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But hands-on bird experience has been a major gap in my knowledge to date and I’m astounded at how much more I’m discovering about birds. They have long raptor-like wings that enable swift flight, large eyes for nocturnal hunting, bristles close to the bill to aid in prey capture and a mouth that truly defies description.
Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was a Bald Eagle that he watched (and photographed) hunting and eating a Blue-winged Teal at Viera Wetlands. Sure, Corey saw rarer birds, more colorful birds, and birds that he wanted to see more than a Bald Eagle but the experience of watching such a show was amazing. How about you?
I have put this post off for a couple of months now because I wanted to avoid dealing with the huge pile of American Bittern images I had after my experience at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival back in January. How ridiculous? I am one of those birders.
The Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act , which went into effect seventy-nine years ago on July 1, 1934, authorized the annual issuance of what is popularly known as the Duck Stamp. In 1976, Congress changed the official name to the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp , presumably to broaden its appeal to non-hunters.
Apparently, this winter warrior has hunted the same farm field from the same vantage point for a couple of weeks now. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. Corey got out both mornings of the weekend, but his best outing by far was at Breezy Point on Saturday morning.
If you ever wonder why so many American birders leaven their love of nature with a little self-loathing, look no further than the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation , which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducts every five years or so. It’s that damnable Duck Stamp.
My family took our annual post-Easter Egg hunt hike at Powder Mills Park, where I spied several gorgeous matched pairs of Wood Ducks along with lots of different woodpecker species. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. Today happens to be mine, so send some cheer my way!
Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe today announced as part of Great Outdoors Month the agency is proposing to expand fishing and hunting opportunities on 21 refuges throughout the National Wildlife Refuge System. The Service is committed to strengthening and expanding hunting and fishing opportunities,” said Ashe. “The
and provides diverse nature experiences for visitors from around the world. Fishing accounted for 21 percent and hunting 7 percent. Now, as the popularity of hunting has declined, so too have the sales of Duck Stamps. The National Wildlife Refuge system is one of America’s greatest treasures. million, a 37% reduction 3.
even before I took binoculars, I was always chasing, hmm… impressionable experiences. The intensity of experience is not the same, but, e.g. focusing on a single bird and trying to solve the puzzle… or finding the rarest owl of India , that was a mind-blowing one. More of a hunt? Museums – majority of them?
Though I traveled to NYC this weekend, Ivy and I nailed down our best bird before I left; a Short-eared Owl has been hunting at a local park not 10 minutes from our house, which makes for the easiest owl sighting we’ve snagged in a long time! If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment.
Last visit we enjoyed superb views of a trio of Masked Cardinals , interrupted by the arrival of a Green Kingfisher that was so intent on hunting, it hardly even cast an eye in our direction. Due to the plethora of bird species around, invariably we were to experience something breathtaking.
I could hardly contain my excitement as I gazed at a Great Gray Owl and watched it hunt through someone else’s scope. The high winds and frigid temperatures made photography difficult, but it felt right to experience my life Snowy Owl in its element among the whipping snow. My last day in the bog had a grand finale in store.
Babita Tours has many years of experience organizing tailor-made wildlife tours for private groups in this wonderful country. We travel from Delhi via Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, a truly magical experience with the added bonus of Black-winged Stilts and River Lapwings on the Yamuna River.
The Shoebill serves as the symbol of the magnificent wildlife experiences Uganda offers visitors, which may seem a bit odd. Of course, we did, soaking in that slate blue beauty long enough to observe a successful hunt and more of its rangy, awkward flight. The mighty Shoebill.
Hunting of Scarlet Ibis for their feathers as well as drainage of portions of the swamp for rice harvesting was, at one time, putting what is now a major tourist destination in jeopardy. Fortunately, forward-thinkers prevailed, the site is now protected as a Ramsar Wetland , and the hunting of Scarlet Ibis has become a social taboo.
There is a certain amount of communication among different people at which time data is exchanged, but far far less than most armchair Hunting and Gathering experts (like, most archaeologists) would ever guess. Knowledge is more likely to be shared via shared experience than the exchange of data, though both happen.
I am still tired from the long drive, but it was great to play with the very best toys for birders, to be able to share experiences and to ask the factory staff all sorts of silly questions. Yesterday evening I got home from the second Swarovski Skills Camp at Lake Neusiedl in the east of Austria. impressive for Central Europe.
Cameras were still tucked away, but the experience left us all without words. Red-capped Cardinal juvenile (above) and adult (below) The Rupununi River is a magical and serene experience, inducing a deep sense of calm as if becoming as unhurried as the river itself, winding its way through the lush jungle.
What this land-locked country lacks in endemic birds it more than makes up for in accessibility of tough species, numbers of birds and the overall wildlife experience. We are currently filming in Botswana. have basically focused our filming efforts on three regions of northern Botswana: The Okavango Delta, The Chobe and the Makgadigadi Pans.
They are a graceful tern and Corey appreciated watching it hunt, feed, and fly over the marshes. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?
He was very pleased to see his first ever Rough-legged Hawk in Queens, a dark-morph bird hunting over the old landfill. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. That’s his third new bird in Queens in less than a month! How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?
I was there for awhile on Friday afternoon and, as usual, enjoyed my time there, mostly because of a single amazingly cooperative Yellow-crowned Night-Heron that was so intent on hunting fiddler crabs that it essentially ignored both me and my digiscoping rig, at times only five meters from where the bird foraged.
Yet, one other hunting attempt in the same area I do remember. The next memorable hunt came from winter 2006/07. The year was 1996 and it must have been quite a sight – if I only could remember it! But no, that sighting is no longer in my head, only on paper. And, now, at eBird.
Imagine that… a successful snipe hunt. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. The question is rarely whether someone enjoys an August weekend but rather how much. Share the details! Ivy and I tracked down her first Wilson’s Snipe this weekend.
Activities such as hunting, fishing, and trapping are categorized as “consumptive” uses. The economic impact of refuge visitation is broad: Recreational visitors pay for recreation through entrance fees, lodging near the refuge, and purchases from local businesses for items to pursue their recreational experience.
Now and then individual catfish of various species hunt nearer the surface and larger catfish such as the American Channel Cat will take a duck or other water bird. So, the modal catfish is a fish that hunts from below, can take large prey, and occasionally eats a bird. My own experience at catching catfish (big ones!)
After that experience, I stopped complaining about their hides, realising that they are as good as they ever will be. And that is why the hides are where they are, not to admire the scenery (or shoot at it – hunting is prohibited in the reserve and the ban is enforced). And, of course, there was a group of youngsters barbecuing.
Typically these birds hunt at night and are very shy. One of only three true fishing owls, Pel’s Fishing Owls have adapted to their unique hunting techniques in several ways. Our Pel’s experience deep within the heart of the Okavango was unforgettable. In full sunlight, at eye-level and eating a freshly caught fish.
Today, Barn Owls can be found across both islands, hunting open fields at twilight or comfortably resting in abandoned relics of the sugar cane industry. You can see the discoverers speaking of their experience (and a brief appearance of the author of this post) in this video. He took a few pictures and moved on. Perhaps heard?
My experience of Common Nighthawks had previously been at dusk as they begin hunting for the night. His good company was surpassed only by his keen eye that picked out a Mangrove Cuckoo lifer for me and a roosting Common Nighthawk.
This is not a surprise as both pastimes tap into my primeval desire to hunt. I don’t need to kill something to feel the rush of the hunt. For me there are few experiences more satisfying than releasing a fish that has put up a great fight. I enjoy fishing almost as much as I enjoy birding. It consumes me.
I do not (yet) have any accessibility issues, and my only experience regarding anything akin to accessibility has been limited to the period when my daughter was in a stroller, which presents only a tiny sliver of the challenges faced by many. Hunting is also prohibited in this area of the refuge. eBird checklists are here and here.).
Especially as we were at the time about to experience a rapidly advancing tropical storm. Scores of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks circled overhead, these vocal ducks are often hunted illegally here so it was refreshing to see so many. Striated Heron in breeding plumage – extra plumes and blue lores.
Originally a hunting term, the Big Five were the most dangerous and prized targets of the great white hunters on safari. However it is now one of the world’s rarest animals after decades of relentless hunting and poaching. The Black Rhino was also a widespread African denizen occurring throughout the continent, even into desert areas.
I have had similar experiences at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge and you are so right on when you say “am I ever glad that I am a birder!&# Duck MigrationSandhill Crane Hunt in Kentucky?!Avian It was a great experience. Share Your Thoughts « Sandhill Crane Hunt in Kentucky?! What a spectacle indeed.
The most likely bird would be Fulvous Whistling-Duck which I tried for and dipped on last year thanks to the refuge that was good for them being closed for hunting on the day that I made the attempt. I currently have 164 species on my Florida life list, which has been built entirely upon my two previous experiences at Space Coast.
This means that they probably can’t withstand any sort of hunting pressure, and given the lack of Great Curassows in most accessible parts of their range, that is probably the case. Come on down and see if you can experience a neotropical turkey-trogon-cotinga fest! It also ranges widely from Mexico south to western Ecuador.
We worship birds, we hunt birds, we protect birds, and, yes, we eat birds. It includes stunning photographs by Tipling of eagle hunters (as in Kazakhs who hunt with eagles), Stellar Sea Eagles in Hokkaido, Japan, and Black Kites at the dump near New Delhi, India. As they say, the relationship is complicated.
I viewed them at dusk, through a telescope, from a ridge overlooking the area they were hunting. It was an exciting experience, though a remarkably chilly one, as winters in Castile and León can be very cold. I’ve yet to see an English pine marten, but I once watched one hunting red squirrels in the Bialowieza Forest in Poland.
However, the great birding experience that is Sani starts lower down. However, it’s not just the birding that makes a trip up Sani Pass such a memorable experience. Photo by Adam Riley. From the quaint historic village of Himeville, the Sani road winds through green pastures and grasslands dotted with lakes and wetlands.
Sadly, the HBW states that the species is “almost extinct in some areas in China owing to hunting and trapping for the cagebird trade and taxidermy” The Maroon Oriole looks much more interesting, though my photos do not really do it full justice. ” Contribution to the vibrant bird community.
Fortunately, cooler heads (and the threat of being hunted down by angry Austrians) prevailed and instead I just looked at Great Crested Grebes , Black-crowned Night-Herons , Eurasian Coots , and other birds. As cool as watching the birds was I also enjoyed watching my fellow birders test out the new optics.
Not because you generally see many birds while diving, although the experience of seeing shearwaters flying underwater while cage diving, as I once did, was one I think most birders would enjoy. The dive was a gentle one, as dive goes, with a lot of kelp to get under to hunt for interesting fish, lobsters, sponges and rays.
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