Competitive Bird Watching: Separates the sparrows from the hawks.

Bobolink! Yellow-billed cuckoo! Catbird! American woodcock!

Just some of the rare-to-us birds Mr. Field Notes and I were excited to see within spitting distance of the place we lived during my grad school days. I never got to see the cuckoo, and allegedly there was a black-billed one spotted too, but bygones. I am *not* competitive when it comes to birdwatching. However, some folks are and take to an extreme level.

Each year in Texas competitive bird watchers gather in Texas for the Great Texas Birding Classic, a 5 day long event in which teams traverse woods and waterways all over the state to collect the most species sightings as they can in 5 days. The prize? Bragging rights, a humongous bronze trophy shaped like an egret and $10,000 to donate to a conservation project.

I really thoroughly enjoy bird spotting and have for a long time — ever since my 7th grade biology teacher had us do a version of the Great Texas Birding Classic for a class project. I racked up quite a few species, including an American Goldfinch, which for a kid used to seeing only robins and ducks, was really, really neat. I don't think I did much authentic birdwatching after that, until I met Mr. Field Notes, who from what it sounds like, grew up going birdwatching with his dad. I say 'going birdwatching' because there's a difference between being a bird watcher and someone who goes bird watching. The former are content to see who comes to patronize their backyard feeds. The latter travel on purpose specifically to spot 'life birds' — new birds seen for the first time in your life.

Mr. Field Notes and I definitely fall into the latter crowd. Proof? We chose to go to southern Arizona in August on purpose for our honeymoon - so we could go birdwatching. Southern Arizona, specifically the area around Sierra Vista, is a birdwatcher's mecca, being the best jumping off place to see tropical species in the US. Later we went to Belize — to go birdwatching. We also snorkeled, and saw ancient Mayan ruins, and monkeys, but mostly we went there to see birds. And birds we did. We kept a list of everything we saw.

Some people who rack up birds on their lists give themselves credit for stuff they hear but not see. I think that's wrong. My personal standard is that I have to get a good enough look at the bird to make my own identification. I never check a bird onto my life list if I see it fly away after Mr. Field Notes does the ID work. I have to do that myself too, for it to count.

Another thing birdwatchers go crazy over, besides life lists and writing down heard-but-not-seens is equipment, specifically binoculars. Now, there are also spotting scopes, which come in very handy for identifying shorebirds, but, it's the binos that come in the most handy. And, as long as you are patient, and quiet, and observant, you don't need expensive ones with image stabilizing features, powerful lenses, and ultra-light weight. I get by just fine on my comparatively dirt cheep ones.

Needless to say, I am truly looking forward to teaching Baby Field Notes about birds and going out with her and Mr. Field Notes to see the birds in our area and then into the great beyond.

The Neatest Owl You've Never Seen

It was love at first sight when I saw this on the front page of etsy right before I turned into bed for the night. I decided if it was still there in the morning, I would have to have it.

When I woke up this morning I told Sleyed all about it and how I thought his dad might be interested in seeing this artform. All three of us love birds, and lately his dad has been into knots.

This is the one I bought, and I can't wait for it to arrive!

Prenuptial Perfumery - A Mating Ritual

A small and charismatically billed bird meanders over to another, emits a soft call, and then vigorously rubs its bill over the other bird's back. They exchange full body bill massages and end by entwining their necks. A citrus-like scent fills the air.




















These birds are crested auklets, and until recently the purpose of their strange behavior was a bit of a mystery.

Hector Douglas, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Alaska, had been observing the birds while conducting experiments on St. Lawrence Island in the northern Bering Sea. Through a series of ingenious experiments he found out the birds are strongly attracted to an orange-like scent that they secrete in wick-like feathers on their backs.

"They honed in on the scent, rotating their heads to place their nostrils directly over the dispenser. Then they rubbed their bills over the dispensers just as they would on the wick feathers of their partner. Next, the birds rubbed themselves on the lifelike models right in the area where the wick feathers are located,'' he said. "They would engage in prolonged loving on the models."

The birds rub the citrus-like scent on each other during courtship. Each adopts a characteristic posture, a signal to the other that some rubbing is desired.

According to Douglas, this is the first time alloanointing, or the transfer of chemicals, has been documented in birds. A few species of primates have been observed to anoint themselves, but not each other, with various organic compounds they get from breaking open centipedes. They spread the bug juice over their fur, thereby repelling pesky, biting insects.

The crested aukets' alloanointing also serves a practical purpose. Douglas showed the substance they secrete harms ticks. "The ticks exposed to average amounts of citrus scent moved much slower than the controls. They were sluggish, they staggered, and some appeared to be paralyzed,'' he said.

So just how does this help in mating?

Just like people with great hair and skin are more attractive, birds with good quality plumage are more attractive. Just as pimples and frayed hair are turn-offs to people, parasites turn glossy plumage into dull and ragged feathers that are a turn-off to birds.

Because birds can't preen their own heads and necks, those spots are vulnerable to ticks. By roping a partner into feather care, auklets can look better. It's very similar to going to get your hair cut before an important occasion. The birds pay for the service by returning the favor. Such reciprocal exchanges of support reinforce pair bonds.

Crested auklets are not the only ones who can benefit from a little prenuptial perfumery to get rid of the creepy crawlies and keep a budding romantic relationship alive. Viewers of the TV show Desperate Housewives may recall a comical scene aired recently in which Gabby successfully hid her affair with her ex-husband and the fact that she caught crabs from him by allo-anointing her husband. In order to keep her new husband from discovering her infidelity, she had to invent a way to treat his condition without letting him know that she caught crabs and gave it to him too. She turned the application of medicated lotion into a playfully erotic occasion, thus successfully keeping their pairbond alive.

Watch this human version of crested auklet allo-anointing:


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The article, Prenuptial perfume: Alloanointing in the social rituals of the crested auklet (Aethia cristatella ) and the transfer of arthropod deterrents, will be published in the German journal Naturwissenschaften.

Exotic Bird Identification

One of the things I love most about going bird watching in a new location, especially ones far away, is the challenge of identifying new birds.

When you go birdwatching in the same places time and again, like I did with Mr. Field Notes here at the reservoir, it becomes easy to identify the regulars. Sometimes that's all you see. I like novelty, and of course actually seeing a "life bird," but what really excites me is the challenge of identifying the new birds. It's part of the fun of foreign travel! Seeing the kingfisher in Japan was definitely a highlight as was the hoopoe in Tunisia.

I put up this bookmark for sale today on etsy, and I am clueless about what the birds on the stamps are! Perhaps some bird enthusiasts may drop by here and be able to tell me the general type of the birds. Their scientific names aren't given on all of the stamps.




I think one of them is some sort of dove or pigeon. What's the difference between those anyway?

One of the yellow ones looks like a finch based on the bill, but then again maybe it's a type of sparrow?


Some birds go by a different name in another location even though they are effectively the same bird. That only adds to the confusion of bird names. And don't even get me started on how amusing it is to see old bird guide books! Genus names change - not species or common names - entire genuses. Or is it geni?