Anthrow Circus

Tag: birds

My First Florida Big Day: The Beginning of a Birding Obsession (Part Two)

STORY & PHOTOS BY MAX WEAKLEY

Pulling into the Scrub Ridge Trail at 10:50 AM, my only goal was to finally find the Florida scrub-jay. I had played recordings of their rough, scratchy calls the night before and brought them back into mind as I parked. Then I grabbed my camera and headed to the south loop trail to search for the jays.
After just shy of half a mile, I heard a call I recognized. Slowly working my way through the mangrove knees, trying to keep silent and not slip in the slick muck, I found my way into an opening where I could clearly see the calling bird. Clinging to the top of a scraggly bush on the other side of a shallow, brackish lagoon, an eastern meadowlark (Sturnella magna) sang his heart out.

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My First Florida Big Day: The Beginning of a Birding Obsession (Part One)

SSTORY & PHOTOS BY MAX WEAKLEY

A few years ago, when I was just starting to get serious about birding, I devised a plan for the Monday after my 24th birthday. The weather in central Florida was forecasted to be partly cloudy, with a high of 80 Fahrenheit and a low of 70, so I knew I wanted to be outside. I pulled out my laptop and logged onto eBird.org.

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View From a Pandemic: Marking Time as the Bird Flies

TEXT AND IMAGES BY ELEANOR MARTINDALE

Today, I saw some storks. Three, to be exact, flying over the Western Mediterranean marshlands where I live, heading to their breeding grounds further north. Late January and a presage of spring already, accompanying the mimosa trees that have suddenly burst into flower as though a child has taken a pot of the brightest yellow paint she could find and splashed drops all over a wintery canvas. It was just as the spring migration was beginning last year that France entered its first lockdown.

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View From a Pandemic: A Kids’-Eye View

TEXT AND IMAGES BY KIDS AND THEIR RESPECTIVE PARENTS

Kids, too, have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, so we’re happy to add their voices to our View From a Pandemic series. Meet four American kids, all 10 or 11 years old, who have experienced various forms of lockdown from perches all around the world. In June and July they took the time to write about it for us.

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View From a Pandemic: Mexico City

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KARISHA KUYPERS

My telework home setup has all the trappings of the modern knowledge worker lucky enough to be able to work from home during the COVID-19 sanitary restrictions in Mexico City—A computer loaded with at least four different video conferencing apps. A work cell phone. A larger than strictly necessary coffee mug. Large binoculars and a camera with telephoto lens….wait, what?

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