Animal Person

MARCH 18, 2009

The site was where northern Kazakhstan is now, the culture was called Botai and the date was around 3500 B.C. Among all the animal species on this planet, humans have domesticated only a handful. And that fact gives rise to a thought-experiment. The Botai did not just herd horses for meat. Let's leave them alone.

Experience 100

Experience Experiments Horses Transported 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

The Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita is an abundant species with an impressive global range that stretches from the West of Europe across Siberia to Russia’s far East, just falling short of reaching the Bering Straits by a laughable 800 kilometres, a fact one individual apparently found too awkward to bear. canariensis ).

Kazakhstan 156

Kazakhstan Europe Russia Asia 156

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 26, 2024

All the so-called grey geese – Greylag, Bean, White-front, Lesser White-front, Swan – look very much alike, and it takes experience to identify them by their calls and their shape and size. Explaining the increase in the number of sightings is difficult, as the Siberian breeding population is declining.

Bulgaria 130

Bulgaria Geese Romania Estonia 130

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2012

It was a heart-pounding scene straight out of Jurassic Park, an odd experience for a laid-back pursuit like birding. This bird represented only the second documented record of this species in Florida. This may sound mundane, but my Best Bird of the Year is a species we all know quite well in one form or another.

2012 143

2012 Birds Guatemala Florida 143