Birdchick Blog
The plight of young conservationists seeking an actual job.
Hawk + Snake + power lines = frowney face.
Map of what people observing birds noticed during the solar eclipse.
You should totally listen to the American Birding Association Podcast.
Hurricane Harvey the Hawk updates.
A study attempts to categorize birders. Do you fit one of the four categories?
Listen to Alec Baldwin learn about birding from Charles Munn on Here's the Thing.
Spencer Pratt is the hummingbird hero we need right now.
If you purchase this print by August 23, 50% of the purchase goes to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
So...we recorded this over a week ago and forgot to post it. Whoops.
The first half hour is a rant on the Senior Pass price increase for federal parks. If you really want one at the old rate, order it at YourPassNow.com before August 28.
The second is about the government looking into public and private land to build a wall that will keep no one out of the United States. Without going through due process for Eminent Domain, work has already begun on private property at the National Butterfly Center for a border wall. Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge will also be ripped apart for a useless border wall.
Let me tell you about about vultures...and Iberian ham...
Birders looking badass as hell climbing up to Monfragüe Castle to do some birding in Monfragüe National Park in Extremadura.
I recently visited Extremadura which is in the southwest region of Spain and bordered by Portugal. It's an "autonomous community" meaning that even though it's inside Spain, it governs itself. Extremadura is fairly wild and remote and offers tremendous birding opportunity as well as Roman ruins. I've written a little bit about castle birding over at the PhoneSkope blog which includes this region. If you are looking for a unique birdwatching experience, Monfragüe National Park has it.
Griffon vultures roosting on one of the may rocky cliff faces in Monfragüe.
The big show while I was at the park was the large population of griffon vultures...which are a bit different than the turkey and black vultures we have in North America. This Old World species is ancient looking and gigantic, they make turkey vultures look practically anorexic. To give you an idea, a turkey vulture weighs about 3 - 4 pounds. A bald eagle can weigh anywhere from 8 - 12 pounds. A griffon vulture...now that beast can weigh as much as 25 pounds! Wrap your head around that for a minute--a soaring 25 pound bird! That's about the weight of a trumpeter swan!
Griffon vultures pair up for life and nest in breeding colonies along rocky cliffs. Spain hosts the largest breeding population for this species and Monfragüe National Park is a great place to view them.
One morning while we were out birding, there was a griffon vulture perched on a rock in the field. There was no way to stop to get a photo, but you could clearly see the bird was almost as tall as me, at least four feet tall. Our guide said the bird was probably feeding and when the afternoon faded to evening there were no thermals or warm currents of air for the bird to use to soar up to the cliff, it had to spend the night on the ground because it's too big to flap up to the cliffs in a powered flight like a common buzzard would be able to do. I asked if there was any danger of predators getting a vulture and our guide smiled and said, "No, not a bird that big."
When I used to do eagle surveys, I always knew they would be one of the last birds to hit the thermals and I wouldn't really see them lift off until after 9:30am since they are a bit heavier than hawks and other soaring birds. If vultures are your target in Spain, you can sleep in before you go watch them.
The castle in Monfragüe National Park offers dynamite views of griffon and black vultures as well as song birds on the trail up to it.
It's one thing to go birding in a beautiful park with a rugged landscape. Monfragüe ups the adventure by offering tours from a castle on top of hill and looking into the valley below. When you get there, you go out on the roof and survey the landscape. Vultures start to rise and it isn't long until they're on the thermals and soaring 15 feet away from you and your eye to eye with this massive, winged beast. To make it even more decadent, there's a vendor with a cart who will sell you some espresso or beer to enjoy while you take in the view.
Below are some more highlights:
Griffon vultures rely on soaring to keep their massive weight in the air, since their heavy bodies would burn too much energy for flapping in powered flight. They soar high looking for dead livestock.
Imagine returning from vacation and a coworker asks, "What did you do?" and you can answer, "I stood on top of a castle in Spain watching vultures soar past me while I sipped an espresso."
Other species of vulture can be possible too, depending on the time of year. These are black vultures with my lifer Egyptian vulture mixed in.
European serins serenaded us on the trails in the national park.
Eurasian wrens are one of my favorite singers.
One of the prized species in this region is the Spanish imperial eagle. My picture got photobombed by a griffon vulture.
Black stork.
The park a mixture of scrub habitat among rocky cliffs and and small oak forests. One tends to think of Europe as being mostly historic cities and villages but there's a warm wildness in Extremadura that is unique to Europe. You can find spots and feel like you're in a true wilderness.
If you are not a vegetarian, make Iberian Ham a priority when visiting Extremadura.
Speaking of the small oak forests, one of the best cured meats I've ever put in my mouth can be found in Extremadura. Pigs are left to wander the oaks during an acorn mast for six months before they're killed. The meat is then cured for three years, but may linger in shops for another two years before purchase. It's buttery soft and can be put on the traditional breads, but I enjoyed it on it's own. I thought Austria had a handle on making my favorite cured meats, but Iberian Ham blows it out of the water. It's the sort of food after tasting it where I thought, "I have to come back here, I can't imagine never eating this ever again. I know a lot of birders like to celebrate a life bird with "lifer pie," but if you're in Spain and you're a carnivore then make "lifer ham."
House finches that use cigarette butts in the nest may get some insect protection.
Canuck the Crow is causing some mail delivery problems. Also, you can follow him on Facebook.
Eagle mistakes testicles for turtle eggs (fake news).
BSBO and ABC stops a wind turbine on the Great Lakes.
Eastern phoebe feeding a brown-headed cowbird chick.
Cowbirds are kind of like the Manchurian Candidate.
Gay griffon vulture pair raise a chick in an Amsterdam Zoo.
A fascinating look at the amazing talent of Julie Zickefoose as she restores an Audubon Elephant Folio.
Jane Yolen is partnering with Cornell Lab of Ornithology to write some books about birds for kids.
You know the dude who broke the North American Big Year record? He donated over $36,000 to offset his carbon footprint.
What, there are other podcasts to listen to? Here are the ones we referenced:
Out There With The Birds specifically the migration episode.
The American Birding Association Podcast
Lang Elliot's Music of Nature
Non Birding Bill's podcast with Sam Landman called Aging Poorly
Weird things happening on bird cams. There appears to be a Canada goose uprising and they're taking over osprey nest platforms. Not all ospreys are taking it lying down.
The field guide we've all been waiting for: The Field Guide To Dumb Birds of North America.
Help a graduate fund her research project.
How much would you pay to go glamping for a nigh parrot in Australia?
The city if Wichita is offering tips to prevent herons and egrets from nesting in your yard.
The California super bloom has been great for birds too. Be sure to check out the video.
It's project nest watch time and there is of course an app for that.
Birders wandering the streets of Innsbruck on a rainy night.
Recently, I was in Austria with a bunch of other birders from around the world to check out Swarovski's amazing BTX. One of the things that I love about these trips is that it's a fun birder camp and I get to hang out with colleagues from publications, conservation organizations and tour companies. This trip was a real treat because I got to go birding with Jesse Barrie who is the Program Manager for the Macaulay Library and the Merlin Project Leader as well as Chris Wood Assistant Director at Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
One of my favorite reasons to visit Austria: Speckknödelsuppe (bacon dumpling soup). Amazing plans were hatched over this soup and some stone pine schnapps.
The group consisted of birders all over the world and because the way the prices for flights worked out, all of us who came from the United States for the event got to stay an extra day. For many of us that meant getting a chance to catch up on missed European lifers like black woodpecker and for me--wallcreeper. But Chris Wood planted a delightful idea on our first night in Austria when we were settling into some schnapps:
"You know, there are only a few checklists in eBird in Liechtenstein. If we went in there, we could be the top eBirders there..."
As we know, I'm not much of a lister. There really aren't any birds I could get in Liechtenstein that I haven't already seen in Austria. However, the idea of visiting the tiny principality was too irresistible for me. It's equal parts birding and adventure. And given my tax bracket, I don't see myself living or vacationing in Liechtenstein in the foreseeable future.
Our plan in the morning was to visit a castle in Austria where we had a good shot at wallcreeper and then driving into Liechtenstein after lunch. Yes, we got wallcreeper (another post for another day).
Our driver whisks us through Schaan, largest municipality of Liechtenstein.
Liechtenstein is a 62 square mile principality right between Austria and Switzerland. It's a popular winter sports destination. Our driver checked in at the border and we were sent through without having to show our passports.
Many in our tiny group needed alpine accentor, snowfinch and alpine chough.
As we headed up to a ski resort we passed Vaduz Castle, the official residence of the Prince of Liechtenstein.
A beautiful drive up overlooking almost all 62 square miles.
Blackbird or what we here in the US would think of as a melanistic robin.
The birders in the vehicle included not only staff from Cornell, but our guide Leander Khil and friends like Jeff Gordon who is the president of the American Birding Association, Clay Taylor from Swarovski, Corey Finger from 10,000 Birds and Bill Thompson from Bird Watcher's Digest. All of us were scanning out the windows to pick up common birds for our lists like European blackbird and great tit--we were going to pad those lists with anything we could find.
We arrived in the resort village of Malbun and had to be careful to dodge the skiers.
The ski town was really cool. It has a few hotels, restaurants and cabins for people to use when they are not on the slopes above. The skiers didn't seem to mind us but we did have to keep watch as we looked for birds and they would frequently be zooming down from the mountains. What was really cool was seeing how many children were playing in the snow, completely unsupervised by parents. Many were on sleds and a couple were building their own snow hill so they could sled down a window from their cabin. We had distant alpine choughs circling overhead but not too much in the way of birds. Then we heard the singing of an alpine accentor!
It took a few moments, but we finally found it. Can you spot it on this chalet? If not, the video below will help you.
Alpine accentor.
We didn't get a lot of diversity of species, but that is to be expected in winter in the Alps. As our guide Leander was trying to herd us back to the van so our driver could finish his shift on time, we encountered a fabulous marching band called Wildmandli Guggamusik. According their website they take contemporary songs and make them into marching band music. Here they are doing what I think is Masterpiece:
What a weird and wonderful way to wrap up our day! They also did Hot Fudge and as I was recording that, you can hear Leander in the background really trying to get us to wrap up our day. Poor Leander, herding birders is worse then herding cats.
Our driver really seemed intrigued by our excitement of adding bird sightings to different countries so as a treat, he took us through Switzerland on the way back into Austria! It was all birding by 55 mph but we managed a few new species for the trip like rook and jackdaw. As we crossed back into Austria, I managed to slip one of my Pokemon into a gym on the border and it stayed there for six weeks. Ah, for a month and a half I was international in Pokemon Go.
Who knows how long it will last, but I'm part of a number one team in eBird.
And so here we have it, proof that for a time I was one of the top eBirders in the Principality of Liechtenstein. And what's great is that even though I didn't get the stamps in my passport for the two other countries we visited, I do have new colors on my eBird map in my profile and that's just as fun as my passport. And this is what I love about life. Saying yes to a weird little adventure leaves me with great memories I'll never forget.
Have you seen Swarovski's new BTX scope? Also, the Cotton Carrier tactical birding harness is no joke and comfortable in the field.
Are you having a hard day? Check out this bubbler type bath with a buttload of Allen's hummingbirds.
Why do turkeys walk around in circles and why do bush stone curlews stare at themselves?
Canada's national bird battle.
Migration needs to hit soon because all North American birders are doing is arguing about owls and baiting.
Good Birders Still Don't Wear White is out and you should buy it!
