You are browsing the archives of 2005 December.

I just finished reading Malcom Gladwell’s remarkable book, Blink, subtitled The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Gladwell’s writing really is sensational. This particular work addressed the psychology of first impressions and split-second decisions, choices that need to be made in, as he says, the blink of an eye. Though his journey through the applications of […]

Our holiday travels took us away from the Bronx-Westchester Christmas Bird Count, so we decided to do a bit of avian enumeration of our own. The one bird I’ve been eager to count is the Ruffed Grouse, a species so common here in northern Pennsylvania that locals frequently trip over grouse in full display, at […]

It should come as no surprise to anyone even remotely acquainted with the practice that birding is a thrill for the senses. The term “bird watching” gives away the powerful visual component of this activity, but birding is a true multi-sensory experience. For example, birding can be a highly auditory act. Some skilled field birders […]

Short-tailed Babbler Malacocincla malaccensis
Central Catchment Forest Reserve, Singapore.
19 December 2005
 
The Short-tailed Babbler Malacocincla malaccensis occurs in the Sundaic lowlands, from southern Tenasserim, Myanmar, peninsular Thailand, Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Kalimantan (including the Natunas and Anamba islands) and Sumatra (including offshore islands), Indonesia and Brunei, where it is generally very common in lowland evergreen […]

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you already know that I’m no fan of the pet trade, especially those trafficking in birds. What can I say? I just can’t stand to see a wild thing caged. But despite my disdain, I found myself in a Petco store yesterday. The reason […]

Central Catchment Nature Reserve, Singapore
19 December 2005

I’ve just spent nine days at home on “standby” - ie not knowing where I’d get sent just before Christmas: it’s a worry, I tell you!

To cut a rather long story short (I can hear the cheers from here you ungrateful sods - these reports take ages to write […]

Adversity is said to bring us closer together. This adage, though, isn’t usually meant in a literal sense!
Last month, we lamented the loss of the cupola and attached structure that served as a strategic perch for most of the neighborhood’s raptors, corvids, and songbirds. I was certain that the demolition of that building would severely […]

Pink-necked Green Pigeon Treron vernans
Singapore
 
The Pink-necked Green Pigeon Treron vernans is distributed within Southeast Asia - from Southern Myanmar, to the Malay peninsula, to Sulawesi, the Philippines and Borneo.

The only commonly seen green pigeon in Singapore, the species probably used to be far more common in the past; bags of them where regularly shot […]

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill by Mark Bittner is subtitled A Love Story… With Wings. Verily, there is truth in advertising. This fresh autobiographical study in amateur ornithology may be one of the first birding romance novels!
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is described as “the inspiring story of how one […]

My hometown has a bit of a reputation as a wild place, but not in the “supportive of exotic wildlife” sense, if you know what I mean. Yet an abundance of avifauna thrive here, including one species of the family Psittacidae. For those of you unfamiliar with ornithological taxonomy, that is a parrot!

Yes, parrots may […]