10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2015

The Gulf Stream lies between 20-40 miles off the North Carolina coast, and to the unpracticed eye it looks scarcely different that the expanse of blue water it courses through. These three aspects combine to produce one of the most productive spots in the North Atlantic, a place where birds and fish and marine mammals congregate.

North Carolina 184

North Carolina Mammals Breeding Fish 184

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2014

There’s a new proposal before the American Ornithologists’ Union’s North American Classification Committee to split Painted Bunting into two species (yay! — maybe, more later) and to name the new species “Eastern Painted Bunting” and “Western Painted Bunting” (no!).

Mississippi 277

Mississippi Mexico Alabama North Carolina 277

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

Every part of the world has it’s suite of parking lot staples, those urbanish species that seem to prefer to linger about humanity subsisting in no small amount to the magnanimity, or more likely the laziness, of humankind. And when you’re in the middle of your post-breeding molt, you need to do that a lot.

North Carolina 199

North Carolina Fast Food Sparrows Birds 199

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2012

There’s a little hint of white in the malar and throat too, which would seem to be a problem for the species Black- chinned Sparrow. The bird was immediately apparent to be as such largely because a similar bird has been visiting a feeder, and well-photographed, in Henderson County in western North Carolina for the last three winters.

New Jersey 244

New Jersey North Carolina Sparrows Connecticut 244

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2014

There were ten students in total that had signed up for the spring break “Seabirds” course in Dry Tortugas National Park, and after long drives down from North Carolina we had all made it right on time. No, that was not a typo, the Sooty Terns fly non-stop for an average of five years before they return to the Dry Tortugas to breed.

Birds 194

Birds Florida Groups Breeding 194

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

What I didn’t know was how this relationship actually works: the mechanics of Red Knot migration, the reduced digestive systems necessary for their long flighta, the need to fatten up quickly so they can fly to the Arctic and breed, how they compete with other shorebirds and gulls and, it turns out, humans, for horseshoe crab eggs.

Delaware 190

Delaware New Jersey Research Eggs 190