Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” is a marvel of modernist poetry. It is only 246 words long, divided into thirteen sections, each labeled with the corresponding Roman numeral, and a surface reading will show that it is about, not surprisingly, thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird. Reading deeper, though, [...]

When we put out the call for original bird limericks, we didn’t expect such a profusion of dazzling prose. Birders and limericists alike responded with incredible ingenuity, precision, and wit. While only one of these writers walked away with a free copy of BIRD: The Definitive Visual Guide, all of them should be congratulated [...]

Here we are, at least those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, at the tail end of a long, lovely summer. Today is particularly gorgeous in NYC and tomorrow should be even better.  Irving Berlin best captured the power of sunny optimism by conjuring cloudless horizons and azure songbirds. Here’s wishing you blue skies for [...]

I was transferring a post about birding Santa Cruz, California, from my old blog to 10,000 Birds when I came across a very interesting factoid which I’d like to share. (This may be the sort of information that North American birders learn at the feet of their mentors, but it was new to me so [...]

Never let it be said that we here at 10,000 Birds don’t aim to bring you, our readers, the world. And not just its 10000 bird species either: despite the impression we may give of being sweaty men who love nothing more than hiking out to the middle of nowhere laden down with optical gear [...]

I’m often asked, “What got you into birding?”. I have a stock answer of a kind that goes along the lines of “I grew up by the seaside in Lancashire, and my grandmother swears that she used to throw bread to the seagulls when she took me in my pram along the promenade and - [...]

The quote “What Is So Rare As A Day In June?” may be familiar to most readers (the sentiment certainly is!) but its source is fairly obscure. This line is but a snippet from the most famous work of the poet James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), a member of the gaggle of authors sometimes called the [...]

“Thousands of people who say they ‘love’ animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been utterly deprived of everything that could make their lives worth living and who endured the awful suffering and the terror of the abattoirs.” — Jane Goodall
 
“You have just dined, and however [...]

New York still languishes on the icier edge of the Ides of March, but flocks of eager American Robins have sprung up around the muddy fields of my neighborhood with an alacrity that even a crocus could envy. Though we tire of robins once less commonplace birds appear, these birds herald blessed spring. I was [...]

There is no single reason why I enjoy finding, identifying, photographing and now blogging about birds. Having grown up in Saugerties, NY, at the base of the Catskill Mountains, without cable television, I was kind of forced into an appreciation of the outdoors. Hiking in the mountains, exploring green-shaded woodlands, and swimming in [...]

Let us draw inspiration this month from American author, Oliver Herford (1863-1935). Herford is also known for such wry epigrams as “Many are called but few get up,” and “Only the young die good,” but his most sincere and touching contribution was surely this poem, I Heard a Bird Sing:
I heard a bird sing
In the [...]

Seth, online bookseller extraordinaire and ally to the Core Team, brought to my attention a while back the writings of an ardent conservationist better known for his modest success in politics. I’m talking, of course, about Theodore Roosevelt. A chapter in his 1916 work, A Book-Lover’s Holidays in the Open is titled “Bird Reserves At [...]

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, NairobiNovember 06 2006
 
I’ve been to Kenya many times over the last seventeen years, but - despite it being just 16km from the hotel - I’d never visited what crew familiarly call “The Elephant Orphanage” run by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust on one edge of the nearby Nairobi National [...]

Adding a second child, even a healthy one like my lovely and robust Ivy, to the Core Team has ensured that we’ve been seeing lots of doctors. I didn’t realize how many we’d visited in the last three months until Mason told Sara yesterday that he wanted to “co-pay some money.”
My adorable, adventurous, and highly [...]

Our inspirational bird quote for the month of March comes from a Johann Wolfgang von Goethe poem entitled fittingly and succinctly March. Goethe’s most popular piece, Faust, is a great work of genius, no surprise as it is the work of a great genius. I had no idea that the renowned, supremely influential German novelist [...]

Slate did a great piece on one of my favorite comic strips ever, Calvin and Hobbes. The article bears the apt subtitle, “The last great newspaper comic strip.” Who could argue? Peanuts owns the old-school sentiment, The Far Side dominates pitch-perfect absurdism, Dilbert distills the dementia of corporate culture, and Doonesbury, venerable Doonesbury, continues, after [...]

This month’s evocative avian verse comes from American author and poet, Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933). Her poem, Dusk in June is short and sweet:
Evening, and all the birds
In a chorus of shimmering sound
Are easing their hearts of joy
For miles around.
The air is blue and sweet,
The few first stars are white,
Oh let me like the [...]

This month’s inspirational verse comes from John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892), the famed Quaker poet.  Through his efforts as a writer, editor, and legislator, Whittier earned great fame and respect. Countless towns, schools, and natural formations are names for him, including Whittier Glacier in Alaska and, by extension, its tiny neighboring town, a gateway to Prince [...]

I was thinking of writing a poem in honor of the Bobolink, to memorialize its place as #278 on our life list.  Fortunately for those of you who prefer good poetry, William Cullen Bryant (1794-1898) beat me to it. His work, Robert of Lincoln, is a worthy tribute to a spectacular bird.
Merrily swinging on briar [...]

The Core Team is celebrating Christmas in Potter County, Pennsylvania. They call this God’s Country, but they must be referring to some cruel deity of winter because it is COLD out here. Snowy, too. But some hearty birds thrive here, due in no small part to the kindness of people like my mother-in-law, Ann. Her [...]