I’ve often said that people who are more actively observant of the natural world around them are more acutely aware of the seasonal cycle. When you spend most of your free time watching the comings and goings of animals, you can’t help but notice the gradual, steady changes each day brings on our yearly journey around the Sun. This is … 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
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
Finch Flight Frenzy
“Mr. Healy, I have a question I’ve been meaning to ask you.” My coworker approached me as I was stowing my binoculars after a brief pre-work survey of the schoolyard. “I’ve been at my place in northern Jersey for years now, but this year I’ve noticed something different. There are these birds, I can only describe them as…finches?” I smiled, … Read More
The Satisfaction of Discovery
The excitement of a rarity chase is one of my favorite aspects of birding, but it’s nothing compared to the thrill of finding something unusual yourself. For me, the feeling of accomplishment that comes with turning up even a minor regional oddity often rivals the triumphant joy of a successful twitch or long-distance trip. That finder’s high is a hell … Read More
See the weather in a whole new way
Savvy birders are meteorologically astute. They keep an eye out for what may be arriving with the next airmass, wrung out of the skies by an approaching front, or even just a pop-up thunderstorm on an otherwise migration-friendly day. In the age of smartphones and apps, it’s now more convenient than ever to stay abreast of changing weather conditions. Anyone … Read More
Lake Freeze-out, Grebe Fall-out
Almost every winter portions of the Great Lakes freeze up for the winter. This winter the Northeast already has two episodes of a ‘polar vortex’ under its belt, and a large percentage of the Great Lakes are frozen tight. Surveys earlier this month have reported 88% ice cover on January 12 and 62% on January 14 by the NOAA Great Lakes … Read More
A night of strong early migration and then storms
Regional Overview In what seems to be a theme recently, migration was broken up over the Northeast by several groups of storms as the high pressure system that brought unseasonably warm temps to many areas got pushed out by the approaching cold front. The storms moved through early, putting a strong damper on the nights migration, but not before many … Read More
More migration plus scattered storms over NY cause fallout
Regional Overview It was another night of good migration across the northeastern quarter of the US. Storms slowed down migration in the southeast but birds still were trying to migrate before incoming storms across NY, setting up possible fallout conditions. New Yorkers should be checking inland migrant traps as the weren’t along the lakeshore today.
Strong flight with possible upstate NY fallout
Regional Overview Last night was another night of heavy migration. Northward movement was largely unhindered across the eastern US except in western and upstate NY, where are small line of heavy thunderstorms moved east along the Lake Ontario lakeshore and across the Adirondack’s. With the clear path of strong migration the whole way up the East Coast, there should be … Read More