While today I only had a literal couple of hours to go for a walk, and that in the afternoon, I decided to head for Higbee’s Beach.

I was well rewarded by numerous Hemit Thrushes, and quick looks at the Sedge Wren. Somewhat more surprising than the Sedge Wren being precisely where it was described as being last, were the murmurings of what could have been lord knows how many Turkeys coming from the wet woods.

Even more surprising though, was the Lincoln’s Sparrow just near the Port-a-johns at the trail-head (so to speak). Lincoln’s are not at all to be expected in Cape May past early November or so, and are far from common in these parts to begin with. I was most pleased to have stumbled into it.

Otherwise, there were fine numbers of Purple Finches chomping on Privets (the stout, and rather paunchy proportions of Purple Finches are only further emphasized by the fact that the birds are most often seen literally chowing down and making mush out of bluish berries, with all the table manners of some cardueline countryfair berry-eatin contest)

I hear tell that both Black-throated Green and Nashville Warblers were present in the State Park today as well-though I was not there.

A Whistling Swan on Lily Lake was a nice addition to a quick drive-by, as was a continuing Lesser Scaup.

And I honestly don’t know quite what to make of this putative Cackling Goose on Lily Lake. Which was likewise there today and if it is a Cackling Goose has been since the 12th of November. I like the head Shape, but do not at all like the length of the neck or the overall colour of the bird. Call me a stickler-but I do not like it Sam I am.

When I first saw it I got all excited by the shape of the head, and thought it must be a cackler, but talked myself out of it. The Richardson’s I found on Lily Lake a couple of years ago was still considerably smaller than this bird, and well, while I hear they are “not all that small” the nice thing about birding is you can do it anyway you like, and I am just not comfortable with this bird. Though this goose does have a distinctively shaped head.

That is what seperates the hobby from ornithology, and though birders do not like to hear it, some birds do indeed need to be inspected…more closely, shall I say…, and birders are “kind” to ornithologists; what Paleantologists would refer to fossil collectors as “Dino-kind”-as much as they think their field observations are the final word, it is most subjective, and first and foremost a hobby, and not a scientific endeavour.

[I thought this worth passing along in a more expeditious manner- “Just another sign of how far the communication landscape has changed.”-CJV ]

–BEGIN TRANSCRIPT–

11/11/08

From: Pete Dunne, VP Nat. Hist. NJAS
To: (RECORDS OF) NEW JERSEY BIRDS Stake Holders
RE: The change from a printed to electron version of NEW JERSEY BIRDS and announcement of a new, annual printed summary.

Dear All,

More than two weeks have passed since news of the decision to curtail the printed version of RECORDS was released. Your interest, observations and, for some, dismay, has been noted and is very much appreciated. If no concern had been expressed it would have been a sad commentary on what I deem to be a valuable and venerable publication.

I should say, first, that the decision was not spurious. The decision to shift wholly to an electronic format (and whether to continue a quarterly compilation or simply compile an annual summary of bird sightings) involve meetings that go back at least two years. I will also tell you that as valid and well considered the objections to the change are, none were new to the discussion.

I won’t enumerate the many good reasons that were presented to keep records “in print.” I will only say that I agree with almost all of them.

Why then the change? Two reason’s basically. Cost and purpose.

When RECORDS OF NEW JERSEY BIRDS was instituted in 1975 (having been split off from NEW JERSEY NATURE NEWS where it was instituted as REGIONAL FIELD NOTES in April, 1953) it served two important functions–one social; one informational. The quarterly bird sightings constituted a forum for active birders. Sightings, dutifully submitted, were given the notoriety they deserved and their compilation constituted a data base, painting a picture of New Jersey’s bird life.

If you were an active birder, you demonstrated your standing and mettle by getting your sightings posted in Records. I’ll bet many of you, like me, used to flip through the pages when they arrived in the mail and check to see whether your sightings made the grade.

Since the internet, and the inauguration of assorted list serves like JERSEY BIRDS and NEW JERSEY BIRDS the “forum” function of our quarterly has been both diminished and out-flanked. Sightings among active birders today are posted daily. Sightings posted in the quarterly have gone from a post note to a post script. On-line services now act as the informational and social epicenter for New Jersey birders. Case in point, there are (I am told) about 500 to 600 birders subscribe to the New Jersey list serves. I did a count of contributors to a recent NEW JERSEY BIRDS. There were less than 200 individuals whose sightings were noted and many of the sightings listed were gleaned by Regional Bird Editors from the electronic media. They were not “submitted” at all.

Is this something to decry? From the standpoint of birders being able to communicate and interact absolutely not. It just means that running to the mail box and seeing what birds were noted, by whom, six months after the fact has lost most of its significance and luster.

However, as the wealth of bird related information grows, the archival function of NEW JERSEY BIRDS quarterly only increases. That the quarterly summaries be continued is important from standpoint of maintaining consistency and facilitating data gathering. The change to electronic from printed format changes only the means of presentation, not the material.

Since electronic media has yet to stand the test of time, it is both important and prudent that an annual printed summary be compiled to serve the archival purposes New Jersey Audubon initiated back in 1953. Such an annual, region based, summary is, in fact, part of the change package. The working title for the publication that will house the report of the Bird Record Committee, a statewide summary of noteworthy bird sightings and events, plus occasional papers, is “State of New Jersey Birds,” but this may change.

To provide a forum for New Jersey birders, an annual symposium is being planned. It may be part of the Society’s Cape May Autumn Weekend. It may stand alone. That decision has yet to be made.

In sum, the change from printed to electronic quarterly summaries and introduction of an annual “State of the Birds” publication is intended to enhance, not diminish, New Jersey Audubon’s focus on birds and it’s organizational responsibility to our constituents–both human and avian. Budget constraints have prevented NJAS from doing all that it wanted to do with their printed bird publication. The electronic format will shed much of this constraint and constitute a more environmentally friendly alternative to print media (a policy that New Jersey has rededicated itself to as part of our new Strategic Plan).

Speaking of money. Yes, certainly the current budget crisis was the catalyst that prompted New Jersey Audubon to make publication changes now. But it is inaccurate to say that it is the reason or even the driving reason. The change was driven by the revolution in communication, not budget, and it is one that hundreds of other newsletters and professional journals have already embraced.

Should individuals who are active partners in the quarterly have been involved in the decision process? Yes, and going back two years some were including editors, and past and present regional editors.

Should input have been solicited by readers and contributors prior to the decision? Only if their input would have changed the course or correctness of the decision (which it would not). Going electronic is and remains the right, effective, environmentally-friendly, timely, and cost-effective alternative to finding outside funding (an impossible task in this economic climate and an age when magazine advertising is evaporating) or charging readers a subscription rate which would, based upon a readership of 500 individuals, cost over $40 a year (providing 500 people wanted the service) or $100 if a dedicated readership of 200 is more representative of the actual number of birders who would care to subscribe.

The electronic format will be available to everyone on the New Jersey Audubon web site. It will cost readers nothing. So somewhere between $40-$100 per subscriber (above NJAS membership) vs. a free on-line service in an economy when subscriptions to magazines rank among the first thing people cut. Seems like a hard sell.

For readers who have no access to the internet, copies will be printed and mailed upon request. This formula was used with regards to World Series of Birding registration material which went from a printed and mailed to on-line service in 2006. Only one request for printed material was received.

I hope this explanation, a summary of which will be printed in the next and final printed edition of NEW JERSEY BIRDS assuages some of the doubts and concerns relating to the publication and to New Jersey Audubon’s commitment to bird study in New Jersey. I recognize any change to an institution as cherished as NEW JERSEY BIRDS is bound to be met with concern (and once again we thank loyal readers for that).

And while the switch from the printed publication which most of us grew up with, in fact cut our birding teeth on, will evolve, as all things do, there is one binding accuracy lying at the heart of the debate that assures me that going electronic is the right idea for the time.

Since the change was announced, there has been considerable debate within the New Jersey birding community. I have received, personally, fourteen e-mails ranging from agreement to resignation to dismay. The thing to note, the thing that is perhaps most significant here, is that the entire debate has been conducted on-line.

Not a single person committed their concerns to paper. Not a single person called or asked to have a meeting. The entire debate over the future of NEW JERSEY BIRDS was electronic.

Just another sign of how far the communication landscape has changed.

Sincerely,

Pete

P.S. As an historic footnote, it is interesting to note that dismay and concern was similarly expressed when in 1975 regional “Field Notes” was removed from the body of New Jersey Audubon’s magazine (it’s flagship publication) and housed in a new, “flimsy” publication called RECORDS OF NEW JERSEY BIRDS. One Regional Editor resigned in protest.

–END TRANSCRIPT–

Apparently there was a Swallow-tailed Kite in Cape May yesterday, which I missed beceause i was otherwise engaged. Thanks to everyone who left messages though!

The Mississippi Kite which has been around was also still in the neighborhood. (Although having looked at some photos, and based upon the ones I saw, there appear to have been at least two Mississippi Kites on the cusp of September/October this year)

This is the second time that both of the “usual” kites have occured on Cape Island in Autumn in recent years, the last being in August of 2003.

What is interesting about this Swallow-tailed is that there was also one in Sussex county the day before, as well as a handful of reports from that neighborhood as well. I would tend to think this was the same bird, but who would know really?

Now Autumn records of Swallow-tailed Kites are even rarer than those of Mississippi Kites. The first October and Autumn record for Cape May came in 1946, and another just last year, on the first day of October in 2007, which was encrypted with the idiom “Was reported”. There are also a handful of earlier fall records, mainly in August. (From a bird-study point of view, August is best considered fall, the way March is dedcidedly spring, although the August records may have been a result of persistent southerlies or tropical weather systems)

As an aside- that phrase “was reported” is usually used by the annalist to cast shadow on the identification, or observer, and let it be known that the birding establishment doesn’t really believe in the sighting. So, for the unintiated, or those new to birding, that is what the phrasology “was reported” means when it appears on a rare bird alert, or other birding news-letter or web-site

I had heard that folks were running around calling this double fall kite event unprecedented, but that is really a function of lack of experience, no attempt at any sort of fact-checking, and that twitching but not ornithological scholarship has become king in Cape May. If only there were more “ornithologists” and less twitchers in the birding “community”-such as it is. And would that a qualified ornithologist was again at the helm and running CMBO, Or at least good twitchers who actually took the time to research records before espousing authority on the subject resided in these parts.

(As a further aside, I have always had a strong aversion to the the newly popular term “birding community” and have no idea what is wrong with the word “hobbyists”, or calling us just plain birders. “Birding Community” sounds like some sort of cult, or otherwise weird subset of humans. The term siginifies an isolation from the rest of the population at large, which I believe further alienates the hobby and subtly helps make birding less mainstream than it should be. We hear nothing of the “Hiking Community” or “Trout-fishing Community”, do we? I will return to this subject without a doubt, as well as more on just how inappropriate it is to call the specifically notoriously cliquey Cape May scene, a “birding community”. As far as I can tell its some kind of nearly corporate or at least secondary school-like viscious popularity contest, and only a community in the very broadest way, much more in the manner the fundamentally nasty school cafeteria or cut-throat boardroom may be called “community”)

Would that I could get out in the field today, but again, have obligations. Leben heisst leben after all.

The shift to onshore winds did the trick, and the first balmy day of October in Cape May, with a few notable exceptions, was very quiet today.

The Dike was dismal, the point eerily quiet, and Higbee’s had tumbleweeds rolling through the paths- just past the hollies, the swinging doors of an abandoned saloon creaked plaintively somwhere in the distance….

That being said, a little bit of looking turned up a few things, as it always does around here.

First of all the Peregrines were outstanding again today. Kettles of a half a dozen were easy to see from the hawkwatch, and a quick turn around Higbee’s Beach had poder-blue rumped adults, blonde headed tundra birds, and helmeted “anatum” types giving unsurpassed looks. Best part was- no one was there!

A Mississippi Kite was just over Lilly Lake late in the morning, in the same field of view as an adult Bald Eagle. However when it turned back up at the hawkwatch and tangled with a Peregrine it was obvious that this bird was indeed the young of the year. It is posessed of evenly buffy and finely streaked underparts, (including buffy wing-linings) finely white edged secondaries, all new and evenly grown feathers, and a banded tail. The whiteness of the head I can only chalk up to the fact that this part of the bird is already undergoing moult to a more advanced stage.

October Records of Missiippi Kites are highly unusual, with one from 2007, and while most references are now out of date, there were apparently only three fall records between 1988 and 1998, all in September.

At least five Parasitic Jaegers were working the feeding swarm of Larids off the point this afternoon, but by far the coolest Jaeger of the Day was the one not a hundred yards offshore in the lee of the Breakwater at Higbee’s Beach first thing this morning.

A Nashville and an exceptionally dull juv Cape May were around Lilly Lake, and Golden-crowned Kinglets get easier to see with each passing day.

Kettles of Broadwings were again prevalent at the point, or rather, the same kettle of Broadwings which was present yesterday reamined at Cape May today, and there was still one peculiar bird with a very good, and never diminished diehedral, which try as I might could not be turned into anything else. Very odd bird indeed.

Oh, and Monday’s Wheatear which trespassing New Jersey Audubon employees found, and was completely supressed by CMBO, and records committee members, has not been relocated, or at least the bungling nimrods from Dunne’s bird mafia who claim to keep the public updated on birds in Cape May, and document such things in all their public statements (as well as extolling the virtues of proper birding behaviour) have kept their characteristic underhandedness to themselves, while continuing to promote the trespassers and sneaks on their staff.

This would lead one to believe that A. CMBO condones trespassing. B. CMBO condones keeping noteworthy records to themselves and not the birders, or larger mission of monitoring birds they claim to serve. C. CMBO rewards underhandeness. D. NJAS staff on the records committee do not support the missions of either organizion. E. CMBO’s promotion of e-bird is baseless, and was purely political to give the organization credibility with Cornell, as the record was not reported there, either F. The numerous public extollations of the Northwood Sales Manager about “clicking here” to learn the latest news from around Cape May are pure bunk, and bunk only fed to the public to drum up sales, encourage website clicks, and the dual income both activities foster on the part of the duped consumer and NJAS supporter. G. The reputation the Cliqueness CMBo has fostered under the tenure of the present director and his cronies is entirely deserved, and kind of disgusting.

And I’m sure lots of customers and patrons who have bought into the crap the CMBO Director, Director of Birding Programs, Research Associates concerned with promoting their websites, and Sales Manager concerned with promoting sales have fed them, would have been put off to know that a Northern Wheatear was in Cape May this week. And they never heard boo about it.

Not to mention the ornithological fact that a bird which is a “mega” on the East Coast, and is notorious for moving on after a day or two, has been in the neighborhood for over a week, is actually interesting from the persepctive of migration students and the birding community at large.

But I guess if it was found because NJAS encourages the employees it is presently promoting to act completely outside of birding and research mores, it is alright if the membership, and birding community are outright lied to, right?

There was a decent little push of Warblers and other Passerines this morning from the Dike at Higbee’s Beach, but not nearly the numbers or diversity as yesterday.

However, there were a couple of Philadelphia Vireos, and another Red-breasted Nuthatch. Also, Eastern Phoebes have begun to trickle in beign at the Dike, the Park and Pond Creek. Likewise Brown Thrashers have noticeably increased, as have Catbirds. The best showing of Warblers was definitely manifested by Yellowthroats, which were the dominant species everywhere I looked today. Palms and Savannah Sparrows likewise increase daily.

A hen Scaup has turned up on the Bunker Pond, which is a very odd time of year for a Scaup to be in these parts. Her head is not as rounded for a greater as I would like, showing a bit of a flat-top more like a lesser. However, her wing-stripe is more in keeping with a Greater, the bright white extending well out into the primaries, a fact which was glaring when she flew, but only fleetingly glimpsed when she reared up. With luck she’ll remain a bit longer, as I’d like to have a closer look at her bill. I should’ve doen it today, but got far too caught up in shooting the breeze, and forgot to go look!

The other thing I don’t like in temrs of it being a Lesser is more of a “soft”" character, and that is timing. Lessers tend to move south later than Greaters, but since any scaup is a bit unusual in Cape May in September, putting this bird almost in the realm of vagrant, and they do overlap in timing anyway, this fact admittedly is of comparatively little import for the bird’s idnetification.

I do however think the jump to call her a Lesser, especially by those who did not see her open wings, may be a bit premature. Vamos a ver.

Eagles again put on a good show at the Hawkwatch, and Merlins were very easy to see today. A couple of Nighthawks were out and about at Sunset, and Great horned Owls were giving their peculiar screeches from the woods where the park, I wonder if these are young birds still hoping for food.

And the listing mania which has overtaken these parts has reached truly absurd levels.

The degree of big-list mania around here of late takes a step past obsessive & competitive, and lands firmly in the creepily pathological, even aggressive, and confirmedly passive aggressive. In a way that other compulsive listers I know well never manifested. For one thing, it seems a joyless pursuit for those so engaged, and for another, it seems like all other aspects of the hobby, have fallen by the wayside in favour of what Peterson termed mere “ornithogolfing”.

Promoting the “big day”, an activity endemic and essential to CMBO since the WSB, seems to be all they know how to do any more. It takes precedence over whoring for optics companies, and taking peoples money for “education” in the guise of quided bird tours labeled as educational workshops.

I also tend to think big day-type listing causes a certain sloppiness (not that I am really one to judge!), or at least wishful inaccuracies. There have been numerous putative ticks of late which very easily became definitive by those only concerned with making their list larger.

Likewise, it seems that if every day, week, month or year is a “big” one, then what is so very “big” about it? If every day was Christmas, or once a month we were expected to stay up till midnight with noise makers to ring in the new moon, then would Decembers 25 or 31 have any meaning? I am reminded of the song lyric: “Life is made of moments- even now and then a bad one. But if life were ONLY moments, then you’d never know you had one”

And, as someone is alleged to have said:

“Listing and chasing are to bird-watching what masturbation is to love-making”

Judgeing from the obsessive amount of listing currently going on in Cape May, it would seem there are few Cassanovas, and an inordinate number of very frustated, spotty-faced teenagers birding around Cape Island this year.

A couple of weeks ago, I was regaling some friends with a great story Roger Tory Peterson recounted in his wonderful book “Birds Over America”, regarding a hoax played upon birders participating in Audubon’s spring convention in Cape May.

We were actually talking about Black-necked Stilts in NJ, and how the second or third week of May is a great time to find vagrants of this one-time New Jersey breeding bird.

Well, as luck would have it, lo and behold, the very next day, and on the third weekend in May no less, in conjunction with an Audubon convention, a Black-necked Stilt decided to show up in Cape May, and made a couple of passes around “the Island”.

Peterson’s tale is a lot more entertaining, and I am at liberty to provide a synopsis, which appears in perhaps my favorite chapter of “Birds Over America”, the one entitled “Deceiving the Experts”.

During the National Audubon Society’s convention, held in Cape May, a Black-necked Stilt turned up on the Lighthouse Pond, after a fifty-year hiatus of records in NJ, and the species’ extirpation in the state. Leave it to the painter in the group to think something was a bit off with the bird, namely that the leg-colour seemed wrong. The bird also seemed a bit too, well, “still” shall we say.

Well, the young Peterson took it upon himself to wade/swim across the channel, and look for himself. He found, to the chagrin of the birders who had happily ticked the bird, that it was indeed attached to a wooden base, and was a mounted specimen. The legs were in fact painted the wrong hue (all taxidermied bird specimens have the soft-part colours painted on, as they fade, fish or reptile like, quite quickly following dispatchment). The bird had apparently been rescued from the trash of a house-cleaning at the collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences, and “some wit” from the DVOC had hit upon the idea for a great gag.

Ironically, the revelation of the hoax caused many of the birders to be so displeased that they shunned Peterson for the remainder of the weekend-such was their mispalced disappointment!

I have just always loved that story, and the irony of speaking about it the day before an actual and animated Stilt turned up on Cape Island was too much to go unmentioned here.

Now, in case anyone is unfamiliar with the text in which the tale is mentioned-as a bird enthusiast, you should quickly do everything in your power to rectify the matter, and make every effort to read “Birds over America”. It is one of those books that is illuminating, unbelievably easy to read, and one will want to re-read. Also, I consider it to be part of “the Canon” for any birder, and a necessary addition to any bird library.

It is important to have link with one’s tradition, and this book, like “Wild America” is invaluable in providing this connection. Too many of today’s birders come to it having read “Birdwatching for Dummies” or by subscribing to list-serves, and do not realize they are, to a certain degree, re-inventing the wheel.

I would strongly urge anyone who hasn’t to find and read this wonderful book, it provides an overview of birds and birding on the continent that is invaluble, and a delight to read and re-read. Originally published in 1948, it was revised in 1963-64, and last reprinted in 1976, and 1983. My copy of Peterson’s “Birds Over America” is by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. with a Library of Congress catalogue number of QL682.P473 1983 598.2973 83-16364, and an ISBN 0-396-08269-6 (pbk).

Go get it, or if you already have it, re-read it-its still just as good.

CJV

The best part about Hidden Valley this morning in addition to the striking neotropical and short-distance migrant passerines, was the fact that it was nearly devoid of the herds of birders swamping the Island this weekend.

A stalwart trio showed up this rather cool and windy morning, and were rewarded by some fine sightings. Forgive (or laud as the case may be!) my brevity, but I am bushed this evening!

A nice little flock of Bobolinks was where they should be in the first field, and afforded excellent views. In other Icterid notes, Orchard Orioles are in full effect in the hedges at Hidden, and being one of North America’s most handsome birds, this was a fine thing. One first year male is definitely on territory in the first, NW corner of the first field, but seems to be mateless. By contrast, adult males are doing display flights and have attending hens in the third and second fields.

While the Prothonotary was silent this morning in the wet woods, a cooperative Magnolia, Balck-thraoted Blue, and getting late female Blue-headed Vireo were all well seen and appreciated.

The willow-pond afforded a nice look at a first-year Black-crowned Night Heron.

Indigo Buntings, hen Blue Grosbeaks, and Field Sparrows, some of the latter which were collecting nest material were also well seen. Great-crests are paired-up, and Eastern Wood-pewees, which may actually stay to nest, along with Eastern Kingbirds were typical, but nonetheless wonderful sub-oscine additions to the outing.

After a well-deserved nap back at the homestead, a turn around the State Park turned up at leat 4 Cliff Swallows, and a cooperative Chat. It also required a cattle-catcher to shoo the lowing herd of spring-weekend rubes off the path! Luckily they were mostly soon diverted and directed to the shops by the “getting and spending” which passes for birding during such events.

Later in the day, Higbee’s turned up a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak, performing Chats, some excellent views of more than a couple “huge” male Fence Lizards, and a legitimately huge wumpuss of a recenty moulted Black Rat Snake- who easily had a good foot on me in length!

The best part of Higbee’s though were the first stub-tailed and stubby-billed recently fledged Carolina Wrens that I have seen this year. Their parents were very muc in attendance, and the babies were down-right toddler-like in thier appeal. The second brood cannot be too far behind for these huge-in personality, appealingly handsome in plumage, and comfortingly familiar in perpetual presence, vociferous litle imps.

Thanks to Sam Galick for forwarding a great record photo of a Black-necked Stilt seen from the Magnesite Plant this morning-a thought or two on Stilts in NJ will be forthcoming-but not just now. Now it is time to find a pillow…

CJV

Since I have received more than a couple of comments asking for a clarification of this term, I thought it a good idea to explain its meaning in birding terms.

Here goes:

“Suppresssion” is a brit and scandinavian term, (like “dipping” or “twitching”) where, the sport of birding is a much more popular, and seriously taken activity than here in The
States. It is usually followed by the modifier “of a record/sighting”, so really the term meands “suppressing” or concealing a bird sighting of interest from fellow hobbyists.

In the UK, where birding is the most popular outdoor activity, perhaps second only to gardening, finding a rarity, and not getting the word out is just short of blasphemy, and grounds for ostracization, contempt, and disdain among others in the birding community.

Though while not being conspiracy, it is considered a bit of unfair-play, and not at all in the spirit of the hobby. Basically, where birding is king, and as much as, or more than a sportsman’s activity as hunting or fishing, it is not considered fair-play to try and beat other list competitors by hiding a potential tick.

hope that explains it, and my recent use of the term!

CJV

Recently Written

• Excellent Bayshore Birding: Lots of Shorebirds, Gulls, Silly numbers of Turkeys, and a Vesper Sparrow
• Dolphins, a Brown Pelican, A Cape Island Yellow-throated Warbler and a nice little “fall” around the point in the mist
• Some Eagle notes, etc.
• LAGU in Cape May, and a few other early spring notes
• After the snow in Cape May
• Lots and lots of ducks around Cape May
• Flowering Maples
• News and Notes from Cape May; Black-headed Gull, White-winged Crossbills, continuing Eurasian Wigeon, etc.
• Some nice looks at Short-eared Owls, etc.
• A seal, a balmy day, and the colour of a randy Mallards feet

Categories

• Beach Nesters
• behaviour
• birding norms
• Black Skimmers
• Breeding Birds
• Butterflies
• Champagne Island
• conservation
• Fall Migration
• Fish Crows
• Gulls
• Hawks
• Herons
• Herps
• ID
• Jaegers
• Mammals
• Not-birds
• Owls
• Piping Plovers
• raptors
• Rarities
• Royal Terns
• Rusty Blackbirds
• Seawatching
• Shorebirds
• Spring Migration
• Terns
• Uncategorized
• Warblers
• Waterfowl
• Winter Birds

Archives

• April 2009
• March 2009
• February 2009
• January 2009
• December 2008
• November 2008
• October 2008
• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008

Blogroll

• ABA “Peeps” - excellent birding updates from the American Birding Association
• American Bird Conservancy - dedicated to bird conservation
• American Museum of Natural History - specimen-based evolutionary, & biological research at its finest
• American Ornithologists Union
• Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI) - Collaborations in…you guessed it!
• Ben Johnson Art - some fine photo-realism from a local artist
• Bent’s Life Histories-familiar birds - an edited and synoptic version of Bent’s volumes, an invaluable resource nevertheless
• Bill Hubick Photography - exceptional photos and website from a fine fellow
• Birdlife International - world bird conservation at large
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ - people who actually work hard on conservation in NJ
• ebird
• Huffington Post - commentary by reasonable Americans
• New Jersey birding - Birding in NJ
• Pioneer Birding - excelent blog from the commonwealth and beyond
• Point Reyes Bird Observatory Conservation Science - a legitimate Bird Observatory
• Portland Bird Observatory and Field Centre - another legitimate Bird Observatory
• Punkbirder-the unsound approach - We need a lot more “punk-birding” here in the States
• Save the Albatross - if 100,000 people were slaughtered per year, we’d call it genocide…
• Shorebirder - nice blog from CT
• Sibley Guides Notebook - better than the artwork even
• Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center - Dedicated to research for migratory birds
• Surfbirds - world birding news
• The Nietzsche Family Circus - “Beyond Good & Evil”-just hilarious juxtapositions
• The Onion - America’s “finest” news source-brilliant satire
• The Story of Stuff - will make you never want to shop again…

Admin

• Login
• Wordpress
• XHTML

Search