Born Again Bird Watcher

The New Site is Live!

2009-02-05T08:16:00.000-08:00

The new Born Again Bird Watcher site is now live and fully operational. All future activity will take place there - this will be the last post on the Blogger powered site.

If you have been following Born Again Bird Watcher using an RSS feed (thank you very much, by the way), please reset your subscription to the new feed here.

Moving Day

2009-01-29T07:53:00.000-08:00

The day has finally arrived. The new website is complete and the transfer process can now begin. As nearly two years worth of blog content needs to be pulled over to the new site and all the addresses need to be tweaked so that things appear how they should where they should and when they should, I need to refrain from posting until it is all completed. It is my intention that RSS feeds not be disrupted; however should you be one of the Born Again Bird Watcher readers receiving updates in this manner and no update is received after about a week, please return to the original domain name and resubscribe.

Peace.

Chasing Ghosts

2009-01-26T19:08:00.000-08:00

And so from the 12th Annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival I have returned. Why the lack of posting from the festival you may ask? Well, while it was my sincere intention to upload a number of posts on everything from the festival itself, my representation of the Wingscapes BirdCam while there, and my assessments of the iBird Explorer Plus, I was prevented from doing so by what I logically assumed to have been an infestation of my laptop by a malicious software program commonly called "malware." Thus I spent more hours than anyone should have to do exploring the inner workings of my computer in search of the mysterious program that was hijacking any Internet search I attempted with Google, Yahoo, or Live and directing my browser to a cheesy looking site bearing the address of “help-yield.com” which asked that I download a "cookie" into my laptop in order to be allowed to use the search engine from which my search was redirected (a classic technique of malware programs). My intention was to, as the undercover operatives phrase it “terminate it with extreme prejudice.”

While I am most happy to report that my battle was in fact finally won, it was something of a Pyrrhic victory as the opponent was in fact never there (at least not inside the workings of my laptop). The adversary was in fact far away at the other end of a network of cords and wires, residing in an ISP presumably in another state. It seems, according to staff at the hotel in which I was staying, that the ISP contracted by the hotel was “redirecting” searches from the major search engines to one of its own choosing. I would think that, absent of any notification to the guests using the wireless or wired Internet connections provided by the hotel, that this would be illegal; however my IT friends tell me that it may not be – just questionably ethical and certainly an act of bad “net citizenship.”

I will refrain from naming here the name of the hotel or the ISP as I plan to have a few discussions with them about the matter and all the time I lost pursuing “ghost” malware due to their redirection program. I have to think that the good people in the legal departments of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft might be just a teensy bit interested in the fact that Internet users visiting their respective sites are being redirected away from them without those users’ consent. Be assured that developments will be posted here – as will be all the posts I had hoped to publish during the festival.

Peace.

Road Testing the iBird Explorer Plus

2009-01-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

Reacting to the flood of tourists touring around Europe on their respective “grand tours” with their noses perpetually stuck in travel guides instead of experiencing the wonders to be found all around them and for which purpose they expressly came (or so they said), Edmund Wilson, that loveable literary curmudgeon of yore wrote his famous Europe Without Baedeker. As I was contemplating the best way in which to convey to you, dear readers, my impressions of the new iBird Explorer Plus, I couldn’t help but recall Wilson’s book and what caused him to write it. As I am indeed guilty of too often experiencing life second hand rather than first, I felt justly chastised by his general criticism of travelers. Packing as I was at the time for a trip to the Space Coast Birding and Nature Festival in Titusville, Florida, I thus fell upon the idea of taking dear old Edmund’s advice to heart and making the trip sans field guide, at least in the traditional sense – Florida Without Field Guide, if you will.

Now, just so as not to give the wrong impression, I mean this in no way to be a criticism of field guides either general or particular. As an ardent bibliophile, I shall forever hold dear the printed book. My library holds certainly no less than hundreds of field guides to forms of live the world over and I would not willingly part with any single one of them. However, I would likewise not try to carry them all in my carry-on bag when traveling.

Ordinarily, I tote no fewer than half a dozen guides on any given trip; more if I think the potential situations to be encountered may require even thirty seconds of consultation with one of them. Thus the decision to eschew all of them and set off for Florida, a state I have only visited a handful of times and the bird species of which I am not nearly as familiar with as those of my own state of Oregon, was not an easy one to make. Yet in the time I had already spent with the iBird Explorer Plus I had found it to be such a remarkably useful tool that I could think of no less a true test of its effectiveness that to put my entire referential faith in it and go boldly on my way.

A bit of background: the iBird Explorer Plus is compatible with both the iPhone and the iPod Touch (the latter of which being the device upon which I have the iBird Explorer Plus loaded). Available from the “App” section of the iTunes Store, iBird Explorer can be obtained for the very reasonable price of $19.99 (U.S.), installs quickly and seamlessly, and is ready to use immediately. Once activated from the main screen of the iPod Touch (from here on the reader may interpret either the iPod Touch or the iPhone as meant as the iBird Explorer Plus functions identically on both types of devices), iBird Explorer Plus boots in mere seconds – five by my count – and offers a highly intuitive user interface that requires little if any time to master.

The opening screen is the one most generally applicable for most purposes: the master species list. Atop the screen is a control bar indicating the presence of 891 birds in the database, three buttons to choose between the master list being displayed alphabetically by the first name of the species (e.g. “Abert’s”), last name of the species (e.g., “Towhee”), or in taxonomic order by the taxonomic Family (e.g., “Emberizidae”), and a reset button to bring everything back to where the user began. Each species is clearly listed on a graphics tile with an illustration of the bird, the English name, and the Latin binomial name. The master list can be scrolled by the ingenious and highly addictive “finger swipe” function of the iPod Touch as well “jumped” through the use of an alphabet jump list running down the right-hand side of the screen – simply touch the letter and the list “jumps” directly to the first entry for that letter (note: this jump list does not appear when the list is arranged by Family). Finally, running along the bottom of the screen are three more buttons marked “Browse” (to display the master list), “Search” (which brings up the identification engine feature), and “About” (a list of credits and contact points for the good people who brought the world the iBird Explorer Plus).

When a species is selected from the master list on the Browse page, the file for that bird opens to a full color illustration as well as buttons for the various points of reference available from the iBird Explorer Plus. The opening screen from the master list is the “General” page, returned to by the first of eight buttons spanning two rows along the bottom of the screen. However to diverge just a moment, a bar running along the top of the screen contains the “Birds” button, by which return to the master list is effected, the English name of the species selected, and a pair of “Up / Down” arrow icon buttons to move directly in either direction to the next species in the list. Below this, as mentioned, is a superb illustration of the bird itself accompanies by its names from Species all the way out to taxonomic Order. A simple finger swipe scrolls the image center frame bearing the image down to a brief description of the bird.

Working along the control buttons running along the bottom of the screen, next to “General” is found “Range” which brings the inquisitive user to a color coded range map complete with seasonal legend and relevant textual notes. Adjacent to that, the “Identify” button brings the user a wealth of information to help facilitate an identification of the species. It is quite impressive indeed that the creators of iBird had the foresight to include not only the general “quick ID” information here, which they did prominently atop this electronic page, but minutiae as well - nest material, egg incubator, egg color, etc. - that might not always be needed but would certainly be invaluable should it become so in a given situation.

Adjacent to the “Identify” button is a button that essentially puts an end to the illustration versus photography debate – the “Photo” button. While not all species yet include photos on this electronic page (nota bene: I am told by the creator of the iBird Explorer Plus that approximately 1600 professional photos are about to be released into the product software and as it is an iTunes App updates are free of charge) most do and for this users of the iBird Explorer Plus will and should be ecstatic. Truly, it is now possible to have the best of both worlds. Even more, what with the continuing expansion of digiscoping and the Wingscapes BirdCam, users can submit images of their own for inclusion in the WhatBird archive.

Beginning the lower row of control buttons is one simply bearing a small speaker – this being the sound button to allow the user to consult the vocalizations included for the species in question ( a handy feature here is that when selected, along with the vocalization of the species being considered, graphics tiles to play the vocalizations of other species that may sound similar will also apprear here when appropropriate). Speaking of similar, next to the vocalization button, the “Similar” button presents the user with a list of birds having similar characteristics that might be encountered in the field. “Facts” presents some very interesting information about the bird perhaps not immediately needed for identification but very much necessary for a greater understanding of the bird (field trip leaders will love this feature to help with their “color commentary”).

Last, but certainly not least among the series of option buttons offered on the individual species page is the Birdipedia feature. Selecting the Birdipedia button launches the browser of the device, opening the Wikipedia page for the bird species in question. Of course, this feature requires connection to a WiFi network when using the iPod Touch; however as the iPhone can access the Internet via both the cell network as well as via WiFi, users of the iBird Explorer Plus will no doubt make greater use of this feature when in the field. In either case, the direct linking to the collective knowledge of Wikipedia is indeed an ingenious feature integrated into iBird Explorer Plus by its designers.

As this is intended to be the first of multiple articles chronicling my adventures in Florida using the iBird Explorer Plus as my only field guide, I will close here and save the explanation of the “Search” portion of the application for the next installment. Suffice it to note that having examined the iBird Explorer Plus, as well two of its more localized family members, iBird Explorer Western and iBird Explorer Backyard, ($9.99 and $4.99 respectively; iBird Explorer South, North, Midwest, and Canada are also available for $9.99 each) I am already quite impressed and have high expectations from the application.

Peace.

A Public Letter of Welcome

2009-01-20T21:03:00.000-08:00

Dear President Obama,

Indeed, it brings my heart immeasurable joy to be able to write such a greeting. On behalf of myself and my family, I extend to you a most heartfelt welcome to the office of President of the United States.

Mr. President, as you well know and so eloquently expressed in your inaugural address to the nation, we are facing great challenges in the days, months, and even years to come. Following years of the most hypocritical and self-serving assertions made by the powerful and well-connected to loosen regulations on almost every aspect of the world of commerce and finance, in return for which they behaved with all the moral responsibility of rutting goats, we now find ourselves deep in an economic recession if not in fact in an economic depression. Billions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury have been thrown at the problem with an effect equal to that as if these same dollars had been thrown to the four winds; no one knows in which direction they went or where they finally landed. People are losing their jobs by the tens of thousands, and as ours is the only industrialized nation lacking a national system of guaranteed medical care for all our people, relying instead upon our nation’s employers and the employees themselves to bear the ever-increasing cost burden laid upon them by a for-profit insurance industry (a great shame upon our nation in and of itself), these same people will soon be without care for themselves or their families should they become sick or injured.

Then of course, there is the war – or perhaps better described as “wars.” Chasing an amorphous international band of criminals who are, according to the Koran and Moslem scholars the world around, unjustly waging jihad against Saudi Arabia and all nations they deem, correctly or not, sympathetic to the ruling family of that kingdom, our nation has committed our men and women to the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan. In the case of the former, the reasons for doing so have been shown to be, at the very least, in error. In the case of the latter, where the battle might have more justifiably been joined, while the determination of the soldiers and relief workers on the ground has been nothing short of heroic, the will of our nation’s administration has been less than sufficient. Thousands of Americans and untold numbers of Iraqis and Afghans have died as a result. Thousands more have been maimed. Though the former administration has been willing to sacrifice not only our civil liberties but our very moral standing in the world to do so, the criminals have not to this day been brought to justice.

Mr. President, I find no shame in telling you that, like millions of others who, either in person or through one of the many forms of media broadcasting the event as it happened, witnessed your taking the oath of office, I shed tears of joy upon your pronouncement of “so help me God.” It is as if a great weight was lifted from my heart and for the first time in many years I felt that our country would one day rise again to become the great and good nation that its founders hoped that it would be. In speaking those few words inscribed in the Constitution aloud, you renewed the hope in us which had almost been extinguished.

Yet as you said, our journey to revival and renewal is not to be either short or easy. It will require us all working together regardless of race, creed, or affiliation to restore us to our former glory. This we are willing to do. But in order to ensure that all which needs to be done is put into motion, we need a leader. By an overwhelming majority, we have chosen you for this task. Unlike as has occasionally and unjustly been the accusation levied by a few obscenely well-paid, socially isolated, and bellicose pundits, we do not see you as the messiah or a benevolent dictator; rather you are to the millions of us all across the land awaiting your direction that for which we have long hoped – a highly intelligent, ethically upright, and eminently competent person who has deigned for the good of the nation to accept the most difficult job presently known to the world: president of our free citizenry founded on the premises so eloquently put forth in the Preamble to our Constitution.

Gather together our nation’s best minds, create a plan for our revival and renewal, and charge us with our responsibilities that it may be realized; we are willing and ready to serve. When our spirits falter, and falter at times they will, remind us of what it is we are seeking to do and impart to us words of hope that it can be achieved. If your spirit falters, look to your faith and your family of course, but also look as well to the millions of us who will be daily praying for your health, intellect, and leadership to remain strong and vibrant. It is also my personal prayer that in as you have given up so much as a private citizen to shoulder this greatest of leadership burdens, that we the people of the United States of America not fall to petty bickering, gossip, and strife, but remain steadfast in our support of your work as our president. Although you may already have heard it often for all that you have done and are about to do, please allow me to close this letter to you with a simple but in absolute earnestness common phrase of gratitude – thank you.

Your fellow citizen,
John E. Riutta

The Return of Bob

2009-01-14T17:40:00.000-08:00

After a year on the road crossing and recrossing North America on his quest ot encounter as many butterflies as possible and thus establish the Butterfly Big Year, Robert Michael Pyle has finally returned. His final post, dated January 12, 2009, that capped the blog he wrote detailing his adventures over the course of this past year, is now online at the Xerces Society's website. Even if you were not following this blog as it was developing, this final post is a must read for anyone interested in butterflies, ecology, conservation, as well as all enthusiasts of superb natural history writing. Should you find that what you read in this post strikes an appreciative chord in your brain, all of Bob's previous posts are also online along with it.

Peace.

Photos from the Snow Storm IV

2009-01-09T16:28:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the best photo I took during the entire period of being snowbound during the "Great Snowstorm of 2008," or at least the one with which I am the most pleased, was this one of a Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus, red-shafted form.

With her feathers raised to help insulate her from the cold and the break in the snowfall giving me a clear view for the photo, the three-dimensional quality of the image is particularly noticeable. I do wonder if perhaps I should have softened the background just a bit to make the bird a more prominent; however that would have also likely lessened the dimensionality overall.

Peace and good bird watching.

Photos from the Snow Storm III

2009-01-05T19:20:00.000-08:00

Those of us living in the Pacific Northwest of the United States are quite accustomed to seeing ghost birds while we are walking in the forest during wintertime. While strolling among the massive trunks of the Douglas Firs and the Western Hemlocks we not infrequently get a quick glimpse of what we think is a nuthatch clinging to the bark of one of these giants; however when we turn to get a closer look, the bird we thought we saw vanishes as if it was never there at all. In fact it was there but it wasn't a nuthatch - it was a Brown Creeper, Certhia americana.

Brown Creepers define the word "cryptic" almost as well as the notorious Pauraque, Nyctidromus albicollis, a member of which species I nearly stepped on, so well did it blend into the fallen leaves lying all about the ground, while birding in the south Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The calls of Brown Creepers often ring our clearly as they forage upward along the trunks of the giant evergreens but, thanks to their camouflage patterning of soft greys and browns, they can be dashedly difficult to spot against the identically patterned and shadowed bark, and even more difficult to photograph.

While this is not a perfect photograph, it is one of the best I could manage. Every time I thought I had the bird in focus for many successive frames, almost all of them turned out to be somewhat soft and blurry. My mistake seems to have been that I was trying to focus the image seen through the camera's lens on the bird's cryptically and deceptively patterned back rather than on a less visually complex area such as its beak. The fact that these little birds are far more thick when clinging to a tree than they appear (they look just like little footballs in profile) only makes the matter worse. Truly, these are challenging birds to photograph.

Peace and good bird watching.

Photos from the Snow Storm II

2009-01-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

A year-round resident of the Pacific Northwest, primarily of the higher altitude evergreen forests, the Varied Thrush, Ixoreus naevius, is a regular visitor to the lowlands during the coldest months of winter

While many may wax poetic over the flame orange color of the male Blackburnian Warbler, and justly so, I'll take the glowing ember orange of our own winter thrushes any day for a welcome bit of winter cheer.

Peace and good bird watching.

Lucky Hummingbird

2008-12-31T16:26:00.000-08:00

Among the Haida people of the Pacific Northwest, the hummingbird is considered to be a symbol of good luck or good fortune. Spotting a hummingbird just before undertaking a new endeavor was thought to be an auspicious omen.

As the Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna, overwinters in northwest Oregon, we have the opportunity to partake in the good luck of seeing them throughout the darkest of the dark months. Through our recent spell of snow and ice, this little one pictured here was a regular visitor to our neighbor’s and our feeders, which we diligently kept free of ice and available for its use.

May the good fortune of the hummingbird remain with you throughout the new year.

Peace and good bird watching.

Photos from the Snow Storm I

2008-12-29T17:15:00.000-08:00

If you follow the weather news, you might have noticed reports indicating that the snow here in the Pacific Northwest has been piling up, as we say in Scappoose, "nose deep on the Buddha." (Well, actually I'm the only one who says that but I'm trying to start a trend.) As a result, we have not been able to get around much since well before Christmas.

However one of the benefits of being more or less house-bound is the opportunity to spread the bird seed thickly around the domestic perimeter and train the long lens on whatever flies into range - such as this American Robin, Turdus migratorius, for example.

Over the next few posts, I'll be sharing some of my favorite images of the local birdlife recorded during "The Great Christmas Snowstorm of 2008" (at least that's what the over-caffeinated weather reporters will likely be calling it about this time next year).

Peace and good bird watching.

Wadja Get?

2008-12-26T17:33:00.000-08:00

This being Boxing Day (appropriate greetings to all the Born Again Bird Watcher readers from commonwealth nations), the gifts of Christmas Eve and Christmas - according to varying traditions - have now been opened and the holiday rush and scurry now exists solely in memories and photographs. But about those gifts... inquiring readers as well as this writer would be interested to learn some of the favorite gifts you received.

For my part, I must break down my favorites into two categories - the completely brilliant and the heart-warming. In the completely brilliant category, I have to give the pride of place to my family's gift to me of a trio of superb photographic accessories, including one that will also benefit the reading and viewing pleasure of Born Again Bird Watcher readers in the days and months to come: a Canon MR-14EX Macro Ring Lite. Get ready for dramatically improved insect and botanical photos!

Yet as much as I dearly appreciate the photographic equipment, I think I am even more pleased by the gift from my daughter of the book The Sushi Experience by Hiroko Shimbo. As I have noted in previous posts, my daughter and I share a love of Japanese food and culture. Her gift to me of such a marvelous book on an aspect of this jointly shared passion is gratifying to my heart in a way I shall never forget.

Peace and good bird watching.

Hauskaa Joulua!

2008-12-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

Gesëende Kersfees

Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah

Feliz Navidad

Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo

Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan

Zalig Kerstfeast

Merry Christmas

Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad

Joyeux Noel

Froehliche Weihnachten

Mele Kalikimaka

Gledileg Jol

Buone Feste Natalizie

Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto

Sung Tan Chuk Ha

Linksmu Kaledu

Hauskaa Joulua

No matter how you say it, I wish you a very happy one indeed.

Peace on earth. Goodwill to all.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Twelve - Membership

2008-12-24T14:30:00.000-08:00

And there’s the whistle – the game is over. Christmas Eve is either nigh or smack dab upon us. The shops are closed and all gifts are bought, wrapped, and ready for exchange. Except for cousin Fred – you didn’t ever figure out what to get him this year. You know he’s a bit of an amateur nature buff, but he’s never been a joiner and doesn’t think of himself as a bird watcher, butterfly enthusiast, or any other sort of hobbyist. Still he does like to watch every nature program he can on the television and has been known to attend a lecture or two at the local library when someone has slides of a photo safari to Africa. What can you still get for Fred?

Simple – get him a membership to his local nature conservation organization. Each country has at least one and most include some superb full color glossy magazines along with their memberships. You can easily register Fred online even still today and then jot out a quick e-mail saying “Merry Christmas Fred. I know how much you enjoy learning about wildlife so I’ve enrolled you for a yearly membership in (fill in your organization’s name here).”

Now for the coming year, Fred will regularly receive a magazine or newsletter in the post that he can enjoy and continue his discoveries about the natural world while at the same time you will have helped that organization to continue their work to study and conserve the wildlife about which Fred so well enjoys learning.

So in what worthy organizations might you consider enrolling Fred? While they are indeed many, here are some of the most common ones which all offer regular member publications and other offerings well suited to the general interest level member:

In the U.K.:

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

In the U.S.:

American Bird Conservancy

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

National Audubon Society

National Wildlife Federation

Don’t forget about Fred’s ten-year old daughter Barbara as well.

In the U.K.:

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Wildlife Explorers

In the U.S.:

National Wildlife Federation (Ranger Rick)

If this list is not suitable to your country, you might consult the BirdLife International list of national partners to discover a great organization in whichever country your particular cousin Fred lives.

Peace and good bird watching.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Eleven - Filson

2008-12-23T16:57:00.000-08:00

It’s December 23rd; time is running out. If you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping by now, you are either out of luck or running on luck fumes. Oh sure, you might make one last scramble toward the mall or your local shops, but they might not be open on the 24th and do you really want to be scurrying through the mall with all the rest of the last minuters? So let me offer you a quick, easy, and effective solution to all your last minute gift giving needs to your favorite outdoor enthusiast – a Filson online gift certificate.

Since 1897 when Clinton C. Filson's opened his Pioneer Alaska Clothing and Blanket Manufacturers, specializing in goods to outfit the stampeders to the Klondike Gold Rush, the name Filson has been associated with the pinnacle of quality and durability in outdoor clothing and associated gear. Those who make their living out-of-doors – power company utility workers, back country guides, field engineers, etc. – who often trust their very well-being to the clothes they are wearing to protect them from some of the harshest environmental as well as working conditions on earth have known and sworn by Filson for more than a century. Hunters learned of the benefits of wearing Filson gear shortly thereafter. Some bird watchers and other nature enthusiasts have more recently come to learn of it. Those who have praise the day they did; those who haven’t still get cold, wet, and scratched up by briars, brambles, and blackberry vines.

So if the nature enthusiast on your list ventures out into the field to pursue his or her favorite past-time, and especially if that person is a professional field researcher, photographer, or other denizen of the wilds and weeds who is still paying off college loans and hasn’t yet had the resources to invest in some top-of-the-line field gear, a gift certificate from Filson will surely be welcomed with enthusiasm. Certificates ordered online by 9:00 AM PST on December 24th will be delivered online directly to the e-mail box of your intended recipient in time for the grand festivities on Christmas day.

Peace and good bird watching.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Ten - birdJam

2008-12-22T17:52:00.001-08:00

iPods – you’ve got one, I’ve got one, most people you know likely have one, but what do we do with them? Music? Yes, they’re good for that. Podcasts? Sure – I’m quite the podcast addict myself. Learning bird vocalizations? Absolutely, especially if the iPod in question is loaded with birdJam.

For those who might not already know about birdJam, it’s a great software application that loads directly onto an iPod and allows for the Stokes Field Guide audio collections of bird vocalization recordings to be turned into a dynamic learning tool. Once loaded, birdJam Maker (the base birdJam program) “updates song names, splits tracks, adds bird photos, removes narration and adds useful additional data to iTunes and enables the use of birdJam playlists.” Pretty slick, eh?

Sure, you could just load the Stokes CDs themselves, but you wouldn’t get the images offered by birdJam synchronized into the iPod screen while they are playing. This in itself is what makes the application such as great learning tool – the opportunity to both see and hear simultaneously. I must have listened to various CDs dozens if not hundreds of times trying to get bird calls to stick in my head; with birdJam, the combined power of both visual and auditory learning is employed together to dramatically speed up the process and help even the most subtle bird calls to be quickly learned and remembered in the field.

In addition to the birdJam Maker itself, the good people at birdJam also offer some extremely helpful add-on modules, such as SE Arizona and Sonora, Mexico; Costa Rica: Caribbean Slope; and even a terrific non-bird offering, Calls of Frogs and Toads. They also offer a special add-on to accompany Bill Thompson III’s remarkable Peterson Field Guide volume The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of Eastern North America entitled Young Birder's Guide Companion available only through the Bird Watcher’s Digest website.

So if the bird watcher or nature enthusiast on your holiday gift list is an iPod afficianado, birdJam will be a more than welcome gift this year. Should you know one of the three people left on earth not yet in possession of an iPod, birdJam also offers ones pre-loaded with the birdJam program as well.

Peace and good bird watching.

Happy Hannukah

2008-12-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

Even thought I have been busily engaged these past few weeks in publishing suggestions for Christmas gifts, I have most certainly not been forgetting (at least in my heart) the Born Again Bird Watcher readers of faiths other than Christianity. Therefore as this is the beginning of Hannukah, I hope all my readers of the Jewish faith will accept my most sincere good wishes during the Festival of Light.

Mazel tov (apologies if this is not the right thing to say) and good bird watching.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Nine - the New Peterson Guide

2008-12-21T13:31:00.000-08:00

As we here in Scappoose have been blanketed in snow for the past week (not a normal occurrence, to be sure) and last night were glazed with a sheet of ice atop the snow as well, “hunkering down” in our respective dwellings has become something of a local hobby as of late. While this situation may indeed be conducive to a moderate case of cabin fever, it does have its benefits as well. One of these has been to allow me to put aside the distractions of the outside world and attend to more reading and writing than I would have otherwise been able to do. And what have I been reading you may ask? A book that I eagerly awaited from the day I first learned of its planned publication and through which I have been pouring ever since the arrival of my very own copy in the post – the Peterson Field Guide to the Birds of North America.

Regardless of how many field guides you, your family, or your friends may own, you owe it to all previously mentioned to include this new Peterson guide on your list of “must buy” gifts this holiday season. Not only is it an enhancement in both form and content to the previous Peterson Western Birds and Eastern Birds respectively, it is an advancement of the Peterson legacy into the digital age through the inclusion of not only electronic enhancements to the paintings themselves in order to bring them into line with recent ornithological discoveries and advances in field observation techniques, but of the inclusion of a series of downloadable video podcasts pertinent to the book which are available to purchasers as well.

I have been enjoying the time I have thus far spent perusing my copy of the new Peterson guide immensely. As my family can, and will, quickly attest, I can sit for hours upon end completely engrossed in the plates, the text, and the improved and repositioned maps (no more flipping to the back of the book!). And the video podcasts – well, let’s just say that any recipient of the new Peterson guide will be giving their television a long rest.

Peace and good bird watching.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Eight - The Wingscapes BirdCam

2008-12-17T19:55:00.000-08:00

For just about a year now, many of the photos and videos published on Born Again Bird Watcher have been made possible by the Wingscapes BirdCam. Had I been required to sit with camera in hand, assumedly in a blind or hide, for each of these images to be recorded, I doubt I would have had time to write (or for that matter do much else) nearly as much or as frequently as I have been able to do. The BirdCam’s basic quality of “set it and forget it” has been a true blessing in the recording of the birds not only visiting the feeders maintained on our property in Scappoose, but the birds abiding in the various locations around the country to which I have easily toted and temporarily set up the BirdCam as well.

There is much that can be written about the BirdCam’s merits, published for the purpose of convincing you the reader of the benefits that could be had by the person to whom you might give a BirdCam for a holiday gift, that would be entirely appropriate here. I could write about its weather-resistant design, environmental durability, long battery life, quick and easy out-of-the-box set-up, or widely customizable program settings; however when it comes right down to it, the best argument for the BirdCam is the images that can be recorded by using it. For that purpose, I present a sample of three of my favorites (thus far) that make the argument far more eloquently than words ever could.

Should these images move you to purchase a Wingscapes BirdCam this holiday season for the birdwatcher in your life, or should you simply wish to reward yourself for being extra-good this year, the good folks at Wingscapes would like to offer you a present as well. They are presently offering two special holiday packages: one including the BirdCam Mounting Arm, and one including the BirdCam Mounting Arm and the BirdCam Tripod – both including many other helpful accessories as well.

Peace and good bird watching.

Interesting Fact

2008-12-16T21:33:00.000-08:00

According to Gilbert Waldbauer, as recorded in his 2006 book "A Walk Around the Pond," there are some 450 species of Lepidoptera - all of which in this case are moths - whose caterpillars are either entirely aquatic (approximately 90 species) or semi-aquatic (the remainder).

Peace and good bird watching.

Local Holiday

2008-12-15T17:31:00.000-08:00

Living in the maritime climate at the foot of the Coast Range in the northwest corner of Oregon, any day in which the ground is covered with at least an inch of sleddable snow is effectively a holiday. In all honesty, snow here means ice; un-navigable, stay-put-in-your-home ice. Thus the order of the day at Casa Riutta was baking, sledding, and digiscoping.

The difficulty with the latter two of these activities was that as the temperature was close to or below twenty degrees Fahrenheit all day, being outside was downright painful. Thus much of my digiscoping was done in a manner not generally advised by most any respectable digiscoper: I was shooting the images through a pane of window glass.

However even given my scofflaw attitude toward good digiscoping practices, the results were not too bad (these are uncropped and unretouched images):

Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura

Varied Thrush, Ixoreus Naevius

The weather report for the remainder of the week is predicting temperatures below freezing all hours of the day and night - down into the single digits in fact. Perfect weather for a bit more digiscoping.

Peace and good bird watching.

Home

2008-12-13T10:25:00.000-08:00

When I was a boy growing up in the small town of Astoria, Oregon, I long dreamed that I would someday move far away. While I was proud of my family and our heritage, I couldn't wait to go to college; to move away to the city and find a new larger life.

Now, after over twenty years of living away from my hometown, I have returned with my wife, daughter, and mother for a brief time in order to pay some holiday season visits and lay wreaths on the graves of my ancestors whose bones lie buried here.

Sitting here alongside the lower Columbia River, listening to water lapping at the pilings and smelling the sweet air blowing in from the nearby Pacific Ocean, I am overcome by the awareness that, all dreams of my youth put aside, there is no where else in the world I would rather be. It is here that I am truly home.

Peace.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Seven - BirdNote

2008-12-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

As everyone knows, the state of the global economy more or less, well… sucks. People are losing their jobs by the thousands (don’t worry, top corporate and financial executives, and members of the U.S. congress still have their “golden” pay packages, health insurance, retirement savings, etc.), municipal governments are planning for massive budget shortages, and families are being tossed out of their homes; which is why I’m proposing something a little different for this seventh day of Christmas suggestion – make a small donation for the general good.

If you have it in your power to do so, instead of a store-bought gift, make a donation in someone’s name to your local food bank or homeless shelter. Drop a buck in a Salvation Army kettle. Scratch out a small check and mail it to your local favorite charity (if it’s a large organization, check Charity Navigator first; not all who claim to do good do as much good as they claim). For those who would like to focus their giving on the world of nature – great! Have I got a suggestion for you.

Just the other day I received a distressing e-mail message from my friends at BirdNote, the daily two-minute radio program and podcast that brings the wonder of birds to thousands of listeners around the world:

Dear Friend of BirdNote:

Thank you for being a steadfast fan of BirdNote. We enjoy sending you the weekly previews of upcoming BirdNote shows, 52 times a year without request for support.

In these unusual economic times, however, we need to ask you and other members of the BirdNote community for your support. We need to do this because BirdNote's "angel" underwriter – who has shouldered the main financial burden for more than three years – is no longer able to do so. She has contributed more than $60,000 per year, about a third of what it costs to produce BirdNote. It will take many of us to fill her shoes, so I ask you to make a donation if you can. BirdNote needs your help to keep bringing stories to the air.

Times are tough for most everyone right now; and I’m sure donations are the furthest thing from anyone’s mind; however if you do find yourself in a position to make a contribution to BirdNote, know that you’ll not only be giving a gift to the person in whose name the donation is made, you’ll be making it to thousands of BirdNote’s listeners as well and helping to continue BirdNote’s joyful message of the wonders of birds that can help sustain us all through the dark days to come.

Peace and good bird watching.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Six - The Winged Explorer

2008-12-10T08:26:00.000-08:00

One of the challenges all bird watchers face is the decision to or not to take a field guide on any birding excursion. Leaving home without one could be a serious mistake but if one is to be taken, which one should it be. Small size also means smaller images and less information available. Of course, no printed field guide contains audio files of bird vocalizations. Even more, none of this takes into account the possibility of needing to consult a bird identification reference when simply going about your daily routine (face it, most bird watchers are bird watchers around the clock, not just on designated field trips). As an active bird watcher who has faced all these challenges, I was indeed intrigued to have recently received, and quite pleased with the results from my examination of, an innovative new product from the good people at WhatBird – the Winged Explorer.

Operating on the Microsoft Windows Pocket PC operating system, the Winged Explorer is an ideal application for use on such popular devices as the Hewlett Packard iPAQ 2495, iPAQ Classic 100 (the model upon which I tested it), iPAQ rx 1950, HTC Touch, and mobile phones such as the AT&T Tilt, and Verizon XV6800. It loads quickly and is fully functional in a matter of seconds. Throughout all my examination of the Winged Explorer, I did not experience a single processing error or crash.

The central function of the Winged Explorer is to aid in the identification of birds to the species level. Using a tabbed interface and simple stylus input, the identification of most any bird species can usually be positively made in a matter of seconds. For those few species where definitive species identification cannot be made by the Winged Explorer alone, the possibilities for a positive identification can be reduced to such a small group that the final identification can easily be made by the user. In cases of very challenging species, Empidonax flycatchers for example, the inclusion of vocalization files playable at the touch of the stylus is especially helpful.

For the beginning bird watcher, the Winged Explorer accomplishes two important tasks. First and most obviously, it assists in identifying the bird seen. However it also does something far more subtle yet far more useful in the larger perspective – it teaches the user how to think about making a positive identification when encountering an unknown species. In a sense, it is a decision engine, using each successive entry by the user to break the list of potential species down into increasingly smaller groups through the process of elimination. This “identification search engine” is precisely what occurs in the minds of most experienced bird watchers; a skill they have developed over years spent practicing the craft.

To the bird watcher possessing greater experience or more highly developed identification skills, the Winged Explorer serves as a tool to assist in teasing out possibilities when faced with challenging identifications. As bird identification is often an exercise in knowing all the possibilities and then applying deductive reasoning to reach a final conclusion, the Winged Explorer serves as an invaluable assistant to ensuring that “all the possibilities” are explicitly present from the start.

Offering, as it does, both large and easy to view species illustrations (including alternate / basic and life stage plumage depictions when relevant) as well as vocalization files, the Winged Explorer may also serve as a valuable tool to field trip leaders, teachers, interpretive naturalists, and all others who find themselves leading others in any type of field experience. The addition of range maps for each species as well as textual identification data further supplements the educational and instructive capabilities of the Winged Explorer.

Of course, most everyone venturing into the field in search of birds creates some form of record of what they saw, either individually or as a group. With its built-in life list function, the Winged Explorer makes it quick and easy to record not only the species sighted but to quickly add additional details of the sighting as needed. As adding a species to the listing feature can be done directly from the main menu as well as from the search results, sighting lists compiled using the Winged Explorer have the potential for a higher level of both accuracy as well as detail (especially important elements when rarities are sighted that may require defense before a rare bird record committee).

Finally, but my no means of little importance, the Winged Explorer includes a very comprehensive Updater program for the user’s PC. This program runs in the background and appears in program tray on the user’s desktop. Its purpose is to provide updates to both the Winged Explorer program itself as well as the database. Since the database is derived from the constantly updated WhatBird database, any changes made there will be pushed out to all Winged Explorer devices. This also means new program features created by WhatBird (such as eBird compatibility, search by song, etc) will be provided seamlessly and free of charge. As WhatBird constantly updates their database for things like illustration improvements, species that are lumped or split, new family taxonomy (as recently occurred) you could say that Winged Explorer is the only field guide that never goes out of date.

With its easy-to-use interface providing access to a wealth of bird illustrations, range maps, detailed species descriptions, and audio vocalization files, as well as its record keeping capacity and its ability to be loaded onto a wide selection of Microsoft Windows Pocket PC operating system mobile phones and PDAs, the Winged Explorer is without question a welcome addition to the tools now available to the modern bird watcher. In addition, as its applicability spans such a wide spectrum of bird watching experience levels, and as it has such a high potential for use by guides, teachers, and natural history interpreters, it is quite possible to call it, without fear of hyperbole, one of the best new bird watching products of the year.

Peace and good bird watching.

THIS JUST IN! Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users can now get all these great benefits from the iBird Explorer.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Five - Bird Feeders

2008-12-08T16:51:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the ones most often neglected. Take buying a gift for your favorite bird watcher. Time and again I am asked "What type of bird feeder should I buy for a friend who's really into bird watching?" My answer to them is nearly always the same: "Don't buy a bird feeder for an avid bird wacher."

Chances are your friend or relation who you know to be a dedicated bird watcher already has a bird feeder - likely more than one in fact. If they are really involved in feeding their local birds, they likely have preferences as to what types of feeders they prefer to use. Formed from years of expeience, these preferences are directly related to the types of bird species that visit your friend's bird feeding site and their behavior when they are present. There also may be special considerations, such as a particularly large squirrel population, that necessitate the use of a special feeder design.

Try to discover the name of the local bird feeding supply store in your gift recipient's area and buy them a gift certificate there. In areas without independent bird feeding specialty shops, local feed stores and hardware stores are also often good sources for purchasing bird feeding supplies - particularly seed and suet.

If you really want to give a gift that is immediately tangible, bird seed is a good choice. While there are many types of seed, as well as suet, on the market, and while preferences for types of seed and suet can be just as pronunced as those for types of bird feeders, a good bag of black oil sunflower seed is a gift that most all dedicated bird watchers will welcome (at any time of year).

Peace and good bird watching.
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