I arrived home the other evening at dusk after a long journey, and stepped out of the car to hear a shouting match between blackbirds, one of the most beautiful sounds in nature. In the still calm of a clear March evening three males were fiercely staking their suburban territories, belting out sweet and flutey […]
Tag: Blackbird
I have not forgotten you, I haven’t.
Oh. Well hello there, strangers. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? My quality time with these internets are awfully fleeting. I am working/living/playing pretty much in the middle of nowhere and no longer really know how to interact with other people. It’s all awkward-organism-like when I’m in public these days. I’m a total dirtball. I’m […]
Black Birds at Marl Bed Flats
Not all black birds are blackbirds, and not all blackbirds are black, but they are all birds. This morning at Marl Bed Flats I saw lots of black birds, and some of them were blackbirds. My favorite blackbird, though, was only partly black. Bobolinks are blackbirds, and the males are black, the females aren’t. I […]
Return of the Yardbirds
Lots of you probably know the Backyard Bird Count is happening right now. It’s sort of a cool concept. If you’re unfamiliar with it, check out this link for more info. (Above: badass cedar waxwing and ping pong ball ruby-crowned kinglet) My best yardbird is still the harris’s sparrow (not a very common bird). There […]
Review of the Canon EOS 70D camera body
With temperatures around freezing point, blue skies and frost on the ground, I got down to the Rhine Delta in Austria just as the sun was rising this morning. A perfect opportunity to try out my new Canon EOS 70D camera body. All of the above shots were taken hand-held using a Canon EF 400mm […]
Bird’s Eye View of the Changing Climate
“The first sparrow of spring! The year beginning with younger hope than ever! The faint silvery warblings heard over the partially bare and moist fields from the bluebird, the song sparrow, and the red-wing, as if the last flakes of winter tinkled as they fell! What at such a time are histories, chronologies, traditions, and […]
Birds on the east coast
This is the second blog to look at Mansur Al Fahad’s trip two weeks ago to the east coast. He saw a very large number and variety of waders, some of which gave almost as many identification headaches as the gulls. However this blog looks at some of the non-waders he saw. All the pictures […]
Lake Apopka, 1/26/2013
Beyond finding the Brown-crested Flycatcher and other flycatchers I was looking for, I had fun finding other birds as well. Several birds posed for photographs, most notably Red-winged Blackbirds, Eastern Phoebe, and Ospreys. Also a Red Admiral landed on a tree trunk for me. In my haste to find the flycatchers, I didn’t stop much […]