Late last week brought the first spring fallout of warblers to South Padre Island. Trans-gulf migrants, or birds that cut straight across the Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatan Peninsula, find themselves exhausted upon reaching land. If the winds are “right” (“right” being a rather awful term, because although great for birding, it is awful for the birds as many … Read More
5 to 500
Every avid lister knows the life list benchmarks. When you start birding you are learning the fundamentals, but in the back of your mind you’re thinking about hitting 100, 200, and 300 life birds. I’ve been birding, listing, and eBirding for about five years now and have tallied almost 500 life birds. Hell, I observed 439 species in 2013 (a … Read More
Yellow-throated Warbler – iPhone digiscoping test
Since I was in the area, I decided to look for some early Yellow-throated Warblers at Safe Harbor and Conestoga Creek Parks near Conestoga, PA. To be fair, they had been reported a few days previously, so I was pretty sure I had a good chance of seeing them. With the help of another birder, I was able to quickly … Read More
Spring Migration Predictions – First Half of April
Finally, it’s April. March was nice, but very few spring migrants returned to PA compared to what’s in store for us birders during April and May. During April, migration really picks up, and we should see most spring migrants back in the state by the end of this month. I went through the eBird bar charts for the PA and … Read More
Birding Around Gainesville – Day 1
Now that Anna and I have finally made it to Gainesville, and Anna will be living and working here till July, we wanted to go out birding around the city today and try and familiarize ourselves with a few of the local birding hotspots as well as try and pick up some more new year birds. Our first stop of the day … Read More