I had the good fortune to be asked to represent one of the UK’s national birding magazines ‘Birdwatching’ on a press trip to Southern Portugal earlier this month. Co-funded by two of the regional tourist boards, Alentejo and Algarve, we were led by one of the very best birders in Portugal João Jara who as [...]

Hoopoe Upupa Epops With a name like that you would just want to see this bird! It sounds good and it looks good….even a non-birder would be impressed! We saw these birds in Egypt in 1994 and they were just great and Grant saw 5 in Busan, South Korea a few weeks ago, just after [...]

When Mike still lived in the Bronx, lo those many years ago, he would regularly make the run up to Yonkers, in southwestern Westchester County, to visit the Lenoir Preserve.  Though he regularly sang its praises I never took the time to visit the small park along the Hudson River. That changed this week when [...]

Paging through a fieldguide, it’s always with a sense of dismay and sadness that I come across reference to an extinct species. This is particularly poignant if the bird has disappeared during the course of my birding days or “on my watch” as I like to think of it. Islands, for various reasons, experience more [...]

John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, AKA Tinicum, is an outstanding urban oasis in southern Philadelphia, less than one mile from Philadelphia’s airport.  Being a New Yorker, I had never birded the refuge before.  After all, why would I drive over two hours to bird in habitat that is very similar to much closer locations?  But [...]

The Brown Booby is a bird that helps explain why birders don’t always want to share what they are doing with non-birders.  Explaining to people that the main goal you have for a visit to Cape May is seeing a Brown Booby and you will, at the least, get an odd look.  Others will crack [...]

I spent this past weekend at the coast, travelling to Arcata for a Northern California Audubon Council meeting hosted by the Redwood Region Audubon Society.  This area includes Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, part of Audubon’s Humboldt Bay Important Bird Area (IBA). The Arcata Marsh is an innovative wastewater treatment facility consisting of 307 acres of freshwater [...]

It is early, pre-dawn, and the sky is just lightening in the east when you arrive.  You park your car, gather your optical equipment, take a last gulp of glorious coffee, and get out of your car.  The whole area is alive with movement and chip notes but you can’t take the time to figure [...]

Costa Rica enjoys an international reputation as an iconic birding location, bursting with epic Neotropical species and breathtaking natural attractions.  The country blazed broad ecotourism trails that many other Central American countries still hope to follow. Understandably, certain lodges have, over the years, come to be associated with the Costa Rican birding circuit. Yet, bird [...]

We’ve all heard the rough calculus equating a bird in the hand to two in the bush. One has to wonder, however, whether certain birds in hand may have even greater value. Depends on the bird, right? My contemplation of this creaky avifaunal aphorism is prompted by my recent trip to Costa Rica. Patrick O’Donnell, [...]

If you have never been to Hawk Mountain, Pennsylvania during fall migration I would strongly recommend a visit. We have just returned from hosting this past weekend’s inaugural Extreme Raptor Weekend and Hawk Mountain was one of our chosen partner venues. Besides the presence of several noted birding personalities, interesting seminars and phenomenal prize give-aways, [...]

Now up and running for over two years the Walkway Over The Hudson, which was once a bridge for trains to make their way over the Hudson River, is a pretty darn cool place to take a stroll.  Looking down on the Hudson River from 212 feet in the air is an experience worth having [...]

Guianan Cock-of-the-rock, Capuchinbird, Red Fan Parrot, Guianan Toucanet, White Bellbird, Grey-winged Trumpeters, Black Currasow. Interested yet? Well, you should be. For these stunning birds are not easily found outside of the Guianas which includes Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana. On a trip to Suriname to find and film some of these spectacular species I was [...]

Kissena Corridor Park underwent habitat restoration over the last two years which seemed to consist of the New York City Parks Department ripping everything out except some native trees and plants, planting saplings, and regularly applying herbicides to areas where invasive plants tried to take over the park.  If the birding there over the last [...]

Just a little ways south of Bangkok is a system of wetlands, mangroves, paddies and salt marshes famous amongst local and international birders not the least because Laem Pak Bia and Pak Thale make up THE area to find wintering Spoonbilled Sandpiper. The thought of which takes me way off topic to think about this [...]

The boardwalk at Magee Marsh is legendary.  The seven acres of swampy woods that it wends through are hallowed ground to any birder that has visited and to many that only aspire to. The volume and variety of wood-warblers that are regularly seen in spring migration there rival or best anywhere else in the world [...]

When in northwest Ohio there are many options from which to choose a birding site.  But if you want herons and ducks and shorebirds and geese and egrets and swans and rails the best bet is the famed Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge along State Route 2 in Oak Harbor, Ohio.  Together with Cedar Point and West [...]

Well, as you read this I will be sitting on an aeroplane heading from Busan to Hong Kong to Sydney….time to go home! I have a day in Sydney with my sister and family and then go home to Broome…..hopefully not delayed by the threat of a Qantas baggage handlers strike starting Tuesday morning as [...]

I was somewhere around Pittsburgh on the edge of Ohio when the boredom began to kick in.  Instead of talking on the cell phone, singing along to the radio or do other activities that drivers everywhere do to stave off boredom I decided to grab my camera and document my trip from the eastern edge [...]

There were three of us that made the trip to the famed Black Dirt region of Orange County, New York yesterday.  We had as our goals spotting the reported Cattle Egret and Blue Grosbeaks and as many shorebirds as could be found in the flooded environs.  You see, the Black Dirt region, an agricultural area [...]