Backyard Birdwatching

Hello, readers! One thing in my life that brings me joy is watching birds. My birdwatching is not done out in the wild, binoculars in hand, but simply looking out my kitchen window at the birdfeeder in my backyard. There is something very special about seeing all the visiting birds, and my family and I …

Let’s clear the air: a Vulture is not a Buzzard

  Today’s blog focuses on the Turkey Vulture, another one of the most commonly seen birds here in the Southeast. Before we talk about identifying characteristics though, I thought we could dive into the semantics of the terms vulture and buzzard, because it can be pretty confusing. Before researching this topic, whenever I heard the …

The Broad-winged Hawk

Hello readers! In my previous (and first ever) blog post I wrote about the differences between the Red-tailed Hawk and the Red-shouldered Hawk. We discovered how the Red-tailed is bigger than the Red-shouldered and how it is more likely to be seen in our area as well. In this blog we will talk about the …

Red Tailed Hawk vs Red Shouldered Hawk

Hello to all the readers of the Shelf Life in the Mountains Blog! My name is Annie and I have been working at the beautiful Jackson County Public Library in Sylva for almost two months now. I have also been an avid bird watcher for about four years. It all started when I moved from …