10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2012

Among the Efe (Pygmy) people that I lived with in the 1980s, the young men would in fact disappear from the bosom of their families and spend a lot of time, perhaps months, living on their own in the forest. you’d get to see the much larger samples of prepared specimens in the drawers. Or get your own. Not birds, though.

Birds 169

Birds Collecting Rodents Wounded 169

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. A Bat Hawk hunting bats.

Bats 154

Bats Birds Vanuatu Namibia 154

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

The species are taxonomically divided into two families: Tytonidae, Barn-Owls, and Strigidae, Owls, encompassed in one order, Strigiformes. They are also hunted. They roost and hunt, at night (mostly) when we can’t see them. Sprigs of Wolf Lichen spring from the Douglas firs, a gorgeous, almost iridescent lime green.

Owls 210

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 210

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

This is how, I think, the “Crossley technique” works best—coverage of specific bird families that pose identification challenges to birders at all levels of skill. Here’s a sample of how that section reads: “Ducks have 14-18 feathers (rectrices). I only wish that it did not use such a dark background.

Ducks 118

Ducks North America Geese Hunters 118