ABA Blog

Ladies and Gentlemen, LIVE from Camp Avocet...Pish & Twitch!!!

Pish & Twitch, Brendan Murtha (l) and Caleb Frome (r), rock the house ©George Armistead 

The ABA, with vital support from Leica Sport Optics and other generous donors, conducted two summer camps for young birders in the last month. I was truly fortunate to spend time with both groups and I wish the entire birding community could have joined us to see and feel the energy, excitement, commitment, and enthusiasm that the kids and their adult guides brought to these events. If you're ever feeling a bit down in the mouth about the state of the world, I recommend birding with kids as a potent corrective.

I started to make a list of just a very few highlights from the camps to give you a quick sketch of the range of experiences we all shared but soon abandoned the effort as there's so much material that mentioning some means leaving too much out. But I will say that the camps offered an incredibly diverse range of experiences from serious and cerebral to fun and physical, all centered around building the practice and community of birding. 

If you haven't looked at Bill Schmoker's post here from earlier today, do so. It has links to some wonderful photos and video that will give you a great overview of Camp Avocet.

There is one thing I do want to share one thing with you, that I hope you'll get a big kick out of. A couple of the campers at Camp Avocet, Caleb Frome and Brendan Murtha, surprised us one afternoon by telling us that they had formed a band and that they had written some songs about birding.

Billing themselves as Pish & Twitch, Brendan and Caleb, with assistance from William von Herff, proceeded to delight the entire camp group by performing 3 song parodies with the lyrics reworked to joke about the joys and travails of birding. They were so good that we demanded they do it again the next night and give us another chance at recording them.

They obliged, this time performing no less than five songs! Once again, they brought the house down. Below, I provide links to videos for all five songs. I invite you to watch them all and be as stunned as we were by the creativity of these young birders.

In posting these videos, I'm inviting you to share in a spontaneous event full of exuberant, goofy fun. Other than me captioning the songs, so you can better appreciate their astonishing word play, it's presented straight and unfiltered. So there are some very mild instances of salty language, as well as some affectionate jokes at the expense of us camp leaders, some famous birders, brands, and so on. It's all in good fun and should be heard that way. It's summer camp for teenagers, after all.

Without further ado, I present Pish & Twitch and their first song, "Chase Me Maybe."

 

Great stuff, huh? That's Brendan on the left and Caleb on the right.

For their next song, "Moves Like Jaeger," Pish & Twitch are joined by William von Herff.

 

Next up, "Flight Calls," an amazing encapsulation of the weird and wonderful practice of listening for and identfying nocturnal migrants.

  

And now, the epic "Migrants Go By."

  

And finally, to send you all home, here's "Bill Stewart!"

  

Ladies and gentlemen, that was Pish & Twitch! We hear that they've been hard at work on additional parodies in the days since camp. And camper Joe Hernandez just designed this beautiful logo for them.

You can like them on Facebook and keep up with all the latest P&T news.

To Brendan and Caleb, and William and all the fine birders who made the ABA's 2013 summer camps the wonderful experiences they were. Good birding to you all! See you on down the trail. 

And to Leica Sport Optics and all the members/donors of the ABA, thank you. The future of birding is measurably brighter and more vibrant because of your support.

ABA's Periodicals, How Are We Doing?

In the May/June 2013 issue of Birding, I devoted my “Birding Together” column (pp. 9-10) to the state of the ABA’s periodicals, detailing some of the changes we’re making to our publications. Here, I’d like to throw the floor open for discussion and your questions.

Briefly, here are a couple of framing thoughts and questions from me.

First, we are all aware that we’ve lagged a bit in our publication schedule the last few months, with periodicals not arriving as promptly as they should. This is an issue that we take seriously and we’re working hard to close that gap.

Beyond and far, far above that, I want to thank the incredibly dedicated team of staff and volunteers who put together our publications. They do amazing work month after month. Working with these people is a true pleasure, always challenging in the best sense, and nearly always fun. I know from the many compliments I hear and overhear that the majority of the ABA membership is pleased with and proud of their work, as am I.

I’m proud of the dynamic, interactive content they’re providing and I’m thrilled with the way all of you have joined in, making ABA membership an ongoing conversation. I’m proud that they’ve maintained the tradition of excellence and authority that has been the hallmark of ABA publications, while rapidly evolving our content and its production and presentation to suit the ABA of 2013 and beyond.

But I’m not looking for this post to merely generate a bunch of “amens,” as nice as those are to hear. What I and what all of us want to know is your thoughts, ideas, questions, and concerns about the direction of the ABA’s publications, online and off.

What changes are you seeing that you like and want more of? What has you bothered, or concerned for the future?

Finally, a request. Please let us know the status of your membership with the ABA. Are you a current, past, or prospective member? Does your relationship with our organization span more than one of those categories?

You have the floor. Thanks for joining the discussion.

 

The Eyrie is looking for a Few Good Student Editors

Cross posted from the Eyrie. Originally written by Jennie Duberstein

Are you interested in the challenge of bringing together the skills and talents of young birders across the world and working to create a truly unique and outstanding young birder blog? If so, now is your chance! We're looking to add a few exceptional young birders to our volunteer Student Blog Editor Team.

What being a student editor entails is pretty straightforward:

• You write a minimum of one post per month for the blog.
• You try to recruit one post per month from other young birders, give these posts a first round of edits, and pass them on to the Blog Manager for final editing and publication.
• You take a turn compiling the monthly "Young Birder Blog Birding" post.
• You help promote the blog to other young birders and those with an interest--on Facebook, your own blog, by word of mouth, etc.
• You help guide the future direction of the blog, including content, design, etc.

Being a student blog editor for The Eyrie gives you the unique opportunity to gain experience, improve your writing and editing skills, work with experts in the fields or ornithology, birding, and conservation, and help shape the future of the youth birding world. As blog editor, you will seek out contributors, ensure the timely submission of blog posts, artwork, and photographs to yourself and the Blog Manager, follow American Birding Association guidelines for editing of submissions, stay in close contact with the Blog Manager, and keep abreast of the goings on in the world of youth birding. You will also regularly contribute your own posts, photos, and/or artwork to The Eyrie.

Qualifications: Editors must...

• be pre-college, age 18 or under.
• have a good connection with other young birders.
• be willing to make a one-year commitment to the blog.

To apply, send a letter of interest with information about your experience and qualifications, a writing sample, and two letters of recommendation to: Jennie Duberstein, ABA Young Birder Liaison/The Eyrie Blog Manager, at jduberstein at aba dot org or PO Box 40253, Tucson AZ 85717. Emailed applications are strongly are preferred.

Your letter of interest and letters of support should include information about your skills and experience as a birder, writer, artist, photographer, trip leader, etc., your involvement with and connections to the world of young birders, and anything else that explains what you would bring to the editorial team of The Eyrie.

APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY MAY 24, 2013. Direct all questions to jduberstein at aba.org.

Join the ABA Rare Bird Alert Facebook Group

If you're a Facebooking birder (and not everyone is) with an interest in how this new social media world applies to rarity finding, the American Birding Association has created a new Facebook group dedicated to the sharing and discussion of rarities from the ABA Area and Hawaii.  

Birders from all over the continent, and indeed the world, are welcome to join and contribute.  In fact, the more members we have from across North America, the better the group will be at monitoring vagrant occurance across the continent.  The group is called ABA Rare Bird Alert.  

 

So come join 900+ fellow North American birders as we revel in rarities and live vicariously through vagrants across the continent at ABA Rare Bird Alert!

Location, location, location… what's in a name?

Editor's Note: The ABA Blog welcomes Jeff Bouton as a regular contributor.  Jeff is Marketing Manager for Leica Sports Optics and lives in Port Charlotte, Florida. 

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Note the blurred tail in this early AM shot, caused by the Palm Warbler's incessant and characteristic tail-wagging behavior

I photographed the Palm Warbler above in a palm tree the other day and thought, "Ah, as it should be". 

If only birding were this simple though. For beginning birders this image may not seem odd at all, but those who've been around the block a bit longer realize Palm Warblers are rarely found in palms and, despite the name, one wouldn't really look for them here first. They are only in "palm country" in the winter months and even then, seem to prefer to feed on or near the ground in weedy patches and are much more likely on a low shrub or similar. 

Warblers who feed by gleaning are much more commonly found in palm trees, searching the nooks and crannies for spiders and other morsels. The Yellow-throated Warbler would have been a much more appropriate "Palm Warbler" as they occur year round here in Florida - and other subtropical to tropical locales - and love feeding in palms.

Cape May Warbler... in Florida

Despite being digiscoped in a Coconut Palm, the bird above is NOT a Palm Warbler either. It's a Cape May Warbler and as you may have guessed from the habitat, this individual is a long way from Cape May, NJ. I digiscoped this one in the parking lot of The Florida Keys Hawkwatch in Marathon, FL in October '1).

As an early birder, I expected I'd see my first Cape May Warbler on my first trip to Cape May. Imagine my surprise when I checked the range map and realized this species neither breeds nor winters anywhere near Cape May and is only expected here during the migration months. Oh yeah, and Virginia's Warbler is named for a lady not the states sharing the same name!

Confused?!?... well if not it's only because you've birded long enough to come to the realization that bird names should always be taken with a grain of salt. However, when you stop and reconsider it you can see how these inaccuracies make birding a lot more challenging than it perhaps should be. 

Ring-necked Duck pair digiscoped in Port Aransas, TX, Feb 2007

While not related to geographic anomoly, the Ring-necked Duck has always topped my "poorly-named birds" list!

How about you, anyone want to rant about the WORST bird names in American birding? How about some of the best?

Help Monitor the Red Crossbill Invasion

Birders in the eastern part of the continent are calling this the best winter finch winter in decades, perhaps even more amazing in that it's not even officially winter yet! Beautiful and charismatic, Evening Grosbeaks are the centerpiece of this irruption, and we recently encouraged birders seeing "Evebeaks" to be sure to get those sightings reported to eBird so that we can watch the invasion happen in real-time.

Second only to the grosbeaks in inducing excitement with their arrival are the crossbills, both White-winged and Red, that have been sweeping across the east in incredible numbers.  Much has been made of the fact that within the enigmatic species known as Red Crossbill may lie up to 10 cryptic, but full in their own right, species differentiated from one another by bill size, food preferences, and, especially, flight calls.  Indeed, many of these "types" can be confidently identified by birders paying attention to those calls.   

This season has seen reports of multiple types of Red Crossbills wherever the species has been reported.  North American Birds editor Ned Brinkley, who is based on the eastern shore of Virginia, reports that both Type 3 and Type 10 crossbills have turned up in that state this fall, neither of which have ever been recorded in the past.  

photo by Corey Finger - Long Island, NY, 11/2012

Now, asking birders to note the high-pitched mutterings of birds passing overhead may sound like a sure-fire way of deadening the joy in seeing these infrequent winter visitors, but an enormous amount of information can be acquired during these finch years from regular birders noting the sounds they hear from the bird they're seeing.  Even something as simple as obtaining a recording can be a big deal, and these days most cell phones are capable of picking one up one of sufficient quality to make the ID.      

Matt Young at Cornell Lab of Ornithology has been doing great work trying to suss out the differences in Red Crossbill populations.  Earlier this fall, Matt wrote a primer posted to the eBird website laying out the differences with several incredibly useful audio examples.  Matt also encourages birders who have recorded crossbills but need a hand identifying them to type to send those recordings to him at may6 AT cornell DOT edu. 

Additionally, the ABA's journal of ornithological record, North American Birds, has been on the forefront of the crossbill ID revolution with several articles, by none other than Matt Young, focusing on status, distribution, and identification of the various types. Those posts, now suddenly exceedingly relevant, are now hosted free on the ABA site.  

Status and distribution of Type 1 Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra): an Appalachian Call Type? - M Young, et al  

Type 5 Red Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) in New York: first confirmation east of the Rocky Mountains - M Young

New evidence in support of a distinctive Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) Type in Newfoundland - M Young, et al

And although it scarcely needs to be said anymore, be sure to get those sightings entered into eBird.  Our knowledge of irruptive boreal finches is woefully incompletely, but phenomena like these flights offer opportunities to make inroads into our gaps in knowledge.  

Thanks, and enjoy the finches this winter!

Petiton for Wildlife

 

The Federal Duck Stamp is, without doubt, one of the most effective conservation initiatives in the history of the United States, or any nation for that matter. We at the ABA have gone on record as being a strong supporter of birder purchased Duck Stamps to make a statement for habitat conservation.

But if the Duck Stamp has a drawback, it's in the fact that birder contributions are effectively masked as the US Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't track purchaser intent. Our money, then, is thrown in the pool with everyone else - including those who are legally required to purchase the stamp - and as such it's difficult, if not impossible, to really gauge our collective influence and mobilize for our own legitimate interests, which occasionally conflict with those of our sportsman friends.

There are those in the birding community who have longed for a stamp of our own, one which not only finally puts a number on birder engagement in conservation issues but which offers a separate and collaborative stream of funds for research and management of non-game wildlife. Corey Finger, ABA member and blogmeister of 10,000 Birds has drafted a petition currently raking in signatures at whitehouse.gov suggesting just that. If the birding community can attach 25,000 signatures to it, we'll get an official response from the Obama Administration.

 

 

It's important to note two things here.

First, this is in no way intended to be a replacement for, or competition with, the Duck Stamp program. The ABA fully supports the federal Duck Stamp and will continue to encourage birders to contribute to this incredible long-standing and productive initiative that has effectively built the National Wildlife Refuge system that so many of us enjoy. 

Second, this is admittedly a non-binding petition intended as a show of support for birder-initiated conservation programs.  Yes, a reponse from the Obama Administration would be nice if for no other reason than it shows that we birders can be a force for conservation and bird-welfare interests, but more than that, birders should sign this because we want to show that we are an interest group to which policy makers should be listening.  It can't hurt to have as many ways as possible to make that plain. 

So please consider signing the petition.  Many of us at the ABA have done so and we fully support the action taken here. 

 

Bird of the Year Multimedia Art Contest Reminder

 

 

Official Contest Page

Introducing Birding Online

 

First things first: Yes, you’ve landed at The ABA Blog. For the next week, though, The ABA Blog will be hijacked by Birding magazine.

It’s not as bad as it sounds. We’re all friends. Not only that, we’re gradually morphing together. The distinction between print and online content is breaking down. The September 2012 Birding, arriving in ABA members’ mailboxes right now, is loaded with “WebExtras”—that is to say, Birding magazine content online. WebExtras are indicated in both the online and print versions by this symbol:

Where to put it all? Well, that’s a work in progress. We’re moving closer toward our goal of a centralized website for all online content—both a “landing page” for folks arriving via the print version of Birding and a “launch pad” to all the online content. We’ll have a prototype up and running in a few days, we’ll have a more advanced version in place with the November 2012 Birding, and we intend to have Birding Online fully functional in 2013.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s still September. You’ve just received the September issue of Birding. Where are all those “WebExtras”?

They’re right here! We’ll be posting them to The ABA Blog during the course of the next week. Please check back daily to see all the new content. And please don’t be a passive consumer of all the information. The ABA Blog welcomes your comments, questions, and suggestions.

Something else. Starting with the September 2012 Birding, we are offering exclusive, password-protected, members-only content. Such content is indicated online and in the print magazine by this symbol:

Stay tuned for further announcements regarding access to your members-only content.

 

Pledge to Fledge: The Best Thing You Can Do This Weekend

 

School children in Wilderness, Western Cape, South Africa earlier today participating in Pledge to Fledge. Photo courtesy Keith Barnes.

It's August 24, the first day of the first Pledge to Fledge event. If you've somehow missed the buzz surrounding this event, take a look at Richard Crossley's post here from last week. Also check the P2F website and Facebook page, where there is already quite a bit of material up from last night's kickoff event in Cape May, as well as some cool shots of Keith Barnes' efforts to fledge some new birders in South Africa. No doubt there will be much more to come.

I'm especially encoraged to see Pledge to Fledge emerge now, as I think it represents an important evolution in birding culture. Though I've often heard birders decry the lack of "new blood" coming into our community, I've rarely seen much in the way of focussed efforts to do something about it. Don't get me wrong—I know we've all stood at tables, gone to various events, and so on in hopes of minting some new birders. These are laudable efforts and they haven't been wholly unsuccessful.

But I think what is needed is an almost complete overhaul in how we recruit and I see Pledge to Fledge as an important step in that direction. Putting it in birding terms, we have to get as good at finding, identifying and sparking new birders as we have gotten at finding, identifying and spreading the word of vagrant birds.

Think how much time, effort, and ingneuity has been put into learing the habits, habitats, hotspots, weather patterns, and search techniques involved in ferreting out rare birds. Where these efforts have been most successful, they've involved shifting our frame of reference, dropping our old behavior patterns and learning to think like like the wayward birds we seek.

When I started birding the Mid-Atlantic in the mid-1970's, early November was considered a sort of lull between the peak of hawk migration and the peak of waterfowl migration. Not too much to see then, the thinking went. Now, thanks to the efforts of Paul Lehman and dozens of others like him, early November is recognized as perhaps the most exciting, productive time of the year, if finding Mid-Atlantic vagrants is your thing. And our expectations of what's possible then, in terms of numbers and diversity have been exceeded time and again.

What I'm really excited about in the coming years is helping the ABA get just that good at reaching and sparking new birders. There's much to be learned about where we can find them, how they behave, and what conditions set the stage for that magical conversion experience. I think we're not that far from a day when how good a day we've had in the field will be measured not only by how many species we found but also by the number of new birders we recruited.

As a community, we have so, so much to learn about how best to do this. And there's no substitue for getting out there and just giving it a whirl, refining what works and sidelining what doesn't. And the fact that so many others will be doing the same thing this weekend, gives us all a great opportunity to share our triumphs and our tribulations.

 

Liz shares her bins, and a view of a Prairie Falcon, with a birder-to-be at Garden of the Gods.

Liz and I have already got at least one spot picked out where we'll go birding for new birders this weekend: Garden of the Gods. It's a big tourist attraction, so there are plenty of people around, almost none of them there for birding. But there are nifty birds to look at, usually including Prairie Falcons. And a spotting scope set up in a place like that always draws a crowd, and the inevitable, "Whatcha lookin' at?," conversation openers. I think it's an ideal place to practice our recruitment skills.

How about you? Where might you spend an hour or two this weekend and snag a new birder or two? A local park with a duck pond? Maybe a zoo that has wild but relatively tame birds wandering the grounds? Remember, you don't need rare birds to do this. You want close birds, preferably lots of them. Don't worry if it's starlings or magpies. They'll work.

ABA board member Kenn Kaufman and Kim Kaufman, director of the Ohio's Black Swamp Bird Observatory, have a nice post on their blog with tips on taking new birders birding. It's worth a look as you're making your plans.

Mainly, remember to be friendly and enjoy yourself. Birding is a wonderful thing. Let's all get as good as we can at securing its future by growing our ranks.

So take the Pledge. Then get out there! Make sure your Bird of the Year stickers are in place and wear your ABA logo wear, if you have it. And be sure to tell us what you discover!