You are browsing the archives of 2007 April.

The acquisition of a new field guide is always a joyous occasion, signaling either an impending journey or impending answers to old questions. By the latter, I’m referring to those unclosed cases that accumulate any time a nature lover ventures outdoors armed with a camera but not a clue. As you can imagine, my digital [...]

I’ve spent quite a few hours lately reading and paging through my recently arrived field guide, Birds of Europe. With a planned trip to Germany in October I want to be prepared to identify everything I see and hear…which isn’t too likely but I can dream, can’t I?
Having never birded outside of the [...]

the world bioblitzes with you.  Jeremy is tracking Bloggers Bioblitzing Across the Sphere. It’s not too late to join the wildlife watching madness!

in Tangled Bank #78 at About: Archaeology.

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.
The Northern Mockingbird, the most well known representative of this family above the [...]

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 [...]