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Where to go birding without the crowds in our busiest national park. In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, over a half million acres visited by more than 11 million folks, you can still bird in relative solitude. I’ve been birding on the Tennessee side of GSM for over thirty years; and Cades Cove is at the top of my easily accessible, ‘private’ habitats.
Author: Jennifer Tomlinson and Alon Leibovich The word “dark” has nefarious connotations, but when it comes to the internet and social media, dark really just means private or anonymous. Dark web and dark social are fairly common, easy-to-understand terms, but what about dark marketing? Have you heard of it? What does it mean? And what impact can it have on your business?
As we enter the second century of protecting, preserving, and respecting our wild spaces, certainly no one would actually consider undoing, reversing, and exploiting our national parks, forests, and monuments. Right? And yet, it has begun. Minnesota’s Superior National Forest is now on the radar for underground mineral mining. In an area known for ‘the cleanest water in the world,’ 234,000 acres were sheltered from mining exploration…until now.
These are the summer months of the northern hemisphere and yet this time of year in Costa Rica is known as the “invierno”, Spanish for “winter” However, no matter how adapted I become to the local culture, I just can’t use that word in Costa Rica. No, because the real thing is the brittle cold days and frozen nights of my Niagara youth, a place where I delivered pre-dawn newspapers on empty icy streets, where the sharp stars pierced the night sky so quiet and bereft
The birding around Lago de Yojoa in Honduras is frankly phenomenal, as I learned during a June 2018 birding junket organized by the Instituto Hondureño de Turismo. We spent two blissful days exploring both the waders and wildlife of Lake Yojoa and the tropical splendor of PANACAM Lodge. But our adventurous group, led by Oliver Komar and Yobani A. Peraza , could not sit still knowing that so many tasty target birds could be found within easy driving distance.
Cloud forest is a special habitat and not just because the Resplendent Quetzal calls it home. Even if you don’t happen to be an eager birder creeping through misty forests with binoculars at the ready, it’s impossible to not be impressed, to feel a sense of wonder at walking through woods where massive trees are overloaded with lush vegetation on every branch, where hidden birds add to the mystery and imagination with natural minor-keyed flutes.
Cloud forest is a special habitat and not just because the Resplendent Quetzal calls it home. Even if you don’t happen to be an eager birder creeping through misty forests with binoculars at the ready, it’s impossible to not be impressed, to feel a sense of wonder at walking through woods where massive trees are overloaded with lush vegetation on every branch, where hidden birds add to the mystery and imagination with natural minor-keyed flutes.
As you know, I started to bird from a canoe, exploring the Danube backwaters in Belgrade, Serbia. Those foreland backwaters stretch all along the left/northern bank, between the river and the levee, somewhere only 450 m / 1500 ft wide, but somewhere reaching even 2100 m / 7000 ft. It is a fascinating world of swampy forests of willow and poplar, inhabited by Black Storks , White-tailed Eagles , Eastern Olivaceous and Icterine Warblers (above), among more than 200 other species.
We have been busy walking the beach and keeping an eye on our local Pied Oystercatchers and the two pairs that laid their eggs earliest for the 2018 breeding season and successfully hatched out their chicks have now lost their chicks to predation. One pair have already returned to the nest site and will no doubt lay a further clutch of eggs in due course.
Back in the US of A! And everything that goes with it. We arrived in Seattle 6 days ago, at 12:30 in the morning, after being on the road, in one form or another since February 1st. It might go without saying, but I am a bit tired. 35,000 miles on an airplane, 18 airports, and just shy of 20, 000 miles driving. Add to the fact that we have been living in Mexico, and are now going to stay in the US, at least for a little while, means new cell phones, new auto and RV insurance, banking, and of co
Following passage of the United States Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, the California Condor ( Gymnogyps californianus ) was among the first 75 species listed for protection, the so-called “Class of 1967”. Beset by poaching by cattle ranchers, habitat loss, DDT, and lead poisoning (from consuming shotgun pellets embedded in the condor’s carrion fare), populations of this enormous New World vulture fell into a serious decline in the twentieth century.
There’s more than one obsession in The Feather Thief , and though the mind boggles at the lengths to which the obsessed go in order to satiate their passions, as a birder I couldn’t help but feel a sense of kinship. And, rage and frustration. The Feather Thief is the story of Edwin Rist, a 20-year old flutist from New York State, who, on a June evening in 2009, broke into the British Museum of Natural History at Tring, grabbed 299 bird skins, and, ignoring an almost priceless elephant portfolio
The last weekend of July signals the midpoint of the current season, at least as far as the conventional calendar is concerned. Birds run on a different timetable than humans, so many of the former are making plans for fall (or spring) while the latter still ponders how to spend those summer (or winter) nights. So if the birding by you has been uninspiring, just wait.
Midsummer means shorebirding in these parts. Some of you may be stifling a yawn at the very thought of parsing peeps, while others may be thrilled that those little brown beachcombers have finally found your part of the world. Either way, birders gotta bird, so make the most of whatever the season offers. I heard about some extraordinary (for Rochester) shorebirds up at Braddock Bay, but all I earned for my efforts this weekend were a few Semipalmated Sandpipers.
I am something of an aficionado of National Wildlife Refuges. On this site, I have attempted to list the top 25 NWRs for birding , explained how to learn more about a particular NWR , and generally extolled the importance of the system to birds and birders. I am also a dutiful eBirder. But I somehow missed the introduction of some cool new features specifically for eBirding NWRs.
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It is summer and I live in Queens. That means it is time to look for shorebirds on the East Pond of Jamaica Bay. And look I did this weekend with visits to the pond on both Saturday and Sunday mornings despite the ferocious mosquitoes that insisted upon a blood donation as the price of admission to the pond. Blood paid, I entered each morning at the south end of the pond, working my way up the east side with the light shining on the pond from behind me.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Silly Season approaches. Parliament takes a summer break and trivial stories fill the slow-news days. For birders, the summer brings the opportunities to pursue alternative interests with little chance of missing anything exciting. Some fill their days with butterflies or dragonflies. This season, I shall mostly be watching trucks!
Birders deal with the summer doldrums in a number of different ways – some turn to herping, and others to dragonflies; some travel, and others patiently watch the garden for fledgings and second nestings. I myself mostly poke the internet and watch other people play video games and ask myself questions like “Could cat litter be the most important invention in the history of modern environmentalism?
Weekends, particularly those sweet summer ones, possess a remarkable elasticity, stretching and spilling over its shoulder days and beyond. We savor three-day weekends, crave four-day ones, and treat vacations as interminably long stretches of Saturdays and Sundays. You may already be immersed in your weekend or just gearing up for one. Just try to ensure that birding makes the itinerary.
Perhaps some other time I’ll write in more detail about the links between Minnesota’s Bell Museum and birds. There are many. Now I’ll just note that the Bell Museum was closed for a long time during a move to a new location; the Bell had its grand opening last Sunday; I took some pictures to demonstrate the Bell-Bird link and here they are.
In a society that values consensus and clarity, speaking out against the conventional wisdom or shared beliefs requires bravery. Sometimes a moment demands a voice of dissent, even if speaking out could incur skepticism, ridicule, or even scorn. Nonetheless, when you positively ID a bird that differs from the usual expectations, you’ve got to spread the word.
That’s what lots of people have been screaming (well, metaphorically , anyway) as the Northern Hemisphere’s nesting season does a number on various projects and events. On the U.S. eastern seaboard, various varieties of birds have gotten in the way of pipeline plans , whereas on the West Coast, it’s landfill mowing that’s the problem. Construction of a Chinese highway hit a red light after sightings of protected Rosy Starlings (like the ones above which Nate spotted several years ago in India)
Two weeks ago I introduced you to two pairs of our Pied Oystercatchers that were early egg layers this year and this week the eggs have hatched out after twenty eight days of incubation. Both pairs of Pied Oystercatchers are in a very public area of Cable Beach, but they are always successful with their egg incubation each year. Sadly the outcome from here is often chick loss from predation, but for now we will enjoy observing the two families of Pied Oystercatchers as they wander the dunes and
When a young bird has to compete with the rest of its nest-mates for food they cannot afford to turn up their bill at anything that is brought in. Be first, reach highest and call loudest, that is the road to fledging success. Unless of course you are a cuckoo and have already eliminated the competition. A single chick fledged from the Oriental Reed Warblers ‘ Acrocephalus orientalis nest, but my, what a big one!
Summer weekends often mean summer road trips, mixed blessings at best. Of course, we love to visit new places and enjoy cool breezes at the shore, in the woods, or atop mountains. But travel often involves traffic, which–at least in my case–raises stress rather than lowers it. So, if you’re on the road this weekend, stay calm, have fun, and don’t drive like an idiot!
July often means travel, which sometimes means tourist attractions, which occasionally means exotic or introduced bird species. Following me here? Encountering exotics raises all manner of questions in birders, the toughest of which rarely center on identification. We may know these birds well, but should we love them? The reason I ask is because my family and I visited the Bronx Zoo this weekend.
One of my early memories of birds is the abundance of Ospreys I saw after moving from Syracuse, New York downstate to eastern Long Island at the age of eight. I know that Ospreys nest in upstate central New York, but if I saw them there as a child, I don’t recall it (though my father will probably remind me that we did). But “fish hawks” were impossible to ignore on Long Island, conspicuously perched atop their roadside nesting platforms high above the coastal saltmarshes and brackish cattail st
July rarely ranks high in the list of top birding months. Too few species on the move makes for the same old same old. However, those who value quality over quantity may find this month more amenable to auspicious encounters with their local birds. Pay attention to even your most common residents this weekend, and you may be surprised. I’ll be traveling to NYC this weekend with nary a moment for birding; hopefully, I’ll see something decent on the road.
Another amazing 10,000 Birds theme week is in the tank. Joining Poop Week , Wood-Warbler Week , Bird Love Week , and other theme weeks lost in the ether, Come@Me Week was an unbridled success, causing arguments, hurt feelings, bar fights, and at least one felony during its week-long run. We hope you enjoyed it! (And that you didn’t get too rowdy in the comment section here or on Facebook.).
The compelling contrarian positions put forth during Come@Me Week undoubtedly had many of you questioning your core beliefs about birds, birding, conservation, and even basic biology. Fortunately, when we need to clear our heads and reconnect with what makes sense, we can turn to birds, birding, conservation, and basic biology, in a matter of speaking.
This year is the eighteenth year since we discovered our first Pied Oystercatcher nest on Cable Beach in Broome and it didn’t take us long to realise that they are not at all successful at raising young due to egg and chick predation. Thankfully due to the long life span of this bird species the population appears to be somewhat stable at the moment.
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