10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2012

Western Screech-Owl ( Megascops kennicottii ) photos by Larry Jordan It’s been an interesting winter in my neck of the woods. Birders in Northern California have been treated to rare sightings of several species, sending avid twitchers from all over the west in our direction.

Owls 174

Owls California Jordan Sparrows 174

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. In any case, our hang-ups with vultures clearly stem from our own issues rather than any inherently bizarre trait of the species themselves. Vultures famously feed on carrion. Dead things. New World Vultures.

California Condor 173

California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 173

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2013

It’s clear that ibis have been part of human civilization for as long as there has been civilization of which to be part. The group has a worldwide distribution; 28 species living and two additional extinct. It draws a more or less firm line between those species in the Old World and those in the New, however.

Birds 201

Birds North America Charlotte New Jersey 201

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

It may be as sick as deliberately targeting an endangered species for death. With the proposed hunting seasons on sandhill cranes being discussed in Tennessee, Kentucky and Wisconsin, we must not forget the whooping crane, which travels and winters in the big sandhill crane flocks. Speculation is useless in acts of vandalism.

2011 238

2011 Hunting Kentucky Hunters 238