I don’t always think about the environmental issues surrounding food purchases, mainly because it’s too complicated. When I buy a head of cabbage, I don’t think about where it is grown and how much diesel fuel it took to get to the grocery store or how much pesticide or fertilizer was used to grow it. …
The Townsend’s Solitaire, not a familiar species to most, is a bird found year- round in the mountains of the western U.S. and Canada during the breeding season. Wintering at 5000 feet elevation in northeastern California at the shores of Eagle Lake, I studied them over four winter seasons. From about New Year’s Day to …
The other day I received an email from a person who swears he saw three giant eagles as big as men on a roadway a few years ago. He went on to describe them – yellow eyes, yellow legs, rusty-rainbow colors on the shoulder, large beak like a big toucan- a good description of Great …
You often hear the word “research” related to someone looking up new information – researching a new car, researching a term paper, researching a recipe, etc. Here is example of what real field research is in ornithology, based on one of my research subjects, Yellow-headed Blackbirds. At a field station site in the northeastern part …
I’ve noted before the occasional conflicts between birdwatchers and photographers and I’ve received stories from readers regarding experiences with rude picture-takers. There’s the one about the professional photographer who aggressively pursued a rare Kirtland’s Warbler in front of a group of birdwatchers. He chased to bird out of its hiding place in a bush and …
