A Random Contemplation

It seems whenever I come back from birding somewhere; be it my backyard, a park, or anywhere; someone always asks me "See anything good?". My reply is usually "Well, I saw *insert list of species here*." I never actually answer the question.
But what makes a bird a 'good bird'?

The Pink-footed Goose is considered a good bird in America. Whenever one gets blown over here, people come from all over the country to see it. But in Europe, the Pink-footed Goose is considered a pest.
It's the same the other way around. If, say, an American Robin got blown over to England, the poor thing would be mobbed by birders lugging hundreds of pounds of optics just to get a look at a bird we Americans dismiss as 'just a robin'. So I guess location is one of the ingredients in the 'good bird formula'.

Another ingredient, I think, has to do with the personal experience of a birder. When I had just started birding, any bird was good. I would spend hours watching chickadees at the feeder, and I distinctly remember running out in my pajamas in the freezing cold to see Piliated Woodpeckers chase each other around a tree trunk. Of course, I was six years old, but I'm sure every beginning birder has moments similar to that. And of course, if the bird is a lifer, it is most definitely a good bird.

If a good bird is defined by its location and its observer's experience, then isn't every bird a good bird somewhere, and to someone?
There are, of course, some birds that are always good, regardless of where they are or the number of times you've seen them. The Spoon-billed Sandpiper, for example. There are so few left that whenever one is seen it's an amazing find.
The definition of a good bird is more complicated than I thought.

The Case of the Missing Chickens

On Monday, April 8, something strange happened. I went out to open the door of the chicken coop to let the chickens out, just like I do every morning. But when I got there, I found the door already open. Maybe I had forgotten to shut it the previous evening. That would be bad, as leaving the door wide open leaves the chickens vulnerable to foxes, raccoons, possums, etc.  Upon looking inside, I saw that something had apparently taken advantage of that.
All 32 chickens were gone, and there were black feathers everywhere. But only a few of our chickens were black, so this doesn't make sense. Plus, how could one animal eat 32 chickens? We don't have coyotes in our neighborhood, so none of the animals here hunt in packs. We searched the whole yard, but didn't find any other evidence.

The chicken coop.

A few days later, my dad was working in the garden and found a hole with feathers in it. These feathers were barred black and white; presumably from a Domonique chicken, which we had several of. It looked as if something, maybe a fox, had buried a chicken there and come back for it later. Not long after, we found more evidence that seemed to point to a fox.
The fence in the back corner of the chickens' yard was bent, and a hole was dug under it. It certainly looked like a fox had done it.

We've come up with a theory that at least explains why there are only black feathers in the chicken coop: The three full-grown Black Australorp hens were harder for the predator to grab hold of and struggled, explaining all the feathers. But the little chickens, who were only about 8 weeks old, were much easier to kill and carry out of the coop.

That's all we could come up with. Our friend suggested that the Chicken Hawk took them, but I'm pretty sure that's not what happened. If you have an idea, share it, please!

Spring Has Sprung!

Yes! Finally! The cherries, pears, and redbuds are turning their appropriate colors, the Pine Siskins and Dark-eyed Juncos are packing for their journey north, and the ground is blanketed with bluets and violets and the like. But it's been cold for spring here. The temperature is usually up into the seventies in March, but today the high was 58.

Cherry blossoms--one of my favorite things to photograph.

Cardinalis cardinalis--a bird so nice, they named it twice.

So...you're probably wondering where I've been all this time. Well, I'm still alive; I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth or anything like that. I've merely been busy. That and inspiration has been somewhat lacking. I haven't been out birding in awhile, and I lost the battery charger for the camera. I found it when making Irish soda bread on St. Patrick's Day--it was in one of the loaf pans in the cabinet. We find all sorts of things in the cabinets, since my 2-year-old brother is rather fond of playing in them.

Also, we got 31 chicks a few weeks ago. Well, we were supposed to get 35, but 4 died on the way here from the hatchery in Ohio. The survivors are currently happy and healthy and living in a brooder in our garage.

And...(this is my favorite part) just this past Sunday the winners of the ABA's Young Birder of the Year Contest were announced! Congrats to the two grand-prize winners!! I was pleasantly surprised to discover I get third place in the writing module.

Once again, I promise I'll try to post more. Except my mom's going to have a baby in about a week and a half...But I'll do my best! Thanks for reading, and I hope your spring is full of birds and flowers and all those great things spring brings.

Book Review #1: The Animal Dialogues--Uncommon Encounters in the Wild by Craig Childs

Note: I have another blog for book reviews, but those books are mostly fiction. On this blog, I've decided to review some of my favorite nature books and field guides. Should be fun!

The Animal Dialogues is an incredible book. Craig Childs has a rare talent to combine adventure and scientific fact into thoroughly enjoyable and interesting stories. The Animal Dialogues is a collection of these stories, divided into sections named after different classes of animals (e.g. 'Birds, Aves'). Each of these stories is one of Mr. Childs' experiences. He's a naturalist and adventurer, and he has quite a few impressive stories to tell. Each one is written in an absorbing, descriptive style that had me glued to the page, anticipating what would happen next. Some of my favorites are 'Grizzly Bear', 'Mountain Lion', and 'Great Horned Owl'.

Craig Childs strikes me as someone who genuinely appreciates the true wonder and beauty of nature, and it really shines through in this book. The way he describes his encounter with a mountain lion in Arizona, a grizzly bear in Wyoming, and even just looking at a great blue heron on a pole gives me a rush of adrenaline and makes me feel like I'm there too. A couple of times the stories gave me vivid dreams.

The Animal Dialogues is definitely one of the best nature books I've ever read.

Goodbye 2012...Hello 2013!

Today is the last day of 2012. It's been amazing, and I'm almost sorry to see it go. But 2013 will be, too--I can feel it. :)

Something I like to do on New Year's Eve is to think about all the good things that happened in the past year, and also the bad things. Why were the good things so good? And what could have been done to make the bad things not so bad?
Then, on New Year's Day, I think about everything I want to achieve in the new year. For example, this year I resolved to finish the ABA's Young Birder of the Year contest. Did I do it? Just barely; I submitted my last entry just hours before the deadline. :)

Whatever your resolutions may be, I wish you good luck on achieving them, and wish you all a happy New Year. :)

 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Well, it's that time of year again. The weather is colder, the lights are up, and everyone is rushing around trying to get everything done. Can you believe it? Christmas is less than a week away!
Whether you are wrapping presents, decorating the Christmas tree (if you are then you're late :P), or compiling the results of a recent Christmas Bird Count, I hope this post finds you in good health and high spirits. Merry Christmas!!

Oh! Recently I've been looking through photos from previous years, and I've found some good ones.

Photos from Christmases past:

It snowed last year, which was weird for down here.

Shelby Farms Park--11/17/12

The morning of Saturday, November 17th dawned cold and clear. It was 6 in the morning, and my dad and I were up and eating breakfast, even though the east was just beginning to glow with the rising sun. I was anticipating a morning of birding Shelby Farms Park in Memphis, TN with the Memphis Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society. I hadn't been out birding in a month and a half, and I was ready to get started.

It was not the best time for birds, though. November is on the border between fall and winter. The trees have (mostly) lost their leaves, but it's not quite cold enough to be winter. The birds notice this, too. The summer residents have gone, the migrants have passed through, but not all the winter residents have arrived yet. November is not known for its "birdiness", but birding is birding, all the same.

We met with the other participants in the amphitheater parking lot at about 7:30. I was surprised at the amount of people there. I was not used to large birding groups, and 24 people seemed like a lot. We broke up into smaller groups, however, with 8 people in each. My group birded the space around the pistol range, as well as the riding stables and Chickasaw Lake.

We had to drive to our destination, and as we followed the group leader, he kept stopping at every bird he saw. He was rather skilled in the art of keeping one hand on the wheel and the other on his binoculars without causing an accident. When we arrived, he lost no time in calling out birds.
"White-throat, White-crowned, Field! Lots of sparrows over here, guys."

Turns out the day was great for sparrows. We saw Savannah, Swamp, White-throated, White-crowned, Song, Field, and Fox. No Vesper Sparrows, though. They're usually seen at that location at this time of year, but we didn't see any. A notable sighting was Gray Catbird. November is pretty late for them, so it was rather unusual.

The brush piles and cotton fields around the pistol range produced many species, including my lifer Winter Wren! I'm pretty excited about that one. One species that failed to show, however, was Lapland Longspur. It's somewhat of a nemesis bird for me, and I was hoping to see one, but we didn't.
After we left the pistol range we headed to the riding stables and Chickasaw Lake. The lake was full of ducks, including Bufflehead, Northern Shoveler, and Gadwall. As well as another lifer: Northern Pintail! We got other new species for our day list as well: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Great Blue Heron.
Around this time my dad checked the time, saw that it was 9:15, and decided that it was time to leave. So we did, and left feeling satisfied with another day of birds, birding, and two lifers. It was pretty fun!