Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

A picture worth a 1000 words. Personal photo. As Forrest Gump once professed, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." Birding is a lot like that as well. I remember going on a birding trip when I was about ten with a teen birder at Wayland Community Gardens in eastern Massachusetts expecting that his advanced years would clearly be an asset to finding a multitude of rare and unusual species. The birds it seemed, had other ideas. The only bird we saw that day was a lone black-capped chickadee investigating the twigs of a bare oak. I was extremely disappointed to say the least, not only because of the poor turnout, but I was annoyed at myself for not speaking up more. I guess, I was just a shy kid. Fast forward to about two weekends ago, I spent birding the Trinity Center property looking for birds for: 1. relaxation purposes, and 2. providing a checklist to submit to eBird the next evening in front of an audience of Road Schola...

Once in a while it is good to take a break and this past weekend was no exception. Alison and I planned on visiting northwest Ohio for the annual Biggest Week in American Birding festival. The last time we graced the shore of Lake Erie for some of the best birding in the country was in 2013 while Alison had been working in Columbus as a songbird technician. On a whim, she and her fellow techs decided to visit the festival to check out the birds. Her experience was so amazing that she nagged me into driving the eight hours from New Jersey (where I was working as a teacher naturalist at the time) to see the exquisite jewels that flitted from branch and twig. As we arrived in the darkness of Friday morning to our motel (which I will be calling the Rat's Nest for sake of brevity and because I don't intend to get into a Yelp flame war with the owners). Needless to say, the place was less than we had hoped for. While the continental breakfast at most motels leaves little to be desi...

I had the great fortune of visiting a wonderful preserve yesterday in search of warblers and spring migrants. As this month marks the main passage of spring migrants in the Mid-Atlantic region, I have decided to do a big month to try and see as many different warblers, for as many points as possible. I made up an arbitrary point system where common species are worth 1 point, harder to find species are worth 3 points, and life birds are worth 5 points. I also added in the possibility of seeing Brewster's and Lawrence's Warblers for 10 and 12 points respectively. As of this morning, I have 9 points after seeing 9 species over the past two days. In the morning, I visited an excellent birding area called Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve, located near my favorite artisan town of New Hope, PA. As I exited the car, birdsong surrounded me. The sweet, squeaky notes of a Black-and-White Warbler ( Mniotilta varia ) rang down from one of the nearby trees, while a Blue-gray Gnatcatch...

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...

This weekend was one of the most successful and amazing birding experiences I've had in ages. I saw seven life birds, spend an inspiring and adoring, yet inappropriately limited amount of time with my love (it'll be longer in July, I promise!), and met one of America's best birders, Kenn Kaufman. The warblers alone were amazing, but what touched me the most was the variety of birders present. Young and old, big and small. Beginners with Peterson's and Sibley Guides and enthusiasts with enormous telephoto lenses! Huge crowds gathered to see feathered migratory miracles like Blackburnian ( Setophaga fusca ), Wilson's ( Cardellina pusilla ), and Chestnut-sided Warblers ( S. pensylvanica ) (all life birds for me by the way) and there was an overall appreciation of the wonders of bird life in the spring time. What a marvelous weekend indeed and I only hope that I can get back there as fast as possible to experience it all again.  Rose-breasted Grosbeak ( Pheucticus lu...

After experiencing the high of finding so many warblers over the past few days, not finding anything this morning at Heard's Conservation Land was certainly disappointing, but it was made up for it by seeing a family of Northern Flickers ( Colaptes auratus ) I recognized from earlier in the summer. Even though I've only starting concentrating on warblers in the past two weeks or so, I've already run into some problems in regards to correctly identifying species (provided they don't give me "warbler neck" first or in my attempts to follow their flitting and twitching through the understory causes me to fall backwards down a hill I already had trouble climbing to begin with.) This also includes the usual issues with timing, weather, habitat choice, and of course, luck. This past week or so, I've experienced the joy of mistaking Blackpoll Warblers ( Setophaga striata ) with everything else that possesses wingbars (a feature that still annoys me in regards t...