You are browsing the archives of 2008 May.

May has been kind to we 10,000 Birds bloggers. Once again the number of visitors and page views set monthly records: in fact the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend was the only day that brought less than 1,000 visitors to the site. And though it is doubtful that the numbers will bear this [...]

Every month we sweep clean our main 10,000 Birds Clinic page and compile the questions and answers into a handy, bite-sized “round-up”.

Please feel free to add additional comments to the published answers - we’re all on the same learning curve round here - and if you’ve a question you’d like to put to the team [...]

Three pictures are below. Can you identify all six birds? The first was taken in Ringwood State Park in northern New Jersey, the second from my window , and the last in Forest Park at the waterhole. As usual, the winner, who is the first to properly name all six birds in [...]

There are two days a year when the Sun sets in exact alignment with the Manhattan city grid, fully illuminating every single cross-street for the last fifteen minutes of daylight. The first was May 30, but the second is July 13th. I just learned about the phenomenon of Manhattan-henge and all I can say is [...]

of Israel.  The non-kosher species was voted in as Israel’s national bird over the likes of the Palestine Sunbird and the Yellow-vented Bulbul.  Reuters has the story (and Charlie has pics).

Blue-winged Warbler Vermivora pinus
Sterling Forest, New York, May 2008

A bird of shrubby second-growth habitat on its northeastern U.S. breeding grounds, the beautiful Blue-winged Warbler winters mainly in Mexico to Panama (rarely in the Caribbean) and has been discovered to be newly wintering in Bermuda.

Like many shrubland bird species the Blue-winged Warbler is showing population declines [...]

Golden-winged Warbler Vermivora chrysoptera
Sterling Forest, New York, May 2006 and May 2008

The beautiful Golden-winged Warbler is a long-distance migrant between the New World tropics (it winters from central Guatemala southward into the northwestern tip of South America) and eastern North America where it breeds mainly in shrubby habitats, often with scattered trees and at the [...]

As May slips gracefully into June, many birds in the Northern Hemisphere have settled down to do those things that birds and bees traditionally do. While males are still a-courting, you’ll be able to use song to find the rarities. So where are you going birding this weekend? Comment below on the excitement you [...]

While I am undoubtedly a fan of wandering, sometimes it just makes sense to leverage the power of purpose. Honestly, who has time to just meander through the woods looking up at the canopy in the vain hope that something interesting will cross your field of vision? I don’t and doubt you do either. [...]

This marvelous month of May is marked primarily by motion. Change is in the air as blossoms bloom, trees leaf, and critters of every species and stripe scramble to and fro in frantic preparation for quick conjugation followed by the pleasures of parenthood. At least that’s how it goes down throughout most of the Northern [...]