I hear this often; complaints about migration being over, talk of there being no reason to get out early in the mornings, and having to wait for the fall to do any good birding. I say this is ridiculous. While migration does offer a spectacular pulse of new birds and at a higher concentration than out of the birding season, … Read More
Photographing Roosting Owls: How To Know You’re Doing It Right
A sleepy owl is a happy owl! Of all the potential subjects for aspiring bird photographers, roosting owls just might be the most intoxicatingly enticing subject of all.  Owls are an especially charismatic clan of birds.  Whether or not you enjoy their typecast roles in folklore, you have to admit that there is an overwhelming temptation to map our human modes of … Read More
Gull Fight
Back on February 11th, 2012 I was enjoying the massive gathering of gulls at Daytona Beach Shores, Florida (eBird list). Picking through thousands of gulls is always exciting because at any moment a rarity could pop into your scope view. However, not only is it fun to look through gulls for the rare species, but also to watch the behavior … Read More
A Turkey Tale
Last year, Alex and I spent part of the spring and summer living in the foothills near Boise, Idaho while working for Idaho Bird Observatory. A few days after we drove to Idaho to start work for Idaho Bird Observatory in early April 2011, we came back to our camper trailer (home) to find a huge male Wild Turkey walking around … Read More
Hawks harassing starlings
Everyone has seen massive flocks of starlings moving across the sky like a haunted black cloud at some point in their lives. They move in unison so perfectly that it can be hard to comprehend. Here in central Pennsylvania we don’t get flocks of millions of starling that other parts of the world see, but we can still see small versions of … Read More
Whimbrel and 3 Avocets– Sept ’12, Somerset County, PA
On September 4th after returning from out of town, my wife, Trish Miller, and I were birding our Somerset Lake route. One of our first stops is on the south side of the lake. As we scanned the south side I notice a large shorebird bathing on the far shore. I couldn’t make out much from that side, so we … Read More
Stilt Sandpiper and Friends at Merritt Island NWR
Anna and I visited Merritt Island NWR late in the afternoon on May 26th. Birding was relatively slow due to the time of day and because of how few migrants are around. We were able to find 32 species along the Black Point Wildlife Drive (eBird checklist), including a few FOY species for us – Least Terns, Gull-billed Terns, White-rumped … Read More
Preening video – Least Sandpiper
Here is a video on preening shot and edited by Andy McGann.
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