Corey is a lifelong upstate New Yorker who recently took the plunge and moved to the city. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list and broke the magical 300 barrier in New York State in 2007 by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative. He lives near Forest Park in Queens with Daisy and their two indoor cats, Hunter and B.B.

William Blake, the 18th and 19th century English poet, painter and engraver, is most remembered for his two linked collections of poems, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.  Of all of Blake’s poems, people are most familiar with the oft-anthologized “The Tyger” from the latter volume, though he wrote many other poems worth reading […]

The shorebird time is upon us.  The time of heat and mud and undying stench.  The time of bloodthirsty mosquitoes and ravenous deer flies.  The time of heat shimmer, feather wear, and sweat streaming into eyes.  The time of spotting scope, rubber boots, and odd looks on the bus.  Shorebirds suck.
Which is why I didn’t […]

In my walk around Jamaica Bay today I saw many cool birds, some neat bugs, and, best of all, a Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) burying her nest.  Unfortunately for her eggs, she chose to bury them right in front of a bench on the trail around the West Pond (a not uncommon occurrence at Jamaica […]

So, if you aren’t already sick of the birds of the Marine Nature Study Area after over imbibing on Black Skimmers and Great Egrets, there is one more bird that Daisy and Kerry and I spotted there that I would like to share with you: a Clapper Rail!  After we had been at the preserve […]

were found in Arkansas.  While conjoined twins would not be big news were they mammals, among birds conjoined twins, formed from a double-yolked egg, are a serious rarity.  The specimen (the birds did not survive) will be sent to the Smithsonian.

In my last post, about the Great Egrets at the Marine Nature Study Area, I said that I would be doing a full post about the birding adventure that we had.  Well, I guess I’m a liar.  Going through the pictures I took (and I managed to fill up my camera) I realized that almost […]

A hybrid thrush has been found on Stratton Mountain in Vermont.  The bird, which was determined through DNA analysis to be part Bicknell’s Thrush and part Veery, was found by researchers with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies who were studying Bicknell’s Thrush on the breeding grounds.  It was first noticed by a researcher who heard […]

The Oceanside Marine Nature Study Area in Hempstead, NY, a marvelous saltmarsh preserve on the south side of Lond Island, is well known for its nesting Seaside and Saltmarsh Sparrows, to say nothing of the video camera-monitored Osprey nest and breeding Clapper Rails (which this year also had a camera on the nest which allowed […]

This past Monday I burned one of my many vacation days in order to extend my stay upstate long enough for me to hike up a mountain.  Like last year’s epic adventure up Wakely Mountain with Mike, Will and Patrick, this hike’s main goal was to track down a Bicknell’s Thrush, the seldom-seen bird that […]

Though I’ve been back in the city for almost a week I haven’t come close to using up all of my upstate birding tales yet!  Like the last time I visited my folks I spent some time photographing hummingbirds, but this time I was at my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Paul’s house taking advantage of […]

Great pictures of nesting Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are available on KidWings, a site dedicated to teaching “young and old about the wonders of birds.”  My favorite is of a nestling upset about an approaching tent caterpillar.

Way back when I started my Anti-Global Warming Big Year I decided that if I flew somewhere and stayed there for more than a couple of days I could count the birds I saw there provided I offsetted the carbon that the flight produced.  So I counted a bunch of birds in California that I […]

Being upstate is great.  Not only do I get to see my folks, swim in their pool, and enjoy the great outdoors, but I also get tips about the locations of cool birds.  But I really shouldn’t have needed a tip to know the location of the Cliff Swallows I’ve checked out a couple of […]

Recent visits to Jamaica Bay, in addition to providing a wealth of bird sightings, have allowed me to see some Gray Tree Frogs (Hyla versicolor) up close and personal.  They are particularly likely to be found hiding in cracks and crevices in the bird blind at Big John’s Pond, a fact I read quite some […]

After the frenzy of birding that accompanies May migration June seems sleepy.  Most birds have arrived on their breeding grounds and the flood of migrants slows to a trickle and then virtually stops.  June, at least in New York, is time to search out breeding birds, check out bugs, and try to stay cool.  Mike […]

I hoped to see a Black-necked Stilt at the familiar but wonderful Jamaica Bay yesterday, and, well, I did.  It was foraging amid the geese, swans, gulls, terns, ibis, herons, ducks, blackbirds, and swallows at the west end of the West Pond.  Two other birders were already on the bird, or, had been on the […]

Yesterday in New York was hot.  Way too hot.  Fortunately for Daisy and me our friends Kerry and Becky were heading to the beach and offered a ride.  And it wasn’t just any beach either, but the birding Mecca of Nassau County, Jones Beach.  The south wind was strong, the waves were huge, and we […]

Want contraband in prison?  How about using pigeons?  Prison guards in Brazil noticed pigeons having a difficult time flying: upon investigation, they discovered that the pigeons were carrying cell phones and drugs!  Reuters has the story.

Everyone knows that squirrels, at least North American squirrels, are very greedy.  They scarf up all the food that kind-hearted people put out for the birds and will do almost anything if the reward involves something yummy.  But is it possible that a squirrel can be too ambitious when it comes to feeding its face?  […]

One thing that I like about this time of year is bugs.  Sure, migration is over and the hordes of wood-warblers are busy breeding further north but bugs, well, bugs are everywhere, and they tend to be easy to photograph, that is, if you don’t mind photographing whatever bug it is you happen to come […]