10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2011

Win a Copy of Hawks at a Distance Great Horned Owl Taking a Deer Leg Cats Are Still Public Enemy Number One, For Birds Crossley ID Guide Giveaway Winners.Or These Blasts From The Past Bald Eagles are Getting Spoiled… Help Save Migratory Birds! • Explore These Related Posts More Habitat for Snowy Plover? Thanks for visiting!

Experience 162

Experience Experiments Deer 2011 162

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2020

In the era of digital cameras and social media, images of birds are easy to come by. Even photos of the rarest of birds can be found, even heart-wrenching images of bird species that are no longer with us. In Costa Rica, lately, I have been enjoying the class and elegance of bird poster art produced by CaraCara.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Birds Species Woodpeckers 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

For several years I lived and birded in the south of Africa , and still have my battered second edition (1997) of the Sasol Birds of Southern Africa, the most trusted local field guide. Perhaps birds of prey are somewhat overcrowded, but still well organised. In the upper right corner of every species entry is a pencil.

Africa 264

Africa South Africa Swaziland Lesotho 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 23, 2023

As usual, my experience with such boardwalks was somewhat underwhelming, as was Eshowe as a whole, but there were still a few birds worth mentioning at the forest and in the area surrounding Eshowe. These Hadada Ibis were right in the garden of the place where we stayed. I think the people running the place even fed them.

South Africa 147

South Africa Africa Birds 2018 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2015

I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting much from a card game about birding. I mean, birding is about being outside, enjoying nature, the thrill of the chase. Birding is most emphatically not about sitting around a table playing cards. A bird from each habitat group – I particularly like the Varied Thrush card.

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Game Family Birds Groups 197

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

It is an odd time of year to travel in the Kimberley, especially with a tent, but we had the opportunity to experience the flooded lands and the different birds that make the area home at this time of year. It is lovely to see such beautiful birds in such a lush green environment at this time of year. Tawny Frogmouth family.

Family 100

Family Australia Shelters Owls 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2020

In Costa Rica, our July birding news usually consists of interesting sightings during the mid-summer tours. These and other important birding related questions come to mind and during a normal July, I would be personally and actively helping answer them. Which tours saw the most roosting owls?

Costa Rica 211

Costa Rica Birds Thailand Family 211

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2021

Fortunately, China still has lots of interesting birding locations left for me. But of course, it is also nice to remember past birding trips. One in November 2018 included a one-day birding trip in the Drakensberg area, a mountain range in the border area between South Africa and Lesotho. That does not make much sense, I know.

South Africa 231

South Africa Africa Lesotho Nigeria 231

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2019

Those of us north of the Equator should be enjoying our summer weekends no matter how boring the birding might be. Better, though, is finding a way to raise the quality of your bird sightings and enjoyment of them. Somehow, we managed to flip the script on that by spotting all kinds of birds that the whole group could enjoy.

2019 120

2019 Birds California Raised 120

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2019

Growing up birding in Western New York was also a time when the old woods of the Niagara Gorge were punctuated with the songs of hidden Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos and the lazy notes of Eastern Wood-Pewees. Seeing the uncommon birds is key to reaching a big total no matter where one goes birding. The Northern Wetlands.

Costa Rica 199

Costa Rica Species Birds New York 199

10,000 Birds

MARCH 29, 2015

Nearly everywhere in the world, birds are on the wing, not just traveling to and from their daily haunts but returning to their ancestral circuit. So best of luck to any and all creatures striving towards a distant horizon right now. Instead of enjoying early migrants, I can appreciate the spring songs of my local winter birds.

2015 204

2015 Birds Woodpeckers Experience 204

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

The full title of this exceptional book by Marie Read is Mastering Bird Photography: The Art, Craft, and Technique of Photographing Birds and Their Behavior. As a birder who photographs, rather than a bird photographer, this never occurred to me before and I find the idea intriguing.

Birds 191

Birds Ethics 2019 Experience 191

10,000 Birds

MARCH 29, 2015

(This photo is actually of a TK seen a few days later, but it was at our favorite birding gas station pit stop that we also stopped at on our first day. Excellent 10,000 Birds posts have been written about Pico Bonito and Honduras by Corey and Carlos , so I’m going to focus on some of my most memorable experiences.

Honduras 248

Honduras Birds Costa Rica Groups 248

10,000 Birds

MARCH 12, 2021

I didn’t plan on taking such a long break away from the Birds and Booze beat, but life got in the way the last several weeks, mostly on account of moving into a new home. And what could be better than a new bird-themed brewery opening up less than two miles down the road from me? Good birding and happy drinking!

New York 262

New York Boston 2019 Collecting 262

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2019

This last year of the twenty-teens was a monumental birding year for me. I saw 863 species of birds, bringing my life list to 1,820. I birded Uganda, which was my first time on the continent of Africa. Such travel brings a lot of birds and the 863 species I saw this year is the most species I have ever seen.

2019 139

2019 Barbados Uganda Costa Rica 139

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

10,000 Birds is running a series of articles by and about tour guides, tour companies, eco-lodges, and other birding travel organizations. We want to help the birding tourism industry come back strong from the COVID pandemic. The whole family meets again in the evening for a daily dinner.

Wildlife 173

Wildlife Greece Mammals Reptiles 173

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 7, 2019

Watching birds, birding, is inexorably tied to autonomous motivation. Maybe that’s why birders just might be obsessive about it or at least, very much into the hobby, the birding way of life. We get serious about quality optics and spend hours studying field guides about birds because we really really want to.

Costa Rica 204

Costa Rica Cooking Birds Chickens 204

10,000 Birds

MAY 17, 2015

He yelled a relatively unintelligible explanation as he ran to the car, abandoning his family, and sped to Jamaica Bay where he parked and ran out to the breach of the West Pond where he relied upon the kindness of other birders, who let him use their scopes while he got his breath back. What was your best bird of the weekend?

2015 162

2015 Jamaica Canada Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Around this time of year, I keep an eye out for White-throated Sparrows landing around my home… they were right on time! Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was a total surprise while on a family outing to Edgemere Landfill in Queens. What was your best bird of the weekend? Birding best bird weekend'

2014 167

2014 Birds Sparrows Experience 167

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2014

Perhaps the weekend’s pleasure proceeded from the arrival of birds not seen here for months. The Best Bird of my weekend was a real find. While I was on a call with Corey, what should fly into the tree right outside my window but a Yellow-throated Warbler ? Now that’s a Best Bird of the Weekend worth watching!

2014 187

2014 Birds Rights Experience 187

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2022

At the end of 2022, let us celebrate the local field guide, a sub-genre that many of us feared would die, the victim of technology, development, and globalization, but which still shines bright, fewer in number but brilliant in quality, thanks to birders and birding organizations that believe in knowing your patch and your state.

Los Angeles 194

Los Angeles Birds District of Columbia Parrots 194

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

In September, I had the fantastic opportunity to travel to an increasingly popular destination for birding: Honduras. Chris Lotz, the owner of the international bird tour company Birding Ecotours , invited me to join him on a familiarization trip that included several highland sites as well as Pico Bonito Lodge.

Honduras 213

Honduras Costa Rica El Salvador Arizona 213

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

Hannah Buschert was first exposed to birds and birding during a required ornithology course at Oregon State University and she quickly caught the birding bug. This is Hannah’s first contribution to 10,000 Birds. Hannah and Erik ready to see some birds! I love to go on cruises.

South Africa 263

South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 263

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

The Durango Highway is arguably one of North America’s great birding roads due to the great variety of habitats, the spectacular mountain scenery of the Sierra Madre Occidental, and the numerous Mexican endemics one can target. There are many dusty side roads in this area, many of which offer productive birding.

Mexico 191

Mexico Costa Rica Arizona Birds 191

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2021

“Gamebirds” to some, cool, cryptic understory birds to the birding people, grouse crouch protected as unfettered winds sway the top of the tall prairie grass. Then there are the ones that live in PA , the state bird, “the grouse” that a great many non-birders are aware of, my Uncle Fred was one of them.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Chickens Pennsylvania Litter 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2021

They also remind me why I love birding in Michoacán. The Trogon family (and order, since the order only includes one family) is quite widespread, being found in all the tropical (and some subtropical) regions of the world. Both are large, stocky birds, with a large head and long, squared-off tail. Those are good numbers.

Mexico 182

Mexico Indonesia North America Arizona 182

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.

North Dakota 138

North Dakota Birds Sparrows Blackbirds 138

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2020

Hey, in 1959 Walt Disney set up a studio on the island and filmed Swiss Family Robinson there! Little Tobago, formerly known as Bird-of-Paradise Island (long story) is home to important colonies of numerous seabirds. Presently, I’m comfortable with identifying perched birds which I can examine for some time. Brown Noddy.

Fish 213

Fish Rights Species Birds 213

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2022

With the lockdown lasting until the end of May (ironically thus pretty much including the whole spring migration – the divine sense of humor is a rather malign one, I am afraid), June still had the freedom of birding anywhere in Shanghai, not just inside a smallish compound. Accessorizing for birds.

Singapore 147

Singapore Birds Mountain Goats Giraffes 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2016

Speaking of summer, the coolest birds I saw this weekend were on the festive curtains (pictured above) in my son’s new cabin at sleepaway camp in the Finger Lakes. Pretty swanky, right? But if I have to pick a living bird, American Kestrels hunting along farm roads always work for me. How about you?

2016 100

2016 Birds Farming Hunting 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2015

Back in early March, Andrew Spencer asked me if I would like to go birding in western Mexico with him and another friend in May. Before I knew it, it was late May, and I was on the road in Colima, Mexico with Andrew Spencer and Nathan Pieplow on a birding adventure! Time flew by. Black-chested Sparrow is pretty sharp!

Mexico 174

Mexico Birds Owls Sparrows 174

10,000 Birds

APRIL 12, 2022

A recent episode of the American Birding Podcast featured an interview with Virginia Rose (Founder and President) and Freya McGregor (Coordinator) of the non-profit Birdability. The mission of Birdability is to “share the joys of birding with people who have disabilities, and to ensure that birding is accessible to everybody.”

Portland 190

Portland Oregon Laws Experience 190

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 2, 2012

The summer span of school-free days from late June to early September always seemed to me to be an experience all United States students held in common. Thus, I was surprised and a little saddened to learn from my Kentucky family that kids in the Bluegrass State go back to school next week. Maybe Kentucky has it right.

Kentucky 159

Kentucky 2012 Michigan United States 159

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2011

My 8-year old daughter got interested in birds from a VERY early stage. By age 2 she could identify over 10 species of birds in our Johannesburg, South Africa, yard by call alone. So I guess for some people birding skills come naturally but, for others, birding skills need to be learnt. And perhaps 20 others by sight.

Birds 278

Birds Game Wildlife Family 278

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2015

There is GISS and there is Birding by Impression and they are not the same. GISS—general impression, size, shape—is intuitive, the result of an unconscious cognitive process derived from experience in the field. Experienced birders can identify birds using GISS; all birders can identify birds if they adopt the BBI approach.

Birds 169

Birds New Jersey Science Groups 169

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2014

I thought I would talk about our team’s performance in the World Birding Rally Challenge in Northern Peru and the side attractions along the route. Hugh made things easier on me, as now I will only talk about other nature and cultural sites along the route covered in the Northern Peru World Birding Rally Challenge.

Peru 188

Peru Birds Experience Experiments 188

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2019

Getting to actually see four species, in the last two weeks, and to hear two more is almost unheard of in my experience. The Great Horned Owls that live in the palm trees right above our RV have returned and brought with them a pair of fledglings. I counted a total of 9 owls, with 4 being mature adults and 5 juvenile birds.

Owls 150

Owls Arizona Tucson South Africa 150