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Who cares for your ducks in the winter?

10,000 Birds

I like seeing as many species as possible on my life list, year list, state list, patch list, any kind of list. But even in summer I can usually count on 60+ non-endemic species per visit, and in winter, a decent effort can usually result in 80 or more species. I confess: I am a lister.

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Duck Quest in Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

However, for a local birder who can’t help but take part in a permanent hustle to boost the year list, you gotta look for more than the resident eye candy species. The up-side to that is a new, four lane stretch of quick road for at least some kilometers along with a chance at rare ducks. 5 species on my year list.

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Pat’s 2020 Bird List, Mostly from Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

The prospect of identifying a certain number of species in a given amount of time pushes us to pay more attention to birds no matter what the circumstances (although I suggest keeping the exclamations about species identifications to yourself during such solemn situations as funerals, graduations, and watching episodes of The Sopranos).

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Water, Water, Everywhere

10,000 Birds

Photographing the ducks flying overhead was a pretty quixotic enterprise. Even so, I could tell (just barely) that these were Mexican Ducks. Ruddy Ducks don’t care about a little rain. The moral of the story? (I brightened up the other photos in this post — a lot!). It got wetter. But so worth it!

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Highlights from a Cancelled Pelagic Trip in Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

On our way over, we had one Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel and at least one Black Storm-Petrel along with Black Terns and a few other tern species. As is often the case on the Puntarenas-Paquera ferry, the birds weren’t close and we couldn’t chase them but we still saw them. White-cheeked Pintail !

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

10,000 Birds

This is “the deep cradle of Western ornithology: the birthplace of bird study,” he tells us as he writes about gazing at the 8,000-year old depictions of “flamingos, herons, raptors, avocets and many other species” (p. With Birkhead, you never know what’s going to come next.

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Collaborative List – November 2019

10,000 Birds

Whatever it was, Corey was found at his keyboard 2 hours later, covered in blood and snot and sporting a cut lip, having announced that he and Mike would rescue the failing list by taking personal responsibility for adding 300 species. Blue-billed Duck – Oxyura australis. Musk Duck – Biziura lobata. calle jocote.

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