My Cover Feature and Interview plus an article I wrote on Rock Sandpipers for ABA's Birding Magazine is out!

I am honoured to have my photo of a Rock Sandpiper on the cover of the March issue of American Birding Association's (ABA) Birding magazine. I am also interviewed by Noah Strycker (who set the ABA world big year record in 2015). In addition I wrote a four page article about Rock Sandpipers, for the online version of the magazine, as well. I tried to add some fun and interesting facts about Rock Sandpipers. So there are 3 features but getting the cover and the main interview feature in the print issue, which is six pages long and features several of my photos, is so moving to me. I really wish my father lived to see this. He would have been really excited and proud to read it and see my photo of the Rock Sandpiper on the cover. This is the first time a photo of mine has ever covered a magazine, so it really means a lot! 

The editor Ted Floyd sent me photos of a high school in Boulder, Colorado using the magazine with my photo on the cover for their field class which is super cool!

Bird class in Boulder, CO - Photo by Ted Floyd

At the end of February it was two years since my dad left this world and left me, on his wife’s and my mother’s birthday, and I can still picture him in his big armchair reading this magazine. I like to think that he’s reading this one wherever he is now.  I still miss them both, every moment of every day, and forever will be heartbroken, but thinking about them being able to see it, somehow, is a small comfort.

You can read the March issue in full online when it goes up mid-month, if you are a member by logging in HERE and if you are a member who subscribes to the print issue, a print issue will also be mailed. I have extracted the relevant pages below. Thank you to Ted Floyd for selecting my image for the cover and asking me to do the Rock Sandpiper article with Peter Pyle and thanks to Peter Pyle for his help with the aging of the birds. Thanks to Noah Strycker for interviewing me and being lovely to work with.








Comments

  1. Bryony AngellMarch 14, 2025 at 5:52 AM

    Congratulations, Mel! And so many of your beautiful photographs, too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MegMarch 14, 2025 at 9:21 AM

    I am so proud to see you on the cover of ABA Magazine. It was a fantastic article about you! I also loved reading about the sandpiper and seeing your beautiful photo on the cover! I learnt a lot! Great photo of all the youth with your photo on the cover!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousMarch 14, 2025 at 7:55 PM

      Mel, thanks for heads up about the article. I will get my copy with my subscription.
      Interesting detail about the Rock Sandpiper. Shorebirds are the bane of my existence.
      A great article.

      Barry

      Delete
  3. GrahamMarch 17, 2025 at 9:51 PM

    Mel I am a huge fan of yours and your photos are stunning and the interview by Noah is really good I enjoyed your answers. I hope DEI is reinstated in the US it is vitriolic hate run ragged. By the way I learnt a few new things about Rock Sandpipers eat and I love all the plumages. I got my old bones over to see that Purple too. I think this is one of the nicest covers the magazine has issued. I have also dragged myself over to Mission Point to see these beauties. Great work as Mel and the magazine should be honoured to have you not the other way round!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

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

Image
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 ...
Read more

Dowitcher Identification

Image
Birders notoriously find it difficult to tell Short-billed and Long-billed Dowitchers apart. I have got a request to do an identification explanation on them so here goes, I hope it will be helpful. Short-billed Dowitchers and Long-billed look so similar. Using their habitat is helpful but not diagnostic. Short-billed Dowitchers tend to prefer Salt water and brackish water and Long-billed Dowitchers tend to prefer fresh water. However, I have OFTEN seen Short-billeds in freshwater and Long-billeds in brackish and salt water. Therefore, DO NOT rely on habitat. Another feature many people will tell you to rely on is spotting on the side of the flanks of Short-billeds and barring on the side of Long-billeds. Usually this is a mark that you can use but it is not always as distinct as you like. I have seen Short-billeds with a barred appearance to the flanks. It is only at the side of the breast where you have to look for this diagnostic feature for the spots on a Short-billed and t...
Read more

STINT IDENTIFICATION

Image
As per request, here are some tips that I hope will be helpful in identifying and differentiating Red-necked Stint from Little Stint. I will also do a brief intro on Long-toed and Temminck's Stint... if you build it they will come right?😉 Red-necked and Little Stints look very much alike in worn breeding plumage. The amount of Red on the face, throat and breast in Red-necked Stint is vary variable). They look even more alike in non-breeding plumage, that is why it is essential to learn structural differences to separate the two. They are similar to Semipalmated Sandpipers as well as Sanderlings. Both species are often confused for Red-necked Stints. Little Stints rarely get confused with Sanderling because they have a hind toe which helps differentiate it from this species. Sanderlings in breeding or worn breeding are usually confused with Red-necked Stints but they are much larger than Red-necked Stints. Let's first start with Bills in this complicated ID proces...
Read more

*Updated - The most famous Red-tailed Hawk is eating fish on the ground just like a Bald Eagle!

Image
Update - There are plans in the works to make a documentary film on this young Red-tailed Hawk who thinks he's an Eagle. You can read the latest news about that on CBC HERE . Watch this incredible footage of the little Red-tailed Hawk who grew up in a family of three Eaglets and 2 Bald Eagle Parents. He is imprinted now on Bald Eagles. He looks and acts just like one, as you can see here in the video below. He is standing over a large salmon carcass, just like a Bald Eagle would and he's eating the decaying flesh. Red-tailed Hawks like to eat voles and rabbits etc. not fish! Imprinting is usually irreversible according to raptor expert David Bird. However, I hope it's reversible so that he doesn't attempt to mate with a Bald Eagle, as the Eagle would kill him because it would view him as a Hawk. Eagle expert David Hancock said that the bird will likely starve and get killed by an eagle. He said this possibly can be prevented if someone grabs it and takes it to O...
Read more

1 year since I lost my father

Image
My dad and I whom I miss terribly. One year on since I lost him. Today would have been my mother's bday. Her name was Valerie and it is also the first year anniversary of the death of my beloved father, Arne. There is not a day that goes by where I don't think of them. Now for ever more the day of his death will be connected to her birthday, a very sad day but in a way that connection is beautiful to tie them together. My beautiful family before we lost both parents. I put flowers down at their grave to celebrate them both today. I hate that it is one year since I told him I loved him and hugged him. I miss him so very much. I miss his voice, his love and guidance and support. The ground for me feels shakier without his guidance and safety. I hate I will never see him again or talk to him again. Can't believe how quick time passes. This is why it is so important we treasure every single day to the fullest and tell those we love them. I will never forget the day he passed aw...
Read more