Crested Owl at Selva Verde
The last minute of totality at the Helen B. Katz Natural Area near Meadville, PA, complete with a chorus of Spring Peepers and a Bald Eagle flyover! (Turn on the sound.)
Searching for the Pheasant Cuckoo on the road to Black Rock Lodge. Many thanks to Isaias Morataya for finding this bird for our IndiGo Birding tour group in Belize last week!
Snow Geese at Goose Pond FWA, Linton, Indiana
Snow Geese at Goose Pond
Snow Geese from the south end of main pool of Goose Pond on 2/11/24. South of Linton, Indiana.
When the Violet Sabrewing shows up at the feeder, all the other hummingbirds clear out! One of the highlights of the IndiGo Birding Nature Tours stop at Green Hills Butterfly Ranch on our tour of Belize.
Fallout Warbler Migration
The Chicago area experienced one of the largest migration events in decades on Thursday. Weather fronts and rain pushed birds south by the tens of thousands. I was leading a bird walk for the Chicago Ornithological Society at Park No. 566 on the south side, where we had a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Here is a brief video where you can hear and see the birds passing by… multiply it by three hours and the totals get astronomically high! I went back out in the afternoon with my camera, so look for photos of some of the species soon.
The downside of this event was the record numbers of birds that collided with buildings in Chicago. This tragedy shows the importance of Lights Out programs that can reduce collisions. Read more about it at this link: https://news.wttw.com/2023/10/05/birders-joy-turns-shock-massive-migratory-wave-leads-mass-mortality-due-collisions