I spent time this afternoon watching Caspian terns fishing off the beach next to the Coupeville-Port Townsend ferry. This guy was successful. Later, when I was wandering the backwater nearby, I apparently got too close to the terns’ nesting area. The sent out the call, and five hovered around squawking while one repeatedly dive-bombed me. …
Another episode in my effort to explore the meaning of “drought” by way of example. Up on Albuquerque’s north side is a spot the birders call the “Tramway wetland”*. It’s the spot where the main flood control channel for much of Albuquerque slows before entering the Rio Grande. The local flood control authority has designed …
Continue reading ‘More on the definition of “drought”: a dry spot’ »
Lissa first spotted a parakeet last week out by Greenwich, a flash of green knifing into trees above the garden path we were walking. It was just a glimpse followed by a fruitless search through the trees to identify the source of the squawking, followed by a visit to my Pocket Guide to the Birds …
Dave Foreman (pdf): I was once asked in a radio interview what book I would want with me if I were stranded alone on an island. “The bird field guide for the area,” said I.
John Upton asked for suggestions about “your favorite plant, animal, pathogen or natural phenomenon” as blog topics. I suggested pigeons, and John did not disappoint: [N]ew research suggests that pigeon racers could be constantly fueling the wild populations with physical prowess-imbuing genes, helping to spawn today’s urban super-pigeons. University of Utah researchers studied the genes …
I put out the hummingbird feeders Saturday, then felt stupid for putting them out early. In 2009 (the first year I kept track) the first sighting was April 16. In 2010 April 16. In ’11, April 17. For 2012, it’s April 9. Just a quick stop and then disappeared.
I’d have to call Emma Marris’ The Rambunctious Garden the most influential book I read in 2011, in large part because it fell on fertile ground. I’ve been puzzling for a long time over the question of what counts as “nature”, both in our political discourse and in my own heart of hearts. Why is it, …
We spent Saturday at the Bosque del Apache, a wildlife refuge south of Albuquerque. It’s early in the season for the well-known sandhill crane wintering grounds, but in addition to cranes we saw mobs of pintails, a cormorant, a family of grebes (I’m reasonably certain they were westerns, though they’re tough to tell at a …
Clearly the gulls are drawn by Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Or do they play YMCA? It is San Francisco, after all: Some gulls have an uncanny way of showing up at AT&T Park during the eighth or ninth inning of a ballgame. Day game or night game, the gulls bizarrely seem to know …