This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Jeff Gordon is now just over one year into his reign as the President of the American Birding Association. We here at 10,000 Birds thought the first anniversary of his ascension to the throne would be a good time to ask him some questions about etiquette, the state of the ABA, and a variety of other topics. Having now met Jeff twice at recent birding events and even having had the opportunity to bird with him I can say that he is a nice and thoughtful guy, a good birder, and exactly what the AB
November was National Pet Diabetes Awareness Month, were you aware that just like humans, dogs and cats can also get diabetes? In fact, one in 200 cats and one in 500 dogs has diabetes. As with most medical conditions, early detection and treatment of diabetes is recommended and can help with treatment. The most common symptoms of canine and feline diabetes are: · Increased Hunger or Appetite. · Excessive Thirst. · Increased Urination. · Weight Loss. · Weakness or Fatigue.
By MICHAEL LEIMBACH. A recent conversation with a VP of sales highlighted the frustrations of many sales professionals in this weak economy. “How do we gain the attention of customers when they are being flooded with calls from so many sales reps?” he asked. “How do we differentiate ourselves enough that they want to talk to us and not feel they are getting the same story they hear from every other company?
This blog began life eight years ago today, with this post. There have been 214,285 visits in the past eight years. That's an average of 26,785.6 visits per year and 73.3 visits per day.
I enjoy digiscoping–using a digital camera with my spotting scope to get photos of birds. It’s changed quite a bit over the years. Originally digiscoping started as a way to simply get a documentation or souvenir photo of a bird using point and shoot pocket cameras with scopes or binoculars. The cameras were inexpensive compared to single lens reflex cameras (SLRs), they weren’t too heavy in the field and got decent shots.
I travel for birding. A lot. I’m about to head out to the Hula Valley Bird Festival and as I’m packing, I thought I would share with you some essentials I think any birder should plan to have in their suitcase–no matter where they are visiting. I’ve never regretted any of these items being in my suitcase. I’ve also learned a thing or two from optics reps on how to pack expensive binoculars, spotting scopes and cameras.
I travel for birding. A lot. I’m about to head out to the Hula Valley Bird Festival and as I’m packing, I thought I would share with you some essentials I think any birder should plan to have in their suitcase–no matter where they are visiting. I’ve never regretted any of these items being in my suitcase. I’ve also learned a thing or two from optics reps on how to pack expensive binoculars, spotting scopes and cameras.
Until today the only Painted Buntings I had ever seen were in Honduras. And, despite their absurdly gaudy appearance, I am sad to say that those buntings were not given their due because of the sheer volume of insanely good birds that were there for the watching. This bunting was different. This was an absolutely gorgeous adult male Painted Bunting in Connecticut in November.
I don’t think I’ve ever done a post on my home patch of Cape Town, South Africa. This place is such an epic birding location that one cannot possibly do the city and its surrounds justice in one post. So I’m going to feature one of my very favorite locations, just 45 minutes drive from the city centre. The little seaside village of Rooiels is famed for being a wonderful location to pick up some choice South African endemics but it is also one of the most beautiful spots in the
I had the good fortune to be asked to represent one of the UK’s national birding magazines ‘Birdwatching’ on a press trip to Southern Portugal earlier this month. Co-funded by two of the regional tourist boards, Alentejo and Algarve, we were led by one of the very best birders in Portugal João Jara who as well as running his own guiding business Birds and Nature , has served as Chairman of the Portuguese Rarities Committee and a is a thoroughly nice chap to boot.
Paging through a fieldguide, it’s always with a sense of dismay and sadness that I come across reference to an extinct species. This is particularly poignant if the bird has disappeared during the course of my birding days or “on my watch” as I like to think of it. Islands, for various reasons, experience more extinctions than continents (with Africa being the only continent not suffering a bird extinction!).
The results of the Swarovski Optik Digiscoper of the Year 2011 have just been published and once again, they show just what is possible with a telescope and everything from a cheap compact camera to a semi-pro DSLR. The winner this year was Tara Tanaka of the USA, with a stunning image of a Roseate Spoonbill ( Platalea ajaja ), showing action, movement, great lines, a bright colour palette, and a strong focal point - not to mention the great “wish I was there” feeling.
New York has its famous Red-tailed Hawks Pale Male and, until recently, Lola. Cambridge, Mass has a celebrity raptor pair, too. Last winter, a pair of Great Horned Owls took up residence in a spiny locust (?) tree near The Dell in Mt. Auburn Cemetery. The nest was so tiny, flimsy and low to the ground that anyone walking by could clearly see the two owlets trying to grow up there.
I was pretty new to watching birds and photography when I first met this Red-tailed Hawk. While keeping track of some hummingbirds in Alta Plaza Park in San Francisco, I noticed a shadow slipping over the terraced hillside. When I looked up the hawk was five feet above my head and powering towards a perch high in the trees. It was actively hunting the grassy slopes and barely paid me any attention as I tried to figure out how to get as close as possible without changing its behavior.
Red-tailed Tropicbird. “This clumsy, ungraceful bird was displeasing to observe” – Carol F. Pelagic trips. There is nothing in birding like a pelagic…you never know what to expect. You can end up basking in a rare bird bliss that may linger for weeks, or you basically experience a living hell. Today I will give you all the reasons why you are better off riding the bow of your couch than a boat’s, complete with personal anecdotes from disgruntled pelagic birders.
Navigated 360° tours, like YourVRTours, advance pipelines by engaging clients further along the sales funnel. These immersive experiences provide comprehensive property insights, increasing buyer intent and readiness. By embracing navigated tours, agents can optimize property exposure, better qualify leads, and streamline the sales process. Stay ahead in the ever-evolving real estate landscape with innovative technology that elevates buyer journeys and progresses pipelines more effectively.
When trying to attract finches, it can be feast or famine. Some days you get bunches and bunches, other times you might feel totally rejected by them. I recently had a conversation with a colleague who works for the Department of Natural Resources. He’s a smart guy, a wildlife biologist and what he knows about native swans is incredible, but what he knew or didn’t know about bird feeding was surprising.
We birders north of Mexico used to have a parrot to call our own, a sun-faced, spike tailed jewel called the Carolina Parakeet that traversed the southeastern United States preceded by the adrenaline inducing ear piercing squeals that haunt the fever dreams of any birder lucky enough to have made the journey to the Neotropics. It was reportedly unforgettable, but then again most members of the celebrated psitticine family are unforgettable, though these days it probably has more to do with thei
Snowy Egret ( Egretta thula ) photos by Larry Jordan (click for full sized images) While visiting Arcata Marsh a couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching a Snowy Egret ( Egretta thula ) as it skillfully caught several fish in an inlet or tidal channel of the marsh. I was truly amazed at the number of techniques this beautiful bird used to catch at least a dozen fish during my twenty minute observation.
Just a quick one this week as life is crazy and rattles relentlessly onwards. Since everyone loves parrots, I thought I’d post some pictures of one of New Zealand’s many interesting species. The Red-crowned Parakeet is one of three species known also as Kakariki - literally small kaka. One of the small parrots in the Cyanoramphus radiation, the species was recently split from insular forms on New Caledonia, Norfolk Island and Antipodes Island.
This is the lesson that Seaside Aquaculture owner Khan Vu has hopefully learned after being charged, found guilty, and sentenced under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Both Vu and the company were ordered to pay $40,000 to the Texas Park and Wildlife Foundation and a $5,000 fine and put on eighteen months probation after being found guilty in federal court.
Beauty can be found in the most commonplace. I was struck the other day by the perfect patterns created by a preening Mallard. Appreciation of the ordinary in a new light can be as fulfilling as a many a birding experience. Each feather was attended with care by the drake and each fell back perfectly into its allocated position. Having recently re-feathered after the eclipse stage, his feathers were in pristine condition and he seemed keen to keep them that way.
Now that there are 7 billi0n of us on this planet, it seems appropriate to look at and appreciate other great big collections of creatures. This week I came across a wonderful little video ( here ) of Starlings by Liberty Smith and Sophie Windsor Clive: now, wasn’t that cute. and incredibly impressive. In September, I spent a week in eastern Austria (Burgenland) birding and taking birding product photos and I got to see huge flocks of starlings enjoying the grapes (as we enjoyed the produc
Let’s have a warm welcome for Donna Lynn Schulman, who will start in her role as the Book Review Beat Writer tomorrow morning. Donna’s posts will appear on the second Friday of every month. Just make sure you stay quiet when reading her posts because she is, after all, a librarian! Want to learn more about Donna? Read on dear reader, read on.
Sometimes my job, which is for a New Jersey-wide labor union, requires me to meet in Bayonne, across the Hudson River, which at that point is indistinguishable from New York Harbor, from Staten Island. To get there from Queens I have to drive through heavy commuter traffic down into Brooklyn, cross the Williamsburg Bridge into lower Manhattan, drive across Manhattan to the Holland Tunnel, and then drive the New Jersey Turnpike to Bayonne.
For with a lark’s heart he doth tower, By a glorious upward instinct drawn; No bee nestles deeper in the flower Than he in the bursting rose of dawn. -From “The Falcon” by James Russell Lowell If one were to combine the word “bird” with the word “superlative” the result would be the Peregrine Falcon. Though fastest is the first to mind, most fearsome, most awe-inspiring, and coolest all apply as well to Falco peregrinus.
I think most of us in North America have come to the somewhat disappointing conclusion that fall migration is pretty much finished for the year. I mean, once the Dark-eyed Junco s start showing up there’s really no denying it, is there? You’re done. You might as well hang it up and learn to enjoy the next five months of kinglets, crows, and creepers.
Though he destroyed more than 1,000 nests worth of chicks and eggs of the American White Pelican nearly obliterating a colony on land he rented, a guilty plea by Minnesota farmer Craig Staloch means that he faces, at most, six months in jail. Justice? a.
The Pied-billed Grebe , a most wondrous waterfowl, perfectly exemplify the distinction between common and mundane. Podilymbus podiceps is most certainly common in my experience, able to be seen consistently across varied habitats throughout nearly all of North America and much of South America. However, this gorgeous little grebe can hardly be considered mundane.
Semipalmated Plover in Broome… am I mad!? Isn’t that a bird that doesn’t venture “down under”… you are correct… or you were correct! In late 2009 there was huge excitement in Broome when a Plover was observed at the famous Poo Ponds and was initially presumed to be a Ringed Plover , which is extremely rare, but not unheard of in Australia.
(Check out Part 1 here) The city can be a tough place to make a living but San Francisco offers raptors a number of parks, small and large, for them to thrive in. But the parks have edges, hard edges, and the hawks have to handle the transitions. Above, Patch the Red-tailed Hawk perches on the urban version of a snag. I can’t quite imagine what the wilderness version of an electrical transformer would be.
Hoopoe Upupa Epops With a name like that you would just want to see this bird! It sounds good and it looks good… even a non-birder would be impressed! We saw these birds in Egypt in 1994 and they were just great and Grant saw 5 in Busan, South Korea a few weeks ago, just after I got home to Broome. I was deeply jealous, but I had seen some good birds in Busan that he had missed whilst at work.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 30+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
263 
Let's personalize your content