Author Archives: George C. Wood

Fully vaccinated….THANK YOU PFIZER and TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, I boarded an airplane yesterday for the first time in 13 months. Destination: Des Moines, Iowa. For the past few weeks I had been tracking Smith’s Longspur (code 2) sightings in the Midwest. … Continue reading →

Oooops. TRY: HTTPS://winghavengardens.org/events-calendar/lectureseries/lifetime-pursuit-of-american-birds

The next best thing to chasing birds is talking about chasing birds. Please consider signing up for my zoom webinar “Lifetime Pursuit of 800 American Birds” on Tuesday March 16th @ 10am, sponsored by and benefitting the Wing Haven Gardens … Continue reading →

There is one thing as satisfying as chasing (and seeing!) a new bird …..aka “lifer”….and that is witnessing the joy in other birders as they add new birds to their life-lists. This Holiday week, Family in Vermont plus Covid, combined … Continue reading →

The Tundra Bean-Goose breeds in the tundra of northern Eurasia. It winters in agricultural landscapes in eastern China, Central Asia and Western Europe. The only reason it is a “code 3” and not a “code 5” in North America is … Continue reading →

The COVID lockdown enabled me to concentrate on birding my yard and local areas most of 2020 and I hadn’t chased a rarity since January. The appearance of a Eurasian Common Cuckoo in Rhode Island on November 1st more than … Continue reading →

The White-cheeked Pintail is a Caribbean lake-dwelling duck that every once in awhile makes an appearance in Southern Florida. The Lely Resort in Naples has been the home of this presumed wild (this species is also a popular pet) vagrant … Continue reading →

In mid-May I endured a three-day cruise from LA to Vancouver aboard the Star Princess. 2,000 folks reveled in the round-the-clock gambling, drinking and other entertainment on this 950 foot long, ten story high monster while I joined 50 bird-crazed … Continue reading →

While the theme of this blog has been chasing “rarities”, I don’t want to leave the impression that only code 4 and 5 birds matter. ALL birds matter, because they are an ecological litmus paper. Remember the canary in the … Continue reading →

Grosbeaks are seed-eating, colorful passerines with over-sized beaks. The USA has several species but I never thought I’d have the opportunity to see/photograph a YELLOW GROSBEAK. Only a handful of “YG”’s have been documented in Arizona and New Mexico since … Continue reading →