You are browsing the archives of 2009 January.

On both the day of and the day after the Superbowl of Birding I was amazed at how the ducks, loons, and gulls (way maybe not so much with the gulls) were willing to go about their lives so close to people.  Some of the shots I got digiscoping with my Swarovski equipment have already [...]

An article in the New York Times details the discussion about tropical “secondary” forests, that is, rainforest growing on land that had been cleared for agriculture or logging that is reverting to nature.  Are such second-growth rainforests a replacement for rainforest still being logged or is it less valuable in terms of species diversity?

We’ve been talking quite a bit about parrots and Guyana lately. One woman with a passion for both and a fascination with the natural world rivaled only by her eloquence in sharing it with others is Julie Zickefoose. You probably know Julie through her artwork, her NPR commentary, or maybe even the heavenly Letters From [...]

When we spotted White-winged Crossbills during the Superbowl of Birding we were hardly able to stop and appreciate them.  We were, after all, in the midst of an hours-long competition to see as many species as possible, and as prime a species as White-winged Crossbills are we simply couldn’t give them any time (we similarly [...]

As always, the “Just for Fun Avian ID Quiz” is brought to you by Jory Langner, our esteemed Avian Quizmaster. Boy oh boy, what a quiz.  As soon as I sent it to Corey for processing (thanks Corey!), out comes an email from the CayugaBirds listserv with the same exact question.  I guess Cayugans read [...]

This weekend sees the end of the first twelfth of the Gregorian calendar year 2009. It also marks the beginning of the Chinese calendar year 4706. Whether you follow a lunar, solar, or liturgical calendar, you only get so many weekends a year. Don’t squander a single one! What are your plans for this weekend [...]

As always, the “Just for Fun Avian ID Quiz” is brought to you by Jory Langner, our esteemed Avian Quizmaster. Sometimes you learn some avian trivia from non-birders.  The information on this week’s quiz comes from my wife Hope, who is a non-birder.  She pointed out this term to me while she was reading Sunday’s [...]

Yesterday we posted about the tremendous variety of parrots found in Guyana, northern South America, and mentioned the work of Marc Johnson and Karen Windsor of Foster Parrots Ltd, who not only run a large wildlife sanctuary in Rhode Island, but are passionate about Guyana and promoting the country’s extraordinary bio-diversity to eco-tourists. Today we’re [...]

And why is this a mystery?

When competing in a birding competition a team of birders will undoubtedly experience blissful highs whenever a new bird, especially a good new bird, is sighted.  With those highs, however, come the lows whenever an expected bird is missed, especially when it is a good bird.  Our Superbowl of Birding team, the Bloggerhead Kingbirds, were [...]