You are browsing the archives of 2006 November.

Birding, like so many other activities which must be committed to completely to be experienced fully, requires passion. One must be passionate to stand on a barren seashore facing a howling winter wind just to glimpse the silhouette of a distant alcid or to wade waist-deep in a fetid swamp in pursuit of a bird […]

Seth, online bookseller extraordinaire and ally to the Core Team, brought to my attention a while back the writings of an ardent conservationist better known for his modest success in politics. I’m talking, of course, about Theodore Roosevelt. A chapter in his 1916 work, A Book-Lover’s Holidays in the Open is titled “Bird Reserves At […]

You’ve had an extra week to polish and hone your best bird-bloggery. Now is the time to see if you put it to good use. To be a part of Thursday’s edition of I and the Bird, send a link and summary to me (mike AT 10000birds-dot-com) or our next host, Mary Ann (FiveWells AT […]

M Constantine, Arnoud van den Berg, Magnus Robb, Killian Mullarney The Sound Approach, 2006

“The Sound Approach to Birding” has been sat on a shelf on my desk for about a month now unread and its two accompanying CDs unlistened to. I’d figured I would need to set aside some “serious” time before opening it, a […]

(with thanks to Rurality for inspiring this title)
November in Potter County, PA is usually a sodden, grim affair, replete with blistering cold and sloppy roads. This Thanksgiving was a welcome departure from the norm. The birds seemed to be as surprised as I was, frolicking as they were about the grounds of my father-in-law’s hilltop […]

assuming you bring your A-game. Submit your finest 500 words for December’s First Friday by Wednesday! And yes, of course I’m talking about that Clare.

A colleague on a web forum I subscribe to posted the following little exchange from the "GINjA & SHOgA" Restaurant which is based in Cape Town, South Africa. In response to a mail asking the owners to re-think serving foie gras, the arrogant turnips wrote back saying:

"Dear ————
Lordy, lordy, once again we have another Foie […]

Superb Starling Lamprotornis superbus
Uhuru Park, Nairobi, Kenya, November 2006

Endemic to NE Africa, the aptly-named Superb Starlings are abundant across parts of their huge range and are commonly found in parks and gardens as well as in less urban settings. These were all photographed (except for the last bird) in Nairobi’s crowded, city-centre Uhuru Park and […]

Pied Crow Corvus albus
Nairobi, Kenya. June 2005 and November 2006

The Pied Crow is Africa’s most widespread corvid, occuring from Sub-Saharan Africa down to the Cape of Good Hope (though it’s absent from the tropical rainforest regions) and also the islands of Madagascar, the Comoros, Aldabra, Zanzibar, Pemba and Fernando Po. It inhabits mainly open country […]

and the 67th edition of the Tangled Bank hosted by Newton’s Binomium.