After last week’s big Brit wedding bonanza I couldn’t help but chuckle at the news that one of the RSPB’s premier nature reserves in the North of England has opened itself up for weddings. Leighton Moss lies within the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is more famous for its breeding Bitterns [...]

O beautiful for whistling ducks! a tropical delight! Even in the Brazilian Amazon, I’ve never seen this many whistling ducks together–there were sixty at a manmade lake behind the Brevard Community College near Titusville, Florida. Phoebe, Liam and I went down to work (and play) in January 2011 at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife [...]

“The most outstanding binoculars I have ever seen” and “unexpectedly comfortable and stable”.  I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this recently. Which is a good thing. It helps me sleep and puts my little heart at ease. The last couple of weeks have been nuts. The EL50 Swarovisions went in to [...]

I ate escargot for the first time a few months ago. That I didn’t enjoy it probably had to do with the fact that Aderman, my videographer, ruined the experience by telling me that snails “are like snot in a shell”. I spared myself one of his too-detailed explanations by NOT asking how he came [...]

We have just returned from a 3-week camping holiday in Tasmania and it was every bit as good as our last visit 2 years ago, which was for a month. We had such a good time then that we just had to return and this is the best time of year to visit from a [...]

Everywhere we went in Tasmania on our last trip two years ago we had to look up to see birds! Around Broome we don’t really have many tall trees, as we live in cyclone territory. You really notice the difference when you go somewhere else birding and by the end of the first day you [...]

Whilst I have left the comforts of a salary long behind me by leaving the airline I worked for, fortunately (I suppose, he says grudgingly) two of my birding mates are still there putting in the long hours and seeing some fantastic birds. One of them, Redgannet, is a ‘Beat Writer’ here on 10,000 Birds, [...]

Last December I took the opportunity to drive the length of North Island with my Kiwi flatmate Nicole. The trip was a chance for her to see parts of her own country she had never seen, and for me to see many parts I had never seen as well. It wasn’t a specifically birdy trip, [...]

Another stunning group of birds that I really like are the secretive Fruiteaters: these sluggish, quiet, secretive, and beautiful birds form part of the Cotinga family.  These birds, like all the cotingas eat mostly fruit, and are found on fruiting trees and many times along with a feeding flock.  Although I have not seen all [...]

Approaching the Highway 44 off ramp for Turtle Bay from either direction you will find life-sized metal sculptures of Bald Eagles, like this one above, poised to catch fish jumping from the median strip. If that doesn’t catch your attention, with the completion of the bridge construction, which included a walking and bike trail along [...]

Over recent weeks we have been out to check on the local ephemeral lakes. These lakes vary from year to year depending on how wet our “wet season” is and also what happens in the “dry season”. It really has been a bad year for the lakes and the birdlife that depend on them, but [...]

Happy Christmas to all the readers and writers on the good ship 10000 Birds. Having survived the Triumvirate’s cat o’ nine tails thrashing during the kidnapping, I am now bent to their every whim and committed to their vision of traffic at any price. My alter alias, International Man of Mystery has failed to live [...]

Driving down Rupert Road you will undoubtedly see lots of birds as you make your way toward the Anderson River Park entrance. As you enter the park, across from the boat ramp, on your right, there are soccer fields where the Yellow-billed Magpies hang out. Atop one of the soccer field light poles is an [...]

Whilst I have left the comforts of a salary long behind me by leaving the airline I worked for, fortunately (I suppose, he says grudgingly) two of my birding mates are still there putting in the long hours and seeing some fantastic birds. One of them, Redgannet, is a ‘Beat Writer’ here on 10,000 Birds, [...]

The half-day we spent at the Antisana Ecological Reserve in the highlands of Ecuador was one of the great highlights of our eight-day trip.  The birds were great but what this post will focus on is the sheer grandeur of the landscape, a landscape that is difficult to describe with just words.  Antisana Ecological Reserve [...]

Grant & I spend a lot of time outdoors and our holidays are always outdoor adventures. Even at home we spend a lot of time outdoors and we rarely shut our windows as we love to listen to the outdoors. We often come across little things in nature that you just have to smile at [...]

Just like many other place in the world where there are birds, there are birders who appreciate what birds do. I have come to appreciate the magic moments that birds live by taking pictures and video of the little gems that shine with radiating life. On a recent trip to the east slope of the Tropical [...]

There are many wonderful options for birders in and near western Montana – Yellowstone, obviously, and Glacier National Park, and Freezeout Lake and Lee Metcalf and on and on. But what if you’re not a birder? What if you are a parent with a young child, or a student with a dog and a long [...]

While most of 10,000 Birds’ writers and readers are enduring the northern winter coming early, down here in Wellington we are enjoying one of the nicest springs I’ve known. All around the city trees and plants are flowering and birds are pairing off.  Last week the weather was warm, sunny and calm (the later the [...]

Lema Ranch is one of Northern California’s birding hotspots. It is located in Shasta County, in the northern most part of the Sacramento Valley, in the city of Redding (pdf map here), about 160 miles north of Sacramento. The property is the headquarters for the McConnell Foundation, a philanthropic organization working for the betterment of [...]