Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

As most of you who read regularly can tell, I like to carve wood into folksy likenesses of birds. Considering 90% of my posts consist of birds, birding, bitching about birding, and so forth, this isn't much of a change of pace. However, I'm here to give a summary of how I came to be interested in wood carving and what I've created so far. It started when I was young and had bought one of my first books entitled Duck Hunting by Dick Sternberg and Jeff Simpson. While I've always had an on and off interest in waterfowling, I never really have had the opportunity to go and while I would like to at some point, I am more content to read up on the history and learn about regional decoy styles. The page that caught my eye was the decoy page and ever since, I've had a fascination with the bird in a wooden form. One of my earliest posts on here was about the critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper ( Eurynorhynchus pygmeus ) and how I'd made some folksy looking deco...

It's my 100th post on here! Woohoo! Apologies for not having posted until the middle of the month, but I have been hard at work getting a summer job, carving owls, and trying to to freeze while being outside. I suppose the best place to start would be to inform you all how I'm doing on my year list. As of today, I have 75 species and have about 33% of the species that I saw last year! Last year I saw about 226 species and am hoping to either meet or exceed that number. I look forward to migration and dread the "warbler neck", but to meet the goal, it must be done! With all the Snowy Owls ( Bubo scandiacus ) puttering around I've managed to get five this year already and am more or less done with them. I wanted to find a Barn Owl ( Tyto alba ) that had been reported in Sachuest Point NWR in Rhode Island, but it didn't show. I had hoped for a Short-eared ( Asio flammeus ) or a Long-eared ( A. otus ) at some point, but so far they've evaded me as well. ...

The bird world is filled with species that beguile and amaze us with their plumages, displays, flight styles, and call notes. They range from the unusual Wrybill ( Anarhynchus frontalis ) with its right hand facing bill to the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock ( Rupicola peruvianus ) with their vibrant orange plumage and crest to the majesty of the Whooping Crane ( Grus americana ) that continues to recover despite the daunting odds that it faces in its future survival. Those daunting odds are more apparent these days as many species of birds are endangered with a few that are even critical. The little guy in front of the Curlew Sandpiper( Calidris ferruginea ) is the one who needs our help! One of those species is the Spoon-billed Sandpiper ( Eurynorhynchus pygmeus ), a critically endangered shorebird that breeds in the Siberian Arctic and is feared to number at less than 100 breeding pairs! I recently became enamored and concerned about the plight of the SBSA (alpha code being used for co...