Many of you know Carl Ingwell as a founder of the Utah Birders and a leader in the battle for clean air. However, did you know he is an aspiring actor as well? Let this trailer speak for itself. Enjoy!

For a long time scientists and birders alike have had trouble not only telling one gull species from another, but even knowing whether a certain gull species should even be a species. In recent years the debate has come down on the Herring Gull complex- whether there are 3 different Herring Gulls, or if Thayer's, Herring, and Iceland Gulls should be all lumped as one species or something in the middle.  All of that has changed though.

 Great Black-backed Gulls have strong genes

Stunning new research has shown that almost all gull species to be hybrids of Great Black-backed Gulls and unbelievably, Little Gulls.  Mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA taken from a host of former gull "species" show genes in all gull species that be traced back to both of these parent species.  Backcrosses and breeding among the hybrids have resulted in the wide range of gulls we see today.  Gulls with more Little Gull genes are more of the smaller gulls (like Ring-billed and Franklin's) whereas gulls with more Great Black-backed genes tend to be larger (like Glaucous and Western).

Opposites attract when it comes to Little Gulls

I'm sure of all of you have many questions, just as I did upon my first reading of this research.  What about mantle color?  It turns out that Little Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls share a common ancestor, one that most likely had a paler back.  In both the species, the ancestral genes are turned off, however when they hybridize, these ancestral genes can be expressed, leading to the wide variety of mantle colors we see today.  What about their breeding ranges?  It's true that both species breeding ranges don't overlap now, but it turns out that right after the last Ice Age, Little and Great Black-backed Gulls shared a common breeding ground where the hybridizing started. It also seems like there may in fact be no "pure" Great Black-backed Gulls or Little Gulls given the amount of cross breeding.

It makes sense that Sabine's Gulls are just goofy hybrids

There are still many questions to be answered, mainly if all these new hybrid gulls are stable hybrids and one day may be considered new species.  Given the amount of hybrids we see each winter in Utah, I think we are a long way away from having anything more than a handful of true gull species.

Personally, I am not looking forward to losing 18 species off my life list, but science is always moving ahead and we birders just need to catch up.

A link to the article detailing all the research can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/bsomrcr

I usually find that a little humor is a good way to lighten up the oppressive feelings of Monday morning. So here you go:
 
As a lingering group of birders were scoping out a flock of a thousand-ish gulls near the end of the trip on Saturday, a mallard flew overhead. At least one of the gulls mistook this waterfowl for a raptor and took off. The rest followed. Several thousand gulls all taking flight at the same time is a pretty amazing site. Most of us stopped looking through our scopes and instantly raised our binoculars to our eyes to see if we could pick out any random rare-looking gulls in flight. The sense of amazement soon turned to panic as what moments before was a dazzling aerial display quickly became an aerial assault  - on our dignity. Amazingly enough, no birders were taken casualty to the onslaught of droppings, but there were many that were too close for comfort. After this experience I think the phrase "hit the deck" needs to become part of the birding vernacular.
 
On a somewhat related note, Jeff mentioned to a few of us while walking around Lake Park a shirt that he had seen (heard of?, owned?) that had various drawings of whitewash with the names of different birds underneath… a sort of Bird Poop Identification guide on a shirt. I tried looking to see if this shirt existed online somewhere and could only come up with this:

Click on the pic to read a pretty good story about bird poop helping someone get into college.

Someone also mentioned that someone had actually made a bird poop ID Field guild that you could buy to give to someone as a gag-gift (or maybe as a conversation piece to go on your coffee table?). I found a few bird crap related options that could make a good gag-birthday present for that hard-to-shop-for birder in your life that already owns every guide on the planet:

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite webcomics XKCD.com started a side-project where you can email the author any question you can imagine and he will answer it using actual science. One of the earliest questions he answered was this: “If you went outside and lay down on your back with your mouth open, how long would you have to wait until a bird pooped in it?” He goes through the math of it and comes up with a rough estimate of 195 years. Click HERE to see for yourself.
 
Another interesting bird poop related topic is how many creatures have evolved a defense mechanism to actually camouflage themselves as bird poop. Check out this blog post for some crazy bird poop look-a-likes:  Blog. Here is an example:
 

Pic from thesymbiont.blogspot.com/

Crazy what things you’ll find by google-ing the words Bird and Poop. Who knew?
 
Next time a large flock of birds flies over head, make sure to resist the urge to stare straight up as they fly overhead. If you can't resist, at least make sure your mouth is closed. Come to think of it, I got nailed by a starling about a week ago. Good thing I wasn't looking up at the time.
 
No matter how bad your Monday is going, it’s probably not as bad as this guy’s:

 
Do you have any good stories of getting nailed by our feathered friends flying overhead?

The first time I had a run in with the law while birdwatching was when I was 20. I was home from college for Christmas break and Colby Neuman and I had gone to the Bountiful Landfill to look through the gulls. Afterwards as I “sped” back towards Salt Lake, I was pulled over on a desolate street in west Bountiful for going 14 mph over the 25mph speed limit. I didn’t know the speed limit was 25mph, as the street was a large, wide, main throroughfare. The street was in a front of a grade school--but it was a Saturday, and the school was out for the holidays to boot. I had made a mistake in not paying attention to the street signs in my pursuit of birds. The officer asked if we were, “looking for the eagles?”. I was a tad snide when I replied, “no, we were looking at gulls at the dump.” I wish I had been more witty at the time, and replied with something like, “yes, and I sped up to avoid hitting one of them--so no ticket right?” In any event, I took the ticket, paid the $65 fine, and went about my way.

Looking for Thayer's Gulls at the Bountiful Landfill

led to my first speeding ticket.

I made it a couple more years before the long arm of the law was in my rear view again. It was January of 2005 and my last semester in college in Wisconsin. It was the invasion winter in the upper Midwest, and the Sax-Zim Bog was crawling with Great Gray Owls, Northern Hawk-Owls, Woodpeckers, Redpolls, and hoards of birders and photographers. I couldn’t resist the temptation to go, so when I had a free weekend and decent weather, I booked a hotel, gassed up my Jeep, and hit the road for the 350 mile drive. I planned to stay for two days, but the first day provided so many opportunities to witness one of the greatest irruptions in recent history that I decided to head home a day early. As evening was setting on the the upper Wisconsin Prairie I was making good time going my usual 14 over on the 65mph highway. The state troopers didn’t even give me a chance hiding just on the other side of a ridge--I was caught red-handed. the officer actually tried to arrest me since my license and vehicle were from out of state. Apparently in Wisconsin if you are from out of state, you must post the “bail” or fine immediately or get locked up until you can. It took some convincing and paperwork I happened to have to show my Wisconsin address to the overzealous mustache model--but in the end I was again on my way--this time about $208 poorer than before (but well worth it).

One of dozens of Great Gray Owls I photographed before

getting a $200 speeding ticket!

In 2007 while I was taking a shot at a Big Year in Utah, it seemed like I was getting pulled over every other month for one thing or another. In February I was a passenger in a friend of Colby Neuman’s car and we were pulled over in St. George at 1:15am for having a tail light out. No ticket and the payoff for the weekend were beautiful photographs of a Red-breasted Sapsucker.

The Red-breasted Sapsucker I photographed the morning

following our run in with the law.

In April Colby and I had headed into the far northern Wasatch in the middle of the night in search of Boreal Owls. We heard numerous Saw-whets and had an eerie encounter with what we could only figure was a Boreal Owl based off the behavior of the bird (that’s a whole other story). I didn’t put the Boreal on my list as the encounter was so strange and unconfirmable, but it was a cool night to be wandering in the mountains. The last place we tried for the owls was at the Rich/Cache County line--from there we dropped into Bear Lake Valley to head south to I-80 and back to Salt Lake. It was just after midnight when we rolled out of Laketown and not even 2 miles out of the city I saw the flashing lights of a cruiser racing up on my tail. The officer was looking for drunk drivers, and decided to pull us over for going 44 in a 40 zone. He was surprised to see two guys in their 20’s with binoculars, cameras, tape players, and bird books--instead of a couple of drunk fisherman. He “let me off” with a warning while I was furious for why I had been pulled over. It was one of those “you’ve got to be kidding me” moments.

Northern Saw-whet Owls were everywhere the night

we got pulled over in Cache County.

I made it through May, June, and July without any run ins with the police. I was driving a State of Utah vehicle for much of that period--which probably helped my cause. It wasn’t until the end of August when again, Colby Neuman and I (are you starting to see a pattern) were in southern Utah chasing warblers and hawks that it happened again. We made a Friday drive down to the Kolob region picking up a Hermit Warbler in a mixed flock that afternoon. We stayed on the Kolob Terrace till after dark to listen for night migrants, then drove the road down, stopping briefly for a Northern Pygmy-Owl to come into us whistling along the road. Finally we made our way to the desert and drove through Hurricane towards I-15. Just past Quail Creek Reservoir a police SUV was on my tail, following me onto the freeway and all the way to Washington before pulling me over. His excuse wasn’t speeding or dead tail-lights. It wasn’t suspected drunk driving either. This time it was a clear license plate cover. I joke with him that maybe instead of pulling us over they should go to the stores that sell them and take them off the shelves. What a stupid thing to be able to buy if they are illegal. No ticket, and only a few minutes wasted, we drove into St. George, where I unscrewed the cover and chucked it in the trash. The following day we picked up 2 Red-shouldered Hawks for the year--a successful trip.

Red-shouldered Hawks at Lytle Ranch.

In May of 2008 I had volunteered to lead a class for the Basin and Range weekend near Scipio. 9 days earlier I purchased my first new car, an orange Dodge Nitro and was excited to take it on my first out of town drive. I didn’t even make it to 106th south in Salt Lake City when I was the middle car in a 5 car pile up on I-15. My new vehicle had to be towed while everyone else was able to drive away. To boot I did receive a ticket (along with 3 of the 4 other vehicles involved). Not only did I not make it to Scipio, birding had yet again brought me into contact with the police.

Just a few months later, during the Salt Lake CBC, Colby, Carl, Jeff, and I had our next run in with the fuzz. As we were making our way to the north end of one of the canals that off shoots the Jordan River just to the west of the Salt Lake International Airport, an Airport Police vehicle approached and turned on its lights. Despite taking the precautions we were told to and calling the airport in advance we were escorted to the main road where we spent 40 minutes being questioned, having our our drivers licensed checked, and vehicle searched. After all the 4 guys birding from Utah fit the terrorist profile so well. Apparently the person at the airport who we called to avoid this, hadn’t bothered to put the note in their books! This was perhaps the most angry because there was seemingly no reason they should have even been able to pull us over since the road was outside the airport.

We weren't really trespassing. But the cops didn't buy it!

After that I took a hiatus from dealing with the police. No getting pulled over, no tickets, no driving in areas where suspicion might be aroused. It was a few years later when I think Jeff and I were stopped by another airport cop, this time north of the airport on 3200 west. I don’t remember exactly how this went down, but in the end, we again left, with no tickets.

The most recent encounter happened just last week in Eagle Mountain. I was parked in the median photographing Horned Larks, when a car drove through the flock and honked--or so I thought. Bothered at the continued rude nature by the locals I didn’t hesitate to raise my middle finger to the white SUV as it passed. Then I saw the flashing lights and realized I just flipped off a cop. Oops! After a short talk with him I apologized for myself being a jerk and he was on his way. A reminder to just go about my birding and ignore the locals if they are being rude.

You can see a few Rosy-Finches in this flock of Larks...

The same flock that led to flipping off a cop.

It’s ironic that almost every time I have been pulled over, or had a traffic incident, it has involved birding. Those damn birds! What about you? What run-ins have you had with the law, or security, or land owners while birding? Share your stories in the comments below!

Have you ever been scared to death while bird watching? I don't mean on a boat rocking in the ocean or on a steep cliff edge…I mean scared that you were gonna get beaten up for misidentifying a bird or disagreeing on a certain topic?

I was birding with a few guys today (pictured here, no names given for my own security), and I was frightened…I mean, look at how pissed off they are. Would you be scared to birdwatch with these guys? One of the guys smiled a few times, but I don't think the other two cracked even a half-smile during the day. I made them coffee and fed them at lunch time, but they still looked at me as if to say "hey, watch what you say." We saw a Goshawk the very first bird of the day….great views, it did everything you want -- it soared, it flapped, it showed it's topside, and the response from the 3 goons was "yeah, whatever." Then we had a gorgeous flock of White Pelicans in a blue sky, just soaring and moving in unison. I stated "Man, I love pelicans, I just love the way they move"…the three goons just looked at me without a word but their eyes said "dude, really, pelicans…really?" Oh god, did I just say the wrong thing, please nooooooo. I mean, we were on a hillside with no one else around, these guys could throw me off the cliff and I'd never be found. When I said "the wind isn't the right wind for seeing many hawks today", they said "you better find a Broad-winged or your ass is grass….if you could even identify one." Man was I in over my head. When they asked me what projects I was working on these days, I told them. One responded "is it going to flop like your books." One of the birds we saw today was a Cooper's Hawk that was so close we could almost grab it (photo above, click to enlarge). I was pretty excited, but when I saw them mocking me for showing an emotion, I felt nervous (and uncool).

When I asked them to pose for a picture, this is what I got? These are birdwatchers? These guys scare me. I thought "watch my back and temper my words." They asked me what lens I was using and when I told them, they just scoffed and muttered "pffffff, loser." Be careful if you run into these guys in the field, in fact…walk the other way!!! And, don't misidentify a bird in front of them, you are asking for a beat-down.

So over time I have seen numerous posts talking about bird names and some of the historic names that were a better fit, or some of the current names that don't make sense, or names that just plain suck.  I often wonder why specific nomenclature was used in the first place, or changes later on aside from a species split or lump.  Even then names like Dark-eyed Junco for instance seem like an odd choice for a species that could be defined by numerous other characteristics, aside from that "dark eye".  What about the Varied Junco or the Chattering Junco--I would even be partial to a new grouping, how about the Chattering or Varied Wanderer?  Perhaps speaking to complex mixed breeding of the subspecies we call it the Promiscuous Junco? That might be my favorite for this species.

Dark-eyed Junco or Promiscuous Junco?

How about Rose-breasted and Black-headed Grosbeak--those are great descriptive names for the two birds, but in terms of interesting they seem rather plain.  Gray Jay is one that really stings me--honestly something like Alpine Jay, or Tundra Jay is so much more fitting.  But hey, the "color" gray is descriptive enough right?  And it matches up to the Green, Brown, and Blue Jay--never mind the Scrub or Steller's Jay though, they were after all already blue.

Gray Jay or Alpine Jay?

Birds named after cardinal directions also leave me feeling uneasy.  The Northern Flicker for instance is found far and wide east to west--not to mention across the entire south.  What about the Northern Rough-winged Swallow--are we talking north of the Equator?  Because the Southern Rough-winged Swallow and it's northern cousin meet in up Central America.  Lest we forget the Eastern Towhee and the Western Grebe and the split across this great continent.  Don't get me wrong I understand why some of these birds have the generalized descriptors used for their names--but it just seems like far too many have been done a disservice because of it.

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Of course there is one bird above all others that bothers me--the Western Tanager.  It's my favorite bird with a breathtaking pattern and color set.  I can think of a couple name more apt--how about the Aspen Tanager (yes this species spends a great deal of time in Aspen as well as Conifers), or Tremulous Tanager (another take to Aspen, or Populus tremuloides its the scientific name).

Western Tanager or Tremulous Tanager?

I mean saying I saw 500 Tremulous Tanagers in a day sounds way more epic than saying I saw 500 Western Tanagers in a day.  Just the name adds a bit of mystique and interest.  I also wouldn't feign at names like Flammulated Tanager, Fire-faced Tanager, or the simple yet all encompassing Incredible Tanager.  How many times have you heard a birder or non-birder alike say, "Wow that's Incredible!" upon seeing a Western Tanager?

So now that I've told you a couple bird names I would change, if you could change 1, 2,  or a few bird names, what ones would you choose, and why?  Comment below anonymously or using just your name, or a Google account, etc.  I'm interested to see what others have to say!

After a long wait, here it is:

Welcome to the newest craze in backyard birding--extreme backyard birding. That's right, its the new way to add species to that yard list when you think you've just about seen everything you can see! It's not for everyone, and it's not the kind of birding where you get great looks at the birds. It's extreme!


Okay, in all seriousness I decided to see if I could pick up a few yard birds today by setting my scope up on my deck and pointing it at the mountains just over a mile from our house near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake County. Here is a diagram of the situation:


I thought I might be able to see a few large raptors at the distance. The closest point of the mountains is at the entrance to Bell Canyon about 1 1/3 miles away. The ridge lines average closer to 2 miles away, and as they go south end up being 3 to 3 1/2 miles away. To the naked eye it looks like this:


So with scope set up, Jerry Liguori's Hawks at a Distance in hand, cup of Coke, and my binoculars I started looking. It didn't take long to realize I could pick out birds with my binoculars. They were specks at a distance, but through the scope I could ID most of them without much trouble. Here is what it looked like at 20x on ridge 2 miles out:


Not bad eh? Well along with scanning the ridges I started scanning the skies above the house--what a payday that was. Over the mountains I saw a handful of raptors, including Golden Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Swainson's Hawk, and Peregrine Falcon. Closer to the house I picked up a flock of White-throated Swifts, then a flock of Violet-green Swallows. Before the afternoon was over I had added 5 new yards birds to our list.


It was great to find out that I could do this kind of birding from the house, and knowing that there were quite a few birds I could add this way that I haven't seen at the house yet. Next step, explaining to the neighbors that I am not a peeping Tom (or Tim), and that yes, I am looking at birds up there in the air,where no one else is looking!

I'm proud to announce today the release of a project I've been working on for quite some time: my budget bird songs CD. If you want to learn to recognize bird songs AND save money, this is the product for you! Take a minute to listen to this short promotional clip, including audio samples, for Ryan's Budget Bird Songs CD.

Click Here to Play the Sample

A few days ago I peered out the window at the feeders and noticed a Lesser Goldfinch feeding on the ground beneath a packed thistle feeder. I was surprised to see what looked like a white stripe of feathers up the middle of the crown. I went into my office and set up to take some pictures. After I snapped one I thought the stripe looked odd, and then I realized why. It wasn't feathers, it was bird crap! This goldfinch was feeding right beneath a flock of others feeding, and one had apparently dropped a bomb that hit its target... Check out the pictures:

Click Images to View Larger

And this is the reason you NEVER eat where you poop! The little guy eventually took a place at the feeder so he was no longer a target for his buddies!

This one is a couple years old, but it is definitely worth the watch. If you can't laugh at yourselves you take birding way too serious.

"Have you seen a Bushtit?" - Conan

I think my favorite part is when the one lady tells Conan he looks like a Red-headed Woodpecker... Or when Conan climbs the tree with the fake bird... There are too many good parts to choose just one!