A blend of simmered, sauteed & sometimes stewed commentary about the Kersteins' daily lives and thoughts.
May 05 2010
Researchers from Tufts University will be spending their third year of a study on grassland birds at Woodsom Farm in Amesbury, MA, this summer, the Newburyport Daily News reports. The research will include casting nets to tag and draw blood from birds, as well as figure out why species such as the Bobolink and Eastern [...]
May 03 2009
This has been a good week for new birds at our feeders. This morning, I saw another new visitor, a Gray Catbird. A year-round resident, it’s the first time this bird has been seen in our yard. The Gray Catbird is mostly slate gray with a small black cap on its head and a black [...]
May 03 2009
Randye gets a big rousing golf clap for sighting and identifying a new bird visitor to our backyard feeders, an Eastern Towhee. A male bird (see picture below) started visiting in the mornings about two days ago, and has been somewhat regular to our backyard since. He mostly forages on the ground for seed and [...]
Feb 11 2009
Google brought us online search that has yet to be matched and Google Earth, a wicked cool bit of software that lets us view almost any part of Planet Earth. The software is so accurate and detailed that governments and security agencies worldwide are extremely uncomfortable. NASA has brought us, well, space! Moon missions; the [...]
Feb 04 2009
Brace yourselves for birdwatching excitement and drama! (OK, so allow me to be a little hyperbolical) We’re just over a week away from the Great Backyard Bird Count, and this household is primed with plenty of bird food, ‘bins’ (cool bird watcher slang for binoculars), and not one, but two bird identification books. And heck, [...]
Feb 03 2009
Human hunting and fishing practices are forcing an evolutionary shrinkage of prey species, reports the Wired Science blog. Kind of a no-brainer. Throughout time, life has adapted to its environment, as well as to avoid becoming tonight’s dinner. Now that humanity has such a massive impact on the Earth, “forced” adaptations will likely increase more [...]
Jan 28 2009
Our peanut feeder had a visit from a Red-Bellied Woodpecker for the first time this morning. At first, we thought it was the chipper Downy Woodpecker that likes to drop in from time to time for peanuts, but the red nape that extends from its shoulders to its beak was unmistakable. The Red-Bellied Woodpecker’s bill [...]
Jan 14 2009
Early in 2008, I was embroiled in a bird watcher’s war of attrition with the neighborhood squirrels. They would twitch their noses at me and scale my bird feeder with impunity, despite my efforts to stop them from eating my sunflower seeds, peanuts and anything else I would put out for the local birds. I [...]
Jan 11 2009
Did you know that Native Americans had a name for each full moon during the year? In fact, the names they gave each moon, such as Full Wolf Moon, Full Flower Moon or Full Corn Moon coincided with what was happening around them in nature. For example, the Full Wolf Moon got its name because [...]
Jan 10 2009
At long last! Someone finally created a bird watcher’s guide for the iPhone! Thanks to the folks over at ibirdexplorer.com, bird watchers have their choice of a number of versions of birding guides for the iPhone and iTouch: iBird Backyard: For common backyard birds of North America ($4.95) iBird West: For Western birds of North [...]
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