"Birding" Out the Window and on the Net Saturday, January 25, 2014!

Baltimore Oriole -- Parc Perlière -- James Island -- Charleston, SC -- January 25, 2014

         We woke up to a temperature of 26F Saturday morning.   It was just a bit too cold to keep the sugar water from freezing and thus the work lamp was used to provide a heat source until the sun came up.  Though the four day work week made for a short week overall, I had put in significant hours planning, writing and researching materials for the new course that I am teaching.  As such, Saturday, I needed time at home to catch up on reading e-mails and finding out what has been happening in the birding world before I ventured forth for outdoor birding this weekend.  And, I must say, it was great to simply sit at the dining room window and watch my birds.  All of the usual suspects showed up, including our female Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird -- Parc Perlière -- James Island -- Charleston, SC -- January 25, 2014

Since I often go to work in the dark and come home in the dark, I do not have an opportunity to observe our birds as much as I would like.  So I chose well to just sit and watch our birds while I surfed the net.

        And now, I can share with you some of the interesting "birding world" stories that I have learned on my morning of surfing.  First, a previously unknown, record-breaking 16,000 mile migration route for a rare little Scottish bird, the Red-necked Phalarope, has been discovered by researchers in Scotland.  It had been previously thought that this bird flew south to the Arabian Sea like its Scandinavian brethren.  Via geo-locator technology, researchers found that the Scottish population is flying across the Atlantic (via Iceland & Greenland), then down the Eastern Seaboard, across the Carribean and Mexico to sites on the shores of Peru and Ecuador where it joins other Red-necked Phalaropes that have migrated from places such as Alaska.  You can read more detail and view a video about this discovery in this BBC article.   

        By surfing around the net yesterday, I discovered a new soon-to-be released (March in select theatres and for streaming) award-winning birding movie, A Birder's Guide to Everything!  Yea! The story line features high school-aged bird nerds in pursuit of a possible new species!  Take a look at this one minute preview and a gander at the facebook page.  Then, add it to your Netflix queue ... or better yet, maybe it will show in a theatre near you.  Hey, besides the teen actors, Ben Kingsley has a prominent role in this film.   Personally,  I cannot wait!

         To finish off this post, I will add just one more gem that I found from my surfing the net.  Believe me, there are more! -- which I will share very soon.  Right now, though, it is time to put this post out there.  I have multiple topics to cover on new discoveries, so stay tuned.  Here is the final gem for this post:  Imagine if you were a bird what you might see as you fly over our planet! -- Here are 27 Incredible Views You'd Only See If You Were a Bird!  Enjoy, my birding friends!