When Drew first established this blog so many years ago, he christened the new site with a title based on one of the most evocatively named phenomena in birding. The concept of a nemesis bird is something most birders are familiar with, though the exact definition may vary from person to person. It could be that incredible vagrant you “just … 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
Santa Rosa Tour 3 Update: Part Two, March 14-17
Wow, does time fly by when you are on an eight day on, six day off schedule (this schedule is possibly the secret to life). I’ve finally gotten around to posting the second half of tour three on Santa Rosa Island, working for Institute for Wildlife Studies (Read part one here first!) Weather was excellent for the second half of tour 3 as … Read More
Winter Waterfowl in Illinois
Last Saturday (the 15th), Michael Retter and Matt Hale drove up from West Lafayette to stay at my house for the weekend (specifically for the Gull Frolic, more on that coming soon). They had to head out on Sunday, but before they left, we birded a bit looking for Scoters on the lakefront. This winter has been quite unlike others … Read More
Digiscoping at the Indian River Inlet – a Phone Skope Big Year 2014 Update
This past Sunday, Alan Kneidel, Taj Schottland, Matt Boone, and I ventured to the Indian River Inlet (eBird Checklist) in Sussex County, Delaware. After a necessary pre-trip Wawa stop, we left Newark shortly after 6 and arrived at the north parking lot at 7:45. The air was chilly and the sun was bright as we started the short hike out … Read More
Failed chase, waterfowl, and a dark Rough-legged Hawk
My friends and I were bummed that we had missed out on a very chase-able Eurasian Wigeon during the spring and thought we had lost our chase to get that species for our PA state lists. That was until last week, when a male Eurasian Wigeon was reported at Yellow Creek SP, which is about 1.5 hrs from State College. … Read More
Photo Study: Surf Scoter (juvenile)
This afternoon, Mark Mizak and I took a quick trip out to Bald Eagle State Park to search for the Red-necked Grebe that we had found yesterday. The grebe appears to have left, however we were very excited to see a Surf Scoter swimming around by the sunken road. The scoter was very tame and approachable which allowed for some … Read More
Sibley on Scoters
David Sibley has put up a good post on identifying scoters by their silhouette. Why is this a good thing to learn? In David’s own words- The three North American scoters can be distinguished readily by details of the head and bill, but like many birds of open water they are often seen at a great distance in bad light, … Read More
New Jersey Birding – Part 3
For the fourth day of our trip, on the 22nd, we really didnt have anything planned, so we figured we would just spend some more time at the Avalon Sea Watch since we all had a great time there. So after a quick stop at Higbee Beach (where bird activity was basically nonexistent) we drove over to Avalon. As we … Read More
New Jersey Birding – Part 1
Last Friday, November 19th, was the start of our Thanksgiving Break so my friends and I decided to go to Cape May, NJ for some birding with the hope of getting Tim and Josh some life birds and get me a few year birds for my Big Year. Nate Fronk, Tim Schrekengost, Josh Lefever, and  a friend of Nate and … Read More