Nikon's Birding Adventures TV!

Nikon Announces Title Sponsorship of Birding Adventures Television

Melville, NY - Nikon® is proud to announce it's title sponsorship of Birding Adventures TV. Now Nikon's Birding Adventures TV, the series follows host James Currie as he explores the wilderness and culture of top worldwide destinations. The highlight of the show is the quest for the, "golden bird," a unique and exciting species from each destination. Nikon's Birding Adventures TV begins in January with a lineup of exciting shows, featuring Snail Kites in Palm Beach county Florida, Green Jays, Aplomado Falcons and Red-crowned Parrots in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Guianan Toucanet from the jungles of Suriname.

"Nikon is thrilled to support the show and James' passion for the outdoors," said Jon Allen, General Manager of Nikon Sport Optics. "Nikon builds its optics for the toughest adventures and is elated to have James put it's binoculars and fieldscopes to the test week in and out."

Nikon's Birding Adventures TV is available on many networks, including Fox Sports Network™ and Untamed Sports TV™, to more than 100 million households. For local listings visit http://www.birdingadventures.com/batv_schedule.php

About Nikon

Nikon Inc. is the U.S. distributor of Nikon sports and recreational optics, world-renowned Nikon 35mm cameras, digital cameras, speedlights and accesories, Nikkor lenses and electronic imaging products. For more information about Nikon's full line of binoculars, spotting scopes, fieldscopes and laser rangefinders, visit www.nikonbirding.com 

About Nikon's Birding Adventures TV

Nikon's Birding Adventures TV on adventure bird-watching and explores exotic birding destinations; the most unusual, rare and sought-after bird species; amazing cultures and wildlife. The show portrays a unique blend of information and adventure, making bird-watching refreshing, contemporary, interesting and exciting. The program has a strong conservation emphasis and highlights the urgency of preserving the planet's incredible birdlife. For more information about Nikon's Birding Adventures TV, visit www.birdingadventures.com

A life-long birder and native of South Africa, your host James Currie has many years experience in the birding and wildlife tourism arenas. James has led professional wildlife and birding tours for over 12 years and his passion for birding and remote cultures has taken him to far corners of the earth from the Amazon and Australia to Africa and Madagascar. He has contributed to several publications, including the acclaimed Southern African Bird Finder. He is also an expert in the field of sustainable development and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in African Languages and a Masters degree in Sustainable Environmental Management.

From 2004-2007 James worked as the Managing Director of Africa Foundation, a non-profit organization that directs its efforts towards the upliftment of communities surrounding wildlife areas in Africa. James has recently immigrated to the United States with his family and currently resides in West Palm Beach, Florida.

North Park CBC!

Happy Holidays everyone! I am very thankful that I was able to participate in three Christmas Bird Counts this year along with some friends. I spent time at the Sterling, Longmont and North Park CBCs. All in Colorado. North Park (halfway between Fort Collins and Steamboat Springs) I sensed would be my favorite just because it was a time of year when I have never visited that area. There were bundles of snow of course. The week before Colorado had a cold spell of some negative temperatures at night, but when one of the park rangers had told me that they had two straight nights of -28F I was shocked. Nevertheless, we set off to find as many birds as we could at 8:30 am. We met up at the Moose Visitor Center which marks the entrance to the Colorado State Forest. The areas around the VC were in our territory, but most had to be reached via foot with a ton of snow on the ground. The group I was with wasn't the show-shoe type so we trolled the roads in search of any birds we could find. It became apparent that we weren't going to find much and it appeared that the cold spell may have scared off a lot of birds.

We noted many Black-billed Magpies and some American Tree-Sparrows but all-in-all it was a dreadful day for our feathered friends. Our group broke off at lunch and I continued to bird the area. I had plans to snow-shoe later, but my first objective was to go chase 60 Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches that another group had spotted at some local feeders. 

The house was in a private ranch and as I drove into the complex the house was difficult to spot being that it was off the beaten path, but lo-and-behold there was the house in question. I jumped out of the car only to nearly slip on the ice in the driveway. You know one of those falls where you do everything in the world except fall and your arms go flailing all over the place. Well, the feeders were on the opposite side of the house from me so I approached quietly pishing some Mountain Chickadees into my face.......

So what would you expect to happen once these guys start buzzing around? You bet, more curious visitors!

Well, we had nuthatches, chickadees, and some Stellar's Jays but no Rosy-Finches. I walked a bit further around the beautiful log cabin and peeked enough of the rest of the yard to see three feeders with Rosy-Finches all over them and a bunch on the ground. My next step however was onto some ice and it snap, crackled, and popped like a Rice Krispie and wouldn't you know it......they all took off. Bummer! It wasn't too long until they started to filter back in and everyone that returned were Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches.

In fact, if I sat long enough I ended up with these little guys darn near on my shoulder. What a relief! A new life bird for me. All three Rosy-Finches are possible on any given day including the Hepburn's race of the Gray-crowned, but what we are seeing in these photos are the interior (most likely) race that breeds in California and the Pacific Northwest. I conferred with fellow prostaffer, Bill Schmoker and he indicated that there could be some hybridizing and sometimes it can be hard to differentiate the races. You can see how some of the gray on the hoods comes down well below the eye. What do you think? Tough call from my chair! The Hepburn's race breeds in Alaska and is marked by a much larger gray patch on the face. The extent of the gray swoops well below the cheek patch or auriculars. Plus the Hepburn's race is a larger and darker subspecies as well.

I certainly got a wonderful fill of this new lifer for me, but decided that my day needed more. I wanted to snow-shoe in hopes of spotting a Boreal Owl in the spruce-fir habitat. I knew I really didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell, but I gave it a shot. The temperature was around 20F, but the snow was up to my knee even with snow-shoes. I shoed it about 1.5 miles in the area of Ranger Lakes and only added Golden-crowned Kinglet to the CBC list. No Boreals!!!! I will have to do some camping and lock down a home range when they are calling at night.

Overall, everything was great. I shot these birds with a Nikon D200 and a 300mm F4 Nikkor lens. Other equipment used was a Nikon 10x42 EDG binocular, 65mm EDG Fieldscope, and and iPod! Good Birding to you all! Happy Holidays.

White-winged Crossbills!

Recently, a birder in Fort Collins, Colorado found a pair of White-winged Crossbills in the local Grandview Cemetary. Not an ordinary find by any stretch, thus these birds have been attracting people from all over the state. There are lots of listers in this state so you could imagine what a stir this would cause. We know White-winged Crossbills to breed in the high boreal forests of Canada and Alaska with occasional winter irruptions that bring visitors down south. This usually is a function of how good the cone crop is. White-wingers occupy a variety of spruce trees and eat the tiny seeds inside.

In the past my colleagues and I have found breeding White-winged Crossbills in the Black Hills, South Dakota so I already assume they are sporadic breeders, but not this far south. A good friend, Chuck Hagner (editor of Birder's World magazine), had told me that he has witnessed White-winged Crossbills in Duluth, Minnesota breeding in -12 F temperatures. That took me by surprise. I guess this makes them a very opportunistic species. We are all hoping these birds in Fort Collins breed, but only time will tell.

Bill Schmoker and I went to the cemetary early Saturday morning where Bill was able to get the the upper reaches of these mature spruce trees and get these shots. Boy were they high up! There were a good group of about 8-9 people there and I believe everyone had seen the birds. The male was singing his head off, so that is a very good sign. The song is easy to distinguish as it is a long series of bubbly tinkling that can go on for long periods at times.

Male White-winged Crossbills have a very pink appearance when comparing them to the Red Crossbills. Reds will get almost vermilion red sometimes in high breeding, but never with the pink tones of the White-wingers. Both Red and White-winged Crossbills have darker auricular patches, but it is much more pronounced in the Red Crossbill. Also, both have darker wings, but the White-winged variety have a greater contrast not to mention the large white wing bars on each wing near the shoulder patch and tertials in most cases. The female has a white throat, is principally yellow and has streaking all over including the head. These two crossbills are nearly the same size, but Red Crossbills have a much bigger bill in most cases make one think that the Reds are larger. 

These birds were hanging out with about twenty Red Crossbills. I certainly hope these birds breed and will be sure to most again in the future should they hang around for a while. I look forward to getting my Nikon D200 back from the shop so I can go out there get photograph this pair myself.

I would like to thank Bill Schmoker for providing the photos for this post. Good Birding to all of you! thanks for reading!

Ross's vs. Snow Geese!

Ross's and Snow Geese can sometimes cause problems for those whom aren't used to seeing these two beauties! Both of these geese are high arctic breeders whom population's are growing. They migrate throughout the United States and winter in the southern regions of the country. Usually, I find flocks of Snow Geese with spots of Ross's, so I have come to assume that Ross's Geese are more spread out when migrating and that the Snow Geese population is far greater in numbers overall.

Nikon Birding ProStaffer, Bill Schmoker, was kind enough to loan these vivid photographs of both species and some "Blue" Snow Geese as well. Both of these species come in the all white and blue varieties. This is why it is of utter importance to focus on size and shape to ID these birds. When they are together it is fairly self-explanatory. Notice above the four birds photographed? Can you see the size and shape differences here? There are two of each in this photo! Ross's Goose is a smaller version of the Snow goose sporting a much smaller bill with little or no "Grin," on the bill. That "Grin," is the amount of black on the bill that makes them have a smiling look to them. Snow Geese have a much larger bill with a noticeable dark patch whereas the Ross's may not have any at all or just a tiny bit. If you can see black on the bill from any distance, particularly from afar, then you are looking at a Snow Goose.

Also, notice the Snow Goose with the blue body. This is a different phase that will accompany flocks in far fewer numbers. Ross's Goose also has a blue phase but the size and shape always remains the same!

Here is another example of Snow Geese and the difference with the blue phase. Notice the black smiling patch? With the dark flight feathers (primaries and secondaries) we can also see the extent of the blue on the upper and lower breast region.

I like this photo because we have an adult Snow Goose in the foreground with two Ross's Geese off to the right and back. Look at the size of the birds. Snow with the superior size and longer neck! Let's focus on one of the attributes that I feel is most important. That is the head shape. Ross's Goose has a very round head to accompany the smaller bill. Notice the steeper slope on the forehead as well of the Ross's Goose. I urge you to also focus on the shallow slanted forehead of the Snow Goose. These things can be seen in flight while these birds travel in large flocks of multiple hundreds/thousands sometimes. It always helps to have a nice field-of-view in a binocular to spot these arctic winterers. I use my Nikon EDG 7x42 binocular with superior field-of-view. These bins allow for 417 feet at 1000 yards which is top of the class for this specification. 

This photo (Ross's Goose) above shows us the size differential with the Canada Geese in the background. Snow Geese would be in between these two species seen here.

This final shot of a Ross's Goose shows the perfect round head shape, lack of black smile on bill, shorter neck, and small bill!

Please ask questions should you have them. I would like to thank Bill Schmoker once again for his splendid photos of these birds. He uses a Nikon D2X and a 200-400 VR Nikkor lens for his photography. Good birding!

Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival wrap-up!

The Rio Grande Valley Bird Fesitval was pulled off in great success. Many good birds flooded festival checklists and this year's registration doubled last years. There are already discussions about different field trips next year to adapt to the changing tides of bird distribution in the valley. This is a great thing for future participants! All of the field trips were a blast and it seems like the participants were very enthusiastic about being in the field. This is a treat for any field guide for sure!

Many of the field trips in the valley experienced the photo I am presenting above. Sandhill Cranes winter down in the valley and we were treated with flying groups throughout the course of the week. More often enough you can hear their wattling/gargled calls from above before seeing them, but once you lay your eyes on them there is no mistake. Their elongated necks, labored wingbeats, and long wings give them away. These birds were photographed south of Brownsville, Texas at the Southmost Nature Conservancy Preserve!

Near the coast we encountered Long-billed Curlews in the fields feeding with Gull-billed Terns flying past. These two took off in just enough time for me to grab a few amateur shots. Notice the long, pointed wings, brownish/golden plumage and long, decurved bills. I love it when their feathers above the crop flush out and give them a extra large throat look like it is here.

This particular bird is a common winter resident found in open fields, but can be a tough bugger to locate. Sprague's Pipits breed in the far northern Midwest United States up in the areas of Montana and North Dakota. They have a very distinctive flight that stair-steps it's way into the high sky. They literally fly straight up in a stepping fashion and usually dive down to the ground. American Pipits are also found in the area, but they have many rufous overtones whereas the Sprague's is a very light colored bird. Sprague's has a distinctive breast band of streaks and the rest of the bird ventrally, is white. Also notice the almost entirely light-colored lower mandible. I was able to shoot this photo from a far distance as our field trip of 40 people approached in a line while on the entrance road to Anzalduas County Park.

One of my favorite valley specialties includes this White-tailed Hawk soaring above on the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Very distinctive with it's characteristics, this bird roams the open coastal prairies in the USA and inhabits grasslands farther inland as you go into Mexico. Adults have a completely white tail except for the broad subterminal band. Notice the dark flight feathers and remiges contrasting with all white ventral features. Adults also have very thin maroon lines across the chest with a grayish hood!

White-tailed Hawks also have the profile of a Swainson's Hawk which is long-winged. Notice above how the wings taper to a point! When they are resting their wings will be held just past the tail like a Swainson's Hawk! We had about 5-6 White-tailed Hawks in the same group just before ending our field trip. I normally reserve my energy for leading only on such trips, but I couldn't resist shots like these ones above. There were some juveniles as well, but they are not nearly as gorgeous as the older birds. The juvys mainly are dark and will have some white in the chest with a lot of white in the remiges of the wings!

I had such a blast at this year's festival and it seems that new management really has boosted this show into the troposphere, thanks to Marci Fuller and company! Congrats to every one whom worked hard to pull it off and if you haven't been to the show, get there next year! Its only going to get better! Thanks for reading y'all and good birding!

Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival! Day 2!

Okay folks! Today was our official first day of field trips and it was a blast. I co-led the "Canoe the Rio Grande," with Kim Eckert and a fantastic group of fourteen talkative participants. We loaded up six canoes at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge and set our ships sail! Here we are in the photo above putting in at around 8:30 am with metal paddles in hand. We heard the river was really low with the current drought, so we thought we would be knee-deep in mud, but the rarely-used ramp was just enough for us and we managed to stay dry.

Here we are on my canoe with USA on the left and Mexico on the right as we float downstream for about four miles of tropical paradise. Green, Ringed, and Belted Kingfishers were all in attendance with the ladder being seen the least. We stumbled onto a group of Black-Crowned Night-Herons with one juvenile Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron identified by our fearless leader, Kim Eckert. Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers dotted the banks peeping and flying all over the place keeping us busy when we had a lull in the birding. We had a group of Turkey Vultures cruise by and I made sure to check for their near twin, the Zone-tailed Hawk. They are incredibly similar, but Zonies have a striped, long tail and dark wings. They fly the same way with that slight dihedral, though! Lots of stuff on the river and we managed to get a workout in as well with the paddling.

For an optics rep the work is never finished with the field trip, of course. Back at the show the exhibitor area was buzzing with birders shopping for optics, jewelry, and some whom were contemplating their next major international destination with the plethora of tour companies represented. The photo above shows Jonathon Wood and The Raptor Project entertaining a good crowd of people. His project re-invigorates injured birds to educate all ages about the raptors of the world. Nikon proudly sponsors The Raptor Project and we couldn't be more proud of Jonathon's accomplishments! I wanted to make sure to give you all a recap of the day quickly. I am off to dinner and the some sleep for another 4:45 wake-up call! Thanks for reading and hopefully next time I will have some pictures of birds for you all!

Good Birding!

Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival! Day 1!

My first day at the famous Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival treated me with a private tour through Southmost Preserve on the Mexico border outside of Brownsville, TX. Marci Fuller (Festival Chair) was able to pull some strings and convince Max Pons (above) whom is the Preserve Manager, to help me scout the area. This preserve is not open to the public but the festival has two field trips running to the area and I will be co-leading one on Saturday. These festivals wear me out so the text will be little but I will put up a bunch of photos of Rio Grande Valley birds! Thanks Max for all of your help!

I mainly took a 1/2 mile walk around the main resaca, but some of south Texas' most prized possetions were in play! Take a look at these beauts!

These aren't my best shots in the world, but Least Grebe is always on the "Most Wanted List," here in the valley! Notice the small, slightly upturned bill and yellow eye! These guys are so small they make Pied-billed Grebes look bulky.

Least Grebes always seem to have their wings set upwards while swimming as well. They tend to look hump-backed  much like Eared Grebes do!

Vermillion Flycatchers frequent the drier, open fields in the valley and this young male gave us a nice sitting. We know this is a younger male since the mask and the back feathers are scaly and dull. Adult males (even in non-breeding plumage) exhibit sharply defined black masks and plain black back pattern!

Check out the profile from afar. What shape is the head? How long is the tail? These are two of dozens of questions that enter my mind before I pull the trigger on the ID! This bird has a block head like most flycatchers and a short tail! Also, the habitat and range should always be evaluated as well. I never get to see these suckers so I actually spent some good time watching this young man sally out and catch insects. What a creature!

When walking through the valley you can always hear the cry of the Great Kiskadee which goes "WHAAA," with a nasel overtone! Or perhaps the full song KIS-KAAA-DEEEE saying its own name to make the ID a bit easier! I love getting this angle to check out the crown patch. Often enough these birds are above your head, so these looks are not so common!

Lastly, this one is not a breeder, but is a well know winter resident. With the long tail, long and sharp bill, and slight streaking on the breast this Orange-crowned Warbler was one of many in the same flock bopping around over my head on the trail. I was happy to note my Nikon EDG binoculars had the close focus to accompany me. This bird had to be around seven feet from me. They move so fast I was surprised I could get a shot, but lone behold I was the lucky duck!

All of this action while taking a sweaty walk around the pond and trying my hardest not to step in dreaded Fire Ant holes. If you don't know those guys..........CONGRATS! You win for sure! Wheeew, they will crawl up your leg and bite the heck out of you making you want to strip down to your undies just to get them off! The funny thing is even if you are the shyest person the the group you still will shed some layers because these non-native, invasive ants HURT!

Okay, so there is a quick day one. I promise to try and get some more photos up after my fourteen hour festival days! Good birding to all!