WILD THINGS: KUNG FU HERONS & THEIR PLACE IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS
It was the third year that Ellen Westbrook and I had done the morning part of the Christmas Bird Count by bike, which officially made it a...
BIRD GEEK MARK HEDDEN ANSWERS READERS’ QUESTIONS
Why doesn’t North America have any big flightless bird? Africa has ostriches, South America has rheas, Australia has emus and cassowaries. Did we have a big, flightless...
WILD THINGS: MY PROBLEM WITH LAUGHING GULLS
I’ve been trying for a while to figure out my problem with laughing gulls.
It’s not something I’ve been analyzing on an everyday basis, like my inability to...
CELEBRATING THE SEASON WITH SQUEALING TIRES, GUNFIRE AND ROBERT DE NIRO
I can’t remember exactly when the movie Ronin came into our lives, but I’m pretty sure we saw it in the theater. Maybe it was shown by...
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....
