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Ethiopia , a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa, has firmly established itself as one of Africa’s top birding destinations. Only twenty years ago it was an out-of-bounds, desperately impoverished and war-torn ex-Marxist state. Tourism infrastructure didn’t exist then and development has been slow. Tours groups that I guided to Ethiopia ten years ago had to endure very basic accommodation, almost no surfaced roads and low levels of service.
Taste of the Wild now offers their two most popular adult formulas in a puppy food. High Prairie Puppy and Pacific Stream Puppy are the newest additions to the Taste of the Wild family and were developed specifically to be more nutritionally beneficial for dogs under the age of 18 months. Taste of the Wild is a grain free, natural pet food that uses high quality ingredients for the benefit of your dog or cat.
What was this idiot thinking? The full story is below and it comes from kcra.com. Outcry is growing against one of California’s top wildlife officials after a photo of him holding a dead mountain lion surfaced online last week. Dan Richards, president of the California Fish and Game Commission, is shown in the photo, holding a mountain lion he reportedly hunted and killed in Idaho, according to Western Outdoor Press, which published the photo.
Listening is far more important than talking and schmoozing when you want to earn the respect and trust of your prospects – especially in the first meeting and the early stages of the business relationship. Even if you’re responding to a prospect’s inquiry, it’s important to remember that prospects must first respect and trust you and your company before they’ll be comfortable buying from you.
The problem of the unjust use of farm animals is large, growing, historical, institutionalized, governmentally encouraged, and fundamentally unregulated at either the state or federal level. Farm animals are treated essentially as raw materials. Their ethological needs and direct interests are neglected to the extent that their needs are not as congruent with higher productivity and profit.
Torrent Ducks are the thrill-seekers of the avian world. Very few birds – or animals for that matter – would plunge head-first into the churning cauldrons of some of South America’s most treacherous rivers. But Torrent Ducks are fearless and to witness some of their daredevil feats ranks pretty high in the book “1000 Avian Spectacles to See Before You Die” A book that I have not yet written.
Sometimes hawks, in particular, Red-shouldered hawks will go all Turdus migratorious , hop on the ground and nosh some slimy earth worms. There’s even video proof of a Red-shouldered Hawk eating earthworms on Flickr and there’s been discussion about this on MD bird listserv. This discussion about red-shoulders comes up from time to time and it throws people off, “Wait, hawks are raptors, they should be going for meat!
Sometimes hawks, in particular, Red-shouldered hawks will go all Turdus migratorious , hop on the ground and nosh some slimy earth worms. There’s even video proof of a Red-shouldered Hawk eating earthworms on Flickr and there’s been discussion about this on MD bird listserv. This discussion about red-shoulders comes up from time to time and it throws people off, “Wait, hawks are raptors, they should be going for meat!
Snowy Owls are iconic birds. You rarely find a person – birder or non – who doesn’t want to take a good long look at a bright white owl. And, of course, you rarely meet a photographer who doesn’t want to take a good close picture of a bright white owl. On Saturday, as has already been mentioned on this blog , a couple of us went out to Breezy Point, the southwestern extremity of Queens, and were pleased to see a Snowy Owl in the dunes there.
If you know only a little bit about Charles Darwin, you know that he figured out Evolution via his study of the finches (and other birds) of the Galapagos. If you know a bit more than that about Darwin, you know that he totally messed up his collection of birds from the Galapagos Islands, and didn’t really think up Evolution until much later in time.
I’ve just finished reading THE PLUME HUNTER (Torrey House Press, December 2011) by Renée Thompson. In this captivating book, Thompson explores the motivation behind hunters who shot birds to sell feathers for women’s hats at the turn of the nineteenth century. Set in the marshes of the Malheur and Lower Klamath regions of 1890’s Oregon, Thompson has crafted a story featuring Fin McFaddin, a plume hunter and the novel’s dark hero, and his best friend Aiden Elliott, a man stalwartly opposed
It’s my fantasy and it’s yours: Quit the job, say good-bye to the family, and bird. Just bird. It’s what I dream of every Monday morning. British birder Chris Gooddie, my new birding hero, not only dreamed the fantasy, he lived it. And, to give his dream year a little more oomph, he created a grand once-in-a-lifetime goal: to track down and see every pitta species in the world in one year.
You may remember the awesome encounter Doug and I had with Red-cockaded Woodpeckers at the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area from this post. If you are some kind of idiot savant you might even remember that the last image of a Red-cockaded Woodpecker that I shared was of the bird holding a grub in its bill. What you didn’t know unless you are some kind of a psychic is that Doug managed to shoot some slow-motion video of the woodpecker getting that grub, video that he was kind enough to
While Blue Jays , Northern Cardinals , and American Goldfinches will all show up at bird feeders here in the northeast and share their brilliant blue, red, and yellow visages, we have no bird at our feeders to compare to the Painted Bunting. While I have mentioned their technicolor dreamcoats before it never hurts to mention again that a bird made of blue, yellow, red, and green is absurd and proof that nature is awesome.
Purple Gallinules are awesome. And I am in the enviable position of having a surfeit of images of Porphyrio martinica to share. Such is the burden that a digiscoping bird blogger bears when he visits the Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland, Florida in January. Grant McCreary of The Birder’s Library , who shared the experience with me, probably has pretty much the same problem.
Tanzania has an enormous variety of exquisite birds but unfortunately it has an equal number of distractions that can interrupt your birding experience. Take these pesky Lions for instance. While seeking out tiny brown birds in the drizzle, we came upon this amorous duo and for some reason everyone in the car decided that the birds could wait. The Lioness sat regal in the rain and the chatterboxes who thought nothing of telling raucous tales while we crept up on a Tawny Eagle or a Variable Sunbi
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WONDERFUL WEAVERS There are many different Weavers in the world and as far as I can tell they share the skill of masterful nest building… unlike the shabby unstable creations of, say, Mourning Doves. By the way, I’ve tried to ID everyone appropriately but if you have any corrections please say so in the comments. Above a Speke’s Weaver displays below the nest in an effort to attract a female.
In between moments of staring at and trying to photograph distant Snail Kites at Kaliga Park on East Lake Toho in St. Cloud, Florida, Doug, with whom I had been birding all day long, found a Yellow-throated Warbler foraging behind us. And while Snail Kites are awesome, especially when you are adding them to your ABA list , a close and confiding Yellow-throated Warbler is almost irresistible, especially for a New Yorker.
Why would I call these beautiful woodpeckers the “clowns of the avian world?” Besides the facial features of the Acorn Woodpecker ( Melanerpes formicivorus ) appearing somewhat clown-like, they are a joy to watch and some of their antics are sure to bring a smile to anyone’s face. Both the male and female of the species have a bright red crown.
I imagine so. What do you think? And if anyone wants to provide a caption for the picture below please have at it in the comments. This is a Purple Gallinule Porphyrio martinica and a Common Gallinule Gallinula galeata at the Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland, Florida. Can you tell which is which? (Click image for larger version.) … a.
There really isn’t much to say about the Mottled Duck. It is one of several species in the Mallard -complex of ducks, along with American Black Duck , Mexican Duck , and quite a few others. You find them in the south from Florida to Texas and down into Mexico, occasionally as far north as the Carolinas in the east and up the Mississippi River as far north as Illinois.
The Green-winged Teal ( Anas crecca carolinensis ) is North America’s smallest dabbling duck and taken by hunters second only to the Mallard. Click on photos for full sized images. Luckily for them, even though they nest on the ground, they usually breed far from human habitation, under heavy vegetative cover. It appears that most of the Green-winged Teal have already paired up in California.
Southern Florida offers many unique wintering birds, but perhaps none more so then the sparrows that call different parts of Florida their winter homes. Tom Dunkerton tipped me off to an area on the Black Merritt National Wildlife Refuge where some of my target birds can be seen. Tom spends most of his daylight hours scouring the refuge for goodies, so I was ultra happy to have him as my knowledgeable local guide.
Photography is a great tool to improve bird ID accuracy as explored in my previous post Photography and Birding. Now I am ready to share with you what lens I consider ideal regarding cost, weight, portability, and quality. My experience is only with Canon equipment which I have used for five years, of course there is also Nikon and others but these will not be considered here.
A thoughtful reader just pointed me towards one of the coolest posts I’ve seen in a long time, one which asks and then answers the question regarding whether the Golden Eagle or the Bald Eagle is the fiercest predator. The brutality here is mind-boggling! Sure, this post has been around for a while, but I had no idea… a.
It seemed liked an innocuous idea. Seven birders, a boat for hire, and a cruise around lower New York Harbor and vicinity looking for good birds. What could possibly go wrong? After all, the forecast was for mostly sunny skies, light winds, and no big waves. Therefore the seven of us who climbed aboard a boat in Brooklyn early yesterday morning did so without trepidation, indeed, we were eager to get out on the water.
During my time in Florida I only saw two birds on nests, which is not terribly surprising considering that I was there at the end of January. Most birds, after all, wait until spring. But when you see the two birds on nests that I spotted you will understand why I thought that two was more than enough. Birding at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival is really pretty darn cool… Great Horned Owl on nest Bald Eagle on nest Sorry for such a short post – the next one will be lo
Back when I was trying to figure out what I should do during my time at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival I was advised by Doug Gochfeld to check out “the Gull spectacle on the beach at Daytona Beach Shores.” Intrigued, I looked into it, and learned that enormous amounts of gulls feed at a dump during the day and in the evening they fly over to Daytona Beach, in the vicinity of Frank Rendon Park, and make themselves at home on the beach.
A team of researchers has found that the populations of common birds around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan has plummeted. Most disturbingly, the populations of species that the area has in common with Chernobyl has fallen more in Fukushima than they did in the site of worst nuclear disaster in world history. a.
This weeks post is driven by a glut of pictures and the need to clear the air with a small confession. Yellow Bitterns ( Ixobrychus sinensis ) showed strongly during a recent trip to Singapore and on occasion it would have been impossible to pose them any better than they were already doing themselves. It is possible however that I may have done them a disservice by telling all and sundry that they were Cinnamon Bitterns , so I would like to set that error straight here.
We New Yorkers get excited about single American Avocets showing up in our state and when more than one avocet is around we can’t help but go take a look. Theoretically, we understand that sometimes Recurvirostra americana show s up in larger groups than that but we have a hard time visualizing such an occurrence. Having now visited Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in January this New Yorker will never have that problem again.
There are certain families that I habitually fail to encounter when opportunities arise. I’ve had pretty lousy luck when it comes pittas and broadbills, and I also am really bad when it comes to the various night birds such as owls, nightjars and related species. It isn’t that I never see them, just that I often miss them. One family I have consistently dipped on are the Burhinidae, known variously as dikkops, thick-knees or stone-curlews.
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