North American Birding

Return to The Valley (Day 1)

by Dave Dolan on February 1, 2012

I receive eBird reports every day, telling me what is being seen throughout Texas on a daily basis. There have been several birds that I have wanted to see that have been showing up on those reports. I actually went looking for several of them when I went down to the Rio Grande Valley with [click to continue reading...]

Birding Couch Park, with an homage to the Babe

by Tim O'Connell on January 30, 2012

A much-debated legend in baseball involves the New York Yankee’s Babe Ruth at the plate facing the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field for game 3 of the 1932 World Series. According to the story, Ruth was enduring quite a bit of trash-talk from the Cubs’ bench, and he returned same: With the count at two [click to continue reading...]

Anachronisms and Woodpeckers.

by Mike at Two-Fisted Birdwatcher on January 21, 2012

This short essay appeared on Two-Fisted Birdwatcher a while back. It’s not much about ornithology, although there’s a bird in it. There are birds in all our stuff. But all our stuff comes at the subject of birds, birding and nature with a pretty wide lens. Which means that it might make a fair counterpoint [click to continue reading...]

A Raptorpalooza (with a LIGHT MORPH Adult Harlan’s Hawk); Woodford Co, IL

by Matt Fraker on January 20, 2012

Few things can match a day at Raptor Central when things are hoppin’…
But first –
So I walk into my clinic on Tuesday, with Winter Raptors as far from my mind as they can possibly get, and I overhear one of my staff members ask another, “So where did that hawk come from?”
I jump in and [click to continue reading...]

A new way to identify Selasphorus hummingbirds?

by

Greg Neise 01.18.2012

In November, a Selasphorus hummingbird showed up at a feeder near Chicago, IL and caused quite a stir. There were many reasons for this (this genus is rather rare in Illinois), but mostly because it had heavily-marked green flanks: [click to continue reading...]

This bird showed no rufous markings on the back at all (not even a slight reddish fringing [click to continue reading...]

Fill in the gaps–bird the road less traveled this January

by

eBird 01.14.2012

Visualization of eBird checklist submission for January. By Paul Hurtado. [click to continue reading...]

eBirders often email us and ask where they should go birding to make the biggest impact in regions with little data. It’s perhaps little surprise that eBird checklist submissions are most dense in areas with large human populations, so getting away from those areas is a [click to continue reading...]

My Favorite CBC

by

Dave Dolan 01.10.2012

As a general rule I am a major proponent of Christmas Bird Counts, and historically the Cypress Creek CBC has been my favorite of all CBCs. The first one I did was when I met Howard and Steve, two of my favorite birding partners. I have mentioned Steve numerous times, he is the president [click to continue reading...]

A New Year’s Cannonball Run: The Conclusion (01/06/12)

by

Matt Fraker 01.07.2012

We slept in just a bit yesterday. The original plan was for the two of us to take rural roads all the way home to central Illinois from western Ohio to look for Winter raptors. From the get go, we could not seem to avoid getting behind drivers ignoring the speed limit on the slow [click to continue reading...]

A New Year’s Cannonball Run: Days 3 and 4 — Back to Boston than Away to Ashtabula (01/04-05/12)

by

Matt Fraker 01.07.2012

One exercise I do NOT plan on doing is adding up how much money I will pay to toll roads on this trip. Holy Turnpike, Batman!!
My third run on the I-90 turnpike was going to actually take me INTO Boston this time to get to a blue collar northern suburb known as Lynn. Here is [click to continue reading...]

A New Year’s Cannonball Run: Day 2 — West Newburyport, Gloucester, and the Berkshires (01/03/12)

by

Matt Fraker 01.07.2012

Tucher and I started our Tuesday, January 3rd, nice and early and made our way around Boston on I-495 to land up in the northeast corner of the state to look for one of two Barnacle Geese that had been present in this immediate area of New England. This Goose had been frequenting a couple [click to continue reading...]

A New Year’s Cannonball Run from the East: Day 1 — Chesapeake, Va. to Marlborough, Ma. (01/02/12)

by

Matt Fraker 01.07.2012

Monday, January 2nd, was the departure day. I ferried the whole fam damily to the Norfolk Airport and after hugs and kisses, Tucher and I made on.

We made our final traverse of the CBBT — man, I love this thing. During our northbound journey, a HUGE flock of birds caught my eye to the west [click to continue reading...]

A New Year’s Cannonball Run from the East: Prelude — 12/26/11 to 01/01/12

by

Matt Fraker 01.07.2012

Monday, December 26th, found my daughter and I scrambling around town for last minute wrap-ups prior to a Virginia departure. She and I were heading out to meet the rest of our family near Virginia Beach to visit some very special family of Sherri’s.
During our scrambling, I just HAD to take one more peek for [click to continue reading...]

Closing out 2011

by

Dave Dolan 01.07.2012

The end of 2011 was upon us and I had 393 species seen in Texas for the year on December 20. The 400 species mark was a goal that I had aspired to, but time was running out. I decided to try for the rarities in the Rio Grand Valley the week before Christmas, and [click to continue reading...]

Easing into birding with an ambassador from the Arctic

by

Tim O'Connell 01.04.2012

As the 112th Audubon Christmas Bird Counts wind down we look expectantly to the future. How will the results pan out? What kind of winter will this be? What birds might we find next month during the Great Backyard Bird Count? In my case, I almost always end up looking forward to spring: Now that [click to continue reading...]

2011: The Year of Big Days

by

Greg Neise 12.30.2011

On January 27, Skrentny sent me a text: “BTW, after going through Northern Illinois Big Day records, I declare now that after the next three seasons of birding, I want us to be on every month, and number one for a few.”
By “three seasons” he meant three years (he’s a Cubs fan), so I said, [click to continue reading...]

Out owling.

by

Greg Neise 12.29.2011

2011 has been a great year for me as far as birds and birding are concerned. Skrentny and I completed our Year of Big Days, breaking 11 out of 12 big day records for northern Illinois and setting two state records.
One of our other accomplishments was to find Saw-whet Owls on 5 of our 12 big days, [click to continue reading...]

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