Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

As John Lennon once sang; "Another year over and a new one has just begun...", with 31 birds already on my year list, I've begun 2017 in earnest. The goal remains the same; attempting to reach 200 species of birds by December 31st, 2017, along with reading 100 books and walking 300 miles. Call it the 1-2-3 resolution if you will. Last year, I managed to get 199 species on my year list, just one shy of my goal and just over twenty species more than 2015. So many species graced my presence in 2016 that it's hard to narrow it down to just one. So instead, I will be nominating three for the past year. I have done multiple birds of the year before, but I wanted to diversify in regards to the topic. Since this blog started, I've always tried to try to write on other subjects so that it wasn't solely a birding blog. It is a little hard for me to do so as my muse when it comes to nature observation has and will always be birds. While I only started keeping a list ...

So this past week, I've traveled to a new home once again and got settled in. I'm happy to report that the people and place I'll be working at for the next few months are lovely, quaint, and filled with fun and adventures to be had. We start with our first school on Monday and I'm so ready to start teaching again. Naturally, with my first "well-earned" weekend, I set out to find some life birds. While traveling along the now familiar Interstate 76, I had decided the night before to visit Middle Creek WMA in Stevens because of the huge numbers of wintering waterfowl that could be found there. While driving, I wondered how I would look for the Tundra Swans ( Cygnus columbianus ) that had been reported there. It didn't take me long to find them. As I entered the parking lot, I munched on a granola bar and thought about my game plan. As usual, I'd come up with nothing and decided that randomly ambling about until I either got bored or frustrated was goin...

It's the middle of the summer (although some might argue that the middle of the summer would be around August 6th) and the lull before migration is weighing in. There have been a few bright spots such as the recent sighting of that Red-necked Stint ( Calidris ruficollis ) in Parker River NWR and at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, as well as the many Little Gulls ( Hydrocoloeus minutus ) dotted around the Atlantic coast and Great Lakes. With my other computer in less than perfect condition, I have to rebuild my bird list from scratch, starting with the difficult decision to scrap all bird records without sufficient dates. I know I've seen them before, but I don't know when. As a result, I have no better recollection of what I might have seen and what I might not have seen and as a result, the numbers on the list will suffer. This does throw the goal of 350 birds into jeopardy as well and at the moment, I'll have to see what the list looks like without those dateless species fi...

I got to visit home this weekend and visited my old stomping grounds of Great Meadows in Concord where I went looking for Least Bitterns ( Ixobrychus exilis ). As you can imagine, my cryptic bird searching skills aren't stellar, so I went about my business looking for other familiar marsh birds. I didn't have to search for long as some birders were clustered near a bench towards the start of the center trail leading into the marsh. I walked over and looked carefully. It took me a few moments, but I finally saw the little bird of interest. It was a Sora ( Porzana carolina ). The second Sora I've ever seen (the first being last year at Great Meadows as well). Below are the pictures I managed to get of the little one and I was so pleased with the results. The added advantage of my putting these up here is that I can also link my eBird account to here for verification. The algorithm considers these to be rare at Great Meadows for this time of...

At the end of this week, I will be traveling to New Jersey for my new internship. I won't tell you where for privacy reasons, but I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'm excited for two reasons. One is that this experience will sort of be like college in the sense that I have to rely on myself to cook, clean, and learn those life skills I need when I'm truly out on my own. The second reason is, of course, the birds. Over the next few weeks, I'll be reporting the ins and outs of Pennington and other prime birding locations. I'm especially looking forward to spring migration as my location puts me fairly close to the Chesapeake Bay area allowing me access to the legendary waterfowl and shorebird migrations seen there twice a year. I expect the woodlands to be equally impressive with neotropical migrants such as warblers, tanagers, thrushes, and grosbeaks to add to both my year and life lists. While some initial jitters are over and done with, I only hope that ...

 The Canvasback ( Aythya valisineria ) has been showing up in Massachusetts over the past few months. They have mainly shown up in traditional spots such as Fresh Pond and Jamaica Pond, but also in others like Plum Island, Acushnet, and Pope John Paul II Park. But even as I search those areas, I always seem to be coming up with nothing. It seems like they either aren't there or I miss them by a few days. The same seemed to be happening when I couldn't find Lincoln's Sparrow ( Melospiza lincolnii ) and Rusty Blackbird ( Euphagus carolinus ) but eventually I did come across them. In the mean time, I'm happy to report that I got to see the King Eider ( Someteria spectabilis ) up near Salt Island off of Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. While it was a distant speck amongst the Common Eiders ( S. mollisima ) it was associating with. I could barely tell what it was, but the extra black on the back separated this adult male from the more piebald males. Had it been a female ...

Uh dude....? A little to your left... So as I've mentioned before, I will be year listing this year. I have no set region or state for this so it's more a challenge for me to see how many species I can compile. I must correct people though. It isn't a big year. Unlike the immensely popular film of yesteryear (based on the much better book, as usual), I won't be jet setting around the country to see as many species as humanly possible. I'm not that crazy, nor am I rich. But what's that I hear you say? Kenn Kaufman did his big year for around $1000 and saw just over 660 species! That's true, but he also hitchhiked most of the way and ate cat food at some point. And if eating cat food is a selling point to a birding trip, you're barking up the wrong tree. Besides, I only wanted to announce that I'd recently seen my 100th bird of the year and it isn't even the end of the month either! It was a small group of Common Goldeneye ( Bucephala clangul...