These are all birds seen on the South Shore of Massachusetts, mostly during morning bike rides and other excursions. Locations include Jerusalem Road, Atlantic Avenue, Cohasset Harbor, Musquashcut Pond, Myron's Panne, Scituate Lighthouse, and A.J. MacEachern Trails. Monday (7/15/19) Canada Goose Mallard Least Tern Mute Swan Double-Crested Cormorant Common Loon Killdeer Red-Winged Blackbird American Crow …
The hottest section of our Big Bend trip was at Rio Grande Village, which, as its name suggests, is along the Rio Grande and Mexican border. As you descend into the valley and see the massive bluffs of Sierra del Carmen in Mexico, the temperature gauge rises. By the time we had left out campsite …
Driving through the flat desert leading into and through Big Bend, Jackson and I noticed random windmills, not turbines, in the distance. Sometimes they were near a farm. But more often than not, they were solitary towers amongst small stands of trees and scrub. Not seeing the need for electricity, the best answer seemed water. …
After a sleepless night in both car and tent, with lightning crashing down around us, it was difficult rising Saturday morning for our 10-mile hike to find the only pair of Slate-Throated Redstarts in the country. So we dragged our heels to the Pinnacle trailhead near the Chisos Basin Visitor Center, missing the opportunity to …
Despite temperatures that reached 103 and exhaustion from the travels of the day before, we persevered an cracked the Family Big Year goal of 250. We weren’t sure at first. Birds don’t tend to be out in the middle of the day in such extreme heat. However, these are desert birds. Just like humans, they …
About two weeks ago, the family decided we would divide and conquer. Jackson and I would travel to Texas after his middle school graduation and Maura and Fiona would journey to Wyoming later in the year. Though this felt strange to not be together for these possibly momentous trips, it did make sense economically. Plus, …
It seemed like perfect timing: Cornell Lab and eBird's Global Big Day and our family nearing the 200 mark. With the right weather, location, and timing it seemed like that big number could be met. First was location. After much research with our birding friend, we decided on two very different locations: Burrage Pond in …
When we read on eBird that a Pink-Footed Goose was spotted in Ottawa, we knew that we had to go see it. We decided that we would leave on Saturday night after I went over to my friend's house. I got picked up at 10:30 PM and we started driving north toward Montreal, the last …
Over three months and 162 birds ago, I dreamed of ending our Family Big Year in dramatic fashion: dashing to Colorado, or some other unpredictable location, to find the namesake of our blog, the Pink-Footed Goose. We would be hiking through a snowstorm, exhausted and near giving up, edging closer to the lip of ridge. …
We started off the day driving from Naples heading to the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park. But before we left, we saw a Eurasian-collared Dove on a wire outside our hotel. While driving along the highway, we saw a few egrets in marshes along the side of the road. We kept looking for new …
The Year of the Green Kingfisher 