Here we go again: more anti-bird activites by the City of Chicago

We could not make this up. The City, apparently still steaming over their inability to addle any goose eggs, is now trying to coat gull eggs with corn oil. Gulls are now apparently, in the eyes of City Hall, "pests," just like rats and honest Water Department employees.

What the hell are these idiots thinking? And exactly who at the local Fish & Wildlife office is handing out permits to perform sociological experiments that involve coating federally protected gull eggs with corn oil? We hope those gulls crap all over the City's evil plan.

Here's the oily truth:

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City tries oily move to limit seagulls
Officials target nests of the lakeside pests

By Tonya Maxwell
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 24, 2007

Perhaps only Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" rivals this epic battle, one that pits Chicago officials against the city's feathered foes.First, city officials covered trash cans at area beaches. Then they modified the roofs of some fieldhouses. They also deployed border collies. All in the name of keeping ring-billed seagulls, along with their yellow, webbed feet and bacteria-laced droppings, off the lakefront.

Beginning Tuesday, biologists plan a new prong of attack: coating the eggs in several nests with corn oil, which would prevent air from moving through the shells and destroy the embryos.The pilot project will determine what impact oiling the eggs has on gulls.Some nests will be left untouched to determine the behavioral differences in gulls with and without young.

The gulls and their droppings are suspected of boosting E. coli bacteria levels at city beaches, which in turn leads to summer swim bans. A University of Chicago study estimates swim bans cost the local economy about $2.4 million a year, according to the city's Department of Environment.

"People should not expect that one year of limiting hatchling numbers will immediately reduce conflicts with gulls," said Scott Beckerman, state director for Wildlife Services. "Gulls live a long time, generally returning to the area where they hatched once they are old enough to breed."This is why the research portion of the project is so important, as the gulls are watched to see if adults without young to feed spend less time trying to find food in public areas and if fewer juvenile gulls 'loaf' on beaches," he said.

The corn oil is not hazardous to gulls, wildlife or the environment, according to a statement released by Chicago's Department of Environment.City officials have received appropriate state and federal permits, said Larry Merritt, a spokesman for Chicago's Department of Environment.

***

The worst thing about this whole debacle is not what the City is doing, but that they're lying to the public about it. The corn oil "is not hazardous to gulls, wildlife, or the environment"? Then why are they putting the stuff onto gulls eggs? For kicks? This is not a grade school science project, this is the "bird-friendly" City of Chicago again acting with no respect whatsoever for birds, birders, or wildlife in general.

Galveston, you can breathe easily. You've now dropped to number two on the BINAC hit list.

How Did We Miss This--Barred Antshrike Now On Texas State List?

Apparently the Texas records committee has now added Barred Antshrike to the official state list, based on a bird that was recorded -- but not seen -- in a Harlingen backyard (Martin Hagne's backyard, actually) last September.

Does anyone know anything more about this record?

BINAC Enters the Multimedia Age!!!

We've been playing around with embedding YouTube videos, with some pretty cool results.

When you click on any of the little video boxes, that video plays on the top of the site.

WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILIY FOR THE CONTENT OF THE EMBEDDED VIDEOS!!!

Unless they contain nudity, in which case we take full responsibility.

The City of Chicago Strikes Again--Birding Hotspot Olive Park Closed!!!

The powers that be here in Chicago are continuing in their efforts to flush away the good will that they have built up with local birders over the past few years.

We went for a nice spring birding stroll to local hotspot Olive Park today only to be quite surprised to see a "classy" homemade sign informing all that Olive Park would be closed until, get this, the END OF MAY. OP has sucked since it was "destored" a few years ago, but it was still a reliable spot for sparrows and thrushes. (Note to our less astute readers: "destored" is a word we have cleverly just created to describe the process by which a birding spot is destroyed by "restoration" efforts that take away food and cover migrants need to survive. Other places in the Chicago area that have been destored in the past few years include Wooded Isle, Cherry Hill, and Bergman Slough.)

We have no clue what they're doing at the OP, but we saw lots of trees or tree limbs that had been taken down, and some piping that looked like it was being installed. (Not sure why you would run pipe under trees in a park that has no facilities, but hey, you gotta feed those contractors, so just let them run some new pipe to the fountains, right?)

We are suggesting that our readers send the following letter of protest ("LOP") to the city--since the OP is not directly under the control of the Park District, the letter should be sent to the Water Department at the City of Chicago:

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Dear Mr./Ms. Jackass:

If there are any employees left in your department who are not currently busy accepting bribes to perform illegal natural gas hookups or running a heroin ring from the Jardine Water Treatment Plant next to Olive Park, could you please try to find the time to tell us what the fuck you're doing at the OP?

Sincerely,

(insert your name here)

A local dog walker

***

Spring has Sprung/Sage Thrasher at Montrose???

Ah, it is a beautiful time to be alive.

All across North America, our feathered little friends are on the move.

Birds that wintered in the tropics are now in Florida, and birds that wintered in Florida are now here in Chicago.

There has been a very nice migration of warblers, tanagers, etc in the Dry Tortugas, the Florida Keys, and the various migrant traps in mainland Florida.

Up here in the Midwest, migration had been "stalled" a bit; on Friday we were still seeing primarily early-spring migrants like Brown Creeper and Northern Flicker. But that changed with a nice push over the weekend, with great warm weather to boot, and today even more birds arrived. Sparrow migration is now fully underway, and we are getting our first trickle of warblers as well. This will only get better for about the next month.

There have been a few rarities, too. A Barn Owl today at Montrose, and a Sage Thrasher was reported on Saturday from Montrose. We know that the Thrasher was looked for by a few people (fewer then you would think), who used every possible effort to coax the bird out of hiding, but it could not be re-found. There was no photo taken, so who knows if it will ever be accepted by the records committee, but it is what it is.

Hey, whatever happened to...?

...that guy who killed the cats in Galveston? You know, Jim Stevenson?

Well, apparently he's been indicted for killing thos darn cats, even though no one owned the cat he did or didn't kill, and it's not against the law in Texas to shoot a cat that isn't a pet.

We sorta dropped Jim's case after he posted his "I saw an Ivory-billed" story, but we think he's done his penance, he shouldn't have to go to jail to repent for the error of his ways.

So we're back on the case.

Look out, Tejas, time for us to get all Deguello on Galveston's ass.

(That sounded better in our head than when we actually typed it.)

Oh yeah, the birds are gonna get screwed.

We made our way over to Daley Plaza to check out the city's little 2016 celebration. There were at least 17 tv cameras there (does Chicago have 17 tv stations?), Pat Ryan, former State Senator Barack Obama, Governor Elvis, the Counsel General of El Salvador, balloons, confetti, and even the guy who claims his wife is being raped by FBI Agent Chris Saviano (no, look it up yourself) was there.

Da Mare really worked himself into a frenzy, it was entertaining to watch. Hey, we appreciate his love for Chicago, and Illinois, and America, and diversity, but he was really laying it on thick. So that's it, the fix is in, the birds are gonna screwed. If Da Mare wants something to happen, it will, so bye-bye Northerly Island.

Our advice to you: If you're a construction contractor in the Chicago area, go get your daughter married to someone named Daley, Hynes, or Madigan in the next couple of years, and you'll be set for life.

Chicago 2016: Stir the Soul (and screw the birds???)

Well, it's official: Chicago is now the U.S. entry for the 2016 Summer Olympics:

http://www.chicago2016.org/

We are generally in favor of bringing the Olympics to Chicago, as we are always generally in favor of events that will bring scantily-clad athletic young women who cannot speak English to our fair shores.

But what will the long-term plans for 2016 do to some of our best birding spots, especially along the South Lakefront?

Well, as you can see from the photo at the beginning of this post, the plan for Northerly Island includes some interesting "natural" areas:

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Olympic Sports Complex at Northerly Island — Beach Volleyball, BMX, Track Cycling
The Olympic Sports Complex at Northerly Island will play host to three exciting and popular sports: Beach Volleyball, BMX Cycling, and Track Cycling. Northerly Island will provide a dramatic setting for what promises to be some of the most thrilling competition of the Chicago 2016 Games.

***

In the end, it doesn't really matter if we complain, because, like most things that happen in Chicago, the decision has already been made. Oh, there will be public comment, and our complaints will be heard, but if Da Mare wants BMX Cycling at Northerly Island, that's where it's gonna go.

Unsurprisingly, Egg Addling Ends Unsuccessfully

The Chicago Park District, continuing its efforts to make the city's lakefront parks more bird-friendly, has hired an outside consultant to try to get rid of the local Canada Geese. Can't have goose crap cluttering up your Olympic venues, y'know?

They've paid this consultant a lot of money, and the consultant decided that the best way to rid Grant Park of these pesky geese is to addle their eggs. In this article, they call it "egg depradation:"

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/312283,CST-NWS-geese25.articleprint

Now, normally this is the type of thing we would use to illustrate the hypocrisy of the Chicago Park District, but we've pretty much left it alone because these geese really do mess up the pretty lawns in certain parts of Grant Park. But here's the funny part: The consultant trains 20-30 volunteers (probably costing us taxpayers a couple of grand) to find goose eggs, and then they...well, they come up with a "goose egg" because they can't find any goose eggs:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=5191667

See, if they would have actually asked anyone who knows anyone about birds, they would have known that Canadas don't nest in Grant Park. Du-oh!

Wonder what brilliant plan they will come up with next?

Smackdown--Geoff Hill Trashes Long-time Chicago Birder!!!

We have been on the road so much lately that we have a large backlog of potential topics. This has also given us a lot of free reading time that we normally wouldn't have, and we used our flight this morning as an opportunity to finish reading Geoff Hill's recent IBWO book.

It is sort of an odd book. Mildly entertaining and refreshingly honest/straightforward, but we had two overall problems with the book. First, it is already outdated, and pretty much was so by the date it was printed. The publisher really screwed up on this point. I don't know why the book stops just before the big announcement by the Auburn team was made; the stuff that came afterwards, including the reaction to Auburn's announcement, would have been the most interesting part of the book. But from the publisher's standpoint, if you're going to cut off the narrative at that point, then you have to get the book to the freakin' presses as soon as the announcement is made. Putting the book out months later is anticlimatic (or is it anitclimactic? well birders have never been real well at grammar), at best.

The second problem is that the book...well, we're not sure it really has a point. Part of this is due to point number one, but part of it is due to the fact that nothing really unknown or exciting happens in the book...we already know how the story has ended. The Gallagher book has three distinct parts of the story: a beginning (IBWO history and stuff), a middle (interviewing crazy people and searching for the bird), and an end (we found the bird--hooray!). But Hill's book...it's all "middle." It's all about the search, which is, in and of itself, pretty boring. We heard some knocks, somebody saw a bird in flight, repeat and rinse. After that happens two or three times, it gets tedious.

Which gets us to the oddest part of the book, the epilogue, which is the reason for this post. You see, in the second to last paragraph of the entire book, Hill takes a major swipe at long-time Chicago area birder Jeff Sanders, who allegedly saw an IBWO in the 1960s near Eglin AFB in Florida. Hill basically says Sanders made it up. As soon as we read that, we thought, "Shit, we have to say something about that!" Then when we were drafting this post, we did our customary checking of Tom Nelson's site, only to find that this morning Tom had posted that precise passage from the book. (What are the odds of that? See http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2007/04/about-that-alleged-1966-brownsanders.html) But still, this particular paragraph deserves a bit more scrutiny.

First, frankly, it is very odd to use, as the almost final paragraph of a book about sketchy IBWO sightings, a paragraph attacking someone else's sketchy IBWO report. Second, we are pretty shocked that the publisher let this paragraph stay in without any specific or detailed reference to the journal issue that allegedly includes the retraction of certain of Jeff's sightings. Citing Ken Able is not really going to cut it, legally at least. Jeff Sanders is still alive and is still an active birder, and we're sure that he would have had a few choice words for Geoff Hill if Hill had bothered to just contact him. But what comes around goes around, right?

Anyway, we would be extremely interested if anyone has any further information on this string of allegedly sketchy sightings by "Sanders and Brown", or if anyone has an actual copy of the journal that contains the alleged retraction.

Local birding lore claims that the long-running feud between the Chicago Urban CBC and the Chicago Lakefront CBC arose out of some questionable sightings that were submitted on behalf of the Chicago Urban CBC by Jeff Sanders. The way we heard the story, that count used to have national high counts of numerous species, for example, they would always report something like "1,000,000 Rock Doves," and when somebody at the national level actually asked them how they could count exactly 1,000,000 Rock Doves, it was learned that they were counting birds per block, then multiplying that number by the number of blocks in the circle to get an "estimate" of the number of that species for the entire circle. We don't know if that's true, and we don't know if that's even what Ken Able is referring to in Hill's book, but we sure would like to find out. Not quite the Hastings Rarities Affair, but it's all we've got.

Experienced Searcher of Rare Species Spots Flock of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers!!!

We feel that it is our duty to inform the general public of a spectacular recent sighting of a flock of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. Or possibly Blue Jays. Anyway, perhaps birders can flood the area to get a definitive photograph. Here is the link:

http://www.ibwo.net/forum/showthread.php?p=1577#post1577

The expert who made this sighting, Rip Lyttle, has also started a new organization, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Research Organization:

http://www.ibwsearches.com/

While we welcome any additional help in confirming the existence of the IBWO, we fear that this new organization may prevent its founder from continuing with other, more critical animal research:

http://www.marylandbigfootresearch.org/

http://www.bfro.net/news/roundup/west_virginia_2006_expedition_notes_adair.asp

http://www.oregonbigfoot.com/report_detail.php?id=00405

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=1895&mode=threaded&pid=41384

C'mon, we could *not* make this stuff up!

Let's Be Careful Out There!!!

Well, we have escaped from the Gulag, and hope to have a bit more on our European Adventure soon. We also have a bunch of IBWO posts lined up for the next few days.

In the meantime, we want to offer our best wishes to a long-time Chicago area birder who was recently injured pretty severely in a car crash while birding. He was on foot at a local birding spot and was swept up into a three-car accident. We had intended to honor this birder's privacy, but since some loudmouth gossip posted it to the Internet already, there's no harm in bringing this subject up.

Another well-known Illinois birder was killed several years ago under similar circumstances, so please keep safety in mind the next time you are doing any roadside birding.

Additional Greetings, Comrades: the cleverness of our plan is quite apparent!

We must continue this tail of our noble efforts to convert the one you call BINAC to our glorious ways.

First we show our superior weaponry:

Not all of our weapons have disintegrated into such a state of disrepair:

Next we take this BINAC on tour of Communist collective farm and cereal factory. It is only one building:

Next we tour Communist Art Museum, and listen to several hours of Yakov Smirnov jokes. We all have laughter from deep in the belly! (Comrade Yakov is currently undercover in American military base called Branson Missouri.)

This Communizing makes a loyal patriot hungry, so we stop at local Communist housing collective called "Red Star on Tower of Water" for quick snack.

Cleanliness standards are quite impressive!

Finally, we go head down main Russian Audobon to city:

There we have great feeding at five-star Marzist restaurant--barbed wire at no additional charge -- and dine on fine CCPizza:

You Amerikans should be paying us to take tour such as this!

However, since the one you call BINAC has not resisted, we must consider more severe methods. Perhaps we may place nails into barrels and put certain persons into barrels and roll certain barrels then down hill into certain river.

Then we will see whether ransom will be paid.

Resistance is feudal--BINAC will soon submit to the lures of Mother Russia!.

Greetings again, Comrade Birders!

We have regained control of your mighty intern-net.

We will return as soon as your Vice-President Al Gore repairs computer net and allows our connection to continue.

Later, Comrades.

Do *not* panic...everything is under control.

Please ignore that last message.

We are not sure what is going on, but someone hacked into the site yesterday, and the IP address was somewhere in Eastern Europe.

We have not heard from the part of the crew that is in Hungary since Thursday. It is possible that some sort of kidnapping situation has occurred. Since BINAC has no formal relations with Hungary, we have asked the Swedish Embassy in Budapest for assistance. We have also contacted a former SAS man in Bucharest, but apparently that is not even in the same country as Budapest, and it will take him several days to reach Budapest on his towns fastest donkey.

We are trying to raise the money for the ransom, but so far all we have collected is a few lottery tickets that have already been scratched off. Boy Scouts are trying to raise the money but rumor has it that the funds are going to be paid to the kidnapped to *not* return the rest of the crew safe and alive.

Greetings, Comrade Birders

We are esteemed representatives of the most glorious former socialist satellite Soviet republic called Hungary.

We inform you now that the capitalist swine you call BINAC has been captured by glorious forces of allies of Mother Russia.

This swine BINAC has been taken to our Parliament,






where our leaders have tortured this BINAC until our peoples representatives learned the secrets of the Amerikan top secret rekreational vehicle.

We now have this BINAC in an inpenetrable and inpregnable castle that cannot be penetrated.





Unlike our local socialist prostitutes, this castle cannot be penetrated or impregnated.

We will be holding this fiend until you pay our ransom of ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. We also require secret information about the other Amerikan birder we know only by his secret code name, MR. GUPPY.

If this BINAC means nothing to you, you will not pay this exorbitant sum.

But we want you to pay, so we can purchase women and cheap vodka.

To show we are serious, here is evidence of this Amerikan top secret telescopic device, captured from the spy BINAC, a device which has now volunteeringly defected to our glorious cause:


Comrades out!

About that mystery sparrow...

...it is indeed the rare "House Sparrow." Congratulations to all who made the proper identification.

So, why did we post about that photo? Is this just another case of the evil BINAC mocking others for fun and profit?

No!

We had a point to make. Two actually.

The first point is pretty obvious: Even people who consider themselves to be birders, and who regularly post to birding listserves, sometimes make mistakes on insanely easy species. (Insert random woodpecker joke here.)

The second point is a bit more obtuse but explains the first: Nobody learns how to bird anymore!

Before the Internet, this is how you learned how to "bird." You got a pair of binoculars, bought a field guide, and went out into the field. In the field, you struggled (unless you were a prodigy--you know who you are), got frustrated, and got discouraged.

But if you stuck with it, you eventually saw the light. You ran into another local birder, joined a local club, or went on a field trip, and you met other birders. Birders who were *better* than you, and who could show you how to separate Savannah from Song Sparrows -- in the field, not a book, or in your living room in front of a computer. These other birders didn't just *want* to help, they saw it as their obligation, their way of repaying the debt they owed to the birders who taught and mentored them.

That doesn't happen today as much as it should. The Internet has equalized everyone. With the digital cameras we have today, anyone can take a photo of an unknown bird they see, and have other people identify it for them. But that's not learning. You have to be able to make those id calls, in the field, by yourself. And the only way you can do that is to spend the time in the field, work through the tough spots, and get help from people who can actually show you how to make those calls in the field.

You know, the whole "teach a man how to fish" thing.

We know this generalization doesn't apply to everyone, but it applies to a lot of us. It's a two way street; experienced birders have to be willing to give their help, while newbie birders have to be willing to aceept the fact that they don't know everything, and be willing to take the help that is offered.

Gone Birdin'

We'll be headed overseas again tonight, hopefully someone back in the States will be able to post a few updates to the site while we're gone.

Why should you be nice to visiting birders?

Answer tomorrow.

And the answer is: Because that birder may find a stunning first state record bird and report it promptly, just like Missouri birder David Faintich and his group from St. Louis, who found Florida's first White Wagtail this week!

Update: There were some nice photos posted as attachments, but we don't want to steal those, so here is a link to someone who took some of the photos: www.BirdingwithWilf.com Hopefully he will post photos of the White Wagtail soon, but it's a nice site to check out anyway.

The bird is apparently a smoker.

olivacea R.I.P.

We just noted this message on one of the Florida lists:

***

I received word this afternoon that long-time Florida birder, Noel Wamer of Jacksonville, passed away Sunday evening. I don't have any other details at this time, but thought those who knew him would want to know. In recent years, Noel kept the birding community updated on spring migratory movement coming north out of Cuba on his "badbirdz blog". The following self-assessment was taken from that blog...I am a grumpy old man who lives in northeast Florida. I have a major interest in birds, especially tracking migration using weather radars. Politically I am a godless liberal, placing me in the most oppressed minority in the world (4.7 percent of the population).

***

UPDATE: Here is a link to an obituary, with lots of nice comments from birder folks:

http://www.legacy.com/TimesUnion/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=86905333

Announcing the 2007 America's Birdiest City and County Competition

We were forwarded the following e-mail today regarding the 2007 ABC contest:

Hello to everyone,

I would like to welcome everyone back who has participated in the America's Birdiest City/County competition in the past and all newcomers, also. Before I go any further I would like to introduce myself.

My name is Mike Wilson and I live just west of Mobile, Alabama, about 45 miles north of Dauphin Island, Alabama. I am very honored that Phil Pryde has chosen me to coordinate the ABC/C competition. Phil has done a wonderful job setting up a birding competition that is fun to participate in and different from other counts around the country. I am not in this alone, however. Dr. John Porter, Executive Director of Dauphin Island Bird Sancturaries (DIBS) has offered the sevices of their organization and website. DIBS, formally known as Friends of Dauphin Island Audubon Society, was established in the mid 80's to protect and preserve the 165 acre Audubon Sanctuary on Dauphin Island. Since then they have grown and now work tirelessly in purchasing key bird habitat on the island, protecting it from future development. As everyone is aware, the biggest problem the birds face is loss of habitat. As a barrier island Dauphin Island a strategic stopover spot for migrating birds that need a safe place to rest and refuel. DIBS has purchased lots on the island that are diverse in habitat, ranging from tupelo gum swamp to wooded lots that are home to some of the oldest live oaks along the gulf coast.

We have not made any changes in the rules of the competition from last year. You can pick your 72 hour period in which to have your count between April 1 and May 31. When you have finished your count you will need to email the results to me. I will periodically send out emails as reminders and you are always welcome to email me with any questions you might have. I am including the city/county categories and the rules below. You can also visit the DIBS website for information.

We are having beautiful sping weather here on the Alabama gulf coast already and I'm exited about migration. I hope everyone has good weather and a great count!Let's go birding!

Mike

Here are the categories:

Large Coastal City (population over 100,000)
Large Inland City (population over 100,000)
Small Coastal City (population under 100,000)
Small Inland City (population under 100,000)
Inland Eastern County
Inland Western County
Coastal Gulf Coast County
Coastal Atlantic County
Coastal Pacific County

The Rules:In order to have all teams in the "America's Birdiest City" and "America's Birdiest County" ("ABC/C") competitions operating in the same manner, and to insure a "level playing field" for all participants, the following conventions have been developed to guide "ABC/C" teams in the field The main "rules of the game" are as follows:

1. All entrants must conduct their "ABC/C" Bird-a-thon between the dates of April 1 and May 31.

2. "ABC/C" competitors must record all bird identifications within the legal boundaries of their selected city or county. For "City" entrants, most automobile club and Thomas Bros. maps show city limits; birding in suburbs and in unincorporated areas is not permitted. For both City and County entrants, be sure that birds aloft and those identified by call are within your city or county's boundaries.

3. For coastal cities, the "birdable area" extends one mile (i.e., as far as you can scope) out into salt water (or Lake water) from the shore, or from offshore islands that are legally a part of the city or county involved. All birds counted must be identified from land (this rule results from a participants' poll taken in 2003, and mainly reflects the fact that the participants were not at all in agreement as to how far out into the ocean should be considered part of a city [or county]).

4. All cities or counties that enter will select a 72-hour bird-a-thon "window" for their count. You may have as many teams as you like and teams can have as many members as you like. All teams and participants are allowed to count the whole 72 hour window.

5. "ABC/C" bird-a-thon entrants can use any number of participants and teams they wish.

6. All birds, to be officially countable, must be positively identified as to species by sight or sound (the honor system is employed here). No "sps", please (i.e., no genera/family entries, such as "Loon, sp.").

7. Only ABA-approved birds are countable; no psilly psittacines, please!

8. Any rare birds encountered should be written up, just as at a Christmas count.

9. "ABC" Bird-a-thon teams respect private property and in general comply with all the "rules of birding ethics" that have been published by groups such as ABA or NAS.

10. "ABC" Bird-a-thon teams must promptly provide the coordinator (below) with a summary of their results that includes a complete list of all species identified. This write-up verifies your sightings and allows a credible comparison of results. The write-up must be received by the coordinator by May 31.

Breaking News: New species for the ABA area?

The Florida birding lists are reporting a Loggerhead Kingbird at Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West, Florida, a spot we have visited many times.

One of the posters mentioned that this would be a first North American record; we don't have our ABA-area lists to check this, but it certainly is a great rarity for Florida.

You might have noticed a few changes around here...

..and we can assure you that they were unintentional!

Actually, we were sued by Mr. Guppy, so we had to take the site down...oh we're just kidding.

What really happened is that when we switched over from Blogger to Google...blah blah blah....technical crap....blah blah blah...Google sucks...blah blah blah...wrong template saved...blah blah blah...shit disappears...blah blah blah...and you get the picture. Anyway, we've sort of decided to start fresh, we will get some of the standard links and counters back up when we can, but don't expect it to happen overnight.

If you've been paying attention to the recent comments there is some interesting stuff going on here...one commenter called another a "dough-head fascist" and "jingoistic fuck," while the Lovely Birdchick expressed her unyielding love for all things BINAC.

Good stuff.

Mystery Sparrow in Florida--ID Help Needed!!!

A Florida birder has requested help in identifying this "unknown sparrow." We thought about sending the photo to ID-Frontiers, or maybe even to birderblog.com, but we're not sure those folks would be able to come up with an appropriate response.

Here's the unknown sparrow--can anyone id this species?:

Comments?

Mega-oops: Black-Headed Gull in Chicago?

Birders are, by nature, a skeptical lot. We're not just talking about woodpeckers here, but just about any rare or unusual bird is questioned until it is seen well by multiple observers, and even then, records commitees are still not always convinced. That's the way the game is played.

Sometimes, though, this innate skepticism can turn around and bite you on the ass.

Case in point: On Saturday, a Chicago-area birder posted that the thought he saw a Black-headed Gull being fed bread at Chicago's most famous birding spot, Montrose Harbor. It was a pretty decent but cautious description; even though the original observer noted a red bill (a pretty darn unusual characteristic for a winter gull in Chicago!), the first reaction of most birders was probably "C'mon, a Black-Headed Gull? Be serious!" And then, the reaction was silence. Nobody went to check out the bird, or if they did, they didn't say anything about it. (We have an excuse--we were in Germany!) Today, a full four days later, there is a post by another birder confirming the Black-headed Gull. Yikes!

How long has the bird been present? How long will it stay? Nobody knows, but there is one thing we know for certain: there will be a lot of BSDs (Birder Sick Days) today in Chicago.

UPDATE: Photos are here: http://www.chicagobirds.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=70

Put the Orioles Back Into the Cage!

There have been some very interesting birds reported from a pretty small area in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky recently. Specifically, a Bullock's Oriole, a Scott's Oriole, and finally, an *Audubon's* Oriole. Here are some photos of the Scott's that was found in Kentucky:

http://www.biology.eku.edu/kos/Scotts_Oriole1.htm

People are already starting to grumble a bit about feather wear and a foot infection that the Audubon's supposedly has. So, what do you think? Did this unprecedented Oriole invasion happen naturally, or is someone in New Albany letting their caged birds loose? It seems like a pretty big coincidence, but then again, how many people are keeping Audubon's Orioles in Indiana? (According to ISIS, none, but that obviously only includes "legal" birds.)

BINAC Gets Busted!

Not since Panama has the BINAC crew been hassled by "The Man," but it happened again today, in the good ol' U.S. of A.! You see, after striking out on the Gyrfalcon, the BINACmobile was headed south towards Cheese Land (aka Wisconsin), when, all of a sudden, Smokey makes a U-turn and pulls us over for speeding. Smokey claimed that we were doing 25 mph over the limit, but we think his comment about our Florida (ie out-of-state rental car) license plate reveals the real story behind our detention. BTW, we're pretty sure that radar guns are not that precise from a moving vehicle, but hey, the County gotta eat, right?

In Illinois, members of the General Assembly cannot be arrested or detained on the way to or from a legislative session, and we propose the same rule for birders. If God wanted BINAC to obey the speed limit, he wouldn't have given us a V-8 engine in our rental car! If we wanted to drive slow, we would have rented one of those electric toy cars!

Anyway, as we were discussing the matter with Sheriff Hillbilly, we noticed two adult Bald Eagles overhead, locking their talons in flight! Deputy Doofus was not as interested in this majestic sight as we thought he should be. Probably didn't help our case much.

Here's the thing: Officer Frosty knew we were going to the airport, so he asked us to surrender our driver's license since we were from out-of-state. Fuck that---the last time someone asked us to do that was in, you guessed it, Panama! Anyway, to make a long story short, we had to fork over $150+ cash to bond out and keep our license.

Any locality that makes out-of-towners pay cash up-front is sketchy, at best. In fact, the cash "fine" we paid to Sergeant Goober was $50 more than the cash "bribe" we paid to Officer Panama. No wonder we hate government regulation--there is a very fine line between corruption and government regulation! Guess this means that things are just more expensive in the U.S.!

Holy Sibley, BirdMan--A GGO in Southern Illinois?

So, we ran into British Steve at the airport yesterday on our way to the UP. Literally, we ran him over, think we may have broken his leg or something. Steve's co-workers call him "Bird Man", which got us to wondering...how many of you have the same nickname from your co-workers or family???

Anyway, since most of the BINAC crew is out-of-town right now, you know something great would show up in Illinois--how about what may be Illinois' first confirmed Great Grey Owl!!! You heard us right...and not in Chicago or Rockford, but way down south in Southern Illinois, Randolph County to be exact. Apparently a photo has been taken.

Will this stunner bird be re-found? Stay tuned!!!

Smooth-billed Ani--Finally YES!!!! and our Hero of the Day!

Have you spent countless hours at the Ft. Lauderdale cell phone lot? Have you driven up and down Perimeter Road around the airport dozens of times in a single day? Well, we have, numerous times, and it finally paid off:

OK, so we know it's just a Smooth-billed Ani, but it's an American-born and raised SB Ani, and that's the key. The bird shown here was part of a group of four Anis seen near the Ft. Lauderdale airport yesterday at about 4:00. While this group of birds is probably not the only family group of SB Anis left in the U.S., it appears to be the only group that is re-findable, at least on an irregular basis.

We dipped on the Western Spindalis, but that particular bird may be around to chase for a while, and they do show up in Florida from time to time anyway.

Regular readers know that our pet peeve is out-of-town birders who travel to other places and don't timely report rare birds they claim to have seen. So it's time to give credit where credit is due: Three cheers to our Hero of the Day:

Birder Michael Smith from Gardiner Maine!

Hip-hip, Hooray!

Hip-hip, Hooray!!

Hip-hip, HOORAY!!!

Michael and his group posted their results from a short trip to Florida on the local listserve, and they the following directions to a slightly new spot for the Anis:

SMOOTH-BILLED ANI - 4 found along Old Griffon Rd near the Ft. Lauderdale Airport. There is a small scrubby "field" along this road where a power line comes through, with huge power poles in it. The anis were in this field, check in the shrubby growth and palms on the corners.

And that's exactly where we found them, right behind a large warehouse just off of Old Griffon (or is it Griffen?) Road.

And now, for something completely different.

You may be wondering what we do here when we're not birding. Well, it's six degrees below in Chicago right now, but it was 80 degrees in Miami today, so guess where we are.



We'll post some pictures from the Bears team hotel later.

Most interesting call of the weekend: a phone call that was interrupted when Matt Hasselback grabbed the phone and started babbling to us.

Most interesting sight: We're pretty sure we weren't having some of drug-induced seizure, but we actually passed by a bar on Ocean Drive and saw what appeared to be Jimmy Buffett playing a few songs with support from Jessica Simpson on the tambourine.

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.

Dead Body Found at Swallow Cliff

Since Swallow Cliff is a pretty popular spot for local birders, we're posting the entire article:

***

Woman's body found at Swallow Cliff

December 26, 2006
By Jonathan Lipman Staff writer

An unidentified woman was found dead in a picnic grove near Palos Park on Christmas morning, authorities said.

A fully clothed white woman, between 25 and 35 years old, was found about 9 a.m. Monday in the Swallow Cliff Forest Preserve near 119th Street and LaGrange Road, forest preserve district police spokesman Steve Mayberry said.

A man walking his dog made the grisly discovery in a grassy area of the grove and contacted police.

There were no immediate signs of foul play, but the odd circumstances have prompted a full death investigation by the county sheriff's police, which handles detective work for the district police, Mayberry said. Police have not ruled out homicide.

"We think it was something that happened overnight," Mayberry said. "We can't be sure, but there was no indication that (the body) had been there for a very long time at all."
Investigators at this point have no leads into who the woman was, Mayberry said.

"Unfortunately, she did not have any ID with her. We are hoping that with dental records and things, the medical examiner's office can make an identification," Mayberry said.
The medical examiner's office did not have any information as of Monday evening. An autopsy is scheduled for today.

Anyone with information about the case can call forest preserve police at (800) 870-3666.

Cat Exterminator Finds Ivory-billed Feathers?

Well, if you don't think that the IBWO and Jim Stevenson cat-shooting stories are odd enough on their own, one of our astute readers has posted a link in a comment that shows how those two stories are linked. Apparently, Jim Stevenson found an IBWO nest cavity with feathers in the 1980's.

If you don't believe us, read it for yourself (click on "Winter'06"):

http://web.mac.com/rmcpeak/iWeb/Site/Gulls%20n%20Herons.html

We've try to lay off on the IBWO stuff for a while (there's no need for us spend time on issues that are being fully covered on other sites) but this one was just too good to pass up.

Let the comments fly, this ought to be entertaining.

TINY UPDATE: Well, we're too busy birding (for once, and near an area that actually did have verifiable IBWOs in the 20th century) to actually spend much time on this, but one could speculate that David Pashley might know more about Jim's sightings, which might have occurred near Everett Slough, which might be found on the Florida DeLorme page 48, go to the SW corner and go NE diagonally, it's the second block. Just glad we're not ones running an all-IBWO, all-the-time website. How do you determine just how crazy some of the TBs out there really are? C'mon, is Jim less crazy than, as crazy as, or more crazy than: Mary Scott? Bill Smith? Jesse Gilsdorf? Exactly *how* do you determine how ridiculous a claim must be before you endorse it? Fun fun stuff.

And they're off---but can migration re-wind?

Well, today is the official beginning of our favorite time of year--Christmas Bird Count season. There don't appear to be any Chicago-area counts scheduled for today, but there are a few downstate counts taking place, and today is the beginning of "Count Week" for some of the big Chicago-area CBCs.

Here's the big question facing all of the counts that will take place this weekend in this part of the Midwest: will the unseasonably warm weather (one forecaster predicts 60 degrees on Saturday in parts of northern Illinois) help or hurt the count totals? Last weekend almost every non-moving body of water in the Chicago area (away from Lake Michigan, of course) was frozen solid. Most moving water (rivers, streams, even the tiniest creeks) seemed to still be open. There was also a pretty tough layer of snow and ice everywhere; those conditions seemed ot really concentrate landbirds last weekend along areas of open or running water.

This weekend, all of those lakes and sloughs should un-freeze; marshes along rivers will almost certainly be open, and fields and prairies will be wet: free of snow and ice, with possible habitat for snipe and who knows what else. So, will we see empty prairies and and sloughs this weekend, or will those areas fill up with birds that headed a south a week or two ago when everything froze? We have this working theory that ducks (and for that matter all birds) try to stay as far north in their range as their specified habitat allows, so they can get back to their breeding grounds in the spring as soon as possible. So puddle ducks would stay as far north as they can to find the particular kind of water resource that they need to feed. Is that true? Can micro-weather conditions of a limited duration prompt migration to re-wind to where it was two or even three weeks ago, thereby giving us some birds that woud normally only be seen in late November and not in late December? We have no freakin' idea, but it will be a fun hypothesis to test out!

So good luck and good birding to all of the folks doing the FermiLab, McHenry, Lisle/Arboretum, and Chicago Urban counts this weekend, and to everyone around the world who is doing their 1st or their 100th count this weekend.

Help us help Jim Stevenson

We haven't forgotten the whole feral cat episode. We have probably received more comments and mail on that issue than on any other issue (that doesn't involve a certain large woodpecker species) since the site began. However, to start our FJS campaign, we need a bit more information, and for legal and strategic reasons we can't ask Jim ourselves. So, the first thing we need is a PDF or a link to the actual animal cruelty law (don't know if it's a statute, ordinance, or whatever) that Jim is accused of violating. The name of the presiding judge or officer and the prosecuting entity would also be useful. We don't have time right now to dig this up but we're guessing that someone out there has the info handy already.

Here is a good example of why CBC data can be important

If are an avid ABA-area lister, or if you regularly bird Florida, you probably know that Smooth-billed Ani has been virtually extirpated from the state, and essentially from the entire United States. So, what is an enterprising birder to do? Field a petition to get the species listed as state-endangered in Florida. What is the hard evidence supporting that request? Christmas Bird Count data! Check out the actual petition and the attached CBC data for Florida:

http://myfwc.com/imperiledspecies/petitions/Smooth-Billed-Ani-Petition.pdf

It's Christmas (Bird Count) Time Again--Hooray!!!

Well, we have been buried (literally and figuratively) since the conclusion of BINAC's You're A Peon Vacation, partially because we are diligently preparing for the upcoming Christmas Bird Count season. When we're not out killing feral cats, there's nothing we like more than participating in a good old-fashioned CBC. So we will try to blog on a few counts that we are doing, and give our readers (whether they be experienced counters or CBC virgins) a few tips for making your count day a big success.

One thing that you have to do on your CBC is embrace modern technology...only 4-5 years ago we were still dealing with paper Topo maps, then we moved on to Terraserver and crappy aerial photos, and now we have the "full monty" through the excellent Google Earth. We know that other bloggers have already talked about using Google Earth for CBCs (we seem to recall that Nuthatch posted a nice tutorial last year) so there is no need to reinvent the wheel, but check out Bill Schmoker's site at brdpics.blogspot.com for a nice piece on how to use Google Earth on your CBC.

We're probably too lazy to do the surfing on our own, but if you have a blog with a CBC tutorial, or if you run across a good one on someone else's blog, sent us the link and we'll post them here.

Free Jim Stevenson!!!

OK, we're done sipping our 4 Euro coffees and eating our 5 Euro tortes, and while ruminating in a Vienna cafe on the feral cat issue, we made a significant decision: We're supporting Jim Stevenson 110%! We're going to turn up the BINAC machine to 11 on this one.

The whole BINAC universe is gonna go apeshit on the City of Galveston if they don't Free Jim Stevenson!!! (Please note the new BINAC acronym: FJS!!!)

What are we gonna do? Oh, we have plans. Some are good. Some are bad. Some are really stupid. And some may be all three. If we don't invade Canada this weekend, the plans will be set into motion...

One word can best describe what the weather will be like here in Chicago over the next few days:

Thundersnow.

A nice welcome back to Chicago, eh?

BINAC's "You're a Peon" Vacation

Well, at least we have an excuse for the failure to update over the last fews days (although Blogger says that we updated on the 19th...I hope not, since we were'nt online on the 19th!): We're on the Continent. Maybe there will be an update or two, maybe not. So far it's been raining buckets and while we have seen some great tits (and a few birds as well!) the new species counter is still at zero.

Memo to self: Birding in the rain is not as fun as it sounds.

We're not sure what's worse, Binoculars spam or IBWO spam...

Here is the *absolutely critical* info that was posted four times on a thread below.

We're not even sure if this comment is legit or not, but if it is...Bobby, c'mon man, you need to get some better help for this foundation of yours.

***

Pls. send back a ‘got it’And share this message in your newsletter and in your e-mail lists

Introducing theIvory-billed Woodpecker Foundation

The hope for the ivory-bill!

Because“Second Chances are extremely rare.”“

Deep in the bayou,through thethicknessof the mist,The long, lost ivory-bill,thought to be extinct, has been re-discovered; And a Foundationhas been born to care for it.”© nh.

Our Mission

For the locating, recovery, protection, management, preservation and conservation of Ivory-billed woodpeckers; through scientific research and documentation; and the education of the general public. This is a non-profit organization,all contributions are Tax Exempt.The Ivory-billed WoodpeckerThe most endangered bird species in this country.

On February 27, 2004, Bobby Harrison, of Huntsville, Alabama and Tim Gallagher of Ithaca, New York, rediscovered the magnificent ivory-billed woodpecker, long believed to be extinct in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas. This was after more than 60 years since last confirmed sighting of the species in the United States by two qualified searchers. Their own quest culminated in this miraculous find after spending more than 30 years of researching and following leads.

The rediscovery has produced waves of excitement in the world of conservation and beyond. It has been hailed by ornithologists, birders, conservation organizations and the media as a Victory for Nature; and highlights the need to preserve the world’s critical habitats. Rediscovering the ivory-billed woodpecker, long thought to be extinct, provides a rare SECOND CHANCE to save a species

Please donate.You are the hope of the ivory-billed woodpecker!You are cordially invited to attend the Inaugural Celebration Galaon Saturday, February 24, 2007in Huntsville, AL at 6:00 PM.

For additionalGala and contribution informationplease contact:Pam White@256-883-1199Cassandra Decoux@256-830-0738 (pm only)Norma Harrison @ 256-776-2003 or 256-651-8466www.ivory-billedwoodpeckerfoundation.orgor email: ivorybillwp@aol.com.

Jim Stevenson Legal Defense Fund

According to published reports, long-time Galveston area birder Jim Stevenson has been arrested for killing a feral cat that was about to attack some shorebirds, including Snowy and Piping Plovers. There are probably some details about this incident that have not yet been made public, so we don't want to jump to any conclusions, but basically anyone who kills a cat to save a Piping Plover is a hero in our book. We know a lot of people won't like that statement but this is a birding blog not a cat blog so tough cookies.

We're hoping to be able in some way to contribute to Jim's defense, but we want to wait a few days to see if a clearer picture of this incident develops.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061109-012835-6199r

For balance, here is Jim Stevenson's response:

Subject: what actually happenedFrom: Jim Stevenson Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2006 18:25:31 -0800---> Texbird help file http://www.texbirds.org <---

This will be cryptic in some areas because there is an open case that my
attorneys would appreciate me keeping my big mouth shut about. But maybe I can
get the point across if I am careful.

I can share a quick bird-related story.

Tuesday night about 9pm, as all states other than Virginia and Montana had been
decided, I hopped in my van, with no camera, binoculars or "anything," to drive
the San Luis Pass beach (as some of you know I like to do). I saw an
interesting thing.

There was a feral cat (miles from any house), out in the upland dunes, creeping
up on three Snowy and two Piping Plovers, and several Sanderlings. The animal
was obviously crippled (as also reported by the toll booth worker), but still
came fairly close to one of the Piping Plovers. I couldn't believe how tame and
approachable it was to the cat.

I finally got out and attempted to apprehend the cat with a towel from the back
on the van. It's never easy, and the closer I got (kinda chasing it), the more
wary it got. I finally gave up.

I saw this cat the next morning, as I did my weekly count of SLP birds. I will
say that the only two people within a mile or so of me were up on top of a
concrete bridge, out of sight (and vice versa), and inside the booth with
extremely thick (shall we say "bullet proof"?) glass.

There were other cats just laying around that I probably could have hit with a
ping pong ball, but this particular one began limping off, with levied ground
directly behind it. Photographing it perfectly would have been tough, with its
bouncing gait.

It is well documented that predators that are cripple often rely on the easiest
prey possible, such as wounded lions and tigers that have taken unfortunate
people. I believe this was the case here, and I was very concerned about how
many Endangered, Threatened and SSC individuals would succumb to it.

That was Wednesday morning, and life hasn't been terrific since.
I had about 35 posts from well-wishers, 47 phone calls, and two notes on my
door, when I got back after two difficult days. I really appreciate that (OK,
two were quite negative), as I did the many offers of help, but I agree that
this matter should cease on Texbirds. The offers of help are appreciated and
solicited, though.

I find the issue of respect for life as challenging as any. I say this as
someone who catches Cottonmouths on my property by hand and releases them
unharmed in wilderness areas, someone who replaced a shotgun with a camera
years ago, thus bringing on his dad's ire, and someone who just shed tears over
the passing of Ed Bradley. Maybe I'm just real tired.

The ethical dilemma is pitting the life on one cat against the dozens or
hundreds of small, wild animals it will kill in its (short) lifetime. And
piggybacked on that is the "real" cruelty of the death they normally receive,
from starvation to disease. Study after study reveals this. For me, it is
clear, though I am by no means immune to the emotional, while trying to hide in
pure logic, science and pragmatism.

BTW, apparently there are others with similar views (and actions) who've been
down at San Luis Pass.

I hope that clears up things as much as I dare.

Jim in Muggy Galveston

Possibly *the* best birding blog/web site in the universe

We have discovered what is perhaps the best birding blog in the universe. It is a site we have never linked to before, and have never seen linked to from any site before. They like Angus and Maiden, use copious amounts of profanity, and have a definite appreciation for the female form.

Any guesses?

Masked Duck in Florida

A Masked Duck has apparently shown up at the Viera Wetlands in Florida. Nice chase for you Florida birders.

Blogger is having a meltdown today, probably due to election-related high traffic volumes. So if something ain't workin' just hang tight.

Have you seen a Chimney Swift today?

There has been a lot of talk in Illinois lately about Chimney Swifts. There are apparently still swifts at multiple locations in Illinois, even though there have basically been no prior November records. And while all of these "I saw a Chimney Swift today" posts are getting a bit repetitive, it is still a pretty interesting migratory. Why are Chimney Swifts staying so late this year? Are other areas in the Midwest still seeing Chimney Swifts? This is the type of thing that is up to us birders to document...might even make an interesting article if you coudl find some sort of pattern or explanation for this late migration.

A quick search of several Midwest listserves shows one November Chimney Swift in Ohio but that's about it. (There have been some swifts still along the Indiana lakefront but we consider that to still be in the Chicago area.) Nothing in Iowa, Michigan, or Wisconsin...although this is the kind of thing that might not be reported or even noticed unless you're looking for Chimney Swifts.

So, what is happening here?

101 Ways to Help Birders

We were sitting around the BINAC family table on this lovely, peaceful Sunday afternoon, with our dog Pluto and our pet rabbit Vanilla, thinking about something we did in 1972 that we're sure would be quite interesting to all of you, eating our organic oat bran cereal and drinking our shade-grown coffee, lamenting the sad state of affairs in the cold, cruel world of bird blogging. Those darn bloggers are just so gosh darn mean it almost makes us want to cry. Why can't we all get along? Everyone is so childish. You try to be nice and sweet and kind and loving and all you get for your trouble are vicious insults. Why, we even tried to offer some assistance to a lady birder from Minnesota about where to report a rare bird and she got all grouchy and stuff and called us bad things (such bad language!) even though we didn't deserve such cruel and ruthless treatment. We were just trying to help. Why does she even ask for advice if she doesn't want to take it? Was it some sort of juvenile prank? A cruel trap to bait us into responding (who would ever fall for that;)? Why does she hate us so much when we're only trying to help? Why is everything so dark and cold this time of year? Why is the Blogger spellcheck so hard to use? Why can't the Bears win every game? Why can't we see a Green-tailed Towhee in Illinois? Why, why, why...(sob)...why, -- waaaaaaaaah!

But no matter how mean and cruel people are to us, we have to dry off the tears and move on.

We owe it to our readers.

We spent the whole morning online trying to Google a way to find the Minnesota RBA just in case we ever see a rare bird up there. We finally figured that out after a few hours, and noticed that there was some sort of book holding up the corner of our computer desk. We picked up the book and oh no -- we forgot to mention our new book, "101 Ways to Help Birders!!!" You can find this book at Amazon.com, it was released six weeks ago and is currently ranked as the #12,293,456 best-selling book at Amazon. (#234,564 in Sweden--yeah!) We would like to give our readers a bit of a preview of this book. Remember, this book is available at Amazon.com, Buteo Books, Borders.com, and eBay. Here is an excerpt of the first five chapters of the book, which is currently available at Amazon.com:

Chapter One: If you see a rare bird, call the local RBA or contact the local internet birding list.
Chapter Two: If you see a rare bird, call the local RBA or contact the local internet birding list.
Chapter Three: If you see a rare bird, call the local RBA or contact the local internet birding list.
Chapter Four: If you see a rare bird, call the local RBA or contact the local internet birding list.
Chapter Five: If you see a rare bird, call the local RBA or contact the local internet birding list.

If there is any interest, we will past Chapters 6-101 later, after we have a nice dinner of wild(Barnacle) goose, mashed potatoes, and gravy.

FONT -- Focus On Nature Tours/Armas Hill

We have heard a few stories about the above-referenced birding tour company, and we were actually considering a Japan tour with FONT until we heard about alleged problems on one of their recent tours there. Here is a link that contains a pretty distressing story about an aborted FONT trip to Newfoundland this past summer:

http://pweb.netcom.com/~naturepark/NewfoundlandBirdingTour.htm

The Better Business Bureau link on that site lists seven complaints against FONT.

Do any of our readers have experience with F.O.N.T., good or bad?

Well, for what it's worth...

...someone sent us a link showing that our old pal Senor Guppy has been updating his web site.

http://billismad.tripod.com/id11.html

Check it out before he hacks himself again.

Time for another rant...

Speaking of female Minnesota bird bloggers...we are due for a good rant, and here it is:

A well-known blogger posted the following to her site today:

***

I identified a Nashville, Pine, and Palm and then suddenly, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a pretty big warbler with a dark blue-gray and black back, no apparent wingbars but also not that clean, solid coloration of a Canada Warbler, bright yellow throat and breast, black streaks along the sides (and limited to the sides), a dark face with a broken white eye ring, and white crissum. And danged if the little guy didn't constantly wag its tail! I didn't have my field guide with me--that was back in the car--but I was virtually certain of what I was seeing, and of its significance, so called out the field marks (even though no one with me really knew what I was talking about) to keep them clear in my head until I could write them down. The bird was in view only about 30 or 40 seconds, and then not only did it disappear but so did the whole flock.I rushed to the car, wrote down the field marks, looked it up in the field guide I'd brought (Kaufman's) and was so certain this was a male Kirtland's Warbler that I went to the entrance office to report it. The guy on duty wrote down what I said, though I have a feeling he wasn't a birder because he asked me how to spell "Kirtland's" and repeated it back as "Kirtland's Sparrow" until I corrected him. Oh, dear--this is probably the rarest bird I've ever found on my own, and I don't even know who to tell! If you do, please email me!

***

Who do you tell? Well, if you think you've seen a Kirtland's Warbler in Florida, you tell fucking Florida birders, that's who! I mean, how hard is that? There are not one...not two... not three...but at least *four* different Florida e-mail birding lists that have wide coverage. It's not that hard to figure that out on your own. Or you could google "Florida RBA" and find out that there is still a way to report birds by telephone in Florida. C'mon, is it really that hard? Are there actually people out there that have been birding for years and years, are sophisticated enough to have their own birding blog, and don't know where to report a rare bird???

Whither Birdchick?

Hey, what hapened to the Birdchick site?

Sharon, where are ye? Is there some virus killing off Minnesota birding blogs, or what?

Nocturnal Hermit Thrush???

For the first time in almost two months, all four of the computers we use to post to the blog are working at the same time. Rejoice! Keep letting us know about those late fall rarities, there seems to be a bit of a push by Mountain Bluebirds into the Midwest this year, and one of the Midwest hawkwatch sites had a Gull-billed Tern a few days ago.

Today we observed something very unusual: a Hermit Thrush hunting, at night, by the light of the Chicago streetlamps. One other person has previously reported to us seeing this nocturnal hunting technique being used by a Hermit Thrush is the very same neighborhoood. There are plenty of sparrows around but we've never seen them hunting at night.

So, has anyone else seen this before? Are we witnessing the early steps in the evolution of the Chicago Hermit ThrushOwl?

Yellow-browed Warbler in Wisconsin???

This is shaping up to be a spectacular month of October for Midwest birders. Green-tailed Towhee and Rock Wren in Michigan, a grebe explosion here in Illinois in the Palos area (Western Grebe + multiple Red-necked grebes for a start), and we haven't even paid much attention to other states to see what else is around.

Now, to top things off, there has been a report of a Yellow-browed Warbler (!) at Bradford Beach just north of Milwaukee. We've heard that searchers have failed to re-find this bird today, but if the report is legit, this bird may be headed south along the Lake Michigan lakefront. We've gotten multiple reports that there was a very nice movement of passerines along the lakefront today, so who knows what other rarities may have moved into Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana today.

Unplanned Twitch of the Year

We sure didn't know what birds we'd be seeing when we woke up this morning. An early work obligation (complicated by some extra security due to a terrorism trial) was followed by a quick cab ride out to O'Hare.

50 minutes after taking off, we're in Green Bay headed back to the U.P of Michigan. About four hours later we pull into our hotel, check in, and get a tip that there is some "rare bird" in the local newspaper. We hop online and check the UP Birders site...the bird is in a yard on Ridge Road. Can we make it there before dark? We ask the front desk, and they tell us that our hotel is *on* Ridge Road...the yard is only a few blocks away! We hop into the car and head over...the incredibly nice and gracious family that is hosting the bird lets us in...without even raising our binoculars, we immediately see our target, scratching away under a feeder, just four feet from the picture window...yes, it's a GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE!!!! Who-eeee. Sure, they're common as dirt in Colorado, but a pretty damn good bird for the Midwest...when are we gonna see a chaseable GT Towhee in Illinois?

Now, if we can only figure out a way to see that Rock Wren that showed up a few days ago...

Lost and Found

Just got back from Florida. The large blackbird flocks have arrived in Florida, along with the wintering Palm Warblers, but no big flocks of Robins yet. Lots of the usual southern species, Pileateds, NOMOs, Wild Turkey, Carolina Wrens, an impossibly tame Sandhill Crane in the middle of a Target parking lot (didn't even move when cars pulled up right next to it), all of the expected herons, a couple of Wood Storks, and a Barred Owl that nearly decapitated BINAC. (Look, he started it. Hooting away in *our* territory day after day. We had to respond. And did. We're still not sure how he snuck up on us, we never saw him, but we did hear his wings as he took a swipe at us. Suppose we deserved it, though.)

Upon arriving back at Casa de BINAC, we noticed "Cty of For" on the caller ID. Hmmm, the County Forest Preserves are calling us. (No, we don't know where the stray "of" came from, either.) Maybe some naturalist is calling us with a critical question about preserving bird habitat? Nope. The nice folks at the forest preserves are calling because someone brought in a copy of Sibley to somewhere. Either the person bringing in the Sibley was named "James," or the name "James" was written somewhere in the Field Guide. The message was a little unclear on that point. We assume that this James character lost his Sibley Guide at one of the local county forest preserves, but the message was a little unclear on that, too. But the diligent folks at the forest preserves got our number from the Planetarium (WTF? Who the Hell at the Planetarium is giving out our phone number???) and just wanted to see if we knew who "James" was.

Now, while we appreciate the effort put forth by this diligent public official in trying to return this field guide to its rightful owner, we regrettably do not know every birder named James who might have bought a Sibley Guide in the last five years. We frankly don't know where all of our copies of the damn thing have disappeared to, so unless he's reading this, "James" is gonna be out of luck. And James, nice try, but you might want to think about putting your last name and phone number into your new Sibley Guide.

BINAC Beats Blizzard...

...well, not really, but close. And we've been itchin' to use that title since about August, anyway.

There is a lot we have wanted to write about lately (a timely comment even alerted us to the reappearance of Mr. Guppy!!!), but it's been busy. We just barely escaped from da UP before the predicted two feet of snow. The storm seemed to have disintegrated a bit, but was still a big enough threat for us to cancel some plans and cut the trip short. At least there were a few birds behind the hotel before the storm hit, including a nice little flock of Purple Finches. Yeah, those aren't uncommon birds for you North Woods types, but as far as we're concerned, any day we see a "winter finch" is a good day.

This weekend we're back to parts unknown in Florida and Internet access will again be sketchy until at least Monday. Maybe we'll be in da UP next week, or maybe at Hawk Ridge, who knows?

A couple people have asked us to spill the beans early on the Mike's Soap Box thing; Mike has asked us to not print a few things that he told us about in private, and we will respect his wishes and will not reprint what he told us here. However, Mike really only added some details to what we had already heard, there is plenty about the whole affair from other reliable sources (public and private), so we'll finesse this thing a bit to get our loyal readers (both of them) the scoop.

BINAC Beats Blizzard...

...well, not really, but close. And we've been itchin' to use that title since about August, anyway.

There is a lot we have wanted to write about lately (a timely comment even alerted us to the reappearance of Mr. Guppy!!!), but it's been busy. We just barely escaped from da UP before the predicted two feet of snow. The storm seemed to have disintegrated a bit, but was still a big enough threat for us to cancel some plans and cut the trip short. At least there were a few birds behind the hotel before the storm hit, including a nice little flock of Purple Finches. Yeah, those aren't uncommon birds for you North Woods types, but as far as we're concerned, any day we see a "winter finch" is a good day.

This weekend we're back to parts unknown in Florida and Internet access will again be sketchy until at least Monday. Maybe we'll be in da UP next week, or maybe at Hawk Ridge, who knows?

A couple people have asked us to spill the beans early on the Mike's Soap Box thing; Mike has asked us to not print a few things that he told us about in private, and we will respect his wishes and will not reprint what he told us here. However, Mike really only added some details to what we had already heard, there is plenty about the whole affair from other reliable sources (public and private), so we'll finesse this thing a bit to get our loyal readers (both of them) the scoop.

Mike's Soap Box R.I.P.

Well, part of the BINAC crew is headed up to Minnesota today, so we thought this would be a fitting moment to lament the demise of the Mike's Soap Box blog.

We didn't always agree with Mike (hell, we don't always agree with what's posted on this site!!!), but he was always entertaining, he spoke his mind, and we're sad to see him go.

Why did Mike's blog disappear? Well, that's the rest of the story, which we'll tell along with a very nice public service announcement in a subsequent post.

Three Cheers to the Brits...

...for this very funny spoof that was posted on BirdForum:

http://www.uea.ac.uk/~e039/BBC/IBW.htm

Birders search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Florida

For those of you who are continually whining "Why aren't Fla. birders talking about and searching for the IBWO in the Panhandle?" here is a link to a nice trip report by well-known Florida birder Larry Manfredi:

Stop your whining and start searching

Feather Weather is back!

We were working on adding/deleting a few links when we noticed that the Feather Weather blog (which we were about to delete) is back online. If you haven't done so already, click on the link and check it out, it's a pretty cool blog.

"We don't need your Civil War":BINAC declares IBWO cease fire

We just arrived back from Florida late this evening, and we've been thinking about this whole IBWO mess. While we have enjoyed all of the sniping and the insults and the back-stabbing, things have reached a new low.

Birders are attacking each other anonymously in forums, sending nasty private e-mails, are even threatening to sue one another over the whole fiasco, and then Hillary Clinton has to whine about it all. While this has been quite entertaining, it has also gotten a bit repetitive. Especially the whining part.

So we are hereby declaring a truce, a 72-hour unilateral cease-fire, on all IBWO-related issues. This means that we will not have any posts -- positive or negative -- about the freakin' Ivory-billed Woodpecker until Thursday morning. We will embargo a couple of posts we had ready to go. That means no bitching about Cornell or Auburn or anyone else for 72 hours. No responding to IBWO-related e-mails. And no surfing BirdForum. There are two exceptions to this cease-fire: First, we retain the right to defend ourselves if someone attacks in comments or on another site. Second (and you knew this was coming) the cease-fire is ended if Mr. Guppy reappears. (It's about time for him to surface again. Maybe he's figured out how to "un-hack" his web site? Or perhaps he just forgot his own password.)

Now, we don't expect anyone else to join us in this cease-fire. Hey, if you have a blog, you can write what the hell you want to. But therein lies the problem with unilatreal cease-fires: the disarming party usually gets killed! However, since this is merely a metaphorical disarmament (we're keeping all of our guns loaded!), we're willing to take that risk. For the children.