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Best Bird of the Weekend (First of April 2012)

10,000 Birds

My family took our annual post-Easter Egg hunt hike at Powder Mills Park, where I spied several gorgeous matched pairs of Wood Ducks along with lots of different woodpecker species. The month and this particular period is all the more auspicious for me and mine, as so many friends and families celebrate spring birthdays.

2012 192
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Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History from Cave Art to Conservation–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

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Dark Deeds

10,000 Birds

“I just saw some kind of duck fly by, it was being chased by Ravens ” was what he told me. It was unusual that there’d be any sort of duck around, given that there was still 3 or 4 feet of ice on the ocean, and all the lakes were still solid. They were unsuccessful, but to him they were clearly trying to hunt it.

Hunting 181
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The Mandarin Duck

10,000 Birds

I am not actually really sure whether I like the sight of the male Mandarin Duck. Or to put it differently: if an imaginary child of mine ever drew up a male Mandarin Duck out of his or her imagination, I would immediately take away most of the crayons and maybe only leave those necessary to draw the female bird.

Ducks 214
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How To Help A Baby Bird

10,000 Birds

A female red-tail may leave a nest to hunt for her two chicks and return to feed a rabbit to three chicks without noting an increase in the number of chicks a rehabber has placed there. The first few years for female ducks and geese are kind of practice rounds. Birds of prey look cool, but they can’t count.

Birds 266
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Birds of the West: An Artist’s Guide–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

The lengthy Introduction gives both a personal history and a global history of birds and art, including brief profiles of John James Audubon and the far lesser known Genevieve Estelle Jones, who conceived of a book eventually called Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio in the late 19th century.

Birds 159
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The Falcon Thief: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

It didn’t occur to me till I started reading The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird that there was also a possible threat to the eagle herself: poachers, who steal raptor eggs and chicks. McWilliam realizes he’s dealing someone special, a career falcon egg-thief.

Falcons 224