The National Aviary in Pittsburgh and Powdermill Avian Research Center are both working on satellite tracking several Golden Eagles that were trapped this fall near the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch near Bedford, PA. I was lucky enough to be in the trapping blind for a day when 39 Golden Eagles and 1 Bald Eagle migrated past but unfortunately we only caught two Red-tailed Hawks. The eastern Golden Eagle has been recognized as a geographically and genetically isolated population for more than two decades now and it is crucial that we understand how their migratory behavior might be affected by proposed wind power projects along the Appalachian ridges.
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I saw this on the Birdchat listserv and enjoyed it. And boy, are they true. 1) The older we get, the colder it feels while birding. Global warming is counterbalanced by personal cooling. 2) The possibility of seeing a Gyrfalcon is inversely proportional to the listing need. 3) Red Crossbills never land. Never. As in nada. 4) “It was just here 10 minutes ago.” (Note also spring, summer & fall birding rules.) 5) Boreal Chickadees respond to pishing. Once a decade. 6) Golden Crowned Kinglets have three distinct calls. Except when Brown Creepers are also in the area. 7) Cardinals will sing in the winter. Period. This is not an event, but a ruse. 8) Walk the snowy winter trail. Miss the bird. Walk back on the winter trail. Miss the bird again. Warm up the car, see the (potential) bird fly by, binoculars fog. Until the bird disappears.
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In the somber news category, the fourth edition of the Wetlands International report on waterbird species around the world has been released. It’s based on annual field surveys by 15,000 voluntary expert observers across hundreds of sites worldwide, including many IBA’s. Of the 878 species that they present estimates and trends for, 44% are either decreasing or have become extinct since the last edition was released 4 years ago. Read the full article.
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Snow Geese flock, originally uploaded by topherous. Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird site has just posted Bird Counting 101. For anyone who spends time out in the field watching large flocks, whether they are shorebirds, waterfowl or hawks knows that estimating flock size can be ridiculously hard. Just looking at the flock of Snow Geese above is overwhelming if you want to try and estimate the number of birds. Estimating sizes of flocks can be biologically important because it is an additional data set that can be more useful than just knowing whether a species is present or absent. Cornell puts forth several different tips for counting in their first installment: It is very important to write your observations down right away. No one can remember counts for 40+ species at a time.
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Well, I was there. And I most certainly saw an alcid. Could have been a murrelet. Definitely not a Razorbill. Hmm… So is this the record that I put on my life list? It seems questionable, for all I know, I could have seen a Marbled Murrelet. But most of the people there were looking at a Red-throated Loon and will probably mark it down as a lb murrelet. Does that justify my tick? Anyways, the wind was ridiculously strong and the surf rough which made seeing any bird well almost impossible. If you were in this situation would you record it or not.
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A stray from Asia, the Long-billed Murrelet has been sighted at Sandy Hook, NJ and I am off to meet Cameron and some other birders in Bucks County to carpool to the site.
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I got out today and did some of my first birding in Maryland, but was sorely disappointed. The weather had turned bloody cold but there are still no ducks around. Maybe they don’t get ducks out here? I guess that is a possibility. I did manage to pick up some year birds including a Pileated Woodpecker for #72. That is not very fantastic for the start to the year but I’ve been busy and the weather hasn’t been conducive. Well, in between reading fascinating life histories of grassland birds I took some time to go back through the photos I digiscoped in New Jersey last month and edited a few more. These first two are some shots I got of Brant. I was ridiculously close to the Brant and am a little bitter that I didn’t get anything clearer to show you.
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So I just heard this on multiple posts and thought I would pick it up before the weekend came. I won’t be posting for a few days because I am moving to Frostburg, Md to start grad school but I would really love comments if in fact anybody does read this blog. It would be great to hear what you like, don’t like etc. Expect in the future to start hearing lots more about grassland birds and reclaimed strip mines in western PA and MD because thats what I’ll be studying.
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Yesterday I spent the day cruising the gull scene around Tullytown, Pa which is home to a rather massive dump. Larophiles know that dumps can often attract large numbers of gulls and this dump is no exception, attracting one of the largest numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gulls of anyplace in the Americas. My goal was to find a few white winged gulls, particularly Glaucous Gull which I have never found in Pennsylvania. Well, I was not disappointed! By the days end we had found at least 7 Iceland Gulls, all first cycle birds. I say at least because we saw at least that many that looked different, who knows if some of the similar looking birds were repeats or brand new. Up to this point I had only ever seen 1 Iceland Gull before so this was really a feast for my eyes.
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This week’s edition of the birding carnival, I and the Bird, has been posted at Peregrine’s Bird Blog, a birder and from Northern Ireland. Check out I and the Bird #40 and enjoy. This is the first I and the Bird that I have participated in.
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