Outside My Window

Today was Pittsburgh’s Christmas Bird Count, always held on the Saturday after Christmas.  I counted birds from my attic window during dawn “rush hour,” then walked my neighborhood on a route I’ve done for the past few years.  It was interesting to compare this year’s species and weather to the counts I’ve done in prior years.

You might be wondering, what is a Christmas bird count and how can it be accurate? 

The Christmas bird count began in 1900 when Frank Chapman of the newly formed Audubon Society decided that counting birds was a far better activity than the Christmas “side hunts” in which people killed as many birds as possible.   Each Christmas Count is held within a 15-mile diameter circle and on a single day between December 14 and January 5.  Volunteers organize their routes so they don’t overlap.  They tally the number of birds seen per species and record the weather conditions, the number of participants, hours spent and miles travelled. 

It’s impossible to be absolutely accurate counting large flocks or skulking birds, but over a span of 100+ years the counts are accurate enough to indicate trends in bird populations.  The main thing is that we do the same thing at the same time every year and allow for changes in number of participants, hours spent, etc.

This year was different for me in a few significant ways.  First, the weather was sunny and windy in the morning - it’s usually overcast.  Then, a few of the bird feeder locations were missing or empty, so no birds there.  On the other hand I found more birds than usual and it was an excellent day for raptors.  I saw a pair of red-tailed hawks in courtship flight, counted three Coopers hawks and stopped by University of Pittsburgh to tally the resident peregrine pair. 

And my absolute Best Bird was an adult bald eagle flying along the crest of the hill overlooking the Monongahela River.  It can’t get much better than having a bald eagle in my city neighborhood.  Wow.

(Chuck Tague took this picture in Florida but the eagle I saw looked much the same - just a little further away.)

A safe and happy holiday to all!

This morning I visited the National Aviary with my friend Karen Lang and brought home some pictures on my cell phone. The birds more than made up for the gray day outdoors.

Ever since I saw the flamingoes dance at the Aviary two winters ago, I have become fond of the place because:

• It’s a great place to see birds up close and personal - witness the lorikeet eating from my hand!
• The National Aviary rescues injured birds, studies endangered birds, and works for bird conservation. Two of their conservation projects include tracking golden eagles (see the December 6th blog) and management of the Pittsburgh urban peregrine program which they inherited from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy this year.
• On a gray winter day, there are more interesting birds per square inch at the National Aviary than anywhere else in Pittsburgh.

Today the lories won me over. Three times a day, visitors can buy a cup of “lorie nectar” and go into the exhibit to offer it to the birds. The lories are familiar with this routine and will perch on your hand to lick the nectar from the cup. They have long tongues with black tips and they lick very fast. People often wonder if bird claws hurt. Well, the lories’ feet are gentle. They don’t hurt at all.

The most noticable thing about the lorie exhibit can be appreciated from a distance. The exhibit has a whole flock of lories in it and they are NOISY. Lories are social birds and love to shriek at each other at the tops of their lungs. Don’t expect to hear yourself think!

I was thrilled to have a lorie eating out of my hand. I definitely got my “bird fix” today.

If you like birds, I highly recommend a trip to the National Aviary. An added bonus is that admission is free from December 26 through 31. Click here for directions.

I tried to switch - and couldn’t.

A birder’s field guide is a highly personal, well worn tool that fits the individual’s needs - at least for a while.  Last month I tried again to find a guide for my changing needs but my quest failed.  I still prefer my old favorite. 

A hundred years ago there were no pocket-sized books of bird pictures to carry into the field.  Birders had to memorize what they saw and look it up later.  Then in 1934 Roger Tory Peterson published his famous Field Guide to the Birds and everything changed. 

My first field guide was Petersen’s 1963 edition, shown at left.  Most of the pictures were in black and white and all of them were grouped on plates.  I marked the plates with tabs made of white bandage tape so I could find them easily.  I rarely read the text.

The order of the pictures was mysterious to me.  Birds were presented in taxonomic order, the order in which they were supposed to have evolved.  This placed loons and ocean birds first in the book, finches and sparrows last.   I still find the order annoying but I’ve memorized it - or rather, I had memorized it - which is part of what went wrong when I tried to switch guides recently. 

My current and continuing favorite is Ken Kaufman’s Birds of North America.  The book covers the entire continent north of Mexico, an absolute “must” for my field guide.  Kaufman uses retouched photos instead of drawings to display the birds.  In retouching the photos he removed the distracting background and enhanced the birds’ notable features.  I prefer the pictures to most other guides’ drawings. 

The drawbacks of the Kaufman guide are that he groups birds together by similarity, not in taxonomic order, and the edition I use does not have comparison plates of ducks and shorebirds in flight.   I am weak on shorebirds so I looked for a replacement guide.

This proved elusive because I made an impulse buy rather than doing a serious comparison of existing guides.  I didn’t even look at a new edition of Kaufman’s.   I bought a National Geographic guide on sale and began to transcribe my sightings from the old guide to the new.

Yes, I write in my field guide.  Next to the bird’s description I note the location and date of the first time I ever saw it.  I also record notable sightings at other locations and times of year so I can scan the book for places I’m likely to find migrants.  It’s like a Life List but more useful.

Transcribing was fun but it was the beginning of my doubt about changing field guides.  As I transcribed, I saw the pictures I love.  Kaufman’s Lewis’s Woodpecker in flight looks exactly like the bird we saw at the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch in October 2002.  How could I trade that photo for the drawing?

Then, when transcribing was only halfway done, I decided to try the new book in the field.  At Moraine State Park I used it on distant ducks.  That’s when I realized that the Kaufman guide had made me forget taxonomic order.  And National Geographic’s quick index was in a smaller font (not good for my older eyes) and didn’t include as many species.  And the drawings of familiar ducks looked so different that I studied the guide instead of the ducks in front of me.  Ack!  I was flummoxed.

Enough.  I photocopied Petersen’s pages of ducks and shorebirds in flight and stuck them in my Kaufman guide.  I am back to where I started - and happier.

Happy birthday, Beethoven!

Besides being an avid birder I’m a fan of classical music, especially Beethoven, so I feel lucky to work at WQED where I listen to classical music on the job.  On Beethoven’s Birthday we have a big all-day celebration and play his works ’til the cows come home.  I never tire of it.  I even manage to mix Beethoven and birds in a couple of ways.

First, there are birds in some of Beethoven’s works.  My favorite springtime symphony is Beethoven’s Sixth, also called the Pastoral Symphony.  At the end of the second movement, there is a cadenza that imitates three bird songs:  nightingale (flute), quail (oboe) and European cuckoo (clarinet).  I was lucky to hear a cuckoo in Italy and yes, it sounds like the bird in the Sixth Symphony.

Second, I listen to classical music in the car as I drive out to hike.  This puts me in a good mood and gives me a tune to whistle while I walk.  Amazingly, when I whistle Beethoven the birds often approach me to see what I’m doing.  Perhaps I whistle badly but maybe, just maybe, they like Beethoven too.

Don’t miss the celebration.  You can hear it at 89.3FM in Pittsburgh, 89.7FM in Johnstown or on the web.

Bonus Factlet:  Did you know Beethoven was a contemporary of Jane Austen?  They were born on the same day only five years apart.