At the time of this writing, Athena had cracked 500 species seen in the US and counting. The total as of Friday night was 509 with 2 days to go! In all 32 species have been added thus far in the great state of Arizona as part of the Tucson Bird & Wildlife Festival sponsored [...]
Living in the Rio Grande Valley has its summertime perks, despite the 105 degree weather, as Tiffany Kersten explains. On August 2nd, Dan Jones found the second ABA record of Collared Plover. Read all about it!
It’s hot, humid, and buggy – time to enliven your birding with a bit of a change in perspective. Join Leica Birding Team member Tom Johnson on a helicopter bird survey in New Jersey.
As I sit here and a red-eyed vireo drones on in the boiling heat, it comes to me that even more than the couple of hundred birds Ursula has pegged down for me, she and I have been able to reach even more people with messages of bird conservation and ethic that go far beyond field of view and magnification. Here’s the rundown.
In the world of hawk watching, the ability to pull distant shapes out of the sky and rapidly arrive at a correct identification for those shapes, is king. In fact, some people get pretty competitive about it; so when David La Puma from Leica Sport Optics suggested I try a pair of seven power Ultravid HDs (7×42 to be exact) I have to admit I was initially a little nervous. The more I thought about it the more that scene from The Untouchables came to mind, complete with flashes of Sean Connery muttering something about bringing a knife to a gunfight.
Ultraviolet light reception, a third “eyelid”– the nictitating membrane– irises that span nearly all the colors of the rainbow, immobile eyeballs and more! Bird’s eyes are pretty rad. Watching close-range birds through her 65 mm Leica Televid has given ProStaffer Tiffany Kersten a new appreciation for bird eyes. How will you fare on this pixel-riffic bird quiz?
Ever get tripped up identifying the two species of scaup? Yeah, us too…but Leica Birding Team member Tom Johnson breaks it down for us so everyone can have a better shot at conclusive ID of these similar (but different!) species.
From the Florida Keys to Barrow, Alaska down to San Diego and then back to the NE Travis is scouring every corner of the US in search of fabulous birds and big wildlife adventures!
The Galveston Featherfest is a great early spring festival strategically held to correspond right with the beginning of spring migration. Least Terns were freshly returned from their South American wintering grounds and busily getting on with courtship activities on the barrier beaches. Chimney Swifts and swallow species were pouring over throughout our trip and stunning [...]
In 2013 you followed the trials and tribulations of a pair of Leica Trinovid 8x42 binoculars passed from hand to hand across the Americas on a “big year” quest to see as many bird species as possible!
In 2014 we have a sleek 7x42 Ultravid HD binocular traveling the globe and soaking in many spectacular sights! Follow along with us vicariously here.
