10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2012

I was delighted by the invitation and spent hours going through my photos, printing them out, imagining fifteen 4-year olds entranced by egrets, herons, and Burrowing Owls. Jake’s favorite before-bedtime book when he was just a bit younger was Owl Babies by Martin Waddell, a picture book I had picked up at a nature center.

Birds 220

Birds Owls Switzerland Lions 220

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2013

The story of the cahow, a “Lazurus species” that was thought to be extinct for over 300 years and then discovered to be breeding on a tiny remote island in Bermuda, is part of modern birding legend. In 1951, there were 18 breeding pairs of cahows discovered on three tiny islands. photo of Elizabeth Gehrman: Ingrid Skousgard, 2012.

Birds 170

Birds Rats Breeding 2012 170

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

A series of digiscoped photos of, say, wintering eagles may thus give a better idea of how many individuals are REALLY present, or track moult progress in birds on the breeding grounds. The 2012 Digiscoper of the Year competition will start in June, so there is plenty time to start looking for great digiscoping opportunities.

2011 237

2011 Eagles Bald Eagle Owls 237

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 19, 2011

2011 is about to become 2012 and birders the world over are taking a look at their year lists and reminiscing about the awesome sightings and devastating dips that they have experienced. This year I watched them from the day they arrived , until two chicks successfully hatched, the northernmost breeding record for the species.

2011 189

2011 Birds South Korea North Dakota 189

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 21, 2016

Since then, we have seen a marvellous recovery, with an estimate of 123 in 2012, 145 in 2013, 165 in 2014, 197 in 2015 and now in 2016, around 232 Great Bustards roam the wilds of Germany, nearly doubling their number within just a handful of years! Do NOT walk around the empty buildings trying to see/flush them!

Germany 101

Germany Abandon Abandoning Abandonment 101

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

A lovely looking and distinctive sounding bird (so they say, I sadly have not seen one…yet), the Kirtland’s Warbler can only be found during its breeding season in Jack Pine forests 5 to 20 years old in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Jackson, 2012. The University of Michigan Press, 2012. photo by Lynn C.

Michigan 236

Michigan Bahamas Endangered Species Research 236

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2016

There are no warblers here or small shorebirds or raptors, excepting Accipiters and Screech-Owls. Light blue boxes give brief facts on breeding age, strategy and lifespan. It is an intriguing choice of species. These are bird groups that have been covered extensively by other guides. The two books together make a great combination.

Birds 190

Birds Groups 2015 North America 190

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2014

These are extremely large stick structures (some articles compare the largest ones to the size of a car) that are usually populated by multiple breeding pairs in separate chambers. Monk Parakeet is the only parrot species that builds its own nest. Some articles speculate that the nests offer protection against the cold.

Chicago 206

Chicago New York City New York Illinois 206

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 14, 2012

Below is a selection of the endemic birds and mammals that can be encountered during a birding trip to Ethiopia, all photographs by Adam Riley during a January-February 2012 Rockjumper Birding Tours trip to Ethiopia. Flocks of cheerful birds frequent caves and cliffs where they breed.

Ethiopia 271

Ethiopia Eritrea Africa Mammals 271

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2012

In the following four chapters, Lovitch talks about “Birding by Habitat”, “Birding with Geography”, “Birding and Weather”, and “Birding at Night” (which is about reading radar and listening to nocturnal flight calls, not owling). How to Be a Better Birder by Derek Lovitch Princeton University Press, 2012, 208p. 53 color illus.

New Jersey 242

New Jersey Science United States Birds 242

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Unlike most field guides, the maps are large and specific, indicating permanent, winter, and summer ranges by color swatch; summer, winter, and all seasons dispersal routes by colored lines, and irregular breeding sites by shape and color. by Pete Dunne, David Sibley, and Clay Sutton (HMH, 2012).

North America 196

North America Birds Mississippi Bald Eagle 196

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2012

Check out this graph adapted from eBird that shows the frequency of sightings in the United States in 2012 – Red-breasted Nuthatches are showing up on birders’ checklists just over sixteen percent of the time! Birders are delighted by Snowy Owls. No lemmings left in the north? Thank a pine cone. Or a spruce cone.

United States 270

United States Owls Atlanta New York 270

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

The guide covers the all–1194 species in the Species Accounts, including 959 native breeding species, 219 Nearctic migrants, 8 breeding visiting species, and 5 introduced species. Of the native breeding species, 112 are endemic or “very nearly endemic.” (Can Can you guess which of the species cited above are endemic? .’

America 214

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 214

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 27, 2013

As 2013 draws to a close we here at 10,000 Birds thought that it would be a great idea if we, like we did in 2010 , 2011 , and 2012 , shared our Best Birds of the Year. Larry adds our second owl species to this list of stellar birds. It was a race between the Snowy Plover and the Spotted Owl. I chose the owl.

2013 167

2013 Birds Costa Rica India 167

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2013

In the past two years, our bookshelves have welcomed Jerry Liguori’s Hawks At A Distance (2011), the second edition of the classic Hawks in Flight (Dunne, Sutton, Sibley; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), and Chris Earley’s updated edition of the excellent regional guide, Hawks and Owls of Eastern North America (2012).

North America 219

North America Bald Eagle Falcons Owls 219

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

For my new book, due out in 2012 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, I’ve been researching sandhill crane hunting. They reach breeding maturity at four to seven years of age, produce only one chick per nesting season, and only one in three offspring survive to fledging age. Additionally, sandhill cranes reproduce very slowly.

2011 252

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 252

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2012

As 2012 draws to a close we here at 10,000 Birds thought that it would be a great idea if we, like we did in 2010 and 2011 , shared our Best Birds of the Year. Secretive, silent and undetectable outside of its breeding season, found only in the U.S. Felonious Jive really likes a ravishing returning rarity – a Falcated Duck.

2012 153

2012 Birds Guatemala Florida 153