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The Domestic Turkey and the First Thanksgiving

10,000 Birds

This is the time of year that we rightfully contemplate the noble Turkey. I don’t believe, but this is subject to correction, that the wild and domestic Turkey were ever called by different binomials. Photograph of a Wild Turkey at Flatrock Brook Nature Center, in Englewood, New Jersey, by Corey. And it isn’t. It’s complicated.

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An Embarrassment of Riches

10,000 Birds

So I was excited to finally get to take a trip to Spain and the Middle East that we had originally planned… for the ill-fated month of March, 2020. A surplus of quality birding experiences kept me from making my reports, which is embarrassing. I will start by telling you about encounters in Turkey with two special bird families.

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My Favorite 2023 Birds

10,000 Birds

But here goes, a list of my favorite sightings for 2023: You stole my heart, you rascal you: We made a major trip to Europe, North Africa, and Turkey in late October, November and early December, combining work with some down time. In 2022, while in Turkey for our first time, I saw my first Dipper , a White-throated Dipper.

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The return of the Old Man

10,000 Birds

Nesting is now confined to Morocco, irregularly in Boghari in Algeria and in Birecik, Turkey.” (The Sadly, they no longer breed in Algeria, while in Turkey no free-flying birds remain. (In Such an intimate encounter with one of the world’s rarest birds was a memorable experience. But this range is now much reduced.

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Consolation species

10,000 Birds

That trip was to take my wife and I to Turkey, Jordan, and southern Spain, with stopovers near Paris. My one sighting of the little-known Sinaloa Martin outside of summer had occurred on a 29th of February, and I hoped to repeat that experience. Three years of my experience shows that they most certainly do. (On

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The Secret Perfume of Birds: Uncovering the Science of Avian Scent–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Going back to that assumption that birds don’t have a sense of smell, it can be traced to John James Audubon (of course), who performed several experiments with Turkey Vultures and concluded that the vultures used sight, not scent, to find food. 241) that contribute to a bird’s odor. It is also a bit misleading.

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Raptor Migration across the Straits of Gibraltar

10,000 Birds

It was actually logistically easier for me to stay away from Gibraltar itself which, as a British Crown Colony with constrained geography, a slowish, passport-controlled border with Spain and relatively limited flight connections, has its limitations. Trips hawkwatch raptors Spain'

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