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No salesman will call, at least not from us. Maybe from someone else.
Does this make it eOfficial?
For those interested in the preservation of one of our favorite critters, the (USFW) threatened Western Snowy Plover, please gaze on the latest version of Google maps/earth of the Santa Monica State Beach north:
Warning Calls Decoded: Squirrels Take Up Bird Alarms To Foil The Enemy
Alert blog reader Nadia Albright sent us this link which she found on the NPR iPhone App, but any computer can tune into it.
In the NPR Weekly series:
Close Listening: Decoding Nature Through Sound, Morning Edition
the latest installment (9/3/15) is:
Warning Calls Decoded: Squirrels Take Up Bird Alarms To Foil The Enemy by Christopher Joyce
The series is profiling scientists who explore the natural world by listening to it. This particular installment features an interview with, among others, the late Ted Parker,
Ted Parker in Guyana
(Haroldo Castro, Conservation International – Cornell Labs Website)
who probably had the most extraordinary ear ever in the world of birding, able to identify (I have read) over 10,000 different songs and calls by ear. I didn’t know this, but he was also instrumental in developing the technique of recording singing birds, playing their song back at them, causing the singer to come and find their new competitor, and using this reaction to map the outline of the singer’s territory. They discuss “mobbing” calls birds use and have discovered that squirrels understand and use them as well.
Close listening NPR series Click
Squirrels take up Bird Alarms… Click
Thanks for the heads-up, Nadia.
[Chuck Almdale]
World Shorebirds Day Reminder: 4 – 6 September, 2015
Red Knot – World Shorebirds Day Bird of the Year
Photographer: Mario Suárez Porras, Spain
Here’s a message from one of our farther-flung SMBAS Blog readers,
Gyorgy Szimuly, from his home in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom.
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Gyorgy Szimuly
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
https://worldshorebirdsday.wordpress.com
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More details about the Global Shorebird Counting Program and how to register a location can be found here:
The map with more than 340 already registered locations can be viewed here:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=zqWymiAbzzII.kbC9emdidNTw
As of Sunday noon, Aug. 30, the map showed ONE registered site in Los Angeles County: Malibu Lagoon, claimed by Laurel Jones, SMBAS’s Education Chairwoman. Way to go, Laurel! That leaves open potentially dozens of sites such as: Point Dume, Topanga Beach, Santa Monica, Venice, Ballona, Dockweiler Beach, Redondo Beach, Long Beach and various points along the Los Angeles River. I registered for Lower Los Angeles River last year, but am unable to do so this year. I discovered then that if you decide at the last minute to count a location, you can register for it after-the-fact. [Chuck Almdale]
Focus on Five Cuban Species
Dr. Larry Wan invites members of Santa Monica Bay Audubon to a presentation on Sunday September 27th, 3 to6 PM at the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy’s King Gilette Ranch. Admission is free.
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, has been considered extinct in the U.S. since 1938. The IBW also lived in Cuba but there it was last seen as recently as 2009, making its continued existence in Cuba more probable. In May 2012, the Western Alliance for Nature sponsored an initial exploration of an area in eastern Cuba where it was last seen. Come hear about the quite promising results and why we have been inspired to launch a series of full scale scientific expeditions. Our expeditions will also seek to gather data on the following globally threatened birds, all of which are known to occur in the localities that we plan to survey: the Critically Endangered Cuban Kite, the Endangered Giant Kingbird and the Blue-headed Quail-Dove and the Near Threatened Bee Hummingbird.
Please come for a Sunday in the park and be part of history. Enjoy complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres. RSVP to receive free parking (the park usually charges $7) to: wanlarry719@gmail.com by September 19th or call 310.999.5477.
Illustrated presentations by Dr. Larry Wan, Western Alliance for Nature on the search for the Ivory-bill, and Dr. Tom Smith on the Cuban Kite.
Bird Quiz Again, Again – Identified
Brown-headed Cowbird, immature male molting into 1st basic plumage.
Got a photo you think will make a good quiz?
Send the photo (the clearer, the better), along with location, date, whom to credit and…uh, this is important…what it is. Email it to: webinfo493 [AT] verizon [DOT] net
[Chuck Almdale]
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Quiz Bird – Randy Ehler 8/6/15
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 