10,000 Birds

AUGUST 30, 2017

Grist State Park in central Alabama. I’ve been to this part of central Alabama before, but always during hunting season, my schedule built around the ridiculously early mornings (i.e. Alabama creek flowing through the woods. The females were drabber of course, but the male could have been pure sunlight, shining even in the deep shadows of an Alabama woods. Trips alabama Hooded Warbler travelIt was early when my husband and I pulled into Paul M.

Alabama 43

Alabama 2017 Deer Turkey 43

Critter News

MAY 14, 2011

greyhounds dog racing alabamaExcellent news! From Forbes.com. The financially troubled VictoryLand in Shorter is ending live dog racing, officials said Tuesday. Chief Operating Officer Lewis Benefield said electronic bingo games subsidized live greyhound racing for many years, and live races are no longer feasible now that bingo is shut down.

Alabama 109

Alabama Greyhounds 2011 Game 109

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 18, 2012

Alexander Alvarez of Atmore, Alabama, has pled guilty to “killing migratory birds and selling the feathers on the black market” in a killing spree that dates back to 2006.

Alabama 60

Alabama Protection 2012 Mississippi 60

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 28, 2016

I felt especially thankful for the cooler air while boarding a touring boat at the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserv e along the coast of Alabama. Trips alabama Birding natureMornings are very important to us Southerners, especially New England transplants like me. During sweltering summers, where my dashboard hits 98 degrees F every damn day, mornings have become my oasis.

2016 54

2016 Pelicans Science Alabama 54

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2015

Since I live so close to the state line, it’s only natural that I do some of my birding along the Alabama coastline. Trips alabama backcountry trail warblerI did a little research, and came across good birding reports on Gulf Park, so to Gulf Park I went. Turns out, Gulf Park is huge. To bird, my husband and I focused on walking the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail , a paved multi-use path that winds through the coastal forest.

2015 53

2015 Bald Eagle North Carolina Woodpeckers 53

Critter News

JANUARY 3, 2011

New Jersey Illinois Massachusetts Colorado Maine WORST STATES Ohio Hawaii Alabama North Dakota Mississippi Idaho South Dakota (worst) According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the states fell this way. According to this Technorati article , the Humane Society rated the states on their animal protection laws. BEST STATES California (best-yay!)

Animal Protection 139

Animal Protection Protection Animal Legal Defense Fund 2011 139

Critter News

DECEMBER 26, 2008

And the worst: Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arkansas, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, South Dakota, Wyoming You can check out the whole report on their web site. The ALDF has released a report on how different states' animal protection laws stack up. Among the best: California, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Oregon.

Animal Legal Defense Fund 100

Animal Legal Defense Fund 2008 Animal Protection Guam 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2012

Researchers at Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama conducting a two-year study focusing on the diets of Tiger Sharks in the Gulf of Mexico have made an alarming discovery: not only are these sharks eating the expected fish and other assorted marine organisms, but they’re also eating land-based songbirds!

Sharks 55

Sharks Alabama 2012 Tigers 55

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 28, 2019

In addition to spotting exciting new species in Florida, including the rare Snail Kite, travel across the country brought me into contact with birds in Oregon, California, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alabama, and more. 2018 proved to be one of my best birding years ever.

2019 70

2019 Alabama Kansas Wisconsin 70

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

A jay born and raised in New York State may winter in Alabama, Kentucky, West Virginia, or Tennessee, depending on its taste in barbecue. Most fascinatingly, a bird that migrated one year, even hauling its tail feathers all the way down to Alabama, may choose to hang out in New York all winter next year, or vice-versa. Many aspects of fall migration are not calculated to appeal to a bone-idle birder such as myself. The warblers are confusing. The raptors are confusing and distant.

2016 47

2016 Alabama West Virginia Kentucky 47

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2021

Ask any birder–migration is joy. It’s endless frustration that suddenly erupts into wild excitement, a reason to get up in the morning, a goal for the mind and a bandage for the soul as we muddle through winter and pandemic.

Cyprus 81

Cyprus Slaughter Slaughtered Research 81

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 16, 2013

Even though it doesn’t show on the NatureServe range map above, Golden-crowned Sparrow vagrants have been recorded eastward to Ontario and Nova Scotia, Michigan, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; also south to Alabama, Texas, Louisiana and Florida 1. At first glance you might not recognize this bird as a Golden-crowned Sparrow ( Zonotrichia atricapilla ).

Sparrows 60

Sparrows 2013 Alabama Michigan 60

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2018

I would wake up in darkness, gather my camera and binoculars and drive to Alabama for a birding tour along a river. Originally, I had big plans for the October Big Day. I would tick off migrating songbirds, from tanagers to vireos and everything in between. I would add new sightings to my current year list, which has stood at 250 since the Bell’s Vireo I spotted in Kansas on September 7th. But it was not to be.

2018 43

2018 Florida Alabama Kansas 43

4 The Love Of Animals

MAY 26, 2011

In addition to the deployments in Missouri and Tennessee, American Humane Association has been providing emergency grants to states across the South and Midwest that have been hit by severe weather, including Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina. Following the devastating tornado that ravaged Joplin, Missouri, American Humane Association has mobilized its famed Red Star Animal Emergency Services™ team to help the animal victims there.

Missouri 109

Missouri 2011 Rescue Memphis 109

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2017

Neil is a graduate student at the University of Alabama, where he studies avian ecology. Good Birders Still Don’t Wear White is the kind of book that every birder should–and likely will –own. Luckily, not everyone will need to pay for their copy. Our friends at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt gave us three copies to share with readers through a triple-tiered giveaway.

2017 50

2017 Alabama Sacramento Florida 50

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2014

For reasons no one fully understands, much of Mississippi, Alabama, and inland Georgia lack Painted Buntings during the breeding season, a gap of several hundred miles. Everyone, the Painted Bunting needs your help. There’s a new proposal before the American Ornithologists’ Union’s North American Classification Committee to split Painted Bunting into two species (yay!

2014 87

2014 Alabama Mississippi Georgia 87

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

Some states have no species at all, not even a pigeon, crow, or sparrow: Hawaii , Utah , Nebraska , Oklahoma , Minnesota , Iowa , Wisconsin , Kentucky , West Virginia , Mississippi , Alabama , Connecticut , and Rhode Island. Since 2016, writers at 10,000 Birds have been contributing checklists to a joint eBird account called the “10,000 Birds Collaborative.” Every month, Redgannet summarizes the checklists, providing an updated life list, year list, and country list.

2018 44

2018 Rhode Island Puerto Rico Minnesota 44

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2013

For those wishing to see this interesting subspecies in Florida, it is tolerably common within its small range in the state, with reliable sites including Alabama Jacks on Card Sound Road and the Guy Bradley Trail at Flamingo, Everglades National Park. I always like to see the look of surprise on a visiting birder’s face when I tell them that the Prairie Warblers and Yellow Warblers in southern Florida are restricted to mangrove habitats.

Florida 76

Florida 2013 Miami Breeders 76

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2016

I was working at the Coastal Wildlife Rescue Center here in Alabama, and he had either been blown in during a storm or caught a ride on a ship. Injured wildlife are not the most cooperative of patients. Most of them think we’re trying to eat them, not help them. Frightened and defensive, they react accordingly. Wildlife rehabilitators have an arsenal of equipment and techniques we use to protect ourselves.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 63

Wildlife Rehabilitation Wounded 2016 Wildlife 63

10,000 Birds

APRIL 17, 2012

Oil on the beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama I covered the spill for several months for a special TV series on the Gulf Disaster. This week marks the 2-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20th 2010, the world received news that eleven men working on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig died in an explosion on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. What the world did not know was the unthinkable scale of the disaster to follow.

2010 85

2010 2012 Louisiana 2011 85

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

Over the winter, the universe lost four whooping cranes to what appears to be recreational shooting: three gunned down together in Georgia on December 30, 2010, and another in Alabama on January 28, 2011. Although it didn’t make the news, the fifth crane was shot in Alabama– they just didn’t find her body until two weeks later.

2011 78

2011 Hunting Raised Kentucky 78

10,000 Birds

MARCH 9, 2017

” Meanwhile, Ryan Zinke, the newly appointed Secretary of the Interior announced that the Department will offer 73 million acres offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida for oil and gas exploration and development. For those of you who may have forgotten, or some who never knew, we once had rivers in the United States that would catch fire because they were so polluted. The image above is the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland Ohio.

2017 61

2017 Cleveland Alabama Oklahoma 61

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2018

The Wilson’s Plovers with their stout crab cracking beaks and hunched demeanor, they have less distance to fly but it’s still no small feat to zip from Alabama to Costa Rica. The end of another year is nigh. In Costa Rica, we know it by way of windy nights with clear skies, slightly cooler temperatures, and an abundance of festivities featuring carnie rides, prancing horses, and parades.

2018 67

2018 Costa Rica Alabama 2019 67