September 4, 2012 – 2:54 pm
Two interns per year get to visit Appledore Island in Maine for a summer of sunrises, monitoring Herring Gull chicks, dodging protective gull parents, and learning every inch of an island you can walk across in 20 minutes. We’ve always wondered what it’s like—so we asked Cornell undergraduate Shailee Shah, who spent the 2012 field [...]
By Hugh
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Also posted in Birds, ecology, science, slideshow, Uncategorized
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Tagged Appledore Island, birding, Birds, birdwatching, fieldwork, photos, Shailee Shah, Shoals Marine Lab
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It’s an exciting time to be in field biology—the naturalists of today have more tools at their disposal than ever before. To learn how to use those tools, a group of Cornell students have been spending this summer in the field; and Abby McBride, a summer writing intern, accompanied them in the field to write the [...]
By Hugh
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Also posted in Birds, ecology, sounds, Uncategorized, video
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Tagged Abby McBride, birding, Birds, birdwatching, David Winkler, Eric Gulson, fieldwork, fledglings, Hilary Yu, Jen Goforth, photos, Scarlet Tanager, sound, sound recording, video
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Studying puffins in Iceland, where the birds are numerous but also vulnerable to changes in climate and oceans, is important work—but it doesn’t always look like it. Researchers like Erpur Hansen who want to know how the breeding season is going have to figure out how to look inside puffin nests dug into the ground. [...]
By Hugh
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Also posted in Birds, ecology, science, slideshow, sounds, travel, video
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Tagged Atlantic Puffin, birding, Birds, birdwatching, fieldwork, Iceland, photos, sound recording, sounds, travel, video
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I’m spending 10 days in Iceland to learn about research on Atlantic Puffins. My host is Erpur Hansen, an Icelandic biologist who has been studying puffins here since 2007. He visits most of the country´s large puffin colonies twice each year to assess their breeding success. And that’s no small task, as nearly half of [...]
By Hugh
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Also posted in Birds, ecology, slideshow, travel
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Tagged birding, Birds, birdwatching, Erpur Hansen, fieldwork, Iceland, puffins, sightings, travel
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This week we saw the first of our three young Red-tailed Hawks leave the nest, with one big step and then a long glide toward the oak trees across the street. The youngster came back the next day, watched one of his siblings fledge, and then took off again—this time looking decidedly more skillful in [...]
This is Part Two of a post about searching for the 12 endemic birds of northeast Queensland’s Wet Tropics World Heritage Reserve, with the help of many of the region’s wonderful guides and lodges. Part One of the story is here. Part Two introduces six endemic species not mentioned in Part One: Grey-headed Robin, Bridled Honeyeater, Bower’s [...]
By Hugh
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Also posted in Birds, slideshow, sounds, travel
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Tagged Australia, birding, Birds, birdwatching, Del Richards, endemics, Kingfisher Park, photos, sightings, sound, travel, tropical fieldwork
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Here in New Jersey, the Anti-Petrels spent the morning refining our route for the dawn hours of the World Series of Birding on Saturday. The students of Team Redhead scouted saltmarshes, then headed inland to Belleplain State Forest’s warblers, tanagers, and woodpeckers before hitting Cape May to look for shorebirds and a rare Mississippi Kite. [...]
By Hugh
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Also posted in Big Day, Birds, conservation, travel
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Tagged Anti-Petrels, Big Day, birding, Birds, birdwatching, Redheads, sightings, World Series of Birding
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This is Part 1 of an account—for any of you who love tales of unusual birds in unusual places—of a recent trip to Australia’s Wet Tropics region near Cairns, Queensland. In this Part we will discuss: Macleay’s Honeyeater, Victoria’s Riflebird, Pied Monarch, Golden Bowerbird, Tooth-billed Bowerbird, and the abominable Fernwren. Read Part Two here. Birders love [...]
By Hugh
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Also posted in Birds, slideshow, sounds, travel, Uncategorized
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Tagged Australia, birding, Birds, birdwatching, Far Northern Queensland, Fernwren, Golden Bowerbird, Macleay's Honeyeater, photos, Pied Monarch, sound, Tooth-billed Bowerbird, travel, tropics, Victoria's Riflebird, Wet Tropics
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The concept of a Big Day is a bold one—a midnight-to-midnight sleepless birding blitz to see or hear as many species as humanly possible. Team Sapsucker—Chris Wood, Jessie Barry, Andrew Farnsworth, Marshall Iliff, and Tim Lenz—took on that challenge in Texas last year, setting the North American record at 264, and then they doubled-down for [...]
By Hugh
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Also posted in Big Day, Birds, conservation, News, slideshow, travel, video
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Tagged Andrew Farnsworth, Big Day, birding, Birds, birdwatching, Chris Wood, conservation, endangered species, Jessie Barry, Marshall Iliff, photos, sightings, Texas, Tim Lenz
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In early January, two Cornell undergraduates, Andy Johnson and Hope Batcheller, visited Chile to help with some shorebird research and to gather audio and video for our Macaulay Library. One of the places they visited was the Yeso Valley, where they checked in with a research project on an unusual and declining shorebird. Here’s Andy [...]
By Hugh
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Also posted in Birds, Chile, conservation, ecology, science, slideshow, travel, Uncategorized, video
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Tagged Andy Johnson, birding, Birds, birdwatching, Chile, conservation, Diademed Sandpiper-Plover, fieldwork, photos
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