My blog and Others'

Writing bird stories for Regional Parks Botanic Garden in the east bay of San Francisco is the impetus for a blog. Without the camaraderie of a devoted group of garden volunteers who pay close attention to both birds and plants, I wouldn't have accumulated a good number of observations through the seasons, let alone sharing them with others.

Once the first story flew out of my finger tips, others started swirling around in my head, and wanted out, too. Thus began my blog.

Over the years, I have come across many interesting blogs on birds. Here I pay tribute to some.

Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds.
My fascination, and frustration, with gull identification led me to Seagull Steve. He walks the tightrope of self-aggrandization and self-mockery. The unapologetic nerdiness of a passionate birder shines through his blog.

Tough Little Birds
This is a window into the curious mind of a generous bird researcher. The combination of her observations, knowledge, and willingness to answer questions asked by average joe (me included) is simply extraordinary.

Beijing Birding
An expat that loves to watch birds becomes a major contributor to local bird conservation movement. His amazing journey continues.

Ear Birding
Taking classes on birding (which I eschewed for years) opens up so many avenues for me to enjoy birds. "Birding by Ear" taught by Denise Wight was one such class. Bird watching is never again only bird "watching". That cued me in to Nathan Pieplow's blog. As dedicated to bird listening as he is, he started to worry about hearing loss before 35.

Sibley Guides Bird Information
I don't know if it counts as blog, and it doesn't update often (there was only one post the whole year of 2016), but whatever his subject is, David Allen Sibley writes with clarity.

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Duck Hawk

On the Fourth of July this year a young Osprey died. A week later a young Peregrine Falcon died. The two incidents took place just a few miles from each other. Both birds were less than two months old, and had taken their first flights under watchful eyes of humans. Local Audubon Society had two cameras on the osprey nest, and volunteers were posted by the tower where the peregrine was hatched. I had a brief encounter with Lux (the juvenile falcon that died later) on the evening of July 5, the day before she took her first leap into the air. She was on Campanile, the clock tower at the center of UC Berkeley campus. The tower rose 307 feet against the blue sky, showed its usual serene façade, and revealed nothing about a raptor's nest until the insistent high-pitched scratchy calls near the top broke through the summer lull. Even with one ear plugged up due to a cold, I could hear her loud and clear. In all three photos above, the female adult Peregrine Falcon stands at ...

Common Loon of Walden Pond

22 years ago I made my pilgrimage to Concord, Massachusetts as the leaves turned color. Not only was Walden Pond much bigger than I had imagined, but I was shocked by a bathhouse on the shore, having envisioned a pond in the wilderness. It took me quite some time to circle the lake by foot. I don’t remember seeing a loon there. Several years later one summer in northern Maine, I heard my first laughter of a Common Loon. The moment I heard it I knew what it was, thanks to the description by Henry David Thoreau . “As I was paddling along the north shore one very calm October afternoon, for such days especially they settled down on to the lakes, like the milkweed down, having looked in vain over the pond for a loon, suddenly one…set up his wild laugh and betrayed himself….His usual note was the demoniac laughter, yet somewhat like that of a water-fowl; but occasionally, when he had balked me most successfully, and come up a long way off, he uttered a long-drawn unearthly howl, probably ...

Gazing at White-tailed Ptarmigan

During the Perseid meteor shower, the high Sierra is one of the best places to see stars shooting across the night sky. Even at nights when the moon shines brightly, you can still be astonished by a few brilliant meteors streaking overhead. In 2015, the situation was different. Wild fires on the other side of the Sierra sent smoke over high peaks, and veiled the sun during the day and the stars during the night. I was in Dusy Basin with my camping pal at the time; one morning we found specks of fine ash covering the ground, the lake and our tents. We didn’t see any meteor that August. But we saw something else that delighted us. We departed on a smoke-filled day. Before sunrise, August 17, 2015. On our way out, we could smell the scorched wood in the air as we climbed up from the lake where we had camped for several days and headed toward Bishop Pass. It was our habit to avoid the dusty trail whenever we could in the wilderness. So we threaded our way in a gradual upslope hik...

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