The Birding Co-op's mission is to promote inclusivity in the global birding community by, among other things, advocating for social justice. Our organization focuses on positive interactions to support our membership and uplift the birding community as a whole. However, we cannot ignore the serious wrongdoings that happen every day to birders and humans all over the planet—most often to women and members of the BIPOC and LGBQT+ communities.

The Birding Co-op supports Aisha White and her brave decision to come forward with allegations of rape against Jason Ward. We will continue to fight for equality, to promote that nature is something that all should be able to enjoy, and will never tolerate any form of abuse, harassment, or conduct that does not align with our values. 

We will also continue to strive to make the Co-op a safe space for birders to share their stories and feel welcome to be here. 

We will continue our regular activities starting tomorrow, Thursday, February 18th, with our 9 AM ET Birder Hangout. There will be no member presentations this week. We are working on providing more structured support in the coming days and weeks in light of the feelings of shock and betrayal that many of our members have expressed. As always, we believe in open discussion and providing a platform for our members to virtually gather and share their thoughts and ideas with one another. If you would like to suggest ways our organization can do this, please don't hesitate to let us know.

I want to share the fascinating research and upcoming live webinar by the Co-op's own Alena Kacal !

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First, here is a newly translated lecture on Israeli birders by Alen on Birdlife Israel's site: 

https://www.birds.org.il/en/article/alena-kacal-behind-the-binoculars-january-2021

Alen, this data reveals so much. Incredible.

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Second, here is information on a live webinar that is this Sunday by Alen and others at Jerusalem Bird Observatory: 

A special webinar to mark Tu B'Shvat - the Jewish Calendar's Birthday of the Trees.

Sunday, January 31, 2021
8:00 – 9:30 EST // 15:00 – 16:30 Israel time

Alena Kacal , Amir Balaban and the staff at the Nili and David Jerusalem Bird Observatory, together with birders from Birdlife Israel, will be broadcasting live from the field and will be answering your questions about Israel's birds. Hopefully we'll also be treated to the almonds in blossom too.

This webinar is in partnership with Temple Emanu-El and proudly part of the Big Bold Jewish Climate Fest. Rabbi Amy Ehrlich, Temple Emanu-El, New York will give an opening greeting.

Join the webinar: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ivoo4XhhQhK3cWTMzciDfw

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Note: Cover image for this post from Birdlife Israel. 

Why is this the first I’ve seen of this?  Looks like a fun winter project when the weather won’t cooperate.  

We have a lot going on this week—something for all birders!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 8:00 PM ET, we’re starting our weekly Birder Hangout with a presentation by Diego Quesada of Caracara Costa Rica, an organization that promotes Neotropical bird conservation through art. Hangout details here. 

Wednesday at 8:00 PM ET, our monthly Birder Cafe is focusing on what Co-op travel should look like in 2021, and we’ll have several bird guides share their thoughts as we work together to plan the Co-op’s events. Hannah Buschert is heading this up—check out here posts here and here. 

And Thursday at 9:00 AM ET (note the time change!), we’ll recap the Cafe in our second weekly Birder Hangout. Hangout details here. 

If you haven't already, join the Co-op to experience this week’s virtual events!

This is a space to share updates for yourself or other Co-op members! Share what projects you're working on, organizations you are a part of, or any news that you'd like to share with the Co-op. 

We’re kicking off the Co-op’s Big Year with a Virtual Big Year Bird Walk! Share your January 1, 2021 checklists on eBird with @thebirdingcoop, or email checklists to thebirdingcoop@gmail.com.

And don't forget to tag @thebirdingcoop on your social stories and posts on New Years Day!

First off, last night's hangout was the first time I laughed so hard I was crying since the beginning of the pandemic. So thank you all for that. It was much needed!

Birding in El Salvador with Benjamin Rivera kicked off the hangout with a STUNNING presentation covering the history, cities, locations, and of course birds that you can see on your trip to El Salvador. One of the best parts was Benjamin's devotion to his fellow bird guides, and seeing that they receive the recognition that they deserve; many of them being ex-guerilla fighters! His passion for El Salvador and his fight to bring sustainable ecotourism to the communities there is truly something special.
Watch the 30-something minute presentation here! https://thebirdingcoop.circle.so/c/topics-for-talks/birding-in-el-salvador-with-benjamin-rivera-full-video
At Benjamin's request, let's all spread the word of birding tourism in El Salvador!

After a great presentation, conversation flowed quickly, and we congratulated Andrew Guttenberg on his 250th Montana bird that he's digibinned this year! Check out his masterful collection on instagram @digibinbigyear2020 or click here: https://www.instagram.com/digibinbigyear2020/
[Digibinning is the practice of using your phone to photograph birds through your binoculars. It's difficult to master, especially in-flight shots, which is what makes Andrew's accomplishment all the more impressive!]

Naturally, this led to Gautam Apte's instagram account @lumix_grain where he posts impressively grainy flight shots of birds taken with his Lumix camera. If you're a connoisseur of course photography, I'm sure you'll get a kick out of his work!
https://www.instagram.com/lumix_grain/
If anyone knows Gautam, try to convince him to join the Co-op so he can tell us more about his Journey of the GRÄIN next Tuesday!

This started the sharing of other bird photos exhibiting exceptional grain and genius-level record shots of distant birds and hilarious back-of-camera photos. Some of my favorites were shots of birds that seemed to have the quality of 1950's era film combined with an instagram filter!

Not gonna lie, this might sounds silly to you, but to repeat a phrase as old as time.. you had to be there!

After we settled down, and I wiped the tears of laughter out of my eyes, Stephanie shared the results of her Birding to end Alzheimers Big Day!
Her team, Bluewings ALZ In!, shattered their fundraising goal and ended the day with 74 species of birds!
Check out their success here: Bluewings ALZ In!
Stephanie, you're an inspiration to all of us!

Australia just got 2 new species of mammals!  A new study finds that a complex of Gliders is actually multiple species, but that's not the best part of the story. THEY LOOK RIDICULOUS!
Like a hand-made movie prop from a 1980's horror film, they look like a Furby and an Opossum had an unholy love child!
Check out the little monsters here

Forest Jarvis brought up a good point about Sugar Gliders; NEVER have one as a pet! They will climb your walls and pee all inside your sweater. Don't do it.
Also, there are a few moral and ethical reasons to not own one; inhumane breeding farms, illegal pet trade, etc
Sugar Gliders, not even once!

You know what animal DOES make a great pet??
Yep, you guessed it! A snail! A White-lipped Snail (Neohelix albolabris) to be exact!
Doug Whitman was fortunate one day 2 years ago when he discovered that a snail had hitched a ride in his tent from a camping trip. Now, back in the city, Doug couldn't just put the thing outside away from its native ecosystem! And thus, a friendship was born!

Doug told us all the crazy story of throwing Miguel (the Snail) a birthday party on the one year anniversary of adopting him. Around 100 people showed up for a truly epic party, all in honor of Miguel the Snail!
Ironic, as Miguel is arguable totally unaware of the world around him and perhaps doesn't even know Doug exists. It's hard to discern what's going on in a snail's mind.

Doug took a summer job out in Montana, and of course brought Miguel. That's when I had the pleasure to meet the famous mollusk. After the field season ended, Doug and Rachel took a road trip through the American West, and everywhere they went, so did Miguel! They took photos of him at every National Park entrance sign, and that sparked the idea for a children's book about Miguel the traveling snail!
That was unanimously voted a brilliant idea, and we all tossed in ideas for the book.
Someone asked if, in the book, Miguel would come face to face with a Snail Kite. Shocked by the question, it was decided they would be friends in this children's book.
That was until Phil Chaon added "..and Everglades will be Miguel's last National Park."
I couldn't even hear the shocked gasps from others as I nearly spit out my drink laughing so hard!

We put Doug on the spot to tell his Miguel stories for more than half an hour, and I can't thank him enough! It was an amazing time!

Some related snail media for you all to look into
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating; book by Elisabeth Bailey
Malacology; podcast episode of Ologies on Snails and Slugs

We discussed bird sounds in the background of movies, and applauded the few movies who got it right!
The Spectacled Owl in the 1987 Predator movie made Andrew Guttenberg happy, while the Melodious Blackbirds and Cabanis's Wrens in the background of the Jurassic Park movies made Benjamin and I proud.
The blackbirds were in the newest movie, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

We went over the different birder-centric movies we know of, all agreeing that even though The Big Year was fairly accurate and plausibly funny, it could have been much better.
I recommended The Bird Men (or 'The Birder' depending on your country), an fairly funny movie about a birder in Canada. It's worth a watch!

That lead us to wonder if we could write the first truly excellent birder film?!? 

What are your ideas for a birder/birding movie?

I hope to see all of you again next week!
And if you aren't a Co-op member yet, please consider joining!

If you want to be a part of the next hangout, consider joining the Co-op!

Thank you to everyone who joined for an engaging and fun chat Saturday!
🍻We cheers'd our drinks to the President and Vice President Elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, which was just announced that morning. We welcomed new Co-op members and were joined by a non-member (who I'm hoping with join now!)

The hangout was a solid 2 hours and 20(or more) minutes and we talked about a lot of good topics.

Of course we talked about the election and its results, and moved to COVID around the world and in the States. COVID seems to be such a prominent part of all our lives that a chat longer than 15 minutes can hardly avoid the topic.

Birding in Texas was a big theme, as 3 (maybe 4?) folks from Texas joined the hangout! We talked about the different birding hotspots along the coast and in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRG).
Check out South Texas portion of the Great Texas Birding Trail here: https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wildlife/wildlife-trails/ltc
A female Blue Bunting was recently found on South Padre Island by a Co-op member! Great find!

Stephanie updated us on the progress of the border wall construction, and we all hoped that the new administration could do something about it... fingers crossed.

For some reason, close encounters with large and dangerous mammals seems to be a favorite topic! We told more bear stories, including enough good bear stories to equal out the crazy ones. Which reminded my that one of my photos went viral after I posted it to my facebook a couple years ago. https://www.ktvh.com/news/2019/07/01/photographer-captures-hikers-close-encounter-with-grizzly-bear-in-glacier-national-park

Alberto told us a hair-raising story about one night where they smelled a Jaguar in the Yucatan, but never saw it. Super sketch!

Which got us on the topic of birding Mexico and mexican endemics (of which there is somewhere over 110 or something!)
Some of the cooler mexican species we talked about:
Slaty Vireo https://ebird.org/species/slavir1/
Red Warbler https://ebird.org/species/redwar1/
Balsas Screech-Owl https://ebird.org/species/basowl/
Sierra Madre Sparrow https://ebird.org/species/simspa1/

Tufted Jay https://ebird.org/species/tufjay1/
Rose-bellied Bunting https://ebird.org/species/robbun1/

I have to say, after talking with Alberto, I am even more convinced my next trip will have to be to southern Mexico!

The Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival is coming up at the end of this week (Nov 11-13, 2020) and will be all virtual and totally free! Keep an eye on https://www.rgvbf.org/ for updates and how to attend the virtual field trips and lectures.

Have you traveled somewhere awesome before you were interested in birds? A lot of us have, and we formed an impromptu support group as everyone shared stories of where they went before getting hit with the birding bug. Do you count the birds you can remember or have photos of?

And lastly, here are two WACKY bird sounds that I had to show everyone.
The Highland Guan follows its rising whistle with an absolutely out of the world mechanical chatter made by its wing feathers as it glides from a tall tree in the cloud forest.
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/177581

The Giant Wren is (mostly) endemic to southern Mexico and shares the title of world's largest wren species. It's group calls sound like hyper cartoon characters that came to life! 
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/48249351

See you all this Tuesday for the next Birder Hangout!