A while back – actually, a considerable while back – a couple of readers asked what the weirdest bird was that WC had photographed. “Weird” is pretty subjective. So subjective that WC has dragged his feet in responding. But here are a few birds that WC, for one reason or another, WC regards as weird.…
The Brits use the term “confiding” to describe a bird or bird species that is more approachable than most. In WC’s admittedly small experience, the Rhinoceros Auklet is the most approachable alcid. Aboard the auspiciously named R/V Auklet, piloted By the delightful David Lanka (since retired), we were able to approach with 10 feet of…
They really should be called “Tiny Auklets.” at about 5.25 inches long, they are much less than half the size of their cousins, although they make up in attitude for what they may lack in size. Here’s a photo with a Tufted Puffin, Parakeet Auklet and Least Auklet that gives you an idea of the…
Another alcid and, if anything, even cuter than last week’s Parakeet Auklet. With that crest and sometimes silly postures, the Crested Auklet is almost guaranteed to make you smile. It’s also delightful in a way that’s unique among the thousands of bird species WC has seen. But we’ll get to that in a minute. This…
In addition to the Rosy-finches and Barn Owl WC has posted earlier, WC and Mrs. WC saw a very nice selection of other Idaho winter birds in south-central Idaho. Because you can never have too many bird photos, here’s a handful of the species we saw that WC was able to photograph. While there are…
The Hagerman Formation, a layer of sand and silt compressed to fragile sedimentary rock, is part of the larger Idaho Group. It’s world famous as the source of the Hagerman fossils. A large piece of the Formation is preserved as the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, which has produced thousands of fossils across more than…
We’re continuing to look at Alcids, one of the families of small, diving seabirds of the Northern Hemisphere. This is the first auklet we’ll look at, the Parakeet Auklet, a species of the North Pacific Ocean. This is a beautiful seabird whose white irides (the area of the eye surrounding the iris) stand out dramatically…
WC nd Mrs. WC made a short road trip this week, chasing winter birds. The trip was amazingly successful, and there will be more than one blog post about it. Among the highlights a lifer and two and half species photographed for the first time. The target birds – a primary reason for the trip…
Another spectacular and improbable-looking bird, a sister species to last week’s Tufted Puffin, although more closely related to the Atlantic Puffin than the Tufted. The Horned Puffin”s range overlaps with the Tufted’s, but the Tufted’s is more extensive, particularly along the Oregon and California coast. Like the Tufted Puffin, the Horned Puffin is a pelagic…
WC had originally intended to move to Terns after exhausting WC’s photos of gulls. But after nineteen weeks of Larids, it seemed like a better idea to take a break and visit another family of seabirds, the Alcids. Alcids are a family of excessively marine, diving seabirds that swim underwater using their wings as paddles.…
One of the benefits of moving from Fairbanks, Alaska to Boise, Idaho is the much greater variety of winter avifauna. There are other benefits, to be sure, but a Christmas Bird Count in Boise will turn up a hundred or more species; in Fairbanks, in a really good year, there might be 25. In celebration…
A final gull,1 and the only Asiatic species WC will describe. The Brown-headed Gull breeds at high elevations, between 3,000 meters and at least 4,500 meters from Turkestan to west China and south to the Pamirs. It’s probably most common in Tibet. The species winters on coasts of India, north Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia,…
As WC has noted several times, Larids, the gulls and terns, are a favorite. And among the Larids, Sabine’s Gull has to be one of the top birds, even though WC has only seen them a few times. This is a beautiful species, elegant in flight and weird enough to otherwise appeal to WC. This…
WC has struggled with a memorial to David Crosby, former member of the Mugwumps, the Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young), and half a dozen or more ephemeral one-offs. And a solo artist, after he had pissed off everyone he had worked with earlier. He was an exceptionally talented musician and songwriter, who was…
As promised last week, this is the much less well known cousin of the Black-legged Kittiwake, the Red-legged Kittiwake, a near-endemic to Alaska (a small population breeds in the Commander Islands, the Russian end of the Aleutian Islands). It only breeds on St. George and St. Paul Islands, a very few of the Aleutian Islands…
In August 1999, WC was lucky enough to enjoy a sea kayaking trip on the west side of Prince William Sound, Alaska. Near the southern end of our trip, on the cliff of Nassau Fjord, near the snout of the massive Chenega Glacier, there was a Black-legged Kittiwake colony of several thousand birds. When disturbed,…
Chasing, in WC’s birding circles, usually means going out of your way to see a bird that is rare for an area. Some people drive hours some people hop on planes, and some folks never do it at all. In this instance, it would have been pretty lazy to not chase the Broad-winged Hawk that’s…
If you need another reminder from WC that you shouldn’t call them “seagulls,” consider this: the out of focus background in this photo is the Wickersham Wall, the 17,000 foot cliff that is the northerly side of Denali, the highest point in North America. This gull was nesting in the tree in which it is…
You know, we really shouldn’t need to have a Save the Eagles Day. We ought to do it without any special reminder or ceremonial day. To borrow a Robert Heinlein phrase, eagles are like pretty girls and butterflies: sufficient unto themselves and need no excuse. But in this modern world, today two-thirds of the eagle…
If you want to provoke an argument among gull specialists, ask them how many species of Herring Gull there are. Depending on the ornithologist, you’ll be told one, three of five. Among American ornithologists, at least, there’s a fuzzy consensus that there is just one, and five to nine subspecies. Among Europeans, on the other…
A reader asked why some of the gulls currently being featured in recent Return of Bird of the Week series have a red spot on their bill. More recently, Mrs. WC reminded WC of a classic avian behavioral study closely related to the reader’s question. So, what’s up with the red spot? It’s not blood,…
Usually the Return of Bird of the Week post goes up on Saturday, but this month it was pushed back by the end of the year features. WC apologizes for any confusion. This is the palest of the large North American white-headed gulls; only the Ivory Gull is paler and it is much smaller. The…
Admittedly, it isn’t one of the two Turtle Doves; it’s an Asian Gray-capped Emerald Dove, photographed in Thailand. But it’s a Christmassy looking bird for all that. And with it, WC wishes you and yours the very merriest of Christmases. Starting tomorrow, we’ll begin the year end summaries. But for now, enjoy the holiday. WC…
“Glaucous” is Old English, imported from Greek (glaukós) ‘blue-green, blue-grey’) and is used to describe the pale grey appearance of the surfaces of some plants and birds. In Glaucous-winged Gulls, that color is confined to the wings. The glaucous color is absent from the very leading edge and much of the trailing edge of the wings,…
WC can say with some confidence that this is the only Larid celebrated in a gold-plated sculpture, the centerpiece of claimed religious miracle. The sculpture can be found in Temple Square in Salt Lake City. The Church of Latter Day Saints celebrates California Gulls as the agency of their salvation from Mormon Crickets. WC regards…
Yes, a second blog post today. Sadly, the good folks at WordPress – a company called Automatic, Inc. – charge WC for hosting Wickersham’s Conscience. WC attempts to pay that bill, as well as subsidize his camera equipment, with photo sales from his photography business, Frozen Feather Images. So, yeah, a brief advertisement. WC reminds…
Bonaparte’s Gull, named after ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte, not the French emperor, is found across North America, from the northern edge of the boreal forest, where it breeds, to the Gulf of California and Gulf Coast, where it winters. In its leisurely migration, it is often seen across most areas in between. Despite that extensive…
The Western Gull is another North American west coast specialist, found from the Gulf of California to southern British Columbia. This is a big gull, easily habituated to people and perfectly willing to steal food from careless humans if given the opportunity. WC watched a Western Gull steal a hot dog from a little kid,…
It’s a remarkably handsome gull, with a white head and a delicate light gray neck and chest, shading to a darker gray on the wings and back. The tail is slate gray, with a narrow white terminal band. A red bill, with a black tip, graced by a tiny bit of yellow on the very…
Motmots, the fourteen species of the family Momotidae, are colorful, long-tailed birds of Central and South America. Like Kingfishers, they nest in long tunnel-like burrows in dirt banks, but they are not closely related to Kingfishers. For such a colorful, charismatic bird, they are remarkably poorly studied. As just one example of the challenges presented…
Wickersham's Conscience 
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