Feb 19 2009
Tour leading, despite all appearances, is actually hard work. People will often say, “Oh, you’re so lucky!, you get paid to go birding!” Well, not hardly. Nobody gets paid to go birding. But I will unabashedly admit that it can be pretty sweet work indeed. This morning, it was hard to believe that I was [...]
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. [...]
Jan 30 2009
Not exactly Skywatch Friday material, but I thought you’d enjoy these two photos, taken at opposite ends of the same night: A Great Blue Heron glows in the orange-pink evening light along Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge’s Black Point Wildlife Drive. Wow, that’s a mouthful that even a heron would take a while to gulp [...]
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 [...]
