North American Birding

An “Owlsome” Wednesday

2012-02-23T15:03:45Z

So I started my day with a little gym time followed by some rehab with a physical therapist. They tell me that it is of absolute importance that I get my shoulder iced down after the PT. So I get home to slap my fancy ice wrap on only to find that I CANNOT find [...]

Review: Petrels, Albatrosses & Storm Petrels of North America

2012-02-19T22:11:29Z

When Princeton sent me a note asking if I would be interested in reviewing Steve N. G. Howell’s latest title, I of course said “yes!” … but then sat back to think about what I had just agreed to. I’m a landlubber. My total experience with tubenoses comes from exactly one pelagic trip off California, where I [...]

Snowy Owl In Dallas!

2012-02-19T21:32:03Z

With the invasion of the Snowy Owls this year, it was not really a surprise that there would be vagrants in some really unusual locations, but this bird really did it. It snuck into Dallas and hung around for several weeks before the birding community even found out about it. This first year bird has [...]

When a Snowy met the locals

2012-02-16T23:05:06Z

Illinois birder Rick Remington (who, by the way, was the original finder of now-famous Chicago Sandwich Tern) sent me a story and a set of photos he wanted to share. Remington and a birding buddy were out just before dawn on January 29, birding Chicago’s lakefront parks, when they stumbled upon a Snowy Owl. There [...]

Pssssst! Want to Have Your Very Own Snowy Owl – Peregrine Falcon Experience?

2012-02-23T14:55:19Z

If you’ve been impressed by Rick Remington’s amazing photos of the encounter between a Snowy Owl and a Peregrine Falcon along Chicago’s Lakefront, you might say, “Wow! How lucky he was to see something like that!!!” And you’d be right, of course. But birders are lucky! We share experiences like this all the time, believe [...]

Neal’s Lodges

2012-02-17T16:06:42Z

I was invited to Neal’s Lodges by one of the new owners because of my blog entry about last years trip. She probably could have picked somebody else, but I was lucky enough to be found on her Google search about her new property. I accepted her invitation and decided to make it a three [...]

Wintering Henslow’s

2012-02-19T22:27:06Z

I am recently reunited with the good folk at Tall Timbers Research Station due to the Brown-headed Nuthatch breeding season kicking up again. The BHNU project, in and of itself, is wonderful and it is something that I may delve deeper into in a future post. But for now, though the Nuthatches are beginning to [...]

Psychic birding – has this ever happened to you?

2012-02-16T00:28:06Z

Some people dream in color; I dream in “bird.” On many occasions, I have seen and heard birds in my dreams. That’s not so unusual for a birder, I guess. If there’s a cardinal singing outside my window before my alarm goes off, then there’s clearly a reason for me in those last few minutes [...]

Cornell Lab of Ornithology Hosting Young Birders Event

2012-02-15T20:15:44Z

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is excited to host our 4th annual The Cornell Lab Young Birders Event, which will be held July 19 – 22 , 2012 in Ithaca, New York. The Young Birders Event aims to bring together teenagers (students who will be sophomores, juniors and seniors) with a passion for birds who are interested [...]

Rare birds and locals

2012-02-17T22:51:44Z

Last week I traveled to Greene County, Indiana—along with about a thousand other birders—to see the Hooded Crane at Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area (GPFWA). Like many wetlands in the midwest, GPFWA was bottomland agricultural parcels that had been purchased, the drainage tiles removed, and allowed to refill and regrow. The results, from one [...]