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Great Gray Owl: Seeing the Ghost

10,000 Birds

There are birds more prized by North American birders than the Great Gray Owl , but not many*. Like many cold-weather creatures, the Great Gray Owl can to some extent trade altitude for latitude. We made our way to the spot that the owl had, according to our guides, last been seen. The owl wasn’t there.

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Birding Shanghai in May 2023 – Part 1

10,000 Birds

During the breeding season, some Cattle Egrets look like teenage girls who have just discovered the existence of make-up, and consequently massively overdo it. Still, the ability to identify a leaf warbler by song is a worrying development on the road to becoming a very nerdy birder. It is probably all downhill from here. What’s next?

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Madagascar’s Lost and Found

10,000 Birds

Islands, for various reasons, experience more extinctions than continents (with Africa being the only continent not suffering a bird extinction!). Then rumors leaked out that at this same site the mythical Red Owl could easily be seen, Madagascar Serpent Eagle was breeding and other rare birds and lemurs abounded.

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Petrel Paradise

10,000 Birds

Soon we were out of the protected harbour and into choppier waters, and here I have to say I suffered for about two hours from the dreaded affliction known as sea-sickness. As we left the long harbour there were plenty of inshore seabirds such as gannets, shags, gulls and terns. RECENT POSTS More Habitat for Snowy Plover? Wicked, right?

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Birding Shanghai in October 2022

10,000 Birds

According to Wikipedia, “A l owl ife is a term for a person who is considered morally unacceptable by their community” The local Nanhui shrikes are well aware that the word “lowlife” has an owl hidden inside, and mark the appearance of owls in their territory with harsh protests. Not this one though.

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Birds of Central America: A Field Guide Review

10,000 Birds

The guide covers the all–1194 species in the Species Accounts, including 959 native breeding species, 219 Nearctic migrants, 8 breeding visiting species, and 5 introduced species. Of the native breeding species, 112 are endemic or “very nearly endemic.” (Can Can you guess which of the species cited above are endemic? .’

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Birding Shanghai in April 2023

10,000 Birds

Another Nanhui trip also brought a Northern Boobook , which eBird nicely describes as a “slender brown owl with comically expressive golden eyes” While one would think that such a fierce-looking bird mainly lives off larger prey, this is not the case. It did not seem to bother the owl much though. Oh, the excitement.

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