December, 2016

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That Time of the Year Again

10,000 Birds

How many species have I observed this year? The malicious eBird answers: only 186! Yuck! Yes, I know, I’ll reach 190, but 200? No way. Not with these prices of petrol. What have I missed? Hmm, Black-throated Diver (a.k.a. Arctic Loon), Lesser Black-backed Gull , Middle Spotted Woodpecker and Goldcrest should easily make 190, although the pecker is a bit uncertain.

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Giveaway: a perfect stocking stuffer for pet owners!

4 The Love Of Animals

We joke all the time about how an outfit isn’t complete without a bit of dog or cat hair on it. If there is one thing all pet parents know, it’s that sometimes our furry friends leave behind hairs on … Continue reading → The post Giveaway: a perfect stocking stuffer for pet owners! appeared first on 4 The Love of Animals.

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Statistics

Animal Ethics

This blog had 1,600 visits during November, which is an average of 53.3 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 54.9.

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Highlights from the 2016 Arenal, Costa Rica Christmas Count

10,000 Birds

The Christmas Count season has begun! For us birders who partake, this is a big deal. You see, we don’t just go outside and randomly watch birds during a set day in December. The significant amount of time and effort associated with organizing the count, focusing on all birds in one given area, trying not to double or triple count that flock of waxwings flying around, and simply getting out of bed on a dark December night make Christmas Counts much more involved than a simple day of birdin

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Webinar & PDF Test

Speaker: Steve Romanco

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Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Northern Central America: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Birds know habitat. They don’t read treaties or draw maps or build walls and, as far as we can tell (since we can’t talk to birds, yet), they have no concept of political boundaries. So, if you are going to write a field guide on the birds of the countries south and east of Mexico–Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—it makes the utmost sense that you embrace the whole geographic area.

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Peru is Calling – Win a Birdwatching Adventure!

10,000 Birds

If you read our earlier post , you know that the national tourism office of Peru is giving away a 7-day bird watching adventure for two in Peru, home to over 1,700 species of bird. After two days in the Amazon rainforest, you (assuming you’re the Grand Prize winner) will fly to Cusco, and make your way to your home for the next two nights, the Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel.

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The Long and the Short of It: Corvid Wings and Morphology

10,000 Birds

As the old saw goes, birds of a feather flock together—and more often than not, those birds resemble one another, versus birds that live in a faraway place. Scientists are learning, though, exactly how birds in different locations are similar across species. A new study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B posits that differences in wing shape and size synch up where with birds live.

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Justified and Ancient

10,000 Birds

They call it a shell pit because of the vast array of fossilized mollusks who once lived and died there, then became a resource to be mined as gravel and fill. But the Macasphalt (or APAC) shell pit just east of Sarasota, Florida contains plenty of vertebrates as well – the mortal remains of the extinct (various species of kingfisher and duck and gull, Titanis walleri ), the extirpated ( California Condor, Southern Lapwing ), and a few species that are still well-known and well-loved in Fl

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The 117th Audubon Annual Christmas Bird Count Has Begun!

10,000 Birds

The 117th Audubon Christmas Bird Count began yesterday and runs through January 5th. The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is a long-standing program of the National Audubon Society, with over 100 years of citizen science involvement. It is an early-winter bird census, where thousands of volunteers across the US, Canada and many countries in the Western Hemisphere, go out over a 24 hour period on one calendar day to count birds.

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Top ten birds for 2016

10,000 Birds

Firstly I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas today if you are reading this first thing Sunday morning! Of course if you are in Australia or New Zealand you probably won’t be reading this until Boxing Day, because it goes up late in the day here! Of course it also means that there is only one week left of birding to top up your year list and I am not really expecting to add anything new to my year list over the next week unless the tropical low that is buffeting the north-west of

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PDF 9.21.23

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The Berkeley Pit – An Overview

10,000 Birds

Last week many birders were shocked and saddened by the deaths of thousands of Snow Geese who, trapped by adverse weather conditions, landed at the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana. While Snow Geese are not exactly endangered – indeed far from it – the existence of a large open body of death-water is a pretty alarming condition to contemplate!

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Just the Tip

10,000 Birds

I spent the early hours of Sunday morning taking the long trudge out to the tip of Breezy Point, the southwesternmost part of Queens. Strong northwest winds gave me hope of finding a Cave Swallow , a Western Kingbird , a Northern Shrike , or some other interesting bird. I was correct about finding an interesting bird but it was not one of those that I just named.

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The Thing About Colombia

10,000 Birds

The nation of Colombia has been the victim of some bad press over the last few decades, not all of this is entirely unjustified. The 70s and 80s were not a good time for the South American nation, nor were they for much of the continent. The government of Colombia was involved in a long-simmering and occasionally boiling war with guerilla groups in the rural parts of the country.

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An American Avocet in Rookery Bay

10,000 Birds

Perhaps it’s not a surprise, but I think birders are delightful people. Who else could be continually thrilled each and every January when they tick of their first Northern Mockingbird of the year, knowing full well they’ll see another 4983457 mockingbirds before the year is through? While on a tour of Rookery Bay near the Florida Everglades, I was reminded of this lovely personality trait once more.

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Santa comes to La Paz early

10,000 Birds

In, what I am sure is an effort to keep ahead of his busy schedule, Santa Claus made an early delivery to the La Paz area. Actually, I guess I should give credit to one of Santa’s helpers, as the early arrival of this package was made possible by FedEx and my wife, who happened to be in Washington last week. She was visiting Seattle, for her Dad’s successful heart surgery.

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Alkborough Flats

10,000 Birds

We made two visits to Alkborough Flats during our UK visit and they were both incredibly different despite both visits being late in the afternoon. Alkborough Flats is an excellent place to go birding and walking and is where the River Trent and River Ouse join to meet the River Humber. Alkborough Flats were only formed in 2006 when the River Humber burst its banks and flooded 450 hectares of farmland and it is now a haven for wildlife.

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Southern Black Bustards

10,000 Birds

I love bustards. They are attractive regal looking birds that scream African savannah to me, even if the first I ever saw was in Australia. They are proud stalkers of the plains that are every bit as fierce-some as the dinosaur ancestors they evoke in the mind’s eye. And if you like bustards, you could do a lot worse than the plains, deserts, fynbos and grasslands of Southern Africa, which hold a number of species including several endemics.

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Best Bird of the Weekend (Second of December 2016)

10,000 Birds

Around this time of year (or much, much earlier) we start hearing those beloved carols everywhere we go. But I don’t need reminding that it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Unlike most of you, I live in what is currently the second snowiest city in the United States. I’m not dreaming of a white Christmas either… I’m dreading it.

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Gabriel PDF Webinar

Speaker: Gabriel Wagner Presenter

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Where Are You Birding This Second Weekend of December 2016?

10,000 Birds

Mid-December is an interesting time for birding, insofar as winter (or summer, in the Southern Hemisphere) species precede the official arrival of the season. So you still have time to add species you missed at the beginning of the year to your 2016 list. Just keep in mind that Santa sightings are growing more likely than reports of rarities in most areas.

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The Long-billed Curlew

10,000 Birds

In my continuing coverage of the return migrants to the lower Baja, todays story is of the Long-billed Curlew. This extremely large shorebird, coming is at nearly 24 inches. It is easily identified by not only by its overall size, but the extremely long bill. For the most part, there is little question about the appearance of the bird, for identification purposes.

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Best Bird of the Weekend (First of December 2016)

10,000 Birds

Many of us have finally and perhaps painfully figured out that online communication mostly occurs in an echo chamber. Our presence on the web can be expressed as a series of Venn diagrams, where each circle–representing worldview, geography, interests, and relationships–overlaps countless others, sometimes a little and sometimes a lot. This thought came to mind as I wondered how many of the people whose circles overlap mine put up their Christmas trees this weekend like we did.

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First Bird of the Year, 2017

10,000 Birds

It’s 2017! What was your first bird of the year? Share it, and the story, in the comment section. Hopefully, it was a good one!

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Webinar 5.9.22

Speaker: Steve Romanco

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Where Are You Birding This Final Weekend of 2016?

10,000 Birds

Another memorable year pulls to a close with the new one bumping up behind it. Did you see enough birds this year? Do you see the ones you wanted to see, in the places you desired to visit, with the friends whose camaraderie you appreciate? Will there be more in 2017–more birds, more places, more friends? As you take stock of your last 365 days, consider what would have made that span richer, then resolve to have more of that this year.

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Some of My Christmas Day Yard Birds

10,000 Birds

Christmas morning I looked out my window and saw something I had only seen once before in my backyard, a Phainopepla! I watched as he cautiously approached the water feature. Once he flew down to get a drink, I ran to fetch my camera and quietly slipped out the back door. I never got a photo of him so I’m posting this one from Wikipedia. If you click on the photo it will take you to the larger original.

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North Cave Wetlands

10,000 Birds

We visited North Cave Wetlands on October 22nd this year while we were in the UK and it is across the River Humber from my parent’s home and close to where we worked when we lived there in 1987. At that time it was not a nature reserve at all and the forty hectare piece of land was only acquired in 2001. We were constantly being asked locally if we had crossed the river yet to see the magnificent birding at North Cave Wetlands and so it was only a matter of time before we headed over the H

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Does it Count? or Is This a List I See Before Me?

10,000 Birds

Regular readers to the blog may have noticed Redgannet’s post on some delightful finchbills he saw in China. In the post he agonised about whether they should be included on his life list due to their “doubtful provenance” I started to formulate a reply, and it got rather big, so rather that leave this on his own post, unread, I decided to post it here instead.

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Test

Testing

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Mortgage-free light

10,000 Birds

Since I am already living the fantasy of travelling the world, looking at birds and getting paid whilst doing it (notice whilst not for , that’s a whole different dream), what more could I realistically hope for? Sometimes, on those dull, overcast days when I am scratching around to find any light to take pictures, I wish that I had an assistant with one of those light reflecting thingies so beloved of wedding photographers.

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Birding Florida Caverns State Park

10,000 Birds

Florida Caverns State Park is known for one, quite obvious thing: the caverns. It’s not surprising – they’re amazing and the park staff have done a fabulous job facilitating tours – but the park is also known for birding opportunities. This fall, I stopped at Florida Caverns with two friends who had never visited before. While they took the 45 minute tour, I opted to explore some of the rare upland hardwood forest growing within the park borders.

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AOU + COS = AOS

10,000 Birds

It’s official: The AOU (American Ornithologists’ Union) and the COS (Cooper Ornithological Society), which both date back to the late 19th century, have merged. (Could this be the most meta “lump” of all?). After pursuing parallel missions and collaborating on everything from conferences to scientific publications, the two groups recently finalized their merger.

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Wrapping up a very good 2016

10,000 Birds

As the year begins to wind down, I have taken to a bit of reminiscing. From a professional stand point, this has been an outstanding twelve months. I am not sure I can call it the “Best Year Ever” but it certainly is worth some recognition. My actual job, the one that pays all the bills has had its most profitable year to date, my guiding service “Focus On Feathers” has seen exceptional growth, and I have received some pretty nice accolades with regard to my Photography.

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New Production Test

Speaker: cha cha dwyer

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