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Each American consumes the equivalent of 27 chickens per year, not counting eggs. The U.K. raises 870 million chickens and imports another 400 million each year. And no wonder, chickens are tasty. The domestic chicken came from the Red Junglefowl of Asia.  Domestication occurred at least 7000 years ago in China and maybe as far […]

As I write this I am watching the smoke from the Camp Fire, the largest fire in California history. I am only a few miles away, upwind and in no danger, but the sight is rather intimidating. Migration time is here and I have for decades watched ducks, geese and swans pass over my house

The word “suet” comes from the Latin sebum, the oily substance that lubricates our skin, and less appealingly, clogs our pores and produces pimples and blackheads. Suet is actually the fat found around the loins and kidneys of beef or sheep. It is used to make tallow to produce candles and soap. It’s also used

I recently returned from a trip to Florida, during Hurricane Michael. Luckily I was in another part of the state when the storm blew through. These days of high technology and high-speed communication, humans get warned of an oncoming weather disaster so they can take precautions or evacuate. Birds handle things a bit differently. We

Avid bird watchers are always pleased by the splitting of one species into two or more as they add birds to their life list with no effort. Conversely, combining two species into one is dismaying because the life list gets shorter. Taxonomists, those scientists whose speciality is naming organisms, are sometimes grouped into two factions

As my body and mind accumulate the years, physical and sensory functions begin to decline. At about the age of 37, one needs to wear glasses to read. Balance begins to slip in the 50s, declines in walking speed become evident in the 60s and 70s. Then there is hair loss, age spots, and a

I recently read an article in the New York Times about hand-feeding hummingbirds. It’s fascinating, but also disturbing. It’s cute, but why is it so important to get hummingbirds to feed from your hand or a perch sticking out of a helmet on your head? These are wild creatures, not your pets. I just returned

Being an ornithologist is very rewarding but like any profession, there are hiccups. Once, on a project in a suburban area, I surveyed a large prairie-woodland for birds and other wildlife, notebook in hand and binoculars hanging conspicuously over my chest. Walking on a dirt trail listening for birds, I was taken aback by the

In case you haven’t noticed, spring is coming earlier these days. Looking at climate data over the past century, spring temperatures are arriving three to six days earlier in the southern states and four to seven days early in the northern states. And similar patterns are observed across the planet. Sure, it’s nice when spring

These days almost everyone has a smartphone, iPad, or some other electronic device to help them communicate, navigate, and educate. It was just a matter of time before the sport of birding joined the electronic world. You would think that a pair of binoculars and a field guide would be sufficient, but there are times