Dead Body Found at Swallow Cliff

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

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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.

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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:

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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?