Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

Welcome to part two of the birding reading list. Here are my next four submissions. Oology: Ralph's Talking Eggs by Carrol L. Henderson (2007) I picked this book up somewhere (I don't remember where) and was fascinated by the study and formerly rife practice of oology (the study of bird eggs and to a lesser extent, their nesting habits) which was pursued during the days of "shotgun ornithology" and market hunting, when the idea that such huge numbers of shorebirds, ducks, and pigeons ever running out was thought to be flights of fancy. I'm looking forward to it because it explains the tale of one such oologist named Ralph Handsaker who lived in the Midwest and started a collection of eggs that many other bird experts used to recognize all sorts of birds all over North America. It looks like an interesting read based on a formerly prominent hobby of many nature observers and amateur scientists and how it has had an impact on bird conservation and study in moder...

Without doubt some of my favorite pieces of American wildlife art are the shorebird and waterfowl decoys produced during the market hunting days during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The dedication to the craft that would eventually turn into an essential piece of Americana was developed according to the needs of those hunters. However, the destructive nature of market hunting took its toll on many wild animal and bird populations, and in some cases, lead to the extinction of several prominent flocking species such as the Eskimo Curlew ( Numenius borealis ) and the Passenger Pigeon ( Ectopistes migratorius ). The legacy of the tools used by those market hunters can be found in the decoys now considered to be collectors items and icons of American shooting and hunting history. Several examples of A. Elmer Crowell's work including Yellowlegs ( Tringa spp. ) and Solitary Sandpipers ( T. solitaria ) Nowadays, those old decoys are more likely to be found on the mantlepiece than i...

Having just gotten back from Another Anime Convention (Actual name of the con. No lie.) and not having been able to do anything bird-related this weekend, I thought I'd do a bonus third entry for this week to try and make up for it. Here is my bird book reading list recommendations. Part I: Books I have read previously and would recommend to others. The Verb 'To Bird': Sightings of an Avid Birder by Peter Cashwell (2003) This wonderful yarn is about the birding adventures of Peter Cashwell, an English teacher from Virginia who has a passion for birds and birding as well as the literary arts. I love this book's eloquent style and wording as well as how his explanations of how the word "bird" became a verb with its various forms for past, present, and future use. His own use of language and words is particularly spectacular. An excerpt of his work can be found on the back of the book as he describes his search for an American Avocet ( Recurvirostra ame...

Every time you hear the sound of a Canada Goose ( Branta canadensis ) (probably the most common goose in your area if you live in the United States), you cannot deny the sense of wildness in that sound. Every time I have the opportunity to see these birds, I am in awe of their subtle beauty, loyalty to their partners and family groups, and their bugling cries that are uttered from the tight Vs they carve across the autumn sky. Having come so close to getting 300 species on my life list, I decided to scale it back a bit and look for those waterfowl that I admire and love. Featured below are some pictures I took of my trip this very afternoon. Hope you guys enjoy it. Happy birding ^_^. Feeding in the shallows near the Concord River, this small family signaled their presence to the other families of geese in the marsh with their repeated "gor-unk" and "unka-unka-unka" cries. They definitely were enjoying the company of one another and were feeding on whateve...

An immature wheatear was the lucky find this weekend! As the title suggests, I am in love. With birds, yes, but y'all knew that already. I went to the Cape this weekend for my girlfriend and my fourth anniversary together. It's been our first since we both graduated from Unity College in Maine and we wanted to go somewhere special. We decided that the best way to see the birds would be to spend a night in Orleans and be right in the middle of the action. On Saturday morning, we traveled from her house in Lakeville to Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. We then spent the afternoon browsing the shops and colorful boulevards of Provincetown. After all, we came for the rainbows and we got the rainbows! (Although to be honest, we also came for the birds.) Towards the end of the day, we got on a sailing ship to tour around the harbor. What a lovely trip it was with a lovely sunset and prime views of coastal winter bird life. While there I got to see bird #294; two winter plumage Bo...

I must say that I've birded many places this past year. I was able to go to Florida for the first time in two years and picked up several new species, while slowly picking up several more species since then. I've even seen some of my entries on eBird show up on the rare bird alerts for Massachusetts (the most recent one being a young male Common Goldeneye ( Bucephala clangula ) that I spotted at Assawompsett Pond in Lakeville). But this past Friday, I experienced some of the best birding I've ever had. Last Friday, I went to Parker River NWR in Newburyport and my mind was blown. It wasn't simply the number of species that I haven't seen before, but also the huge numbers of other species I saw there. I saw huge flocks of ducks like Northern Pintails ( Anas acuta ), Mallards ( A. platyrhynchos ), and American Black Ducks ( A. rubripes ), as well as smaller groups of yellowlegs and egrets. In the wooded sections abounded with warblers, Swainson's Thrushes (a life...

Earlier in the week, I briefly discussed the concept of a "nemesis bird" and stated that I hadn't yet determined if I had one due to the bewildering and ever changing status of the birds I've been seeking over the past few months. For a while this summer, it was the Black-bellied Whistling Duck ( Dendrocygna autumnalis ) at GMNWR before it turned over to the last few weeks of September when I was absolutely obsessed with warblers. After getting six species: Northern Waterthrush ( Parkesia novaboracensis ), Tennessee ( Oreothlypis peregrina ), Nashville ( Oreothlypis ruficapilla ), Magnolia ( Setophaga magnolia ), Blackpoll ( Setophaga striata ), and Black-throated Blue Warbler ( Setophaga carulescens ), I started concentrating on the small, weedy fields and community gardens near me for Lincoln's Sparrow ( Melospiza lincolnii ). After getting a Lincoln's at Lincoln Meadows (ironic) in Sudbury, I looked at my remaining list. Where could I go that would get me m...

I was recently poking around the Mass Audubon Bird Conservation staff page located here and was reading over Matt Kamm's blurb when I read the final sentence and had a thought. The sentence goes as follows. "He has been an enthusiastic birder since the age of eight, and his nemesis bird is the Short-tailed Hawk." The first part of that sentence isn't important. The concept of a "nemesis bird" hadn't really caught my imagination since I already had a list of likely species I hadn't yet seen and was using that as a benchmark in my quest to reach the 300. However, this new concept has intrigued me and made me wonder what species have seemed to elude me. However, the answer to that has changed so many times that it hardly seems worth it to determine what it is. For most of the summer my main target was the Black-bellied Whistling Duck ( Dendrocygna autumnalis ) spotted at Great Meadows NWR in Concord, MA. When I did finally sight it (with pictures a...