BirdingGirl

I recently got the opportunity to demo this really great software for learning bird songs. It's called Larkwire . Currently it's available as a web app and also an iPhone app (looking forward to when it comes to the Android market). I tried out the web app and I like it a lot. What sets it apart from bird song tutorial CDs is that it's a trivia game. For competitive personality types like myself it motivates you to really pay attention and learn the different songs. I played two games- the Clear-toned Songs and the Complex Bird Songs. It's nice because it plays more than just one variation of a bird song. That's what I dislike about bird song audio CDs- they only play just a short snippet of the bird's song and we all know that they make many different sounds. Give it a whirl! I'll definitely come back for more. I like the challenge of the games and it's also making me a better birder at the same time.

I believe this is Vincent, Townsend, Diana and Dawn Fine (our organizer) Love this shot of Cindy & Dan as the sun started coming out. Group shot in front of the community garden: Townsend, Catherine, Cindy, Vincent, Mardi & Dawn. Back on October 16th we had our Connecticut annual BwBTC trip (Birders who Blog, Tweet, Chirp), organized by Dawn Fine of Dawn's Bloggy Blog and led by Luke Tiller of Under Clear Skies . We met at Allen's Meadow in Wilton, CT. This is right near Steve's parents' house in Fairfield so it worked out really well. We just drove down Friday night so it wouldn't be a problem getting up for the 7:30am meet time. We spent our time at Allen's Meadow looking for sparrows in the community garden that was past its peak now that summer's over. We also walked around the outskirts, near the edge of the woods. There were lots of soccer games going on (incidentally Steve's mom said she used to bring his little sister there for games whe...

Cornell Lab of Ornithology just announced a fun photo contest. It's called Close Encounters and it's all about showcasing memorable and interesting encounters between humans and birds, birds and birds, and even birds and other creatures. What's even more interesting is that entries can take various forms: Photographs Stories Artwork Sculpture Video Other?? I've had some interesting birding adventures that come to mind, although I'm not sure how suitable they are for this contest. I imagine most of the entries will be photos, although videos will also be popular I bet. The deadline for the contest is November 15, 2011. Here are the instructions for how to enter your photos, videos etc. I imagine if you do one of the alternative entries (sculpture/artwork) you can submit it as a photograph. 1. Email entries to urbanbirds@cornell.edu . If you submit a video, post it on YouTube and send the link. 2. Write "CloseEncounter_yourfirstname yourlastname_yourstate" ...

This seagull was getting ready for take-off on the old-city walls of Dubrovnik, Croatia, in September 2011. Any ideas what kind of seagull this is? (Click to Enlarge) About the Photographer: Larry Kim is a contributor to the international birding bureau at BirdingGirl. He works for WordStream, a provider of Adwords Keyword Tool .

I found this duck swimming in a lake at Plitvice National Park, Croatia in September, 2011. A bunch of lake trout were swimming around. About the Photographer: Larry Kim is BirdingGirl's international bird correspondent. He works at WordStream, a provider of AdWords tools.

I have been so busy planning my September 10th wedding but that's no excuse for slacking on posting the rest of my pictures from our amazing trip to Washington State and Vancouver. So far I've done just one post from that trip- my Pigeon Guillemot pictures . But I have many more pictures from that trip to Hope Island, including these up-close-and-personal pictures of American Bald Eagles. Hope Island is the ideal bald eagle habitat. It's an isolated state park, accessible only by boat and as a result it's a "natural area preserve to protect a rare Puget Sound ecosystem," according to the Washington State Parks website. We'll attest to that- the island is really remarkable. We walked around the entire thing, and there were so many different habitats there- meadows, forests, fields, rock outcroppings, and sandy beaches. We first encountered the bald eagles first in the meadow high atop the bluff overlooking the water below. Then as we made our w...

Google Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=hope+island&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl Here are some pictures from our trip to the San Juan Islands back in June. We had a wedding in Vancouver June 26th and decided to make a whole vacation out of it. Steve's old co-worker Julie (of J&J's Excellent Adventure fame) lives in Anacortes, WA and invited us to visit and stay with her and her husband Jay. Not only was it great to catch up with our friends, but how often do you get an amazing destination like the San Juan Islands to visit with personal tour guides?? On Friday they both had to work but generously let us use their car and sea kayaks to explore Puget Sound. On their advice we picked up lunch at Gere-a-Deli (the hummus veggie sandwich was sooo good) and then drove to Snee Oosh Beach where we put in. It was my first time in a sea kayak so I was little nervous in the fast-moving water, but at the end of the day I was proud of my accomplishment and cele...

On June 16th, the Boston Peregrine Falcon (the remaining male of the Christian Science falcon pair ) stopped by our office's window ledge. I assume this is the male of the pair because he is so much smaller than the female that we were used to. Another noticeable trait is how big the male falcon's feet are. Just look at the size of those talons! You can see the falcon's nictitating membrane up on its right eye. I'm not sure the reason for this, perhaps his eye suffered an injury or infection and he was keeping it up to protect it. At least twice I saw him lower it to look directly at us but he then he put it immediately back up. Does anyone know a lot about nictitating membranes? They've always fascinated me in birds. Here's one of a red-tailed hawk nictitating membrane that came up when it was preening/scratching. In one of these photos you can see part of the falcon's ID band. It looks like it has the letter I and the number 7 on it.

It's been a while since I've blogged about birding while jogging. This was one of my favorite things to do when I lived in Watertown, MA and had the beautiful DCR Charles River trails at my disposal. Here are a few of my "Birding While Jogging" posts from 2007-2008: http://birdinggirl.blogspot.com/2008/01/birding-while-jogging.html http://birdinggirl.blogspot.com/2007/08/birding-while-jogging.html Since moving to Bridgewater, MA I haven't been as inclined to go running because we lack scenic trails like the ones on the Charles River. However, there is a nice route I like to take that crosses the Taunton River and its off-shoots in a couple of places. Naturally rivers and streams are a jackpot when it comes to birding. So, since I've picked up running again I've also been trying to get in some birding while I'm out there. Here's what I've seen so far in my jogs this week and last: Yellow warbler Pine warbler Rose-breasted grosbeak Tree swallows ...

I try to get in at least one day of birding at Mt. Auburn Cemetery each year during peak spring migration. I made my trip there right on the cusp of peak migration- April 30th. I usually try to get there sometime in late April- early May to see the greatest variety of wood warblers, plus other colorful migrating birds. The day I was there I got to see some of the usual warblers, and even a lifer for me- the chestnut-sided warbler. Maybe I had technically seen this bird before on a group trip where it blended in with the rest of the birds we saw, but on this day it definitely stood out to me as the most exciting warbler of the day. Here are some pictures of the Chestnut-sided Warbler preening: Other (non-photographed) highlights from the day included: Northern Parula Yellow-rumped Warbler Black and White Warbler Black-throated Green Warbler Baltimore Oriole Chipping Sparrow Here's a red-tailed hawk we saw at the end of the day as we were walking back to the car. That's usually w...

I hate writing these kinds of posts. First, the Atletico Junior owl mascot was killed, and now this sad update to share. The Boston peregrine falcon that I'm always writing about and posting pictures of is a nesting pair (they're referred to as the Christian Science Administration Building peregrine falcon pair), and I just learned this week that the female peregrine falcon has died. I work in the Christian Science Administration Building where their nest is, and a MassAudubon director was here this week looking for the nest since the female was discovered dead on May 4th. I've offered what information I could to be helpful, since I've kept a pretty regular log of their activity over the past year and a half, but that was the extent of what I could do. I could see the band whenever the bird perched on my window ledge but never close enough to actually read it, so I could never be sure which falcon I was looking at. I know the females are larger than the males, but tha...

These pictures were taken on my birthday weekend, back at the end of March. I went down to see my parents on Cape Cod and my two birthday requests were: 1. I want to go Charlie's Place in Wareham for dinner. I've been going to Charlie's since I was a little kid and I have a lot of fond memories there. We're friendly with the owner, the prices are cheap, and their pepper & onion pizza is my absolute favorite. 2. I want to go birding. So, my parents took me to Bourne Farm in West Falmouth, and then later in the day I went for a walk on the Cape Cod Canal with my mom and my Aunt Marylou. Here are the duck pictures from the Canal. Red-breasted Merganser: Female Red-breasted Merganser: Common Eider Flock: I really enjoyed our earlier walk at Bourne Farm . There are walking, biking and horseback riding trails there that feature cranberry bogs, ponds, and an old herring run. Too bad I couldn't get very close to the ducks there since they were in the middle of the po...