Aves (birds)

Golden Eagle I hope I won't disappoint you ... this is not about John Ashcroft. It is about golden eagles (actually, maybe its about one golden eagle in particular). A repost from wayback. The golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) has been in decline for a very long time, so you may not know it formerly bred in a much wider range of habitats, across the entire U.S. Today it is known as a mountain eagle because this is where it is generally found, at least in North America. Any experienced birder will tell you that in places like Minnesota nine out of ten, or maybe 99 out of 100 golden eagle…
When it comes to observing nature, it pays to pay attention, and it pays to stay in one place for a while. Coming to "The Lake" many spring, summer, and fall weekends (and now and then in the winter) and paying attention to the wildlife and other aspects of the natural environment allows me to see and experience things not otherwise possible. Looking out to the north from the cabin is a bay about a kilometer by a kilometer in size. The left side, as I view it, is rimmed half way round by a marsh, which is partly held by a back-spit causing a very small south facing (leeward, in this case)…
I had responded to the general in query "Where are you going to look for birds this weekend" by simply noting that we'd be going to "The Lake" (Minnesotan for a particular lake, the exact lake determined by context). But on the way up Amanda had the idea of going into Crane Meadow National Wildlife Refuge. This is a small refuge consisting of a swampy lake or two and the Platte River (no, not THAT Platte River), that is apparently famous for its cranes. We we parked and took the biggest loop which was probably about four miles, along the river, to the lake, and back out again. The trail…
Continued... For this final installation of How the Loon Terns, I'd like to very briefly address four different items of "common knowledge." Loons are driven off lakes by boaters. Loons use nursery pools. Loon are "ancient birds" "Loons winter in Mexico (or wherever)." I've already discussed the first of these, and would simply like to restate the idea. During the 1970s or 1980s, depending on where one looked, loons were seemingly getting driven away from their native habitats by boating activity. Then, the loons seemed to start to grow somewhat accustom to boats, and this trend may have…
And now, for another installment in our series: How The Loon Terns, an exercise in skeptical thinking using Loons as a waterbird touchstone. (In case you missed it, the previous installment was here.) Common Knowledge: Loons are driven off lakes by boaters. The literature from the 1970s and 1980s makes it clear that there was a reduction in loon populations on lakes that were previously more isolated, and have become more accessible, and suffered greater amounts of boat traffic. Boats cause several problems for loons, including a damaging wake, and presumably it is bad if a loon is run…
This is the continuation of a discussion of loons, skeptically viewed. I am not skeptical about loons themselves. I know they exist. In fact, I just spent the last half hour watching Mom and Dad loon (whom I cannot tell apart, by the way) feeding Junior I and Junior II (whom I also cannot tell apart) what I have determined to be mostly crayfish, but also the occasional minnow. In this installment of How the Loon Terns we will look at breeding success. In this installment of How the Loon Terns we will look at breeding success. Common Knowledge: When a pair of loons fails to breed, it…
I've been thinking about loons lately. This is not hard do do because every time I turn around there is a loon either watching me fish, yodeling off in the distance, flying overhead, or feeding its babies just off to my right as I sit here writing stuff. This year, the pair of loons that lives in front of the cabin seems to be producing two offspring ... the young ones grew quickly to near adult size and seem fit and healthy as far as one can tell. Last year, the pair living here produced zero offspring. I had thought the other day of writing something about loons in winter, in part…
Professional snipers have been brought in to guard a vulnerable colony of penguins in Australia. Potograph source The deployment follows the mysterious deaths of nine of the flightless birds over the last two weeks. The mutilated bodies of the animals, known as fairy penguins, were found in a national park near Sydney harbour. The main suspects are dogs and foxes. At 40cm tall, the world's smallest penguin species is clearly no match for such aggressive enemies. I am shocked. SHOCKED! That the Fairy Penguin (aka the "little penguin, Eudyptula minor) is the smallest species of penguin. I…
Birdwatching might be a casual activity, a hobby, an avocation, or even a profession (often, perhaps, an obsession) depending on the bird watcher, but there is always a science to it, in at least two ways. First, there is the science of how to do it. In this sense, the term "science" means something vernacular. We as easily say "birdwatching is an art" as we could say "there is a science to it" and here we are using both terms( "art" and "science") in their older sense where science is how we approach things with our minds, and art is how we approach things with our hands. Second,…
Someone asked me at dinner "What time did you get up" and as I was trying to remember what time I woke up this morning, and kinda wondering why she was asking me that, my wife answered for me: "Noon." So I'm thinking "Why does Amanda think I woke up at noon. As a matter of fact, at noon, we were just arriving at the cabin up here .... oh ... " ...brain kicks in ... "we got up here a noon. Got it." At noon. We got Up. To The Lake. ... It's a Minnesota thing. Today I heard about a maple tree that fell in half .... the top half fell off ... because woodpeckers nested in it and overdid the…
A spectacular edition of the birdy blog carnival, I and the Bird (# 102) is up at The Birder's Lounge. The carnival provides a map showing the approximate location of each bird discussed. For the record, the following is a somewhat more accurate location for the birds in my post. The X is where the sighting sarted, and the circle is approximately where I saw the falcon last. The Blog Carnival is Here.
My car was parked a block away owing to the plethora of construction equipment and dumpsters around the house. On my way over, I was looking at the storm clouds coming in and wondering what kind of weather we would have tonight, when I noticed the crows going nuts across the street. It sounded to me like they were mobbing something, and my first thought in these situations is "Great Horned Owl." So I stood in the gathering breeze and watched in the direction of the crows to figure out what was going on. Suddenly I spied rapid alate movement among the mid size trees and shrubbery of the…
Galapagos Diary: A Complete Guide to the Archipelgo's Birdlife ... Continuing in our look at bird books to consider, I wanted to bring in the Galapagos Diary. I cannot tell you which is the best book for birding in the Galapagos, because, sadly, I've never done that myself. But my daughter, Julia, has, and she recommends this title. She brought a copy home from the Galapagos, and I am personally quite impressed by it. If you are planning a trip to the Galapagos, have a look at it.
As I write this, I am preparing for a trip up north. As we drive north we will follow the ecotone between the prairies and the deciduous woodlands, then track the ecotone between the prairies and the coniferous woodlands. Then we will make a turn and drive into the coniferous zone, cross the Mississippi, and then with a couple of small but palpable jumps in elevation and another hour and a half drive north, enter the lake region. Here, the primary vegetation cover certain times of the year is the nearly invisible diatom and algae layer on the top of the clear lakes, the bog plants, and the…
As long as we are on the subject (this week) of field guides, I thought I'd go ahead and suggest what guides you might take if you happen to be planning a trip to Central, East or southern Africa1 But since we are doing Africa, we need to do mammals as well as birds. But let's start with the birds. The standard bird guide for southern Africa is Newman's Birds of Southern Africa and there was a time years ago that this was actually the best book for East and Central Africa as well, owing to a lack of other available field guides. Today, East Africa is well covered by the sometimes hard to…
I am not an expert on binoculars, but that is not going to stop me from giving you some excellent advice. Wildlife watching requires binoculars, and although I'm focusing on birding here, everything we're talking about applies generally. So this advice may be useful for your Safari to Africa where birds will be only one component of your viewing. Here are a few guidelines that I've found to be useful. I'd love to see people add comments. 1) The person in the store knows crap. 2) Bigger binoculars will always be optically better all else being equal. In other words, whatever you are…
You'll notice that I'm reviewing bird books. (Don't worry, not all will be US based.) Please feel free to chime in with your suggestions and comments. The ultimate bird book for North America has always been two books: both Peterson's field guides, one for the East, one for the West. Now, the new Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson Field Guide Series) combines the two. I do not own a copy, and therefore can not review it for you. (Note: I don't normally review books that publishers are unwilling to send me, and Houghton Mifflin has not been a good partner lately…
This is a repost of an earlier review. Bill Thompson's Young Birder's Guide The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson Field Guides) is a book that I highly recommend for kids around seven to 14 years of age. (The publishers suggest a narrower age range but I respectfully disagree.) This is a new offering written by Bill Thompson III and published by the same people who give us the Peterson Field Guide to the Birds and many other fine titles. The book includes excellent illustrations by Julie Zickefoose. A birder since childhood, Thompson says he would have loved a…
This was not an intensive bird watching day. This was a day driving to the cabin, sitting in the cabin writing, looking out the window, driving to run an errand, going to town for dinner, sitting in the cabin looking out the window some more, etc. But the birds insisted on performing. So I thought I'd give you a list., En route north from the Twin Cities: Two probable trumpeter swans heading west. A flock of about 45 cormorants heading north. Leech Lake look out! Near Fort Ripley: Rough Legged Hawk? Blue Jay Nisswa, overlookng Round Lake: Bald Eagle in tree Lesser Scaup (small flock) At…
OK, not so new, but still relevant. The following is a repost of a review of this book. New Smithsonian Field Guide Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America by Ted Floyd is a newcomer to the bird field guide scene. This guide offers a new combination of features that may make it the best choice as the primary guide for a small number of birders, and as an excellent second (or third) guide for most birdwatchers. Given the guide's qualities and price (it is not expensive) if you are a North American birder (anywhere in the region) this is a must-have for your collection, and…