IandtheBird 87 My Search for the Prefect Halloween Costume

Here we are at the end of October already which means that the scariest day of the year is just around the corner. A day when evil bloodsuckers and mindless zombies roam the streets. But I have already made a post about the upcoming election this week so instead the theme of this issue of IandtheBird will be the much more cheering date of All Hallows Eve.

Halloween, as we refer to it in my part of the world, is an unusual holiday. On one hand everything that you see on TV at this time of the year is blood and guts on the other hand a big part of Halloween is trick or treating. That was always my favorite part of Halloween, what a deal, people give you candy because you dress up in a costume. The only problem that I had when I was a kid was the fact that my family was not very well to do. We always had a roof over our head and food on the table but we did not have money for luxuries like a cool Halloween costume. So usually my parents would through something together from stuff that we had around the house and I would end up dressing as something lame like a ghost or bum or something.

Things have changed, now that I have grown up. I still do not consider myself, "well to do" but now days I can afford to spend a bit on the luxuries that I did not get as a kid, things like toys, look at all of my camera equipment, and a cool costume. My problem though is with Halloween just a day away I still have not decided what to dress up as to go trick or treating. Fortunately I have been reading a lot of great posts on fantastic blogs over the past week hoping that I can get some inspiration from the wonderful world of bird bloggers.

So I began by heading of to Iowa Voice to see if Moe could give me any ideas for a costume. Moe had a great post about goldfinch with some great pictures of an adult feeding an immature. Maybe I could dress up like a goldfinch for Halloween? The only problem with that is that gold prices are very high right now with all the economic turmoil so I decided to try some more sites looking for inspiration.

Next I headed over to Madras Ramblings where Ambika had a great post, complete with pics, about peacocks. They certainly were beautiful birds but I think that they were a bit too flamboyant for a costume for me so I continued my search.

Next I headed a little closer to home, over to SW WI Birder where Chris had a great post about bird migration. There was a lot of great information but instead of inspiring me to find a costume it made me want to head south where it is warm and there is a lot of food.

So I headed south to I am the Finch Wench where Sara the Finch Wench was Joshing around at Joshua Tree. It does not look like Sara found any finches at Joshua Tree but she did find a very cute mountain chickadee which might be a good costume for me.

My next stop was the Bird Ecology Study Group site. Over at BESGroup Y C has a great post of a chestnut-bellied malkoha feeding its young. The photos in the post are fabulous but they have also discouraged me from dressing up like a famous insurance company gecko.

So off to Eclectic Echoes where Eric has made a post entitled, "It all started with boobies". Now I am sure that all of you are no longer reading what I am writing because with a title like that you have already raced off to Eclectic Echoes to check it out, but don't worry parents Eric's post is about a good way to use resources like Flickr and the Internet to educate and inspire young people. I know that reading through all the great blog posts to do this IandtheBirds has educated and inspired me and I hope that Eric's post and all the others will do the same for you. However Eric's post gave me only bad, very very bad ideas for Halloween.

I decided that I had better move to something a bit less risque so I headed over to Earth, Wind, and Water, after all what can be more pure then earth, wind and water. Tai was very excited, and with good reason, he was able to check off a couple of coots from his island list. The coots were pretty cool but people are already starting to call me an old coot these days so I did not think that it would be a good Halloween costume for me.

My next trip was to Ben Cruachan where Duncan had a great post about oranges, ravens, pelicans, and baby birds, what variety. Ravens would be a cool idea for Halloween and maybe pelicans but oranges would not work because orange is not a good color for me. The best part of Duncan's post is the picture of the little baby bird chicks. They are so ugly that they are cute.

Speaking of bird chicks my next stop was to visit Sharon over at BirdChick.com. Sharon is very creative, she is a theatre person, so I figured that she could really help me pick out a great costume. Unfortunately for me Sharon was out of town enjoying common Cape May birds. What a great gig travelling to Cape May to work the Swarovski both and digiscoping mockingbirds, coops, black vultures and more. I guess that I will have to wait for the next Birds and Beers to get Sharon's Halloween ideas.

Since Sharon lives close by, relatively speaking, I decided that maybe I would check out a site from some one in another part of the world next. So I went over to Gallicissa to check out Amila's post on the cool things that he sees in his garden. The thing that I found very interesting was that a couple of the things that Amila photographed have different names but look very similar to things that I see in my neighborhood. Like his Indian Cupid looks a lot like my eastern tailed blue and his variegated flutterer looks a lot like my Halloween pennant.

Now Jeff over at the Jeffrey A Gordon blog posted some pics of hummers like nothing that I have seen before. They are truly spectacular. I am afraid I would need way too much face paint to dress up like one of them though. It would probably be easier for me to dress up like a brown-throated three-toed sloth like he photographed in this other post about the good deeds that they did rescuing animals, birds and insects while on his travels.

Next I headed over to 10,000 birds where I knew that I could get some good costume ideas. 10,00 birds always has a lot of great posts with lots of information and great pics. This time mike posted about his travels to California where he stalked the California gnatcatcher. Despite the hostile environments of business meetings and award dinners Mike still was able to brave the wilds of California to bring back a picture of the California gnatcathcer as well as several other birds. Maybe I should dress like a big time explorer.

Reading about all of that work that Mike was doing made me kind of tired so I headed over to It's Just Me where Liza had an interesting post about an amazing day of bird watching. Liza's birds were very pretty but I really wanted to curl up with them and take a nice comfy nap.

By this time it was getting dark so I headed off to the only place to go party in the dead of night, the Saw-whet Owl Research blog. Drew had a great post about their nightly adventures in which he saw no saw-whets but they did capture a really cool red eastern screech owl. Hmm an owl would be a really hot costume.

In the morning I headed over to the Cult of Ornothology where Jeff had posted pictures of mourning doves who watch television.

In the Halloween spirit Larry, over at The Birders Report, posted a horror story that should scare all of us. Reading his post sent shivers down my spine.

John, over at A DC Birding Blog, posted some recent hawk photos that he took out at Cape May. John's harrier and coop photos have got me thinking about a possible raptor costume. The Cape May morning pics are nice too I can't imagine why John would prefer to be at Cape May instead of DC at this time of year. Wait a minute wasn't Sharon at Cape May also? No one ever invites me to the good parties.

As I continued to search for the perfect Halloween costume my mail account kept filling up with political spam, making it harder for me to find IandtheBird e-mails. SO I decided to get away from all of the politics for a while and check out a site over the Pacific for some inspiration. Pergrine's Bird Blog was just the ticket. Craig had a great post there about his birding trip to Inishbofin, don't worry he has the phonetic spelling for people like myself who have a problem with English. It looks like he had a great trip and took a lot of great pics.

On my way back from Ireland I decided to change my radio dial to a new station, AcornRadio. Geoff, the DJ, was spinning the new smash hit by the swallows. This post was definitely going to the top of the charts.

Now it was time to get back to my costume search just as Wrenaissance woman over at Wrenaissance Reflections has gotten back to bird watching. Her post is making me consider something wild and dangerous like maybe a rattlesnake, I think that I was born to be wild.

Since I have decided that I should be something wild I think that I decided that it was time to check out The Drinking Bird. Nathan posted about his awesome beach party. His guests included everyone famous, a virtually who's who including mottled duck, moorhens, woodstorks, ibis, rails, dunlin, sanderling and more. the surprise guest was a young piping plover who I hear was getting close to Nathan.

After all of that party time I figured it was time to get serious so I decided to head over and check out Living the Scientific Life. Grrlscientist had an interesting post an endangered cockatoo species rediscovered in Indonesia. It was so interesting that I read another post about owls and woodpeckers. Check them both out. After reading the second article I thought about about perhaps dressing like a woodpecker but then dismissed that idea since many woodpeckers have red necks.

Time was running out inspiration was what I needed now so I turned to Carrie over at the Great Auk. Who could read Carries story of taking 3 birding trips in three days and finding 3 life birds. Now if Carrie was really in the Halloween spirit she would have doubled everything and had 6 trips in 6 days with 6 lifers.

I had reached the end of my list of websites for IandtheBird 87 and my search was still incomplete. I still did not have the perfect Halloween costume. Then out of e-mail ether 2 last submissions came in.

It was like serendipity. David, from Search and Serendipity, had posted about one of my favorite birds. His post merlins on wires and gulls in the sky has some very nice merlin shots. The time had come to make my decision and David's post was the key.

However one last post came in that gave me the key to the best Halloween costume that I could ever think of. Anonymous from the Unknown Birder sent this post of the most unusual bird that I have ever seen in my life so this is the costume that I decided on.

Iandthebird #72

Its April and here in Minnesota the long winter has finally come to an end. The days are getting longer and warmer and most of the snow has melted. April is an exciting time to be a birder because it is the beginning of the spring migration. With millions of birds crossing the planet on a journey to their summer breeding grounds you never know just what you will see. If you are lucky maybe you will get to see a rare migrant as it makes its way north or perhaps a large storm may blow in an exotic bird from another part of the world. Anything is possible.

This months I and the Birds is just like the spring migration. It is full of variety with unique posts, rare pics and fun surprises. So I hope that you will all have fun as we begin our virtual spring migration birding trip.

Our first submission for this migration edition of IandtheBirds comes from Rick Wright over at Aimophila Adventures, The Experience of Birding. Rick took a birding trip down to Guatemala where he got some pictures of birds that many of us just dream about, like gray silky-flycatchers, ringed kingfishers, rufous-naped wrens and many more. Check out his post here and watch out for the howler monkey.

James Alan Wolstencroft at Birdman tells us a wonderful story about the avian magic carpet called migration. With some special personal moments, such as having a passerine drop into his lap as he crossed the Biscay as a child and his mother trying to revive it with cognac, James tells us about the plight of the lesser kestrel, who migrate past his home in Tanzania, and like too many birds that share our world, are now vulnerable to extinction.

Duncan Fraser over at Ben Cruachan Blog tells us about the adventures of the monthly outing of the Heyfield Birders. Duncan and his Heyfield mates saw quite a few interesting birds including a pair of sacred kingfishers with plumage that was nearly black. Was this some kind of a joke? Well you will need to read Duncan's post to find out what happened and to see an awesome goanna pic.

Now I have taken a few owl pics in my days but none quite like the one that Terrell Shaw over at Alone on a Limb took at an EEA conference in Georgia. I am not sure that we have this type of owl in Minnesota but if we do I have never seen one.

Speaking of owls, Owl, over at Owls Well, has found that mother nature can be cruel and unpredictable. Fortunately Owl was at the right spot when he found a rare spotted awl stuck in the ice and snow

Wow this migration has gotten off to a quick start. We have seen kestrels, owls, howlers and goanna just to name of few. What else can we possibly see? Well get those binos and scopes ready because here come some more.

Nicholas David Sly over at Biological Ramblings has temporarily broken his self-imposed silence to bring to our attention a very important and urgent matter. Nick has been studying the phylogeography of endemic Hispaniolan birds as part of his honor's thesis and is worried about the wildlife and environment in Haiti. Habitat loss is a huge problem world wide but as Nick points out it is especially bad in Haiti.

Ron over at Pet Monologues has posted some wonderful bird pictures. Don't you really want to know what that magpie is thinking?

Amila over at Gallicissa recently concluded his 15 day absolute birding tour that he took with 4 British birders. The trip was a roaring success with a whopping 252 species seen, which may be more then I see in a year. Highlights of his trip included rediscovering a resident breeding pair of Marshall's Iora in Lunugamwehera, spotting 2 leopards in Yala National Park and thrashing 2 Brits at scrabble in Sinharaja. It sounds like a pretty full trip.

I thought that going to Iowa to see a black-backed gull was exciting but Charlie over at 10,000birds had the opportunity that most of us will never have in our lifetime. Charlie traveled to Singapore and braved guards, large iron gates and a torrential downpour to observe a white-faced plover, a species that is not included in any Southeast Asia field guides, has only been viewed by a small amount of people and perhaps may be the rarest shorebird on the planet. Leave it to our friends at 10,000birds to come up with the scoop of the decade.

We may not all be as lucky as Charlie is, and have the opportunity to see a bird so rare, but we are all lucky to be sharing in this unique online migration. Where else could you find out about the environmental struggles of Haiti, see amazing herons, leopards and white-faced plovers in a matter of minutes all from the comfort of your own home. However luck does not last forever and your time to test your luck and win a copy of Jonathan Rosen's book Life of the Skies is almost over. You have until tomorrow, Friday April 4th, to send in a photo of a bird in flight which enters you into their random drawing. If you have a blog, you have until April 11th to help get the word out and link to the contest page to get your name entered into that drawing. Time may be running out to get in on the drawing but we still have plenty more migration to go here on this edition of IandtheBirds so hop into your blind and settle back for some more great virtual birding.

During the year there are certain birds that we kind of take for granted because we think of them as common. However we can get very excited when they first return to our area in the spring. The American robin is a good example of this, but Robin over at Dharma Bums has a very special reason to look forward to spring and the return of the robins, or at least one special robin.

Keeping a blog can be hard work. Most of us bloggers spend quite a bit of keeping our blogs going and most of us don't get paid to do it. We do it because we love to share our stories, ideas, photos, jokes or whatever with our readers. As hard as it is to run one blog my friend Ocean is such a go getter that she actually runs two blogs Ocean and Forest Walks and Island Rambles. Ocean has some wonderful baby pictures of Anna's hummingbirds in the nest on her Ocean and Forest walks blog. Over on Island Rambles, Ocean has pictures of Swan Lake. No not the ballet with a swan queen dancing gracefully. This is a real swan lake with great blue herons soaring gracefully above. Both sites have some really great pics.

Here in Minnesota, some of our larger birds are beginning to migrate back into the area. We often see the long forms of herons, egrets and sandhill cranes flying across the sky. Snail, over at A Snail's Eye View spotted a flock of large birds but they were not flying by. It is probably a good thing that emu do not really migrate. Can you imagine a stampede of emu each spring and fall.

With gas prices going through the roof it is getting more difficult every day to get out to those great birding places, which never happen to be right next door. John Beetham over at A DC Birding Blog has a great solution, birding by subway. John took a trip up to New York by train and visited several good birding locations that are located close to the subway. At Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge John saw all sorts of signs of spring including waterfowl, warblers and even his first butterfly of the year but the highlight was a group of irruptive boreal birds that had not yet headed north.

Birding by subway sounds pretty cool, unfortunately it is impossible here in Minnesota since we don't have any subways. Besides, I would probably not know what to wear. That is the subject that the Unkown Birder, over at The Cult of Ornitholigy, tries to tackle. It is the age old question of, "Do real birders wear white"?

Wow, this virtual migration birding is hard work. We have seen stick robins, nesting hummers, dancing herons, stampeding emus and subway redpolls. I think that it is time to take a bit of a rest. Maybe get away from migration and birding for a few minutes and enjoy some other parts of life. After all we can't be birders all of the time.

Some times we just need to slow down a bit and take life life easy. Sit back relax and maybe read a good book. Patrick Belardo, over at The Hawk Owl's Nest recently read Ken Kaufman's Flight Against the Sunset and in Patrick's words, "Overall, it was an enjoyable book."

If you are not in the reading mood perhaps a bit of spring sports will turn your fancy. Next up to bat is Tai Haku from Earth Wind and Water. Tai is a great all-rounder with a lifetime batting average off 60.73. Here comes our bowler. Tai handles it perfectly and scores. It's a GOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1! Check out Tai's prize a beautiful barn owl.

Are you all rested up and ready to continue our virtual migration tour? Good, then grab your field guides and lets get going again.

Let's move out west to the beautiful state of California. California is a birders paradise with the ocean, mountains, fields, lakes, streams towering forests and much more. But there are also some more unique places to bird in California. Pam Shack, over at Tortoise Trail, made a trip out to Death Valley, Ca in 2007, and at Bad Water, in Death Valley, Pam Shack found Bird Life.

California is a big place. While Pam explored Death Valley, Liza Lee Miller, from It's Just Me, was on the other side of the mountains exploring San Diego during spring break. Besides a visit to San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park and Sea World, it looks like Liza Lee did quite a bit of birding. She also came back with some very nice pics to share and 6 life birds for her list.

There are many ways that birders ID birds. Many of the experienced birders that I know can ID a bird by its call or song. Other birders use behavior to ID the birds that they see. But Nick Lund from The Birdist went to a location where the birds can only be identified by their shape and color. That is because they are all made of wood. Nick visited the Wendell Gilley Museum and interviewed the Exectutive Director and Curator, Nina Gormley about the museums fabulous collection of wood carved birds.

Seabrooke, over at The Marvelous in Nature, has been very busy so far this spring. First there was some spring cleaning to do. Then it was off to help set up the Tommy Thompson Park Bird Research Station to get ready for the beginning of the banding season. Finally Seabrooke got a little R&R while visiting the parents for Easter. What would Easter dinner be with out bit of birding while waiting for the turkey to get finished.

Now I am all tuckered out again. It is a good thing that our next post comes from Nancy Castillo, Aka The Zen Birder, over at The Zen Bird Feeder. Its time to get in touch with our inner birder, to meditate and be at peace, to watch a sharp shinned hawk constrict a tufted titmouse. Yikes, it might not be very peaceful but as Nancy said it is a fascinating part of nature and I think that it is very cool.

Our final stop on our whirl wind spring migration birding tour is the wonderful state of Minnesota where the snow has still been falling and spring is just getting out of the gate. Early spring is a great time to watch for nesting owls and this year I have been watching a great horned owls nest down in Lakeville, MN. The chicks have finally hatched and I have taken some photos of one of the chicks in the nest as well as both of the parents.

Well we certainly got our share of birding in on this trip. We have traveled the world and seen many species, including some exotic ones. I hope that you have enjoyed my first time hosting Iandthebirds. I have had a lot of fun putting it together, although this is a lot of text for a photo blog like mine. Hopefully you will come back and visit ecobirder again in the future. The next Iandthebirds, edition 73, will be hosted by A Snail's Eye View on April 17th, with submission deadline on April 15th.

I and the bird #56

I and the bird #56 is out and Big Spring Birds welcomes us to the new school year with stories of what we did on our summer vacation. Make sure you check it out.

I and the bird

Today the new I and the bird ( #52) comes out and I have sent them a post for the first time. I and the Bird is a blog carnival where people with posts or articles on birds or birding send them to a host who puts them together and links them in a post on their blog. I have done this in the hope that more readers will come to my blog and hopefully they will enjoy it and return. The host for this version of I and the Bird is The Wandering Tattler who does a great job of putting together a perfectly and delightfully normal post with the help of his friends Frodo Baggins, Ultra Magnus, Malfurion, The Maul Brothers Darrel and his other brother Darrel and Yoda. I and the Bird is organized by Mike at 10000 Birds who deserves a big hand for keeping the carnival going.

If you are visiting from I and the Bird I hope that you enjoy the blog and return again in the future. I also welcome your feedback.