10,000 Birds

MARCH 12, 2021

I don’t know whether head brewer Chris Schell – a Delmar native with a decade of craft brewing experience – is a birder or not, but each beer is adorned with trippy, vaguely sci-fi depictions of birds by Boston artist Ian Tartasky , some of which seem to be identifiable to species.

New York 264

New York Boston 2019 Collecting 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2022

It’s the subject of the eleventh essay in this collection, almost smack in the middle of the 22 pieces that comprise the book. The essay, less than 11 pages long and illustrated with a black-and-white photo of the star of the piece, is a sample of the excellent writing that characterizes Learning the Birds.

Birds 264

Birds Sparrows Connecticut New York 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2021

’ “Is this going to be a collection of essays?” Like the best Big Year books, Adventures of a Louisiana Birder has a deeply personal layer to the bird quest, in this case experiences of danger and recovery, frailty and loss, mourning and hope. ” I wondered. But, in Chapter Three the book takes on more shape.

Louisiana 264

Louisiana Species Mississippi Alabama 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2013

I thought of this experience as I read Still the Same Hawk , a collection of twelve essays about nature and New York City, edited by John Waldman. Not surprisingly, I found the most compelling essays were those by people who had had similar experiences to mine. This is what got me, the incongruity. Some of them are even birders.

New York 109

New York New York City 2013 Collecting 109

10,000 Birds

MAY 28, 2014

There were opportunities to go to far flung places like the islands of the Pacific or the coast of Canada or the Yorkshire Dales… Anyway, as I was obsessed by Africa at the time, I leapt at the opportunity to go to Namibia to collect samples of bat DNA for a biogeography project. And the guano from a million Wrinkle-lipped Bats.

Bats 154

Bats Birds Vanuatu Namibia 154

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

I haven’t yet been birding in Europe but whenever I occasionally skim a field guide about the birds on the other side of the Atlantic, I’m always encouraged to find that I’m already familiar with many species found over there, even though most of my birding experience has been limited to eastern North America.

2017 118

2017 Portugal Rabbits Europe 118

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2013

Data collection for the Second Breeding Bird Atlas Project of Pennsylvania took place from 2004 through 2009, roughly twenty years after the first official atlas project, 1983 through 1989. It was a gigantic, innovative project that collected and catalogued massive amounts of data about birds, habitat, and ecological change.

Pennsylvania 233

Pennsylvania Breeding Birds Sparrows 233