Hello Tweeties,

I have been dealing with a ceiling that is trying to cave in on my apartment, so I was somewhat preoccupied yesterday -- please accept my apologies!

This week's issue of Birds in the News is available. Besides the usual smorgasbord of international bird news stories, this issue features a very cute little Eurasian blue tit, courtesy of my friend, photographer, Dave Rintoul;

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/11/birds_in_the_news_151.php

The most recently demystified mystery bird, Superb Starling, Lamprotornis superbus, was courtesy of me, and you can also read an analysis for IDing this species;

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/11/todays_mystery_bird_for_you_to_74.php

yesterday's mystery bird, courtesy of photographer Joseph Kennedy, can be viewed here;

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/11/todays_mystery_bird_for_you_to_25.php

I will wait to ID this bird for 48 hours so those of you who get the list on "digest" mode can also join in on the fun.

Today's mystery bird, courtesy of photographer, Richard Ditch, can be viewed here;

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/11/todays_mystery_bird_for_you_to_45.php

I also wanted to share an amateur video documentary of the perils facing Hawaiian birds that you might want to see (if I am not mistaken, this was a student project);

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/11/hawaiian_birds.php

and last but not least, some of you donated to my "DonorsChoose Challenge" classrooms, and I promised I would update you on these classrooms that we've helped to fund whenever I learned something. The teacher for one of "our" classrooms, PS111 in the Bronx, wrote last night with a brief note of thanks for the binoculars for her pre-school through third grade classroom;

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/11/a_donorschoose_teacher_speaks_3.php

cheers,

GrrlScientist
Devorah
http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/
Roosting high up a tree somewhere in Central Park, NYC