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Jim Williams has been watching birds and writing about their antics since before "Gilligan's Island" went into reruns. Join him for his unique insights, his everyday adventures and an open conversation about the birds in your back yard and beyond.
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On becoming a better birder
Posted by: Jim Williams under Bird books Updated: December 18, 2012 - 9:46 AM
How to Be a Better Birder, Derek Lovitch, Princeton University Press, 2012, soft cover 192 pages with illustrations and maps.
This book actually can help you be a better birder. Lovitch assumes you know something about birding (but you needn't), then seeks to sharpen and add to your skills with useful information clearly and cleanly presented.
Lovitch will help you better understand the importance to your success of habitat, geography, weather, birding at night, vagrants, birding with a purpose, and more. The publisher calls it, correctly, a crash course in advanced birding combining old-fashioned observation skills with the new technology that has so changed the birding experience.
Lovitch owns Freeport Wild Bird Supply in Maine. He has worked on various birding research and education projects in the United States, and has written for birding magazines. He comes at his subjects more or less as casual birders might, to the benefit of the reader.
Bird Watcher's Bible -- a complete treasure
Posted by: Jim Williams under Bird books Updated: December 17, 2012 - 12:33 PMWhen it comes to information, we live in a bite-sized world. Think Twitter, life reduced to a handful of key strokes. Or the format of so many magazines: pages filled with bits and blurbs of information, highlighted with color and borders. Ditto Web pages. Long is out. Brief is in.
So, Jonathan Alderfer's new book from National Geographic -- "Bird Watcher's Bible" fits perfectly today. Alderfer, his co-authors, his editors and designers have created an impressively informative book that makes the facts and stories about all aspects of birds and their lives exceptionally available. Brief is in.
The book also is entertaining in the way we seem to approach much entertainment these days -- quick takes presented in visually exciting ways.
Open this book to any page.There will be two or three or four items to catch your eye, feed your curiosity about birds, answer your questions. Page 147, opened at random: Photo of flamingo and its chick (there is a photo or two or a graphic on each of the book's 390 pages), text continuing a succinct explanation of eggs; and a boxed 27-word explanation of the source of the word "duck." The latter is a surprising and simply unexpected treat.
There is of course a plan for all of this, order in the usual book fashion -- chapters, index, suggestions for further reading, bios of Alderfer and his three co-contributors. There also are 48 brief (of course) birdographies of a wide range of birds, chickadee to dodo, a bonus.
Hundreds of artists and photographers are represented here. Their work is exceptional. Paging through the book for illustrations alone would be rewarding. The designers, people whose work on books often is unnoticed for simplicity and blandness, are an active part of this effort. They have given book's contents beautiful and functional lives. Typography might not be your thing, but you will appreciate the work seen here.
The book is $40, hardcover, sewn binding, an effort meant to last. It would be a wonderful gift for a friend, loved one, or yourself. It easily ranks with the top three or four bird books published in 2012. It certainly makes the best all-encompassing effort.
You can see from the illustration that the copy I used for this review came from the Hennepin County library.
Pelicans on the Gulf
Posted by: Jim Williams under Bird biology, Bird migration Updated: December 15, 2012 - 5:05 PMTwo of the Minnesota pelicans radio tagged this fall so their movements can be tracked are at wintering territory on the Gulf of Mexico.
Four American White Pelicans are sending signals to a research team. The study is intended to provide information on where on the Gulf the birds spend the winter, their migration paths, and their movements in Minnesota.
Impetus for the study was evidence of oil and oil dispersant chemical found last summer in eggs and bodies of pelicans nesting here. About one-third of the world population of this bird nests in Minnesota.
One of the tagged pelicans arrived east of the mouth of the Mississippi River in mid-October. Its radio signal is spasmodic, the most recent reception in late November.
A second bird arrived on the Gulf in mid-November. It was located south of Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Two birds are taking more leisurely trips. One of them flew 175 miles on Thanksgiving to a location on the Arkansas River. The second pelican moved through central Mississippi in late November, the last signal showing it near Greenwood, Mississippi.
The project is a partnership between Audubon Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Non-game Program, and North Dakota State University.
To see the map and follow the pelicans go to http://mn.aOneudubon.org/
Early birds
Posted by: Jim Williams under Bird biology, Bird feeding Updated: December 11, 2012 - 7:50 PMYesterday, cardinals appeared at our feeders at the exact time the sun set, making me wonder just how precise these birds can be, favoring twilight for afternoon feeding and hitting it perfect. Today the sun set at 4:32 p.m. The first cardinals arrived at 4:09. Precision isn't everything.
Birds look better in snow
Posted by: Jim Williams under Bird biology, Bird migration, Bird sightings Updated: December 10, 2012 - 9:27 PMCardinals came to our feeders in force as soon as the snow stopped. We had 10 here Sunday at dusk. Monday, the count was eight. Cardinals feed in the dim light of dawn and the fading twilight at the end of the afternoon. Most other bird species retire earlier and rise later. Sunset Monday was at 4:32 p.m. The first cardinal flew into the yard at 4:32 p.m. I'm curious to know if that was a coincidence or if the birds' sense of light level is that keen. I'll try to time them for the next few afternoons.
The smaller lakes near our home were nearly 100 percent ice-coveredMonday. A few small open spots of water remained. I was checking for ducks and coots -- and eagles. If waterfowl can be found on small patches of open water, you might find eagles, too. The hunting is good when the ducks are in restricted space. Coots become particularly vulnerable because they must run across the water to get to lift-off speed. I saw a pair of immature Bald Eagles at Mooney Lake in western Plymouth. There was no prey there, though. With cold, windless nights certain bays on Lake Minnetonka might be good places to look for eagles. The requisite coots are on Smith's Bay, west of Wayzata, but most of that lake is open, at least from the bay out as far as I could see, excluding some narrow bands of ice along the shore. No eagles there today, but a grandson and I watched an eagle make lazy passes at those coots on Saturday. The road there, County 15, is bad at the best of times, narrow, twisty, and busy. Walking on the shoulder -- well, right now there is no shoulder. Parking away from 15 is possible, leaving one with no more than a quarter-mile walk. Four Whooping Swans were on the bay today. They don't worry about eagles.
In the crab apple orchard I check for waxwings and grosbeaks -- nope -- I found more robins on Monday. Forty or 50 of them were picking apples. One photo below shows the effort the birds sometimes make to pull the apples from the tree. The other photos show a robin in the picking process. At the height of the pull the nictitating membranes found in bird eyes have pulled over the pupil. This is a third eyelid, moving across the eye at right angles to the regular eyelids, between them and the eye surface. This membrane moistens and cleans the eye, and provides protection.
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recent posts
- Our Christmas star
- Adding insult to injury
- Eagle attacks child -- not!
- A redpoll winter
- On becoming a better birder
- Bird Watcher's Bible -- a complete treasure
- Pelicans on the Gulf
- Early birds
- Birds look better in snow
- Water!
- Nesting habits, neat and messy
- Greenland's melting ice
- Finally, Bohemian Waxwings
- Pelicans arriving at Gulf
- Grosbeaks and redpolls
- Tufted Titmouse and winter finches
- Watch the wind
- Winter birds
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