Winter/Spring Birding Course with Scott Surner Join birder extraordinaire and veteran bird course instruction for this bigger and better than ever late winter/spring birding course. This course is all field […]
Winter/Spring Birding Course with Scott Surner Join birder extraordinaire and veteran bird course instruction for this bigger and better than ever late winter/spring birding course. This course is all field […]
Fireside Chats with Hitchcock staff and guests Casual conversations centered on nature, around a fire, enjoying the beauty of a crisp winter evening with hot beverages and nibbles. Thursdays at […]
By Joshua Rose
Birdhouses seem simple. Because people cut down dead and dying trees, cavity-dwelling birds can’t find enough nest sites. If we put up birdhouses, those birds can nest there instead, and we all live happily ever after. Right?
By David Spector
As birdwatchers travel we keep track of birds we encounter, especially those new to us. And when we travel, we want information about finding such birds.
The Massachusetts birdwatcher visiting California wants to know when and where to experience snowy plovers, tufted puffins, western screech-owls, western bluebirds, western tanagers and other western birds; the California birdwatcher on an exchange visit to Massachusetts would want information about piping plovers, Atlantic puffins, eastern screech-owls, eastern bluebirds, scarlet tanagers and other northeastern species.
By Scott Surner
How many birds do you really have at your feeder? The short answer is it’s very hard to know. Most of us (including me) will keep a species list of what shows up at the feeding station and try and ascertain how many of each species there is. The easiest and only way to do this is keep a tally during the day. At the end of your observation period you take the highest number of each species for the day and you have your high count for that species. This is pretty much the only way to do it, and it’s fun to look back over the years and see what some of the high counts have been and on what date. So, when keeping your list, remember to not only keep a species list and numbers, but remember to enter the date!
By Scott Surner
Looking at the Calendar, the month of May is the time when both serious and slightly less serious birder’s wait for with great eagerness. Every month offers something a little different during the birding calendar year, but it’s May that brings out the biggest birding crowds of the year. During the month of May dozens and dozens of species from their wintering grounds in the Caribbean, Central and South American make their way to the valley to establish breeding territories, while others continue their long journey to northern New England and some all the way to the arctic.
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