HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: willner@head-cfa.harvard.edu (Steve Willner)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Binoculars Question
Date: 27 Jan 93 18:09:53 GMT
Organization: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA,  USA


> >Paul asks the meaning of 8 x 40 for bins.  

In article <winer.728073920@husc.harvard.edu>,
winer@husc10.harvard.edu (Adam Winer) writes: 
>   The value 40/8 (5)
> is a measure of how wide the image leaving the binoculars is.

This is correct, though it might be better to think of it as the ray
bundle.  The technical term is "exit pupil diameter."

Cheaper binoculars have square exit pupils because of vignetting in
the prism.  In these, the "diameter" is actually the size of the
diagonal of the square, and you get only 2/pi of the light you would
expect. 

> In other words, it measures not how wide a field of view you get,
> but how much light you can see.  8 x 40 bins and 7 x 35 bins
> (everything else equal) give you the same brightness of image,
> but could have completely different fields of view.
> Any ratio over 7 is wasted, because the human eye's maximum
> pupil width is 7 mm.

In fact, for birding, any diameter over about 3 or 4 mm is wasted.
Check out your pupil size in twilight some time.  (This opinion is
contrary to a lot of received wisdom, but I stand by it.)

Exit pupil diameters up to 7 mm _may_ be useful for surveillance or
astronomy or other observing in full darkness, but even then not
everyone's eyes will open that wide.
-- 
Steve Willner            Phone 617-495-7123         Bitnet:   willner@cfa
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA                 Internet: willner@cfa.harvard.edu
  member, League for Programming Freedom; contact league@prep.ai.mit.edu
From: rising@zoo.toronto.edu (Jim Rising)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Purple Martin arrival
Date: 26 Jan 93 21:41:36 GMT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

I can tell you they (Progne subis) aren't back in Toronto yet!
However, it would be nice to follow them north on the net this
spring.
P.S.  I do have Peregrine Falcon on my yard list, and I live in
the middle of a great big city.  However, could have been an
escaped falconer's bird.  Also have Townsend's Solitare (at
the time the 2nd record for the Province) and Bohemian Waxwing
(not a bad bird for southern Ontario).
-- 
Name:     Jim Rising
Mail:     Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada    M5S 1A1
UUCP:     uunet!attcan!utzoo!rising 
BITNET:   rising@zoo.utoronto.ca
From: sandee@Think.COM (Daan Sandee)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Baikal Teal in Colorado; Dusky Thrush near Vancouver
Date: 27 Jan 1993 16:42:37 GMT
Organization: TMC
NNTP-Posting-Host: tremor.quake.think.com

In article <C1HH0p.81K@zoo.toronto.edu>, tony@zoo.toronto.edu (Anthony L. Lang) writes:
|> In article: <C1G0rt.KAH@acsu.buffalo.edu>
|>  dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu (David Mark) writes:
|> >And my father told me that a Dusky Thrush (Turdus naumanni) was
|> >being seen somewhere near Vancouver (he knew; I've forgotten).
|> >As of 1983, there had been no sightings of T. naumanni in
|> >North America south of Alaska.

To the best of my knowledge, it's the first ever sighting south of Alaska.

|> According to Peter Whelan's regular Saturday birding column in the
|> Toronto Globe and Mail, this bird was seen on about Jan. 2 in
|> Langley, B.C. near Vancouver.  It stayed for only a few days, but
|> plenty of people saw it.

Both the Dusky Thrush in Vancouver and the female Baikal Teal in Evergreen,
CO were around until last weekend but apparently they're both gone now.

Daan Sandee                                           sandee@think.com
Thinking Machines Corporation
1010 El Camino Real, Suite 310
Menlo Park, CA 94025                                  (415) 329-9300
Newsgroups: rec.birds
From: aforsten@aton.abo.fi (Annika Forsten INF)
Subject: Re: Field Notes
Organization: Abo Akademi University, Finland
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 13:59:57 GMT

In article <1993Jan21.182958.13576@pixel.kodak.com> tgl@ssd.kodak.com (Tom Lathrop) writes:

>   I am relatively new to birding, and am interested in learning what other
>   birders use for making notes in the field. I tried using a small spiral-
>   bound notebook, but it hasn't stood up well to being tossed in my
>   birding bag with other paraphernalia. Also, what sort of notes do you
>   make? I've mostly recorded the date, weather, location, and species seen.
>   In the case of a bird I don't know, I'll usually write a description,
>   then look up the bird in the field guide and write down what I think it
>   is. That way, if the bird flies away before I can find it in the field
>   guide, at least I have a written description. But should I be writing more
>   than this? 

There are all sorts of notebooks, what you like depends or your needs. I,
for instance, use quite a thin one. I used to have a thicker one, but lost
it, with all my notes. So if I loose the thinner type, I won't loose so
much notes. Hardback could be a good idea if you want to draw the birds
or to keep it intact.

In addition to what you mentioned, you should record the numbers of the
birds, not just the species. And if you can, age and sex as well. Your
notes won't be of much use to anyone else if you do not include numbers.
Also if you see a bird of a common species in an unusual plumage, it would
be good to note down the features or make a drawing. Those strange
looking common birds are very important in learning field identification.
And drawing is a great way to learn what the birds really look like.

If you feel like it, you can also put down any interesting behaviour or
any other aspects you see or hear. You'll never write too much, but at
least I often afterwards wish I'd written more.

annika forsten, finland
aforsten@aton.abo.fi
From: nextug@ac.dal.ca
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Do YOU Have Peregrine Falcon on YOUR Yard List
Date: 27 Jan 93 11:09:50 -0400
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Yes actually, well to be exact, in my parents yard. They live at the base of a peninsula on the shore of the Bay of Fundy. Just off the end is a small
island where a pair of peregrines have been nesting recently. During
the summer it is a frequent sight to see them cruising up and down the
coast from our kitchen window. Also in July & August they take regular
(occasionally successful) runs at the shorebirds gathered on the beach
and roosting during high tide.
	Other regular raptors include Kestrels,  Merlins, Sharp-shinned Hawks,
Red-tailed Hawks, Broad-winged Hawks, Bald Eagles, Marsh Hawks and
Short-eared Owls. On the property there have also been Gyrfalcon's,
Golden Eagles and Barred & Snowy Owls, although I'm not sure if they ever saw
them from the kitchen window. It's a pretty good place to sit with your
morning coffee and a Questar!

	Cheers!
	Christopher Majka

P.S. Found a seal carcass there this summer. No Condors on it though...
Newsgroups: rec.birds
From: Edward Darnel <darnel@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Bird-banding in North America
Originator: darnel@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 20:23:42 GMT
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
From: chavel@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Chris Havel)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Binoculars Question
Date: 28 Jan 1993 10:07:05 -0600
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: matt.ksu.ksu.edu

mackenzi@McRCIM.McGill.EDU (Paul Mackenzie) writes:


>I assume there must be some people in this group who know about
>binoculars - can anyone tell me what the numbers listed with
>a particular unit mean?  I've seen a few in stores that say
>8 x 40mm or something like this, and I've also seen things like
>field of vision is 340' at 1000 ft.  Can anyone tell me how to
>decipher the magnification out of these so I don't buy a cheap
>pair of field glasses?

>Thanks,
>Paul

The first set of numbers-8x40mm: The first number stands for the
                                 magnification power. The higher it is,
                                 the closer objects appear, but the harder
                                 it is to keep the object steady. The 
                                 second number is the diameter of the large
                                 lens on the end of the bincos. The larger
                                 this lens, the more light gathered, and the
                                 clearer objects will seem.
The second set-340'/1000': The field of view is the amount of area you can
                           see at once through the glasses. With a 340/1000,
                           you can scan an area 340' across, 1000' distant 
                           without moving the binocs.

These sound like solid glasses for birding to me (though I prefer something
with a wider field of view). When looking fora good set, make sure they are
waterproof and come with fully coated optics (coated optics cut down on the
amount of light lost due to reflection off the lens...the more light making
it to your eyes the better!!)

Chris
Kansas Dept. Of Wildlife and Parks
chavel@matt.ksu.ksu.edu
From: josh@cqs.washington.edu (Josh Hayes)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Naturalists at Night (anecdote, rather long)
Date: 22 Jan 93 17:14:23 GMT
Organization: University of Washington
NNTP-Posting-Host: pogo.cqs.washington.edu

It occurs to me that I should caution people about driving
slowly down the road at night, looking for birds.

Several years ago, I was helping my wife with her research
by going "road-running" with her. She needed snakes for
a project, and in South Texas the best way to get them is
to go out at night after it's cooled off. The blacktop road,
however, stays warm, and snakes seem to like that. So, we
drove down the side of the road with the headlights on, at
about ten miles an hour, and whenever we saw one we stopped
the truck, leapt out, and subdued the snake.

Most of them were rattlesnakes, unfortunately; useless for
her purposes.

After about two hours, we came around a bend, and there was
a police car sitting on the side of the road. I drove around
him and continued on down the road...I could see the two guys
in the car turn to look at each other, and then they started
up and followed us, at ten miles an hour, for about two miles.

Finally he pulled me over, walked up, and asked me to step
out of the car and walk a straight line and suchlike...he
thought I was so drunk I could only drive at that speed.
After we explained it all to him, and showed him our collecting
permits, he thought it was pretty funny. But he still ticketed
me for having my license plate light burned out....

Josh Hayes

--
  Josh Hayes, Quantitative Sciences HR-20 U of Washington
  josh@mowgli.cqs.washington.edu             206 543-5004
     The harvest now is over, the summer days are gone
	     And yet no power cometh to help us
From: culshaw@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Toxic Bird
Date: 26 Jan 93 17:56:49 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

The original article is in Science, 10th October 1992, volume 258, pages 799-
801.
The toxin involved is Homobatrachotoxin - Batrachotoxins are also found in
the so-called Poison Dart Frogs. Quantities of toxin in the Hooded Pitohui
are much less than in the frogs, though.
Two other members of the pitohui family possess this chemical defence -
Variable Pitohui and Rusty Pitohui. The Hooded has the largest amount of toxin.

Andy Culshaw.
Newsgroups: rec.birds
From: rglaeser@cs.uiuc.edu (Russ Glaeser)
Subject: AVES archive
Summary: Down for a few days
Reply-To: rglaeser@uiuc.edu
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 23:09:18 GMT

AVES, your favorite spot to acquire bird gifs, will be down for several
days while we turn the lab upside down, move across the street, and install
a new operating system.  I've also noticed a reocurring problem connecting
to vitruvius, and I'm not sure what the problem is.  I'm trying to figure it
out.  Anyway, gimmie a couple days.

Thanks,
Russ Glaeser
rglaeser@uiuc.edu
rglaeser@vitruvius.cecer.army.mil

Newsgroups: rec.birds
From: ka1gt@cbnewsm.cb.att.com (robert.m.atkins)
Subject: Falconry Voting - second call
Organization: AT&T
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 19:42:41 GMT

The informal poll on falconry will remain open until the end of the week
so if you have not voted, now is the time. I will report the results
early next week.

The question is "Should falconry postings appear in rec.birds?"

Just to clarify things (some replies have been a bit confused), this is
NOT a vote on whether postings about raptors should appear (I assume
everyone thinks they should), or about whether falconers should post
about raptor behaviour in the wild (I assume no-one has a problem with
that either) or raptor physiology/biology etc. It is a vote about
falconry, some definitions of which are given below:

Falconry is described by the Audubon Society Encyclopaedia of North
American Birds as "The practice of flying trained falcons and other birds
of prey at living prey". They also describe it as "Training falcons to
pursue and capture wild birds" and as "catching birds and other animals
by means of falcons (or hawks, or eagles)". Webster's defines it as
"The art of training falcons to pursue game" and "The sport of hunting
with falcons".

Also note that it is NOT a vote about the creation of a rec.falconry
newsgroup, whether falconry is "right" or "wrong" or where falconry
postings should appear (if not in rec. birds).

Please MAIL votes (containing at least the word "yes" or "no") by either
replying to this message via email (which will get to me via my
news machine) or directly emailing me at "att!clockwise!rma" or
"rma@att.clockwise.com" depending on your mail system. Again, "YES" is
a vote FOR falconry postings. "NO" is a vote AGAINST falconry postings.
Note that this is purely an informal poll, just to see what the
prevailing opinions are.


===============================================================
Bob Atkins  AT&T Bell Labs  email (direct)  att!clockwise!rma
===============================================================
From: br105@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeffrey A. Del Col)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Toxic Bird?
Date: 25 Jan 1993 02:50:18 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: br105@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeffrey A. Del Col)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In the well known ornithology journal THE WEEKLY READER (My son's in 
the third grade) I found an article about a toxic bird, the Hooded
Pitohui.  This is a New Guinea sp. found to have toxic feathers and skin.
Can anyone provide more information about this?  The article mentions
a John Dumbacher as the scientist who discovered the bird's toxicity
when he licked some cuts on his hands after handling a pitohui.  Has he
published a report of this anywhere?

Does anyone know of any other species of bird with such properties?


J. Del Col
-- 
Jeff Del Col      *   DECONSTRUCTION--- the critical method invented      
A-B College       *                      by Procrustes  
Philippi, WV      *                             
                  *         
Newsgroups: rec.birds,rec.hunting
From: fiddler@concertina.Eng.Sun.COM (steve hix)
Subject: Re: Falconry : Rec.Birds -to-> Rec.Hunting
Organization: Sun
Date: 22 Jan 93 10:05:30 CST
Originator: hunting@osnome.che.wisc.edu
Keywords: They actually like us over there, guys!

In article <1993Jan19.091258.6057@doug.cae.wisc.edu> birchall@pilot.njin.net (Shag) writes:
>
>Since a couple participants on Rec.Hunting (and the moderator) have 
>expressed that they wouldn't mind the "falconry gang" hanging out on
>their newsgroup, I hereby suggest that we take them up on it.  (It
>
>[If it helps any, I'm the son of an NRA life-member...]


Is that National Raptor Association?  :}


-------------------------------------------------------
| Some things are too important not to give away      |
| to everybody else and have none left for yourself.  |
|------------------------ Dieter the car salesman-----|
From: wvenable@attunga.stats.adelaide.edu.au (Bill Venables)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: HELP: Best travel destination(s) for bird-watching???
Date: 26 Jan 93 09:39:14
Organization: Department of Statistics, University of Adelaide
NNTP-Posting-Host: attunga.stats.adelaide.edu.au
In-reply-to: dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu's message of 25 Jan 93 01:42:46 GMT

>>>>> "David" == David Mark <dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu> writes:
David> Nntp-Posting-Host: lictor.acsu.buffalo.edu

David> In article <bethp.727892840@milton> bethp@milton.u.washington.edu
David> (Beth Plotkin) writes:
>HELP: What are some of the best travel destinations in the world
>for bird watching?  All opinions welcome!

David> That depends so much on what you want to get out of the trip!  Of
David> the places that I have been, I would nominate northeastern
David> Australia, either the Brisbane region or the Cairns-Atherton area;

I'm surprised, since I thought that somewhere like South or Central America
would be much more dazzling.  However to be specific, in the Brisbane area
the Green Mountain National Park (O'Rielley's guest house) on the Lamington
Plateau is possibly the best place to visit if you are just passing
through.  The Cairns-Atherton area is even better, of course, (Cairns is my
home town :-) and with heaps of hot spots that you would need to ask a
local birdwatcher about - most are not on the tourist tracks.  However if
you were going that far from the US you would be well advised to go even
further north to the Iron Range National Park on the Claudie River.  It's
the southern limit for many New Guinea birds and the northern limit for
many Australian ones.  There are also quite a few endemics to the area
itself (like the green-backed honeyeater), and the area is still very
remote and unspoiled.  It is easily the most productive and spectacular
area I have ever been to.

Bill
--
___________________________________________________________________________
Bill Venables, Dept. of Statistics, | Email: venables@stats.adelaide.edu.au
Univ. of Adelaide, South Australia. | Tel: +61 8 228 5412  Fax: ...232 5670
From: ditch@prefect.cc.bellcore.com (ditch,r l)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Do YOU Have Peregrine Falcon on YOUR Yard List?
Date: 26 Jan 93 20:31:30 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ

All this talk about yard list raptors made me check my own list for
central NJ, where I've owned a house since December 1978.  Yes, I do
have peregrine falcon on my yard list, as well as 17 other raptors
(vultures, hawks, and owls).  They are:

  1 Black Vulture
  2 Turkey Vulture
  3 Osprey
  4 Bald Eagle
  5 Northern Harrier
  6 Sharp-shinned Hawk
  7 Cooper's Hawk
  8 Northern Goshawk
  9 Red-shouldered Hawk
 10 Broad-winged Hawk
 11 Red-tailed Hawk
 12 Rough-legged Hawk
 13 American Kestrel
 14 Merlin
 15 Peregrine Falcon
 16 Eastern Screech-Owl
 17 Great Horned Owl
 18 Northern Saw-whet Owl

Based on the official NJ state checklist, I still could add the following:

American swallow-tailed kite (I haven't seen this anywhere but FL)
Mississippi kite (I've only seen this once, in Cape May NJ)
Swainson's hawk (I've only seen this once in NJ; numbers of times out west)
Golden eagle (only seen 3 in NJ)
Gyrfalcon (seen 4 in NJ, closest to house was 25 miles)
Barn owl (seen about 10 in NJ, but no closer than 15 miles to my house)
Snowy owl (seen about 15 in NJ, no closer than 25 miles to the house)
Barred owl (seen about 5 in NJ, a pair about 10 miles away)
Long-eared owl (seen lots in NJ, as close as 10 miles)
Short-eared owl (seen lots in NJ, as close as 10 miles)

That comes out to having 18 of 28, or 64% of the state list, on my yard
list.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
| Richard Ditch, in the New Jersey "Wilderness"    Voice: 908-758-2284  |
| Bellcore, Room 1F416, 331 Newman Springs Rd, Red Bank, NJ 07701-7050  |
|=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=|
| Unix: prefect!ditch     |     INTERNET: ditch@prefect.cc.bellcore.com |
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Newsgroups: rec.birds
From: ka1gt@cbnewsm.cb.att.com (robert.m.atkins)
Subject: Re: Bird watching at night
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 19:16:21 GMT

In article <1993Jan22.152433.18046@watson.ibm.com>, andrewt@watson.ibm.com (Andrew Taylor) writes:
> In article <josh.727641751@pogo> josh@cqs.washington.edu (Josh Hayes) writes:
> >On a related question, has anyone had any success "jacklighting"
> >birds; that is, going out at night with a nice bright spotlight
> >and catching eyeshine?
> 
> I've done this quite often in Australia.  In forest, listening for calls and
> 
> My favourite spot is in Royal National Park on Sydney's southern outskirts.
> There I've seen
> 

Just worth pointing out that in many of the US National Parks there are
specific regulations which prohibit the use of artifical lighting to
observe wildlife at night (I assume to give them at least some relief
from being disturbed by the visitors?).

===============================================================
Bob Atkins  AT&T Bell Labs  email (direct)  att!clockwise!rma
===============================================================

Newsgroups: rec.birds
From: tgl@ssd.kodak.com (Tom Lathrop 588-0677)
Subject: Re:  field notes
Organization: Eastman Kodak
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 22:02:12 GMT

Several people have responded to my query about making field notes with
the suggestion that I use a micro-cassette tape recorder and record
spoken notes. It sounds like an interesting idea, and I may give it a
try. But I have another question: can this recorder be used for other
things as well? For instance, I have seen people use taped bird calls
to try to coax birds out of hiding. Is a small recorder like this
suitable for that use as well? And what about recording bird songs in
the field, for later identification at home? I wouldn't expect to make
professional quality recordings, but if I could hear the song at all it
would be useful. Would I need an external microphone? Will small recorders
like this accept external microphones?

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. There have been some
interesting ideas.

Tom Lathrop
tgl@sector.kodak.com

Newsgroups: rec.birds