Take some time to learn about the amazing social structure of the Lycaon pictus or “painted wolf”, the scientific name of the African Wild Dog. While it is true that this species is perhaps one of the most efficient hunters in Africa, it also may be one of the most tender hearted. Wild dogs will […]
I have recently returned from a trip to South Africa and specifically Cape Town, an exciting and interesting place for all sorts of reasons. The wildlife opportunities are immense and varied with a vast variety of birdlife. One bird that I found interesting and very approachable was the Cape Spurfowl or Cape Francolin Pternistis capensis. […]
Yup, I’ve never really been into listing birds. Certainly I keep track of the birds I see on bird walks and outings and report sightings on eBird, but I never kept a yard list , county list, state list, or even a life list. To tell you the truth, I don’t know how many birds […]
First of all a Happy New Year to all my readers!We were away for quite a while this holiday period and I was in need of some birding at my local patch, La Janda. Every month of the year there is continual migration through our area and change is apparent almost on a weekly basis.The […]
It’s really important to learn bird behavior if you want to get good bird photographs (click on photos for full sized images). I saw a post on Facebook the other day questioning “whether you can be a “birder” with a camera rather than with binoculars.” There were some pretty interesting remarks to this question and, […]
The Eurasian Woodcock is a resident breeder in northern Japan, but migrates south in winter to my region. Usually only observed during the night, I spotted this pair on Mount Unzen just after sunset feeding on worms and grubs. Luckily I had the 1D X, as I doubt if any other Canon camera could have […]
Grab forty winks. Saw logs. For a species that’s habitually short on shut-eye, we humans sure have come up with myriad ways to talk about it. We also spend a lot of time and money studying sleep, or the lack thereof. Yet, in spite of decades of inquiry, researchers still don’t have a good fix […]
What I love about winter in New England is that the pond start to freeze up and it concentrates the ducks and other birds into smaller areas that have open water. At a local pond in Plymouth Massachusetts, it becomes much easier to photograph and observe hooded mergansers. I was able to observe and photograph […]