Cedar Waxwings are dining their way north: Don’t...
Tanagers are one big, beautiful family of birds....
They unlock the Earth’s treasury of hummingbirds. Does...
Pittsburgh’s National Aviary takes you around the world...
“He’s close.” On the trail of a rare...
It’s a bird-eat-bird world: Pileated Woodpeckers on the...
Tree Swallows caught in midair: A rare glimpse...
What a show: Battle of the Hummingbirds reaches...
Can we save this globe-trotting sandpiper? Only if...
Taking off in a cloud, Snow Geese create...
Flying Lessons
  • Home
    • Our story
    • Birding and the Airstream
  • Photo Galleries
    • Photo Gallery Index
      • Belted Kingfishers Gallery
      • Counting Raptors
      • Birds of Glenwood Gardens
      • The Barred Owl Nextdoor
      • Magnificent Frigatebird
      • Woodpecker’s Nest
      • Red-shouldered Hawk Gallery
      • Blue-gray Gnatcatchers
      • In search of Warblers
      • Ecuador’s Hummingbirds Gallery
      • Purple Gallinule
      • Sandhill Cranes — and their chicks
      • White Ibis Gallery
      • Catching Birds in Flight
      • Roseate Spoonbills in all their glory
      • A Rookery for Storks
      • Shore Birds
      • Dining Out
      • Love is in the Air: Two Barn Swallows’ take on the Birds and the Bees
  • Videos
  • Closeups
    • Birds in Flight
  • Beverly’s Basics
  • All Posts
    • All Posts
    • Facebook Posts
    • Flying Lessons on Instagram
    • Bird of the Week
    • Sharing birding tips
  • Get email updates
Author

Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

BirdingBirding and the AirstreamPhotography

Our 10,000-mile update: Traveling the U.S. and writing a book

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal July 8, 2021
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Greetings from Yellowstone National Park, where Anders and I have just passed the 10,000-mile mark on a cross-country birding safari we started almost six months ago. Our quest to find some of the most fascinating birds in the hemisphere has taken us across bayous and rice fields in Louisiana; to a magical spring migration along the Texas Gulf Coast; to California’s sprawling Central Valley and Yosemite National Park; to a dreadfully hot desert in Idaho; and to Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii.

A Palila on Hawaii’s Big Island, one of the remaining honeycreepers found high in the remote mountain regions

Hawaii is home to a world of nearly extinct and reclusive birds that live high above the beaches in dense rainforests and atop volcanoes that resemble moonscapes more than a typical tropical paradise. While here, Anders and a scientist with the American Bird Conservancy both tumbled several feet down a hill in pursuit of the endangered Palila, one of the family of honeycreepers that very few people in the world ever get to see or even know exist in the first place. (Click here for Anders’ post on that episode.)

Along the way we’ve seen 50 species we’d never seen before, some rare and some not, every one captured in photos, some of which we’ll sprinkle through here. My passion is loading our observations into eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s massive citizen science project. But we’re doing more than chasing birds: the goal of this journey is to research an upcoming book for Simon & Schuster that Anders and I are writing about bird conservation across the hemisphere.

https://flyinglessons.us/2021/03/24/its-a-bird-eat-bird-world-pileated-woodpeckers-part-2/

This Pileated Woodpecker found a mate and built a nest cavity while we were in Melbourne. But all did not end well. (See the link three graphs down for the story.)

One of the best things about writing a book for a major New York publisher, (aside from an advance that pays for these adventures), is having an editor. In our case, that’s Mindy Marques, a vice president and executive editor at Simon & Schuster, who at this juncture is part boss, part cheerleader, and on occasion a quasi couples counselor.

Working in close quarters with your spouse has its rewards and challenges, of course, and so I’ll skip the details of a few shouting matches, (with me doing all the shouting), a few tears, (with me doing all of the weeping), and more than a few hours with both of us negotiating our differing work styles. With these minor skirmishes behind us, we’ve been having terrific fun and more once-in-a-lifetime adventures than we could’ve ever hoped for.

A Sandhill Crane, one of the many magnificent birds found along Florida’s coastlines

The journey started at our hometown of Raleigh, N.C., on February 1st as we packed our Ford F-150 to the gills and hitched up our tiny, but then wonderfully shiny Airstream trailer.  First stop: Melbourne, Fla., for a couple of months at Land Yacht Harbor, a favorite wintering ground not just for us, but for a host of egrets, herons, cranes, woodpeckers, hawks and spoonbills. (Click here for my post on snowbird “glamping” amongst a sea of all things Airstream, and here for the story of two Pileated Woodpeckers that ran into nature’s backlash.)

Continue Reading
July 8, 2021 4 comments
4 FacebookTwitterEmail
BirdingHow we're birding now

Gucci discovers birding, and it’s never been more fashionable. You don’t want to miss this!

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal January 16, 2021
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

It’s official. Birding’s cool factor is off the charts. And a certain bird nerd, one who has endured an abundance of ridicule and eye rolling from her offspring, is feeling fairly smug. Birding’s coolness is nothing short of a miracle, and here’s how it happened:

In March national headlines started blaring, “Birding is the New Black” and “You Have No Choice but to Become a Backyard Birder.” Then bird feeders started flying off the shelves, and bird watching was proclaimed an economic bright spot in an otherwise dismal economy.

Next came news of scientific studies proving bird watching’s positive effect on mental health – again, a bright spot at a time when global mental health is teetering toward the edge.

As a longtime birder and the butt of a few too many birding jokes, I find this appreciation for birding long overdue. With each new headline I’ve been texting my kids: “Look at this! See? I’m not the only one!” Their responses, on the other hand, haven’t been nearly as validating as a cultural shift of this magnitude deserves.

Here’s a glimpse of the Gucci/Northface clothing line that drops on Friday.

But as of this coming Friday, all of that changes. Luxury brand Gucci and outdoor apparel powerhouse The North Face are dropping a collaboration of “high-fashion meets functional” clothing with the stylish birder in mind.

I realize this is hard to fathom. So I am going to pause here for a few moments while you click here to enjoy a digital fashion spread that Gucci sponsored, called “Birdwatching with Gucci, The North Face and Flock Together.” (Flock Together is a club in England made up of real-life birders, some of whom were chosen to model the collection.) Be sure to scroll down to the video with the birders in front of a VW camper van, and click the volume button to start the sound. It’s a hoot.

Or you can go straight to the video on Facebook by clicking below. This isn’t like any birding outing you’ve ever seen before, which is part of the fun:

 

So there you have it. Birding has reached a pinnacle of fashion coolness that few will ever achieve. So take that, my dear children, take that! And what I will take is that Gucci birding jacket for Mother’s Day.

 

 

 

 

January 16, 2021 3 comments
2 FacebookTwitterEmail
Bird of the WeekSpecies

In the blink of an eye, this bird reminds us how much there is to learn

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal January 17, 2020
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Great Blue Heron

Anders and I are back in Florida for the next several weeks, indulging a passion for chasing the birds. It’s our sixth birding adventure to the winter home of millions of birds – from stately herons and egrets, to sassy songbirds, opportunistic seagulls and menacing hawks.

It’s like reuniting with old friends — hearing the familiar squawks and calls, being able to distinguish a breeding bird with only a glance, and knowing that a warbler is a Palm just by the shake of its tail feathers.

Palm Warbler

We started this birding quest not knowing the difference between a seagull and a tern, never mind the pipers and plovers. By day we’d search for birds to photograph. By night we’d thumb though the guidebook page by page, comparing our photos with the colors of beaks, feathers and feet to figure out just what it was we had found.

We’ve come a long way in our knowledge of birds, and it’s all too easy to puff up and shake a little tail feather myself. (Aren’t I something, looking through my new binoculars and being the first one to spot a Red-shouldered Hawk hiding in the middle of a palm tree. I have taken to calling myself the Hawk Whisperer.)

Red-shouldered Hawk

While revisiting some of the wildlife sanctuaries near our campground in Melbourne on Florida’s northeast coast, I realized I was starting to get a teeny bit bored. The first time you see a Roseate Spoonbill foraging, it’s magical. (Click here for the video.) The fifteenth time, not quite so much.

Just about then, at Viera Wetlands just up the coast, along walked a Sandhill Crane. (They do in fact walk almost right up to you. For this video, click here.)

With a blink of that Crane’s eye, my perspective on repetitive birding got rearranged. Think you’ve seen it all? Better look again.

Continue Reading
January 17, 2020 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
Bird of the WeekBirdingBirds stories

How one squirrelly nuthatch can change your world view

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal October 25, 2019
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Last in a series

If it’s a crisp fall morning, with the sun highlighting the gold and orange of the still-moist leaves, it’s possible that luck could bring you a visit from a nuthatch. And if you get that chance and if you have the time, you’ll want to sit quietly and pay close attention.

My White-breasted Nuthatch

My nuthatch was a White-breasted with a black-and-blue back and an evocative black stripe on its head. He seemed to say watch me. Not only am I good-looking, but I’m smart and industrious, too.

Putting words into the mouth of a bird may be a silly habit, but I can’t seem to help myself. This bird spoke volumes to me.

If I had my way, we’d just give everybody in Congress a pair of binoculars and put them in the woods.

As I sat on a picnic table a couple of weeks ago in a campground near Nashville, I thought the nuthatch was doing his usual thing — creeping up and down the trunk of a tree, probing the bark for something to eat. Then he started hammering away as loudly as a woodpecker.

Hatching a nut

Strange. I’ve seen these birds crack nuts open with their beaks, (thus the name “nut hatch”), but I’d never seen one imitate a woodpecker – or a squirrel for that matter. Suddenly I realized the bird was boring holes in the tree to hide some of his nuts.

 
Here’s a gallery of our White-breasted Nuthatch, ignoring gravity, climbing its tree, hiding food and preparing for the winter:
Continue Reading
October 25, 2019 1 comment
1 FacebookTwitterEmail
BirdingMigration

Headed for the birding superhighway and a perfect migration pit stop

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal October 12, 2019
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

We’re on our way to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to witness something magical.

By the hundreds, flocks of songbirds, ducks, swans, skimmers and other shorebirds will touch down on this chain of islands and wildlife preserves to take advantage of nature’s perfect pit stop.

A Black Skimmer at the Pea Island preserve

When it comes to the fall migration, an 85-mile swath of northeastern North Carolina, from roughly the Virginia line to Cape Hatteras, won the geographic lottery. It has some of the richest and most diverse natural habitats for birds in the United States.

“This area is the halfway stopover point on the Atlantic Flyway for birds that are migrating to tropical areas,” said Becky Harrison, head biologist for the N.C. Coastal Refuge Complex. “And there is a continuous stretch of geographic features and habitats that’s easy for the birds to follow.”

Flying thousands of miles requires enormous energy, so periodically birds must stop, rest and refuel. “Birds are following the resources,” Harrison said. “Because this area is so connected, it means there aren’t a lot of decisions for them to make.”

American Oystercatchers speed along the surf on the Outer Banks

Flying Lesson:  Birds of every species will come when there’s a path of supportive habitat. This unique string of refuges is a model for how we can care for birds. 
Continue Reading
October 12, 2019 1 comment
2 FacebookTwitterEmail
Bird of the WeekBirdingFeatured

Listen up: This Bird of the Week is the Life of the Party

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal May 26, 2019
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

A birder walks into a clearing, and there’s a Song Sparrow singing its heart out. In chimes a Robin, followed by a Grosbeak and a Tanager, a Wood Thrush and a Warbler, all chirping at the same time.

Sounds like a bunch of songbirds out having a party. But it’s only the Northern Mockingbird. He is the party.

This could be the start of a great joke, but it’s just too infuriating. So many times it sounds like you’ve hit the birding jackpot only to be fooled by one wily, nondescript, gray-and-white bird.

It’s awful having your dopamine high dashed like that, and it’s happened more times than I care to count. Over the years I’ve come to seriously resent this bird.

So. The Mockingbird is a “mimic” – a type of bird who’s remarkable for his ability to imitate the songs of other birds. The male can have a repertoire of more than 150 songs, and he continues to learn new ones throughout his life. He even mimics the sounds of insects, animals and things that aren’t alive. Machinery for example. Researchers have identified Mockingbirds with 203 imitations.

Continue Reading
May 26, 2019 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
BirdingFeaturedMigration

It’s World Migratory Bird Day — and there’s a lot we can do

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal May 10, 2019
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

As photos of migrating birds popped up on a big screen last night, a couple dozen birders from the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia sat in a conference room at the National Wildlife Federation headquarters taking careful notes. Saturday is World Migratory Bird Day, and these folks were getting their marching orders.

Starting at dawn they’ll form teams and scour nearby “Important Bird Areas,” counting species to help evaluate how this year’s migrating birds have fared on the flight across thousands of miles to their breeding grounds. Here are some of what they’re likely to see in a gallery of photos Anders has taken from our recent migration trip (run your cursor over the pictures for their species).

DSC_9131DSC_9131

Blue Grosbeak

DSC_1863DSC_1863

Baltimore Oriole

DSC_1774DSC_1774

Cape May Warbler

DSC_1523DSC_1523

Scarlet Tanager

DSC_8435DSC_8435

Eastern Meadowlark

DSC_9644DSC_9644

Male Orchard Oriole

DSC_8034DSC_8034

Female Orchard Oriole

DSC_1682DSC_1682

Blackburnian Warbler

 

Bird counts are mostly for the hardcore. But if you’re at all interested in birds, if you’re tuning into this spring’s tweet-and-twitter symphony as you move through your day, if you wonder what it’s all about, tomorrow is a great time to learn more.

Continue Reading
May 10, 2019 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
BirdingMigration

A Little More Freedom: Letting go of your worries on the birding trail

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal May 1, 2019
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Saturday is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s “Global Big Day,” a highlight of the spring migration when birders around the world count as many species they can find in 24 hours.

My birding bag and I were both getting ready.

This post started out as a way to tell you how to get prepared for a day traipsing the countryside in search of wading birds, wood warblers or anything else that might happen to migrate by. But when I sat down to catalog everything I bring along in my birding bag, I came to a jarring realization.

First I need to explain that my birding bag is a small brown backpack with pink zippers that’s a hand-me-down from my daughter’s time at summer camp. It reeks of sweat and bug spray, but I’m afraid to wash it because it’s so old it could fall apart. And then I might, too.

The whole point of having a birding bag like mine is to anticipate disaster and be fully prepared to deal with it. Inside there’s a tube of sunscreen, a water bottle, gum, lip balm, tissues, hand sanitizer, lens cleaners, a protein bar and dental floss. (Dental floss makes a great temporary shoestring or emergency suture, but mine’s there in case a bit of the protein bar gets stuck in my teeth.)

 

Continue Reading
May 1, 2019 1 comment
1 FacebookTwitterEmail
FeaturedFlight

A pilgrimage to the Wright Brothers Memorial puts the power of human potential on display

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal December 17, 2018
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Today is the anniversary of the Wright brothers flight on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where we visited the newly renovated memorial a month ago. What a Flying Lesson it was.

We set off from our campground on a near-perfect fall morning toward Kitty Hawk where the Memorial has stood for over a century. A chunk of granite at top of Kill Devil Hill marks the marvelous December day that – after years of painstaking and obsessive efforts — Wilbur and Orville proved that people could fly.

The original photograph taken the day the Wright brothers proved they could fly.

Naturally birds were part of the brothers’ inspiration, and birds became their instructors as well. The brothers watched birds soaring directly into the wind and noticed that the air flowing over the curved surface of their wings created lift. Birds also change the shape of their wings to turn and maneuver, and the Wrights believed they could find a way to emulate this to block their plane’s tendency to roll in flight. So they warped, or twisted the shape of a portion of the wing. It’s the birds’ twist in their wings that helps them be more agile and aerodynamic.

The details of the quest to fly captivated Anders and me when we read David McCullough’s book “The Wright Brothers.” We’re basically obsessed with birds ourselves at this point, and so for me a trip to the place where humans took flight felt like a necessary pilgrimage.

Continue Reading
December 17, 2018 3 comments
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
  • 1
  • 2

Sign up for Flying Lessons

Welcome to Flying Lessons, a website devoted to what we’re learning from the birds. You can sign up here for our weekly newsletter, visit our Facebook page here, spend time in our pages devoted to photos, birding advice, videos and special projects. We hope you enjoy your visit — and make this a regular stop.

FLYING LESSONS VIDEOS

White-eyed Vireo Gray Catbird Red-shouldered Hawk Northern Flicker Cedar Waxwing Barred Owl American Goldfinch Northern Waterthrush Summer Tanager Northern Cardinal Carolina Chickadee

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
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Hairy Woodpecker Prime Hook Refuge, Delaware
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Prairie Warbler Cape May, New Jersey
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Red-bellied Woodpecker St. Joe Overstreet Landing, Florida
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Eastern Wood-Peewee Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Eastern Meadowlark Kissimmee, Florida
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Black-throated Blue Warbler Raleigh, North Carolina
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
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

Our Facebook page

Our Facebook page

Can a bird sing with a banjo?

Sign up for our weekly newsletter


Quotes for the birds

“In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.”

— Robert Lynd, Irish writer, essayist and journalist

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

 

Categories

  • Beverly's Birding Basics (12)
  • Bird of the Week (32)
  • Birding (91)
  • Birding and the Airstream (5)
  • Birding research (45)
  • Birding technology (3)
  • Birds stories (33)
  • Birdsongs (3)
  • Breeding and Nesting (10)
  • Conservation (26)
  • Featured (34)
  • Fledging (2)
  • Flight (11)
  • Flying Lessons essay (3)
  • How we're birding now (8)
  • Migration (34)
  • Photography (72)
  • PhotoPost (3)
  • Postcard (6)
  • Research (2)
  • South America (1)
  • Species (17)
  • Uncategorized (1)
  • Video (7)

How to reach us

Flying Lessons
Raleigh, NC.
FlyingLessons1@gmail.com

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.

Popular Posts

  • 1

    It’s a bird-eat-bird world: Pileated Woodpeckers on the attack

    December 27, 2021
  • 2

    What a show: Battle of the Hummingbirds reaches its peak

    December 17, 2021
  • 3

    How on earth? Great White Pelican shows up on the other side of the world

    February 6, 2020
  • 4

    How on earth? Great White Pelican shows up on the other side of the world

    December 13, 2020
  • 5

    Can the Wild Turkey survive? Thanksgiving is the least of its troubles.

    November 22, 2020
  • 6

    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.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

@2017 - PenciDesign. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign

Flying Lessons
  • Home
    • Our story
    • Birding and the Airstream
  • Photo Galleries
    • Photo Gallery Index
      • Belted Kingfishers Gallery
      • Counting Raptors
      • Birds of Glenwood Gardens
      • The Barred Owl Nextdoor
      • Magnificent Frigatebird
      • Woodpecker’s Nest
      • Red-shouldered Hawk Gallery
      • Blue-gray Gnatcatchers
      • In search of Warblers
      • Ecuador’s Hummingbirds Gallery
      • Purple Gallinule
      • Sandhill Cranes — and their chicks
      • White Ibis Gallery
      • Catching Birds in Flight
      • Roseate Spoonbills in all their glory
      • A Rookery for Storks
      • Shore Birds
      • Dining Out
      • Love is in the Air: Two Barn Swallows’ take on the Birds and the Bees
  • Videos
  • Closeups
    • Birds in Flight
  • Beverly’s Basics
  • All Posts
    • All Posts
    • Facebook Posts
    • Flying Lessons on Instagram
    • Bird of the Week
    • Sharing birding tips
  • Get email updates