10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2015

I don’t know if you have ever tried to bird with a cold, but it’s not easy. Still, we are in the midst of spring migration here in North Carolina, and I wasn’t going to let a little cold stop me from seeing some birds. Wayne Bailey-Caswell Game Land a little past 2 p.m. Another birding fail.

North Carolina 168

North Carolina Game Birds Tigers 168

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2015

Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge : Open to migratory bird hunting (youth only). The Refuge is now home to nearly 200 species of birds, over 50 species of mammals, 25 species of reptiles and amphibians, and a wide variety of insects, fish and plants. Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge : Expand big game hunting.

Fish 143

Fish Wildlife Hunting Game 143

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. I got rightly dragged but also heard from the finder of the bird, Jen Kepler, that the bird was indeed real, and really was at Big Egg Marsh.

Owls 113

Owls New York City New York Eggs 113

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2014

As I bird, walk the dog or run errands, puffs of white float down on the breeze. They shelter and shade, feed and bind. Up on Higgins near the book store it’s just the occasional bit of fairy floss angling down across my vision. The cottonwoods, a division in the larger clan of poplars, are named for these unmissable seeds.

Montana 163

Montana Cattle Deer Humane 163

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2012

I know it sounds strange, especially when the folks at Mission San Juan Capistrano are trying to coax them back by playing recordings of the bird’s mating calls. Because I am a local Audubon board member, I was recently contacted by a bird lover who witnessed Cliff Swallow nests being destroyed at the marina where they dock their boat.

San Diego 165

San Diego illegal California South America 165

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 region also provides food, fresh water and shelter to more than 75 million people of nearly 150 distinct ethnic groups.

Central African Republic 287

Central African Republic Congo Gabon Gorillas 287

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2013

The aim of the game was to band raptors, and specifically to band Golden Eagles. It was the only bird I could see through the narrow slit in the blind, and so, as a bird-watcher, I watched it. Sara, one of the researchers, explained that it was a newish bird. Birds banding Golden Eagle starlings' I’m not.

Eagles 174

Eagles Tethering Science Wounded 174