Last weekend, my guy and I took a drive down to southeastern Ohio to hike the trails in one of my favorite spots, Conkles Hollow State Nature Preserve. Cloudless blue skies, near-peak fall foliage, 60-degree temps… we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect November day. I brought my binoculars, of course, in hopes of… Read more »
On a recent Saturday morning, I decided to visit Middle Island, near St. Marys, West Virginia, one of 22 islands making up the Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge. Middle Island is the only island in the refuge with a bridge, making it one of the most popular destinations in the refuge, which stretches from… Read more »
On Saturday, October 9, 2021, more than 33,000 birders worldwide participated in October Big Day, using eBird to record the birds they found during the event, which was part of the Global Bird Weekend. I was asked to head up a Bird Watcher’s Digest team and happily accepted the task. My first duty as team… Read more »
Birding Bonanza by Kelly Ball, BWD Advertising Director If I could prescribe a cure for general malaise, it might just be a guided birding tour during fall migration in Cape May, New Jersey, with Mark Garland on his very own stomping grounds, augmented with the expertise of Holly Merker, another birding phenom, not to mention… Read more »
My wife and I recently traveled to Maysville, Kentucky, to attend a family wedding. After the wedding, we spent the night on the family farm in Brown County, Ohio. When I woke up the next morning, I could hear birds singing outside the bedroom window. I grabbed my phone, opened Merlin, and started recording the… Read more »
Pardon the grammar borrowed from an old advertising jingle: Nobody doesn’t like hummingbirds! Two small towns on the Gulf Coast of Texas—a launchpad for the tiny birds—celebrate their migration every September. I was privileged to serve as a bird guide and presenter at the 33rd annual Rockport-Fulton HummerBird Celebration recently, and what a treat it… Read more »
What a pleasure and thrill it was last month to resume my long break in international birding travel. This was my third trip to Colombia, the country with more bird species than any other. This time, the destination was the jungle of Guainia, in eastern Colombia. What a trip! Sponsored by ProColombia (the country’s tourism… Read more »
What mighty force could possibly bring a myriad of agencies (US Fish and WIldlife Service, Ohio State Parks, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and the US Department of Agriculture’s APHIS division, specifically) to collaborate? A single, solitary piping plover nest. True story: This past summer, a pair of breeding piping plovers successfully hatched four chicks… Read more »
If I have any regrets in life, it is that I didn’t become a birder sooner. I suppose birding took its place in my life right when and how it was meant to, but when I think about all the birdy opportunities missed in my earlier years… well, there’s a twinge of sadness there. I… Read more »
Last month, members of the Bird Watcher’s Digest staff led our fourth Reader Rendezvous birding tour of the year, and our second “birdtography” tour featuring our production director and award-winning professional photographer, Bruce Wunderlich. Here is a summary of the group’s adventures with birds, bears, and Bruce! The morning before the event officially began, several… Read more »
