In 2018 we lived in Thailand, and went birding every weekend and during about five weeks of vacation and holidays. I determined that we boarded about 106 different airplanes in the course of a year, hitting over 20 countries, many of them multiple times. I was looking forward to a relaxed 2019, free from planes … More Peru, February 2019
Imagine a birding trip that would allow you to record at least one species from every taxonomic order – and that the trip included the least number of sites and required the least amount of time to complete. Clearly, certain countries will have to be in the itinerary (e.g., New Zealand, Madagascar) and the timing … More Minimal Number of Birding Sites Needed to Record Every Order?
From Dec 26, 2017 through December 25, 2018, I made a quixotic attempt to identify at least 2,500 species over the course of a single year, while working normal full-time hours. I called this a “Global Big Working Year” or GBWY. In the end, I reached 1,770 species, which was just over 70% of the … More Global Big Working Year
Edit: I used to be a huge supporter of eBird, both in terms of promoting it and through financial support of Cornell. This is no longer the case. I think eBird has had bad effects on birding, as detailed here. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has also thrown their support behind this misguided decisions of … More eBird Species Cartogram for the United States
Edit: I used to be a huge supporter of eBird, both in terms of promoting it and through financial support of Cornell. This is no longer the case. I think eBird has had bad effects on birding, as detailed here. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has also thrown their support behind this misguided decisions of … More Reshaping the World with eBird Data
We recently took a custom birding tour in Ghana and had a fantastic experience. We worked with Ahanti African Tours and they delivered an outstanding trip. Claire and I have birding together for 24 years, mostly in the US, but abroad starting in 2002. Up to now, South America has been our most productive destination, … More Birding in Ghana with Ashanti
Retinitis Pigmentosa, or RP, is a degenerative, hereditary eye disease, and a miserable hand to draw at the table of genetic inheritance. RP reduces, or outright destroys, peripheral vision, by attacking the rod photoreceptors which are distributed to the sides of the retina, away from the back of the eye, where the cones predominate. The cones provide … More Birding in the Tunnel
The recent accomplishments of Noah Stryker and Arjan Dwarshuis are impressive. Anyone that has traveled internationally for birding understands how grueling even a week or two can be. Uncomfortable overnight flights, jet-lag, immigration and visa paperwork, often barely adequate rooms (some with six- or eight-legged visitors), extreme heat, humidity or cold, and the joy of traveler’s … More Global Big Years and Day Jobs
