Merlins are winter visitors in the Salt Lake Valley so I have just a few more weeks to attempt photographing them. Merlins used to be called “pigeon hawks” because their shape and flight patterns are similar to pigeons. Merlins feed on small mammals, birds as large as doves and apparently they include bats in their […]
Juvenile Burrowing Owl Portrait
Just a simple portrait of a juvenile Burrowing Owl taken in the soft light of dawn. Burrowing Owls are beautiful birds with lemony yellow eyes, downy soft feathers and subtle coloration. It’s hard to believe that they aren’t that much different in size from an American Robin. OnTheWingPhotography.com
Birding Couch Park, with an homage to the Babe
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 […]
Illegal ivory trade blooms during Egypt’s Arab Spring
The illegal trade in elephant ivory is flourishing in Egypt due to a lack of law enforcement, combined with the entrance into the market of a major new consumer — the Chinese buyer, according to a new TRAFFIC investigation. The new report, Illegal ivory sales in Egypt published in the latest issue of the TRAFFIC […]
Snowy Owl “irruption” in North America
Local farmers, amateur birdwatchers and bird researchers have witnessed an unusual and at times disturbing phenomenon recently as huge numbers of snowy owls are migrating south from the Arctic and being seen as far south as Missouri. Such are the increasingly large numbers of this majestic owl species that it is being described as a “mass […]
Illegal Bird Trapping in Cyprus
The air in a parking lot in southeastern Cyprus is filled with the song of the blackcap, but the small warblers themselves are nowhere to be seen. The calls are hurtling out of a tiny speaker. “This is a tape player, but we’ve got CD players, we’ve got it on mp3s,” says Andreas Pitsillides, who […]
Is this the beginning of the end of the Canadian commercial seal hunt?
Comments being made in certain quarters of the Canadian politicalhierarchymay indicate that there is a creepingrealisationthat the negative publicity that Canada receives from its adherence to the annual commercial seal hunt is not worth the financial returns obtained from the selling of seal products. Ryan Cleary, a New Democrat MP representing Labrador and Newfoundland has […]
Almost 1,500 Turtles “Crammed Like Sardines” Into Suitcases
Close to 1,500 live Pig-nosed Turtles were seized yesterday in Mopah Airport, Merauke, in Papua Province, Indonesia. The 1,495 turtles were concealed inside two suitcases en route to Jakarta, the nation’s capital and a major hub for illicit wildlife trade. Valued as pets, and possibly consumed as meat in some countries, Pig-nosed Turtles are smuggled […]