birding
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Forever
A taxidermy representation of a Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis), a species hunted to extinction by the mid-19th century. This was the largest Alcid, up to a three feet tall and weighing some 11 lbs. They were flightless but excellent swimmers in the cold, fish rich waters of the north. The bird’s scientific name was later…
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Field Trip: Hawk Mountain
Hawk Mountain, near Kempton, PA, used to be the the site of the slaughter of hundreds to thousands of raptors per day during the autumn months. The raptors were attempting to migrate south along the Kittatinny Ridge, a long spine of the Appalachians, and geography funneled them past the mountain, where gunners could sit and…
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Wren Nest
A nest of a Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris). About the size of a softball, made of woven reeds, with a side-entrance usually facing south. Males may build up to half a dozen partially completed nests in a courting area of territory before females arrive in the spring. A female who choses a particular mate/nest will…
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Memento Mori
Found, like this, on University Place yesterday. A male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapitcus varius). You almost never see the yellow-tinged belly from a distance.
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Field Trip: Cape May
Rothko sunrise on the big beach at Wildwood Crest on the Cape May peninsula, hanging down from New Jersey’s southeastern end like an appendix. I was on the beach about 50 minutes before sunrise, with a long row of mostly-empty-in-the-off-season motels behind me, and the Sanderlings already working the edge of the waves in the…
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Migration
A time fraught with hazards. This warbler didn’t make it. Perhaps it was taken by one of the Merlins scouring the air over the park lately, for raptors are on the move, too.But also a time of new life, as a Common Yellowthroat in his first year makes his way south, towards the Southeast, Florida,…
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Wood Duck
A male Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) in fresh breeding plumage, which he will sport until early next summer.
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Birds II: Life Species
My cup overfloweth, and I didn’t have to leave the continent, much less travel south of the U.S. border. Cinnamon Teal:This is a female, with her very N. Shoveler bill. Neotropic Cormorant, smaller than our familiar Double-crested, with a pronounced white < chin patch. Eared Grebe:In breeding plumage. And below, another in non-breeding: White-faced Ibis.…
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Birds I: Some Old Friends and Variations
I joined Wings Birding Tours for their tour of Arizona and Utah, Fall Migration in the Canyonlands. The tour superbly combined birdwatching with some of the most spectacular landscapes in the Southwest. I recommend it.On our first day on the road, we visited Boyce Thompson Arboretum, east of that sun-baked madness known as Phoenix, and…
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Ol’ Number (3)54
The Navajo Bridge crosses the Colorado River at the narrow, northeastern start of Grand Canyon National Park, under the escarpment of the Vermillion Cliffs. Those are rafts down below in the not so muy colorado water. Next to the road bridge runs a pedestrian bridge, from where these shots were taken. I didn’t make it…
Backyard and Beyond 