Birdchick

There’s a blog carnival up called Digiscoping Today.  Submit your best digiscoping blog posts here.

Hey, if you’re looking for a good reference of collective bird names, check this out.  I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling  about as giddy as a a conventicle of magpies. I’ve had more than one person ask me why heron colonies are called “rookeries” and I’ve never gotten around to looking up the  [ Read More ]

Friday was a fun and active day–between the weather, the birds and friends it was just a day where you look around and think, “Isn’t great to be alive?”  It’s been wonderful to come home to spring birds and many of the Minnesota migrants have returned–even the common nighthawk, I heard one outside of the  [ Read More ]

A couple of birding show are trying to come down the pike.  One is Birding Adventures hosted by James Currie.  I actually met him a few months ago and he did a video clip saying why you should watch his tv show: It’s not available on tv where I live, but you can order it  [ Read More ]

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite entry for the Birdorable Guest Blogging Contest.  Voting ends today! There’s a fun article up at World Hum by Sophia Dembling about her experience as a non birder at the Oklahoma Lesser Prairie Chicken Festival.  It’s a great read and I’m honored that she included my prairie chicken  [ Read More ]

So in some ways it was like being around one large blended family when birding the Kazakh Steppes:  What gull is that?  Steppe gull.  What eagle is that? Steppe eagle? Oh, cute! What mammal is that? Steppe marmot. Above is a Steppe eagle being mobbed by a hooded crows, rooks, and carrion crows (apparently the  [ Read More ]

Man, all week I have had great intentions but lingering jet lag and life has gotten in the way.  Tuesday night, I thought I would do a quick bike ride, maybe bike to a restaurant with Non Birding Bill, have some quality spouse time, come home, do a wee bit of blogging, and watch a  [ Read More ]

We departed Frankfurt, Germany for Kazakhstan.  Our flight left in early afternoon and between the long flight and time change, it was well past 11pm when we arrived in Astana, Kazakhstan. As we de-boarded the plane, a woman in a corner wearing a lab coat and mask aimed some kind scanner at us to see  [ Read More ]

Time to vote for your favorite entry in the Birdorable Guest Blogging Contest! You can view all the entries one this page. When you’re done, simply pick your favorite from the drop-down list, enter your name and email address (which will not be sold, rented, given, or disclosed) before Friday, May 22nd at 5 p.m.  [ Read More ]

I love this shot of the full moon visible from our flight to Europe. My journey to Kazakhstan started with a trip to Frankfurt.  My flights worked out to go from the Twin Cities, to Detroit, to Frankfurt and then on to Kazakhstan.  Originally, I was supposed to do this all in one day, but  [ Read More ]