Stunning news from Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico: a female Sungrebe was photographed there on 13 November 2008, those photos here. It was correctly identified on 17 November from the photos, then refound and photographed more on 18 November. This is not only a new species for North America, but a whole new family. A […]
Sungrebe – New for North America! Read More »
The primary challenge of distinguishing Canada from Cackling Goose centers on the intermediate-sized ‘Lesser’ Canada Goose, B. c. parvipes, which reportedly nests across the boreal forest regions of western Canada and interior Alaska (more details on my website here). I’ve seen a few birds that I thought were ‘Lesser’ in the northeast over the years,
Lesser Canada Goose in the northeastern US Read More »
Yesterday morning I ‘found’ Canada’s first Lucy’s Warbler… in my inbox. After reading my recent posts about rare birds, Cathy Mountain (whose redpoll photos were featured here last winter) sent me a series of pictures of a warbler that had been in her yard in Fort McMurray, northern Alberta, from November 8-10, 2008. After rejecting
How many rare birds did we miss before the internet? Read More »
My last post “How many rare birds do we miss?“, was simply getting at the idea that we can miss something glaringly obvious if we are not looking for it. A popular psychology quote goes “I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t believed it”. In the case of the moon-walking bear, since I wasn’t
So how many do we find? Read More »
As birders we often talk about the problem of common birds being misidentified as rare ones. The counterpoint, but probably more frequent, is that rare birds are simply overlooked. Here’s a link to a fantastic “Awareness Test” on YouTube. Give it a try, it only takes a minute. The relevance of this test to bird identification should
How many rare birds do we miss? Read More »
Upcoming events: I’ll be out on a fossil-fuel-free big day this coming weekend, bicycling around Concord, Massachusetts (hoping for 100 species) and I’ll try to post a report about that next week. You can sponsor me through Bird Studies Canada, or through Malkolm Boothroyd’s Bird Day Challenge. —————–========—————– The Blog: When I started this blog
Big Day, and Blogging hiatus Read More »
Prompted by some good discussion I’ve read on TexBirds and elsewhere: I want to stress the point that the danger to birds is not so much the height of the wall, but more the wide swath of habitat that would be cleared for the wall and service roads. Chachalacas, Pygmy Owls, Green Jays, etc will
More on Texas Border Wall Read More »
Revised 8 Apr 2008 – Do something: Write or call Congress. See the No Texas Border Wall campaign and their suggestions for action with several petitions to sign and instructions for contacting government officials. Defenders of Wildlife has a handy form here for writing to your representative. ————————— The proposed border wall (1) from Texas
Border Fence puts Texas birds and birding at risk Read More »
Here’s an example of one of the countless thousands of questions that are still out there waiting to be answered about North American birds. I went to Texas in February (for the opening of the fantastic new Clif Moss Nature Education Center of the Corpus Christi Public Library) and I had a chance to see
Variation in Wild Turkey Read More »
One of the enduring mysteries of North American ornithology involves several species which were painted by Audubon in the early 1800s but never seen again. The most striking and appealing of these birds is the Carbonated Swamp-Warbler, and since the painting was published ornithologists have debated whether this could be a rare and now-extinct species,
Audubon’s mysteries: Carbonated Swamp-Warbler Read More »