10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2012

Birding’s Holy Grails. For many birders, the Pel’s Fishing Owl roosts in a lofty position on just such a list. For many birders, the Pel’s Fishing Owl roosts in a lofty position on just such a list. One of the most highly desirable birds in the world, the Pel’s Fishing Owl is a true phantom.

Owls 255

Owls Fish Botswana Barn Owls 255

10,000 Birds

MAY 20, 2019

Then my phone buzzed with a text message from my good birding buddy Mary and, well, it let me know that a Burrowing Owl had been found in Queens and the photo posted to twitter. Forgetting, of course, that I am an administrator of the page and we have a strict no-specific-locations-of-owls rule.)

Owls 113

Owls New York City New York Eggs 113

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2021

As sad as I am to say it, I must: 2021 was one of my worst years for birding since I started looking at feathered creatures with intent in 2006. COVID kept me from traveling internationally, and my only major domestic trip of the year was to California where I have birded quite a bit already. All that said, 2021 was not a total loss.

New York 262

New York Birds California Owls 262

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

According to Wikipedia, “A l owl ife is a term for a person who is considered morally unacceptable by their community” The local Nanhui shrikes are well aware that the word “lowlife” has an owl hidden inside, and mark the appearance of owls in their territory with harsh protests. ” Hm.

Birds 208

Birds China Eggs Owls 208

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2022

All birding is essentially good. Time spent watching any birds is time spent connecting with our natural surroundings, a time that can act as a relaxed escape as well as one of meditative focus. Such rare and special birding times can also include days when the birding doesn’t stop, when one finds one rare bird after another.

Costa Rica 260

Costa Rica Birds Owls Geese 260

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 31, 2020

Maybe we’ll all score looks at a Superb Owl or two. Obviously, I’ll be watching the big game, but one weekend is big enough for both birding and sports entertainment. Hopefully some birds show up this time! Where will you be this weekend and will you be birding? appeared first on 10,000 Birds.

2020 160

2020 Game Falcons Birds 160

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2022

Hot summer days, often reaching 40C/104F, time to open another beer and dream of birding some cooler place, a place where deep shade of tall trees controls the heat… Perhaps the world’s second largest rainforest? The Congo is one of the deepest rivers in the world with depths sometimes exceeding 220 meters (720 feet).

Central African Republic 301

Central African Republic Congo Gabon Gorillas 301

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2019

Owling on Christmas Bird Counts is a peculiar business. Some counters are unfailingly resolute in their dedication to this thankless graveyard shift of the birding world, marching headlong year after year into the bleak winter landscape in search of their heard-only, nocturnal quarry. And listen some more.

2017 141

2017 Owls Game California 141

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2017

”) that we drive up to the Adirondacks so I could finally connect with a Great Gray Owl. With much trepidation I told her the owl was in Keene, about four-and-a-half hours away and I could call my folks and see if they would put us up for the night at their house, half-way back from the long-range twitch.

New York 101

New York Owls Beavers Puerto Rico 101

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2024

With the first three months of the year now gone, it’s time for a review of my birding efforts so far this year. Nor have I chased particular birds, either: almost all the birds I have seen have been encountered during a normal day’s birding, not a targeted twitch for a particular species.

Spain 130

Spain Eagles North America Ducks 130

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 11, 2022

Habitats: Check Birds… well, more presumed what the possibilities are, than actually checked… Sleeping: Check Getting around: Check I will come back to these topics in a while. Nevertheless, I left gifts behind, two dozen copies of a common bird guide (which I wrote and published) for local wardens. It sounded birdy and I was game.

Serbia 254

Serbia Birds Woodpeckers Romania 254

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.

Costa Rica 202

Costa Rica Species Birds New York 202

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2014

After watching the three-eyed ravens on Game of Thrones , it seems some other members of the bird kingdom want a piece of the small-screen action. To wit: A lingering Snowy Owl plopped down right outside a television news station in Vermont. News BBC Norway Snowy Owl television'

Norway 173

Norway Vermont Squirrels Owls 173

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2023

Say, Bullock, Brewer, and Cassin will lose their English namesakes in the recently announced renaming game. Not only did my research show a lot of promising sites to visit, but I also have two good birding friends in the region, Laura and Brad. That is arguably the scariest sentence you will ever read in a birding blog.

Colorado 180

Colorado Denver Skunks Wildlife Reserve 180

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2011

home about advertise archives birds conservation contact galleries links reviews subscribe Browse: Home / Asides / Soccer Player Kicks Owl on Field? Soccer Player Kicks Owl on Field? The bird, which looked like a Barn Owl , was the mascot for the opposing team and died from its injuries.

Owls 145

Owls 2011 Barn Owls Deer 145

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2011

While the Rovio Angry Birds game franchise is hugely popular and has even led to a post here on 10,000 Birds that speculated on the identification of what the Angry Birds birds actually are , little attention has been paid to those that came before. Real Angry Birds? The bird that started it all.

Birds 244

Birds Owls Game Rodents 244

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

More migration (and other) news, on the wing … As Redgannet can probably attest, Blackcaps seem to be bypassing their traditional Spanish wintering grounds in favor of the UK, possibly because of backyard bird feeders. Burrowing Owls in a smaller U.S. city photographed by Nate, above.). Was the U.S. It depends on who you ask.

Seattle 157

Seattle Owls Game Australia 157

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2022

Ndumo Game Reserve lies in the Easternmost part of South Africa, close to the border of Mozambique and Eswatini. 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. Pel’s Fishing Owl, where were you?

South Africa 147

South Africa Africa Birds Research 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2012

What this land-locked country lacks in endemic birds it more than makes up for in accessibility of tough species, numbers of birds and the overall wildlife experience. Okavango sunset Almost 40% of all land in Botswana is under conservation either as wilderness areas, game reserves or national parks.

Botswana 215

Botswana Zebras Lions Elephants 215

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2012

Some of my dear friends have a similar compulsion to play board games, analyzing strategy and searching the rules for loopholes and infelicities until their eyes fall out. This indoor-centric, sedentary activity could never be combined with birding, and clearly conflict is inevitable… or is it? Also, I’m not a real expert.)

Game 181

Game Birds Puffins Owls 181

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 210

Los Angeles Birds District of Columbia Parrots 210

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2022

The American Birding Association has declared that 2022 is the year of the Burrowing Owl, but if Rosemary Mosco has her way, it will also be the year of the Rock Pigeon. Mosco’s birds (and other creatures in her comics) carry an air of insouciance. Rosemary Mosco’s work is hopefully familiar to many of you.

2018 229

2018 New York City Birds Abandon 229

10,000 Birds

MAY 23, 2021

It’s a beautiful Spring morning… humming insects, calling birds. Maggie Ciarcia, a solo wildlife rehabilitator in Carmel, NY specializing in small mammals and game birds, received a notice from New York State Electric and Gas that tree trimming was scheduled for her neighborhood and someone would contact her.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 264

Wildlife Rehabilitation Wildlife Game Laws 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2012

Now that late winter has eased into early spring, it seems owls are in the air. I’m hearing all kinds of owl howls, from Saw-whets at (where else?) Owl Woods and Short-eared Owls from New York to the Galapagos Islands. One birder known to many of us even had her life Barn Owl turn up in her backyard!

Barn Owls 184

Barn Owls 2012 Owls New York 184

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2016

I’m a big fan of city birding. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy getting away from it all out in some remote forest or desert, but a good city can combine some excellent birding and outstanding diving, drinking, dining and sightseeing. The gardens are so bird rich books have been written about what can be seen in them.

Penguins 172

Penguins Birds Mongoose Ostriches 172

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 31, 2012

Nothing is sacred, not even Big Bird or Honey Badger. This year as the party was rounding the corner, I thought that I might look into a sexy bird costume. But I thought I could do some form of brown bird. But I thought I could do some form of brown bird. Here we have a Ruby-throated Hummingbird costume.

Birds 228

Birds Owls Badgers Fowl 228

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 279

Birds Game Wildlife Family 279

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Having been penned in our house for the last month (and more), the last time we have been out birding seems like a distant memory. I was ardently working to finish a years-long project on the birds of T&T so those last few weeks have not been bird-less by any means. A tree that is loved by birds is also loved by the birder.

Trinidad 264

Trinidad Hunting Venezuela Woodpeckers 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2018

Barra to be precise, just a few miles out of the city and adjacent to the Olympic Park for the 2016 games. I would have expected to see the direction of movement switch as the day progressed and birds returned to their roosting areas, but without exception, they all went the same way. An owl a day……

Owls 100

Owls Birds Battery 2016 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2012

Several years ago, I was asked to visit my nephew’s preschool class and talk about birds. I was delighted by the invitation and spent hours going through my photos, printing them out, imagining fifteen 4-year olds entranced by egrets, herons, and Burrowing Owls. How old were the baby birds? How did they get into the nest?

Birds 223

Birds Owls Switzerland Lions 223

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 29, 2023

However, I have to put it in perspective by explaining that during the year I hardly ventured out of East Anglia, and almost every bird was seen in Suffolk or Norfolk – I live on the county boundary. I’m not a twitcher, either, so I rarely, if ever, go in search of a bird, or birds, that someone else has reported.

Estonia 236

Estonia Portugal Greece Barn Owls 236

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 19, 2014

Of course both Mike and I were out and about spotting some birds this weekend. I could have chosen any of the four Snowy Owls I saw this weekend as myBest Bird of the Weekend but I decided that I preferred a Purple Sandpiper at Breezy Point, Queens, (pictured above) mostly because it was feeding on a jetty while waves crashed over it.

2014 154

2014 Seattle Pennsylvania Game 154

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 22, 2013

So I brainstormed a few more programming options, perhaps enough to base a whole cable channel around if we filled in the late hours with rebroadcasts of The Big Year, Rare Bird , and Three Days of the Condor : 1. Will he or won’t he eat the cute Spotted Owl he works with? Robot Chicken: Brought to you by J.

Dallas 176

Dallas Ducks Baltimore Birds 176

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2020

Having finally found a Black Vulture for my Queens list , an important tick both because it was long overdue and because it was the tenth bird since my last set of predictions, it is time, once again, to look at what might be coming to my Queens list. Black Vulture – The bird that has been reported the most in Queens that I have never seen.

2018 164

2018 2015 Birds 2019 164

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2014

2014 has been a good year for us at 10,000 Birds. We’ve traveled to lots of places, seen lots of great birds, and met lots of great birders. So, as we’ve done for the last several years we thought we would share our Best Birds of the Year with you. Below are our Best Birds of the Year. What was yours?

2014 197

2014 Costa Rica South Africa Birds 197

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 5, 2020

There wasn’t much in the way of birds in the yard, maybe a Cooper’s Hawk winging through from the north, crows calling and House Sparrows chirping. That’s where the birds were, thousands of gulls, rafts of diving ducks, Buffleheads and goldeneyes buzzing the cold, gray water.

Costa Rica 244

Costa Rica Turkey Iceland Eagles 244

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2015

After a long hiatus that included a new cat, a new apartment, and enough time with the in-laws to last me quite awhile, here’s a rundown of April’s bird news: Funny, sad, and thought-provoking … an African-American ornithologist’s video tips for birding while black. Props on the sweet Barred Owl call, too. “I

Malta 189

Malta Barn Owls Cyprus Fowl 189