Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

Apologies for not posting sooner. The chaos of the fall has just begun and I only just recently feel like I got my bearings. I took a huge number of photos during my visit to Edwin B. Forsythe NWR and instead of musing eloquently in word form about it, I'll show you the birds from my excursion. Semipalmated Sandpiper ( Calidris pusilla ) Another Semipalmated Sandpiper. Egret of some sort. Initially thought it was a Snowy, but Great seems pretty likely too. Common Yellowthroat ( Geothlypis trichas ) subadult male CLAPPER RAILS ( Rallus longirostris ) !! Extreme concentration from a Great Blue Heron ( Ardea herodias ). A Pied-billed Grebe ( Podilymbus podiceps ) sluicing through the mud. Peeps. Calidrids. Little gray dowel faces. Call them what you will... Feeding frenzy involving Laughing Gulls ( Leucophaeus atricilla ) and a Snowy Egret ( Egretta thula ). Yellowlegs ( Tringa spp. ) Dowitchers ( Limnodromus spp. ). Not even go

When you see this color, what would you call it? Simply brown won't do, neither will chocolate, because it's a little redder than that. Reddish brown works, but doesn't quite capture the essence of the color. No. The color as the title suggests is rufous. As I type this, a red squiggle indicating an incorrectly spelled word has appeared below it, as if it had no concept of this color's existence. This is something I've noticed all my life however. Whenever you spell it in Word or another word-processing program (are there others?) it says it's incorrect. But why you might ask am I bringing this up on a birding blog? Well, for one, color is an important aspect to describing and enjoying birds. Their myriad shades, pigments, and hues mesmerize us and make us so appreciative for the extreme variety that they possess. Having a vocabulary to describe those colors is very important as well. The guide that seems to do it the best is Frank M. Chapman's Birds o

Fall is upon us once more and with its arrival comes the annual southward migration of warblers, sparrows, and other small birds, winging their way south for their winter vacations. My goal is to find a few more species to add to my rolls. Canada Warbler ( Cardellina canadensis ), Connecticut Warbler ( Oporornis agilis ), and Yellow-breasted Chat ( Icteria virens ) would all be wonderful additions to my list but for now, I'll wait for the weekend to start (Sundays and Mondays again) before I head out to search the nearby woods. Having spent part of spring migration in Ohio with my girlfriend I was able to get amazing, up-close shots of migrating warblers including four or five I'd never seen before. (My entry for that weekend in May can be found here ) However, more recently there are two books of mine that have helped me get in the mood for the warblers to come. They are quite different from one another with one providing reference and technical insight into the parulids o