10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

This place is such an epic birding location that one cannot possibly do the city and its surrounds justice in one post. These birds, and their closely-related counterparts, the Drakensberg Rockjumper, constantly find themselves on the most-wanted list of pretty much every visiting birder. And rightly so. But by George is it worth it!

South Africa 257

South Africa Penguins Africa Birds 257

10,000 Birds

JUNE 29, 2013

Joseph Chiera is a Masters student in Animal Behavior and Conservation at Hunter College in NYC and a “somewhat newbie” to birding. After taking an ornithology course last year, he was hooked and spends most of his free time birding or reading birding blogs. Of course, birding was on the itinerary!

Iceland 243

Iceland Puffins Europe Birds 243

10,000 Birds

JULY 23, 2024

By Fitzroy Rampersad Fitzroy or Fitz as he is fondly called began observing and photographing birds when the COVID-19 Pandemic forced border closures around the world including Trinidad & Tobago where he was vacationing at the time. For many birders, the quest to spot a specific bird can become an obsession.

Trinidad 246

Trinidad Costa Rica Panama Whaling 246

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

All of these titles deal with birding in specific North American geographic areas: The Atlantic coast, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The photos show the forms of the bird seen on the east coast and are annotated with notes on plumage and other distinguishing field marks. It’s time for some short book reviews. Well, short for me.

Pennsylvania 189

Pennsylvania Texas Whaling Whales 189

10,000 Birds

JUNE 24, 2013

Our time on the island was spent looking at birds, exploring, picnicking, throwing rocks in the water, and admiring a very cooperative Santa Cruz Island Fox. Then the birds showed. Sooty Shearwaters and a Western Gull fly back the aftermath of a Humpback Whale breaching. Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae.

Whaling 164

Whaling Whales Dolphins California 164

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2020

Faithful 10,000 Birds readers will remember Suzie as our wildlife rehabilitation beat writer. Suzie wrote about her experiences as a bird rehabber in Flyaway: How A Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings (2009) and used those experiences as the source for her fictional children’s book, Hawk Hill (1996).

Wildlife Rehabilitation 279

Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle Eagles Wildlife 279

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2014

Here a fledgling Chipping Sparrow , which is one of those confusing, streaky, brown birds, gets stuffed by an adult. And, of course, as I do sometimes, I managed to sneak in a bit of birding. Fortunately the birds mostly came to me and I just had to keep my binoculars and camera handy. How cute is this? Mom has a bug!

New York 212

New York Cooking Chipmunks Whaling 212

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

I like pelagic birding. Being on a boat surrounded by the endless blue of the ocean is a wonderful experience, especially when the waves aren’t too high, the sun isn’t too bright, and the birds are showing. The other pelagic bird that we saw in numbers on the chum slick we created was Wilson’s Storm-Petrel.

Whaling 196

Whaling Whales Dolphins New York 196

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2019

I was poking around my eBird checklists recently and came across one from one of my more intriguing days birding. Like many birders, I’ve had “patches” where I routinely go birding. Patch birding is rewarding because the birds become familiar, as do the changes across the seasons. There is satisfaction in the everyday.

San Francisco 188

San Francisco Portland Whaling Whales 188

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2012

Birding has been an all-consuming interest for Patrick Cardwell since boyhood days spent in a wildlife-rich environment. In this epic post, Patrick depicts just how dynamic the pelagic birding is off Cape Point in South Africa.

Albatross 241

Albatross Penguins Dolphins Whaling 241

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2015

Birds of California , the new volume in the ABA series, arrived the day I returned. Every bird book seems to be about the west coast this month!) Offshore Sea Life ID Guide: West Coast is designed to be a quick, handy resource for use on whale watching and one-day pelagic trips.

Dolphins 162

Dolphins Porpoises Whaling Whales 162

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

Galápagos: A Natural History, Second Edition by John Kricher and Kevin Loughlin gives the traveling naturalist the tools needed to fully appreciate and experience the Galápagos Islands. There are changes in where to find the birds. I wish I had read this book. They complement Kricher’s text.,

2006 279

2006 Tortoises Sea Lions Porpoises 279

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2017

It was a good birding year. Many sad and unfortunate things occurred in 2016, but the birding was good. I started the year in Florida, traveled to India with the ABA in February, combined family and birding in an August trip to California, and in-between saw very good birds in New York and New Jersey. 1) Dusky Eagle-Owl.

2016 167

2016 India Ducks Costa Rica 167

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2017

North America is aflame with eclipse fever right now, which provides yet another opportunity to wonder what life would be like if the average citizen felt a fraction as much passion for birding as is devoted to countless sports, media, celebrities, fashion, or even the rare astronomical phenomenon. What was your best bird of the weekend?

2017 100

2017 Whaling Whales North America 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2013

I had my first swim with Inshore Bottlenose Dolphins in Northland’s Bay of Islands back in 2000, and it was a tripy experience. So if you are after a unique dolphin experience you could do worse than this New Zealand speciality. Birding dolphins marine mammals New Zealand endemic' South Banks Peninsula.

Dolphins 204

Dolphins Sharks New Zealand Albatross 204

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2016

The other day, Redgannet, when sharing the 10,000 Birds combined bird list for 2016 , mentioned that I had made some sort of notable contribution by submitting 25 checklists in one day. The reasons for this protocol are as unique as this unique type of birding. That sounds exciting, like there’s some sort of story there.

Whaling 100

Whaling Whales North Carolina Mammals 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

Of course, I jest a bit in the above paragraph because as a sometime New Jersey birder I have birded the Delaware Bay and seen sights such as the memorable image below, in which thousands of Red Knots, Dunlins, and Short-billed Dowitchers fly up as if connected telepathically.

Delaware 237

Delaware New Jersey Eggs Medical Research 237

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

If there is one thing that Kiwis care about, it’s birds. No, wait, not birds. One thing visitors love to see in New Zealand is Kiwi, the national (sort of) bird, and they also enjoy seeing some of the other birds the place has to offer. At sea there are also New Zealand Sea Lions and Southern Right Whales.

New Zealand 157

New Zealand Penguins Sanctuary Fur 157

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The boat is called the Legacy and it is an 80 foot whale watching vessel that generally seats 115, but takes about 70 for birding trips. If I saw that bird, I did not appreciate it, so it is not on my list. My recollection of prior trips is that we used relatively small fishing boats and had 20-25 birders, plus the leaders.

San Diego 147

San Diego Los Angeles Cooking North Carolina 147

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

This, I am told, is seawatching , a birding activity in which one stands in one place, sometimes for hours, and watches for birds of the sea and lake and river. It is acceptable to point out other sea creatures–dolphins or whales or dragonflies–but the main goal is the observation and identification of the birds.

Ducks 247

Ducks Groups North America Species 247

10,000 Birds

JULY 30, 2014

I bring this up not to boast (well, not much) but because I think that this approach to wildlife travel is somewhat neglected in birding circles. Read most accounts of how birders see birds outside their patch and one way or another, they’re tourists. Volunteering provides a very different experience to tourism though.

Sharks 203

Sharks Uganda New Zealand Africa 203

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2012

Furthermore we have another very special stork-like bird, the regal Shoebill , previously known as the Whale-headed Stork but now placed in its own family. Further to the east, Asian Openbill displays the same special feature but is mostly a white plumaged bird.

Africa 250

Africa Tanzania South Africa Uganda 250

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

Visiting this area for the first time after seeing it for month was a crazy experience. And there aren’t just cool birds rocking up, migratory bats do too. It was the start of the shark season, which meant I saw my first Great White Shark attacks on Northern Elephant Seals , but it was also the best season for whales.

Whaling 157

Whaling Whales Sharks Bats 157

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 21, 2016

The Ross Sea is the most productive stretch of water in the Southern Ocean, teeming with large predatory fish, whales, seals, penguins and other animals that form the last intact marine ecosystem on Earth. There are 11 species of birds that breed in the Ross Sea region. Enough History – Back to the Future. Now you know.

Penguins 189

Penguins Russia Whaling Whales 189

4 The Love Of Animals

MARCH 17, 2011

Grief, friendship, gratitude, wonder, and other things we animals experience. Sea lion mothers wail when watching their babies being eaten by killer whales. After publishing my stories I got emails from people all over the world who had seen similar behavior in various birds and mammals. A Grateful Whale. by Marc Bekoff.

Emotional 100

Emotional Animal Whaling Whales 100

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

I must ashamedly admit that prior to this mission, I had never been birding on the island before. Chacachacare was also the site of a US Army base, a leper colony, and before that, a whaling station. Sure enough it was a place I always wanted to visit for birding, but things never fell into place. Tropical Parula.

Trinidad 253

Trinidad Netherlands Columbus Whaling 253