10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 16, 2011

I travel for birding. A lot. I’m about to head out to the Hula Valley Bird Festival and as I’m packing, I thought I would share with you some essentials I think any birder should plan to have in their suitcase–no matter where they are visiting. I’ve never regretted any of these items being in my suitcase. I’ve also learned a thing or two from optics reps on how to pack expensive binoculars, spotting scopes and cameras.

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Birds North Dakota Florida Soreing 259

4 The Love Of Animals

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

November was National Pet Diabetes Awareness Month, were you aware that just like humans, dogs and cats can also get diabetes? In fact, one in 200 cats and one in 500 dogs has diabetes. As with most medical conditions, early detection and treatment of diabetes is recommended and can help with treatment. The most common symptoms of canine and feline diabetes are: · Increased Hunger or Appetite. · Excessive Thirst. · Increased Urination. · Weight Loss. · Weakness or Fatigue.

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Pets Medical Cats 2011 177

Critter News

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

The zoo keepers at the Toronto are desperately trying to get the City Council to reconsider its decision to move three aging elephants to a sanctuary. They presented the Council with a petition with 1,100 signatures.

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Sanctuary Elephants Zoos Animal Sanctuary 109

Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

This blog began life eight years ago today, with this post. There have been 214,285 visits in the past eight years. That's an average of 26,785.6 visits per year and 73.3 visits per day.

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Speaker: Steve Romanco

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 13, 2011

I had the good fortune to be asked to represent one of the UK’s national birding magazines ‘Birdwatching’ on a press trip to Southern Portugal earlier this month. Co-funded by two of the regional tourist boards, Alentejo and Algarve, we were led by one of the very best birders in Portugal João Jara who as well as running his own guiding business Birds and Nature , has served as Chairman of the Portuguese Rarities Committee and a is a thoroughly nice chap to boot.

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Portugal Legislation 2000 Adoptable 250

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 9, 2011

Jeff Gordon is now just over one year into his reign as the President of the American Birding Association. We here at 10,000 Birds thought the first anniversary of his ascension to the throne would be a good time to ask him some questions about etiquette, the state of the ABA, and a variety of other topics. Having now met Jeff twice at recent birding events and even having had the opportunity to bird with him I can say that he is a nice and thoughtful guy, a good birder, and exactly what the AB

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Delaware Colorado 2012 Advocacy 241

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

I don’t think I’ve ever done a post on my home patch of Cape Town, South Africa. This place is such an epic birding location that one cannot possibly do the city and its surrounds justice in one post. So I’m going to feature one of my very favorite locations, just 45 minutes drive from the city centre. The little seaside village of Rooiels is famed for being a wonderful location to pick up some choice South African endemics but it is also one of the most beautiful spots in the

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South Africa Penguins Birds Africa 242

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Paging through a fieldguide, it’s always with a sense of dismay and sadness that I come across reference to an extinct species. This is particularly poignant if the bird has disappeared during the course of my birding days or “on my watch” as I like to think of it. Islands, for various reasons, experience more extinctions than continents (with Africa being the only continent not suffering a bird extinction!).

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Madagascar Lemurs 2006 Owls 238

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

When trying to attract finches, it can be feast or famine. Some days you get bunches and bunches, other times you might feel totally rejected by them. I recently had a conversation with a colleague who works for the Department of Natural Resources. He’s a smart guy, a wildlife biologist and what he knows about native swans is incredible, but what he knew or didn’t know about bird feeding was surprising.

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Niger Burma Hoarding Ethiopia 237

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

The results of the Swarovski Optik Digiscoper of the Year 2011 have just been published and once again, they show just what is possible with a telescope and everything from a cheap compact camera to a semi-pro DSLR. The winner this year was Tara Tanaka of the USA, with a stunning image of a Roseate Spoonbill ( Platalea ajaja ), showing action, movement, great lines, a bright colour palette, and a strong focal point - not to mention the great “wish I was there” feeling.

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2011 Eagles Bald Eagle Owls 229

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

All twitchers will experience it at some stage or another. That most dreaded of disappointments. The dip. For those that might not fully comprehend, the birding slang-term to “dip” or to “dip out on” a bird is to go looking for a particular species and not find it. That bird can then be referred to as a”dip”, the noun version of the word.

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Norway Delaware Pennsylvania Philadelphia 229

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

Have you ever looked to the sky and seen a high-flying hawk and wanted to know what it was? Do you wish you could tell an eagle from a hawk? Do you know your raptors but wish that you had an easy reference for all the raptors of North America? Never fear, David Allen Sibley has done it again with the release by Scott & Nix of Sibley’s Raptors of North America poster.* Beautifully illustrated and well executed, Sibley’s Raptors of North America is a perfect decoration for nature

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North America America United States Eagles 230

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2011

New York has its famous Red-tailed Hawks Pale Male and, until recently, Lola. Cambridge, Mass has a celebrity raptor pair, too. Last winter, a pair of Great Horned Owls took up residence in a spiny locust (?) tree near The Dell in Mt. Auburn Cemetery. The nest was so tiny, flimsy and low to the ground that anyone walking by could clearly see the two owlets trying to grow up there.

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Owls New York Rights Eagles 222

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

I was pretty new to watching birds and photography when I first met this Red-tailed Hawk. While keeping track of some hummingbirds in Alta Plaza Park in San Francisco, I noticed a shadow slipping over the terraced hillside. When I looked up the hawk was five feet above my head and powering towards a perch high in the trees. It was actively hunting the grassy slopes and barely paid me any attention as I tried to figure out how to get as close as possible without changing its behavior.

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San Francisco Gophers Hunting Blackbirds 220

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

We birders north of Mexico used to have a parrot to call our own, a sun-faced, spike tailed jewel called the Carolina Parakeet that traversed the southeastern United States preceded by the adrenaline inducing ear piercing squeals that haunt the fever dreams of any birder lucky enough to have made the journey to the Neotropics. It was reportedly unforgettable, but then again most members of the celebrated psitticine family are unforgettable, though these days it probably has more to do with thei

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Parrots Mexico United States Stray 213

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 9, 2011

Snowy Egret ( Egretta thula ) photos by Larry Jordan (click for full sized images) While visiting Arcata Marsh a couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching a Snowy Egret ( Egretta thula ) as it skillfully caught several fish in an inlet or tidal channel of the marsh. I was truly amazed at the number of techniques this beautiful bird used to catch at least a dozen fish during my twenty minute observation.

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Fish Jordan North America America 209

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Just a quick one this week as life is crazy and rattles relentlessly onwards. Since everyone loves parrots, I thought I’d post some pictures of one of New Zealand’s many interesting species. The Red-crowned Parakeet is one of three species known also as Kakariki - literally small kaka. One of the small parrots in the Cyanoramphus radiation, the species was recently split from insular forms on New Caledonia, Norfolk Island and Antipodes Island.

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New Zealand Parrots Sanctuary Wildlife 204

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

Most birders, myself included, hope to find a rarity or two on every birding outing. This does not happen, of course, because rarities are, by definition, rare, but that doesn’t stop us from hoping. That is why we scope though flocks of gulls, shorebirds, and ducks, why we carefully check each little brown job, and why distant pigeons in flight can make us put up our binoculars, just in case.

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New York Birds Sparrows Canada 204

Speaker: Gabriel Wagner Presenter

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

Let’s have a warm welcome for Donna Lynn Schulman, who will start in her role as the Book Review Beat Writer tomorrow morning. Donna’s posts will appear on the second Friday of every month. Just make sure you stay quiet when reading her posts because she is, after all, a librarian! Want to learn more about Donna? Read on dear reader, read on.

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New Jersey New York City New York Adoptable 201

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

This is the lesson that Seaside Aquaculture owner Khan Vu has hopefully learned after being charged, found guilty, and sentenced under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Both Vu and the company were ordered to pay $40,000 to the Texas Park and Wildlife Foundation and a $5,000 fine and put on eighteen months probation after being found guilty in federal court.

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Fish Texas Farming Pelicans 202

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Now that there are 7 billi0n of us on this planet, it seems appropriate to look at and appreciate other great big collections of creatures. This week I came across a wonderful little video ( here ) of Starlings by Liberty Smith and Sophie Windsor Clive: now, wasn’t that cute. and incredibly impressive. In September, I spent a week in eastern Austria (Burgenland) birding and taking birding product photos and I got to see huge flocks of starlings enjoying the grapes (as we enjoyed the produc

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Bahrain Austria Oregon Collecting 198

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

Sometimes my job, which is for a New Jersey-wide labor union, requires me to meet in Bayonne, across the Hudson River, which at that point is indistinguishable from New York Harbor, from Staten Island. To get there from Queens I have to drive through heavy commuter traffic down into Brooklyn, cross the Williamsburg Bridge into lower Manhattan, drive across Manhattan to the Holland Tunnel, and then drive the New Jersey Turnpike to Bayonne.

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New Jersey New York Birds Killing 196

Speaker: Steve Romanco

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

For with a lark’s heart he doth tower, By a glorious upward instinct drawn; No bee nestles deeper in the flower Than he in the bursting rose of dawn. -From “The Falcon” by James Russell Lowell If one were to combine the word “bird” with the word “superlative” the result would be the Peregrine Falcon. Though fastest is the first to mind, most fearsome, most awe-inspiring, and coolest all apply as well to Falco peregrinus.

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Falcons Birds 194

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 16, 2011

Though he destroyed more than 1,000 nests worth of chicks and eggs of the American White Pelican nearly obliterating a colony on land he rented, a guilty plea by Minnesota farmer Craig Staloch means that he faces, at most, six months in jail. Justice? a.

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Pelicans Minnesota Killing Eggs 192

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

Semipalmated Plover in Broome… am I mad!? Isn’t that a bird that doesn’t venture “down under”… you are correct… or you were correct! In late 2009 there was huge excitement in Broome when a Plover was observed at the famous Poo Ponds and was initially presumed to be a Ringed Plover , which is extremely rare, but not unheard of in Australia.

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Australia Asia 2009 Fish 192

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

The Pied-billed Grebe , a most wondrous waterfowl, perfectly exemplify the distinction between common and mundane. Podilymbus podiceps is most certainly common in my experience, able to be seen consistently across varied habitats throughout nearly all of North America and much of South America. However, this gorgeous little grebe can hardly be considered mundane.

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Texas South America 2011 North America 190

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 13, 2011

Hoopoe Upupa Epops With a name like that you would just want to see this bird! It sounds good and it looks good… even a non-birder would be impressed! We saw these birds in Egypt in 1994 and they were just great and Grant saw 5 in Busan, South Korea a few weeks ago, just after I got home to Broome. I was deeply jealous, but I had seen some good birds in Busan that he had missed whilst at work.

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Egypt South Korea Australia Collecting 188

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

(Check out Part 1 here) The city can be a tough place to make a living but San Francisco offers raptors a number of parks, small and large, for them to thrive in. But the parks have edges, hard edges, and the hawks have to handle the transitions. Above, Patch the Red-tailed Hawk perches on the urban version of a snag. I can’t quite imagine what the wilderness version of an electrical transformer would be.

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Gophers San Francisco Blackbirds Hunting 188

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 12, 2011

As the evenings darken and night draws in, some of us are forced to spend more time at home with our families instead of out in the field. Here is a handy exercise that you can try to give you long frustrating hours on the computer and provide a good excuse to avoid contact with the rest of humanity. For the purposes of this post, I will assume a passing familiarity with the clone tool that comes with most picture editing software nowadays (however, if you are a first time cloner see the note at

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Unwanted Eggs Neglecting Rights 189

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 13, 2011

Autumn is a season of transitions and migrations, a slow descent from summer’s heat to winter’s cold. Sometimes blustery and rainy, sometimes warm and sunny, it is the second best season for birders, only beaten by spring. One of my favorite parts of fall is the long, drawn out duck migration, which seems to never end, with many birds staying put for winter or only moving out when their ponds and lakes are frozen.

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Ducks New York Breeding Birds 186

Speaker: cha cha dwyer

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