Saved at last?

The most interesting yet intriguing part about watching birds must surely be the regular encounters with the unexpected or to be more precise: the pleasure the gods of fate seem to draw from rendering us birders to ridicule as soon as we dare to interpret what we see in nature.

Like my blog's title. There really were many reasons to worry about the falcon's behaviour after the female had left him alone for too long. You see, as a reaction to my writing on the local email-forum about having seen him on another building but the Bell Tower, someone else came forward with the scandalizing news that he was even seen on top of a power station chimney recently! A chimney? How low can one male falcon sink when let off the leash?

And while I was standing at a bus station opposite the Bell Tower on my way to get some groceries and wondering how to re-name my blog (School of Dentistry Building Birding was bound to scare readers away, I mean, who enjoys reading anything related to a dentist?), out of a clear blue sky came ... well, you guessed it already and if you didn' t there's no need to admit it because I am going to tell you now anyway: the FEMALE!
Yes, January 2nd saw The Return of the Wife, after more than two weeks of absence.
What a relief!

Man, two days earlier and I would have felt no need to get nervous about giving my blog a silly name, but nevertheless she was just in time it seemed to get things right again.
He was all excited, too and they were playing around in the air, calling and chasing each other. What a hypocrite! I wonder if she'll ever learn about his loitering around town while she was away?
I thought the pack of displaced Bell Tower City Pigeons might tell her to get their revenge, but then the falcons just disappeared!
Yes, they are both gone for two days now, must be the longest time ever I haven't seen the male at the tower. Surely the moment I click the publish button of this post and walk up to the window, I'll see them both perched on top of Bell Tower, but for now they are gone.


Yesterday I walked along the Huron again, from Fuller Park all the way to South Pond and back. Amongst the more usual species I encountered were also a few unexpected observations, e.g. of a Hairy Woodpecker, quite a few Red-tailed Hawks and also a beautiful adult Bald Eagle that was circling above the river right next to down town Ann Arbor. The latter was far more impressive than these lousy pics of a White-tailed Sea Eagle from Germany but yet again: that's all I have at the moment.



I really enjoy raptors and it seems they like me, too because they always show up at the right places to deliver cheer and joy to the lonesome and bored office worker that I am.

You want proof?
Here's a list of the raptor species I saw around down town Ann Arbor, mostly from my desk at the apartment:

Turkey Vulture
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Bald Eagle
Peregrine Falcon

Don't worry, I am sceptical and try to maintain a scientific approach when birding and after "The Return of the Wife" not even I would put any trust in my own interpretations. But here's the list of raptors I saw from my office window in Germany:

Common Kestrel
Merlin
Eurasian Hobby
Peregrine Falcon
Gyr Falcon (escape white morph)
Osprey
European Honey Buzzard
Red Kite
Black Kite
White-tailed Sea Eagle
Western Marsh Harrier
Eurasian Sparrowhawk
Northern Goshawk
Common Buzzard
Rough-legged Buzzard

So never mind a single Peregrine in Ann Arbor going wild. I do like raptors and I'll stick with Bell Tower Birding! The name got saved at last.

A New Year and a Demand for a Make-Over?

The first species of the year 2007 was the same as the last of 2006 and is a rather pitiful example of how globalized urbanization is affecting our hobby: a pack of City Pigeons!

Sad, really sad. I had so much hoped it would be a formation of Snow Geese flying low over downtown Ann Arbor. My wife must have heard me sobbing in front of the window, so luckily before I started to get too frustrated she took me along to the Arb and Gallup Park on the Huron River for some duck feeding and squirrel watching.

It wasn't bad, really, with a bunch of
Northern Cardinals, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, American Robins and Goldfinches at the Arb and Common and Red-breasted Mergansers as well as a Pied-billed Grebe at Gallup Park.

Much more importantly however, this first bird-related outing in 2007 was all about putting things in perspective and collecting some motivation and inspiration regarding the birds waiting to be watched in 2007.
As a New Year's Resolution, I decided upon the following goals for 2007:
a) Find Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow at the Arb
b) Have difficulties picking out the one Snow Goose amongst the huge flock of Ross's Geese at Avis Farm ponds
c) Observe and document at least two "Firsts" for North America
d) Be the first birder ever to record all species on the official ABA list within half a year in the US
e) Find and photograph a Black-capped Chickadee, ... back in Germany, that is.

Should be a piece of cake, I know, but fun anyway.
Here's probably the most amazing species I have decided as a New Year's Resolution to find in 2007 at Gallup Park. Well, they might look quite similar but it ain't a Western Grebe and it ain't a Clark's, nope, it is an original Eurasian Great Crested Grebe.




But the most shocking find of the New Year was connected to the title of my blog:

The Bell Tower!

Well, you might not remember it, but when I started this blog way back in ... gosh, let me think, must have been 2006 ... it was named after the Burton Bell Tower because I somehow was mistaken in thinking this was a catchy name and because the tower had a pair of Peregrines that I had planned to write about often.
The pair was hanging 'round the tower most days and were seen regularly sitting on the top of the tower looking down upon Ann Arbor. The female was more of a rover apparently and by early December, she was often gone for two or three days before returning to her mate on the tower. He was always more of a faithful soul and stuck around the tower basically each day.
Then on December 14th the female was gone never to be seen again since.
And you see, with the male alone now and free to do whatever it pleases, things seem to slowly be getting out of control (I surely can't relate to that, no way)!
As I was told by local birders, the falcons have never been seen perched on ANY OTHER building in Ann Arbor but the Bell Tower. And today, returning from the Arb, suddenly there it was, the male, perched on top of the School of Dentistry building!
Can you believe it? The moment his wife is gone he goes all wild and stuff and behaves like ... I don't know, just offensive towards all the birders monitoring the pair!

And my blog?

Darn, if the name "Bell Tower Birding" was already not even half as good as Charlie's Birdblog or 10,000 Birds, who would ever visit a stupid blog called

School of Dentistry Building Birding ?

I sure won't...

Farewell 2006, WELCOME 2007

So this was 2006, as always an action packed and frankly also pretty amazing birding year!

As a last post of this year I had planned a nice and short summary of my birding adventures and encounters but soon noticed the year was just far to great to be summarized "in short". So as soon as business is back to usual and the Holidays/New Year busy times are over, there will be a short series - possibly a monthly round-up - of the then "last year".

Until then I wish each and every one a Happy New Year and - as we say in German -

A GOOD SLIDE INTO 2007!

Oh yeah, and just in case anyone has tried a guess with the Golden Plovers, the flock on the image is roughly 3200 birds strong.

Here's a new link to Andreas Kanon's site, for those in need of good photography. And just in case you don't feel the need now, look at this and then seek shelter on Andreas' site!

The little known Passion of Edgar Allan Poe

I got "The Complete Tales & Poems" by Edgar Allan Poe for Christmas.
Apart from providing a few links which I have already done I am sure there is no further need to introduce the inclined reader of this blog to Poe's person or his work. He surely has to be recognized as the single most influential literary genius ever, along maybe with Goethe who rocks, too.
What only few realize however is that Poe was also the first real birder ever (whereas Goethe wasted his Natural History talents mostly on Botany, the fool) and if you carefully read Poe's Tales and especially his early poetry this is actually quite apparent.
Here is a brilliant example of Poe's little known affiliation to birdwatching:

A (Birder's Winter) Dream

In winter's long and dark night
I have dreamed of birds departed;
But a waking dream of song and flight
Hath left me broken hearted
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On birds around him, with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream of birds in spring
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night
So trembled from afar -
What could there be more purely bright
Than watching a Prothonotary Warbler


Even though it seems he got carried away writing the last verse, he's got a point there and I think this is a great piece of the kind of birding poetry that we need more of.

I am not a poet, I am not a good photographer and the following image is not of a Prothonotary Warbler, but it's a Yellow Bird and it's from spring and I don't have anything better at the moment, so it'll have to do!



There's even more to the picture: someone recently observed a Yellow Warbler close to Detroit, a Ray of Hope returned from the South?
I'll be off to the Arb and Furstenberg Park as soon as possible, so stay tuned for more...

Fighting PCS

Most of us suffer from some form of PCS, though often we are not aware of it. Many of my readers will indeed not even know that there is such a thing as PCS, let alone know what it means. Well, it is an abbreviation for "Post-Christmas-Syndrome" and as light-hearted as one might notice that this is a neat abbreviation and smile, it is in itself a rather serious thing.
Tom McKinney for example recently fell victim to PCS and we can only hope he will recover to his former self soon.

PCS describes a terrible derangement of mind that often befalls birders directly after Christmas:
they are stuffed full of excellent food, have their beloved family around them (or are glad they left to have the house to themselves again), got used to the comfort of the sofa and the warmth of the stove, sit wrapped in blankets in their armchair reading their Christmas gifts (bird books, what else?!) and well, leaving the house to get some real birding done is as far away as can be.

You see, that's all fine for December 24th and 25th, but then the hideous PCS strikes. You don't notice it at first, but comments from the always oh so active birder in the direction of "Weather's crap, I'm staying indoors", "No bird movement at the moment anyway" or even the infamous "Been there, seen that" are the first alarming signs of PCS. Soon the birder will get moody and miserable and bellow and swear as soon as they detect movement around them. Why? Simple: The victim is torn between their newly acquainted habit of staying indoors with sofa and fridge within easy reach and their desire to get on with the adventurous yet often hardy way of an outdoors life. That conflict just turns their whole perspective on life itself very dark indeed and as a consequence their attitude towards those around them just plain nasty. And that's not nice, nope Sir, not at all.

Today, on the 26th, my wife and I decided to start with our work again. Now, that moment after the Holidays is always met with great joy and enthusiasm by both of us as you will surely understand.
And while I was sitting at my apartment surrounded by the smiling faces of our home-made cookies, and noticing the clouds and the rain, and with the warmth of the heater upon my back, I decided to NOT go to the Arb today. Maybe tomorrow, unless there's cookies left. If that's the case, maybe I'll see what I can find at the Arb on Friday,...
HA, there it was, a darn and cowardly attack of PCS. Luckily I noticed it at this very early stage and just about in time managed to pack my bag and drag myself out of the apartment and through the cold and lonely streets of Ann Arbor all the way to the Arb.
And a good thing I did, because it was fun, and there's nothing better to get rid of a PCS attack than a Northern Cardinal at close range. Bird numbers were somewhat down, jogger numbers as well but dog walkers were plenty and many suddenly had two or even three dogs around them. Maybe I do get more readers than I am aware of and are good for me?

Here are a few of the highlights, nothing unexpected but enough fun to get over my rush of PCS anyway:
Red-bellied Woodpecker,
Tufted Titmouse,
Golden-crowned Kinglet,
very close looks at a Carolina Wren,
nice flocks of Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows,
a large flock (140 birds) of American Robins,
immensely beautiful Northern Cardinals, and a
Hermit Thrush again!

Nothing short of classy. Glad I made it, and if I can beat my PCS, so can you.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

White? I don't think so!

Here's a flock of Taiga Bean Geese in the snow on the Baltic coast.


They sure don't approve of a white Christmas. And it sure looks as if Christmas isn't going to be even half as white this year in Ann Arbor. In fact, the way it's looking now it will be much more like the following picture here.

Well, maybe such a flock of White-fronted Geese and Tundra Bean Geese would be a very nice avian Christmas Present for us birders around here.
I'll be on the look-out over the Holidays.