10,000 Birds
APRIL 9, 2020
Stevanove Ravnice ( cover photo ) and the flooded mouth of the Karas River, Labudovo okno. Part of the Labudovo okno Ramsar Wetland and protected within the Deliblato Sands Special Nature Reserve , this section of the Danube, downriver from Belgrade, Serbia, is unique for its wide shallows, before the river narrows downstream from the village of Ram.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 10, 2020
I don’t have a proper post ready for you today, meaning there’s no customary Birds and Booze story and review for now. No, I haven’t lost track of the calendar — though that’s quickly becoming a more common experience in our new reality — but occasionally life gets in the way of blogging, which is what happened this week. Usually when this happens, I just don’t post anything at all, and I’m given a few demerits by Mike and Corey (just kidding).
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10,000 Birds
APRIL 8, 2020
Has your birding routine changed since COVID-19 took over the world? Obviously, something must have changed considering everything else has! However, researchers Piotr Tryjanowski of the University of Poznan and Christoph Randler of the University of Tübingen want to know specifically how your birdwatching activity has changed during the coronavirus crisis.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 10, 2020
Birding in the era of COVID-19 can be confusing. You may wonder about crucial details like “How far do I need to stand from other birders?” or “Is that House Sparrow going to give me coronavirus?” While I wouldn’t recommend getting all your medical advice from the American Birding Association, you can and should follow the ABA Guidelines on Birding and Social Distancing , even if you live in a country that has been far more responsible in efforts to flatten the curv
Speaker: Steve Romanco
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10,000 Birds
APRIL 11, 2020
In Costa Rica, official, enforced quarantine hasn’t happened yet. At the moment, thanks to the government getting serious about this darn thing earlier rather than later, the number of new cases per day in Costa Rica has been very much linear in nature. Thankfully, as of yet, it seems like enough people have stayed home and were careful about social distancing and hand washing to prevent an exponential increase in this awful form of illness.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 12, 2020
April weekends always promise but only sometimes deliver. However, a weekend where you can celebrate Easter, Passover, the beginning of migration, or just an excuse to stop sheltering in place for a few hours is bound to be a good time! I’ve been impatient about the arrival of spring, but a long walk revealed shoots, blooms, and buds everywhere, along with my FOY Hermit Thrush.
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10,000 Birds
APRIL 8, 2020
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, birding in Michoacán has required that I find most of my own hotspots. As distancing has become more and more important in recent weeks, I have visited the loneliest of these, one by one. But last week, I decided to go exploring once again, in search of new places where I can bird alone. The previous week I had birded along a mountain path called the camino al Ejido Triquillo.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 25, 2020
Spring migration! The annual parade of birds is happening and the feathered participants are dressed in their best breeding suits. Now is the special time that birders look forward to all year long. Now is when we can venture into the closest park and see birds of the deep woods, species that breed far from town. Blackburnian Warblers and Scarlet Tanagers might be present and every day brings another chance at connecting with rare, unexpected aspects of the avian kind.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 29, 2020
Just over a week ago I received an urgent phone call from a long-time friend and fellow birder. I was washing the dishes at the time, so my wife took the call. The message she relayed made me blurt out a string of words that cannot be repeated on this blog – let’s just say that my priorities immediately shifted. Although my friend’s house is walking distance away, due to the urgency of the situation I jumped into the car and was there under five minutes.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 30, 2020
Winter is not the greatest time for birding in Shanghai, and this year, there was no escaping to Southeast Asia due to Covid-19. In fact, if I were to leave China right now, they would not let me back into the country. So, the onset of spring here in Shanghai, particularly at my local spot at Nanhui, was even more highly expected than usual. And in Shanghai, the situation is relatively relaxed now – a big difference from what I hear from my friends in the US and Europe.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 5, 2020
The checklist for a basic birding outing has become more complex during the COVID-19 crisis. Along with the usual optics and gear, you have to consider packing masks and antiseptic hand wash. Your choice for birding spot depends equally on the abundance of birds and scarcity of birders. Yes, birding may not be as carefree as usual, but the freedom, fun, and fascination the act elicits matters more now than ever.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 2, 2020
At Nanhui, all bird parents are working parents – with all the stress that this brings. This Long-tailed Shrike probably thinks that China`s one-child policy is a really good idea. A Little Grebe that does not have all her ducks in a row (ok, a grebe is not a duck, I know, but still, I happily sacrifice ornithological accuracy for a bad pun). Count the legs, divide by two, subtract one, and you have the number of Kentish Plover chicks.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 15, 2020
As I mentioned last week, social distancing is widespread but still voluntary here in Mexico, so there are no limitations on being able to get out and enjoy nature. Still, with my being 61 years old and mildly asthmatic, I want to make sure I keep my distance from other people. This has determined which places I visit, and which I avoid. Most of my favorite sites are lonely anyway, so this has not been a great problem.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 3, 2020
Plagues of Biblical proportions can generally be counted on to provide plenty of zoological variety, from droves of frogs and lice to swarms of flies and locusts. Being generally more charming and attractive to us humans, birds aren’t generally included among these unwelcome hordes. But there is one bird in history that has been associated – rather unfairly – with times of pestilence and disaster: the waxwing.
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10,000 Birds
APRIL 29, 2020
Where do you go to bird, when you know you might not be able to go anywhere else? I suspected that we, here in Michoacán, México, might be about to lose our permission to leave our homes altogether for the next stage of the COVID-19 crisis. So, on April 13th, I chose to go back to the same site I visited on my first outing of 2020, Lake Cuitzeo. As it turned out, my suspicion was correct; since that day, all my outings have been “in-nings” I am now developing a close relationship wit
10,000 Birds
APRIL 26, 2020
April showers most assuredly bring May flowers in the more temperate portions of the Northern Hemisphere. Alas, these gentle rains may not always speed spring migrants on their way to breeding grounds far from the equator. Any luck this weekend? The ridiculous cold afflicting the northeastern U.S. seems to have chilled the rush of migrants around here.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 18, 2020
It has been a difficult week so far. Lady Helen, already house-bound at Boris’s request, came a cropper at the treacherous water jump and turned her fetlock. In the great scheme of things it is not a big problem, but obviously I don’t dare to tell her that. When we were told that the gymkana wouldn’t be going ahead, we set about making a short course in the garden to help keep Lady Helen up to show standard.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 16, 2020
Traveling to Delhi for work last spring, I was not very optimistic about birding there. Still, I contacted a local guide and shot for the moon: “Can you show me any owls”? Much to my surprise, he could, all within an hour`s drive of my hotel in Delhi (which after all is a contender for the most populous city in the world, similar to Shanghai, where I live).
10,000 Birds
APRIL 17, 2020
I can’t imagine what life must be like during the current viral pandemic for those unlucky souls who don’t bird. Certainly, all this isolation and disorientation is strange enough for birders, too, but at least we can but at least we can depend on the comforting patterns of the natural world — especially now that spring migration is really picking up — to provide some sense of temporal order in an existence now otherwise devoid of usual patterns and routines.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 24, 2020
If you haven’t noticed, an epic drama has been playing out over the last two months in community after community in virtually every country on Earth. We hope you and yours have been able to weather this crisis with your health and sanity intact. If you have, please take a moment to appreciate another global phenomenon currently moving untold millions of individuals across the world: zugunruhe.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 26, 2020
Last weekend we had completed our 14 days of self-isolation. It is a long time to not leave your property at all, but at least we do have a garden. We were very keen to get back on our bikes and to go and walk along a beach. We were in much more of a rush to get to the beach than the supermarket! I did not get to write last week, because there have been issues with the website and even now it is having a few problems, so I will keep this brief.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 15, 2020
As someone who has recorded over 80 episodes and counting on the Tests and the Rest podcast, I’ve learned that hosting interesting guests can be really enjoyable. Thanks to Ed Pullen, I now know how much fun being a guest can be, especially when speaking with a curious, engaging host: On Episode #56 I talk with Mike Bergin, originator and force behind 10,000 Birds, the biggest birding blog on the internet, and a birder who travels extensively to some of the best birding sites on earth.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 4, 2020
Lady Helen has often made the point that we get very little opportunity to spend quality time together. The old saying “ be careful what you wish for ” comes to mind. I wonder how many of us will be able to cope with the coming weeks (who knows how many) of quality time with our nearest and dearest? Staying at home saves lives; that has been made clear.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 22, 2020
10,000 Birds is having trouble with our website platform. If this post turns up on Wednesday, April 23, it will mean I was successful in uploading text. However, the platform did not allow me to include photos. Since I consider myself a better writer than photographer, I can live with that. When you are an American expatriate who lives, and birds, in Mexico, it is a topsy-turvy world.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 7, 2020
September 2017, Cerrado, Brazil. The proprietor of our ecolodge guides my small group of birders up a steep slope where we see, just at the point where a scope view deteriorates into pixels, a huge bird—a Chaco Eagle, also known as a Crowned Eagle—on a huge nest. We are cautioned to keep the location of the eagle a secret. Why? Local farmers view it as a threat to domesticated wildlife.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 1, 2020
With their exceptional metabolism, Hummingbirds are almost constantly on the move to find each season’s best feeding grounds. My area of central Mexico is rich in Hummingbird species, but I do not know any places that are year-round sure things for large numbers of Hummers. Still, when a site gets good, it really gets good! Of all my favorite sites, none is as socially distanced as Cerro de Garnica.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 15, 2020
After being home for just over a month, I’ve been doing two things to keep my birding sanity. Firstly, I’ve been birding the heck out of our backyard, and encouraging people to do the same (both here and elsewhere ). Secondly, I’ve been recounting certain special birding moments – one of which I will share here. A single morning birding the thorny desert of Baringo in Kenya’s Rift Valley yielded several species at a rate I at times struggled to keep up with.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 23, 2020
Having more than 1300 bird species, including over 75 endemics, it is hard to resist the lure of India – something I know from personal experience. In 304 pages, The 100 Best Birdwatching Sites in India by Grewal and Singh, where-to-watch-birds guide describes the 100 top hotspots throughout the Indian mainland, but also the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 5, 2020
Following on from my post 14 days ago when Australia was closed to international visitors there has been a lot happen in the world since then. I went slightly off-topic last week for my 500th post and shared some Echidna photos , but this week I will return to birds. The migratory shorebirds continue to head to the Northern Hemisphere to breed. This year the Broome Bird Observatory are updating their website daily with the latest numbers of shorebirds that leave each evening.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 12, 2020
I mentioned last week that we have to stay on our property for 14 days. We cannot go anywhere. We were not too concerned about having to stay at home, because we have plenty of things that we can do and there is always plenty to observe. The water we provide in our garden attracts many birds including the Double-barred Finch in the header photo. Our garden is mostly native plants, which attract both birds and insects.
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