Who's Migrating Now? Find Out How To Attract Them!

Dark-eyed Juncos, called "snowbirds" because they arrive for winter, are migrating in big numbers and we had 92 on our property yesterday. Look for them at your feeders, eating seed off the ground. Some will winter here. The darkest juncos are adult males, young females are more brown.

Fox Sparrows, with their beautiful foxy color are also migrating. This one was with the Juncos.

American Tree Sparrows will spend the winter here at our feeders in NH, the first one arrived today.

American Robins are all over our yard, loving our crabapples. Although they can be seen here in NH into early winter, once very severe weather sets in and the crabapples are gone, they will have moved on south.

Tips for attracting migrants and wintering birds:
1. Keep multiple feeders stocked with energy packed black oil sunflower and mixes that contain sunflower and millet, a junco favorite. Juncos and other sparrows prefer to feed on the ground.
2. Keep a bird bath going except in severe weather. The robins were drinking and bathing in our bird bath today.
3. Plant crabapples and other fall berry producing trees and shrubs. These will attract robins and Cedar and Bohemian Waxwings and maybe Pine Grosbeaks.
4. Make sure feeders are near dense cover, like evergreens so birds can seek protection from bad weather and predators like Sharp-shinned Hawks.
5. Get our The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern or Western Region so you can identify and enjoy your winter visitors.

Halloween Bats! Eastern Red Bats Migrating Now.

Eastern Red Bat

Eastern Red Bat

Eastern Red Bat

Just in time for Halloween, a bat appeared in our yard several years ago. I just photographed this migrating Eastern Red Bat in flight as it foraged over our house. We watched it for about 10 minutes as it swooped over the trees and fields, catching insects. So cool!! But what is even more fun is looking at the photos. In the middle photo you can see the ear, lit by the sun. In the bottom photo you can see the outline of the bones.

These bats live in trees in wooded areas and roost up in the foliage curled up in their furry tail membrane. They are mainly solitary, just getting together to mate and during migration. They eat lots of moths as well as other insects. They live throughout the eastern half of the country. In fall the more northern ones migrate to southern areas, often using the same migratory routes along the eastern seaboard as some birds do.
We were so lucky to see it!

To learn more about bat conservation go here

and see out Stokes Beginner's Guide to Bats, written by Rob Mies and Kim Williams.

To learn more about birds see our new best-sellers, the most comprehensive photo guides,

The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region

The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Western Region

Lincoln's Sparrow, Migrating Now, Look for Them!

Lincoln's Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrow compared to the larger White-throated Sparrow

Sparrows are an acquired taste, we always say. Here's one of my favorites, a migrant Lincoln's Sparrow that I just photographed in our veggie garden eating weed seeds. We get very few Lincoln's coming through here in NH. Here is it also compared to the more common migrant here, the larger White-throated Sparrow it was foraging with. Lincoln's have subtle colors with that warm buffy breast and flanks with distinct fine, black streaking contrasting with clear white belly and whitish throat. Face with buffy submoustachial region and relative thin blackish malar streak. (Yeah, you gotta get into these type of clues if you want to learn sparrow ID, I told you they were an acquired taste, but worth it!) Lincoln's Sparrows breed across much of Canada, AK and parts of the West and winter across the lower southern area of U.S. and some of the West Coast. Look for them now!
See our Stokes Field Guides for much more on sparrow ID!

Hermit Thrushes Migrating Now, Here's How to ID them.

Hermit Thrush

Hermit Thrush

Swainson's Thrush has the tail and back the same color.

Beautiful Hermit Thrushes (Catharus guttatus) are on the move and one migrant showed up in our yard yesterday and sat on our garden fence. They are the only one of the Catharus thrushes to regularly winter in North America, wintering across the southern third and up the West Coast of the U.S. A great way to ID them is to get a look at the tail. It is reddish-brown and distinct from the back. The other similar looking thrushes to the Hermit Thrush almost all have tails that are the same color as the rump and back (the quite rare Bicknell's Thrush has a warm brown tail that subtly contrasts with the brown back). The Hermit Thrush also has the distinctive habit of flicking its tail quickly up and slowly down, another ID help. Look for Hermit Thrushes now and if you live in southern areas you may see them in winter! For the most complete and authoritative information on how to ID thrushes, with many photos per species, see our

The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America, the best-selling and most complete photographic field guide, and the regional versions,

The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region and
The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds:Western Region.

Happy Birding!

Rare Rufous Hummingbird in NH Now!

Rufous Hummingbird, now coming to a feeder in NH.

Note the notch in the outer edge of the tail feather closest to the central tail feathers (called r2). This clue can help distinguish juvenile and female Rufous Hummingbirds from female and juvenile Allen's Hummingbirds. In this case there is a noticeable notch. Note also the two central tail feathers have extensive rufous with greenish tips.

Here is another view of the tail. The bird was also coming to a planter of impatiens flowers on the deck.

The throat is heavily marked with dark streaks and several lower central orange-reddish feathers.

Some of the head feathers have buffy edges.

In bright light the mirror-like central throat feathers look almost copper colored.

Here is (left to right) Don, birder Kathy who came with her birder/photographer husband, Steve, who took this photo, gracious hosts Stu and Mary who have this wonderful hummingbird coming to their deck feeder, and me.

This Rufous Hummingbird has been coming to a feeder in central NH; a rare event, as this is a western species of hummingbird whose breeding range goes as far up as Alaska. Rufous Hummingbirds have shown up in NH before (including in 2009 and 2007) and the trend is for them increasingly showing up in the eastern half of the country in fall. Adult male Rufous Hummingbirds have extensive rufous orange on their throats and backs. Females and immatures have streaked throats with variable amounts of orange and are more difficult to distinguish from similar looking Allen's Hummingbirds.

From our book, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America,
Rufous Hummingbird, "F. iridescent green above, below, orangish-brown flanks, white forecollar and central belly; throat finely streaked with bronze or green dots, often with irregular central orange-red blotch; tail with extensive orangish brown at base... Nearly identical in the field to f. Allen's and cannot be distinguished except by hard-to-see shapes of individual tail feathers. In f. Rufous, next-to-central tail feathers slightly notched on inner web, and outer tail feathers nearly as broad as adjacent ones. In similar f. Allen's, next-to-central tail feathers generally untouched, and outermost tail feather narrower than in Rufous, but difference slight. Juv. (Jun-Nov.) Like ad. f. but juv. f. may have whitish throat with few markings; juv. m. may have more heavily marked throat with larger iridescent reddish spots. Complete molt into ad. plumage occurs Sep.-Mar."

Thanks to the wonders of high speed digital cameras, I was able to capture details of the tail and plumage of this bird. The noticeable notch in the r2 tail feather is similar to the description and diagram in Pyle's "Identification Guide to North American Birds" (a manual used by bird banders) for a juvenile male Rufous Hummingbird; the juvenile female averages less of a notch. The juvenile male has the two central tail feathers "narrower and with substantial rufous at the base" the juvenile female has the two central tail feathers "broader and primarily green, without rufous or with some rufous at the base." The adult female has two central tail feathers with "greater amounts of rufous but less than in males." According to aging the Rufous Hummingbird in Pyle, the juvenile has a "crown with distinct, cinnamon edging." So basically the preponderance of clues point to this being a juvenile male Rufous Hummingbird.

Photos of mine and others are being sent to hummingbird banders for further confirmation.

We had a great time seeing and photographing this marvelous little bird and Mary and Stu were so generous to let birders visit! Thank you!

10,000 Hawks Just left New England, Headed Your Way!

Pack Monadnock Raptor Migration Observatory in NH had some record days and as of yesterday, 10,000 Hawks, mostly Broad-winged Hawks, had passed over the site this year since the official count started in Sept. On Sept. 17th we had 4,026 raptors and on Sept. 16th we had 3,483 raptors, the third and fourth biggest days in the 11 yr. history of the site since records have been officially kept.

Broad-winged Hawk, adult.  

Broad-winged Hawks soar in groups (called "kettles") on thermals, rising columns of hot air. 

This large kettle was right over the mountain producing "ooohs" and "aahhs" from all. It is very hard to capture the numbers and feeling of a large kettle in a photo. This photo however captures what it was like to see a distant kettle through binoculars, or even a scope. How do we count them? Quickly and often one at a time. See how fast you can count the Broadwings in this photo, go!

When the Broadwings reach the top of the thermal, they "peel off", i.e. glide until they find a new thermal to rise on, an energy efficient means of getting to their wintering grounds in Central and South America. This peel can often make it easier to count the hawks, as they're gliding by one at a time.

The hawks kept pouring through. Spotting scopes were necessary to see the distant kettles. I showed a number of novice hawk watchers kettles in my scope. It's so cool when they say "oh, wow, now I see what you're all looking at!"

Official hawk counter for this site which is run by NH Audubon, is Katrina Fenton, above, aided by the of many other hawk watchers and sometimes enthusiastic school kids on a class outing. 

The numbers are turned in to hawkcount.org, the official website of Hawk Migration Association of North America, where all the numbers are recorded.

Other New England hawk watch sites also have had large numbers. So heads up to hawk watching sites south of us  the hawks are coming to you!!!!

Confusing Fall Warbler Field Guide Help!

Fall migration is here and warbler ID can be confusing as may birds do not look like they did in spring or young birds look different from adults as with this young Pine Warbler. For the best help with  warbler and other bird fall identification, get our new guides

Order Now! The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region, click here.

Order Now! The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Western Region, click here.

2 new Stokes Guides – The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region and The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Western Region

Reviewers are calling them "Jam-packed with some of the best bird photography out there... they provide the most current and up-to-date information on birds"
birdfreak.com

"Written and created with intelligence and exacting care... Expands on their record of excellent books about birds. I was impressed by the depth and authority of the species descriptions... I highly recommend trying one."
10,000 Birds

"Don and Lillian Stokes hit it out of the park with their new... guide"
Thermal Birding

The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern and Western Region are the most complete photographic guides to the birds of eastern and western North America ever written. These lighter weight, portable editions are based on our best-selling national guide, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America. They feature thousands of stunningly beautiful photos showing all the field marks and every significant plumage of each species and they include the most up-to-date and extensive identification information of any field guide. (Note, these are entirely new books and not the same as the former Stokes Field Guide to Birds eastern and western regions published in 1996.) We are so excited to bring to you these all new, lighter, more portable field guides,These guides are what you have been asking for. You can pre-order them now!

Take the confusion out of confusing fall warblers! Our guides show all the warbler plumages with multiple beautiful photos per species as with this Cape May Warbler.

These are more portable guides. 

The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region is less than an inch thick. Size is 5.6 x 8.5 x .08 inches, Pages: 513, Photos: 2,200+

The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Western Region is an inch thick. Size is 5.6 x 8.5 x 1 inch, Pages: 593, Photos: 2,400+

Here they are on top of our red, national guide The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America

These guides include everything birders want,
- Over 2,200 gorgeous photos in the eastern region and 2,400 photos in the western region, carefully chosen for each species to show all distinct field marks and plumages including, male, female, summer, winter, recognizable ages, morphs, important subspecies, and birds in flight.
- More photos per species for hard to identify birds. Difficult species, such as sparrows, warblers and flycatchers are shown from every important angle.
- The most complete and extensive identification text of any North American field guide,  either photographic or drawn.
- Handy Quick Alphabetical Index inside the front cover.
- The only North American field guides to include complete information on all subspecies and hybrids.
- Special sections with identification tips on identifying more difficult groups of birds.
- Cutting edge emphasis on quantitative shape as a way to fast-forward bird identification.
- The newest scientific names.
- Habitat descriptions.
- Special help for identifying birds in flight through important clues to behavior,  plumage, and shape.
- Detailed descriptions of songs and calls.
- The newest range maps.

Frequently Asked Questions,

1. Why did you write these new guides?

We wanted to give people lighter, more portable guides to take into the field, so we split our larger national guide, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America, into two regional guides, The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region and The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Western Region. Plus, each of these new regional guides contains only those species found in the respective halves of North America, so you have less species to look through when trying to identify a bird. This makes it easier to identify birds in your area.

2. Are they the same as your national guide, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America?

Yes, they contain all of same features as our national guide, the wonderful photos, layout, incredible information, and unique features that have made our national guide a best-seller. We have added a few new photos and the latest scientific name changes as of their writing. Best of all, these regional guides are much lighter and more portable. To further this end, we have omitted the extreme rarities from these regional guides (all of which are in our national guide) and included just the species you are most likely to see in the eastern or western regions of the country. For those who want all of the extreme rarities, we recommend getting our larger national guide, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America, which was published in 2010.

3. Why should I buy these guides?

These guides are the most complete and up-to-date regional field guides available. They have stunningly beautiful, carefully chosen photos, with multiple photos per species which show all the important field marks and plumages of each species. We give more, not less, photos for the difficult species. The information is the most complete of any field guide available and hailed for it's incredible accuracy. Photos are the new standard in bird identification and our photos are correct, labeled as to
age, sex, season, morph, subspecies, location and month of the photo. We give detailed and complete information on subspecies and hybrids, which no other guide does. Our layout, with photos at the top and no distractions, allows you to look closely at the real bird and all of its variations while trying to ID it. In summary, in terms of quality, information, and user-friendly layout, there are no other guides like these available. If you already own our national guide, you will want to get these new, portable, regional guides to take into the field with you.

4. Which area is covered by each region, so I will know which one to get depending on where I live?

The dividing line between the coverage of the two regional guides is a straight line from the eastern two-thirds of TX up through Canada, including most of OK, KS, NE, SD and ND. The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region covers species found east of that line and The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Western Region covers species found west of that line. There is a map on the back of each guide showing which area of North America it covers.

5. Are these the same as your previous Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region and Western Region published in 1996?

No, these are completely new and much more extensive identification guides with all new photos and information. That's why they are called The NEW Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern and Western Region. Our previous guides have not been updated since 1996. They are not being republished and will go out of print. The previous guides had less information and photos. They did have some behavioral and nesting information.

6. When can I get your new guides?

They are available now. The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region and The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Western Region are fully available all across the country now.

Praise for The Stokes Field Guide to Birds of North America,

The Stokes Field Guide to Birds of North America is "Unequivocally the most spectacular compendium of North American bird identification photographs ever assembled between two covers...this volume significantly resets the bar for North American field guides."

Wayne Peterson, Massachusetts Audubon Society

Common Nighthawk Migration Happening Now - Tips for Seeing Them!

Common Nighthawk, male. Males have a white throat, white subterminal primary bar on wings and a white band on the tail. 

Common Nighthawk, female. Females have a buffy throat, smaller white primary bar and no tail band.

Common Nighthawk, male

Common Nighthawk, female

Common Nighthawk, male

Common Nighthawk, male

Common Nighthawk migration is in full swing here in New England. Last night in NH we saw 301 from our deck. We have gotten good flights before, our previous high count has been 2,202 in one night. We live on a dammed-up section of a river, where the river flows north and nighthawks often follow river valleys on migration. We count from our deck and are often joined by our friends.

Common Nighthawk numbers have been declining in the Northeast so it was very exciting so see so many of them that night.

This is peak Common Nighthawk migration time, so get out and look. The best time to see them is at the end of the day from about 5 pm to dark.

Here are some tips for seeing migrating Common Nighthawks:

1. Look during the later afternoon to early evening hours, from about 4 pm to 7:30 pm.
2. Look north, as they generally move from north to south.
3. Get comfortable, use a chair if you can, you will be looking for quite a while. Tuck your elbows in, it is less tiring and steadier to hold binos that way.
4. Nighthawks often move along river corridors
5. Note if there is an ant hatch. Nighthawks are attracted to, and eat, dispersing ants who rise up in clouds.
6. Study the photos above, to learn nighthawk shape. Often you will only see distant birds with long pointed wings, flapping rather slowly. When feeding, nighthawks fly erratically. When migrating, they move more directly and may even rise up on a thermal sometimes.

Shearwaters, cool seabirds! See them on a whale watch trip.

Several years ago we went on a whale watch trip and we saw many hundreds plus of seabirds, we weren't counting as much as looking and I was also photographing. The seabirds were out feeding with the whales, near Jeffrey's Ledge, a 33 mile long shallow glacial deposit underwater formation that stretches from off Rockport, Mass. to south of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Because of nutrient rich upwelling from the deeper waters next to the ledge, it's very productive of food (small fish, mollusks, crustaceans) for the whales and other marine creatures. Here's a Great Shearwater in flight. By far, the most numerous seabirds we saw were Great Shearwaters. They have grayish brown upperparts, a dark cap and a variable white collar. This one has less of a collar. You can see the narrow U-shaped white patch on the rump.

We also saw a fair number of Cory's Shearwaters, shown here. The yellow bill is quite prominent, a help with their ID.

It ain't easy to photograph seabirds. First of all, you're on a moving boat. We were lucky in that the seas were calm, with no big swells. Some tips, brace yourself against the wall of the boat, keep you knees slightly flexed and plant your feet somewhat widely to steady yourself. Forget a tripod. The boat is crowded, rocking and you have to manuever around people. Use a telephoto lens with image stabilization. I had a Canon 300 mm IS lens with a 1.4 teleconverter (giving me 420 mm) and a Canon Mark II camera. I now use a Canon 7D Mark II and a Canon 1 DX. If you can hand hold the heavy 500 mm lens or the 300 mm f 2.8 lens then good for you, they are too heavy for me.

Here's a Great Shearwater taking off, love the pinkish feet.

Another species we saw was this Sooty Shearwater, an easy ID because of its almost all over sooty color, except for the whitish on the underwing primary coverts.

Here's what it really looks like, with lots of little shapes bobbing on the water. These are Great Shearwaters, but you need to look carefully at each group of birds and all birds flying by to ID them. For great ID help for seabirds, use our best-selling, most complete photographic guide, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Take a whale watch trip and enjoy the seabirds!

Dragonflies for Birders, Enjoy!

Birders can look for dragonflies through their binoculars! This is a Halloween Pennant dragonfly, so aptly named, and one of my favorites. We have hundreds in our fields right now.

Widow Skimmer

Widow Skimmer. The most colorful dragonflies with patterns on their wings are often in the Skimmer family of dragonflies.

When birds are quiet in summer, birders turn to watching dragonflies, that's what we do. Dragonflies are active on warm days, the hotter and sunnier the better. Dragonflies are stunningly beautiful, have cool names, and are abundant in fields, lakes, streams, shores, many of the places people go in summer.

Here are a few tips to enjoy and identify them.

1. Use your binoculars to spot them, if you have close focusing binos, even better.

2. Some dragonfly males patrol territories along ponds, lakes, and streams. Females mate with them then lay their eggs on emerging vegetation. If you see 2 dragonflies flying in tandem, this is a precursor to mating. In the wheel positon, mating is occurring.

3. Some dragonflies are more perchers, others more fliers, that can be a clue to their ID. Different perchers have different ways of perching, again an ID clue.

4. In general, some of the most obvious, colorful, and patterned-wing dragonflies you see are in the Skimmer family, so look in that section of our book.

5. Different species of dragonflies are on the wing at different times during the summer, so you will constantly see new ones.

6. Male, female and immature dragonflies of the same species can look different, just like birds.

We (along with dragonfly experts Blair Nikula and Jackie Sones) produced a book, Stokes Beginner's Guide To Dragonflies in order to quickly help you get into enjoying these marvelous insects. We worked out an easy key and lots of color photos. Take it and binoculars along with you the next time you go to the lake, river or stream. We take it with us in the canoe whenever we go out in the summer. Enjoy!