You are browsing the archives of 2007 April.

For some reason, even though I had already birded before work, after work yesterday I raced to Black Creek Marsh to meet Will and Danika, whom you have met if you’ve read this blog for more than two or three posts, and Jeff Nadler, bird photographer extraordinare, to see if we could track down and [...]

For my next First Annual Blogger Bioblitz site, I decided to visit another under-observed ecosystem. Tibbett’s Brook Park, a pleasant public space built around a chain of ponds, lies just north of the Bronx. I’ve done very well here in the past as far as birding goes. However, my success is usually predicated on closely [...]

is disturbingly reminiscent of a York Peppermint Pattie. Compare the two for yourself.

Mockingbirds are members of the Mimidae family, a group of American passerines that also includes thrashers, tremblers, and New World catbirds. These stentorian songbirds, medium sized with angular proportions and long, twitchy tails, range from the Canadian border down through South America. Northern Mockingbird by Mike, found fittingly at Hotel Mocking Bird Hill in Jamaica [...]

In selecting my initial site for the First Annual Blogger Bioblitz, I decided to eschew New York City’s more popular wildlife viewing spots. This weekend, the first truly magnificent one of spring, promised battalions of birders at locations like Jamaica Bay, Central Park, Prospect Park, and Jones Beach. But while other people were ticking off [...]

Am I ever glad that I woke up at 5:15 this morning to go to Black Creek Marsh! Will and I heard or saw 10 Virginia Rails, including a couple that came right out to us in response to Will’s tape. Amazing! I have never had such looks at this normally shy and sneaky marsh-bird. [...]

Patrick has a vicious one on New World birds over at The Hawk Owl’s Nest. I, of course, was stumped!

April 21 – 29 is National Wildlife Week. It’s also the span of the First Annual Blogger Bioblitz. If you are a blogger but haven’t yet made a commitment to partake in this communal census of flora and fauna, the time is now. Not only is citizen science essential to understanding ecological trends, but spring [...]

A birder’s travels and travails can be tricky, sometimes even hazardous, because we navigate according to two powerful, but opposing stars: ENDEMIC and EXTRALIMITAL. We set forth to enjoy beloved indigenous birds only to find ourselves dashed against the rocks yet again in pursuit of some misplaced mega-rarity. Endemic species, the ones native to a [...]

Bill of the Birds is running a very interesting poll.