10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2016

What is the best bird you’ve seen in New York State and why has it stayed in your memory? This is the question I posed to 10,000 Birds readers in celebration of Corey’s first book, the ABA Field Guide to Birds of New York (by Corey Finger, author, and Brian E.

New York 100

New York Bald Eagle Birds New York City 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2018

To get there we would need to get out of New York, through New Jersey into Delaware, and then on through Maryland and Virginia until finally reaching our destination. We broke the drive down into two segments: from New York to Delaware on 31 March and from Delaware to North Carolina on 1 April.

North Carolina 100

North Carolina New York Delaware Puerto Rico 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2014

We talked about past trips, birds we wanted to see, and birders who were not on board the boat. There were three birds I really wanted to see. They were: Audubon’s Shearwater – This is the last regularly occurring shearwater in New York State that I had yet to ever lay eyes on. And what birds!

New York 179

New York Sea Turtles Whales Whaling 179

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2014

The Great Vly is wonderful wetland that straddles the border of Ulster and Green Counties in New York State’s Hudson Valley. I had no luck with the rails or bitterns but I did manage to see quite a few species, including some that were very cooperative. Red-winged Blackbird singing at the Great Vly. Conk-a-ree!!!

New York 174

New York Birds Ducks Blackbirds 174

10,000 Birds

MAY 2, 2011

The New York Times blog, City Room, will be holding a “ Bird Week &# this week. The city’s avian equivalent of convention season is just around the corner: the second week in May marks the peak of spring bird migration in New York City, with the maximum numbers of species and individual birds passing through town.

New York Times 188

New York Times New York New York City Birds 188

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2020

May delivers one of those amazing times of the year when we’re too busy looking at birds to sit around talking about them. A weekend that included well north of a hundred species is a difficult weekend for which to decide what is the Best Bird of the Weekend and Corey had that enviable task this weekend. How about you?

2020 353

2020 Jamaica New York Birds 353

10,000 Birds

JUNE 13, 2016

On Sunday, 5 June, word of Jay McGowan finding a Gargeney at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in western New York State hit the listservs. Fortunately (for me) Anthony Collerton had made an attempt on the bird earlier in the week but had dipped, only to learn that it was seen several hours after he left. What if we missed it?

New York 100

New York Bald Eagle New York City Kazakhstan 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2011

New York City is well known as a city of immigrants so it makes sense that the only lizards living within the five boroughs are immigrants as well. The best bet for finding either species is to get into the proper habitat on a sunny day and to watch for them sunning themselves on rocks or gravel.

New York City 223

New York City New York Reptiles New Jersey 223

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 28, 2021

Not only have we completed Birding Tourism February , but we’ve also collectively made it through what is usually one of the least exciting birding months of the calendar year. This is not to say that fantastic birds cannot be found in February, but rather that we’re mostly picking through the remainders of the last season.

New York City 252

New York City Charlotte New York Jamaica 252

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2015

We have had days of northwest winds in New York and the birds have taken full advantage of the favorable conditions to hightail it south. Though sparrows tend to be the main focus of mid-to-late October birding here in New York City there are still plenty of other birds to see like the Eastern Phoebe up above.

New York City 153

New York City New York Sparrows Eggs 153

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2019

The idea was to see how many birds could be collectively identified by folks anywhere and everywhere. Go birding, eBird the results and see what happens! Whatever the reason for getting involved with this massive day of birding, every GBD has been a success where literally thousands of species are found by thousands of birders.

Costa Rica 215

Costa Rica Species West Virginia New York 215

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2021

As August comes rushing to a close, the doldrums of the last few weeks have already started to give way to a new mass movement of birds. Not only did I pick up that little brown job, but I found plenty more species that looked verrrry much like it. What was your best bird of the weekend? Move with them! Good times!

California 264

California New York Birds Experience 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2021

May is a time for birding. We have the slow weeks and months for reading, writing, and dreaming about the birds we’d rather be seeing. Corey enjoyed getting out early and birding both days this weekend, and has the lists to back him up. After that, what else could be his Best Bird of the Weekend? How about you?

New York 260

New York Sparrows Birds Breeding 260

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 28, 2011

What is there to say about a Mountain Bluebird , a bird of the west, of high elevation grasslands, of the Rocky Mountains, in New York State? Sialia currucoides tend to linger for several days and this bird seems to be following that trend. Then, as if by magic, the Mountain Bluebird was on the fence. … a.

New York 204

New York Birds Species 204

10,000 Birds

MAY 9, 2016

Gray Kingbirds are rarely seen in New York State and when they are they usually are only seen by the person or people who find them or those in the immediate vicinity. That made the Gray Kingbird that was found way up in Livingston County on Monday, 2 May, such an intriguing bird. All was not lost though.

New York 101

New York Bald Eagle McDonalds Fast Food 101

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Around about the middle of last week there were various and sundry birders from the great state of New York spending a seemingly inordinate amount of time paying attention to the weekend weather forecasts, particularly those that pertained to the marine forecast. Northern Gannet Morus bassanus (Click it to make it big.).

New York 210

New York Iceland New York City Suffering 210

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2015

This is why I spent this past Sunday out on a boat in the very cold Atlantic Ocean with a bunch of my fellow birders hoping to see birds. But I can’t resist getting out to sea and trips organized by Sea Life Paulagics out of Freeport, New York, don’t happen more than a few times a year so I had to go for it.

New York 193

New York 2015 Iceland Ducks 193

10,000 Birds

APRIL 27, 2013

After our nature walk we had lunch, and while eating lunch more reports of the phoebe, which is a species I had never seen before in New York State, were coming in over email. Say’s Phoebe Sayornis saya in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York. What a bird and what an easy twitch! The twitch was easy.

New York 169

New York Oakland Birds Species 169

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 18, 2012

After a Tufted Duck was reported yesterday on Long Island I did some figuring and realized that I could go find the bird this morning before work and still, provided traffic wasn’t totally horrific, get to work in New Jersey on time. So I headed out to Huntington Harbor, ran into Anthony Collerton, and eventually found the bird.

New York 142

New York Ducks New Jersey California 142

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2011

The Spruce Grouse population in New York State is shrinking to near oblivion and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is on the case. Overall, the species is not in danger, as there are large and robust populations further north.

New York 157

New York Endangered Species Species 157

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 29, 2021

Fortunately, we have birds to look at, so let’s focus on them right now. Fortunately, we have an expansive view of weekends here at 10,000 Birds so I can choose one of the birds I saw in California on Friday before I flew out as my Best Bird of the Weekend. So that will be my Best Bird of the Weekend.

Alaska 232

Alaska California Birds New York 232

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2017

Now, those of you familiar with my tendency to chase birds in New York and knowledgeable of the spate of Great Gray Owls we have had in 2017 might question why it took me to nearly the end of March to make a trip upstate to see one. I’m not truncating the list: those are the only species that I saw while I waited.

New York 101

New York Owls Beavers Puerto Rico 101

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Birds of Belize by Steve N. Howell and Dale Dyer and Birds of Costa Rica by Dale Dyer and Steve N. Howell joined the field guide roster this spring, very welcome in a year sadly sparse in new titles. An associated issue is that the Belize and Costa Rica guides share many of the same descriptions of species, written by Howell.

Costa Rica 220

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 220

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

When you are a New York City-based birder that is pretty pleased with the amount of boxes ticked off on your New York State checklist you would normally want a rarity that you have not seen in the state to show up within an hour drive of your home.

New York 164

New York New York City Kazakhstan New Jersey 164

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2021

As devoted readers of 10,000 Birds know , the writers contribute checklists to a joint eBird account called the “ 10,000 Birds Collaborative.”. As of mid-November 2021, the Collaborative had submitted more than 4,200 checklists (up from 1,700 in 2018) and has observed 691 species in the United States (up from 618).

United States 204

United States West Virginia Puerto Rico Minnesota 204

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2011

2011 was a good year for rarities in New York State and Richard Fried saw almost all of them. His 352 species in the state for the year broke the New York State big year record of 350, which was set by Scott Whittle in 2008. Watch for an interview with Richard in the coming week here on 10,000 Birds!

New York 148

New York 2008 2011 Species 148

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2012

The New York Times has the story of this most improbable of discoveries.

New York City 159

New York City New York New York Times Species 159

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2023

You might think that birds don’t change the world, birds are the world – but by his odd title, Ten Birds That Changed the World, author Stephen Moss means, he says, that birds have, in various ways, led to “paradigm shifts” in human history. Maybe Moss is right, and birds have changed history. Fine and dandy.

Bald Eagle 160

Bald Eagle Montenegro Campaign Turkey 160

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 4, 2012

Richard Fried spent 2011 doing a New York State Big Year and managed to top the record of 350 species which was only set in 2008 by Scott Whittle. Richard totaled 352 species, an impressive number, by seeing almost all of the regularly occurring New York birds and the vast majority of the rarities that showed up in 2011.

New York 176

New York Puerto Rico 2011 Japan 176

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 27, 2020

The end of September doesn’t necessarily mean the end of what you might enjoy about September birding but it definitely signals the beginning of what you love about October. I was shocked to still find a number of shorebird species up at Braddock Bay, perhaps because of how much productive mud the dropping lake levels have exposed.

2020 221

2020 Connecticut Virginia New York 221

10,000 Birds

JULY 12, 2020

With hope, this was a memorable one for you, even if the birds weren’t particularly rare. However, many of the bird’s field marks were obscured because it flew far below me as I walked across the bridge I’ll always know as the Tappan Zee. What was your best bird of the weekend? Another weekend is in the books.

2020 243

2020 New York City Whales Whaling 243

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

If you followed Dorian’s adventures on his Big Year blog, Biking for Birds , you are familiar with many of these stories, but not the major one, the internal journey that was going on inside Dorian’s mind as he pedaled and birded: his history and multi-year struggle with alcoholism and related addictions.

Birds 221

Birds Los Angeles Massachusetts New York City 221

10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2020

Sure, they’re always a dependable, can’t-miss tick whenever you need them to be there, whether it’s the first day of the year, or the first few minutes of a Big Day or Christmas Bird Count. But there’s no getting around the fact that the starling is likely the most detested bird on the continent – as far as birders are concerned, anyway.

Farming 190

Farming New York Breeding Unwanted 190

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2013

Pelagic birding is one of my favorite ways to bird. Being out on the open water looking for good birds and enjoying the camaraderie of fellow birders is, to put it simply, fun. Except, of course, for seeing lots of good birds. Sadly, lots of good birds were lacking on our 2 March 2013 trip out of Freeport, New York.

New York 149

New York Iceland Puffins Ducks 149

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2021

I knocked down several first birds of spring this weekend (not literally) but will always give Best Bird honors to a Saw-whet Owl , especially one showing as well as the one Ivy and I located at Owl Woods on Easter. Corey was extremely pleased to finally get out and about birding again after his family all caught COVID and recovered.

Texas 173

Texas New York Birds Owls 173

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 11, 2022

Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze: After going on hiatus last year, Birds and Booze’s Whiskey Month at 10,000 Birds is back and setting its sights on whiskeys all month long this February. Illustration of a Short-eared Owl from The Birds of Great Britain (1873) by English ornithologist John Gould (1804-1881).

Owls 214

Owls New York New York City Cuba 214

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2021

“This beautiful and singular bird, although a constant resident in the southern extremities of the peninsula of Florida, seldom extends its journeys in an eastern direction beyond the State of North Carolina.

New York 264

New York South Carolina North Carolina Massachusetts 264