Great news, a conservation area in BC is being expanded by 8000 hectares!! You can also read about Young Birder Liron's rare loon encounter!

Protected Grizzly, Wolverine habitat expanded in BC - Read the rare great news HERE.

 You can also read the fun encounter Liron had with a Red-throated Loon in Audubon's Magazine HERE.  

 I had a similar encounter with this speces a few months ago that you can read about HERE.

This Red-throated Loon in Anchorage gave Liron a magical encounter - Photo: Liron Gertsman

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Dowitcher Identification

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Hawk Identification Tips from every angle (Sharpie vs Cooper and Red-tailed Subspecies)

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I get several questions about the difference between accipiters. The most common ones are between Sharp-shinned Hawks and Cooper's Hawks and between Cooper's Hawks vs Northern Goshawks (to a lesser degree). Next, I get many questions dealing with a certain race of buteos the Western Red-tailed Hawk and Harlan's. So I thought I would do a post on these to help answer those questions. I will deal with Cooper's and Sharpies and not Goshawks because they are much more common here and look much more alike. My friend John Reynolds inspired me to write this up. COOPER'S AND SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS EYE COLOUR - YELLOW OR ORANGE? RED? Normally a juvenile Cooper's hawk has a bright yellow eye and a Juvie Sharpie has a orange eye but some cooper's can have a dull yellow eye that looks a bit orangish. Cooper's Hawks usually only transition to the orange eye colour when they are sub adults, so in good light, it's a very very reliable feature. However you
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*Updated - The most famous Red-tailed Hawk is eating fish on the ground just like a Bald Eagle!

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By now you have probably heard about the racist Canadian-born White woman who did a racist attack on a Black birder named Christian Cooper in Central Park in NYC. All he asked was for her to leash her dog in a on-leash dog area. If you haven't heard of this story you can watch the video and read about it HERE . It's a vile video of a vile person who knew her White privilege and used it as a weapon against this man.  We all know that in America many Black people especially Black men are killed by police for no reason at all but the colour of their skin. A good example is George Floyd who was killed by a police officer (while 3 other cops looked on) for what they said was a possible 20$ forged bill. The White police officer put a knee on his neck on camera for over 8 mins until he died, despite having the victim completely restrained, begging for mercy and not being able to breathe. Only one police officer was charged and not for 1st degree murder but third and manslaught
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