10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

In this first installment, I will focus on my impressions and experiences in the highlands portion of our tour. One of these islands may have been the present day Northern Central American Highlands which includes Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and parts of extreme southern Mexico (Chiapas). Stay tuned.

Honduras 254

Honduras El Salvador Costa Rica Arizona 254

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2020

These isles of Saint Giles are beaten tirelessly by the wind from the open ocean, the hardy vegetation present is gnarled and contorted. I did however manage to be in the right place at the right time to experience a gang of Magnificent Frigatebirds that had a Red-footed Booby surrounded.

Fish 264

Fish Rights Breeding Species 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2011

The birds are not allowed to breed on the runway, but many loaf around on it. Around 100,000 of these terns breed on almost every available space on the island, and walking through groups of them is a deafening and quite painful experience. This species doesn’t breed on Tern Island itself, but does sometimes turn up there.

Hawaii 199

Hawaii Breeding Wildlife Eggs 199

10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2013

But why on earth would you want to go to some sewage ponds when there are so many ways to experience debauchery and dissolution in Las Vegas itself? You would certainly not see an American Avocet in the middle of the desert without water being present. Birds, of course! ( As Clare well knows! ) Get out of the casinos and into nature!

Las Vegas 250

Las Vegas Nevada Birds Blackbirds 250

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2021

The book is organized into ten chapters, framed by a Prologue and Epilogue focused on Weidensaul’s banding experience in Denali National Park. His participant observations connect to his own research experiences, providing history and perspective. Weidensaul traveled to each location to witness the research in process.

Cyprus 264

Cyprus Slaughtered Slaughter Research 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

A lovely looking and distinctive sounding bird (so they say, I sadly have not seen one…yet), the Kirtland’s Warbler can only be found during its breeding season in Jack Pine forests 5 to 20 years old in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The Kirtland’s Warbler is divided into three sections: The Past, The Present, The Future.

Michigan 258

Michigan Bahamas Endangered Species Research 258

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 5, 2020

Especially as we were at the time about to experience a rapidly advancing tropical storm. Striated Heron in breeding plumage – extra plumes and blue lores. Two species of icterids populated the area, the presence of either was a direct indicator of the degree of water present. Great Blue Heron.

Livestock 264

Livestock ALA Ducks illegal 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2011

Every season presents its specialty species in the full flower of their availability, diversity, and beauty. Unless you’re a big fan of your local breeding birds, you’ll find that this is the most boring time of the birding year. Bird watching has a surprisingly steep learning curve.

United States 251

United States Birds 2006 Breeders 251

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2024

The sight, the sound and the smell, coupled with the sheer spectacle of seeing so many birds at once, makes viewing a big seabird colony an avian experience that can’t be compared with any other. Nobody knows whether the single pair bred successfully – it seems unlikely that they did – but they were present throughout the summer.

Puffins 244

Puffins Eggs Fish Culling 244

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 29, 2021

My extensive birding experience allows me to be very confident that the bird below is a Rosefinch. In the non-breeding season, Common Merganser all look pretty much like females. Not a bad look though – more attractive than the male breeding plumage, I think. Not very subtle in their self-presentation, these birds.

Birds 264

Birds Germany India 2018 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 14, 2020

Field guides listed two subspecies – delicata (which would eventually become the highly migratory Wilson’s Snipe ) and paraguaiae (breeding resident South American Snipe ) – which were extremely difficult to discern from one another in the field. Some specimens in the hand also presented difficulties.

Trinidad 279

Trinidad Welfare North America Emotional 279

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2018

For over 70 years, ANWR has been a refuge for migrating and breeding birds – most notably serving as the winter home for the only wild flock of whooping cranes. Take advantage of the guided tours, presentations, and lectures; maybe even volunteer for projects while you’re there. So let’s plan that trip, shall we?

Texas 214

Texas Alaska North America America 214

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2016

This is a very different book from what I expected, less of a handbook and more of a comprehensive identification text on 24 groups of birds, presented in words and photographs. Additional information is presented in boxes and with photographs. Light blue boxes give brief facts on breeding age, strategy and lifespan.

Birds 190

Birds Groups 2015 North America 190

Sales and Marketing Management

JULY 13, 2019

We’re a special breed: difficult, stubborn and completely consumed by our own goals and results. To motivate and unite your sales team, you must create lasting, memorable and influential experiences that encourage them to believe in the goals you set before them. Experience is the most underrated problem-solving asset in business.

Experience 87

Experience Experiments Fort Worth Branding 87

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2012

His main purpose here is presenting the way he looks at birds, “the whole bird and more” approach to birding. The chapter “Vagrants” promotes the joys and difficulties of finding that mega-rarity on your own, giving Lovitch’s own experiences using habitat, geography, and weather to make rarity predictions that unfortunately don’t come true.

New Jersey 263

New Jersey Science United States 2012 263

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2011

Firstly, shorebirds present a significant ID challenge. Its a great place for novice and more experienced birders to enjoy and get to grips with a good variety of North American plovers, most of which are present on any given day, especially in winter. For me, there’s a few things that drive this fascination.

Florida 237

Florida South Africa 2011 Africa 237

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2015

And, not surprisingly, the breeding birds present were largely the same species as last year which was not a problem at all! It was a great experience for a second year in a row and we can’t wait to get back next year! Not because of the species but because he knew the species! That’s my boy!

Birds 162

Birds New York Family Sparrows 162

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 13, 2021

Presently I find the sit-and-wait approach much more gratifying. Many of these (like Plumbeous Kites and Swallow Tanagers ) are here to breed, and they do so alongside a host of resident species. There is an unquantifiable joy one experiences when genuinely surprised. Yup, that’s it. Let me explain. Hook-billed Kite.

Birds 264

Birds Falcons Raised Species 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 28, 2014

Further support for inherent behavior comes from experiments. Egyptian Vultures raised is isolation used rocks to crack eggs presented to them. In another experiment, other species of Darwin Finches were kept next to Woodpecker Finches that used tools. The behavior was inherent. All they need is time to master the technique.

Fish 167

Fish Ostriches Woodpeckers Breeders 167

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

Tara Tanaka described the experience of digiscoping this spoonbill as such: Tara Tanaka : Merritt Island NWR was the last stop on a 10-day Florida birding trip last winter. We got there mid-afternoon and I had a great time photographing Reddish Egrets and Tri-colored Herons feeding—my main reason for going there.

2011 255

2011 Eagles Bald Eagle Owls 255

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2012

Their population is currently stable among the arctic regions where they breed. It’s not that the sharp-tails are particularly rare to the refuge, but they were far more numerous than most years and present within sight of the road in a number of spots on Black Point Wildlife Drive. Check out some of these other wigeon shots.

South Dakota 199

South Dakota Florida Sparrows Wildlife 199

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2023

Such programs are somewhat inefficient anyway – in one study , the breeding success of wild male pheasants was 2-5 times higher than for hand-reared and released ones while for females, hand-reared birds were 3 times as vulnerable to predation as the wild ones. Alas, it seems they were already gone from Tianmashan in March.

Blackbirds 246

Blackbirds Birds Indonesia Bhutan 246

10,000 Birds

APRIL 24, 2021

A few Brown Noddies were also present, an occasional Pomarine Jaeger lumbered past the edge of the flock, and we got onto a distant yet definite adult Masked Booby ! Also known as the Fairy Tern, this species breeds on Cocos Island and is very rarely seen from pelagic trips in Costa Rica. Including this one perched on a sea turtle.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Dolphins Sea Turtles Turtles 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Steve Howell has spent decades of experience in the field studying the birds of Belize, Costa Rica, and especially Mexico. It’s faster than committee work, more direct than bureaucracy, and it presents a clearer and more complete portrait of the range and value of the biodiversity of these countries. I love the writing here.

Costa Rica 246

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 246

10,000 Birds

JULY 27, 2023

Finally, of the at least 20 species of mammals present here, the otter, the jackal, and the wildcat certainly deserve a mention. The best birding season here is the winter when waterbirds come to overwinter in those lagoons, followed by migratory seasons and, to a lesser extent, breeding season. Now, I am done.

Greece 244

Greece Pelicans Otters Birds 244

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 19, 2011

I photographed this Guianan Cock-of-the-rock at a lek site near Surama, deep in the rainforest zone of Guyana, and my incredible experience with Andean Cock-of-the-rocks was at a display lek on the edge of the town of Jardin, in the coffee-belt of Colombia, both just incredible birds that make the heart soar with joy!

2011 231

2011 Birds South Korea North Dakota 231

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2012

Few experiences birding get me more excited than adding a new bird to my Queens list. Sadly, it did not stick around to breed though I thought that it might. After the sheer number of birds that vagrated to the northeast last year I have to think that I will find a post-breeding juvenile wandering, probably at Jamaica Bay.

Connecticut 214

Connecticut 2011 Jamaica 2012 214

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2018

It’s just too much of an amazingly far cry from my present “winter”, one where my thickest jacket is a long sleeve shirt, where the dark of the night is filled with the constant hum of biomass, and where we can always see birds. A bit of a mild Niagara winter. Golden-hooded Tanager- winter bird, Costa Rica style. Sound nice?

Costa Rica 186

Costa Rica Birds Parrots Species 186

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2020

This was a pleasant surprise if only because I’m so used to the more technical views presented in his field guides. Also, I wish I could use the tiny birds for my own presentations. It’s nice to get a tiny glimpse of David Sibley the person. Is a free digital download possible?) copyright @2020 by David A llen Sibley.

2020 264

2020 Birds North America Sparrows 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2024

Her experiences are framed within the larger scientific histories how once common species become endangered, and of how people and organizations have strategized and explored controversial paths to bring their numbers up and nurture them till they fill our skies. This is the chapter where Osborn talks about “second chances.”

California Condor 185

California Condor Falcons California Coyotes 185

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2015

Composite group photographs and brief text descriptions present the core information, the species accounts. The descriptions are all similar: a graceful black-capped shearwater with clean white underparts and patterned upperparts that breeds in New Zealand and which is uncommon in U.S. western waters in the fall.

Dolphins 162

Dolphins Porpoises Whales Whaling 162

10,000 Birds

APRIL 10, 2016

From our experience the greatest risk is when the shorebirds take off in a panic flight and clip each other’s wings and several fall into the sea. The shorebirds are heavily camouflaged on the rocks at Gantheaume Point and it is easy for people to wander across the rocks and have no idea that they are present.

Taiwan 100

Taiwan Breeding Japan 2017 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2012

This may be the most awesome pelagic you’ll ever experience… For me it was the publication in 1984 of Peter Harrison’s ground-breaking identification guide to ‘ Seabirds ’ that opened up the off-shore world of pelagic birding right on Cape Town’s door step.

Albatross 231

Albatross Penguins Dolphins Whales 231

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2017

Greater Adjutants are huge birds that were once widespread across much of Southeast Asia; today there are two small breeding populations in India and Cambodia. There is no experience comparable to birding a dump, and, I have to say, I have never experienced a dump like this one. There were several there, plus Lesser Adjutants.

2016 145

2016 India Ducks Costa Rica 145

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

What I didn’t know was how this relationship actually works: the mechanics of Red Knot migration, the reduced digestive systems necessary for their long flighta, the need to fatten up quickly so they can fly to the Arctic and breed, how they compete with other shorebirds and gulls and, it turns out, humans, for horseshoe crab eggs.

Delaware 218

Delaware New Jersey Eggs Research 218

Animal Person

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Today's New York Times gives us Adam Shriver's Op-Ed " Not Grass-Fed, But at Least Pain-Free ," which presents its dilemma at the end: If we cannot avoid factory farms altogether, the least we can do is eliminate the unpleasantness of pain in the animals that must live and die on them. It would be far better than doing nothing at all.

Factory Farm 100

Factory Farm Factory Farming Animal Factory 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 26, 2024

All the so-called grey geese – Greylag, Bean, White-front, Lesser White-front, Swan – look very much alike, and it takes experience to identify them by their calls and their shape and size. Explaining the increase in the number of sightings is difficult, as the Siberian breeding population is declining.

Bulgaria 130

Bulgaria Geese Romania Estonia 130