10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

Birds can be enjoyed in a wide variety of ways. Those of us who chase rare birds for our counties, states, or other human-made geographical distinctions watch birds for more reasons than the twitch. For example, we might just enjoy the calls and antics of those White-throated Sparrows while searching for a Harris’s. Most folks who live for a twitch also marvel over a flock of Evening Grosbeaks bounding through winter skies, and love the goldfinches that frequent a backyard feeder.

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4 The Love Of Animals

NOVEMBER 14, 2018

Sorry we have been a bit MIA from our blog the past few months.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

Our trip to Costa Rica has come to an end, and sadly, it ended with one of the best weeks of birding in the entire year. We spent to bulk of the week in the San Isidro El General area, staying there as well as up in the Quizarra area. We had three nights in The Birders Retreat Air BnB, two nights in San Isidro proper, and then back to Quizarra to stay at the Valle de Luna BNB for our last night.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2018

Voters across the country support environmentally conscious ballot initiatives. Voters in several states had the opportunity to express their support (or condemnation) of various environmental (or anti-environmental) issues respectively in the recent election cycle. Results from November 2018 ballots indicate a large and dedicated block of voters who are concerned about the health of ecosystems, as well as the preservation of complex wilderness areas.

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Nevada Georgia Colorado Denver 183

Speaker: Steve Romanco

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

We are finally getting settled this week, now that we are back from Costa Rica, and in what we refer to as our temporarily-permanent new home. Tucson Arizona is turning out to be a very birdy area. I have to admit I stole some parts of that phrase from the director of the Tucson Audubon Society, Jonathan E. Lutz. In a Thanksgiving note to all the members, he used that phrase, and I agree, the birding options here are pretty numerous.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

The following emails were intercepted by our crack team of investigative journalists. They are from the internal communication system of a shadowy organization of bird enthusiasts that we haven’t even managed to put a name to as of yet. They are reprinted here in their entirety in the public interest. We have color coded them by sender in order to make comprehension easier.

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Ducks 2018 New York City Sparrows 164

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

Zamorano University may be regarded as one of the crown jewels of Latin American higher education, particularly in the areas of agriculture, environmental management, and food science, but this idyllic campus excels for more reasons than simply academics. Zamorano happens to be incredibly birdy. Not only that, but the university retains on faculty a bona fide authority on the region’s avifauna: Professor Oliver Komar is the co-author of the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Northern Central Ameri

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Honduras Birds Kentucky Research 148

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

Yesterday morning I was out and about on the coast of Queens looking for migrating birds. At Jacob Riis Park I stopped to scan a large flock of Brant because you never know what might end up mixed in to a large flock of anything. And while I didn’t find anything rare hiding amid the hordes of Branta bernicla I did manage to find one that was banded and color tagged.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 9, 2018

Mrs. Moreau’s Warbler: How Birds Got Their Names is a bit different than earlier efforts I’ve seen in this line. Those books – notably Lapwings, Loons, and Lousyjacks by Ray Reedman – tend to be divided taxonomically. This makes them ideal as reference when you want to check some folk etymology against some facts, but doesn’t lend itself to reading cover-to-cover.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2018

Ah, Costa Rica, so long I have dreamed of visiting you and your amazing birds. Well, here I am, and so far I love this place. We will be here for three full weeks, so I should get to see most of the major habitat zones before we leave, if only the weather will help us out. As many of might know by now, we have covered a lot of ground this year, with Costa Rica being our ninth country visited.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2018

Some Mondays hit harder than others. Most Americans celebrated a long weekend filled with a lot (maybe too much) food, family, and shopping. Crawling back to work can be tough, but at least you can celebrate Cyber Monday at the office… While Bald Eagles have become nearly as common as Red-tailed Hawks in Upstate New York in winter, I still thrill to every sighting on the long drive from Rochester to NYC and back.

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2018 Bald Eagle New Jersey New York 114

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 4, 2018

Anyone who lives in a state or country that observes Daylight Savings Time received the gift of an extra hour this weekend. The fact that this hour falls in the middle of the night means that most people sleep right through it, but I wonder what would happen if you observes a nocturnal bird like an owl during the hour that gets reset. Could you still count it?

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 4, 2018

This week we decided that we really should try and add Common Redshank to our 2018 year list. We had last seen them easily in the UK last year at Killingholme Haven Pits and they are easily found in the UK compared to around Broome. We had observed Common Redshank in Broome in 2015 and 2016 and we know you can often observe them close to the Common Greenshanks in Roebuck Bay.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2018

Here we go, about to enter the last month of what I hope has been a profoundly excellent one for each of you. Apart from all the other obligations and excitement December brings, you have one more month to chase down all your target birds for 2018. Ambitious birders have their work cut out for them, so get to it! I’ll take a run up to the shore of Lake Ontario for some winter finch action.

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2018 Birds 113

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 29, 2018

Maybe it’s because the American Coot ( Fulica americana ) is the most abundant and widely distributed species of rail in North America that it gets no respect? I mean we see them everywhere, in almost any of a broad variety of wetlands, including freshwater lakes, ponds, marshes, roadside ditches, and industrial-waste impoundments, as well as in coastal marine habitats.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2018

Australian King Parrots are found along the east coast of Australia and we have observed them on numerous trips to Sydney. Despite their bright colour you don’t always notice Australian King Parrots in the trees if there are leaves on them. If there are no leaves on the trees, like in the header photo in the Blue Mountains in September, then they are easily observed.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 23, 2018

You’d think that a long weekend launched by Turkey Day would prove popular for birding in the United States. On the contrary, the fourth weekend of the month usually features eating, traveling, football, more eating, shopping, and maybe–if the leftovers hold out–still more eating. Plus, birding is never all that popular in these parts.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 18, 2018

While I rarely lie to our readers, this moment calls for complete candor: I cannot stand the arrival of winter. Rochester is already cold and snowy, chronic conditions which will last for another six months or so. I will, of course, get over my weather woes and find a way to enjoy the unappreciated pleasures of winter birding. For now, though, I’m still resisting!

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Speaker: Gabriel Wagner Presenter

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 17, 2018

A return to Sao Paulo just 4 weeks after my last visit gave me a chance to check up on the leucistic Rufous-bellied Thrush that I had seen in Ibirapuera Park. I had seen it during both visits to the park in the same locale each time. This time it was easily re-found both times in exactly the same location and still associated with a small loose flock of more conventionally coloured Rufous-breasted Thrushes.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2018

Our second week here in Costa Rica has certainly seen a great increase in the amount of rain. After leaving the Cano Negro area, we arrive at our next stop, Bijagua. We have a room in a great location, very near to the Helconia Rainforest Sky-bridges. We have got one full day here, much like most of our trip has been planned. We will be here for two nights, with the day of our first night being mostly used up with travel from our last location.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 11, 2018

November may not exhibit the gaudy charms of some of our more festive (not to mention warmer) months in the Northern Hemisphere, but these days possess their own charms. For example, we’re entering that season where you have to decide if you’d rather be birding or be warm. Who won that battle this weekend? I was all set to stay home, but a crisp and bright Sunday morning called me to the lake, where I picked up my annual Brant.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 11, 2018

We had not observed a Powerful Owl since we were living in Portland, Victoria for a few months in 2009, so once the opportunity arose to go looking for one at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney we took it! According to eBird there had been at least one Powerful Owl present recently and although the exact details were not available it is always worth going to look.

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Owls Portland Australia Transported 113

Speaker: Steve Romanco

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 9, 2018

As I watch the season’s first snowfall (flurries, thankfully) accumulate on my lawn, I can’t help but feel a sense of loss. Most, if not all, of our southbound migrants have moved on. On the other hand, we can also look forward to the imminent arrival of literal rafts of seaducks and winter specialties. Does the dwindling of daylight hours trigger despair or delight in your birder’s heart?

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 9, 2018

I’m ending a busy week at work with a one-day business trip from Albany to New York City today. It’ll be a long day with a five-hour round-trip by train, so when I get home, I’m looking forward to cracking open a can of Hootie – a cool, refreshing New England-style IPA by Brooklyn’s Sixpoint Brewery I’ve got waiting in the fridge.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

Welcome to the first weekend of November. If you identify as a birdwatcher, birder, or general nature buff, you’ve earned another weekend to get out there and chase birds during a beautiful time of year. If you don’t consider yourself a birder or nature lover, my first question is simply, “When are you going to start?” Next, I have to ask, “Why are you reading this blog?

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

Hallowe’en was two days ago, but today is All Souls’ Day and the Day of the Dead, so let’s continue the Hallowtide celebration for one more day with a spooky beer. You Never Even Call Me By My Name by Trinity Brewing Company (whose Le Capitaine Saison we featured last year) is the new name for a saison-style ale the brewery used to call Merle – or Merle, Saison Nocturnum, to give its full name.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

One field guide, seven countries. It actually makes a lot of sense, the geographic features of the isthmus between North America (including Mexico, because Mexico is part of North America) and South America cut across political lines, as do birds. Birds of Central America: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rican, and Panama , just published in October, is a field guide that was ten years in the making.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 22, 2018

Have you heard of a small town in Serbia graced by the presence of its 700 communally roosting Long-eared Owls ? You may have read about them in the Wall Street Journal , the BBC Wildlife Magazine , or perhaps watched them on BBC, who filmed them here twice, for the Planet Earth II in 2015 and for the One Planet in 2018. Actually, the numbers are even higher.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2018

Gonna take a sentimental journey. Gonna set my heart at ease …. Gotta take that sentimental journey. Sentimental journey home. Sentimental Journey – Ella Fitzgerald (1947). Being Belgrade born and bred, I was a Yugoslavian and after the war, I felt the urge to visit my childhood homeland, to revisit those places I climbed, sailed or caved in my youth, in those formative years when I couldn’t even imagine the possibility that my country may cease to exist.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2018

In a month that contained the eBird Big Day , we can naturally expect that the beats have been racing about providing much fodder for the collaborative list. The two most prolific contributors, Pat and Tom, have been sharing their birding space in Costa Rica. Tom’s own list continues apace Those of us who have tried to do a big year know how tough it gets on the homeward stretch and will be rooting for him.

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Speaker: cha cha dwyer

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