I spent yesterday in Toronto and nipped across to the Islands - a small group of now-stabilised sandbars a short ferry ride from downtown - looking for migrants. A combination of my jet-lag and the Islands’ slowly turning into a loud and brash amusement park contributed to the feeling that either most of North America’s […]

Two of the more recognizable butterflies of the northeastern United States were kindly enough to pause in front of my camera lens of late, the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus).  Both are bigger butterflies than the skippers I’ve recently seen, and both are strikingly colored and rather common, but, […]

As I mentioned in my previous post the last visit I made to Forest Park was relatively birdless but the bugs did their best to make up for the lack of birds.  In particular, the area around the reclamation pond was quite buggy, with the water and numerous wildflowers creating quite the habitat for everything […]

On a recent birding outing around Forest Park the birds had made themselves scarce but the bugs were out in force.  So I made lemonade from lemons (maybe not the best metaphor when dealing with bugs) and focused my camera on the six-legged set, in particular on a Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis).  This particular dragonfly […]

Monday was a well-spent vacation day.  Why?  Well, Charlie was in town and we went birding at Jamaica Bay!  I’ll leave it to Charlie to tell the tale of the birds we saw and didn’t see and stick to three of the insects that we spotted: a fly, a butterfly, and a cicada.  Charlie also […]

My first birding excursion to Mendon Ponds, as reported earlier in the week, was an outstanding introduction to the abundant avifauna of my new stomping grounds. As a bonus, the bugs were pretty cool too. Every invertebrate seemed to be on the move but, like John at Born Again Bird Watcher, I was singing the […]

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 […]

When I was not revelling in numerous species of terns yesterday (June 19th) I spent a happy hour on Po Toi trying to photograph some of the island’s stunning butterflies. One in particular I spent a while trying to sneak up on was the large, bright, and very active Red Lacewing Cethosia biblis: I’m glad […]

The jammy finger has chosen yet another winner, but we’ve still seven books AND the iPod to give away. Not joined in yet? Why, it’s very easy: just find the 10,000 Birds post that the following quote comes from and mail - today - the URL to charlie10000birds AT gmail.com

“The morning after the wedding I […]

Have you been to Lenoir Preserve in Yonkers lately? Probably not. After all, unless you live in the northwest Bronx or any of the rivertowns along the Hudson, you probably take your leisure in more convenient natural settings. But Lenoir, seat of the Hudson River Audubon chapter, has always been a special place for me, […]

The FIFA World Cup 2010 will be held in South Africa and tourism Ministers are preparing hard for the huge influx of overseas visitors. Perhaps they could point tourists towards the interaction between fishermen and the Cape’s marine mammals, as some of them have apparently been putting on quite a show recently…

Join the other slugs over at the 33rd edition of Circus Of The Spineless, the blog carnival devoted to all things without a spine. Nice edition, Laurent!

When Mike and I were in New York’s Sterling Forest the other day it wasn’t just the abundance of Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warblers that ensured we had a great morning out, but also a close encounter with a very special moth…

Every year people on both sides of the Atlantic report sightings of “strange hummingbirds […]

China’s rivers are desperately polluted, and a recent census of the once widespread Yangtze Finless Porpoise turned up just 1,800 individuals: a local expert has warned that animal “will become extinct …if no protective measures are taken.” The baiji or Chinese River Dolphin that also lived in the Yangtze was declared extinct in December 2007. […]

When I was in Hong Kong (a report from the world-renowned Mai Po wetland is on its way) I went to a small offshore island called Po Toi with friend and tour-leader Martin Williams. Po Toi is gaining a reputation as a hotspot for finding vagrants to Hong Kong (this year alone it’s produced eg […]

I have never in my life been more glad not to be a bug.

 
Organisation: Buglife - Conserving the small things that run the world
 
Who are we? Buglife -The Invertebrate Conservation Trust is a registered UK charity and the first organisation in Europe devoted to the conservation of all invertebrates. Buglife was first registered in December 2000 and its formation was announced with widespread support from the […]

The wonderful Woolly Bear Caterpillar (Pyrrharctia isabella) is a common sight once October rolls around in temperate regions of the United States east of the Mississippi. The wooly bear, known also as the woolly worm, fuzzy bear, and black-ended bear, is reputed to signal the severity of the coming winter to those who understand the […]

In Albany’s Pine Bush recently Daisy and I came across a pair of moths that were, we assume, mating. Neither of us had ever seen such a moth, nor had we ever seen any moths mating so it was, um, interesting. Anyway, I sent some pictures over to Patrick and he quickly responded with an […]

During this past summer whenever I was outdoors and the birds weren’t showing I took pictures of the dragonflies that I spotted. I’ve managed to identify some of them but I am certainly not an expert. As I’ve mentioned before, they are “a serious identification challenge and figuring them out is an interesting, […]