E-BIRD

I've been finally convinced to join E-BIRD. After checking out their website I came to the conclusion  that this is a very interesting program. What I really like about it is that you can check out all the data that has been accumulated over many years. I learned that an Ivory-billed Woodpecker was reported in Oregon; whoever let that one pass must be pretty gullible! But, some things were a bit more believable. The invasive Eurasian-collard Dove can now be seen in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. If you look at data from 2006 and then 2014 you can see that they've been expanding on a northwestern pattern. The next Starling? These birds may be in Newfoundland soon. The recently discovered Omani Owl was known as E-bird's missing species due to the fact that after the discovery of the owl in the summer of 2014 no e-birder has found one yet. Then people started to submit data of rare and endangered species. With this information, and thanks to this, 93 new species were added to E-bird including the Omani Owl. The things you can learn about nomadic species is very cool. I looked at last year's data on the Snowy Owl and Newfoundland just looks like a blob of purple. As you can see then, I am ready to launch my first e-bird entry from the time I went to Mundy Pond.  

Acorn Woodpecker Video

I was looking at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's website and I came across a fascinating video about Acorn Woodpeckers. The video was made by Marie Read and it is very well done. The footage and pictures are amazing. The video explains their foraging habits and how they store acorns in tree holes.  If you haven't heard or seen an Acorn Woodpecker it will be a surprise to see what they look like. They look a lot like little clowns. They have a blueish black back and black on the nape and a red crown. The bird has a bit of tan on the front of the head and around the bill there is black. Acorn Woodpeckers are common in there fairly limited range. There range goes from Southern Central America to to Northern Oregon and Southern Washington State. They live in social groups of up to a dozen or more birds. Take a look:
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/acorn_woodpecker/