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Bird Notes with Mark LaBarr of Audubon VT on Across The Fence - Feb. 25, 2015

Come join me on Thursday, March 12th for the Love the Lake Series! You know we'll be making a raucous.

Surprisingly, the diversity of birds in suburban areas can be greater than in forested areas, according to John Marzluff's new book 'Welcome to Subirdia: Sharing Our Neighborhoods with Wrens, Robins, Woodpeckers, and Other Wildlife' (Yale University Press, 303 pp., $30). The UW professor of environmental ...

WCAX's Sharon Meyer and I talk about albinism and leucism in birds and other animals.

#WCAX #albinism #leucism

First Five - Backyard Big Year

We're In! Backyard Big Year!

I have cool birding friend who I don't get to see much anymore. We met when I worked for the National Audubon Society and have fortunately stayed in contact over the years since we both left.

Thing is, he's always coming up with cool new ways to enjoy birds. Like getting your RDAB - your Recommended Daily Allowance of Birds. He blogged about that a few years back and it really got me into paying attention to what I had the opportunity to see on a day to day basis. Being able to enjoy birds all the time and not just when I had a planned birding excursion.

Well, he's doing it again and I'm soooo in for it! Tomorrow he kicks off his Backyard Big Year. A typical Big Year is when a birder makes a commitment to trying to see as many species as possible in one year. There's a book, and now a movie, about a few crazy guys who do so competitively. Many folks have tweaked the Big Year to be more local or to be a Big Green Year which tends to be fossil-fuel free.

But I'm excited about this version. I have three kids under the age of three now, so it's not so easy to even attempt a local Big Year. Don't get me wrong, they love a good birding adventure. But what they love the most is exploring our backyard.

So last night at dinner we made a plan. We already watch birds and have started to tick off our backyard list.

But now we're gonna supe-up our feeding station and really see what we can entice into the yard. We'll keep track by posting pictures on our massively empty wall in the sunroom. And bust out our drawing notebooks and try and capture what we see and hear with colored pencils and markers and crayons.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW!

So thank you Rob, for being the brilliant birder I love and am inspired by. I hope you'll all follow his progress on his blog and Facebook. And, I'll try to keep you updated too about what me and my Littles Crew sees during our Big Backyard Year 2015!

#BigBackyardYear

What is an Irruptive Species? Slideshow

#irruption #irruptive #evening grosbeak

Good to be back with Sharon Meyer on WCAX!

I'm reading up on the Harris's Sparrow because there's been one hanging out in Vermont lately. It's one of those birds people are making the drive to see and now I understand why. Not only is it one sharp looking sparrow but it's winter migration is quite unique as evidenced by this animated map from eBird.

This is what eBird calls an Occurence Map, which is a STEM (Spatio-Temporal Exploratory Model) which allows eBird to predict where birds will occur and when. Basically giving us some mind blowing maps showing the annual cycle that birds follow.

According to eBird here's what's so cool about the Harris's Sparrow:

"Harris’s Sparrow is one of only four bird species with its breeding range entirely in Canada. Its wintering range is also unusual, and it can be expected only in the central United States from central Texas to Nebraska and from Colorado east to Arkansas. This central Canada to central Great Plains migration is unique among North American birds. The periods of passage show up well on the animation, with migration beginning in mid-September and peaking in October."

Gas up the car, I think I might have to make a day of it.

#Harris's Sparrow #ebird #occurence maps

According to Audubon's climate model the Wild Turkey will lose 87 percent of current winter range by 2080. Potential expansion during the summer may give the bird a boost in its trek northward, but only if it can find its favored oaks along the way.

Quote taken from National Audubon Society's Climate Change Report 2014.

Photo by Kent McFarland from Audubon Guides blog post Big Snoods.

#turkey #climate change #Audubon

A New Wildlife News Service for Vermont

The Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE) today launched a new web site that features breaking news about birds, insects, amphibians and other wildlife here in Vermont and around the world.

VCE's "Newsfeed" is designed to highlight pioneering wildlife research and to inspire anyone to get outdoors to discover and enjoy wildlife. The service, under the link "Get News," is now live at VCE's web site: www.vtecostudies.org.

"The Newsfeed is for anyone who might care about what's flying, hopping, walking, swimming, slithering or just sitting there in nature," said Chris Rimmer, executive director of VCE, a non-profit group of conservation biologists. "VCE can now share more of what we discover from our own research, as well as what other scientists and naturalists find during work or play outdoors."

Based in Norwich, VCE promotes wildlife conservation through scientific research and citizen engagement. Working in partnership with governments, conservation groups and other scientists, VCE conducts field work from Canada to South America. VCE also recruits volunteer "citizen naturalists" to help monitor wildlife.

The Newsfeed will take readers to the frontiers of wildlife biology and nature appreciation. This week's news items include, for example, the arrival of Snowy Owls to the Northeast, a "Field Guide to Hunting Season," and new research about a fungus that threatens to wipe out salamanders across the U.S. VCE's Newsfeed, which is part of a complete redesign of the group's web site, also offers easy access to other wildlife resources:

Outdoor Radio, VCE's monthly program on wildlife, produced with Vermont Public Radio, can be heard on-demand at the site.

VCE's Blog features regular updates from the group's biologists working in Vermont, Canada, the Caribbean, and as far as South America.

An Events Calendar highlights public lectures, outdoor activities and natural history events.

Vermont-based Dadra Design (www.dadradesign.com) and its founder, Gabe Halberg of Plainfield, designed the new VCE website in cooperation with independent writer and field naturalist Bryan Pfeiffer of Montpelier (www.bryanpfeiffer.com) and VCE Conservation Biologist Kent McFarland.

Although VCE is best known for research on birds, the group's conservation biologists also support Vermonters who enjoy any "watchable wildlife." In a project called the Vermont Atlas of Life, VCE, with the public's help, is creating a free, online library - with maps, photos and data - of virtually every living thing in the state.

#Vermont Center for Ecostudies #vermont #birds #conservation

Does anyone track migrating loons? I saw seven on the southern part of Osmore Pond today (11/11), and what looked like about 11 more across the pond, about midway up . (If ducks and loons aren't hanging out together at this time of year...)

Sure, you! This is a great report for eBird which will inform both local biologists and then become a part of a larger network of folks working on protecting birds. There are a few birders who track waterfowl migration on Lake Champlain and they share their data with eBird and VT Fish and Wildlife.

Check out a map of sightings of the Common Loon in Vermont this year during the late fall (October - November).

Then consider creating an eBird account of your own and reporting your sightings!

In nature, though, nothing is so cut and dry: after studying pre-breeding flocks of crows, the researchers found that their hypothesis may only hold true in the west, but not in the east or midwest.

A Murder in the City from Cornell's Citizen Science Blog

#crow #american crow #murder of crows #cornell lab of ornithology

Crow Fun Facts from PBS's NATURE.

#american crow vtcrows murder of crows

Stick Season Brings Crow Season

So the tweets have started. It happens every year around this time. People start noticing the crows. Large flocks of crows at dusk especially in urban areas. A few years back, a few fellow tweeters and soon to be crow enthusiasts reached out to me to ask why, why are crows flocking like this? And while answering that question was fun, what we had even more fun with was creating an opportunity for people not only to learn more about crows but to document where and when crows are flocking using crowd sourcing and citizen science.

I'd like to encourage you to join my Twitter peeps @hilaryhess, @Winooski and @edwardshepard in sharing your observations this Crow Season.

HERE'S HOW:

Go to iNaturalist and create an account, then visit Crows in Vermont and learn how you can submit your sightings using your computer or smartphone.

You can get the free Android iNaturalist app here, and the iPhone iNaturalist app here.

Our project was inspired by Seattle Crows which was created by Dr. R. Eric Collins. Sponsored by Prof. John Marzluff in the College of Forestry Resources at the University of Washington. They used Twitter, Flickr and a mapping interface.

When tweeting your results please include the #vtcrows hashtag and get out there and find a murder...a murder of crows that is!

#murder of crows #vtcrows #american crow

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