H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

I’m sure that by now you’ve realized that this blog being dedicated to my backyard visitors is kind of limited. I’m going to “extend” my backyard to other places and touch subjects and topics with relation to birds. It could be from my backyard in Georgia or any other place in the world. There’s so much information on the Web for countless topics, however it is a shame that not many people in proportion  per capita in the world, writing about birds and unfortunately even less people interested in knowing about them.

Avians are descendants of some of the oldest creatures that roamed on Earth, millions of years before mankind appeared and we should be looking very closely on what allowed them to rule the world for so long and still survive. While mankind is living always in fear of extinction having lived only a meager few thousand years!

I’m going to do more research on the web and try to gather interesting information about birds, Who knows? I might get a bigger bunch of followers that will help propagate the word about caring for Nature, and birds mainly.

Here goes another example:

“Falconatics’ hope to inspire more love for birds of prey

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Some people are wine connoisseurs. Others collect stamps. Still other hobbyists fly fish or fill scrapbooks.

Then there are the types who go gaga over birds of prey.

It’s those folks – they’ve lovingly named themselves the “Falconatics” – who braved the windy weather Saturday on the top level of the Fourth Street Garage in downtown San Jose, Calif., watching, teaching and ooohing and aahing over the pair of peregrine falcons who have made a nest on a ledge at City Hall their home. The falcon watchers have discovered that the lofty perch on the garage has a great view.

“When you talk about birds of prey with some people, they say, ‘Oh that’s nice,’?” said Anna Stewart of Santa Cruz, Calif. “But with other people, you see a spark.”

And for the first time this year, this loosely knit bunch of falcon lovers hopes to ignite the spark in others: Each Saturday afternoon through mid-May, the group will head to the garage and offer their extensive bird knowledge to all who seek it.

Formally called the San Jose Peregrine Falcon Alliance, the group is modeled after one in San Francisco that has been meeting on Thursday nights for many years.

“This is for pure education and for people who have a conservation ethic,” said biologist Glenn Stewart, coordinator of the Predatory Bird Research Group at the University of California-Santa Cruz. “This a gateway activity. After this, someone might go buy a pair of binoculars and be able to tell the difference between a peregrine falcon and a red-tailed hawk.”

The whole Falconatics movement began with the sighting of two peregrine falcons on the City Hall ledge in 2007. Over the years, the males have come and gone, but the female – named Clara – has been dutifully laying eggs and mothering young chicks there ever since. With her most recent steady beau, Esteban, the parent falcons have four eggs that are expected to soon hatch.

The falcons’ lives, and sometimes their deaths, have captured global attention on a “Falconcam” (go to http://www.scpbrg.org).

The Web camera is what 6-year-old Mallory Robbins of San Jose saw in her first-grade class at St. Andrews School – and what prompted her to bring her parents to the top of the garage.

Mallory learned words like “swooping” and was taught the difference between a falcon and a gull. She even got to look in a telescope and watch as Clara and Esteban did a “nest exchange,” where mother was given a respite and Papa Bird took a turn warming his eggs.

Falconry, An ancient art

And when Lori Michel isn’t on top of the garage helping to educate others about falcons, she’s tooling around on her lunch break as an IBM project manager, looking at other birds-of-prey hot spots in California: From the Campbell water tower to the Don Edward Wildlife Refuge to the Charleston Slough of the Palo Alto Baylands.

There’s no denying that Michel has the spark. And she’s hoping that by sharing her knowledge, others, maybe even little Mallory, might catch it too.

“Seeing these falcons in San Jose just captured my imagination,” Michel said. “Birds of prey are fierce. They circle and hunt, they stoop and grab prey, they pull off flesh and then they gently feed it to their young. I come here and can talk about topics like these, even though I don’t know people’s last names or what they do for a living.

“We just love our falcon circuit.”

By LISA FERNANDEZ – San Jose Mercury News