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I have commented before in my posts that most of our Warblers here in central Mexico never actually warble. This tendency is so marked that the Spanish name for Wood Warblers, Chipe, comes not from their mating songs, but from their typical feeding calls: cheep… cheep… cheep. Still, there are a few notable exception to this rule, even here in Michoacán.
Author: Dave Gerry From the U.S. and the U.K. to France and Japan, global companies and global communities everywhere have rolled out mandatory work-from-home policies amid the spread of COVID-19. This shift to the home office has become the new normal for many of us for the foreseeable future as we wait out the pandemic. One study released prior to the pandemic indicated that 63% of companies had remote workers; that figure has only skyrocketed this year.
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May delivers one of those amazing times of the year when we’re too busy looking at birds to sit around talking about them. Let’s make this quick… I managed to catch up with many of my favorite spring migrants at most of the usual Rochester hotspots, yet my best bird actually came to me; I stuck my head out of my home office window only to find myself essentially eye level with a Blackburnian Warbler.
The coronavirus has locked us all in, literally, doing something that was totally unthinkable only a few months ago: it has prevented us from birding abroad! And now we are all dreaming about new destinations to explore, once airports are working again and borders re-open. Only this time, you do not feel like inhaling the same air circling through the plane on a ten hour flight.
“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” Like many of you, I had plans for this year’s spring migration: to bird the very best tour of the Balkans, heading for northeastern Greece. First, 800 km of driving from Belgrade through Bulgaria to very NE corner of Greece and the Dadia Forest National Park with its 36 species of diurnal raptors, out of Europe’s 38.
North America is home to many amazing bird species, including several which require a special effort to see and appreciate. These birds also invite one to sites that are unique within the United States – the climate, vegetation, and landscapes all add context and heighten the experience of seeing one’s first Elegant Trogon or Painted Bunting. So let’s look at this sampler, shall we?
North America is home to many amazing bird species, including several which require a special effort to see and appreciate. These birds also invite one to sites that are unique within the United States – the climate, vegetation, and landscapes all add context and heighten the experience of seeing one’s first Elegant Trogon or Painted Bunting. So let’s look at this sampler, shall we?
May migration is legendary. It’s when Biggest Week happens, in many places, the fifth month is when it gets truly warm, when we can forget about winter. For myself and surely thousands of other birders, May is when I saw my first of many birds. Niagara Falls State Park, right above the cataracts, is where I used to bike to on May days to see dozens of fantastic chestnut Bay-breasted Warblers whispering from the canopy, American Redstarts and Tennessee Warblers and Nashville Warblers fillin
How many birders are there in America? For such a simple question, it turns out there are very few solid estimates. Indeed, there appears to be just one and it is cited repeatedly. Every few years, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) releases a survey called “ Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis.”. The most recent report was issued in December 2019 and it used data from the 2016 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation.
As the cold fronts begin to sweep through the northern states ushering in a wave of seasonal change and color, South Florida becomes a gathering place for migratory birds far and wide across the country. It starts in late July when shorebirds from the Arctic Tundra, Great Plains, and New England beaches amass at beaches, agricultural areas, and mere rain puddles throughout the tip of the peninsula.
Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos have become a regular sight around Broome in recent weeks. They are usually heard before they are seen and call raucously as they slowly move across the sky. The wing beat of the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo always appears very slow for such a large bird. The biggest flock we have seen in recent weeks has numbered over one hundred individuals, but generally the flocks have been smaller.
There aren’t many places on the planet where one can mention the words ‘forest’ and ‘flamingo’ together. Far less experience the two in a single morning. Fortunately, I live in Trinidad and Tobago – a twin-island nation that boasts the second highest density of bird species in the world. With 489 species recorded (including rarities and vagrants) across a land area that totals less than 2,000 square miles, T&T facilitates quick and easy changes of scenery.
As of next month I am assuming that the airline industry will have no further use for my services and a bleak outlook looms. On the other side of the coin, I will have a lot of time on my hands and 8.5 acres of ancient woodland. During all the uncertainty of virus and threat of job loss, an exciting project has given me reason to look forward with some hope.
Luck is a funny thing. It always presents itself in unexpected ways, seemingly to deliberately confuse and mislead. Last year we reunited with a couple good friends who flew in to T&T for a few days and headed to the remote village of Grande Riviere. This sleepy fishing village on the north coast of Trinidad should ring a bell – it boasts the densest nesting population of Leatherback Turtles in the entire western hemisphere.
It had been a long day. My four-month-old – having received his vaccinations the day before – promptly developed a temperature. Normally we wouldn’t have worried, but these days any sign of a fever is extra stressful. His discomfort made him fussy, which made getting work done nearly impossible until my husband came home from his job at a nearby wildlife management area.
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Because of our age, Mexico’s rising COVID-19 numbers, and my wife’s anxiety about infectious diseases in general, we have been in total lockdown at the Lewis home. TOTAL lockdown. To be specific, I have not walked out our front door since April 15th. (Milady locked herself down back in March.) Our wonderful daughter-in-law buys groceries for us each Monday, and we have a few other things delivered.
Note: Erika is the Communications Director for Audubon Florida. I have been birding for about seven years now – time flies when you’re having fun. However, until this spring I had yet to participate in some of birding’s most time-honored traditions: a Birdathon. Birdathons have been used as Audubon fundraisers for decades, and the concept is simple: count birds in a set period of time – usually 24 hours.
This past weekend was both Global Big Day and World Migratory Bird Day, and yet I had to deal with snow and freezing cold. Isn’t that against the rules? Suffice to say, migrants were having no part of the Arctic chill enveloping Western New York, which means we’re still mired in the first wave of spring arrivals. I consider myself lucky to have seen a Blue-headed Vireo.
Don`t worry – after having written about birding Shanghai in April a few weeks ago, I will not continue this theme for longer – not that much to write about in June and July. But May is a good time for birding here, and thus worth a post. The local equivalent to a popstar in this month is the Japanese Paradise Flycatcher. I guess you can see why.
Many people consider May to be one of the year’s better months, but birders seem more attached. The birding is just that good, or at least can be. Did your month get off to an auspicious start? I was quite pleased to pull my first New York state warblers for the year from the early bird menu. Best of the prosaic bunch was a Black-and-White Warbler looking extra sharp against the drab gray and brown of bare branches at Firehouse Woods.
Normally, I don’t look forward to seeing the Canada Geese on the lake near my Florida home. There are too many for the size of the water body, and they don’t migrate. Did I mention they’re loud and a bit aggressive? And yet, one time each year, I hit the surface of the water with my kayak in search of these waterfowl: spring.
As is the case with many birders all over the world, I have been living under total lockdown for the past three weeks. As a result, all of the birding I have done has been in my back yard, or from my roof. As our long-time readers know, one 10,000 Birds tradition is for each writer to write in December about their Best Birds of the Year. So, in order to up the ante a bit during this period of limitations, I decided to consider what my Best Birds of the Back Yard would be (so far).
Those of us in the United States are celebrating Memorial Day Weekend, normally a time to gather with friends and family for barbecues, beach outings, and other fun group activities. This year, the more somber aspect of Memorial Day, remembering fallen soldiers, is perhaps more on our minds as we cope with the staggering losses from the pandemic. Though we may not be able to enjoy our normal Memorial Day gatherings one thing is constant whether there is a pandemic, a war, or any other calamity:
“Oh, sweet Canada, Canada, Canada” is perhaps the best-best known of birdsong mnemonics in North America, familiar to birders as an aid to remembering the voice of the White-throated Sparrow ( Zonotrichia albicollis ). There are some who claim that the thinly whistled tune of this boreal songster also fits the line “Old Sam Peabody”. And while that works too, I’ve always preferred the Canadian version, if only because the bulk of the White-throated Sparrow’s breeding range lies north of the bord
Last week I told you about the resident shorebirds that are very good at social distancing. This week I will introduce you to the shorebirds that choose not to distance themselves from each other on our local beaches. These migratory shorebirds crowd together for protection when they roost at high tide. Safety in numbers! The flocks are getting smaller day by day as they migrate to the northern hemisphere to breed.
Despite this ongoing period of historic uncertainty and sacrifice, we can find comfort in at least one certainty: May means birds and plenty of them. No matter where on this big, beautiful planet you live, you probably anticipate the passage of new species over the next thirty-one days. Get out there and greet them… as far as we know, birds don’t spread or suffer from COVID-19!
Every week during the COVID crisis has felt like at least a month, but now that we’re deep into May, nobody is complaining. We should all savor this moment, one of the best birding periods of the year, bar none. Even better, May 2020 features as many weekends as a month can accommodate, so live it up!! I’ll be breaking shelter in place for a visit to friends in New York’s Southern Tier.
I can’t recall a year when birders were as thrilled to see the month of May pass as we all are in 2020. I wonder why that is… To add insult to the daily ration of injury, temperatures in Rochester plummeted from sweltering to near-freezing in the space of four days. Despite the cold, I had to take a run at our last migrants this weekend and was rewarded with a lovely morning of lakeshore birding that included an FOY Tennessee Warbler … don’t know how that one got past me
While some parts of the world set the second weekend of May apart for celebration of mothers, you’re going to have to restrict adoration of your favorite maternal units to Sunday. Saturday is Global Big Day , which has to be all about the birds. Maybe you can really spread the love by persuading the moms in your life (or your children if you are a mom) to go birding?
Two weeks ago I mentioned that we rarely got rain at this time of year. However, sometimes it does rain and on 26th May we had our wettest May day on record for Broome! In town there was 93mm over a couple of hours and the rain has spread throughout the Kimberley in recent days. Gravel roads are now closed, but so is the Kimberley unless you are a resident.
It has often been said that a murmuration of starlings is one of the most spectacular sights in nature. When a huge flock of birds wheels and creates beautiful patterns through the ebb and flow of swirling bodies against a setting sun, all one can do is sit in wonder. Starlings are not the only birds to fly en-masse in such delightful style, Dunlins can boast a two-tone effect as they turn, revealing their pale underbody before flipping back to the dark side, but starlings provide a sustained an
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