10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 23, 2015
A number of years ago I was granted the privilege of flying into the Kuparuk Oil Field, above the Arctic Circle in the remote regions of the North Slope Borough in Alaska. The newest find of this extremely scarce bird was a male, and was “collected” (an innocent-sounding euphemism for “killed”) for the American Museum of Natural History.
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 28, 2015
After my post about collecting two weeks ago I received a bit of feedback, some positive, some negative, and I’ve been mulling it over with the intention of writing about some of the issues that could be considered the root cause of the disagreement. You see, the bird was collected for scientific study. Who its predators were?
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
10,000 Birds
JULY 4, 2023
It’s also about human-owl interaction on an individual level and a wider sociocultural level, and ultimately how we can use all this for habitat and bird conservation. As the names and habitats imply, not all owl species are alike, in behavior, adaptation, relationship to humans, and in how humans perceive them.
10,000 Birds
JULY 6, 2021
Dunn starts in Alaska with the goal of seeing Rufous Hummingbird at the northern extreme of its migration (which he does with some effort and a few bear sightings) and ends in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, “the end of the world,” with the sighting of a Green-backed Firecrown feeding at a firetree in cold drizzly rain.
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 1, 2020
In “Birding in Traffic,” Jonathan Rosen, no stranger to making connections between birds and human elements as he did in “The Life of the Skies,” describes how he took the subway to Union Square Park to see a rare (for NYC) Scott’s Oriole. The two stories about New York City are personal favorites, of course.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 5, 2022
There are many more factors than I imagined: compass errors, wind drift, overshooting, extreme weather and irruptions, natural dispersal, and human-driven vagrancy. Some birders may want to carefully read the chapter on human-driven vagrancy, which takes up the question of ship-assisted vagrancy. Next time, I’ll know why.
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 25, 2011
Picture being a Blackpoll Warbler being born in the boreal forests of Alaska. Almost as soon as you leave the nest, you have the strong urge to migrate to a place called “Venezuela” Can you imagine how many potential choices and decisions are involved in flying from Alaska to the Atlantic Seaboard, flying down the eastern U.S.,
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
240 
Let's personalize your content