2007 List of Banished Birding Words

Check out djringer’s 2007 List of Banished Birding Words, based on Lake Superior State University’s List of Banished Words. I know I’ve been guilty of some of these.

Eastern population of Golden Eagles being tracked

The National Aviary in Pittsburgh and Powdermill Avian Research Center are both working on satellite tracking several Golden Eagles that were trapped this fall near the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch near Bedford, PA. I was lucky enough to be in the trapping blind for a day when 39 Golden Eagles and 1 Bald Eagle [...]

Ten Laws of Winter Birding:

I saw this on the Birdchat listserv and enjoyed it. And boy, are they true.
1) The older we get, the colder it feels while birding. Global warming is counterbalanced by personal cooling.
2) The possibility of seeing a Gyrfalcon is inversely proportional to the listing need.
3) Red Crossbills never land. Never. As [...]

Study reveals further declines for the world’s waterbirds

In the somber news category, the fourth edition of the Wetlands International report on waterbird species around the world has been released. It’s based on annual field surveys by 15,000 voluntary expert observers across hundreds of sites worldwide, including many IBA’s. Of the 878 species that they present estimates and trends for, 44% [...]

How to count birds

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Snow Geese flock, originally uploaded by topherous.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird site has just posted Bird Counting 101. For anyone who spends time out in the field watching large flocks, whether they [...]

The Long-billed Murrelet Quandry or "Would you Count it?"

Well, I was there. And I most certainly saw an alcid. Could have been a murrelet. Definitely not a Razorbill. Hmm… So is this the record that I put on my life list? It seems questionable, for all I know, I could have seen a Marbled Murrelet. But most [...]

The chase is on!

A stray from Asia, the Long-billed Murrelet has been sighted at Sandy Hook, NJ and I am off to meet Cameron and some other birders in Bucks County to carpool to the site. I will let you know tonight if I am successful!

The Croissant-shaped bird

I got out today and did some of my first birding in Maryland, but was sorely disappointed. The weather had turned bloody cold but there are still no ducks around. Maybe they don’t get ducks out here? I guess that is a possibility. I did manage to pick up some year birds including [...]

Stop lurking and leave me a comment!

So I just heard this on multiple posts and thought I would pick it up before the weekend came. I won’t be posting for a few days because I am moving to Frostburg, Md to start grad school but I would really love comments if in fact anybody does read this blog. It would [...]

Year birds, state birds and a lifer

Yesterday I spent the day cruising the gull scene around Tullytown, Pa which is home to a rather massive dump. Larophiles know that dumps can often attract large numbers of gulls and this dump is no exception, attracting one of the largest numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gulls of anyplace in the Americas. My [...]