| ESSAYS & ARTICLES SPRING 2008 |
| Essays / Backyard / Tips & Quiz / Links / Sightings / Conservation / Bird ID / Featured Bird / My Photos / Seasonal Spots / Home |
| Backyard/TipsQuiz/Links/Sightings/Library/Conservation/Bird ID/Featured Bird/Photos/Seasonal Spots/Home |
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| A Site About Long Island Birds & Birdwatching |
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| Tales from Tern Island. Science & Nature - BBC Pick up a bird book containing facts and figures about breeding activity and you will discover that common terns lay two or three eggs that they incubate for roughly three weeks and, one month later, a youngster makes its first wobbly flight. Such bare statistics mask the most critical period in the life of a chick. These early days are equally hectic for the parents. Glued to the BirdCam filming the tern colony at Belfast Lough RSPB Reserve, it has been an eye-opening experience to follow the short - and sometimes turbulent - history of different families. What did we see? (click for full article) |
| How storks adapt to their environment Science & Nature - BBC TPassing along the narrow cobbled streets of the small Spanish village, I felt I'd gone back 500 years in time. My mission was to scale the church bell-tower and photograph the white stork nest on the roof. Minutes later, I was opening the massive church doors with a foot-long key. When I lifted the trap-door to the roof, the cool breeze offered welcome relief from the parched streets below. But I wasn't alone: three half-grown storks stared at me from their nest some 40 metres away. (click for full article) |
| Jailbirds - the hornbills of Thailand Science & Nature - BBC Alone, I wandered deep into the forest. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until I heard a loud panting sound coming towards me. I turned and dashed back along the winding trail, but the creature followed. I made it back to the road and stopped, breathing hard. The sound faded as my imagination ran wild with a forest full of beasts and spirits. It was only a few years later, after I'd learned a great deal about the wingbeats and calls of different species of hornbill, that I realised my persecutor had been a magnificent great hornbill on a foraging flight. (click for full article) |
Common Swifts Only Land to Nest Bird Watcher's General Store In order to maintain their flying ability, birds must remain as light as possible. Being fat and pregnant may work for mammals, but it won't cut it in the bird world. By laying eggs the mother bird's babies develop outside of her body, enabling her to keep her girlish figure and her ability to fly. Some people may ask: What about bats? They don't lay eggs, yet female bats can fly while pregnant. To this question I would answer: I only write about birds. I can't help you with the bats. Let's move on. (click for full article) |
| What a little bird might tell us Science & Nature - BBC There's a bump in the greenhouse as a wren bounces against the glass. Is it moving about like a pointer on a Ouija board, spelling out a message from another world? Or is it just a bird stuck in a greenhouse? Mythology and folklore : Depending on your point of view, both could be true. Wrens have always flitted through the undergrowth of our culture. Druids kept wrens for divination. In Celtic mythology, the wren was the oak king, but it was killed at the winter solstice to make way for the robin, the spirit of New Year. (click for full article) |
| Do Birds Mate For Life - What Birds? Wild-Bird-Watching . com A discussion of whether birds mate for life has to begin by having an understanding of what we mean by the term "mating for life". For some, having a mate for life means, marriage for 40 - 60 years, partner passes, and surviving mate lives with fond memories until death. Never to partner with another. (click for full article) |
| Penguins - fascinating but vulnerable Science & Nature - BBC Kevin Schafer fell under the penguin spell 19 years ago, and he's still drawn to it. "I went to Antarctica on a whim," he recalls, "and was able to spend four months there. One day, I got a ride on a helicopter trip away from the base. When we landed, there were about 100 emperors all around. It was a spectacular place, and those birds seemed magical." (click for full article) |
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The Bob & Weave of the Hairy Woodpecker Bird Watcher's General Store The Hairy Woodpecker, the larger cousin of the cute Downy Woodpecker, is one of the most widespread woodpeckers in all of North America. It can be found nesting in both the frigid forests of Alaska and the tropical woodlands of Panama. It is also just as comfortable living in the vast wilds of Newfoundland as it is on the balmy islands of the Bahamas. (click for full article) |
| Talking parrot fashion Science & Nature - BBC When the African grey parrot N'kisi met primatologist Dr Jane Goodall, his first words to her were "got a chimp?" N'kisi had seen photos of Jane with the chimpanzees of Gombe, and the images had clearly made an impression. Bred in captivity almost six years ago, N'kisi is one of the most advanced non-human users of human language. New York-based artist Aimee Morgana spends hours with him each day, speaking to him, explaining what she does in simple sentences and encouraging him to develop what she describes as a spontaneous and creative relationship with language. "N'kisi says what he wants, when he wants. I do not use any form of treat reward. My aim as a teacher is to give him power with the tools of language, to see what he wants to say," she says. (click for full article) |
| Oystercatchers Don't Live Inland Bird Watcher's General Store For those of you who don't know, the American Oystercatcher is a shorebird. It is a shorebird in every sense of the word. It eats, sleeps, and breeds along the shore and is rarely found away from it. And the shore I'm talking about is the real shore, not the lake shore, or river shore or Dinah Shore, or Pauly Shore. Definitely not Pauly Shore. An oystercatcher may live its entire life within sight of the ocean. They spend each day hanging out at the beach eating shellfish. I'd bet there are lots of people who wouldn't mind coming back as an oystercatcher. That wouldn't be a bad option. It's certainly better than coming back as a shellfish, or Pauly Shore. (click for full article) |
'A multitude of ‘Birds’ Birds of Britain - Wildlife Chronicles December and January will be months which I shall remember for the great numbers of birds I have seen in their winter flocks ranging from that dashing little continental finch the Brambling, swirling masses of Starlings at the pier in Aberystwyth and huge numbers of waders around the Ribble estuary in Lancashire. (click for full article) |
Hawks At Bird feeders Wild-Bird-Watching . com If you feed birds long enough, Hawks and Owls will likely show up. Generally staking out a perching site or hovering overhead. You may or may not be aware of its presence, but the lack of birds at your feeder can be a good indication there is a predator nearby. (click for full article) |