March, 2021

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Best Bird of the Weekend (Third of March 2021)

10,000 Birds

No matter how obsessed with birding you may be, you’ll have those weekends where other concerns dominate your thoughts. But enough about the New York Giants’ free agency activity. this is just my way of explaining why I plain forgot to post BBOTW at the usual time! I certainly looked at birds this weekend, particularly those menacingly sleek Common Grackles who progressed from absent to ubiquitous in a heartbeat.

New York 295
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Meet the NASCAR driver promoting animal rescue to a ‘brand-new audience’

Reddit Animals

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GUYANA–Simply Delicious Birding!

10,000 Birds

Guyana is an Amerindian word meaning “land of many waters” but it could just as easily mean “land of many birds”. That’s because this fascinating part-Caribbean, part-south American country holds well over 800 species of avifauna making it without doubt one of my top three countries in all of the continent to visit. Before I delve into some of these avian treasures let me give you a few non-birding reasons to visit this gem of South America.

Guyana 278
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Guamúchil Mania

10,000 Birds

Pithecellobium dulce is a tree with many English names. The most common one, Manila tamarind, is wildly inaccurate, since the tree is native to southwestern Mexico, not Manila, and its only connection to tamarind trees is that both are in different subfamilies of the huge legume family. I first met the tree in Baja California, where it is known as guamúchil (gwa-MOOCH-eel), so I will call it that.

2016 271
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Webinar & PDF Test

Speaker: Steve Romanco

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Signs of Spring Migration in Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

Spring in western New York was and is a time of melting snow, of ice chunks being rushed along the Niagara River, of when you wondered if this year, would it maybe stay warm in April and not snow again? You just knew it wouldn’t but you still wished it somehow would manage to get warm and stay that way. However, as expected, even when it got pretty warm in the latter days of March and hawks migrated along the southern shore of Lake Ontario, at some point in April, it always did snow again.

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The most important book about European birds in this century

10,000 Birds

The adventure of the second European Breeding Bird Atlas, or EBBA2, was the topic of one of my first posts here at 10,000 Birds: In a warm Catalonian March, Barcelona is filled with sunlight and full of Rose-ringed and Monk Parakeets. Despite all that sun, I have spent days in a darkened Museu Blau on a pan-European bird atlassing workshop hosted by the Catalan Ornithological Institute.

Europe 264

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Zone of Happiness Birding

10,000 Birds

Ken Cross lives with his wife Megan and their three children on the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast on Australia’s east coast. Currently he is the convenor for Birdlife Australia in his local area and, as that suggests, he loves sharing his passion for birds and all wildlife through outings and bird walks. Currently Ken continues to dream of overseas birding tours but will settle for ones down under.

2020 262
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The Warbler Brewery – Warbler Ale

10,000 Birds

I didn’t plan on taking such a long break away from the Birds and Booze beat, but life got in the way the last several weeks, mostly on account of moving into a new home. After so much time away, I knew I’d need to come back with a really good find. And what could be better than a new bird-themed brewery opening up less than two miles down the road from me?

New York 261
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Costa Rica Birding in Quetzal Valley

10,000 Birds

Quetzal Valley ! Does such a place really exist? I mean, it sounds like something from an eco-cartoon where all the animals live in cloud forest harmony with all of the big, beautiful trees. It also sounds like a piece of heaven; something about valleys, a lot to do with quetzals. In the birding realm, any quetzal is a little piece of heaven. At least they are for me, and I daresay most birders would probably agree.

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Keeping the Faith

10,000 Birds

You may have heard the news that resonated throughout the international birding circuit some months ago – in case you missed it you can read my gloss-over here. Several tour companies and birders seeking to investigate birding in the country with the second highest bird species density in the world indicated that it may be futile to pursue a birding trip to Trinidad & Tobago given the closure of a single (and undeniably significant) lodge.

Trinidad 260
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PDF 9.21.23

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Ovenbirds (but not the Ovenbird)

10,000 Birds

As ambiguous as the title of this piece sounds, a foray into the ornithological literature may lead to even more confusion. The family Furnariidae consists of ovenbirds and woodcreepers, but the actual Ovenbird belongs to the family of New World Warblers – Parulidae. This is not the most confusing aspect of birds by any means, after all there are tanagers which belong in the cardinal family and cardinals that are tanagers.

Trinidad 258
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Whiskered Terns and locusts

10,000 Birds

We have been getting some really good rain over the last few days and the highway has been closed going north from Broome. It is the time of year to always check the travel website before setting off on any journey. There are no alternative routes and the risk is serious if you try and drive through a flooded highway. A “closed” highway really means that.

Cattle 256
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Habitat Mash-up

10,000 Birds

The southwest peninsula of Trinidad is unfortunately rarely birded by visiting birders. Most tourists historically spent their time at the northern end of the island and although it may seem like a small place – getting around can be a bit tricky. Let’s just say that the journey from the capital city, Port of Spain, to the said peninsula could easily run into 2.5 hours one-way.

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Peterson Field Guide to Mushrooms of North America, Second Edition: A Field Guide Review

10,000 Birds

Of all the living things in our world to be passionate about, mushrooms may rate as the most unlikely. Ranging in color from off-white to dingy black, with pastel to gelatinous shades of yellow, orange, purple, and brown in-between, found in moist crevasses, decaying trees, rain-soaked pastures, mushrooms lack the beauty of butterflies and wildflowers cannot equal the action of bats, or flying fish, and certainly lack the spiritual zest of birds.

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CST Sample_VideoTour

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Packing for a birding trip

10,000 Birds

When was the last time you travelled for birding? Since the Covid-19 era, I have become a patch birder. On rare occasions I do visit some other areas, but when I hang binoculars around my neck, even without a second thought I head for Beljarica backwaters. It offers the richest pickings in Belgrade, especially with the incoming spring, but I must admit, the thing I miss the most is travelling and birding overseas.

Battery 241
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A Tawny Frogmouth family

10,000 Birds

I won’t apologise for doing another post about Tawny Frogmouths , because they are just such beautiful birds! You will notice that it is a year ago that I wrote about the family of Tawny Frogmouths at Cygnet park in Broome. Once again there is a family there, but we don’t know if it is the same pair. It quite possibly is. This year they have two young, though.

Family 241
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Marchesi Biscardo – Corvina della Provincia di Verona (2017)

10,000 Birds

When the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (or SARS-CoV-2) acquired the name COVID-19 (short for “coronavirus 2019”) last February, many birders couldn’t help but notice the coincidental similarity between that abbreviation and name of one of the most familiar of all passerine families – Corvidae. Even more similar is “corvid”, the generic name we give members of this family, whether they be crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, or nutc

2017 239
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Pied Butcherbird family

10,000 Birds

We have been observing the Tawny Frogmouth family again during the week at the same park in Broome. The juvenile birds are growing fast and less interested in people in the park. Each day they now roost in a different tree, so we don’t always see them. There are also two Pied Butcherbird families in the park and they are also growing fast. Pied Butcherbirds are renowned for their melodic sounds, but that can’t be said for the juvenile birds.

Family 236
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Gabriel PDF Webinar

Speaker: Gabriel Wagner Presenter

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Take me to Church

10,000 Birds

Last week, I took you to the La Mesa reservoir, the higher-altitude of the two thorn-forest sites on my regular birding rotation. The week after I returned to that site, I went to another of the Michoacan highland’s less-forested areas, which shares many characteristics with La Mesa, but features more grass, and fewer short thorny trees. I suspect the area technically qualifies as a savanna.

Turtles 222
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The Thorn Birds

10,000 Birds

The reason that La Mesa is my new favorite local birding destination is not just that it is so close to home; it is the great mix of habitats that it offers. After walking three miles beyond the little town, I find myself in mature pine woods. On the way, I pass through a wonderful mixed habitat with lots of native trees that keep fruit-eating birds happy, and flowers that attract all of our region’s hummingbird species.

Sparrows 217
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First Phoebe of 2021

10,000 Birds

I saw my first migratory Eastern Phoebe of 2021 this morning at Idlewild Park in my home borough of Queens. My birding buddy Meryl actually spotted it first and she might have been mildly taken aback by the enthusiasm I showed for my first phoebe of the year. The bird was relatively distant but I did manage to poorly digiscope a few shots, the best of which is above.

2019 217
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Pycnonotidae: A Critical Review

10,000 Birds

The reception of bulbuls in the ornithological world is decidedly mixed. A typical description of the family is that of “a tropical African and Asian songbird that typically has a melodious voice and drab plumage”, another is “small, dull-colored passerine birds of Asia and Africa”, yet another states that they are “often rather plain” Individual species get even harsher reviews.

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Webinar 5.9.22

Speaker: Steve Romanco

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Best Bird of the Weekend (Second of March 2021)

10,000 Birds

The last weekend of winter/summer looks a whole lot like the first weekend of spring/fall. That doesn’t mean, however, that winds of change aren’t blowing birds hither and yon. Some of the banner birds of your next season may have already arrived, but more will come every week. Be ready! I’m so focused on my birds of spring that I’ve been tuned out to what the last of winter has had to offer around here.

Birds 214
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Collaborative list – February 2021

10,000 Birds

Extremes of weather nor “stay at home” orders can keep the beats from their mission. A Northern Mockingbird was sighted in Cornwall, UK during February and resulted in criminal charges being brought against a number of twitchers who travelled unnecessarily during lockdown to see it. 9 beats from 8 countries (Australia, USA, UK, Serbia, Costa Rica, China, Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico), shared 138 checklists for 703 species.

Sparrows 176
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The flooded landscape continues

10,000 Birds

A few weeks ago I showed you how flooded the station property was on each side of the highway heading south. Well, it did start to dry out a little, but then we got a lot more rain. The first culvert you come to when you drop down onto the open plains is now flowing nicely under the road. There are plentiful fish to be seen in the clear water. The header photo shows the water running under the culvert.

Chickens 167
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Best Bird of the Weekend (First of March 2021)

10,000 Birds

Have you noticed a change in the light where you live, a little more daily sunshine or perhaps a little less? We’re barreling towards an equinox, which signals a lot more than just a shift in local patterns of day and night. As the rhythms of another season rearrange themselves, the eternal restlessness among all the wild things reasserts itself.

Jamaica 166
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Test

Testing

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Best Bird of the Weekend (Last of March 2021)

10,000 Birds

The last weekend of March offers much, both in terms of new additions to your current suite of avifauna and the promise of more to come. Even better, April means more of the same. I found the opportunity to chip away at my county list this weekend, filling an odd Blue-winged Teal -shaped hole while enjoying an array of snappy waterfowl. Corey had his hands full this weekend with more pressing concerns than adding Black Vulture to his county list for the year, so we’ll give him a consolatio

Birds 161
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In the Heights

10,000 Birds

Every year, around this time, I feel the need to get an early start and drive a full hour to Cerro de Garnica. That is because this site’s height of 3,000 m (about 10,000 feet) offers me certain species that I can’t add to my year list anywhere else. Perhaps the most iconic birds for me here are the Steller’s Jays that immediately greeted me the very first time I first reached the park.

Mexico 159
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My Favorite Mexican Birdsongs

10,000 Birds

I recently noticed that one of our other writers had included an easy-to-use link to a birdsong recording in one of their posts. This has always been a wish of mine, since many of my favorite birds here stand out as much for their songs as for their appearance. So I asked for some help with this technique, and Clare Morton helpfully explained the technique to me.

Trinidad 174
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Tianmashan, Shanghai in winter

10,000 Birds

Shanghai is basically a very flat place. The highest elevations here are all buildings, including the second-highest building in the world, the Shanghai Tower at 632 meters. In fact, a website that specializes in that sort of information claims that there are 166 buildings in Shanghai with a height of at least 150 meters, with another 18 under construction.

China 158
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New Production Test

Speaker: cha cha dwyer

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