My old copy of the Peterson field guide has a couple of plates of confusing fall warblers. And they do look confusing. But this morning I got confused too – in the famous Rock Creek Park. I joined a group of birders and we were looking for migrating warblers high up in the trees. My guide was…
Author: Mark
The same and different
You never imagine your holidays in the rain do you? But when I woke up at 4am local time it was raining hard. Still a Northern Mockingbird sang outside – I didn’t feel mocked at all. As well as the birds being different – or some of them anyway – we’ll come back to that…
A cure for jet lag?
I spent yesterday evening with a bunch of nature conservationists in Washington Zoo. And then we sat outside in the warm evening air, had a beer or two and talked about nature conservation and about birds. Not so different from Home really. In fact the topics were very similar – do we do nature conservation…
Around the States in 40 days
I got here and the first bird I saw was … a starling. Yep a small flock feeding on some grass in central Washington. But I am glad to see there is still a Northern Mockingbird in the street outside the Tabard Inn where I am staying.
Springing across the pond
It’s late spring here in east Northants. It’s over a month since I saw my first sand martins, chiffchaffs, blackcaps and willow warblers. I’ve seen, locally, a good list of spring-bringers – those mentioned already and garden warbler, sedge warbler, reed warbler, grasshopper warbler, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, cuckoo, nightingale, yellow wagtail, swallow, house martin, common…