I and the Bird #5

Welcome to the fifth edition of I and the Bird, the blog carnival for bird lovers.

As many of you know, last week the American Ornithologists’ Union held its conference for 2005 in California. Among other topics, researchers presented additional evidence for the continued existence of the ivory-billed woodpecker, evidence that included sound recordings made during the search. Though some evidence is still in dispute, it looks increasingly likely that ivory-billed woodpeckers still live in the Big Woods of Arkansas. So, in honor of the AOU and the probable survival of a species once thought extinct, this week’s carnival will be held conference-style, in a conference center somewhere in downtown Washington.

Without further ado, onto the birds!

(Shade-grown) Coffee and Doughnuts (7:45-8:00)

Birder Behavior (8:00-9:00)

Bill at Crows Really Are Wise sends us his post on the Bird Lists birders keep and a list of birds seen while driving to work.

YC Wee of the Bird Ecology Study Group in Singapore uses his blog to argue that birders ought to pay more attention to the behavior of common birds, and posts observations of bird behavior. A recent post, Twitchers, Photographers, and Digiscopers, discusses different approaches to birding.

Break (9:00-9:15)

Sightings of Individual Birds (9:15-10:45)

Duncan of the Ben Cruachan Blog describes his encounters with the spotted pardalotes, a burrowing species, in his Jewels of the Bush.

Christy narrates an evening encounter with a barred owl – and a curious neighbor - in her Bird Watching.

Clare at The House and Other Arctic Musings tells of two sightings of a gyrfalcon on a day with miserable weather in A Gyrfalcon Kind of Day.

Break (10:45-11:00)

Birds and the End of Summer (11:00-12:00)

Dave of the Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Alaska reflects on the end of summer and gives us the latest news from his bird rehabilitation center in Where Did the Summer Go?

Tony G., from the eclectic milkriverblog, reflects on the end of summer and reports on some unusual bird observations in a multiple-day post, In Praise of Quiet-Not Quiet. (Note that the post is in reverse chronological order.)

Lunch (12:00-1:00)

Birds and their Nests (1:00-2:00)

Sharon, the BirdChick, investigates three nests left behind in a bluebird nesting box at the end of the breeding season in Nest Box Intrigue.

The newly-revived Nature Writers of Texas blog has a piece by Ro Wauer on chimney swifts nesting in her chimney, in Chimney Swifts, A Real-Life Drama.

Bird Rehabilitation and Species Recovery (2:00-2:30)

Gwyn of Bird brained stories! recently had the privilege of watching the flight training of young whooping cranes on a special tour of a protected refuge. Here is her account: part 1, part 2, part 3.

Break (2:30-2:45)

Backyard Birds (2:45-4:15)

Shari at Birdwatchin Buzz describes how western scrub-jays behave at her feeders, and how they remind her of her late brother in My Brother and Western Scrub-jays.

T. Beth at Firefly Forest Blog has an account (and a great picture) of two unlikely species sitting in her birdbath at the same time in Sharing.

Summer at Bird Watchers Notebook reports on the territorial behavior of hummingbirds at feeders in Hummingbird Wars.

Break (4:15-4:30)

Field Trip Reports (4:30-7:00)

Jason of The Big Bird Blog describes a great field trip on a very hot day in southern California in his Sultry Salton Sea. Make sure to enlarge his wood stork photographs.

Mike at 10,000 Birds reports on a trip to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, which doubles as a bird sanctuary, in Feathers Over Fermilab.

Rexroth’s Daughter at Dharma Bums presents a series of eagle and heron photographs from her Low-Tide Walk.

Charlie of Charlie’s Bird Blog takes us on a tour of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, in Down Under and It’s a Bit Like Birding at Home.

The Wandering Birders present the results of birding trips to Norfolk and Suffolk, with plenty of photographs, in Norfolk 17/8-19/8.

Dinner will be at the Hawk and Dove on Capitol Hill.

Finally, there is an optional field trip on the following morning to Rock Creek Park, led by your host.

Thanks to all our contributors for sending in their posts. Putting this together has been great fun. The sixth I and the Bird will be hosted by the BirdChick on September 15. Make sure to send your submissions to Sharon or to Mike by September 13.

Listed at the TTLB übercarnival.