10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2024

I have encountered a few of the more quirky members of the family, including the brilliant and aptly-named African Emerald Cuckoo, India’s ultra-shy Sirkeer Malkoha, and the fascinating Lesser Ground Cuckoo in Costa Rica. It reminded me of a Roadrunner, which is, of course, also a member of the cuckoo family.

Cyprus 225

Cyprus Africa Europe Asia 225

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2021

Some other members of the shrike family were a bit less testosterone-driven at Nanhui – like this Bull-headed Shrike … … this rather attractive-looking Tiger Shrike … … or one of the many Brown Shrikes passing through Nanhui on migration. A juvenile Chinese Blackbird. A happier shrike.

LACS 237

LACS Birds France Japan 237

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2015

Regardless of the temperatures I got out and about both mornings on my own and in the afternoons with the family. A few Rusty Blackbirds made it through the winter but there are many more about now and they are far more vocal. The Snow Geese at Big Egg Marsh were fun to photograph as they landed on the field on Saturday.

Bald Eagle 187

Bald Eagle New York City Birds Geese 187

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2014

I spent this past weekend in Saugerties at my folks’ house in order to look for Easter eggs, let Desi enjoy time with his cousins, and generally have a good ol’ time with family. Red-winged Blackbird singing at the Great Vly.

New York 174

New York Birds Ducks Blackbirds 174

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2012

The boys knew what Owls looked like, they saw Screech Owls (and Barred and Great Horned Owls) at a local wildlife park, and we photographed Burrowing Owl families every year at Brian Piccolo Park. Some might contest this, saying that Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hatches An Egg precedes Eastman’s book by twenty years. Random House, 1960.

Switzerland 219

Switzerland Birds Owls Lions 219

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2016

I used the family summer cottage as a base camp, placed in an old orchard where no branches are ever cut off, even when old or rotten – only supported from below. The biggest surprise are two Whiskered Terns, common lowland breeding birds that require ponds to lay their eggs on floating leaves of waterlilies.

Turtles 115

Turtles Serbia Breeders Breeding 115

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2015

I’m happy to say that Laura Erickson and Marie Read have written a book, Into the Nest: Intimate Views of the Courting, Parenting, and Family Lives of Familiar Birds , that is not too cute and that does not anthropomorphize. And of eggs and nests and birds on nests. Cedar Waxwings exchange berries, carry nesting material, eggs.

Eggs 263

Eggs 2006 Family New York 263