Large-Scale Coordinated Effort Sheds Light on Difficult-to-Study Arctic Shorebirds
Bird migration is one of the most spectacular wildlife phenomena on the planet, especially that of shorebirds that migrate thousands of miles every year.
Why Do Rough-legged Hawks Nest Next to Peregrine Falcons?
Different raptor species in the Arctic nest at least 700 to 1,800 meters apart — except for the Rough-legged Hawk.
Who Wins in a Warmer Arctic—the Gosling or the Egg?
Global warming is increasingly affecting wild bird populations, and because the Arctic is warming more rapidly than any other part of the world, populations of Arctic migratory birds are potentially the most vulnerable.
A Vacation Like No Other
Back in the 1980s, one of my graduate students and I split the cost of an Ontario Lottery ticket. We knew that the chances of winning were vanishingly small (p<0.000001) …
Banner year
Last week I showed a banner the role of some prominent women in the history of ornithology. We prepared that large banner to display at the recent AOS conference in …
Contemplating the Tundra
CELEBRATING THE HISTORY OF WOMEN IN ORNITHOLOGY Until the 1970s, few women could have called themselves ‘professional’ ornithologists no matter how great their contribution to the study of birds. As …
Mr. Cairngorms
In 2013, while compiling information for a chapter on the contributions of ornithology to evolutionary biology, I carried on a lively correspondence, by email, with Adam Watson. Watson was a …
In the Shadow of Men
In 1973, I was stranded for several days on a small island in Witless Bay off the southeast coast of Newfoundland. I had gone there several times already that summer, …
Ortolan of the Snows
[This is a greatly expanded and edited version of an article I wrote for the 7th Annual Newsletter of the Canadian Snow Bunting Network (online here), sent out a couple …
A Great Store of Fowle
Four hundred and eight years ago this month—in August 1610—Henry Hudson and his crew of 21 on the tiny ship DISCOVERY entered Hudson’s namesake bay in search of a northwest …