You are browsing the archives of 2007 December.

In the last hours of 2007, as December and the year as a whole wind to a close, one can only marvel at what a month we’ve had at 10,000 Birds! One of the highlights of the month was definitely the continuation and conclusion of our BIRD: The Definitive Visual Guide Giveaway. Readers had to [...]

Saturday the 29th was the last day of my New York State Big Year seeing as Sunday saw me on a plane bound for sunny southern California. Because we were flying out of LaGuardia Airport Daisy and I were in Queens, the perfect base of operations for finding the vagrant and reliable Townsend’s Solitaire that [...]

Just a few hours to go until 2008 - at least just a few hours here to the north of Tokyo (the title of this post is - I think - a rough anglicisation of the countdown to 2008 Japanese-style). I’ve just watched the fireworks going off in Auckland courtesy of the BBC; back in [...]

Some sites simply must be sought out by North American birders, at least those of us in the East Coast set. Cape May, for example, is one of those hotbeds of avian excitement, a vortex of auspicious energy that seems to beckon birds and bird watchers alike. The celebrated Cornell Lab of Ornithology, wellspring of [...]

BirdLife International is doing a retrospective series on the past twelve months from an avian interest perspectives. Birders looking for positive news about species around the world will surely enjoy Part 3: Rediscoveries and reintroductions.

The eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is either a boon for those who consider them cute and like to watch their antics or a bane to those who want just birds to sample their backyard suet and seeds. While at my parents’ house over Christmas I watched the many, many, Gray Squirrels congregating around [...]

Every ardent adherent of the avian observation lifestyle learns at one point or another that you just can’t go birding every day. Sometimes weather is an issue; extremes of heat or cold, wind or rain, fog or sun can put a damper on outdoor activity. Sometimes life gets in the way and demands of family, [...]

After exhausting myself and putting WAY too many miles on my car during my New York State 2007 Big Year I need to scale back for 2008. Inspired by guilt, Al Gore, Bigby, and my upcoming move to The Big Apple (sometime in February) I will be doing an Anti-Global Warming Big Year for 2008. [...]

as part of his presidential campaign, Mike Huckabee showed his sociopathic side (and it wasn’t just his shooting of birds, but his comparing them to voters and his rivals).

For even the most conscientious and honest birder, a life list can host a litany of sins. Most of these are sins of omission, species that a beginning birder are too inexperienced to identify in the field without assistance. Few novices, for example, will be able to differentiate a mixed flock of shorebirds the first [...]