The New Site is Live!

The new Born Again Bird Watcher site is now live and fully operational. All future activity will take place there - this will be the last post on the Blogger powered site.

If you have been following Born Again Bird Watcher using an RSS feed (thank you very much, by the way), please reset your subscription to the new feed here.

Moving Day

The day has finally arrived. The new website is complete and the transfer process can now begin. As nearly two years worth of blog content needs to be pulled over to the new site and all the addresses need to be tweaked so that things appear how they should where they should and when they should, I need to refrain from posting until it is all completed. It is my intention that RSS feeds not be disrupted; however should you be one of the Born Again Bird Watcher readers receiving updates in this manner and no update is received after about a week, please return to the original domain name and resubscribe.

Peace.

Chasing Ghosts

And so from the 12th Annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival I have returned. Why the lack of posting from the festival you may ask? Well, while it was my sincere intention to upload a number of posts on everything from the festival itself, my representation of the Wingscapes BirdCam while there, and my assessments of the iBird Explorer Plus, I was prevented from doing so by what I logically assumed to have been an infestation of my laptop by a malicious software program commonly called "malware." Thus I spent more hours than anyone should have to do exploring the inner workings of my computer in search of the mysterious program that was hijacking any Internet search I attempted with Google, Yahoo, or Live and directing my browser to a cheesy looking site bearing the address of “help-yield.com” which asked that I download a "cookie" into my laptop in order to be allowed to use the search engine from which my search was redirected (a classic technique of malware programs). My intention was to, as the undercover operatives phrase it “terminate it with extreme prejudice.”

While I am most happy to report that my battle was in fact finally won, it was something of a Pyrrhic victory as the opponent was in fact never there (at least not inside the workings of my laptop). The adversary was in fact far away at the other end of a network of cords and wires, residing in an ISP presumably in another state. It seems, according to staff at the hotel in which I was staying, that the ISP contracted by the hotel was “redirecting” searches from the major search engines to one of its own choosing. I would think that, absent of any notification to the guests using the wireless or wired Internet connections provided by the hotel, that this would be illegal; however my IT friends tell me that it may not be – just questionably ethical and certainly an act of bad “net citizenship.”

I will refrain from naming here the name of the hotel or the ISP as I plan to have a few discussions with them about the matter and all the time I lost pursuing “ghost” malware due to their redirection program. I have to think that the good people in the legal departments of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft might be just a teensy bit interested in the fact that Internet users visiting their respective sites are being redirected away from them without those users’ consent. Be assured that developments will be posted here – as will be all the posts I had hoped to publish during the festival.

Peace.

Road Testing the iBird Explorer Plus

Reacting to the flood of tourists touring around Europe on their respective “grand tours” with their noses perpetually stuck in travel guides instead of experiencing the wonders to be found all around them and for which purpose they expressly came (or so they said), Edmund Wilson, that loveable literary curmudgeon of yore wrote his famous Europe Without Baedeker. As I was contemplating the best way in which to convey to you, dear readers, my impressions of the new iBird Explorer Plus, I couldn’t help but recall Wilson’s book and what caused him to write it. As I am indeed guilty of too often experiencing life second hand rather than first, I felt justly chastised by his general criticism of travelers. Packing as I was at the time for a trip to the Space Coast Birding and Nature Festival in Titusville, Florida, I thus fell upon the idea of taking dear old Edmund’s advice to heart and making the trip sans field guide, at least in the traditional sense – Florida Without Field Guide, if you will.

Now, just so as not to give the wrong impression, I mean this in no way to be a criticism of field guides either general or particular. As an ardent bibliophile, I shall forever hold dear the printed book. My library holds certainly no less than hundreds of field guides to forms of live the world over and I would not willingly part with any single one of them. However, I would likewise not try to carry them all in my carry-on bag when traveling.

Ordinarily, I tote no fewer than half a dozen guides on any given trip; more if I think the potential situations to be encountered may require even thirty seconds of consultation with one of them. Thus the decision to eschew all of them and set off for Florida, a state I have only visited a handful of times and the bird species of which I am not nearly as familiar with as those of my own state of Oregon, was not an easy one to make. Yet in the time I had already spent with the iBird Explorer Plus I had found it to be such a remarkably useful tool that I could think of no less a true test of its effectiveness that to put my entire referential faith in it and go boldly on my way.

A bit of background: the iBird Explorer Plus is compatible with both the iPhone and the iPod Touch (the latter of which being the device upon which I have the iBird Explorer Plus loaded). Available from the “App” section of the iTunes Store, iBird Explorer can be obtained for the very reasonable price of $19.99 (U.S.), installs quickly and seamlessly, and is ready to use immediately. Once activated from the main screen of the iPod Touch (from here on the reader may interpret either the iPod Touch or the iPhone as meant as the iBird Explorer Plus functions identically on both types of devices), iBird Explorer Plus boots in mere seconds – five by my count – and offers a highly intuitive user interface that requires little if any time to master.

The opening screen is the one most generally applicable for most purposes: the master species list. Atop the screen is a control bar indicating the presence of 891 birds in the database, three buttons to choose between the master list being displayed alphabetically by the first name of the species (e.g. “Abert’s”), last name of the species (e.g., “Towhee”), or in taxonomic order by the taxonomic Family (e.g., “Emberizidae”), and a reset button to bring everything back to where the user began. Each species is clearly listed on a graphics tile with an illustration of the bird, the English name, and the Latin binomial name. The master list can be scrolled by the ingenious and highly addictive “finger swipe” function of the iPod Touch as well “jumped” through the use of an alphabet jump list running down the right-hand side of the screen – simply touch the letter and the list “jumps” directly to the first entry for that letter (note: this jump list does not appear when the list is arranged by Family). Finally, running along the bottom of the screen are three more buttons marked “Browse” (to display the master list), “Search” (which brings up the identification engine feature), and “About” (a list of credits and contact points for the good people who brought the world the iBird Explorer Plus).

When a species is selected from the master list on the Browse page, the file for that bird opens to a full color illustration as well as buttons for the various points of reference available from the iBird Explorer Plus. The opening screen from the master list is the “General” page, returned to by the first of eight buttons spanning two rows along the bottom of the screen. However to diverge just a moment, a bar running along the top of the screen contains the “Birds” button, by which return to the master list is effected, the English name of the species selected, and a pair of “Up / Down” arrow icon buttons to move directly in either direction to the next species in the list. Below this, as mentioned, is a superb illustration of the bird itself accompanies by its names from Species all the way out to taxonomic Order. A simple finger swipe scrolls the image center frame bearing the image down to a brief description of the bird.

Working along the control buttons running along the bottom of the screen, next to “General” is found “Range” which brings the inquisitive user to a color coded range map complete with seasonal legend and relevant textual notes. Adjacent to that, the “Identify” button brings the user a wealth of information to help facilitate an identification of the species. It is quite impressive indeed that the creators of iBird had the foresight to include not only the general “quick ID” information here, which they did prominently atop this electronic page, but minutiae as well - nest material, egg incubator, egg color, etc. - that might not always be needed but would certainly be invaluable should it become so in a given situation.

Adjacent to the “Identify” button is a button that essentially puts an end to the illustration versus photography debate – the “Photo” button. While not all species yet include photos on this electronic page (nota bene: I am told by the creator of the iBird Explorer Plus that approximately 1600 professional photos are about to be released into the product software and as it is an iTunes App updates are free of charge) most do and for this users of the iBird Explorer Plus will and should be ecstatic. Truly, it is now possible to have the best of both worlds. Even more, what with the continuing expansion of digiscoping and the Wingscapes BirdCam, users can submit images of their own for inclusion in the WhatBird archive.

Beginning the lower row of control buttons is one simply bearing a small speaker – this being the sound button to allow the user to consult the vocalizations included for the species in question ( a handy feature here is that when selected, along with the vocalization of the species being considered, graphics tiles to play the vocalizations of other species that may sound similar will also apprear here when appropropriate). Speaking of similar, next to the vocalization button, the “Similar” button presents the user with a list of birds having similar characteristics that might be encountered in the field. “Facts” presents some very interesting information about the bird perhaps not immediately needed for identification but very much necessary for a greater understanding of the bird (field trip leaders will love this feature to help with their “color commentary”).

Last, but certainly not least among the series of option buttons offered on the individual species page is the Birdipedia feature. Selecting the Birdipedia button launches the browser of the device, opening the Wikipedia page for the bird species in question. Of course, this feature requires connection to a WiFi network when using the iPod Touch; however as the iPhone can access the Internet via both the cell network as well as via WiFi, users of the iBird Explorer Plus will no doubt make greater use of this feature when in the field. In either case, the direct linking to the collective knowledge of Wikipedia is indeed an ingenious feature integrated into iBird Explorer Plus by its designers.

As this is intended to be the first of multiple articles chronicling my adventures in Florida using the iBird Explorer Plus as my only field guide, I will close here and save the explanation of the “Search” portion of the application for the next installment. Suffice it to note that having examined the iBird Explorer Plus, as well two of its more localized family members, iBird Explorer Western and iBird Explorer Backyard, ($9.99 and $4.99 respectively; iBird Explorer South, North, Midwest, and Canada are also available for $9.99 each) I am already quite impressed and have high expectations from the application.

Peace.

A Public Letter of Welcome

Dear President Obama,

Indeed, it brings my heart immeasurable joy to be able to write such a greeting. On behalf of myself and my family, I extend to you a most heartfelt welcome to the office of President of the United States.

Mr. President, as you well know and so eloquently expressed in your inaugural address to the nation, we are facing great challenges in the days, months, and even years to come. Following years of the most hypocritical and self-serving assertions made by the powerful and well-connected to loosen regulations on almost every aspect of the world of commerce and finance, in return for which they behaved with all the moral responsibility of rutting goats, we now find ourselves deep in an economic recession if not in fact in an economic depression. Billions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury have been thrown at the problem with an effect equal to that as if these same dollars had been thrown to the four winds; no one knows in which direction they went or where they finally landed. People are losing their jobs by the tens of thousands, and as ours is the only industrialized nation lacking a national system of guaranteed medical care for all our people, relying instead upon our nation’s employers and the employees themselves to bear the ever-increasing cost burden laid upon them by a for-profit insurance industry (a great shame upon our nation in and of itself), these same people will soon be without care for themselves or their families should they become sick or injured.

Then of course, there is the war – or perhaps better described as “wars.” Chasing an amorphous international band of criminals who are, according to the Koran and Moslem scholars the world around, unjustly waging jihad against Saudi Arabia and all nations they deem, correctly or not, sympathetic to the ruling family of that kingdom, our nation has committed our men and women to the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan. In the case of the former, the reasons for doing so have been shown to be, at the very least, in error. In the case of the latter, where the battle might have more justifiably been joined, while the determination of the soldiers and relief workers on the ground has been nothing short of heroic, the will of our nation’s administration has been less than sufficient. Thousands of Americans and untold numbers of Iraqis and Afghans have died as a result. Thousands more have been maimed. Though the former administration has been willing to sacrifice not only our civil liberties but our very moral standing in the world to do so, the criminals have not to this day been brought to justice.

Mr. President, I find no shame in telling you that, like millions of others who, either in person or through one of the many forms of media broadcasting the event as it happened, witnessed your taking the oath of office, I shed tears of joy upon your pronouncement of “so help me God.” It is as if a great weight was lifted from my heart and for the first time in many years I felt that our country would one day rise again to become the great and good nation that its founders hoped that it would be. In speaking those few words inscribed in the Constitution aloud, you renewed the hope in us which had almost been extinguished.

Yet as you said, our journey to revival and renewal is not to be either short or easy. It will require us all working together regardless of race, creed, or affiliation to restore us to our former glory. This we are willing to do. But in order to ensure that all which needs to be done is put into motion, we need a leader. By an overwhelming majority, we have chosen you for this task. Unlike as has occasionally and unjustly been the accusation levied by a few obscenely well-paid, socially isolated, and bellicose pundits, we do not see you as the messiah or a benevolent dictator; rather you are to the millions of us all across the land awaiting your direction that for which we have long hoped – a highly intelligent, ethically upright, and eminently competent person who has deigned for the good of the nation to accept the most difficult job presently known to the world: president of our free citizenry founded on the premises so eloquently put forth in the Preamble to our Constitution.

Gather together our nation’s best minds, create a plan for our revival and renewal, and charge us with our responsibilities that it may be realized; we are willing and ready to serve. When our spirits falter, and falter at times they will, remind us of what it is we are seeking to do and impart to us words of hope that it can be achieved. If your spirit falters, look to your faith and your family of course, but also look as well to the millions of us who will be daily praying for your health, intellect, and leadership to remain strong and vibrant. It is also my personal prayer that in as you have given up so much as a private citizen to shoulder this greatest of leadership burdens, that we the people of the United States of America not fall to petty bickering, gossip, and strife, but remain steadfast in our support of your work as our president. Although you may already have heard it often for all that you have done and are about to do, please allow me to close this letter to you with a simple but in absolute earnestness common phrase of gratitude – thank you.

Your fellow citizen,
John E. Riutta

The Return of Bob

After a year on the road crossing and recrossing North America on his quest ot encounter as many butterflies as possible and thus establish the Butterfly Big Year, Robert Michael Pyle has finally returned. His final post, dated January 12, 2009, that capped the blog he wrote detailing his adventures over the course of this past year, is now online at the Xerces Society's website. Even if you were not following this blog as it was developing, this final post is a must read for anyone interested in butterflies, ecology, conservation, as well as all enthusiasts of superb natural history writing. Should you find that what you read in this post strikes an appreciative chord in your brain, all of Bob's previous posts are also online along with it.

Peace.

Photos from the Snow Storm IV

Perhaps the best photo I took during the entire period of being snowbound during the "Great Snowstorm of 2008," or at least the one with which I am the most pleased, was this one of a Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus, red-shafted form.

With her feathers raised to help insulate her from the cold and the break in the snowfall giving me a clear view for the photo, the three-dimensional quality of the image is particularly noticeable. I do wonder if perhaps I should have softened the background just a bit to make the bird a more prominent; however that would have also likely lessened the dimensionality overall.

Peace and good bird watching.

Photos from the Snow Storm III

Those of us living in the Pacific Northwest of the United States are quite accustomed to seeing ghost birds while we are walking in the forest during wintertime. While strolling among the massive trunks of the Douglas Firs and the Western Hemlocks we not infrequently get a quick glimpse of what we think is a nuthatch clinging to the bark of one of these giants; however when we turn to get a closer look, the bird we thought we saw vanishes as if it was never there at all. In fact it was there but it wasn't a nuthatch - it was a Brown Creeper, Certhia americana.

Brown Creepers define the word "cryptic" almost as well as the notorious Pauraque, Nyctidromus albicollis, a member of which species I nearly stepped on, so well did it blend into the fallen leaves lying all about the ground, while birding in the south Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The calls of Brown Creepers often ring our clearly as they forage upward along the trunks of the giant evergreens but, thanks to their camouflage patterning of soft greys and browns, they can be dashedly difficult to spot against the identically patterned and shadowed bark, and even more difficult to photograph.

While this is not a perfect photograph, it is one of the best I could manage. Every time I thought I had the bird in focus for many successive frames, almost all of them turned out to be somewhat soft and blurry. My mistake seems to have been that I was trying to focus the image seen through the camera's lens on the bird's cryptically and deceptively patterned back rather than on a less visually complex area such as its beak. The fact that these little birds are far more thick when clinging to a tree than they appear (they look just like little footballs in profile) only makes the matter worse. Truly, these are challenging birds to photograph.

Peace and good bird watching.

Photos from the Snow Storm II

A year-round resident of the Pacific Northwest, primarily of the higher altitude evergreen forests, the Varied Thrush, Ixoreus naevius, is a regular visitor to the lowlands during the coldest months of winter

While many may wax poetic over the flame orange color of the male Blackburnian Warbler, and justly so, I'll take the glowing ember orange of our own winter thrushes any day for a welcome bit of winter cheer.


Peace and good bird watching.

Lucky Hummingbird

Among the Haida people of the Pacific Northwest, the hummingbird is considered to be a symbol of good luck or good fortune. Spotting a hummingbird just before undertaking a new endeavor was thought to be an auspicious omen.

As the Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna, overwinters in northwest Oregon, we have the opportunity to partake in the good luck of seeing them throughout the darkest of the dark months. Through our recent spell of snow and ice, this little one pictured here was a regular visitor to our neighbor’s and our feeders, which we diligently kept free of ice and available for its use.

May the good fortune of the hummingbird remain with you throughout the new year.

Peace and good bird watching.