Birdwatching

• AAudubon News2026-10-08✓ Read

  Rare and Vagrant Migratory Birds Find Refuge at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

  Imagine you are a migratory songbird flying south for the winter. Your flight path, which may have started in the boreal forest of eastern Canada, takes you over mountains, valleys, farms, and urban

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• AAudubon News2026-10-08✓ Read

  With These Tiny Binoculars, You Can Always Be Birding

  It’s easy to see the appeal of small, light-weight binoculars. Whether you’re a new birder looking for your first bins at a reasonable price point or a serious lister hoping for a more portable

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• BBirdLife International2026-10-08✓ Read

  Lead gunshot will finally be banned across the EU – ending the largest remaining source of lead pollution from hunting and shooting

  Brussels – 8 October 2026 Just now, the European Parliament have voted to let the ban on lead gunshot go ahead, ending years of debate on one of Europe’s most persistent forms of chemical pollution. Due to its extreme toxicity, lead was removed from petrol, paint and pipes long ago, yet more than 44,000 tonnes of lead are still scattered across the EU every year through hunting… Source

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• BBirdNote Daily2026-10-08Audio✓ Read

  Here Come the Merlins

  Smaller than a pigeon — but fierce enough to knock one from the air — are the powerful, compact falcons known as Merlins. Climate change is pushing ranges of many birds farther north, but more and more Merlins have been nesting farther south, in towns and cities across the northern United States. Merlins will take over old crow nests, especially in conifer trees, in parks, cemeteries, and neighborhoods.

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• AAudubon News2026-10-07✓ Read

  Record Numbers Bring Great Lakes Piping Plovers Closer to Recovery

  Just a few decades ago, the Great Lakes Piping Plover population had dwindled to just a dozen breeding pairs, all confined to northern Michigan. Today, this tiny shorebird is writing a different

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• AAudubon News2026-10-07✓ Read

  How Movies and TV Made Birdwatchers Uncool—and Then Cool Again

  I started birding in 2005 after pulling a used field guide off a bookstore shelf. I had never been birding, didn’t know any birders, and only knew one birding fact: It was not cool.But where did I

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• AAudubon News2026-10-07✓ Read

  Audubon Applauds U.S. Senate Passage of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act

  (October 7, 2026) - Last week, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to reauthorize the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a federal program that invests millions of dollars to clean up toxic

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• AAudubon News2026-10-07✓ Read

  Welcoming Dr. Allyn Golub Conservation Assistants

  We are excited to welcome two new Conservation Assistants, funded by Dr. Allyn Golub. Their main focus is assisting with field and office activities associated with the Sanctuary’s Western

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• BBirdNote Daily2026-10-07Audio✓ Read

  Migration Takes Guts — Until It Doesn’t

  This Bar-tailed Godwit makes one of the longest migrations of any animal — a 7,200-mile non-stop flight each autumn from western Alaska to New Zealand. In his book A World on the Wing, Scott Weidensaul explores the remarkable transformation godwits undergo to make this migration possible. Their digestive organs shrink as their weight more than doubles in stored fats and muscle mass.

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• AAudubon News2026-10-06✓ Read

  Q&A with Chloe St. Germain-Vermillion, Coastal Bird Technician

  How would you describe your job as Coastal Bird Technician to someone who's never heard of it?  As a coastal bird technician most of my job has to do with monitoring shorebirds. That work varies

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• AAudubon News2026-10-06✓ Read

  Correspondence From a Bird

  A letter by the bird of the month: Dear Audubon Southwest, I am honored to be selected as the October bird of the month. It seems my years of doing mid-air flips and spins to catch your attention

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• AAudubon News2026-10-06✓ Read

  Congress Still Has Time to Deliver Conservation Wins

  With the close of the 119th Congress just around the corner, our elected leaders still have time to deliver significant conservation funding and policy before the term ends. At the beginning of this

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• AAudubon News2026-10-06✓ Read

  Lost and Found: Tracking an American Oystercatcher with GPS/GSM Technology

  The tiny backpack you see on this American Oystercatcher “N94” is a solar-powered GPS/GSM transmitter. Thanks to this technology, applied by a trained biologist, we were able to find N94 after

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• AAudubon News2026-10-06✓ Read

  Chapters’ Corner, October 2026

  Twelve independent chapters operate within the Audubon Southwest region. Consider joining a chapter near you to participate in bird-related events near you and engage on local issues. Read on for

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• eeBird.org News2026-10-06✓ Read

  October Big Day—10 Oct 2026

  Mark your calendars for October Big Day—10 Oct 2026! Together, we can make this the first October Big Day with more than a million people united to celebrate birds.

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• BBirdLife International2026-10-06✓ Read

  Mixed Flock: Caroline Herman

  In birding, a mixed flock can be the most exciting discovery. You never know which species will be found together, each with their own individual characters, ways of feeding, moving and acting, but part of a unified whole. Each bird has their own role to play in the group, forming an alliance that is stronger than the sum of its parts. In this series, we celebrate the diversity of our BirdLife… Source

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• BBirdNote Daily2026-10-06Audio✓ Read

  Owls Migrate, Too

  When you think of bird migrations, you might think of a bluebird or a robin first. But some owls do migrate – such as the Short-eared Owl, which flies south for the winter. Northern Saw-whet Owls were once thought non-migratory, but in fact they travel at night, unseen. Snowy Owls breed in the Arctic then wander toward the south, staying wherever they can find food. Some Burrowing Owls spend their whole life in one place. But others migrate every spring and fall with the regularity of a bluebird.

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• BBirdLife International2026-10-05✓ Read

  Highlights of EuroBirdwatch 2026

  28 BirdLife Partners took part in the biggest European bird count, hosting 927 events across Europe and Central Asia. More than 23.000 birdwatchers spotted 4.8 million birds on their autumn migration routes. The data was collected, analysed, and published by BirdLife Slovakia. Highlights from the field All BirdLife Partners joined the bird count with the same enthusiasm… Source

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• BBirdNote Daily2026-10-05Audio✓ Read

  Migrations: A Whimbrel’s Wayward Journey

  Biologists with Manomet tagged a Whimbrel named Lindsay with a GPS tracker. She has spent the summer breeding in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the northern coast of Alaska. As fall migration begins, she heads straight into a storm in the Gulf of Alaska. The tempest slingshots her toward British Columbia, where she picks up a tailwind down the California coast. Landing near San Francisco, she rests and refuels.

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• BBirdNote Daily2026-10-04Audio✓ Read

  October Migrants – Look Who's Back!

  In the October sunlight, a Lincoln's Sparrow – like this one – sings energetically from a hedgerow. Soon a Fox Sparrow chimes in. Both nested in Alaska last summer but will spend the winter farther south. The Snow Geese are moving, too. A massive movement of birds takes place in the fall. The exodus of summer visitors to the tropics has given way to a surge from the north. And predators can't be far behind.

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