Dawn Chorus: Wild Birds, Wild Calls, Wild Fun
A few days ago, I was reading a story in a magazine from the American Birding Association about a birder who had completed a Big Day in the Amazon rainforest. For the unfamiliar, a Big Day is where you...
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Dawn Chorus: Where Do You Live? What Are Your Yard Birds?
Though some of us here are old enough to remember the 60s rock band, The Yardbirds, the topic today is actually yard birds. What are yours? And where do you live?As I’ve mentioned before, I live in...
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Dawn Chorus: Thanksgiving Open Thread
How was your Thanksgiving? Did you eat a feast? Did you get into any political arguments with relatives? Do tell!I spent the day with friends in Sonoma, CA and it was the first time I’ve been over in...
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Dawn Chorus: Your Favorite Birding Moment of 2017?
For left-leaning political junkies like us, 2017 has been an astonishingly horrendous year given that the presidency of Cadet Bone Spurs (as Sen. Tammy Duckworth named him) has been even worse than any...
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Dawn Chorus: Leucism Explains the Odd Coloring of Birds
Have you ever seen a leucistic bird in the wild? The turkey in the photo above is leucistic, which is defined as an abnormal condition of reduced pigmentation affecting various animals (such as birds,...
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Dawn Chorus: Crappy Bird Photo Fun
Do you take pictures of birds? Do you surprise yourself sometimes when you upload your photos and discover just how crappy some of your photos turned out? Me too, so let’s have some fun with our...
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Dawn Chorus: My Favorite Bird
It occurred to me yesterday that in all the years I’ve been a contributor here at Dawn Chorus, I have never made my namesake bird, the kestrel, the subject of a diary. I don’t know why it took me so...
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Dawn Chorus: Ooh, Baby, Baby
Ah, Spring is here, the birds are singing, mating, nesting and birthing their babies. I thought it might be fun to learn a bit more about the whole process, so I headed over to the Cornell Lab of...
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Dawn Chorus: There's More Than One LBJ
If you’re like most people, when you see the initials LBJ, you think of the nation’s 36th president, Lyndon Baines Johnson.But if you’re a birder, LBJ stands for something else entirely: Little Brown...
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Dawn Chorus: Birds of the World Cup - Gooooooaaaaallllll!
When you’ve been writing for Dawn Chorus for as many years as I have, sometimes it’s hard to come up with a topic or theme. I’m a fan of the World Cup and love to watch as many matches as I can every...
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Dawn Chorus: This & That
Since it’s an hour past the normal start time of Dawn Chorus and no diary has yet appeared, I’m guessing we had no one assigned Dawn Chorus duty today. Consider this an open thread. I’ve no new birding...
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Dawn Chorus: Let's Eat!
One of the wonderful things about Dawn Chorus is that our visitors are birders and non-birders alike. Some folks stop by just to look at the pictures, some drop-in occasionally, and some of us are here...
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Dawn Chorus: The Wild World of Woodpeckers
I think I can say with some confidence that everyone, even non-birders, knows what woodpeckers are. Who hasn’t heard that rat-ta-tat-tat sound and looked upward until finding the source of the...
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Dawn Chorus: The Sandhill Cranes Are Here
It’s 3:40 am and I just woke up and remembered I had Dawn Chorus duty this morning. So I'm putting up a quick diary that you're welcome to use as an open thread as I go back to bed to return at a...
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Dawn Chorus: It's Time to Talk Turkey
Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, you might think I could come up with a topic besides turkeys for today’s Dawn Chorus. But I’m not quite ready to let turkeys go yet because I found this great bunch...
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Dawn Chorus: Orange You Glad Birds Like Fruit?
This morning for the first time I set out a pomegranate with sections opened and seeds available for any of my regular customers who show up on the patio every morning. I had no idea whether anyone...
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Dawn Chorus: Everybody Loves Pelicans!
A wonderful bird is the Pelican.His beak can hold more than his belly can.He can hold in his beakEnough food for a week!But I'll be darned if I know how the hellican?Dixon Lanier MerrittLook at this...
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Dawn Chorus: A Face Only a Mother Could Love (with poll!)
Throughout the long and storied history of Dawn Chorus, there have been many great diaries about birds and bird-watching, along with many terrific photos of birds and their habitats. The subjects of...
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Dawn Chorus: Spring Is Bustin' Out All Over
Spring is here already? Yep - Wednesday the 20th is the first day of spring. That means lots of comings and goings. Swallows are arriving, eagles and owls are already sitting on eggs in nests they...
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Dawn Chorus: The Cormorant Conducts the Chorus
A little light-hearted fun and a chance for something different this morning. I didn’t have a lot of time available so I decided to leave the more carefully-researched bird topics for another day....
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Dawn Chorus: Dowitchers, Godwits, and Plovers, Oh My! Part 1: A through K
Last Sunday’s fabulous Dawn Chorus by Ocean Diver got me pining for more shorebirds. So I decided I’d use today’s Dawn Chorus to explore shorebirds a bit more. But once I got started, I realized the...
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Dawn Chorus: Dowitchers, Godwits, and Plovers, Oh My! Part 2: L through Z
Back on May 26, I published the first episode on shorebirds which you can find here. www.dailykos.com/… Today I’m adding part 2. I’m borrowing heavily from All About Birds for this diary. Shorebirds...
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Dawn Chorus: My Wish List. Share Yours!
Since tomorrow is my birthday, I thought I’d celebrate by creating a wish list of birds I hope to see someday. Of course, I’m old now and have spinal problems that limit my mobility, so I won’t be...
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Dawn Chorus: Least Wanted Backyard Birds
Good morning, all. An unusual topic this morning, but sometimes the Dawn Chorus Topic Generator spits out the occasional odd or unusual subject. This morning it’s about birds we’d really rather avoid...
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Dawn Chorus: These State Birds May Be Forced Out of Their States as the World...
I’m going to do something a little different here this morning. Instead of writing original content as usual, today I'm sharing a news story that appeared on the front page of the New York Times on...
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Dawn Chorus: The Eyes Have It
Peer into the world of birds, and eyes of many different colors peer back.There are shades of light and dark - yellows, whites, greens, and the red eyes of certain hawks, ducks, loons, herons, and...
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Dawn Chorus: The Wintering Ducks and Geese Have Arrived
I’ve mentioned before that I live in Sacramento, the state capital and the jewel in the crown of California. The Sacramento Valley is one of the great valleys of the world, with a vast and fertile soil...
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Dawn Chorus: Owl I Wanna Say is Happy New Year!
Owls are such unmistakable and fascinating creatures. Just as I think of hummingbirds as being at one end of the spectrum of “birds that aren’t like regular birds,” owls are at the other end. They are...
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Dawn Chorus: Who's That Singing?
Back in 2017, I authored a Dawn Chorus that tested our skills at identifying birds by song. People enjoyed it, thought it was fun, and reported with evident delight at how many birds they identified...
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Dawn Chorus: Flying In On A Wing And A Prayer
Good morning, Dawn Choristers. Coming up with Dawn Chorus topics and original content is sometimes a challenge, especially when you’ve been doing it for a number of years. And sometimes, I’ll think of...
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Dawn Chorus: Something to Crow About
Here’s a question for you: What do you suppose is the most commonly recognized bird by the average American? From my point of view, I’d say it’s a tossup between the pigeon and “seagull.” But I’m...
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Dawn Chorus: The Socially Distant American Bittern
Good morning fellow Choristers. If you’ve been socially distancing, as I have seen for days now, you may be going a bit stir crazy. Let’s check in on a bird that excels at social distancing, shall we?...
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Dawn Chorus: Rooftop Rendevous With a Peregrine Falcon
In the spring of 2012, I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with a Peregrine Falcon that dropped out of the sky.Literally.The ledge outside of my office on the 28th floor of a downtown...
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Dawn Chorus: Hiding in Plain Sight
Whether through their amazing abilities at camouflage, or just their simple ability to blend into the habitat they're in, birds can sometimes be maddeningly difficult to see. How many times has this...
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Dawn Chorus: Open Thread
It would appear that I was on duty for today’s Dawn Chorus and missed my cue. Apologies. I’ll post a few random photos to get everyone in a birdy mood and then let’s use this as an Open Thread about...
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Dawn Chorus: Hooray for the Red, White, and Blue!
This Independence Day weekend, I thought it would be fun to visit our patriotic birds that sport the colors of America, the red, white, and blue birds we enjoy in various habitats in North America.It...
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Dawn Chorus: Favorite Voices, Favorite Songs
In the normal course of a non-pandemic year, I enjoy watching PGA Tour golf on the weekends during spring and summer. Watching superbly talented players make their way around beautifully manicured...
View ArticleDawn Chorus: Open Thread
Fellow Choristers, I apologize for the delay in posting Dawn Chorus this morning. I am, unfortunately, ill today and am posting this open thread for you all to chat about all things birdy in your...
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Dawn Chorus: Who's That Bird?
One of the wonderful things about Dawn Chorus appearing here every Sunday morning for more than a decade now is that we have a terrific cross-section of visitors. We have birders, non-birders,...
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Dawn Chorus: Open Thread
Since I don’t see a Dawn Chorus diary posted yet, I have the feeling that I was assigned today’s entry. Unfortunately, I didn’t see that message and didn’t realize I’m up this week!With apologies to...
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Dawn Chorus: The Kids Are Alright
My birding has been limited to what I can see out the window and at the feeders in my back yard and that’s been slim pickin’s. A few Anna’s hummers here and there, some House Finches, a scrub jay or...
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Dawn Chorus: Finch Irruption Erupts
According to Ryan Mandelbaum, a reporter for Audubon Magazine, “This Winter Marks an Incredible 'Superflight' of Hungry Winter Finches,” which is the title of the article that appears in the current...
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Dawn Chorus: Bucket List Birds
One of the great pleasures of birding, among many, is that you’re never done. There’s always another day and there’s always another bird. I don’t know if you keep a personal life list of all the birds...
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Dawn Chorus: Happy Easter, Happy Spring
Happy Easter, Dawn Choristers! If it’s Easter, there have to be Easter bunnies, right? What better illustrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ than a bunny distributing colored eggs and candy to...
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Dawn Chorus: Lights, Camera, Action! Bird Cams in the Wild!
Have you had the good fortune to see any bird nests with eggs or possibly even fledglings already? I’ve seen lots of people posting their photos on Facebook with many requesting help identifying the...
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Dawn Chorus: Bird Beaks and Bills
At some point in the past, I wrote a Dawn Chorus on the subject of bird bills, but it was quite a while ago and I’m too lazy to go back and try to find it. At any rate, this is a new one with new info...
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Dawn Chorus: Birds, Glorious Birds
Amid the horror of the Covid-19 pandemic, news reporters looking to focus on meager good news wherever they could find it discovered a bright spot — birdwatching! Birdwatching has surged in popularity...
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Dawn Chorus: Fall Migration
As you’ve no doubt noticed, the fall migration is underway. In my neck of the woods, White-crowned Sparrows are the first to arrive, faithfully showing. up on September 20 or 21 every year. They have...
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Dawn Chorus: The Bald Eagles of California. A Comeback Story for the Ages.
Story and Photographs by John Ehrenfeld, John Ehrenfeld Photography Historically, Bald Eagle populations in California were widespread and abundant with evidence of their presence dating back to...
View ArticleDawn Chorus: Have Yourself A Birdy Little Christmas
Are you participating in this year’s Christmas Bird Count sponsored by the Audubon Society? Have you in the past? If so, please tell us about your experience. (The text I’m sharing here today comes...
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