Jackson and I woke up by sunrise of his fourteenth birthday with a relatively light fog over San Francisco Bay. Today was to be one of the highlights of our California trip, a six-hour excursion to the Farallon Islands, almost 30 miles out into the ocean. Among the birds we hoped to see were the …
We all piled into the car Friday night and camped in Greenfield State Park so we could start our quest for the First Annual Monadnock Area Birding Cup. Bruce got up at 4:00 am to get a fire started and woke the rest of us up at 4:55 so w'd be ready to listen for …
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, …
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. …
The flu hit Jackson right as he was getting ready for 3 nights in New York with his classmates for Montessori Model United Nations. Jackson went last year and was as invigorated by the MMUN committee meetings as spending time with friends traveling to, from and around the city. As a cold and cough turned …
Today we decided to go on a small trip to find some new species to add to our list. We first decided to go to Tidmarsh in Plymouth to see if we could find any new birds. We didn’t see much for a while except a few Robins and Crows. But after a while, we …
I started off the day driving back from my friend's house, and on the way home, we (Maura and Jackson), decided to stop by the Scituate Harbor Lighthouse to look for a Purple Sandpiper that was spotted there a few days ago. When we got there, we didn’t see anything rare as we hoped but …
As we packed our bags for school, we discussed when we would go back to Portland (ME) to see the rare Great Black Hawk. Maura asked Jackson and I if we wanted to go tomorrow, but we had plans for that day. Then Jackson suggested going today, and sure enough, we did. It was a …
After hearing about the many sightings of a very rare raptor, the Great Black Hawk (native to Central and South America), in Portland, Maine, we decided to go on a last-minute road trip. After a restless sleep in York, we wound our way toward Portland, stopping at a couple of good birding spots, including Rachel …
The Year of the Green Kingfisher 