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A couple of the biggest of bird families are restricted to the Americas. Both can be found in nearly every available habitat, one is infamous for giving birders identification malaise, the other for putting on dazzling natural shows of grit and iridescence. Just about anywhere a birder ventures, the miniscule members of the latter family can be seen, and in most tropical locales, it’s not just one species.
When for whatever reason you may no longer be much of a walker, that shouldn’t be a reason not to be a birder. A car is the obvious solution. When it’s sunny, you have the shade you want; when it’s cold, you can turn on the heating; when it’s windy, you can close the windward window. And you can also use your car speakers to play that owl call. What sort of a car would be the best choice?
I’m not a larophile*, but some of my favorite birders are. It’s hard to escape the mystic pull of wanting to excel at gull identification. Even more than warbler, shorebird, and sparrow identification, this is a field that tests our endurance (gull watching is too often done in bitter cold, windy conditions), patience (even getting one good photo can take hours as you try to separate the ‘interesting gull’ from the flock), observational skills (so many plumages!
One field guide, seven countries. It actually makes a lot of sense, the geographic features of the isthmus between North America (including Mexico, because Mexico is part of North America) and South America cut across political lines, as do birds. Birds of Central America: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rican, and Panama , just published in October, is a field guide that was ten years in the making.
616 acres added in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s still possible (amidst the scurry to take from public lands) to protect our pristine wilderness areas. Through multi-partnerships, cooperation, federal funding, and the private conservation efforts of one family, 616 acres were officially added to the Cherokee National Forest in September 2018.
616 acres added in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s still possible (amidst the scurry to take from public lands) to protect our pristine wilderness areas. Through multi-partnerships, cooperation, federal funding, and the private conservation efforts of one family, 616 acres were officially added to the Cherokee National Forest in September 2018.
In terms of migration excitement, June feels like the party you arrived at just a little late. Everyone still seems to having a ball, but the merriment isn’t flowing quite as freely as it was before. Live it up, though, because, with a few weeks, the migration party may really be over! I’m prepping for a big birding bonanza in Honduras (!!!!
Angela Minor has lived, traveled, and birded from the southern U.S. to the Rocky Mountains and beyond, Alaska, throughout the Caribbean, and in seven countries in Europe. As a freelance travel writer, she authors the state park birding series at Bird Watcher’s Digest, writes for several travel publications including Blue Ridge Country, Smoky Mountain Living, World of Cruising, and serves as a field editor for Birds & Blooms.
White-tailed Eagles normally take flight silently, yet, while checking some Common Starlings and hoping for Rosy Starlings , I heard a few noisy wing-beats, enough to turn and see a young eagle flying with a wing tag. Hidden from my view, it stood on a nearby tree and if it weren’t for those clumsy beats, I wouldn’t have noticed it. To prove more how young and inexperienced it was, the eagle even landed on the ground a mere 15 metres behind my car.
Voters across the country support environmentally conscious ballot initiatives. Voters in several states had the opportunity to express their support (or condemnation) of various environmental (or anti-environmental) issues respectively in the recent election cycle. Results from November 2018 ballots indicate a large and dedicated block of voters who are concerned about the health of ecosystems, as well as the preservation of complex wilderness areas.
Birds can be attracted to your home simply by offering food, water and shelter. Trees and shrubs that yield fruit, berries, seeds, nuts and cones will provide food. Birdbaths or pools can be built to supply water, and feeders strategically placed around the yard will furnish supplementary food for the birds when natural sources diminish. Tangles of wild plants and dense undergrowth left to thrive in chosen areas of your property will provide shelter, protection, and natural nesting and roosting
While birding out at the coast of Queens this year I have noticed on several occasions a variety of birds, mostly finches, feeding on the seeds of Seaside Goldenrod ( Solidago sempervirens ), the salt-tolerant, butterfly-sustaining, and absolutely gorgeous coastal aster. Though the flowers are long gone, along with the trademark, bright yellow coloration, they still sustain life through the many seeds still attached to the plant.
Our trip to Costa Rica has come to an end, and sadly, it ended with one of the best weeks of birding in the entire year. We spent to bulk of the week in the San Isidro El General area, staying there as well as up in the Quizarra area. We had three nights in The Birders Retreat Air BnB, two nights in San Isidro proper, and then back to Quizarra to stay at the Valle de Luna BNB for our last night.
Leaves and birds in the Appalachian Mountains. From now through the first week of November (2018) autumn leaves are peaking along the ridges and valleys of the Appalachians. This time of year is doubly good if you’re also a birder! Here is a list of my favorite mountain state parks to visit during the first brisk days of fall (and into the winter). North Bend State Park, West Virginia.
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It’s 2019! Happy New Year! What was your first bird of the year? Share it, and the story, in the comment section. Hopefully, it was a good one and not a pigeon! The post What Was Your First Bird of 2019? appeared first on 10,000 Birds.
December is a busy time in Costa Rica. The end of the scholastic year coincides with the commencement of the “summer”dry season and a host of festivities to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. The end results are steady lines of traffic marching to crowded beaches, more visitors to the country’s famed national parks, and a parade or two where drunken wannabe cowboys on prancing horses add local spice to the festive mayhem.
The final days of October are naturally spooky, at least in the north. It gets darker earlier day by day. The Maples and Oaks are in a rush to drop their remaining leaves and “shut down” for several months. Increasingly cold winds play with the crumpled dead foliage and if we stop and listen carefully, the lurking, unfriendly breeze whispers, warns, “winter…” It’s a valid warning, much colder and darker days are coming and Halloween sits on the threshold of th
Some birds are too cool for just one name. Others have names that give us pause because they don’t seem to describe, to convey, what that bird is really all about. And then there are the names that are just too damn long, especially for the size of the bird. Try taking field notes on Common Tody-Flycatcher and Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant and you will know what I mean.
“I would certainly recommend Serbia to visiting birders. My own trip was not an intensive birding experience, and August is clearly not the most productive month. I chalked up 132 species in a pretty relaxed eight days, during which birds shared the agenda with culture. Nonetheless, I visited some excellent habitats, especially the flooded wetlands, and saw some good birds,” wrote the UK Birdwatch Magazine journalist Mike Unwin of his bird tour of northern Serbia 15 years ago.
We are finally getting settled this week, now that we are back from Costa Rica, and in what we refer to as our temporarily-permanent new home. Tucson Arizona is turning out to be a very birdy area. I have to admit I stole some parts of that phrase from the director of the Tucson Audubon Society, Jonathan E. Lutz. In a Thanksgiving note to all the members, he used that phrase, and I agree, the birding options here are pretty numerous.
The Juniper Titmouse ( Baeolophus ridgwayi ) is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. The American Ornithologists’ Union split the Plain Titmouse ( Parus inornatus ) into the Oak Titmouse and the Juniper Titmouse in 1996, due to distinct differences in song, preferred habitat, and genetic makeup. The featured image above is a Creative Commons (CC) photo from Rich Hoeg.
With only a few more days left, 2017 was coming to a close. Birdwise, it turned out to be a good one and my year list was almost 400 species long, which made me happy… almost. I needed 4 more birds to round it up to 400, and as I said, I had only a few more days left. At home, I may find a new bird, perhaps two, but four? The solution? The Kerkini Lake.
Hummingbirds. Those lovely feathered sprites that visit our gardens, feeders, and even take part in adorable bathing practices on odd, red vases. So easy to love, admire and cherish! And yet…take a closer look and you won’t find any hummingbirds acting like cute little singing birds ready to perch on the finger of some lost, happy princess.
Honduras, a beautifully biodiverse Central American gem, offers everything birders look for in a travel destination, starting with ready access to lots of highly coveted bird species. In particular, the Lake Yojoa region, featuring the country’s largest freshwater lake and the lush mountains that surround it, offer abundant avian-driven excitement. In June 2018, the Honduras Institute of Tourism assembled a feisty team of Honduran and American writers, photographers, guides, and tourism professi
Happy Second Day of the New Year, 10,000 Birds friends! I am still in the old year as I write this. Snow is falling lightly and it is difficult to concentrate on the screen because my feeder birds are turning out en masse for the delights I set out this morning: Northern Cardinals and Mourning Doves at the safflower seed, Carolina Chickadees flying in for one seed per trip, Red-bellied Woodpecker and Carolina Wren at the double suet feeder (the Red-bellied rules and the Wren flies off as he swoo
When it comes to initiatives that promote birding, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is hard to beat. The lab at Sapsucker Woods is where we find thousands of nature recordings housed at the Macauley Library. Numerous projects take place that monitor bird populations and help educate people of all ages about birds. The Lab also acts as the heart and soul for the very popular (and often addictive) citizen science gem known as eBird.
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.
360 miles of National Park land at the border! My first ‘protest’ memory involved putting pencil to notebook paper and writing the President about the harmful effects of DDT. The Weekly Reader had shocked everyone in class with news of Bald Eagles dying – and humans were to blame! As a youngster who loved to read, I thought the best way to stop this assault was with words.
The following emails were intercepted by our crack team of investigative journalists. They are from the internal communication system of a shadowy organization of bird enthusiasts that we haven’t even managed to put a name to as of yet. They are reprinted here in their entirety in the public interest. We have color coded them by sender in order to make comprehension easier.
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.
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