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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
Long-time readers will recall WC, asked the seemingly simple question of how many different bird species he had photographed, has been struggling for the last four years to provide an answer. WC, as recently as July of this year, had the illusion he was making progress. Then the American Ornithological Society released the latest update…
The Macaws, spread across three or four genera, are the largest members of the New World parrot family, the Psittacidae. There are at least seventeen Macaw species, but WC has only photographed a few of them. In an egregious instance of the Magpie Principle, here are four of those species. The etymology of “macaw” is…
This post is for Ron Dudley, retired biology teacher,, astonishingly good bird photographer and, WC is pleased to to report, a good friend of WC’s. Ron is recovering from surgery at present, and this blog post is WC’s way of wishing him a speedy recovery. Most parasites are SLiPs. That is, they are Simple Lifecycle…
This post continues the new semi-regular series, Most Memorable Moments, featuring some of the most memorable natural history experiences that WC has been lucky enough to enjoy. Sometimes nature can be magical and memorable, and, yes, it’s still magical even when you know how and why it works. Links to prior Most Memorable Moments are…
WC is more or less chained to his Polar Care Cube, a nifty little machine that circulates ice cold water through a pad on his swollen right knee. Bird photography is presently a goal, not a possibility. So WC is revisiting earlier birding trips. This one was in 2014. Rio Pixiam is one of the…
WC spent a few hours on a late summer trip to Camas Prairie/Centennial Marsh east of Boise earlier this week. The recent thunderstorms had brought a little bit of green to what is usually a pretty parched landscape this time of year, and the birding was good. Of course, there were the usual challenges sorting…
This post continues a new semi-regular series, Most Memorable Moments, featuring some of the most memorable natural history experiences that WC has been lucky enough to enjoy. Sometimes nature can be magical and memorable, and, yes, it’s still magical even when you know how and why it works. Links to prior Most Memorable Moments are…
WARNING: Serious technogeekery ahead. Readers may recall WC is attempting to inventory the number of bird species he has photographed. Progress has been slow but steady. Some background: WC has been forced to abandon the software used to manage bird photos since 2005. That software, a product called Aperture from Apple, was “EOLed” – “End…
Because they are so common, WC thinks that Killdeer are under-appreciated. A handsome member of the plover genus Charadius, the Latin root that gives us “charade,” they are an adaptable, ubiquitous, noisy and even entertaining bird species. The species name is vociferus, another Latin root meaning “clamorous or noisy.” Sometimes around the clock. The “charade”…
As noted earlier, WC spent the 4th of July holiday in the mountains of Central Idaho, at a campground off of the South Fork of the Payette River. The Ponderosa Pines there aren’t especially birdy, and WC’s limited mobility made finding birds a bit more challenging, but there were a few birds to be found…
This post continues a new semi-regular series, Most Memorable Moments, featuring some of the most memorable natural history experiences that WC has been lucky enough to enjoy. Sometimes nature can be magical and memorable, and, yes, it’s still magical even when you know how and why it works. Links to prior Most Memorable Moments are…
WC proudly flies the colors. Be safe. Enjoy your holiday.
This post inaugurates a new semi-regular series, Most Memorable Moments, featuring some of the most memorable natural history experiences that WC has been lucky enough to enjoy. Sometimes nature can be magical and memorable, and, yes, it’s still magical even when you know how and why it works. The Madre de Dios River, a tributary…
This handsome fellow was enjoying a nice lunch as WC drove up. The bird is backlit, and wearing jewelry, but it’s still a treat to get a tight shot on an Osprey with a fish. Or at least what’s left of a fish; the bird’s bulging crop shows you where the rest of the fish…
Birders prize backroads, the little-used dirt tracks that wind through environmentally healthy habitat. There are birds close to the road, the absence of traffic makes it easy to stop and glass any birds, and the birds are less likely to be spooked by other cars. But in Idaho, too many of those back roads aren’t…
Sure, any number of bad things seem to come out of Texas: Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, piss-poor utility planning, George Bush, Louie Gohmert, Alex Jones, pawn shop chain stores, oil spills; it’s a very, very long list, and WC doesn’t want to trigger anyone by attempting to set it all out. Least of all himself.…
WC dragged his visiting brother on June 8 to an all-day trip to Camas Prairie and Centennial Marsh. To his surprise and WC’s, we had a lot of fun. Here are a few photos and notes from the trip. Camas Lilies don’t appear in any numbers every year; it takes a little extra water. This…
“Raptors” is the imprecise word that WC uses for falcons, hawks, eagles and buzzards. East Asia – or at least Thailand – seems to have a much greater variety of raptors than the New World. Here’s a selection of seven or so that WC photographed in Thailand this year and some brief notes on each.…
The Great Egret lives and breeds on all of the continents save Antarctica. It’s by no means the largest heron, but it’s arguably the most widely distributed. And its recovery from near-extirpation in North America is an example of how bird populations can be saved from human folly. WC has been lucky enough to see…
Wickersham's Conscience 
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