From the category archives:

birding

Who Are The Next “Great” Birders?

August 15, 2010

The next era of birding will be ushered in by a new crop of great birders. Who will they be? I wrote this post a few months ago but chewed on it a while after sharing it with a few friends, birders, and members of the ABA board. After reading so many good opinions on [...]

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Hamilton County Birding Festival Kicks off June 18

June 17, 2010

You already know I love the Adironacks. And you know the bird watching is great in the Adirondacks. Now let me give you a reason to VISIT the Adirondacks this month BEFORE breeding season wraps up. In the Southwestern Adirondacks, the 6th Annual Hamilton County Birding Festival kicks off June 18-20 in the towns of [...]

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Birding the Adirondacks

June 14, 2010

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Yet it’s the hope of something delicious that keeps us rummaging through the box even when our tongues have been nettled by orange or raspberry creams. A box of chocolates. That’s what it’s like to bird the buggy peatlands of the [...]

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Savannah Sparrow

May 23, 2010
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Are You Joining The Biggest Week in American Birding?

April 24, 2010

The Biggest Week in American Birding takes place during the peak of spring migration from May 6 – 16, 2010 at Magee Marsh/Crane Creek/Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. These lakeside locations in northwest Ohio are arguably one of the most productive warbler fallout zones in the world. On May 7th I’ll venture to NW ohio, a place [...]

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The Backyard: Bach or Beethoven for Bluebirds?

April 23, 2010

We know that birds are auditory creatures. We know a female selects her mate based on the quality of his song. We know that when we go into the woods and play birdsongs on our iPods, birds will come investigate. But will they sing to classical music? Well, this little story unfolded in my mother’s [...]

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Hermit Thrush at Owl Woods, NY

April 22, 2010

Whenever the illustrious Mike Bergin of 10000birds.com is hunting for owls around Rochester, I am obliged to accompany him as his talisman, his good luck charm, his supersonic owl finder. (I’ll tell you, but nobody else, that I’m exceptionally sharp at finding owls, but we’ve had some excellent luck  at scoring Strix and Bubo and [...]

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Great Horned Owl Mobbed by Six Crows

March 25, 2010

Continuation of My Excellent Adventure in Ithaca, NY. I miss living in the country, so when my friend Krissie and I woke last Saturday to the sound of coyotes howling in the mist surrounding Marie Read’s house, which she shares with her husband Peter Wrege (director of Elephant Listening Project at Cornell), I knew the [...]

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Eurasian Wigeon at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge

March 21, 2010

A male Eurasian Wigeon has been mixing company with American Wigeons and other birds at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge for the last week or so. I spotted the bird, initially reported to the Cayuga Birds birding listserv, during an impromtu stop at MNWR on my way back from  Ithaca, NY. I showed up with my [...]

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Feeding Chickadees by Hand and Head!

January 17, 2010

Our local park here in Rochester, NY (Mendon Ponds Park) has a songbird trail where chickadees, titmice, and even nuthatches gather to eat from the hands of chubby-palmed children and wistful adults.

We visited Saturday in order to get the family outdoors on the first sunny day we’d had in a long time. Why stop at the hand? thought my husband, and offered his balding pate as a serving platter of black oil sunflower seeds.

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Green Jay: a Caribbean Creamsicle

January 6, 2010

I never tire of examining the plumage of Green Jays…the blacks and blues, the greens and yellows along with their chartreuse sibling. When I peer at them long enough, I see ocean beaches. I see Caribbean creamsicles, a coral reef with wings. And this makes my eyes melt.

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