Science Pipes Winner!

Here is the winner's page for Science Pipes!

Guess who won the Community Choice Award!!!

Anyway, if you are wondering, I'm doing fine. I'll post a few pictures soon.

Southern Illinois!

Yeah, I'm finally in Southern Illinois! It's pretty cool out here! Anyway, just walked ALOT in the woods today, I'm in a rural area next to fields and bottomlands. I'm not going to eBird however, because someone living here already does it. Anyway, all the birds I saw/heard today (no order):

Henslow's Sparrow (this is actually a new lifer for me!!!)
Northern Parula
Bobwhite
Brown-headed Cowbird
Northern Cardinal
Field Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
American Crow
Fish Crow
Mourning Dove
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Bluebird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Canada Goose
Chipping Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Blue Jay
Wild Turkey
Prothonotary Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Red-shouldered Hawk
Turkey Vulture
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse

Science Pipes Again, Bird Video

First of all, yay! My Science Pipes are doing well, three of mine made it to the final eight!

Vote!

Second, here is a video. You can't see any field marks on the bird, but can you tell what it is by voice and behavior?

First Songbird Nests of the Year

Woohoo! I haven't gone to my job yet, but I'm already looking for nests to warm up. A few days ago I found an active Blue Jay nest, but it seems to have been abandoned.

Today, I found a couple more active nests though! I know it's frowned upon to take pictures of nests, but I just had too...

Morning Dove Nest, female incubating:


Northern Cardinal Nest, I flushed the female from a brushpile while walking down the road:

In the Yard Today, First Butterflies

I saw two butterflies out and about today! A Cabbage White and a Mourning Cloak!


I did two bird counts today, one at 11:00am and one at 5:50pm, to compare and contrast:

11:00am:
1 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Tufted Titmouse
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Eastern Bluebird
2 American Robin
1 Song Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 American Goldfinch
2 House Sparrow


5:50pm:
1 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Mourning Dove
2 Blue Jay
1 American Crow
4 swallow sp.
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 American Robin
1 Song Sparrow
1 Dark-eyed Junco
1 Northern Cardinal
3 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Common Grackle
2 American Goldfinch

I had to report swallow sp. because they were really high, I wasn't able to focus on them well. They were calling, but I couldn't match it, they for sure were not chimney swifts, I know what those sound like. I got the gizz of Tree Swallow, but I wasn't sure enough to report them as such.

Blue Jays Nest Building

This morning during bird count, I caught a Blue Jay nest building in a white pine tree in the backyard.

Anyway, what's was in or near the yard today:

Morning Dove- 2
American Robin- 3
Downy Woodpecker- 1
Red-winged Blackbird- 3 (I saw a female today)
Black-capped Chickadee- 1
Song Sparrow- 2
Sandhill Crane- 2
White-breasted Nuthatch- 1
Northern Cardinal- 2
Chipping Sparrow- 2
Brown-headed Cowbird- 6 (males courting females)
Mallard- 3 (flew overhead)
Blue Jay- 2 (nest building)
American Goldfinch- 3
Killdeer- 1
House Sparrow- 1
Canada Goose- 2

Easter Goose Nest

Happy Easter! I was at my cousin's house at Easter, with lots of kids. Basically they were messing around near a pond and came and showed me some eggs. Canada Goose eggs to be more specific. The mother goose wasn't too far away, I really hope the kids don't decide to mess with it more. I took a quick picture:

Suspicious Bird Activity, What's in the Yard Today

It's been really warm the last couple of days with highs near 80F. Lots of bird activity, including semi-suspicious activity. A pair of Mourning Doves are messing around in the White Pines in the back of the house. And a pair of Tufted Titmice were hanging around the outside dog (gathering hair?)

Anyway, what's in the yard today, I submitted this to ebird and just copied the list, the number of individuals is now in front of the names, and the names are in taxonomic order now:

2 Canada Goose
1 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Sandhill Crane
2 Mourning Dove
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Blue Jay
1 American Crow
2 Black-capped Chickadee
2 Tufted Titmouse
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 American Robin
3 Song Sparrow
1 Dark-eyed Junco
1 Northern Cardinal
2 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Brown-headed Cowbird

Tiny Sign of Spring

Some kind of speedwell and something in the Mustard Family spotted in a little patch of dirt. Enjoy!

Why I Don't Put Out Feeders

I tried to get more birds eating corn footage, and I was reminded why I don't put out feeders anymore, as shown in this video. :(



Today's 10 minute yard count:

Northern Cardinal- 2
Red-winged Blackbird- 1
American Goldfinch- 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker- 1
Song Sparrow- 2
American Crow- 1
Black-capped Chickadee- 1
American Tree Sparrow- 5
Blue Jay- 1
Dark-eyed Junco- 3
Mourning Dove- 1

Chickadee Flock Sizes

An interesting graph I made, it seems that the further north you go, the more chickadees flock in winter (this data is Black-capped and Carolina combined)



I might enter this into the contest too, but I will wait because I only have one entry left and I want to see if I can make something better than this.

Birds Eating Corn Video 1

I finally got the corn video trap to work, here is the first video, it gets more interesting toward the end:

I'm still learning some of my songs...

The corn lure for the video didn't work, I'll try later to see if the birds finally find the corn.

Oh, and going out this morning, two Tree Sparrows came out to look at me. I guess they are more curious than I knew them to be.

I heard an unfamiliar song this morning. I recorded it in a video (hmm, can't seem to find a good program to get the audio from the video) Anyway, it was the Tree Sparrows again. Anyway, here's the video, what other species do you hear?

Attempted Fox Sparrow Picture

First of all, I added a comment to the mystery fuzzy picture I did a few days ago with the answer to what it is.

I hate the camera I have now. I saw the Fox Sparrow again, and trying to get a picture all I got was this:



New Plan: My uncle feeds his farm animals with corn. I laid down some corn near where I see the sparrows and juncos. I check to see tomorrow if the birds found the corn, then I set up my camera near the corn and set it to video mode. I let it run for a while and then check back later to see if I got the image I wanted. Yes, I'm bored enough to get video of these sparrows, maybe it will be interesting!

Playing with Science Pipes

When logging into ebird today, a contest was announced creating graphs with Science Pipes out of the raw eBird count data. I was kinda sad that the graphs had to display the whole year... unless I just don't know how to set it up to display just part of the year, I wanted to make a migration arrival interactive graph.



My first pipe thingy is a way to see species abundance in a certain state during a certain year:




The second one is Chickadee Group Count. Basically, I choose to only count stationary counts, like at feeders because you could get all sorts of bird counts when just walking down a path, this more accurately shows how many are in a group at once time.

Tree Sparrow Friend

I don't know what it is about this little American Tree Sparrow, or if it's the same one everyday I go out there, but for the past week when I reach a certain spot in the yard, this tree sparrow comes out and gets within 5 meters (we scientists think in meters).

I counted for 20 minutes this morning everything I could see and hear and this is what I got:

American Robin- 3
Northern Cardinal- 2
Red-winged Blackbird- 3
Blue Jay- 1
White-breasted Nuthatch- 1
Mourning Dove- 1
American Crow- 1
Song Sparrow- 2
Dark-eyed Junco- 1
American Tree Sparrow- 1
Black-capped Chickadee- 1
Sandhill Crane- 1

Fox Sparrow

I checed eBird, which I just started to report to, and Fox Sparrow isn't seen much around here this time of year. I don't have a good camera, but I got a very good look at the bird feeding on the ground. I haven't seen one in a while.

Just some stuff in the yard today

I went out briefly this morning to see if I could find anything new, nope. Here is everyone, I was only out there for like 10 minutes:

Red-winged Blackbirds, still across the road
Northern Cardinals, singing and I spotted a female in the brushy stuff
Mourning Doves, singing
American Robins, by the road
Sandhill Cranes, in the distance
Canada Geese, in the distance
Brown-headed Cowbird, singing in the yard
Song Sparrow, in the same patch at the corner of the brushy stuff singing
American Tree Sparrow, in brushy stuff
Dark-eyed Junco, in brushy stuff with tree sparrows
Black-capped Chickadee, hanging around
Downy Woodpecker, heard whinny call

Binocularscoping

Edit: I put the answer in the comments page

I tried to take a picture with a regular camera through binoculars... didn't work to well... I found out the 3X zoom then the digital zoom work better.

Anyway, here's a mystery bird! I know what it is, but can you tell by this binocularscoping picture? It's a bit easier to tell what it is by zooming out on it instead of in. Use your gizz knowledge and your knowledge of what would be around here this time of year!

Spring Peepers

It's that time of year again! The frogs are calling like mad from across the street!

Also new bird singing in the yard today, Brown-headed Cowbird.

I'm going to go outside some more pretty soon, I'll update you on anything else that is new.

Winter Wren, Early Spring Callback

I took out my MP3 player and the small speakers that go with them today, here is what I got to come in:

Winter Wren: I knew that song I heard was familiar coming from the edge of our property... I finally recognized it as Winter Wren!!! That's a first in my yard! Anyway, I played the song and the bird sang more, but he didn't come closer, and as hard as I tried, phishing didn't bring the bird in closer either, he was hiding in some dense brambles, but how exciting!

American Robin: I haven't heard a robin sing yet this year, but playing the song agitated a nearby male. I saw a couple fighting earlier.

Downy Woodpecker: I heard some drumming not to far away, so I played drumming and call of downy. Sure enough, a male Downy immediately comes close and starts to call and drum.

Hairy Woodpecker: Almost came in immediately. Saw field marks well.

Red-winged Blackbird: I often hear then singing across the street. They were not singing when I brought the player out, but started to sing again when I played their song, but they did not come closer.

Northern Cardinal: I could not attract them today, but I saw them in the yard earlier.

Dark-eyed Junco: Early in the day I spotted one, so I played their song to see if they responded. A group of them came closer and indeed they started to sing.

Song Sparrow; I heard one sing across the street, so I tried to bring him in. I saw a sparrow come in, but it was an American Tree Sparrow. So I played that song and the bird didn't react at all.

White-breasted Nuthatch: Attracted it, he came close and sang back.

Tufted Titmouse: He did a wing-fluttering behavior and was very agitated.

Black-capped Chickadee: Came in close when I played calls and song. Actually they respond to Carolina Chickadee sounds too.


Other birds heard/seen today:

Blue Jay: Noisy as always
Common Grackle: Flying overhead
Sandhill Crane: Calling from fields and marsh areas across the street
Canada Goose: Flying overhead
American Crow: Calling in distance
House Finch: Singing from neighbor's yard
Accipiter: Unidentified Accip at edge of yard, landed in tree (someone confirm for me that accips can be seen this time of year in South Michigan
Red-tailed Hawk: Calling in distance

In The Yard Today

First, I have a new poll up in the sidebar, check it out!

Second, a quick list of species seen in my yard in extreme Eastern Calhoun County on March 15th, 2010, also a couple seen during a car ride:

Song Sparrow (singing)
Mourning Dove (singing)
Red-winged Blackbird (singing)
Black-capped Chickadee (calling)
American Crow (calling, flying overhead)
Sandhill Crane (in the distance calling)
American Robin (calling)
Tufted Titmouse (agitated call)
House Finch (singing)
Northern Cardinal (singing, calling)

In the car:
European Starling
Common Grackle

I was a nice day today. Sunny toward the end of the day and warm. Snow is now gone. As you can see, some birds on the list are early migrants.

I'm going to try to restart this blog

Hello bird fans,

Sorry I abandoned this blog like this, but I didn't have much to announce.

But now I do!

First of all, I have exciting news!

What is it, what is it....

Well, I'll tell you, I have a new job for this summer!
That's right, I'll be working in Southern Illinois starting in April!
Bottomland Forest study and I'll be working with Acadian Flycatchers and Northern Cardinals again!

I'll keep you updated!


Second, I did do GBBC, but with no feeders up it was kinda well... non-productive.

Here were my results:

White-Breasted Nuthatch- 1 (singing like mad)
Black-capped Chickadee- 2 (responded to phishing)
American Crow- 4 (flew overhead)
Downy Woodpecker- 1 (flew overhead then lighted on trunk of tree)

Well, it was something at least!!!