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By BILL DANIELSON

I’ll just get straight to the point – it didn’t happen. Try as I might, I was unable to break the record for the number of bird species observed in my yard. For about a week it looked as though my magical record-breaking streak of four consecutive...

By BILL DANIELSON

As November comes to a close, we find ourselves just three weeks away from the official arrival of winter. Many of us have seen our first snowflakes already, and last week we had a wintry mix that may have added a smidgen of anxiety for anyone...

By BILL DANIELSON

It was your standard November morning. I had a cup of coffee, I was adding notes on temperature and precipitation into my journal and I was keeping track of the arrival times and numbers of different species of birds. There was nothing out of the...

By BILL DANIELSON

As I write this column I am looking out my office window at a world that is enduring its first winter storm of the season. Back in October we saw the first flakes of snow, but that wasn’t really enough to describe as a storm. It was thrilling to see,...

By BILL DANIELSON

Sometimes you see these things coming and other times you don’t. This is a story about both. The first was simple math and I could see its approach coming months ago. There was a certain inevitability about the whole situation and it was really just a...

By BILL DANIELSON

It was early in the morning, before the sun had come up, and I was tasked with the weekly chore of taking the garbage out to the curb. Sometimes I remember to do this the night before, but I am somewhat wary of the midnight raiders that might knock...

By BILL DANIELSON

As more and more of the national and international news seems to be increasingly depressing and alarming, I imagine that many of you, like myself, might be looking for solace wherever you can find it. It might be losing yourself in the spirit of the...

By BILL DANIELSON

“One has only to sit down in the woods or fields, or by the shore of the river or the lake, and nearly everything of interest will come round to him, — the birds, the animals, the insects; and presently, after his eye has got accustomed to place, and...

By BILL DANIELSON

Well, dear reader. I find myself presented with an increasingly rare opportunity to introduce you to a species that has not been discussed in the past 26 years of my column. As time has marched on I have seen one species of bird after another, but to...

By BILL DANIELSON

October has arrived and I find myself taken by surprise. The forest behind my house is showing spots of fall colors and this appears to have happened all at once. I am certain that it has been a gradual process, but when one is distracted by the...

By BILL DANIELSON

Everything seems to have changed at the end of August. Things had been going along “normally,” which meant that I needed to fill my birdfeeders every morning and they were all empty by the time I got home from work. Then, one day, I noticed that the...

By BILL DANIELSON

The first week of September was appalling. The highest combination of head and humidity that we had experienced all summer all presented in a heat wave that lasted for four days. Then, even though the temperatures moderated somewhat, the humidity...

By BILL DANIELSON

It was the first full week of September and for some reason the weather gods decided to save some of the hottest days of the summer for those of us going back to school. The combination of heat and humidity made the notion of relaxing on the deck...

By BILL DANIELSON

We’ve all heard the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” This suggests that if you can simply see something, then you can understand the situation perfectly. In my line of work, however, this is often a gross underestimate of the power of a...

By BILL DANIELSON

By the time you read this column, my summer break will officially be over. It has been an eventful summer for me with new birding records being set in both July and August (more on that next time) and I have taken thousands of nature photos that will...

By BILL DANIELSON

Dear Reader, I am pleased to announce the 2023 Hummingbird Wars are now open! This is a time of great excitement and entertainment for me and I look forward to it with great anticipation every year.There has been quite a buildup this summer and it...

By BILL DANIELSON

The clock of the seasons keeps ticking away, whether we are paying attention or not. There are signs all around us that will tell us what season we are in, but you have to pay very close attention to interpret them correctly. Some signs are very...

By BILL DANIELSON

Those of you who know me will already “get it.” Those of you who do not know me will need to embrace the following declaration about myself – I am a Bird Nerd! I am constantly thinking about birds and I am forever in pursuit of them. If ever I have...

By BILL DANIELSON

Today we have a two-fer and it is all thanks to a wondrous change in the weather. I’ve complained about it before and I will complain about it again; the first two weeks of July were just a complete mess. Rain, smoke, rain, more rain and then… more...

By BILL DANIELSON

With all of the news ricocheting around in our heads, I’m not sure if anyone has the RAM to allow us to remember back as far as last year, but that’s what journals are for. Why bother remembering something when you can write it down? Then all you have...