What to look for in September
Shorebird passage winds down, the first sparrows arrive, and every night with a north wind is worth checking the morning after. Where to stand this month.
Mira Shah
Writes everything here. Two decades of weekend transects, a standing argument with herself about gull ageing, and the conviction that the ordinary morning is the one worth writing up.
5 posts
Notes from a slow morning at Nisqually
Four hours, thirty-one species, and nothing rare. A defence of the ordinary morning, which is most of them.
The binocular argument, settled
8x42 or 10x42 is the wrong question. Weight, close focus and eye relief decide whether you actually carry the things, and nobody argues about those.
Cooper's Hawk or Sharp-shinned: the field marks that survive contact
Half the identification advice for these two only works on a bird sitting still at forty feet. Here is what still works when it is crossing your yard at speed.
Start here: your first ten birds
You do not need to learn 900 species. You need to learn ten, properly, and let the other 890 arrive on their own.