Author Archives: David Vander Pluym

About David Vander Pluym

Birder biologists currently living and working in the Lower Colorado River Valley. When not out in the field I spend a lot of my time reading and writing about birds. I have always been drawn to areas under birded and species that we know little about.

Perception of Rare and the LCRV

Posted on February 15, 2013 by David Vander Pluym

Each of us has our own perception of what birds we consider rare and think of when someone says we saw a rare bird. Some would consider species with low world populations such as Whooping Crane as the only rare … Continue reading →

Posted in Identification, LCRV, Migration, Techniques, Vagrants | Tagged Arizona, California, Colorado River, Greater Scaup, Lake Havasu, Lake Mohave, LCRV, Pacific Loon | 2 Comments

Shad Run: Of Rarities and Opportunistic Feeding

Posted on February 10, 2013 by David Vander Pluym

During fall and winter it is not infrequent to see a feeding frenzy suddenly form on Lake Havasu. Typically each feeding frenzy will only last a short time, but they can occur frequently while the fish are running. The actual … Continue reading →

Posted in Lake Havasu, LCRV, Mohave County, Vagrants | Tagged Colorado River, Common Merganser, Ecology, Fish, LCRV, Neotropic Cormorant, Redhead, Shad | 2 Comments

Parrot Molt

Posted on February 4, 2013 by David Vander Pluym

With the new Phainopepla Fables, we’ll be presenting a broader range of topics. Here is something new and different than our typical posts centered around the LCRV! Hopefully this might generate interest into looking at molt and caring a bit … Continue reading →