DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — Hello? Is anyone there? This poor blog has suffered neglect for the past month while I’ve worked feverishly on another project: Birdstack.

Do you see that sexy new year list widget over in the sidebar? That, my friends, is just a taste of what Birdstack can do for you!

Curtis Hawthorne and I have been working on Birdstack since June 2007, but we started talking about the idea back in 2005. We’re really excited that it’s finally a reality. I hope you’ll head over and check it out; the Tour will give you a very brief overview.

Here’s some basic information:

Birdstack (http://birdstack.com), launched January 20, 2008, is a free, online world bird listing service. Birdstack features integration with the IOC (Gill and Wright) list and Google Maps, allowing members to record observations in precise detail from anywhere in the world. Birdstack offers several output formats for publishing and sharing data, including Atom feeds and Stacks, customizable widgets that display recent personal observations on external blogs and websites. Integration with the IOC list means that taxonomy and nomenclature are always kept up to date, and a variety of features like spell check and user-suggested alternate names ease the process of adding observations to one’s list. Birders who have observational data in spreadsheets or other electronic formats have the option of importing their observations in bulk. Birdstack includes a number of community-oriented features, like comments and forums, to encourage participation and interaction among members. The Birdstack developers are working with the eBird staff at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to develop a system for Birdstack users to submit their North American data to eBird.

GREENE CO., MO — I just wrote about the second Foja Mountains expedition — but then I found a segment from 60 Minutes that aired last week: A Visit To The “Garden Of Eden”. Wow, wow, wow! Please don’t miss this footage. It’s the first time courtship displays of the Black Sicklebill (Epimachus fastuosus) and Foja Mountains endemic Golden-fronted Bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons) have been filmed, and they are mind-blowing!

There’s footage of the Wattled Smoky Honeyeater (Melioptes carolae), whose call remains unknown, and other birds including Berlepsch’s Six-wired Bird-of-paradise (Parotia berlepschi).

The sights and sounds (small planes, dancing villagers, screeching lorikeets, mossy forests, etc.) made me “homesick” for Papua New Guinea, and the footage of birds and other creatures is absolutely spectacular. Wow. Go see for yourself!

GREENE CO., MO — A constant trickle of chickadees, titmice, and doves at the tray feeder sparked comments during Christmas dinner this afternoon. Even my mother’s 94-year-old uncle, who has lost most of his sight to macular degeneration, saw and remarked on the quickly moving birds.

It’s not a white Christmas this year; the weather is clear and mild. It was colder and windier on Sunday afternoon, when Charley Burwick and I spent some time birding Greene County. We didn’t find our friend Greg Swick’s Northern Shrike near Fellows Lake, but we did oo and ah over Short-eared Owls hunting late in the afternoon. Watching short-ears is always a highlight of the winter for me, and I hadn’t seen them yet this season.

As evening fell, we spotted a Great Horned Owl silhouetted against the gold and orange sunset. Taping for screech owls was unsuccessful that night, but I did hear two Great Horned Owls, and a pack of coyotes sent up a wild, cackling, collective howl. The full moon was huge and white, almost too bright to look at directly. Mars shone brightly beneath the moon, holding its own against our satellite’s brilliance. I had forgotten how cold 30 degrees can be.

Some of you may remember that I attended a presentation in March about the Foja Mountains expedition in New Guinea. A team returned to the mountains in June of this year, and a report of their trip was recently released (here’s one news story: Two New Mammal Species Discovered In Indonesia’s Wilderness). The BBC has a photo gallery, including three stunning bird photos. I also found this promotional/fundraising video narrated by Dr. Bruce Beehler: The Foja Expedition.

More unfamiliar birds in little-known corners of the world flutter on my horizon. What was under the tree for me this year? Field guides to Southeast Asia, Costa Rica, and Peru — all in anticipation of travel assignments in 2008.

Speaking of field guides, here’s a sneak peak at a project I’ve started working on: World Bird Field Guides.

Finally, let’s not forget the many ways birds help us celebrate Christmas: The Tree, The Crèche, The Stamps, The Cards, and The Carols.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — Thursday morning, Hurricane Humberto crashed into the Texas Gulf Coast with a totally unexpected ferocity. High Island, a small town on the Bolivar Peninsula, was directly in the path of the storm. The name High Island is uttered with hushed voices and bright eyes in birding circles; it is one of the best-known sites on the continent for observing Neotropical migrants in spring.

High Island’s famous Boy Scout Woods and Smith Oaks sustained severe damage during the storm. Scott Newsom reported to Texbirds:

The damage is extensive and widespread there [Boy Scout Woods] and in Smith Oaks. It took us several hours to cut through the downed trees to get to the bleachers ay BSWs. The Cathedral is gone. The huge Oak by the check-in building is down as are most of the other really big trees. There is one genuinely old Oak that came through O.K. The mulberries had to be severely cut back, though they should eventually recover. There won’t be much shade on the bleachers this coming year though. The sanctuaries, especially BSW will not be as you remembered them. Despite the fact that we got the main trail opened up today, there is so much work left to do that it will likely take months to finish the clean-up and repair. Despite the initial despair we all felt at seeing the extent of the destruction, it felt good to start working toward recovery of this very special place in the hearts of birders. I hope many more of you take advantage of the opportunity to give back to this wellspring of nature’s abundence in the coming weeks and months.

Just to read those words hurts a little. Houston Audubon has posted pictures of the devastation, as well as information about volunteering and donating for those who would like to help recovery efforts at the sanctuaries.

High Island is special because it is a patch of trees amid the salt marshes and grasslands of the coast. The trees provide food and shelter for countless migrants that can be quite literally near death after a grueling, non-stop flight across the Gulf. How the loss of so many trees will impact migrants remains to be seen.

There are people at High Island, too, and some of them lost homes in the storm. Power was just restored today. The high school football stadium was also damaged in the storm. The High Island team is called — what else? — the fighting cardinals, and the mascot adorns the town water tower.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the state, the Fan-tailed Warbler is still being seen in Big Bend National Park, a month after its discovery. During the period of scrutiny by birders, it has grown a new set of tail feathers. Mark Lockwood’s photo from late August shows the bird with a stubby tail; Tony Frank’s photos show a longer tail.

DALLAS, TEXAS — For the first time ever, a Fan-tailed Warbler has been photographed in Texas. Carolyn Ohl-Johnson snapped the image: Fan-tailed Warbler.