Song Sparrow Bath
Whether you are currently living in the heat and humidity or being threatened with heavy rain and thunderstorms we all can take a bath outside simply by walking out the door in much of the U.S. this August. Or perhaps you would like to join this Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) for a cool down and clean up. You can see the bird even dunking its head in the water and getting its entire body wet. Bird bathing is critical for our feathered friends in order to help keep all of those feathers in the best shape they can be. Baths also likely help in getting rid of mites or ticks while of course...
Read MoreJanuary Great Egret
This is your typical January Great Egret (Ardea alba) in New England…right…wait, what? As we plan and prepare for the fifth season of the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, part of our year-round effort is NOT finding these long-legged waders during the avian wintering season in Connecticut. I photographed this bird yesterday, and today the temperature climbed to 60 with severe thunderstorms in the area. Thanks again, El Niño, and you as well, climate change. We will have a chilly week in the Northeast, and the Lake Erie snow machine will turn on dumping inches or maybe...
Read MoreLate August front and nocturnal migrants
Let’s play find the front! Here’s a radar grab from a few minutes ago that shows a front draped across Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, as seen with accompanying showers and thunderstorms, and nocturnal migrant birds launching off behind it across Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas and so on. The strong southerly flow ahead of the front makes for poor flight conditions and although the winds behind it are only mostly calm that means it’s good enough to get on the move. As we enter September I’ll be watching the weather like a hawk for both these nocturnal...
Read MoreIrene and Sandy were teasers
This week marks the first anniversary of Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy, and we are now a little more than two years past Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene. I know I am not the only person to see all of the recent Sandy articles, reports, television shows, and so forth. I am also not the only person disinterested in this almost celebratory atmosphere when it lacks a critical component – namely, that while both of these storms were strong and severe, producing fatal impacts and devastating lives, but they were soft punches and almost teasers for future more powerful tropical cyclones and other...
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