January, 2014

article thumbnail

RATS, Raptors, and Reckitt Benckiser

10,000 Birds

'Mice/rats in your house or business? Call the pest control company. A company representative will come to your door and tell you the poisons they use are “safe.” Alert: they’re lying. “But they’re not allowed to lie,” said a man who told me he had found a dead hawk on his land. When queried, he admitted he had recently hired a local company to get rid of the mice in his house.

Rats 239
article thumbnail

Dog-Owner Conversations May Be Possible in Near Future

4 The Love Of Animals

'If you are honest, you probably have to admit that on at least one or two occasions, you found yourself wishing your dog could speak. Although true canine lovers become quite adept at understanding what type of bark indicates which need or want, let’s face it, it would be much easier if our pets could simply communicate their thoughts with different words, just like we do.

Dogs 157
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

According Animals Dignity

Animal Ethics

'In this New York Times op-ed column , Frank Bruni predicts that our understanding of and concern for animals is only going to grow as scientific advances help us to understand the rich psychological and emotional lives of animals. Tom Regan was right: Many of the animals we routinely exploit are experiencing subjects of a life just like us.

article thumbnail

Mitochondrial mysteries and splitting-lumping Yellow-rumped Warblers

10,000 Birds

'The Yellow-rumped Warbler ( Setophaga coronata ) complex is one of the most abundant and widespread representatives of the New World warbler family in North America, present in many parts of the United States even through the winter months, when the birds feed on small fruits and other foods, including sap. There are four generally recognized groups within the complex, “ Myrtle ” ( coronata ) of eastern and northern North America, “ Audubon’s ” ( auduboni ) of the

article thumbnail

Webinar & PDF Test

Speaker: Steve Romanco

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

article thumbnail

Inside a Bald Eagle’s Nest: A Photographic Journey through the American Bald Eagle Nesting Season

10,000 Birds

'The Bald Eagle is not just an American symbol, it is also a quintessentially American story. Nearly wiped out by human heedlessness, development, and pesticide use, under the protection of the Endangered Species Act this handsome fish eagle has made a stunning comeback, rebounding in numbers and recolonizing areas where many thought they were gone forever.

article thumbnail

Great Gray Owl: Seeing the Ghost

10,000 Birds

'There are birds more prized by North American birders than the Great Gray Owl , but not many*. This huge ghost of the far north — yellow-eyed, eerily silent, perfectly camouflaged to disappear into the coniferous forests they call home — is as potent an evocation of wilderness as a calling loon or a prowling wolf. Like many cold-weather creatures, the Great Gray Owl can to some extent trade altitude for latitude.

Owls 222

More Trending

article thumbnail

This game is for the birds, owl-bviously

10,000 Birds

'If you’re like many Americans (or foreigners keen on seeing what passes for entertainment among Yanks), you’ll be spending Sunday evening parked in front of your TV. No, not for Girls or Downton Abbey , but to watch some of the funniest, tearjerkingest, dumbest, and most expensive commercials on TV all year. All of which will be interspersed around a certain “big game” that most media dare not name, for fear of getting sued by the National Football League.

Game 216
article thumbnail

Birding Southern Baja: Todos Santos

10,000 Birds

'A male Belding’s Yellowthroat. Hecho en Mexico. What better way to start the year than with a visit to Mexico? Especially if you can fit in some birding? Many gringos make their way to Baja California Sur every year, although the majority are probably heading to Cabo San Lucas to party and test the human limit of tequila endurance. But others actually do some birding, and they paved the way for this Great Ornithologist to do a little bit on a recent vacation to Todos Santos.

article thumbnail

Birds and People: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

'It took me a while to wrap my mind around the concept of Birds and People , Mark Cocker and David Tipling’s book that, in 592 pages, explores the intersection of just that—birds and us. I’m not sure why. It’s not like I had forgotten lists created with friends of ‘songs with birds in the lyrics’, my personal favorites being Sondheim’s Green Finch and Linnet Bird and the Beatles’ Blackbird.

Birds 209
article thumbnail

How To Transport Baby Birds

10,000 Birds

'Normally wildlife rehabilitators try not to give these kinds of directions. We say things like, “Just pick him up and put him back in his nest,” or “Leave him alone, the parents are around.” But occasionally it’s clear that something has happened to the parents, or the whole tree has been cut down and there are no alternatives, or the birds had the bad luck to be born in an area where one or more idiotic, soulless humans let their cats roam around outside.

article thumbnail

PDF 9.21.23

this is a test

article thumbnail

What we talk about when we talk about reputation

10,000 Birds

'In a recent article on birding in USA Today, I was quoted as saying the following : Nate Swick, editor of the ABA’s blog, says some people compare birding to golf, in that everyone keeps their own scores, relying on the honor system. What sets birding apart: No one cheats, “because that would be cheating yourself,” he says. Media is funny thing, and I was misconstrued a bit.

Raleigh 204
article thumbnail

Swallows. Swallowed

10,000 Birds

'I’ve only seen Tigerfish (Alestidae, genus Hydrocynus , usually Hydrocynus goliath ) in two contexts, but I’ve seen a lot of them. One is on the plate, as dinner. The other is in the form of a fossil excavated from a paleontological site. You probably have to go to a resturant in Botswana or South Africa to find Tigerfish on the menu. To find them on certain ancient sites all you have to do is wet-screen enough sediment through fine mesh.

article thumbnail

Support Project SNOWstorm!

10,000 Birds

'Earlier this afternoon my small family made a drive out to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. We went because Desi, my four-year-old son, wanted to see a Snowy Owl after hearing about and seeing pictures of all of the owls his dad had been seeing this winter. He brought with him Snow, his stuffed Snowy Owl , so Snow could see his “real owl friends.” Desi with Snow.

Owls 203
article thumbnail

An Outopia for Pigeons: a Comedy about Salvation

10,000 Birds

'This is not a review proper, because — full disclosure — playwright Justin Maxwell is a friend of mine and a somewhat better friend of my boyfriend. I never would want to be accused of log-rolling. Nevertheless, I cannot in good conscience keep this play from you, my beloved readers. Feb. 6 – 23 of this year marks the opportunity, for those of you in or near New Orleans, to see Maxwell’s critically lauded absurdist play “An Outopia for Pigeons” at the Shadowb

Whales 200
article thumbnail

CST Sample_VideoTour

Navigated 360° tours, like YourVRTours, advance pipelines by engaging clients further along the sales funnel. These immersive experiences provide comprehensive property insights, increasing buyer intent and readiness. By embracing navigated tours, agents can optimize property exposure, better qualify leads, and streamline the sales process. Stay ahead in the ever-evolving real estate landscape with innovative technology that elevates buyer journeys and progresses pipelines more effectively.

article thumbnail

Luck favours the stubborn

10,000 Birds

'This weekend, S. and I were counting waterbirds along the Danube and stumbled upon that Great Black-backed Gull that I told you about before – the fourth one recorded in Serbia since mid-19th century and a very uncooperative bird that successfully avoided all photographic searches afterwards. Hastily, I mounted the scope onto a window clamp and then onto the half-open car window (it is faster than it sounds), took a furtive peek and – the bloody bird takes flight for no reason whatsoever!

Serbia 194
article thumbnail

Drones: The Next Thing Birders Will Be Arguing About

10,000 Birds

'Amazon had a brilliant press release on Cyber Monday 2013 about using drones as a possible delivery service for their products in the near future. While many people were saying, “OMG COOL” others were thinking “that’s too Big Brother-ish for me” and a few said, “Oh hey, wait, what about birds?” Based on the press release date, I assumed it was just big talk and way to drive people to Amazon to shop on Cyber Monday.

article thumbnail

Protection for a fee: Band-tailed Gulls and Red-legged Cormorants

10,000 Birds

'Kleptoparasitismis is a word that just means parasitism by theft. With birds, this happens when one takes prey or other food caught or collected by another. Klepstoparasitism seems to be more prevalent among birds associated with water; those unable to dive often take food from those able to catch their food underwater. Some birds are opportunistic thieves, and others make a living at it.

article thumbnail

Cooper’s Hawk Eating a Road-Killed Canada Goose

10,000 Birds

'On the same day that I journeyed out to eastern Long Island to enjoy birding Shinnecock Inlet in the fog I also explored the fields of Riverhead, where large flocks of geese congregate and where a Yellow-headed Blackbird had been reported recently amid a large flock of icterids at a Buffalo farm. I had no luck finding any “good” geese or the blackbird, but I was fortunate enough to come upon a Cooper’s Hawk that had found a very big meal to enjoy, a road-killed Canada Goose.

Canada 188
article thumbnail

Gabriel PDF Webinar

Speaker: Gabriel Wagner Presenter

article thumbnail

Well Adapted for a Plunge-diving Lifestyle

10,000 Birds

'Watching Humboldt seabirds on the cold waters off the coast of South America , I noticed that of them dive for their fish/food. Small birds will take shallow dives with little or no head start (terns and some gulls) whereas other will take impressive head starts for deeper dives and generally larger fish. Peruvian boobies were, without a doubt, the plunging champions featuring long head starts and insanely fast plunges into the Pacific Ocean.

Lifestyle 184
article thumbnail

City of Albuquerque Being Sued for Trap-Neuter-Release Program

10,000 Birds

'From the American Bird Conservancy : The mayor of Albuquerque and the director of the city’s animal welfare department have been named in a lawsuit alleging that the officials have committed animal cruelty by allowing certain illegal and improper animal management practices to occur related to abandonment of stray cats. The lawsuit was filed with the state of New Mexico, county of Bernalillo, Second Judicial District Court by attorney A.

article thumbnail

Red-necked Phalarope, Globetrotter Extraordinaire

10,000 Birds

'Let’s say you’re a bird wrapping up your breeding season in the north of Scotland—where do your thoughts turn when winter beckons? If you’re like most, you head southeast, meeting up with your continental cousins near the Mediterranean or Arabian Seas. But at least one Red-necked Phalarope has a different idea of the ideal winter getaway, and a huge cache of frequent-flyer miles.

Iceland 183
article thumbnail

Wildlife Rehabber Ranting – With Photos

10,000 Birds

'Oh, do I love it when I can get somebody else to write my blog for me. This one comes from Vonda Lee Morton, a wildlife rehabilitator who runs Laurens Wildlife Rescue outside Atlanta. She and I have never met in person, but thanks to the internet we’ve been through all kinds of wildlife emergencies together. Rehabbers have friends all over the country (sometimes all over the world) who we’ve never laid eyes on.

Wildlife 182
article thumbnail

Webinar 5.9.22

Speaker: Steve Romanco

article thumbnail

Birding the Rainforest Canopy

10,000 Birds

'Birding in the Amazon Rainforest has its pros and cons. The lure of an staggering number of species at a particular location is a draw for many people. However, rainforest birds live in specific microhabitats and are often much easier to hear than to see in the dense multilayered rainforest. In fact, the number of “heard only” annotations next to a species names is more frequent in bird list resulting from rainforest birding than birding in any other habitat type.

Peru 183
article thumbnail

Birding Chaco at JV Gonzles – Trip Report

10,000 Birds

'Continued from: Calilegua National Park Birding Trip Report. We started our drive towards J.V Gonzales and decided to follow the locals advice and took the shorter route going through secondary roads. We used our GPS to guide us towards J.V Gonzales and had a nice but bumpy ride. This road trip took us south-east moving away form the mountains and to lower flat land which had been converted to farmland.

Argentina 181
article thumbnail

Watch Out for Drunken Owls

10,000 Birds

'You especially need to watch out for drunken owls driving cars. Or maybe you need to watch out for drunken humans who think they are owls driving cars ? Either way, claiming as your alibi that you are an owl in a tree after crashing your car while drunk and running into the woods to escape the police is probably not going to work. Though, honestly, I think he should be shown some leniency for not just flying away.

Owls 179
article thumbnail

On Board for Birding History

10,000 Birds

'2013 was an excellent year for me as a birder. I reached two of my personal North Carolina birding goals this year. Of course, neither of them involved seeing Ruffed Grouse in the state, incidentally, which is a goal that still eludes me. Perhaps the most exciting was that I was finally asked to be a spotter on Brian Patteson’s Seabirding pelagic trips.

article thumbnail

Test

Testing

article thumbnail

Only Nine Days Until the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival!

10,000 Birds

'I can’t wait until Space Coast! Herons and raptors and rails and gulls and ducks and cranes and jays and owls and alligators are all awaiting me – and you – at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. You are going, right? This time, instead of going into the details of what specific trips I will be on I thought I would instead share five of my goals for the festival.

Wildlife 171
article thumbnail

Best Bird of the Weekend (Last of January 2014)

10,000 Birds

'My part of the world and many others still anguish under the icy rule of the polar vortex. What good, though, is a polar vortex if it doesn’t come attended by polar birds? Where, I ask you, is my Ivory Gull ? For fortitude, I meditated on the Ring-billed Gulls that fly unfazed all around Rochester in any season; unfortunately, pondering common gulls might have made my mood even worse!

article thumbnail

Black-backed Woodpeckers and Forest Fires in California and the West

10,000 Birds

'It was July of 2012. I arrived at Lassen Volcanic National Park around 7:00 a.m. It was a cool 48 degrees. I had taken the short drive to the park to search for a family of American Dippers sighted near the visitor center by a fellow birder a few days before. What I found was more than I could possibly hope for. I parked where I nearly always begin my day at Lassen Park, at the first turn out about 100 yards beyond the northern park entrance ranger station off highway 44.

article thumbnail

Pink-eared Ducks-a favourite duck

10,000 Birds

'The Pink-eared Duck Malacorhynchus membranaceus has to be my favourite duck! For obvious reasons it has listed under “other names” in field guides “Zebra Duck” and it is easily identified from all other duck species in Australia by its distinct stripes. The “pink ear” is a very small pink area just above the eye and is not as easily observed as the stripes, so no big surprise that it could be called a Zebra Duck.

Ducks 169
article thumbnail

New Production Test

Speaker: cha cha dwyer

testing erfgjnea;rgfnae