10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2015

Over the last five or six years, Common Ravens have been sighted with increasing frequency in New York City, part of a resurgence throughout the Northeast after more than a century of regional extirpation. They’ve also recently nested in the Bronx and nearby in New Jersey. In 2010, Common Ravens nested in Queens.

New York City 266

New York City New York 2015 New Jersey 266

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2014

Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was one of the many species of wood-warblers he saw this weekend, which was amazing for neotropical migration in New York City.

New York City 250

New York City 2014 Kentucky New York 250

10,000 Birds

APRIL 27, 2014

Spring happens to be peak raptor migration season in Western New York, so I spent some time at one of the nation’s premier hawkwatch platforms. He was rewarded by an extremely rare New York State Willow Ptarmigan. Before the weekend began, I mentioned how swallows hadn’t invaded these northern latitudes yet.

2014 213

2014 New York Birds Experience 213

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2014

Corey and I will be enjoying capital weather in our respective corners of New York State. In fact, I’ve already bagged Ebony Jewelwing for the year, always a pleasure! What other aspects of nature interest you when birding becomes banal? How about you? Where will you be this weekend and will you be birding?

2014 239

2014 New York Falcons Hunting 239

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 24, 2014

I enjoyed exquisite weather while criss-crossing Central New York to no avail in search of a Red Crossbill , but enjoyed a Common Nighthawk closer to home as a consolation prize. Beautiful indeed.

2014 230

2014 Jamaica New York Birds 230

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2014

Corey and I are covering different parts of New York State. Even better, many of them, adorned in fresh breeding plumage, are at peak pulchritude. Obviously, you will be birding. The NYC area may already be awash with migrant songbirds, but Western NY seems behind schedule. This issue most definitely merits further inspection!

2014 228

2014 New York Birds Breeding 228

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2014

A juvenile White-crowned Sparrow is an expected bird in late fall in New York State but it is always nice when one sits still for a digiscoping session. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was a relatively common species though it was uncommonly cooperative.

2014 220

2014 Bats New York Sparrows 220

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2014

Here in New York, the warm portion of October may be naught but a memory. Halfway through the month, we in the temperate zones are clearly moving from one season to another. Wherever you are, get excited for whatever comes next, because it’s coming!

2014 222

2014 New York Birds Experience 222

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2014

Only the second known to grace New York State, this bird has all the state birders abuzz, particularly the ones too distant to chase it. I ask because, while I don’t know Corey’s BBOTW, I do know he has been drooling uncontrollably since hearing about the Kirtland’s Warbler that turned up on Lake Ontario.

2014 232

2014 New York Birds Experience 232

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2014

Corey greatly enjoyed his weekend in the beautiful Catskill Mountains of upstate New York with family and friends. For once, I was pleased to see our omnipresent local Ring-billed Gulls this weekend, since I realized I didn’t see a single larid while in Colombia.

Colombia 223

Colombia 2014 New York Birds 223

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2014

Even if you don’t normally count birds by year, consider wiping your proverbial birding slate clean and look at each new species this weekend with a fresh perspective. How about you? Where will you be this weekend and will you be birding?

2014 227

2014 New York Birds Rights 227

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2014

Corey and I will be combing the bird boards for our respective corners of New York to see what’s flown in this weekend. At least that’s what I’m telling myself as I watch my first snowfall of spring… For nature lovers like us, spring means migration. How about you? Share your plans in the comments below.

2014 224

2014 New York Florida Birds 224

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2014

Corey is stuck in New York, but when you see the birds he does on a weekly basis, you’ve always got that vacation feeling. The reason I mention vacation birding is that I’m headed down to Virginia Beach this weekend for sun, sand, and who knows what else. How about you?

2014 228

2014 Breeders United States Virginia 228

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2014

It is the first record of this invasive species for New York City and it served as a nice contrast to the hordes of pigeons in the neighborhood. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was one found several weeks ago by 10,000 Birds beat writer David Ringer, the Eurasian Collared-Dove on Manhattan’s west side. How about you?

New York City 221

New York City 2014 Breeders Virginia 221

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2013

Hopefully I will see at least that many species in 2014! Baldy , enjoying my local birds at the Forest Park waterhole , an hour in autumn at Tanner’s Spring in Central Park , a pretty rough pelagic trip in New York waters , compiling the Queens County CBC , finally seeing a guillemot in New York , a spunky Winter Wren.

2013 233

2013 New York City Nevada Trinidad 233

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

For some reason, this is the year that the masked butcherbirds have been around in my corners of Montana, with as many sightings for me in 2014 as in the rest of my life (including the other three years I lived in Montana) combined. That said, my new fourth-floor balcony isn’t nothing. Birding Montana New York Northern Shrike'

Montana 236

Montana 2014 New York Sparrows 236

10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2014

I took my brood to explore Chimney Bluffs State Park, where we explored a glacier-carved landscape unlike any I’ve seen in New York State. Is it mere coincidence that Father’s Day falls on such a perfect weekend for birding? I think not. I was pleasantly surprised at the prevalence of American Redstarts in those woods.

2014 221

2014 Whaling Whales New York 221

10,000 Birds

MARCH 24, 2014

But on the topic of snow, Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was the first Snowy Egret of the year in New York State, one he found at Baisley Pond Park in Queens, a rather unusual location for the species to begin with, much less at the very beginning of spring. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?

2014 215

2014 United States New York Birds 215

10,000 Birds

MARCH 7, 2014

I visited Hong Kong from February 20-27, 2014. Imagine me there raring to see more exciting Asian avifauna while the rest of the group screeches to a halt to spend 45 minutes admiring birds I see all the time in New York. Despite impressive, often rampant development, Hong Kong reserves 40% of its land as greenspace.

2014 252

2014 Eagles Asia China 252

10,000 Birds

APRIL 24, 2014

Corey cannot be contained during this time of transition: expect him virtually anywhere in the New York Metro area. I’m working all weekend but hoping arriving birds migrate in my general direction. How about you? Where will you be this weekend and will you be birding? Share your plans in the comments below.

Memphis 231

Memphis 2014 Bears New York 231

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2014

In the same vein, Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was one of the early spring migrants, a Blue-gray Gnatcatche r, his first of the year in New York State. He spotted it, and a second, at the waterhole in Forest Park, Queens. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?

2014 213

2014 New York Birds Experience 213

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 21, 2014

Corey will be pondering New York birds both in the field and in his upcoming field guide. If this weekend affords you a window to get outdoors, you should take it… who knows when a snownami or similar calamity will blow your way. I’m thinking of heading to Lake Ontario to see if any smart birds fled east. How about you?

Buffalo 205

Buffalo 2014 New York Birds 205

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2014

I’m trying to decide where in Western New York to chase birds this weekend… got any ideas for me? If you fall into this camp, the time has come to keep your ears and eyes open. If you hadn’t noticed, summer is coming to an end and birds are taking once more to their migratory routes.

2014 199

2014 New York Raised Birds 199

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

Ron Pittaway has published his winter finch forecast for the winter of 2013-2014. Cone crops are good to excellent (poor on white pine) in central Ontario and Laurentian Mountains in southern Quebec with heavy crops extending east through the Adirondack Mountains of New York and northern New England States.

2013 185

2013 2014 Alaska Canada 185

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2013

No matter how successful your efforts, you’re bound to begin 2014 with fewer regrets! Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was his first Black Guillemot in New York State and it only took him two tries on the same day to get it!

2013 206

2013 New York 2014 Birds 206

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2014

Corey and I will, as is our wont, both be a-hunting with the bee, only in different parts of New York and likely with different bees. From flower to flower, a-hunting with the bee. – In June. How about you? Where will you be this weekend and will you be birding? Share your plans in the comments below.

2014 174

2014 Hunting New York Birds 174

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Speaking of survival, I find the best approach to the onset of a New York winter is to flee the country entirely for warmer climes. Considering the recent Murrelet Incident at Point Reyes and the many instances like it, we should all carefully assess the glass houses of obsession in which we dwell before casting stones.

Costa Rica 145

Costa Rica 2014 Hunters New York 145

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2020

From the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Our featured beer this week is Bramble, a dry-hopped farmhouse ale from the Arrowood Farm Brewery of Accord, New York, made with – as the name suggests – raspberries. The Robin, No. Louis, Missouri (early 20th century).

Farming 200

Farming St. Louis New York Belgium 200

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

The Northern crested caracara, below, was photographed in Skycomish, Washington, 45 miles east of Seattle, in 2014.) Knopf, New York, $30 (U.S.); $40 (Canada). As to the caracara’s plans for the future: they have been seen, in the last twenty years, in Maine, Montana, and Washington State. (The With abundant roadkill (1.3

Guyana 264

Guyana South America Washington DC 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 16, 2013

Now seems like a good time to look in on the birding big years happening in 2013 to see how folks are doing as they tear around their county or region or state or province or country trying to see as many birds as possible before 1 January 2014. I’m not sure what his goal is but you can follow his big year at Jay’s Big Year 2013.

2013 242

2013 New Jersey North Carolina Canada 242

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2019

By the time I had dropped Desi off at school reports had come in from other New York City parks that the birding was relatively lackluster elsewhere as well. I was up and out of the house before dawn on Friday morning to get in a couple hours of birding in Forest Park before I had to drive Desi to school.

Puerto Rico 147

Puerto Rico New York New York City Trinidad 147

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2015

I reviewed the New Jersey volume in May 2014 and, being in Florida at the moment, I thought this was a good time to take a closer look at both the Florida volume, published just last month, and the Colorado volume, published in June 2014. (I December 2014. The one with the Cedar Waxwing on the cover. 320 pages; 0.8

Colorado 267

Colorado Florida New Jersey North America 267

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2014

This is the perfect field guide for beginning and intermediate birders who live or work in New Jersey, and is likely to be of interest to newbie and even experienced birders who live in New York State and Pennsylvania. In fact, any birder planning to bird New Jersey will benefit from using this book. April 2014.

New Jersey 259

New Jersey Birds 2014 Tail Banding 259

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2016

They are also rarely spotted farther south: in April of 2014, Corey saw one in New York (he also took the photo above)! Of these , 24% spend part of the year in Canada, while another 18% spend part of the year in the United States. Willow Ptarmigan calls are apparently favorites with Steven Spielberg.

Alaska 140

Alaska Finland Indiana Russia 140

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2018

A regional rarity around New York City, Tundra Swans are only regular at Hook Pond in Suffolk County, way out on the eastern end of Long Island. I’d only ever had two encounters with Tundra Swans in Queens, one in November of 2006 and a flock of thirty-three, believed to have been forced down by a storm, in November of 2014.

Jamaica 154

Jamaica Wildlife New York City Ducks 154

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2015

Photos of birds from northeastern areas predominate, not surprisingly since photographer Marie Read lives and works in upstate New York. Her books include Secret Lives of Common Birds: Enjoying Bird Behavior Through the Seasons (2006), and Sierra Wings: Birds of the Mono Lake Basin (2014, with David W. Winkler and Justin Hite).

Eggs 263

Eggs Family 2006 New York 263

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2019

The birds are instantly recognizable to anyone who’s birded New York City: Mourning Dove, Rock Pigeon, Cedar Waxwing, Brown-headed Cowbird, American Robin, House Sparrow, European Starling. Beach Lane Books, 2014. It’s a very specific illustration. Author Mya Thompson has a Ph.D. Age Range: 2 – 5 years.

New York City 201

New York City Pelicans Penguins New York 201