After crossing the river for four times and after walking above grasses and shrubs wet with dew drops under the golden rays of a rising sun for many minutes at the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm Colony, we came to the forest edge of Pasugui Subprison and first saw the Mindoro Tarictic Hornbills before the […]
This distinctive shorebird is facing quite a dire future due to its small population, restricted range and threats to both its breeding and feeding grounds. This species needs coastal wetlands both for breeding and for feeding, and this type of habitat is being destroyed quickly throughout its range. Its plight is similar to the one […]
This small, tern-like gull is suffering from destruction of both tidal mudflats and breeding habitat, so its population is in sharp decline. At Saga prefecture in Japan where a sizable population winters every year, they love to feed on small crabs on the mudflats. Factsheet: Saunders’s Gull Chroicocephalus saundersi
A couple of weeks ago I kept hearing a simple, three pitched call from the yard. I went out to investigate and it was the Black-headed Grosbeak fledgling calling to be fed. Click on photos for full sized images. It was a familiar song but I hadn’t heard it since last year and it is […]
Wetland birds have a particular niche in the bird world having adapted well in finding food sources at marshes, lakesides, bogs, riverine habitats and agricultural land.Herons, Storks, Ibises and Flamingoes have been classified under one sub group in the taxonomic order of birds in the Western Palearctic. This area (below) is one of eight zones […]
Looking back over the month of June, iris sepals unfurl and fall creating waves of hues from lavender to deep purple . . . filling the Middle Meadow garden with hundreds of blooms lasting nearly three full weeks as new buds continue to open. Eastern Tiger Swallowtails Papilio glaucus or Canadian Tiger Swallowtail Papilio canadensis […]
When Doppler radar first arrived in the area known affectionately to Texans as the Hill Country, the local television station meteorologists were understandably eager to show off the weather forecasting capabilities of their newest toy. Unfortunately, they got off to a less than impressive start. Night after night that summer, evening thunderstorms were forecast but […]
The Greater Prairie Chicken is a large bird in the grouse family. This North American species was once abundant, but has become extremely rare or extinct over much of its range due to habitat loss. They now only live on small parcels of managed prairie land. It is thought that their current population is approximately […]