10,000 Birds

JULY 14, 2020

I recently drove from my home in Portland to Conboy Lake NWR in southern Washington for a birding day-trip. Adams, the refuge is one of the few breeding locations for Sandhill Cranes in Washington. When I arrived in the morning, there were many birds and no people. There are also private land inholdings, so the U.S.

Washington 166

Washington Portland Birds Deer 166

10,000 Birds

JULY 2, 2020

Usually, maize is on the menu, only occasionally carrion or dead trout from a nearby fish farm. The next morning, through Yellowhammers and Eurasian Skylarks singing all around me, I went birding. Yes, yes, I know, not countable – it’s not a bird. Never mind, it’s not a bird. Yet, not the bear, I’ll have to return for it.

Serbia 264

Serbia Bears Birds Mammals 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2022

On that glorious day, I observed ten critically endangered birds, representing 8% of their Costa Rican, or 2% of their global population!! In my previous post , I dealt with Rancho Naturalista Lodge itself and birding within their private reserve. But, let’s start at the beginning. My OCD would not stand that!

Costa Rica 248

Costa Rica Nicaragua 2019 Farming 248

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2019

The toughest thing for me, as a local birder, was to choose the most attractive birds because those that attract my attention are generally all too common in the northwest of Europe, from where most visiting birders are coming. Cranes breed in very small numbers in UK but are always impressive en masse. Hence, I asked my friend B.C.,

Serbia 250

Serbia Birds Woodpeckers Breeding 250

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2022

It is not particularly big but has a reported 430 bird species including migrants, though during my short stay it seems I missed most of the key attractions among them. It goes like this: While fishing, the bird tucks its head down and uses its wings to create a shady area. Pel’s Fishing Owl, where were you? UysI and G.

South Africa 147

South Africa Africa Birds Research 147

10,000 Birds

MAY 28, 2015

What do you think makes for a good bird hide? I have asked myself that same question many times over the last six months, until last week, when I was involved in an opening ceremony of five new bird hides at the Palic Lake, by the town of Subotica in the very north of Serbia, along the border with Hungary (all photos are from that area).

Serbia 254

Serbia Birds Spain Hungary 254

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 14, 2021

This is the second post in the Birding crème de la crème series (the first, focused on southern Asia, is here ). The bird-richest region of Africa is its equatorial East: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi (unlike the rest, the last one, Burundi, is politically unstable and not recommendable). Lake Nakuru.

Africa 213

Africa Kenya Uganda Tanzania 213

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 17, 2019

The Christmas Bird Count was the answer. The IWC census starts from mid-January following the logic that it is the period when the birds have reached their wintering grounds and are rather static, so the chance of double-counting the same flock is minimal. But it is so frustrating to pass the birds by without IDing them!

Geese 155

Geese Serbia Birds Estonia 155

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 16, 2018

The country has one eBird hotspot with 200+ and 48 with more than 100 bird species. Among travel guides, due to its extensive coverage of natural history and birding sites, recommendation goes to Laurence Mitchell’s Serbia: The Bradt Travel Guide (5th edition, 2017). Little Bitterns are back by late April.

Serbia 165

Serbia Owls Geese Macedonia 165

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2018

If you like birds on posts, if seeing “little brown jobs” posing nicely in the distance as you drive or walk along a dirt road only to have it fly away as you approach makes you deliriously happy, then North Dakota is the place for you. I wanted to see prairie birds and I wanted to experience a new state. Scott Barnes, N.J.

North Dakota 147

North Dakota Birds Sparrows Blackbirds 147

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2019

What qualifies a bird to be included in the top-5? This version extended the list a bit and it turned out that almost every fourth bird was an one-monther. Somewhat unfairly, the second criterion was that I described the observation at 10,000 Birds. My first criterion was that I observed it only once during the year 2018.

2018 118

2018 Serbia Falcons Greece 118

10,000 Birds

APRIL 26, 2016

Many states choose their representative bird based on common, native birds spending part or all of the year within the states’ borders. South Dakota went a different way, designating the Ring-necked Pheasant as the state bird in 1943. Accidents on roads and with farm machinery also cause many pheasant deaths every year.

South Dakota 100

South Dakota Hawaii United States North America 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 15, 2022

Global Big Day has become an annual collective event in May that encourages thousands of people to watch birds on the same date. As far as promoting birding goes, the only thing better might be October Gobal Big Day ! We had a lot of rain in some parts of the country, some places had landslides, and birding was somewhat limited.

Costa Rica 275

Costa Rica San Jose Falcons Owls 275

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 19, 2015

A rare bird is one we don’t see very often. However, that doesn’t mean that the bird species in question is necessarily endangered. None of these are rare in their normal haunts but seeing them in Costa Rica would be a major birding event. Oh, how that would be a nice year bird.

Costa Rica 162

Costa Rica Birds Panama Sparrows 162

10,000 Birds

JUNE 12, 2014

Yes there are birding sites and there are birds – but hardly much info about them (beside Fat Birder ). Local birding sites are well known – among local birders. Nevertheless, describing where to bird is easy. And so, which dozen or so birds to choose as the Belgrade specialties? Black Stork – spring/summer.

Serbia 185

Serbia Eagles Birds Sparrows 185

10,000 Birds

JUNE 10, 2016

Built almost half a century earlier for the steel magnate Charles Hudson, in its heyday it included not only a palatial mansion and formal decorative gardens but also a large walled vegetable garden and working dairy farm. Meanwhile, rumors spread that royal treasures were hidden somewhere inside the place and vandals came out in force.

Albania 100

Albania Birds Kentucky Baltimore 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2014

While there are some two dozen birding spots in Belgrade, Serbia, that stand out, in this guideblog I will focus on the river Danube and its floodplain, inside the Important Bird Area “Confluence of the Sava and the Danube Rivers”. The next winter bird spot lies some 4.5 In March and November, Common Cranes are a possibility.

Serbia 243

Serbia Birds Ducks Eagles 243

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2013

But that’s not the case for many birds who live in or pass through the United States, a new report indicates. The State of the Birds 2013 , produced by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative , was introduced last week by the U.S. Birding Conservation News Private land'

New York City 159

New York City United States 2013 New York 159

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2020

In his blog, Birds and Nature North America, the peripatetic Bruce Beehler professes to cover not just what the title says, but also American culture, American history, and “stories of back-roads travel and camping.” Natural Encounters: Biking, Hiking, and Birding Through the Seasons. It’s a blog well worth visitation.

New Hampshire 239

New Hampshire Washington Virginia United States 239

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2015

We drove for about 290 km through the 400 square kilometres expanse of Pancevacki Rit and found 8 breeding colonies with 252 occupied nests, or a density of 1.6 The best counting season is April, but I will accept late March and early May reports, too (actually, I already have a few early reports – the birds have occupied the nests by now).

Experience 251

Experience Experiments Science Serbia 251

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2019

We share our love of birds and birding. I assumed it to be some kind of domestic breed or an escapee and didn’t pay it much attention. So who is this enigmatic leader of birds that started as a sheep and now leads flocks across great distances? The post Weird Geese appeared first on 10,000 Birds.

Geese 165

Geese Sheep Canada Farming 165

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2012

A while back I asked the question, How much bird is there, anyway? I had noted that if you took a quick look around you’d think there were a lot of birds and very few mammals. And some of them would be hiding behind bushes waiting for a chance to jump on some of the birds. 3) Some of these birds were going to die anyway.

Cats 189

Cats Boston Ferrets Killing 189

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2019

Over-all there were almost 80,000 photos taken, nearly 50 story’s posted on this website, and 10 countries, all with some amazing birds. In the end, I truly did set out to reduce the number of birds that I feature here from 1302, my years total species, down to 10-12. So, there are 21 birds that make my top 10 for the year.

2018 172

2018 Costa Rica South Africa New Zealand 172

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2014

I had the pleasure of heading to the Winter Wings Bird Festival in Klamath Falls, Oregon last month and it was a good time. ” I’d heard about this bird, its photo as been on Facebook and a simple Google search will bring up photos of it. Destinations Bald Eagle leucism leucistic'

Bald Eagle 204

Bald Eagle Eagles Oregon Blackbirds 204

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2020

And as the windblown birds settled down for the summer breeding season and the wind subsided, I found any concern for which way it was blowing died down with it. And living birds still seem to appreciate weathervanes as perches! But none came. Flor de Pascua – The Weathercock (1921) by Dutch graphic artist M.C.

New York 156

New York Farming Belgium Fowl 156

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2014

Beside birds, in this park you stand a chance of spotting the Eurasian Lynx , Brown Bear and Gray Wolf ! It is possible to reach it on the Friday afternoon, sleep there and go birding at the crack of dawn on Saturday. Well, do you really? The Forgotten Road does not exist on the GPS screen either. Am I complaining about it?

Serbia 198

Serbia Turtles Birds Eagles 198

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

There is no better place to find grasspipers in New York State than the sod farms on eastern Long Island in autumn. This year is no different and the sod farms in Riverhead have been loaded with birds which means that the roads around them have been loaded with birders. What great little birds!

Farming 158

Farming Argentina South America United States 158

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2016

I’ve been to the Sounds before, but I had never visited them specifically to bird, which means I hadn’t seen the specialities there. They are breeding and expanding on the island and I can go back one day and know I have a chance of seeing them then. This trip was to rectify that.

Charlotte 119

Charlotte New Zealand Seals Fur 119

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2013

The Osprey is one of the true cosmopolitans of the avian world, found on six continents and breeding on five. Ogren Park Allegiance Field is the home of the Missoula Osprey*, a farm team for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Birds baseball inland west Ospreys' Most notable of all, though, is the nest at the baseball field.

Bald Eagle 210

Bald Eagle Idaho Eagles Primates 210

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2013

In short, the accepted view used to be that a small breeding population of Egyptian Vultures inhabited Southern Africa, but has vanished facing the spread of towns, roads and farms. It was not the first note I have published, but was the only one about a bird I have never laid my eyes upon!

Sudan 237

Sudan Macedonia Botswana Serbia 237

10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2020

While entering our double kayak I asked Andrew Hester, a local bird expert, if bilharzia is present in the shallows of the Ngotwane Dam, further down the river. The lady living on a farm by the Gaborone Dam said ‘I saw a croc taking an egret.’. The gentleman living on a farm by the Ngotwane Dam said ‘A croc took my dog, right there!’.

Botswana 200

Botswana Africa 2001 Fish 200

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2019

Another friend recently commented that while she loved all forms of birds, owls were, well, just something special! I drove past, not wanting to spook them, and then tried to figure out where to park, to get the best use of the early light, back ground, and bird location. This is a look at the man-made burrow openings.

Owls 161

Owls Arizona Tucson South Africa 161

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2019

Author Sherrida Woodley thinks deeply about dearly departed birds. But for a while one constant in his life was his grandfather’s farm, a far-off stretch of land in Comanche County, Texas. But he tried, using the Craigheads’ techniques, and he learned from that young bird, and eventually many others along the way.

Falcons 191

Falcons California Condor Alaska Texas 191

10,000 Birds

JUNE 24, 2012

The first creek to the north is Willie Creek and we often visit it on the south side when we monitor the breeding pairs of Pied Oystercatchers. Most tourists that visit Broome take a tour of the Pearl Farm at the creek and learn about the cultivation of pearls that were Broome’s first industry.

Senegal 159

Senegal Industry Singapore Litter 159

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Any day of birding in New York State that includes a sighting of a Vesper Sparrow is a better-then-average day. As farming has declined across the northeastern United States the open country that Vesper Sparrows need has been transformed to subdivisions and forest. What has caused the decline? … a.

Sparrows 165

Sparrows North Dakota United States Downers 165

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2012

This title basically means I get paid to watch birds (like the above Indigo Bunting I digiscoped with my iPhone and Swarovsksi Scope) before wind farms, solar panels and pipelines go under construction (or sometimes I get to id bird parts found post construction). ” So how does this happen?

Arkansas 196

Arkansas Science Research Farming 196

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2018

At Duncansby Head, just a few miles south of Dunnet Head, I got to see birds nesting, and gathering along the steep cliffs, in numbers that I can not even imagine. Now, dont get me wrong, there have been some nice birds, and locations in between, but these two experiences are just so hard to put out of my mind.

Puffins 100

Puffins Wildlife Reserve 2003 Farming 100