Mar 11 2010
Try to conjure up an image of your favorite seaside locale. Many will think of sand and sun and summer, long stretches of lounging punctuated by a refreshing dip in a tranquil, blue ocean. Very few, I would wager, will imagine a cold day in February, clambering over jagged, seaweed-slicked boulders while crashing surf sprays all [...]
Mar 09 2010
No big backstory here…just a beautiful little bird, singing his heart out, an image that seems appropriate for the gorgeous early spring weather we are having today, though it will still be another month before Prairie Warblers return to our area.
The buzzy, ascending song of Prairie Warbler is the first “fancy” song I remember learning, [...]
Mar 08 2010
The second of my photos that appears in the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America is one of the big ones, spanning two pages, a treatment afforded only 3 shots in each book. It appears across pages ii & iii.
But the photograph has to share space–lots of space–with two text boxes and [...]
Mar 04 2010
I’m beginning with the first of my bird photos that appears in the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America, hereafter simply, Eastern. It appears on page i.
Obviously, it’s a male Scarlet Tanager. It was photographed 19 May 2009 near Georgetown, DE. When I accepted the assignment to provide 30 photographs [...]
Mar 02 2010
A few days ago, something besides another foot of snow fetched up against our doorstep. Two big brown heavy boxes, all the way from Indianapolis.
Sure enough, they were the brand-new Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Western North America and the similarly titled but quite distinct, Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central [...]
Sep 24 2009
I’m just back from the 2009 Midwest Birding Symposium, which was without doubt one of the best organized and coordinated events of its kind, ever. I kept pretty busy, giving a presentation on the uses of digital technology in birding, successfully chasing a Kirtland’s Warbler that turned up nearby, burning the midnight karaoke oil, and [...]
Sep 14 2009
Congratulations to Andy Urquhart for his astonishing find of a European Golden-Plover (Pluvialis apricaria) just southeast of Smyrna, Delaware. The bird is hanging out in the fields at Wick’s Potato Farm, on the west side of Route 9, just south of the turnoff for Bombay Hook National Wildlife National Wildlife Refuge. Time to write is [...]
Sep 12 2009
I was out walking the dog around 9:30 AM this morning when I got a phone call from Forrest Rowland, who is once again scanning the skies over the Cape Henlopen Hawk Watch. He said that he had heard from Derek Stoner that the Delmarva Ornithological Society group Derek was leading on their annual Cape May field [...]
Jul 24 2009
Self-portrait by Matthew Sarver
Good news for all of you who enjoy well-written, thoughtful, authoritative, and nicely-illustrated blog posts (and if that’s you, what are you doing here?). My buddy Matt Sarver has been cultivating his web presence, including launching a new blog, appropriately called The Modern Naturalist.
Matt’s a great birder, naturally, but he’s also lamentably talented [...]
Jul 12 2009
Approaching Fowler Beach this morning, I glanced at the interpretive sign declaring it a Horseshoe Crab sanctuary. I thought back to the height of the crab spawning in May and thought how much more placid things felt now, as the frenzied activity of spring slowly melted into the comparative quiet of midsummer. It would be [...]
