Blog Birding #1

Hi, I’m Nate Swick. As a bird blogger I make my home at The Drinking Bird, but I’ve been invited to help out here at the ABA blog to introduce ABA’s general membership and friends to the vast bird and nature blogosphere.  I’m thrilled to be included in this pretty auspicious group of writers and I hope you’ll enjoy what you’ll find here on a regular basis.

A short introduction; a “blog” is generally defined to be any online writing platform with posts displayed in a reverse chronological order and the option for readers to comment.  Blogs have taken hold in a variety of genres and most people are familiar with the political, sports, or entertainment species, but you may or may not be surprised to know that there’s a thriving community of nature writers producing amazing content, both written and photographic, every single day.  My friend Mike Bergin hinted at as much with his introduction to I and the Bird last week, but that’s only a self-selected group.  There’s much, much more out there.  So much that the deluge can seem a bit overwhelming to the novice blog connoisseur.  This is where I come in.

This recurring bulletin will seek to filter out some of the best of the recent blogosphere for the wider ABA audience; to seek to bridge the gap between those interested in birds and those writing about birds every day on myriad personal soapboxes across the internet.  Some come from names you’ll recognize, some don’t, but all come from birders for whom sharing on this platform, be it through prose or photography or both, is as crucial a part of the birding experience as seeing the birds themselves.  I hope you’ll be encouraged to click through to visit some of these great nature writers and find some of your own.

A DC Birding Blog – The Amazing Flights of the Red Knot:

Scientists have been able to trace the annual journeys of individual Red Knots using tracking devices attached to the birds’ legs. Prior to this study using geolocators, the general outline of the birds’ migration was already known: most Red Knots winter in Tierra del Fuego, make migratory stopovers along the Atlantic coast (especially Delaware Bay), and breed in Arctic Canada.

Great Auk – or Greatest Auk? – The Little Differences:

It’s flicker time here too, and ostensibly the same flicker, although they look very different indeed from their east-coast conspecifics. Especially compared to something like the Red-naped Sapsucker, which looks an awful lot like a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, but is no such thing. We have Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, although more of the latter than I’m used to. We have Black-backed Woodpeckers, which look like you expect woodpeckers to look like, and Lewis’s Woodpeckers, which look like nothing so much as Betsey Johnson’s idea of a woodpecker makeover — although happily without frills.

The Marvelous in Nature – Ovenbird:

The bird flapped, and Ollie, who had been sleeping on a pillow in the corner of the room, had jumped to the floor, crossed the room in two bounds, and was up on my desk beside where Dan stood in about the space of two nanoseconds. Never underestimate a cat’s hearing, even when asleep. Or its predator instincts.

Round Robin: Cornell Blog of Ornithology – Do Siskins move in Straight Lines?:

It turns out 46 siskins banded that winter had been recovered and reported to the North American Bird Banding Lab. But when Bonter compared where each bird was banded and where it was found, he was astounded by what he saw. Birds that wintered in the southern states had returned nearly due north to breed; whereas birds banded in the northeast during winter had flown nearly due west to places like Oregon, Washington, and Alberta, Canada.

Sibley Guides Notebook – Identifying Chimney and Vaux’s Swift by wing shape:

I have always had to settle for seeing each species on its own, usually separated by days or weeks and by hundreds of miles. Nevertheless, I have consistently gotten the impression that there are real differences in wing shape, and this has been reinforced by the comments of people who have seen the two species together and describe the Chimney Swift as distinctly larger and longer-winged.

10,000 Birds – Birds at Bryant Park:

As incongruous as birds named for a person who has withdrawn from human society hanging out in a busy urban park may be, it was not as odd a look to me as a Hermit Thrush doing its best imitation of an American Robin in spring. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised but I can’t ever remember getting a look at a Hermit Thrush pulling an earthworm from the ground before like the one at right is doing.

Biological Ramblings – Least Sandpiper from Egg to Adult:

I decided to put together a post of Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla) showing all stages in development, from egg, to chick, to fledgling, to juvenile, to adult. All of these pictures were taken while I was helping with research on Hudsonian Godwits in Churchill, MB.

Birdchick – Yellow-rumped Warbler on the Windows:

Though I was unable to get a shot of the yellow-rumped warbler on my window screen, I was able to get one gleaning insects off of my neighbor’s window.  At this point, I did wonder if any of my neighbors noticed the big scope out of my kitchen window–really, I’m taking photos of birds.  Honest.

Julie Zickefoose – From my Studio Window:

Just on September 28, the kind of misty, overcast day that lures birds to their deaths on highly reflective windows, I had four birds bounce hard off that netting, and I’ve little doubt that all would be dead or injured without it. What a blessing. All they lose is a few feathers and some dignity, and they go on their merry way to Central America.

More to come next week!