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Here we are immersed in the fullness of May. I wonder how many recognize just how special this time of year is, not just because of the massive migratory spectacle but also for May’s pulchritudinous profusion of flowers and deliciously moderate climate. Lest ye take the magic of this month for granted, heed instead the [...]

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the most popular American poet during the nineteenth century though as the years have passed his star has dimmed in comparison to other poets of the period. Many see his work as derivative of the European poets, unoriginal, and suitable only for children. His most famous work today is probably “Paul Revere’s [...]

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, will [...]

Time for some poetry! What can I say about Roebuck Bay… The pindan cliffs, the miles of sea A seabed full of history. What can I say about Roebuck Bay… The tide is in and the fishermen stand The hermit crabs are crossing the sand What can I say about Roebuck Bay… The tide goes [...]

Back in 2007, DK Publishing produced what I still consider the consummate birding coffee table book.   If you haven’t seen it, BIRD: The Definitive Visual Guide is simply stunning. But that’s not what this post is about. To help promote this book, we ran a series of giveaways, one of which was a call for [...]

“Purple Martins” first appeared in print in Carl Sandburg’s 1920 collection of poems, Smoke and Steel, published six years after he rose to prominence following the publication of some of his poems in the famed Poetry magazine.  Though one thinks automatically of Chicago when one thinks of Sandburg if one thinks of anything at all [...]

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 [...]

Brown-headed Cowbirds evoke strong feelings in many birders, some of whom can’t abide a bird that lays its eggs in other birds’ nests, often to the detriment of the nest owners’ offspring. But there is much to like about cowbirds.  Though the female is bland the male is quite snappy with his glossy black body [...]

The Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) is well-known for his efforts as a writer, editor, legislator, and abolitionist. Countless towns, schools, and natural formations are named for him, including Whittier Glacier in Alaska and, by extension, its tiny neighboring town, a gateway to Prince William Sound that I’ve had the profound pleasure of visiting. John [...]

In the final version of Walt Whitman’s famed poetry collection Leaves of Grass – the “Deathbed Edition” - there is a poem dedicated to the Magnificent Frigatebird, or, as Whitman knew it, the Man-of-War-Bird.  ”To the Man-of-War-Bird” was actually first published nearly a quarter-century earlier in the British literary paper, The Athenaeum, and was reprinted in 1878 as ”Thou Who Hast [...]

Ravens fascinate people.  Their obvious intelligence, their vocalizations, their roles in the mythologies of multiple cultures, their all-black plumage, their cachet, their just plain coolness.  And a good part of what makes ravens cool to the English speaking world is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.”  Anyone who has ever heard “The Raven” read aloud remembers [...]

Swallows are a sure sign of spring the world over. The famous swallows of San Juan Capistrano are Cliff Swallows, but for me, Tree Swallows signal both the end of winter in March and its new beginning around October.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe poem clearly perceived the connection between swallows and spring, which he memorialized in a poem [...]

John Burroughs should be as well known as Henry David Thoreau.  He was one of the preeminent naturalists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a contemporary and friend of Walt Whitman, a companion of President Theodore Roosevelt, and a distinguished writer and conservationist.  His nature essays are a joy to read, especially for [...]

No one who has read this blog for any length of time will be surprised that I was very excited to hear that a collection of Emily Dickinson’s bird-related poems was being released and a copy was on its way to me to review.*  After all, I have already discussed on this blog what is [...]

Hi to all birders, I was invited by Corey to write about the birds of Honduras and I will in due time.  But first I would like to express my appreciation to the ones who have made my lifestyle in Honduras possible: the birders. Many thanks goes to all of the people who have supported [...]

Why is it that I can wax voluble on the topic of fauna, and yet flora leaves me speechless? Perhaps there is the sense that we animals are in the world, but the blossoms, bushes, and trees around us are the world. Do you feel the same way? Think about it while enjoying on both [...]

What can make dawn sky and bright moon even better? Egrets in the air.               … If you liked this haiku and would like to browse the entire archive of poetry posts on 10,000 Birds please check out our Bird Poems page.

It is time, once again, to put long-suffering 10,000 Birds readers through the exquisite torture that is one of my posts in doggerel.  This time my maniacal muse has inspired me to versify what is perhaps the most vile substance that birders have come into contact with; the mud on the East Pond of Jamaica [...]

When I try to write prose about the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico I invariably end up typing lots of four-letter words as the only way to express my deepening rage.  So, rather than inflict “filth flarn flarn filth” upon you, dear reader, I have decided to torment you with doggerel.  Enjoy, if you [...]

Robert Frost, the four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, was able to find meaning in the most minor of topics in his poetry.  Whether one prefers “Mending Wall,” “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening,” or “The Road Not Taken” one will recognize that Frost could turn even the most mundane of events into an amazing [...]