I And The Bird #19

Welcome to the Nineteenth edition of the I And The Bird carnival.

The number (and, yes, the quality) of the entries that arrived in my mailbox over the past two weeks is just amazing. I soon decided to abandon any attempts to be too funny or creative and I kicked out the pretty pictures I had found. The carnival is already huge and I cannot make it too large and make the readers (and the Blogger software) overwhelmed.

Instead, I snuck in a couple of "Editor's Choice" posts, introducing some new people to the birding blogosphere, and I organized the entries into four loosely-defined categories. The quality of the submissions is just amazing, so let's not waste any more time on my blabberings - enjoy the carnival!

Science and Conservation

Hedwig The Owl of Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) looks at the new study of the role of poultry farms vs. wild migrating birds in the spread of bird flu in Avian Influenza: A Story About Industrial Fowl Play?.

Bethany Lindsay, on one of the coolest science blogs - The Science Creative Quarterly, explains the current state of research on The Compasses of Birds .

Darren Naish of Tetrapod Zoology introduces the Biggest Eagle.

Sylvia Tognetti of Post-Normal Times writes about the need for a new way of thinking about the relationship between humans and nature, in Ode to a swamp.

Mensa Barbie reports of an interesting way to use the natural behavior of birds to track the spread of bird flu: Migratory Tracking in the UAE.

The annotated budak is a blog written by a duck. On feathered fiends announces an interesting seminar on the human relationship with wild birds.

Natural History

Sahotra Sarkar of the Sarkar Lab is a philosopher of science, but his blog has more posts about the beautiful nature of Texas than philosophy (and both kinds of posts are well worth reading!). Prepare to learn a lot from A Year in Texas: Whooping Cranes at Aransas.

Nuthatch of Bootstrap Analysis introduces us to Cuba's endemic birds.

On WoodSong, you'll learn everything you ever wanted to know about the Hermit Trush: A Solitary Thrush

Mata of Time's Fool is having fun while Watching the Wilson's Pharalope

Tom and Sheri are Birders On The Border. In Arizona, roadrunners are noy just cartoon characters skillfully evading applications of ACME kits. They are real Dinosaurs in the desert.

Rick Wright of Aimophila Adventures saw the devil-bird: Phainopeplas on the Move.

Carel Brest van Kempen is a nature artist and he blogs on Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding. You can learn about Kakapo and Condors accompanied with his original art.

Speaking of art, one can learn about birds through poetry, too. Headmistress, the zookeeper of the The Common Room does so in Springtime Poems for the Nature Journals.

The art of birding and birdwatching

Pamela Martin of Thomasburg Walks went for a walk and heard a lot of birds singing: The Cardinal Sings.

Tai Haku of Earth, Wind & Water went on a Snipe Hunt, taking a picture of "a non-existent magical creature".

Laura, who is Somewhere in NJ, reminds us to be always prepared, in Marsh hunting.

Mary Ann of Five Wells is an old blog-friend of mine. Mostly politics. But sometimes, one needs to do something more fun, for instance identify the species of Woodpeckers.

Ben Cruachan Blog - sometimes Hot birding is just too hot!

On the other hand, sometimes it is too cold! Home Bird Notes braved the weather and was rewarded by Scoters at the jetty.

Wayne Hughes of Niches looks at the behavior of purple finches in his backyard in Tuesday Miscellany.

David Ringer of Search And Serendipity is doing what we all would like to have the opportunity to do - birding in Papua New Guinea! Wouldn't you want to spend Two hours hunting mystery birds?

Pete McGregor of Pohanginapete also enjoys nature in a part of the world I'd love to visit - New Zealand. See what you're missing from a Life on the rocks.

When a dedicated birder like Mike of 10,000 Birds sets foot in a new territory, he wastes not a second! There is never too many new species to see: Straight to Arrowhead.

Sometimes when you go birding, you bump into people stranger than the birds - some nice, some not so. Just ask Ocellated about his hillarious encounters with Rednecks.

Dave runs a blog from the Bird Treatment and Learning Center
Anchorage, Alaska, where they take care of injured and sick raptors: 9 and counting.

Trix of WhipPoorWill has a cool neighbor: Just A Moment....

John from A DC Birding Blog suffered an embarassment of riches while birding the other day: Early Migrants at the National Arboretum.

Birdchick Blog finds a novel use for birdseed (as well as the more standard use - to take pictures of cool birds) in Behold, the power of millet.

Magnificient Photography

T. Beth of the Firefly Forest Blog posted some great pictures of a Broad-billed Hummingbird (Cynanthus latirostris).

Russ Williams is the Director of the NC Zoo in Asheboro and blogs, several times a day, on Russlings. Here is a cool picture of a Gier.

Henry of Henry's Webiocosm Blog finds beauty close to home: Friday Backyard Bird Blogging: Tufted Titmouse - Baeolophus bicolor

Deb blogs on the Sand Creek Almanac. Recently she did some More grousing and you can see the result.

Lindsay of Majikthise found a picture of The angriest hummingbird in the world.

Pam Shack of Tortoise Trail teaches by example in Photography 101 - Mockingbird exercise.

Gwyn Calvetti of Bird brained stories! finally got to photograph her jinx-bird: The Conquering Birder!

Linkmeister lives in Hawaii and recently took a picture of a Winter visitor.

Rob Fergus is the Birdchaser. He was lucky one day and took a photo of the Swan Lake.


I And The Bird #20 will be hosted by Nuthatch of Bootstrap Analysis on March 30th, 2006, so send your entries on time!