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Shooting dragonflies with a gun
Note to self: Don't try to shoot a dragonfly. Check out the story here.
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Filmy Dome Spider
My parents have a group of spiders living in a large hedge that separates their yard from the neighbor's yard. The spiders build dome-shaped nest and are possibly Filmy Dome Spiders (genus Neriene). I...
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Cricket Crawl
If you're local to NY and free on September 11, you can join the Cricket Crawl. It's a citizen sciene survey of 7 common cricket and katydid species. The web site has a link to learn the calls of these...
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Moth Night Photos
Last night was "Moth Night" sponsored by the East Brunswick Environmental Commission. I was joined by John at A DC Birding Blog. Lots of families with kids, lots of good questions, and some pretty neat...
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MADCAP HORSE
For some reason, this just popped into my head today. It's a mnemonic I learned for tree and shrub identification: MADCAP HORSE. It is used to help you remember which trees and shrubs have opposite...
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Welcome our new baby!
Julian Patrick BelardoBorn: 10/2/09 5:57 PM 9 lbs. 10 oz. and 21 1/4" longMom and baby are doing great!!! You can read our birth story here and you can see a slideshow of photos here.
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Pelican Blood Movie Trailer
Wait, what's this? An actual post! Watch the trailer below for the British film, Pelican Blood, based on the novel by Cris Freddi. The main character is a birder or a twitcher as the case may be....
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A gull of the Ivory variety
In case you haven't heard, an immature Ivory Gull was found in Cape May, NJ on Friday. This is the 5th record of this species for NJ - 1940, 1955, and 2 in 1986. So, as you can imagine, the NJ birding...
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Birding on a Soap Opera
My wife is addicted to Days of Our Lives, a US soap opera. I will admit that I do watch and enjoy the ridiculous story lines. Ok, stop laughing. In any event, we were watching it today and two of the...
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Top 10 Birds of the Decade
A few bloggers have started posting Top 10 Birds of the Decade lists (here and here). I think David's is a little more meaningful, but this will be a fun exercise. Although I had been birdwatching many...
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Would you count it? A CBC conundrum.
John from A DC Birding Blog and I were conducting our part of the 75th Long Branch, NJ CBC on Saturday, a count that I compile. We were on a small trail along a frozen lake (like most of the water in...
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Off to Puerto Rico
For those who didn't see it on Twitter or Facebook... I'll be leaving for Puerto Rico tomorrow for 5 days of birding adventure. The actual tour doesn't start until mid-day on Wednesday. Where...
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Puerto Rico Day 1 & 2: Caribbean Gems
The view from the hotel beachMy friend Mike and I arrived the evening before our birding tour in Puerto Rico to avoid any potential weather-related events that might have caused flight issues. He and...
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Puerto Rico Day 3: Rare Birds and Bacalao Ice Cream
Note: This is my first attempt to post with Windows Live Writer so I hope it doesn’t look like garbage.We woke at an ungodly hour and had the equivalent of a NJ diner breakfast (not a bad thing) before...
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Puerto Rico Day 4: Mountains to the Coast
We spent the night of day 3 at Hacienda Juanita, a lodge in the mountains on a banana and coffee plantation. It was a bit rustic, but comfortable enough. On the hotel grounds, we listened for the...
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Puerto Rico Day 5: Finding What We Missed
We started around 6:00AM and headed back to Guanica State Forest to try once more for the Puerto Rican Nightjar. We drove to the forest, headed up the road at a closed gate, and stood waiting in the...
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Puerto Rico Day 6: Last day and final thoughts
We spent the night at Casa Cubuy eco-lodge. It’s a really nice spot overlooking the rainforest. There’s a river and waterfalls nearby. It’s very open, but covered from the rain. There are lots of comfy...
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Puerto Rico Bird List
Here is the complete list of species seen. Asterisk denotes an endemic.DUCKS, GEESE, AND WATERFOWLWest Indian Whistling-DuckBlue-winged TealWhite-cheeked PintailGREBESLeast GrebeBOOBIES AND...
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Puerto Rico – Non-Avian Highlights
Birds weren’t all that we saw in Puerto Rico. There were many butterflies seen flitting about that I didn’t get photographs of. These included Great Southern White, Cloudless Sulphur, and Florida...
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Re-emergence
Like a butterfly stretching its wings for the first time after coming out of its chrysalis... or a baby bird cracking through its egg shell... ok, enough with that... Anyway, it's good to be back with...
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Big news!
In case you haven't heard, I've been asked to be one of the beat writers over at 10,000 Birds! I'll be covering topics mostly around NJ and butterflies, not necessarily mutually exclusive topics. I'm...
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My Moth Light Brings All The Bugs to the Yard
Some people simply see moths as a pest that they want to keep away from their wool or as a visitor to their porch light. While most moths are not very colorful like their butterfly cousins, they are...
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Stink Bug Protection
This fall, Facebook has been filled with comments about Brown Marmorated Stink Bug infestations throughout NJ and surrounding states. These little imported scumbags like to invade homes to seek warmth,...
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White-tailed Kite in NJ
A White-tailed Kite has been found in NJ along the Barnegat Bayshore. It was first reported on October 21 by a local birder, but not seen again. It was then re-found by the same birder on Wednesday....
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Bathroom Bird ID Quiz
I've had these bird postcards hanging in my bathroom for about 5 years now. I bought them at Ikea when I was first decorating the house. I bought them mostly because they had birds on them, but also...
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