This Week's Best in Bird Blogging

California Gull - adult winter plumage - State Bird of Utah

Amid all the drama and scandal in politics and college football (two of my favorite things to talk about), at least we have the birds and awesome bird blogging to daily lighten the mood and refresh our spirits.

Let me give a quick shout-out to all the veterans! My brother is currently in the Air Force, and I've had several relatives and ancestors serve in the armed forces all the way back to the American Revolution. Thank you for giving and preserving the freedoms I enjoy...which allow me - among other things - to go birding regularly and to write about birds here.


Here is some of this week's best in bird blogging from the BiF! contributors:

*   Rob Fergus, is acheiving his Minimum Daily Requirement with the help of Snow Buntings.
*   Donald the Bird has Snow Buntings too.
*   Mia McPherson has a concerning post about a Red-tailed Hawk with long-bill syndrome and a more uplifting post about the regal Ferruginous Hawk.
*   Dan Huber shares a great birding Day at the Lake
*   Check out Steve Creek's photo of an unusual Double-crested Cormorant.
*   Jeremy Medina had both a Long-tailed Duck and a Ruddy Ground-Dove in Arizona.
*   Greg Gillson presents some nice tips on shorebird identification along with cool photos of Western Sandpipers to illustrate his points.
*   Along that shorebird theme, you can't miss Kelly Riccetti's Sanderling paintings.
*   Lillian Stokes has a pair of delightful posts wherein she talks about Armchair Birding (literally, not just the bonus life birds when the AOU splits a species) and Blue Jay Magic.
*   Gloucester and Cape Ann presented some nice birding for Kathie Brown.
*   Kim Kaufman makes me very jealous talking about the amazing birds outside of her hotel at the Rio Grande Bird Festival in Harlingen, Texas.
*   Scott Simmons had a lot of great posts this week, but my favorite had to be the series of photos of birds eating fish.
*   I'm a huge fan of power-napping and Power Birding as described by Laurence Butler with a really nice photo of a Gila Woodpecker.

More of this week's best in bird blogging:

*   Richard Steel, from the UK, is one of my favorite bird photographers. Check out his images of Green Woodpeckers and then scroll down through his other amazing posts.
*   Alex Lamoreaux has gorgeous photos of a Snowy Owl seen in New Jersey over at The Nemesis Bird.
*   Rich Ditch, another bird-photog favorite of mine, has a photos series on a Pied-Billed Grebe.
*   Linda Rockwell is also blessed to be at the Rio Grande Bird Festival and has some really nice close-ups of a Common Paurague.
*   Seagull Steve made me grin with his photo entitled "Sometimes My Autofocus is Smarter Than it Seems".
*   Laura Erickson has a fascinating post about Birds teaching birds to speak English.

Bird photos seem to have more "life" when you get some catch-light in the eye, but who needs that when you can have frontal shield catch-light on a preening American Coot.