Bird vs. Fish

Best Birds 2021

Water bird (et al.) winter Today (1/17) kicks off the year in earnest, as we’re done quarantining after traveling for the holidays. We saw the pink-footed geese in northern NJ! The next weekend, we went to my parents house to drop off a few things and successfully tried for the green-tailed towhee while we were […]

Lizard Tail Swamp

Today, we walked the yellow trail through this lovely preserve!

24 Hr Pelagic

Tonight we got back from an overnight adventure at sea! They boarded in order of booking, and I was lucky enough to have scored a bunk by booking early! 🙂 I slept in a t-shirt and shorts, and ended up a little chilly under a light blanket in the dead of night. (I was too […]

New House

So I did a thing…today, I closed on my 1st home! The front yard is Ingleside loamy sand, 0 to 5 percent slopes (IngB). This is the best I can find so far for Ingleside series associated vegetation: Wooded areas have an overstory of white oak, black oak, and scarlet oak. Some areas have Virginia […]

Pelagic!

I was finally comfortable temperature-wise on a boat out on the high seas today! I share this so others might know how to plan for their trips (and to remind people how cold it is on the open ocean). From land, the day started in the high 50s. On land, the temps got into the […]

Satyr Comma

Not that I have plans to go back anytime soon, but today marks the emergence of one of Wisconsin’s earliest butterflies from hibernation: the satyr comma! It’s a “little known” butterfly of northern forests. I’d love to see one, and I’m glad to start thinking about butterflies after this long winter.

Cape May NWR

Today, we walked the songbird trail to the blue trail through hands landing preserve.

2021 Birding Resolutions

These are more accurately lofty goals, but when I said one of them to Paul he said “is that your New Years resolution?” So, yea, let’s call it that. Find a black rail (LOL?) See or hear a Bicknell’s thrush Finally see the white rump of a white-rumped sandpiper Learn how to take bird photos […]

Best Birds of 2020

Goodbye, Upper Midwest Though I hadn’t yet gotten official notice, I was pretty sure this was going to be my last year at NRRI. I had known my funding was running out and there weren’t any new grants in sight. So, I made the best of it by starting off the birding year immersing myself […]

Selner Park

Today was Paul’s CBC, so I was a pinch hitter for a friend who couldn’t make it. I covered his part, which included this nice hilltop park. I walked up the steps from the parking lot to scan the harbor. After I covered that section, Paul and I met up to finish out our part […]