by Hannah Waters As the November chill sets in, it’s tempting to turn on the heat, lock the doors and curl up under a blanket for the long winter ahead. The reasons to go into an early hibernation practically invent themselves: it’s too cold; bundling up is too burdensome; the couch cushions are too alluring.
Morestory by Bernard Brown photo by Craig StottlemyerAbout a year ago, I was sent a video of a red-tailed hawk plucking a dead pigeon on the roof of a car, right across the street from the Burger King at Eighth and Market. A crowd of cell-phone photographers surrounded the truck until the spooked raptor moved
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Tony CroasdaleTony Croasdale is an environmental educator, field biologist and most importantly, avid birder. This year, the Philadelphia resident is blogging for Grid about his mission to observe as many species of bird as possible—what birders call a “Big Year.” The catch? Croasdale is doing all his birding via sustainable transportation. When attempting a big year, birders
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Image via allaboutbirds.orgHere’s something worth tweeting about: The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education is doing a bird census this Saturday, January 7, and they’re looking for volunteers. Don’t worry, budding ornithologists, no experience is required. You can join their birding team to help collect important data about wintering bird populations. My phone is predicting a
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An urban environment is no deterrent to hawk watchingby Bernard Brown, phillyherping.blogspot.comOn this particular morning, the pigeons were smarter than the squirrels. Walking from my office to the ATM, I noticed breadcrumbs strewn across a stretch of sidewalk in Washington Square Park. A pair of young squirrels took turns jumping on each other and tussling
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The Audubon Society's Keith Russell tracks migrating birds felled by windowsby Bernard Brown
Keith Russell shows me two white-throated sparrows and an ovenbird, all dead, at 5:30 a.m., when I meet him at 19th and Market. Russell, the Pennsylvania Audubon Society’s Fairmount Park Outreach Coordinator, had found the three migrants just on his walk over from
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