Suet provides high energy fat that can attract insect-eating birds to your yard or office, such as Yellow-rumped Warblers, Pine Warblers and Northern Mockingbirds to your feeding station along with such regular visitors as woodpeckers and nuthatches. During colder months, suet calories can help birds survive low temperatures, but squirrels may also develop a taste for suet and they can dominate the suet cakes at your feeding station.

Every August the Northern Rocky Mountains seem to pull at my psyche more than other months. August is a time when many people take summer vacations, and the national parks in Wyoming and Montana offer a once in a lifetime trip for many people. Who can resist the iconic beauty of the Grand Teton peaks, the Yellowstone River as it flows through historic pine forests, and the tremendous scenery of Glacier National Park. For birders, there are many high-country western birds that make the Northern Rockies an even more exciting region to visit: Mountain Bluebirds and Western Tanagers, Great Gray Owls and Gray Jays, Steller’s Jays and Sooty Grouse, Spruce Grouse and Bald Eagles, and many more.

Beaver dams create shallow wetlands that promote the growth of young trees, shrubs and other vegetation that creates habitat for migratory birds, and the wetlands promote insect and small fish reproduction that helps to feed many birds, including warblers, ducks, kingfishers and wading birds. Researchers at the University of Montana’s Bird Ecology Lab studied stretches of small streams without beaver dams and those that did have dams, and found that bird species diversity and abundance increased dramatically where beavers have been active.

Burrowing Owls, Gold-winged Warblers, Red Knots and hundreds of other species of birds will benefit from 29 new grants awarded in 16 countries across the Americas. More than $3.8 million in federal funds will be provided through the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act. These funds will leverage an additional $14.2 million from partners. The program was established specifically to benefit birds that nest in North America and migrate to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America during the winter season.

Ten lucky eBirders will win free access to the online class, “Be a Better Birder: Warbler Identification Series,” simply by submitting an eligible eBird checklist during August. Really ambitious eBirders may win a Zeiss Conquest HD 8x42 binocular by submitting eligible checklists with at least 50 photos or sound recordings.

Yellow Warblers and Western Meadowlarks are two species of California birds that are nesting a week earlier than they did 70 to100 years ago, apparently in response to rising temperatures. Earlier nesting offsets about a two-degree temperature rise they would have experienced had they not accelerated nesting times. This study reveals broad-scale climate change adaptation not previously recorded in birds. The discovery of this startling news is due in part to meticulous records kept by Joseph Grinnell in statewide surveys he led a century ago.

Beach nesting birds such as Least Terns are highly vulnerable to disturbance. In such hot habitats, adults shade eggs and hatchlings from lethal temperatures. If the adults are spooked, eggs and hatchlings can die of heat stress. That seems to be the case for hundreds of Least Tern hatchlings and eggs exposed to the summer sun by beachgoers who set up a volleyball net and partied in the midst of what turned out to be Alabama’s largest nesting colony.

One of the most storied songbirds, Northern Mockingbirds are best known for learning and repeating other species’ songs, other mockingbirds’ repertoires and some non-avian local sounds. Some mockingbirds are known to sing more than 150 different songs, a few have been documented with more than 200 different songs and all mockingbirds appear to continue to learn new songs throughout their lifetimes.

Most birders have heard of The Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, but I wonder how many of us appreciate that this is one of the premier conservation efforts. The Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network is a system of internationally important sites used by shorebirds throughout their life cycles.

A highlight of Wednesday afternoon’s birding drive was a Prairie Falcon sighted along the Lost Road. Prairies are very rare in this region, and I’ve never seen one at that signature area before. And now that I mention falcons, I had an incidental sighting of a male Merlin flying low overhead as I stepped out of the grocery store Tuesday. You never know what you will see next when you’re a birder.

As if it wasn’t hard enough to separate the Western Sandpiper from the Semipalmated Sandpipers on the mudflat in front of me, I had to continually block the piercing morning sun penetrating the space between my eye and my binocular eyecup. If I shaded my eye with my right hand and held the binocular with my left, I couldn’t use the focus. No matter how I adjusted the bill of my ball cap, it didn’t get the job done. Eyeshields to the rescue!

Is a Harpy Eagle on your must-see list of amazing birds to see? How about a Crested Eagle? If so, and you find yourself in the Darien Province of Panama, Alexander might be just the guide to take you to these rare eagles. He’s spotted them nesting on his land, thanks to a used binocular donated to the American Birding Association’s Birder’s Exchange.

In southern Maine, a strange raptor photographed by a novice birder turned out to be a first state record, but also only the second record of a Great Black Hawk in the United States! What’s more, the first United States record was observed less than four months ago in Texas, and it turns out this was the same immature bird! This great raptor obviously has stopped in other states along the way, but maybe the bigger question is: Where will it be found next? Great Black Hawks normally range from northern Mexico to northern Argentina – a long distance from Maine!

Thanks to birders who have sent photos to share with fellow readers of The Birding Wire! This week’s contributions show a lot of geographic diversity and some great photographic talents. Thanks to Scott Shuey and Milton Hobbs for sharing your impressive photos!

I have long been a fan and follower of Brian Wheeler, and this book can be counted as his best, especially when combined with its sister volume Birds of Prey of the East. Not only is this now the definitive field guide for birds of prey, but it provides a great wealth of information about raptors that readers can glean with gusto. At the heart of this new field guide are the beautiful yet functional illustrations by the author – Wow!