You are browsing the archives of holiday.

(All respectable publications should have their holiday traditions. This evergreen post, first written in 2004, has become a 10,000 Birds staple. Merry Christmas!) Everybody knows the Christmas carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Easily the most endless song this side of “99 Bottles of Beer,” this old chestnut has simultaneously delighted and horrified holiday celebrants [...]

I think I missed my slot; did I miss my slot? Was anyone worried, anyone think maybe I’d been caught up in that little bit of bother? Le me reassure you I can handle myself in a riot. I’m three weeks into the summer holidays with three children. That’s three weeks of chaos and anarchy [...]

Did you know that today is 2011 World Listening Day, which happens to be the second annual World Listening Day? To be honest, I didn’t but listening has never been my strong suit anyway. Still, the concept in play here has relevance to bird watchers and nature lovers. The purposes of World Listening Day, as [...]

On Independence Day, the 4th of July, I was sitting in the kitchen of my parents’ house drinking some coffee and sharing some homemade pancakes with Desi while my mother talked to my aunt on the phone about plans to meet at the Saugerties 4th of July parade.  After hanging up my mother mentioned, offhand, [...]

Cardinals have built a nest in the forsythia outside my living room window. Watching the female patiently incubate her eggs reminds me of how special mothers of every species are. Happy Mother’s Day!! What, it would kill you to call every once in a while?

That is, if you celebrate Easter.  Personally, I don’t believe in all of the religious stuff that goes with it but I sure do like chocolate bunnies and looking for Easter eggs, so, you know, I’ll hang out with the Easter Bunnadee, a distant relation of the Bunny Tanager.  Thanks to Steph for making this [...]

What is Earth Day? A holiday created to inspire awareness and appreciation for our natural environment in those who might not consider such matters during the rest of the year. Am I the only one who finds it ironic that those who might observe Earth Day are the very ones who already understand and appreciate [...]

Time to face facts… if  you haven’t bought holiday gifts yet for the birders in you life, you are out of luck. There’s simply no way you can order a gift this weekend that will arrive before Christmas… or is there? The thoughtful and generous artisans at Printfection have announced that anyone who chooses the Standard shipping [...]

Now that Daisy and I have a child our number of visits upstate have lessened dramatically.  The thirty-minute subway ride to Manhattan followed by the nearly-two-hour Metro North railroad journey to Poughkeepsie where a relative with a car picks us up for a forty-minute drive to Saugerties is more than enough without an infant in [...]

The second Sunday in May is the day many countries around the world, including the United States, set aside for the celebration of mothers. Since most of our moms tend to indulge us every other day of the year, it is only right that at least one day is for the moms! So, even if [...]

So here I am, innocently trying to figure out why we need both Earth Day and Arbor Day in the same week when yet another shred of my ecological innocence is torn asunder. No, it wasn’t the revelation that Arbor Day always falls on the last Friday of April in the U.S. that horrifies me. [...]

I’d be remiss if I didn’t wish you all, on behalf of the 10,000 Birds team, a very happy Earth Day. However, I’d also be remiss if I didn’t take the time to point out that Earth Day is not at all about the Earth. Earth Day is about us. George Carlin said it best: [...]

With the arrival of another (American) Thanksgiving, it’s time to trot out the turkey facts. This day of thanks is, after all, known as Turkey Day. An overwhelming majority of turkeys polled feel that Thanksgiving is not actually Turkey Day. In fact, it seems a lot more like Anti-Turkey Day. Yes, the Wild Turkey is [...]

Happy Belated Swallows Day! On March 24, San Juan Capistrano celebrated the annual Fiesta de las Golondrinas or Festival of the Swallows. Timed to occur on or around March 19, the observance of St. Joseph’s Day, the festival honors a momentous seasonal event, a harbinger of spring in full bloom. St. Joseph’s Day is the [...]