You are browsing the archives of 2004 August.

What would you do if a four-foot tall bird strolled into your quiet, suburban backyard? It seems a moot point for most of us, since birds the size of people do not roam freely in most neighborhoods. But one week ago, Stanley and Margaret Wainwright of Derbyshire, England had to answer that question for real [...]

I like to fish every now and again, especially if I can get out on a boat. A group of us decided to find out what the island marinas had to offer us. I really wanted to go out on a pelagic birding trip, but the only one around embarked out of Cape Hatteras, 78 [...]

Beach weather was finally upon us, so we introduced Mason to the Atlantic. Unsurprisingly, he has as little use for the ocean as he did for the pool. The birding wasn’t very good either. We spotted a Carolina Wren on the way there, the first one we’ve identified on our own. We also added Semipalmated [...]

On our first full day in the Outer Banks, we spent time at the beach to take stock of the various birds around us. Shorebirds were not as common as we would have expected, but we did see a few Semipalmated Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, and Sanderling. The crows and grackles in the area were not [...]

So there we were, headed towards the Outer Banks, the barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina.  Home of the first unfortunate English colony and birthplace of aviation, the Outer Banks is one of the premiere vacation (and birding) spots on the East Coast of the U.S.  Too bad a hurricane was in the [...]

The Core Team traveled to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in August 2004 for a family vacation. The Outer Banks are a long way from New York City, so we decided to make our approach in two stages. Our first leg took us to the home of Sara’s Uncle Ed and Aunt Belle on [...]

Elegant Trogon Trogon elegans
Madera Canyon, Arizona, USA. August 2004
 
The Elegant Trogon (or Coppery-tailed Trogon as it used to be known) is the only species of trogon breeding in the USA, where it’s a summer migrant to a number of montane sites in southwestern Arizona.

This (surprisingly approachable) pair was photographed in Madera Canyon, a well-known site [...]

This weekend, the Core Team motored up to the Finger Lakes in our brand new Subaru Outback to see Seth and Christine. Christine’s family has a camp on one of the lakes. Although most of the Finger Lakes have odd names, Skaneateles must be the strangest one. The name Skaneateles, pronounced “skinny atlas,” is derived [...]

The Kirtland’s Warbler (Dendroica kirtlandii)  is one of the rarest of all the wood warblers. The population of this little gem is restricted mostly to  just a few counties in Michigan’s northern Lower and Upper peninsulas. They nest only in jack pine (Pinus banksiana) forests and have long eluded even determined birders. It goes without [...]

Intermediate/Yellow-billed Egret Egretta/Meosophyx intermedia
Mai Po wetlands, Hong Kong. 21 April 2008
 

 
Photographs copyright Charlie Moores