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Author

Anders Gyllenhaal

Anders Gyllenhaal

Birds storiesBreeding and NestingPhotography

Two tanagers talk up a storm: So what are they saying?

by Anders Gyllenhaal October 15, 2020
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

The male Summer Tanager. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

It takes some time and luck to spot the Summer Tanager, since these birds spend much of their time hidden away from view, at the very top of the canopy.

But when you do get to see one, even if it’s just a glimpse, the sight stays with you like artwork.

The male tanager is the only completely red bird in North America, which makes it a striking sight against the green of the trees where it hangs out. And the female is a pale yellow with greenish tints that creates a sharp contrast when the two are side by side.

The female tanager chattered almost nonstop this morning.

We had the great fortune of camping just beneath a pair of Summer Tanagers not long ago in central Tennessee outside Nashville. Once we figured out their favorite spots, and they got used to us, we were treated to a full study of how these two birds relate, communicate, sometimes seem to argue and take care of one another.

Here’s a video that gets almost all of that across, as the two Summer Tanagers chatter back and forth across the canopy:

We can’t know exactly what they’re going on about in this video, but new research says birds have a far wider range of exchanges than once thought. They could be discussing their nesting needs, or letting each other know where the other is, or she could be asking for something more to eat as she guards the nest. They could even be in the midst of an argument. 

A fascinating new book by Jennifer Ackerman, The Bird Way, A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent and Think, says birds have a rich social life. She says the language of birds can be complicated, emotional, and has its own syntax. This book suggests that birds will even lie at times, implying a level of sophistication far beyond what we always thought.

In the encounters we watched, the female was the more vocal, delivering long complicated songs that had her jumping around her perch and raising and lowering her head. The male answered mostly in single chirps that surely looked like he was going along with what he was hearing.

Birdsongs are primarily about mating and defending territory, but exchanges like this one that seem more like household conversations are part of the repertoire as well. The Cornell Lab’s Handbook of Bird Biology, the bible of bird life, says bird pairs of all kinds are constantly seen singing duets, chatting back and forth and sometimes simply working on their relationships by staying in close touch.

The handbook points out that until recently, researchers studying birdsongs had only their ears to rely on. Now, a whole set of sophisticated listening and digital recording tools are helping to analyze bird communication. We may soon know a lot more about what birds like the tanagers are up to.

Our two tanagers also spent a lot of their day looking for food.

They feed on all manner of insects — bees, wasps, flies, grasshoppers, spiders, ants and termites – along with fruit, citrus and weeds. They’ll catch insects in midair and bring them back to a branch to consume. The female builds the nest up in the canopy, but the two work together, with the male accompanying her as she goes.

The male tanager has just snagged a dragonfly and is working on finishing it off.

The tanager has a series of whistling songs, not unlike the American Robin. Here are some samples.

Tanager pairs are monogamous during their mating, but only for one season. So these two will go separate ways when they migrate south sometime this month.

The female collects materials for their nest.

The Summer Tanager is found all across the southern half of the U.S. and spends the winter in Central America and northern parts of South America. Here’s an animation of their travels through the year from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, showing them headed out in October to go south:

 

 

October 15, 2020 0 comment
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BirdingFlightPhotography

Ode to a Red-tailed Hawk: Electrifying, grace and power wrapped in feathers

by Anders Gyllenhaal September 22, 2020
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Every bird in flight is beautiful in its own way. But to me, there’s nothing as electrifying as the sight of a hawk spreading its powerful wings, soaring through the air, and once in a lucky while, passing close enough to show the edges of its feathers ripple in the wind.

The other day I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk perched on an irrigation rig in a field roughly a quarter-mile away. Suddenly it saw something move on the ground near me and was instantly in the air headed straight in our  direction.

The hawk is made for hunting with eyes that work like binoculars, and so it can see small animals from 100 feet in the air.  Its stare  has the intensity of a spotlight, and its talons the strength of 200 pounds per inch. 

All this was on display as this hawk came toward me and passed by 20 feet away. Then, in a move I didn’t expect, the magnificent raptor landed on a post not 10 feet from where I was standing.. It stretched its body, swiveled its head to survey its new surroundings and clenched its talons in the air. 

Here’s a video of my hawk on its post:

The hawk was a juvenile, probably less than a year old, and apparently not experienced enough yet to fear humans.

All summer long, I’ve encountered juvenile birds unsure of how to behave, hesitant as they explored the world for the first time. There was a juvenile Eastern Bluebird who, like this hawk, hung around like we were best friends. Sometimes the young birds will still be in training with their parents. But eventually they have to head out on their own, and many have long migration trips ahead.

 

The hawk took off and circled around the nearby field, landing a few times without catching anything. Then he returned to a post again just a few feet away. He looked at me as if he’d never seen a person: interested and curious, with an intensity that lets you know what it’s like to be hunted by a Red-tailed Hawk.

Finally, he few off and circled the field until he disappeared into the woods. Here’s a gallery from this lucky encounter:

 

 

 

 

 

September 22, 2020 2 comments
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Birding researchBreeding and NestingConservation

Fledglings take flight: Good news for the nation’s most endangered bird

by Anders Gyllenhaal September 9, 2020
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

The wildlife managers who bred more than 200 Florida Grasshopper Sparrows in a laboratory setting over the past two years knew they faced a tricky question when it came to releasing the birds into the wild this spring:

A Florida Grasshopper Sparrow about to be released

Would they know how to act like grasshopper sparrows?

Could they sing the sparrow’s unique courting song? Would they know how to hide from hawks? Would they have the instincts to build nests, mate with wild sparrows and raise their young together?

The captive-breeding experiment is the culmination of a decades-long project to revive the most endangered species in the U.S.. Only 30 pairs of the sparrows remained in the wild when the team decided they had no choice but to try producing chicks in captivity, then introducing them back into the wild in hopes they’d multiply.

The answers to all their questions came pouring in over the course of the breeding season that is now coming to a close.

A bundle of newborn sparrows in a hidden nest in the grasslands. Photo by Amanda Adams.

The birds not only mastered the routines of the mating season, they gave birth to a new generation of Florida Grasshopper Sparrows over the summer. ( Forty-two birds were born from captive-bred birds and altogether 64 were born from wild and captive-bred birds.) Almost all have now left the nest and flown off to begin life on their own.

“We’re very happy with what we saw this first season,’’ said Juan Oteyza, the research biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Institute that oversees the project. “It seems to be paying off.’’

Craig Faulhaber, avian conservation coordinator for the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said it was hard to tell the captive-bred from the wild sparrows. “They showed all the normal behaviors,” he said. “They bred successfully. They took care of their young. They acted just like wild sparrows.”

Flying Lesson: The project to save the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow has been full of discoveries for researchers. They’ve learned what it takes to breed birds in captivity, protect fragile nests from harm and how to begin to replenished the depleted population. It’s not yet clear if the project will be successful, but already the lessons are proving valuable to help understand the woes of the grassland birds like the sparrow.

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September 9, 2020 1 comment
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BirdingFeaturedPhotography

What a show: Battle of the Hummingbirds reaches its peak

by Anders Gyllenhaal August 20, 2020
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Only when we slowed the video way down and then blew it up could we see the ferocity of the encounter: The male Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovered above its competitor, then slammed bill-first into the female like a tiny gladiator.

The clash sent the two tumbling into the air. (See the video below.) Once again, the alpha male had done his job in the survival-of-the-fittest world of this smallest, most acrobatic of species.

A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird comes in for a landing on a favorite feeder. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

Much of the daily routines of nature are invisible to us. They take place deep in the woods, fields or wetlands, often at speeds that obscure any real details. Even the most avid birders get mere glimpses of how birds interact.

But the spread of hummingbird feeders all across the U.S. each summer doesn’t just help support these birds. In exchange for a supply of hummingbird sugar water, we get a close-up look at the way birds establish territories, settle into pecking orders, help and compete with one another and fight to survive.

      Here’s a video about the fierce competition playing out around the feeders:

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August 20, 2020 2 comments
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PhotographyPhotoPost

The Ovenbird takes to the stage

by Anders Gyllenhaal August 5, 2020
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

    You can usually hear the Ovenbird from a long way off. Its piercing, crystal clear voice cuts through the woods as if singing through a sound system at a Broadway theater.

     This is a bird that deserves a stage.

     PhotoPost, a new feature on Flying Lessons built around visuals, starts with a video that puts you in a front-row seat for an Ovenbird’s performance:

     We aren’t the first to be captivated by the Ovenbird, a stately warbler with oversized eyes and striped plumage that looks like he’s dressed up for the occasion. (Actually it helps the birds blend in with the ground where they spends much of their time.). The species is named for the nest it builds that looks like a tiny bread-baking oven.

     The Ovenbird has long been recognized for its song. More than a century ago, poet Robert Frost wrote a sonnet to its haunting tune that, to the poet’s ears, mourned the passing of the season in mid August.

     When it sings, the Ovenbird throws its whole body into the act, raising its head to the canopy and turning this way and then that.

     Here’s another take on the Ovenbird that puts its song in the orchestra of the dawn chorus. Lang Elliott has spent 30 years recording the sounds of nature, collected on this intriguing website. A few years ago, he captured the Ovenbird leading the birds at dawn in this recording.

    The Ovenbird is so loud and consistent that researchers have turned to its songs when needing to study bird audio. The most famous findings dates back to 1958.  

     Researchers concocted a complicated test that let them compare the Ovenbird’s reaction to birds it had heard before against those it hadn’t. The study came to the important conclusion that Ovenbirds, and presumably other species, can tell the differences in tones of the songs of other birds. That study had stood for decades as a premiere finding on the listening skills of birds.

     Most birds don’t give you much of a show before fleeing when people approach. But every time we’ve come across an Ovenbird they’ve delivered a whole symphony of birdsongs. Most of these photos are from an encounter in the North Carolina mountains this summer. We were walking through the Dupont State Forest on the North and South Carolina line when we heard the Ovenbird’s unmistakeable voice that seems to sing “teacher, teacher, teacher.”

     At first, we couldn’t locate the bird, but he wasn’t going anywhere so we had time to look for him. We finally zeroed in on a low branch, not far from our path — and there he was as the video above captured, pure poetry.

     Robert Front’s poem is about the bird — and also the observer and the passage of time. We’ll let him have the last word:

——————————————–

The Oven Bird

There is a singer everyone has heard,

Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,

Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.

He says that leaves are old and that for flowers

Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.

He says the early petal-fall is past

When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers

On sunny days a moment overcast;

And comes that other fall we name the fall.

He says the highway dust is over all.

The bird would cease and be as other birds

But that he knows in singing not to sing.

The question that he frames in all but words

Is what to make of a diminished thing.

———————-

And here’s a final gallery of Ovenbird photos:

August 5, 2020 0 comment
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BirdingBirding research

Spoonbills keep expanding their reach — and building on their great popularity

by Anders Gyllenhaal July 30, 2020
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

The Roseate Spoonbill, once a bird that stuck pretty close to home, is becoming a roaming vagabond.

A spoonbill in a rockery for wading birds near Melbourne, Fla. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

Forced from South Florida by rising sea levels, deteriorating water quality and poor nesting conditions, hundreds of Spoonbills moved first up both coasts of Florida. Now they’re testing out fresh territories in almost every mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coast state.

They’re turning up in bays and wetlands along the coasts as well as near inland cities and suburbs where they can be a startling sight for unsuspecting birders. Researchers say these forays often lead to nesting colonies in new locations that solidifies their arrival.

Jerry Lorenz

“Once they’ve found a new place, it’s only a matter of time before they’re nesting there,’’ said Dr. Jerry Lorenz, director of research at Audubon Florida and the nation’s leading Spoonbill expert.

With pinkish red plumage and gawky form reminiscent of their dinosaur lineage, the spoonbills have great popular appeal, which is expanding as their reach spreads out. Our package last year on the spoonbill’s move north into Georgia and South Carolina was among the best-read Flying Lesson’s posts ever.

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July 30, 2020 3 comments
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BirdingBirding researchConservation

How the lockdown has helped birds — or has it?

by Anders Gyllenhaal July 7, 2020
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

A surprising thing happened at the Wild Bird Unlimited store in Raleigh, N.C., when the pandemic struck and shut down almost all of the retail stores that surrounded them.

Suddenly, their business started booming.

Arlette Early (right) and Judy Rosengarten at their store in Raleigh, N.C.

All kinds of new customers, stuck in their homes at the height of the spring migration, began tuning in to the nearby birds, often for the first time. Demand jumped for feeders, bird seed and the birding supplies that Wild Birds specializes in.

“We worked out a way to have curb-side service,’’ said Arlette Early, who helps operate the shop. “It was so busy.’’

The widespread embrace of birding is one part of an unexpected phenomenon unfolding in the midst of the pandemic. At a time when many species have been in decline for years, the slowed economy, reduction in human activity and the growing interest in birdwatching could end up helping birds in ways nothing else has.

The relief could be momentary, and some worry that the push to restart the economy now underway could run over wildlife protections and end up making conditions worse than before the virus.

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July 7, 2020 1 comment
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PhotoPost

Disappearing act: Gnatcatchers are everywhere — and then nowhere — in a flash

by Anders Gyllenhaal July 2, 2020
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

PhotoPost, a new feature on Flying Lessons, tells the story through photos, videos and captions. Today’s topic is the omnipresent Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, a hyperactive bird not much bigger than a hummingbird that nonetheless seems to be everywhere at once.

Except they always seem to have just moved on.

The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, which can be found in almost every state in the U.S., first strikes you for its crisp, pale-blue plumage and long tail that give it the look of a small mockingbird. But when you tune in and start to follow their manic, zig-zagging path, you realize it’s all about their constant motion. They almost never stop moving.

Like a circus act
Hard to even keep up with
Big round circled eyes
A long tail that constantly flicks

There’s a clear purpose to the frenetic travels of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. It flicks its tail, jumps from branch to branch, turning upside down then upright again, all in pursuit of its next meal. The tail wagging stirs up insects and its speed helps it to catch up to the next morsel. As this video that’s almost as quick as the gnatcatcher shows, it’s not easy just keeping up with the little guy:

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July 2, 2020 0 comment
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BirdingBirding research

Coming soon: A foolproof way you can instantly ID that birdsong

by Anders Gyllenhaal June 19, 2020
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

First of two parts

For more than a year, a CD of birdsongs was stuck deep inside our car stereo and would start playing without warning on every drive. By the time we finally dislodged the CD, Beverly had committed almost all the songs to memory while I was still struggling to tell the Tufted Titmouse from the Song Sparrow.

The art of birding by ear has always separated the truly gifted birder from the rest of us. But help is on the way for those of us who struggle. A scientific research project designed to track birds by their sounds has turned out to have a wonderfully practical use for the common birder.

It can decipher birdsongs the way the Shazam app identifies music.

We’re devoting two weeks on Flying Lessons to the art and science of birdsongs. Today’s post looks at modern research’s advances in tracking songs and calls. Next week, Beverly will tell her story of how learning specific songs can vastly enrich your birding — and she’ll share ideas on how to make progress.

The latest form of the Haikubox. The poetic name is intentionally vague so that future versions might be used for a wider variety of research purposes.

The most interesting development on the science front is a new device, called the Haikubox, coming out later this year.  You’ll set it up in your yard or porch, and it will identify every birdsong within reach of the recorder. Then it will send a stream of IDs to your computer or phone, providing a comprehensive census of nearby bird life.

“We think we have a good idea,’’ said David Mann, head of Loggerhead Instruments, a small Florida company working with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to develop the device. “It’s going to be a great learning tool.’’

At the same time, smartphone apps that deliver precise IDs are now becoming available. Unlike early versions of these apps, the latest draw on thousands of songs and call samples that make them far more accurate.

Cornell Lab Director John Fitzpatrick

John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab, says people have been clamoring for just such a tool for years. “If I had a dollar for every time somebody asked when there’d be a Shazam for birds, I’d be able to fund all this research with that alone,’’ he said. 

The lab itself is behind much of this progress.

Cornell established its Center for Conservation Bioacoustics to apply the study of sound to bird research. Since birds are so vocal, scientists found they can track migration, breeding and overall populations by recording their calls and songs. The field took off when tech companies started sharing their software for deciphering photos and text for internet searches.

Over the past several years, Cornell and an array of academic and commercial partners perfected the recording technology, sound equipment and artificial intelligence applications used to analyze the bird recordings. Today, Cornell has an archive of 6,000 species it can identify through bioacoustics.

The beauty of bioacoustics is that it enables research in places too remote to easily reach, in  rain forests and on distant islands, for instance, where scientists are studying endangered species. (Here’s a link to our story on this science that ran in the Washington Post in January.)

The same research mechanics are powering the tools for deciphering songs and calls for birders.

Holger Klinck with one of the devices that collects bird calls and songs

The Haikubox, which looks like an oversized wooden birdhouse, will keep an ongoing record of every song and call it collects. It converts the sounds to spectrographs and compares them against its library of sounds. Depending on the weather and noise levels, it will collect sounds up to several hundred feet away.

“You can put it in your backyard and hook it up to your wireless network,’’ said Holger Klinck, director of the Cornell bioacoustics center. “It will continually detect species 24/7.

“It’s a gateway to bring new people into the world of birds and get excited about it,’’ he said.

Loggerhead’s David Mann

Loggerhead’s David Mann said he’s not exactly sure who all might be likely to buy one of the devices, which are expected to cost under $500. The most likely customers are birders, but he hopes it will appeal to all kinds of people with an interest in the environment.

As he tests out a version of the Haikubox at his home in Sarasota, Florida, he found he was suddenly much more interested in the birds coming through. “I found I was paying more attention,’’ he said. “Since you get real time feedback. I’d hear something and say, ‘What was that?’ You can go and look.’’

Song Sleuth app

The Haikubox joins a long line of birdsong recognition systems, most of which are apps that tend to work for only a small sample of songs — if at all. Here’s a review of some of the early versions, and here’s one of a popular app called Song Sleuth that’s draws on a library of 200 species and gives you a choice of likely contenders. 

BirdNET app

Cornell’s own app called BirdNET has set a new standard for accuracy, since it draws on the lab’s huge library of sounds. BirdNET’s Android version has been downloaded a million times. Its Apple version was supposed to be available last year, but has been slow to reach market. Cornell makes its research available for free to other makers, so the quality of these apps should get steadily better.

Holger Klinck, looking over the system used to test the bioacoustic network set up around the lab’s campus

This is good news for birders – but also for birds.

The results of the sightings on the apps, the Haikubox and whatever other products come along all help feed Cornell’s research with data on where birds are and where they’re going.

Like the eBird apps, which birders use to record the birds they see, the data has fueled the world’s most successful citizen science project and has helped track bird populations all over the world. The birdsong identifiers will add to that store of knowledge – and will be even more accurate because of the precision of these devices.

“It’s all about developing methods that allow us to do a comprehensive job of assessing what’s going on in remote areas. That’s the end goal,’’ said Klinck. “The data is what drives conservation.’’

Loggerhead Instruments is testing the Haikubox with a network of beta users around the county. We’re going to be one of these testers starting this summer and will post our experiences on Flying Lessons from time to time. 

And finally, here’s a video that gives you a sense of what you see on your computer as birds are identified by the Haikubox:

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 19, 2020 2 comments
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In-depth stories

Grasshopper Sparrow

Here are links to some of the deeper stories we’ve written for publications from the Washington Post to The Miami Herald exploring the frontiers of birding and avian research. This story for the Post was about the role of every-day birders in creating the largest citizen science project in the world. This piece for The Herald looked at the surprising strength of the Roseate Spoonbill in the midst of climate change. And this article and video for The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer is about how some adventurous hummingbirds are abandoning their migration and staying the winter in the U.S. Our latest story in the Washington Post is about a rescue mission for the imperiled Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. 

Miami Herald’s Spoonbill package

Some favorite birds

Barred Owl Orlando, Florida
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Ruby-throated Hummingbird West Stockbridge, Massachusetts
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Hairy Woodpecker Prime Hook Refuge, Delaware
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Prairie Warbler Cape May, New Jersey
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Red-bellied Woodpecker St. Joe Overstreet Landing, Florida
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Eastern Wood-Peewee Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC
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Eastern Meadowlark Kissimmee, Florida
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Black-throated Blue Warbler Raleigh, North Carolina
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Northern Flicker Alexandria, Virginia
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal

Birds in Flight

Roseate Spoonbill BIRDS IN FLIGHT FELLSMERE, FLORIDA OSPREY BIRDS IN FLIGHT Orlando, Florida American Flamingo BIRDS IN FLIGHT Rio Largartos, Mexico COPYRIGHT BY ANDERS AND BEVERLY GYLLENHAAL EASTERN MEADOWLARK BIRDS IN FLIGHT KISSIMMEE, FLORIDA Red-shouldered Hawk BIRDS IN FLIGHT Orlando, Florida COPYRIGHT BY ANDERS AND BEVERLY GYLLENHAAL PALM WARBLER BIRDS IN FLIGHT ORLANDO, FLORIDA BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER BIRDS IN FLIGHT LORTON, VIRGINIA BROWN PELICAN BIRDS IN FLIGHT ASSATEAGUE, MARYLAND COPYRIGHT BY ANDERS AND BEVERLY GYLLENHAAL WOOD STORK BIRDS IN FLIGHT MELBOURNE, FLORIDA COPYRIGHT BY ANDERS AND BEVERLY GYLLENHAAL

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Quotes for the birds

“I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.”

— D.H. Lawrence, writer

Comments, Suggestions & Quips:

On How Birds Teach Humility:

–“NOB. Love it! Great little truths in this post.” – Chara Daum

— “Appreciate your insights, Beverly.” -Ruth Harrell

— “Loving your Flying Lessons blog.” -Susan May, San Francisco

On our offbeat video of a Tufted Titmouse singing along with a banjo:

“That is totally cool,” Tony Mas, Dahlonega, Ga.

“This brought a smile to us. Thanks.” John Deen, St. Paul, MN.

“Really amazing.” Florence Strickland, Sunset Beach, N.C.

On the Mandarin duck’s arrival in Central Park:

— “I think he gets his own Saturday morning now.” -Stephen Colby, Raleigh, N.C.

— “What a beautiful bird. Its colors look painted on. Magnificent.” -Christine DiMattei

On the falling numbers of Wild Turkeys:

“I was just mentioning this to a friend, how I used to see Wild Turkeys every time I hit a dirt road, and now it’s almost rare.” -Jeff Brooks.

“There are a hundred times more turkeys than when I was a kid. Fake BS to shake down donations and public funding.” -Vance Shearer

 

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About us

About us

We’re two journalists who’ve traded in our work in publishing and syndicated writing for following and photographing the birds. We live in Raleigh, NC, but are traveling the country every chance we get -- and are sharing the lessons birds are teaching us and the photos we take along the way.

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    Cedar Waxwings are dining their way north: Don’t miss the show

    April 17, 2020

Why Flying Lessons

This website is about what we can learn from the birds around us. Some of the lessons are obvious, such as the way birds can be a barometer of environmental changes. Others are subtle, like the way you, as an observer, have to adapt to navigate the world in which birds operate. We ourselves still have much to learn about birding, a late-in-life pursuit that has captivated us in retirement. But we decided to start writing about the lessons and teachings as we’re finding our way, in hopes that our storytelling and photography will help to celebrate a captivating element of nature.

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Flying Lessons
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