Page 9 - Bird Column News Today

It’s that time of year again. Back-to-school shopping for many families. Last-days-of-summer camping trips. And time for bald birds to begin making appearances. Although we haven’t seen any ourselves yet this year, the MaineBirds listserve has...

Last week, as we were walking our dog during a stay at brother Andrew’s camp on beautiful Parker Pond, the quiet of our walk on the dead-end gravel road was shattered by a emphatic rattling noise coming from the surrounding forest. We paused and...

At 10 p.m. on June 27, while out walking the dog, we very clearly heard a single, rather loud nocturnal flight call of a wood thrush overhead in the dark. Hearing any bird calling as it flies over at night in migration always seems like a miracle...

In our modern age of technology, more and more people are tempted to just use an app like Merlin (from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology) to identify the bird sounds they hear. But if you really want to learn and remember the identities of...

Once or twice a summer, we have the good fortune of riding on the Hardy Boat out of New Harbor, Maine, to Eastern Egg Rock, five miles offshore. The stars of the show are, of course, the Atlantic puffins that were reintroduced to the island by the...

Imagine a theoretical case in which two bird species looked exactly alike. Your first question would probably be, “How would anyone know that they are different species?” Your second question might be, “How would the two bird species tell each other...

For birders here in Maine, the end of May is often seen as the end of the spring migration season and the beginning of the summer breeding season. Many birds are indeed on territory and are nesting or soon will be. But there are also lots of birds,...

While we humans have been dealing with the difficult and sad implications of COVID, birds have been dealing with a different and very deadly virus called Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). Avian influenza of various forms has been known to...

A few days ago, our favorite “pop-up pond” played host to a flock of six lesser yellowlegs. These long-legged birds of the sandpiper family move through Maine in April and early May on their way north to the Boreal Forest of Canada and Alaska...

When we first started birding, we saw in some field guides, illustrations of odd, long-necked, long-legged tropical ducks that were called “tree-ducks.” Later, the name was changed to “whistling-ducks,” an equally fascinating name. These were birds...