It's no secret that waxwings are known to occasionally over-imbibe on overripe fruit, but they're lucky that have someone like Birdchick Sharon Stiteler willing to perform necessary sober-driving services:
The bird indeed was trying unsuccessfully to fly and pushing its head into the ground. It was unable to stand and lurched around in a circle. I’ve volunteered for a couple of bird hospitals and know enough to when a bird is in serious trouble. I picked it up and felt around for broken bones and all felt intact. I blew on the waxwing’s breast, spreading the feathers apart to look at its transparent skin and get an idea of its physical state. The bird was robust with healthy muscle tissue, it was not starving and surviving well enough to find plenty to eat during our cold wet spring.
The oystercatcher situation on the west coast is fraught with inter-specific intrigue. Steve Tucker (aka Seagull Steve) of Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds tries to get to the bottom of it:
On much of the continent, ID of oystercatchers is a carefree and stressless task. You either have Black or American, or none at all. Simple. Enter Southern California, which has moderate numbers of Black Oystercatchers, and occasionally American Oystercatchers, which allegedly occur so often that they aren't even a review species anymore. The two species hybridize frequently, primarily in Baja California, but those birds regularly move north into California...giving us Black, American and hybrid oystercatchers to find. This is complicated enough, right?
J. Drew Lanham, of Wild and in Color, has decided that instead of solely identifying birds, he's going to work on identifying with birds:
Having the pleasure of being at the Biggest Week in American Birding again this year, I got to talk about “seeing beyond the bins” in a keynote address to urge birders to think about the birds they see as feathered marvels with stories to tell. Kim and Kenn Kaufmann press the conservation issue hard and so I felt at home. As an official out of the closet “Angry Black Birder” I challenged us as a community of watchers to do more—to not just watch but to get outside of the “birdy box” and think about conservation and how both birds, people and other creatures all fit into the equation.
Ken Schneider, of Rosy Finch Ramblings, discovers a nest of the ABA's Bird of the Year, the Common Nighthawk, and watches the fledgling grow:
The Common Nighthawk is the American Birding Association's 2013 Bird of the Year. In April they migrate through our South Florida neighborhood and some stay to breed here each year. Our daughter visited the newly reopened Hall of Birds at the Field Museum in Chicago and took this cell phone photo of one of my nighthawk images that was used in their new interactive bird exhibit.
Birders, by virtue of their time in the outdoors, often find themselves in situations that the general public never sees. Jeff Bilsky, writing at Utah Birders, describes one such encounter:
After getting home from work today, I opted to head up to a spot I haven't hiked since last fall. It's a location I found east of Little Dell Reservoir and below Big Mountain Pass. It is a seemingly seldom used trail that winds up the mountain north of the main road and then heads east towards Big Mountain and back down past some beaver dams. From here, you can bush-whack your way through 100 yards or so of trees and reach a more used trail. The whole route can't be more than a mile - if that - and has in the past produced Dusky Grouse and an assortment of other common mountain species to view - as well as Deer, Moose, and Beavers. Today, as I was hiking along towards a portion that transitions from open mountainside to aspen grove I heard what sounded like a bark.
Recent Comments