Category Archives: Uncategorized

Pyrrhuloxia

With a name that is as difficult to pronounce as it is to spell, the Pyrrhuloxia is often mistaken for a female Northern Cardinal. Found in brushy desert habitat of the Southwest, it can be differentiated from a Cardinal by its stubby yellowish bill and comical pointed crest.  

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If He Catches You . . . You’re Through

This morning, Ingrid and I were driving down a road in Los Fresnos, Texas when we were startled to see a large black anvil sitting at the edge of the road. A mile later we saw a wooden crate with the letters TNT stenciled on the side. A little bit further we saw a pile […]

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Cattle Tyrant

This South American Flycatcher has absolutely the greatest bird named ever . . . Cattle Tyrant . . . think about that . . . that’s a  fun name! Typically, this bird follows grazing animals in small flocks across farmland and marshes . . . in South America.  Until November 11 of 2023, it had […]

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Sandhill Cranes at Dawn

As Ingrid and I birded our way from Miami to Texas, we spent a night outside of Gainesville, Florida. The following morning we were up early to search for the secretive Bachman’s Sparrow . . . a non-descript bird that is best found when singing in the late winter and spring. We heard and saw […]

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Miami Exotics

Yesterday, Ingrid and I toured the Miami, Florida area looking for Exotic Birds.  Generally speaking, exotics are species brought to the United States from South America or Asia as pets.  They escaped (or were released) . . . met up with a similar exotic of the opposite sex . . . and had babies. Many […]

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Species Spotlight – Vermillion Flycatcher

Species Spotlight – Vermillion Flycatcher Perhaps the most vibrant of flycatchers is the Vermilion Flycatcher, particularly the male with his bright scarlet and black plumage and dapper black eye mask. Females are brownish with just a tinge of red on the belly. Vermilion Flycatchers are typically found in the southwest, but like all birds, can […]

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Redheads by the Thousands

With apologies to “I Love Lucy” fans . . . Ingrid and I have never been as impressed by Redheads as were today. Thousand and thousands of these beautiful ducks were packed closely together along Pea Island NWF on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina. If we see a single Redhead in Maine […]

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Two Code 4s!!!

After a storm delay at the beginning of our trip south (for real, not the fake kind that United Airlines likes to invent), today we made our way from Sturbridge, Massachusetts to Ocean City, Maryland. This, however, was not a non-stop drive as we had planned layovers in New Jersey and Delaware to look for […]

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Speaking of Bird Names

On November 1, in a controversial move, the American Ornithological Society announced that birds will no longer be named after people. For instance, the Wilson’s Warbler, named after the acclaimed 19th century Ornithologist “James Wilson” might be called the Black-capped Warbler or something similar. Meanwhile, the Ring-necked Duck . . . which really only has […]

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Great Gray Owl at the Sax-Zim Bog

Ingrid and I are closing out the second and final day of our visit to the Sax-Zim Bog by sitting in front of a warm fire at the Alesches’ Accommodations, a lovely lodge located within the Bog. There are a number of other birders here and all are talking about everyone’s most sought after bird, […]

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Northern Hawk Owl in the Sax-Zim Bog

Greetings from the legendary Sax-Zim Bog … a location for birders equivalent to Wrigley Field for baseball fans or the Augusta National for golfers. The bog is 300+ square miles of mixed spruce, aspen, tamarack and pine forest, diverse animal life (wolves, deer and moose) and of course birds. And it is cold.  Damn cold. […]

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Short-eared Owl

Ingrid recorded this Short-eared Owl, right about sunset in Richmond, Maine today. Note how the bird flies like a moth . . . in one direction and then abruptly in another. We saw two Short-eared Owl this evening over this expansive agricultural field. We’ve observed that these birds tend to chase each other for a […]

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