North Central Illinois Ornithological Society

I am in the process of upgrading the website/blog for NCIOS so things will look rather funny/different for a day or two (hopefully not longer and most likely shorter). There’s a high probability that your user password (for those who post) was reset and hopefully emailed to you automatically. You will have to update the password or if that doesn’t work I can manually issue a password and then you can change it.

Otherwise, you are free to post away as normal and I will be working on getting everything looking the way it should again (all the posts “should” be there but with export/import some could have been lost).

The main site of NCIOS (the non-blog portion) should be 100% good at this time.

Thanks,

Eddie Callaway, NCIOS web administrator.

The cranes were still present as of late afternoon today.

Dan and I recorded the bands on the 5 Whooping Cranes and reported them to the International Crane Foundation. Here is the info they sent back:

Thank you so much for contacting us about the 5 whooping cranes you observed and for recording all of the color bands on their legs.  Crane #1 is 29-08, Crane #2 is 12-07, Crane #3 is 8-05, Crane #4 is 1-04, and Crane #5 is 14-05.  This is an unusual grouping because these birds were not associating with each other prior to starting migration on Sunday. 

#’s 1-04 & 8-05 are a breeding pair, 1-04 is a 5 year old male, and 8-05 is a 4 year old female.  They spend the winter in TN and nested unsuccessfully for the second time this spring.  They started migration from the Necedah NWR on Sunday AM but not with the other birds. 

#’s 12-07 & 14-05 are a 2 and 4 year old male who only recently joined up when they both moved south from where they’d spent the spring and summer.  We didn’t know they were migrating on Sunday – just that they were no longer at their last known location but I’m guessing they actually did fly Sunday AM, otherwise I’m not sure how all these birds met up and ended up at the same place – even so it still seems pretty unlikely and yet pretty cool that these 5 all ended up together.  I think 12-07 & 14-05 both spent last winter at separate locations in FL – they’ll probably go back to FL but they’re not as locked in on a winter location as the pair mentioned above.

#29-08 is a 1 year old male – he learned how to migrate south last fall behind ultralight aircraft so this is his first fall migration on his own.  I would normally expect him to return to FL and to the area he spent last winter in the release pen but he may be influenced by these other birds that he’s traveling with so we’ll have to wait and see.  He started migration from near Necedah Sunday AM but wasn’t with the pair so somewhere along the way all 5 of these birds – probably originally in 3 separate groups met up in the air and all ended up at the same place.

It’s unclear to me from other reports we’ve gotten whether these birds are still there or if they’ve moved on.  If you visit this area again or hear of any reports of these or any whooping cranes please let me know.  Also please let me know if you have any questions about these birds, I’m happy to answer them or at least try.

Thanks again,
Sara
 
Sara Zimorski
Aviculturist/WCEP Tracking and Winter Management Team Co-chair

International Crane Foundation
E11376 Shady Lane Road/P.O. Box 447
Baraboo, WI 53913-0447 USA
608-356-9462 x154 / Fax: 608-356-9465
Visit our website!  www.savingcranes.org

A quick update! The calendar of events for the new birding season is live. You can view all the upcoming meetings, field trips and bird counts here.

URGENT NOTICE – Car Pooling for NCIOS February 21, 2009 Field Trip Canceled

Due to the Winter Storm Warning for Northern Illinois, effective 11 p.m. February 20 through 6 p.m. February 21, and the hazardous driving conditions that are anticipated, NCIOS CANNOT OFFER CAR POOLING TO THE ANNUAL GULL FROLIC at Winthrop Harbor. Therefore, we will NOT meet at 8 a.m. at Menards on Route 173.

However, THE GULL FROLIC IS STILL BEING HELD, for those who wish to attend individually.

Today I got a message from Brian Leaf of Severson Dells which explained an unfortunate accident that occurred to Mary Kay Rubey, an excellent wildlife photographer from right here in Rockford.

Her message:

“I’m selling my spotting scope to pay some unexpected medical bills. It’s a Swarovski AT 80 HD with 20x-60x zoom angled eye-piece. If you know anyone who is interested, please let me know.”

Not wanting to post her phone number, you can call Brian Leaf at Severson Dells if you are interested and he can relay the information. His number: (815) 335-2915.

The scope with eyepiece retails new for around $2,830. Swarovski is a top-of-the-line optic company and it is terrible for Mary Kay Rubey to have been injured.

- Eddie

Wednesday at about two o’clock the kitelet was still present in the top of a tree in the schoolyard. It was fed a cicada and a praying mantis by one of the adults while I watched. I stopped in the school and talked to the front office staff. I offered to prepare a display panel on the kites with some photos, a range map and a couple of paragraphs about MKs in general and these MKs in particular. The staff thought that was a great idea. I’m going to put it together and it will go in the library which all students visit once a week. Never let a “teachable moment” slip by!

This upcoming birding season looks to be jam-packed with superb field trips and informative meetings. Check out the newly updated calendar of events now! I have also sent the updates to IOS to list on their website.

Don’t miss a single one event!!

- Eddie Callaway, NCIOS webmaster

If your photos are on your computer and not hosted on another website

Step One: Make sure your photos are resized to a width of 500px (or less). This keeps the space size (MB) down and also fits well on most computers’ browsers. To do this use any photo-editing software and resize the image. [Height can be whatever size, keeping the correct aspect ratio.]

Step Two: Inside where you write a post there is an upload section. Click the “choose file” button and a window opens that lets you browse your computer’s files to find your photo. Select that file.

Step Three: Give the photo a title and description (if desired) and then pick “upload”. It should upload as long as the file is not overly huge (which is why we resize it first)

Step Four: A new set of options appear where you can place the photo into your post. Select the radio buttons for “full size”, link to “none” and pick send to editor button.

Step Five: Your photo should appear:

Note: To move the placement of the photo in the post, select all the text within the “<" and ">” including the little brackets. It will say img src=the file name and then an end bracket. This is code that tells the web browser to display the photo.

I will be upgrading the blog soon to make this process even easier and more straightforward and will repost instructions then.

Any questions, just ask!!

Hello birders!! I just wanted to make a few quick notes about the blog:

Currently there are 16 members signed up to post.

To post, just click the “login” link on the right and enter your username and password (both case sensitive). If you are not a member yet (or forgot your info) please contact me at birdfreak@birdfreak.com. If you are already logged in it will give you the option of “site admin” or “logout”. You can click “site admin” and that puts you in to the “dashboard” where you can post. (Actual administrative duties are not available).

Once you are signed in you can post by picking Write Post or selecting “Write” from the menu bar. Just give your post a title and start writing!! When you are done with a post, pick Publish. You can always log back in and edit your post if you wish!

To create a link in your post select the text you wish to be linked and select “link”. A new window pops up where you can enter the URL (web address). Pick OK and it creates some code that makes it a link.

To make words bold or italics, select the text and click “b” for bold or “i” for italic. The code will add a ‘tag’ that says “strong” for bold or “em” for italics.

You don’t have to have a user name to post comments but to post sightings you do.

If you want to learn how to post images to the blog, send me an email: birdfreak@birdfreak.com and I will try to explain it the best I can.

- Eddie Callaway (NCIOS blog Administrator)

Per the homeowners request, the last day to come and view the Green-breasted Mango outside of Beloit, Wisconsin will be Wednesday, October 3rd. These wonderful people have been so gracious to open their yards and be part of birding history. This has been wonderful for the birding community!