Brad

If you love birds and want to protect them, here’s an opportunity to do just that. It also has the potential to earn you as much as $1000 a week. All you have to do is grab your video camera and head out to the beaches in the Pacific Northwest where reckless drivers are racing along the sand with their cars or off-road vehicles and killing the ocean birds that congregate there.

Learn all the details about the $1000 reward and beach drivers killing sea birds

Each year volunteers flock to hawk migration monitoring sites across North America to count raptors and identify their species as they perform their annual migrations. This year Blue Job Mountain has been added to the list of nearly 200 such sites staffed by Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) volunteers. The goal of the program is to provide consistent and reliable data to the Raptor Population Index (RPI) project.

RPI, in turn, uses that data to establish population trends for each species of raptor on both an aggregate and regional basis. These studies hope to highlight raptor population success stories and, conversely, to focus attention on problem areas and species that may be in decline.
Blue Job Mountain lies near the center of the NorthEast migration corridor and has the potential to record some of New Hampshire’s highest count totals.

The HMANA hawk migration monitoring program is another example of citizen science efforts in which ordinary people take the initiative to volunteer to assist research efforts either through systematic data collection or by providing other assistance, in order to help staff underfunded research projects or to expand the geographical coverage of such efforts beyond the scope of one team.

Read more about the new hawk migration monitoring post at Blue Job Mountain



Baby birds learn to sing in much the same way that baby humans learn to speak. They start with babbling as they learn to make the sounds associated with their songs, and then start copying the songs of their parents. Baby birds raised by people may never learn to sing and interact with others of their own species. Baby birds can be taught songs by playing bird songs on a CD when they are young. These songs can even be different than those they would learn from their parents in a natural setting. Some researchers have even been able to teach birds to sing in reverse order of their natural songs. Like baby humans, baby birds brains are adaptable and wired to learn, but unlike humans, baby birds lose this ability in roughly 30-45 days after hatching. The songs they have learned up to that point become their adult repertoire.
Find out more about how baby birds learn to sing in the continuing series “Why do birds sing?”



A worker at a commercial production turkey farm in Chile has apparently given swine flu to the turkey flock in the first recorded instance of the H1N1 flu jumping across to birds. Because the influenza virus is recombinant, this opens the door for a bird that carries both the h1n1 swine flu and the avian or bird flu to become the host of a new hybrid variant that combines the deadliest properties of bird flu with the high contagion of swine flu. Such a hybrid flu could wreak havoc on the human population, potentially rivalling the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic in scope. Although there are much better treatments and people are in generally better health today than they were in 1918, there would still be literally millions of deaths worldwide from such an event.

This is one of the reasons why these large commercial production farms are non-Earth Friendly. They crowd the animals so close together in such confined spaces that illnesses like the flu can run through the entire population in very short period of time. To read more about the swine flu and to see pictures of the actual turkey farm in Chile were this happened, visit the link below:
Turkey farm in Chile where a worker has apparently given the h1N1 swine flu to the turkey flock.

The ivory-billed woodpecker was once the biggest woodpecker in the United States, but it was declared extinct. There have been continuing reports of expert birders hearing the unique drumming and call of the ivroy-billed woodpecker in the remote swamps of Florida, but no strong photogrpahic evidence has been produced of its continued survival. It is quite possible that there are some remaining ivory-billed woodpeckers hiding there. However, there is no doubt that what was once the second largest woodpecker in the United States, the pileated woodpecker, is alive and doing well. ALthough it was once threatened by habitat loss, the pileated woodpecker is learning to live on the outskirts of human communities. Although there are limits since this large bird survive by digging insects out of large dead trees, as long as it has the resources it needs to feed, it seems to be making a recovery in terms of population numbers.
More information about the behavior and identification of the pileated woodpecker

On a recent pelagic bird cruise to the Tern Breeding Colony on the Isles of Shoals in New Hampshire, I witnessed a Great Black-backed Gull swallowing a Common Tern whole. The Common Tern, although it was likely a juvenile, would have had a wingspan of 25-30 inches. The Gull was able to distend it’s throat like a pelican or a snake and swallow the entire bird. The entire event is captured in ten photographs arranged in a slideshow along with more details of the cruise.

Pictures of a gull swallowing a tern whole

With a little practice, anyone can learn to identify any of the four species of Terns that are found in the waters off the cooast of New England and New Hampshire. There are four specific things to look for: the bill, the upper wing surface, the lower wing surface, and the tail. The way they fly can also be a quick way to spot the Roseate Tern from amongst a large group of Common Terns. Because Terns are ocean birds, the best way to see them is usually to go on a whale watch tour.

Terns breed on small rocky offshore islands. These breeding colonies can be disturbed by human activities, so it is of paramount importance to the survival of these species that Tern breeding colonies be kept undisturbed. If you should find a Tern breeding colony, any offshore island with large numbers of Terns on and around it, do not go ashore. Use a good set of good birdwatching binoculars or cameras to observe the Terns instead. Not only will you be helping to safegaurd the nesting site, but you will be protecting yourself as well. Terns tend to dive at intruders on their islands and will actually strike them in the head with their bills as they dive past. This activity is the reason that many of the scientists who carefully study the bird’s breeding colonies, wear hardhats to prevent injury.

Learn how to identify the Common Tern.

Here is a slideshow of the nine species of woodpecker that can be commonly found in New Hampshire. For the record that would be: the pileated woodpecker, the red-headed woodpecker, the red-bellied woodpecker, the black-backed woodpecker, the three toed woodpecker, the downy woodpecker, the hairy woodpecker, the northern flicker, and the yellow-bellied sapsucker. See a collection of pictures and learn identification tricks for each of these species. Note that these birds are not only New Hampshire natives, but range from Canada down the east coast of the United States and some of these birds are found throughout whole country.
Woodpecker Identification Pictures

In our attempt to help birds with birdfeeders, we may be increasing the likelihood that they will crash into our windows. Millions of birds are killed each year by flying into windows that look like just more open sky because they are so reflective from the outside. Here’s a simple recommended solution to help save birds, one at a time.
Prevent Birds from flying into your windows.

A new report by the US Fish and Wildlife Service shows that birdwatchers spend more than $35 billion dollars each year in pursuit of their hobby. This translates into big business for many states that draw large numbers of out of state birders and show that states and local communities have a strong financial incentive to protect bird habitat and promote it for public use. Working with local land conservation agencies should be a strong priority for communities that want to attract birding dollars to their local buinesses. Read the full report on the business of birdwatching here.

NH has a crow hunting season. Farmers need a hunting license to lower the crow populations around their fields, but many view crow hunting season as sport. There are no bag limits at all. This article has details about crow hunting season and even some crow meat recipes. Complete schedules, license information, and everything you might want to know about crow hunting season is there.

Many birds are social creatures to some extent. That’s why many birds sing to communicate, and even use different songs, calls and intonations for different meanings. They may flock together for all or part of the year or they may only be social within the context of their own immediate families. In either case, ensuring that others within their flock or family get food and, conversely, sharing the food that others find, is a survival benefit for most birds. Many birds have distinct calls or songs that they use when plentiful food is available.
Read the full story about birds singing to alert others to food sources.