10,000 Birds

APRIL 16, 2012

The pine barrens of New Jersey look rather plain and boring if you only see them while driving past on the Garden State Parkway or New Jersey Turnpike. By the time urban and suburban sprawl started to reach New Jersey’s pine barrens they were largely protected and today over 1.1

New Jersey 177

New Jersey New York City Leopards New York 177

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2012

Last week a mystery bird from New Jersey rightly caused a fair bit of confusion among birders of the Garden State and beyond. There’s a little hint of white in the malar and throat too, which would seem to be a problem for the species Black- chinned Sparrow. New Jersey mystery sparrow.

New Jersey 220

New Jersey North Carolina Sparrows Connecticut 220

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2012

Warbling Vireos are found breeding in open deciduous woods, often riparian, across Mexico, the United States, and southern Canada. Their fondness for open woods means that they often adapt well to breeding in parks and it was Van Saun Park in New Jersey’s Bergen County that I found the individual shown in this blog post.

New Jersey 188

New Jersey Philadelphia United States Canada 188

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2012

When they are not getting ready to breed they are a pretty bland brown-and-white bird. The bird in these photos was foraging in the pond at the south end of Van Saun Park in northern New Jersey, a place I often stop to bird briefly on my way to work.

New Jersey 173

New Jersey North America Chile South America 173

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2012

And there were several birds, often feeding close to shore, much different from my first encounter with the species along another fabled wildlife drive, the one at Brigantine in New Jersey. They do tend to wander after breeding which explains my first encounter with that New Jersey bird.

Wildlife 178

Wildlife New Jersey South America United States 178

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 178

Delaware New Jersey Eggs Research 178

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

The book is divided into three parts: “Introduction,” “Avifaunal Overview,” and “Species Accounts.” The authors’ detailed delineation of problems with the accuracy of NYC breeding bird surveys or with the limits of historical writings may test a reader’s patience. Most birders will go straight to the “Species Accounts.”

New York City 148

New York City New York Birds Breeding 148

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 12, 2013

Phaetusa simplex is the only species in its genus and it seems very unlikely that it will be confused with another tern species. One has been seen in New Jersey in 1988 , in Illinois in 1949, and in Ohio in 1954 (Links are PDFs.) – interestingly, all in May.). And that is when I saw my first Large-billed Tern !

Trinidad 173

Trinidad Nevada Illinois New Jersey 173

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2015

Like the two previous books in the series, the American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of New Jersey by Rick Wright and the American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of Colorado by Ted Floyd (photographs for all three primarily by master photographer Brian E.

Colorado 234

Colorado Florida New Jersey North America 234

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Any day of birding in New York State that includes a sighting of a Vesper Sparrow is a better-then-average day. Fortunately, they are still common across the Great Plains and the species as a whole does not seem to be in trouble, just the eastern populations. What has caused the decline? What has caused the decline? … a.

Sparrows 165

Sparrows North Dakota Downers United States 165

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2014

There is another area of the Queens County CBC where a team will also likely see Monk Parakeets , Myipsitta monachus , but I am seriously determined to count that bird for my area, Coastal Flushing, a section of northeast Queens, New York, that includes Whitestone, home of one of the loudest invasive bird species in the U.S.

Chicago 198

Chicago New York City Illinois New York 198

10,000 Birds

APRIL 11, 2019

A biologist friend of mine recently moved from New Jersey (where she visited the estuaries to study hundreds of thousands waders at close range) to Belgrade where I showed her some inland birding sites with two shorebirds here and one or two more over there. So far, 33 species have been eBirded in Serbia. Black-winged Stilt.

Serbia 151

Serbia New Jersey Europe Hunters 151

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2018

To get there we would need to get out of New York, through New Jersey into Delaware, and then on through Maryland and Virginia until finally reaching our destination. We broke the drive down into two segments: from New York to Delaware on 31 March and from Delaware to North Carolina on 1 April.

North Carolina 100

North Carolina New York Delaware Puerto Rico 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2012

In New York, as is the case across most of the area where the “eastern” wood-warblers migrate, there are four species that are almost always the first to appear. All of the images in this post were taken over the last week with my digiscoping rig in New York and New Jersey.

New Jersey 180

New Jersey New York Louisiana United States 180

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2018

I was on New Jersey Audubon’s Grand North Dakota birding tour this past July, driving along dirt roads through the prairies of western North Dakota. I wanted to see prairie birds and I wanted to experience a new state. Since 1966, when the Breeding Bird Survey first began monitoring, numbers have declined 79 percent.

North Dakota 137

North Dakota Sparrows Birds Blackbirds 137

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

Kevin Karlson is co-author of The Shorebird Guide , Birding by Impression , and The Birds of New Jersey. The hope and claim is that transferring this process to gull identification works more easily and just as accurately (at least for species) as an examination of plumage and molt patterns. Species Accounts.

North America 198

North America El Salvador America Nicaragua 198

10,000 Birds

MARCH 12, 2012

But Gotham’s many parks have some very suitable habitat for birds from the family Picidae and a birder in any borough of New York will generally find at least a couple of species during an average morning’s birding. Only six regularly appear in the city, however, and only four are year-round residents.

New York City 244

New York City New York Woodpeckers New Jersey 244

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2011

In New Jersey, police shot a Wild Turkey that was causing a few fender benders. These are just quick turkey car accident links I’ve found on my usual birding news feeds, but I’m sure many more are out there. I think the main reason turkey/vehicle collisions are more noticeable this time of year are breeding hormones.

Turkey 228

Turkey Hunters Coyotes Boston 228

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2015

The Refuge is now home to nearly 200 species of birds, over 50 species of mammals, 25 species of reptiles and amphibians, and a wide variety of insects, fish and plants. The Louisiana black bear’s threatened status warrants protection under sections 7 and 9 of the Endangered Species Act.

Fish 143

Fish Wildlife Hunting Louisiana 143

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

… Matthew Anderson [of Audubon] said proponents of colonies are putting the interests of one invasive species — cats — over the hundreds of other native ones that are their prey. But about two-thirds of the people speaking supported the new measure, including Dan Niziolek, director of Minneapolis Animal Care and Control.

Feral Cats 206

Feral Cats Feral Cats Minneapolis 206

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

There are 35 raptor species that have a presence in the United States and Canada, 56 (more or less) if you count by subspecies, and they are all covered in admirable, exhausting, unbelievable detail in B irds of Prey of the East: A Field Guide and Birds of Prey of the West: A Field Guide by Brian K. Species Accounts.

North America 189

North America Mississippi Bald Eagle Falcons 189

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2017

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. The year list total is 709 countable and 2 non-countable birds. I like to add, “But I’m not a lister!”

2016 109

2016 India Ducks Costa Rica 109

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2018

New York City apartments don’t allow feeders to be hung from fire escapes (though I know certain birders that skirt that rule), and it wasn’t until I had already been birding for four-and-a-half years that I obtained a small yard in central New Jersey in which I could place a feeder or two or three.

New York City 171

New York City Birds Squirrels Woodpeckers 171

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

Because I did not have to arrive at my office in Emerson, New Jersey until 9:30 AM on Wednesday I planned a pre-dawn assault on the Croton Train Station, which, timed correctly, would give me over two hours with the bird before I had to skedaddle off to the salt mines for another day’s labor. And I even got to work on time!

New York 163

New York New York City Kazakhstan New Jersey 163

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2016

It was my second field guide, and I quickly gave it that worn look I imagined all “real” birder’s field guides had by dropping it into the creek at Allaire State Park in New Jersey (by accident!). Species accounts include common name, scientific name, measurements, text, images, and range maps. ” Thank you, David Sibley!

North America 158

North America 2003 Birds America 158

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

The very first thing we notice about this large member of the Galliformes is that there is a wild version and a domestic version, and although the two are rather different, they are both given the same species name, Meleagris gallopavo. Photograph of a Wild Turkey at Flatrock Brook Nature Center, in Englewood, New Jersey, by Corey.

Turkey 201

Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 201

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 4, 2014

There were birders from a wide cross-section of the United States: Colorado, Ohio, Idaho, Iowa, Wyoming, Washington State, Pennsylvania, New York State, New Jersey, California, Texas, Florida. Betty’s Bay was also a great place to see all of South Africa’s cormorant species, including the endangered Bank Cormorant.

South Africa 253

South Africa Africa Leopards Penguins 253

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

There were a host of great shorebirds in New York’s Orange County on Thursday early in the day but reports of roads being flooded out and the rather long distance, almost two hours travel from Queens, made that idea a reject. What was this particular ibis doing in northern New Jersey?

New Jersey 187

New Jersey New York United States Breeding 187

10,000 Birds

MAY 22, 2011

Ruddy Turnstone is a Species of Least Concern according to BirdLife International. It has an enormous range, occurring in such far-flung locales as New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Alaska, Greenland, and Brazil, to name just a few. It is one of two turnstone species, the other being the Black Turnstone A.

Saudi Arabia 157

Saudi Arabia New Zealand Brazil Alaska 157

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2011

I had a beautifull view on 5 horned grebe here (one in breeding plumage), in Ann Arbor Michigan, for the 3 seconds it lasted, until I heard a huge “CRRACK&# , and I fell through the ice. On Sunday at Kissena Park I saw five species of sparrows. And my first Killdeer of year! I see why people sometimes call them gray ghosts.

2011 154

2011 New York Deer Philadelphia 154

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2022

The Latin species name of the Kalij Pheasant is leucomelanos , meaning “white” (leukos) and “black” (melanos, both Greek words). thesis on the “Social Behavior and Cooperative Breeding of Kalij Pheasants” in a place with much nicer sanitary facilities than where I saw the bird (in rural Fujian).

Rhode Island 147

Rhode Island South Dakota North Dakota Nebraska 147

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2019

I like observing them, reading about them, grappling with species and subspecies identification, and even—on a good day—talking about sparrow taxonomy. Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America covers 61 species of the New World sparrow family Passerellidae that breed in Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico.

North America 146

North America Sparrows America United States 146

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2012

The last time I saw a Mississippi Kite was way up in Root, New York, back in 2009. There was a pair that were believed to be breeding and the following year successful breeding was confirmed, the first record of the species breeding in New York State.

Mississippi 169

Mississippi New York North Carolina New Jersey 169

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 26, 2012

Seeing this bid brings back memories of those times living on the east coast and birding New Jersey where I wish I would’ve payed better attention. Ultimately, this species can look drastically different in their molting phases, but this bird should prove to be a male. However difficult they are to see!

Denver 166

Denver Ducks New Jersey United States 166

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2014

I got to see a beautiful female and owlet on a trip to a secret nest location near Howard Prairie Lake (human-made nest structures have enhanced local breeding for these huge owls whose nest success is boosted to 83% on artificial platforms vs. 66% at natural sites). The experience, the place, and the bird combine to make this my BBOTY.

2014 187

2014 Costa Rica South Africa Penguins 187

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 5, 2017

I grab my binoculars, camera, and field guide and drive 2-and-a-half hours to southern New Jersey. The 7th edition of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America covers 1,023 species that reside, migrate, or have been documented as accidentals or exotics in North America. Forsythe NWR.

North America 182

North America America 2017 Birds 182

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2019

Evening Grosbeaks are large, stunning birds, especially the males, with their distinct plumage and massive bills; I haven’t been fortunate enough to see any of the Evening Grosbeaks that have made their way south to NYC and New Jersey (yet), so I’m very happy I was able to spend time with these beauties this summer. Another sparrow!

2018 153

2018 Michigan North Dakota New Jersey 153