Dr. Ron J. Ryel, 1955-2015, was one of Utah's top birders and a mentor to myself and other birders in my community. (Photo via Quinney College of Natural Resources, Utah State University) La...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2016/04/saying-goodbye-to-ron-with-citizen.html
On the second full day of this cruise (2 December 2015), we started about 40 miles off the coast near Yachats, Oregon. (See Part 1 here. ) Today, the weather was much worse, which was better....
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2015/12/pelagic-birding-from-cruise-ship-part-2.html
You may call it the Promenade, but I call it the Birding Deck. (Photo of the Ruby Princess cruise ship by Chris Favero, Creative Commons via Flickr.) Earlier this week I went on my first c...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2015/12/pelagic-birding-from-cruise-ship-part-1.html
Grandad O'Donnell giving me an early lesson in wildlife and fisheries management. When I was young and we went to my grandparents' house for Thanksgiving or Christmas, my Grandad would play ...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2015/11/how-grandad-taught-me-radio-tracking.html
Last week, my friend Jason and I went birding on Mt. Ord. Mt. Ord is one of those places that is well known to locals, but probably rarely heard of by most birders outside of the greater Phoeni...
. . . That's Black-footed Ferret, of course! Last night I joined the Arizona Game and Fish Department on a spotlighting survey for Black-footed Ferrets. This is the only ferret native to the ...
Melanie Banville watches for birds at sunrise from one of the Long-term Ecological Research sites along the Salt River in Phoenix Over the last week and a half, I've been volunteering to hel...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2015/10/volunteering-with-long-term-ecological.html
Tarahumara Frog recently reintroduced into a canyon in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Since I moved to Arizona a couple of months ago, I've shifted my job search strategy significantly. Now t...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2015/10/tarahumara-frog-reintroduction.html
Since I moved to Arizona a few weeks ago, there is one spot I've birded more than any other: Gilbert Water Ranch. This park, about the size of a large city block, became famous in the U.S. bird...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2015/09/painted-redstart-at-gilbert-water-ranch.html
Last weekend marked the end of my first month living in Arizona, and it's been a great month! Stephanie and I have spent a lot of our free time exploring our surroundings and getting to know th...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2015/09/first-month-as-arizonan.html
I stopped for one last picture at a locally well-known spot on my last drive out of Cache Valley. My wife and I have been looking to relocate for a while now, and I'm pleased to announce tha...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-change-of-scenery-moving-my-birding.html
We put a lot of effort into planning our Big Day route, and stuck very close to the plan. Anyone who has done a Big Day knows that much of the work is done before the day itself, and ours wa...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2015/05/cache-county-big-day-may-30th-2015.html
I've written here previously about the different "call types" of Evening Grosbeak, which correspond closely to subspecies and which may in fact even represent cryptic species. Recently I've be...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2015/02/how-to-identify-evening-grosbeak-call.html
Ron Ryel dutifully counting birds on a snowy Logan Christmas Bird Count in 2008. I always look forward to the Logan Christmas Bird Count this time of year. At no point in the year is more ...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2014/12/2014-logan-cbc-predictions.html
Last weekend my wife and I took a little mini vacation to the South Hills of Idaho in search of a very unique finch. The South Hills Crossbill (Loxia sinesciurus) is an endemic species or subs...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2014/11/how-to-find-south-hills-crossbill.html
I photographed this Clark's Nutcracker in northern Utah on 28 July 2013, but if it can't find enough pine nuts, it might be headed to your neighborhood. I've seen two unusual events in the last...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2013/09/predicting-clarks-nutcracker-irruption.html
If you've been with this blog since the start, you might remember that it began as a way to chronicle my attempt at a county big year in 2008. My goal at the time was 200 birds, an achievement ...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2013/08/county-big-year-again-how-i-found.html
Last summer (2012) I had the privilege of working as a guide on St. Paul Island, Alaska, with Scott Schuette and Doug Gochfeld. St. Paul Island is one of the Pribilof Islands, a small group in ...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2013/08/ten-birds-from-st-paul-island-2012.html
Yesterday, I had the chance to visit a well -known nesting site of Black Swifts in northern Idaho on my way back from another trip. Black Swifts are a very unique species that can be tough to...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2013/07/black-swifts-on-nests.html
On Saturday I led a trip for the Bridgerland Audubon Society to the west desert of Box Elder County, Utah. Our main goal was to visit some of the famous "migrant traps" in the area. This are...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2013/06/utahs-west-desert-migrant-traps.html
A Dusky Grouse x Sharp-tailed Grouse hybrid, photographed by the author in northern Utah on 7 Apr 2013. I love hybrids. Some birders can be disappointed by hybrids, especially when a local...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-hybrid-dusky-grouse-x-sharp-tailed.html
In much of the inland western United States and Canada, there are two common breeding white-headed gull species, the California Gull and the Ring-billed Gull. If you live in this region, the fi...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2013/04/identifying-adult-california-gulls-and.html
Sage Sparrow, California Sage Sparrow, or Great Basin Sage Sparrow? Photographed by Jamie Chavez in Santa Barbara County, California, and shared under Creative Commons license. Talk of sp...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2013/03/splitting-sage-sparrow.html
Andy Kleinhesselink listens for owls in Green Canyon for the 2012 Christmas Bird Count. Tonight we had a great field trip up Green Canyon with the USU chapter of the Wildlife Society. A to...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2013/02/bas-field-trip-owling-green-canyon.html
This Rough-legged Hawk was photographed along our route earlier in January. On January 26, the Bridgerland Audubon Society field trip focused on "Logan's Arctic Tundra," seeking out the bird...
http://200birds.blogspot.com/2013/02/bas-field-trip-logans-arctic-tundra-26.html