Daily Archives: April 25, 2009

A good day for birds.

This was not an intensive bird watching day. This was a day driving to the cabin, sitting in the cabin writing, looking out the window, driving to run an errand, going to town for dinner, sitting in the cabin looking out the window some more, etc.

But the birds insisted on performing. So I thought I’d give you a list.,

En route north from the Twin Cities:

  • Two probable trumpeter swans heading west.
  • A flock of about 45 cormorants heading north. Leech Lake look out!
  • Near Fort Ripley: Rough Legged Hawk?
  • Blue Jay
  • Nisswa, overlookng Round Lake: Bald Eagle in tree
  • Lesser Scaup (small flock)

At the Cabin (Woman Lake):

  • Bald Eagle 1 (or two) of our nesting pair. Bald Eagle 3 (yearling).
  • Loons 1 and 2 feeding.
  • Loons 1 and 2 feeding with otter.
  • Loons 1 and 2 getting harassed by BE 3
  • Loons 1 and 2 joined by interloping male Loon 3, displays, much ado for a while, Loon 3 leaves (unlike three years ago, when one of the two males died in the ensuing fight)
  • White throated sparrow
  • Hooded mergansers (2 males breeding plus 1 female)
  • Red breasted nuthatch
  • White breated nuthatch
  • Phoebes
  • BC Chickadees
  • Various woodpeckers (sound only)
  • Common Goldeneye (sitting on edge of ice in the lake)

Longville:

  • RW Blackbirds
  • Loon

South of Longville

  • Bald Eagle sitting alone in the forest.
  • The above does not count numerous LBB’s unidentified.

A New Field Guide to the Birds from The Smithsonian

OK, not so new, but still relevant. The following is a repost of a review of this book.

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New Smithsonian Field Guide
Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America by Ted Floyd is a newcomer to the bird field guide scene. This guide offers a new combination of features that may make it the best choice as the primary guide for a small number of birders, and as an excellent second (or third) guide for most birdwatchers. Given the guide’s qualities and price (it is not expensive) if you are a North American birder (anywhere in the region) this is a must-have for your collection, and if you know a birder who is having a present-able event (birthday, etc.) any time in the next couple of weeks, get this as a gift because they might not even know about it yet and you will gain mucho brownie points.

Having said that, I do think there is room for improvement in this product, so do please read the fine print:

Continue reading A New Field Guide to the Birds from The Smithsonian

Freed Hostage Takes Exception to Rush Limbaugh’s Racist Remarks

Shane Murphy, second-in-command aboard the ship seized by Somali pirates this month, is happy to be home. But he’s not happy to be sharing turf with land-lubber Rush Limbaugh, who politicized the pirate affair by referring to the pirates as “black teenagers.”

“It feels great to be home,” said Murphy in an interview with WCBV in Boston. “It feels like everyone around here has my back, with the exception of Rush Limbaugh, who is trying to make this into a race issue…that’s disgusting.”

source