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| YAAAAAAAAAAAY! |
Monday, May 12, 2014
Finally, a phalarope!
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
What Is It?... ROUND 1
Yeah, I started counting all over again. This is round one of the 2013 season.
What Is It? is a weekly (or bi-weekly... or every once in a while...) bird identification contest I publish on this blog. It's rather simple: I post a photo I've taken of a bird, and you all post comments with your guesses as to what species it is. Here's a more detailed rundown of the rules:
The Photo
For each round, I will post a photo from my collection. Difficulty of identification varies depending on the quality of the photo and what aspects of the bird are visible. I will typically include some background information about the photo, such as where and when it was taken. Pictures may be blurry, dark, or otherwise obfuscated--it's supposed to be a challenge!
Sometimes the picture contains more than one species of bird. Each species is scored separately.
Identifying the Bird
All sorts of identification methods are at your disposal. Field guides are typically best, though the internet can also be good for browsing through bird species. Identification work must be your own--no copying off other peoples' work or asking another birder to do the identification for you. Once you have a guess for what species the bird is, post a comment with your answer. I don't really care whether you use common names or scientific names. Once I see that you have posted, I will mark your comment as spam. This temporarily deletes it, preventing other competitors from reading your answer.
From time to time, I may ask questions other than simple identification. I could ask questions about the biological adaptations of the bird pictured, show an unlabeled bird picture and ask you to guess which state it was taken in, et cetera. But most of the time, it will be an ID challenge.
Scoring
I've decided to redo the scoring a bit. There used to be an point advantage for answering first, but some people might have automatic blog update alerts that could give them an unfair head start. Here's how it works now: you get
1 point just for posting a comment with a guess. Yay! You're actually trying!
+1 point for guessing a bird in the correct taxonomic order
+1 point for guessing a bird in the correct taxonomic family
+2 points for guessing the correct species of bird
for a maximum total of 5 points per species.
Ten illustrious front-runners will appear on the leaderboard, which I will update after each challenge. I reserve the right to modify the rules if some people are over-proficient with identification. Maybe I'll establish a "major league" version with even more difficult photos...
Walkthroughs
When I post a new What Is It?, I will also post the correct answer to the previous challenge, along with a quick description of which field marks should have been useful for identifying the bird. You might start noticing trends with what to look for. Hopefully these walkthroughs will help you learn strategies for bird identification.
So now, on to Round 1...
Ready? Set? Identify!
The following photo was taken in May of 2013 in Busey Woods in Urbana, IL.This species is visible in the CU area this time of year, but they are typically in a different molt and thus do not look like the bird below.
This bird shouldn't be too hard to identify. I need to get a sense how good people already are at this kind of thing, so I decided to start with a half-decent photo.
Answers are due by 23:39 on Friday, October 11.
Have fun!
What Is It? is a weekly (or bi-weekly... or every once in a while...) bird identification contest I publish on this blog. It's rather simple: I post a photo I've taken of a bird, and you all post comments with your guesses as to what species it is. Here's a more detailed rundown of the rules:
The Photo
For each round, I will post a photo from my collection. Difficulty of identification varies depending on the quality of the photo and what aspects of the bird are visible. I will typically include some background information about the photo, such as where and when it was taken. Pictures may be blurry, dark, or otherwise obfuscated--it's supposed to be a challenge!
Sometimes the picture contains more than one species of bird. Each species is scored separately.
Identifying the Bird
All sorts of identification methods are at your disposal. Field guides are typically best, though the internet can also be good for browsing through bird species. Identification work must be your own--no copying off other peoples' work or asking another birder to do the identification for you. Once you have a guess for what species the bird is, post a comment with your answer. I don't really care whether you use common names or scientific names. Once I see that you have posted, I will mark your comment as spam. This temporarily deletes it, preventing other competitors from reading your answer.
From time to time, I may ask questions other than simple identification. I could ask questions about the biological adaptations of the bird pictured, show an unlabeled bird picture and ask you to guess which state it was taken in, et cetera. But most of the time, it will be an ID challenge.
Scoring
I've decided to redo the scoring a bit. There used to be an point advantage for answering first, but some people might have automatic blog update alerts that could give them an unfair head start. Here's how it works now: you get
1 point just for posting a comment with a guess. Yay! You're actually trying!
+1 point for guessing a bird in the correct taxonomic order
+1 point for guessing a bird in the correct taxonomic family
+2 points for guessing the correct species of bird
for a maximum total of 5 points per species.
Ten illustrious front-runners will appear on the leaderboard, which I will update after each challenge. I reserve the right to modify the rules if some people are over-proficient with identification. Maybe I'll establish a "major league" version with even more difficult photos...
Walkthroughs
When I post a new What Is It?, I will also post the correct answer to the previous challenge, along with a quick description of which field marks should have been useful for identifying the bird. You might start noticing trends with what to look for. Hopefully these walkthroughs will help you learn strategies for bird identification.
So now, on to Round 1...
Ready? Set? Identify!
The following photo was taken in May of 2013 in Busey Woods in Urbana, IL.This species is visible in the CU area this time of year, but they are typically in a different molt and thus do not look like the bird below.
 |
| Click to enlarge. |
Answers are due by 23:39 on Friday, October 11.
Have fun!
Monday, September 30, 2013
Welcome! (Not to be confused with any of my previous posts entitled "Welcome!", despite obvious similarities)
Hello, there.
As one might guess, this blog is dedicated to the subject of birding (for those of you not yet familiar with the lingo, "birdwatching"). I recommend that you start your whirlwind tour by reading Evolution of a Birding Evangelist and Be Patient... Or Not. These posts should give you a decent introduction to this blog and birding in general. Of course, you're not restricted to reading just those. You should really read all of the posts. Here's a briefing on what you might expect to see in the future as far as posts:
Reviews: I'll be writing posts discussing local birding spots in terms of what an inexperienced birder might see there, and take into account issues such as accessibility and ease of viewing. These posts will be a bit more detailed than the info on the Local Birding Sites page.
Birding Stories: It's kind of like fisherman telling each other about the one that got away, except it's usually more exciting when the bird is actually found. Check back after winter break for tales of coastal birds taking advantage of the surf in sunny southern California.
Tips & Advice: What's a good birding blog without teaching people about birding? These will (should) be the main focus of the blog, with everything from where to go to how to identify birds to setting up feeders in your backyard.
What Is It?: Everyone loves to be hypercompetitive. That's why there's "What Is It?". In these posts, I show you a photo (or two, or three) and you get to try to identify the bird shown. The full rules will be reposted in the next "What Is It?". You might notice as well that there is a leaderboard for those who obsessively identify the most, which I will reset to 0 for everyone once I put out the next "What Is It?". Until then, the Nonfiction Writing students who tried it last year can bask in their glory as birders-in-training.
Also be sure to read previous posts and check out the Recent Sightings, Local Birding Sites, Birdlists, and Photos pages, accessible through the navigation bar below the big blue rectangle with the title of the website.
If you have questions about birding or birds in general, either email me or post them as comments. I'll be answering your queries on my secondary blog, Flyway Truck Stop Q&A.
Happy birding!
As one might guess, this blog is dedicated to the subject of birding (for those of you not yet familiar with the lingo, "birdwatching"). I recommend that you start your whirlwind tour by reading Evolution of a Birding Evangelist and Be Patient... Or Not. These posts should give you a decent introduction to this blog and birding in general. Of course, you're not restricted to reading just those. You should really read all of the posts. Here's a briefing on what you might expect to see in the future as far as posts:
Reviews: I'll be writing posts discussing local birding spots in terms of what an inexperienced birder might see there, and take into account issues such as accessibility and ease of viewing. These posts will be a bit more detailed than the info on the Local Birding Sites page.
Birding Stories: It's kind of like fisherman telling each other about the one that got away, except it's usually more exciting when the bird is actually found. Check back after winter break for tales of coastal birds taking advantage of the surf in sunny southern California.
Tips & Advice: What's a good birding blog without teaching people about birding? These will (should) be the main focus of the blog, with everything from where to go to how to identify birds to setting up feeders in your backyard.
What Is It?: Everyone loves to be hypercompetitive. That's why there's "What Is It?". In these posts, I show you a photo (or two, or three) and you get to try to identify the bird shown. The full rules will be reposted in the next "What Is It?". You might notice as well that there is a leaderboard for those who obsessively identify the most, which I will reset to 0 for everyone once I put out the next "What Is It?". Until then, the Nonfiction Writing students who tried it last year can bask in their glory as birders-in-training.
Also be sure to read previous posts and check out the Recent Sightings, Local Birding Sites, Birdlists, and Photos pages, accessible through the navigation bar below the big blue rectangle with the title of the website.
If you have questions about birding or birds in general, either email me or post them as comments. I'll be answering your queries on my secondary blog, Flyway Truck Stop Q&A.
Happy birding!
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Spring Break, Part 3: A bird in the hand is worth...
I have a lot of family on the East Coast. I also have a fair number of relatives on the West Coast. This turns out to be very convenient for birding, since I can find a lot of things we don't have in Illinois when I visit my grandparents.
On an excessively cold morning (I was wearing two hats, as you' might notice in the photos), we drove out along the twisty, narrow, roller-coaster roads of New England to get to a wildlife sanctuary at Ipswich River, which is owned by the Massachusetts Audubon Society (referred to as Mass Audubon, which is an appropriate name considering how much land it owns). We met up with two of my uncles, my aunt, my cousin, and my sister's friend who lives in the area to take a tour of a small maple syrup manufacturing operation on the Audubon land.
The tour was aimed at a slightly younger audience (there were numerous people under the age of ten in attendance), so I spent much of my time listening to the guide with one ear and using the rest of my senses to look for birds (it was, after all, a wildlife sanctuary). There were a fair number of species there: bluebirds, several types of woodpecker, Red-winged Blackbirds, Mourning Doves, House Sparrows, and the expected complement of tiny hyperactive forest birds such as titmice, chickadees, and nuthatches.
At one stop, while we were waiting for the tour group in front of us to hurry up and move on, a trio of Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapilis) came tumbling into the bush next to me and didn't display much in the way of fear of humans. I then got a great idea: I would make them land on me.
Chickadees are famous for being incredibly bold and inquisitive, matched only by certain species of jay. In areas with little human contact, they'll come right down and land on people to inspect them (especially when food and noises are employed). I'd seen the pictures and the YouTube videos; now was my turn to try.
The three little puffballs soon flew away, however. I decided I would need to take off my coat (which is bright blue) next time to appear a bit less artificial (I had my dull grey State XC hoodie on underneath).
Luckily, there was a "next time." Wandering around in a smaller group after the tour, I got to a fairly secluded area of the woods and listened for chickadees. As soon as I heard them, I stopped and started "pishing." Pishing is an imitation of one of the alarm calls used by various small bird species to say, "There is a relatively weak predator in the area (like a small owl). We should go gang up and chase it way." Chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, kinglets, wrens, gnatcatchers, and a few other feisty little bird species are susceptible to these noises. Especially chickadees. They can't resist it.
I held a stick in one hand as a compromise between my wanting the birds to land on me and their fear of humans (as minimal as it is). It worked. The little guys repeatedly came and sat on the branch and inspected me for a bit before retreating back to the undergrowth, only to repeat the process.
Eventually, one of them got a bit more adventurous.
Birds are relatively light for their size, and chickadees don't exactly have much in the way of size. I could barely feel the little guy except for the initial impact when he landed. He stayed on my hand for a few seconds, and stuck his beak up my sleeve to see if my watch was edible. SO. CUTE. But eventually he decided he had had enough, and went back to join his flockmates. The flock actually followed us along the path for a hundred meters or so before breaking off and heading elsewhere.
To say the least, I was happy. I had just had a close encounter of the bird kind, and I had photo evidence. But as it turned out, my Poecile pal wasn't as unique as I thought he was.
After all, sometimes bribery is more powerful than patience...
On an excessively cold morning (I was wearing two hats, as you' might notice in the photos), we drove out along the twisty, narrow, roller-coaster roads of New England to get to a wildlife sanctuary at Ipswich River, which is owned by the Massachusetts Audubon Society (referred to as Mass Audubon, which is an appropriate name considering how much land it owns). We met up with two of my uncles, my aunt, my cousin, and my sister's friend who lives in the area to take a tour of a small maple syrup manufacturing operation on the Audubon land.
The tour was aimed at a slightly younger audience (there were numerous people under the age of ten in attendance), so I spent much of my time listening to the guide with one ear and using the rest of my senses to look for birds (it was, after all, a wildlife sanctuary). There were a fair number of species there: bluebirds, several types of woodpecker, Red-winged Blackbirds, Mourning Doves, House Sparrows, and the expected complement of tiny hyperactive forest birds such as titmice, chickadees, and nuthatches.
At one stop, while we were waiting for the tour group in front of us to hurry up and move on, a trio of Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapilis) came tumbling into the bush next to me and didn't display much in the way of fear of humans. I then got a great idea: I would make them land on me.
Chickadees are famous for being incredibly bold and inquisitive, matched only by certain species of jay. In areas with little human contact, they'll come right down and land on people to inspect them (especially when food and noises are employed). I'd seen the pictures and the YouTube videos; now was my turn to try.
The three little puffballs soon flew away, however. I decided I would need to take off my coat (which is bright blue) next time to appear a bit less artificial (I had my dull grey State XC hoodie on underneath).
Luckily, there was a "next time." Wandering around in a smaller group after the tour, I got to a fairly secluded area of the woods and listened for chickadees. As soon as I heard them, I stopped and started "pishing." Pishing is an imitation of one of the alarm calls used by various small bird species to say, "There is a relatively weak predator in the area (like a small owl). We should go gang up and chase it way." Chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, kinglets, wrens, gnatcatchers, and a few other feisty little bird species are susceptible to these noises. Especially chickadees. They can't resist it.
I held a stick in one hand as a compromise between my wanting the birds to land on me and their fear of humans (as minimal as it is). It worked. The little guys repeatedly came and sat on the branch and inspected me for a bit before retreating back to the undergrowth, only to repeat the process.
 |
| Look closely. There's a chickadee on the stick I'm holding. |
 |
| Look closely. He's about to land on my left hand (and a second one flying in front of the tree trunk). |
To say the least, I was happy. I had just had a close encounter of the bird kind, and I had photo evidence. But as it turned out, my Poecile pal wasn't as unique as I thought he was.
After all, sometimes bribery is more powerful than patience...
Monday, April 1, 2013
Spring Break, Part 2: Location, location, location.
A lot of birding relies on being in the right place at the right time; some birds are numerous and widespread, but others require almost as much luck as skill to find.
Just to clarify things, the first time I saw a White-Winged Scoter (Melanitta deglandi), It was most certainly not luck. Someone else got lucky first and discovered it hiding amongst the mallards at the First and Windsor pond, and emailed the rest of the local birding community about it. I then had to go out in the pouring rain at 6:00 in the morning (due to track and the play, I had no other time to go) to trudge through the mud and see just enough to identify it from really far away before heading to school. That wasn't luck; that was insanity. Below are the photos of the conditions and the bird.
Now, back to Spring Break.
After landing in Boston, my family collected up our bags and got a rental car. It's always a bit of a lottery when obtaining a vehicle in a far-off place, since the online registration says you will get a "Halfway Decent Car X, or Similar," which usually means you get the Not-Even-Halfway Decent Car Y, which is supposedly "Similar" to what you wanted. Such was the case this time: the vehicle we were assigned was a Dodge Avenger. Not to make any commercial judgements here, but I kind of have this thing against American cars with small windows, lousy gas mileage, and uncomfortable back seats. Luckily, the rental facility had a new deal where you could switch to any other car on the lot (of "Similar" size) for free. My dad, knowing that I was the obsessive Consumer Reports reader in the family, let me pick the car. I found a nice Hyundai Elantra and we took that instead.
We soon found ourselves on the incredibly confusing road system of Boston as we tried to make our way to Revere Beach, a local birding spot. I must say, Driver's Ed really didn't prepare me for the real world, considering the fact that I learned a dozen new types of road layout I had never even heard of before (T-Intersection Jughandle? What?). There are also a ton of large roundabouts (they call them "rotaries") out there. Not to mention 1-way streets that dead-end into each other. And train tracks cutting the beach off from the rest of the world. And nothing going in straight lines. And... yeah. We eventually got to Revere Beach, and I quickly hopped out with my spotting scope to check out the huge flotilla of dark diving ducks that were fairly close to the shore.
You gotta be kidding me.
Only two weeks earlier I had trudged out in the rain to see that White-Winged Scoter in Illinois. In Boston, all I had to do was go to a local beach on a sunny day and I could find upwards of 500 of them offering perfect views. Not that I wasn't happy to see them, of course...
This actually isn't too weird of a phenomenon. Though I highly discourage identifying birds solely on where they are, there is no problem with going to where a bird is most likely to be. Illinois does not have good habitat for scoters and other sea ducks, so it's expected that there will be more of them out on the East Coast. Finding the right location and habitat was what allowed me to find another duck species that you will hear plenty of later...
But up next, we have an adventure involving birds, maple syrup, and extended family.
Just to clarify things, the first time I saw a White-Winged Scoter (Melanitta deglandi), It was most certainly not luck. Someone else got lucky first and discovered it hiding amongst the mallards at the First and Windsor pond, and emailed the rest of the local birding community about it. I then had to go out in the pouring rain at 6:00 in the morning (due to track and the play, I had no other time to go) to trudge through the mud and see just enough to identify it from really far away before heading to school. That wasn't luck; that was insanity. Below are the photos of the conditions and the bird.
 |
| Photo by the Author. |
 |
| Photo by the Author. |
Now, back to Spring Break.
After landing in Boston, my family collected up our bags and got a rental car. It's always a bit of a lottery when obtaining a vehicle in a far-off place, since the online registration says you will get a "Halfway Decent Car X, or Similar," which usually means you get the Not-Even-Halfway Decent Car Y, which is supposedly "Similar" to what you wanted. Such was the case this time: the vehicle we were assigned was a Dodge Avenger. Not to make any commercial judgements here, but I kind of have this thing against American cars with small windows, lousy gas mileage, and uncomfortable back seats. Luckily, the rental facility had a new deal where you could switch to any other car on the lot (of "Similar" size) for free. My dad, knowing that I was the obsessive Consumer Reports reader in the family, let me pick the car. I found a nice Hyundai Elantra and we took that instead.
We soon found ourselves on the incredibly confusing road system of Boston as we tried to make our way to Revere Beach, a local birding spot. I must say, Driver's Ed really didn't prepare me for the real world, considering the fact that I learned a dozen new types of road layout I had never even heard of before (T-Intersection Jughandle? What?). There are also a ton of large roundabouts (they call them "rotaries") out there. Not to mention 1-way streets that dead-end into each other. And train tracks cutting the beach off from the rest of the world. And nothing going in straight lines. And... yeah. We eventually got to Revere Beach, and I quickly hopped out with my spotting scope to check out the huge flotilla of dark diving ducks that were fairly close to the shore.
 |
| Photo by the Author. |
 |
| Photo by the Author. SO MANY SCOTERS! (and there are even more out of the frame) |
 |
| Photo by the Author. Close up, brought to you by the spotting scope. |
Only two weeks earlier I had trudged out in the rain to see that White-Winged Scoter in Illinois. In Boston, all I had to do was go to a local beach on a sunny day and I could find upwards of 500 of them offering perfect views. Not that I wasn't happy to see them, of course...
This actually isn't too weird of a phenomenon. Though I highly discourage identifying birds solely on where they are, there is no problem with going to where a bird is most likely to be. Illinois does not have good habitat for scoters and other sea ducks, so it's expected that there will be more of them out on the East Coast. Finding the right location and habitat was what allowed me to find another duck species that you will hear plenty of later...
But up next, we have an adventure involving birds, maple syrup, and extended family.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Spring Break, Part 1: Birds from a Plane
I think I can claim bragging rights for having a busy Friday. First, I woke up at 5:30AM to go to track practice, after which I went to MLK Elementary School to perform Jack and the Beanstalk, then finally went to school for my afternoon classes (well, I guess before that I had to lug huge chunks of wood up three flights of stairs) and, once school was out, get in a car and drive straight up to Chicago. At least I didn't have to fly out that night.
Instead, I had to fly out early the next morning. Midway airport was super-crowded (as one would expect on the first day of spring break) but not as bad as the one time where the line for check-in was long enough that they routed it through one of the parking garages (but that's another story). The plane ride was much shorter than the Pacific coast flights I'm used to, so I barely had time to take stock of all the items advertised in Skymall that I never knew I needed before the announcement was made to "prepare for our final descent into Boston Logan International Airport."
I'll admit that I'm a connoisseur of airport approaches. Boston probably ranks in the top ten for best pre-landing scenery (I'll have you know that #1 is Portland, OR). The best part came about a minute or so before landing, when we were low enough over Boston Harbor that I could start birding before I was even on the ground.
Actually, this is nothing new. Ever since I spied a White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi) during touchdown at Salt Lake City, I've tried to identify at least a few birds before I land whenever I fly off to some locale for birding. It usually only works in coastal cities. Luckily, Boston is a coastal city.
The first bird to show up was an American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) flying below us--birds are much easier to see from a plane when they're also flying, especially if the bird has a wingspan of over 8 feet. Next I spotted a couple of gulls, thought I couldn't tell which species they were.
Right before landing, the plane passed over a small jetty with guidance lights mounted on it--and several birds swimming next to it. Dark backs, light fronts, angular overall shape: unmistakable as Common Loons (Gavia immer). I took the fact that I had just seen three somewhat uncommon birds before setting foot in the state of Massachusetts to be a sign of impending good birding.
Which was more or less correct.
Instead, I had to fly out early the next morning. Midway airport was super-crowded (as one would expect on the first day of spring break) but not as bad as the one time where the line for check-in was long enough that they routed it through one of the parking garages (but that's another story). The plane ride was much shorter than the Pacific coast flights I'm used to, so I barely had time to take stock of all the items advertised in Skymall that I never knew I needed before the announcement was made to "prepare for our final descent into Boston Logan International Airport."
I'll admit that I'm a connoisseur of airport approaches. Boston probably ranks in the top ten for best pre-landing scenery (I'll have you know that #1 is Portland, OR). The best part came about a minute or so before landing, when we were low enough over Boston Harbor that I could start birding before I was even on the ground.
Actually, this is nothing new. Ever since I spied a White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi) during touchdown at Salt Lake City, I've tried to identify at least a few birds before I land whenever I fly off to some locale for birding. It usually only works in coastal cities. Luckily, Boston is a coastal city.
The first bird to show up was an American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) flying below us--birds are much easier to see from a plane when they're also flying, especially if the bird has a wingspan of over 8 feet. Next I spotted a couple of gulls, thought I couldn't tell which species they were.
Right before landing, the plane passed over a small jetty with guidance lights mounted on it--and several birds swimming next to it. Dark backs, light fronts, angular overall shape: unmistakable as Common Loons (Gavia immer). I took the fact that I had just seen three somewhat uncommon birds before setting foot in the state of Massachusetts to be a sign of impending good birding.
Which was more or less correct.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Welcome!
Hello there!
As one might guess, this blog is dedicated to the subject of birding (for those of you not yet familiar with the lingo, "birdwatching"). I recommend that you start your whirlwind tour by reading Evolution of a Birding Evangelist and Be Patient... Or Not. These posts should give you a decent introduction to this blog and birding in general. Of course, you're not restricted to reading just those. You should really read all of the posts. Here's a briefing on what you might expect to see in the future as far as posts:
Reviews: I'll be writing posts discussing local birding spots in terms of what an inexperienced birder might see there, and take into account issues such as accessibility and ease of viewing. These posts will be a bit more detailed than the info on the Local Birding Sites page.
Birding Stories: It's kind of like fisherman telling each other about the one that got away, except it's usually more exciting when the bird is actually found. I'll be starting up pretty soon regaling you all with my tales of crazy birding over Spring Break, featuring 30-mph winds, birds seen from airplanes, Boston traffic, and a bird sitting on my head.
Tips & Advice: What's a good birding blog without teaching people about birding? These will (should) be the main focus of the blog, with everything from where to go to how to identify birds to setting up feeders in your backyard.
What Is It?: Everyone loves to be hypercompetitive. That's why there's "What Is It?". In these posts, I show you a photo (or two, or three) and you get to try to identify the bird shown. The full rules will be reposted in the next "What Is It?". You might notice as well that there is a leaderboard for those who obsessively identify the most, which I will reset to 0 for everyone once I put out the next "What Is It?". Until then, the Nonfiction Writing students who tried it last semester can bask in their glory as birders-in-training.
Also be sure to read previous posts and check out the Recent Sightings, Local Birding Sites, Birdlists, and Photos pages, accessible through the navigation bar below the big blue rectangle with the title of the website.
Something noteworthy: I was wandering around the I.D.E.A. Store looking for materials for my English project when I came across this:
I decided that $20 was a small price to pay for a second spotting scope (I tested the optics before purchasing it--very high quality), so I bought it. It's pretty corroded and worn on the outside, but the lenses and prisms are in perfect working condition. Once I got home I did a little research, and identified it as an Argus M49 Spotting Scope (civilian version; there was also a military version used by the Marines from WWII through Vietnam), which dates it to the late 40s or 50s. I'll probably do a little refurbishing of the case (and figure out how to mount it on a real tripod).
One more thing: be sure to send questions to and read the answers on the spinoff blog, Flyway Truck Stop Q&A.
Happy Birding!
As one might guess, this blog is dedicated to the subject of birding (for those of you not yet familiar with the lingo, "birdwatching"). I recommend that you start your whirlwind tour by reading Evolution of a Birding Evangelist and Be Patient... Or Not. These posts should give you a decent introduction to this blog and birding in general. Of course, you're not restricted to reading just those. You should really read all of the posts. Here's a briefing on what you might expect to see in the future as far as posts:
Reviews: I'll be writing posts discussing local birding spots in terms of what an inexperienced birder might see there, and take into account issues such as accessibility and ease of viewing. These posts will be a bit more detailed than the info on the Local Birding Sites page.
Birding Stories: It's kind of like fisherman telling each other about the one that got away, except it's usually more exciting when the bird is actually found. I'll be starting up pretty soon regaling you all with my tales of crazy birding over Spring Break, featuring 30-mph winds, birds seen from airplanes, Boston traffic, and a bird sitting on my head.
Tips & Advice: What's a good birding blog without teaching people about birding? These will (should) be the main focus of the blog, with everything from where to go to how to identify birds to setting up feeders in your backyard.
What Is It?: Everyone loves to be hypercompetitive. That's why there's "What Is It?". In these posts, I show you a photo (or two, or three) and you get to try to identify the bird shown. The full rules will be reposted in the next "What Is It?". You might notice as well that there is a leaderboard for those who obsessively identify the most, which I will reset to 0 for everyone once I put out the next "What Is It?". Until then, the Nonfiction Writing students who tried it last semester can bask in their glory as birders-in-training.
Also be sure to read previous posts and check out the Recent Sightings, Local Birding Sites, Birdlists, and Photos pages, accessible through the navigation bar below the big blue rectangle with the title of the website.
Something noteworthy: I was wandering around the I.D.E.A. Store looking for materials for my English project when I came across this:
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| Photo by the Author |
One more thing: be sure to send questions to and read the answers on the spinoff blog, Flyway Truck Stop Q&A.
Happy Birding!
Friday, December 14, 2012
More About Seabirds
In answer to Vinay's questions:
Loons and some cormorant species can stay underwater for a minute and a half. Some cormorants can stay under for over two minutes. It's quite a bit less than that for diving ducks and grebes. The hollow bones (and the huge amount of air they carry with them) definitely makes it hard for them to stay underwater. Most diving birds can compress their feathers flat against the sides of their bodies to eliminate any extra air.
The record for a human holding their breath underwater is over 19 minutes, but in that span of time the human is doing absolutely nothing. Diving birds, on the other hand, are doing a lot.
Diving ridiculously deep
Flying
Going really fast (watch the bubbles behind it as it surfaces)
Foraging
Or staying above water and winning the cuteness award.
Notice the different swimming styles of the birds. You can't see what's going on with the Imperial Cormorant's rear end, but it has the same way of swimming as the loon: it paddles with it's webbed hind feet. The murres (a type of alcid) flap their wings and steer with their feet. They're sort of the halfway point between flying birds and penguins; they compromise between flight and swimming.
Now take a close look at those grebes. Their feet do not have webbing; instead, each of the three toes is lobed and flattened. But that's only the beginning of the weirdness. What's it doing with those feet? Is it paddling with them? Only a little bit. If you look closely, it's not just waving them back and forth.
It's spinning them.
Recent research has shown that most of the swimming power in grebes comes not from pushing the water backwards like loons or humans, but by creating hydrodynamic lift similar to a boat propeller.
I love grebes.
Now on to the subject of larids:
I'm using this terminology a bit broadly. Technically, larids are only things in the genus Larus. But I needed a name shorter than "Gulls and their Allies" with which to refer to this group. When I say "larid", I am referring to any bird in the suborder Lari except for the alcids. Or, in normal English, any gull, tern, skimmer, skua, or jaeger.
Albatrosses actually aren't larids by anyone's definition. They're a type of tubenose, belonging to the order Procellariiformes. These birds all have specialized nostrils with a salt removal gland that lets them drink seawater without ill effect (other than secreting an incredibly concentrated salt solution from their noses). The main visible difference between tubenoses and larids is that tubenoses almost never flap their wings (except for the storm-petrels, which are too small to be confused with any gull).
All in all, you really don't have to worry about confusing tubenoses and larids while near the shore: it is highly unlikely that you will see a tubenose. They spend nearly their entire lives at sea and only come on land to nest and lay eggs. They're usually at least a mile from shore, though sometimes after storms they are blown inland and show up in ridiculous places (like the Salton Sea in southern California).
And now, selected videos of various coastal birds (I don't have a good video camera, so I'll refer you to YouTube):
Grebe courtship (the best part is at the end)
Bufflehead (a diving duck)
No video can do tern flight justice, but this is pretty good.
Slow-mo Jaeger (once again, you really have to see this kind of thing in real life)
Hanging out and looking cool
A couple of storm-petrels. Hatteras is pretty much the one place where you have a chance of seeing them.
Awwwww...
Wait, this might be even cuter. The babies show up about halfway through.
Enjoy!
Loons and some cormorant species can stay underwater for a minute and a half. Some cormorants can stay under for over two minutes. It's quite a bit less than that for diving ducks and grebes. The hollow bones (and the huge amount of air they carry with them) definitely makes it hard for them to stay underwater. Most diving birds can compress their feathers flat against the sides of their bodies to eliminate any extra air.
The record for a human holding their breath underwater is over 19 minutes, but in that span of time the human is doing absolutely nothing. Diving birds, on the other hand, are doing a lot.
Diving ridiculously deep
Flying
Going really fast (watch the bubbles behind it as it surfaces)
Foraging
Or staying above water and winning the cuteness award.
Notice the different swimming styles of the birds. You can't see what's going on with the Imperial Cormorant's rear end, but it has the same way of swimming as the loon: it paddles with it's webbed hind feet. The murres (a type of alcid) flap their wings and steer with their feet. They're sort of the halfway point between flying birds and penguins; they compromise between flight and swimming.
Now take a close look at those grebes. Their feet do not have webbing; instead, each of the three toes is lobed and flattened. But that's only the beginning of the weirdness. What's it doing with those feet? Is it paddling with them? Only a little bit. If you look closely, it's not just waving them back and forth.
It's spinning them.
Recent research has shown that most of the swimming power in grebes comes not from pushing the water backwards like loons or humans, but by creating hydrodynamic lift similar to a boat propeller.
I love grebes.
Now on to the subject of larids:
I'm using this terminology a bit broadly. Technically, larids are only things in the genus Larus. But I needed a name shorter than "Gulls and their Allies" with which to refer to this group. When I say "larid", I am referring to any bird in the suborder Lari except for the alcids. Or, in normal English, any gull, tern, skimmer, skua, or jaeger.
Albatrosses actually aren't larids by anyone's definition. They're a type of tubenose, belonging to the order Procellariiformes. These birds all have specialized nostrils with a salt removal gland that lets them drink seawater without ill effect (other than secreting an incredibly concentrated salt solution from their noses). The main visible difference between tubenoses and larids is that tubenoses almost never flap their wings (except for the storm-petrels, which are too small to be confused with any gull).
All in all, you really don't have to worry about confusing tubenoses and larids while near the shore: it is highly unlikely that you will see a tubenose. They spend nearly their entire lives at sea and only come on land to nest and lay eggs. They're usually at least a mile from shore, though sometimes after storms they are blown inland and show up in ridiculous places (like the Salton Sea in southern California).
And now, selected videos of various coastal birds (I don't have a good video camera, so I'll refer you to YouTube):
Grebe courtship (the best part is at the end)
Bufflehead (a diving duck)
No video can do tern flight justice, but this is pretty good.
Slow-mo Jaeger (once again, you really have to see this kind of thing in real life)
Hanging out and looking cool
A couple of storm-petrels. Hatteras is pretty much the one place where you have a chance of seeing them.
Awwwww...
Wait, this might be even cuter. The babies show up about halfway through.
Enjoy!
Thursday, December 13, 2012
It's Not Over 'til the Fat Hen Sings...
...and since in the majority of bird species it is the male that sings, it isn't over!
This is in no way a "last post". Nonfiction Writing is coming to an end, but The Flyway Truck Stop will still be here for your perusal. Sighting updates will continue, pictures will be posted, and more bird stories will be told. I also plan on opening the blog up to the entire Uni community, not just the Nonfiction Writing classes. Which brings me to the topic of What Is It?
It really wouldn't be fair to people not in Nonfiction Writing if those of you who had participated in What Is It? before had a head start (especially a 30-point head start) on the scoreboard. So for 2013, the scoreboard will be reset to zero. But don't worry. You still have a chance for glory before the scope of the competition increases.
There will be one last What Is It? this year, and it's a bit different from those that have come before it. I was considering doing something easy after the Coastal Challenge flopped, but then I thought, why would I ever do that? So here's a briefing of the upcoming What Is It? 2012 Championship Final Round.
First of all, there is a limited time span in which to identify the birds. Submissions are open from Saturday, December 15th to Saturday, December 22nd. As in, finals week, or a little bit later or earlier.
Rather than score based on who answers first, the challenge will be set up a bit like "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" with progressively harder and harder questions (which might not necessarily be images) with progressively increasing point values. You get points starting with question #1 up until you have an incorrect answer. Go ahead and post all of your answers in one comment if you want to. Correct answers on all 10 questions will get you a total of 55 points!
So keep an eye out for the What Is It? 2012 Championship Final Round and come back after winter break for the opening round of What Is It? 2013.
Happy birding!
This is in no way a "last post". Nonfiction Writing is coming to an end, but The Flyway Truck Stop will still be here for your perusal. Sighting updates will continue, pictures will be posted, and more bird stories will be told. I also plan on opening the blog up to the entire Uni community, not just the Nonfiction Writing classes. Which brings me to the topic of What Is It?
It really wouldn't be fair to people not in Nonfiction Writing if those of you who had participated in What Is It? before had a head start (especially a 30-point head start) on the scoreboard. So for 2013, the scoreboard will be reset to zero. But don't worry. You still have a chance for glory before the scope of the competition increases.
There will be one last What Is It? this year, and it's a bit different from those that have come before it. I was considering doing something easy after the Coastal Challenge flopped, but then I thought, why would I ever do that? So here's a briefing of the upcoming What Is It? 2012 Championship Final Round.
First of all, there is a limited time span in which to identify the birds. Submissions are open from Saturday, December 15th to Saturday, December 22nd. As in, finals week, or a little bit later or earlier.
Rather than score based on who answers first, the challenge will be set up a bit like "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" with progressively harder and harder questions (which might not necessarily be images) with progressively increasing point values. You get points starting with question #1 up until you have an incorrect answer. Go ahead and post all of your answers in one comment if you want to. Correct answers on all 10 questions will get you a total of 55 points!
So keep an eye out for the What Is It? 2012 Championship Final Round and come back after winter break for the opening round of What Is It? 2013.
Happy birding!
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