Sunday, March 15, 2009
Going nuts with my podcast
I know that Macs are supposed to be so wonderful, but they're so tied to their own software, and the whole system is so inflexible that it's driving me nuts. I like a lot of features about iWeb, and that's how I'd been putting my podcasts on iTunes, but when I tried to migrate my homepage over, too, since I'm now paying TWO hosts every year and really need to start saving money, iWeb erased my whole podcast. So now I'm starting from scratch--only somehow iTunes erased the description of the podcast now, and I don't know how to change it back. Oh, well. I guess I'll have to stick with my old host for another year.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Head to Twin Beaks for CSI: Ithaca!
I've been way too busy and distracted to post much here lately, but have been keeping up with Twin Beaks. If you're not already doing it, you should check "my" Twin Beaks blog--"the first blog by birds, for birds." This past weekend I got brave enough or cocky enough to add it to Fat Birder's Birding Top 500 list. It started out with a ranking over 1000, but quickly raced up the chart and is, as of this moment, up to the #213 spot.
Ryan Bakelaar just allowed me to post his posting to the Cayuga Birds listserv about the necropsy he did on the Magnificent Frigatebird that turned up in Ithaca after Hurricane Ike--it's a wee bit gruesome, especially after he sent some pretty cool but explicit parasite photos (that Gil Grissom would LOVE), but very interesting. On Twin Beaks, of course, where everything is told from the birds' point of view, this is presented as the first episode of CSI: Ithaca. Check it out!
Ryan Bakelaar just allowed me to post his posting to the Cayuga Birds listserv about the necropsy he did on the Magnificent Frigatebird that turned up in Ithaca after Hurricane Ike--it's a wee bit gruesome, especially after he sent some pretty cool but explicit parasite photos (that Gil Grissom would LOVE), but very interesting. On Twin Beaks, of course, where everything is told from the birds' point of view, this is presented as the first episode of CSI: Ithaca. Check it out!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Neotropical Birds Online
Tom Schulenberg, one of the authors of Birds of Peru, writes:
We are a long way from having a comprehensive series of natural history accounts for Neotropical birds.
But, we can change that. Working together, we might get there a whole lot faster than you might think.
The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology is pleased to announce the launch of Neotropical Birds Online (http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/portal/home). Neotropical Birds Online is similar to the familiar Birds of North America series, but one important difference is that Neotropical Birds will be free - no subscription fees!
The scope of Neotropical Birds Online is all bird species that regularly occur in the Neotropics, from Mexico and the Caribbean south to southernmost South America. The emphasis is on species that breed within this region, but the eventual goal is to provide accounts for all species that regularly occur within this region.
Each account on Neotropical Birds Online is a separate online publication. Full credit is given to the author, or collaborating team of authors, for each species account. The online format allows authors to revise their accounts to keep pace with new research. This format also allows us to incorporate other media into the species accounts, and to link to related resources elsewhere on the web. This is a collaborative project: Neotropical Birds Online not only is for researchers, birders, and managers who are interested in birds of the neotropics, but it also will be *created* by that community of specialists.
We are launching this with only a few completed species accounts, although more will be going online very soon. But for this project to succeed, it will need support from researchers working in the neotropics. You can contribute to Neotropical Birds Online not only through authoring a species account, but also by providing photographic images, sound or video tape recordings; learn more about how to contribute http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/portal/1057.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Charred remains
It's interesting for me to keep track of the investigation of the US Airways plane that crashed into the Hudson, because after an Air National Guard F-16 crashed on takeoff in Duluth on September 18, 1992, I was the first person to identify the charred remains of two or three American Golden-Plovers that had been sucked into the single engine. In that case, a flock of birds had been on the runway on a splendid migration day. F-16s go so fast that the pilot, David Johnson, didn't know what happened--he got up in the air and the engine instantly quit. He was quick-thinking, and pointed the plane away from houses before ejecting and parachuting to safety.
A few days later, two uniformed Air National Guard crash investigators showed up at my house with the remains of the birds in plastic bags, thinking I could identify them! They'd already stumped the people up at Hawk Ridge. Fortunately, since I had rehabbed so many birds, I had a pretty good feel for feathers. These were dull brown with no wingbars--although charring could mask colors, wingbars would have been at least a bit evident--and of the smooth and waxy texture characteristic of waterbirds. (That filled me with relief--when I heard about the crash, I was scared that the plane had collided with a hawk, since the day of the crash was also the day of our biggest raptor migration that year.) The remains were significantly smaller than duck wings, and so I methodically perused the field guide and saw that the only two shorebird possibilities were Solitary Sandpiper and what was then called the Lesser Golden-Plover, and that the length of the feathers was more consistent with the plover.
A couple of hours later, the investigators came by again, this time with photos of a dozen or so dead but easily identifiable Lesser Golden-Plovers. The photos had been taken by investigators scrutinizing the area around the runway. The plane had crashed into the whole flock. Sad as the little bodies made me, it felt wonderful to have figured out the charred ones correctly.
Cool as it was to identify those remains, playing forensic ornithologist for a day, my word could hardly be the final one. All the bird evidence was sent to the Smithsonian's amazing Roxie Laybourne for verification. She was a wonderful woman--I got to meet her at an AOU meeting and she was as warm and friendly as she was knowledgeable.
Anyway, today's New York Times has a fascinating article about the Smithsonian team that identifies birds now that Roxie Laybourne has died:
A few days later, two uniformed Air National Guard crash investigators showed up at my house with the remains of the birds in plastic bags, thinking I could identify them! They'd already stumped the people up at Hawk Ridge. Fortunately, since I had rehabbed so many birds, I had a pretty good feel for feathers. These were dull brown with no wingbars--although charring could mask colors, wingbars would have been at least a bit evident--and of the smooth and waxy texture characteristic of waterbirds. (That filled me with relief--when I heard about the crash, I was scared that the plane had collided with a hawk, since the day of the crash was also the day of our biggest raptor migration that year.) The remains were significantly smaller than duck wings, and so I methodically perused the field guide and saw that the only two shorebird possibilities were Solitary Sandpiper and what was then called the Lesser Golden-Plover, and that the length of the feathers was more consistent with the plover.
A couple of hours later, the investigators came by again, this time with photos of a dozen or so dead but easily identifiable Lesser Golden-Plovers. The photos had been taken by investigators scrutinizing the area around the runway. The plane had crashed into the whole flock. Sad as the little bodies made me, it felt wonderful to have figured out the charred ones correctly.
Cool as it was to identify those remains, playing forensic ornithologist for a day, my word could hardly be the final one. All the bird evidence was sent to the Smithsonian's amazing Roxie Laybourne for verification. She was a wonderful woman--I got to meet her at an AOU meeting and she was as warm and friendly as she was knowledgeable.
Anyway, today's New York Times has a fascinating article about the Smithsonian team that identifies birds now that Roxie Laybourne has died:
At the National Museum of Natural History, scientists study the remains of birds that have collided with planes, looking for clues to prevent future accidents.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Birding in the Sax-Zim Bog
I spent today birding with Mike Hendrickson in the bog. We saw a lot of really cool birds despite the awful wind, but thanks to that wind, no owls. But we did see this Boreal Chickadee, trying to get into the deer rib cages on Admiral Road, though a Hairy Woodpecker interfered with those plans. You can see a bunch of photos from the day at my flickr set: http://flickr.com/photos/48014585@N00/sets/72157612916573968/
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Grandpa
Today my grandpa would have been 113 years old. It's hard to believe he's been gone, physically, from this world for 38 years, because he's been very much of a spiritual presence my entire life. He wasn't particularly knowledgeable about birds, but did inspire me more than anyone else in my childhood to learn about birds. I wrote about that in Grandpa's Canaries. I haven't yet had a redpoll at my feeder this year, but I sure hope one turns up today.
If any of my children turn me into a grandmother one day, I hope I'm as nurturing, loving, and inspiring as my grandpa was for me.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Trees for Tomorrow Elderhostel
I'm so pumped! I get to do the Trees for Tomorrow Elderhostel in May with Troy Walters again! This is one we've done many times together, and we always see great birds--Boreal Chickadees and Golden-winged Warblers and Black-throated Blues and much, much more--and we and our group always have a lot of fun. It runs from May 24 to May 30--we should get peak numbers of birds and song that week! Check out the rest of Troy's photostream from the 2007 Elderhostel, which was the last time I was the instructor.
Great birding spot, or the greatest birding spot?
I can't wait till Friday, January 23! I'm going to spend the day birding with my friend Mike Hendrickson. Great Gray Owls, Northern Hawk Owls, and Boreal Chickadees, here I come!!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Yay, Obama!
The inauguration invitations are printed on paper approved by the Forest Stewardship Council! Read about it here. And when you buy new wood products or non-recycled paper, make sure it's FSC Certified.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Canada Goose and plane collide
Here's sad news to start the year, from today's Duluth News-Tribune:
The National Transportation Safety Board says a bird strike caused the crash of a University of North Dakota airplane that killed two people last year, including a young Duluth man.
Twenty-year-old student Adam Ostapenko of Duluth and 22-year-old instructor Annette Klosterman of Seattle died when the twin-engine Piper Seminole crashed in a swampy area in central Minnesota on Oct. 23, 2007.
The two were on a routine training flight from St. Paul, Minn., to Grand Forks.
The NTSB's probable cause report, dated Sunday, says the airplane hit at least one Canada goose. The NTSB says the collision "caused the airplane to be uncontrollable."
NTSB says the night flight contributed to the crash because the pilots could not have seen the goose.
Twenty-year-old student Adam Ostapenko of Duluth and 22-year-old instructor Annette Klosterman of Seattle died when the twin-engine Piper Seminole crashed in a swampy area in central Minnesota on Oct. 23, 2007.
The two were on a routine training flight from St. Paul, Minn., to Grand Forks.
The NTSB's probable cause report, dated Sunday, says the airplane hit at least one Canada goose. The NTSB says the collision "caused the airplane to be uncontrollable."
NTSB says the night flight contributed to the crash because the pilots could not have seen the goose.
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)