BirdWatch America 2008 part 2

At BirdWatch America 2008, here's Don helping a retailer understand the fine points of our Stokes Birding Series Binoculars and our Stokes Sandpiper 15-45 x 65mm Spotting Scope. At the show, manufacturers sell their products to birding retailers, many of whom run small wild bird stores. Many retailers were interested in adding spotting scopes to their store merchandise, but they didn't necessarily know how to use scopes. So it was our job to teach them, so they could in turn teach their customers. Our Stokes Sandpiper scope is lightweight but clear and powerful. It's great for any situation where the birds are too far to see through binoculars, or you just want a really close-up look. Birders use scopes for looking at birds at the seashore, lakes, marshes, prairies, from mountain tops for hawk-watching and in any opens space situation.

Here's Scott Pomtier who owns The Wild Bird Store in Poulsbo, WA and who wrote to us before we went to BirdWatch....."I'll be looking forward to meeting you this weekend, our Corgi Lili insists that we get a photo of Phoebe." Well here is Scott with Phoebe (who is licking her chops for some reason, maybe anticipating a cookie.) Phoebe had to stay in the car but got lots of walks and, of course, cookies.

......and here is a photo of Lili, nicely posing, that Scott sent to us. Hi to Lili from Phoebe.

Amy Hooper is here in her booth for Wild Bird Magazine. Amy does a great job as editor and the magazine has lots of beautiful, large bird photos.

The Rainbow Mealworm Company had a booth where you could come and say hi to their mealworms.

I looked at the meduim-sized gang of mealworms and wondered if I stuck my hand in them, would I qualify for the Fear Factor TV show. Seriously though, mealworms are a great, under-utilized bird food and bluebirds love 'em. We have fed mealworms to bluebirds many times and also to other species of birds. Mealworms are like little caterpillars with a smooth skin, but actually are the larva of a kind of beetle (Tenebrio molitor.) Mealworms come in containers with their own food and you keep them in the refrigerator where they remain inactive until you're ready to put them outside in a dish for the birds. Mealworms are for feeding in warmer weather, not winter.

And lastly, I have to mention a very worthwhile company, Women of the Cloud Forest, which is a Fair Trade project working with rural women in Monteverde, Costa Rica. The 70 women in the project produce hand-embroidered bags and jewelry made from rainforest seeds. The project allows the women to work at home at their own pace and be able to care for their families.

They have a wonderful assortment of hand-embroidered bags with color accurate reproductions of birds, butterflies, frogs and insects from North and Central American species.

I'm partial to raptors, so I liked this bag with the Red-tailed Hawk. As I said, this was a show for retailers so comsumers could not buy anything here. Look for these products and other new items at your local wild bird stores.