article thumbnail

Best Bird of the Year 2012

10,000 Birds

This bird spent the 2011-2012 winter at Colusa National Wildlife Refuge in northern California, migrated someplace exotic and distant in February, and returned to the same pond at the beginning of this month. However, he went far afield to find a more familiar fowl. I traveled to the other side of the world just to see a chicken!

2012 144
article thumbnail

On the Freezing of Birds

Animal Person

I was watching a news segment on a wildlife rehabilitation center here in Florida. Too Early Charley was a Muscovy who had just busted through his shell with his egg tooth. They were each frozen in various states of sheer terror, in positions that clearly indicated attempts to escape to save their lives.