Bird Call

E-Z I.D. Friday

If you happened to wonder why the gap in my blog the last couple of weeks, it was due to a bad attitude spawned by troubles with my new refurbished camera. Frankly it took the wind out of my blog (in a manner of speaking.) : ) For those of you keeping score at home, here is a synopsis: the camera didn’t work.

It did well on lampposts and trees, but not birds.  Thinking it was my fault, I tested and retested it for two weeks before giving up and calling support. I explained to them that things didn’t seem to be working out between the camera and me and asked if I could get an annulment? I also told them they must have sent me the wrong camera. I wanted the bird camera not the lamppost one.  Their reply as one might expect was, “What?”

They were very nice, though, and told me to take it in to a service center. “In” happened to be over an hour away (without traffic and there is always traffic) so I mailed it which is what I was trying to avoid the whole time because I’m cheap. But in the end I just got an email saying they would fix it on warranty. So today, I’m undepressed and feel like writing again. : )

(There's more at the bottom.)

 

 

 

Grumpy note: This photo was taken with my old gear.

Distinguishing Marks: Red. Very red.

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   What the heck is it? (Hover to discover.)

I did have one good experience through it all. In spite of the fact that for two weeks every bird I saw was blurry, I decided to test everything one last time before I complained. So I pretty much took everything I owned in the way of birding gear and stuffed it into bags. My camera with the new impressive looking lens went in the camera bag and the new sound recorder my kids got me in the zippered pouch. I slung the bag over my shoulder and loaded the microphone and extra lenses, and even my old camera, in a backpack and saddled up. I donned my nerdy bird hat, perched the tripod at a jaunty angle on my shoulder and trudged off to a nearby canyon.  It was hot, crowded, and nearly birdless. I got sweaty and tired from hauling around the gear, gritty from all the mountain bikes, and the photos were turning out blurry as usual. I didn’t mind. Thinking I looked to all the world like a low budget Nat Geo photographer, I felt so cool with all that stuff hanging off me I scarcely noticed. : )

Cactus Wren

One more thing about Cactus Wrens: they're curious.

 

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Here are some other spots they've been sticking their nose into: ebird occurrence map

 

Dumb Birder in Borrego

Weekend before last I did a little birding in the desert.  Borrego Springs State Park to be exact.  If you don't know where that is, it’s near the melting point.  I guess Palm Springs would be the closest town anyone has heard of, but you’d never make it alive on foot.  It was hot. Really hot. No one told me it was going to be hot. I should have known of course, but I forgot just how hot hot is in the desert.  I was batting a beach ball around in the pool and had to quit because I got overheated. 

So I went birding. (No one said I was smart.) The good news was I found some birds out in that heat.  The bad news was most of them were all back in the dark shade under bushes which made getting good photos impossible.  I finally realized that while they were in the shade, I was standing in the sun in triple digit heat feeling, pardon the expression, not so hot.  As I said.

But in birding as in life, sometimes dumb is good enough. I ran across this intrepid fellow who didn’t seem to have any more sense than I did.

Distinguishing Marks:  Spotted white breast. Big white supercilium.  No apparent thermostat.

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Boring fact: these birds build their nest (like this one I found ) in a thorny tree  or cactus to discourage predators.  Solicitors too I presume.

 

What the heck is it?(Hover to find out)

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Photo Op

Thursday I received three packages from Fedex. I knew what they were.

A Canon 60D camera.

A 300mm f/4 telephoto lens.

And a Canon 1.4x III teleconverter.

Now in case you’re not sure what all those things are, I can tell you. They’re expensive.

And I’ve been saving up two years for them, so when they arrived I should have torn into them, right? Nope. Instead, I put the boxes carefully on the table and circled warily. Scared? Maybe.

But I got over it. :)

Today I put the pieces together so I can give them a test drive. 

 

[Had trouble getting onto my site lately? Yeah me too. They’ve had more trouble with hackers at the server level, this time upstream from my blog service provider. Sigh. Thanks for fighting your way through.]

Bird-nerd-word of the day: Bird Song Mnemonics

In case you haven't run across this term anywhere, it means: an aid to memory. When I was a kid, my guitar teacher helped me learn the names of the strings by saying, "Every Good Boy Does Fine." (In case you ever need to know.)

When it comes to birds it means: the silly things people come up with to remember bird songs. Honest now, could you actually hear anything like "weezy-weezy-whatever" in the Townsend's Warbler song? I certainly couldn't. Of course I think most people who do it really just do it for fun. And who knows, I openly admit my bird mnemonics capabilities are barely past the "tweet-tweet" stage.

So remember our friend the Carolina Wren? Here is the mnemonic: "chewy, chewy,chewy."

And here is the original:  Carolina Wren song

Sibley, however, as with anything bird related is in a class by himself. He doesn't so much devise mnemonics as he does guides to actually making the sounds. The trouble with his stuff is you have to be able to whistle and say the syllables at the same time. Good luck with that.

If this all sounds interesting, here is a site that lists a bunch of bird Mnemonics. Bird Song Mnemonics

Try it. Learn a few, and you might just find yourself the center of attention at the next dinner party. :)

 

 

Weezy-weezy-weezy-weezy-dzee

June commented, "Another Warbler. Does this one warble?"

Not so much. More like, "Weezy-weezy-weezy-weezy-dzee."

If you'd rather hear the bird itself, turn up your sound:

 Townsend's Warbler_Song

 

 

 Distinguishing Marks: Male--Yellow face and breast. Black mask (but you'll still recognize him.) :)  Female: just lighter.

Boring fact: You've heard the expression, "Light as a feather?"  Maybe not if you're the bird.  Its feathers can weigh more than twice as much as its skeleton.

 See Border Patrol

 

Border Patrol

One morning on border patrol (for birds only) I ran across this bird in the shadow of the fence along the international border. I didn't check his status.

But there did seem to be lots of birders thrashing around and making too much noise in the thick brush. Then I started to notice they didn't have cameras. Or binos. Or bird books. I began to suspect they weren't very good birders. Pretty soon along came the real border patrol and told me they weren't bird watchers at all and smiled at me.

They warned me to stay on the trail because the other birders were not all good hombres. After that I did. Sort of. But there was a warbler flitting around in the brush and I wanted the shot. After all, I always get my bird. :)

And here it is:

 

What the heck is it?