Every September, people in the Caribbean and the eastern (and sometimes even southwestern) United States direct their focus towards the weather; early fall is hurricane season, and the storms that come with it are becoming more and more intense. With recent hurricanes like Irma, Maria, and Harvey pounding southeastern states and often totally devastating islands [read more…]
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The fall of my freshman year of college I went home to Baltimore to snag what remain my coolest yard birds: a pair of Brown Boobies. In the late summer of that year a pair of these tropical sulids appeared in the Baltimore Inner Harbor—almost as close to downtown as geographically possible. They became quite [read more…] Mid-summer is well upon us. Post-breeding dispersal is underway at this writing and shorebird migration has begun, while rarities continue to pepper the North American continent. These have ranged from local notables to the mind-numbingly exciting Antillean Palm-Swift in Florida. There are a great number of exhilarating and worthy avian topics for this installment of [read more…] Late last week a comment of a Facebook post in a Rare Bird Alert group caught my eye; the post itself highlighted a Fork-tailed Flycatcher that had been found in Atlantic County, New Jersey and the comment was quite simple: “what the heck is going on with tyrannids this year?” I thought about it for [read more…] There are some birds we think of as being inherently prone to irruptive behavior. The winter finches are a famous example, as are Snowy Owls, Rough-legged Hawks, and a handful of other, mostly northern species. Western Tanagers are not one of these species. While prone to vagrancy, the patterns of vagrancy they undergo tend to [read more…] As I was packing for an international trip recently, I received a text from the Maryland rare bird alert that almost made me drop my pre-travel plans. At Assateague Island, on the other side of the state, a Wilson’s Plover had just been seen and a short time later a second bird appeared to be [read more…] If you live in any close proximity to the Delaware Bay, there is one question that you will see a lot of this time of year on birding and bird photography Facebook pages: where have Red Knots been sighted lately? The short answer, at least for the moment, is “nowhere.” It will be a little [read more…] The most painful part of the year for many New England birders is early spring. Taunted by neotropical migrants filtering into southern states, those of us in the northern states sometimes find ourselves impatiently waiting for more than just blackbirds, phoebes, and Tree Swallows to join our lingering winter birds. Imagine my surprise when I [read more…] But, really… Have you? If you’ve been following any of the many Facebook rarity groups, the weekly RBA on this blog, or eBird rarity alerts, you’ve likely noted that for several months now, Florida has been dominating the rarity scene. From the Black-tailed Gull and the just-found Key West Quail-Dove in Volusia County to fascinating, [read more…] 
Stepping out of my work truck on the side of a snowy, windblown county road in the panhandle of Nebraska, I hear a rising, tittering song originating from somewhere nearby, though its source evades my sight against the wide open blue sky. While the Horned Lark is anything but scarce or unusual in this part [read more…] |
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