I only added 4 new North American birds to my birding year list during the entire month of February. Seriously, I’m not kidding. What a terrible month, you must be thinking. Based solely on those numbers, maybe, but I actually had a grand month and added several lifers. All of the best birds just happened…
A new year of birding brings all sorts of new excitement, and as well as many questions. What will the first bird of the year be? How many new birds will I get today? Where in the heck did all of the blackbirds go? How did I go all year without seeing that bird –…
I sure had an ambitious goal going into the year of identifying 300 different species of birds throughout the United States. Wow. If I based my success purely on numbers then this year was a monumental failure. My final tally for the year was a somewhat embarrassing 183 species. But all was not lost, as…
I had high hopes for August being a decent birding month, perhaps getting an early start on fall shorebird migration as I am still missing a tremendous number of ‘easy’ shorebirds on my year list. The few times I searched I found poor habitat and thus hardly any shorebirds. Thus my list did not grow…
July was brutal for me as far as birds go. Work was crazy busy so I had to work 6-7 day weeks for the first 3 weeks, and just didn’t have the time to get out for much other than a few long walks. There were some great birds showing up throughout Missouri on the…
June was in fact in interesting month as far as birds go for me. I spent time in the Ozarks, as well as in the Grand Canyon and the gulf coast of Florida. All these destinations led to some extraordinary birds, even if I did dip on the California Condor and somehow still can’t seem…
May was supposed to be this glorious month for birding, a time when I could knock off some easy migrants as well as some common returning residents. Instead, I trudged along again, adding some good birds while missing out on some easy birds. Perhaps my biggest miss was not spending any time seeking shorebirds. I…
Well once again I fell well short of my stated goals for the month. My focus on training for the Grand Canyon and the fact that the fish have been biting both cut into my birding time. And boy did I miss some good birds this month. My schedule does not allow me to chase…
Ever since we moved into our house in 2004, I have kept track of the different species of birds seen from my yard. Actually, I stretched just a bit and basically said that if I can see my yard and see the bird then it counts in my yard bird list. We live in a…
It was a cold day in March at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge near Omaha, NE when Jim and I arrived at the lake. Even with the windows on Jim’s car closed because it was cold outside we could hear the sound that only a large gathering of geese can produce. As we stepped out of…
