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Christine Guarino is a serious birder in a funny hat. When she is not writing about chickadees, identifying out-of-place sparrows, or tracking down winter finches she stays busy educating future generations of birders in her job as a high school biology teacher. If you ever have a chance to go birding with Christine, take it, [...]

In my post about the pelagic trip I took on Sunday I mentioned a jaeger that was spotted, a jaeger that was initially (and erroneously) identified as a Parasitic Jaeger, but was later, thanks to photographs, identified as a Pomarine Jaeger. I didn’t get the greatest looks at the bird to begin with, and seeing [...]

Joan Collins, based out of northern New York, is an active member of many Empire State birding organizations. An ardent naturalist, licensed guide, and Adirondack Forty-Sixer, Joan also enjoys writing and has published many journal, magazine, and newspaper articles on wildlife topics including several species accounts in the upcoming edition of The Atlas of Breeding [...]

One of the many reasons why the passion for birding can be sustained for a lifetime is that the undertaking can never be considered complete. You’ll never see all the birds nor will you ever see all of your favorites enough to be satisfied. Bird watching can be taken up in a moment, but takes [...]

I can’t wait until Sunday! I’ll be on a day-long pelagic trip from Freeport, Long Island, into the briny deep of the Atlantic Ocean. There are so many potential lifers it is ridiculous, as I have never been on a pelagic trip this time of year. Birds like South Polar Skua, Pomarine Jaeger, and Audubon’s [...]

Last week I was out on the Cohoes Flats looking at shorebirds, hoping to find something good. Both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs were around as well as several small groups of Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers. A couple of Pectoral Sandpipers were hanging out on flat rocks on the other side of what little Mohawk River [...]

Have the summer doldrums gotten you down as much as they have me? Well, don’t fret, look for shorebirds! Though they may be indistinct and indistinguishable, especially at the great distances from which one usually sees them, they are still birds. And these birds of mudflats and seasides, wet fields and drainage ditches, sewage ponds [...]

Since I decided in June to make this year as big a birding year as possible in New York State I have been putting far too much effort into finding species that, seemingly, do not want to be found. Especially the two woodpeckers, American Three-toed and Black-backed, that in New York State occur only in [...]

My first sign something was wrong while I scanned the East Pond of Jamaica Bay during my long day’s birding last Thursday was a sharp pain in my belly. I knew it wasn’t my appendix, as I had mine out several years ago and the pain was in the wrong spot anyway. Then it hit [...]

I’ve spent quite a few hours lately reading and paging through my recently arrived field guide, Birds of Europe. With a planned trip to Germany in October I want to be prepared to identify everything I see and hear…which isn’t too likely but I can dream, can’t I? Having never birded outside of the U.S. [...]

Upon arriving home this evening, despondent about having left my camera behind when watching birds and it not being there when I returned, I posted to a birding listserv about the loss. Within an hour an email that the camera was picked up by a birder and I’m getting it back. Enormous sigh of relief… [...]

Chris Clarke has declared today, December 1, 2005, to be “Blog Against Racism” Day. I found myself at a loss as to what role this humble blog could play in such a consciousness-raising campaign. Then I considered a few names, the luminaries of American birding: John James Audubon Roger Tory Peterson David Allen Sibley Kenn [...]

Fall introduces a cornucopia of sparrows and sparrow look-alikes. Juncos are easy enough to identify but the rest of the cryptic North American crew can be maddening to anyone interested in going deeper than House, Song, and  White-throated Sparrow. I’ve written about our ongoing struggles with little brown jobs (LBJs) but am pleased to report [...]

Of the plenteous perks of publishing a birding blog, and rest assured, they are manifold, one of the best has to be the free stuff. I am, on occasion, granted the opportunity to review bird-related books or videos. Though this can sometimes, depending on the item, be a chore, more often than not, I get [...]