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 [...]

While this Canada Goose lives and migrates in the wild, certain sub-populations have sprung up in urban areas and have become quite the nuisance.
Credit: Ashley Hockenberry
While most Canada Geese spend the spring and fall migrating back and forth between their winter and summer habitat, some sub-populations of the Canada Goose have sprung up in many [...]

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 [...]

A few weeks ago we posted an image of a fully black (melanistic) penguin. Originally shared by National Geographic, it was a truly bizarre and interesting spectacle. While melanistic penguins will occasionally have a some color variation and/or off-color spots, this type of fully black penguin is pretty rare.
In doing some follow-up reading I stumbled [...]

Last week US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the release of the 2010 State of the Birds Report, a collaborative report conducted by the DOI as well as several other notable bird and conservation groups. This year’s State of the Birds Report followed up on the troubling findings from the 2009 report, which [...]

Credit: Andrew Evans
A rare photo of a fully black (melanistic) penguin showed up on National Geographic Traveler’s Intelligent Travel blog last week. Janelle Nanoson, who initially shared the image on the blog, called Dr. Allan Baker (ornithologist and professor of Environmental and Evolutionary Studies at the University of Toronto and head of the Department of [...]