Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

As January comes to a close and the new year continues on, I have taken some time to look for a common bird that everyone seems to notice, but rarely talks about. No, I'm not talking about feeder birds like titmice or finches, or ducks and geese that winter on our shores, or common city birds like sparrows. This bird can be seen with regularity soaring over any farm field, scanning a highway corridor at rush hour, or sitting on a wire like this one I saw at Kaveski Farm Conservation Land in Concord, MA. It is the Red-tailed Hawk ( Buteo jamaicensis ) and while they are as easy to see as I've described, I feel like they are often overlooked as well. Maybe it's because they're so common that the people that see them so often get used to them. Even in recent years as I became more of a birder than a naturalist, I would note where a given species was and then move on to the next one I saw or heard. It wasn't until I read and then reread Lyanda Lynn Haupt's Cro

After having an amazing weekend at Arisia 2015 in Boston where spending time with good friends and seeing amazing cosplay was the name of the game. One day after the end of the convention though, I decided to get out and see if I could do some woodland birding close to home. After all, even a nerd needs to get out and see the sunshine once in a while. I had some setbacks before getting out the door though. I had left my winter jacket at the hotel (but I did get to borrow my dad's warm ski jacket) and a snafu at the bank nearly put a damper on the day, but when I got out there, it seemed perfect. I exited the car and looked out over the stubble and grass of the community gardens and saw no real signs of life. I snapped some photos as I went and noticed a shadow overhead. I looked up to find one, no! Two! Two Red-tailed Hawks ( Buteo jamaicensis ) soaring in the winter sunshine overhead. These two beautiful adults treated me to a ten minute display of expert avian flight co

So as the first day of this new year begins to wane, I'm sitting down and thinking about some of my favorite birds I saw from this year, as well as from years past. After spending some time going through my eBird lists and looking up what birds (including lifers) I'd seen, I began the process of figuring out which was the best bird I had seen overall for each year from 2010 onwards. For each year leading up to this past year, I'll list the single "bird of the year" and then elaborate when talking about birds from 2014. The birds I will mention from 2014 will be three honorable mentions, the last year bird species I saw, and my favorite life bird. So here goes. 2010: Swallow-tailed Kite ( Elanoides forficatus ) Photo by Brian E. Small 2011: Snow Bunting ( Plectrophenax nivalis ) Photo by Pat Watts 2012: Long-tailed Duck ( Clangula hyemalis ) Long-tailed Duck in Norwalk Harbor. Photo taken myself. 2013: Snowy Owl ( Bubo scandiacus ) Imm