Lesser Yellowlegs heavily rely on the Gulf Coast for wintering habitat
Credit: Glen Tepke
We’ve posted a couple times on the likely effects the Gulf oil spill will have on migratory birds (here and here), who will soon be flooding the Gulf in large numbers for both wintering habitat and stopover habitat for those en route to destinations further [...]

A little over a week ago we posted an update from Ron Pittaway, who has been writing up the bird counts from Jean Iron up in in the James Bay region of Canada and posting them on the Ontario Birding listserv. Jean is part of a group that heads up to this remote part of [...]

Correction: We originally posted that the following report was written by Jean Iron. It was written by Ron Pittaway based on communications with Jean via satellite phone. The original post was featured on the Ontario Birds listserve.
As you may or may not know, the James Bay coastline (a southeastern extension of the Hudson Bay in [...]

This is Part II of our oil spill update. Part I  discussed the extent of the oil spill and the problems containing the leak, Part II discusses the impacts on local as well as migratory birds, and Part III will discuss the longer-term implications of our addiction to oil and the need to plan our [...]

The second update from the three-part series on the oil spill is coming soon. There were some developments over the weekend we are hoping to include in that post – in the meantime, enjoy this “lighter” post on a much happier story:

Bar-tailed Godwit
Credit: U.S. Geological Survey
Every now and then you read something that truly inspires [...]

Common Eider
Credit: Adrian Pingstone via Wikimedia Commons
A few days ago someone posted on the Maine Birding listserve a sighting of a large flock of Common Eiders migrating up the Penobscot River in Maine. It brought back memories for me of seeing such flocks migrating up that same river about 25 years in Bangor where I [...]

Here are some interesting comments I received from my last post about some of the early migrants I’ve been able to record at night above my house in Maine. You can see the original post here >
Michael O’Brien’s comments:
I’m interested in your assertion that American Robin is strictly a diurnal migrant. Perhaps that is true [...]

I started my automated recording station for the season here in Maine on Thursday night, April 1st. Although there were few calls each of the last three nights, the numbers increased a little each night from about 10 the night of the 1st to about 30 last night. You might recall I posted last spring [...]

This past September I had the opportunity and pleasure to spend time with some of my Boreal colleagues (and I mean humans not birds) in Victoria, British Columbia.

To get there we took the Victoria Clipper, a high-speed ferry, from Seattle. Although it was tough to look for birds because of the speed of the boat and the [...]

This fall I have had the opportunity to visit two different Maine islands to look for Boreal migrant birds – Monhegan Island and Damariscove Island.  Interestingly, these two islands were probably the first ones in North America inhabited, at least seasonally, by Europeans who came for the vastly abundant fish that are sadly now largely [...]