http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/index/ The latest news articles, reports, and updates on events in the world of birding. en ddeboer@duckbill-inc.com Copyright 2009 2009-09-12T01:56:01-05:00 http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/birding_hotspots_in_the_united_states_merrymeeting_marsh_in_new_durham_nh/ http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/birding_hotspots_in_the_united_states_merrymeeting_marsh_in_new_durham_nh/#When:01:56:01Z Merrymeeting Marsh, off Route 11 in New Durham, is one of New Hampshire’s natural treasures. For those who love birdwatching, kayaking, the peace and quiet of getting away from it all, or any combination of the above, Merrymeeting Marsh is a nearly ideal destination. With miles of very calm, sedate paddling that carries you along a winding, but clearly defined, channel (Merrymeeting River) kayakers here have the opportunity to get up close to many wetland birds, flowering water plants, and even active beaver lodges and dams. The channel is easily wide enough for two or even three kayaks to travel side by side without crowding. n the Autumn, the small trees that encroach upon the edges of Merrymeeting Marsh are among the first in the state to change colors adding a fiery red border that stands out against the taller evergreens behind them. By the second week of September, this early explosion of autumn color should be in high form. News 2009-09-12T01:56:01-05:00 http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/birding_not_eco_friendly_says_professor/ http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/birding_not_eco_friendly_says_professor/#When:23:32:00Z That’s what University of Illinois professor Spencer Schaffer claims in a surprising essay published in the August issue of the Journal of Sport & Social Issues. The article cites competitive forms of birding as relying “on both environmental protection and degradation.” Among the causes for concern listed are such popular birding pastimes as the World Series of Birding, big-year birding, and listing. What damage are these activities doing? Schaffer notes that many birders travel by car, logging many hours on the road chasing sightings from one hotspot to the next. He also implies that some birders, in getting too ‘up close and personal’ with birds in their own environment, may actually be going counter to the ideals of environmental protection. Of course, not all bird watchers are out harassing birds, and in observing and taking note of birds and their environment, are actually contributing a great deal to the science of conservation.  News 2009-09-03T23:32:00-05:00 http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/the_birds_watch_back_week_4/ http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/the_birds_watch_back_week_4/#When:22:42:01Z Comics 2009-09-01T22:42:01-05:00 http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/fall_festivals_in_the_near_future1/ http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/fall_festivals_in_the_near_future1/#When:19:31:00Z There’s a lot of birding festivals and events coming up this fall, and it may just be beginner’s excitement, but some of them sound pretty amazing. There’s a festival for Whooping Cranes in Necedah Wisconsin coming up in September. In case you’re like me and didn’t know anything about it, Whooping Cranes are one of the most critically endangered bird species in North America today. Thousands of people come to Necedah every year to celebrate the cranes and discuss their future. With only a few hundred of these birds left in the wild, and so many dangers and threats facing their survival, it’s both sobering and inspirational. Also, there’s the Crane Festival coming up soon here in my home region of Western Michigan, but these are Sandhill Cranes, not Whoopers. They’re still fantastic birds anyway. Hopefully I’ll be able to get over my fear of having a repeat of last year’s shenanigans.    Then there’s the Rio Grande Valley Festival down in Texas.. don’t know how likely it is I’d even be able to travel that far in the middle of November, but hey it’s out there anyways. What events do you plan on going to this fall? Blogs 2009-08-28T19:31:00-05:00 http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/the_birding_hotspots_product_gets_featured_in_birders_world_magazine/ http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/the_birding_hotspots_product_gets_featured_in_birders_world_magazine/#When:18:06:00Z SPOC, the Single-Platform-Optics-Carrier for birders, is a system designed to allow a birder who uses heavy optics like a scope and tripod to carry those products hands-free in the field, with fast access and no more carrying on the shoulder. Duckbill Outdoors, the creators of SPOC, also founded The Birding Hotspot news information and blogging website, discussion forums, and online store. So we were very pleased when the SPOC product showed up in a recent issue of Birder’s World magazine! To see what Birder’s World had to say about SPOC, you can view the summary of the article on their website. SPOC is available for purchase not only at Eagle Optics, but also from the original manufacturer’s websites, see Duckbill Outdoors’ ergonomic SPOC system sales page, and The Birding Hotspot’s Online Store outlet! Birder’s World Online - Duckbill Scope and Tripod Carrier “We’ve been looking for a way to carry a scope and tripod that leaves our hands free. This system does the trick.” - Birder’s World   Got your own opinion about this topic? Want to learn more about SPOC or The Birding Hotspot or Duckbill? Visit the forum thread regarding this article here. (Forums are free and open to participate) News 2009-08-28T18:06:00-05:00 http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/live_bird_cameras_on_the_web/ http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/live_bird_cameras_on_the_web/#When:21:05:00Z One of the most interesting emerging trends out there in the world of internet birding is the concept of a nest camera. In fact, recently the Cornell Lab of Ornithology released a site called “NestCams” dedicated to that very purpose. So what are bird cams or nest cams? The concept is simple enough, a digital camera is set up inside a dedicated nesting box for a bird or family of birds, and then a streaming video feed is sent over the internet to offer live footage of birds as they come and go. Dedicated web watchers can then join in the fun of watching and observing, even taking snapshots or stills of footage and submitting timestamped observations and annotations for others to read and peruse later! Thus far the NestCam site has three functional cameras for viewing - Barn Owl, Chimney Swift, and Seabirds of Alaska. You can see them all at the site links below: The NestCams Website (http://watch.birds.cornell.edu/nestcams/camera/index) Here’s a preview of what you can see on the NestCams site: Chimney Swifts - a streaming Nest Cam from Glenham, NY To get the full effect though, you should watch the streaming video on the NestCam site: http://watch.birds.cornell.edu/nestcams/camera/view?cameraID=C100060# If you’re interested in the idea of setting up your own bird observation camera, one prominent product out there is the Wingscapes BirdCam, used to capture videos and photos digitally right in your back yard. It comes highly reviewed by some prominent ornithologists and birding bloggers, as well. Expect to see a product review on the birding hotspot website in the near future! Until then, check out the website: http://www.wingscapes.com/ News 2009-08-22T21:05:00-05:00 http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/pelican_swallows_cell_phone_at_zoo/ http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/pelican_swallows_cell_phone_at_zoo/#When:03:46:01Z A pelican at the Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls, Idaho, swallowed something other than food recently when a cell phone that had been dropped in a pool at the exhibit made its way “down the hatch.” The flock in the exhibit were playing with the phone Monday until one of the birds swallowed it. For three hours, zookeepers couldn’t figure out which bird did it until the culprit coughed up the goods. Zoo officials released statements following the event cautioning visitors to be careful with their personal belongings and consider the health and safety of the animals. The local officials haven’t yet figured out who owns the mystery phone. Visitors at the zoo reported that they noticed the pelicans tossing something back and forth then one of them swallowed it. Zoo keepers couldn’t figure out from witness descriptions which one of the birds ate the phone.They nearly had to X-ray the entire flock when one of them finally regurgitated it and saved everyone a lot of trouble. Thankfully all of the pelicans now appear to be in good health and returning to zoo life as normal. News 2009-08-07T03:46:01-05:00 http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/rook_intelligence_link_to_aesop_fable/ http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/rook_intelligence_link_to_aesop_fable/#When:01:49:00Z One of Aesop’s ancient fables involved a crow who was thirsty. The crow came across a pitcher of water, but the mouth of the jug was too small for him to fit his head through, and the level of water too low for him to reach. He dropped stones into the pitcher one by one to raise the level of water. The moral of the story being one of learning to solve problems bit by bit. Scientists have found that rooks, relatives to crows, were able to intuitively use the same stone-dropping strategy to get at a floating worm. In previous scientific experiments in the past, rooks have already been shown to be capable of using tools to problem-solve. Cambridge University researchers exposed the rooks to a 6-inch-tall clear plastic tube containing water, with a worm on its surface. The birds used the stone-dropping trick spontaneously and appeared to estimate how many stones they would need. They learned quickly that larger stones work better. In another scenario they quickly realized that dropping rocks into a container of sawdust didn’t have the same effect. The implications are of great interest to scientists and animal lovers alike. The level of problem-solving skills necessary to manipulate the physics of water displacement would seem to indicate a level of intelligence and insight that is strikingly high. Did Aesop’s original story come from a first-hand observation of in-the-wild behavior, then? Read Aesop’s original fable online here: http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Aesop/Aesops_Fables/The_Crow_and_the_Pitcher_p1.html News 2009-08-07T01:49:00-05:00 http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/ebird_releases_list_of_most_wanted_counties/ http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/ebird_releases_list_of_most_wanted_counties/#When:00:08:01Z Recently eBird.com released a news announcement regarding counties that lacked data input in their nation-wide database. Birders are not evenly distributed around the continent, and the same is certainly true for eBirders. There are some places, like Cook County, Illinois and Los Angeles, California, that benefit from having large populations. Birders have submitted over 21,476 checklists (341 species) for Cook County and over 19,000 checklists (489 species) for Los Angeles. But high populations alone don’t always determine the number of checklists submitted. There are more checklists for Tompkins county, New York (24,285), than any other county--Cornell’s location in the center of the county plays a critical role. And it’s probably not too surprising that some exceptional birding locations like Cape May, NJ (14,197), rank high. Others benefit from a combination of factors: St. Louis, Minnesota, offers exceptional birding (home the Sax-Zim bog, Hawk Ridge, and Park Point); it’s large (bigger than several eastern states) and benefits from the passionate participation of a small but dedicated number of eBirders. But there are other counties that are less well represented in eBird. eBird has provided a list of counties with NO checklists at all in their database. These would be great places to start. Of course, it may not be all that easy for everyone to get to Zeibach County, South Dakota. As Robert Frost learned, however, there are some great discoveries to be made on the roads less traveled. And it can make all the difference. Clickhere to get the full story and see whether there’s any counties near you that are lacking checklist data - then start planning your next adventure! News 2009-07-23T00:08:01-05:00 http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/inside_the_brains_of_birds_zebra_finches/ http://thebirdinghotspot.com/index.php/site/comments/inside_the_brains_of_birds_zebra_finches/#When:23:58:00Z Findings from multiple different studies into the neurobiology of zebra finches have been published by recently. The first comes from University of Illinois. When a zebra finch hears a new song from a member of its own species, the experience changes gene expression in its brain in unexpected ways, these researchers report. The sequential switching on and off of thousands of genes after a bird hears a new tune offers a new picture of memory in the songbird brain. The finding, detailed this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was a surprise, said principal investigator David Clayton, a professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of Illinois. He and his colleagues had not expected to see so many genes involved, and thought that any changes in gene activity after a bird heard a new song would quickly dissipate. The new experiments uncovered three distinct profiles of gene expression in the brain. One is typical of a bird sitting alone in silence. A second profile appears quickly just after a bird hears a recorded song – but only if the song is new to the bird. A third profile then emerges 24 hours later, after the song has become familiar. In the study, each bird was kept in quiet isolation overnight before it heard a recording of a new song. The recording was then repeated every 10 seconds for up to three hours.The new study took a broad snapshot of gene activity in the brain. Using DNA microarray analysis, the researchers measured changes in levels of messenger RNAs in the auditory forebrain of finches exposed to a new song. These mRNAs are templates that allow the cell to translate individual genes into the proteins that do the work of the cells. Any surge or drop in the number of mRNAs in brain cells after a stimulus offers clues to how the brain is responding. Twenty-four hours after the initial stimulus, the pattern of activated genes was entirely different from that of the initial response, regardless of whether the bird heard the song again on day two or not, Clayton said. Those genes that were originally upregulated or downregulated had returned to baseline, and a new network of genes was engaged. A major focus of this new network appears to be the regulation of energy metabolism. This suggests a lot is still going on in the brain, Clayton said. The second study was from researchers at MIT. It is said that learning complex skills like playing an instrument requires a sequence of movements that can take years to master. Last year, MIT neuroscientists reported that by studying the chirps of these tiny songbirds, they were able to identify how two distinct brain circuits contribute to this type of trial-and-error learning in different stages of life. Now, the researchers have gained new insights into a specific mechanism behind this learning. In a paper being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of July 6, the scientists report that as zebra finches fine-tune their songs, the brain initially stores improvements in one brain pathway before transferring this learned information to the motor pathway for long-term storage. To train the birds, researchers monitored their singing and delivered white noise whenever a bird sang a particular syllable at a lower pitch than usual. On a particular day, after four hours of training in which the birds learned to raise the pitch, the researchers temporarily inactivated the AFP with a short-acting drug (tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin that comes from the puffer fish). The pitch immediately slipped back to where it had been at the start of that day’s training session — suggesting that the recently learned changes were stored within the AFP. But the researchers found that over the course of 24 hours, the brain had transferred the newly learned information from the AFP to the motor pathway. The motor pathway was storing all of the accumulated pitch changes from previous training sessions. Before and after sound clips can be heard at the MIT website, here. News 2009-07-21T23:58:00-05:00