Feb. 10, 2005 In late October 2004 I was privileged to visit the Nature Conservancy’s spectacular Santa Cruz Island preserve off the coast of Southern California. This island, along with the other California Channel Islands has been called the “Galapagos of the North” and has long been the focus of biological studies, but became more …
December 11, 2004 I was intrigued by this problem in light of the discussion surrounding the recent (6 November 2004) bird from southern Texas (see photos here and here; and sincere thanks to Martin and Chris for making these photos available and thanks to all who have participated in the discussion and our collective education). We wouldn’t …
Distinguishing South Polar Skua and Pomarine Jaeger Read More »
Illustration of the Red-footed Falcon perched. The smooth gray color is unlike any North American Falcon. Old juvenal wing and tail feathers are slightly brownish and barred, while adult feathers will be uniform blackish. Juvenal feathers are obvious on the outer tail, the primaries (molt reveals the boldly barred inner web of one outer primary), …
Identification of the Martha’s Vineyard Red-footed Falcon Read More »
October 7, 2004 One of the most significant changes for birders in the 45th supplement of the AOU checklist (Banks et al., 2004) was the split of Canada Goose into two species. While widely anticipated – the highly variable Canada Goose has often been considered more than one species in the past – the split …