10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2024

They are ridiculously unafraid of people there – so the cynic in me suspects that swan meat is not regarded as tasty by the Japanese (another explanation, that the Japanese just like animals too much, can presumably be discarded given the country’s very principled approach in insisting on the right to kill whales).

China 236

China Iceland Whales Whaling 236

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2013

It breeds in a broad and not quite coherent band from Iceland in the west through central Europe and southern Scandinavia all the way to eastern Russia, wintering in Africa, parts of India, and Southeast Asia to Australia. Aspect one is feeding when humans are not around.

Germany 183

Germany Russia Iceland India 183

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2022

Eagle-eyed Pat spotted a Lesser Black-backed Gull in nonbreeding plumage and other birders that week noted a Thayer’s Gull (which we may have seen too–I mean, who expects Iceland Gull in April?). They did flush eventually, but not because of humans. It was a Magnificent Frigatebird, the pirate of the seas, for that!

Houston 238

Houston Texas Sanctuary Sparrows 238

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

I very much enjoyed the first section, which relates the history of the bird and its relationship with us, humans, from its discovery in 1851 up to the fateful Lake Mack fire and its aftermath in the 1980’s. Most of the chapters are in the first two sections; the future is a brief, open question.

Michigan 248

Michigan Bahamas Endangered Species Research 248