Nov 07 2008
I’m back from Mexico (as of Tuesday, so I got to watch the election returns!) and leading field trips at the 15th annual Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. I’ve got some stories and photos from both sides of the border I’m anxious to share, plus I still want to wrap up the Panama press trip [...]
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 [...]
Oct 11 2008
Halloween is Liz’s favorite holiday, so she really gets into decorating the yard for it. But not with prefabricated junk–she strives for something far more authentic.
Friday, she started weaving a web. When complete, I won’t be able to walk through it, as I did when making that afternoon’s trip to the mailbox, where a wonderful [...]
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 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 07 2008
Undeterred by yesterday’s scarcity of storm-driven birds, we returned to Cape Henlopen first thing this morning to see if any birds that may have been blown into Delaware Bay were returning to the open ocean. It’s a longish walk out to the point, but very pleasant in the lovely post-storm weather.
A Sanderling probes for breakfast.
Sharon [...]
Sep 07 2008
Here’s a quick tour of yesterday’s birding during Tropical Storm Hanna:
Sharon Lynn scans offshore from Cape Henlopen
Forrest Rowland, Bill Stewart, and Judy Montgomery watch millions of dollars of beach replenishment sand get washed back out to sea in Rehoboth.
Property damage was mostly minor…
Surfers at Indian River Inlet (cue “Wipe Out” for the soundtrack).
A Forster’s (L) [...]
