Stuff From Other Blogs

There's a gal from the San Francisco area that often posts a birding diary on Daily Kos on Saturday mornings. This morning's diary was about birds returning to burned out areas after a wildfire such as we had in Southern California. The first returnees are

For a little while, the only avian visitors to the fire zone (and mostly the fringes, at that) will be the scavengers... vultures, some hawks, some corvids... In the hottest zones, there won’t be enough for even those guys to get by. But at the edges of the fire, there will be animals who were overcome by smoke or heat, but did not burn. The scavengers – avian, insect and mammalian – will feast. Soon thereafter, the animals that managed to survive in the fire zone will emerge, but they’ll have no cover and will make an easy meal for the predators moving back in. (Watch an agricultural burn someday – the fields are fringed with hawks waiting to pounce on the suddenly exposed rodents.)

The entire process is interesting and is well worth a read.

Another interesting tidbit was that a birdbander captured a Eurasian Kestral in Marin County (north of San Francisco) this week. It was the first recorded naturally occuring Eurasian Kestrel in California His pictures of the Kestrel are here.

Way down in the comments one of the commenters noted the wildfire damage to the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge. Hopper Mountain is the home of the California Condor recovery program.

Stuff From Other Blogs

Still had some whine left over after last nights post, so I had some cheese and crackers with the remainder....

Most evenings I take a tour through some other birding blogs out there on the innertubz. Thought I would note some that I found interesting this evening.

Search and Serendipity has a post about damage to High Island wrought by Hurricane Humberto. He has links to pictures and additional information. Laura's Birding Blog also has information and links.

Born Again Bird Watcher has a post about an interactive on-line game called Mission: Migration. He says the following

The game is easy to learn how to play but challenging to win. In the process, the player learns a tremendous amount about just what birds endure each Spring and Autumn during their migratory journeys. Teachers from elementary school through university level could (and should) incorporate this game into their relevant lessons for all students would certainly find the experience both interesting as well as entertaining - the two key elements for the long-term retention of information. Adults should play it as well for the very same reason

I played the game, it's fun, and it is educational.

One of the things I decided when I started this blog was that I would not address politics. There are a gazillion blogs that do that, and do it far better than I could ever hope to. I debated with myself whether to add this link, and decided that since it involves legislation that affects birding, its not really wandering too far over into the political world. Wildbird on the Fly says the following:

Two bills being considered by Congress -- H.R. 2757 and S. 1641, both named the Wetlands Loan Act -- could secure a loan of $400 million to buy wetlands and grasslands for the National Wildlife Refuge System during the next 10 years.

If you consider the conservation of wetlands and grasslands important, consider contacting your senators and representatives and sharing your views.

Speak up. Help the birds.

The weather report looks good for tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I will be out playing tomorrow morning.