It’s finally May, and May means migration! There is no single month that can top the action and excitement of peak spring birding here in New York. This mad dash to the breeding grounds is the most intense time of the year for many species. As much as I adore fall migration, the southbound movement of birds is a more … Read More
2021 – The First 100
I’ve always appreciated the seasonality of birding. When you’re paying close attention to the goings-on in the world outside your windows, the annual cycle of nature is conspicuous and easy to track. This visible, reliable schedule has been a major boon throughout the pandemic, which has caused weeks and months to blur together and warp all perception of time. The … Read More
Apartment Birding and Fire Escapism
When I first moved into my Astoria apartment in early December, I immediately began keeping a “yard list” of birds seen around my new home. My expectations for the potential of this urbanized neighborhood weren’t particularly high, but I reasoned that watching for birds of note outside my window would be a fun way to pass the time between proper … Read More
October Big Day 2019
Who doesn’t love a Big Day? Any excuse to get out and count birds in the name of science is a worthwhile cause in my book. eBird has been orchestrating Global Big Day events each May since 2015, an international effort to record as many of the world’s species as possible within a 24 hour period. Last fall, the Cornell-based … Read More
What’s left of the Prairie State…
After a very busy May, which included (winning!) the Birding Cup in central PA and then guiding at the Biggest Week in American Birding, I ventured out to central Illinois to help with some bird surveys on two proposed wind facilities. Other than spending a few half-days birding Illinois during cross-country trips, I have never really spent much time in … Read More
Rabbit Season in the Rockies
Although not technically a “rabbit”, Snowshoe Hares are particularly visible and abundant right now in the boreal habitats of northern Idaho. The vast expanses of spruce-fir forests and large stands of Lodgepole Pines covering the mountainous landscape creates the ultimate kingdom for this large leporid. Before this summer I had only seen a handful of Snowshoe Hares in my life, but … Read More
Blizzard Raptors – Houtzdale WRS
Earlier today I ran the Houtzdale Winter Raptor Survey in Clearfield County. This 110 mile route meanders through pockets of grasslands, stripmines, agricultural fields, and forests from Tyrone to Curwensville and then up to Clearfield. When we left State College to drive down there this morning it was sunny and calm. About halfway, in Blair County, we spotted an immature … Read More
Friendly Peregrine
It’s not every day that you hear the words ‘friendly’ and ‘Peregrine’ in the same sentence, but if you haven’t heard already there is a ridiculously tame and cooperative immature Peregrine Falcon hanging out towards the back end of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR’s Wildlife Auto Loop. Refuge staff have said that it isn’t one of the locally-hatched birds as … Read More
Lititz CBC 2012
Tomorrow I am headed on a trip through MD, DE, and NJ so today was my last full day of birding in Pennsylvania for the year. 2012 has been a great year of birding for me in the state, with my highest state year list ever – 292 species. I guess I should have tried a little harder and tried … Read More
Christmas Red-tailed Hawk
After a Christmas Eve dinner last night and a morning breakfast with my family today, I drove out to a few birding locations that I like to visit when I’m in Hershey. Bird activity was kind of slow but Red-tailed Hawks (and a few Great Blue Herons) were all over, hunting for small rodents in the tall-grass fields. Of the … Read More