With this week’s Storm of the Century a mere 24 hours away, Christmas visitors arriving for dinner and a dozen odds and ends to get done . . . I climbed out of bed around 5:00 am and began working my way through the to-do list. Around 8:00 am I headed for to the hardware […]
During April School Vacation of 2019, Ingrid and I were in Arizona to see do a little birding and get a preview of warm spring weather. There we visited the Patton Center for Hummingbirds, a onetime private home, that is now a bird sanctuary known for its visiting hummingbirds. Located just outside, Patagonia, the Patton […]
Who remembers the 1975 spy movie, Three Days of the Condor? It starred Robert Redford and Fay Dunaway. A big hit at the time, I’m not sure it has aged all that well . . . with overly dramatic 70’s music and bad effects . . . but it’s a fun adventure. Anyway, yesterday I […]
Ok, looking for a show of hands . . . how many of you take your phone to the bathroom? I’m not talking about brushing your teeth. I’m talking about that leisurely period, once or twice a day, where we can enjoy some good reading material. This morning, while “reading” I looked out the window […]
Ingrid and I spent Thanksgiving in Jourdanton, Texas with our son Bradley and his wife Tanner. In January, they bought a beautiful home outside of San Antonio and this was our first opportunity to truly visit and learn the area (we had briefly stopped by in February when we were looking for Whooping Cranes). While […]
On September 12, about two months ago, I was birding at Laudholm Farm in Wells, Maine, an amazing forest, meadow, salt marsh and ocean preserve. A robin sized bird flew in front of me. Grayish/black with a white ring around the eye . . . it disappeared into a thicket and I could not find […]
It’s now been six weeks since my fall which precipitated four painful shoulder separations and things continue to improve. I can now use my right arm to do most daily activities, unfortunately many of them still hurt like the dickens. For instance, I pick and choose when to raise my binoculars up to my […]
Yesterday (11/11/22), Ingrid and I travelled up to Rangeley, Maine to walk the length of Boy Scout Road, a three mile stretch through spruce trees, bogs and streams. Boy Scout Woods is a great place to find species that live in the Boreal Forests of the north that one never sees outside of this habitat. […]
One or two Canvasback ducks usually show up in Maine during each fall or winter. But last year during my Maine Big Year I scoured all the likely locations hoping to find one . . . but to no avail. Then yesterday, there were eight Canvasbacks on Cobbosseecontee Lake in Monmouth, Maine. This is a […]
So Ingrid and I are at our condo in Cape Elizabeth (just south of Portland, Maine) and a rare Common Gallinule is reported on a pond in Belfast … a bird rarely seen this side of the Mississippi. My birding has been limited for the last four weeks by my shoulder injury, but yesterday I […]
About three weeks ago I tripped over a root while following a woodpecker through the trees . . . in other words I was looking up when I should have been looking down. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground with a dislocated shoulder and what used to be a very […]
Brunswick Landing and Executive Airport is a thriving, commercial park that emerged after the Cold War era Brunswick Naval Air Station was decommissioned. In a grass field located in a few hundred yards from the runways, more often than not, one car find Horned Larks foraging.
With my birding temporarily on hold as I wait for an MRI to determine why my shoulder keeps dislocating . . . sometimes serendipity steps in. This Barred Owl was sitting a few feet from where we park our cars at our condo. Listen to the angry Tufted Titmice and Red-breasted Nuthatches trying to drive […]
Yesterday, as I was watching a Red-bellied Woodpecker moving through the trees tops at Robinson’s Woods in Cape Elizabeth, I was attacked by an aggressive root. I fell on my shoulder and dislocated it … the Emergency Care PA popped it in three times before it stayed. Not fun! Ingrid pointed out that I broke […]
It was late September in 2020, I was a month away from retiring, trying to be professional and finish up several projects before riding off into the sunset. On the 24th a report of Say’s Phoebe in central Maine came through in my e-mail. A common bird in the west, Ingrid and I had seen […]
For the last few days, the Maine Birding Community has been treated with a very compliant Buff-breasted Sandpiper that has been touring Cape Elizabeth’s agricultural fields. This two ounce bird is migrating from its nesting grounds in the arctic to Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil where it winters. Normally “Buffys” move through the Great Plains […]
Available Now at: Amazon Prime Have you ever watched a cool bird fly past your window only to become frustrated trying to find it in a bird guide? What’s That Bird? A Kid’s Guide to the Common Backyard Birds of New England is here to help! Written by an award-winning teacher and a birding record […]
An astonishing trip offshore, looking for the birds that live most of their lives at sea. We saw South Polar Skuas, Pomarine Jaegers, Atlantic Puffins and many others.
To my Maine friends (both of you), I’m giving a talk at Maine Audubon on September 21st . . . complete with photos, videos and “how I saw the bird” stories. If you’re free that evening, I’d love to see you. You can register at: https://maineaudubon.org/news/events/author-talk-ethan-whitaker/
Standing in one spot for an hour I saw six species of migrating shorebirds.
On Thursday morning, Washington DC resident Byron Smith left his summer home on Maine’s North Haven Island to look for birds. Smith is a life-long birder whose formative years were spent in England and Iran. He has birded in Russia, China, Australia, India, South Africa and many places in-between. Smith knows his birds. While walking […]
Among birders, there is a phenomena known as the “Patagonia Picnic Table Effect.” When a rare bird is discovered . . . other rare birds are soon found near the original sighting. Named after a rest area in Patagonia, Arizona where a rare Rose-throated Becard was found. In the following days dozens of birders descended upon […]
In May of 2019, Ingrid and I spent a delightful few days in Louisiana, watching our son Bradley receive his MBA from LSU, experience the subtleness of the New Orleans French Quarter and to do a little birding. The later gave us a handful of new life birds and we can’t wait to go back […]
“Jaeger” is the German and Dutch word for hunter and when it comes to birds . . . a Jaeger is a ferocious hunter of the oceans. There are two types of Jaegers often found in Maine waters, the Pomarine Jaeger and the Parasitic Jaeger. Each of these birds roams the Gulf of Maine, attacking […]
This morning Ingrid and I were awakened to the sound of two Bald Eagles arguing over a fish that one of them had caught. Moving about and quarreling just below our bedroom window, we watched them for almost a half hour. These appeared to second year birds . . . Bald Eagles take five years […]
| Copyright 2024 |