SE US Nightjar Survey

A bit of old news, but still an important study:

***

The Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary would like to invite Florida birders and conservationists to participate in the Southeastern Nightjar Survey Network. The network is a group of conservation minded citizens working together to improve our understanding on the population trends of Whip-poor-wills and Chuck-will's Widows by conducting standardized population surveys.

The Whip-poor-will and Chuck-will's Widow are two of the most enigmatic birds in North America. Very little is known on basic aspects of their biology, habitat use, and population status due to their cryptically nocturnal lifestyle.

In recent years, conservationists and the general public have come to share a general sense that populations of these two Nightjars are declining dramatically. However, prior to this program, there was no widespread or long-term monitoring strategy to gather vital population information. Gaining an understanding on the precise magnitude and scale of population changes are critical if we are to plot a course for conservation.

The Southeastern Nightjar Survey is a new monitoring strategy designed to collect and analyze data annually on the population distribution and trends of Nightjars throughout the southeastern United States. Nightjar survey routes are distributed across ten states including; Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Nightjar Surveys are standardized counts conducted along census routes at night. Observers count all Nightjars seen or heard for a six-minute period at each of 10 stops along the route. The entire survey will not take much more than one hour to complete. We have designed a series of routes in each state based on the existing BBS but also have provided methods for interested participants to create their own route.

The success of this program relies entirely on volunteer participation. Please consider adopting a Nightjar Survey Route in your area. See the Southeastern Nightjar Survey Network webpages at http://ccb-wm.org for more details on how to participate.

If the 2007 survey window is approaching too quickly for you to commit this year, consider adopting a route for 2008 now.

Michael Wilson
Research Biologist
Center for Conservation Biology
Email: mdwils@wm.edu

ATTENTION WISCONSIN BIRDERS!!!

Dear Neighboring Cheeseheads;

We, the humble birders of of the superior State of Illinois, have completed our viewing of the REDDISH EGRET, and in the spirit of giving, we are now sending that REDDISH EGRET to you. It has now left the Botanic Gardens is now on its way north, having already made one stop along the northern Illinois lakefront.

In return, we simply ask that you reciprocate the favor, by sending us one of your Great Gray Owls this winter.

Please signal your acceptance of the terms of this proposal by sighting said REDDISH EGRET within the next 72 hours.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

The Benevolent People of the State of Illinois

P.S. Since we do not totally trust you Cheeseheads to keep up your end of the bargain, we are keeping our Botanic Gardens REDDISH EGRET, and instead are sending you our spare REDDISH EGRET that we only use in case of emergencies. Or maybe we'll send you the Botanic Gardens bird. We really haven't decided yet.

Rarities: Reddish Egret, plus ???

Quick post: Some great rarities have shown up over the past few days, including a Reddish Egret at the Botanic Gardens in the Chicago suburbs. Hopefully we will be able to see that bird later this week.

In the meantime, we are soliciting opinions on the flycatcher that was seen at Lincoln Park's South Pond earlier today. Photos are on Surfbirds N.A. Stop Press:

http://surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery10

Migration-related Weather Report

Great day (12+ hours) of birding today. Up again early tomorrow. The weather/wind prediction for tonight is very interesting, as posted below (can't really be bothered with getting the formatting perfect right now). Continued W/SW winds changing to N/NW winds right about 3 am. Picture the Chicago lakefront as a line running roughly from north to south. Strong SW winds push migrants up against the lakefront. Those birds will be slowed or put down by the N/NW winds overnight. That's a pretty good recipe for a fallout tomorrow morning, probably depending on how strong the SW winds are, when the winds shift, and how hard the winds blow out of the N/NW. The tricky thing is the fallout could be right along the lakefront, or it could be pretty far inland, depending on when the winds change. Might be a nice night to go up on the rooftops or keep an eye on the NEXRAD radar.

Or, of course, it could be nothing.

That's why birders get up so early in the morning!!!

UPDATE:
11:57 pm--we just got back down from our roof deck (about 45 stories high, it has been closed for renovations the last couple of weeks) and it is pretty slow up there. Only a bird or two per minutes, the winds seem to have already shifted, and the clouds and rain are almost here already. The birds that took flight early tonight might have some problems, but it doesn't sound like a big flight. Again, who knows what will be here in the morning, that's why we're going to bed soon.


10pm
Partly Cloudy65°F
65°F
10%
47°F
52%
From SW 11 mph

11pm
Partly Cloudy63°F
63°F
10%
48°F
58%
From SW 11 mph

12am
Mostly Cloudy61°F
61°F
10%
48°F
62%
From WSW 10 mph

1am
Mostly Cloudy60°F
58°F
10%
47°F
62%
From WSW 10 mph

2am
Mostly Cloudy58°F
56°F
20%
47°F
67%
From W 9 mph

3am
Isolated T-Storms56°F
54°F
30%
47°F
72%
From WNW 8 mph

4am
Isolated T-Storms55°F
53°F
30%
47°F
74%
From NW 7 mph

5am
Isolated T-Storms54°F
52°F
30%
47°F
77%

Sunrise 5:26 am

6am
Isolated T-Storms54°F
51°F
30%
46°F
74%
From N 9 mph

7am
Isolated T-Storms55°F
52°F
30%
45°F
69%
From N 10 mph

8am
Isolated T-Storms56°F
53°F
30%
45°F
67%
From NNE 11 mph

BINAC Under Siege!!! !!! !!!

We will not be silenced!!!

Stay tuned for the fireworks. If we don't pass out during our back-to-back Big Days this weekend, of course.

Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell.

Well, the nice weather that had been hanging around Chicago was replaced by a fairly nasty cold front. We went from 90 degrees in some places to overnight lows in the 40s. We ended up with a very wet Ovenbird in our front yard, and the birding has been decent right in the neighborhood. We're up to 37 species for our yard list. We even added a new "garage bird" -- a Northern Waterthrush that was running around in our parking garage at about 5:00 on Sunday morning.



Things have stabilized a bit and there have still been a decent number of birds around this week, especially in light of the north winds. We tend to think that these have been lingering birds that were forced lower to the ground because of the weather, as opposed to new migrants that experienced a bit of a fallout, but there's really no way to be sure.



Anyway, this weekend could be gangbusters. Almost all of the warblers we have been seeing are still adult males. Flycatchers aren't really in yet, and we're not seeing to many of the later-arriving warblers yet, either. That means we probably have at least two really good weeks of migration left, and with a relatively early Memorial Day this year, that could be a really great three-day weekend. The weather is going to warm up and it looks like either Saturday or Monday will be the top day of the year.

Overall, most of the people we talk to seem to think that this has been a pretty nice spring migration so far, although it has been really variable depending on how far you are from the lakefront. The key point is that there are still a lot of birds left to be seen. There were still some nice numbers of migrants in Florida this week, so the best is yet to come.

Narcs, "Outlaw Birds," and "Lawyer Birding"

We know that birding competitions like the World Series of Birding and the Great Texas Birding Classic (or whatever they call it) need to have some rules to ensure a level playing field, but this is just ridiculous:

http://www.nycaudubon.org/Birdathon/PDF/ChallengeRules2007.pdf

Not only do they needlessly prohibit teams from calling bird in using tapes, take a look at Part 7. When you're in the field, you're supposed to invoke a waiver of Rule 7.a for "outlaw birds." Hey, that's lawyer-birding!

And look at Parts 12 and 13. A call of fowl? Written protests? Banning violators for one year? Oh man, it says "thank you" to NJ Audubon, so these must be the rules they use for the World Series of Birding or something.

Look, we're all for honesty and fair play, but this is birding, not the federal court system. If you see someone cheating, you're supposed to talk about them behind their backs, mock all of their undocumented sightings, and say "I bet *that* won't be refound" every time they report a rarity, not narc them out by filing a written protest.

A little birdie told us to not worry about those tagged gulls.

There is nothing birders like more than knowing where a bird they are looking at came from, and knowing where that bird will go after it leaves their area. That's why birders are so interested in banding, ringing, tagging, etc.

Right now a lot of banded and tagged gulls are turning up in the Chicago area, and of course, local birders are seeing these gulls and wondering who they should report them to.

Well, not everyone working on this anti-gull project is happy about the City's plan to reduce the gull population, and one of these unhappy folks -- we'll call him/her our "little birdie" -- knows the real scoop, and they're singing like a canary.

Let's just say that the City doesn't care who sees tagged gulls, or where those gulls are headed. You see, our little birdie sings, the City is tagging these gulls for two reasons, and neither of them have to do with where these gulls are dispersing to.

First, the City is using the tagged birds to determine the effect of their gull depradation efforts in the city. While they spend our hard-earned taxpayers dollars coating gull eggs with corn oil, they want to know if those gulls are laying a second clutch.

The second reason these gulls are being tagged is a bit more insidious: the tagging of the gulls in and of itself is an effort by the City to reduce the breeding population of gulls. Color-tagged gulls, according to some data, are less likely to breed than untagged gulls. So, in a way, the colored tags are not just being used to track the effects of the City's gull control efforts -- they *are* a part of the City's gull control efforts. Bet they didn't mention that at the fancy "migratory bird" press conference at Montrose on Saturday.

Sing, little birdie, sing, and warble us another song!!!

Birds being killed by wildfire smoke?

You may have read this story already, but it smells a bit funny to us. First, there are clearly some mistakes in the story, as there is no way smoke from fires up in the Panhandle or near Georgia is affecting birds in Miami-Dade. If those birds are being affected by smoke, it's likely smoke from nearer fires in Collier County or elsewhere in Central/South Florida.

Second, we'd like to see support for the claim that this smoke is toxic to birds. What is described in the article sounds a lot like your standard window-kill event; perhaps the smoke is affecting the birds' ability to migrate (by, for example, blocking out the stars at night), but to say that the smoke is affecting their lungs...that sound a bit more far-fetched. The video here appears to have a still of birds grounded near some mirrored glass, but there doesn't appear to be any video of birds actually hitting glass: http://www.local6.com/news/13312859/detail.html Anyway, here is the story, you can draw your own conclusions:

*UPDATE*: Here is a link to a video that makes a bit more sense, and doesn't mention "toxic smoke." Check out the chiropractor who has donated his services to the birds!!!

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=54735

And here is the original "birds inhaling toxic smoke" story:

***

Birds Dropping From Sky, Flying Into Buildings After Exposure To Smoke
Vets: Toxins In Smoke Are Poisonous To Birds
POSTED: 7:40 am EDT May 14, 2007
UPDATED: 7:51 am EDT May 14, 2007

Hundreds of birds from as far south as Miami are falling from the sky or flying head-first into buildings and dying after being exposed to smoke from wildfires blanketing parts of Florida, according to a report.

Veterinarians said the birds have very sensitive lungs and the toxins in the smoke are poison to them, Local 6 reported Monday.

Video showed birds slamming head-first into buildings and glass in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

"I hear them (hitting glass) all day long," a business owner said. "It is horrible."
Residents in the counties have called wildlife centers to report the dead birds, the report said.
"Something is draining the life out of (an injured bird)," a man said after finding a bird that fell from the sky. "And it seems to be a slow process, which is pretty brutal."

Officials said smoke from the wildfires in Florida disorients the birds and causes them to fly into windows, according to a WSVN report. The birds are dying from either the impact of the crash or suffering from head and neck injuries.

Wildfires started about a month ago in southeast Georgia and have spread into Florida. More than 300,000 acres have burned in both states. The wildfire that raced through the Okefenokee Swamp in southeast Georgia and into Florida was started by lightning more than a week ago.

By Sunday night, it had burned 102,500 acres in Florida and was 30 percent contained. Georgia reported 41 wildfires in the state covering 267,136 acres.

Officials were also fighting a series of other, smaller fires throughout the state.
The fire burning in southeast Georgia and Florida started May 5 in the middle of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. It took just six days to grow larger than another wildfire that has burned nearly 121,000 acres of Georgia forest and swampland over more than three weeks. The smaller fire was started by a tree falling on a power line.

The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Georgia's Steven C. Foster State Park inside it remained closed. Haze from the fires has traveled as far south as the Miami area, about 340 miles away.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

Do *Not* Read This Blog!!!

OK, sometimes when we disappear for a while, we come back with some lame excuse like we were working really hard, or travelling too much, or had to watch too much television. This time we don't have a lame excuse, we have a great one -- we've been out birding!!!

So here is some advice that you will probably never see on those other birding blogs: Stop reading this blog and get outside and go birding! If you live just about anywhere in North America, the only reason you should be reading or commenting on this blog during daylight hours right now is if you have a broken leg or you're at work. If you don't, you should be out birding! We don't care if it's slow right now, slow birding is better than no birding. (Hey, a new slogan!)

If you want to stop by at night, or before sunrise, that's fine, but we will be very disappointed if you're reading during the day!!! Unless, as we mentioned, you're a sap who is stuck working this week like we are. A lot of Chicago-area birders take a week or two off from work right about this time every year to bird locally...do people still do that in other places, too?

Please tell us that we are not the only ones who are annoyed (again!)...

Just got back from our little trip, perfectly timed to miss goodies back in the Chicago area such as Townsend's Warbler, Mississippi Kite, Swallow-tailed Kite, and who knows what else.

So we were catching up on our e-mail, checking the latest messages from our local listserve, when we found a couple more difficult identification problems posed by some newbie birders. Not this again. In the last week, different birders have posted photos of the following "mystery birds" that they could not identify: male Bobolink; male Common Yellowthroat; female House Sparrow; and, yes, wait for it, male Mallard. Seriously.

We love new birders, and we try to help them all we can, but c'mon, you are a complete and total moron if you can't identify a male Bobolink perched in the middle of a meadow. There's nothing *even close to that* that isn't a Bobolink in your bird book, not even in that cheapie field guide to North American birds we saw a few years that was produced in China. Just taking pictures of random birds and then asking other people to identify them while sitting in front of the computer is *not* birding. It's not even birdwatching. It's a waste of time, and it is extremely annoying. If you've got your Sibley's or Peterson's in front of you, or even an old Golden Guide, and you can't identify a male Mallard, there's no hope. Just give up and donate your equipment to Birder's Exchange.

The problem (besides the fact that you don't learn anything when other people identify your birds for you) is that these kind of pointless questions are driving a lot of experienced birders away from reading and posting to their local or state listserves. There are probably eight bird clubs in the Chicago area, and probably every single one of them has a field trip somewhere this weekend.

So if you're a new birder, turn off the computer, leave your camera at home, and GET OFF YOUR ASS and start identifying birds WHILE YOU ARE IN THE FIELD instead of while you're in front of the computer.

Sunday was slow...

...slower than, well, something that is really really slow.

The worst part of the day was the almost complete lack of access anywhere along the lakefront. More on that in our next rant.

In the meantime, we have decided to try another spot this weekend where migration might be a bit more advanced than it is in Chicago right now.

Stay tuned!

We learned a lesson today/tomorrow will be a BETTER day!!!

We have been waiting to write about what we have been seeing around town over the past few days, but the birding has been SLOW. We spent most of the day downtown or on the lakefront and while there were a few different birds around, both overall numbers and species counts were extremely low. The reports we've gotten from elsewhere in the city have been pretty similar. The most exciting thing we saw today was a small group of homeless people in the alley behind the YMCA yelling and cheering. We stopped to take a look and were nearly blinded by two more homeless people having sex in the alley.

Memo to BINAC: Next time, don't look!!!

We had a Northern Waterthrush on the lawn at our building on Tuesday, and had crippling looks at a first-year male Hooded Warbler later that day on the softball fields nearby. The bird was incredibly tame, following us around, even begging us for food. Does that happen in other places? Very cool.

Tomorrow is the day we're pinning all of our hopes on, The weather is supposed to warm up to 80 degrees or more,the warm air flowing into Chicago on very strong SSW winds overnight. If that weather pattern holds, the NEXRAD radar should be light up tonight all over the Midwest, and conditions should be ripe for a very nice migration tomorrow morning. Still a bit early here for huge numbers of tanagers, grosbeaks, etc., but we will probably get the first massive sparrow movement tomorrow morning, along with a good number of warblers and a generally strong overall movement of birds.

During spring migration, we like to spend one day of each weekend in the 'burbs, and one day along the lakefront, but we're going to break that rule tomorrow and stick close to the lake. When the weekend is as nice as this, you have to get to places on the north lakefront (Montrose, Lincoln Park Bird Sanctuary, etc.) early and then work your way south before the northern areas get flooded with people, cars, boats, airplanes, whatever.

The anticipation is almost killing us, it will be hard to sleep tonight, let's keep our fingers crossed that tomorrow will be a great birding day.

National Media Calls Chicago Bird-Policies "Avian Abortion"

We didn't make up the term "avian abortion," the UPI did:

***

Chicago hopes to kill gulls before birth

CHICAGO, Ill., April 24 (UPI) -- Chicago is trying a form of avian abortion in its war against ring-billed gulls -- coating eggs with corn oil to keep them from hatching.

A pilot project involves only a few nests and is aimed at determining whether adult gulls behave differently when they do not have young to feed, The Chicago Tribune reported.

The gulls, aggressive feeders, hang out on the city's famed lakefront and foul the waters of Lake Michigan with their droppings. Some experts believe the birds are responsible for high levels of E. coli bacteria that have caused swimming to be banned at beaches.

The city has already covered trash cans on the lakefront and changed the roofs of some buildings to make them less hospitable to birds. Border collies have been used in an effort to drive the gulls away.

The corn oil has been determined not to harm gulls, people or the environment, but it cuts off air circulation through egg shells, killing the embryos. Experts warn that it is not a quick fix.

"People should not expect that one year of limiting hatchling numbers will immediately reduce conflicts with gulls," said Scott Beckerman, director of Illinois Wildlife Services. "Gulls live a long time, generally returning to the area where they hatched once they are old enough to breed."

Field Museum Ornothologist Speaks: Chicago's Corn-Oiling Experiment WILL NOT WORK!

Well, Doug Stotz at the Field Museum has now weighed on on the subject. From WBBM 780 Radio:

***

Scientist Sees Many Chicago Beach Closings As Unnecessary

John Cody Reporting

CHICAGO (WBBM) - A Field Museum scientist says many of the Chicago lakefront summer swim bans are unnecessary but will continue until the EPA agrees to modify its ruling on what constitutes water contamination.

WBBM’s John Cody has the story.

Dr. Douglas Stotz says when counts of E. Coli bacteria carried by seagulls get high, swimming is stopped. But he says there's been no direct link shown between the E. Coli in seagull droppings and any human illness.

He tells Newsradio 780 "I do think beaches are being closed unnecessarily'.
Dr. Stotz is a conservation ecologist who specializes in birds. Dr Stotz consults with the City of Chicago Department of Environment which is conducting a program to trim the number of seagulls flying along Chicago's shoreline and living large off Dumpsters, dropped hot dogs and funnel cakes.

He agrees seagulls in large numbers can be a nuisance and is working with the city on a study to see if the seagull population can be reduced along the lake front.

Agriculture Department wildlife biologists have been spraying corn oil on sea gull eggs near Navy Pier instead of removing or scrambling them lest frustrated gull parents just move inland and start new families elsewhere.

The oil would prevent air from moving through the shells and destroy the embryos.
Some nests will be left untouched to determine the behavioral differences in gulls with and without young.

Doctor Stotz says since there are 70,000 breeding pairs from Wisconsin round to Indiana, the chances of reducing the numbers by removing most of the offspring near Navy Pier is very remote.

***

So Doug is just saying what us birders know already: spraying corn oil on the relatively small colony of gulls that live near Navy Pier is not going to even make a dent in the number of gulls that frequent the Lake Michigan lakefront.

How much is this bird-brained experiment costing us taxpayers???

Question: How many species (if any) are on the ABA-area list and have only been seen or heard by *one* birder?

So this Barred Antshrike record has gotten us thinking. Yes, dangerous, we know.

Assuming the record is accepted by the ABA, then Martin Hagne is the only birder (well, his wife heard it, too, but we'll assume she is not a birder) who will have this species on their list for the ABA area.

Are there any other species that have only occurred once in the ABA area, have been accepted by the relevant state records committee and eventually added to the list by the ABA, but have only been seen by one person, by the initial observer? Since "firsts" these days usually require hard documentation (ie photo, sound recording, or specimen), you'd have to see the bird, record it, and then no one else would ever see that individual bird (or any other bird of the same species) after the original sighting.

Any takers?

What about in the U.K.?

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:

***

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:

***

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:

***

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.