WC and Mrs. WC encountered a coyote along the Blitzen River in Malheur National Wildlife Refuge earlier this month. He was mooching along the dike on the westerly bank, across the little river from us. Looking for breakfast, no doubt. He gave WC these poses for free. He ignored us at first. But the camera…
Tierra del Fuego is the largest island at southernmost tip of South America. Like most island ecologies, it has been heavily impacted by humans, but many of the native birds still occur. One of them is the Black-faced Ibis. The black-faced ibis is mainly found in southern South America, ranging throughout most of southern and…
WC greatly enjoys the superb avian photography of his friend, Ron Dudley, whose blog is a masterpiece. It’s one of the few avian photography blogs that gets a spot in the sidebar of Wickersham’s Conscience. But a few days go, Ron posted a beautiful shot of an Eared Grebe, saying, “Sometimes I think simple is…
Steens Mountain, in southeast Oregon, is the largest fault block mountain in North America. 30 miles across on the rim side, and 25 miles long on the gentler westerly slope, it reaches an altitude of just under 10,000 feet, 6,000 feet above the surrounding terrain. Steens Mountain is like a giant 30 mile-wide trap door,…
A warning: this one is a little gruesome, and there are photos that some may find offensive. You’ve been warned. This is Southern Giant Petrel, by any measure a big bird. More than three feet long and with a wingspan of nearly seven feet, this 11 pound bird is another top-tier predator in the Southern…
WC isn’t talking about the movie or the song. WC is talking about the newly fledged birds. The next generation. The reason for migration, for courtship, for bird song. Richard Dawkins would call them the reason for birds. Either way, they are out of the nest. Newly fledged birds, for a birder, are delightful and…
The Skua is the bad boy of the Southern Ocean. Egg stealer, penguin chick grabber, bully, carrion eater, kleptoparasite; by human standards, this is a bad bird. They work in pairs to steal Gentoo Penguin eggs, with one distracting the penguin and the other stealing the egg. They are smart, skilled predators. But in the…
