10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2011

Fluttering Shearwater ( Puffinus gavia ) Flesh-footed Shearwater ( Puffinus carneipes ) Buller’s Shearwater ( Puffinus bulleri ) Along with these three were Two further species, also both familiar to North American birders, Sooty Shearwaters and Short-tailed Shearwaters. It is also restricted as a breeder to the north of North Island.

New Zealand 175

New Zealand Albatross 2011 Cooking 175

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2011

When they depart on their northward migration it is possible to go into Roebuck Bay in the late afternoon and watch them group up, call and then take off in beautiful V-formations. The Red Knot are very good at hiding amongst the flock and they are one of the species that are of most concern. The return of the birds is a mystery.

Taiwan 172

Taiwan Cooking China Groups 172

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

But getting a grip on gulls can be rewarding, and even within a large group of seemingly drab-colored, dump-loving trash eaters, there are spectacular species, like the dramatic Sabine’s Gull, the nearly mythical Ivory Gull, and easily one of the most sought-after species in North America, the mysterious Ross’s gull. (p.

Birds 263

Birds North Carolina North America Owls 263

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2019

For many grassland species, our vast expanses of tilled and plowed fields, orchards and vineyards, pastures and rangeland offer an abundance of convenient food and shelter – and some bolder birds even wander indoors to find these things in our barns and stables. For most of history, beer has thrived in agrarian settings, too.

Vermont 120

Vermont Belgium Farming Europe 120

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 11, 2017

Along that stretch, we enjoyed Fork-tailed Flycatchers and other species in the open fields and marshes including Harriss’s Hawk , the local Nicaraguan Seed-Finch , and, best of all, a pair of normally sneaky and secretive Yellow-breasted Crakes walking in the open through a grassy marsh!

Costa Rica 124

Costa Rica San Jose Birds Farming 124

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2013

The Cook Strait can be windy and choppy as all get out, and I’ve heard one horror story of a boat crossing in storm seas, spending five hours trying to thread the needle and get into the Marlborough Sounds, give up, and then head back to Wellington. Not a species I have seen myself yet, but it is on my list.

Cooking 140

Cooking New Zealand Albatross Penguins 140

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2023

Photos courtesy of Mosetlha Bush Camp A dusty-red road leads me through Marico bushveld deeper into the 750 square kilometers large wilderness of the Madikwe Game Reserve – the 4th largest reserve in South Africa, home to 350 bird and 66 mammal species, some 4 hours’ drive from Johannesburg. The others follow, some dozen animals in all.

South Africa 224

South Africa Africa Game Elephants 224

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2020

Recently, an interdisciplinary group published a paper using eBird data in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning. Chicago is a good place for birds: on eBird, Cook County, Illinois has nearly 400 species and more than 275,000 checklists. But eBird data is not just for ecologists and ornithologists.

Chicago 277

Chicago Research Illinois Michigan 277

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2018

In talking to the local guides, and Rangers, they all agreed that they had not been seeing too many species around in the last couple of weeks. We had stopped at one of the massive over-looks near Roosevelt Lodge, when a small group of Pine Siskins flew all the way across the canyon, and landed in the tree above me.

Wyoming 106

Wyoming Wolves Grizzly Bear Mountain Goats 106

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 16, 2015

Actually, I was bested by an entire group of teenagers, all gathered – along with 36 adults – on Hog Island , Audubon’s famous camp off the coast of Maine. Each year Hog Island offers programs, taught by a stellar staff of naturalists and artists, to groups of all kinds (teenagers, adults, families).

Puffins 259

Puffins Birds Groups West Virginia 259

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2014

While in Mexico, up on the roof of a casa (where I was cooking something up) I saw a murmeration! The birds were too far away to identify, and I know more than one species does this, but if I had to guess they were starlings. If half the Warblers go extinct, that would be a lot of species but you’d still pretty much have Warbler DNA.

Birds 181

Birds Bald Eagle Zoos Philippines 181

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2013

A dusty-red road leads me through Marico bushveld deeper into the 750 square kilometers large wilderness of the Madikwe Game Reserve – the 4th largest reserve in South Africa, home to 350 bird and 66 mammal species, some 4 hours’ drive from Johannesburg. The first to cross is an old female with a two-year old baby.

Africa 195

Africa South Africa Elephants Rhinos 195

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2011

The kakariki are an odd group of parakeets, particularly in terms of their distribution. In addition to this tight clustering of related parakeets, the genus also had two species in the far-flung Society Islands (now in French Polynesia). He lists four extant species, along with the two extinct species.

New Zealand 147

New Zealand Fiji Parrots Tonga 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 26, 2019

brandy from the Dutch branden (“to burn, distill”), and mezcal from the Nahuatl mexcalli , meaning “oven-cooked agave”. Having dipped on this species just a few days earlier in the Cusco highlands, I was determined to return home with a least one memento of this iconic vulture of the high Andes.

Peru 124

Peru San Francisco Parrots Chile 124

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2012

The open eucaltyp woodland soon opened up to the promised heathland, with such typical species as Grey Fantails , Spotted Pardalotes , some Eastern Spinebills (an unique lineage of honeyeaters) and the ubiquitous New Holland Honeyeater. I watched the group flitting around, getting one good look at a female (I never saw the male).

New Zealand 182

New Zealand Cooking Species Collecting 182

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2015

As you first walk down the paths (or even park) the dominant species is not a bird but Eastern Grey Kangaroos, and lots of them. Campbell Park has an interesting mix of species that are easy to see in Sydney, which I often visit, and ones I can’t. Speckled Warbler by David Cook (CC). Campbell Park, Canberra.

Stud 157

Stud Kangaroos Parrots Australia 157

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2015

I was in contact with a group of birders for whom I arranged and guided an annual tour to Africa. Blue-moustached Bee-eater is rainforest species occurring in just a few scattered sites in Ghana, it was previously considered a subspecies of Blue-headed Bee-eater. During each trip we would discuss a destination for the following year.

Ghana 195

Ghana Hunters Guinea Gambia 195

Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 29, 2006

Researchers have also learned that the cancer-causing chemicals that form in beef as it cooks also tend to form in chicken. Neal Barnard, Food for Life: How the New Four Food Groups Can Save Your Life , p. Never mind that the bulk of the fat in Starbucks's beverages comes from the milk -- yes, milk ! -- of another species.

Animal 40

Animal Meat Cows District of Columbia 40

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2011

The world of birding is filled with challenging groups well known to all, birds like gulls , Empidonax flycatchers or cisticolas that require attention to the tiniest details in order to assign an individual to a specific species (if it can be done at all). Above we have an example of the species. Subspecies humii , Thailand.

Samoa 170

Samoa Vanuatu United Arab Emirates Tonga 170

10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2011

A combination of extinctions and proximity to Fiji means that a trip to that island group would net you pretty much all the same birds plus a whole raft of others. A nocturnal visitor to my cabin was the Oceanic Gecko , a large widespread species which may or may not be native.

Tonga 164

Tonga Fiji New Zealand Parrots 164

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2012

In the parking area I immediately encountered a pair of Australian Brush-turkeys as well as a new species for me, a Grey-headed Robin. This huge member of the Australian robin family is really tame in this carpark, making it probably the easiest place n the world to see the species (other than the Tableland it is only found in New Guinea).

Kangaroos 161

Kangaroos Guinea Pigs Turkey Guinea 161