I spent the morning in glorious sunshine (and the afternoon in a tropical storm!) at the wonderful Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve in northern Singapore (which being a small island isn’t far from southern Singapore in fact which makes access nice and easy…). Sungei Buloh protects one of the last patches of mangroves and tidal mudflat [...]

Sara, Mason, Ivy, and I spent the weekend visiting family in Potter County, PA, an extremely rural part of the state colorfully referred to as “God’s Country.” Having seen so many sides of Potter County over the last 20 years, I can attest to its tremendous beauty. Right about now, in early November, the foliage [...]

Back on my travels again after a short break at home, and I’m off East: to Singapore and then (for a whole day!) to Sydney, Australia. And the timing couldn’t be much better, as I arrived in Singapore just a week after the 25th Singapore Bird Race. The winning team, ‘Strix’, managed to find a [...]

The sun was shining at Jamaica Bay Saturday morning, there was almost no wind, and plenty of birds to see.  Waterbirds, whether they be dabbling or diving ducks, grebes or geese, coots or cormorants were the main attraction, but some passerines were still thick in the trees and bushes.  Kinglets with both ruby and golden [...]

Saturday morning I arose before dawn, brewed and drank some coffee, got my gear together, and headed to Jamaica Bay.  When dawn came it was anticlimactic: the cloud cover was complete and what little light filtered through was barely enough for photography.  And when I got off the bus at the entrance to Jamaica Bay [...]

Business brought me out to Orange County, CA for a week in mid-October. Despite the length of my stay, I had precious few available moments for birding. My dear pal Amy brought me for some Upper Newport Bay birding not once but twice. The first attempt was undermined by the severity of Santa Ana winds [...]

Upper Newport Bay has a sterling reputation as a locus for some of the best coastal Orange County birding around. This is a big deal, considering both the outstanding avifauna this part of California can deliver as well as the other superlative sites along this stretch of the Pacific. Unfortunately, my first taste of [...]

Business has brought me once again to a shiny section of the Golden State. It is the height, indeed the very definition, of privilege to rise up after breakfast over a variegated expanse of autumn hues to arrive for lunch in a portion of the Pacific coast where one is far more likely to spot [...]

This past Monday, Will and his wife Danika were going to drive down from Albany and pick me up at 7 AM for a birding expedition to Long Island’s barrier beaches, hoping to find a variety of migrants.  Their car’s tire had other ideas, however, so I was awake at 6:15 in the morning, jonesin’ [...]

Last weekend, as I have mentioned already, was loaded with birds and birding.  Saturday morning at Jamaica Bay was absolutely wonderful, with winter residents starting to arrive, some lingering breeders still sticking around, and plenty of migrants moving through.  I could tell it was going to be a good morning’s birding when, at the bus [...]

Sara, Mason, Ivy, and I took a quick jaunt to Mendon Ponds this weekend. Has fall migration passed me by up here on the icy shores of Lake Ontario? If the kind of common species I’m spotting - Red-tailed Hawk, Turkey Vulture, Black-capped Chickadee, etc. - are any indication, warblers and their ilk are long [...]

This past weekend was so full of birding excursions and great birds that I am having a very difficult time deciding what post to write first.  I know, I know, it’s a horribly difficult life to live, but somehow I manage to muddle through.  Anyway, after birding Alley Pond Park on Sunday morning and seeing [...]

Anyone attempting some sort of Big Year Bird List who works for an airline and wants to see as many birds as possible (eg me, myself, I) needs to make at least one trip out to the Middle East, and preferably either in April or September/October, and even more preferably be able to hook up [...]

It rained on Thursday and Friday and again on Saturday.  By Saturday afternoon, not having birded since Charlie’s visit, I didn’t care if I was going to get soaked: I wanted to get out and see some birds no matter how wet I ended up getting.  So, at two in the afternoon I grabbed my [...]

Even after nearly twenty years of flying international routes, travelling between the northern and southern hemispheres like a (slightly moody it has it be admitted) jet-propelled swallow, I still forget that ’summer’ is something that happens north of the equator in June, July, and August and then happens again to the south in November, December, [...]

I thought waking up in the dark on a Sunday morning and getting on the subway at 6 AM to join Charlie for some birding was a heck of a task, that is, until I found out that Charlie had just flown in from London yesterday, which he had arrived at from Chicago the day [...]

Back in Chicago a little over five months since I was last here - and back at Montrose Point, home of the ‘Magic Hedge’ and a magnet for both birds and birders. When I was here in May of course I was looking for migrant warblers and sparrows: this time I was on a search [...]

Okay, so you’ve got two days in Johannesburg, the weather is gorgeous, the birding excellent - what (if you were me) would you do: stay nearby and have a relaxed time visiting reliably excellent sites like Suikerbosrand or Marievale, or rent a car and drive to Memel, a place you know very little about on [...]

This weekend two-thirds of the 10,000 Birds triumvirate participated in the 12th Annual Montezuma Muckrace. I’m pleased to report that we lived to tell the tale. Corey and I, accompanied by ace birders Jory Langner and Will Raup, ushered in a shining new era of competitive Big Day birding, the debut of the 10,000 Birds [...]

When one thinks of Western New York, seabirds don’t immediately spring to mind. However, terns, sandpipers, plovers, and the like don’t mind drifting hundreds of miles from the seashore, particularly to lands rich with lakes. The corridor between Rochester and Syracuse apparently suits shorebirds just fine since Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge is renowned for its [...]