Archive for August, 2009
« Previous EntriesBeen Hiking Again
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
The Traveling Lovenest*
Birdcouple has been off hiking the Appalachian Trail again - closing in on the 600-mile mark in our travels along the AT! Wahoo!!!
We’ll be posting full details of the adventure soon on BC’s AT blog.
And we’ll be back to the birds soon. Fall migration is on!!
Rating 3.00 [...]
BBQ With The Birds
Submitted by BrdPics Blog
Hey folks- there’s still time to join the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory at their annual picnic on 29 August (this coming Saturday.) It is held at the historic Old Stone House at Barr Lake State Park just NE of Denver. There are lots of cool birding events, workshops, and exhibits, great food, [...]
Crows Playing with a Pebble
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Six or seven American Crows often come together to a birdbath in our front yard. They don’t stay long and don’t make a mess – they’re much neater than many of the other birds that visit. Several of them usually crowd together, perching around the rim to drink, then they take [...]
Bye Bye to Bye Bye Birdie 2009
Submitted by Bird TLC Blog
Bye Bye Birdie 2003 is for the history books now. We had awesome weather, a great turn out and 2 awesome releases. We had a lot of help from our partners, the Alaska Zoo and Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
We had some financial help from ConocoPhillips,
U.S. Fish & Wildlife [...]
Sure, Birds
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Warren, who’s on “stay-cation” this week, partly to chill and partly to get young Adam ready for college move-in tomorrow, took a day to himself Monday and went birding. The place was the Delmarva peninsula and the targets were shorebirds, which are in southward migration this time of year.
Where better [...]
Creating a Backyard Bird Habitat
Creating a backyard habitat is not difficult to do. You’re trying to create an environment that birds and other wildlife will feel comfortable in. A backyard habitat does not have a manicured look to it. A wildlife friendly yard has a casual feel about it. It is not meticulous, with every plant pruned to look [...]
Nikon Birding ProStaff
Submitted by BrdPics Blog
Some of you faithful readers may have noticed a new icon on the top of the left banner- the vaunted yellow Nikon logo. I’m very pleased to announce that I’ve joined the Nikon Birding ProStaff.
I would like to thank Leica and especially their birding market specialist, Jeff Bouton, for years of a [...]
Bye Bye Birdie
Submitted by Bird TLC Blog
Bird TLC Presents: Bye Bye Birdie 2009
Who’s Overhead?
If you are dying to see all of Bird TLC’s live education birds in one place at one time, this is your chance.
If you have a really good bird call, come down and try your luck in the bird calling contest.
If you have been [...]
Went birding, forgot camera
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Maybe it’s because we stayed up nearly until 2 am on Friday reminiscing with Adam, who is about to make the big step to becoming a college man, but we flew out of here on Saturday morning with half our usual bird gear - including no camera.
Our destination was Ocean [...]
It’s been a bizzy week
Submitted by Bird TLC Blog
Our Rough-Legged Hawk got released in Girdwood. He took off like a bullet as expected. He was a joy to have visit, but he’ll be more happy in the wild.
I checked off on Gus the Great Horned Owl on Wednesday. He been an education bird with Bird TLC since 1991. [...]
New resident at the flight center
Submitted by Bird TLC Blog
Our junior sandhill crane moved to the flight center on Wednesday. Here he’ll be able to get some flight time and there’s less of a chance of him getting imprinted.
Photo credit: Britt Coon / Bird TLC
Rating 3.00 out of 5
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Mixed Feeding Flock #6
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Birdcouple’s occasional round-up of notable birding and nature news and events..
_ In case you haven’t heard, September 5 this year is International Vulture Awareness Day. This isn’t a joke. Vultures are beautiful (in a way), important to the ecosystem–and many species are facing threats to their survival.
_ A new species [...]
Island Life
Submitted by BrdPics Blog
Another must-do trip in Southern California that I was finally able to do was the boat ride out to Santa Cruz Island departing from Ventura. Island Packers runs daily trips on fast catamarans, and I was aboard the 8 am departure on the Island Adventure to make the 1.5 hour (or so) [...]
Mississippi Kites – Again
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
This morning, almost the same time as yesterday, two or three Mississippi Kites appeared again – and that’s how it seems. One minute the bright blue sky with big white clouds looks empty. The next, there are small dark birds with a slim, distinctive shape and way of flying. Two were [...]
Mississippi Kites
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
This morning between 10:45 and 11:00, five Mississippi Kites were flying over our neighborhood. They flew both high and low, and put on a brief but dramatic show of acrobatic flight, catching insects in the air, before drifting out of sight to the south-southwest.
Rating 3.00 out of 5
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Summer and Scarlet Tanagers
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Early this afternoon the edge of the woods suddenly became rather active with birds. It was a cloudy day, after rain last night and early this morning, and the trees and shrubs were still wet. A female Summer Tanager perched on a short dead stub of a pine to eat a [...]
Black Saddlebags Dragonfly
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Later in the afternoon, as the clouds began to part and the sun came out, a large dragonfly perched on a spindly top branch of a small redbud tree. With a huge bronze head, clear wings with black spots on the tips and a dark, leaf-like pattern on their inner part, [...]
Home – Late Summer – Blue Grosbeak, Red-tailed Hawk, Gray Catbird
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Back home in Georgia, today was hot, humid and sunny, with lots of big milky-white clouds growing larger and more towering as the day went on, and cicadas singing loudly. On a morning walk to check things out, I found birds still pretty quiet, but counted 28 species in all. The [...]
Black Guillemot
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
These small, compact oceanic birds – a life bird for me – were everywhere along the coast. Coal-black with a pointed dark bill, neatly upturned tail and white oval patches in the wings, they floated in the waves alone or in the company of many others, often close to shore. When [...]
The Allure of a Loon
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
On small quiet lakes surrounded by trees, we watched several Common Loons – one or two at a time – maybe the most characteristic bird of our visit to Maine. Its name seems to me unfortunate, because a “common” loon is one of the most fabled and mythical of birds – [...]
Wood Thrush and Eastern Wood-Pewee
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
This morning – a rare cool summer morning, with temperatures in the mid 60s and the air feeling fresh and clean – two Wood Thrushes sang in the same low area of woods around a creek from where I heard one sing a few days ago. A quiet Black-and-white Warbler crept [...]
Common Loon release at Sand Lake
Submitted by Bird TLC Blog
Thanks to Larry and Mary Marshburn for hosting our Common Loon release at their home on Sand Lake. We had a fantastic crowd and a very mellow release.
I’m use to raptor releases to where you let them go and they are gone like a bullet. This guy did a nice [...]
“Out Back” In Our Yard
Welcome to our backyard!
We’re located in North Massapequa, New York, about 35 miles east of New York City on the south shore of Long Island. It’s not very large, only 70’ x 100’, but it provides incredible enjoyment to us. We happen to be lucky in that our home is located next to the Massapequa [...]
Birding again!!
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Princess and I have not been out birding much lately - July was a bit of drought (it can be a slow birding month where we live anwyay) and we’ve been busy with work, family and other responsibilities. Responsibilities?! Ugh.
So we jumped at the chance to head west Saturday with [...]
Facebook, finally
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Birdcouple’s been bigtime busy. What else is new, right?
But finally we have gotten our act together, and created a Facebook page to go along with the blog. Please check us out here and, if you want, join our growing legions of fans.
Meanwhile….
MEMO
TO: Princess
FROM: Warren
RE: Birdcouple
Sweet - great posts on organic [...]
