A few weeks ago, Charlie Moores, a fellow blogger who runs Charlie's Bird Blog emailed me letting me know he was going to be in the Los Angeles area. I'd never met Charlie before, but had exchanged several emails with him. We even tried meeting up in February, but plans ended up falling through. That was probably for the better though, since his schedule ended up bringing him back through Southern California at a much more opportune time—during migration. Since Charlie has been birding much longer than I have, and has seen much of California's avifauna, I knew I needed to pull in a heavy hitter to help maximize his birding experience. Many thanks go to fellow Los Angeles Auduoner and mentor, Irwin, who agreed to fill that role. Irwin started birding when he was a kid, and has since racked up over 60 years of experience. He's a crack birder by both eye and ear, so I knew we wouldn't have very many birds go unidentified.

Charlie drove up to the San Fernando Valley from Redondo Beach and met me at my place a little after 7am. We then met up with Irwin and headed up to Walker Ranch at Placerita Canyon. As we made our way down the entry road, we approached the bunches of currants on the right-hand side of the road. It's usually a popular spot for hummingbirds, and today was no exception. Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna), Costa's Hummingbird (Calypte costae), and Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) were all buzzing about loading up on their morning calories. A Wrentit (Chamaea fasciata) fluttered about, in the scraggy tree roots and brush trying to go unidentified, but it didn't take long and Irwin had a bead on it.

The creek had a fair amount of water flowing through from the recent days' storms, but was easily crossable without soaking the feet. The sun had woken most of the avian sleepers up and they were all about. We took our time scouring the area and ended up with some really nice finds. Among those seen were Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura), Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura), Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus), Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii), Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus), Pacific-slope Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis), Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans), Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri), Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica), American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos), Common Raven (Corvus corax), Oak Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus), Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus), Bewick's Wren (Thryomanes bewickii), House Wren (Troglodytes aedon), Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula), Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), Phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens), Orange-crowned Warbler (Vermivora celata), Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata), Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus), California Towhee (Pipilo crissalis), Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia), White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys), Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), Lesser Goldfinch (Carduelis psaltria), and House Sparrow (Passer domesticus).

We took off from there around 10 and headed down Little Tujunga Road to see if we could catch sight of the California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) in the area, but no luck. The drive alone was well worth it though, winding through the mountainous terrain getting good looks at the valley below. What a fantastic sight. We made our way to the 210 and headed east toward Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park, to find our target bird for the day.

While in search of Restroom 7, the landmark of our target bird, we caught some good birds, including a Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana), a bathing Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina), and a Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus). As we found our spot and searched the Prickly Pear Cactus, Charlie spotted and yelled out our target bird...the California Gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica). He'd never seen one before in real life, but you'd never had guessed it. He knew exactly what he was looking at. It was fairly elusive, but allowed us to get some great shots before taking off. It was a great lifer for me too! What a wonderful bird. We continued up the trail, where we stopped to scan the lake below. Among the bird life were Great Egret (Ardea alba), Snowy Egret (Egretta thula), Bonaparte's Gull (Larus philadelphia), and Caspian Tern (Sterna caspia). As we headed down the hill, a group of three Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) circled in a mating display, talons outstretched. As we headed toward the car, another Western Bluebird flew by, this time posing for a few shots. We also heard some metallic knocking, and quickly found the source— a Nuttall's Woodpecker clinging to the side of a metal light pole attempting to retrieve whatever bugs it thought it was going to find. Or maybe it was just sending a long-distance morse code. I hope it was the latter.

Other birds seen at Bonelli Park were Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola), Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis), Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii), Rock Pigeon (Columba livia), Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura), Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Black Phoebe, American Crow, Common Raven, Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor), Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis), Oak Titmouse, Bushtit, Bewick's Wren, House Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, American Robin (Turdus migratorius), Wrentit, European Starling, Yellow-rumped Warbler, California Towhee, Dark-eyed Junco, Bullock's Oriole (Icterus bullockii), House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus), and Lesser Goldfinch.

Irwin had to cut out, so when we got back to Studio City, Charlie and I hopped in my car and drove down Coldwater Canyon to Mulholland, then into Franklin Canyon Reservoir, where the Andy Griffith Show, Bonanza, and a number of other shows and movies were shot. We first stopped by the small pond, where there were the regular Wood Duck (Aix sponsa), Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris), and Mallard. A Spotted Towhee even stopped by to say hello. Every now and then, a male Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) shows up to crash the party, but not this time. As we scouted the lake, things were pretty quiet, except for the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) that stood out tall on a high tree overlooking everything that was (or in this case, wasn't) going on.

After the short stop, we headed over to a local favorite, the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve. When you first approach, there are usually lots of people enjoying the sun: playing cricket or soccer, flying kites, or picnicing. If you're new to birding it, you may wonder "what kind of birds could possibly be here?", but once you hit the gate, the sounds of music and playing kids are replaced by the sounds of bird flutter and song. We hadn't yet seen an Allen's Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin) for the day, but the last time I was there a male was quite cooperative in allowing me to take some photos. It wasn't long until we spotted him in the same area as before. The island housed a couple of occupied Double-crested Cormorant condos, totalling about a dozen nests in all. A Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) sat still long enough to get a good portrait taken. A flight of Northern Rough-winged Swallows swooped about. They're hard to photograph in the air, but about half of them took time out to rest and preen, which allowed us to get some good shots.

We finally wrapped things up around 5pm. It had been a great day of birding with a total of four stops and a bunch of wonderful sightings. Despite working really long flights, getting very little sleep, and carrying a bodily clock that often varies greatly from the locations he's in, it's amazing how Charlie can maintain his energy to visit the places he does and the alertness to identify the wide variety of birds he sees. It's all for the birds! Make sure to check out his report for this trip as well as all the others he's gone on. I look forward to birding with Charlie again.

• Bird lovers from throughout Alabama will be flocking to Decatur next month for the North Alabama Birding Festival. The festival, set for May 5-7, will celebrate the diversity of birds along the North Alabama Birding Trail and Wheeler Wildlife Refuge.
• Residents of the Riviera Bay community in Florida are fighting to protect nesting birds from encroaching development. After successfully blocking a Wal-Mart, members of the Riviera Bay Civic Association still face mounting pressure with more proposed development and its impact on habitat and birdlife.
• Conservation efforts to save the Eastern Bristlebird is slow-going after a 1991 bushfire wiped out the largest known colony in Queensland, Australia. Seventy-six birds perished from the fire that is believed to have been caused from a discarded cigarette. Due to the slow breeding rate of these birds, usually raising one chick per year, it could take up to 80 years to replace the colony.
• The dramatic population decline of the Red Knot have scientists fearing that the shorebird might go extinct within five years. Over fishing of horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay has been found to be the main contributing factor to the 90 percent decline since the early 1990's.
• The Chicago-based Bird Conservation Network is fighting to stop an 86,000 square foot hotel from threatening bird habitat at the Indiana Dunes State Park. The hotel, a 200 space parking lot and lights would negatively impact the largest system of freshwater dunes in the world.
• An estimated 60,000 people from all over the world flock along the Platte River in Nebraska each spring to watch Sandhill Cranes as they make their annual three to four week layover in the area.

Last month, I attended the 2006 Audubon California Assembly in Pacific Grove, California. When I saw that the schedule of field trips included a pelagic out of Monterey Bay led by the veteran sea birder Todd McGrath, I knew I needed to go. I'd seen and heard about the pelagic trips out of Southern California (mostly led by Todd along with Kimball Garrett, Jon Feenstra, and/or David Pereksta), but had never actually gone out in the Pacific waters to see the birds I'd heard about. And what a place to break in my birding sea legs; Monterey Bay is world renowned for its pelagic birds and marine mammals. Just offshore lies Monterey Canyon, a deep submarine canyon with depths of 6000 feet and more. Picture the Grand Canyon—only under water. This deep feature creates cold-water upswells that bring up nutrients used by a variety of birds and cetaceans.

While we were waiting to take off, a curious sea lion dropped by, poked his head up, and quickly disappeared under the boat. We departed promptly at 7:30am. On our way out, we saw a pair of Harlequin Ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus) made their way around the other boats in the port, displaying their artistic features. Common Loons (Gavia immer) were also swimming about. Brandt's Cormorants (Phalacrocorax penicillatus) were hanging around the jetty among the sunning pinnipeds.

As we headed out past Cannery Row, we were headed into the wind, and the swells of the Pacific Ocean started growing. Gulls were following us and Pelagic Cormorants flew past. It wasn't long until Todd yelled out one of our target birds: the Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes). It's often hard to get good looks at a lot of pelagic birds with the sways of the boat, but these are quite unmistakable with their long, slim wings. Jon Feenstra was along for this trip, and his expertise helped us to locate and identify the many birds that were starting to come around.

Shortly after, Jon broke into a giant bag of popcorn. It wasn't the kind of popcorn that you'd want to share during a movie, but the trailing gulls didn't seem to mind it. In fact, they were knocking each other around just to get to the pieces in the water. The birds continued to come in for closer looks. Whenever our captain, Tinker, or Todd spotted groups of birds in the air or on the water, we'd head over to see what was going on. The nutritious swells often attract a variety of life.

In addition to all the birds, there were also three species of dolphins as well as Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). When a Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus) was spotted, we were able to pace it for about 20 minutes, watching it as it came up for a new breath every few minutes. What an awesome creature! It's amazing to think that this 40-ton animal and sea birds eat the same thing. Krill, not popcorn.

After seeing so many things, I took a little breather in the cabin to check out some of the birds in the guide. Of course, this would be the point where I miss something. It was. A couple minutes after looking at birds on paper, I heard a commotion outside. "we gotta get it off the boat!" What could it be...a giant squid that had come from the deep down depths to feast on us birders? Someone rushed in and grabbed a towel. As I staggered outside, Jon was holding in the towel a Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) that had landed on the boat (and subsequently regurgitated on someone's shoes). Definitely not something you see every day. It wasn't long before Jon had the bird back in the air.

We pulled back into port around 2:30pm, but not before getting some more good looks at the Brandt's Cormorant sitting on the jetty. This time the lighting was much better, allowing that bright blue skin under their bill they have during mating season to really show up. What a great first pelagic trip! I look forward to the next one. If you're ever in the area, be sure to check out Monterey Seabirds or Shearwater Journeys for a pelagic tour of the amazing waters around Monterey Bay!

Special thanks go to Ron Cyger of Pasadena Audubon for compiling the list of birds seen on the trip:
Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus), Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), Pacific Loon (Gavia pacifica), Common Loon (Gavia immer), Eared Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis), Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes), Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), Pink-footed Shearwater (Puffinus creatopus), Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus), Black-vented Shearwater (Puffinus opisthomelas), Brandt's Cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus), Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), Pelagic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pelagicus), Surfbird (Aphriza virgata), Pomarine Jaeger (Stercorarius pomarinus), Heermann's Gull (Larus heermanni), California Gull (Larus californicus), Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens), Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus), Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), Common Murre (Uria aalge), Pigeon Guillemot (Cepphus columba), Rhinoceros Auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata)

This morning I received an email from Shelley Pierce, a freelance writer in Bozeman, Montana. She wanted to share an article she had written about a very disturbing incident in Florida. Stories like this need to be known.

A peaceful day golfing in Florida brought humans face to face with two Red Shouldered Hawks defending their nesting area. In Orange County Florida, this past week brought human-wildlife conflict to a head that left the two hawks dead and federal wildlife agents in turmoil over how the issue was handled.

After more than a dozen human attacks, the red shouldered hawks were killed by shotgun blasts Wednesday morning at the Villas of Grand Cypress Golf Resort. The resort had contacted the local office of USDA Wildlife Division and asked officials to aid them in removing the birds. The conflict ended with the hawks being shot and the local USDA Wildlife officials being questioned by an angry public and numerous animal rights agencies as to why this decision was made.

Bernice Constantin, State Director for USDA Wildlife Services in Gainesville has been investigating the event and voiced regret at the incident. "Our agency maintains a primary goal in these cases. Protecting and ensuring human safety is our top priority. The hawks were killed due to their violent attacks upon the locals. I was in contact with the agents in our office and allowed the biologists to make a determination based upon our issued permits. The understanding of all that the permits allowed for us to do became the basis for some misunderstanding. We believed that a separate permit was needed for relocating the hawks or for other measures of control. Our error in interpreting the wording on these permits is now a primary focus for this office and I am doing my best to move forward in educating all agents to better understand permit regulations and allowances. However, I stand behind the primary goal of our agents....human safety first."

Red Shouldered Hawks and other wildlife have been suffering loss of habitat due to the massive expansion in this area of Florida where conflicts with humans have been steadily increasing. During the breeding and nesting season, some birds of prey can become very defensive of their nesting grounds and are sometimes driven to attack humans. However, animal protection groups are outraged at the decisions made to shoot the nesting hawks. Hawk Watch International, Audubon and other national agencies are all demanding accountability on the part of Constanin's office. Many have voiced questions regarding why other measures of control for these hawks in Florida was not attempted prior to shooting them. The result of the actions taken by wildlife agents in Florida will have long reaching consequences to a nation wide concern of how best to deal with such circumstances in the future. Human-wildlife conflicts are escalating due to the human occupation of once open, wild lands that allowed for species progression without human interference.

Bernice Constantin also stated, "My office will be contacting our State USDA Representatives to request in-depth training for all officials responsible for managing these conflicts. Hopefully, our future conferences will offer detailed classes exploring the full scope of these permitting rules. Our agents need to completely understand all their options before they confront similar situations involving these conflicts between humans and wildlife. However, I firmly believe in this case, the human safety issue demanded our immediate attention and that was how the agents from our office proceeded."

Further debate will be required from all sides of this issue. Wildlife habitat is being consumed at an alarming rate world wide. Conflicts between humans and wildlife will continue, requiring cooperation between federal, state and local agencies. The environmental and animal rights organizations demand attention be paid also to the needs of the wildlife involved. This is a point of conflict requiring good communication and cooperation on all parts in order to find solutions.

This whole thing is quite disconcerting. According to the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website, "APHIS provides leadership in ensuring the health and care of animals and plants." APHIS's handling of this resulted in a situation completely contrary to their message. Feel free to email them and suggest improvements to their policies. It is we who are encroaching on the territory of wildlife, and it's up to us to find the best solutions for cohabitation. What happened on that golf course was not one of them.

While I've been out of the loop for a bit, I and the Bird has been cranking away at bringing all the wonderful stories birding bloggers have to tell. And I and the Bird #21, hosted by Cup O' Books, continues the chapters of yet more tales of birdery. A professional teacher and amateur bookseller, Seth Hopkins relates some books with the topics of each post, which brings more ideas to the list of reading enjoyment.

If you'd like to participate in or host a carnival yourself, make sure to check out the "I and the Bird" info page. The deadline for submissions for the next carnival is April 25.

If you've been following Beakspeak on a regular basis, you know that the news blurbs known as Fledglinks stopped several weeks ago. I haven't mentioned anything about it until now since I wasn't quite sure how long Fledglinks would be on hold. Earlier this year I made the decision to become more active in studying birds and in conservation efforts. As a result, priorities got shifted around and Fledglinks (and some other things) got moved to the back burner. It's time they get brought forward and the heat gets turned up.

Two things that I've been focusing on recently are field trips and photography. I'm trying to get out into the field as much as possible these days to document and photograph birds in their natural habitat. Our environment is experiencing continuous pressure for development and it's important for us to conserve and preserve as much as we can. I want to use photography as a vehicle to create awareness and to generate funds that will be used for conservation efforts, to help defray costs of equipment and travel, and to aid in development of other projects I have planned.

There are a lot of ideas I want to integrate into Beakspeak but it's a little too much for one person to handle, so I'd like to extend an invitation to you or people you know to become involved. The pay isn't very good (nonexistant actually), but I think you'll find that the hours and working conditions are excellent. And besides, the benefits alone are very rewarding. You'll be helping out birds, birders, and the environment in general all around the world.

I'm going to continue to write about various trips, conservation issues, and whatever other musings cross my mind, but I welcome original thoughts and writings from others as well. If you're interested in becoming a regular contributor of original material, please email me. You don't need any experience, just a bird-related thought and a keyboard. Even if you already have a blog and want to contribute here as well, that's definitely encouraged, but please keep in mind that this will be for original material, not for reposting something that already appears elsewhere.

I also want to bring Fledglinks back. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. The postings definitely kept me entertained, as well as informed on the latest news, events, rescues/releases, and conservation efforts. They also provided an extra outlet to notify the public that people or wildlife officials needed help locating a lost bird or looking for an environmental vandal. After trying a couple of different things to make postings as efficient as possible, I still wasn't able to dedicate as much time as I wanted. I also realized that Fledglinks would benefit most from a community effort, which allows for a wider diversity of sources and views. If you happen to run across any stories related to birds or environmental issues that you would like to share, please feel free to write up a short summary with a link to the story, and include any other information and links that pertain to it. (You can look at past Fledglinks as an example.) Email it to fledglinks@beakspeak.com and include your name or website URL so I can give you proper credit. With enough community support, I think Fledglinks can come back stronger than it was before.

Finally, I'm looking for a programmer to help in the development of exciting new projects. These require solid knowledge of HTML, javascript, PHP, Perl, MySQL, Google Maps API, and XML. If you have these skills, please send me an email detailing your level of experience, and include samples and URLs of projects you have worked on.

There are a lot of great birding weblogs and resources available on the internet. It's my hope that Beakspeak can help increase awareness of these and bring the overall experience to a higher level for the good of birds, birders, and the environment in general. There is strength in numbers and I have long believed Beakspeak should be a community-based website. I've had a blast so far and feel extremely fortunate to have been able to contribute to Beakspeak. Drop me a line if you want to be a part of it too!

--Jason