All Blog Posts (1,033)

This photo of Little Bee-eaters is one I entered in the 2011 Audubon photo contest. While it was not a winner, it did make the top 100 photos submitted. To see all of the top 100 go to …

     Yesterday I got a call from the avian rehabilitation/education center where I used to be on staff and now volunteer.  There was a report of an injured Bald Eagle about twenty miles from my home.  I grabbed a blanket, large cardboard box, a net, a pair of gloves, and headed to the location.  I met the helpful homeowner at his rural central Wisconsin home. 

     He had seen the eagle along the road in his front yard, but the bird had hopped away, through deep snow, down toward a…

01-31-12

About 8:30 a.m. I went and sat in a make-shift blind in hopes to catch the Black-billed Magpies feeding. I did not. Went back home and used a Pileated Woodpecker call. A Male responded very quickly. Took several photo's of him as well as Black-Capped Chickadee's, Redpolls, Red-Breasted Nuthatch and White-Breasted Nuthatch. Blue Jay's came in but were very quick. Did not even try for a shot of them today.

Hi All! Why feed meal worms to the birds? Because so many birds eat insects naturally, feeding meal worms to the birds seems like a natural thing to do. How many of you have used mealworms to attract backyard birds?…

It is so warm here its ridiculous. It might as well be spring. i've even seen bulbs thinking about popping up. The birds are going to be terribly confused when/if we get a big snowstorm late in the spring, last year it was snowy/rainy bad weather until the middle of June......i wish we weren't sick all the time so i could start cleaning up my flower beds and my herb garden

http://www.suttoncenter.org/pages/live_eagle_camera   The eagle was feeding a chick this morning at 8:30 appox. Date Jan 29,2012. On the Oklahoma wildlife department site will tell you where to see the eagles go under "birds and bats" http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/wildlifemgmt/birds_bats.htm Sometimes the screen goes black try refreshing the page.…

This is the fourth winter that Mary Lou and I have been monitoring a Bald Eagle nest that is located only about 1 1/2 miles from our South Florida home. So far, they are known to have successfully raised eight eaglets since the spring of 2008. In a previous post we provided an overview of this, the first active Bald Eagle nest in Broward County since the 1960's, before DDT was restricted.  We organized a team of…

One of my featured photos for February's wallpaper calendars is a photo of a chipper little winter chickadee, in a tree in Northeast Iowa. Please, feel free to download it and enjoy.

The other calendar photo is a Pacific sunset, in La Jolla, CA.

Check them out:…

Hi guys, my book ' Saskatchewan Birds in Pictures' is now available to buy at the Blurb bookstore.

Please feel free to 'like' it on Facebook, and if you don't want to buy it , you can still preview the entire book on the website.…

Murmuration…usually defined thusly....“A murmuration occurs when many thousands of starlings flock together in preparation to land and settle for the night.”

Yesterday afternoon, though,  I learned that tree swallows also gather like this thanks to a chance encounter with an employee of Hillsborough County. After enjoying the company of a fellow birder, her dog and a friend at my home, I drove with another friend to a reserve about six miles away, because someone had…

I have a question for anyone who might be able to help. I live in Palm Coast Florida. There are many species of birds around. Unfortunately my Mockingbirds have taken over the feeder. They dive bomb anyone else that comes near. They did this last spring when they had their babies. Once the babies were on their own, they stopped using the feeder and then all my other feathered friends were back. Now they have done it again. Any one have any ideas how to correct this? They let all the other…

NRDC is thrilled to share the news that the Keystone XL pipeline has been rejected by the Obama administration. This pipeline would have locked the United States into a dependence on expensive and dirty oil and generate a massive expansion of the tar sands oil operations in Canada. This is great news for billions of songbirds, who migrate to and from Canada’s boreal forest and nest there annually. Tar sands oil processing plants devastate the boreal landscape and create toxic tail ponds…

We store our Christmas paraphernalia in the attic. There are no steps to our attic, a ladder is necessary, which makes the entire process of hoisting up all the boxes even more tiresome. This year there was a most surprising element to this long and tedious job: when we opened the attic hatch, two starlings flew down, into the house!…

I’m not normally a big fan of bird banding, but in the case of hummingbirds, I’m willing to make an exception. Why? Because over 25 hummingbird species are now threatened or endangered. The hummingbird research project in Stanley Park (Vancouver, BC) is part of the Hummingbird Monitoring Network (HMN), a science-based, project-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of hummingbird diversity and abundance throughout the Americas. This work is necessary because much still…

New York Times article quoting Audubon and Cornell sources says large numbers of snowy owls are appearing as far south as Kansas:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/science/earth/spike-in-snowy-owl-sightings-stirs-speculation-among-bird-watchers.html?ref=science

Mary Lou's favorite local bird is the Painted Bunting, but the Elegant Trogon goes down as her "anywhere" favorite. (Read here how the trogon was responsible for Mary Lou's "conversion.") Both share bright green and red feathers, though the Painted Bunting adds a generous dose of brilliant blue. My favorite? It's hard to say, as the Rose-breasted Grosbeak was probably my "epiphany" bird. As a kid I will not…

Wow - great seeing the close up picture of the hooded merganser. Today I visited a pond where two

weeks ago we saw thousands of mallards, N. pintails, Common Goldeneyes, Canada Geese -- and

a few special treasures - Bufflehead pair, two pairs of Harlequin ducks, and two pairs of hooded mergansers.-- which were hard to spot in the parades of all the rest. Beautiful irridescent green heads, smartly dressed pintails and dashing goldeneyes made for quite a sight with their…

So I found this site while looking up info for our Bird Club Newsletter for the Great Backyard Bird Count. It looked like fun to be with  like minded people. I got interested in birding when we bought our house and the previous owner left bird feeders. Being a stay at home mom, I thought it would be fun. Now my daughter and I are both members of the Grant Co. Bird Club and love it!

Today while walking our collie to the lake, I saw another new visiting bird - a Hooded Merganser! Pretty cool seeing a pair of them. Wonder what new bird I'll see next?

(female left, male right)…