Rutland (VT) Herald on Bird Populations

There's a headline from today's Rutland Herald which reads "Vermont's bird population has increased by 17 new species, new survey shows."

This sounds like a good thing, but when you read the article itself, the prognosis isn't so good. Some choice excerpts:

A new survey of Vermont's bird populations shows that the state has breeding populations of 17 more species than it did in the late 1970s, but it also raises concern about the future of some species.

• The eastern meadowlark was spotted in half as many places in Vermont as it was 30 years ago.



• The common nighthawk has all but disappeared.



• Breeding pairs of four kinds of northern warblers weren't found anywhere. Vermont's first breeding bird survey helped establish the state's list of threatened and endangered birds, according to ornithologist Sally Laughlin, of Cambridge, director of the first atlas and a member of the state Endangered Species Committee.

After the loon, peregrine and osprey were put on the list, the state developed programs to protect them to the point where all three now have healthy breeding populations.

These are major issues. When bird populations decline dramatically, it's generally a sign of major environmental changes. When the Rusty Blackbird declines by 98% (see the photo: I couldn't find this bird in Vermont; I had to go to New Mexico to get a photo of one), it's a sign that things are changing.

So, yes, we have more breeding species in Vermont. These include the Tufted Titmouse and Northern Cardinal, both of which used to be uncommon in the Northeast. They're beautiful birds, and I'm glad I have the chance to view them, but it scares me that they climate here has changed to the point where birds that used to live a bit further south have become so prevalent in Vermont.

Friday Bird Blogging: Eastern Bluebirds Return in Force to Vermont

Last year, I had a few brief sightings of eastern bluebirds, but they were few and far between and I only spotted them a few times. This time, I've had multiple sightings of them. While last year, several of my sightings were directly connected with nesting boxes, this time, the sightings have been frequent and in areas with no visible nest boxes throughout the region.

I'm still relatively new to birding, so I find it difficult to know how much of this is my eye changing over time and being better at spotting (combined with having much better camera equipment than I had two years ago), and how much of it is a change in the environment or conditions from this year compared to last.

Cornell has some interesting facts on Eastern Bluebirds:

The male Eastern Bluebird does a "Nest Demonstration Display" at the nest cavity to attract the female. He brings nest material to the hole, goes in and out, and waves his wings while perched above it. That is pretty much his contribution to nest building; only the female Eastern Bluebird builds the nest and incubates the eggs.

Eastern Bluebirds typically have more than one successful brood each year. See a Birdscope article for data from The Birdhouse Network that show this graphically. Young produced in early nests usually leave their parents in summer, but young from later nests frequently stay with their parents over the winter.

Eastern Blue birds are, by the way, quite a bit different from Western Bluebirds, which tend to have a very similar shape, but the males have a darker throat and the females and less contrast on the chest and throat.

Friday Saturday Blog Birding: the Bohemian Waxwing

I'd never seen a bohemian waxwing before, but we'd been looking for them all winter: scanning flocks of waxwings, examining details, etc. Today, we were in search of a greater white-fronted goose, and had no luck whatsoever. On the drive, however, we spotted a flock of waxwings and decided to take a closer look. The entire flock was bohemians, which can be distinguished from cedar waxwings by rusty marks on the tail and forehead, a grayer underside (cedars have a lot more yellow on the stomach) and a distinctly different wing pattern.

Some key facts from Cornell:

• The name "Bohemian" refers to the nomadic movements of winter flocks. It comes from the inhabitants of Bohemia, meaning those that live an unconventional lifestyle or like that of gypsies.



• The Bohemian Waxwing does not hold breeding territories, probably because the fruits it eats are abundant, but available only for short periods. One consequence of this non-territorial lifestyle is that it has no true song. It does not need one to defend a territory.



• Only three species of waxwings exist. The Bohemian and Japanese waxwings have white edges to the wing feathers, but the Cedar Waxwing does not. An unusual Cedar Waxwing was found with the ornate wing pattern, suggesting that the ancestor of all three species had a patterned wing.

More Light Drawings

As usual, clicking on these brings you to larger versions:

The Pileated Woodpecker: a giant among woodpeckers

Crossposted to Birding New England

The first time I ever saw a Pileated woodpecker, it was a breathtaking sight. The pair of them were feeding in the large maple in our yard and when they flew off, they were nearly silent.

It took me a few years before I managed to actually capture them in photo, but I'm glad I was able to pull it off. Since then, I've managed to get photos of them with limited success.

I think, though, that my favorite thing about the Pileateds is their range of sounds. They have a fairly standard woodpecker "laugh" (which I think of as more of a high-pitched rattle), but unlike the hairy and the downy woodpeckers, their call is a trill which remains constant in pitch. While the Hairy Woodpecker makes a call that you can hear trilling and then trailing off, changing pitch at the end, the Pileated's is constant throughout, making them easy to hear from a distance if you get the knack for it.

Then there's another call they make which is more like a staccato slow chatter that is such a *deep* pitch that it rattles the bones a bit.

I'm going to close with one more photo at the end. When Pileated's dig into trees, they do major excavating, creating huge holes in the trees, digging out large chunks of wood. The photo below is of a pileated in mid-excavation, with the actual piece of wood still in its beak:



As usual, all these photos are smaller versions. Clicking on them brings you to the site with the full sized versions and more details.

More Light Drawings

As usual, clicking on the photos gets you to larger versions

Friday Bird Blogging: the Bushtit

The Bushtit is a Western Bird that we spotted while staying in New Mexico a few weeks ago. Cornell reports the Bushtit as being one of the birds that adapts well to changing landscapes, having learned to adapt to suburbs in the state of increasing its range.

Like many birds its size (3-4"), this is not the easiest bird in the world to photograph, but having a small flock of them feed in a tree in a populated area meant a bird which was used to people, which made my job a lot easier.

Friday Bird Blogging: Sandhill Crane taking flight

A Sandhill Crane taking flight at Bosque Del Apache from our trip to New Mexico.

I'd never seen sandhill cranes before, though there is a pair that shows up in Vermont from time to time, so this was an incredible treat. You could pretty much consistently see them in flight in and around the refuge the whole time we were there.

As usual, clicking on the image gives you a larger version with details.

Friday Monday Bird Blogging: Snow Geese at Bosque Del Apache

I just posted 85 new photos from our trip to New Mexico. These are mostly bird photos, but there are a couple bits of landscape and architecture photos in there as well.

The trip was unreal; I've never been any place like this before. I love the refuges we've got on the Northeast but many of them are coastal or forest refuges so we don't get to see birds in wide open spaces like this.

Each morning we were able to watch snow geese take off from the central pond in Bosque Del Apache wildlife refuge. I tried a few different ways of capturing the brilliance of this event, but none of these really did it justice. Most of the time it started at daybreak; you can hear the snow geese and the sandhill cranes making lots of noise in the middle of the pond, and you can watch them from the deck with the sun rising to the left.

The noise builds for a time, and you can hear other geese coming in from the distance. Then, suddenly, there is this noise, that I can't even begin to describe; at first it was just a really loud collection of the geese honking back and forth, like this sort of strange loud chatter. Then it all just *stops* at once for a moment. Then there is this bursting forth of noise from the center of the lake and this incredible lift-off. Then hundreds of geese just fly forth across the pond, flying directly overhead. You can hear the beating of wings and the volume is just incredibly intense.

I did a variety of approaches to try to capture this, but not with the best success. I just don't think there's a way to capture it that comes anywhere near the experience.

I've mentioned "life lists" before. I had hoped to get 5-10 new birds on my list, which for me is a list of all the types of bird I've photographed. I got at least 27 new birds during the trip, some of which were birds I'd never even heard of before. I also got some great photographs of birds that I'd already pictured, such as Northern Shovelers, Snow Geese, Northern Harriers, Pintails, a Kestrel and lots more.

The trip was not without its complications. We drove up to the peak of Sandia Crest to get a trio of finches (Rosy Finches) which are almost never found outside of high mountain terrain. We'd never been up that high before (it was over 10,600 ft high) and though I did manage to get some amazing photos, I got serious vertigo while up there (I made the mistake of moving too fast walking up a hill: the thin air made that a real problem and I almost fell over at one point).

The trip home was a bit of a nightmare. We had a stopover in Chicago that took an extra four hours due to bad weather. So we were stuck in the airport, didn't make it into CT until 3:30am, then had to pick up the car and rive home. By 6:30am, we were finally home, and today it's been land of the zombie people. Hopefully a (full) night's sleep tonight will get us back up and recharged again. It was a great trip, but now I'm totally wiped out.
Tomorrow, it's back to real work, but in the meantime here's a quick list of what I've got photos of:

Northern Harriers
Snow Geese
Ross's Geese
Neotropic Cormorant
Bushtit
Black-Throated Sparrow
Mountain Chickadee
Brewer's Blackbird
Black Rosy-Finch
Brown-Capped Rosy-Finch
Gray-Crowned Rosy-Finch
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
Ladder-Backed Woodpecker
Black Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Western Bluebird
Northern Flicker
Phainopepla
Loggerhead Shrike
Western Meadowlark
Rusty Blackbird
Spotted Towhee
Chihuahuan Raven
Pyrrhuloxia
Sandhill Crane
Gambel’S Quail
Greater Roadrunner
Ring-Necked Pheasant
American Bald Eagle
Red-Tailed Hawk
Northern Shoveler

I also have a few landscape photos as well as a really nice picture of an old Church with lovely architecture and colors.

This was a real treat. I'm glad we did it, even if I may need a few days to recover :)

Why do they hate John so much?

One theory as to why.

Last Night's Photos

Three more light drawings. As usual, clicking on the photos gives you larger versions with details about the shot.

A light sphere:



This was a mistake that I ended up liking:



A very bright light tunnel:

Heath Ledger, dead at 28

Ledger was a gifted actor and his role in Brokeback Mountain was just one of the most moving things I've ever seen.

I don't get into celebrity worship culture, but I do feel a personal affinity for people who have done something I think of as a social good. Brokeback Mountain, and especially his part in it, was a major social good, as far as I'm concerned. It transformed the points of view of people across the country and put a human face to gay men that had been sorely lacking in mainstream movies, which often depicted gay men as either social eunichs or flamboyantly over the top. There's nothing wrong with either of those as part of the spectrum of the behavior of gay men overall, but as primary roles in mainstream movies, it's a bit thin.

Ledger, along with his director and costars, managed to bring human faces to the plight of those of us who live under the threat of violence for the nature of our very beings. For the loss of someone so willing to give of himself to play such a part, I'm going to miss his work dearly.

Friday Bird Blogging: Barred Owl

It's never easy to spot these guys. This shot in particular was great because the bird eluded me multiple times before I finally got it in sight.

Tonight's photos

Two new light drawings, this time playing with combination of more than one light object in the same shot. As usual, clicking on the image gives you a larger version with more details. The second one was an exposure of over ten minutes. I did one pass on the left (very slowly), then turned around and came back doing the same thing on the right. Then, walking away from the camera, I did the star shapes overhead.

All the lights are attached to an old mop stick, so I can extend my reach, which also allows me to create fairly uniform arcs and sphere shapes.

Vermonters invade New Hampshire to support John Edwards

This is primarily a photo blog: a group of Vermonters (including a not paltry contingent from Vermont's Green Mountain Daily) showed up in Lebanon, New Hampshire this morning to help out with the canvassing. Later, we got to see John Edwards speak, and had a real treat shortly after.

It was a day much colder than expected, and canvassing was fun. Everyone was incredibly polite to one another. We crossed a few paths with an Obama canvasser and wished each other good luck. Everyone we spoke to while canvassing was polite as well, and the common theme, even for people who weren't supporting Edwards was how nice it was to have a *good* set of choices this time around.

Below, I'll post about the speakers we had at the pre-canvassing as well as the treat we got with seeing Edwards, but first, probably one of the best portrait shots I've ever taken:



The whole photoset of photos from today can be seen here. I'm just posting a select few for the blog itself.

First, David Zucker, who was coordinating the volunteers in Lebanon:



People who do this sort of work are often overworked and overtired, but he was great.

After David, we got a cool speech from Matt Dunne, who ran for Lt. Governor in Vermont last time around and is an awesome progressive:



After Matt, we got Kevin Leahy (son of the senator Patrick Leahy), which was a treat:



Then, we got the fairly manic Ben Cohen (from Ben & Jerry's fame):



The idea was simple after this: we canvass for a bit and then we had reserved seats in the auditorium in front.

Here's what ended up happening though: the Fire Marshal shut us, and a large number of other Edwards supporters, out of the auditorium. So this was really disheartening; we had expected to have reserved seats, but no such luck. They were going to have us stand outside and meet with Edwards briefly but no one seemed to like that plan. Then they figured out that we could have an overflow room, and that as a thank you, we'd get to see Edwards speak briefly in the overflow room. They brought us in, we waited a bit, and then the candidate appeared, walking into the center of this gymnasium and standing on a chair to talk to us:







He spoke briefly, off the cuff, thanked everyone for coming and apologized for the overflow room, and then left again. I positioned myself to get the picture up top on his way out-- came out far better than I expected. We were all milling about, getting ready to head out, thinking it wasn't worth sticking around just to hear his speech pumped in through speakers.

Then something really surprising happened. He came running back into the room, without his jacket, and someone tossed him a basketball:

This was a real treat. We got to watch a presidential candidate just hang out before his speech, and have some fun, the afternoon before probably the most important debate of his political career:









He didn't seem to mind that he'd missed a few baskets, and he was as relaxed as I'd ever seen him.

So really, that's it. We headed back to quiet Vermont and over the next few days we'll be doing more campaigning, canvassing, etc. This was a real treat. I've worked for campaigns before but never got to see the candidate from this close.

I'm glad we did it and it was really fun, once you got over the bitter freezing ("Can I still feel my fingers? No, I can't!) cold. Yikes. Oh well. All for a good cause.

Friday Bird Blogging: Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

No time to write much of anything, but I'd never seen a sapsucker in the winter before December's Christmas Bird Count. Apparently, Sapsuckers do winter over some of the time, but it's not common. Per Cornell:

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is the only woodpecker in eastern North America that is completely migratory. Although a few individuals remain throughout much of the winter in the southern part of the breeding range, most head farther south, going as far south as Panama. Females tend to migrate farther south than do males.

As usual, clicking on the image brings you to a larger version.

2008 is coming. Everyone look busy

I'm thinking that, being New Year's Eve, it's time to take a look back at some of the things that happened in 2007 and whack ourselves over the head repeatedly in order to avoid some prior mistakes.

So this post is simple: thinks I'm glad about for 2007, things I'm angry about for 2007, things I'm looking forward to in 2008, and things I dread about 2008.

But first, once again, I have done more light drawings:








As usual, clicking on the images gives you a larger version with details about the photos.

So let's start with the bad, from 2007. Put simply, I am pissed off about:

FISA, S-Chip, Dems in Congress, Dems in the Senate, Harry Reid's crap, Nancy Pelosi's crap, Joe Lieberman's sanctimony, Kent Jones getting canned, every single thing the Bush administration has ever done, thought about doing, or come close to doing, lead in toys, talk about a wall across the border, the fact that the only Republican candidate who's willing to speak out against the occupation of Iraq seems to be getting support from white supremacists, rising costs of health insurance, rising costs of gasoline, rising costs of, well, everything, global warming, species of fish dying out, Blue America Democrats who turned out to be Bluedogs, big media, big media going after their writers, Vermont state police collecting personal medical data, corporate greed overriding common sense, the pardoning of Scooter Libby, and probably a whole hell of a lot more.

I'm also just sad that Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's.

I am, on the other hand, quite happy about:

Chris Dodd standing up to Harry Reid, Daily Kos, Green Mountain Daily, Keith Olbermann, Futurama's return, the end of the Bush administration (in theory), pretty much the whole Republican field (for comic relief), The Daily Show, the Colbert Report, the fact that we *caught* the Vermont state police collecting personal medical data, that Gonzales was forced to resign, the outcry over the pardoning of Scooter Libby, the fact that even though we can't change things quite yet, the country seems to finally be fully on board with the slogan for the occupation of Iraq I've wanted us to adopt ("Come on! WTF?"). Actually, that slogan can apply to the whole Bush administration. I'm happy that John Kerry isn't running and that John Edwards is. I'm happy that I took many awesome pictures this year.

I'm happy that I'm a lot healthier than I was a month ago and I'm happy that my work, for the time being, is prosperous and I'm happy that even though some of my camera equipment got stolen this year, and some of it got broken, that I was able to recover quickly (though expensively) from both. I'm glad that clear thinking about global warming has entered the mainstream.

I'm happy for Parker River.

As far as 2008 goes:

I have no idea what to expect. I both dread and look forward to it. I look forward to whomever the Republican nominee is, because I don't think it will be that difficult to beat him (though I think McCain and Huckabee would be major challenges). I dread Clinton being nominated (feel free to flame me) but I look forward to working for Edwards in New Hampshire this weekend, because I think he'll do better than Clinton in Iowa and that will make NH *really* interesting.

I look forward to more music, more photography, better health. I look forward to the last throes of the Bush administration and I look forward to seeing better people elected in 2008.

I look forward to more writing, more thoughts, a little peace and quiet, and a lot of damned fine music.

So how about the rest of you? What are your best lessons from 2007? What do you expect to do differently in 2008?

Friday Bird Blogging: Raptors at Salisbury Beach

We did a quick visit to Salisbury beach the other day, after a disappointing visit to Parker River. We were greeted with a minor raptor show. First this Short-eared-owl showed up:





Then, we spotted a red-tailed hawk (bad light, now picture).

Then we realized that across the tree from the red-tail was this Cooper's Hawk:



All in all, not a bad day.

Dear Lakota Nation,

I love you. I really, really love you.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.

A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.

They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and will continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months, they told the news conference.

Did I mention that I love you?

I have no idea how this is going to work out, because I somehow think the US isn't going to say, "Oh, all right then, you go right ahead." But as in your face civil disobedience goes, this is as disobedient and in your face as you can get without weapons.

You're awesome and beautiful. I love you. Go, you!

The War On Solstice is Here

Last week, I urged you all to Fight Back against the war on solstice.

Today is your final day to do battle. I gave a list of ways you can fight against the anti-solstice forces and ended with the traditional pagan litany:

Never give up.

Never surrender.

Today, I will give you your final orders. You have a mere twenty-one hours to make this happen until the official time of solstice.

Your task is now simple.

It is to fight for the solstice and to achieve final solstice victory by any means necessary.

The time for letter-writing is past.

The time for picketing is past.

Now, it is merely war.


To go into battle, you merely need three things:

The wisdom of righteousness

Remember: you are the only people who are right on this. Everyone else is either a heathen, a blasphemer, or otherwise unsuitable. You are not wrong. You can do no wrong. As long as the gods tell you what to do, you can do no wrong, and will be held harmless for all acts you conduct in the name of Solstice.

This, of course, applies to the *right* gods. Make sure you don't pick the wrong ones, or we're all screwed. And really, there's a whole lot of them. So be careful. But once you're sure you've got it right, pursue your goals with all due zealotry and obliviousness to any belief but your own.

The power of numbers

Get your neighbors, your friends, your postal workers and your UPS delivery person to help you out with this. And trust me, once you tell those last two that that you're fighting back against Christmas, they'll be right on board. No one hates Christmas more than UPS unless its the US Post Office. If anyone seems skeptical, tell them you're going out caroling. Sometimes the best way to fight Christmas is to pretend to support it, and then go in for the kill.

Torches

Remember the snowmen? Torches are great for repelling the forces of the turncoat snow traitors. They're also good for burning down manger scenes, non-chemically treated wreaths, non-artificial "Christmas" trees and the vehicles of the anti-pagan forces. Plus, there's nothing more exciting than an angry mob with torches. Gets the solstice blood flowing.

You are now equipped to fight back against the war on solstice.

Attack.

Attaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!