BirdingGirl

So, confession time: while BirdingGirl has always been my passion project—a place to geek out about birds, share sightings, and connect with fellow birders—it's not actually how I pay the bills. (Shocking, I know. Turns out you can't trade warbler photos for groceries.) For those who are new here or just curious about what I do between dawn bird walks and checking eBird, I wanted to take a minute to introduce you to my professional life. Because honestly? The two worlds aren't as separate as you might think. I'm an SEO Consultant (And Yes, That's a Real Job) By day—and let's be real, many evenings—I run Cathleen Voss Consulting , where I help businesses improve their search engine visibility and grow through organic traffic. I've been doing digital marketing and SEO for over 20 years now, working with everyone from big e-commerce brands to small specialty businesses. If you've ever wondered how certain websites always show up first when you Google someth...

Well, here we are—after an epic 11-year hiatus, I’m sitting back at my Adirondack chair, overlooking the picturesque cranberry bogs we live on now. I've swapped my super strong coffee for a hoppy, locally-brewed IPA to celebrate the end of the work day, and starting work again on my personal project- BirdingGirl. Honestly, it feels a little surreal. If you’re popping in and thinking, “Wait, she’s posting again?”—yep, it’s me! The binoculars are still close by, the dog is snoozing nearby, and yes, the birds have kept me company all along. Life Lately: Birding (Mostly) at Home Let’s get this out of the way—I never stopped birding. Not for a minute! Sure, life looks a bit different now. Marriage and kids will do that to you, right? These days, “getting out in the field” means looking up at the trees lining the trails leading to the cranberry bogs I walk my dog on, listening for great-horned owls and wood thrushes, or watching a flash of yellow as the warblers return each spring. I ...

These were taken at West Thumb Geyser Basis, along the beach. It was really cool to get to watch these little chicks up close and personal. I had never seen Killdeer chicks before- only adults. These pictures are from our trip to Montana/Wyoming in July 2012.

While visiting the Upper and Lower Falls in Yellowstone National Park we got a great photo opportunity with a Clark's Nutcracker. It was perched atop two different trees at one of the lookout points. Beautiful bird. I remember it reminded me of a mockingbird but was larger, had a longer, narrower beak, and the gray coloring was very distinct.

Western Tanager  Cedar Waxwing Brewer's Sparrow in the sage brush (I think...) Brewer's Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco The Cedar Waxwing picture was also taken at the side of the nature preserve along Teton Park Road (Grand Teton National Park). The Brewer's Sparrow pictures were taken at while we were camping with some friends at Taylor Fork, near Big Sky. Sparrows are by nature tricky to identify (especially for me!) but I did my best to narrow down the list, and feel like it's a close  match.

Tree Swallow Preening  These pictures were taken in Wyoming on our drive from Grand Targhee Resort to Jackson Lake. We were passing by a beautiful view of the Grand Tetons and on the right-hand side of the road was a fenced-off preserve, which must have been part of Grand Teton National Park. While we were stopped to take pictures of the Grand Tetons I also got pictures of this Tree Swallow, and a Swainson's Hawk, which I'll post separately. I'm pretty sure we saw Sandhill Cranes while driving, but didn't stop to take pictures.

Female Mountain Bluebird Female Mountain Bluebird Male Mountain Bluebird Male Mountain Bluebird I'm catching up on posting pictures from my trip to Montana in July 2012. These pictures of a Mountain Bluebird were taken in Big Sky. The ones at a distance were taken from the backyard of the condo some of our friends rented. We were all in Big Sky for Steve's friend Kevin's wedding. We stayed at the lodge where the wedding took place- up on the mountain-side. The female Mountain Bluebird pictures were taken up there. She was making lots of noise while we were packing up the rental car for our drive to the airport to go home. It took a long time to clean the car and pack our bags for the airport since we had been in Montana-Wyoming-Idaho for a week and a half! The Mountain Bluebird kept us company.

I'm not the greatest at identifying hybrids- I've blogged about them twice before with mixed results (one was likely some kind of domestic duck hybrid , and the other was a Green-winged Teal , which was actually a rarity for the time of year I saw it)- BUT I'll give it a shot anyway. I'd love to know everyone's thoughts!   I was in Beach Haven, NJ this past June for a friend's wedding. As part of the festivities we went to the rehearsal dinner, which was hosted by another one of their friends with a canal-front home. There were two different families of mallard ducks swimming close to the dock- looking for a free meal. I noticed that one of the female mallards (or "hens") had an unusual amount of white on her neck and wing. Does anyone have any idea what type of mallard hybrid this might be? Mallard Hybrid:  

Perry from AllBestBinoculars.com reached out to me a few weeks ago to do an interview for his Birder's Corner. AllBestBinoculars.com is a binocular review site and includes a section on  birding binoculars . I'm always happy to connect with other bloggers and writers so this was right up my alley. It took some time and thought but I'm glad he asked me to do it--it made me really reflect on my experiences as a birdwatcher. Check it out: http://allbestbinoculars.com/birder-interviews-birding-girl/ Also, fellow BwBTC blogger Larry from the Brownstone Birding Blog did an interview too:  http://allbestbinoculars.com/interview-with-larry-brownstone-birding/ . Larry's my go-to source when it comes to shopping for binoculars- he helped me pick out my first pair. Actually, I'm overdue to get a new pair since I'm still using the Nikon Action 8x40s I bought back in 2008 before my first Bird-a-thon. I'll have to check out Perry's site, and will probably p...

Here are some more pictures from our hike at Blue Hills Reservation in Canton, MA back in May. Toads and frogs are fun to try and spot while you're hiking. We tend to take the trails that don't see as much foot traffic so we usually have a better chance of seeing wildlife. With frogs & toads you'll see a flash of movement and then it's fun to try and locate them on the side of the trail since they're so fantastic at camouflaging. American Toad Wood Frog

Back in May Steve and I made a trip to the Blue Hills Reservation in Canton, MA. When we go for hikes we usually don't have much time to stop and bird, but luckily I got some downtime when we reached the top of a hill to eat lunch. I first heard, that noticed this beautiful Male Indigo Bunting singing atop a pine tree. He was very far away, but at least I was able to zoom with my camera to a certain degree. I believe this was only my second time seeing an indigo bunting. The first time I saw an indigo bunting was at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in May of 2009.

This is the Mexican companion to my Northern Mockingbird Habits post from 2008. We had a lot of fun watching the Tropical Mockingbirds at our resort in Cancun, Mexico. They were very noisy, and actually had a very similar repertoire of songs to our Northern Mockingbird. I was able to pick them out by their sound first before I spotted them. This one was flying all around the back edge of our all-inclusive resort, and enjoyed landing on the fancy stonework of the Excellence Club room balconies. Note the long tail feathers and prominent  eyebrow markings. Mockingbirds are one of my favorite species and these ones in Mexico did not disappoint!

According to the research I've done so far, Brown Pelicans periodically stretch their gular pouch by putting their heads back and stretching it over their breast. In some cases, they turn their pouch inside out, which is what can be seen in these pictures here. You can see the pink, fleshy inside of the pelican's pouch as he completely inverts it. I thought I'd leave you with at least one presentable picture of the Brown Pelican, looking dapper and smiling. It's the least I can do after intruding on his pouch stretching ritutal! These pelicans we saw relaxing on the abandoned pier at our resort in Cancun, Mexico. The birds enjoyed relaxing and sunning themselves on it. And it made for some easy birdwatching for me!

Male Great-tailed Grackle Great-tailed Grackle at our resort in Cancun, Mexico Female Great-tailed Grackle in a Palm Tree Female Great-tailed Grackle Female Great-tailed Grackle gathering nest materials on the beach There were lots of Great-tailed Grackles at our resort in Cancun, Mexico. Although they're common and kind of a noisy, nuisance bird I enjoyed watching them. Like the female, shown here on the beach, gathering nest materials. I almost thought it was a male at first since it looked so dark in the direct sunlight here on the beach, but it didn't make sense for the male to be working on the nest. All I had to do was compare the pictures side-by-side and then the differences between the male and the female were very apparent. These grackles seem almost prehistoric the way they maneuver and use their legs to grab at stuff. I especially like the male's long tapered tail that fans out. They're more interesting than our common g...