“Hearing a cerulean in front of the mausoleum.” Bird Watcher’s Digest editor Dawn Hewitt texted me a 6:35 a.m. update from her neighborhood birding patch, knowing that I had visited that same graveyard the weekend prior and was sorry to have missed a cerulean warbler sighting. I assumed this message was a kind gesture rather… Read more »
I had a bird dream the night before I set the world I’d known on fire. Two large owls of indeterminate species were in the upstairs room of my first childhood home (of course, being a dream, it both was and wasn’t the same structure). I was panicking about the safety of some kittens that… Read more »
I had my first-ever visit to a landfill recently. Waste Management’s Northwestern Landfill outside Parkersburg, West Virginia, offers a quick and easy option for depositing several years’ detritus scavenged from storage units and warehouses, as my friend with a box truck full of trash demonstrated early on a Saturday morning. As we entered the facility,… Read more »
At the time of this writing, the first purple martins migrating north from their wintering grounds have been spotted on the Gulf Coast. They bring with them the assurance that, in spite of everything, spring is coming soon. Two martins, however, aren’t making the journey. In fact, they’ve been in my kitchen this entire time. … Read more »
I don’t use my front door very much anymore. Perhaps I’ll pop in and out of it once per day during the workweek. My pale claws might emerge to pull in a parcel on the days some Gift from the Internet arrives. Before the pandemic, I would fill my two clear acrylic stick-on window feeders,… Read more »
The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequent shelter-in-place orders, work-at-home directives, and social distancing rules have inarguably complicated many people’s lives worldwide. But something we here at Bird Watcher’s Digest observed, amidst all the strife and heartache, was an influx of people becoming interested in birding. Folks restricted to the confines of their apartments and houses have become more aware of what goes… Read more »
I was explaining how I’m a terrible birder, in that it takes me forever to get on a bird when a fellow participant in the hobby points one out to me. And how those kind souls trying to help me probably get frustrated when I so often give up after a few minutes of trying…. Read more »
I didn’t look up right away when I heard the familiar squeaky seal barks off to my right. I was busy muddling my compost bin’s contents and knew that I’d see a red-bellied woodpecker when I managed to tear my eyes away from the earthy mess. Once I finally straightened from my swamp hag stance… Read more »
Depending upon your physique, a conventional neck strap toting a full-sized binocular makes for some severe fatigue after a long session of birding. And while a crisscross harness’s design redistributes the weight more evenly across the back and shoulders, I’ve never found them to be the most comfortable. On my first excursion to Magee Marsh… Read more »
I thought it was a bird at first. As I continued walking along the bike path along the Muskingum River in Marietta, Ohio, I convinced myself that the rounded bowling pin shape perched in a tree on the bank was just a piece of plastic trash. The dark bluish-black portion I’d first believed was a… Read more »
