You could argue a case for the Ivory Gull, but as far as immaculate whiteness goes, I adore the Snow Petrel. Made all the whiter by its big black eye, black bill, and black feet, this is a bird that belongs in front of icebergs, coursing on the cold black waves of gales. In big [...]
In Daisy Yuhas’s final post from Ushuaia, Argentina, she welcomes mosquitoes and bids a fond farewell to swallows: A few days ago, for the very first time since I have arrived in Ushuaia, a mosquito bit my arm. I was so stunned and, frankly, happy—these bugs are a staple in Chilean Swallow diets—that I didn’t [...]
As winter settles in up north, Daisy Yuhas is watching Chilean Swallow chicks getting ready to fledge down in Argentina. Summer or no summer, the end of December brought snow and hardship to many swallows, but a few happy surprises as well. Daisy has the story: It has been a bumpy season in Ushuaia. We [...]
This post is just to let you know you’ll likely see a reduction in posting over the next month. That’s because your trusty blogger (Hugh) is taking a break from regular Cornell Lab duties in order to go on a research expedition to Antarctica through the middle of February. I’ll be mainly writing about an [...]
Over the holidays I went to Belize, Central America, for a week. I didn’t take a camera, but I brought my phone. And though I’m not an expert iPhoniscoper by any stretch, the tropics offer enough large, colorful birds that even I was able to nab a few pics through my Nikon Monarchs. It was [...]
When is a Tree Swallow not a Tree Swallow? When your latitude is reading 54 degrees south, not north, that familiar-looking, blue-and-white bird is a Chilean Swallow (pictured above). South is where Daisy Yuhas is right now, interning in Argentina as a field worker for Cornell professor David Winkler’s Golondrinas de las Americas project. The [...]
