It's Where Everyone Has Been, It's Where Everybody Goes

Golden-crowned Sparrow at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

BLOGKRIEG! Well I finally did it....with The Spirit Gull post, Ive managed to post more blogs this month than ever before in the long, turbulent, fecund and fertile history of Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds. I would first like to thank my friend and colleague Felonious Jive for his invaluable assistance (he has saved my life time after time, not to mention pointing many a fine lady in my direction). But after Felonious has taken his bow, there is, of course, YOU.

Thanks, various friends (whom I love deeply, passionately, and at just the right pace) and strangers (whom I don't, but maybe I could) for reading BB&B, linking to it, or even openly enjoying it. If you're not already, I encourage you to become one of my loyal followers at the window conveniently located on the right side of your screen, and to spread the BB&B gospel as far and wide as you possibly can.

Another shot of the partial-albino Heermann's Gull (Heermann's Willet-Gull) at Ocean Beach. Looks like some white crept into the tail as well.

It's been a hectic week here in San Francisco. Living The Perpetual Weekend is not for the faint of heart, and Ive been lucky enough to lure some people from out of town into the Thanksfornothing-flavored Thanksgiving festivities. The real Thanksfornothing this year was held in Lee Vining on the east side of the Sierras, and it is rumored that no one survived.

With some free time to myself, today I shall set out in search of the Yellow-billed Loon that has been lurking just off the Berkeley Marina, and in the not-too-distant future I must set forth on a quest northward that may yield Brown Shrike, among other things....

At first I thought this shot was a throwaway, but I think I actually like it. First-year Thayer's Gull at San Francisco's Lake Merced.

Again, thanks for all your help during BLOGKRIEGY2K10. It's been grand. With so much output, I'm doing my best to not sink to the level of "This morning I went to Marsh X. I saw this is and this. After the wind picked up I went to Beach Y. I saw that and that. Then I got hungry and went home where I had delicious Food Z yadda yadda yadda". It's not difficult to come up with better content though, since Ive only gone birding for about 4 days in the last month. Ha!

In order to avoid another heartbreaking rare bird fail today, I will tell you right now that I won't see the Yellow-billed Loon. I've seen one before (off Point Mugu, CA, in the late nineties), missed two others in northern California (including the absurdly tame Bodega Bay individual), and I plan on missing this one. I mean, I'm going to look for it, but for sure it won't be there and therefore I won't be posting any pictures of this marvelous bird. Not gonna happen. To think otherwise would only result in a withering self-hatred. This is the best coping mechanism in the world for situations such as these, and I highly recommend it.

Who's a sleepy Pied-billed Grebe? You are! @Golden Gate Park.

A Dubious Nature

This is the Spirit Gull that resides in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, a weird albino that possesses some strange magic that is yet to be fully understood. Since it has absolutely no plumage characteristics, its pretty hard to say what species it actually is, although you can narrow things down a bit using other features. I prefer to not worry about the semantics involved and enjoy it for being the successful freak that it is....most albino birds don't last very long (predators can spot them easily) and this bird is at least 5 years old (it was an adult when it first showed up last winter....large gulls take 4 years to mature). So good on ya Spirit Gull, and do what you think is best.

Passion Unabated Will Be Readily Conflated

Black-chinned and Broad-billed (the strange glowing thing in the background) Hummingbirds. Florida Canyon, AZ.

My indigent lackies who slave away in the BB&B basement have finally come up with a topic that we have not touched on yet: feeding wildlife. Ok. Lets take a look at it.

People feed wildlife all the time. There are probably millions of bird feeders all around the world. At city parks and waterfronts everywhere people feed ducks, geese, swans, gulls, squirrels....even monkeys in some places. This has been going on for a long, long time, and it's not going to stop anytime soon. Then of course there are the myriad rodents, possums, skunks, raccoons, bears, etc. that also fill up on what the other animals don't eat, usually at night.

The standard opinion amongst American wildlife biologists is that no wildlife should be fed by people at any time except for in the most extreme circumstances, such as when they are trying to stabilize or boost the population of an endangered species (a la giving carcasses to California Condors). Why the extreme view? Potentially, wildlife can become habituated to humans (which potentially puts them more at risk to injury or death by various dumbasses, dogs off leash, etc) and view them as a source of food (human food lacks a lot of the nutrition wild animals need). When they congregate in large masses (i.e. at bird feeders), this puts them at risk for spreading of disease, which indeed does happen at unkempt feeding stations. And if wildlife change their habits to exploit certain food sources (i.e. stay in an exposed, snowy, freezing place instead of going someplace warm), then that can just lead to them dying. Perhaps the most obvious example of this conflict is the classic Yogi Bear situation, in which potentially large and dangerous animals learn to associate people with food. A friend of mine actually lost a loved one due to something like this happening....so this is no joke. So not only is this not good for people, it's bad for the animals, because the ones that get a little too comforatable with people either end up shot or getting relocated, which is not necessarily that much better.

There are many more reasons to not feed animals, but I don't want to bore you, especially if ya'll know this already. As an exception, I have met relatively few people who are against the standard backyard birdfeeder scenario, as there is scant evidence to support the ideas that feeders will stop birds from migrating or switching to healthier food sources when it comes time to lay eggs and raise some chickies. Feeding birds is also extremely Quaint, and its really hard to publically come out against something that gives both you, your grandmother and your children a source of joy.

California (?) Ground-Squirrels. No food was dispensed in the making of these images. Morro Bay, CA.

Got it? Good. FEEDING WILDLIFE BAD. Now, as you may have anticipated, I have a slightly different take on all of this. For one, there are certainly situations in which feeding wildlife (and just littering, although its sad that I need to state that) can be extremely detrimental. I need not mention Yogi and friends. But take Humboldt County for instance. On Clam Beach, there is a population of Snowy Plovers that nest there. This being a Threatened species in the state of California, is a big deal. So when you feed gulls, ravens (intentionally), foxes, skunks, raccoons and rats (unintentionally), you are encouraging more and more of these predators to come around, get fat, breed more, and eat more Snowy Plover eggs/chickies. This is bad. In the old redwood forests, feeding squirrels, ravens and jays can lead to the same thing happening to the embattled Marbled Murrelets that nest there. So boosting populations of these versatile and capable predators is most certainly a big problem that could have heavy implications.

On the other hand, I think it can be pretty harmless in some cases. Take these squirrels above. They live in the rip-rap at the edge of Morro Bay, and are completely habituated to people and take handouts on the regular. There are two reasons I think this is not a big deal. A) Countless people stop by and hang out with these things. A few birders thinking they are doing some great deed by resisting the urge to toss one a crumb will not change the situation at all. B) They're squirrels living in a tiny margin of rocks between the road and the ocean. It's a pretty crappy place to live. I highly doubt that these fat things, buoyed by some crazy mix of nutrition (a discarded 4LOKO, perhaps?), are prone to leap down in a bloodthirsty rage upon unsuspecting turnstones poking around in the barnacles. Its just not a big deal. Now I don't think feeding them is a good idea, but get real. It's not the end of the world. 

As an aside, I am 100% against the feeding of stray cats. Feeding them does not stop them from killing birds, and god knows how many other reptiles, amphibians and undeserving native rodents. Cats (feral and otherwise) kill MILLIONS of birds in the United States each year. Most biologists are on the same team on this one. There is a legendary story about someone I know beating a cat to death with a stick in front of a stunned, blue-haired Audubon group. Now I don't condone this in any way, and I don't know if I'm even capable of doing something like that (I actually like cats)....but it makes a good story.

An Arizona Woodpecker harmlessly hones in on some suet. Paradise, AZ.

I guess all I'm saying is, there are few issues that are completely black and white, especially within the scientific community. I remember when I was a little kid, some Western Scrub-Jays would raise a couple chicks every year and would always spend a couple months with their family hanging out with my family. I loved that shit. I'm almost getting misty-eyed just thinking about it. Anyways, after a while the jays knew the deal and we would know the deal, and pretty soon the birds would be hopping into our kitchen to see if we had any snacks (FYI raw, unsalted nuts are not bad jay food). This had quite the impact on an impressionable young Steve. Now, getting on 20 years later, we still have jays that come sit in the same tree and yell at us to come outside. One is obliging enough to sit on your hand to grab a peanut. Call me sentimental, but I'd like to think they are the some of the same birds that we hosted so many years ago. Again, I don't recommend inviting wild animals into your kitchen, but perhaps this experience played a roll in me becoming the Uberbirder I am today.

If your child shows more interest in feeding your local park ducks than trying to kill them (which seems to be most kids who are capable of walking), then I say let  'em toss a cracker in to the lot. Live a litttle.

Have a weird Thanksgiving or Thanksfornothing (depending on where you are). I know I will.

Big Time In The Jungle

Thick-billed Murre. Handsome.

I think I will post really big, vertical pictures today. Why not? All of them are from Buldir Island.

I somehow ended up winning a Nikon D90 SLR on Ebay yesterday, even though I only put down one bid. So that's pretty rad, considering I'm using a decrepit old D70 now...the D90 should, I think, make a noticeable difference in my photographic efforts, considering it has twice as many megapixels and a higher rate of fire (more frames per second), not to mention video.....so you, BB&B addict, have that to look forward to. 

Thick-billed Murres, Black and Red-legged Kittiwakes, not mingling.

It's all part of the master plan. BB&B will be taking the world by storm, and I will somehow be highly paid to do so. These are not mere delusions of grandeur people. This is as real as it gets. Already a steady and mysterious flow of cash is flooding my bank accounts....pretty soon it will be up to me, with my vast resources and cunning wit, to save the imperiled Spoonbill Sandpiper. After that, I will have to bring the Ivory-billed Woodpecker back. Hopefully that won't entail any Jurassic Park-style cloning, but its all within our grasp here at BB&B.

Red-legged Kittiwake with field-readable band.

But while I sit and wait for my financial reservoirs to fill and my power to accumulate, it is up to me and me alone to continue to make birdwatchers understandable to everyone, including themselves. Think of it as me holding up a really detailed picture for all you nonbirders, and for you birders I will be holding up a mirror. As far as I know, no one in the states has anything like the Human Birdwatcher Project that BB&B sponsors, and many of the masses are still floundering in their ignorance of these people. I think the situation is a little better in Britain, where people have a better sense of humor and twitchers are better understood....but I feel alone in the wilderness here. If birders themselves don't even discuss birding and half the luminaries in this field possess the social and communication skills of a dead skunk, then the situation can look very bleak indeed. But don't worry friends, the great ornithologist Felonious Jive and I will do our best to shed some light on these bizarre and awkward issues, and are determined to lead you to The Promised Land. Stay warm, and have a positive Tuesday.

Much like the Flightless Cormorant of the Galapagos, Flightless Puffins have tiny wings. It is thought that they have lost the ability to fly in order to become cuter than penguins. Anyways...yeah this is a Horned Puffin.

Sit Back And Let Me Tell You About The Sadness

The elusive and usually plundering Poseidon's Savvy Sea-Raven.

Tlanchinol. Northeast of Mexico City. That will be my next birding trip come January. This trip will be my first exposure to tropical birding, and it should be downright facemelting. There's definitely a number of birds that will be down there that I haven't even heard of before (how embarrassing...what's a "foliage-gleaner"?). Motmots, caciques, euphonias......tasty exotic goodness. Better start studying. Just thinking about seeing these birds makes me a little weak at the knees, I'm not gonna lie to you.

Having that trip in my pocket is pretty nice. I'm a big proponent of Mexico in general (look at what they just did for climate change), even without the birding, so I reckon I'll be happy. Having gone north, east and west in the last couple of years, its about time I go South.

At first glance, this looks like a typical Heermann's Gull....

...but with wings unfurled, it looks more like a Willet. This partial albino was at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. And yes, that is a PT Cruiser in the background.

Of course, January feels a long way off, and the growing malaise that I feel at knowing a Brown Shrike has taken up residence 5 hours north of here (although my sources say it was not seen this morning) leaves me a bit unsettled. Between the Bean Goose, the Black-tailed Gull, and the Brown Shrike.....that's the bird to see. So what if Bean Goose is a first state record? Team Brown Shrike > Team Bean Goose.

Did I mention that "Bean Goose" was the term we used to describe a fart while I was on Buldir? Maybe that has something to do with my bias.

Mew Mew Mew Mew Mew Gull. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA.

Walking through San Francisco's Golden Gate Park yesterday, I couldn't help but be amazed/confused by the numbers and varieties of confusing hybrid gulls (mostly probably "Olympic" Gulls, which is some mix of Glaucous-winged and Western Gull genes). Even The Great Ornithologist, Felonious Jive was unable to confidently determine the genetic makeup of every bird. Also unusual were the number of old Russian people there.

I think that about does it today. I know you don't come here to read about me (BORING), but rather my bizarre, offensive, and occasionally original opinions about things, so I'll give you a dose of that next time. Tootles.

PS - Nonbirders, there is no such thing as a Poseidon's Savvy Sea-Raven. I wish there was though.

A most Elegant Tern. Morro Bay, CA.

Out Here Standing On A Rooftop Screaming

Different shades of rock. Sandpipers. Rock Sandpipers. Adak Island, Alaska.

Whoa! Its almost Thanksgiving! How did that happen? I'm contemplating entering a deep and profound state of panic. What else is there to do? All my friends have higher year lists than me....but that's ok, because we all know who is having more fun. That, and I am positive that they didn't run into dozens of Bramblings this summer.

Yes, birders like to lord their bird sightings over each other. It's all part of the game. They sound like a bunch of assholes, I know, but they're mostly just juvenile. Actually, one of the biggest assholes I can think of is a certain birder from San Diego. In fact, this person's reputation is so well-known that he would even recognize himself if he was to read this. So I don't feel bad then, because I'm just keeping it real.

Rock Ptarmigan! Adak Island, Alaska.

Which is too bad, because San Diego is a quality county for birding in California, and I have great sympathy for all the poor schmucks who run into this tool and don't know what they have on their hands. One of the last things birders expect when they run into other enthusiasts in the field is for them to be complete dicks. Awkward, badly dressed, and prone to horribly mispronouncing things, yes, but not dicks.

Honestly, what does that accomplish? As cheesy as it sounds, birders have a community, and it doesnt really benefit anyone to give your peers shit for trivial and outright stupid reasons. You know what I'm saying? If you want to vent and act like a child and pretend people want to pay attention to you, start a blog for God's sake.

Yes I know this is a gruesome picture, but these are Bramblings, so cut me some slack. Attu Island, Alaska.

Yes, that last bit was intentionally ironic, thanks. I hope you are all preparing yourselves for the doom and horror that is sure to arrive at your doorstep on Thursday. I also suggest everyone evacuating the entire Mono Basin, because something bad will happen on Thanksgiving. I guarantee it. Things may never be the same again.

Steaming west through the Aleutians on the Tiglax.

I Am A Babbling Brook, You Are A Pile Of Bricks

Ah, the stately Bald Eagle. Adak Island, AK.

Despite my attempts to curb my birding addiction, I can't seem to get a handle on it. My tiny backyard here in San Francisco, next to Stern Grove in the Sunset, always has birds. Pygmy Nuthatches peep away from the big Douglas Fir next door. Pine Siskens fly overhead. Friendly Townsend's Warblers forage nonchalantly, sometimes just a few feet away. A Stellar's Jay lands on the deck and looks through the glass at me. I look back, wave. It sits a moment, then hops away to go do whatever it is Stellar's Jays spend most of their time doing.

There are a lot of pros and cons to living here. The cons are many. No one lives anywhere near here except for The Ian Fays (but thats also a big plus), its really far from where my heart lies (Mission district), and there's not much in the way of decent coffee shops/bars/anyplace fun within walking distance. The pluses, aside from my absurdly cheap rent which I won't bother explaining, are atheTrader Joe's close by, a clean neighborhood, an abundance of parking, and birds....which are not easy things to find in San Francisco. So it actually kind of evens out, although though it can get lonely (ronery) down here. Oh yeah, an old lady died in my bedroom before I moved in, which is ostensibly a bummer...but I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet.

And that's where I stand at the moment.

An American Kestrel, apparently emitting some sort of light. Digiscoped at Heron Head Park, San Francisco, CA.

Oh yeah, thanks to everyone who has been throwing up links to my humble blog (blahg?) on the nerdosphere lately, particularly at the ABA and 10,000 Birds, who are more or less regarded as the Imperial Super Star Destroyers/Death Stars of bird blogs. They have the capacity to prop up or bring down any given bird blog with a few mere clicks. If you are wondering, 10KBs makes BB&B looks like a TIE Fighter in comparison....so thanks again guys!

Yes, I like Star Wars. Obviously.

The world-renowned Mississippi Kite (pronounced "kaht" throughout much of their breeding range). Arcadia Lake, Oklahoma City, OK.

It looks like raptors are the theme of the day here at the bustling BB&B command center. I guess its appropriate for the season here in California, where we have the highest numbers and most diversity of hawks, eagles, falcons, etc. in fall and winter. I guess that's what the Red-shouldered Hawk outside has been hinting at all morning.

Lastly, for both my birding and nonbirding friends, I highly recommend you go snoop around The Magnificent Frigatebird's tee-shirt collection to see a great display of blatant birder dorkdom. It's a testament to the kind of birding culture that Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson feasted on (hopefully!) in their portrayal of birders in The Big Year, which is out next year. At any rate, I just kind of stumbled on this randomly and was struck blind by the size and scope of all the extremely nerdy threads. I would consider wearing a couple of those maybe (the Audubon prints are classy...I actually have old John James' Magnificent Frigatebird tattooed on my calf, so why not a shirt?)......but that's as far as I'll go. I will go on record as saying that I highly recommend people buy the Birding Slut shirt, mostly to prove that such a shirt actually exists. Even better, it would make a great gift to your bird-loving significant other!  Hehehehehe......oh man, I could really go on about that.....but I won't.

A Burrowing Owl furtively greets the day from it's burrow next to a concrete-lined drainage ditch at the Salton Sea. Burrowing owls have a number of diurnal predators and usually stick close to their burrow during the day, going out at night to frolic and forage.

Waiting For A Spark To Reignite

Whiskered Auklets are nocturnal, so they rarely offered themselves up for photo ops. Bloody great bird though. Not many places in the world where you can see these duders.

Hey! I didn't get much sleep last night (thanks to Broke-Ass Stuart), so I'm just going to toss you some auklet photos from Buldir. I do miss them. Ciao!

Crested Auklet. The size of the crest has a lot to do with age and social ranking, and how sexy males are perceived by females. They are also sensitive, and are used navigate around in the dark crevices they roost/nest in so they don't hit their heads. This bird, which I'm guessing is a male judging by bill size, appears to be pretty well-endowed.

Least Auklets. Birds like threesomes too.

Not a great shot, but I think it gets the idea across that there are a lot of auklets at Buldir. These are mostly Crested and Least. Feel free to enlarge the photo and start counting.

All The Brutal Tactics That You Always Employ

The Aleutian subspecies of Pacific Wren (juvenile) and Song Sparrow (adult), whom I asked to pose together for your convenience. You're welcome. Photographed on Buldir Island, Alaska.

There's been a lot of bird-blog-buzz lately about the Ivory Gull down in Arroyo Grande, and inevitably the larger discussion has been brought up about how there have been so many records (comparatively) of them in the lower 48 in the last decade, which may be indicative of some foul shit going down in their normal haunts.

Rather than play Devil's Advocate and discuss how dubious it is to draw any conclusions from this tiny sample size (14 south of Canada...much more interesting would be looking at numbers recorded in someplace like Newfoundland, where they are more prone to occur), lets accept the theory that they are having a more difficult time finding food and are putting more time and energy going to faroff places in search of delicious dead things. This, of course, is almost completely attributable to global warming, as Ivory Gulls are one of the few lucky birds who have never been threatened by direct habitat loss or overhunting.

The question is......what are you going to do about it?

The view from the Fish And Wildlife Service bunkhouse in Homer, AK. The fog is concealing Kachemak Bay, which is probably brimming with Stellar's and King Eiders at the moment.

The excuses people often use in situations like this (where it is obviously impossible for a single person to solve everything) is that there is nothing they can do, that the odds are too stacked against us, that people don't care, or that only elected officials will be able to do anything to make any difference. This, my friends, is lazy, self-serving, defeatist bullshit. There are few things that irk me more than my otherwise bright (and vivid!) friends being resigned to not even attempting to make a dent in the world they live in.

Need an example? Ok, let's take the United States. First of all, we are not a colony of England. That was pretty big. We are also not a Confederacy. Also huge. Slavery has been abolished. We have fundamental legal rights. We defeated the Japanese, then the Nazis in WWII. Women can vote. Women can have abortions. We live in an unsegregated society, with equal rights. Its OK to be gay. You can adhere to any religion you want, or none at all. We have a black president who actually took office in a legitimate fashion. Do you get where I'm going with this?

This one-footed Northern Fulmar frequently flew by my murre/kittiwake plots on Buldir Island. If you are ever down in the dumps and want to cash in your chips....remember.....somewhere out there, against all odds, is a one-footed fulmar kicking a whole lot of ass.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm no patriot and am all-too-aware of all the other things we have to be ashamed of as Americans (really, painfully so), but these are not events and freedoms to be taken for granted, especially when you look at how the majority of the people in the world are living. Lots of sacrifice here. Lost lives. You get the picture.

My point? Do something, regardless of the size and scope. It's not all hopeless. Jesus...start a garden, get some solar panels, ride a bike, buy local, watch where your food comes from, consume less, get involved with one of the many great organizations that are trying to make the world a better place for Ivory Gulls and your kids. If everyone walked around with the same hopeless, cynical attitude, saying remarkably dumb shit like "Only the politicians can do anything about that", that would be a world none of us would want to live in. Nazi Germany anyone? Yeah.

Stay posi ya'll!

It's Just Another Sunny Day Here In The Land Of Babylon

One of the Bar-tailed Godwits that visited Buldir Island. This species is known for its super-godwit ability of shrinking their guts to save weight on their long migrations.

Fresh. That's the word to use here. You want to forage on the freshness of my blog. I get that, I totally get it. Well, I'll keep it garden fresh for you today. These are all species that have never been featured on BB&B. So feast your eyes, minds and hearts.

Of course, you can only go so far with that word. It's not exactly...fresh...anymore. If any adjective is repeated many times on the Beastie Boys' Licensed To Ill, you really shouldn't be throwing it around unless you know exactly what youre doing. For reals.

Oh yeah, if you pick up the new National Geographic ("Mysteries of Great Migrations"/November 2010), look at the page of bird and bat kills on pages 44-45. When I was working for Bat Conservation International in Pennsylvania, NattyGeo sent out a photographer to check out what we were doing with our wind turbine study....I guess this shot is the one print picture we'll get out of it. Oh well, still pretty cool (except all the death, of course).

At any rate, here's some birds from far-flung areas of the States, and a tarantula for some reason. Enjoy!

So, look. I'm not a true larophile. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. This second-year (cycle? whatever) "Herring" Gull spent the summer with us on Buldir Island. To my knowledge, there are no records of the American smithsonianus Herring Gull in the western Aleutians, (vegae occurs on the regular) so I suspect this may be a "Vega" Gull. Do ya'll have any thoughts on this? I've got a lot more pictures of this bird.

A female Purple Martin with a meal. It's a bug's life. Photographed at Lake Hefner,Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Whimbrel. If it was a female, it would be called a Whimbrella. Not really though. Digiscoped at Heron Head Park, San Francisco, CA.

Kitty.

Clean Sheets Mean A Lot To A Guy Who Sleeps On The Floor

"I realized...that I was as passionate about science as I was about music, and thus began my internal tug-of-war between the two that exists to this day. Along with these conflicting passions, the element of doubt definitely contributed to my music/science vacillations: I never really took seriously the notion of having a career in music, hence it was easy to “shelve” it at any given point. Likewise, I seriously doubted whether I would ever get a job in science (luckily, I did). I feel very fortunate that things worked out as well as they did, given my noncommittal attitude to both things!!"                                  - Milo Aukerman (The Descendents)                                                                                   

I can relate to this...I actually think about this a lot. The biggest downfall of my lifestyle as a nomadic vagrant is that it makes it impossible to be in a band. Railer. Oddly, any hard-working band is always on tour and traveling the country....I guess I'm just drawn to the lifestyle.

In the spirit of doing Two Things At Once ( thats a Descendents pun, thank you), I took a much-needed trip to Vegas this weekend. To put it mildly, it was rad. To borrow a line from Hunter S. Thompson,  I got so high and wild that I felt like a two-ton manta ray jumping all the way across the Bay of Bengal. Great to have the right friends at your side, deep in the heart of a depraved place like that.

None of these people know each other. Yes that is a man passed out on a casino floor. Ouch though.

So its Monday. As you feel the throbbing pain of a full week of work setting in, I've got a few links you should see to help ease the pain.

We'll start you off with this disgustingly adorable baby river dolphin. I advise you drink in the picture of it with the penguin.  Totes ridic.

Less adorable and more disgusting is the following video. Its safe for work, but I would kinda feel weird hanging out in a cubicle watching this. Anyways, its all very scientifically interesting. I've told many people over the years that bottlenose dolphins will have extracurricular sex and enthusiastically try to mate with other species (presumably because mating is really, really fun), and all the proof you need is right here. I like how the girl shooting the video is just cracking up the whole time.

Lastly, peep this article on Nepalese paragliding vultures.. Be sure to scroll all the pictures. Weird, but I think they've got a good thing going out there. Most westerners don't really think of vultures being endangered species (they are so abundant even nonbirders can recognize them), but they are in bad shape out that way.

Right. Its good to be back. More tomorrow.

I'm The Worst Storyteller Around

Tufted Puffin, Common Murre (standing behind puffin's tail) and Thick-billed Murres lounge and loaf on a cliff at Buldir Island, AK.

Phew. There's been a lot of blogging lately. A lot of blogging. It ain't easy coming up with all of this gold for you people. We here at BB&B have a firm belief in the DIY ethic, which keeps us ad-free and unbeholden to any organizations or sponsors (i.e. optics companies), and god knows there insn't much in it for us. We're just doing it for The Cause. Unlike the recent rash of multi-author collaboration on many of the more popular bird blogs, BB&B and is run by myself, with only a small team of subservient lackies and interns at my disposal. Of course, The Great Ornithologist Felonious Jive puts in a word or two now and then, which is indispensable.

Tufted Puffins spend considerable time sitting around and looking at stuff. I can appreciate that.

How do you think the blogkrieg is going? I've been trying my best to maximize my output for ya'll, which can be hard.  Unlike other birdaholics, I do think other things are important (i.e. girls, music, a social life), so I don't always have time to......whats that you say?  What is this thing called "a social life"? It may be too late for you my awkward friend. Your human relationships may be few, but at least your lists are high. 

There must have been a tea party.

Juvenile Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch.

On that bizarre note, I'm not entirely sure that 4 days in Vegas is good for someone suffering from an acute case of Post Ivory Gull Fail Traumatic Stress Syndrome, but it is what it is.  Have a positive weekend!

I'm not really confident about what is going on here, but it was not unusual to see Black-legged Kittiwakes and Thick-billed Murres having aerial skirmishes. The kittiwakes always won.

Now The Holy Ghost Is In Question

American Avocets wheel and turn over Morro Bay.

The sorrow continues.

Now there is Black-tailed Gull in LA, and a frakkin' Bean Goose at the Salton Sea. Now would be a good time to be a Southern Californian. Those are not words to be uttered very often.....but its ok for me to say that, being from Ventura and all.

Despite the fact that I almost blew one up with a grape once, Anna's Hummingbirds are a beloved year-round resident along much of the West Coast.

All hummingbirds have long tongues. This trait evolved for foraging in human ears and licking brain for nutrients. But you know that. 

This hurts. Salt in the wound....the wound torn into my heart by an adult Ivory Gull that could be anywhere by now. I think that Black-tailed Gull may only be the third ever in California, and the Bean Goose is the first.  These are actually both birds I was hoping to see on Buldir Island last summer, but it didnt come to fruition (was forced to look at Emperor Goose and Slaty-backed Gulls instead, ha).

Now if I was really, really, really bored, I would probably drive down to look for both of those things. But you know what? I have a hard time justifying driving all the way down there. Thats a lot of miles, a lot of time, a lot of gas, a lot of money, and then there is the great Ivory Gull failure that I have still not fully come to terms with....I just can't feel really good about the whole scenario. Besides, Bean Geese are really, really common in a lot of other places....right? But most importantly, I'm due in Las Vegas on Thursday night for a long weekend, which may potentially cripple me forever. Geese and gulls, thankfully, will be the last thing on my mind for a few days.

This Osprey was one of the few interesting birds present at the much-hated Ivory Gull seal carcass in Arroyo Grande. Obviously, Osprey eat fish. I strongly suggest you learn all about that here. The Great Ornithologist Felonious Jive highly recommends this source. 

Ah, the Red-tailed Hawk. Native seemingly everywhere and loved by all. 

This isn't a bird, apparently. I'm mystified. Any takers? Photographed in Ventura, CA in early October.