Category Archives: Birdwatching

Penguins Are Flightless Birds

Posted on December 10, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Honestly, I did not think about posting about Penguins during this site repair.

But a friend of mine mentioned he was tired of looking at the Hacking announcement and asked when I was planning to write about birds again.  After much ado about nonsense and excuses, I agreed to talk about the Penguins I saw at the Tennessee Aquarium recently.   It did not feel right because they were in captivity but I figured, when am I ever going to see them in their natural habitat?   Well, if I ever went to New Zealand it is probably possible. At first I thought I had to go all the way to the South Pole!   A visit to Antarctica is enticing but not very realistic for me at this time.

So, I do love penguins. Yes, they are flightless birds. Yes, they are great divers and swimmers and they live in the southern hemisphere.  Yes,  you can get really close to them at the Tennessee Aquarium with just the double thick panes of glass between you. It honestly feels like you are in the water with them. The museum staff even set up a small fountain in the visitor area so you could feel how cold the water is on the other side of the glass.  I was impressed with the exhibit. I spent about 2 hours in just that room. I studied every posting.  Learned about every species. Posed by the model penguins in their external habitat display.

So, here are a few facts about penguins and their lives.  Besides, everyone is all caught up with the movies these days depicting the degradation of their habitat… see Happy Feet and Happy Feet Two.  For a magnificent docudrama about the Emperor Penguin’s life you MUST see The March of the Penguins. The Emperor Penguin is the largest species. There are about 20 distinct families of penguins and they vary widely in size. Some are endemic to specific coastal areas. Wikipedia has a great narrative that encompasses life habits, breeding, popular culture images, historic discoveries and penguin fossils.

*note* my attempt to upload some neat penguin photos failed, so come back to see them.

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Birdwatching, Odd Birds

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HACK REPAIR

Posted on September 2, 2011 by | Leave a comment

This was my favorite site.
It was hacked.
Now it needs some major work.
So it may look a bit ORDINARY right now…
But Come Back after a while to see some
Really cool changes and updates.

Thanks for your continued attention and support.
The birding ecourse is still accepting newcomers though it is stalled
after a few lessons also as a result of time constraints.

Hacking for birds can be a very good thing.
Hacking for websites is catastrophic.

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Posted in Birdwatching

Birding Event of Decade

Posted on January 15, 2011 by | 2 Comments

Without a Doubt Yesterday was MY Birding Event of this Decade!

Sunny, yet cold for Northern Alabama. I headed out on a snow packed trail to the Observation Blind at Wheeler Wildlife National Refuge, along the Tennessee River.

We had more than 8 inches of snow earlier this week, another unusual event, and lots of ice. So I wanted to see how the migrating waterfowl were getting along on their icy ponds. Short on time, I only had my compact Bushnell binoculars with me.

Amazing beyond belief.

I heard them in flight and saw so many of them in the distance that they looked like a swarm of mayflies in the spring mating season!

You HAD to hear them. And as Aldo Leopold said, once you hear them, you hear no other birds in the same way. These are the lead birds in the orchestra.

SANDHILL CRANES  by the thousands!

Refuge manager said there were more than 8000 migrating through right now and they stopped here at Wheeler. There are 12 Whooping Cranes reported to be in the migrating flock.  So with THAT many birds, not to mention some 45000 ducks! And geese I did not get a count of, it was a raucous, hilarious, joyous search for “where’s Waldo?”

The excitement was contagious and the sun was low in the sky so the photographers were almost as numerous! Well, not that many!

More on Sand Hill Cranes to follow and I will explain why I am still excited about seeing and hearing and experiencing so many of them all at once.

Don’t Have a Clue? Wonder what they are? Watch for the next post with more details. Meanwhile, browse this collection of information. I love them. It was a glorious day.

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Posted in Birdwatching

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