Feb 17 2009
Monday was an odd day. It was very uneven weather-wise, with off and on rain and lots of cloud cover, but also some tentative breaks of semi-sun. We spent most of the day in Weslaco, first visiting Estero Llano Grande State Park, then the Frontera Audubon Thicket. These refuges are newly accessible, having opened to [...]
Feb 09 2009
Few people like to be reminded of the practical aspects of mortality. When we encounter death, we like to do it in a church, funeral home or a similarly sanitized, perfumed setting. It’s easy to understand. So I’ll take no offense if you don’t want to look at this photo series. I promise you, though, [...]
Feb 04 2009
So many birderwatchers can name, without a moment’s hesitation, the bird that turned them into a birder, their encounter with it leaving them forever changed in a kind of ornithological epiphany, or birding conversion experience. Like converts of all sorts, the vast majority of birders delight in telling their personal story–the story of their spark bird. [...]
Dec 20 2008
OK, here is where the American Ornithologist’s Union and I part company. They still officially consider the green, Red-bellied Woodpecker-sized woodpeckers that occur in Northeastern Mexico to be a distinctive subspecies of the Golden-Olive Woodpecker Colaptes rubiginosus, a wide-ranging neotropical species. They designate these birds as Colaptes r. aeruginosus, the “Bronze-winged Woodpecker.” I say–and this is hardly a [...]
Dec 18 2008
I’ve got a thing for yellowthroats. I always thought they were cute and had lots of personality–everyone thinks that. Otherwise, they weren’t especially on my radar. But traveling into Mexico at the dawn of the 1990′s really turned my head around. Of course, there was the opportunity to see Gray-crowned Yellowthroat (click that link for [...]
Dec 17 2008
Ever throw a really cool party, then go into semi-hibernation until you recovered? That’s pretty much what’s happened to me since hosting I and the Bird #90 last week. My sincere thanks to all who showed up, both bloggers and readers. It was really nice having you all stop by. Getting back to the Mexico [...]
Nov 17 2008
A strange thing happens within birding circles–a rare bird can go from a point of pride to a source of a certain kind of shame. Up until this year, having seen a Cave Swallow in Delaware was a distinction that would have produced at least low-level envy among many in this community. Now, it’s rapidly reaching [...]
Oct 27 2008
We had a terrifically successful sparrow trip yesterday, tallying 14 species of Emberizids (the family that includes New World sparrows, as well as things like towhees, longspurs, juncoes & some of the buntings). photo by Jim White We began at Indian River Inlet, where the marsh was very, very good to us. We enjoyed soul-satisfying [...]
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 [...]
