Backyard Birding Time

There’s this pesticide commercial I keep hearing all the time lately, posing a question: If I didn’t have to worry about weeds, what would I think about instead?   Well, I’m probably not the target audience for this advertising campaign; I don’t worry about weeds. What I do worry about is the mass-market availability of […]

My favorite and most frequent location to bird has always been at my kitchen sink. All but one of my bird feeders hang from the roof of my back deck, which is what my kitchen window overlooks. My regulars include Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, house finch, Carolina wren, American goldfinch, mourning dove, and, of course,

It seems like just yesterday that spring had sprung and the birding message boards were full of folks eagerly asking, “When do the hummingbirds arrive? Have you seen any hummers yet?” And then there was a flurry of people excitedly sharing pictures and reports of their first sightings. But lately I’m seeing a lot of

So, you’re walking along, you glance down, and there it is, a gift from nature: a feather. On occasion its source is obvious—if it’s winter in the Midwest and the feather is reddish, it’s from a cardinal. Often, though, the feathers we find are harder to identify. If you have a smartphone or camera with