with John Erb about hyperbaric oxygen chambers, and John's feats of physical strength?

However, we were recently sent a Surfbirds article that claims that Rancho is not the prime destination it once was:

http://www.surfbirds.com/trip_report.php?id=1054

As usual, we are not taking sides on this, we're just soliciting opinions, and you can make up your own mind. An informed birder is a happy birder, so if you've been to Rancho lately, please let us know what you think.