The excitement of a rarity chase is one of my favorite aspects of birding, but it’s nothing compared to the thrill of finding something unusual yourself. For me, the feeling of accomplishment that comes with turning up even a minor regional oddity often rivals the triumphant joy of a successful twitch or long-distance trip. That finder’s high is a hell … Read More
Unusual American Golden-Plover – McLean County, Illinois
Vast agricultural areas aren’t exactly the first landscape that comes to mind when thinking of ideal migrant shorebird habitat. For me the vast coastal marshes of the Delmarva will always be at the top of the list for the country’s best shorebird-watching, but while doing bird surveys in central Illinois recently I was happy to encounter many large flocks of American Golden-Plovers flying … Read More
Little Creek: Delaware’s Shorebird Hotspot for 2014
Alan Kneidel received a B.A. in Biology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2008. He has since contributed to a variety of research projects, spanning from the Arctic to tropical South America. He is currently a Master’s student at Delaware State University, focusing on the spring stopover ecology of trans-Gulf songbird migrants on St. George Island, Florida. While … Read More
American Golden Plover- Somerset Lake, PA Fall ’12
Quick post with some cool video and pictures of a juvenile American Golden Plover (Pluvialis dominica) that showed up 9/18/2012 at Somerset Lake, Somerset County, PA. All the pictures and video in this post were taken with an iPhone 4s, digiscoped through a Kowa TSN 824. Video of the it feeding on the “spit” where I first observed it- [youtube=http://youtu.be/9qSQMRkD8Wk&w=700] … Read More
10 Shorebird Species on N. Nixon Rd, Centre County
I had a large gap between classes today, so I decided to go check on the American Golden-Plovers that were found the night before on N. Nixon Road. I spent from 9:50am till 1:oopm scanning through the large collection of shorebirds present, trying to pick out each individual and get an accurate count. Meticulously searching paid off when I found … Read More