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Become a birder and you’re suddenly a litterateur, too.  It’s not much of a selling point, I suppose, but how else to explain the fact that birders, simply by association with the width and breadth of avifauna across the wide world, are also students of the english language.  We learn by osmosis such SAT study [...]

We New Yorkers get excited about single American Avocets showing up in our state and when more than one avocet is around we can’t help but go take a look. Theoretically, we understand that sometimes Recurvirostra americana shows up in larger groups than that but we have a hard time visualizing such an occurrence. Having [...]

We have had a wet week in Broome with a tropical low to our north and further down the coast there is a cyclone. This cyclone has been named Cyclone Iggy and is a dominant circle on our satellite image of Western Australia. It has been amusing to listen to the “younger” weather people on [...]

The air was thick and clammy, and mosquitoes were biting along Louisiana’s Mermentau River last Thursday morning, the final day of the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. A lone Black-bellied Plover quietly worked the flats amid hundreds of other shorebirds. Black-bellied (Grey) Plover, Pluvialis squatarola, in California CC-BY Alan Vernon Remarkable birds, Black-bellied Plovers, winter refugees [...]

It had to happen eventually! We have all been waiting for the rain to arrive and it seems to be later this Wet Season. The frogs must have been wondering what was going on, but now they are happy. It’s not “rain” here until we get over 10mm in a downpour, which has now officially happened [...]

Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) photos by Larry Jordan Shorebirds. Why are they seemingly so difficult to identify? One obvious reason is that most have plumage variations between their breeding plumage and non-breeding plumage. Plus many sandpipers plumages are very similar. Take the Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) for example (click on photos for full sized images). You would [...]

We have spent most of our time recently with the shorebirds of Roebuck Bay. They have returned from the north, though more are returning and there is very little knowledge on their arrival back in the Bay. When they depart on their northward migration it is possible to go into Roebuck Bay in the late [...]

Long Valley is an intensively farmed area at the confluence of two rivers in the former British ‘New Territories’ of Hong Kong. It is divided into small plots, mostly less than 50m2 where the use of large machines is impractical and human labour is the main method of cultivation. It is highly irrigated and many [...]

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 [...]

We have a rare visitor in Broome at the moment, which is rather nice! The last time we had a Banded Lapwing Vanellus tricolor visit was 25th February 2008 and prior to that was 23rd September 2005. On those occasions the bird was on one of the school ovals, but this time it has decided [...]

Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) photos by Larry Jordan Click on photos for full sized images. This female Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) is distinguished from the male by her paler brownish back and scapulars. The male of the species has the upper portion of the head, back of neck, back and wings all glossy black. He [...]

Everyone that visits Broome heads for Cable Beach at some stage of their visit. Many people choose to stay at a hotel within walking distance and enjoy the sun setting into the sea each evening. Camel rides are a popular sunset activity for those who want a slow walk! The most common bird along the [...]

We are into the second attempt at breeding for this season in Broome for Pied Oystercatchers. The first eggs are laid during the first week of July each year and if these eggs fail to hatch or the chicks are lost they will lay further eggs within a few weeks. We had one pair attempt [...]

Scientists at The Center for Conservation Biology have announced that Machi, a Whimbrel that they have tracked via a satellite transmitter for over two years and 44,000 kilometers (27,000 miles) was gunned down on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe (French West Indies).  This is a bird that flew over 3,400 miles in one flight from [...]

Irene sends her love. As might be expected she was feeling a little weaker after crossing the Atlantic and wasn’t quite the ‘big lady’ that she was on your side of the pond. Let’s just say she’d mellowed a little on the journey over. She brought gifts of course and for those we’re mostly grateful. [...]

Well one day this week saw me searching for shorebirds, as there must be some here somewhere that I can get to. There are signs up to explain that there are not many left due to reclamation, industry and pollution along the Nakdong Estuary, but I must be able to find something if I go out on [...]

This comes from BirdLife Cyprus’ research officer Mike Miltiadou, and shared by Melpo Apostolidou: Waterbirds that bred on the island this year. Kentish Plover / Credit: Jane Stylianou It’s just the thing that I thought birders from outside of Cyprus would want to hear that I had to share it in full: BirdLife Cyprus conducts [...]

Or Why Eating Raw Seafood Is Dangerous Or Ouch!  That Looks Like It Smarts! Or The Hunter Becomes The Hunted What am I talking about?  A very unfortunate Semipalmated Sandpiper that chose the wrong mussel to make into a meal.  It was at Jones Beach State Park a couple of weeks ago and all of [...]

Any day that includes a sighting of a Red Knot is a good day for a birder.  The bird we see in the northeastern United States, the rufa subspecies, is declining rapidly, “from a high count of 95,000 in the 80s and 90s to fewer than 10,000 earlier this year.”  Fortunately for both the birds and [...]

This week has seen me do a lot more cycling and walking along the beach and more discoveries! Grant is currently overseas-more about that next week-so I have been making the most of my surroundings, as I will join him soon. I have covered the 23kms of beach that we monitor and discovered that nesting [...]