10,000 Birds

AUGUST 2, 2022

Going back to that assumption that birds don’t have a sense of smell, it can be traced to John James Audubon (of course), who performed several experiments with Turkey Vultures and concluded that the vultures used sight, not scent, to find food. 241) that contribute to a bird’s odor.

Science 217

Science Research Birds 2006 217

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2021

As shown by the photo, below, of McMullan and Merlin, his Eurasian Eagle Owl friend, McMullan is a rough-hewn 6’4” foot bear of a man; he describes himself as resembling a character from the World Wrestling Federation. (Or would want to, one guesses.). He probably should do.

Fox 175

Fox Kuwait Bosnia Afghanistan 175

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

I don’t really know – from my own experience with school bullies or from Jack London’s novels? At some stage, a salmon-hunting bear at a shingle beach came too close, mere 9 steps. Now, you should know Lucky, he’s no taller than my wife, who is of average height for a woman, and that bear was at least 4-5 times heavier than him.

Animal 115

Animal Bears Stray Dog Blackbirds 115

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 14, 2014

As we headed down the trail, we were stopped from taking the long route by yellow tape and a sign warning of bears. We quickly came upon a pair of Gray Jays, a lifer, hopping through the technicolor birches and I set up to try to take a few photos when my companion yelled out, “BEAR!” What an incredible experience.

Alaska 167

Alaska Bears Grizzly Bear North Carolina 167

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2018

Migrants are on the move, if you can bear to be out looking for them! If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. Recognizable spring weather may not have arrived in your part of the Northern Hemisphere just yet, but spring has sprung nonetheless. What was your best bird of the weekend?

2018 113

2018 Jamaica Sparrows Bears 113

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2022

Oddly enough, it is the Western Bluebird that bears the taxonomic name of Sialia mexicana ; but in my experience, the Eastern Bluebird ( Sialia sialia ) is much more common in most of Mexico. This Black-headed Grosbeak displayed several nice colors beyond basic black. Eastern Bluebirds seemed to be everywhere.

South America 190

South America Sparrows Mexico Bears 190

10,000 Birds

JULY 27, 2014

The tracks of two young Polar Bear skirt a crack in the sea ice in Admiralty Inlet. Wildlife concentrates at the Floe Edge, and although we just missed Narwhal as pack ice moved in just after we arrived, the place was littered with Polar Bear. Still, with that many bear you have to stay vigilant. Ringed Seal.

Polar Bears 187

Polar Bears Seals Bears Laws 187

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2018

Your 2018 year lists, whether you tally them or not, have already begun to populate, silently bearing witness to your commitment to bird looking or lack thereof. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. And they’re off! What was your best bird of the weekend?

2018 101

2018 Beavers Industry Bears 101

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2014

April bears the most fruit for my family tree, including my own bad apple birthday this week. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. While spring is widely revered as the season of rebirth, many of us celebrate birth during this time as well. What was your best bird of the weekend?

New Jersey 174

New Jersey 2014 Louisiana Bears 174

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2024

Amazingly, everyone showed up at dawn except for one person, who’d had a near-death experience with me on Colombia’s Sumapaz paramo, an acceptable excuse for a no-show. We finally reached Mesa de Oso , the table (mountain) of the bear. It was amazing. That plant would not die in vain. Our main goal here was the Maroon-fronted Parrot.

Parrots 156

Parrots Woodpeckers Industry Fast Food 156

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

It’s an experience I can’t recommend highly enough. They mean sweet-flowered linden, not the tree that bears the citrus fruit. In that context, what I’m about to say will probably not be that surprising or groundbreaking, but nevertheless: guys, trees are really really cool.

Kentucky 126

Kentucky Bears Experience Experiments 126

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2021

Males of both species share the odd distinction of bearing the colors of the Mexican flag, with a green head, white chest band, and bright red breast. The Elegant Trogon prefers drier habitats, with a predominance of oaks rather than conifers, and in my experience is much harder to find.

Mexico 181

Mexico Indonesia North America Arizona 181

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 23, 2015

I picked out a Red-tailed Hawk bearing a squirrel away to a perch to eat, and got a sharp, crisp view of the messy dismemberment despite the gloom. On the whole, though, I had a lovely experience with the Naturas, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to anyone who is looking for binoculars long on brightness and short on neck pain.

New York City 154

New York City Squirrels New York Owls 154

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2018

This added to the whole birds of prey experience in Big Sky country. Ask how to ‘be bear aware,’ as they say. They are everywhere. So when your neck recovers, look up! The Yellowstone District south of Big Timber is full of campgrounds, if you want to bird right next to the tent.

Montana 150

Montana Bald Eagle Birds Bears 150

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 12, 2016

But, while we are making sacrifices for the avian quest, we also experience side benefits much less trying in nature. While seeing that wild, white, chicken-like bird on the tundra of Rainbow Pass, I witnessed the magic of snow flakes making their silent mark on the high, rocky grounds of the mountains.

Costa Rica 153

Costa Rica Birds Chickens Colorado 153

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

I found myself on the shore of Lake Ontario on the most bitter day of this mild winter to observe over 1,700 maniacs take a Polar Bear Plunge. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed.

Polar Bears 167

Polar Bears 2012 New York Geese 167

10,000 Birds

JUNE 10, 2020

Every other year or so, we experience the lightest of frosts, nothing killing, and our warmest temperatures (in the 80s and 90s) occur in late spring. And it bears for more than half the year! But I don’t have space for any more trees in my garden, so my personal experience with these is nil. And nothing more.

Birds 155

Birds Woodpeckers Madagascar Nashville 155

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2013

Fred Tavares of the Brazilian team had the following to say of his team’s experience in the Amazon, “There are so many birds. But an ecstatic Andy Whitaker had the following to say at the close of Day 6 before the final numbers had been tallied, “We got twenty more birds than them, just seeing the Spectacled Bear.

Peru 223

Peru 2012 Birds Falcons 223

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 27, 2019

My first experience was an easy one: I found a Prickly Pear cactus growing on the roof, and I left it there. It now bears lots of fruit for Blue Mockingbirds and Curve-billed Thrashers. The church lot, unfortunately, is in an area that experiences yearly brush fires. As I said, I do not have access to a native plant nursery.

Mexico 174

Mexico Species Bears Experience 174

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2014

Despite spending my fair share of soggy birding days in the tropics, I hadn’t realized just how much hummingbirds do love the rain until a recent experience at the Catarata del Toro , central Costa Rica. They sing the praises of rain loud and clear with their usual range of high-pitched chipping and sputtering complaints.

Costa Rica 157

Costa Rica Bears Shelters Experience 157

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2014

Birding that starts with the largest eagle of the continent certainly bears promises… The next stop is the town park in Opovo, north of Belgrade, where local bird expert Ceda Vuckovic reported one, locally rare, Short-eared Owl. I observe them, but feel I still lack experience to tell with certainty the SEO from LEO in flight.

Serbia 238

Serbia Owls Rodents Eagles 238

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

Such is the burden that a digiscoping bird blogger bears when he visits the Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland, Florida in January. Grant McCreary of The Birder’s Library , who shared the experience with me, probably has pretty much the same problem. What do you do with hundreds of picture of Purple Gallinules ?

United States 178

United States Florida South America Europe 178

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2014

Our campsite was gorgeous North Lake State Park in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York, where the air is crisp, the forests are largely intact, and the bears force you to be careful about leaving food out when you go to sleep. That’s right, I, along with my family and some really good friends, was camping. How cute is this?

New York 174

New York Cooking Chipmunks Owls 174

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2015

The Refuge has also become a place where people can experience and learn about wildlife and the places they call home, whether through self-guided discovery or by participating in one of our many educational programs. The Louisiana black bear’s threatened status warrants protection under sections 7 and 9 of the Endangered Species Act.

Fish 143

Fish Wildlife Hunting Game 143

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 21, 2016

The depth of knowledge, and experience shown here, as well as the writing skills leave me in awe most every week, as I scroll thru the weekly entries. The icing on the cake has been getting to join this exceptional group of writers, and avian enthusiasts here on 10,000 Birds.

2016 100

2016 Grizzly Bear Puffins Mexico 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2012

William Blake, the 18th and 19th century English poet, painter and engraver, is most remembered for his two linked collections of poems, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Yonder stands a lonely tree, There I live and mourn for thee; Morning drinks my silent tear, And evening winds my sorrow bear.

Birds 126

Birds Bears Mammals Collecting 126

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2022

This would have allowed you to summarize your experience in sentences such as “A total of 98 boluses regurgitated by 52 chicks aged 1 day to 11 days after hatching form the sample and are shown to contain 323 food items.” This is ok as birds do not have teeth anyway).

Birds 162

Birds Japan South Korea Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 30, 2015

If I want my children to be birders, or at least to appreciate birding, I need them to have good experiences doing it with me. After we’d looked at this plain gray bird long enough, we headed to the nature museum and gawked at Black Bears and River Otters and search unsuccessfully for the Mountain Lion.

North Carolina 145

North Carolina Mountain Lions Otters Lions 145

4 The Love Of Animals

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

While people with dogs often experience the greatest health benefits, a pet doesn’t necessarily have to be a dog or a cat. Playing with a pet can elevate levels of serotonin and dopamine, which calm and relax. Pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels (indicators of heart disease) than those without pets.

Pets 100

Pets Emotional Dogs Cats 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 21, 2016

Now you know. I want to write a book – in English – about this “voyage of the Beagle”, about Antarctica and its wildlife in the light of climate changes, and us, the travellers on board the Ortelius and us, the mankind on board our only planet.

Penguins 170

Penguins Russia Whales Whaling 170

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2011

I travel more than the average bear and I can say that unless I’m in Central America…TSA agents are a mixed bag of race. It’s been my experience that for every 1 person I know who thinks a certain way, at least 12 others in my circle agree. Ever wonder what ethnicities have the highest crime rates? you guessed it.

Colorado 231

Colorado Laws Indiana America 231

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2011

Such meditative birding is, for me, the heart of the experience. Unlike what you may have read, real rivers bear us ceaselessly into the future. Biking and most especially walking tend to accustom a person to a certain pace — a pace that is leisurely and lends itself to reflection and rumination. What could be better?

Bald Eagle 168

Bald Eagle Rescue Dogs Bats 168

Animal Person

MAY 12, 2009

Creatures have come in phases for me: the duck phase, the cat phase, the dog phase, the bear phase (I was living in Vermont--it was unavoidable), the Canada goose phase. And by phase I mean I have intense and frequent experiences with them or around them that cause me to learn more about them than I thought I ever wanted to learn.

Geese 100

Geese Ducks Feral Cats Vermont 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

The Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita is an abundant species with an impressive global range that stretches from the West of Europe across Siberia to Russia’s far East, just falling short of reaching the Bering Straits by a laughable 800 kilometres, a fact one individual apparently found too awkward to bear.

Kazakhstan 156

Kazakhstan Europe Russia Asia 156

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

This small pine tree was very recently demolished by a brown bear. The claw marks on this brown bear’s footprint make you wish you had taken the other kind of canon with you. This guide will prove invaluable to those who already take an interest in tracking and wish to gain more experience.

Europe 165

Europe Mammals Animal Birds 165

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2015

There’s a Sloth Bear in tall, dry grass, barely 50 metres from us, but all we can see is a dark, shape-shifting shadow that eventually becomes all but invisible. She has grown up in the reserve and has no experience of the environment of which tourists would not be a permanent, however boring part of. The Telia Lake.

Tigers 242

Tigers India Killing 2012 242

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

So, I can tell you about my experiences with all three products. When placed correctly, these feeders are squirrel-free, though, as the Squirrel Buster brochure makes clear, they can still be attacked by raccoons and bears. The idea behind the Squirrel Buster feeders is that squirrels are heavier than birds. At least, feeder birds.

Squirrels 178

Squirrels Birds Factory Raccoons 178