The Biggest Week in American Birding!

Yep, the above would be me.  This year, I have been asked to be an official blogger and a field trip leader for the Biggest Week in American Birding! This relatively new birding festival takes place along the northwestern Ohio lakefront in the area of Magee Marsh and Ottawa NWR.  With the help of Kenn and Kim Kaufman and the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, it is quickly becoming one of the biggest festivals in the country!

This year, the festival runs from May 3-13.  I will be in Ohio from May 1-12, blogging about the festival and leading field trips.

As of now, all of the pre-register field trips are full, but there's plenty of other bird walks, activities, etc to take part in. Of course, the area will be inundated with birders as well. Pretty much everyone who is anyone will be there. So come on down and join in the fun!

The best part about the Magee/Ottawa area is the awesome warblers! Warblers galore is the key selling point at this festival! Just like this one below.

See you in a little more than a week!

Cape May Warbler

App Review: Birdseye Birdlog-USA

At last! We finally have an eBird data entry app for iPhone, iPod, and Android! 

It's called Birdseye Birdlog and just officially became available to the general public. This new app was created in conjunction with the eBird team at Cornell U and is now the quickest, easiest way to enter bird sightings to eBird directly from the field. 

I gave the app a test run today and was quite happy with the results. Entering data via the app takes no more time than it does if you did it via eBird.org. In some ways, it's actually faster since, if you're using an iPhone, the app will use the built-in GPS function to quickly determine your location. This also allows you to enter checklists quickly, directly from the field as you're birding. It doesn't replace the good old fashioned pencil and notebook, but it does remove several steps in between.

With this app, you can also access all past locations, any checklist you have entered via the app (under "my sightings", any hotspots in the area, etc.

What it does NOT do, is explore data. It is only designed for entering data. The original Birdseye app fills the exploring data part to some extent, but an official app for this purpose would be nice.

One of the nice things about this app is that it gives you the option to create a checklist offline, even if there is no Internet or cell coverage. You can then upload the checklist later on. 

If you're wondering about the date, time, effort part, that has remained fairly simple and in the same format as on the eBird site. The screenshot below details what it looks like: 

The app will work wonderfully for those who have a smartphone. Unfortunately, for iPod touch users such as myself, the only advantage I see is that you don't have to log in on your laptop any longer, so it makes it slightly more mobile. You just need to find the nearest WiFi before you can upload your checklist for the day.

You can check out the intro vid below for more on this awesome new app:

For those birders who like to travel abroad, there is also a world version available for entering bird sightings from countries outside of the ABA area. 

(note: this is a voluntary review and the app was purchased. Most of the review work I do is new field guides and only occasionally for new apps like this one.) 

Book review: Birds of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire

Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, commonly known as the ABC Islands, are part of  the Lesser Antilles in a small chain known as the Leeward Antilles.  Discovered (purportedly) in 1499, they became the property of the Spanish empire. In 1634, the Dutch West India Company, after a spat with Spain, took control of the islands. After the company was dissolved, they became the property of the Netherlands.
In 1986, Aruba withdrew from Netherlands rule and became an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 2010, Curacao gained similar status while Bonaire became a special municipality of the Netherlands proper.  Interestingly enough, Bonaire is the only one of the islands to use US currency. The other two have their own currency.

Bonaire is known for scuba diving, as is Curacao, and snorkeling in the crystal clear, caribbean water and the elaborate reef sheltering the island.  The birding on the islands doesn't compare in numbers to some other popular destinations, but over 200 species have been recorded on the islands, including a number of endemics.  

The new Princeton Field Guide: Birds of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire does a nice job of covering ever single species ever recorded on the islands. In fact, it does so nice of a job, that even species that have been recorded only once are included.  This is ok in that it gives you a good idea of what species are likely to show up, but is slightly too much at the same time in that it can be somewhat confusing unless you read every text.

Due to the Islands' proximity to the South American mainland, many familiar species can be found there.  Species familiar to anyone who has visited central or south america, but also a few select species commonly found in the US.  This mix of species makes the ABC islands a nice starting point for anyone who will later be hopping the channel to Venezuela or Brazil.

If you open the front of the book, there is a small section detailing the history (both geologic and cultural) and biology of the islands. It is quite an interesting read and one I would recommend should you choose to purchase this book.

There are, of course, the usual mistakes here and there, as is to be expected in a first edition printing, but I'm sure they will be corrected in the next edition.

Unfortunately, I am not a fan of Mr Restall's handiwork. Not only is it, well, different (to put it lightly), but also, in many instances, inaccurate.  I do realize that there are island subspecies of certain species that may be different, but unfortunately, these are not the only species to have been unusually depicted.
Given the quality of artwork normally seen in a Princeton Press publication, Mr Restall's work isn't quite up to par, but is sufficient for the purpose it serves.


Listed at $28, the book is slightly on the pricy side, but still worth the investment should you wish to travel to the ABC Islands. It is simply a must-have since it is, to my knowledge, the only thoroughly complete field guide to the ABC Islands.


The Birds of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire can be purchased here at the Princeton store:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9674.html

Travel maps: where have you been?

Blue: counties/states I've been to, Red: counties I've  lived in,
Copper: states I haven't been to, Green: counties I haven't been to

Birders travel. That's the plain and simple fact. It's what we do. Birds live in many habitats around the world and one must travel in order to see them. Whether it's 1, 10, 100 or a thousand miles, birders have always traveled and will continue to travel. Some of us, no farther than our back yards, others, to every corner of the globe. It is an inevitable consequence of being a birder.

I have been more fortunate than most. I've been traveling ever since I was 6 months old when my parents took me on my first trip. This map of the US details all the places I've had to good fortune to travel to. Let me tell you about some of them:

When I was old enough (i.e. around 3) I took my first trip to Colorado. I've been there over a dozen times since then. Florida was a regular vacation spot for my family as well and was a favorite destination for many years.  Single trips to Idaho, Washington and Glacier National Park added many of the counties shown there. A three-week trip through central and southern Utah put those counties on the map with places like Arches NP, Canyonlands NP and Zion NP.  Three trips to the Grand Canyon of Arizona also added the four corners, much of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
I lived in Cochise County, Arizona for 4 months one summer and was able to travel quite a bit and add many Arizona counties to my list. California was entirely on my own in the space of two separate week-long birding trips.

The western US was always a favorite destination for family vacations, but we managed to add a few trips to the east as well.  A week in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee was a great experience and included a jaunt into Kentucky to visit the world-famous Mammoth Cave.  A spur-of the moment vacation to the southeast coast added both Carolinas to my list of states as well as my lifer Swainson's Warbler.  Louisiana was done in two different trips, years apart. The first to the southeast, the second to the southwest. The first included a stop in New Orleans which fully qualified as the filthiest city in the country.  The second was a birding trip on my way home from Arizona that included birding the famous Cameron Parish.   Maine was an interesting trip that included driving through Toronto, Montreal, Quebec and Halifax before returning south through New England.

Being from Chicago and living in WI, snapping up counties in that general area is easy to do and I have almost completed all of the WI counties.

If you follow my blog, you know I'm an avid chaser/twitcher. That little bunch of counties in Maryland were from such a twitch, a crazy, non-stop chase for a Black-headed Gull in a Best Buy parking lot in Cockeysville, MD.

And that pretty much sums up the US for me. Twenty years of family vacations, twitches and birding trips.

But what about Canada?

Canada is a country that can be difficult to get around due to lack of roads. Fortunately, where the roads do go, is spectacular country.  The trip to Jasper, Banff National Parks started by heading straight up through MN and then cutting across the endless tracts of open grassland to reach the Canadian Rockies. We completed the loop by returning through Waterton-Glacier National Park into Montana.
Eastern Canada was as much a cultural trip as it was a vacation/birding trip. Stops in every major city were mandated for this trip. Toronto, Montreal, Quebec and Halifax were all included. The churches and old buildings in Montreal and Quebec were beautiful, but nothing compared with the harsh, rugged beauty of the Atlantic coast around Halifax and the Bay of Fundy.


Combined with my recent three trips to the tropics (Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru respectively) and I can only wonder at how fortunate I have been to be able to visit so many wonderful places. Everywhere in the world has something different to offer, new scenery, new experiences, new things to try and do.

Traveling is something I will always do and always be eager to do. The one place I am most at home is en route to a new destination full of new things to do and discover. The anticipation of visiting a new place, finding myself there, not believing that I really am there, brings excitement beyond what words can describe. I will always be on the move, visiting new places, seeing new things. My goal is to visit every country on the planet and to see every sight that everyone dreams about seeing one day. Of course, along the way, seeing every bird on earth would be nice too.


Leaving you with that thought:
I hope to see you out there, somewhere, in the world of wonder, excitement and limitless imagination!

Even with all my traveling, only a small fraction of the world has fallen under my gaze.
There is still much left to see
(Travel map idea thanks to my friend Ethan Kistler over at the Nomadic Birder blog)

Book Review: Antarctic Wildlife: a Visitor's Guide

I've been a bit behind on book reviews lately. I have a backlog of books still needing work.
This was one that I thought people might find somewhat interesting.

James Lowen is a naturalist guide for Polar Star Expiditions.  In the introduction, he writes: "On my first trip to Antarctica, I yearned for a compact, portable book detailing the region's wildlife."
Finding no such book, Mr Lowen undertook the task of writing one.  The result was this visitor's guide.

Everything you need for a trip to the Antarctic is contained within this book. Not just birds, but also mammals from Whales to Sea Lions with detail on where they can be found and how to identify them, along with some interesting information about them.   With this guide, multiple field guides are combined into one small package with beautiful photographs, excellent, detailed text and coverage of most of the regular places that cruise ships visit.

I could say more, but there really is little I could say without having the book right in front of you. You really just need to read it. ;)


"Antarctic Wildlife: A Visitor's Guide" can be found online or in stores for around $23.