Nutty Birder

Angry Birds Partnering with BirdLife International

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Ripma) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:40:00 +0000

If you haven't had a chance to play Angry Birds there is now a great excuse to do so. Angry Birds is partnering with Birdlife International to help conserve birds, in particularly endangered species. They are helping Birdlife by raising awareness and money through donations.

For more information go to: http://www.birdlife.org/community/2011/12/get-angry-fight-extinction/
To see the new Angry Birds site go to: http://birdlife.angrybirds.com/

Thick-billed Parrot-considered endangered which is only 1 step up from the "critically endangered" category that Angry Birds is helping bring attention too. This pic is from Mexico, the same tree was being shared by the Eared Quetzal below.

Eared Quetzal-considered "near threatened" which is 3 steps up from the critically endangered category.

-Eric

400th Post from the Nutty Birders!

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:15:00 +0000

It's pretty amazing to think that this is our 400th post on NuttyBirder. We have been blogging here since August 12, 2008 and we look forward to sharing our birding adventures with you for years to come. We continue to improve the blog and have recently changed the look a little bit to allow us to post larger pictures. What do you think of the new look?
In celebration of our 400th post, I am going to share with you some of my favorite photos that Eric and I have taken since we have been blogging.

California Gnatcatcher - Southern California

Magnificent Frigatebird - Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Groove-billed Ani - Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Vermilion Flycatcher in the Snow - Northern Indiana

Desert Box Turtle - Portal, AZ

Kirtland's Warbler - Magee Marsh, Ohio

Anhinga - Ding Darling NWR, Sanibel Island, Florida

Snowy Egret - Fort Myers Beach, Florida

We have connected with many awesome birders through our blog and have shared lots of great birding stories. We hope you will keep following us as we continue our adventures!

-Rob

Identifing from Odd Angles: How to Identify an Olive Sparrow from Behind

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:41:00 +0000

Last week, on NuttyBirder.com, we posted what turned out to be a very difficult identification quiz. I thought it would be good to show our readers here on the blog the photo and talk about how to identify the bird pictured.

Last Week's NuttyBirder.com Photo Quiz Bird

This is a tricky angle to identify most birds from and an Olive Sparrow is even trickier. The best place to start with this photo is with the olive green color that we can see on the wings. This alone eliminates a lot of the potential species such as all of the thrushes and the majority of the sparrows. Both Green-tailed Towhees and Olive Sparrows would have wings that are similar in color to what we can see in the photo. There are multiple factors that eliminate Green-tailed Towhee, the wings should be more yellow than this picture shows, the tail is brown not green, pink rather than black legs, and a striped pattern of brown and gray on the crown where as the towhee would have a rufous crown.

Are there any field marks that help you identify this Olive Sparrow that I have missed?

-Rob

A Fun Bird ID Quiz

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Ripma) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:53:00 +0000


Can you ID all 3 species in this picture?

This picture was taken at Salineno on the Rio Grande River in southern Texas. It's probably the most impressive feeding station that I have ever seen with hundreds of birds constantly at/or around the feeders.

If you like this ID quiz, we also do a weekly identification quiz at: http://nuttybirder.com/BirdQuiz/birdquiz.html

-Eric

Our Final Days in Texas: South Padre and Mustang Islands

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Eric and I spent our last days in the Rio Grande Valley photographing tons of ducks, gulls, terns, and waders along the coast. We spent a morning each at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center and at the Port Aransas Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center farther north. At both locations the birds are rather tame and the birders and photographers are restricted by boardwalks as to not disturb the birds. It’s amazing how close the birds will come when they do not feel threatened by overzealous birders and photographers. At South Padre, there were ample opportunities to shoot a couple species each of gulls and terns, several duck species, and darn near every wading bird that occurs in the United States!

Great Blue Heron

Roseate Spoonbill

Tricolored Heron

The mix of species changes a little bit as you head north and bird at the Port Aransas Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center on Mustang Island outside of Corpus Christi. The variety of waterfowl is really amazing at this location. All three teal species are extremely easy to photograph here as are the Northern Shovelers. The Brown Pelicans also provide awesome flight shot opportunities!

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelicans

Cinnamon Teal

Green-winged Teal

This is an extremely exciting place for bird photographers and I highly recommend these locations to all birders!

-Rob

Interesting Fact: Magnificent Frigatebird

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Ripma) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:59:00 +0000

A male Magnificent Frigatebird


A Magnificent Frigatebird preening while on the wing.

Did you know? . . . that Magnificent Frigatebirds have a long period of immaturity. Young frigatebirds receive up to a year or more of parental care. So unlike most birds, adult Magnificent Frigatebirds don't breed every year because they spend so much time raising their young. The young birds do not reach breeding maturity until 8-10 years of age and it takes that long for young birds to attain their adult plumage.

There is only one known breeding colony in the US which is in the Dry Tortugas of Florida. Worldwide, they breed from Ecuador and Brazil up to Baja, California and throughout the Caibbean. They also breed off the coast of Africa.

-Eric

Oregon Dark-eyed Junco

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Ripma) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:37:00 +0000

"Oregon" Junco at Paynetown SRA, Bloomington, IN

The same individual . . . just a different angle.

This Oregon type junco was a nice surprise for me today while birding around Lake Monroe. It was the first day I had been able to bird the lake since before Christmas break started and a great way to start the birding year in Indiana. There were also 50+ Cardinals, 75+ Slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco, a few White-throated and Tree Sparrows, as well as a single adult White-crowned Sparrow.

-Eric

Interesting Fact: Pied-billed Grebe

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Ripma) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:51:00 +0000

Did you Know? . . . that Pied-billed Grebes continually pluck and consume body feathers which helps protect the stomach lining from the sharp bones of fish and other vertebrate prey. This results in the continual replacement of body feathers which means that the grebes are always growing new feathers. This same technique is also used by other grebes.


Pied-billed Grebe taking a nap on South Padre Island, TX

-Eric

Green-winged Teal

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Ripma) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:42:00 +0000


Green-winged Teal in morning light.

Another duck shot from Mustang Island, TX. It was fun watching several species feeding right off the boardwalk and the light worked out well for quite a while. It was a great way to end the trip!

-Eric

Mustang Island, Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Ripma) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 04:39:00 +0000

Our last full day was spent mostly along the coast on Mustang Island near Corpus Christi, Texas. We were able to photograph a few species of ducks on the island and were able to see many shorebird species including Whimbrel.


A beautiful Cinnamon Teal

-Eric

Texas Rare Birds

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Ripma) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:40:00 +0000

Today, we were able to connect on all of the Texas rare birds we looked for including multiple lifers for Rob and Chad. After spending the morning not seeing Rose-throated Becard yesterday we spent this morning watching the becard along with some other birders. We birded with another birder, Mike, at Estero Llano Grande and Frontera Audubon Thicket which provided great conversation between the great birds we were all finding.

Here are a couple of pics:

Crimson-collared Grosbeak

Rose-throated Becard

Armadillo

-Eric

Two Lifer Warblers

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:45:00 +0000

Today we continued our Texas birding adventure at Estero Llano Grande State Park. We were on a hunt for a Rose-throated Becard but unfornately that was not to be today. Even without our taget species, there were plenty of birds for us to observe and photograph.

Least Sandpiper

American Coot

Northern Shoveler

Olive Sparrow

Since we could not seem to find our rare bird at Estero Llano Grande, we moved on to Frontera Audubon Thicket to look for Golden-crowned Warbler and Crimson-collared Grosbeak. Right when we arrived, a group of birders told us that the warbler had indeed been seen shortly before we arrived. We quickly headed down the path to where it had been seen previously but there were no birds at all! Since there were already a herd of birders looking in that location, we moved farther down the path to look in some other areas. It didn't take long until the warbler appeared right in front of Eric! We all got good views but were not able to get any pictures.

We spent a lot of time looking for the grosbeak with no luck and decided to try to help some other birders find the warbler instead of waiting around even longer. We found the warbler right back in the same spot as before!

We ended our day chasing a Tropical Parula at Quinta Mazatlan. After spending some time watching the feeders at the amphatheater we hiked around to another group of feeders. After being entertained by a Clay-colored Thrush, the Tropical Parula came in a put on the real show! What an awesome bird!

Tropical Parula

Tomorrow we will be trying for the becard again as well as the grosbeak and spending some time at Santa Ana NWR!

-Rob

From Brown Jay to Black-vented Oriole

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:44:00 +0000

It was another wonderful day in south Texas. Our day started out with freezing temperatures and fog on the Rio Grande at Salineno but that was all forgotten when the Brown Jay put on a show at the feeders.

Brown Jay

Eric had found a Zone-tailed Hawk before we moved on to the feeders and he took everyone back to look for it after the Brown Jay came in. We were not disappointed! After getting our fill of the perched Zone-tailed, we headed on to see what we could find at Falcon State Park. The birding was rather slow but the photography blinds did provide some entertainment.

Altamira Oriole

On our way to Bentson-Rio Grande Valley State Park, we stopped at a Whataburger so that Chad could try it for the first time. Once at Bentson, the Black-vented Oriole arrived at the feeders within just a couple of minutes. This was both Eric and my first lifer of the trip!

Black-vented Oriole

While watching the oriole, a lady told us about a day roost for an Eastern Screech-Owl. Since the owl would be a lifer for Chad, we decided to head straight there. The owl was only about 7 feet off the ground and paid absolutely no attention to us as we took a million pictures!

Eastern Screech-Owl

Eric and I finished the day with one lifer each while Chad took the lifer award with five lifers! Tomorrow will be a very busy day of birding with stops at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Frontera Audubon Thicket, and Quinta Mazatlan. There are a ton of rarities to be found. Be sure to check back for more pictures in the next couple of days!

-Rob

Texas Birding

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Ripma) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 03:32:00 +0000

We arrived in Texas yesterday and after some lost luggage issues we arrived after dark so only got some roadside birds. We started today at Salineno and also birded in the Zapata city park by the library. Here is a shot from this morning; many more are on the way!


Audubon's Oriole

Happy New Year, Eric

Calliope Hummingbird for Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 16:26:00 +0000

Yesterday, Eric and I headed down to southern Indiana looking for a reported Calliope Hummingbird. We found the house that it was visiting and were warmly welcomed into the backyard by the homeowners even though they were celebrating Christmas with their family. This bird is a first state record and quite a Christmas present for us Nutty Birders!

Calliope Hummingbird

Merry Christmas from the Nutty Birders!

-Rob

Lower Rio Grande Valley

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Ripma) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:08:00 +0000

Somehow this story starts in Washington DC of all places. Over the summer my brothers and I went to DC, after having a flight cancellation and still landing in Indy earlier than our original flight would have landed, the airline gave us free flights. Originally, I looked at all the places the airline flew, so Jamaica became the destination of choice but that fell through. At least the lower Rio Grande Valley is a nice consolation. So we will be heading to Texas with our friend, Chad, on January 1st. Some of the rare birds around right now include Golden-crowned Warbler, Black-vented Oriole, Brown Jay, Crimson-collared Grosbeak, and Rose-throated Becard. And of course there are always plenty of chachalacas, Buff-bellied Hummingbirds, Green Jays, and Great Kiskadees to watch.

Greater Roadrunner at Laguna Atascosa NWR, TX


Green Jay after a downpour along the Rio Grande.

Eric

Say's Phoebe

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Ripma) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:12:00 +0000

After a busy semester that didn't include much birding, I figured it was the right time for the chasing of a rare bird. Over the past few weeks a Say's Phoebe had been a loyal resident of a reclaimed strip mine, now Chinook Fish and Wildlife Area, in western Indiana. Even though I see this species almost daily during the summer, I had never seen it in Indiana so the chase was on. There have only been 5 other documented reports of this phoebe in Indiana and most of the others have not been chasable. Rob had not been out to Chinook yet either so we met up and drove the rest of the way out there. Over the first few hours the bird was no where to be seen but we did have Northern Harriers, Rough-legged Hawks, plenty of Tails (Red-tailed Hawks), and a few other species. Overall, it was quiet and we started to figure the bird had taken off with the front that had moved through the day before. Luckily, as we started to leave the bird swooped in front of our car and landed on the fence it had been using for the past few weeks. It was fairly cooperative and we were able to get some decent pics of this rare Indiana visitor.

Eric

Wonderful World of Christmas Bird Counts

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:12:00 +0000

This past week started the fun and exciting Christmas Bird Count (CBC) season. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Christmas Bird Counts, the counts were started on Christmas Day in 1900. Prior to this time, people participated in side hunts in which hunters chose sides and whichever team brought back more birds and mammals won. Frank Chapman, an ornithologist, suggested that people participate in a Christmas Bird Census. Thus, the Christmas Bird Counts were born. The counts were conducted in only 27 locations in the first year, but the count has grown to be conducted in over 1,800 locations around the world! Participants cover a 15 mile diameter circle counting all of the individual birds that they can possibly find.

I have been involved with CBCs for almost as long as I have been birding. Some of my earliest birding memories come from the Hamilton County CBC in central Indiana. The compiler was actually the leader of the first bird hike my mom ever went on, and it wasn't long before he had all of us out participating in the count. It has become one of the birding events that I look most forward to each year. One of my favorite things about the CBCs is that you can participate in multiple counts without even having to travel very far from your home. I regularly participate in three or four counts but could easily do more than five if I had more time.

On December 14th, the first day that counts could officially begin, I travelled to Linton, Indiana to participate in the Goose Pond CBC. My designated area needed a lot of additional coverage, so I recruited a big group of birders to help out. This group included two young birders that are involved with the Indiana Young Birders Club and Chad Williams of Birding! A Growing Obsession! All of our days started off a little slow in our units, but both of the young birders picked up a few lifers. The best bird in my unit was a single Wilson's Snipe that we accidentally flushed while walking on the dike.

After meeting up with all of the other participants for lunch and tallying the morning results (we had 102 species), we headed out to hunt down some of the missing species. While looking around Main Pool West, I got a call from a friend asking us to come over and confirm his group's sighting of some Brewer's Blackbirds. We hurried over and found at least three Brewer's with tons of Red-winged Blackbirds and a few Rusties. Overall we had a great day, and it looks like the count ended up with 107 species and will most likely be the highest count in the state!

Rusty Blackbird

Over the weekend, I participated in another count on the east side of Indianapolis, but this count was completely different for me. For the second year in a row, a class was offered for Boy Scouts to earn a birding merit badge. We had 25 boys sign up and another 60 on a waiting list! Everyone had a great time and successfully earned their badge. We had 23 species with the scouts, and the count overall had a total of 50 species by lunch.

Where will you be participating in CBCs this year?

-Rob

The Snowy Owl Irruption of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:16:00 +0000

On December 1, a birder found a Snowy Owl on the eastside of Indianapolis at the Mount Comfort Airport. This owl is part of a major irruption of Snowy Owls this winter. The owls are not escaping the cold weather of the far north nor are they fleeing a snowstorm; rather, they are here in search of food. Normally during irruptions, the owls come south when the population of lemmings crashes but this is an unusual year. Due to an abundance of lemmings during the breeding season, there are an excess of young Snowy Owls. This abundance of owls has created a shortage of food and the young birds must come south in order to survive the winter.

Even though Snowy Owls come south on a regular basis, the irruption this year is extremely impressive. There are reports that over 100 are present in Wisconsin alone! Check out this map from eBird. Remember, this does not include all records, as none of the Indiana birds are on this map at this point. Pretty impressive so far!

Unfortunately for the owls, coming this far south means that they are in a dire situation. They are mostly starving when they arrive and need to find food quickly. They are also not used to vehicles and often end up dying from collisions. If you find a Snowy Owl (or any other bird) that is in need of help, please contact a licensed wildlife rehaber. If you do not know a rehaber, a local park or Wild Birds Unlimited should be able to point you in the right direction. Do not try to help the bird yourself, as you could end up hurting both yourself and the bird.

As for the Snowy at the Mount Comfort Airport, it seems to be doing pretty well. It has been observed hunting, although no one has seen it catch anything that I know of. I expect that rodent populations are high in the area because Northern Harriers and Short-eared Owls regularly winter near the airport, and rodents tend to make up a large portion of their food source, too. Hopefully it will survive the winter and head back to the Arctic for a successful breeding season next summer.

Snowy Owl

Have you found any Snowy Owls or other rare visitors this winter?

-Rob

Birding in the Indianapolis Star

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:09:00 +0000

Last week I received a phone call from a reporter with the Indianapolis Star. It turned out that he was doing an article on Christmas Bird Counts and competitive birding and someone had recommended that he talk to me about competitive birding. As excited as I was to talk with him and have a story about birding appear in the paper, I have to admit that I was a little hesitant at first mainly based on some horror stories that I had heard from birders about being completely miss quoted by reporters. I decided to be interview anyway and I am very glad I did. The article turned out great and I was very pleased with the section that included my interview.

Check it out here! http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011111280317

Do any of you have any highlights from your competitive birding experiences?

-Rob

Satisfying a Birding Craving!

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:35:00 +0000

I have unfortunately not been able to get out birding nearly as often as I would like recently. Since I work for Wild Birds Unlimited and our busiest season is Christmas, my hours there have started to increase a lot. When not working, I have been putting together various programs, including one that I presented last week to a class of kindergartners. That was quite an experience but it is always fun to expose young people to birds although I'm not sure that kids that young will remember much of what I said.

Luckily, I was able to sneak away and go birding at Eagle Creek on Sunday morning and my wife was free so she came along as well. The best birds of the day were all found right after we got out of the car at the first stop. Within a couple minutes, I heard a few flyover Pine Siskins and was shocked when I heard a Common Redpoll flyover. Then, we noticed a Snow Goose mixed in with the hundreds of Canada Geese. When all of the geese started to leave the lake to feed for the day, we found a group of 3 white geese in flight that ended up being two Snow and one distinctly smaller Ross's. We ended up meeting up with our friends Katie, Steve, and Mary Lou at our first stop and spent the morning birding with them. Other than a huge increase in the number of waterfowl, especially Bufflehead, there were not very many birds to be found.

Bufflehead in Flight

Hopefully this will help to satisfy my craving to go birding for awhile because I will not be able to go out again until sometime next week.

-Rob

More From Florida

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:47:00 +0000

On Thursday, Stephanie and I decided to head back to the coast for another day of birding. I remembered hearing about a place called Viera Wetlands and I thought it was right around the Canaveral area. Luckily, I had remembered correctly and it was only a short distance south of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands, better known to birders as Viera Wetlands, is a 200 acre wetland that is part of the Brevard County water reuse system. Not only do the wetlands make for awesome birding, they help to clean the water for use in irrigation. On our first pass through the property, it was evident that it hosts tons of wading birds. The lighting was not great for photography but we did manage a few nice shots!

Glossy Ibis

Snowy Egret by Stephanie Ripma

On our second loop around the property, we noticed a lot more ducks, coots, and Common Gallinules. One of the most interesting ducks was a Blue-winged Teal that was in a transitional plumage. You can see the white crescent starting to show on the head.

Blue-winged Teal by Stephanie Ripma

Common Gallinule by Stephanie Ripma

Since we had finished birding the property by noon, we decided to spend the afternoon at Merritt Island NWR. We made a quick loop around the wildlife drive but only found the expected species. Since there were not many birds around, we moved on to the beach at Canaveral National Seashore. We drove several miles down the beach to one of the parking areas and set up the scope atop one of the walkways over the dunes. Just like on Tuesday, there were tons of Northern Gannets out over the ocean. Closer to shore, many Royal Terns were present and allowed us to get some decent photos.

Royal Tern

We moved even farther down the beach and setup the scope again. As I was watching more gannets pass by, Steph noticed a large dark bird out over the water. It was our only Magnificent Frigatebird of the trip!

Magnificent Frigatebird

I really enjoyed birding on the east coast of Florida much more than I anticipated and Merritt Island NWR has become one of my favorite refuges that I have ever visited. I hope to come back to visit the area soon and maybe attend the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival!

-Rob

Merritt Island NWR

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 02:47:00 +0000

Stephanie and I spent the last six days in Orlando visiting Disney World. Although we spent most of our time in the theme parks, we did head over to the coast to do some birding at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

It takes about an hour to get from Orlando out to the coast and we arrived at the refuge just after 9 on Tuesday morning. Our first stop was at the Visitor Center where I was pleasantly surprised to find one of the most knowledgeable volunteers that I have ever run into at a refuge. He knew about the birds at the property and gave us lots of great tips for birding the area.

We set out for our first stop, the Black Point Wildlife Drive. One of the most common birds on the entire refuge was the Pied-billed Grebe. They were not afraid of people and I was able to get some of my best pictures of this species that I have ever taken.

Pied-billed Grebe

As you would expect with any coastal wildlife refuge in Florida, the waders were the real stars of the show! Everywhere you looked, there were more herons and egrets to look at including some of my favorites that I rarely get to see such as Reddish Egret and Tricolored Heron. We were also able to get some nice pictures of a Green Heron!

Tricolored Heron

Green Heron by Stephanie Ripma

When we were finished with the drive, we headed over to a boat ramp that is known for easy sightings of West Indian Manatee. We again were not disappointed! There were at least 8 manatees and possibly as many as 12! As fun as it was to watch them, they do not make very interested subjects to photograph so we moved on to the Canaveral National Seashore beaches to look for shorebirds and seabirds.

We were very excited to find the beach loaded with birds. The most numerous were Laughing Gulls. Stephanie had a great time photographing both the gulls and the shorebirds and ended up with quite a few awesome shots!

Laughing Gull by Stephanie Ripma

Ruddy Turnstone by Stephanie Ripma

While she was busy on the beach taking photos, I was scanning the ocean from a raised platform looking for any and all seabirds that I could find. Being a landlocked Midwesterner, it was amazing to watch tons of Northern Gannets moving offshore! I really like to study the birds that I am seeing in order to help me identify them move quickly and with more accuracy the next time I see the species. The gannets cooperated nicely with a number of different ages present with plumages varying from the dark juveniles to the white adults. Some were even sitting on the water allowing for even better study!

Adult Northern Gannet

While watching the gannets, I had two Parasitic Jaegers flyby as well as a group of three shearwaters that were too far out for me to identify.

Our last stop of the day was at Scrub Ridge Trail in search of Florida Scrub-Jays. I was expecting a nice leisurely walk photographing a bunch of jays. Man was I wrong. It was evident the second we stepped out of the car that the mosquitoes were going to be a major issue. Stephanie was only out of the car for about three minutes but ended up with about 20 bites all over her arms and legs. While she waited in the car, I decided to have a quick look around and try for some jays. I was only able to find two jays and they were just flyovers that did not allow for any photos. The highlight of my walk was a Gopher Tortoise right on the path!

Gopher Tortoise

We ended up with over 90 species of birds on the day and had a great time exploring a refuge that I had never visited before!

-Rob

Deer vs Car ... It's That Time of Year Again

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:04:00 +0000

Last Saturday as I was driving to Eagle Creek to meet up with some birders that are new to the area, I had a little accident. As I was driving down the road, I was suddenly struck by something on the drivers side of my car. It turns out that a deer actually ran into the side of my car! It must have jumped at the last second since its front hooves landed on my hood and one of them actually left a hoof print on the hood!

The deer actually ended up running off but my car did not come out unscathed. There is actually $3,200 in damage and it will take over a week to fix once the shop gets the parts in. Luckily we have good insurance!

Tomorrow my wife and I will be participating in the Ohio Young Birders Club Conference in Columbus, Ohio. I can't wait to hear all of the wonderful presentations that the young birders have put together!

-Rob

Rusty Blackbirds: Species Profile

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Ripma) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:37:00 +0000

Yesterday while I was birding at the Skating Pond at Eagle Creek Park, I came across a flock of 15 Rusty Blackbirds. Rusties are one of my favorite blackbird species but I don't get to see them all that often. Rusty Blackbirds are one of the most rapidly declining species in North America with studies showing declines anywhere between 85 and 99 percent over the last 50 years. One of the strangest things is that no one seems to be sure why this species is in such step decline.
Rusty Blackbirds favor wet areas such as marshes and the edges of ponds which makes the Skating Pond an amazing to see them during late October and early November when they are migrating through the area. Although they are reported in Indiana all winter, they do not hang out at Eagle Creek once the water freezes.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Rusty Blackbird has to do with its molt. they undergo only one molt per year. This means the rusty coloration that we see at this time of year is not molted, rather it is worn away over the winter and the males are jet black and the females are mostly gray by the time breeding season comes along.

Rusty Blackbird in Nonbreeding Plumage

If you are here in central Indiana, be on the lookout for some Rusty Blackbirds over the next few weeks and again in March. If not, you can learn more about when they will be in your area by using the eBird map that you can find here.

-Rob