KAW: The Movie

I saw the movie Kaw for sale on DVD the other day. Here's the ridiculous trailer. Since it's about ravens and not crows, I think the title "KROAK" would've been more appropriate. Who wants to star in my movie "Three Beers" about a group of killer Olive-sided Flycatchers? I can hear the trailer voice guy now, "They've gone from catching flies to feasting on eyes!"

The Holiday Hawk is Back!

Check out this Sierra Mist commercial featuring one of my favorite actors/comedians Michael Ian Black (Anyone remember The State? Awesome show.) and the hilarious Jim Gaffigan. The species appears to be an Augur Buzzard. I think this was posted by some other bloggers last year, but it deserves to be shown again.

Funny Bat Falcon Story

Doesn't everyone have a funny Bat Falcon story? Ok, maybe not. Rick's recent post about Bat Falcons in Guyana reminded me of a funny experience I had in Costa Rica.

Our group had been there for a few days and had looked for Bat Falcons in a few known spots with no success. While driving along in our van, we were talking about how we would love to see one. Crossing a bridge, the van suddenly slammed to a halt. The minimal-English-speaking, non-birder driver threw the van into reverse and backed us up about 100 feet. "Uno momento," he said as he stepped out the van. He walked to the edge of the road and peered into the distance. Then, he slid open the van door and in a thick accent pronounced in a most non-chalant way, " 'is dee Bat Falcon." Our jaws dropped and we all piled out of the van. Sure enough, way in the distance and at the limit of conjecture was a tiny Bat Falcon perched on a lone snag. I don't know how he saw it or how he knew what it was, but Pablo the van driver is a legend amongst my birding friends.

Now here's something you don't see every day...

What happens when a birder lays out some seal meat on his stomach?



Apologies to those who've seen this before, but it was just brought to my attention over the weekend. This is Bruce Mactavish, an avid field birder from St. John's, Newfoundland with a gorgeous Ivory Gull perched on him. He is a regional editor for North American Birds and is a birding tour leader for WINGS.

The Onion: Rhino, Tickbird Stuck In Dead-End Symbiotic Relationship

It's hard not to love The Onion: Rhino, Tickbird Stuck In Dead-End Symbiotic Relationship

Bird Nicknames

My circle of birding friends has a ton of nicknames for birds. We use the common ones like "Sharpie" and "Coop" for Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper's Hawk. We have a few others too. When one of us is leading a group, its hard to not use the nicknames and confuse people. Here's a list of ones I can think of.

Big Cranky - Great Blue Heron (named for its call)
Yumper - Yellow-rumped Warbler
Greg - Great Egret (its banding code is GREG)
Ceg - Cattle Egret (similar to above, pronounced "Keg")
Sneg - Snowy Egret
Snorkeler - any loon
Biter - Great Black-backed Gull (a friend was bitten once while trying to free one from a fishing line)
Croaker - Common Raven
"Weetchie" - any tiny bird
Tailpumper - any bird that bobs its tail (Waterthrush, Spotted Sandpiper)

What nicknames do you have for birds?

Google Technology

Who knew that Google uses pigeons to improve our search results?

Those Google guys are quite the characters.