Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

199. We usually see this number (more often in decimal form) when browsing store shelves for groceries or cheap stationary, but as of this evening, this number represents an achievement. I am one bird away from reaching my goal to observe 200 species of birds in 2016! This week has been one of the most productive for birding I've had in a long time. Ten species have boosted my year birding total from 189 to one step away from a hard won goal. Here is the story of how this attempt was made! "Where are those butter-noses?" On Monday, my girlfriend and I had a chance to visit Gooseberry Neck in Westport, MA to try for scoters and other winter waterfowl. Despite our youthful energy, the weather at this time of year is hellbent on making you regret leaving any heated space. The Massachusetts coast is known for two things during the winter months: bone-chilling cold and blustery gales and it certainly delivered both on that day. As I scanned the western horizon for bi

In three days, it will be the final week of 2016. While many will see it as the end of a trying and packed year, I see this final week as an opportunity. As of tonight, I am 11 species away from my goal of seeing 200 species of birds for the year. Since graduating from college in 2012, I have always tried to observe (both visually and audibly) over 200 species of birds per year. That year, I reached 228 species. In 2013 and 2014, I managed to skip over the line with 225 and 221 species respectfully, but started the decline into the high hundreds last year with 171 total species. In those three previous years, my career has taken me from Connecticut to Massachusetts, back to Connecticut, down to New Jersey, over to Pennsylvania, back to Massachusetts, briefly up to Maine, and finally to Central New York where I currently reside. From a resume building standpoint, this is pretty impressive, but as a birder with a achievable goal, this was extremely disappointing. My uprooting from Ma

This week, Cornell's birding website eBird launched a new feature on their bird identification app, Merlin Bird ID . While the app has been around for a while, this is the first time that one can take a picture of a bird and use it to identify what you've seen in the wild! To most people, this is another sign of technology integrating with the modern field guides to provide more accurate ways of identifying birds. In my opinion, this has given rise to another comparison. Personally speaking, I think that the time of the Pokédex has come! The original PokéDex from the Pokémon anime. How retro. For those of you not familiar with the Pokémon franchise and its overall goal, you might have heard a little about it this July when Niantic released Pokémon Go! for Android and iPhone. The premise of the game is to capture all 151 original Pokémon that appear randomly across the country in different habitats. Some Pokémon only appear in towns and cities, while others might only