Bird of Passage: February 2025
A quick note: I wrote this early in January, before all the news of the past couple weeks. It feels a bit frivolous now, but, well, taking time for things that make you happy is still worth doing.
I’m back! I hope you’ve been finding joy and hope these last couple months, giving yourself permission to turn off the news sometimes and go outside for a breath of fresh air. And, if you’re a birder, I hope that your new birding year has gotten off to a strong start.
On January 1st through 3rd, family commitments and poor weather kept me from getting out and doing any birding of my own; I didn’t note my official first bird of 2025, but it was probably one of the gang of juncos that takes up residence in my backyard every winter. On January 4th, however, things picked up significantly.
Our local Audubon chapter didn’t have a field trip planned for January, but some kind soul had written up a post for the website with suggestions for on-your-own outings. Two tidbits piqued my interest. First, a pair of Blue Jays, rare-ish but regular winter visitors here in eastern Washington, had been seen repeatedly on a particular residential street about a mile and a half from my home. Second, birders had reported Short-eared Owls hunting just after dusk along on a certain stretch of country road out past the prison.
January 4th was sunny, if cold, and I didn’t have any other plans for the day. After texting a birding acquaintance (hi Ben!) to ask if he might like to go in search of Short-eared Owls later, I set out for the neighborhood that was playing host to the Blue Jays. Creeping through a residential neighborhood with binoculars makes me feel odd, so I tucked a tiny pair into a coat pocket and tried to look like anyone else out for a walk. I quickly realized that other local birders had no such qualms, as I ran into three other people with binoculars and large cameras also canvassing the same street.
I was the one, however, who found the Blue Jays first that day, a block over from where others had spotted them previously. Score! And one of the other Blue Jay seekers even shared some intel on finding the owls—after the right turn, drive exactly 1.3 miles and look for the pullout on the right.
I shared this with Ben when he pulled up in front of my house at four. We drove past the state penitentiary and, predictably, past another carful of owl-questing birders. As we stood on the side of the road, gazing out over a stubbly field, it started to rain lightly. This, I thought, is pretty much what birding is. And right on time, there was our bird—not the greatest look, but the mothlike flight of a Short-eared Owl, a bird I hadn’t seen in over a decade, is unmistakable.
Two for two. Not bad! I’d love to hear about how you kicked off your own birding year; feel free to leave a comment with whatever you’d like to share. If you’re reading this in your email inbox, look for the link below that says “Leave a comment on the web.”
Words About Birds
Since this newsletter was on hiatus for December and January, I hope you’ll humor me in using this space for a rather late best-of-2024 recap. I am, after all, writing this in January.
I was honored to get to profile Field Inclusive, an inspiring organization dedicated to promoting diversity in field science, for Living Bird, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology magazine. Murry Burgess and Lauren Pharr, Field Inclusive’s founders, have shared with me that this article resulted in a wave of interest and donations for them, which is absolutely amazing.
For a story for the online environmental magazine The Revelator, I enjoyed weaving together two studies about two different birds that, combined, illustrate the complex relationships between climate change, gene flow, and conservation. This was a story idea I’d been sitting on for a while and I’m grateful to The Revelator for giving it the green light.
Also a huge honor: being asked to review Kenn Kaufman’s (fantastic) latest book for the Times Literary Supplement! If you haven’t already read The Birds That Audubon Missed, check it out, you won’t regret it.
The feature I wrote about how Great Gray Owls hunt through snow (and how scientists figured this out!) was apparently Living Bird's most-read story of the year. Cool! I liked telling this story about two researchers coming together to solve a mystery they’d both been wondering about for years.
And finally: I got to write a feature about the Black-capped x Carolina Chickadee hybrid zone for Scientific freakin’ American! Definitely a career highlight.
The paperback edition of my book comes out on March 18 and is available for preorder now! Here’s to another year of cool bird science.
Book Recommendation of the Month
The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica by Naira de Gracia. This memoir about the author’s first year as a NOAA field technician studying Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins breeding on a remote island off the Antarctic Peninsula was the perfect winter read. I loved the descriptions of the sights, sounds, and even smells of Antarctic field work, as well as De Gracia’s ruminations on the tangled relationships between people and nature in such a harsh place.
Bonus: Read my review of Sophie Osborn’s book Feather Trails on the American Birding Association website!
Upcoming Events + Miscellany
Feb. 26: Book talk for Menunkatuck Audubon (virtual)
Mar. 22: Keynote talk at Othello Sandhill Crane Festival (Othello, WA)
I also got to speak at California’s Morro Bay Bird Festival last month, which was great fun! If you’re looking for an engaging speaker for a bird-related event, drop me a line.