Here on the activities page I’ve included information on trips, meetings, and various field experiences shared with my students in the Lab. Full trip reports for many of these events may be found at Tim O’Connell’s personal blog, eatmorecookies.
2008 Payne County Christmas Bird Count – 20 December 2008
I was feeling a bit philosophical in anticipation of this year’s Christmas Bird Count, and wrote this perspective on the event, and some of the local changes we’ve seen since our first local count in the 1930s. For a full account of the great time I had with 9 people in the field on a frigid Oklahoma day – including the great kinglet fallout of 2008 – check out the trip report here.
Bird banding at Sanborn Lake Park, Stillwater, OK, 18 September 2008.
My students and I met at Sanborn Lake Park in Stillwater to get in a little bird banding practice. We only had 4 nets up, and we didn’t have much luck. But we did catch two great birds – a Brown Thrasher and a bright, fall Warbling Vireo. The Warbling Vireo was loaded with fat, and was a great illustration of a birding in prime shape for migration. Photos and a full report may be found here.
Oklahoma Ornithological Society annual spring meeting – Tishomingo, OK. May 2008.
It was just Andy and me at the spring meeting this year, but we had a great time. We were both awestruck to have found a nest and cuddled a baby black vulture, thanks to Jerry Jackson, our delightful banquet speaker. The Sunday field trip to Pontotoc Ridge was pretty sweet too.
Joint Annual Meeting: Wilson Ornithological Society and Association of Field Ornithologists – Mobile, AL. April 2008.
In April 2008, Vince, Andy, and Eric Beck traveled with me to Mobile, Alabama for the joint annual meeting of the Wilson Ornithological Society and the Association of Field Ornithologists. Full trip report is here.
Partners in Flight, 4th International Conference – McAllen, TX February 2008.
In February 2008, I traveled with Andy, Vince, and Jason to the 4th International Partners in Flight Conference in McAllen, Texas. We did plenty of birding there, as this was my first trip to the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The first of multiple trip reports can be found here.
Oklahoma Ornithological Society annual fall meeting – Lawton, OK. October 2007.
Jason, Vince, and Paul van Els traveled with me to Lawton for the annual fall OOS meeting, and the highlight had to have been the field trip to the Wichita Mountains NWR
American Ornithologists’ Union annual meeting – Laramie, WY. August 2007.
I went solo for this one, and got to do some birding in the Rockies prior to the meeting. Trip reports can be found here, as well as here, and here.
Oklahoma Ornithological Society annual spring meeting – Black Mesa, OK. May 2007.
Andy, Vince, and Tim traveled to beautiful Black Mesa in Kenton, OK for the spring OOS meeting. Highlights included Lewis’ Woodpecker, Pinyon Jay, and the thickest slabs of bacon we’d ever tried.
Ornithology weekend field trip to Red Slough and Little River NWR, April 2007.
We participate each spring in a field trip with the OSU Ornithology class to Oklahoma’s southeastern corner, Red Slough, and the Little River NWR. It’s always fun to get students into the field for the first time. Highlights this year included Anhingas and a Blackburnian Warbler.
Wilson Ornithological Society annual meeting – Boston, MA. March 2007.
Jason, Vince, and Tim traveled to Boston in March for the annual meeting of the Wilson Ornithological Society. In addition to learning about the importance of e-prey, we got to see some amazing things at the Museum of Comparative Anatomy at Harvard (including Wilson’s gun and Ernst Mayr’s chair!) and took some time for clowning around.
Fourth North American Ornithological Conference – Veracruz, Mexico. October 2006.
As the first opportunity for either of us to bird the Neotropics, Vince and I will never forget the 4th NAOC in Veracruz in October 2006. This was the largest gathering ornithologists in the Western Hemisphere, ever: Two thousand of us! There were about 1600 scientific presentations. And on Thursday (the day Vince wisely opted to skip the meetings and go birding) there were at least 100,000 Broad-winged Hawks that flew over the official Pro Natura hawkwatch on a hotel roof in Cardel.
In addition to the cultural and intellectual growth that a meeting like this fosters, we found many new life birds as well – 55 for me. But I was more interested in the birds that breed in the US and Canada that we found down there, including: Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Blue-headed Vireo, White-eyed Vireo, Summer Tanager, American Redstart, Baltimore Oriole, Orchard Oriole, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Hermit Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Ovenbird, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Black-billed Cuckoo, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Barn Swallow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, Northern Parula, Blue-winged Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Black-and-White Warbler, and Yellow-breasted Chat, among others.
We found many of these birds at a mid-elevation cloud forest coffee plantation (shade-grown) near Coatapec. If you drink cofffee – and you people know who you are – buy certified shade grown! The two-tiered forest structure of mature trees forming a relatively open canopy above the ~ 2m tall coffee plants really does provide useable habitat for many migrant and resident birds. This includes birds like Cerulean Warbler that are suffering unprecedented population declines in the US and Canada. Sun grown coffee does NOT provide the same habitat benefit – buy shade grown!
