10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2012

Last week a mystery bird from New Jersey rightly caused a fair bit of confusion among birders of the Garden State and beyond. New Jersey mystery sparrow. The bird was a sparrow, that much was clear, but it didn’t seem to fit any of the easily boxes the other North American sparrows can be fairly easily sorted into.

New Jersey 222

New Jersey North Carolina Sparrows Connecticut 222

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

I was reminded of the American Redstart I saw foraging in New Jersey several years ago and hoped that this bird would prove as resilient as I had observed that redstart to be. It will never make it to the Paramo in the high Andes for winter nor return to the tundra to breed.

Culling 157

Culling Falcons New Jersey Killing 157

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2019

With birds bedecked in their breeding best and filling the air with song, this is migration at its loveliest. Threatened by loss of habitat both on breeding as well as wintering grounds, a few species have even become endangered or at least on a perilous track towards that worrisome designation.

Costa Rica 181

Costa Rica Species Belize New Jersey 181

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2012

When they are not getting ready to breed they are a pretty bland brown-and-white bird. The bird in these photos was foraging in the pond at the south end of Van Saun Park in northern New Jersey, a place I often stop to bird briefly on my way to work.

New Jersey 174

New Jersey North America Chile South America 174

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 16, 2013

Even though it doesn’t show on the NatureServe range map above, Golden-crowned Sparrow vagrants have been recorded eastward to Ontario and Nova Scotia, Michigan, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; also south to Alabama, Texas, Louisiana and Florida 1. Resources: 1 Birds of North America Online.

Sparrows 161

Sparrows Alabama North America New Jersey 161

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

Of course, I jest a bit in the above paragraph because as a sometime New Jersey birder I have birded the Delaware Bay and seen sights such as the memorable image below, in which thousands of Red Knots, Dunlins, and Short-billed Dowitchers fly up as if connected telepathically.

Delaware 179

Delaware New Jersey Research Eggs 179

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2022

I should have known that birding High Island meant I would be 20 minutes away from a place where hundreds of thousands of shorebirds and waterbirds rest, feed, breed, and generally have a good time. I love American Avocets and I rarely see them in such marvelous breeding plumage, so I was in heaven. Clapper Rail. Back to the Flats.

Houston 211

Houston Texas Sanctuary Sparrows 211

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 18, 2014

One of the two sub-species of Red Knot occurring in North America, the Rufa subspecies breeds in the Canadian Artic Region and migrates along the east or Atlantic coast of the United States. The other sub-species, Calidris canutus roselaari , migrates along the Pacific Coast and breeds in Alaska and the Wrangel Island in Russia.

Endangered Species 160

Endangered Species Protection Delaware Species 160

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Any day of birding in New York State that includes a sighting of a Vesper Sparrow is a better-then-average day. All of this information was gleaned from The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds of New York State. What has caused the decline? What has caused the decline? … a.

Sparrows 165

Sparrows North Dakota United States Downers 165

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 12, 2013

One has been seen in New Jersey in 1988 , in Illinois in 1949, and in Ohio in 1954 (Links are PDFs.) – interestingly, all in May.). Though the Large-billed Tern is a bird of freshwater rivers, lakes, and marshes of South America it does wander to North America on very rare occasions.

Trinidad 174

Trinidad New Jersey Nevada Illinois 174

4 The Love Of Animals

AUGUST 21, 2012

It honors dogs of all breeds — from working dogs to family pets — and encourage pet owners to do something special for their dog. All dogs – whether Best Friends clients or not – are invited to stop by any of our 42 locations on Saturday between 9 a.m. for a free ice cream.”.

Dogs 100

Dogs Oklahoma Maryland North Carolina 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2012

female Pine Warbler at Bayonne Park, Bayonne, NJ – almost as bland as wood-warblers get With a large and increasing population spread over a wide area – it breeds across eastern Canada, the eastern United States, and into the Caribbean – BirdLife International considers the Pine Warbler a Species of Least Concern.

New Jersey 181

New Jersey New York United States Louisiana 181

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

The authors’ detailed delineation of problems with the accuracy of NYC breeding bird surveys or with the limits of historical writings may test a reader’s patience. Because, as this book demonstrates so well, it is sometimes important to look back in order to move forward. It’s a very mixed chapter.

New York City 149

New York City New York Birds Breeding 149

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2012

Lovitch changes gears with the chapter “Birding with a Purpose”, in which he addresses the win-win of citizen science (called a buzzword, for some reason), gives resources for birding conservation, Christmas Bird Counts, breeding bird surveys, where to find birding job opportunities, and describes, all too briefly, the use of eBird.

New Jersey 235

New Jersey Science United States Birds 235

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2019

Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America covers 61 species of the New World sparrow family Passerellidae that breed in Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico. Rick has also written the ABA Field Guide to Birds of Arizona and the ABA Field Guide to Birds of New Jersey and is a past beat writer for 10,000 Birds.

North America 148

North America Sparrows America United States 148

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

APRIL 11, 2019

A biologist friend of mine recently moved from New Jersey (where she visited the estuaries to study hundreds of thousands waders at close range) to Belgrade where I showed her some inland birding sites with two shorebirds here and one or two more over there. Where to find shorebirds around Belgrade, Serbia?

Serbia 154

Serbia New Jersey Europe Hunters 154

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2011

In New Jersey, police shot a Wild Turkey that was causing a few fender benders. These are just quick turkey car accident links I’ve found on my usual birding news feeds, but I’m sure many more are out there. I think the main reason turkey/vehicle collisions are more noticeable this time of year are breeding hormones.

Turkey 230

Turkey Hunters New Jersey Boston 230

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2015

Like the two previous books in the series, the American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of New Jersey by Rick Wright and the American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of Colorado by Ted Floyd (photographs for all three primarily by master photographer Brian E. A generational ago, nobody knew any of that!”

Colorado 236

Colorado Florida Birds New Jersey 236

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2013

Atlantic Coast subspecies crepitans in New Jersey by Corey Finger. These are brightly colored birds that breed in freshwater environments. In California and Arizona, however, Clapper Rails are brightly colored and occur in both salt and freshwater environments. Clapper Rail of the grayish U.S.

Species 219

Species North America Cuba Louisiana 219

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2018

I was on New Jersey Audubon’s Grand North Dakota birding tour this past July, driving along dirt roads through the prairies of western North Dakota. Since 1966, when the Breeding Bird Survey first began monitoring, numbers have declined 79 percent. Scott Barnes, N.J. Audubon Naturalist, and Linda Mack, N.J.

North Dakota 139

North Dakota Birds Sparrows Blackbirds 139

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2014

These are extremely large stick structures (some articles compare the largest ones to the size of a car) that are usually populated by multiple breeding pairs in separate chambers. I have not heard any reports of Monk Parakeets at bird feeders in New York City, or in New Jersey, where they have a colony in Edgewater, Bergen County.)

Chicago 200

Chicago New York City New York Illinois 200

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2017

But, then, no one expected a Common Greenshanks in New Jersey. …maybe there’s a secret Corn Crake breeding farm out in Gilgo Beach. No one expected a Corn Crake. Now, probably if I was Corey, my response would be to grab my car keys, bins, and camera and go go go. What if it’s an escapee? I should go.

New York 156

New York North America France Feral Cats 156

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

New Jersey is Undecided. New Jersey has an interesting approach, at the sate level. If left unchecked, free-roaming cats will breed and their populations increase at locations where they find suitable shelter and food, resulting in environmental/property damage, and public nuisance. Mole hills!

Feral Cats 208

Feral Cats Feral Cats Minneapolis 208

10,000 Birds

JULY 8, 2013

It is a bird of the Pacific coast of North and South America, breeding in western Mexico and southern California. It does not belong on the Atlantic coast of the northeastern United States at all, though they sometimes wander like the one that was found in New Jersey last year.

New York 150

New York South America 2013 New Jersey 150

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

There were a host of great shorebirds in New York’s Orange County on Thursday early in the day but reports of roads being flooded out and the rather long distance, almost two hours travel from Queens, made that idea a reject. What was this particular ibis doing in northern New Jersey?

New Jersey 188

New Jersey New York United States Breeding 188

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

Because I did not have to arrive at my office in Emerson, New Jersey until 9:30 AM on Wednesday I planned a pre-dawn assault on the Croton Train Station, which, timed correctly, would give me over two hours with the bird before I had to skedaddle off to the salt mines for another day’s labor. And I even got to work on time!

New York 163

New York New York City Kazakhstan New Jersey 163

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2015

Seney National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1935 as a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife.” Swan Lake Refuge is managed as “a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife”. New Jersey/New York. The refuge is already open to sport fishing.

Fish 143

Fish Wildlife Hunting Game 143

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2018

New York City apartments don’t allow feeders to be hung from fire escapes (though I know certain birders that skirt that rule), and it wasn’t until I had already been birding for four-and-a-half years that I obtained a small yard in central New Jersey in which I could place a feeder or two or three.

Birds 173

Birds New York City Squirrels New York 173

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Photograph of a Wild Turkey at Flatrock Brook Nature Center, in Englewood, New Jersey, by Corey. The chance that this was a real Turkey are not great, and the chance that Columbus actually brought breeding stock from Honduras to Spain is not great, so maybe, maybe not.

Turkey 202

Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 202

10,000 Birds

MAY 22, 2011

Here’s hoping you spot a Calico Bird this spring while they are still in their breeding plumage! Whatever you call Arenaria interpres it is a gorgeous shorebird and well worth watching.

Saudi Arabia 157

Saudi Arabia New Zealand Brazil United States 157

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2011

I had a beautifull view on 5 horned grebe here (one in breeding plumage), in Ann Arbor Michigan, for the 3 seconds it lasted, until I heard a huge “CRRACK&# , and I fell through the ice. 12 Responses to “Best Bird of the Weekend (First of March 2011)&# Thing Mar 7th, 2011 at 3:06 am After what seemed like an age – Waxwings!

2011 154

2011 New York Deer Birds 154

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 4, 2014

There were birders from a wide cross-section of the United States: Colorado, Ohio, Idaho, Iowa, Wyoming, Washington State, Pennsylvania, New York State, New Jersey, California, Texas, Florida. I’m sure there are states that I missed, but you get the idea.

South Africa 253

South Africa Africa Leopards Penguins 253

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2016

It was my second field guide, and I quickly gave it that worn look I imagined all “real” birder’s field guides had by dropping it into the creek at Allaire State Park in New Jersey (by accident!). I purchased my first Sibley— The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America —in 2003.

North America 160

North America 2003 Birds America 160

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2014

I got to see a beautiful female and owlet on a trip to a secret nest location near Howard Prairie Lake (human-made nest structures have enhanced local breeding for these huge owls whose nest success is boosted to 83% on artificial platforms vs. 66% at natural sites). And I can’t forget the awesome birds I saw in Florida in January.

2014 188

2014 Costa Rica South Africa Birds 188

10,000 Birds

APRIL 16, 2012

The pine barrens of New Jersey look rather plain and boring if you only see them while driving past on the Garden State Parkway or New Jersey Turnpike. By the time urban and suburban sprawl started to reach New Jersey’s pine barrens they were largely protected and today over 1.1

New Jersey 178

New Jersey New York City New York Leopards 178

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Unlike most field guides, the maps are large and specific, indicating permanent, winter, and summer ranges by color swatch; summer, winter, and all seasons dispersal routes by colored lines, and irregular breeding sites by shape and color. Mississippi Kite, Birds of Prey of the East. Finding Species in Each Guide.

North America 191

North America Birds Mississippi Bald Eagle 191