A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest To See It All by Luke Dempsey

I thought it would be worth the time if I started to do some informal book reviews on the bird-related books I read. =) I will start with my most recent, A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest To See It All by Luke Dempsey. I have taken many a bird from this book to make a daily bird. It mentions many birds and even gives a little detail about some of them. This book is a quick, fun read. It details how the author, Luke Dempsey, begins his love affair with birds and how it progesses. He is very personable and tells the story not as an expert but as someone who has fallen in love with birding and wants to be educated. He and two of his friends go on a journey to several states to see as many birds as they can. They see a lot of them but miss some too. It almost makes you sad when they’ve travelled so far and still do not get to see the bird they were after. It makes you smile when they do. =)

Although, he does not appreciate the Pacific Northwest the way I do and the way I think everyone should, he does take us along for an amusing journey in his tales about each state he traveled in his mad search for birds.

It is a fun, entertaining and sometimes informative book. I would recommend it to anyone who likes birds or has ever went birding and understands the silly things that can and do go wrong along the way and the moments of pure bliss that make them all worth it.

A bird of prey, similar to the families of hawks, eagles and vultures this bird falls into the “raptors” category. But according to Wikipedia this classification is being investigated. These birds like the warm tropical climates (notice a pattern?). They like to snack on apple snails. Anyone know what an apple snail is?

Apple Snail (No, not really!) Photo Source Oddfae.com

Just kidding, this is what an apple snail looks like when it is being eaten by a Snail Kite:

Snail Kite eating an apple snail (Creative Commons)

Will the real Common Myna please stand up!? Please stand up!? =)

I have to admit. I did not immediately notice that these three birds were the same kind of bird just different ages and/or sexes. Interesting. They fooled me, the amateur that I am. However, a wise person more observant than I showed me the similarities, thank you wise person.

This birdy is a city-dweller or at least it thrives around people and while it prefers warmer climates it can live pretty much in any. It is known as “an invasive pest” in Australia. After a little research I must agree. Apparently it is an extremely aggressive bully bird. It likes to pick on other more gentle local birdies threatening the native bird species. Not nice Myna! Um, it also threatens plants, like the blueberry crop in Australia and the fields in Hawaii, and even messes with the infrastructure of buildings in urban areas. Ok, I guess it is a bit of a pest and it seems they are not easily scared away. I was reluctant to report the pest-status of this bird to you but it seems it is rather pesky, albeit sooooo cute. =)

Anyone ever seen one, well of course but anyone care to share their own “common myna” story, anecdote or pictures?

A Crested Caracara. (Creative Commons license)

The Crested Caracara is a large, ground-dwelling falcon. To me, it looks similar to many falcons but it is more colorful perhaps. Albeit, I have little experience with falcons.

Interesting Facts about the Crested Caracara (Source: Whatbird.com):

* A common subject of folklore and legends throughout Central and South America, the Crested Caracara is sometimes referred to as the “Mexican eagle.”

* Although it looks like a long-legged hawk and associates with vultures, it is actually in the same family as falcons.

* A group of falcons has many collective nouns, including a “bazaar”, “eyrie”, “ringing up”, “stooping up”, and “tower” of falcons.

(And yes, this too I found in Luke Dempsey’s book, “A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birder’s and Their Quest To See It All.”