jeff with dish mic and bird stickers

Gear Reviews, Recording, Reviews

100 Bird Songs & Counting: My First 7 Months with a Parabolic Mic

Earlier this year, I dove into the world of recording with parabolas when a Pro Mono Parabolic microphone from Wildtronics landed on my porch in a large brown box.

This 22-inch wide dish-shaped microphone blew me away the first time I used it. In the past seven months I’ve used it nearly every weekend and uploaded nearly 100 recordings to eBird.

birding at night at government canyon

Birding Summary, Recording

Birding at Night

Like most birders, I go birding in the morning. The day is new and birds are looking for food, water, and romance. But what happens when the sun goes down? Do birds still exist? Last night, I saw a favorite birding hotspot in a whole new way…by the glow of the moon.

Purple Martin sunset

Education, Entertainment

Thousands of Purple Martins form a daily ‘birdnado’ in Texas as they stage for 2024 fall migration

Every year after laying their eggs and fledging their chicks, thousands and thousands of Purple Martin birds concentrate into a mega flock. They begin roosting together nightly in the lush trees of a Petco parking lot in Round Rock, Texas.

Because birds are cool and thousands of birds are obviously more cool (bird math), Travis Audubon organizes yearly Purple Martin parties which bring viewers together to enjoy this bird spectacle