Sep 30 2008
While the stock market was falling through the floor, Monday, 29 September saw the highest count ever of migrating raptors at the Cape Henlopen hawk watch–1048, to be precise. Above, some of the participants in the day’s count spell out “1000″ while I try to hustle Brecon and myself into the frame before the shutter [...]
Sep 28 2008
One of the real pleasures I get from photography is the details I see only when I get in from the field, download the images and start looking at them closely. Today, I saw that I’d taken an accidental self-portrait in the eye of this Bull Frog–you can see me hunched over the camera and [...]
Sep 26 2008
Ned Brinkley, proud booster of his adopted hometown of Cape Charles (and author of the recent National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America), scans one of the storied sites of mid-Atlantic birding: the Wash Flats. A broad expanse of salty sand, mud, and low vegetation, the Wash Flats are famous among birders [...]
Sep 24 2008
Saturday, I helped co-lead the Chincoteague field trip for the Eastern Shore Birding & Wildlife Festival. Not that the main leader, Ned Brinkley, needed any help, as it was a small group and Ned knows Virginia and its birds as well as anyone. But it was a nice chance to spend some time in the [...]
Sep 22 2008
When I arrived at Kiptopeke, the southern tip of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, I was most excited to see the hawk watch site. Turns out it’s well situated on a low bluff above the Chesapeake Bay, in a narrow break in the woods. Birds stream by headed south; north winds with an easterly component [...]
Sep 22 2008
I went on a trip from Friday through Sunday. It wasn’t an especially distant journey–in fact, I didn’t leave the Delmarva Peninsula. So where was I? Here’s a clue: Here are two more, one an overview, the other a close-up. This one should be a dead giveaway: Let’s see: cotton fields, sea oats, and a [...]
Sep 18 2008
Just about every birder has heard the phrase, “confusing fall warblers.” It’s fallen out of fashion with the birding cognoscenti, who maintain that it’s inaccurate–fall warblers, in their view, are not confusing and saying they are just discourages people. Indeed, the new Peterson guide replaces “confusing,” with “selected.” I’m not entirely sure it’s an improvement, [...]
Sep 15 2008
Last Thursday, September 11, I visited the hawk watch at nearby Cape Henlopen State Park. During the two or so hours I was there, it was nearly hawk-free. This sort of thing happens all the time when birding–the hoped-for species or phenomenon simply fails to materialize, or if it does, the birder fails to perceive [...]
Sep 14 2008
Black Bear photo (from mainland VA, not Delmarva) from Janet Moore-Coll’s photostream on Flickr. In the description of Bombay Hook from the Delaware Birding Trail, I introduced Bear Swamp Pool by saying that it, “…hasn’t had bears for a very long time.” I’m excited to say that statement may be nullified in the near future. [...]
Sep 13 2008
Here’s a bird that could really get your pulse racing…a peep that looks basically like a Semiplamated Sandpiper, but with obvious reddish-orange coloration on the face and throat. The hopeful shorebirder might easily be seduced by thoughts of having found a Red-necked Stint, or some other snazzy stray, especially with a couple of Red-neckeds having [...]
