Summer vacation is always a crucial window of opportunity for adventures, but it is all too short and often too busy. This year, I was thankfully able to find the time for a brief getaway. Although international travel still poses a bit of a thorny logistic challenge, we were content to set our sights on a domestic destination. It didn’t … Read More
Gotta Atlas ‘Em All!
The long-awaited Third New York Breeding Bird Atlas officially kicked off at the start of 2020. Last year, for obvious reasons, it was difficult to engage in as much exploration as I would’ve liked. My reduced vehicle access and the various travel restrictions made it difficult for me to venture beyond NYC for much of the breeding season. Even though … Read More
A Dash of Florida Birding
Like most of the world, I’ve been keeping pretty close to home for the past year or so. I spent over a month confined almost exclusively to my apartment last spring, and several months beyond that entirely within the borders of New York State. Later short-range outings still never took me more than a few states away. Now that I’m … 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
2020 Top 10 Birds
Every year offers a different set of experiences. In 2019, I saw so many lifers that I couldn’t imagine narrowing them down to a Top 10. 2020 stands in stark contrast to last year’s international adventures, and though I managed to make the most of this challenging reality I did not crack into the double digits for new birds observed. … Read More
A Tale of Two Cuckoos
The cosmopolitan family Cuculidae contains some of the world’s weirdest and most wonderful species of birds. I am not shy about my fondness for cuckoos, and over the years I have enjoyed a number of incredible encounters with this tribe during my travels around the globe. Fantastic creatures like Greater Roadrunner, Squirrel Cuckoo, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Pheasant Cuckoo, Little Bronze-Cuckoo, … Read More
The Season So Far: Fall 2020 Highlights
Each of the four seasons has something special to offer the birding world. I will always cherish the lively color and music of spring when birds return after months of absence. Winter brings the festive joy of Christmas Bird Counts and new year lists, while summer offers breeding bird surveys and plenty of free time for adventures. Even so, I … Read More
Boreal Bird Blitz
No one likes to let vacation time go to waste. As my schedule began to fill up with responsibilities and obligations, it became apparent that I wouldn’t be able to orchestrate a grand international adventure for my February break this year. Nevertheless, I still had a few days to spare and didn’t want to spend them just sitting around. I … Read More
Churchill Photo Highlights
It was a cold, northerly summer for yours truly this year. Fortunately, that summer was in one of the bird world’s great locations – Churchill, Manitoba. I spent two months ~25 miles outside the town of Churchill at the edge of the tundra along the coast of Hudson Bay conducting research on high latitude nesting of Savannah sparrows and Yellow … Read More