BirdingGirl

This seagull was getting ready for take-off on the old-city walls of Dubrovnik, Croatia, in September 2011. Any ideas what kind of seagull this is? (Click to Enlarge) About the Photographer: Larry Kim is a contributor to the international birding bureau at BirdingGirl. He works for WordStream, a provider of Adwords Keyword Tool .

I found this duck swimming in a lake at Plitvice National Park, Croatia in September, 2011. A bunch of lake trout were swimming around. About the Photographer: Larry Kim is BirdingGirl's international bird correspondent. He works at WordStream, a provider of AdWords tools.

I have been so busy planning my September 10th wedding but that's no excuse for slacking on posting the rest of my pictures from our amazing trip to Washington State and Vancouver. So far I've done just one post from that trip- my Pigeon Guillemot pictures . But I have many more pictures from that trip to Hope Island, including these up-close-and-personal pictures of American Bald Eagles. Hope Island is the ideal bald eagle habitat. It's an isolated state park, accessible only by boat and as a result it's a "natural area preserve to protect a rare Puget Sound ecosystem," according to the Washington State Parks website. We'll attest to that- the island is really remarkable. We walked around the entire thing, and there were so many different habitats there- meadows, forests, fields, rock outcroppings, and sandy beaches. We first encountered the bald eagles first in the meadow high atop the bluff overlooking the water below. Then as we made our w...

Google Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=hope+island&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl Here are some pictures from our trip to the San Juan Islands back in June. We had a wedding in Vancouver June 26th and decided to make a whole vacation out of it. Steve's old co-worker Julie (of J&J's Excellent Adventure fame) lives in Anacortes, WA and invited us to visit and stay with her and her husband Jay. Not only was it great to catch up with our friends, but how often do you get an amazing destination like the San Juan Islands to visit with personal tour guides?? On Friday they both had to work but generously let us use their car and sea kayaks to explore Puget Sound. On their advice we picked up lunch at Gere-a-Deli (the hummus veggie sandwich was sooo good) and then drove to Snee Oosh Beach where we put in. It was my first time in a sea kayak so I was little nervous in the fast-moving water, but at the end of the day I was proud of my accomplishment and cele...

On June 16th, the Boston Peregrine Falcon (the remaining male of the Christian Science falcon pair ) stopped by our office's window ledge. I assume this is the male of the pair because he is so much smaller than the female that we were used to. Another noticeable trait is how big the male falcon's feet are. Just look at the size of those talons! You can see the falcon's nictitating membrane up on its right eye. I'm not sure the reason for this, perhaps his eye suffered an injury or infection and he was keeping it up to protect it. At least twice I saw him lower it to look directly at us but he then he put it immediately back up. Does anyone know a lot about nictitating membranes? They've always fascinated me in birds. Here's one of a red-tailed hawk nictitating membrane that came up when it was preening/scratching. In one of these photos you can see part of the falcon's ID band. It looks like it has the letter I and the number 7 on it.

It's been a while since I've blogged about birding while jogging. This was one of my favorite things to do when I lived in Watertown, MA and had the beautiful DCR Charles River trails at my disposal. Here are a few of my "Birding While Jogging" posts from 2007-2008: http://birdinggirl.blogspot.com/2008/01/birding-while-jogging.html http://birdinggirl.blogspot.com/2007/08/birding-while-jogging.html Since moving to Bridgewater, MA I haven't been as inclined to go running because we lack scenic trails like the ones on the Charles River. However, there is a nice route I like to take that crosses the Taunton River and its off-shoots in a couple of places. Naturally rivers and streams are a jackpot when it comes to birding. So, since I've picked up running again I've also been trying to get in some birding while I'm out there. Here's what I've seen so far in my jogs this week and last: Yellow warbler Pine warbler Rose-breasted grosbeak Tree swallows ...

I try to get in at least one day of birding at Mt. Auburn Cemetery each year during peak spring migration. I made my trip there right on the cusp of peak migration- April 30th. I usually try to get there sometime in late April- early May to see the greatest variety of wood warblers, plus other colorful migrating birds. The day I was there I got to see some of the usual warblers, and even a lifer for me- the chestnut-sided warbler. Maybe I had technically seen this bird before on a group trip where it blended in with the rest of the birds we saw, but on this day it definitely stood out to me as the most exciting warbler of the day. Here are some pictures of the Chestnut-sided Warbler preening: Other (non-photographed) highlights from the day included: Northern Parula Yellow-rumped Warbler Black and White Warbler Black-throated Green Warbler Baltimore Oriole Chipping Sparrow Here's a red-tailed hawk we saw at the end of the day as we were walking back to the car. That's usually w...