ABA Blog

Buy Binoculars from Eagle Optics, Join the ABA

Our good friends at Eagle Optics are once again offering a fantastic deal for those interested in purchasing a new pair of binoculars.  With the purchase of one of a select list of binoculars at a variety of price points, you can get an ABA membership - usually $45 - for the low price of $15.  This special price is available for new members or for current members looking to renew.

If you're reading this blog, you likely don't need to be reminded of the benefits of an ABA membership.  You know about Birding magazine, Listing Central, Birding News, and particularly the new Birder's Guide series.  If you're not yet a member, perhaps this is just the impetus to join.

Taking advantage of this special offer requires a couple additional steps compared to last time.  Fortunately, EO's Nina Cheney is all over it, with a post at the Eagle Optics Blog explaining what you need to do to get your discounted membership. 

With our ever expanding online offerings, and the exciting new Birder's Guide series coming very soon, there's no better time to join the ABA.  We'd love to have you!

Gunnison Sage-Grouse Needs You!

When the Gunnison Sage-Grouse was formally described in 2000 - by researchers associated primarily with Western State Colorado University - it was the first new species described in continental North America since the 19th Century, a remarkable occurance in a landmass so populous and well-mapped.  It had been overlooked for quite some time, in part due to its similarity to the larger and more widely distributed Greater Sage-Grouse and in part due to the fact that there are just not that many individuals of this species around.

While they historically could be found in proper habitat throughout the four corners regions, the range of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse now consists solely of tiny disparate pockets of sageland in southwestern Colorado and eastern Utah.  These are unfortunately the same pockets overgrazed by ranchers, sucked dry by argirculture, and marked for development of fossil fuel infrastructure by energy interests eager to take advantage of a boom in the nation's domestic capacity. In the past those species caught at the crossroads of environment and industry have not fared too well, but federal protection under the auspices of the Endangered Species Act has been a critical distinction of those which have managed to endure. Unfortunately, Gunnison Sage-Grouse, despite nearly a decade of trying and at least two near misses, has not yet been granted this distinction. 

The US Fish and Wildlife Service is now accepting public comments on the latest attempt to list Gunnison Sage-Grouse through this Tuesday, March 12.  We urge you to do so, and information on how to make your voice heard is here. 

Our friends at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are all over this topic.  Director John Fitzpatrick penned an editorial in the New York Times here, and offered more thoughts on Cornell's Round Robin blog. 

Fitzpatrick writes that we are now "entering our last possible period in which emergency actions could save this species.".  So please do your small part to encourage the USFWS to finally do the right thing to officer critical protections to one of North America's most fascinating bird species. 

We overlooked the Gunnison Sage-Grouse for more than a century.  Let's not let it quietly slip away from our own backyard.

Listing Central: More than a Toplist

It's been a few days since the official launch of Listing Central, our 21st Century answer to the ABA's venerable Big Day and List Report, and the lists continue to populate as more and more members sign up, sign in, and submit.  The centerpiece of the site are undoubtedly the list of lists, but we'd love to draw your attention to some of the other attributes of Listing Central, advantages that we couldn't have accomplished before going fully digital.

Be sure to check out the Listing Central Forum, where you can weigh in on topics as diverse as the current state of bird taxonomy and the responsibilities of the ABA Recording Standards and Ethics Committee (i.e. the "Can I Count It?" discussion).  You can also get and share information from ABA members on how to find target birds in hotspots from Arizona to Atlantic Canada. 

 

Jen Brumfeld writes like she birds, to the limit.

 

And second, toggle over to Lister's Corner, a new ABA blog focusing on the efforts of Big Year and Big Day birders across the continent.  Think of this like the Big Day section of the old list report, except instead of waiting 12 months to read the results of a record-breaking day, you'll be able to see it more or less immediately.  Plus, birders tackling Big Years in 2013 (and some from 2012) will be posting on their progress periodically.  For instance, right now you can go read about THE Jen Brumfeld's experience crushing the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Big Year record in 2012.  It'll change the way you think about birding urban counties. 

On that front, if you are a birder doing a Big Year or attempting to break a Big Day record in 2013, be it ABA-Area or your local patch, WE WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT!  Please get in touch with us at listing AT aba.org.  If you're willing to write regular updates on your progress, we'd love to include your voice on our blog. 

We all all about promoting the fun of birding at the ABA, and we want to do everything we can to spread that fun around.  So come check out the rest of Listing Central when you're finished sending us your numbers. 

The ABA presents Listing Central!

LISTING.ABA.ORG

In the last couple years, the ABA has been making changes in the way we present our traditional offerings, the annual Big Day & List Report among them.  Today we’re really excited to announce Listing Central, which will continue the legacy of the Big Day & List Report as well as hugely expanding its capabilities and capacity.

Everything that you’ve come to expect from the Big Day & List Report in the past, from Big Day narratives to rankings for every region in which ABA members have historically kept lists, is still available - you can even print them out if you prefer to read them offline.  But Listing Central is so so much more, and it’s these new offerings that we’re most excited to share with ABA birders.

First, the thresholds are gone.  Haven’t cracked 500 in the ABA-Area yet?  Or turned up the minimum in your state or province?  Doesn’t matter, we want your numbers anyway.  

Second, in addition to all the traditional categories the ABA has always kept track of, you can now enter your numbers for every single county in every American state and every Canadian province.  County listing is big and growing, and we want to be there to help you keep track of it all.  

For Big Day birders, we also added the ability to define your own big day areas, so go ahead and submit big days for your state, region, city park ... however you choose to define your big day.

And last, you’ll be able to edit your numbers ANY TIME YOU LIKE, and the system is designed to make that as easy as possible to do so. No more waiting for the annual report.  If you finished your Big Year and want to know how to stacked up, that information should be right at your fingertips.  

Getting started is easy. We need to confirm who you are, and then you can choose a username and password. The user name isn’t displayed anywhere. It’s just the name you log in with.  You can choose to use the same username and password as you may have for membership renewals, or member-only content.

Once that’s set, you simply log in, and start entering you list totals. Each member has a profile page, with all of the list totals they’ve submitted in one place. Think of it like the back of a baseball card.

There are simple instructions on the page to help you get started. Once you’ve entered your numbers, check out the Listing Blog and Forum. Lot’s of good discussion and a great place to get help finding target birds, discuss the latest checklist changes ... or whatever is on your mind.

We’re really excited about this new initiative, and we hope you are too.  Listing has been described as the roots, the core, of the ABA.  And maybe it still is, even though the organization itself is much more.  Mostly we just like to think of it as a way people enjoy birds, and more than anything, that’s what we want to help you do.

We realize this is a big change, and we want to make this transition as easy as possible for birders interested in sharing their numbers.  If you have any questions, comments, or critiques, our Listing Central moderator, Greg Neise, is available at listing AT aba.org to hear and help.  You can also call our offices at (800) 850-2473 or (719) 578-9703.

So come check out the new Listing Central.  And keep us posted on your latest tick. 

LISTING.ABA.ORG

A Call for ABA Award Nominations!

This past November at the Central Valley Bird Symposium in Stockton, California, field guide author and lifetime ABA member Jon L. Dunn received the ABA’s most prestigious award, the Roger Tory Peterson Award for Promoting the Cause of Birding.  Jon has long been a pillar of the California birding community and, as the chair of the ABA Checklist Committee and primary author of the National Geographic Guide to North American Birds, has shared a lifetime of expertise and experience to the betterment of the North American birding community too.  



Do you know a birder who deserves recognition from the ABA?  All members in good standing are eligible and are cordially invited to make one or more nominations for the five principal ABA Awards.

You have the choice of making your nomination on-line or downloading and printing a copy of the nomination form and mailing it to the ABA.  In either case, please don’t stint on providing full supporting details that will strengthen your nomination(s). Also, consider asking other birders to submit “seconding” nominations for your nominee

The deadline for receiving nominations is December 31, 2012, so don’t delay – discuss it with friends and birders in your local, State, and Provincial bird club, then go to the linked page on the ABA web site and START NOMINATING!

You can find the details as to the categories of achievement for each award here. 

The ABA Area Referendum Results: What's Your Take?

 

Back in late July, I posted on this blog asking for discussion of one of the issues we at the ABA are questioned about most frequently: what, if any, expansion of the ABA Area boundaries ought to take place? I also asked for your feedback on how we ought to go about polling our membership for their thoughts. That post has garnered 70 comments so far, many of them astonishingly thoughtful and well-informed. Though I didn't comment on all of them, I did read them all and they were truly helpful in shaping the non-binding referendum that we then sent out with our annual proxy ballot.

Well, the results are in. If you've received the current issue of Birding, and you should very soon if you haven't yet, you may have seen that I reported on your answers in my "Birding Together" column. If you haven't seen the article, or are not yet an ABA member, you can read that column here.

I encourage you to go ahead and give it a read. It's short, and goes through the tallies with a minimum of editorializing.

But blogs, of course, are all about editorializing. And I'd like to hear what you have to say about the results. Are you surprised? Or did things pretty much go the way you expected? Perhaps even more important, in view of what the membership has told us here, what would you like to see happen next?

Should we move immediately to consider the question of annexing Hawaii? What about the other areas? Their addition wasn't favored by a majority. Does that mean they should be removed from further consideration?

One other thing that may help make the results a bit easier to interpret and which there wasn't space for in print: some pie charts. Below, you can see the results as compiled for each of the 4 areas that we specifically asked you about.

A caution. These results, as informative as they may be, don't tell it all. We got dozens of handwritten comments, with a few major themes emerging, as I mentioned in the column. And we have not attempted to do any kind of deeper analysis; e.g., how did people who voted yes on Hawaii vote on Bermuda?, or similar correlations.

So here are those pie charts. Take a look, read the column, and by all means, tell us what you think.

 

 

5+2 Bird Species Added to ABA Checklist!

 

The November 2012 issue of Birding features the ABA Checklist Committee's annual report, highlighted by the addition to the ABA Checklist of the following five species:

1. Providence Petrel
2. Double-toothed Kite
3. Rosy-faced Lovebird
4. Nanday Parakeet
5. Asian Rosy-FInch 

By stipulation, the ABA Checklist Committee adopts all taxonomic decisions of the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list Committee. (Yes, Checklist-without-a-hyphen for the ABA vs. Check-list-with-a-hyphen for the AOU. Go figure.) Earlier this year, the AOU Check-list Committee split the Xantus's Murrelet into two species, the Guadalupe and Scripps's murrelets. Thus, Xantus's is deleted, Guadalupe takes the place of Xantus's, and we get:

6. Scripps's Murrelet.

The murrelet split and the five full-on additions raise the ABA Area checklist to 976.

Finally, the ABA Checklist Committee has done away with a "slash/combo"--the bane of every lister's existence--on its checklist. The old Fea's/Zino's Petrel category is replaced with Fea's Petrel. That results in no addition to the total number of entries on the checklist, even though it does permit listers to add a species (namely, Fea's Petrel) to their ABA Area life lists.

The ABA Checklist has been revised to reflect these and other recent changes. Click here to view the complete Checklist.

The stories behind each of these seven entries are fascinating, and you are urged to read the thorough summary by committee chairpersons Jon Dunn and Dan Gibson and their colleagues on the committee.

Let's discuss these checklist changes!

I'll try to get the ball rolling with the two psittacids--Nanday Parakeet in Florida and Rosy-faced Lovebird in Arizona. In particular, I'd like to hear from folks who intend to go look for the birds. What are your plans? Also: Have any of you already seen these? If so, do you now add them to your life lists? Or, to count them, do you have to see them again, i.e., after the news?

Photo credit: Rosy-faced Lovebirds at Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona, by Cindy Marple. 

 

Holiday Gift Packages from the ABA Shop!

Now that it's officially the "holiday season", the ABA has some fantastic gift ideas for the birder in your life, even if that birder is yourself.  

This year the ABA Shop is offering a couple different membership gift packages, a perfect gift for that birder who may not yet be a member of the ABA but could stand to benefit from all that membership entails, not only the fine publications, the member's only content, and the knowledge that your membership is helping to sustain internationally recognized programs like Birders' Exchange, but the opportunity to be a contributing part of the great North American birding community.  

Packages not only include membership, but decals, stickers, the official ABA trip and checklists, as well as either an ABA logo hat or an ABA logo binocular strap (super comfy, take my word for it).  

So give the gift of ABA membership to a birder you know.  We, and they, will certainly appreciate it. 

Video!: Greetings from the Governor and Thank You from the Kids!

George Armistead did a wonderful job earlier today with his photos from the weekend's ABA events in Delaware. As a companion, here are two short videos, one from the Mid-Atlantic Young Birder Conference and one from the Annual Membership Meeting.

First, the Sep 23rd Membership Meeting: when I introduced Collin O'Mara, Delaware's Secretary of Energy and the Environment, he proceeded to play this welcome message from Delaware's Governor, Jack Markell! 

 
It was wonderful to have a head of state welcome the ABA, and birders, so directly and so warmly. Think of it, when have you ever heard a governor even try to pronounce, "dowitcher?" And, of course, I was pleased to be mentioned by name. I think Delaware's Bayshore Initiative, and the way the state is reaching out to birders as the project is still in the planning stages, marks a wonderful evolution. I'm pleased that the ABA is playing a role in moving it all forward and I very much want us to do the same in other states and provinces.

I want to especially thank Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and Eagle Optics, ABA's optics sales partner, for providing generous sponsorships for our Membership Meeting, and to the Delaware Nature Society for providing a lovely space for us to have it.

And here's a quick shout-out, literally, to the Leica Sport Optics and to all of you ABA members, from the kids and adults who attended the Mid-Atlantic Young Birder Conference on Saturday the 22nd. I wish you all could have been there. Between George's photos and these clips, maybe you can at least get a feeling for the positive energy directed towards birding and the ABA. Thank you so much for making this all possible.

 

 

Remembering Jeri McMahon

All of us at the American Birding Association are saddened to learn of the death of Jeri McMahon this past Sunday. ABA's Membership Experience Coordinator, Nancy Hawley, worked with Jeri's friends and family to put together this biographic sketch and the special memorial that accompanies it.

Farewell, Jeri. Thanks for your many contributions to the birding community. May the sights and sounds of birds, and the thrill of young eyes being opened to them, keep your memory alive in all our hearts.

—Jeffrey Gordon                

Jeri McMahon, birder

Jeri started birding at 12 years old in northern Iowa. Her first bird guide book was by Chester A. Reed. Two teachers (the Hagarty sisters) lived on her block, and Jeri would spend hours at their house, studying birds at their feeders or bird bath, or reading all their bird books. She birded all 7 continents and when asked about her bird list, she would say she had about 7000 birds on it. 

Jeri in Brazil

Jeri belonged to the American Birding Association, Indian Nations Audubon Society of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Ornithological Society, The Bluebird Association, and the Arkansas Birding Association. She had served as president and bird recorder for Indian Nations Audubon and as President and awards chair for the OOS.  

At the OOS fall meeting, Stillwater

She banded birds with MAPS at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge as well as Fort Gibson Wildlife Management Area and also banded bluebirds in Muskogee County. Jeri was a map consultant for Oklahoma in the Sibley Guide to Birds and also made contributions to the Peterson Field Guide to Birds.

She headed up the Christmas Bird Count for the Fort Gibson area, lead many field trips for birding, and headed up Eagle Days in Fort Gibson for years and introduced her grandson, Donnie, and several other children to the fun of birding.

 

Jeri's grandson, Donnie

 

Jeri has sent one child per year to birding camp, which she found to be one of the best and most meaningful ways to share the joy of birding. 

In Jeri's final weeks, another long-time ABA member, Kathy Roach, approached the ABA about setting up a special memorial to Jeri that would help fund other young birders attendence at birding camps. As one of Jeri’s closest friends, Kathy says, “We feel Jeri is certainly worthy of being honored for her life-long love of birds as well as her patience and mentoring to all of us her knew her. In addition, Jeri provided both physical and financial support over the years, to many of our Young Birders. Her outstanding dedication has helped many of our youth to expand their knowledge and gain confidence, as well as allowing many of them to attend our ABA birding camps”. 

Kathy adds, “The ABA’s new "Jeri McMahon Memorial" will help maintain and expand all future Young Birder programs and camps. We feel this is a very special honor for a very special lady.”

Jeri lived a life of giving back to birding that all of us would do well to emulate.

To make your donation to Jeri's memorial now, please go to www2.aba.org/jerimcmahon or call Nancy Hawley at 800-850-2473 or 719-578-9703.