You are browsing the archives of 2006 August.

the soul longs to move migration is one true path nesting another This modest verse is my way of introducing Mariya of migrateblog, someone who knows all about weighty matters like migration and nesting. She slings a mean haiku too, as you’ll find out when you read her perfectly poetic presentation of I and the [...]

Adding a second child, even a healthy one like my lovely and robust Ivy, to the Core Team has ensured that we’ve been seeing lots of doctors. I didn’t realize how many we’d visited in the last three months until Mason told Sara yesterday that he wanted to “co-pay some money.” My adorable, adventurous, and [...]

One of the most compelling reasons to take up bird watching doesn’t include birds at all. You see, no bird is an island. Every avian exists as part of a rich ecosystem teeming with all manner of flora and fauna. Keep your eyes open for birds and you’ll be amazed at what else you see. [...]

When shorebird season arrives, one group you should keep your eyes open for, no matter where on Earth you call home (unless for some inexplicable reason you live in Antarctica) are plovers. Plovers are relatively small shorebirds, compact but gracefully tapered, somewhat reminiscent of teardrops with bird legs. Sixty-six members of the Family Charadriidae are [...]

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail I think hobnobbing with so many fantastic bug bloggers is getting to me because I find myself paying increased attention to invertebrates out in the field. I’m particularly enjoying butterflies, moths, and dragonflies, the species most bird watchers seem to be susceptible to. In some cases, these creatures are hard to ignore. [...]

Least Sandpiper I dropped in at Crestwood Lake in Westchester during my Saturday morning shopping, both to give Mason a chance to throw rocks in the water and me an opportunity to check out some of the local birds. We all have our hobbies, right? Anyway, I saw little sign of the early wave of [...]

My sister and I went to the Giants (New York football, not San Francisco baseball) game last night to watch them handily dispatch the Kansas City Chiefs. Sporting events, at least outdoor ones, present opportunities for decent birding, particularly if you like gulls. Giants Stadium is home to the standard complement of these adaptable seabirds, [...]

Birding, bird watching, bird spotting… no matter what you call it, you’ll only be telling part of the story. This activity may begin with birds, but it rarely ends there. Legendary conservationist John Muir said it best: “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the [...]

A couple of months ago, in my determined (some might say obsessive) effort to exert some sense of sorely needed structure on this site, I collected all of my Reasons To Become a Bird Watcher posts on to a single page. Too bad I forgot to announce or even link to the new compilation. This [...]

Whale watching is great fun for the whole family, with the possible exception of those members prone to seasickness. A fifty-foot long humpback whale breaching a mere 10 yards off the starboard bow or dolphins skimming blithely in a ship’s wake are sights you’ll carry for a lifetime. An added bonus of the search for [...]