I had the privilege of hanging out with Anson Tebbetts this week on the radio and video podcast show For the Birds. Good friend Bryan Pfeiffer was out of town looking for shorebirds on the coast so I did my best to fill in for him.
We’re all laid back in our flip-flops and tank-tops sipping on mojitos and around us a frenzy is building. Can’t you just feel it? You know, the zugunrhe?
This was the title of an email I received recently. I get asked this a lot and I love it. It becomes a fun game for me, a test for my skills as a birder. And sometimes I figure out the person’s mystery bird. And yeah, it’s just sometimes, ‘cuz sometimes I can’t get all the information I need to make a guess much less an id.
Spring seems to be coming to Vermont and the birds are all a twitter. Chickadees are crooning their “hey, sweetie” song and the male cardinal in the neighborhood is making sure everyone knows he’s ready to get it on. That ray gun-like song is like Barry White to the female cardinal apparently.
I don’t know if you used that slang when you were a kid but I did. Yeah, and I know I just tagged myself as 80’s but hey, what’s the big diff? I’m gonna bring back that 80’s slang and tweak it Bird Diva style. I wanna invite you all to make a big diff as a birder.
The 2009 State of the Birds Report was recently released and I gotta say I was a little overwhelmed by some of the doom & gloom press it generated. I’m on Twitter now and have chosen to follow a number of conservation groups, some who were involved in putting together the report. I kept getting tweets telling me just about every habitat group of birds was experiencing a “serious decline”. Retweet that a couple of hundred times and that can get pretty defeatist, depressing.
Well, the “other” category has it. And to see the what the “other”s are you’ll have to take the poll! Which would help a great deal ‘cuz only thirteen people responded anyways…
Gonna try some twtpolls for my blog, maybe a regular thing on Mondays. Let me know what you think.
Just in time for spring, Bryan Pfeiffer is back on Vermont Public Television with the one-hour special Birding in Vermont. Chase those winter blues away on Tuesday, March 10th at 9 pm as Bryan takes you to some of the best birding spots in the state. I was invited to join Bryan at Herrick’s Cove, an incredible birding spot in southern Vermont along the Connecticut River. Bryan is co-author of Birdwatching in Vermont and leads birding tours across the country.
Big thanks to all the folks in St. Albans who came out for the Owl Prowl Saturday night. I guess I didn’t pay out enough in mice for the owls to actually show up and dazzle us. But, I hope you all had a great time and will go get your..
The owl is a lifer for me so of course it resulted in the Life Bird Boogie, now captured by my boyfriend on video for all to see. Laugh at it, copy it and break it out on your own birding adventures.
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