Posts tagged as:

birding

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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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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Watching Gulls at Niagara Falls

December 22, 2009

Cool update: I added a 5 min audio recording of Peter giving us gull neophytes a tutorial on the Thayer’s >>> Kumlien’s >>> Iceland Gull cline.
Watching gulls. That’s what birders in the Great Lakes are wont to do in winter. And the place to do it, at least around here (globally speaking) is Niagara Falls. 
Niagara Parks describes [...]

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It’s A Sin To Kill A Spark Bird

December 19, 2009

Birders are fond of talking about their “spark bird,” the bird or birding moment that hooked them into the passion of birding. Oddly enough, I remained sans spark bird for quite some time. That is, until a memory was triggered by opening an old photo album. 
A little back story: I grew up with nature in my [...]

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BirdsEye: iPhone App for Bird Watching/eBird Users

December 2, 2009

BirdsEye is the first mobile eBird application that helps you easily find birds and locate directions to nearby birding hotspots. BirdsEye was released from the iTunes store on December 2, 2009.

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A New Birding Tradition: First Annual Turkey “Hunt”

November 28, 2009

Life is too easy these days.
Used to be you’d wake up Thanksgiving morning, hunt for a bird, and return home only when you had enough game to feed the children and nearby kinsfolk.
I love the feeling of having earned a meal. Too bad that feeling normally resides in the foggy chambers of my fading memory.
So [...]

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Least Grebe at Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival

November 14, 2009
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Buff-bellied Hummingbird at RGV

November 13, 2009

I have exactly ten seconds to post something before festivities continue, so here is an image of Buff-bellied Hummingbird seen at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. More soon!
 

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Revved up for RGV!

November 10, 2009

In two days I’ll be escaping the chill of upstate New York and plunking myself down in the sun-drenched land of southeastern Texas for the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Birding Festival (held in Harlingen, Texas).
It looks like festival attendees are in for some good weather, as long as Hurricane Ida behaves. Already, early reports say that [...]

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Rio Grande Valley Festival Coming Soon!

November 3, 2009

Apparently, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that showed up in central NY last week had a message for me: Get to the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival! And quick!
“You REALLY ought to get the Rio Grande Valley Birding festival, Laura,” said a friend a few years back. “It’s one of the biggest festivals of the year, it [...]

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