Bird Questions: How Do Birds Survive Cold Weather?

When the polar vortex descended into the United States in early January I got questions from several friends concerned and curious about how the birds would deal with these conditions. To help answer that curiosity we bring you the first installment of Bird Questions.
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Cold weather challenges birds ability to survive in several unique ways. While many species of birds migrate to avoid these challenges other species have developed physical and behavioral adaptations that allow them to not only survive but thrive through the winter months.

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Physical Adaptations

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Feathers
Feathers make birds adaptable. Birds can live in some of the most extreme environments because

feathers are so good at helping birds thermoregulate (keeping their bodies at a comfortable temperature). Feathers are remarkable because they help all birds stay comfortable, no matter what climate they are in. For birds spending the winter in cold places they have many more down feathers which work to keep them warm. 

Down feathers are small and have loose barbs which trap warm air. The down works like a warm insulating layer and on top there are feathers designed to keep out the wind and the water. These overlapping feathers work like shingles, shedding water and deflecting wind. This combination works much like the layers that people wear in the winter to keep warm, they trap in warm and keep out the cold.  

Diagram of counter current heat exchange 
http://freewebs.com/gta101/arterieskw99.jpg

Legs and Feet

Most birds don't have feathers on their legs and feet which leaves them exposed Heat sinks are parts of a system where heat is lost. Counter-Current Heat Exchange  is used by birds to to minimizing their heat loss and preventing any damage to their feet from the cold.

Counter-current heat exchange works because birds arteries are wrapped around the veins in their legs. When these two vessels come in contact it allows the incoming warm blood from the heart to heat the cold blood coming from the feet. Exchanging heat prevents the bird's core from having to work as hard and keeps the feet from freezing. 

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Behavioral Adaptations

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Constant Feeding

Birds can gain and lose weight more easily then people. Many birds, especially small ones will spend most of their time during cold weather feeding [1]. Crazed feeding allows them accumulate enough fat to make it through the next night. Many birds will spend all of their day light hours eating or looking for food when the weather is cold. Songbirds probably spend most of the day actively searching. Their need for food is the reason you see them pile onto birds feeders. Smaller birds have higher metabolisms then raptors so they need more fat for how big they are. These large fat reserves laid down every day will be burned off overnight due to their high energy requirement. Raptors will often revert to the least energetic method of searching for food. Raptors may soar or spend time just perched looking out for prey items.

Posture

Just like how a Northern Cardinal can change the position of the feathers in its crest, birds can change their body posture and feather position to keep themselves warmer. By puffing up and making themselves as round as possible birds conserve the most warmth. As a bird forms a more round shape the ratio of surface area (outside of the bird) to the volume (the body of the bird) changes so the surface area is minimized for a particular size of bird. By minimizing surface area the amount of heat which can be lost is limited and puffing up their feathers helps limit heat loss even more.

Birds have a very aerodynamic shape and by orienting themselves to face into the wind the wind passes over them quickly. This is especially important in wet environments since down feathers lose their warmth when wet. By facing into the wind the birds feathers can work like shingles and shed the rain, protecting their warm downy undercoat.

Bluebirds huddling for warmth (Michael L. Smith)

Night Roosts
Several species of birds have been documented to huddle together in the winter, often in cavities or nest boxes to keep warm [2, 3]. These flocks are typically the same species, but are not necessarily related family members. Both Eastern Bluebirds and House Wrens are known to do this. Providing shelter for roosting birds is one reason to leave birdhouses up over the winter. 

Torpor
Most people are familiar with hibernation, but some bird species engage in another method of surviving daily torpor. Torpor is a bit different then hibernation, individuals come in and out of it on a daily basis, rather then a season one. Their body temperature is also not lowered as much as individuals who hibernate. It still serves the same purpose, lowering your body temperature means you have to use less energy to stay warm, If you were to encounter a bird who was in torpor it would probably appear to be sleeping but would not quickly awaken as you approached. This slow response to disturbance is one reasons individuals probably don't to into torpor every night, it leaves them more vulnerable to predators and other hazards, but when cold weather strikes it can be a valuable tool [4].

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How You Can Help 

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While birds don't NEED your help to survive the winter, during extreme weather there are a few things you can do to assist birds in surviving cold weather.

High Quality Food - Suet might seem a little odd, since it's basically just animal fat with seed mixed in, but it's pure energy to many bird species and can be a very high quality food source. More important then the kind of food you put out is to decide whether or not you will be feeding all winter. If you not, its best to taper off the food in the fall instead of just stopping in the middle of a snow storm when birds may have difficulty scouting out alternative food sources. 

Shelter - Plant evergreen shrubs (plants which keep their leaves or needles year round) around your yard so birds can find protection from the wind/rain/snow. To prevent your bushes from being used as cover for predators (such as cats) keep the bushes back from feeders and bird baths. 

Water - Staying hydrated is just as important as food, and often more difficult to find. You can use a heater or dripping water to keep a bird bath open. During the winter it's often best to put sticks or other perches around the bird bath since birds wont want to actually bathe in cold temperatures. These perches allow them to get easy access to a drink. 

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One of the remarkable things about birds is their ability to survive extreme conditions. Take some time over the winter and watch your local birds at the feeder and see if you catch them exhibiting any of these adaptations. And if you have any other bird questions drop us a line - naturalausterity@gmail.com

- Auriel

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[1] P1.101  Friday, Jan. 4  Do small wintering birds adjust their metabolic performance in response to perceived level of cold? MILBERGUE, M.*; BLIER, P.; VEZINA, F.; Univ. of Quebec in Rimouski; http://www.sicb.org/meetings/2013/schedule/abstractdetails.php?id=738

[2] Mayer, L., Lustick, S., Battersby, B. (1982) The Importance of Cavity Roosting and Hypothermia to the Energy Balance of the Winter Acclimatized Carolina Chickadee. International Journal of Biometeorology. Volume 26:3 p231-238 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02184939

[3] Kendeigh, S. Charles. (1961) Energy of Birds Conserved By Roosting in Cavities. The Wilson Bulletin. Volume 73:2 p140-147 http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4158912?uid=36852&uid=3739536&uid=2&uid=3&uid=67&uid=36848&uid=62&uid=3739256&sid=21103359393693

[4] Geiser, F. and Ruf, T. (1995) Hibernation versus Daily Torpor in Mammals and Birds: Physiological Variables and Classification of Torpor Patterns. Physiological Zoology. Vol 68:8 p 935-966 http://www.jstor.org/stable/30163788

Rare Bird Alerts and You

You woke up this morning, looked at yourself in the mirror, and decided to be completely honest.
You have a problem.
You took the journey down the rabbit hole, and came out a twitcher.
You're addicted to birding.

It happens. You could have chosen sex, drugs, alcohol, or birding. We at Natural Austerity would like to think you made the better choice. 

This is your support group. We're going to support you in your new addiction.
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But first, for some of you who don't know the dirty words that are said to you behind your back.

What is a twitcher?
A twitcher is a person who chases rare birds and goes to sometimes extraordinary lengths to do so. These are the people who take off lunch breaks to go chase a county first record Spotted Towhee or first of the year Eastern Peewee. It's sometimes quite arbitrary in the grand scheme of things how rare is the bird. It's just important if it will be a first somehow.

A lister is someone who's main goal is to see as many birds in a predetermined amount of space and time. Listers run the gamet of extreme listing (big years) to more innocuous listing (life lists).

Twitchers and listers are many times synonymous. These two types of birders get a bad rap not only in the birding but conservation community as well. When you run around on a frantic quest to see as many birds as you can, you lose a certain amount of appreciation for the moment. It can be difficult to really sit down and appreciate a new life bird if you know your day light is fading. The most extreme stories of birding usually come out of these camps. Adding to their bad rap, a fair amount of trespassing and illegal behavior has been associated with finding new rare birds and being the first to do so.

So A Warning
Evolution took millions of years to evolve not just one of these airborne pioneers but over 10,000 different species of them. This is a family with members who once darkened the sky with their sheer numbers, and are capable of heroic migration sometimes spanning the entire globe. It's because of this we encourage you to take more than a second to appreciate every new bird you see. It is a wonder not only that they're here, but that you are born in a economic situation that allows you to enjoy them freely.

With that we'll move forward
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Ebird

Ebird is your first level go to for rare bird alerts. This extremely powerful online data set tracks users entries and allows you to see whats being seen on the ground within hours of it actually being seen

As part of Ebird's data screening process for citizen science data, these filters flag submitted birds as 'rare' based on expected birds in the area, time of the season, and particularly high counts.Ebird's volunteer editors use this as a first defense for screening new data for anomalies. Common year round residents like chickadees will not be flagged, while birds not from the area or arriving at a strange time will show up as rare and require a review by the local Ebird editor. All of these 'rare' and unusual sightings can be pulled up together in a convenient list.

Head over to Ebird, log-in and clicking the 'Explore Data' tab. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click the 'Alerts' section.

In Alerts we can play around with various regional alerts. The regions you can choose include states, counties, or countries. For example, if you type in 'Pennsylvania' into the 'Rare Bird Alerts' section, Ebird will show rare birds seen in that last seven days in Pennsylvania. If you type the same thing into the 'Needs Alerts' section, it will show you reports of birds you haven't seen in Pennsylvania

The way to get the most of this option is to sign up for daily rare bird alerts in your state and county. If you live in a large state or a highly birded area, these emails can get rather long. The county list ameliorates this by giving you a more focused list.

More advanced birders may want to choose to receive hourly lists for their county. The great thing about this is you learn much quicker about the rare birds, and can react faster. Most of the time, the hourly list will be manageable. If you live in a sparsely birded area you may not even receive alerts for days. However, in largely populated counties like San Diego county, these hourly lists quickly become overwhelming as rarities are reported almost every hour of the day.

One of the problems with Ebird and Ebird alerts is the sometimes very informal nature of the process. Birders are not required to tell you where in a patch they found them, and sometimes may just submit a list for a rather large area giving you almost no data to act upon. Not only that, not all birders use Ebird. Many older birders in particular refuse to use it, as it requires a rather large start up time importing your previous lifelist.
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BirdsEye

BirdsEye is a mobile app that integrates with Ebird to show you sightings for any area you choose. Available on iPhones, this is an incredibly valuable field tool that gives you up to date information in an easier to navigate interface. You can set anywhere as a center point and look at the species seen recently within a certain diameter circle. It will show you both common and 'notable' birds. Notables are birds that are rare or things you haven't seen (you can input your life list into the app).

You can pick a species and find the hotspots where it has been reported and plan your day from there. This can be a great tool when you are going to be traveling to a new place. You can scout out birding spots in advance and use it once your'e there.

Currently BirdsEye is only available on iPhone, but an android version is in production.
It suffers from Ebird's faults but is a plus because of Ebird's terrible interface on mobile devices.
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ABA Rare bird alerts/news

The ABA maintains a rather exhaustive list of rare bird forums separated by regions. The regions lists are somewhat chaotic as each area is divided differently. California, for example, is split into 24 different forums, while Texas is just a single entry.

A good feature of the ABA alerts is you can search for a particular states listserv by clicking here. Once there, you can sign up for any particular states birding listserv and receive updates by email.

The ABA RBA and News list is a great way to figure out the details of a particular bird seen. The posters are usually very detailed with locations, times, and update periodically if a bird was seen recently. In addition, many people will post trip lists. These can be a good way to prepare for an upcoming trip, and get your mind set on what you might see.
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State bird forums

The most intimate and interesting look into the bird world usually starts at the local birding forums. These forums are birders main way to interact with each other. In them, you'll find information not only about rare birds, but sometimes intimate details about someones backyard birds and life. If you're looking for birds that many wouldn't consider rare, this is a great tool to figure out what birds are in an area and where to find them.

To find a local bird forum you can simply go to the link previously mentioned in the ABA mailing lists or just search Google for an areas bird forum or listserv. You'll find these sites often tied to local ornithological or Audubon societies.

Love em or hate em, bird forums represent your fellow birders and their similar love and devotion for birds. As such, be nice on the forums. Birding is not something everyone does and it can be hard to find friends who share in your passion. If an old woman wants to discuss her coffee choices more so than the birds she saw, so be it. If that same woman wants to tell you how excited she is of her Jan 1st First of the Season Northern Cardinal, let her have it.

On the flip side, bird forums like anything on the internet can bring out the worst in people. The anonymity of the internet, mixed with the binary nature of sometimes very difficult bird ID, and the inherent competitiveness of birding can breed really snarky and elitists folks. A good reminder is to not take anything someone says personally. Bird IDing is difficult and no one is perfect. Some people just need to feel special. Ignore them and don't feed their troll like nature.
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Facebook

Why not marry the one site you never stop checking, with the obsession you never stop thinking about?

The ABA runs a great group called the ABA Rare Bird Alert where users post notable rare birds around the country. While not all encompassing and sometimes on a different schedule than the normal ABA site, this format can be a welcome addition to your Facebook news feed, and a much broader scale rare bird alert for you to stomach.

There are many regional bird groups on Facebook, including many that are just for particular states. These function similar to bird listservs but are much easier to navigate and scroll through. Adding them to your facebook feed is an easy way to keep up to date with whats going on in the bird world and stay apart of sometimes good bird discussions.

They suffer from similar faults of listservs, as moderating some of the larger pages can sometimes be a daunting task. Remember to respond politely to other members. You'll usually get a nice response back.
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The North American Rare Bird Alert (NARBA) 

The North American Rare Bird Alert is a long running and iconic service which started in 1985 as a way for birders to share their rare bird reports. It's evolved from a telephone service run by a single person, to a large scale website able to notify customers instantly of new birds found around the nation.

For a fee of $50/year you can get detailed reports of rare birds including past sightings, locations, and verifications. It's the premier bird alert service used by most big year chasers.

We don't strictly condemn the use of the NARBA, it is the best resource to find all of these reports in up to the minute detail. But as budget bloggers we tend to shy away from it for cheaper alternatives. You can find most of all the information in the NARBA on the internet. It just takes much more time and effort.
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Misc outlets

Koppi2 (wikicommons)

In certain communities rare bird alerts have evolved to their final form. Mobile SMS push notifications. My labmate and fantastic birder, Tim Schrekengost, helped set up the Delaware rare bird alert onto a mobile app called #Groupme. Users download the app, sign up to the group, and post their sightings instantly. These posts get sent straight to everyones phone, allowing literal real time sightings. This decreases your reaction time down to seconds.

This worked particularly well this last Black Friday. While my friend Emily and I were shopping around Rehoboth beach, I received a text message that a Snowy Owl had been reported just 10 minutes away. Needless to say, we stopped shopping immediately and rushed down to the beach. Without even our binoculars in hand (rookie move) we managed to catch the owl within an hour of it first being sighted. Truly the internet is a beautiful thing.

I expect many more options like these will crop up as technology increases and people find more unique ways to post their sightings.
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That's it for now. Hopefully now you'll sign up for rare bird alerts and forums in your area. This way you'll become more involved with the bird community, learn new places to bird your local area, and be better prepared for planning your next long distance birding trip!

So go forth, sign up, and be overwhelmed by rarity reports!

-Boone

How to Enjoy Cold Weather

Even sub-zero days offer great opportunities
to explore. UP of Michigan December 2013 (Auriel Fournier)

It's -47F with the windchill, my jeep barely starts, my lungs hurt, but eventually the jeep stops squealing and we're on our way for another day of birding. When we planned our long weekend of birding in northern Minnesota I promised Matt the cold 'wouldn't be that bad' (since it normally isn't). So he bought his plane ticket in balmy October on my promise of great birds.

January 2nd arrives and twelve hours of delays later he arrived in Wisconsin with no luggage, just the coat on his back and a polar vortex headed our way bringing some of the coldest air in 20 years. Luckily we are all very flexible travelers and between Nick and I, we had enough warm clothes to convince Matt he wouldn't die and we headed to Minnesota.

We worked with the weather, made lots of changes along the way and our trip was a success. We didn't spend as much time outside as we planned and ended up doing most of our birding from the car, but we had a great time and all of us experienced winter in a new way. That -47F degree morning though with the wind blowing and all of us wearing so many clothes its hard to move I thought we were a little bit crazy. Then the sun came up, the beauty of northern Minnesota showed itself again and we managed to stay pleasantly warm because we were prepared for the conditions.

Typical winter days offers even more possibilities. When you dress for the weather, a hike on a single digit day can be just as enjoyable as one on a fall afternoon. Being cold outside is easy. I've been there many times. I went to school in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and I made every rookie mistake before finally figuring out how to enjoy winter like a yooper. Today I'd like to show you some of those mistakes and how to fix them so you don't make them yourself. Not all of us need to do a 12 mile snowshoe with frozen pants and no feeling in their legs to learn these lessons.

With a little bit of knowledge anyone can dress to be comfortable in the cold.

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Layering
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Layering keeps you warm and is simple once you know the basics. You need to wear clothes to hold in the warm air and block the wind. Once you've got on good layers there are just a few additional things to remember. Know your body and dress accordingly. If you are like me and your hands/feet get cold easily put more layers on your arms and legs to compensate. Always ensure your layers overlap at your neck, waist, wrist and ankles. These overlapping layers seal in the heat and will prevent cold air from leaking in.

I always err on the side of wearing too much, since you can always shed a layer. You can also do a quick check when you first get outside, stand for a moment and see if you can feel the cold air seeping in. If you can then you probably need an additional layer or to adjust what you are wearing. 

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Equipment
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Outer Layer - The purpose of an outer layer is to keep out the cold and wind, usually through a heavy winter coat. If you don't have one, a rain coat along with several layers of sweatshirts and sweaters underneath can work. Layering doesn't just apply to your core, keeping your legs warm is important, and is probably the most neglected part of layering. You don't need to go buy fancy snow pants, you can cheat and wear a pair of rain pants with thermals/sweatpants layered underneath.

Base Layer - Wear loose clothes so they can trap air between the layers and a close fitting base layer to keep you feeling warm and wick away moisture. Most people will tell you to get a fancy synthetic shirt, and if you can afford Underarmor, wonderful. Cotton long underwear can also work just as well. Thermal base layers can be picked up for $5-10 at Wal-mart. Grab a top and bottom layer (remember not to forget your legs!).

Hats - Even if you are not a 'hat person' you need a hat. Otherwise your body will spend valuable energy replacing all the heat radiating away. Style isn't important, so find something cheap. A good hat will cover your entire head, the thicker the better. You can get hats for $5-10 at Wal-mart.

Gloves - You'll be warmest with a giant pair of well insulated gloves, but if you have to write things down, or really do anything, they might be cumbersome. There are many styles of gloves suited to different tasks. Some have flaps that flip back and become fingerless so you can use your hands. Your best bet is something with thinsulate. If you have to remove your gloves often get a thin pair of gloves to go underneath.

Scarf -  Scarves keep all the warm air around your core while preventing heat loss from your neck, another large heat loss area. Scarves can be worn different ways to help keep the wind off your face, which is great when wind chill is a concern. Just make sure you find something soft enough so it won't irritate your face.

Vests - I personally am not a vest person, but if you often find yourself being too warm vests can be a key layer because they keep your core warm without over heating.

Boots -  If you're going to be out hiking, or building a snowman a good pair of hiking boots and some thick socks are probably all you need. Make sure your boots aren't too tight. Tightness restricts the socks/shoes ability to trap warm air around your feet and makes your feet cold fast. Wearing a double layer of socks works really well to both keep your feet warm and prevent blisters but wearing more then two pairs can cause additional issues with not allowing space for warm air to be trapped.

Socks - Good socks are worth investing in. I love Smartwool, but there are now lots of brands of comfy wool socks out there, so shop around. Wool is important because your feet sweat. In your daily life you probably don't notice, but when you wrap your feet up in socks and boots the sweat does not evaporate. Leaving you with cold feet. Wool keeps you warm even when its drenched, which is why wool makes great socks.


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Extreme Weather 
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When the weather really cold it's important to take care of yourself. Check in with your group members and make sure everyone is staying warm. Take breaks, warm up inside, make sure you eat enough.

The first big issue with extreme cold is wind. Wind chill makes cold dangerous, FAST. Check out the wind chill chart from the National Weather Service. If the wind is strong at all you can come under danger of frostbite very quickly. The best way to combat the wind is to keep all of your skin covered, especially your extremities (hands, feet, ears, nose) and stay active so you keep pumping lots of warm blood to those regions.

Bond Falls, UP of Michigan
(Auriel Fournier)

The second big danger is water. Now chances are if its super cold out there isn't much open water for you to interact with, but most of us live in places where cold means something around freezing, which often leaves things wet and sort of slushy. Once you get wet its really really hard to stay warm unless you are wearing special clothes. Above when I say you can get away with cotton I mean you need to stay dry. No wading through streams, no falling through the ice, no standing in the freezing rain, no sliding down winter waterfalls. If you are going to be doing something where there is a good chance of you getting wet then you need more specialized equipment which is often not cheap but is well worth it. Being cold and wet is dangerous, please be careful. 

Please use this info to help yourself enjoy the outdoors, not push yourself to dangerous limits. When the weather is extreme always make sure it's smart to be out doing what your doing. Several days of our trip we planned to be out snowshoeing all day, which at -30 or -40 is not safe, so we changed our plans and did short hikes (<15 minutes) and explored in the car. Sometimes an alternate plan for the day may be in order and that is OK. Part of the wonder of the outdoor world is the extremes of its weather and experiencing them is fun, but don't throw caution to the wind. A five minute experience can be more then enough for the conditions.

Most of the time though the weather is more mild and dressing for the weather is fairly easy. It may take a bit of trial and error before you get layering perfect, but the rewards are fantastic. Winter is (in my opinion) the most beautiful time of year and winter offers opportunities for exploration and recreation you can't do in any other season. Being active all winter helps fight winter depression and opens your up to 12 months of fantastic adventures! So pull on some extra layers and get out there!

Traveling on a Budget: Why you should (occasionally) stay in a hotel

Tips for the hobo traveler

I just went on in this whole post about why you should never book a hotel early, infact I would argue strongly about why you should never book a hotel at all. But there are a few reasons why strategically booking a hotel may be to your benefit. I'll admit this next section is mainly for the extreme saver travelers who have listened to everything I've said, and forgotten what normal people do while on vacation. We all need to be reigned in occasionally.
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First off hotels have amenities. Yes, thats kind of what they're selling you. Even you, the savy vagabond travler, may benefit from them.

-Hot Showers: Yes, I know, truck stops have showers as well, but you still have to pay for one, and showering in your own hotel room might just be a little more comfortable. An adventure can always be better the more comfortable you are, and a nice hot shower may just re-energize you for that next long stretch of extreme traveling.

(Elvert Barnes)

-Internet: Of course, you could just sit in Starbucks drinking 3.95 lattes all day while you finish blogging, telling your mother you're alive, and scouring the rare bird alert pages.

-Breakfast: Maybe you're tired of heating up oatmeal in your car every day, or were going to spend $5 buying Whataburger tacquitos and a large coffee anyway. Now you can save that money and eat normal food, like cereal!

-Water: It's not always easy to find a good place to replenish your water supply and the alternative is to buy another plastic recycling nightmare from one of those silly companies that believes it has the right to sell something that makes up 75% of you.

-Sleep: No matter how much you may love sleeping in your pimped out car or out in the stars, sometimes it does a body good to get one good nights sleep.

-Weather: It doesn't rain inside. Perhaps that rain storm just rolled in and you were planning on camping tonight. Or the low is down to 15 and you're sleeping bag is only good for 30. Not being miserable can be reason enough.

-Football: Or whatever sport you love. So, you were going to take the night off, spend it at a buffalo wild wings stuffing your face so you could watch the big game. Better yet, just watch it in the privacy of your own hotel room, that way you don't even have to wear pants!

-Safety: Maybe sleeping at the Park and Ride tonight isnt such a good idea... 

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So lets do the numbers, how much is all this really worth?

Let's say you catch a sweet hotel deal and only spend $40 after all the crazy taxes.

Shower- Truck stop showers are usually around $10 for us non-truckers
Internet- Let's say you were going to buy a $4 latte at Starbucks for a couple hours on the internet.
Breakfast- Your breakfast can average anywhere from $1 to up to $8, lets average that and say $4
Water- Buying a couple liters of water could cost you around $2 a day

These base line costs are already worth $20
Lets dig deeper and say it kept you from eating out for the big game which you would have spent $10
Altogether that's already worth $30 of our $40

So what are comfort, sanity, and sleep worth? It all depends. Maybe you haven't found a good enough way to sleep in your car. Or you just had too many wet days in the field. Maybe you forsee that pitching a tent tonight in the rain is going to ruin your mood for the rest of the trip. In that case the intangible for sanity is almost priceless, and definitely worth the extra $10. I wouldn't use this post as a crutch for spending money, but as a check when you think you've gone too far.

My strategy is to spread out hotels sparingly every couple days or so just to get a shower and internet. I couple that decision with one where I was going to be in a difficult sleeping situation anyway (like in a city) or when I need to be close to my destination tomorrow. This way I stay true to my goal but allow myself some comforts. Always evaluating the cost of items and being forced to justify their purchase helps you realize the real cost of things, which is the first step in spending smartly.

So travel forth, and remember your sanity!

-Boone

The Importance of Being on Time

As I sit in the terminal of Chicago's O'hare Airport with hours to kill, I almost look like a genius. This is a strange feeling because hours ago I felt like a tremendous idiot. Again, like many times before, luck pulled me out by the skin of my teeth. Just 12 hours ago I was quite the opposite, frantic, no sleep, driving much too far to catch a plane that I've known about for months.

This is not my first time, it probably won't be my last. But lets look at what happened today, and see how we can learn from it.

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I get cocky sometimes. Well actually its just laziness covered with the veil of cockiness. Three months ago I bought this plane ticket: A trip to northern Minnesota and Wisconsin for some fantastic winter birding. But two days ago, my indecisiveness got the better of me. I was slated to fly out from Fayetteville, AR Thursday 11am. Without doing any traveling calculations, I promised a friend I'd spend Wednesday night with him in Dallas.

    'I've got this, it'll be fine', I kept telling myself.

I knew the the times were a little off, but I figured it'd be fine. Most of my plans are various forms of 'winging it', and they always turn out ok. They're sometimes not very pretty, but I make it work.

5pm Wednesday night (18hrs before departure)- I land at my friends house later than I planned and commit myself to spend as much time as I can with him before I go back to Delaware.

11:30pm (~12hrs before departure)- Already groggy, I start to google maps my drive to Fayetteville, and do my infamous tired time math.

    'Uh-oh, buddy I gotta go to sleep, like right now', I announce suddenly.

With my fuzzy math I've just realized I've got to get up at 4:00am to drive 5.5 hours to navigate an airport I've never been to. 

    'It's ok, I can just sleep on the plane' I lie to myself. I know I can't sleep on planes.

4:00am(~7hrs before departure)- I get up groggly, much too early, get to the car, forget my keys in the house, come back. Fail to navigate to the correct airport on my gps. Manage to find the right airport. Punch it in the GPS. And then handily get myself lost in Dallas. With a GPS. I take the 3 different wheels in a multiple highway interchange, before managing to get going in the right direction.

    'I should have slept more', I grumble to myself. Three hours before the sun even comes up.

That's when I realize all of that fuzzy math last night was using Dallas toll roads. I'm not taking Dallas toll roads. More fumbling, grumbling, and I'm out of Dallas and one hour later than I expected.

5:00am(~6hrs before departure)-I'm 5 hours away. If literally nothing goes wrong I will make it with just enough time to park, walk from the economy lot to the terminal, check in, get through security, and board the plane. In an airport I've never been too. What a stupid thing to happen. Every gas station, coffee stop, bathroom break I watch 5 minutes tick down.

    'I knew better than to not factor in those stops' I chastise myself.

9:30am(1.5hr before departure)- After a very uncomfortable drive watching the google maps ETA ticking up I receive a phone call.

A snowstorm in the midwest has delayed my flight by 2 hours.

And suddenly it's all Ok, I'm saved. I went from late to early. At the ticket counter I reschedule my flights for later times in the day, get on the plane, and land in Chicago only 2 hours later than anticipated.

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6:30pm- Here I sit now, in the middle of a 6-hour layover in Chicago, feeling the opposite of how I felt 12 hours ago. I'm surrounded by many angry people. This storm coupled with some impressive lake effect snow, has thousands of people in the airport angry. Delayed flights, canceled flights, everyone seems angry. But not me.

Auriel and I's propensity for open end planning lead this rather large climactic event to effect us very little. I called her after I rescheduled the first plane ticket, asking if a 7 hour delay was ok. She was fine with it. We talked about the possibility of being stranded overnight in O'hare (still a possibility), not a big deal.

The Journey is the Adventure applies at every step of the process here. Being a very maleable traveler, spending the night in an airport won't effect me that much. I just keep my expectations muted. Even this is highly comical. Whatelse would I be doing right now? Probably sitting in bed doing the same thing I am now. Except I wouldn't be in Chicago, I'd be the same place I usually am, and probably bored.

Auriel's planning for this trip is really open ended. Birding in winter can be very unpredictable, and as such expectations are more of an unknown than anything else. We can change hotels if we want, we can make it to any part of the trip whenever we need to. We'll just shift plans as the come. Where life dictates we go, we'll go, because that's pretty much the only thing you can do. You need to remember there's always a plan B. It may not be close to what Plan A was, but there is another way.

Murphy's law moves our lives around in tumultuous ways. I think that's why the journey is the adventure works. It makes hurdles into turns, you just have to mute your expectations. Expectations are what every angry passenger in this airport has. No, I'm not saying they should all live like this. Many of them have kids, business to attend to, other peoples lives to deal with. Just something to think about when your planning your next trip.

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The next lesson to learn is the flip side to this argument. The importance of knowledge and giving yourself plenty of time to deal with the problems that may arise.

My fuzzy night time math has hurt me more than once. Making important decisions while your sleepy tends one towards shaving time too close. This creates the travel stress we're all looking to avoid. The reason many of my trips have worked out, despite the complete lack of planning, is how I didn't have a strong schedule to adhere too.

If you couple that with proper planning, calling ahead, seeing when things open, where things are, and thinking properly about what the real life time costs are, then you'll be winning the travel game.

It's something you probably know you should do, but expect thing to not go as they should. Add extra time to your calculations, and don't allow yourself to cut things too close. The stress is almost never worth it. There is a limit on trying to do too much versus your own happiness. Would you rather do 1,000 things crappily or 1 thing really well? While listing lends itself too doing 1,000 things half-assed, we should normally tend towards the latter.

Trust me, that frantic feeling sucks, but for now it's all landed in the realm of 'manageable'.

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Update-7:44pm, and I've been delayed again 3 hours. Hopefully I'll make it out of this frozen airport by tonight. I've got some birds to see.

10:50pm-ive been delayed further till 1150 now. Perhaps I should start finding a nice corner?

-Boone

Common Bird Profile : Common Grackle

Common Grackle - (Matt MacGillivray)

There aren't tons of bird species in rural Ohio, so I spent a lot of time growing up watching what has become one of my favorite backyard birds the Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula). 

Grackles can be very loud and often are found in large flocks. Their social nature gives us a great chance to watch them and learn about their fascinating social behavior. They can frequently be found calling, puffed up and marching around. Displaying is their way of communicating both to other grackles and to other species of birds. With a bit of careful observation you can start to pick out individuals and understand their social structure.

Male grackles are the ones doing most of the displaying but females can also be found strutting around with their beaks in the air, especially around limited resources, such as food. Exhibiting dominant behavior doesn't stop at other grackles though, which is why many people don't like grackles.

There are two reasons many people don't like grackles, they are often bullies at bird feeders and they are stereotyped as being heavy nest predators. Grackles can be bullies at the bird feeder, but aggressive behavior is natural, there is no way around this behavior, though if you want to discourage them from taking over your feeders there are a few things you can do. Grackles are large birds. If you can create a space they are simply too large for can help prevent them taking over a feeder. By putting some kind of mesh around the feeder with openings too small for grackles you can exclude them while still allowing other birds to feed. There are some more details on how to build on your own here, or you can buy feeders designed to exclude grackles.

Often your best bet is to leave one feeder available to the grackles. This way they can concentrate on one feeder while allowing other species opportunities to feed at the other. Grackles can be very aggressive and it's easy to anthropomorphize and feel bad for the smaller birds, but competition is a part of life for all species.

Grackle in flight - (Lostinfog)

The stereotype of grackles being heavy nest predators has lead many people to killing large numbers of grackles to protect their local birds. A neat paper just came out showing Common Grackles and some other commonly stereotyped nest predators aren't actually significant predators (1). Much of what is thought to be 'common knowledge' about many species of birds isn't totally based in fact, but based on isolated observations. Nature is a very variable system, so yes, some grackles predate nests. Nest predation is just part of nature, but grackles as a species aren't a significant predator.

Grackles are often found in large multi species flocks. These flocks are often made up of many species of Icterids (Red-winged Blackbirds, European Starlings, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and others) which at first look the same. The members of the flock may appear the same at first it's a great exercise in looking at shape instead of just color. Check out the shape of their wings, the length and shape of their tails and their relative size.

Grackles and Starlings in flight (jeffreyw)

Grackles will be the largest with long wings and tails which may appear to be slightly fanned out at the end and are rounded. European Starlings wings often appear slightly transparent and they have square tails. Red-winged Blackbirds wings are rounded and they have flat tails that are fanned out at the end. Brown-headed Cowbirds are the smallest bird you'll commonly see in these flocks and they have pointed wings and rounded tails.

There are many other Icterids that may also be parts of these flocks, but if you can learn to ID these four species at a glance you can quickly pick out the strange ones as well and then focus your attention on those. Watching these large flocks twist and turn through the air can be mesmerizing on it's own but once you start trying to pick out different species it becomes a fun challenge.

Grackles are often under-appreciated birds in the backyard, but their complex social behavior can make them fun to watch . What you learn from them can help you better understand and identify many other species. 

Whenever I hear the loud ruckus calls of a flock of grackles it always take me back to spring when I was growing up. I would watch hundreds of grackles display and call in the tall poplar trees in my backyard every morning. Hopefully I've convinced you to take a second look at them. With a little time you might start to like them as well as I do.

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(1) Friesen, L.E., Casbourn, G., Martin. V., Mackay, R.J. (2013) Nest Predation in an Anthropogenic Landscape. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 125:3 (562-569)
http://0-www.bioone.org.library.uark.edu/doi/abs/10.1676/12-169.1

Traveling on a Budget: Why you should never buy a hotel early.

Where you'd probably stay
if the price was cheap enough

You're an explorer of the natural world. You adhere to the Journey is the Adventure mantra, and you always keep your LEFT expenses low. You don't want to spend all your time in the hotel, you want to spend your time on the adventure!

So why would you want to spend more money on a hotel you're just going to be in for 8 hours?

Buying a hotel early nails down where you're going to be at a particular moment, and that's not what you want. Breaking down a vacation into a time line is the fast track to reminding you of why you hated your family vacations as a kid. Just passed by a local festival? Sorry, gotta get to the next state by tonight. Are you tired of driving? Too bad, still have 6 hours to drive.

If you book a hotel at the last minute (literally) you're free to stop when you want. This frees your mind from the stress of travel and switches to enjoying what's around you.

This is one of the important backbones to the Traveling is the Journey lifestyle. You have to free yourself from any possible stressfull and constricting factors. That way, your travel is fluid, and more able to adapt to changing conditions and new information.

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Priceline

Let me sell you on why you should use Priceline.com instead. Sadly, I don't work for Priceline, it would be a dream if I did (hint hint Priceline).

Say we assume a 2.5 star or less hotel prices change very little, we can therefore assume we're guaranteed a certain price. That price is somewhere between $40-$50 for a motel 6 or Super 8. These lower star hotels basically never sell out, and are usually in any respectable town along your way.

Priceline lets you name your own price for a region. If you know you're guaranteed a hotel for $40-50, why not try and see if you can get something cheaper. As you're, of course, adhering to the Journey is the Adventure mantra, you have the power.

Start by selecting an area somewhere in the next couple hours infront of you. Go to the Express Deals section of Priceline.You're checking out what regions have the cheapest hotels and what the lowest price hotel. Whatever the cheapest hotel price is we'll start our bidding at half of it.

Head on over to the Name your own Price section, choose 2.5 or 3 stars, and bid a little less than half the price of the lowest hotel you found earlier. Choose the region that seemed to contain the cheapest hotels and press bid. Most likely your first bid will fail, especially if it's anywhere from $20-25. But thats ok, we're starting at your baseline.

Every time you fail a bid Priceline requires that you either add a region or add a lesser rated hotel to your search. Normally you could resubmit the same bid as long as you changed one of the above things, but as we're guessing we're probably at the cheapest region we have to up the bid. Go ahead and add a different region that's still along your route and up your bid $3-5. Continue like this till you strike gold.

By feeling around like this you can usually hit a good price, if you get within $3-5 of the lowest hotel price you found earlier you can either: 1. Start over in an area near the current one. 2. Give up and just choose that cheap hotel you found earlier. Or 3. Just navigate to the nearest super 8's/motel 6's your find and hope they're cheaper (they're probably the same).

If you start worrying, just remember, it doesn't matter if you never find a hotel on Priceline, there's always plan B and plan C

**Pro-tip: Learn the expensive parts of town and use them as an extra bidding oppurtunity. It doesn't matter that they may be out of your way, you get another bidding chance, and they weren't going to accept you anyway. If they do, it's probably worth the couple extra bucks in gas to stay in a 4 star hotel for the night**

For more data points, check out Biddingfortravel.com. This site is a forum for success stories, sorted by particular cities. Just remember, just because last week someone found a particular price, doesn't mean this week you can get the same one.

I've found some really good deals including a $25 hotel room just a block from the beach in South Padre Island! Not booking a hotel till an hour before can really stress out a person that's not used to a lack of planning. Once you get going and win a couple of bids you'll realize it's a win win for you.
Plus it's incredibly exciting when you do book a great deal.
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Well maybe you should buy one early, occasionally...

Conventions, because you know, maybe you're kind of into that.

Booking at the last minute can sometimes go terrible wrong. For one, sometimes really large events happen to be going on in the town you're hoping to stay in. If you're in San Diego during Comic Con, good luck. New Orleans during Mardi Gras, might want to just start walking across town it will be faster. These events are rare, but be cognizant of the possibility if hotel prices are much higher than you expected.

Vegas is an entirely different beast that we'll cover later. So for now, I'll just warn you to stay away from pricelining in vegas.

These tips are mainly for travelers passing through or for a single day where location doesn't matter.  If you're main destination is a city and you're spending more than one night it might be beneficial to book early. It goes double if you're infact going to Comic Con, book that early and probably like yesterday.
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One last thing. You need to remember most hotels are more expensive on the weekends. To counter this, I try to book a hotel only on the weekdays and switch to cheaper accommodations like camping or sleeping in my car on the weekend. Spacing hotels out like this is a great trick for keeping sanity and stay on budget. We'll discuss the topic in depth in the future.

That's it for now, good luck, and happy bidding!

-Boone

Travel Hacks : Federal Land Pass

There are many things you need while traveling that can be bought for cheap with the thought you can just beat them up along the way. But every so often you need to pay more to gain more. This is true of all sorts of equipment, many of which we'll get to later, but definitely includes passes.

One of those passes is the Federal Lands Pass. The $80 price tag might make you balk but it quickly saves you money, especially if your traveling out west. 

What this pass does is it gives you free entrance into any federal property that charges a fee. This includes US Forest Service, National Wildlife Refuges, National Parks, Bureau of Land Management and others. It also gives you a discount on camping at many sites. 

At first that might not seem like a big deal, but if you look at the cost of just going to a few parks, it quickly pays for itself. Most national parks charge an entrance fee that covers you (or your vehicle depending on the park) going in and out for seven days. For many parks that fee is $20 if not more. If you plan to be there for a week then thats not a big deal, pretty low cost per day. But lets say you're planning a week in Utah and want to hit all the national parks in that beautiful state. 

Not everyone wants to spend seven days in
Death Valley, but it's well worth exploring
for at least a few hours. 

Just the entrance fees for all the national parks in Utah is $80, right there you could already break even just buying the pass. The pass also gets you cheaper camping at many federal campgrounds and it gives you the ability to go in and out of however many parks you like.

This lets you decide to pull into Mount Rushmore for fifteen minutes as you're driving through South Dakota or spend a Saturday afternoon at a historic battlefield near home without having to worry about staying in your budget. 

If most of your traveling during the year is going to be east of the Mississippi River getting a federal lands pass might have be the correct choice. There are less national parks in the east and some of them (Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Great Smoky Mountains National Park) don't charge entrance fees. There are many national historic sites though, so if you're a history buff or if you live near one of the parks that does charge entrance fees it can still be worth it. It's all about making it easier to decide to go explore somewhere.

Since there are more national parks out west and lots more federally owned land (national forests, national wildlife refuges, etc) having the pass can make travel much simpler since you get to make the fun decisions (where) instead of the hard decisions (how much your willing to spend). You can buy a pass online or at most National Wildlife Refuges and National Parks. 

State Parks With/Without Entrance Fees
Green = With
Gray = Free
Orange = Depends
(Arkansas varies by park,
Montana is free to residents)

Chances are that having a state parks pass has the same, if not more benefits then a federal lands pass. State parks are probably your best bet for local camping, hiking and learning about local history. While not all states charge entrance fees for their parks if they do picking up a pass makes taking advantage of these parks much easier to do on the spur of the moment. If you don't have to pay that entrance fee every time you're much more likely to come back to the same parks and get to know your local area better, which is fantastic! If you're a birder this can be a big deal as well, since you might not spend a lot of time in any one park, and will want to visit several in the same day or weekend. If you don't have a pass this can add up quickly. So support your local state parks and grab an annual pass if your state offers one (most of them do, more details on individual states here).

All of this comes down to the fact that passes make travel an easy decision, which makes exploring easier. Easier exploring is the ultimate goal so you can spend as much time as possible out enjoying the outdoors. 

Common Bird Profile: Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)

Tufted Titmouse

When I was a kid my father liked to teach me the names of all the animals around us. He was by no means a birder, but a man who knew a little about a lot. I marveled at his knowledge as he pointed out Red-tailed Hawks on the fence posts or Cedar Waxwings zipping across the road. But out of all the birds he showed me, the one bird that I loved the most was the Tufted Titmouse. Here was a bird in my own backyard I had never heard of before. It wasn't a boring Cardinal or Blue Jay but a strange bird with a giant mohawk. It was a rockstar.

Anyone who's birded the eastern forests have come to intimately know this little bird. He's among the first birds you learn to identify as a beginning birder and easy to distinguish once you know what you're looking for. These charismatic and chatty birds are not just a staple but a fascinating bird of behavior.

The Tufted Titmouse maintains small territories and continues to defend them well past breeding season. They're so concentrated in their territory that that few pairs may never leave their homerange. This means your backyard titmice may stay with your for their whole life!

Like blue jays, they are a caching species that store food away for winter. In the fall, you can watch titmice raid bird feeders with what seems like a voracious appetite. Instead of eating the seeds, they'll crack them open on a branch and store them away for later. This can be a problem as they're also known to choose the biggest seeds possible even if that means throwing other bird seed on the ground to get to it. One way to avoid this is to have a bird feeder with just large sunflower seeds, so they can selectively feed there instead.

Charismatic and chatty, titmice are more curious than shy, and will readily come up close to you in response to your approach or sound. They give great looks to anyone around, and like chickadees are useful for birders. You can use their gregarious nature to find other birds any season. During the spring and fall, they are useful in finding mixed species flocks full of migrant warblers and vireos. In the winter, when birds are scarce, you can chase down the sound of a loud titmouse to find other winter birds foraging together. Once you learn their calls you'll realize 50% of the forest bird songs were really just titmice! This will hopefully make identifying other calls much less daunting.
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The Tufted Titmouse and Black-crested Titmouse

Up until 2002, the related Black-crested Titmouse was considered a subspecies of Tufted Titmouse. This sub-tropical species lives mainly in the warmer and drier parts of Texas and north east Mexico.

The two species maintain a hard range along the IH-35 corridor in Texas. This line corresponds not only with the raised elevation of the Balcone's faultline, but the precipitation gradient across the state. The wetter areas of East Texas favor the Tufted, while the semi-arid zones in the Hill Country suite the Black-crested Titmouse. There's even  a thin line between the two ranges where both species breed together creating a hybrid that has a completely black-crest and forehead!

The two ranges of the Tufted Titmouse (purple) and Black-crested Titmouse (green)
lining up along the 35in/yr precipitation line (per ebird.org)

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Admittedly, one reason I love the Tufted Titmouse is they remind me of Black-crested Titmice back home in Texas. In the Juniper/Oak forests of central Texas, the juniper is usually less foraged compared to the bountiful oaks. Usually only the resident endemics like the Black-crested Titmouse and Golden-cheeked Warbler regularly forage on them. It's because of this that I always believed they loved Central Texas as much as I do.

Sometimes you don't need a good reason to go birding, just a little reminder of home.

-Boone

Advantages of Backyard Bird Feeding Part 2 - Identification

American Robin - (John Beetham)

Most people can identify a few species of birds, a Bald Eagle, a Mallard and perhaps an American Robin. Chances are you don't remember learning these species and you can probably identify them very quickly after you see one.

You can identify these species so easily because you are very familiar with the white head of the Bald Eagle, the green iridescence of the Mallard or the rusty orange breast of the American Robin. Being so familiar with the birds around you all the time is one of the advantages of having bird feeders.

The more comfortable you can get with common species, with the changes in appearance they experience throughout the year, what their babies look like, what they look like when their molting the better prepared you'll be to recognize strange things.

Molting Juvenile Cardinal
(Nicole Miller)

Until you watch the Northern Cardinals day in and day out you probably won't notice the young ones don't have orange bills and when the young males are growing into their adult colors they almost look like they are tie-dyed.

You'll miss the goldfinches changing from their drab winter plumage into their bright summer feathers. Knowing what all these species look like throughout the year helps you identify things quickly and helps picking up on strange things even faster.

If you're used to always seeing House Finches with their red and orange washes on their face covering your feeders and one day you notice one of them is more washed in purple you've probably discovered a new species for your feeder, the Purple Finch. If you aren't paying attention they are easy to miss, but the beautiful raspberry purple color of the Purple Finch is worth the extra effort.

By getting familiar with the sparrows coming to your feeder you'll be better prepared for identifying them and other species when you go out birding. Sparrows can be really tough, they tend to move a lot and don't always give you the best views. Watching them at a feeder is by far the best way to learn how to quickly ID them, its hard to get good looks at them any other way. The faster you can identify the ones you already know the better off you'll be. Whether you become familiar with just the common House Sparrow or if you also have Song Sparrows or Chipping Sparrows at your feeder each one is unique.

Many species of birds are only around seasonally, and paying close attention to the birds at your feeder can help you mark the passing of the seasons. Dark-eyed Juncos are called 'snowbirds' in many places because they show up just before winter and then leave at the first signs of spring. There are dozens of different species that might show up just for the summer, but juncos are snow birds, and their arrival has always been special to me, a bright spot after all the warblers have headed south.

If you like documenting the changing of the seasons try keeping a note book by the window where you see your feeders. Keeping track of when things arrive and depart each year is a great habit to get into and this kind of note taking is really valuable for when you see something strange and you want to be able to document it, either for yourself or to share that record with others.

Watching birds at your feeder can be extremely rewarding and help you better understand your local environment and be better prepared for any future birding adventures. So go fill up the feeders and keep a close eye on who shows ups!