Many species of birds use shed snake skin in nest construction, but this behavior is poorly understood. In new research, ornithologists at Cornell University used comparative and experimental approaches to suggest that the evolution of this behavior is mediated by nest morphology and predator communities. They used a series of experiments and comparisons to test […]
Tag: American Robin
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 […]
The Cruelty of a South Wind
One of my friends recently moved to Duluth from Bemidji. He seemed utterly distraught on April 14, when the high here was 43 degrees but 78 in Bemidji. I don’t know if T.S. Eliot was thinking specifically about Duluth when he wrote that April is the cruelest month. Other places may have it as bad, […]