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 [...]
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 [...]
Jul 10 2009
A Royal Tern slices through the air near Ocean City, MD
Well, I seem to be taking one of my periodic (frequent?), unplanned absences from the blogosphere, so here, at least, is something new to look at for a while.
I went down to Ocean City, Maryland, the other evening with Kevin Fleming to photograph a Royal [...]
Feb 11 2009
I haven’t participated in Wordless Wednesday before, but this photo, taken last fall in Cape Henlopen State Park, seems to fit. Click that link for other word-free goodness.
Nov 24 2008
Forrest Rowland and I got out early this morning with the intention of birding Burton’s Island, but we had made it only a few meters down the trail when my cell phone rang. It was Michael O’Brien, calling from Cape May to say that Mark Garland and a Cape May Bird Observatory group that Mark was [...]
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 studies of [...]
