Anthony Ciccarello

This book had some fantastic passages. The detail that Baker captures about the life of a falcon is impressive and offers an interesting window into this bird of prey. But I struggle to see who I can recommend it to. I only see the most bird obsessed people making it to the end. It’s essentially a collection of detailed journal entries. But it’s not a novel. It’s kinda like a bunch of short stories that start to feel repetitive. While I get the sense that watching a peregrine stoop from high in…

Was hanging out on the beach tonight and saw a SpaceX rocket. I’m not sure the world needs more Starlink satellites but it is a cool sight to witness. It’s interesting to see how the rocket changes as it gets higher into the atmosphere. It was already a cool sunset in it’s own right pre-rocket.

Another season of travel is wrapping up. As hard as travel days and flight delays are, there is always something magical about seeing the world from above.

Bookmarked “You don’t have to blog like me” by Dan Q This is your reminder that having a personal website entitles you to blog however you want. There are lots of patterns communities have developed but it’s basically all optional. The internet is yours! Also posted to: news.indieweb.org

It was really great to be back on the lake in New Hampshire with family. Other than some smoke, the weather was great. The green trees were a welcome contrast to California dry sumer. We swam, kayaked to the island, picked blueberries, played chess, ate ice cream, and slept in. When I wasn’t busy hanging out with my sister’s 3 kids I listened to some audiobooks and worked on fun projects on my website tracking books and posting a bunch of stuff I’d been hoping to get around to. It was also fun…

Caspian Tern looking for food in the San Diego River This May I set some big goals for my birthday month. Coming off of a fun experience at the 2026 San Diego Bird Festival, I decided to share my hobby with my friends and family. Most people know that I’m into birds to an almost comical level. But many people have never gone birding themselves. There are many ways to go birding, and not all of them need to be intense. But for myself, I was planning a lot of birding. And the main event was a…

Omnibear v2.3.0 has been release with some improvements to the login flow. But more importantly, it is now available in the Chrome Web Store! If you have a website that supports Micropub, check it out. Also posted to: news.indieweb.org

Had some fun with the site recently and added some new pages/functionality: added animations between pages (when opening posts) improved caching to faster page loads updated search page components added more hats

Raptors are so cool. I had a great time watching and interacting with this Harris Hawk and Lanner Falcon with Total Raptor eXperience in La Jolla. Such amazing birds with unique abilities that fit unique niches in ecology. It takes a lot of dedication to raise one of these birds but it was fun to spend a few hours with them.

I now have bird stats on my website pulled from my ebird profile!

2026 Preface Back in 2022 I imported my photos from Instagram to my site. I started with Instagram’s official export file and converted to markdown files which is the format my site uses. While I worked on the import I started documenting my process. But my draft post lagged and sat unpublished for years. Tonight at Homebrew Website Club, Joe referenced working on importing Instagram posts to his site. There are a few projects similar projects (e.g. memento-mori and Instaloader) but they have…

Spangled Cotinga Had lots of fun with the camera at the San Diego Safari Park with my sister. So many cool animals and fun scenes. It’s not every day you see a man walking an aardvark or a zookeeper named Fern. I finally caught a (poorly lit) glimpse of the platypus. I also saw the Sand Cat for the first time (very cute). Of course I loved the aviaries; one even reminded me of birding in Costa Rica. Fern with a Eurasian Eagle Owl The Burrowing Owl eventually came out to say hi A unique view of…

One of my favorite annual events in oceanside is the Beach Soccer Championship. It’s a unique variation of soccer and really fun to watch. The field and teams are small, it is faster pace, you can get close to the action, there are lots of bicycle kicks, and the atmosphere is relaxed like a surf competition. I’ve now been able to bring a sibling 2 years in a row too. Players from the Tahiti team performing a dance before the men’s pro championship

Hooded oriole Thanks to everyone who came out to my birding birthday walk yesterday. I had a great time hosting and sharing my love of birds with you all. And the group spotted quite a few birds themselves and had great questions. The full list of species is posted on ebird if you are interested. I didn’t take a ton of photos but here are some of the fun ones. Song sparrow House wren butt. This parent was busy feeding a nest full of noisy chicks.

Caught this wild view on my last flight home from the east coast. I’ve never seen the last glows of sunset from above. Was even more wild in motion with a slight parallax effect.

Thanks to my family for coming out this morning. It was fun sharing the birds with both the kids and adults. The indigo buntings and orioles were a big hit and it was really cool having the bald eagles to fly over for us. Even with the big group we still encountered 32 species! Also, thanks to my cousin Jude for capturing some photos.

It’s nice to be on the east coast in May. I love seeing all the spring growth.

Okay, I’ve set the times for my open birthday bird walk. If you are in the San Diego area and want to come birding with me, you’re welcome to join! Date: Monday May 25 (Memorial Day) Time: 5:00 PM Location: Batiquitos Lagoon (7380 Gabbiano Ln, Carlsbad, CA 92011) Kids are welcome as are any bird-curious friends! If you have a pair of binoculars, bring them. If not there will still be plenty to see and hear. I’ll have a couple extra pairs. If you have an extra pair of binoculars you’re willing…

Okay, I’m calling it there. After wandering around town in the dark for an hour, I did eventually find a Great Horned Owl hooting. After reviewing my photos I realized…I’m not cut out for reviewing photos. Well, at least I’m only adding one more species. There’s a pretty clear a Brandt’s Cormorant with a bright blue throat in a picture on the bait barge so I’m confident I can add that. I still need to review the terns but I got some decent sound ID down in Imperial Beach so those have already…

Species goal met! I was a little worried when I arrived at the Tijuana River Estuary because there wasn’t much activity going on. I heard and saw the Savana Sparrows. I heard and eventually saw the Ridgeway Rail. But there wasn’t much else for a while. I finally caught a glimpse of the Northern Harrier and found a Willet on the bank of the marsh. I was glad to finally hit the goal. Thanks to everyone who donated. It made it a fun day for me and I’m excited to help the San Diego Bird Alliance. I…

Wrapping up at the San Diego River Mudflats. Got to see the Black Skimmers skimming which was really cool as well as see several other tern including Caspian and Elegant Terns. I took some photos and will check back to see if any Royal Terns were in the mix. There were a host of egrets too: Snowy Egrets, a Reddish Egret, Great Blue Herons, and Little Blue Herons. I checked the bait barge for any Brandta Cormorants but it was mostly Double Created Cormorants and Sea Lions. I’m getting close to…

Spent two hours at Santee Lakes and saw 29 species including 5 new ones. This tile I brought the DSLR camera with me and got some great shots I’ll add to the list later. Saw several wood ducks including an all-white (albino/leucistic) mother duck. While waiting for my lunch at the grill I got to watch an Osprey and Forster’s Tern catch fish. Next I’ll head to the coast for some shore birds.

Just finished a hot hike in the sun at Lake Hodges and added 8 more species with a list of 24. The cutest had to be the covey of California Quail which included a bunch of babies. I also heard a few Bell’s Vireos. There was also a gnatcatcher though I’m not confident enough to ID that. I’ll have to look up California vs Blue-gray later. Next up is Santee Lakes in search of some wood ducks!

Starting off strong. I spent about 2 hours at Guajome Park and saw 45 species! That does not include the domestic peacocks in the neighborhood. My favorite birds I saw were the Lawrence’s Goldfinches who were feeding on the side of the trail. They are beautiful birds I don’t get to see too often. A close second would be the Yellow-breasted Chats which took me a while to see. There were lots of Black-headed Grosbeaks calling loudly and so many pairs of California Towhees.

🎵 Listening to the Bird Songs playlist by Anthony Ciccarello. I’m all set for my birdathon fundraiser tomorrow. I’ve even got my bird playlist lined up!

Before I left New York, I went birding with my sister and brother-in-law at Jamaica Bay. I’d heard the birding is great there but was really impressed at how much was going on. I even ID’d 3 lifers! I couldn’t believe how many tree swallows were nesting though. It seemed like there was another nest box every 50 feet.

One World Trade Center deserves it’s own post. It really dominates the skyline.

I had a great time in NYC last week. As usual, I found the mix of textures and architectures between the buildings captivating.

Another great afternoon playing ultimate on the beach and another great sunset. Technically this photo was from last week but I was too busy playing to get the sunset pic tonight. 😄