10,000 Birds

APRIL 28, 2021

Not only did the pandemic eliminate the possibility of traveling to see different biozones, it also temporarily removed the most heavily-trafficked sites from my list of favorites. It was, obviously, a most unusual season. Considering these challenges, this winter was a surprisingly good one for birding. There were about 40 in this group.

Mexico 264

Mexico Trafficking Sparrows Virginia 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2020

The same weakness is found in The Feather Thief (2018), a book similarly about an obsessive thief with flexible boundaries of right and wrong. He interviews breeders about rumors of raptor trafficking and egg smuggling, activities that have supposedly been stopped. And, it’s here where that story ends.

Falcons 264

Falcons United Kingdom Zimbabwe Eggs 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

The same is true of Guide to the Birds of Honduras , which I reviewed in 2018 and which was also a grassroots project (though Birds of Bolivia obtained greater support from large birding organizations). The hard facts are that a field guide like this simply couldn’t be made without the contributions and good will of these artists.

Bolivia 250

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 250

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2020

And, in contrast to all the blog posts that were expanded into essays, Jenn Dean’s “The Keepers of the Ghost Bird,” the story of the fight to save the Bermuda Petrel, the cahow, was originally published as an e-book by The Massachusetts Review (in which format it won the 2018 John Burrough’s Association Nature Essay Award).

New York City 259

New York City Fox Owls California Condor 259