Like many nature-based bloggers, I enjoy closing each year with a retrospective highlight reel. Ever since 2016, this personal countdown has taken the form of a Top 10 Lifers post, detailing the best new species I tallied during the preceding months. 2019, however, has been the undisputed biggest year of my life thus far. A pair of long-awaited dream trips … 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
Beyond the Shelf Again
Late summer is usually a busy time, filled with pre-work preparations and plenty of outdoor exploration as vacation ends and migration begins. This year I was fortunate enough to join a pair of offshore journeys with See Life Paulagics. The first was a two-day cruise from Point Pleasant, New Jersey on the Voyager in mid-August. The latter was a September … Read More
Australia Birding Adventures, Part 4
As I worked my way down the slopes from O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat, I made a few stops to bird some different habitats. At Duck Creek Road, I connected with another visiting birder who I’d seen up around the resort over the past 24 hours. I spent some time chatting with him as as we explored the woodland edges and open … Read More
Australia Birding Adventures, Part 3
On the morning of July 15th, my day was already a huge success before most Australians had gotten their first cup of coffee. It was difficult to leave the scenic shoreline and cooperative cassowaries of Etty Bay behind me, but I knew there was more excitement awaiting me to the north. With a motel booked for the next two nights … Read More
Australia Birding Adventures, Part 2
My alarm clock didn’t wake me up on the morning of July 13th. I was stirred from sleep a little earlier than expected thanks to a shrill scream in the dark, the call of a Sooty Owl. Hardly disappointed to have a life bird shrieking just outside my window, I sat in bed and listened to the owl and other … Read More
Australia Birding Adventures, Part 1
I think every nature lover has dreamed of one day visiting Australia. The continent boasts a remarkable level of biodiversity and endemism, with some of the planet’s most famously unusual creatures calling the Land Down Under home. To residents of the Northern Hemisphere, it seems like another world: a mythical realm of marsupials and venom, isolated for so long that … Read More
Exploring the Dakota’s – Late June on the Great Plains
During the last few days of June (June 27- June 30), Steve Huggins – a good birding friend of mine from Chicago – and I decided to go on a whirlwind trip of the prairie states out west in search of fun summer breeding birds, including a few lifers. Steve is a well-traveled world birder, boasting a world list of … Read More
New Year Birding
Year listing is one of the most popular traditions in the world of birding. The annual cycle of seasons is felt especially strongly by those of us who immerse ourselves in the world of birds, and each new year brings a new set of chances to enjoy unforgettable experiences. On behalf of the whole Nemesis Bird team, I’d like to … Read More
2018 Top 10 Lifers
At the end of every year, I like to take some time to reflect on the highs and lows of the year’s birding escapades. 2018 definitely had its rough spots, with a few painful dips and shortcomings scattered throughout, but on the whole it was a fantastic year chock full of great birds. Out of 526 species observed since January … Read More