The Zen Birdfeeder

Great Adirondack Birding Celebration June 6 - 8

The sixth annual Great Adirondack Birding Celebration (GABC) is scheduled for June 6-8, 2008 at the Adirondack Park Agency Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) in Paul Smiths.
 

All programs, including field trips, are FREE. Registration is open for trips/programs by calling (518) 327-3000.

The 2008 Great Adirondack Birding Celebration will feature birding trips, lectures, workshops and the popular Teddy Roosevelt Birding Challenge. Wild Birds Unlimited - Saratoga Springs will be there with a nice selection of binoculars and spotting scopes, including digiscoping set-ups.

2008 Schedule
Download the 2008 schedule. (A 119k pdf file)

The guest speaker at 7 p.m. Friday, June 6 will be Lang Elliott, the author of many book/CD packages, including Common Birds and Their Songs, Music of the Birds, and The Songs of Wild Birds. He is the owner of NatureSound Studio, which he created in order to celebrate the sounds of nature.

The keynote address at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 7 will be given by Miyoko Chu, author of "Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds." 

2008 Field Trips
Download the field trips list. (A 49k pdf file).  All field trips are FREE though registration is required at (518) 327-3000.

For more information about the Great Adirondack Birding Celebration, contact Lydia Wright at (518) 327-3000.

Care for the Birds - Care for the Environment: Global Warming

Take Action to Fight Global Warming

In the coming days, the U.S. Senate will cast one of the most important votes of this Congress. They will vote on critical legislation to combat the global warming crisis.

We need every bit of grassroots muscle to ensure that the Senate strengthens and passes the Climate Security Act. Your email now will help us pass a bill that:

• helps to avoid the worst impacts of global warming
• promotes greater investment in clean and renewable energy
• improves energy efficiency—the easiest, cheapest path to reducing global warming pollution
• bolsters our economy with new, clean energy jobs.

Audubon has make it easy to Take Action to ask your Senators to strengthen and pass the Climate Security Act.

I join Audubon in their belief that global warming is the most serious threat to the environment in human history. There is no greater threat to birds and wildlife—and to the future we all want to pass to our children and grandchildren. Right now, the most important thing Congress can do is to pass strong legislation that starts us on the path to cleaner, more secure energy future. The most important thing you can do to protect wildlife and the environment is contact your Senators.

Your action now will ensure that Congress does the right thing and takes bold steps to solve global warming.  Yesterday, I contacted NY Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer. I hope you'll join me by contacting your Senators too.

Sign up for AudubonAction to receive these action alerts direct from Audubon.

I and the Bird #76

You're invited!  Stop in at Wanderin' Weeta's "Beginning of the Season – Victoria Day – It's Not Raining Day" Garden Party and Potluck. Included in her party recap, I and the Bird #76, is our "Hitting a Tree at 13mph" post.

Wordless Wednesday

Nest-building Time!

SOM Seeking SOF

Single Oriole Male, new to area since May 18th, looking for Single Oriole Female for monogamous relationship.

Great singing voice.  Enjoys meals of caterpillars, moths, aphids, and other insects as well as oranges, nectar, and grape jelly.  8" long, weight 1.2oz.  Flashy dresser (wears orange and black suit).  Well groomed.  Love to travel long distances twice a year. Vacations during winters along Atlantic Coast of US.  Spends summers in rural area of upstate NY. Will help build great pouch-shaped nest in treetops. Hope to raise 4-5 young ones this season. Establishing territory right now and waiting for that special somebird.

This male oriole has been around and singing exuberantly from the tops of trees every day since the 18th. I posted his song on the 18th and decided to try to help him out some more with this personal ad.  If any one out there has an extra female oriole looking for love, send her this way!

Care for Birds - Care for the Environment: Protect New York's Wetlands

Please act now to protect New York's wetlands.

Go to http://actionnetwork.org/ct/s71LM-M1bRGs/ to ask your New York State Senator to reach out to Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno to schedule the Wetlands Protection Act for a vote.

Wetlands are a vital resource that maintain clean drinking water, prevent flooding, and provide critical habitat for many birds, fish, and other wildlife. Read what's at stake.

However, rollbacks in federal protection and the weakest state law in the Northeast have left many of New York's wetlands entirely unprotected. The Wetlands Protection Act would protect New York's wetlands by reducing the size threshold for state jurisdiction from 12.4 acres to one acre.

I have already contacted my State Senator, Hugh Farley. If you live in New York, please join me by visiting http://actionnetwork.org/ct/s71LM-M1bRGs/ and reach out to your State Senator to ask Senate Majority Leader Bruno to schedule S.3835 for a vote.

Photo Courtesy of Wild Birds Unlimited Inc.

Banded Grosbeak

This male Rose-breasted Grosbeak that visited my feeder Wednesday morning has a band on its right leg.

Only about 1% of banded songbirds are encountered after their initial banding. If you ever find a banded bird, reporting the information makes a very valuable contribution to the bander.

A bird with a metal band on its leg was banded under a permit from the U.S. Bird Banding Laboratory. Federal Fish & Wildlife bands are plain aluminum, inscribed with a nine digit number. Read about types of bird bands on the USGS site.

It is important to report banded birds if you can get the numbers from the band. Without the numbers, nothing can be reported. The information that must be recorded includes:

• band numbers and letters
• town, county, and state where the bird was found
• date found
• alive or dead? how did it die?
• finder's name, address, and phone number

Call the information in to 1-800-327-2263 or report it on the Bird Banding Lab's website www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl. It can also be sent by mail to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bird Banding Laboratory, 12100 Beech Forest Road, Laurel, MD 20708-4037.

If you call them, they can often tell you where the bird came from and how old it is. They will also notify the person who originally banded the bird. You'll get a certificate with information about the bird and thanking you for helping the program.

Unfortunately, even with a digiscoped image, I cannot read the numbers on the band, so I'm unable to report it. But it does make me stop and wonder who had the joy of holding this beauty in their hand? Where was he caught and released? How long ago was he banded?  Was it just this spring?  What would the bander be able to tell me about my bird? 

I wish I could report SOMETHING to the bander, but I know that if I could, it would probably mean the bird had died.  I much prefer it this way.

Wordless Wednesday

 
Woodpecker Bed Head

Crown Point Birding May 08

We visited the Crown Point Bird Banding Station on a gorgeous spring day last week.  It was just a little too gorgeous as far as bird banding opportunities were concerned.  With no activity to observe at the mist nets, we spent time looking for birds at this Important Bird Area on Lake Champlain.

We saw/heard 31 species (last May we counted 50 birds, but we had our good friend and better birder Mona with us then!)  Here's the list of the birds we counted this year.

Tree Swallows were extremely numerous and always gorgeous.

Eastern Kingbird

Cormorants roosting over Bulwagga Bay.

Turkey Vulture overhead

Eastern Meadowlark - couldn't get a closer image.

Enjoyed observing a pair of bluebirds at a nestbox. The female was gathering nesting material and taking it into the box; the male would be around and fly to the top of the box after the female entered it. It was fun to watch their behavior during this nest-building stage.

The banding station is open until May 25th and is open to the public. Hopefully the activity has picked up for Mike, Gordon, and their team.

Courtship Time for Rose-breasted Grosbeaks

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks returned this year on May 4, a full week earlier than 2007. A female returned first; a number of males appeared the following day.  (Click on images to enlarge.  Images 1, 2, and 6 were digiscoped.)
 

There have been numerous rose-breasteds at the feeders since then. When observing the males, note the red pattern on their breast - the shape and pattern of red varies from bird to bird. With good powers of observation, you can use this to identify individual birds.

For about the first week following their return, there wasn't a lot of singing going on. That changed this week. Both male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks have started singing like crazy.

Their song has been called "a robin with singing lessons".  Stokes Nature Guides to Bird Behavior describes it as "a robin in a hurry". The other day, one was repetitively singing "Blame it on the bossa nova." I haven't heard that song in years!

Now is the perfect time to listen for their sing-songy, rising and falling, up and down song. You can also hear their characteristic metallic-sounding "chink" call.

Grosbeak courtship and nest-building activities are now in progress here in upstate New York. I'm looking forward to seeing young grosbeaks, like this fledgling that landed on the deck and visited our birdbath a couple summers ago.

 

Fortunately, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are frequent feeder visitors. They prefer tray feeders or hopper feeders with generous perching areas.  Fill feeders with a quality seed blend like WBU Supreme, which has black oil sunflower, safflower, sunflower chips, and striped sunflower.

They also enjoy seed cylinders; this one is the WBU Supreme seed cylinder (same stuff as in the loose seed blend). Here a pair share a meal on a cool seed cylinder feeder.

Enjoy your Rose-breasted Grosbeaks this season!