Summer in the Northern Hemisphere seems to be leaving few areas unscathed. Whether you’re getting too much rain or not enough, you’re probably spending at least a few moments of each day thinking about unprecedented weather patterns and climate change. Global warming seems a boon in my part of the world, but one has to wonder how these dramatic, unpredictable swings are affecting the local flora and fauna in the short and long terms. Is this too heady for a lazy July? 

Speaking of July, every year around this time an assemblage of my family and friends gather in a remote part of Pennsylvania for food, fun, and flaming chickens. Yes, I will be birding at the Chicken Inferno this weekend. However, while there will definitely be a chicken this year (probably Jackson Pollock-themed), an inferno might be ill-advised considering the tinder-dry condition of the area. Corey will be spending the weekend with family in NYC and doubts he’ll get much birding in.

Whatever your plans this weekend, make time to enjoy SkyWatch Friday. Also be sure to come back Monday to share your best bird of the weekend!


Here is the Picasso-inspired Chicken of Inferno 2011. Check out how the bird is constructed in multiple planes. Crafty!

Written by Mike
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.