Category Archives: USA trip
More old trees – Day 6
The highpoint today was success in a cemetery – but that’ll be going into the book so it’s a secret. Much of today was doing domestic stuff. I bought some water to keep hydrated as I drive, and filled up with gas at the same time. A nice lady at the gas station and I …
Day 3 – extra blog
I was writing that last blog just before going out for a quick bite to eat and something to drink. I sat in Henderson’s On Deck Riverside Bar overlooking the Ohio River. I watched the sun set behind the trees on the other side of the river while sitting outside eating tacos and drinking coke. …
History – Day 3
American history must be quite easy – they don’t have as much of it as we do. But then maybe they have more of future than us? Who knows? Actually (oh!, and by the way, today’s waitress is Susan), the USA seems to have fitted in a revolution, a civil war, a couple of World …
Long day, number 1
I am writing this in Shreveport, Louisiana. It’s been a long day so it will be a short blog. The day started in the UK at 430 am and at 430 pm I set off in my hire car from George Bush (presumably Snr, but maybe both) International Airport, Houston, TX . It’s now 930 …
Guest Blog – BTO & CLO by Andy Clements
BTO recently hosted a visit from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (CLO), Ithaca, NY, USA marking the exciting culmination of a year’s discussions to set up a long-term collaboration between our two organisations. It is thanks to Mark for initiating contact between myself and John Fitzpatrick, CEO at Cornell Lab, following Mark’s US road …
‘Standing up for nature’ goes to America
My main task between now and the end of September is to finish writing a book ‘on’ the passenger pigeon for Bloomsbury – and for me and for you! 1 September 2014 will mark the centenary of the extinction of this bird – probably the most numerous bird in the world a few decades before …
Let’s go out and hunt some wrens
It’s good to get some exercise but the old custom of hunting a wren on this day is not one I particularly want to continue. Wrens are little but interesting – and noisy! Wrens are often polygynous and the males build the nests to try to attract one (or more) mates. They are packed full …
You could be eating eagles…
Are you sitting down to eat a turkey later today? Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the USA instead of the actual choice of the bald eagle. He wrote to his daughter thus: “For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our …
That explains it
Back in the spring, while I was driving across the USA, when I got to the eastern side of South Dakota, to Sioux Falls, I found that I was about half way across the continent. And over the next few days it became obvious that there were some new birds turning up. The eastern meadowlarks …
Bird list USA
This is just a list of birds I saw in the USA between 3 May and 15 June. If you are an American birder and think there is anything odd about this list – things I should have seen but haven’t listed or things I claim to have seen but seem very unlikely – then …