birding, photography and living with pet birds
Posted in conservation on Jun 30th, 2010
So, you remember how I was growing plants indoors? Well, I transplanted them and most of them died. I guess I needed to grow them inside longer so the root structure is more stable. Currently there are two peppers and one sad looking artichoke from that initial planting. Here’s one of the peppers, little trooper. [...]
Posted in random on Jun 29th, 2010
I haven’t mentioned this before, but I am a patent attorney. I also prosecute trademarks and do the occasional copyright work. So imagine my excitement when I was reviewing a daily list of recent IP lawsuits and I found a copyright infringement case involving the iBird iPhone application! . According to the complaint, Martin Stewart (doing [...]
Posted in blackbird on Jun 27th, 2010
In Farmington Bay, it would be a mistake to only look in the water for birds. Although you can find many birds in the water, including the occasional Yellow-Headed Blackbird, the real action is in the grass This is a male Yellow-Headed Blackbird. Check out his song, it sounds to me like a collision of [...]
Posted in seabird on Jun 26th, 2010
I started off my photography experiment with an entry level Nikon D40. It’s a very good base for taking still photos but the camera can only capture 2.5 frames per second. When you take pictures of birds in flight, that means a lot of blurry pictures. I bought a Nikon D300s base a few months [...]
Posted in bunting on Jun 25th, 2010
Today is my 30th birthday. In honor of this occasion, my co-workers bought me a vegan cake. And not just any vegan cake, one with a Lazuli Bunting on it! Jon told the cake makers to go to this website and pick out the prettiest bird. So of course they picked a bunting. It’s a [...]
Posted in cockatiel on Jun 23rd, 2010
Audrey has a very distinctive song. He even does this wolf whistle that my mother taught him 17 years ago. Conner picked up his songs very quickly to impress Audrey. Instead, Audrey found it annoying. He used to yell at Conner when Conner would sing Audrey’s song. I would say that Audrey was objecting to [...]
Posted in random on Jun 22nd, 2010
The Wall Street Journal has an article about a robotic eagle that is used to scare off birds at airports. One person interviewed for the article states that the birds will figure out it’s fake within hours. I’m not impressed by the fake owls that people put up to scare pigeons away from buildings. But [...]
Posted in conservation on Jun 21st, 2010
On June 13, 2010, Chevron’s oil pipe leaked 33,000 gallons of oil into the Red Butte Creek. This oil emptied into the pond at Liberty Park and eventually seeped into the Jordan River. Yesterday, I went to Liberty Park to survey the damage. The pond looks pretty good, there is no obvious oil sheen. The [...]
Posted in seabird on Jun 19th, 2010
Ring-Billed Gulls are easy to identify. Faithful to their name, they have a black ring around their beaks. Another distinguishing mark is their pale eyes. California Gulls are more difficult to identify. The key is to look at the eye ring, the beak coloring and the legs. Below is a California Gull in winter plumage. [...]
Posted in cockatiel on Jun 16th, 2010
Our bedroom and bird room is in the attic, which was converted into the master bedroom. This is a great place for the birds because they can look outside and feel like powerful birds, looking down on the world. The bed frame makes a nice perch for the birds. Trevor loves this position. He’ll sit [...]