Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but what he really aspires to be is a naturalist. Besides founding 10,000 Birds and I and the Bird, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining sites and resources such as Nature Blog Network and Best Birding Tours.

I don’t know how the weather is treating you in your neck of the proverbial woods but it’s getting chilly around here. Warm nights turning cool is a signal that birds are on the move, so you might want to be too. Not only will the activity warm you up but you might find yourself [...]

Roger Tory Peterson commands respect. His legacy is not simply that he made the world a better place but that his works changed, and continue to change individual lives for the better.  We asked you to share your thoughts about the Great Man in our Praiseworthy Peterson Field Guide Giveaway and you responded with just [...]

Crow Kitchen, which may be the world’s first bakery for wild birds, has arrived, ready to bring “all-natural birdie baked goods to America’s songbirds and the people who feed them.” I love the design of their website!

So you want a free copy of the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America, don’t you? Of course you do. The question is how you can get one. Well, thanks to our friends at Houghton Mifflin, we are giving away two copies of Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America. My question [...]

Alas, poor Winnie! I knew her, Horatio, a Whimbrel of infinite jest…
Winnie the Whimbrel, celebrated shorebird migrant, is lost and presumed to be no more.

When we last left Winnie, she had just set a new distance record in the flight range of Whimbrels, traversing more than 3,200 miles from the Delmarva Peninsula to the McKenzie [...]

Mason and I celebrated International Rock Flipping Day by exploring the undersides of stones in our (relatively) new backyard. All we found were pill bugs. I think I need to mulch…

You’d think that a person’s centennial, even a posthumous one, would be easier. The long-awaited newly revised Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America is released to the avid masses almost 100 years to the day after the Great Man himself was born and yet, the world did not spin off its axis. Humankind [...]

September has arrived and with it, a flood of fall migrants. OK, maybe those are spring migrants on your side of the world. What matters is that creatures are on the move, which gives us all plenty to look at this weekend. Not that you have to restrict yourself to aerial organisms. After all, this [...]

Who doesn’t admire a true Renaissance Man (or Woman), a versatile individual gifted in many and diverse areas? While the term itself evokes thoughts of the original Renaissance Man himself, Leonardo da Vinci, history is rich with — and some would go so far as to say written by — prestigious polymaths of every stripe. [...]

When one thinks of Western New York, seabirds don’t immediately spring to mind. However, terns, sandpipers, plovers, and the like don’t mind drifting hundreds of miles from the seashore, particularly to lands rich with lakes. The corridor between Rochester and Syracuse apparently suits shorebirds just fine since Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge is renowned for its [...]

Time to get back to business, people! We’ve got a great edition of I and the Bird planned for this Thursday at Wrenaissance Reflections and need your contributions.  Send links and summaries to me or Wren (wrenaissance DOT woman AT gmail DOT com) by the end of the day  September 2.

On this lovely Labor Day, we might do well to examine our exertions, motivations, and the fruits thereof. In my daily inquiries into how to further maximize my happiness (like the bluesmen of old, I can’t be satisfied) I’ve stumbled upon a fascinating concept that explains a great deal about the insatiable nature of most [...]

It’s hardly a secret that we love coots around here (the birds, not senile old men!) We love them in their magnificent diversity from their black, beknobbed heads to their fantastic fissipalmate feet. Our affection for them is so deep that we can get lost for hours in the tiny little details that separate Black [...]

Aren’t we lucky to have so many great carnivals to carry us through the weekend? I want to highlight Carnival of the Green #141! and Tangled Bank #112, but if you’re going to indulge in one blog carnival, be sure to enjoy the extremely eloquent and entertaining Carnival of the Elitist Bastards, Act I, Scene [...]

And just like that, summer is coming to an end. Sure, the autumnal equinox is still weeks away but hordes of students and teachers returning to school will argue that mere phenological semantics. Fortunately, those of us in the U.S. get a longer weekend to chase our fancies. So where are you going this weekend [...]

The daredevil divers at Deep Sea News have some really big nature blog news. Check out their wild video! Congrats, guys!

The American people own in common a lot of very cool places. Among our vast wildspace wealth is the National Forest system, public lands in national forests and grasslands with magical names like Monongahela, Chattahoochee, Tongass, and Wallowa-Whitman. You know that old aphorism about atrophy, right? Use it or lose it. Have you been indulging [...]

In all of North America, only one avian species serves as both the beloved mascot of seven states as well as the totem to two professional sports teams (and an infinity of amateur ones!) Ironically, this feathered figurehead is neither a bird of prey nor particular distinguished athletically. Rather, this icon is extremely adaptable and [...]

We’re in the home stretch as far as August 2008 is concerned. This news might alarm the legions of students who are less than enthusiastic about returning to school but birders in the Northern Hemisphere are relieved that summer doldrums are at an end. Shorebird season is upon us and early migrants have already taken [...]

If you’re anything like me (and you have my sympathies if you are!) you probably find yourself wracked with pangs of jealousy far more frequently than is healthy. I envy people every single day simply for where they happen to be. It matters not a whit where I am or where I’ve been. If you [...]