From the category archives:

rare birds

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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Ten Favorite Bird Photos of 2009

December 30, 2009

As long as round-ups are making the rounds, here’s my round-up of my ten favorite bird photos from 2009. Chosen either for quality or for the excitement of the bird itself, these are the top ten I’ll hold near and dear to my heart for years to come.

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Approaches to Bird Identification & A Kirtland’s Warbler

September 27, 2009

I recall an interesting conversation I had at the Midwest Birding Symposium on approaches to bird identification. To set the stage, I also dug up a few more decent shots of the Kirtland’s Warbler at East Harbor State Park, western Lake Erie in Ohio (September 18, 2009). At lunch I had the pleasure of sitting [...]

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Revisiting The Kirtland’s Warbler

September 22, 2009

The hour of 3 am and I are becoming intimate bedfellows. That being the case, I may as well prop up my eyelids with toothpicks, wince from the glare of my screen in this darkened room, and report on my trip to the Midwest Birding Symposium. I went into the symposium believing that I was [...]

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My Life Kirtland’s Warbler (i.e., Life Is Good At MBS)

September 18, 2009

My $75 registration fee was just returned in spades. During one of the early morning talks at MBS today, my cell phone vibrated with a very curious message: “Kirtland’s Warbler at East Harbor State Park, Meadow Trail.” At that point, I had to bail on the fine and illustrious speaker, Jim McCormac, because I knew [...]

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The Art of Listing: A Big Year Quest in NY

September 10, 2009

What does a birder do when he (or she) has graduated from little brown jobs to peeps and age-classing juvenile gulls? In New York, he sets about a big year where he attempts to see 300 species.

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25 Newly Described Neotropical Bird Species

July 14, 2009

More than 25 new birds species have been described in the neotropics since the year 2000

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Roseate Spoonbill – Delaware’s First Record

July 2, 2009

Here’s a reason to use Twitter: it can put you onto a rare bird faster than a New York minute!

The first Roseate Spoonbill ever to grace Delaware’s shores was observed the Sunday before my trip to Maryland. The bird—believed to be a first-year juvenile —was first observed in Fenwick Island (Assawoman Bay) in the extreme southeast corner of the state, close enough to the MD line to make MD listers green with envy (and hoping for a strong north wind).

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Good Reading: Quest for the Capercaillie

June 12, 2009

Victoria James’ description of her quest to see the elusive Capercaillie, a very large, rare grouse found only in the ancient Caledonian pine forest of the Scottish Highlands, begins simple enough:  Right now, in pubs across the country, you will hear earnest knots of men – and maybe a few women – discussing lifers. They’re not [...]

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A Birder’s Tale: Spotting A Tricky Rare Hybrid, The “Lawrence’s” Warbler

May 5, 2009

  PROLOGUE Why a prologue? Because birding backstories are almost as fun as the birding itself! The birding network is so broad and keenly in tune that sighting reports move lightening fast, at least when they travel through the usual channels (e.g, birding listserv). But sometimes reports creep up where you least expect them. On [...]

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Chasing a Black-headed Needle In a Haystack (part 3)

April 18, 2009

This story continues from (part 1), (part 2) *** We stood on the banks of the Niagara River staring at a ginormous flock of seagulls.   Thankfully, Brad is a patient and knowledgeable birder. Cross that with an obsessive desire to finally nail his NY nemesis, he needed all the eyes he could train on this flock. He [...]

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