10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 2, 2011
I’ve seen young Red-tailed Hawk s who just don’t have the hang of it, counting on luck of good fortune to present them with a careless gopher or a rare easy meal. On this occasion Patch had secured a gopher and was dining on a streetlight. Patch was focused and deliberate, consistent and inventive. She had remembered.
10,000 Birds
MAY 25, 2012
Birds are beautiful. Birds are fascinating. Birds are always too close, prancing around resplendent in their finery and vexing the close-focus on your suddenly useless binoculars. An intimate moment at dusk between a Red-tailed Hawk and an expired gopher. One of these sentiments is a lie. Wild Turkey.
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10,000 Birds
MAY 31, 2015
No “gophers” etc. It’s not only the fact that you see more birds of prey than in “normal” years, they also show a different behaviour. In German, if you are a rodent and you are smaller than – say – a human hand, you’re a mouse. You’re not a vole or a gerbil.
10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 18, 2011
Here Patch sits on a bench watching a pocket gopher tidy up the front of its burrow. Here she is carrying a squirming gopher over the heads of park-goers who actually notice the spectacle. She understood the threat of large ravens, and yet would fly three feet off the ground through intersections. Another strange encounter.
10,000 Birds
MAY 11, 2012
Continuing the celebration of commonplace birds we now hail the ubiquitous Great Blue Heron. They know the rhythms of gophers. There are too many images to share so I’ll keep the captions brief and let the pictures do the squawking, er, I mean talking. Their beautiful blue-gray can really pop in the right light.
10,000 Birds
AUGUST 31, 2012
Gophers that live near streetlights beware. Perhaps it is because I’m often an urban birder that I see more birds out taking advantage of the unintentional light leaking from our homes and streets. Red-tailed Hawks have a habit of hunting well into the night if there is any available light and the getting is good.
10,000 Birds
AUGUST 17, 2012
As special as any bird that is abundant… just not abundant in your neck of the woods. It takes a special trip to see these special birds, and as such, the pointy-winged migrants are particularly cool to me. It takes a special trip to see these special birds, and as such, the pointy-winged migrants are particularly cool to me.
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