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Behind the Bins
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Join me behind the bins to watch birds around the country and sometimes in other places around the globe.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'bird'
Citizen Science
Have you ever been involved in a citizen science bird survey? New Jersey Audubon conducts several every year: Shorebirds, Piedmont, Pinelands, Nightjar, Harbour Herons, and Grasslands. Pick one. Participating allows you and me to be part of som...
Bird Photography Weekly
My sister and I had just finished dragging the table and chairs out of the garage and uphill into the back yard and were enjoying our first sip and sup of well-deserved crisp white wine and creamy Saint Andre cheese when, from out of the corner of m...
Bird Photography Weekly
Belted Kingfishers stay with us all winter as long as there is open water. I saw them by the deep sluggish river when I was chasing after the Barnacle Goose and across an open reservoir when I was looking for winter Gulls. I usually hear the dry ...
Not all Red Birds are Cardinals
Cardinals were everywhere at Brazos Bend State Park . I was seeing 10-15 at a time. They were in the shrubs, trees, bushes and on the ground. I’m tellin’ you there must have been a flock of 70 birds there. Often I would see moveme...
Bittern Mantra
Ohmmmm. I am one with the reed. Ohmmmm. I am one with the reed. Ohmmmm, I am one with the reed. Seriously. What are you looking at? I know you can’t see me. You got some sort of reed envy thing going on? You too can be one with the reed...
Bird Photography Weekly
Look at that tail! Let’s see–at the beach, in Texas, long wonky tail, must be a Boat-tailed Grackle. I can usually tell the difference between the Boat-tailed and Great-tailed Grackle not by size, and the tail of a Great-tailed Grackl...
Bird Photography Weekly-Snowy Egret
Holy Crap! This water is COLD! This picture always cracks me up. I spied this Snowy Egret on the Texas coast in May so the water was not terribly cold, but by the look on its face, it seems to be thinking it. Actually it was really windy and th...
Bird Photography Weekly
This picture is a few years old and was taken at a sewage treatment plant–one of my favorite places to bird. It’s true. Have you tried it? I have 2 favorite ones. The first time I was ever at a sewage treatment facility it was at th...
King Eider in Piermont
All Hail the King! Well, I guess it’s more of a Prince at this point. Once in a while the birding gods smile on me. Late last night I saw that a juvenile King Eider had been spotted Sunday afternoon at the pier in Piermont, NY. It was not...
Fox Sparrow visitor
I stood at the kitchen sink talking to my sister on the phone. The wind was howling around the house and the thermometer read 6F. The neglected rusty brown oak leaves in the backyard were swirling and dancing in the gale. I squinted; one of tho...
Skywatch
Right. It’s Skywatch. Ok, I’m watching….Um, what am I watching for???? To see what other people and birds are watching, check out Skywatch. ...
The Addiction - a short story
Paul pulled up to the ATM, stuck in his card and punched in $300. He had held out as long as he could. He needed cash. There was no time to waste. The machine whirred and spit out a receipt that said INSUFFICIENT FUNDS. Paul slammed this fist against...
Skywatch
I was with friends the other day and we were talking about if you were a bird which one would you be. There were lots of interesting answers from hawks (of course) to a vulture (you can’t be serious!) to eagles (hmmm, yes but have you hear...
Jonathan Trouern-Trend will speak at the 5th NJ Meadowlands Festival of Birding
Knowing that I love all things birdy, a few years ago, a friend gave me a small birding book called Birding Babylon: A Soldier’s Journal from Iraq. Originally written by Sergeant First Class Jonathan Trouern-Trend during his time north of Bagd...
White-winged Crossbills in the Catskills
A small flock of singing White-winged Crossbills was reported from Sullivan County, New York in the middle of August, in the same locale as the Pine Grosbeak last winter. They are one of the life birds that I have been trying to get for years. Wi...
White Ibis-the garbage picker
When I think of Ibis, I think of heat, marshes, phragmites, salt on my lips and in the air. And most definitely the south. While on a business trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the dead of summer, I decided to go for a swim at 6am. The heat ...
Young Downy Woodpecker
I sat gazing out the big colonial windows in my kitchen with my cat, Winkie perched on one knee. She saw the bird before I did. A disheveled young Downy Woodpecker landed on one of the green metal lawn chairs. She pecked at the metal repeatedly...
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Willow Flycatcher
Of the 5 look-a-like Empidonax flycatchers, I see Willow the most, or rather I should say I hear it. Well, I do see it but since they all look alike, I depend on their call to identify which one I am looking at. So, I both hear and…oh, never mi...
Wordless Wednesday
Watch where you walk
May 25, 1994. I was late for work hurrying down 33rd street. The train was late and it had rained in the night. As I power-walked head down in the wind, up ahead I noticed a circle of people clustered around something on the sidewalk. I could not he...
Call of the wild
I was standing at the lookout scanning the water with perhaps half a dozen other birders. We were calling out species and remarking to each other on their beauty and behavior. When faintly, seemingly off in the distance, there was the call of a loo...
Wordless Wednesday
Happy Mothers Day
Birding weekend- Day 2, Garret Mountain
With the warblers dripping from the trees, it was hard to leave the City (notice how it is always capitalized like it is the only one) yesterday but after walking for 5 hours and craning my neck all day, I was bushed. (Does that make me a birding li...
Wordless Wednesday
Beech Road Bird Walk
With only a cursory look at the shoreline, we headed off to the woods with its inviting green blush of tiny leaves. The light shining through was translucent and limey, like a long drink of a margarita on a hot day-tangy, refreshing, relaxing but a...
