More Birdwatch America

At Birdwatch America it was great to catch up with friends and see all the new products. Here we are with Pete Thayer, of Thayer Birding Software CD-ROMs, who is in our booth trying out our Stokes DLS binoculars.

Here's Chuck Hagner, the editor of Birder's World Magazine. They have beautiful photos and great content on all aspects of birding from the backyard to afar. We regularly write for them and our articles on attracting birds appear in just about every issue. Look for Lillian's photo of the Western Reef Heron in the current issue.

Here's a poster from Charley Harper, Cincinnati wildlife artist famous for his "minimal realism" inventive graphic style. His cards and art were represented at the show by Charley Harper Studio. We've been a fan of his art for years.

Almost look real, doesn't it. We don't think a real Peregrine Falcon would be sitting this still.

The Peregrine and these other beautiful birds are by Hummingbird Studio who have "an exquisitely detailed hand-painted gallery of over 235 birds crafted in bass wood." Good thing you can't buy the things at the show, they are just for display for the retailers. We would have been very tempted as we collect carved birds.

Here's me taking a photo of me on the monitor in the booth of the TV Celeb-Birdies Birdhouse Spycam. They make video cameras for wildlife action monitoring in bird houses or at your feeder. You can put one in your bird house and watch the nesting action on your TV screen. There were several products in this category at the show, you now can peek into the private world of birds like never before. The Wingscapes BirdCam has an "easy-to-use effective camera specifically designed for backyard bird watching". You can mount it on a tree or your feeder pole and get photos of your favorite avian visitors.

We have Stokes Select bird feeders, our quality line of backyard bird feeders. Here is our popular Giant Combo Feeder, that offers two compartments for different kinds of seed and multiple perching options. Birds can cling to the mesh, land on the perches or feed from the tray.

Doesn't the well dressed birder need birdy accessories? Here are some great ones from the Women of the Cloud Forest, a fair-trade project that offeres economic opportunities to underserved women and their families. In the mountains of Costa Rica over 120 women hand embrioder these bags,

and these,

and also make this creative jewelry from rainforest seeds.

Phoebe's pick — Herbal Armor for Pets that repels ticks and other insects. It is made of all natural ingredients including essential oils. We live in NH where there are an increasing number of deer ticks so we are always on the lookout for gentle products that would work. Made by the All Terrain Company that also has other natural remedies and insect repellent for humans as well as your pets.

You wouldn't know there was any controversy about the existence of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers from the flock of new Ivory-billed paraphenalia showing up. We saw Ivory-billed Woodpecker stuffed toys, Ivory-bill flags, tee shirts and these, Ivory-billed Woodpecker Socks — just the thing to wear when you're searching for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Just kidding, you would be wearing hip waders or waterproof boots if you were really searching for the Ivory-bill in the cypress swamps. This company, Wheel House Designs also has all kind of wonderful socks with birds on them, other nature designs and even dogs, including Corgis! Phoebe would approve. Wow, it doesn't get much better than that, birds and Corgis, we gotta get some.

And here is a very cool new item in the birdJam (formerly called birdPod) booth, the iMainGo, a zippered case with built in speakers that you put your ipod into. You use the Stokes Field Guide To Bird Song CDs, plus the birdJam Maker software to transform your ipod into a revolutionary new bird song identification tool. The birdJam Maker software organizes the Stokes CDs into playlists organized by habitat and family so you can find any birdsong in 15 seconds. How convennient and portable! Slip the ipod into the iMainGo and you have Birdsongs to go!

We will have a more detailed review of the new birdJam soon.

All of the products above can be found in retailers, so have fun shopping.