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Big Year Birding at the End of the World: Attu 2016, Part 2

Catch up with Part 1 here.

We crossed Semichi Pass overnight and were back in Casco Cove at sunrise. We started birding with high hopes, and after just a few minutes we flushed an Eyebrowed Thrush from a willow on the west side of the cove. We also flushed a snipe from alongside a small [read more…]

Big Year Birding at the End of the World: Attu 2016, Part 1

You know the scene in a TV show in which a character says, “What more could possibly go wrong?” and then it cuts to something else going wrong? That’s how I felt at times on this year’s Attu tour. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying it was a disaster. In fact, it was [read more…]

#ABArare – Collared Plover – Texas

It takes a very good bird to bring me out of retirement to write an #ABArare post, and the Collared Plover found by Dan Jones in Hargill, TX on Aug 2 is just such a bird. Collared Plover has a range that extends from South America to Mexico. It’s a Code 5 species with only [read more…]

Dispatches from Attu: Making Lemonade

This story starts slow, but stick with it. It gets a lot better near the end. Trust me.

After scoring the Pin-tailed Snipe on May 31, we had renewed hopes for the second week of Zugunruhe‘s Attu trip. The weather forecast was still poor for bringing more vagrants (east winds and no low pressure systems [read more…]

Dispatches from Attu: The Finding of the Snipe

While the forecast was for winds out of the southeast, we awoke to southwest winds on May 31. Since they weren’t associated with a storm passing by us I didn’t have high hopes, but it was still more encouraging than yesterday’s northeast winds. We split up into three groups to cover more area, with some [read more…]

Dispatch from Attu: To the End of the Aleutians

Editor’s Note: We’re excited to offer dispatches from John Puschock and Zugunruhe Tours‘s trip to legendary Attu, at the very tip of the Aleutian Islands. John will be posting about the journey here at the ABA Blog every few days.

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Greetings from Casco Cove! We’re almost done with the first week of [read more…]

Rare Bird Alert: January 31, 2014

Once again winter weather ruled the eastern side of the ABA Area, but despite that, birders still got out in the field and found a good number of noteworthy birds. Dry conditions persisted in the western U.S., and Alaska experienced unseasonably warm weather. And in North Carolina, Nate had some family obligations, so I’m filling [read more…]

#ABArare – Crimson-collared Grosbeak – Texas

On January 19, Marci and Terry Fuller found an immature male Crimson-collared Grosbeak (Code 4) at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) near Alamo, TX. They found the bird along the entrance road about three-fourths of the way from the dike near the visitor center to the old manager’s residence (the area that now has [read more…]

#ABArare – Common Snipe – Newfoundland

On January 11 while leading a tour group, Bruce Mactavish discovered a Common Snipe at the spot he describes as “the famous snipe spot made infamous by [a] Jacksnipe three winters ago” in Ferryland, Newfoundland. The identification was not confirmed during the first sighting, but birders refound it on January 12 and obtained diagnostic photos. [read more…]

#ABArare – Little Bunting – California

Keith Slauson found a Little Bunting (Code 4) late on December 12 in McKinleyville, CA. Light was poor at the time, so he was unsure of the identification. He and other birders returned to the site the next morning and confirmed that it was in fact a Little Bunting. This is the fourth record for [read more…]