10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2011

My birder’s brain struggled mightily to reconcile the odd shapes in the sky with any known species, but their call brought it all back. Skimmers, of course, use that laterally flattened mandible to cut the water and leave a trail of light–intriguing to small fish at dusk. From the tail band, it looks like an immature.

Florida 145

Florida Tail Banding Ducks Ohio 145

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2012

I remember way back in that same year commissioning the services of an active sport fishing boat to head out into the ‘deep’, 30 miles beyond the lighthouse at Cape Point itself, in search of a working trawler, in the hope of adding a suite of pelagic sightings to my expanding ‘life list’ of Southern African birds.

Albatross 241

Albatross Penguins Dolphins Whales 241

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

Harper contributed artwork to 120 issues of Ford Times, illustrating articles on topics ranging from travel to fish to recipes. So, the Eastern Kingbird ”is one of the Tyrant Flycatchers, Tyrannidae –America’s largest bird family–365 different species.” The chapter also gives hope.

Betty Crocker 170

Betty Crocker Birds 2008 2007 170