SIGHTINGS

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Indiana Snowy Owl Sightings Break Records

The winter of 2017/2018 will go down in the record books as the highest number of Snowy Owls seen in Indiana in a single winter.  To date, 139 Snowy Owls have been documented in Indiana this winter.

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Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Sandhill Cranes Now in Arizona's Sulphur Springs Valley

The Arizona Game and Fish Department is estimating there are more than 25,000 sandhill cranes in the Sulphur Springs Valley in southeastern Arizona, with the largest concentration of 15,343 at Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area in McNeal.

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Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Burrowing Owl Delights Students, Staff at SoCal Urban School

A burrowing owl, more commonly found in the grasslands and deserts, has been seen regularly at Esperanza Elementary School, a Southern California inner-city school (located just blocks from MacArthur Park) which just recently restored green spaces around its campus and nearby Wilshire Boulevard.

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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Rare 'Pastel' Sandhill in SE Arizona

Observers with the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory (SABO) very rare "pastel" Sandhill Crane is spending the winter at the Arizona Game and Fish Department's Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area located near Willcox.

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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

SW Desert Species Spotted in SW Louisiana

While participating in the Christmas Bird Count Dec. 18, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) biologist Dan O'Malley spotted a pyrrhuloxia in Jeff Davis Parish, marking the first time the species has been recorded in The Bayou State.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Piratic Flycatcher Sighting at Kansas State Park

If Chris Lituma's sighting of a piratic flycatcher in Kansas' Scott State Park is accepted by the ABA, it will be the first recorded for Kansas and the farthest northerly confirmed sighting of the bird.

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Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Rare Black-tailed Godwit at S. Indiana Refuge

Hoosier educator Jeremy Ross logged the state's first confirmed sighting of a Black-tailed godwit as Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge.

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Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Bahama Swallows at Florida Keys

Our friends at the Birding Community e-Bulletin report the multiple sightings of Bahama Swallows at Florida's Long Key State Park and Curry Hammock State Park near the end of last month.

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Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Rare, Nearly All-White Sandhill Crane at Bosque del Apache NWR

It's November, and that means it's prime time for viewing sandhill cranes, waterfowl and shorebirds amid the golden cottonwood trees at New Mexico's Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. And this week, birders have been treated to a special sight!

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Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Hope the Migrating Whimbrel Sighted on St. Croix

For the sixth consecutive fall, since her initial capture and subsequent fitting with a tracking device in Virginia, Hope the whimbrel has returned to her winter territory on St. Croix, reports the Center for Conservation Biology.

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Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Black Oystercatcher Nest Observed in SF Bay

On June 23, Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary shorebird survey volunteers observed two Black Oystercatcher chicks in a nest on Aramburu Island, an Audubon California restoration site in San Francisco Bay.

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Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Samoan Sighting: Tooth-Billed Pigeon

A Tooth-billed pigeon, one of the world's least known (and frankly, strangest looking) birds has been photographed on the Samoan island of Savai'i by researchers, the first confirmed sighting in almost a decade.

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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Snowy Owl Makes Appearance at Reagan National Airport

The Snowy Owl, which has always been a "must-see" bird for the birding community, was spotted earlier this month at Arlington's Reagan National Airport, while other owls were spotted earlier at Dulles International Airport and later at Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI).

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Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Snowy Owls Visiting Heartland This Winter

Since December 1, snowy owls have been observed in Missouri at Smithville Lake in the Kansas City area, Kirksville, Trenton, and at Long Branch Lake in Macon.

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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

eBird Tracking 2013 Snowy Owl 'Invasion'

Two years ago Snowy Owls staged a massive invasion into the Lower 48, and this year it looks like they are on the move again, reports the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's eBird. In this year's invasion, the center of focus (so far) is the Great Lakes and Northeast.

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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

November - Time for Little Gulls

There is no better month to find a Little Gull in much of North America than November, and the eBird blog reports this fall has produced one of the stronger showings for this species in recent years, with birds appearing from the Front Range of Colorado to southern Illinois and Tennessee. Coastal sightings stretch from Newfoundland to Virginia.

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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Whooping Crane Spotted at the Brazoria NWR

On November 15, 2013, a whooping crane was photographed hanging out with thousands of Sandhill Cranes and other waterfowl at a moist soil unit of the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Texas.

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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Tropical Kingbird at State Botanical Garden of Georgia

The birding community in and around Athens, Ga. was abuzz last week with the sighting of the state's first tropical kingbird on the grounds of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia.

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Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Blue-footed Boobies Invade SoCal

Over the past week Blue-footed Boobies have been reported with increasing frequency from many places along the coast of southern California. From SE Arizona to Los Angeles and Riverside Counties, birders have seen wayward Boobies.

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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Merlin Nesting Reported at Indiana State Park

Merlins, a small falcon species that normally nests in Canada, apparently have set up shop at northern Indiana's Pokagon State Park, marking the first nesting record for the species in the state.

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