The boreal forest circles the northern hemisphere like a “green scarf”
Credit: Global Forest Watch
The boreal forest is back in the news again for its increasingly recognized ability to absorb and store massive amounts of carbon. In addition to being an enormous breeding region for migratory birds, boreal forests are vitally important in efforts to mitigate [...]

Clearcutting in Ontario’s Boreal Forest
Credit: Jeff Wells
Some troubling news came up today: a new report published in the Annals of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found that the world’s total forest cover shrank by 3.1 percent between 2000 and 2005–the report used satellite images and data to track forest loss.
The world’s great boreal forests, which make up [...]

Common Eider
Credit: Kirk Rogers
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 started birding.
This population [...]

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 [...]