Outdoor

Birdchick Podcast

Sharon Stiteler, the Birdchick, talks about the latest in birding news.

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**BirdFair: a few thoughts** Aug 20, 2014
Show notes

I think this photo of the Andalucia Birding booth in Spain sums up what a lot of BirdFair 2014 was for me. Friends sharing ideas, business plans, great foods and maybe a drink or two. The gent in the middle with the beard is my friend Peter Jones who I met birding in Israel a few years ago.

Ever since I heard of the British BirdFair I've wanted to go. Being social and a lover of birding, I knew it was right up my alley. But I was also curious about a birding event that boasts attendance of well over 20,000 people a year.
I can tell you now that it was amazing and if you are interested in birding, go. Find a way to do it: give up daily coffees at a coffee bar and brew your own, cut back on trips out to eat at restaurants, do a Kickstarter, shift vacation plans from Florida in February to a trip to the UK in August, tell family and friends that during holidays and birthdays in lieu of gifts, you want cash or air miles--just go. BirdFair is a must, not only for the chance to see really cool products, but to experience a truly world wide crowd of people who care about birds and conservation. You can not only "buy stuff" but you learn from what other countries are doing to help birds. I cannot recommend a trip to BirdFair enough.
The photo at the top of this blog encompasses the spirit of the fair. In their Andalucia booth, Peter and one of his guides share cheese, wine, chorizo and tomatoes from their birding area in southern Spain with past trip participants. I met Peter Jones in Israel a few years ago and when I passed, he insisted that I join them for tapas. It was delightful to meet their British tour participants and learn more about birding opportunities and conservation challenges in Andalucia.

The map that shows where the marquees and lecture areas are for BirdFair...it's enormous.

You can purchase passes per day or get a three day wrist band. I knew with my ability to talk and the chance to see old friends, I would need a full three days. My initial plan was to do a fast circuit the first morning, noting where friends had booths and noting which booths I wanted to chat and spend more time with and learn about their product and services. Or to just find surprises that I didn't know I wanted. I also knew that if I didn't do a quick once over, and did it marquee by marquee, I would feel rushed with whoever I chatted with and be thinking, "This is great, but I wonder what's in the next marquee, I need to wrap this up."

The Pork Roll at BirdFair offered at one of the smaller lunch stands away from the main food area--best sandwich there for non-vegetarians. And the British are brilliant--you have the option of adding extra "crackling" to your sandwich aka very crisply pork fat.

After that I grabbed a pork roll and a BirdFair Bitter (a flavorful sturdy ale) and circled who I wanted to go back to in the program (programs cost a pound and are well worth it, though there's lots of signage to help get you with scheduling as well), I created a strategy for each day. Even with that plan, I was unable to hit all the booths I intended, but that may have more to do with me being a chatty gal, especially when I find friends I haven't seen in years or friends I've only known online and met for the first time face to face.

Some of the unique birdhouses from Out Of Our Tree who has the tagline "quirky woodworky."

There truly is a little bit of everything at BirdFair from backyard birding like the above very unique bird houses...

To bird food...and since I have the sense of humor of a 13 year old, I giggled mercilessly at the idea of purchasing 50 fat balls...that are "no mess." Though on Facebook someone informed me that these are called Meisenknödel" in German which is supposed to mean "tit dumpling." What a delightful phrase!

To birdfood...

Inside one of the many marquees at bird fair.

To hip gear for the birding lifestyle...

To cameras (all the top brands were there)...

Swarovski not only had a booth, but a tower to test out digiscoping equipment on Rutland Water.

To just about every optics manufacturerer you can imagine...

This is my friend Mike Watson from BirdQuest. He's helping me put together some digiscoping trips to Panama and Scotland. Details very soon and if there's someplace you'd like to go with me, let me know!

To birding tour companies and a lot of government tourism boards...

To books! This book cracked me up. It's nothing but rare bird accounts for Norfolk. I love that this book exists, I love that it is so specific to just Norfolk. I loved reading all of the accounts of the first time the bird was spotted. We need more books like this in the US. A fun read with valuable information...but not too dry.

I asked a couple next to me if they would take my photo with my book. The obliged but the very nice British lady did ask, "My dear, don't you know how to take a selfie yet?"

I was incredibly surprised to find my book at one of the booths. I brought a couple along "just in case" but to find it out on the table, prominently propped up was a huge and delightful surprise. If I had more room in my suitcase, I would have spent way more money at BirdFair. Not only did they have new books, but they had used book dealers and I have a fondness for early 20th century bird books. Ah well, next time...
So this is entry one for BirdFair. There will be more. Non Birding Bill and I are currently galavanting around London and he really doesn't want me spending our vacation time writing about how fabulous BirdFair was. I'm going to break down the next two posts about it into logistics of getting there and then some of the amazing things that I saw like this:

A scotch tasting held at the Islay booth...why yes...yes I am very interested in visiting Scotland...for birds and other things.

They had scotch tastings at some of the booths! And not just cheap scotch, nice scotch. I actually saved visiting the Islay birding booth for a scotch tasting so that way I could ask legit questions about bringing a tour there and not just be a lurker for some Laphroaig...but they seemed just as eager to sip than ask questions so after some information, we settled in to sipping and exchanged emails for later. I understood, it was a long day and this was a nice way to relax.

**BirdFair Bound & A Collins App** Aug 12, 2014
Show notes

Packing the essentials for British BirdFair!

I'm busy getting all the last minute laundry, packing and travel arrangements finalized as I head to BirdFair in the UK for the first time. I'm so excited because I have always wanted to go this event and I even get to do an iPhone digiscoping presentation on Saturday as well as partake in an improv game called a Question of Stork.
I'm excited to see old and new friends and to make Birds and Beers officially international by having one thanks to the aid of Drunk Birder on Friday night at 7pm at the Three Crowns! I think we will be two peas in a pod. When all the bird fun is over, I get to meet Non Birding Bill in London for some fun.

Screenshot of the new Collins Bird Guide app available for iPhones and iPads on August 14, 2015.

Also, just in time for my trip across the pond comes the Collins Bird Guide app to all of Europe, based on the best-selling *Collins Bird Guide*, by Lars Svensson, Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterström, lucky me! I have to admit, I was leery because BirdFair isn't really about going on field trips, it's about looking at birding products and services. After the fair, I'm going to meet Non Birding Bill in London to visit with friends and not really do that much birding. Would this be more bird info than I would need. Should I just take a little British Guide with me instead?

You can tailor the list of possible birds by using the map tool on the app.

But, the app lets you tailor your location and list of possible birds. If you are like me and just studying from somewhere in the states, you can tap the map of Europe of where you plan to be (and note the season) to get a list of likely birds. If you are already in Europe, you can use the location services of the app to pinpoint where you are as well as the time of year to generate the likely species.

Another way to narrow the list of possible birds is by entering in field marks.

When you see a bird you can't identify, most apps will allow you to create a list of possible suspects based size, shape, habitat, colors, etc. This app will also let you type in specific types of field marks which is pretty darned cool. One of the reasons I really like the Sibley app is that you can compare two species at once, this app will let you compare up to 6 different plumages at once--which will please the European warbler watchers.

The duck hybrid page--oooooooooo!

The Collins app is a comprehensive European guide with over 700 species, 750 recordings of songs and calls, over 3500 illustrations and 60 videos of common birds--because sometimes you need to see the wagging tail of a wagtail to make sure that yep, that is like the most common bird over in Europe and the have some variation and that is indeed the bird that I saw. The app is £12.99 which in the grand scheme of field guide apps is par for the course. If you are going to Europe and you don't want to take a book but want to know what birds you will see, it's worth a download on an Apple device.

**Tawas Point Bird Festival** Jul 21, 2014
Show notes

Hey...does this website look different? Yep, we did a redesign. I hope it's easier for people to read. It's certainly going to be easier for me to maintain and enter content.

The lighthouse at Tawas Point State Park.

I've run into Shelly Moses-Martinez at the Biggest Week in Ohio a few times. She also has started her own version of Birds and Beers in Michigan called Birds and Brews. She kept telling me that I needed to come to Tawas Point Bird Festival some year and we made it happen this year.

Chestnut-sided warbler digiscoped with an iPhone at Tawas Point.

This small festival was so much fun, it reminded me a lot of being in South Padre Island when the migrants come across the Gulf and warblers and tanagers are just everywhere. The only exception being that place was a bit cooler in temperature. Migrants tend to follow the shores of Lake Huron and many are low and easy to see. It's similar to the amount of warblers you can see at Biggest Week, but not as crowded. I had so many chestnut-sided warbles all around me.

A "slidey-backed gull seen in Tawas, MI.

The birding community is tight-knit and excited to show off this lovely lake town. I loved the gull themed slide near my hotel. You can stick around the point and bird the crap out of the area, but some of the field trips take you to some breath-taking Michigan habitat. One of the trips takes to see Kirtland's warbler, which if you don't have that species, this is the place for you.

View during the AuSuble field trip.

Since I've already seen Kirtland's I opted for the AuSable River Valley field trip which was quiet, and yielded us lots of warblers. We were surrounded by pine trees and a lovely view from atop a bluff. Our guides was very good. He lives in Illinois but spends part of the year in Tawas. He even made a point to hang out with the back of the large group to make sure they were seeing and hearing some of the same birds. I have trouble telling some of my trilling bird species apart and he took the time to explain the differences between pine warbler and chipping sparrow.

False morel aka "beefsteak" mushroom seen on our field trip.

As some of you know, I like to forage for the occasional edible mushroom. I'm a big fan of the saying, "There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters." I pretty much stick to the "fool proof four" or the "safe six" like morels, chicken of the woods, hen of the woods--the things you cannot mistake for anything else. I know there are false morels and we found quite few on our trip. I can tell by the fatter, squatter appearance what a false morel is but I always double check when slicing morels because an edible morel will be hollow and a false more will be solid.
I overheard one of the participants talking about eating "the beefsteaks." "You eat that? I never eat false morels because they are supposed to be toxic."
She informed that she eats them all the time. I clearly had to do some googling. Apparently, some people can eat false morels without consequence, while others can experience diarrhea, nausea, dizziness, headaches and in rare cases even death. You never know, it's a crap shoot (ha ha). I don't see myself trying a false morel anytime soon but I did learn something new.

Porcupine found on the AuSable River Valley Trip.

No matter what trips you sign up for, make sure to spend time walking the point. Even if you are doing it after all the afternoon workshops and you don't know your warblers well, lots of people will be there to help you id birds and even make sure that you are seeing the birds too.

Baltimore oriole digiscoped with an iPhone

Make sure to find the fruit feeding station and just zone out for a bit at all the crazy amounts of orioles chowing down on oranges. There are so many and the amount of orange and yellow is bananas.

Orchard oriole digiscoped with an iPhone while carbo loading on some hummingbird nectar.

It's a popular photography spot but if you are new to digiscoping this would be a great place to practice.

One of many scarlet tanagers outside the festival hotel digiscoped with an iPhone.

The birds do drip off the trees. Even right outside the main hotel where all the field trips met, we had quite the warbler and tanager wave...and a group of about 20 birders with scopes watching them forage for insects on the budding trees. But the town seemed to welcome birders with quite a few posting signs welcoming birders and business would ask if you were having a good time if you were wearing binoculars. They may not understand exactly why you animatedly talking about the killer northern parula you just saw in their parking lot, but they are just happy you are enjoying the town.

What happens when a parent asks if their kid can have their photo with me...I just can't take a normal photo.

Shelly was kind enough to host a Birds and Brews and that was a lot of fun. There were even kids (who had root beer). I love having these in other areas, it's an informal way to meet other people and get a pulse on the local birding community. I'm really excited because a lot of the people involved in organizing this small fun event are going to be involved with hosting the 2015 Midwest Birding Symposium. It's been fun in Ohio, but will be cool to try it in a new state.
One final note, I was surprised through some weird occurrence that I was able to get a direct flight from Minneapolis to Alpena which is less than an hour from Tawas Point. Who knew? But the airport was SO tiny. How tiny? Check this out:

Alpena Airport Signage

That's their baggage claim sign. You literally got off the plane and walked inside to this sign. To rent a car, you had to call for an attendant because he works the grounds of the airport. Which was fun and much more relaxed than the usual airport experience.

And you never know what you'll find while you're driving around. Who knew I'd see a Jesus statue and dinosaur cutout so close together?

Digiscoping with Clay and Sharon, Episode 8, Contest Winner Jun 26, 2014

Show notes

As I sit at my open kitchen window this morning listening to urban bird calls and waiting for YouTube to upload the final episode, I have a mixture of relief and sadness. This series has been so much a part of my life the last six months, that I'm partially grateful to have some freedom in my schedule, but sad to not work on it anymore because it worked all the creative resources of my brain. As much as it was a puzzle for viewers to figure out the series clues and theme, it was a puzzle for me some days to figure out how to organize footage, edit something to make sense when a memory card decided a key scene I filmed was corrupt and choosing which bird footage to use. As my blog is turning 10 years old this year, it's very different than when I started in 2004. I don't just have a Minnesota audience anymore and how many times can I post "Hey, orioles are back" with genuine enthusiasm? Not that I'm not excited when I see the orioles are back, but writing about in the blog is not the same. It's more fun to post the first oriole's picture to Instagram. Speaking of Instagram, there are so many new ways and platforms to share information--sharing and discussing news is better suited to Facebook and Twitter than it is in the blog.

When I have a time consuming project like this series or writing a book, my brain will try to distract me by percolating 100s of great ideas. Ideas that require time, other people and organizations and money--but are still great ideas. One of the hardest things I've learned for me is that ideas are easy, followthrough is hard. I can have the greatest idea in the world (or hear someone else's idea and want to work on it) but if I don't have the time or resources, I have to let it go. Working on this series not only gave me the break of working on "the same old" blog posts I really needed, but has taken enough of my working brain, that new ideas for the blog have been percolating in the back of my head.

I'll be spending the next month implementing them and also I am excited to write again.

Will we do more videos? Yes!

Will we do another series...I hope so, but I'm not sure.

This was an experiment. I was in a reality tv show pilot last year (that has mercifully aired unnoticed) and though creatively it wasn't what I needed, I realized, "Is this all it takes to make a show?" And I used what I learned watching the crew as they filmed us to make Digiscoping with Clay and Sharon with mostly a couple of iPhones. I'd love for it to be a regular show--whether on YouTube or Netflix, or even Nat Geo, but that takes money, planning, writing (yes, reality shows have scripts), a better sound system, a crew and holy cow I could really use a continuity editor (I'm surprised no one ever emailed about my shirt changing colors in Episode 2).

If you enjoyed this series a big way to help is to let the sponsors know. For example, if you ever stay at the Alamo Inn, tell Keith that Birdchick sent you or that you enjoyed his cameo in the series. Tweet to Princeton University Press or Swarovski Optik Nature that you liked it (and especially let them know if you bought something). Check out the apps BirdsEye NA or BirdLog from BirdsEyeBirding. Go birding in South Texas either the Rio Grande Valley or Corpus Christi, you won't regret it. I'm half-tempted to run a digiscoping tour there (another great idea percolating in the back of the brain).

Thank you sponsors and friends for making this show possible. And now for the video, there are three winners. The first person our rabbit picked got the Swarovski Spotting Scope, the second person gets their choice of bird book worth up to $40 list price from Princeton University Press and the third person chosen gets a copy of my book 1001 Secrets Every Birder Should Know.

**Digiscoping With Clay and Sharon, Episode 7, Fun With SlowMo on the iPhone** Jun 19, 2014
Show notes

Here it is! This is the final clue to the series theme! Have you figured it out yet? I tried to drop some heavy hints in this episode!

Be sure to check out the pages of our generous sponsors for this episode, especially if you saw something in the show you liked:
Swarovski Optik (the optics I've been using for years)
Princeton University Press (my favorite nature publisher and sign up for updates on their cook BirdGenie bird call identifier app that's coming)
South Texas Nature (because birding the Rio Grande Valley is a must do)
Alamo Inn (my favorite place to stay when birding the Rio Grande Valley)

Screen Shot 2014-06-19 at 8.23.10 AM

If you are enjoying the series, please consider sharing an episode on your social media outlets. And remember, kids, birds shown in the first seven episodes have all been digiscoped by both Clay and me and are a clue to the series theme! If you correctly guess the series theme, you are entered into a drawing for a Swarovski spotting scope. **Please read over the contest rules before entering.**
All entries that deviate from the contest rules will be disqualified. The winner will be announced in the eighth episode airing on June 26, 2014. To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel.
Contest Rules (To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel. )
1. All entries for the Swarovski STS spotting scope need to be emailed to digiscoping@birdchick.com and must include the answer, your first and last name, mailing address and phone number (in case I need to contact you regarding shipping).
2. You can guess the theme more than once, but only ONE correct entry per person will count in the drawing. (You should probably watch a few episodes before you guess).
3. All entries guessing the series theme must be received no later than 11:59pm Central Time on June 23, 2014.
4. The winner of the Swarovski spotting scope will be chosen at random and the decision of the judges is final.

**Digiscoping with Clay and Sharon, Episode 6, Discreet Birding** Jun 12, 2014
Show notes

So...this episode got a little weird but I love that I got to work with some of our good friends and professional actors like Kelvin Hatle, Dawn Krosnowski and Birds and Beers regular Duck Washington! I love that this project allowed me to see some friends...even if I was ordering them around. Alright, we are in the home stretch of the web series...have you guessed the series theme yet? Enter your guess at Digiscopoing@Birdchick.com with your guess ( and please read all the contest rules below).

Be sure to check out the pages of our generous sponsors for this episode, especially if you saw something in the show you liked:
Swarovski Optik (the optics I've been using for years)
Princeton University Press (my favorite nature publisher and sign up for updates on their cook BirdGenie bird call identifier app that's coming)
If you are enjoying the series, please consider sharing an episode on your social media outlets. And remember, kids, birds shown in the first seven episodes have all been digiscoped by both Clay and me and **are a clue to the series theme**! If you correctly guess the series theme, you are entered into a drawing for a Swarovski spotting scope.

Purple finch reach

**Please read over the contest rules before entering.** All entries that deviate from the contest rules will be disqualified. The winner will be announced in the eighth episode airing on June 26, 2014. To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel.
Contest Rules (To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel. )
1. All entries for the Swarovski STS spotting scope need to be emailed to digiscoping@birdchick.com and must include the answer, your first and last name, mailing address and phone number (in case I need to contact you regarding shipping).
2. You can guess the theme more than once, but only ONE correct entry per person will count in the drawing. (You should probably watch a few episodes before you guess).
3. All entries guessing the series theme must be received no later than 11:59pm Central Time on June 23, 2014.
4. The winner of the Swarovski spotting scope will be chosen at random and the decision of the judges is final.

Digiscoping With Clay & Sharon, Episode 4 Light and Photography May 29, 2014

Show notes

This is a fun episode, there are two cameos: our pet rabbit Dougal and Greg Miller (aka Jack Black's character in The Big Year). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3L_gwdgtQ

Please visit the pages of our generous sponsors if you see something you like in the series:

Swarovski Optik (the optics I've been using for years)

Princeton University Press (my favorite nature publisher and sign up for updates on their cook BirdGenie bird call identifier app that's coming)

Alamo Inn Bed & Breakfast (the best place to stay for birding in the Rio Grande Valley, TX)

South Texas Nature (information for birding south Texas, including the Rio Grande Valley)

If you are enjoying the series, please consider sharing an episode on your social media outlets. And remember, kids, birds shown in the first seven episodes have all been digiscoped by both Clay and me and are a clue to the series theme! If you correctly guess the series theme, you are entered into a drawing for a Swarovski spotting scope.

Please read over the contest rules before entering. All entries that deviate from the contest rules will be disqualified. The winner will be announced in the eighth episode airing on June 26, 2014.

To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel.

Contest Rules (To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel. )

1. All entries for the Swarovski STS spotting scope need to be emailed to digiscoping@birdchick.com and must include the answer, your first and last name, mailing address and phone number (in case I need to contact you regarding shipping).

2. You can guess the theme more than once, but only ONE correct entry per person will count in the drawing. (You should probably watch a few episodes before you guess).

3. All entries guessing the series theme must be received no later than 11:59pm Central Time on June 23, 2014.

4. The winner of the Swarovski spotting scope will be chosen at random and the decision of the judges is final.