My Barred Owl Experience

I wanted to share an exciting experience that I had last week. I had gone to the Anchorage Trail in Anchorage, KY basically in search of warblers. Boy did I get a nice surprise! I was walking along the main trail when I noticed a large bird flying from the ground up to a tree just a few feet off of the trail. I initially thought Hawk, but quickly discovered it was a Barred Owl! I have heard them calling there before, but never have I caught a glimpse of one! 

Barred Owl

I have heard from some other local birders that frequent the Anchorage Trail that Barred Owls have been spotted.



Barred Owl

This Owl must have been pretty comfortable with people, because he flew to this tree and sat for several minutes right above the trail. He watched as a walker passed right under him!

Posted in: Anchorage Trail,Barred Owl

Horizontal Rainbow

During a walk late this afternoon, I spotted a rainbow in the clouds! I have never seen one like this before, it was horizontal and upside down! The image I took just so happened to look like a smiley face too. :)




Apparently, it's called a Circumhorizontal arc and is a rare occurrence.

Fall Warblers in Louisville

I went out this weekend looking for fall warblers in Louisville and was not disappointed.  While fall warblers are harder to identify, they are more fun to watch because they forage more at ground level on berries and shrubs.  In spring you just about have to break your neck looking up in the tops of trees for birds while in fall most birds are a eye level snacking on grapes, pokeweed, or dogwoods.  Here are a few birds I saw this weekend:

Ovenbird

 
American Redstart (female)
 

Common Yellowthroat (female)




Yellow-throated Warbler

This is what the birds were eating, the berries from the Red-osier Dogwood.  These dogwoods are shrubs that grow along the edges of swampy woods.  If you can find these or grapevines with fruit still on them you have a good chance of seeing some warblers.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

I have recently put my Hummingbird feeders back out! I don't know why I didn't get them out earlier in the summer, since they are so much fun to watch! I have them placed just outside of a window so I can photograph them! Right now, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are migrating. Males usually start migration first, beginning typically in August. Females will follow next, then the juveniles. They typically winter in Mexico & Central America, flying across the Gulf of Mexico! This amazes me, considering the size of the gulf!

 

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird sunning herself between drinks from the feeder

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are the only species of Hummingbird that nests east of the Mississipi river. So, during the summer, if you live in the east & see a Hummingbird, it is most likely a Ruby-throated. However, once the migration begins, you should pay close attention to the Hummingbirds that come to your feeders. Somethimes, other species of Hummingbirds have been known to come through. Just last November, a Rufous Hummingird spent some time at a feeder in Logan County Kentucky.

Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Many people wonder if leaving their Hummingbird feeders out later in the season will prompt the Hummingibrds to stay around longer than they should, causing them to miss migration. Most of the sources I have read say, No! Hummingbirds migrate when their inner clock tells them it's time to go! A wonderful resource to learn about anything Hummingbird is hummingbirds.net. They even have a migration map that lets you follow the migration reports! It's very cool!

Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird (notice how his gorget looks black from this angle, for a great explanation of why, check out Ryan's post from earlier this year)

Posted in: Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Birding App Review: Audubon Birds

This is part one in a series of four posts I will be doing about bird field guide apps.  Stay tuned for the reviews of iBird, Peterson, and Sibley apps coming soon.

In the old days (like five years ago) a birder had to rely on only a trusted field guide, his memory, and wits to find and observe birds.  But with the proliferation of smart phones, tablets, and other devices has come a rush of new apps aimed at helping birders identify birds in the field, recognize songs, and even pinpoint on a map the latest sightings in the area.  These digital field guides have quickly become important tools in the birder's repertoire and are a great supplement to the standard field guide.  In this article we will look at four such birding apps that are available today.  We will examine their strengths and weaknesses to help birders decide which app is right for them.  All apps are being tested on an iPod Touch.

We will consider four things when reviewing these apps that will allow us to compare all apps equally.  First we will be looking at the user interface and how easy it is to navigate in the app between elements.  In this section we will also look for any bugs or crashes that may occur.  Second, we will review the quality of the illustrations and/or photographs in each app.  Next we will look at the audio section in each app and review the quality and variation of bird vocalizations.  Lastly, we will look at any extra features the app provides and discuss how this enhances the user's experience.  Let's get started.

   Audubon - $9.99

We will begin with the Audubon Society's app "Audubon Birds".  On the home screen this app gives you a lot of choices on how to begin finding the birds you are looking for.  It allows you to browse by shape, name, taxonomic family, or by search.  The User Interface is clearly marked and is a breeze to use.  When viewing a bird you have the choice of viewing an image, range map, vocalizations, description, similar birds, and more.  The app glides smoothly between elements and there were no issues with freezing or crashes.

This app follows the standard Audubon field guide convention of showing only photographs and no illustrations.  While I find this unacceptable for a hard copy field guide, it works much better in the digital field guide form.  The reason for this is that there are multiple photographs showing different angles and field marks along with differences in ages and sexes.  The static, often poor quality photograph found in the hard copy field guide is replaced with several outstanding high quality and beautiful photographs in the digital field guide and really make bird identification an easier task.  Even better is that for many photographs there is a small button on the photo that you can press that will overlay important field marks and identification tips on top of the photo.  This is a wonderful feature and keeps users from having to flip back and forth between the photo and description to identify their bird.

The audio portion of this app also stands out.  Audubon has vocalizations for every bird and often includes multiple examples of songs, call notes, alarm calls, and other vocalizations.  All audio is clear and easy to hear, making this one of the best apps for bird songs on the market.  One feature that is missing is that there is no way to compare birds with similar songs like there are in other apps.

Audubon really put in time on the extra features this app provides.  They could have left it as a field guide and it would have been a quality app, but the little extras added into the app are the icing on the cake.  The most important feature is the integration with eBird that allows you to view birds that have been seen anywhere in the country.  Just go to the ebird section and you will see a list of birds recently seen in your area.  Clicking on a bird brings up a map with pinpoints showing exactly where the bird was seen and when.  The app also includes a journal where you can keep notes and lists on the birds you've seen, and it also has in depth articles about bird molts and plumage, conservation, natural history, and much more.

In conclusion, this app really stands out for its amazing photography with identification tips, great audio section, and integration with eBird.  There are no illustrations but that is how Audubon guides are usually put together.  The multiple photos and angles makes up for the lack of illustrations in other bird apps.  All in all, I would highly recommend this app for beginning and experienced birders alike.