BirdingGirl

I hate writing these kinds of posts. First, the Atletico Junior owl mascot was killed, and now this sad update to share. The Boston peregrine falcon that I'm always writing about and posting pictures of is a nesting pair (they're referred to as the Christian Science Administration Building peregrine falcon pair), and I just learned this week that the female peregrine falcon has died. I work in the Christian Science Administration Building where their nest is, and a MassAudubon director was here this week looking for the nest since the female was discovered dead on May 4th. I've offered what information I could to be helpful, since I've kept a pretty regular log of their activity over the past year and a half, but that was the extent of what I could do. I could see the band whenever the bird perched on my window ledge but never close enough to actually read it, so I could never be sure which falcon I was looking at. I know the females are larger than the males, but tha...

These pictures were taken on my birthday weekend, back at the end of March. I went down to see my parents on Cape Cod and my two birthday requests were: 1. I want to go Charlie's Place in Wareham for dinner. I've been going to Charlie's since I was a little kid and I have a lot of fond memories there. We're friendly with the owner, the prices are cheap, and their pepper & onion pizza is my absolute favorite. 2. I want to go birding. So, my parents took me to Bourne Farm in West Falmouth, and then later in the day I went for a walk on the Cape Cod Canal with my mom and my Aunt Marylou. Here are the duck pictures from the Canal. Red-breasted Merganser: Female Red-breasted Merganser: Common Eider Flock: I really enjoyed our earlier walk at Bourne Farm . There are walking, biking and horseback riding trails there that feature cranberry bogs, ponds, and an old herring run. Too bad I couldn't get very close to the ducks there since they were in the middle of the po...

Have you noticed today's Google Doodle? It's in honor of John James Audubon's 226th birthday! Yay for birds :) What is a Google Doodle? It's the picture on the Google Home Page: http://www.google.com . On special days like Earth Day, Christmas, and interesting anniversaries Google switches out their usual Google logo with an image that still spells out "Google." If you ever see a Google Doodle and are unsure what it means, just hover your mouse over the image and a tooltip will show up explaining what it's for. And, if you click on the Google Doodle it will show you all results for that topic.

Happy Earth Day everyone! Here's an interesting Earth Day infographic put together by WordStream. It's about how energy and CO2 generated by the Internet is affecting the Earth. Click the thumbnail to enlarge:

These large-billed crow pictures come courtesy of my work colleague Phil who lives in Japan. He told me he had some great Japanese crow pictures, and the first thing I noticed about the bird was the large bill. I started doing some research to come up with the correct crow name. First I thought it was a carrion crow since those are a common type of Japanese crow, but the bill wasn't big enough. Then I found pictures of the large-billed crow and those were a match! Duh- "large bill"- it couldn't have been any simpler. These crows are also called jungle crows, but most of the birding sites call them large-billed crows. Phil said they can get really big, which I believe since American crows are huge sometimes. I have vivid memories of standing my in my parents Cape Cod kitchen doing dishes and getting spooked by something huge in my periphery on the deck. All it ever was was a giant crow, but really they can be scary when they get so big! Here are some interesting thing...

Our favorite feather friend, the Boston Peregrine Falcon, dropped by our Back Bay office again to pose for a few photos. The people in our office love when he stops by because he perches right on the ledge outside our windows and doesn't mind the attention. How could we not stare? Photo Credit goes to my boss Larry. He always has his professional camera on hand, which is lucky in moments like this when the peregrine falcon decides to perch on our ledge! It's rare to get to see a peregrine falcon up close and personal. You really get to see the details in the bird's coloring and the scales on its legs/talons. I've been avidly reading my new Hawks at a Distance book. It's a great resource for learning more about raptors. I'm trying to educate myself on the proper way to talk about the different parts of their body, the different classifications, and of course how to identify them at a distance. I'm also learning about the various viewing positions. The pereg...

These pictures come thanks to my co-worker in Australia. He knew I was an avid birder and had a birding blog, so he shared two of his best photos with me. The first is a Fairy Wren: Interesting fact about Fairy Wrens (also known as the Superb Fairy-wren)- males often latch onto a predator's call to catch the attention of females. Pretty innovative! For more info: http://birdsinbackyards.net/species/Malurus-cyaneus The second is a Pheasant Coucal: The Pheasant Coucal is a large cuckoo similar in shape to a pheasant, often seen in backyards. For more info: http://birdsinbackyards.net/species/Centropus-phasianinus Thank you Brad!