JABIRU!!!

August can be a slow time for rarities in certain parts of the country, but there are some great "mega" birds for the ABA area right now, including Fan-Tailed Warbler in Texas, and an apparent JABIRU in Mississippi!!!

Rick Wright's blog has a photo of the Jabiru and also mentions a Brown Hawk-Owl that was apparently seen in Alaska this week. Check Surfbirds N.A. Stop Press for a really --and we don't like to use this word much-- cute photo of the owl.

New blog on the block.

Well, it looks like there's a new bird blogger on the block...none than David Sibley.

Should be an interesting blog to follow.

Will the real Fishcrow please stand up?!?!?!

Wait, Fishcrow took down all of the anti-Cornell rants from his web page!

Who is this new Fishcrow, and what have they done to our beloved old Fishcrow?

Did Cornell take out Fishcrow? Maybe David Sibley? Or even Geoff Hill? Is Fishcrow now taking some sort of anti-ranting medication?

This is not a trivial matter. This battle is not just about the joy and sheer bliss we receive from reading Mr. Crow's thoughts before breakfast each and every day.

This is about the First Amendment. This is about academic freedom, and the scientific method. Important scientific work such as this must not be allowed to be intimidated. We're talking about saving a species here, for goodness sake. We cannot allow one of our top birders and bird conservationists to be silenced or censored. Or censured, either.

Was New Coke better than the old original Coke?

No!

Were the two new Duke cousins they brought in for a couple of shows better than the original Bo and Luke Duke?

No!

Was the new, smaller-breasted Pamela Anderson better than the old, larger-breasted version?

Again, no!

Is the new Fishcrow better than the old ranting Fishcrow?

Hell no!!!

So for the sake of science...

..for the sake of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker...

...and for the sake of humanity...

WE WANT THE OLD FISHCROW BACK!!!

WE WANT, OLD FISH-CROW!

WE WANT, OLD FISH-CROW!!

WE WANT, OLD FISH-CROW!!!

Or we can just check Google for the cached pages.

But really, we just want our old Fishcrow back!!!

UPDATE:

*Whew* this looks like a false alarm...most of Mr. Crow's musings are back, just in a slightly different format.

You had us worried there for a minute, Mr. Fishcrow!

BINAC 2008 World Tour!!!

Folks, we have a very exciting announcement to make. The biggest tour since David Lee Roth was still in Van Halen. (Hey, they should get back together!) It's the

BINAC 2008 World Tour!!!

And, by participating in the poll at the right, you can choose where we will go in 2008!

This will be similar to the Van Halen reunion, except we're birders, not musicians, and we won't be replacing anyone with a 16 year-old fat kid named after Beethoven or someone.

Now, you may think that the poll is something we won't pay attention to, but you'd be WRONG. We will respect whatever choice the people make.

You might notice that one of the choices is Okinawa. Why Okinawa? Well, someone we know is scared of snakes, and we want to see how he will react every time we jump from behind the car and yell "Look out--Habu!!!" (Remember how, on the A-Team, they had to immobilize B.A. every time they went anywhere because he was afraid of flying? It's just like that, except without the mohawk and gold chains, and change the fear of flying to a fear into a fear of snakes.) We also here that there are a few Japanese WWII soldiers still wandering around, and we'd like to chat with them, or have some sake with them, or something like that.

So vote away.

Can we forget about chasing those gulls away now?

OK, now that the Shitty of Chicago has spent tens of thousands of dollars chasing gulls off of our "pristine" beaches, it rained. And in Chicago, when it rains, shit happens. From the Tribune:

***

Rain forces water district to open locks, sending sewage into lake
By Michael Hawthorne Tribune staff reporter
7:49 PM CDT, August 23, 2007

The deluge of rain today forced the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District to open locks on the North Shore Channel in Wilmette, allowing millions of gallons of raw and partially treated sewage to flow into Lake Michigan.

***

Yes, they City is spending our tax dollars on trained bird-chasing Border Collies when our friends at the MWRD are dumping millions - yes, that's right, millions -- of gallons of raw sewage into the lake. So much for discouraging people to use bottled water. M. Miller, wherever you are, you called this one.

Have fun at the beach this weekend!

BINAC out.

Midwest Frigatebird Alert!

Here is a very interesting post to IN-BIRD from one of Indiana's most knowledgeable birders, Ken Brock:

***

FRIGATEBIRD (SEABIRD) ALERT. Tom Skilling, Chicago's crack meteorologist, has drawn parallels between hurricane Gilbert (1988) and hurricane Dean (currently approaching Cancun). Gilbert went ashore on 17 September and, according to Skilling, remnants of the storm reached Lake Michigan on 20 September. During the interval 25 September to 4 October a number of Frigatebirds (perhaps a half-dozen) were seen across the Midwest (Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Indiana).

Good news!!!

The Wilson's Plover has stuck around for almost a week, just about everyone who has tried has seen it, and no one has been shot, robbed, or killed*! This will be a first state record, there have been a few other reports but we don't think that any of those were ever formally accepted by the IORC. It isn't too often that a chaseable first state record shows up and sticks around for so long, but hey, we're not complaining!!!

And passerine migration is starting up as well--we just saw our first window-kill of the "fall" this morning in front of our building, Common Nighthawks should be moving through right about now, and things will start to really get hopping soon.

*That we know of!!!

Wilson's Plover at Rainbow Beach--Birding *discovers* a Crime???!!!

Mega-news: A Wilson's Plover was seen today at Rainbow Beach. The first e-mail on the bird was sent out at about 9:10 am. Apparently the bird was first spotted on Wednesday but was not confirmed until today. Once the word got out, the bird was seen well for most of the day, and was last seen flying away from the beach over a breakwater shortly before 4:00 pm.

Mega-scary news from the Chicago Tribune:

***

Body found on SE Side beach
By Jeremy Gorner Tribune staff reporter
7:45 PM CDT, August 4, 2007

An 18-year-old man was found fatally shot this morning at a Southeast Side beach, Chicago police said. According to a preliminary report from police, the death was being investigated as a homicide. An autopsy is scheduled for Sunday. The body of the victim, whom authorities would not identity pending family notification, was found at about 9:20 a.m. at Rainbow Park and Beach, in the 2800 block of East 76th Street. He was shot in the head behind an ear.
"He was just lying there when police came, so it's just a true mystery," said Chicago Police Officer JoAnn Taylor. Calumet Area detectives were investigating.

***

OK, so we know that Rainbow Beach is, let's put it this way, a good place to go birding with a few friends. Large mean-looking armed friends. But it has gotten much better over the past few years, so that fact that a rare bird was reported at 9:10 and a dead body was reported at 9:20 is pretty disconcerting. Did a birder find the body? Was a birder the body? Did a birder kill someone who tried to flush the Wilson's Plover? C'mon, somebody must have seen some police cars or something, right? Anyone know exactly what happened out there today?

91 Willets and *poof* they're Gone!!!

Yesterday a long-time Chicago birder posted that there were 91 Willets -- yes, 91 Willets -- on Montrose Beach. As he was watching the flock of Willets, a dog owner and his mutt went into the protected area (which is off-limits to dogs) and flushed the entire flock.

Now, 91 Willets is probably a lot of Willets for just about anywhere in the U.S., but in Chicago, it's simply incredible. We've been birding for a long time and in our collective lifetimes we haven't seen a total of 91 Willets in Chicago, much less in one single flock. So this sighting is a big deal, and it was ruined -- again -- by a stupid, inconsiderate, and law-breaking dog owner.

We realize that for a lot of our readers it might seem unusual that we spend so much time on certain issues...dogs on the beach, addling of goose eggs, chasing gulls with Border Collies...but in an urban environment, that's what we have to work with. There is really no shorebird habitat (apart from the Calumet area) in Chicago except for these heavily trafficked beaches, and these beaches are absolutely critical stopover habitat for things like Willets.

So let's tie things together...the idiots at the City of Chicago are supposedly paying outside contractors upwards of $45,ooo to use dogs to chase gulls off of Chicago beaches including Montrose Beach. The City, in its infinite wisdom, instead of keeping its stupid decisions to itself, decides to heavily publicize this effort on the local media.

Let's imagine that a big flock of Willets lands on Montrose Beach. To the average non-birder they probably don't look any different from a flock of Ring-billed Gulls, especially at a distance and without binoculars.

So is anyone really surprised when a stupid dog owner sees nothing wrong with unleashing his mongrel on the flock of 91 Willets? Is the City of Chicago going to spend $45,000 to see that this doesn't happen again? And how can they enforce the dog-ban on that part of Montrose Beach when they're actually hiring companies to run dogs a few feet away on the rest of the beach? Doesn't the City realize the messages they are sending to the public at large -- that it's OK to have your pets chase away all of those dirty birds on the beach?

Just messing around practicing some embedding...

Foxxy:



Poison covering...oh never mind, just watch it:

Where have all the good birding blogs gone?

It dawned on us that we just recently passed the two-year anniversary of this blog. And while we still don't post as much new material as we should, the fact that we've survived for two years based on gossip, insults, rumor, innuendo, and partial nudity, with an interesting birding tale thrown in now and then, is pretty amazing. It also got us thinking about some of the great birding blogs that gave us the idea to start a blog, and how so many of those blogs have fallen by the wayside. But instead of writing obituaries for those blogs, we're moving forward, and we'll be updating our links to give some newer blogs a bit of exposure.

One good example is the Long Island Birder, also known as Brent B., who has been a long-time reader and contributor here. We may still owe Brent some free Starbucks cards or something from our Mr. Guppy contest. His blog is only like a day old, and it already looks better than ours! So he sucks, but you should still check it out.

Another new blog is the Drinking Bird. Or is it *The* Drinking Bird, in which case we would call it the The Drinking Bird Blog. (You might think we had been drinking when we wrote this post.)

Now, both of these blogs might totally suck, you never know, but we think they'll probably both be pretty cool, so at least give them a chance and check them out.

We also stumbled across The Birding Couple, which has been around for some time, but we didn't check them out until lately.

Finally, there's John Mariani's Swampblog from the Great State of Tejas, which has been around longer than we have. You might know John from some of the IBWO stuff he has commented on but his blog covers a lot more ground than that. Not sure why we've never linked to him before, probably just our innate laziness.

And new blog-guys, our advice to you is: 1) Don't be link whores--if you write good shit, people will find it pretty quickly; 2) If you have something to say, say it, and say it *now*-- we have tons of stuff we wanted to talk about but just got lazy and those ideas sort of drifted away; and 3) This is related to #2, but is important enough for its own number: the best way to build and keep readers is to make sure that you post regularly. Don't worry about feedback or links or whatever...just keep posting every day or at least every week and things will start to happen.

Are Ralph Lauren and L'Oreal killing Piping Plovers?

Probably not, but hey, any time we can accuse Ralph Lauren of killing something, we're entertained.

***

SCENT'S SUSPECT IN BIRD ABUSE

July 12, 2007 -- Is Ralph Lauren to blame for the disappearance of three piping plover families?
The federally protected birds - in danger of extinction because they insist on building their nests on busy beaches - went missing last month after cosmetics giant L'Oréal choppered 18 fashion editors to the Hamptons to launch its Ralph Lauren men's cologne and entertained them with rides along the surf in a fleet of Land Rovers.

While East Hampton canceled its July Fourth fireworks for the second year in a row so the plovers wouldn't be disturbed, L'Oréal put up a tent at the end of Napeague Lane in Amagansett. As the pampered fashionistas sipped champagne, devoured lobster and took joy rides in the four-wheelers, the gentle plovers were freaking out, according to Latisha Coy, a staffer with the town's Natural Resources Dept.

Coy told the East Hampton Star that, during the event, she witnessed one stressed-out plover hovering over Lauren's tent, which she claimed was improperly covering an area where the birds find nesting material. "There were eight Land Rovers east and west, shooting past . . . We were shocked and stepped in front of the vehicles to try to stop them." she said. "They were spitting up sand when they were turning around."

Coy, who claims the vehicles were speeding at more than 30 mph, said she spotted six pairs of plovers on the day of the event, but only three pairs the next day.
Francis Bock, clerk of the East Hampton Town Trustees, told the paper he's seeking subpoenas to quiz witnesses and wants the Fish & Wildlife Service to consider hitting L'Oréal with a fine of up to $200,000.

Serge Jureidini, president of L'Oréal USA's designer fragrance division, told us, "We abided by all regulations and permits. We absolutely did not harass the birds."

Fish & Wildlife rep Terri Edwards said her agency is "aware of the situation, but by policy we cannot confirm or deny the existence of a criminal investigation."

Not everybody loves the plovers. Advertising legend Jerry Della Femina said, "East Hampton is the only place in the country that can't celebrate the Fourth of July because of these dumb little birds. It would be just as easy to pick them up and move them to another part of the beach."

Night Parrot sighting suppressed???

Not sure how we missed this, but apparently there was a decapitated Night Parrot found in Australia last year but the find was not publicized for several months. Too late for any competent birders to do a thorough follow-up. Maybe Cornell was heading that search, too?

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/twitchers-cry-foul-in-case-of-the-deceased-parrot/2007/06/22/1182019367467.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Must have been a slow news day...

...check out this story from the Chicago Tribune. Apparently Mayor Daley is doing such a great jon getting rid of our breeding birds the a nesting Red-winged Blackbird is big news. I hope the folks at the Shedd know more about fish than theyknow about birds. Hey, maybe the City can pay Wild Goose Chase, Inc. $45,ooo to train dogs to chase blackbirds away!

***

Dive-bombing bird targets Shedd

Tribune staff report

Published July 6, 2007, 10:18 AM CDT

A redwing blackbird is conducting dive-bombing runs near the Shedd Aquarium, but officials there insist there is no danger to the public.Museum officials say the bird likely is doing just what nature intended: defending a nest with hatchlings, according to WGN-Ch. 9 and CLTV.

Fortunately for the public, "it is in a low-traffic area," said Shedd spokesman Roger Germann. "There's no threat to the general public—it's off to one side."But the territory the bird has claimed is directly over a door used by staffers for special events. But, "we don't usually use that door," Germann said.

Employees have noticed the bird over the last couple of weeks, as migratory birds make their way through Chicago."It should be gone pretty soon when the fledglings start flying and continue their migration," Germann said.There have been no injuries.

Brown-chested Martin in in Illinois

Oh yeah, we almost forget, but we even heard about it in Norway...there was a Brown-chested Martin seen in Illinois recently by a reliable observer, but it was not re-found.

With apologies to Corey Hart...

...we do wear our sunglasses at night. At least, when we're north of the Arctic Circle in summer we do. We're a bit wired after a fantastic but grueling 12-hour drive from the North Cape. It's one o'clock in the morning, but with the jets taking off at the nearby airport, the constant chatter of those *&*%$! magpies, and the fact that it's bright and sunny out, we will take this opportunity to blog instead of sleep.

Peace and Solitude at the North Cape

We have always wanted to visit the North Cape -- or Nordkappe, as the t-shirts say -- to see the northernmost point in mainland Europe. The brochures and guide books describe it as a remote and desolate place of great beauty. The beauty of the Cape and surrounding areas is undeniable:

And there is some great history here, too, as some of the most important naval battles of WWII took place in the waters off of the Cape. There is also a bar, a chapel, and the iconic sculpture that graces thousands of postcards and coffee mugs:

Of course, the brochures are a *bit* misleading. The Cape isn't really the northernmost point in mainland Europe. Hell, it's not even in mainland Europe, it's on an island. And even if it weren't on an island, the big cliff next door (pictured above) is really further north. And about that peace and solitude. We wanted to see the Midnight Sun at the North Cape to ring in the 4th of July BINAC-style. A few other people apparently had the same idea. We were worried when the lobby got a bit crowded:

And we were told there would be some campers, but we were thinking a couple of tents, not something like this:

And the tour buses nearly pushed us over the edge:

But the final straw? The final straw was when the QE2 arrived:

(OK, that's not the QE2, it's a different cruise ship, but the QE2 was actually there a bit earlier in the day. Really.)

Peace and solitude? Sure, with several thousand of your closest friends! We decided to split and enjoy the Midnight Sun our way--with a little birding.

We didn't see much, but at the stroke of midnight, we had our own view of the North Cape and the Midnight Sun from a distance, and we had it all to ourselves. (With the exception of one Finnish guy in a tent, but we'll just forget about him.)

BINAC in Bergen, Bags in Boston

The headline says it all. We feel like we've died and gone to the Big IKEA in the sky. Here are a few pictures from Bergen, Norway:

And here are two shots from the train ride from Oslo to Bergen:

Due to a technical fault, we are unable to serve this blog today.

We saw a rather amusing and slightly disturbing sign at the Manchester UK airport this morning: "Due to a technical fault, we are unable to serve beef today." The sign was at Burger King, meaning that this Burger King location is apparently no longer serving burgers. We suggested a new name of "Chicken King" to evade any false advertising claims, but the cashier didn't seem too interested.

Speaking of technical faults, our ClustrMap is all screwed up, but at least that makes it easier to see our hits from Mongolia.

European Readers Beware!!!!

BINAC may be coming to your town soon!!!

We spent most of the last few weeks in Florida and Louisiana, but now we're off on a grand (read: shitty but expensive) tour of places where they speak better English than most of our neighbors here in Chicago.

And Birdchick, we're headed your way soon as well.