WILD THINGS: BIKES, BIRDS & ABANDONED HIGHWAYS
I woke up the other morning thinking of Sugarloaf, specifically the south end of the old highway, partly because I’d gotten a new bike. Twenty years ago...
WILD THINGS: GOOD VIBRATIONS, SWEET SENSATIONS
I came back on the red-eye after a month in California, meaning I didn’t sleep much, not even when I scored an entire bench to myself in...
WILD THINGS: COOPS, KESSIES, SHARPIES AND PEFAS
The platform at the Florida Keys Hawkwatch, which is also the back deck of the bathhouse at the Curry Hammock State Park campground, was hopping. Though not...
WILD THINGS: NEARSHORE WATERS & AVIAN ASPERSIONS
Fall migration was in full swing, and it had been a nice morning birding around Fort Zach. Warblers were flitting here and there, barn swallows and cave...
WILD THINGS: 2 STEPS UP AND 1 STEP BACK
A Peregrine falcon is not an off-the-shelf bird. There are very few places in the world where you can decide you want to see a Peregrine falcon,...
WILD THINGS: HAWKWATCHING & THE VAGARIES OF SMALL TALK WITH STRANGERS
It had been a few weeks of visiting with family and friends up in the northlands, but it was time to head home, though maybe not directly....
WILD THINGS: ANIS, SEAGRAPES & PLANS FOR THE END TIMES
Mark Whiteside texted me Saturday afternoon that he’d seen a pair of smooth-billed anis at Fort Zachary Taylor.
Anis are pretty common in the Caribbean and South America,...
WILD THINGS: BENT ON BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS
My initial notion of Arthur Cleveland Bent was one of those nebbishy little guys who spent most of their lives indoors, looking at birds and their parts...
WILD THINGS: RIDIN’ OUT THE STORM
I drove some equipment up to the Florida Keys Hawkwatch site at Curry Hammock State Park in Marathon the other day. It was officially the first day...
WILD THINGS: CLAPPER RAILS: WHAT THE KEK?
I was up on No Name Key the other day, trying to find a reported rarity, when I heard it – the telltale kek.
I had my camera...
