Tag: bird watching

Increase your bird smarts while relaxing at these stunning hotels

Leave the nest and explore.

Are you one of those people that listen for bird song when you travel? Do you see a little critter fly by and try to identify it? Then you’re the ideal guest for a new collaboration between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Enthusiast Hotel Collection.

Enthusiast has seven properties spanning from the U.S. West Coast to the Caribbean. They include gorgeous places like A Stone’s Throw Away in the Bahamas, with a wraparound porch perfect for watching birds and other wildlife in the surrounding jungle. Or you could scan the sky for seabirds at the Brewery Gulch Inn on California’s Mendocino coast. Enthusiast’s on-site bird ambassador program helps answer all your avian questions. The hotel group also sets up tours in and around its properties led by local birdwatching guides. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology supplies each hotel with relevant bird info. Guests can borrow binoculars at no additional cost.

A bird on a tree.
A red-headed woodpecker at Casa Morada in the Florida Keys. / Photo courtesy of the Enthusiast Hotel Collection

“We are excited to announce our partnership with Enthusiast Hotel Collection,” Mary Guthrie, director of corporate partnerships at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said in a statement. “Whether guests are lifelong birders or just getting started, our resources are designed to inspire and spark a deep connection with nature.” The lab, founded in 1915, is a nonprofit organization internationally known for its bird studies and conservation efforts.

Birds flying over a brick building with a black patio.
Swifts swirling around the chimney of the Historic Tapoco Lodge in North Carolina. / Photo courtesy of Enthusiast Hotel Collection

Motivated guests can start their bird studies before leaving for their trip. Cornell Lab’s Bird Academy offers a Joy of Birdwatching course and access to lectures by ornithologists. You can contribute to the lab’s work of helping scientists track bird populations by submitting your sightings online through the Lab’s eBird platform or the eBird app.

A red, black, and white bird on a tree branch.
An acorn woodpecker in Mendocino, California. / Photo courtesy of Enthusiast Hotel Collection

Whether you’re a bird lover or just want to blast the competition on trivia night, staying at an Enthusiast property can expand your knowledge of migration patterns and nesting rituals. “Now birds and birders will tell our story,” said Enthusiast Hotel Collection founder Oneil Khosa in a statement. “We’re thrilled to help enhance the enjoyment of birds for guests at all our hotels and give them the tools and resources to build memories that last forever. We are very proud of our partnership with the Cornell Lab.”

How large are bald eagle nests? Much larger than you might think

Bald eagles around the country are raising families this spring and people watching them, in person or via live-cams, might be wondering just how large are those nests?

Bald eagles around the country are raising families this spring and people watching them, in person or via live-cams, might be wondering just how large are those nests?

An answer is provided in a photograph making the rounds via social media, showing a ranger sitting in a replica nest measuring five feet wide and three  feet deep.

Bald eagle chicks. Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The photo was originally shared last year by Forest Park Nature Center in Illinois. The Facebook post states that the replica nest is housed at Hueston Woods State Park in Ohio.

ALSO ON FTW OUTDOORS: Surreal footage shows sea lions practicing high dives from dock

The Forest Park Nature Center explained that bald eagles can build much larger nests, and that the largest recorded nest “measured 9.5 feet in diameter, 20 feet deep, and weighed almost 6,000 pounds!”

That nest, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, was constructed by eagles in St. Petersburg, Fla. The lab’s “All About Birds” website states: “Another famous nest — in Vermilion, Ohio — was shaped like a wine glass and weighed almost two metric tons. It was used for 34 years until the tree blew down.”

Nests are typically built in the tallest conifers near their sturdy trunks. While both parents construct a nest, the female is said to perform most of the placement of branches, twigs, and soft materials.

Eaglets, after they fledge, generally spend about four years in “nomadic exploration of vast territories” and can fly hundreds of miles per day. Immature bald eagles born in California, for example, have traveled as far north as Alaska.

Catch limit? Voracious osprey nabs three fish in one swoop

A Florida photographer has captured footage of a large osprey plucking three fish out of the water in one swoop.

A photographer on Monday captured video footage of an osprey lifting a fish  nearly its size out of Florida’s Sebastian Inlet.

While Mark Smith‘s footage is spectacular, he informed For The Win Outdoors that he recently captured footage of an osprey flying off with three fish in its talons. (The clip is posted below.)

An ambitious endeavor, but the pinfish were slippery and one wriggled free and continued to wriggle as it plummeted toward earth.

How did the osprey respond? The raptor simply transferred one of the other two fish to its free talon, and flew off with enough food to last an entire day.

Smith joked on Twitter: “Oh what’s that? There is a two fish limit? Well let me leave one right here for later.”

ALSO ON FTW OUTDOORS: Humpback whale gains celebrity status in struggling Alaskan town

Smith said ospreys have been on a feeding spree lately in and near the inlet, and that diving ospreys are a fairly common sight.

Ospreys, which prey almost exclusively on fish, can plunge talons-first more than three feet below the surface, and can catch fish weighing a pound or more.

They’ll often spend hours consuming their meals from high perches such as branches, cliff faces, and even the tops of power poles and light posts.

–Video courtesy of Mark Smith Photography (image is a screen shot)

‘Wait for it!’ Watch as osprey pulls giant fish from inlet

A Florida wildlife photographer on Monday captured footage of an osprey diving talons-first into Florida’s Sebastian Inlet and flying off with a fish nearly its size.

A Florida wildlife photographer on Monday captured footage of an osprey diving talons-first into Florida’s Sebastian Inlet and flying off with a fish nearly its size.

Mark Smith told For The Win Outdoors that the osprey nabbed its meal, an Atlantic menhaden, at Sebastian Inlet State Park, and carried the fish 300 yards to a nearby perch.

While the footage is dramatic, and the fish a heavy lift, Smith said this is not a rare sight at this time of year.

“The birds were in a feeding frenzy and I have dozens of clips like this,” Smith said.

ALSO ON FTW OUTDOORS: Giant yellowfin tuna puts anglers at tipping point

In fact, the photographer added, he has seen ospreys catch much larger fish, and early last month he captured footage of an osprey flying off with three fish in its talons, ultimately dropping one.

“Oh what’s that? There is a two fish limit? Well let me leave one right here for later,” Smith tweeted.

Ospreys, which prey almost exclusively on fish, will often spend hours consuming their meals, usually from high perches such as branches, cliff faces, and even the tops of power poles and light posts.