...is a naturalist living and working in Western New York.
After working ten years at an Audubon Center I decided I want to become a bird bander. Squeezing the training in between work and a home life isn't easy, but it sure is rewarding.
This blog is about my journey toward that goal. Read more about my gradual entry into birding and bird banding by clicking here.
It is never too late to become what you might have been.
- George Eliot
Thanks for visiting!
Please visit my general nature blog called
A Passion for Nature.
This was my first picture of a Cedar Waxwing. It’s not as good as my very encouraging Flickr friends make it out to be, but I was pretty pleased with it… being one of my first bird pictures at all! I like looking at it because it reminds me of an evening when I was at the [...]
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The Jamestown Audubon field trip committee organizes some pretty cool trips. I don’t usually go, though, because after putting in a 40 hour week, I usually have a list of things a mile long that need to get done… But this time, since I’m getting into birds, and since we had a very interesting presentation [...]
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“They” tell us that the brain is only capable of truly learning seven new things at a time. Then you must give the gray matter some time to let those seven sink in before bombarding it with more. So today, I decided to try to learn the thrushes. In flipping through my pictures I found [...]
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Another one of my character flaws is that if learning doesn’t come easily to me, I get pretty frustrated, and, well… sometimes a little snippy. (Sorry about that, Tom and J and Kyle and all the visitors at closing day of SWAT.) Maybe I should have named this blog Frustrations of a Beginning Birder?
For example, [...]
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It can be frustrating to try to identify a species when the males and females look different… especially when the bird is named after a feature that is sported only by the male! Consider the Rose-breasted Grosbeak:
Male:
Female:
The two photos above, by the way, are by an AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING nature photographer named Jayne. See more [...]
Filed under: bird banding, bird conservation, bird research, birds, nature | Tagged: Black-capped Chickadees, Count Protocols, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Sexual Dimorphism | 3 Comments »
This photo is from an earlier banding session – in June at Allegany State Park. We didn’t have a Blue-headed Vireo in the nets last Thursday at one of the US Forest Service sites. However, we sure got scolded by one, probably because we were too close to its nest.
Don and Linda searched and found [...]
Filed under: bird banding, bird conservation, bird research, birds, nature | Tagged: Blue-headed Vireo | Leave a Comment »
Truth be told, the science part is only secondary to this: getting people, especially kids hooked on nature.
Jeff was one of my Teen Treks kids. He mentioned that he really likes birds and reptiles. I said, “You should come bird banding with me tomorrow.” And he did. And he has come several times! He is looking [...]
Filed under: bird banding, bird conservation, bird research, birds, nature | 5 Comments »
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