Spotting birds can be great fun, particularly when we know which birds we are seeing. There’s something about being able to say, That’s a ______, that makes all the difference. Luckily, several stunning birds are found throughout the United States or, in a pinch, half of the United States. Often, different species will be residents […]
Tag: American Robin
‘Don’t let your cat outside’: Q&A with author Peter Christie
The statistics capturing the effects that pets have on wildlife are mind-boggling. Cats in the United States alone kill at least 1.3 billion birds and up to 22.3 billion small mammals a year, according to a 2013 study in the journal Nature Communications. Cats and dogs “are now the most abundant carnivores on the planet,” […]
A Bird Sanctuary In Killingworth, CT Pt. II
It was fairly quickly learned that the feeders used to attract wildlife didn’t entice just the birds. In mid-winter as the squirrels appeared to become more numerous, they became destructive and a disturbance to the winged creatures. Eastern Bluebirds briefly investigated a pair of bird houses that had been hung for them but the squirrels […]
A Lost Opportunity At Hammonasset
For a handful of days after mid April 2017 Hammonasset Beach State Park was host to a rare species of bird for its time and place. The Killdeer above (image 1) was photographed at Hammonasset Beach State Park in April 2017. A conscientious effort on my part to avoid bad […]
Letters from Listeners: Odd Things Birds Eat
In the past few weeks, I’ve received a couple of letters from listeners about their backyard birds eating unusual items. Craig Magnuson of Forks, Washington, wrote that he’s seen Evening Grosbeaks, during several different summers, eating cold campfire charcoal shortly after dawn at the Lake Kachess campground in the Wenatchee National Forest. He noted that […]
More sun – more food – more birds
We had a winter warm-up this week with temperatures exceeding 60 degrees. Most of the snow melted and the birds were loving it. I’ve seen Mourning Doves basking in the sun. American Robins have already started their switch from a winter-berry diet to picking out meaty morsels as the surface of the soil begins to […]
Parti-colored Starling
Only kidding. It’s so cold and rainy outside that I spent most of it sitting in a comfortable chair playing games and some of it creating imaginary birds with Photoshop from my archive of bird images. A Bird Came Down the Walk by Emily Dikinson A bird came down the walk: […]
Alaska – 8th June (Day 12)
Today was a key day in the Nome section of the trip with one of the star birds to see. We were up early and headed up the Kougarok Road to Mile Post 72 we arrived at around 06:00. This site is known as the Coffee Dome, the summit of this relatively small hill is […]