Q'eqchi' Birds

 My most recent article with Kerry Hull based on our Maya Ethnoornithology research has been published in the journal Human Ecology. Here is a read only link to the article.

2026 Year of the Gwitawo'yo

Gwitawo'yo is the Northern/Eastern Shoshoni name for the Black-billed Magpie. 

Since I started the year in Northern Utah, this was the first bird I saw and heard to start 2026, and I want to honor it with a name from those who knew it before it was "discovered" or scientifically described by Joseph Sabine in 1823.

While I haven't found any Gwitawo'yo tales from the Northern or Eastern Shoshone yet, here is a fun one from their more southern Timbisha Shoshone cousins, where magpies win a race against Coyote.

Photo by Polinova (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Happy Turkey Day 2025

My very first post on this blog, 21 years ago, was a successful Thanksgiving Wild Turkey search with my three kids. We tried it several other years, but with mixed results, and finally it wasn't feasible.

This year there is a Wild Turkey flock that I sometimes see a few miles from our new home in Mendon, NY. This Thanksgiving my oldest was in town, so we slipped out for a few minutes to search for them. With luck!  We FaceTimed my wife at home, my son studying in Morocco, and my youngest daughter on her LDS mission in Denmark. They all got virtual digiscope views of the flock foraging in a distant corn field.

Facebook killed blogging. I'm not in a hurry to join Substack. I rarely post here. But enjoying a Turkey Day flock of Wild Turkeys again to revisit where this all started, feels like coming full circle.

Oh How Lovely Was the Morning

 "On the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring" of 1820, a young Joseph Smith retired to the woods near his home in Palmyra, NY to pray. The result was a vision of God and Jesus that initiated his call as a prophet and eventually the formation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Recent analysis of weather patterns and other evidence suggest that that early spring day may have been March 26, Palm Sunday and the first day of the season when temperatures in the area rose into the 50s.

To mark the anniversary of this "First Vision" I headed over to the Sacred Grove at the Joseph Smith Farm and spent a few hours walking around in the cold, overcast, and snowy morning--not as clear or warm as the day in 1830. But still signs of spring were in the air, including over 20 bird species seen or heard in the grove (eBird checklist).

All in all a nice walk in the Sacred Grove, though not as remarkable as the experience of Joseph Smith. In his own words, because he couldn't decide which church to join:

"I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"

Early morning sun in the Sacred Grove

Deer in the Sacred Grove

Pileated Woodpecker workings.

First Bird of 2025

OK, it isn't Groundhog Day, but here we go again. As was the case last year, my first bird this year was a Blue Jay. So lets try this again, and maybe have a better birding year than last year?

Backburner Birding--2024 Birding Recap

So this past year has been momentous. I took a new job at the Palmyra Temple in Palmyra, New York in January, we finally sold our house in DelCo in July, and we bought a house and moved to Mendon, NY in August (new yard list up to 75 bird species by end of the year). So new job, new house, new lots of stuff. But not a lot of new birds. Or many birds at all, as birding took the biggest back seat in my life since I took a couple years mostly off to serve an LDS mission in Ecuador from 1988-1990.

By the numbers, I only saw 213 bird species this year. Ouch!

I did not leave the U.S. this year, and logged birds in only 11 states--including 199 in New York. Shoot, I just saw that. If I had been paying attention, I would have worked harder this week to have made sure that total got to 200. That's what happens when you aren't paying attention in the back seat!

I did not see any new birds for my World list or my North American list this year--the first year I haven't seen a new bird since 1987. 

Most of my birding this year was just an hour here or there before or after work. The only real birding games I tried to keep up with this year were my daily attempts to get my 20 Bird Minimum Daily Requirement and to get an All Time New Day Bird (a bird I hadn't ever seen before on that calendar day). I will have to count, but I got one or both of those on most days, though there were plenty of misses--including today (Dec 31) when I got neither.

Since I saw so few birds, it is hard to even come up with a 2024 Top 10 birds list for the year. but here goes

1. Wood Stork--the only rare bird I found myself this year, an October surprise up on the shore of Lake Ontario in Rochester, NY. Fortunately it stuck around for several days, so many people got to see it.

2. Snowy Owl--I haven't seen any for a few years, so nice to see one again at Sodus Point this fall. Definitely worth a quick drive up one afternoon between work shifts.

3. King Eider--I hadn't seen one since chasing one on the Texas coast back in 1998, so more than time to have seen one. Took several attempts to see one that spent a few weeks at Sodus Point back in February.

4. American Woodcock--since these were always a bit of a challenge to find in DelCo, it was nice to have several displaying every night at the Sacred Grove next door to my work, so I saw them over 15 times in April and May on the evenings I got out of work early enough to catch their twilight sky dances. 

5. Barred Owl--Always fun to hear them, and I heard them 15 times this year at the Sacred Grove, and saw one twice. 

6. Rough-legged Hawk--This was one of my top jinx Delco county birds, having narrowly missed it a few times--finally was able to see one at the Philadelphia Airport back in January. This may well be my last new Delaware County, PA bird ever.

7. Swainson's Hawk--a bird I see most years when I am out visiting family in Utah, but this was one that someone found in Wayne Co. New York and I drove over to see one afternoon in May before work.

8. Purple Sandpiper--Another bird I hadn't seen in a number of years, good to finally see one again three times up at Sodus Point on Lake Ontario.

9. Bonaparte's Gull--Uncommon in Philadelphia, nice to live where you can see them all the time--if you drive to the right place on Lake Ontario.  I saw them 24 days this fall (as opposed to only 8 times in 2023), a reliable get when needed as a new All Time Day Bird.

10. Swamp Sparrow--Like the Bonaparte's Gull, a fairly reliable All Time Day Bird many times this year at the Sacred Grove when needed quickly on the way to work (99 observations this year, as opposed to 27 observations in 2023 when I was birding more frequently).

Aside from the birds, it was actually a spectacular year for watching the sky.  I got to see my second full solar eclipse, my best views yet of the northern lights, and the great comet show this fall. So looking forward to what heavenly visions 2025 will bring--birdwise, astronomically, and otherwise!

Comet through my spotting scope

    

Aurora from my backyard in NY

Moon and Venus in fall NY sunset

Year of the Blue Jay/Tiyas/Di'di

My first bird of 2024 this morning was a Blue Jay I heard from inside before I even left the house. So 2024 will be the Year of the Blue Jay for me.

Enjoyed a couple hours of quick birding in the morning, managing 50 species including Mute Swan (new for my all time Jan 1 list) and lingering Red-necked Grebe and Common Loon in the impoundment at John Heinz NWR in Philly.

This is going to be a year of big changes. I will take the Lenape name for Blue Jay (Tiyas) with me as I move up to the land of the Seneca (where it is apparently called the Dí´di) to take a new job later this week.

Ask and Ye Shall Recieve

 A couple years ago I posted this on the eBird discussion group in Facebook--

Very happy that this year eBird overhauled their database so that we can report these exotic birds, track them in the database, but not have them show up in our birding totals for listing purposes. Great job eBird. 

So these Chukars from behind the Philly airport in 2020 are now officially in eBird--but they don't add to my county totals. Love it!

Chukars shown below my main Delaware County eBird list, listed with other exotics I've seen in the county, but not included on my main county list.

And Then There Were None

One of the things I love about birding is the window it provides onto the changing seasons, and the connection that fosters to the natural world. While we anxiously await the arrival of migratory breeding birds in the spring, you have to be paying even more attention to notice exactly when they disappear in the fall.

Wood Thrush (Source: Wikipedia)

I haven't heard a Wood Thrush in over a week, so this morning on my walk I stopped and listened and even tried some playback in my local park to see if any of the at least seven singing birds that had spent the summer there were still around. Nothing. Same with the local Red-eyed Vireos. While I will still find a few migrant thrushes this fall, especially if I get my NFC microphone up to record the nocturnal fall migration, the local birds have moved on.

July 2023 Road Trip

So this may be the road most travelled by for me, I-80 out to Utah and back. We've done this drive several times, and when we are in a hurry to get out West, this is our default drive--32 to 36 hours straight, depending on stops for food. We made a quick trip out for a family reunion in Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Not a lot of new birds for the year on the drive, and not much wildlife on the drive out, but the drive back was great, with a couple roadside Greater Sage Grouse in Wyoming and more Pronghorn than I've seen in a long time from Wyoming out halfway through Nebraska. 

Here's the eBird trip report, only 117 species, so again not a lot of new birds for the year, but nice to see some old friends, especially in Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Note the gap in eBird checklists across Iowa--that's some major nighttime driving going on both ways there!  

6098 miles round trip, great scenery and time with family. Elk, Bighorn, Moose, Bison. No bears. A few birds. Good times.

My 42nd Birdiversary!!!

Today marks 42 years as a birder. While I had been watching birds casually for awhile before then, 10 August 1981 is the day it really started for me, on a weeklong middle school field trip from the Portland suburbs out to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. An annual or semi-annual tradition at the time, middle school teachers at my school would take a couple van loads of kids out on what we called Project W--a weeklong camping and natural history adventure to SE Oregon. I was 12 years old and a self-described herper at the time, mostly interested in lizards, but after a week of seeing dozens of cool birds for the first time, I was hooked! The rest is history. 

 Here's an eBird checklist of the birds seen on that first birding trip. 

 Looking at the report, turns out one of my first birds was Clark's Nutcracker--a bird I got to see again last week in Yellowstone, and hadn't seen since before moving to PA almost 20 years ago.

Clark's Nutcracker (photo: Wikipedia)

So that's that! While I have 12 species in eBird checklists from before this date, 10 August 1981 is the day the light turned on. Thanks to my teachers and fellow students on that trip. And to the birds!

Here's my journal from this trip--apparently I was as scared of the dark as I was impressed by the birds!

Birding Boa Ogoi

Today I spent a beautiful morning out at Boa Ogoi (Shoshone:Big River AKA Bear River) with Darren Parry, a member of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation tribal council. We visited the site of the Bear River Massacre north of Preston, Idaho--where a US Army detachment attacked and massacred over 250 Shoshone men, women, and children at a winter village in 1863.

Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Bear River Massacre monument, Highway 91 north of Preston, ID

When I arrived at the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (DUP) monument to the massacre on Highway 91, the most obvious birds were the non-native Rock Pigeon, European Starling, House Sparrows, and most recent new colonizer the Eurasian Collared-Dove. I wondered if it was fitting, or ironic? But listening closely, the native birds were still there as well--a Killdeer (Duck Valley Shoshone: pantei) piped up from a nearby horse pasture. A Yellow Warbler flew into the trees behind the monument and interpretive sign. A couple of Yellow-headed Blackbirds flew around the marsh, and two pairs of Sandhill Cranes (Duck Valley Shoshone: koanta) seemed to call to each other from opposite sides of the highway. White-faced Ibis and a lone Mallard (Duck Valley Shoshone: peye) flew over. Darren and I visited for awhile, and as we prepared to get in our cars, a pair of Red-tailed Hawks circled over a nearby field (eBird checklist with complete list of 16 species and coordinates)

One of six beautiful interpretive signs up the road from the DUP monument.

Picnic tables and interprerive signs up the road from the DUP monument

Memorial for the children killed during the massacre

We drove up the road a few hundred yards to a much more informative collection of interpretive signs installed by the state of Idaho with Shoshone input. It was more quiet up on this bench overlooking the valley, and a Swainson's Hawk watched us from a nearby fencepost (eBird checklist).

Roadside hot spring on the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation land at Boa Ogoi

Several hot springs dot the landscape, and were an important feature making this a good wintering village site for the Shoshone. We drove down the river valley a ways to one set of bubbling and steaming springs right near the road. A miniature Yellowstone.  Along one hillside, a roadbank was pocked with Bank Swallow nesting holes, and almost two dozen swallows circled and swooped in the vicinity (eBird checklist).

For a contemporary Shoshone take on the Bear River Massacre, you can get Darren Parry's book--The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History--with notes on traditional Shoshone foods, prayers, life ways, and more recent history.

The Shoshone--who traditionally refer to themselves as Newe ("the People")--continue to be active at this massacre site. The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation aquired over 700 acres along the river, including the massacre site, and are planning to build the Wuda Ogwa Cultural & Interpretive Center there. They have raised over $6 million of a required $8+ million (donate here) for construction, and are also conducting a multi-million dollar habitat restoration program on this land, including removing thousands of invasive Russian olive trees. Hopefully Boa Ogoi will continue to host its traditional human inhabitants, as well as its native wildlife (referred to as "our non-human kin"), for the forseeable future and until the end of time.

For more information:

The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History (book by Darren Parry)

Darren Parry's work with the Environmental Humanities Graduate Program at the University of Utah

2018 Salt Lake Tribune article on culture center plans

PBS video on ecological restoration at Boa Ogoi

Wuda Ogwa Cultural & Interpretive Center (information and online donation page)

Shoshoni Language Project

May 2023 Road Trip

Lat month my son Michael and I had a quick roadtrip out west, 7083 miles in 12 days. Not a lot of time for any real birding, but did log 175 species mostly from the highway. No surprises, but great scenery and fun to catch up with a few old bird friends--such as Upland Sandpiper on a fencepost in ND and Hammond's Flycatchers in Montana. I've covered most of these roads before, but taking a few detours here and there, and a new route home through OK, logged me 53 new counties--in most of which I was able to get at least an incidental eBird checklist posted--including Trimble County KY named after one of my ancestors (Robert Trimble).

Top 10 Birds of 2022

Another year in the books, and another year where I didn't leave the U.S. and hardly traveled outside of Pennsylvania. Here's to more travels in the new year!  eBird has me down for only 279 species this year, with 224 of those right here at home in Delaware County, PA. So for sure I need to get out more!  That said, here are my Top 10 Birds of 2022.

Gray-headed Swamphen--Overdue new life bird for me, I picked it up on a quick trip to Florida for my youngest daughter's singing competition in May.  Been waiting to see this one for decades since they first became countable after escaping and colonizing Florida in the early 1990s. #Lifer

Gray Kingbird--Another overdue lifer for me, finally in Florida the right time of year for it. #Lifer

Hermit Warbler--a first record for Pennsylvania and Delaware County, found by visiting birders over the Thanksgiving Weekend and subsequently seen by hundreds of local birders as it played peek-a-boo with birders in a row of pine trees between an apartment building and a suburban church parking lot. Breaks the mind to imagine how many rare birds are lurking out there in unbirded marginal habitat! #NewCountyBird

White Ibis--a mind-bending new county bird for me. While not completely unexpected, it was found by a hiker along Ridley Creek in a heavily wooded section of the park, so another bird in a seemingly random spot. #CountyBird

Barnacle Goose--A new county bird for me, spotted by friends in a large Canada Goose flock that we monitor for rare geese at Springton Reservoir. It flew to a nearby Middle School field to forage and I was able to connect with it there. #CountyBird

Little Gull--another new county bird for me, long-wished for by several of us in the county, first one reported here in decades. I spent many days watching the river behind the PHL airport hoping to find one mixed in with migrating Bonaparte's Gulls, and on the best day finally was able to find a beautiful breeding plummeted adult bird very close to shore with over 400 Bonaparte's Gulls. #CountyBird

Long-eared Owl--very hard to find locally, a friend spotted one being mobbed by Blue Jays and a few of us were able to get there before it disappeared. A new Delaware County bird for me. #CountyBird

Arctic Tern--there was a major invasion of these birds in the Delaware Valley after strong onshore winds during their spring migration. I missed most of them and didn't get great looks, but a new county bird for me, so I'll take it! #CountyBird

Alder Flycatcher--a rare local migrant, great to get this for my yard list--a bird calling in the early morning of 31 May while I was listening in to my NFC microphone recording live on my rooftop. #NewYardBird

Horned Lark--another scarce local bird, heard flying over my house in October. #NewYardBird

Honorabler Mentions

Rare County Birds--Connecticut Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Red-necked Grebe, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Stilt Sandpiper.

Rare Yard Birds--King Rail (NFC), Evening Grosbeak, Swamp Sparrow (new)

My 20th eBird Anniversary

 October 18 marks my 20th anniversary as an eBird user!  Can't believe it has been 20 years!  

As an old man, I now look back and see that on 18 Oct 1982, 20 years before I started using eBird, I was a young teenage birder with only 152 birds on my life list. 20 years before that I wasn't even alive and the Beatles had just released their first single, "Love Me Do."

20 years ago, eBird was brand new and still pretty clunky and rudimentary. I only used it a few times before I lost my password. I didn't start using it on a regular basis until creating a new profile in July 2005 when I was working with Audubon and starting to collaborate with Cornell Lab of Ornithology on the Great Backyard Bird Count and eBird promotion.

Here's what eBird looked like back in October 2002.

This was back in the days before the Google Maps functionality, when eBird had its own proprietary mapping function (which got Cornell and Audubon some cool patents that Google and others have since used). 

So 20 years of eBirding for me.  My first bird entered into eBird? A rare Northern Goshawk at Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Facility, my old stomping grounds. I never entered any notes on that rare sightings--I should probably go back and do that sometime :-)