10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 17, 2011

The Big Year was alright. It was neither horrible nor outstanding, neither fully factual nor completely made-up, neither completely engaging nor totally alienating. I would give it a solid “B-” as a birder whether I was grading on a curve or not. If you are a birder you should, of course, see the movie. If you are not a birder there is no reason to see it in the theater because despite the fact that the movie is about birding there is very little that is exciting or funny or orig

Colorado 245

Colorado Geese Family Owls 245

Animal Person

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Saturday was the one-year anniversary of the tragic death of my Charles Hobson Booger, III and it got me thinking about how easy he was to love. Everyone loved him. Okay, not everyone. There was that little Westie whose vulva he bit early on. Yes, vulva. No stitches, no puncture, but still a nasty bruise and some scratches. Charles had a higher prey drive than he appeared to have at first.

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Greyhounds Dogs Breeders Adoptable 137

4 The Love Of Animals

OCTOBER 18, 2011

We are in love with PAWS NY for the work they are doing. PAWS NY is an non-profit that helps the elderly and disabled care for their pets. They’re 100% volunteer, and recently some of their volunteers put together the above video to help spread the word about the work they do. Their mission: to promote the general health and well-being of under-served individuals through the provision of pet care assistance.

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Human Animals Pets Humane Animal 135

Critter News

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Apparently, this will happen in 8 months. I had no idea! Excerpted from The New York Times. In eight months, the sale of foie gras will be banned in California. But for seven hours on Friday night, at a restaurant appropriately known as Animal, three chefs presented an eight-course meal that was nothing short of a glorification of this soon-to-be-outlawed delicacy.

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Foie Gras California Veal Protest 122

Speaker: Steve Romanco

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10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 15, 2011

Despite regularly hearing their bubbling song emanating from undergrowth and the fact that they are widespread and common I have never managed to get a really good picture of a House Wren. Whenever one would show itself to me at close range I wouldn’t have my camera or the light would be bad or a stick would be in the way or I would be just plain old incompetent.

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Mexico South America North America Arizona 203

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 15, 2011

As a form of entertainment, it may lack the sophistication of America’s Got Talent , but watching a gull trying to swallow a starfish is certainly compelling. Glaucous-winged Gulls in Vancouver’s Stanley Park can often be seen with a perplexed yet determined look on their faces and a starfish half in, half out (or two-fifths in and three-fifths out, or vice-versa), apparently stuck.

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Rodents Owls America Birds 202

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2011

Though it was pretty warm for an October morning when I spotted this bird at Fort Tilden, Queens, it was fluffed up as if it was suffering from extreme cold. Maybe it was trying to be a big tough guy considering the volume of sparrows in the vicinity of where it was foraging? Somehow, I doubt it but I have to admit that I was entertained with such a fluffy Common Yellowthroat.

United States 190

United States Suffering California Sparrows 190

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2011

One of my greatest joys is photographing birds out my big studio windows. I have lots of plants that attract birds; clumps of gray birches, mulberry trees; a hummingbird garden lousy with salvias and fuchsias. Fuchsia “Gartenmeister Bonstedt” is one plant that’s a must-have for me, so much so that I save it over the winter in my greenhouse, take cuttings in spring and plant them in planters all over the studio sideyard.

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Tennessee Costa Rica New Jersey Birds 188

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2011

It is easy to forget sometimes that birds can do weird things. By weird things I don’t mean human weird things, like for example wasting their time in wild places looking for unusual feathered animals and ticking them off a list, but things that fall outside of their usual repertoire of normal behaviour. Most birds will follow a set group of behaviours, building a nest a certain way, courting a certain way, eating a certain set of food.

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Albatross Hawaii Seals Parrots 179

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2011

Before we went away for a few weeks we only had a Crested Pigeon visit our garden occasionally, but we now have a regular visitor. It comes in early in the day for a drink and returns later in the afternoon. The Bar-shouldered and Peaceful doves are a bit wary of it as it is a somewhat larger bird at approximately 35cm. We left a dripping water source for the birdlife in our absence and they have got rather used to wandering the garden and verandahs!

Birds 175

Birds Australia 175

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10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2011

It was a gusty weekend in New York City and environs, with fall finally feeling like fall is supposed to feel. Sparrows have almost completely taken over for wood-warblers and temperatures are finally waning as is only proper. How was your weekend? Mike was in Costa Rica this weekend after what felt like an interminable delay at the airport in Atlanta where he had to change planes.

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Costa Rica Atlanta New York City 2011 174

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 21, 2011

Back in 2007, DK Publishing produced what I still consider the consummate birding coffee table book. If you haven’t seen it, BIRD: The Definitive Visual Guide is simply stunning. But that’s not what this post is about. To help promote this book, we ran a series of giveaways, one of which was a call for original bird limericks. The response was stellar: birders and limericists alike responded with incredible ingenuity, precision, and wit.

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Birds Chickens Vegetarian 2007 171

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Tanzania’s Lake Natron, renowned as the best place in the world to see Lesser Flamingoes , is threatened by a potential soda ash plant. Three-quarters of the world’s population of Lesser Flamingoes nest at Lake Natron and they would almost certainly have their nesting disturbed, if they are not entirely displaced, by such a development.

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Tanzania 170

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2011

When I was a kid, my dad called them “flying stoagies”, something he picked up from an old ornithology professor. I always thought it was funny even before I really got what a stoagie was, because there’s something inherently joyful about the chittering, chattering Chimney Swifts that circle just about every neighborhood in eastern North America.

North Carolina 168

North Carolina Nashville South America Tennessee 168

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10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 21, 2011

The honeycreepers of Hawaii now have a family tree, with researchers from the Smithsonian having used DNA to map the entire family. Good news for an endangered family of birds! a.

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Family Hawaii Research Birds 160

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 15, 2011

No, I haven’t sold my soul to Rupert Murdoch but I was quoted a couple of times in a New York Post article about birding in New York City. Today, the New York Post , tomorrow, the world! a.

New York 160

New York New York City Birds 160

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 20, 2011

We’ve all heard the rough calculus equating a bird in the hand to two in the bush. One has to wonder, however, whether certain birds in hand may have even greater value. Depends on the bird, right? My contemplation of this creaky avifaunal aphorism is prompted by my recent trip to Costa Rica. Patrick O’Donnell , my intrepid guide through the land of Pura Vida, has already aptly described how mercilessly wet the country was during my stay.

Costa Rica 158

Costa Rica Ethics Collecting Rights 158

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 17, 2011

This is an extremely long blog post by a German naturalist visiting South Carolina. It is written in German but you can get the English-language Google translation and then it will make even less sense for English speakers. But the pictures, the pictures! Thanks to Jochen for the link. a.

South Carolina 157

South Carolina 157

Speaker: Gabriel Wagner Presenter

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2011

Forgive me for a momentary lapse from relatively straightforward bird-blogging. My St. Louis Cardinals, the storied National League franchise, have won their 18th National League pennant in convincing fashion. It wasn’t easy for the Redbirds to get to this spot though – the Cardinals season has had more ups and downs than an American Goldfinch in flight.

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St. Louis Milwaukee Bats Game 155

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 20, 2011

This last week has provided me a stark reminder of how volatile October weather can be in some places. Much of Central America, for example, has been fairly inundated by endless rain. That information doesn’t usually impact a New Yorker like me, but since I just got back from Costa Rica I found the inclement conditions highly relevant. So when I ask each week what you’re doing during the coming weekend, feel free to explain that your weekend will likely be ruined by the coming blizza

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Costa Rica 2011 Birds America 154

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2011

After “ mysterious bird deaths ” that are pretty obviously caused by crashing into buildings in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina it is past time to figure out how to mitigate the damage. The video you can find at the link, which features footage of a variety of dead birds, is rather sad. It is just annoying that television news doesn’t even try to figure out what is happening, even though in their own article someone points out that it is probably birds crashing into buildings. a

South Carolina 154

South Carolina Birds 154

4 The Love Of Animals

OCTOBER 17, 2011

What do you do if you lose your pet? What about if you find a pet without a collar? Lost Pet Atlas has the answer. Created by two animal lovers who had the misfortune of losing their beloved cat “Gracie” last summer. Over the course of trying to locate their cat by posting flyers on telephone poles and creating listings on various websites, they noticed there wasn’t a very good online resource for lost and found pets.

Pets 125

Pets Cats Animal 125

Speaker: cha cha dwyer

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Critter News

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Unfortunate, but the court decided she would not survive being returned to the wild. Here's an excerpt from the online Boston Globe. Morgan, a 4-year-old killer whale, has lost her bid for freedom Agriculture Secretary Henk Bleker ruled Wednesday that the orca, rescued last year ailing and emaciated from the Wadden Sea off the northern Dutch coast, should be transferred to an amusement park on the Spanish island of Tenerife.

Whales 116

Whales Whaling Boston Zoos 116

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 21, 2011

Presented without further comment. Except that, yeah, I know that not all hunters are like this… a.

Hunters 157

Hunters Ducks Rights 157

4 The Love Of Animals

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Puppy mills – breakthrough study by Best Friends Animal Society | The Best Friends Blog. This is wonderful news, and as always, we applaud Best Friends for the work they do for animals. Please take time to visit the link above and read about how puppy mills affect animals both mentally and physically.

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Puppy Mills Puppies For Animals Animal 109

4 The Love Of Animals

OCTOBER 16, 2011

We first learned about the great website, DogTipper.com , on Twitter via @HollywoodDogs (Grace)! Grace, who writes about celebrity pets on DogTipper, also tweets about dogs/cats in need of a home, as animal rescue is a subject close to her heart. After all, she currently has four fur babies– all tuxedo cats (formerly strays) from the same family!

Stray 109

Stray Fur Dogs Rescue 109

Speaker: Steve Romanco

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Critter News

OCTOBER 20, 2011

The owner released them and killed himself. Now, 48 of the 56 animals have been put down. Tragic. These animals include endangered species. What was he thinking?

Ohio 109

Ohio Endangered Species Animal Killing 109

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Why would anyone shoot a Red-tailed Hawk with a nail gun ? Hat-tip to Seagull Steve. a.

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154

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2011

This article has so much cool information I can’t even believe it. a.

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Vermont New York Wolves 160

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Sigh. Hat-tip to the Stokes. a.

Birds 178

Birds 178

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