210 in 2010: eBird Idaho - Week 21

For those of you checking into the Idaho Birding Blog for the first time, I am hosting a little competition to see who can be the first eBirder in Idaho to see "two-ten in twenty-ten", that is 210 species of birds this year!  That goal has already been reached, so now we are focusing on the second part of the competition is to see who can submit the most checklists to eBird by the 210th day of the year (July 29th).  Here are the rules of the game.

The eBird team and KAYTEE have been very supportive of this effort to encourage birders to be eBirders and are donating $210 worth of cash or prizes to the winners!

Here is the current leader board...

Hyperlinked names are those that have been featured in my weekly blog segment called Idaho Birder Profiles where we spotlight one of Idaho's enthusiastic birders!

Checklist Leaders:

1.  Jackson Whitman 368

2.  Cheryl Huizinga 233

3.  Lew Ulrey 227

4.  Charles Swift 211

5.  J Harry Krueger 144
6.  Terry Gray 142

6.  Steve Butterworth 139

8.  Lynn Davenport 131
9.  Jonathan Stoke 121
10.  Rohn McKee 117  

*  In an effort to set forth a good example, I am currently at 485 checklists.

Species Leaders:
1.  J Harry Krueger 225 Winner!  Number 210 was a Yellow-breasted Chat on May 7th.
1.  Darren Clark 225 - 3rd to reach 210!
3.  Steve Butterworth 220 - 2nd to reach 210!
4.  Heidi Ware 212 - 4th to reach 210!

5.  Jay Carlisle 211 - 5th to reach 210!

6.  Cheryl Huizinga 207
7.  Zeke Watkins 196
8.  Cliff Weisse 192
9.  Terry Gray 182
10.  Robert Mortensen 180

Special thanks to our sponsors:

Western Wood-Pewee

(Click to enlarge and enjoy more)

So, most flycatchers are a yearly challenge for me.  The Western Wood-Pewee, however, is one that I am pretty good at identifying now.  It doesn't flick its tail like most of the others.  Its call is very distinct.  Listen to it here.  A descending wheeze is how I describe it.  They seem to perch out in the open and fly sorties, returning often to the same perch.

For more on distinguishing these challenging flycatchers found in Idaho, check out this post from last year.

Wordless Wednesday - Lazuli Bunting

Long-eared Owl update

I have been visiting the Long-eared Owl nest in my neighborhood about once a week to check for hatchlings and to see how they have weathered the recent storms.  I hoped that my regular and peaceable visits to the exact same rock outcropping would help Momma and Papa LEOW get used to my presence.  Normally, Momma sits immovable, hunkered down deep in the nest; her eyes unblinkingly fixed upon me.  Papa is usually below her, well camouflaged against the trunk of the hackberry tree.  Yesterday morning, however, was different.

I am delighted to report that I did see at least two white n' fluffy owlets peaking out from under Momma's backside.  Papa was at his usual perch, obviously aware of me, but unmoved by my presence.  But now with vulnerable chicks, Momma was not at all happy that I was there.  As I sat down on my typical viewing rock, she quickly puffed up, covered the chicks with her tail and wings, and starting clicking and hissing at me.  She was down right ticked-off!  I took this shot and then immediately backed away as she calmed down.  I feel bad that I had aggravated her.  At the same time, it was extremely interesting to observe her defensive behavior.  What a good concerned parent!  That clicking and hissing were very intimidating sounds...and they worked on me!

Yellow-breasted Chat

What do you get when you cross a warbler with a bullfrog?

This...

The Yellow-breasted Chat is a really cool bird.  Recently, my new birding friend John Shortis from the UK (currently residing in Horseshoe Bend, Idaho) joined me for a short sit at Avimor while about five Yellow-breasted Chats flitted all around us.  Their behavior and calls are fascinating with all the hoots, whistles and honking noises.  Part of making those crazy sounds must be related to that puffed up air sac at the throat.  Watching them fly is a real treat as they look like a marionette with a child pulling the strings!  I wish I had some hi-def video to share with you all, but you're just gonna have to come out and watch them with me in person...in the meantime here are some still photos.

To read more about Yellow-breasted Chats and to see some really professional photography of them, check out the latest issue of Birdwatcher's Digest - Now available digitally!

I'm still learning how to use my dSLR Olympus E-620.  These photos were in-flight practice shots wherein I set the shutter speed to the fastest I had.  I'm not sure how to get the in-flight focus just right yet, so if you have any tips...!

A shot from a few days earlier when it was overcast.

Idaho Birder: Jack Whitman

Jackson Whitman

a couple miles out of Tendoy, Idaho
population - 1

How did you get into birding? Did you or do you have a birding mentor and can you tell us about that person?  Did you have a “spark bird”?


My father, LeRoy Whitman was, and still is, an avid birder in McCall. The old saying, “the nut doesn’t fall too far from the tree” has some bearing here. Throughout the 1970s, I worked various jobs for the Idaho Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, University of Idaho, notably in 1971, for golden eagle biologist Mike Kochert. That began my lifelong career as a naturalist, specializing in predator/prey relationships, and further kindled an interest in birding.

How long have you been birding in Idaho?    


First got serious about Idaho birds in 1970. Appears that makes it about 40 years. However, I migrated north with the snow buntings in spring 1980 where I spent 27 years working with predators in Alaska and the Russian Far East. Did very little Idaho birding again until 2008, when I retired from Alaska Department of Fish and Game and returned to Idaho.

How often do you go birding? And where do you regularly go birding?


I bird every day. Whether it’s monitoring the kestrel boxes at my house, making sure the feeders are sufficiently provisioned, late-night owl surveys, or a concerted birding effort on a local back-road drive, I bird 365 days of the year. Whether or not those records go into eBird depends largely on how rigorous the data were collected.

Where is your favorite place to bird in Idaho? In the U.S.? in the world?


I have no favorite place in which to bird. To me, each hour, each 10 meters of trail, each kilometer of road is unique. I suspect that is what keeps me birding.

Do you have any local birding hotspots that may be yet unknown to Idaho birders that you would be willing to share with us? 


Actually, I don’t. I encourage birders to spend time in their own respective “back yards”. To me, birding is more than simply penciling in an “X” in the appropriate spot. I encourage people to get to know, intimately, their local surroundings. The mundane American robins and dark-eyed juncos are fascinating subjects if one takes the time to watch, listen, and actually “see” what they are doing.

Where in Idaho would you say is the most under-birded place that may have great untapped birding potential?


Alpine and sub-alpine habitats in the Sawtooth, White-Cloud, Lost River, Pahsimeroi, Lemhi, and Beaverhead Ranges.

How would you describe yourself as a birder? A “watcher”, a “lister”, a “chaser”, all of the above, or something else?


Never really thought about it, but I would venture an “ethno-detailer” would summarize my meager involvement in birding.

What kind of birding equipment do you use? 


10X binoculars, 25X (30-yr-old) spotting scope, POS digital camera, lasik-enhanced eyeballs, 18” parabolic dish with headphones, microcassette recorder, good Brittany spaniel.

How do you keep track of your bird observations? And why? 


In the field, I use a microcassette recorder. Then, recorded observations are transferred to lists which are stored in loose-leaf notebooks. To allow greater use of those records by other interested parties, I use eBird, as well as multiple Excel spreadsheets.

What is your favorite bird sighting and what is the story behind it?  


Currently, my wife Lisa is a relative neophyte birder (and will probably pass my abilities soon). Showing her “new” species, and discussing their intricacies and ecological nuances always produces cherished memories.

Which birding publications and websites do you read and recommend?


I religiously peruse a variety of “hard science” publications for bird information, as well as periodically submit manuscripts. Notably Journal of Raptor Research, Northwest Science, Northwest Naturalist, Canadian Field-Naturalist, The Auk, and Condor.

Which is your favorite field guide and why? 


Currently, for Idaho birding, I use National Geographic Birds of North America, as I like the detail. Unfortunately, not too handy in the pocket, however.

Which five books from your personal birding library would you recommend?


Only five? That’s a hard cut to make.  In no particular order of importance, I’ll list (1) Paul Johnsgard’s “North American Owls: Biology and Natural History”, (2) Heimo Mikkola’s “Owls of Europe”, (3) Oldie but goldie, David Lack’s “Population Studies of Birds”, (4) Jerry Liguori’s “Hawks From Every Angle”, and (5) Paul Bannick’s “The Owl and the Woodpecker”

Do you have any formal bird-related education background?


Undergrad and Graduate degrees from University of Idaho in Wildlife Resources. More pertinent, 40 years of research and management experience from SHK (School of Hard Knocks).

If a fellow birder had a question about a bird, do you consider yourself an expert (or at least proficient) on any specific family of birds? 


Raptors (Accipitridae, Falconidae, Tytonidae, Strigidae).

What future birding plans do you have?


Not too exciting; I plan to continue monitoring (in a decidedly modest way) avian populations in Idaho; specifically Lemhi County. I would like to continue research efforts in Idaho on cavity-nesting owls, especially boreals. Hopefully, will spend considerable more time in Far Eastern Russia as well.

Are you involved with any local or national birding organizations?  


Other than the National Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology through eBird, no.

What is your nemesis bird?    


Upupa epops in Asia, Bluethroat in Alaska, Virginia Rail in Idaho.

Any funny birding experiences you could tell us?


Birding with my wife (who is a relative neophyte birder) is constantly a kick. She’s becoming a veritable “twitcher”, but often has her own, personalized names for many of the species. Other, more refined birders wouldn’t have a clue, but our birder language is clear to the two of us.

If you were a bird, which species would you be and why?


I suspect Eskimo Curlew, simply because very few people have seen me since about 1965.

Total life list?  374

Most exotic place you’ve gone birding?


Spent a year in the taiga of Far Eastern Russia with the ticks and tigers. Very interesting…

Your mission in life as birder?           


Continue pecking away.

Spotted Sandpiper

Every year I get a couple Spotted Sandpipers at Avimor's Town Lake.  Tuesday evening, I had three.  Wednesday morning I went back and there were four!  They are fun to watch as their tail ends are constantly bobbing up and down.  This time of year, you can really see why they have their name.  Those spots on the clean white breast make it easy to distinguish from other sandpipers.  I also discovered that they have a cool sounding call while in flight.

With only a 150mm lens, I had to sneak up behind a rock near the waterfall to get these shots...but I still wasn't as close as I would have liked.  The sky was overcast and there wasn't any warm evening light.  The next morning in better light I took more photos, but the sandpipers blend so well with the rocks that they just don't jump right off the photo at you.  Who am I to be a photo snob?!  I was birding and the photos were secondary anyway.

The foamy bubbles in the water must be from the chemical treatment to keep the algae down.  We did a lot of research a couple years ago to find the right chemical mix that would not harm the fish, birds, or insects, but still slow down the green slim.  It seems to be working okay.

Check out this leg extension which makes me wonder about the hip joint on Spotted Sandpipers.  However it all goes together, it sure works well for scaling over rocks along the shore.

On interesting fact from Dennis Paulson's Shorebirds of North America: The Photographic Guide is that the females defend their territory from other females and females mate with more than one male.  Additional role reversal is noted in that the males furnish all parental care.

Below are some fuzzy photos, but I post them because they do show what I wanted to share about identifying Spotted Sandpipers in flight.  You can see the white wing patches and white tail edges.

Snow! ...end of May...Really?

From my backyard this evening at 9pm!  These poor migrating birds will be so confused.  Here is a Lazuli Bunting, a Black-headed Grosbeak, and a Red-wing Blackbird at my platform feeder.

This weird weather sure has pushed migrating birds through this area in the last couple days.

Update:  Here I am Sunday morning and the snow stayed the night.  The feeders are very active as you might imagine.  The white snow makes for a beautiful contrast to the tropical colors of the Lazuli Buntings, Bullock's Orioles, Black-headed Grosbeaks, and Western Tanagers.  They add to the Christmas feeling as they look like ornaments in the trees and on the ground.

The snow and cold might be hurting the insect eating migrants however.  I am currently watching what appears to be a lethargic Western Tanager eating lethargic insects off the frozen Great Plains Prairie grasses I planted on the slope behind my home.

Weekly Round-Up

Snake River at Swan Falls Dam.

I did a lot of birding this last week and took lots of photos; not very many good ones, but lots of them.  Before I get carried away into next week, I wanted to post a few photos of some of my recent birding adventures.  Sorry for the full on assault of photos, but why take them if you can't share them?!

One afternoon this week little three-year-old Claire and I took a drive to Indian Creek, Black's Creek, and through the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey area on Swan Falls Rd.  I passed a Golden Eagle perched on a rock right next to the highway.  I braked and put the truck in slow reverse to see about getting a photo.  Just as I had the camera ready, the behemoth flew.  What a huge bird.  Check out the wingspan and those huge yellow talons too.

Wild Flowers in bloom on the rim above Swan Falls.

Male Swainson's Hawk taking his turn on the nest in my neighborhood of Avimor in the Boise foothills.  Look closely!

Warbling Vireo along the Avimor greenbelt.  I am still trying to learn the best camera settings for photographing birds on overcast days.  Any tips?

Yellow-rumped Warbler at Black's Creek

MacGillivray's Warbler at Avimor's Spring Valley Creek

Western Tanager at Black's Creek.  Bad lighting, but it still conveys the awesome color of the head.

Black-headed Grosbeak along Spring Valley Creek Trail at Avimor

Snowy Egret at Black's Creek

American Goldfinch at Avimor

Caspian Tern at Black's Creek

Birding Laughs: "There's no such thing as a Seagull"

California Gull by Mike Morrison

My nine year old son, Kyle, walked in the door this afternoon upset to the point of tears.

I asked him what was the matter.

"Today at school my teacher was talking about seagulls.  I told her 'There's no such thing as a seagull' and she didn't believe me.  And all the other kids thought I was crazy."

I asked, "Did you explain to her why there's no such thing as a seagull?" already laughing on the inside but trying to portray the facade of a concerned parent.

"I did, but she just didn't believe me." he responded with tears filling up his eyes.  (Is it possible to have your heart break for your kid, while still laughing...out loud?!)

The teacher and classmates were adamant that there are seagulls. Hasn't everyone seen them?!

Unfortunately Kyle couldn't come up with the right words to intelligently explain that each species of gull has a name and that not a one of them has the name "seagull".  Having been forced to endure many birding trips with his father and grandfather, Kyle didn't know that "seagull" is an acceptable term for gulls by the non-birding public.  Plus, his grandfather is fond of repeating the phrases: "There's no such thing as a seagull" and "A gull is not just a gull."  The poor kid didn't stand a chance.  He'd been brainwashed!

I sent the teacher an e-mail apologizing for Kyle's bird nerd grandfather and father and explained his position.  I hope I can make it up to her and the class with a fun visit and lesson about birds and birding!

UPDATE:  A couple days later, Kyle's teacher explained to the class that Kyle was indeed right, and using my e-mail she was able to explain to her class that there is no such thing as a 'seagull'.

Feeder Friday - Backyard Birding

Tuesday morning was a drizzly day here in the foothills north of Boise, Idaho.  It did make for some great birds in the backyard though with around 20 species.  I had a yard bird first: Lazuli Bunting...three of them actually.  I also had three male and two female Black-headed Grosbeaks.  Here are a few photos of my backyard birds taken through the window:

210 in 2010: eBird Idaho - Week 20

For those of you checking into the Idaho Birding Blog for the first time, I am hosting a little competition to see who can be the first eBirder in Idaho to see "two-ten in twenty-ten", that is 210 species of birds this year!  That goal has already been reached, so now we are focusing on the second part of the competition is to see who can submit the most checklists to eBird by the 210th day of the year (July 29th).  Here are the rules of the game.

The eBird team and KAYTEE have been very supportive of this effort to encourage birders to be eBirders and are donating $210 worth of cash or prizes to the winners!

Here is the current leader board...

Hyperlinked names are those that have been featured in my weekly blog segment called Idaho Birder Profiles where we spotlight one of Idaho's enthusiastic birders!

Checklist Leaders:

1.  Jackson Whitman 346

2.  Cheryl Huizinga 225

3.  Lew Ulrey 210

4.  Charles Swift 192

5.  J Harry Krueger 140
6.  Terry Gray 134

6.  Steve Butterworth 134

8.  Lynn Davenport 131
9.  Rohn McKee 116
10.  Jonathan Stoke 115

*  In an effort to set forth a good example, I am currently at 468 checklists.  As host of this competition, I have taken myself out of the running.

Species Leaders:
1.  J Harry Krueger 220 Winner!  Number 210 was a Yellow-breasted Chat on May 7th.
2.  Steve Butterworth 213 - 2nd to reach 210!
2.  Darren Clark 213 - 3rd to reach 210!
4.  Cheryl Huizinga 204
5.  Heidi Ware 198
6.  Jay Carlisle 197
7.  Zeke Watkins 181
8.  Terry Gray 177
9.  Robert Mortensen 175
10.  Denise Hughes 167

Special thanks to our sponsors:

Guest Review: BirdsEye

BirdsEye Product Review by Jim Lyons

During my interview for the Idaho Birding Blog profile earlier this year, several of the questions involved my favorite birding tools. In addition to the traditional ones such as binocs and books, I mentioned that I was eager to do more with BirdsEye, a new application I had recently installed on my Apple iPhone. As a result, the ever-inquisitive blog publisher and birder Robert Mortensen asked if I'd provide a report on the program for his blog readers, as I became more familiar with BirdsEye. Being a writer by trade, at least as part of my second career, it didn't sound like too difficult a proposition, and given a deadline for the piece, I figured I'd also have a deadline prioritizing some fieldwork involving birds and the new product.

So with the mid-May deadline looming over me the last few months, I've had the opportunity to use BirdsEye in a few different situations. For those not exceedingly familiar with the technology area generally referred to as “smartphones” and typified by the Blackberry and more recently the Apple iPhone, these are devices that pack much of the power and capability previously only available on desktop and full size laptop computers into a pocket-sized communications device. As the label “smartphone” implies, these devices trace their roots to basic mobile phones, but smartphone users often find themselves using the other capabilities of the device much more frequently than the phone itself. Smartphones have many built-in, basic functions such as e-mail readers, web browsers, and even mundane features like alarm clocks and calculators, but their power really soars with the addition of customized applications. These "apps", as they are more frequently called, run the gamut and literally number in the hundreds of thousands, with a few of that number being bird- and birding-related becoming available for smartphone and especially iPhone users over the last several years.

The BirdsEye app is currently King-of-the-Hill in this burgeoning category, at least in terms of the attention it has been receiving since its product launch at the end of 2009 (see links to sample reviews). eBird is a collaboration of Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society.  Birdseye offers its benefits including guiding users to birds via access to the eBird database, as well as background bird information. According to the official website:

“If you are in search of a particular bird, BirdsEye will show you where it has been observed, and even give you directions. If you are new to birding or an experienced birder who is on the road, BirdsEye will give you a list of birds seen nearby and a map of birding hotspots for any location in North America (the contiguous 48 states, Canada, and Alaska). The application includes images and audio for 470 of the species that are most frequently observed in North America. Additional content is available for more elusive birds—for a total of 847 species."

Having been an Apple iPhone owner (and fan) for several years, I was lucky enough to receive the app as a holiday gift (actually since this is software and virtual in nature there was nothing to wrap up for under the tree except a $20 app store gift certificate of a New York Times review of the product), and was excited that one of its primary functions and claims to fame is its access directly into eBird. And while I hadn't been a user of eBird before but rather a somewhat distant admirer of the concept, I figured that the new app would be a great way for me to get more involved.

Bringing to mind the old Saturday Night Live commercial send-up (this is really dating me) about “Shimmer” and “is a floor wax or is it a dessert topping?”, and before I got my hands dirty actually using the product, I was worried that BirdsEye suffers a bit from its what marketers call its multiple positioning statements. While perhaps not as polarized as floor wax and dessert toppings, the “value propositions” of “mobile window into the world of current bird sightings as recorded by eBird”, and “a pocket multi-media Field Guide with references to songs and sightings just a few clicks away”, does require the product to cover a lot of turf in terms of user needs and skill levels.

My work with the eBird remains limited, even after my hands-on with BirdsEye. I'm sorry to say I'm not a participation in the “210 for 2010” contest and I'm yet to post my first bird list. But in some field testing in locating birds using BirdsEye and its access to eBird, I do have a better perspective on its power and limitations. For example, a few weeks back, after following the state’s birding activities through my regular IBLE (Idaho Birders Linked Electronically) updates, I went to see what BirdsEye was showing about the decade's biggest bird sighting for the state, the Hooded Crane at Carey.
Well, I found no Hooded Crane mentioned at all. This was explained later, again via IBLE and our resident eBird experts, that because the bird is not a regular on the ABA North America checklist, it wouldn't yet be included. This is above and beyond the ongoing lag time of eBird's data being accessible on the Birdseye app. The problem exposed by the Hooded Crane is certainly the exception, but the time lag certainly diminishes other means (like IBLE) of real-time bird-finding probably more effective. But don’t blame BirdsEye, for a database issue. The presentation of the information (which I found ample for the Whooping Crane) is very appealing. And when traveling to other areas of the country (and especially without a corresponding IBLE source) I think BirdsEye is a must-have especially for existing iPhone users who have a spare $20. (Note – in the Smartphone app world, with many free and $1-$3 apps, $20 is actually a relative expensive price point, but as comparable to the average traditional field guides, I think it’s a bargain.)

 

On the other hand, the pocket-field-guide-with sounds has been a boon this Spring, for me. Since this is a review and not a roundup, I am not on the hook to compare BirdsEye with other mobile birding solutions, but its capabilities as a pocket field guide is where I've found where I most appreciate the product. For example, in a very McCabe-ian afternoon bike ride through Boise's North End this week, I was able to pull out the trusty iPhone with its BirdsEye and confirm that, yes, I did still recognize the song of a migrant Chipping Sparrow.  No, that wasn't a Yellow Warbler singing, but rather to me anyway scary similar song of the Lazuli Bunting. Like other sound-learning products, its appeal will certainly be seasonal, but for now, I am loving my BirdsEye!

More links about the Birdseye app:

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/BirdsEye

http://blogs.cornell.edu/theessentials/2009/12/11/iphone-application-keeps-a-bird-in-the-hand/

http://www.macworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=347622

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/app-of-the-week-spot-spring-on-the-wing/

http://cdnn.lightshedder.com/2009/12/06/birdseye/