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James Audubon's Bald Eagle print:
New York Historical Society is running an exhibit of James Audubon's original watercolors that were the templates for the lithographs prints that are in his Birds of North America. I went on a guided tour of the exhibit, which at the time I thought was fabulously informative. So much so that when my parents came to visit from Boston the next week, I took them there to show them the exhibit. It was then I discovered that almost everything the guide had told on the tour was exactly what was written on the information cards on the walls. What a rip!
Audubon did two versions of the Bald Eagle - he decided he didn't like the first one enough, so he made a new one. The two were hanging side by side, and you could see the difference adn superiority of the second painting. The eagle is in the same pose and the same size in both, but in the orginal, he is killing a Canadian Goose with his talons, but the dead fish he kills in the second painting is far more gory and gross. Which is why he chose it.
I learned that there is only one eagle that makes the piercing call that is used as stock "eagle" sounds in television and movies. I wish I could remember which eagle is was.....
I went with Joshua David Stein on Audubon sponsored trip to Sandy Hook, NJ to watch for shore birds and harbor seals. I was pretty excited to see what kind of crowd was going, and though I was definitely right in suspecting some real weirdos, I didn't realize how OLD the average age would be. Old people love bird watching. The guide, Joe, was a real character, a rather blustering middle aged guy whose didactic assault of information was pretty agressive.
As one can imagine, Josh proved to be the least popular member of the excursion. He kept asking obnoxiously mocking questions and loudly yelling wrong answers when the guide asked questions. Despite his unpopularity with the seniors, I am very pleased at how enthusiastic Josh is to undertake the various natural history adventures I have invited him to. He is becoming a real ally in these investigations.
This was my first time birding with a real guide, and I was totally impressed by how quickly he could identify a bird, even in flight or in a far distance. One of the most impressive identifications was of the Fish Crow.
Fish Crows:
The Fish Crow is slightly smaller than the American Crow, and it is very difficult to tell them apart from appearance alone. However, the Fish Crow has a slightly different call. Whereas the American Crow calls "ka-KAW" with the "KAW" going up, the Fish Crow's calls is more like "awh AWH". Fish Crows are generally only found near the coastline of New England to Texas.
Our guide explained that technically, the Fish Crow has 11 wingbeats per minute, while the American Crow has 10. Joe said he knew a guy who claimed to be able to differentiate the species by wingbeat counting, though Joe scoffed that this was practically impossible and didn't believe the guy.
The Cornell Ornithology website has a page about Fish and American Crow differenatiation that is helpful:
Fish Crows
The trip was a success, and a total of 25 birds were sighted. I was particularly excited to see some of the sea ducks that were just passing through for a few weeks each years, such as the long-tailed ducks and surf scoters.
Long tailed duck:
Surf Scoter:
I have several favorite birds. My most favorite is the black-crowned night heron.
This little fella lives in most part of the U.S. except the Rocky Mountains. He lives near ponds and lakes, and eats all sort of bugs and minnows. He's got a snazzy black cap and a red eye. What a handsome guy!
The black crown-ed night heron was probably the first bird that I was able it identify that I had never seen or heard of before. I saw one flying overhead, and grabbed my bird guide. It looked to me like some sort of black and white heron, but I wasn't sure if such a thing existed. Sure enough, it does. I felt so happy to have identified my first bird all by myself. I happened to be on the phone with Micky Hervitz, and I started excitedly talking about how I saw a night heron. Incidentally, I had completely lost my voice the night before from a lot of trying to talk over loud music, and he couldn't understand a word I said.
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