№ 4741 Jan 2026
Best Plants for Ducks: What to Grow Round a Pond
A naturalist's planting guide for a duck-friendly pond - the four plants ducks actually eat, the cover plants that keep ducklings alive, and where to put each one.
Birds & Wetlands - A naturalist's journal of marshes and migrations. Volume IV.
Vol. IV · Field Notes Established 2019 · 475 essays archived Spring 2026
A slow, illustrated journal of the world's marshes, mangroves, and flooded forests - and the four thousand species that pass through them each year.
“We are uncountably outnumbered by birds - and yet most days we walk past the marsh as if it were empty. This journal is an attempt to look again, slowly, with field glasses and a warm cup of something.”
- The Editors
This week in the marsh
Latest dispatch
Plate II Field note · Long read
Peanut Butter for Birds: A Field Guide to Doing It Properly
A naturalist's guide to feeding wild birds peanut butter - which species actually take it, which jars are safe, the homemade winter mix we use, and the three feeders that survive squirrels.
Recent dispatches
Field notes
Short essays, observations, and ten-minute reads from this season's wetland visits.
№ 47318 Jan 2026
Why Do Geese Attack Each Other? A Field Naturalist's Read
A naturalist's guide to goose-on-goose aggression - why Canada geese fight, what the hissing actually means, the four-step attack sequence to read, and why it almost always peaks in March.
№ 4723 Feb 2023
Geese Behaviour: A Naturalist's Field Guide to the Honkers
Why geese hiss at you, what the V-formation actually does, and how to read a Canada goose's body language. A field naturalist's notes on what's really going on with the most misunderstood bird in the park.
№ 47112 Jan 2026
How to Keep Squirrels Out of an Owl Nest Box
The five things that actually keep squirrels out of an owl nest box - pole choice, baffle type, height, entrance hole, and timing. A field guide for backyard owl-watchers, with the products we use.
№ 47011 Jan 2026
How Far Can Geese Fly in a Day? The Numbers Behind the V
A naturalist's answer to a question with a deceptively boring textbook reply - how far can a Canada goose actually fly in 24 hours? The honest range, what the V-formation does, and why flights of 1,500 miles in a day are real.
№ 46919 Jul 2023
Water Birds in Florida: A Field Guide to the Twenty-Seven You'll Actually See
A naturalist's field guide to Florida's 27 most-seeable water birds - which wetlands they prefer, when they show up, and the four locations where you'll see most of them in a single morning.
№ 46810 Jan 2026
Duck Predators: What Hunts Them and How to Stop It
The thirteen animals that hunt wild and domestic ducks - ranked by where they hunt (water, air, ground) - and the eight protections that actually work. A field naturalist's guide for pond owners and small-flock keepers.
Pl. XXIV Great egret · Ardea alba Species of the month
The Great Egret
Ardea alba · long-legged wader, family Ardeidae
Almost driven to extinction at the turn of the twentieth century - its breeding plumes were worth twice their weight in gold to milliners - the great egret's recovery is one of conservation's quieter triumphs. It now nests, again, on every continent except Antarctica, and stands, unmoving, in nearly every wetland we've ever written about.
- Wingspan
- 131 - 170 cm
- Diet
- fish, frogs, voles
- Nest
- colonial · treetop
- Status
- least concern
The Guide
Wander by habitat, by season, by song.
Every essay we publish is filed under a wetland, a behaviour, and a species. The guide is how you find your way back to anything we've ever written.
01
Marsh & Reedbed
Phragmites & freshwater
Bittern, harrier, warbler, rail. The deep grass world, best entered before sunrise.
- essays →
02 Coastal & Estuary
Mudflats & tidal salt
Where freshwater finally surrenders. Knots, sandpipers, oystercatchers, the long-legged crowd.
- essays →
03 Mangrove & Swamp
Tropical brackish forests
Stilt-rooted, half-flooded, half-noisy. Kingfishers, herons, and the occasional curious crocodile.
- essays →
04 Pond & Pothole
Glacial & backyard waters
Small, undramatic, essential. The duck-and-coot democracies of the inland midwest.
- essays →
05 Migration & Flyway
Atlantic, Pacific, East Asian
Twice-yearly miracle, charted by satellite, ankle-band, and one very patient old man with a notebook.
- essays →
06 Song & Calls
Bioacoustics & field recordings
Headphones-on essays paired with field recordings of the wetland's quietest residents.
- essays →
07 Tools & Field Gear
Glass, cloth, rubber, paper
Honest, slow reviews of every binocular, boot, and notebook we've actually used in the marsh.
- essays →
08 Conservation & Policy
Ramsar, NGOs & people
The slow, hard, joyful work of keeping wetlands wet - told through the people doing it.
- essays →
The Wetland Almanac
When to look up.
A rolling four-month forecast of the season's most-watched arrivals and departures - assembled from reader sightings and our own muddy notebooks.
Browse the archive Mar First sandhill cranes on the Platte. Nebraska
Apr Bittern booming resumes in Norfolk. United Kingdom
May Black-necked stilt arrives at Salton Sea. California
Jun First flightless moult in mute swans. Netherlands