10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

A Marsh Harrier hunting over Elmley Nature Reserve before the storm The wind was building up as I started my slow drive along the track, pausing every few yards to scan for birds. This was not just any rain but the kind that sweeps across a landscape nearly horizontally, driving all in its path, birds and men, to take shelter.

Shelters 227

Shelters Cattle Wildlife Hunting 227

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

How much do you know about owls? I’ve been fortunate to encounter many owls in my birding life, sometimes because I’m looking for them, sometimes happily by happenstance. What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds is a joyous, fascinating read. I don’t think so.

Owls 221

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 221

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 9, 2017

Sergio and I continue to a sloth shelter, where, waiting for the tour, I sit in a café. Working with the local jaguar conservancy, he learned that there are 10 or 11 different animals hunting peccaries and other prey at Selva Bananito. He answers: “Maybe the ganja those guys are smoking makes it that strong.”.

Costa Rica 146

Costa Rica Reptiles Farming Mississippi 146

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2022

Logging roads have opened up vast areas to commercial hunting, leading to industrial-scale poaching and a more than 60 per cent drop in the region’s Forest Elephant population in less than a decade. The region also provides food, fresh water and shelter to more than 75 million people of nearly 150 distinct ethnic groups.

Central African Republic 298

Central African Republic Congo Gabon Gorillas 298

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2013

To assess their populations, draw their blood, test them for lead, and discover what kind of impact feeding on gut piles might have on these iconic raptors, particularly the young ones, as hunting season begins in Montana. To gain knowledge of migration routes, wintering sites, survival rates. To understand, and thus to protect.

Eagles 179

Eagles Tethering Science Wounded 179

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

The sheltered bays of the Coromandel are home to another endemic, the Southern Merganser. This fish hunting duck ranges from the northern tip of New Zealand to the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands (after which it was first named) but is common nowhere. Laughing Owl. It certainly has no known relatives.

New Zealand 208

New Zealand Ducks Australia Mountain Goats 208