10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Around this time of year, I keep an eye out for White-throated Sparrows landing around my home… they were right on time! Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was a total surprise while on a family outing to Edgemere Landfill in Queens. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment.

2014 167

2014 Birds Sparrows Experience 167

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2018

Family obligations kept me on the sidelines during Global Big Day, but I did manage to sneak in a little birding before traveling. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. Did you notice? That netted them 136 species, and more birding on Sunday morning got Corey even more.

2018 100

2018 Birds Sparrows Experience 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2017

I was so crippled with envy over Corey’s current Neotropical sojourn (with a few family commitments thrown in) that I could barely bring myself to look at birds at all. However, I did spot a curious assemblage of House Sparrows perched in a row along the roofline of one specific house. What was your best bird of the weekend?

Guatemala 100

Guatemala 2017 Turkey Birds 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2021

Marybeth learns as she birds, embraces listing goals as a means of engaging with community, unabashedly enjoys a little competition, struggles to balance her absolute joy in birding with unexpected, life-and-death family obligations. The book focuses on two listing events: her 2012 Louisiana Big Year and her 2016 Louisiana 300 Year.

Louisiana 264

Louisiana Species Mississippi Alabama 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2015

Just like we did last year my family spent this past weekend camping at North Lake State Park, up in New York’s gorgeous Catskill Mountains. After all, having fledgling Blackburnian Warblers , Red-eyed Vireos (like the one above), Chipping Sparrows , and Black-throated Green Warblers in the trees around the tent was awesome!

Birds 162

Birds New York Family Sparrows 162

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 20, 2013

Though Corey originally picked a Field Sparrow at Edgemere Preserve (like the one pictured above) as his Best Bird of the Weekend, an afternoon outing with his family back to Edgemere Preserve so Desi could chase after crickets and grasshoppers led to his revised Best Bird of the Weekend, a fortuitous find. How about you?

St. Louis 164

St. Louis 2013 United States Arizona 164

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2012

The bird was a sparrow, that much was clear, but it didn’t seem to fit any of the easily boxes the other North American sparrows can be fairly easily sorted into. Superficially, it resembled the Black-chinned Sparrow of the southwestern United States with its gray chest and chestnut streaked with black back.

New Jersey 211

New Jersey North Carolina Sparrows Connecticut 211

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

In this first installment, I will focus on my impressions and experiences in the highlands portion of our tour. Many Neotropical families and genera have some of their northernmost members here, such as the spinetails ( Rufous-breasted Spinetail ), Tangara tanagers ( Azure-rumped Tanager ), and guans ( Horned Guan ).

Honduras 203

Honduras Costa Rica El Salvador Arizona 203

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2011

The best birdof my weekend was a Brown Creeper that hung around long enough for me to share with generally nature-numb friends and family; what’s more fun than pulling back the curtain and showing people the world that whirls unnoticed all around them? Corey can’t choose between three choice sparrows spotted in Queens.

2011 150

2011 Sparrows Birds Experience 150

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2011

He goes on to describe how early classifications of the nine-primaried oscines relied on bill shape to determine family boundaries. A new perspective on tanagers Much of the core of the tanager family remains intact. These are neither sparrows, nor finches, but tanagers.

2003 202

2003 Sparrows Family South America 202

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2020

Where can I see Cabanis’s Ground-Sparrow followed by a fantastic meal ? I savor the timeless experience of scanning these tropical waves for storm-petrels and lost jaegers. Local guide and birder David Mora Vargas has been spending much of his time at his family’s farm in the Sarapiqui lowlands.

Costa Rica 198

Costa Rica Birds Thailand Family 198

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2014

That’s right, I, along with my family and some really good friends, was camping. It also had nesting Gray Catbirds , fledgling Chipping Sparrows , singing Red-eyed Vireos , and a patch of jewel weed that attracted Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. It was big, private, right next to the lake, and well-maintained. I like phoebes.

New York 174

New York Cooking Chipmunks Owls 174

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2015

Many of these species were very high on my life bird wish list, and the country itself would be a totally new experience: a vibrant and enchanting culture, a varied and tasty cuisine, and stunning and new landscapes. Boldly patterned and full of character, this endemic sparrow was the highlight of my first day in Mexico. Time flew by.

Mexico 170

Mexico Birds Owls Sparrows 170

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2021

”* And then, my bird club friends started talking about alternate warbler songs and sparrow dialects and I thought, “Really? And, that sparrow I heard in California that sounded so different really is a Song Sparrow?” There’s more than one song per warbler?

North America 278

North America Research Birds Groups 278

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

In the mean time, a family group of Black-throated Magpie-Jays were frolicking in the breeze high over the dry valley, showing off their exorbitantly long tail streamers. It did not take long before we had a family group of Tufted Jays right by the side of the road (KM 216) and an uncommon Gray-collared Becard at the same spot.

Mexico 184

Mexico Costa Rica Arizona Birds 184

10,000 Birds

MAY 17, 2020

The “ Explores” are only part of the book, and there is much else of value in it, even for the reader who cannot quit his job, sell all his worldly possessions, leave his home and family, and take to the byroads armed only with a parabolic microphone.

Virginia 229

Virginia Boston North America 2020 229

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2023

It is home to four diverse forest ecosystems (deciduous, mixed, boreal, and lowlands), experiences seasonal weather systems ranging from cold dry Arctic winters to humid, thunder-storm filled summers, and, according to the latest official checklist, hosts four professional sports teams with bird names.* state and Canadian provinces.

North America 195

North America Birds Owls Canada 195

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2022

There are charismatic birds like Barrow’s Goldeneye, Evening Grosbeak, Red and White-winged Crossbills; mysterious seabirds like Leach’s Storm-Petrel; ‘little brown jobs’ like Winter Wren and Nelson’s Sparrow; a treasury of warbler species, 27 in all, many state breeders.

Los Angeles 181

Los Angeles Birds District of Columbia Parrots 181

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2015

GISS—general impression, size, shape—is intuitive, the result of an unconscious cognitive process derived from experience in the field. Bird families that resemble each other are combined into one chapter, for example “Owls, Nightjars, and Nighthawks,” and are then treated separately within the chapter.

Birds 168

Birds New Jersey Science Groups 168

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2011

Sparrows have almost completely taken over for wood-warblers and temperatures are finally waning as is only proper. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. It was a gusty weekend in New York City and environs, with fall finally feeling like fall is supposed to feel.

Costa Rica 170

Costa Rica New York City Atlanta 2011 170

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2011

On a recent family trip to Jones Beach, on New York’s Long Island, I had the opportunity to observe a small flock of gulls bathing, resting, and preening in some shallow brackish water that had collected behind the beach. I need to go find some sparrows or some other species that are really easy to deal with… a.

New York 176

New York Collecting Sparrows Experience 176

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

For example, we might just enjoy the calls and antics of those White-throated Sparrows while searching for a Harris’s. After seeing the rare, endemic, and major target Cabanis’s Ground-Sparrow on the first afternoon, the coast was clear to look for lots more birds.

Costa Rica 172

Costa Rica Species San Jose Birds 172

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2021

Of course, with the Drakensberg still not that far away from Capetown and South African explorers obviously very fond of saving mental energy by simply starting bird names with the word “cape”, we have the Cape Robin-Chat … … the Cape Rock Thrush … … the Cape Sparrow … … and the Cape Weaver.

South Africa 217

South Africa Africa Lesotho Nigeria 217

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

Here are some of the best experiences of my excellent trip. I managed to get some video of this greedy thrasher before a family walked down the path, and you can view it here. It is my experience that good things happen after trips and festivals end. Now, years later, it was time to return. And, Montezuma Quail.

Arizona 101

Arizona Lovebirds Phoenix New Jersey 101

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2019

Snowcap and White-tipped Sicklebill – Choice hummingbirds in a speciose, fantastic family of birds. One of those occasions was by invitation from the San Vito Birding Club , a memorable experience I will cover in another blog post. We saw both of these beauties at known sites near the edge of Braulio Carrillo National Park.

Costa Rica 193

Costa Rica Species Birds New York 193

10,000 Birds

APRIL 18, 2011

Also, I somehow doubt that whether I am stuck at work or not really influences how everyone else experiences spring but this is my blog post so I can use whatever criteria I want to measure how well spring has gone. Not much of a vignette but I have a nice picture of the sparrow so I feel that I had to mention it. Of course it did.

New York City 161

New York City New York Walruses Birds 161

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 30, 2012

When staying with Daisy’s family in Yorba Linda, California, I often wake up early in the morning and take the short walk up to the southern end of Carbon Canyon Regional Park to do some birding. But the experience I had this morning put my previous sightings in the shade. I half hid behind a bush, put my camera up, and waited.

Coyotes 100

Coyotes California Mammals Sparrows 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2013

The many islands of the Caribbean Sea are as unique a place to experience the amazing potential for speciation and diversity as the more famous Galapagos and Hawaiian islands are. As a hanger-on of my wife’s family I find myself this week in Aruba, one of the ABC islands just off the coast of northern South America.

South America 159

South America Netherlands America Sparrows 159

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2013

People ascribe near mythic status to the members of the family Delphinidae (and other related families). Even people with no other interest in wildlife, who couldn’t tell a sparrow from an ostrich (or even a dolphin from a fish) love dolphins. Which has always mystified me slightly. South Banks Peninsula.

Dolphins 154

Dolphins Sharks New Zealand Albatross 154

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

According to Corey Finger (author of the soon-to-be-published ABA Field Guide to Birds of New York , and we’re all very excited about it), selection of species is one of the more challenging parts of writing an ABA field guide and I was happy to see my favorite Pennsylvania bird, Henslow’s Sparrow amongst the 15 sparrow species covered here.

Pennsylvania 154

Pennsylvania Texas Whales Whaling 154

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2012

Eurasian Collared-Doves and Wood Pigeons couldn’t be missed, Eurasian Tree Sparrows were ubiquitous, European Goldfinch and European Greenfinch were easy to spot, White Wagtails walked along wagging their tails, and Northern Wheatears and European Golden Orioles both had fledglings that they were tending.

Hungary 159

Hungary United States Birds Woodpeckers 159

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 9, 2013

“That more rehab centers would accept non-natives, like pigeons house sparrows, and starlings,” wrote Charis in Oregon. Monte in California agreed: “I’d like some time just to watch healthy wild families.”. Change in Government Attitude. Charitable Things. wrote Maryjane in Pennsylvania.

Wildlife 237

Wildlife Wildlife Rehabilitation Oklahoma New York 237

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2012

The search for the next new bird is that much more fulfilling when you’re limited to the smallest of the arbitrary political boundaries in the United States, and the search for those birds necessitates a broad working knowledge of the county of the sort that can only be attained through experience. You simply cannot go wrong.

McDonalds 164

McDonalds South Carolina North Carolina Jordan 164

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2019

Endangered and awesome, it’s pretty easy to experience this big parrot in the Pacific lowlands of Costa Rica from Tarcoles north to near Nicaragua. This former aberrant wood-warbler is so weird, it has been given its own family. Cabanis’s Ground-Sparrow. Yellow-naped Parrot. Bare-necked Umbrellabird. Wrenthrush.

Costa Rica 200

Costa Rica Panama Birds Eagles 200

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 22, 2016

After all, birding under a highway is not exactly my idea of a pleasant experience. It was another nice look but I didn’t linger as I wanted to get home and enjoy the rest of the day with the family. But a quick scan with my binoculars proved that the stop at the unassuming spot was well worth it. Greater White-fronted Goose !

Puerto Rico 119

Puerto Rico Geese Canada Porpoises 119

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2019

Clearly, author Phyllis Limbacher Tildes, the author of 24, soon to be 25, children’s books, is also a birder (and a little research brings up a presentation she gave at Ogeechee Audubon, Georgia with the biographical information and she and her family “love watching birds and wildlife seen near their lagoon on Skidaway Island.”

New York City 140

New York City Pelicans Birds New York 140

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2011

If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. On Sunday at Kissena Park I saw five species of sparrows. A mixed species flock of sparrows (american tree, field and chipping) was by the bike track parking lot. I see why people sometimes call them gray ghosts.

2011 153

2011 New York Deer Birds 153