10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2012

Around thirty miles from Missoula in the Bitterroot Valley lies the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge. My specific goal was to see Trumpeter Swans , which, let’s just say it’s lucky that they’re not my new nemesis species – we spotted a group of three from the parking lot as soon as we got out of our cars.

Wildlife 166

Wildlife Montana Geese Bald Eagle 166

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

E.g. I remember trying to enter my local scrubland once, just across the car park behind the last apartment building and there, awaiting me, was a territorial pack of stray dogs barking at an intruder – me. At some stage, a salmon-hunting bear at a shingle beach came too close, mere 9 steps. Cactus finch, Geospiza species.

Animal 114

Animal Bears Stray Dog Blackbirds 114

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

The problem of free-roaming cats — and their predation on birds and other wildlife — is hotly contested in communities across the country, and it triggered a lively exchange in the hearing room. Cats are domesticated animals that are not indigenous wildlife in North America.

Feral Cats 203

Feral Cats Feral Cats Minneapolis 203

10,000 Birds

APRIL 11, 2011

Queens, the finest borough in New York City, as I may have mentioned before, is where I have now seen a whopping 279 species! What species will be the ten to get me to 289? It was hunting around the edges of the West Pond of Jamaica Bay back at the beginning of March, a day that I saw both the individual in Queens and one in Brooklyn.

Jamaica 156

Jamaica Owls 2010 New York City 156