Sorry for posting this later than usual. I just got back from seeing "The Dark Knight" (It was awesome). The past few weeks have been very busy for me, so I've had very little time for diarying. (I have, however, had lots of time to comment.)
The subject of today's diary, the Black-Crowned Night Heron, is found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.
Black-Crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)
Its range in the U.S. and Canada
It was my father who got me into birding. He is the one who took most of the pictures I use in these diaries.
He has searched all over the state for black-crowned night herons, but never found them. Dad works for IBM, and often travels internationally. He has teams in Beijing, Bangalore, Winchester, and Rio De Janeiro.
It was during a visit to China that he finally found what he was looking for:
Since then he's found them in the U.S. (in New York), but still never at home in Austin.
Sorry for the short diary today.
As always, The Left Wing is a sort of avian open thread. Feel free to share stories and photos of birds (or any critter). Even cat pictures and stories are welcome - I don't discriminate.
UPDATE: If anyone reads this late, I will continue to stop by to read and answer comments until I post the next birding diary (hopefully next Sunday).