It was a first for Bird Watcher’s Digest: a Reader Rendezvous (birding tour) focusing on bird photography. The leader of this event was our own production director, Bruce Wunderlich, who is also a professional photographer, specializing in our charming hometown, Marietta, Ohio—and in birds. In each issue of BWD, you’ll find spectacular bird photos from… Read more »
It’s the most wonderful time of the year if you’re a birder! And the staff here at Bird Watcher’s Digest is spending every minute we can in between our work responsibilities trying to soak up all the migrants passing through our yards and patches and whatever birdy spots we find ourselves this spring. We thought… Read more »
Let’s be real: There’s no substitute for the thrill of being out in the field to witness neotropical migrants and the requisite sensory overload. Just recently I’ve enjoyed the early offerings my local Columbus, Ohio, ravine provides come late March: eastern phoebes, brown creepers, chipping sparrows, to name a few. Now that I work… Read more »
Two things have carried me during this difficult past year: my people and birds. And not much makes my heart happier than when I get to share birds with my people. So you can imagine my delight when a couple of my closest childhood girlfriends who are newer to birding wanted to plan a getaway… 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 »
February 12–14 was a big weekend for Bird Watcher’s Digest as we headed to south-central Indiana to lead our first Reader Rendezvous event in a year! We had a full schedule of birding trips booked in 2020, all canceled from March onward, and we were more than ready to travel again—with several adjustments made, of course, to… Read more »
I’ve been looking forward to curling up with my laptop and watching Monty and Rose—a short film starring the first pair of piping plovers to nest in Chicago in 64 years—ever since I listened to BWD‘s recent BirdSense podcast interview with filmmaker Bob Dolgan. I finally sat down one snowy afternoon and was immediately whisked away… Read more »
When I was growing up in landlocked Tennessee, our family spent summers in Florida. Our annual pilgrimage to the Sunshine State involved loading up the Country Squire “Woody” Station Wagon to the hilt with beach towels, bathing suits, pots and pans, cooking spices, and groceries. I felt a “Lewis & Clark” kind of pioneering adventure… Read more »
Audubon’s long-standing tradition of Christmas Bird Counts are conducted each year between December 14 and January 5, and this season marked the 121st annual CBC! BWD editors Dawn Hewitt and Jessica Melfi participated in different counts on January 2, and here they share their very different—but equally memorable—experiences. The Thrills of Christmas Bird Counts by Dawn Hewitt Oh,… Read more »
With nearly all in-person birding festivals canceled and some of my favorite hotspots closed due to the pandemic, 2020 was a challenging year to find birds to photograph. Since March, I have been working from home. As a result, I’ve spent many lunch breaks and more early evening hours than normal in my backyard, and… Read more »
