Always Bring Binoculars
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A blog about birds, birding, and the places I go to see them. Thoughts on habitat conservation, class, and social justice thrown in liberally.
Always Bring Binoculars
3M ago
Great Crested Flycatcher on LMU’s campus, Sept. 23, 2023
2023: In a Year of Travel, the 5MR Still Delivers
For the first time since COVID appeared in spring 2020, I traveled a bunch last year. Trips to Spain, Puerto Rico, Italy, and Baja California highlighted my birding for the year. Nevertheless, I spent most of my time at home, and most of my birding close to home. I don’t think I’ll ever quit prioritizing my 5MR. All told, I ended up seeing 216 species in my 5MR in 2023. That’s an average year for my circle.
With each passing year, it gets a little harder to add new birds to my ..read more
Always Bring Binoculars
3M ago
A Winter Wren in the right season, but on the wrong coast
Two New LA County Lifers in the New Year
The New Year is an exciting time for birders because their precious year lists revert to zero. Every species, including the commonest of resident birds, is a new tick again. On top of that, it’s the season of Christmas Bird Counts – the annual ritual of counting all the birds in a designated 15-mile diameter circle. In addition to yearly snapshots of bird populations, Christmas Bird Counts have a tendency to produce good rarities. With so many birders covering not just the frequent haunts but ..read more
Always Bring Binoculars
4M ago
Gilded Flicker at La Poza de Todos Santos
Birding Baja California: Todos Santos
My family just spent a week near the southern tip of Baja California for a winter vacation. Instead of the resort hotels and drunken crowds in Cabo San Lucas, we headed over an hour away to a village called Todos Santos. It is (for now) free of any big resorts, and notable for its ex-pat community and art galleries. But an increasing number of references to “the next Tulum” suggest it’ll be quite different if we ever go back. We stayed on a mango and lychee farm called Rancho Danza del Sol. There was surfing, f ..read more
Always Bring Binoculars
5M ago
The view of the Langhe from our Italian villa
Birding Wine Country of Piedmont Italy
People around me are turning 50. And some of them really know how to throw a good party. A friend of mine decided to throw her 50th celebration in northwest Italy, and thought it should last for 5 days, and decided that a bunch of her friends should be there with her. Invitees would stay at a villa in the rolling hills (and UNESCO World Heritage site) of the Langhe. This is the premier wine region in Italy, also known for its hazelnut chocolate (think Ferrero) and white truffles. We’d spend the week on to ..read more
Always Bring Binoculars
6M ago
The elusive Chestnut-collared Longspur showed for a few seconds
Chestnut-collared Longspur at Toyon Landfill
Every October 29th, I go to a closed landfill in Griffith Park in Los Angeles and see a life bird. At least, that’s what I’ve done the last two years. In 2022, I went to Toyon Landfill hunting for stray longspur. I didn’t see one, but I did stumble across L.A. county’s first-ever Sedge Wren. This year, I was back again in search of a longspur. A Chestnut-collared Longspur had been found the day before, so I was optimistic.
Getting to Toyon requires some commitment. It’s only a half ..read more
Always Bring Binoculars
7M ago
L.A. & 5MR Lifer: Great Crested Flycatcher
A “promotion” at my job has led to more work, and less birding. That’s what you get for a raise, I guess. Less birding means fewer posts, because I’ve got less to write about and no time to do it. But I made sure to get out this Saturday morning to see if I could find any good migrants. And rather than chase the rarities that have already been found, I stayed faithful to my 5MR and hoped I could find something good near home.
My chosen spot was the campus of Loyola Marymount University (LMU). It’s an infrequently birded spot with a good n ..read more
Always Bring Binoculars
8M ago
Greater Antillean Grackle are restricted to Caribbean Islands
Birding Puerto Rico: In and around San Juan
My trip to Puerto Rico, like so many others, started and ended in the capitol city of San Juan. Indeed, before I left the airport grounds in my rental car at 2:00am, I had my first lifer. Somewhere in tropical darkness, Greater Antillean Grackle were calling. They’re much smaller than the Great-tailed Grackle we’ve got in the United States, but equally creative and loud in their noise-making.
San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521. Today, the greater San Juan metropolitan a ..read more
Always Bring Binoculars
10M ago
An eye-catching non-native Venezuelan Troupial
Birding Southwest Puerto Rico: Laguna Cartagena
Puerto Rico is a brick-shaped island that is 100 miles wide and 35 miles tall. That’s big enough to provide a good amount of habitat and species diversity. It’s small enough that any spot can be reached in 2-3 hours (traffic permitting). One popular area for birding is the southwest corner of the island, where there are a couple of national wildlife refuges. During my one full day of birding in Puerto Rico, I spent part of it in the southwest. I headed first to Laguna Cartagena, a big lake in the ..read more
Always Bring Binoculars
10M ago
A Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo snacking on a big centipede
Lifers and Endemics in Puerto Rico Woodland
In June, I took my first trip to Puerto Rico in 20 years. Unlike the last time I visited, this trip would include some birding. And there were a bunch of lifers waiting for me. Many of them could only be found in Puerto Rico, where there are 18 endemic bird species. Four of them are endangered. There are also a bunch of exotic species that have established themselves there. While I was happy to stumble across the exotics, I wasn’t targeting them (except for crossing my fingers on a Blue-and ..read more
Always Bring Binoculars
11M ago
Flaco the Eurasian Eagle-Owl in Central Park, NY
Fugitive Owl Making it in New York
At 8:30pm on February 2, 2023, officials at New York’s Central Park Zoo realized that a twelve year-old Eurasian Eagle-Owl named Flaco was not in his enclosure. Someone had cut the wire mesh, and the owl had flown. Later that evening, Flaco was spotted on the sidewalk at Madison Avenue between 59th and 60th Streets. NYPD officers tried to take him into custody, but he flew off. By morning, he was back in Central Park, perched in a tree. Efforts to re-capture him were unsuccessful. And despite initial conce ..read more