The Money Mustache Community
Other => Off Topic => Topic started by: CowboyAndIndian on April 20, 2019, 07:56:25 PM
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I've always been interested in birds. The first decent day of this spring, sitting in my back yard I saw so many birds.
Would love to learn more about them.
I was able to find out about eBird (eBird.org) and Merlin bird identifier. Looks like both of these are from Cornell Universi
Any suggestions by any experienced birders?
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I love birding and often take trips just for that purpose. Both of those apps are excellent to help identify what you see and the only things I would add would be a notebook, pencil and binoculars. Nothing fancy, just a cheap spiral notebook to write down birds you see and descriptions of those you don't know so you can identify them later. Binoculars are extremely helpful to peer into bushes/trees and in the distance (added bonus: I also enjoy astronomy and use my bins to look at the night sky). A decent pair run around $40 on Amazon and being a one-time purchase, with care, will last forever.
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I'm not a birder, but I am married to an avian biologist. So uh. Birds. So many birds.
Get comfortable with your guide books. I suggest Sibley. Good binoculars are key, we like Eagle Optics and Vortex for the inexpensive ones. If you aren't trying to see stuff very far away, you can get away with cheaper, but if you're serious and want to get all the details of the little buggers then you'll want so good ones. Learn what actually identifies birds in various poses i.e. actively flying, soaring, etc. Key in on bill shape, streaking, eye color, relative size. Learn the bird's songs and calls. If you want to know whats out there, your ears will tell you more than your eyes.
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Google your local Audubon society. They generally have meetings that are free and open to the public, as well as public events at local wildlife areas and wetlands where you can learn the basics of the birds in your area. You'll get a chance to meet the local expert amateurs in birding that are familiar with the birds of your area, as well as get advice on the best tools/guidebooks. Some societies even have classes or equipment loan programs for members, so it may be worthwhile to get a membership to further help you develop the hobby.
Sibley guides for your region are considered an excellent resource for amateurs. If you don't want to make an investment in a good guide yet, then see what guides your library offers. Not a bird resource, but definitely worth a look-through in my opinion, is the Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling. You don't have to be an artist or even have an urge to draw, I just really like how he lays out how to be a careful nature observer. Learning to view something in nature with the idea to sketch or describe it makes it much easier to pick out defining characteristics quickly -- something that comes in handy when your subject may fly away instead of letting you study it ;)
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Thanks, @Khaetra, @brute, @Lichen.
Binoculars: I had bought one when I went to South Africa. I dug it out and checked. It is a 10x42 6° Nikon Aculon. I had not paid full price but had got it as an opened package for half off (approx $50). This looks quite decent. What do you/SO use for binoculars?
Notebook: Good suggestion to keep track of what birds I see. I downloaded the free eBird app on my phone and you can keep a journal on it. Seems like it may be better for me, since I always keep my phone with me, but can very easily misplace a notebook. Another advantage of the app is that it will help with avian research since it updates a central database and can potentially detect and improvement or fall in bird populations.
Guide Books: I'll hold off buying Sibley until I am sure that this passion will endure(I'll try and borrow it from my library). The idea is great, so I have replaced it with another free phone app called Merlin and have set it up with the database for my area(North East USA). After using it yesterday, I was able to identify those blackbirds on my lawn (a common Graekel). Seems to be quite well built, with sounds and pictures.
Local Groups: Great idea @Lichen. I'm going to search for any Audobon society or local events or groups. I guess there may be some groups on meetup.com.
Looks like I was able to get started in a very mustachian way, for free, using what I had.
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DH is a biologist who specializes in birds. In fact, he's packing right now for some survey work in a national park this week. I have worked/sometimes work with birds as well, though not currently.
Good binocs are absolutely crucial, if you want to avoid immediate frustration. I agree totally with brute on his rec for glassware. DH buys his field techs (who often have little experience starting out) Vortex Diamondbacks (8 x 42s). They run around 200$. The 8x magnification isn't as high as more experienced birders might want, but most beginners appreciate the extra light-gathering capacity, esp if you will be birding in woods with less light. Be warned, if you get into this hobby, eventually you will probably be unable to resist the Zeiss/Leica-level glassware and the urge to take trips to good birding locations, but it's an inexpensive hobby apart from that. Regardless of what you buy, you want them to be water-proof, not water-resistant.
Sibley guides (both to id and bird behavior) are the current gold standards in the U.S. (we have SO MANY copies in our vehicles, office, houses, etc), but if you are one who prefers photos, Kaufman guide is good. Cornell is also a terrific resource.
It is very easy to be overwhelmed by trying to focus on color patterns when you start out birding, so it is extremely helpful for beginners to spend some time with more experienced birders who can help you stay focused on 'gestalt' and general id characteristics (body shape, relative size, movement/flight pattern, bill shape and length, where the bird was seen and what it was doing [perching high, flitting through the canopy, wading in a mudflat, etc]) when you first start out. It becomes easier once you understand that you can rule out tons of possibilities with just a quick look at a bird (no color pattern needed) and an understanding of locations and seasons in which you are likely to see certain species. Then the fun work of finer-detail observations begins.
Songs/calls are invaluable for id, as well, but usually take longer to learn. It can be very rewarding to start out learning those of the birds that are common right around your house. I regularly will be working at home and only half-aware of sounds, but will suddenly be alert b/c I caught a faint bird call that my brain registers as unusual for my yard. This happened a couple mornings ago and when I grabbed the binocs and went into the backyard to investigate, there was a mixed flock of warblers and a flock of American goldfinches moving through. Without that sound, I wouldn't have seen them.
If you have a local Audubon group, they can be incredibly valuable for beginners, giving talks on bird id and biology, helping you learn songs and calls, and running local field trips. E.g., DH sometimes volunteers with our local group to give short seminars on raptor identification and biology, which can include anything from class lectures to actual field trips where you trap live raptors.
You are also in proximity to the terrific Cape May Bird Observatory, and are in a 'honey hole' for some of the best birding in the U.S. during autumn migration (esp shorebirds, raptors, and warblers :envy:). You might consider visiting there, which will probably give you access to more classes, info, and possibly the opportunity to try out different glassware.
It's an addictive hobby! I went from being just generally 'into birds' as a kid to feeling totally naked traveling anywhere other than on local errands without my binocs LOL. Be aware, birders often get up EARLY (I'm not a morning person, but have forced myself up at the crack of dawn for years...ugh).
Birds are an endlessly fun, delightful, and sometimes awe-inspiring hobby (or line of work). And birding easily doubles the fun factor of anywhere you travel...the very first bird I saw in Australia when I got out of a cab in downtown Sydney was a sulphur-crested cockatoo flying between the skyscrapers, and I almost peed myself with excitement.
Good luck!
ETA: I see you asked about glassware we use. DH has Zeiss 10xs and I have Leica 10xs, and DH has tons of scopes of various brands as well, but this is much more expensive than what you will want to be paying to start. My binocs were ~1,000$ on sale. Scopes are incredibly helpful, but if you hang out with local birding groups (Audubon, etc), you will have free access to some scopes for when you really need them.
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We love eBird in our house.
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Thanks for the detailed reply @wenchsenior.
Wow! Lots of great info.
I'm only 2 hours from Cape May and I am FIRE'd. Weekday trips should be so easy, less traffic and crowds. So I guess, I will be making some trips this summer and fall ;-)
Looks like the binoculars that you are suggesting are the Roof prism types, while I got a Porro prism type one. The major advantage of the Roof prism is that it is substantially lighter than the Porro prism type, which would probably help considering that you carry it all the time. I might break down and buy a Vortex/Eagle later ....
Yaay, my library has a couple of Sibley books. I put a hold on the birding basics and the guide.
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I just realized that I spent the morning sitting at the table in my back yard looking at birds in my back yard with the binoculars.
Hope my neighbors do not think I am a peeping tom....
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I have ordered a bird feeder since I cannot identify the smaller flying birds. Hoping to lure them to my feeder and get to see them up close and learn a lot more. I have also been browsing thru telephoto lenses for my camera so that I can take some pictures too.
This is a slippery slope and I think I may have unleashed a monster ;-)
It is very easy to be overwhelmed by trying to focus on color patterns when you start out birding, so it is extremely helpful for beginners to spend some time with more experienced birders who can help you stay focused on 'gestalt' and general id characteristics (body shape, relative size, movement/flight pattern, bill shape and length, where the bird was seen and what it was doing [perching high, flitting through the canopy, wading in a mudflat, etc]) when you first start out. It becomes easier once you understand that you can rule out tons of possibilities with just a quick look at a bird (no color pattern needed) and an understanding of locations and seasons in which you are likely to see certain species. Then the fun work of finer-detail observations begins.
Songs/calls are invaluable for id, as well, but usually take longer to learn. It can be very rewarding to start out learning those of the birds that are common right around your house. I regularly will be working at home and only half-aware of sounds, but will suddenly be alert b/c I caught a faint bird call that my brain registers as unusual for my yard. This happened a couple mornings ago and when I grabbed the binocs and went into the backyard to investigate, there was a mixed flock of warblers and a flock of American goldfinches moving through. Without that sound, I wouldn't have seen them.
So true, I am seeing far more birds than I could identify. If they only stay still, then I can use the Merlin app to find out what they are. But if they are flying or I can just hear them, I am totally at a loss. On my morning walk today, I heard distinct bird calls which I could not identify.
If you have a local Audubon group, they can be incredibly valuable for beginners, giving talks on bird id and biology, helping you learn songs and calls, and running local field trips. E.g., DH sometimes volunteers with our local group to give short seminars on raptor identification and biology, which can include anything from class lectures to actual field trips where you trap live raptors.
I have found that the Audubon society in NJ has a preserve(Plainsboro Preserve) very close to my home, maybe less than 5 miles away. I am ashamed that I have never been there. Hope to remedy that soon. Don't think they have any planned activities there, but would be great for a walk and maybe see more birds. I'm hoping to get to Cape May later this summer.
I cannot travel much, still recovering from Guillain-Barre syndrome, so looking/identify/learn about birds is an intellectual challenge and is a perfect way to spend time. I could never have done this when I was working, so a win for FIRE!
ETA: I also had an old bird bath. Looks like if I keep it clean and make sure I add fresh water each day, there will be more birds visiting!
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Cornell has an excellent site for bird calls (and other ID tips):
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/page.aspx%3Fpid%3D1059
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bird photography is definitely a slippery slope. In the world of photo-bugs, the guys with the most expensive gear tend to be birders.
I saw you mentioned a feeder. great! I'd add several different kinds with different seeds to attract different birds, and improve the space near your feeders to maximize visitation. Bird want some shelter nearby they can perch on between feedings. FIL puts out his used xmas tree... if you want something more permanent you could plant some small trees 10-15' from the feeder(s). Bird houses also give a great way of observing from the comfort of your home.
Tons of 'plans' online for making feeders and birdhouses out of scrap wood and junk (e.g. 2 liter soda bottle feeders).
Ask your local Audubon society for tips in attracting birds native to your area.
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Cornell has an excellent site for bird calls (and other ID tips):
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/page.aspx%3Fpid%3D1059
Fantastic. Love the idea of mnemonics to remember sounds (birdie birdie birdie for the northern cardinal). For now, will focus on the ones in my area and that I can recognize and then work my way thru the others.
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bird photography is definitely a slippery slope. In the world of photo-bugs, the guys with the most expensive gear tend to be birders.
I saw you mentioned a feeder. great! I'd add several different kinds with different seeds to attract different birds, and improve the space near your feeders to maximize visitation. Bird want some shelter nearby they can perch on between feedings. FIL puts out his used xmas tree... if you want something more permanent you could plant some small trees 10-15' from the feeder(s). Bird houses also give a great way of observing from the comfort of your home.
Tons of 'plans' online for making feeders and birdhouses out of scrap wood and junk (e.g. 2 liter soda bottle feeders).
Ask your local Audubon society for tips in attracting birds native to your area.
Great ideas.
I actually have crab apple trees right next to my kitchen/family room windows. Maybe a great place for adding a feeder in between them. Much better to sit on your couch and watch birds instead of TV :-)
I promise, I'll stop at one lens (Even I do not believe myself!)
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I promise, I'll stop at one lens (Even I do not believe myself!)
Of course you will!
<looks around at all of her camera gear and remembers how many times she said that exact same thing>
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I promise, I'll stop at one lens (Even I do not believe myself!)
Of course you will!
<looks around at all of her camera gear and remembers how many times she said that exact same thing>
1 of each type of lens you mean. Plus a backup, just in case. And also a spotting scope, because then you'll have it. Thank the noodle-y one that my wife got most of her gear on the job and they let her keep it.
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I promise, I'll stop at one lens (Even I do not believe myself!)
Of course you will!
<looks around at all of her camera gear and remembers how many times she said that exact same thing>
1 of each type of lens you mean. Plus a backup, just in case. And also a spotting scope, because then you'll have it. Thank the noodle-y one that my wife got most of her gear on the job and they let her keep it.
Yeah, bird/wildlife photography can lead to GAS (Gear Acquirement Syndrome) pretty quick if one is not careful :).
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So true, I am seeing far more birds than I could identify. If they only stay still, then I can use the Merlin app to find out what they are. But if they are flying or I can just hear them, I am totally at a loss. On my morning walk today, I heard distinct bird calls which I could not identify.
Yes, it is very overwhelming at first. Beginners often tend to overload themselves considering tiny plumage characteristics of everything they see, but it's usually easier to start out getting to know differences in overall look and behavior of different families of birds, and then getting more detailed from there. Here's a pic to illustrate what I mean (random grab off the internet, thanks unknown photographer):
A similar picture to this was just posted to a Facebook forum that I frequent. An argument immediately broke out over what species this was, but 2 seconds is enough for me to id this as a northern harrier (hawk), almost certainly an adult female.
How can I so quickly differentiate it from all the other raptor species it might hypothetically be? It isn't that I'm a super-good birder (I am soooo not). But I do have a lot of general experience with raptors, which helps me instantly discard the majority of possibilities.
E.g., we have 35 species of raptor in North America that forage during the day (if you include the short-eared owl).
1. Landscape: Photo was taken in southern Great Plains, in winter. Open, mostly treeless, dry-ish landscape. This automatically rules out most raptors immediately (those that are forest dwellers, those that migrate south to winter, those that remain in the north all year), but leaves 8 possibilities: northern harrier, red-tailed hawk, rough-legged hawk, prairie falcon, merlin, American kestrel, golden eagle, short-eared owl. Also possible (if wandering a bit out of range) would be peregrine falcon and bald eagle.
2. Size: not helpful in this photo, and actually not as helpful to a beginner as you might believe. Size is incredibly deceptive in birds and hard to judge accurately.
3. Field marks (plumage/body shape). The pictured hawk is nondescript brown with some pale edging/streaking on the back. Front not visible. Distinct white rump patch, darker bars on tail. Unfortunately, ~20 raptor species have 'brownish' backs with some tail barring at some ages or in some plumages. Good thing we automatically ruled out a bunch via point 1!
The white rump patch is promising, though ~10 species have white at or near the tail base. Good thing we already ruled a bunch out via point 1!
This bird has relatively long wings and tail for its size, and wings are narrowish. Head looks small, and kind of 'flat-fronted'.
Even if you didn't know size, this does not have the body shape of an eagle, which resembles a flying rectangular plank. Juvenile bald eagles have very large heads/beaks, lack a white tail patch, and usually occur near water. Adult golden eagles lack the tail patch, and juveniles (which have it) typically exhibit the golden nape feathers. Not an eagle.
The 4 falcons (prairie, peregrine, kestrel, merlin) have long pointed wings and longer tails, but ALL lack the distinct white rump patch.
That leaves the harrier, red-tail, and rough-legged hawks, and the short-eared owl, all of which frequent open country during the winter in the southern plains.
Short-eared owls have brown streaky backs but with distinct dark and pale patches on their wings, lack the tail patch, and have short tails and short round wings. Not a short-ear.
Juvenile red-tails have the brown streaky backs and light tail barring, but lack the white tail patch. They also have much broader wings and a shorter tail. Not a red-tail.
We are left with rough-legged hawk or northern harrier. Eliminating rough-legged hawks could be tricky (this is where experience with raptors really helps, as does seeing the bird out in the wild on the move). Rough-leggeds have variable 'color morphs', some of which have a white tail patch or faint tail bars. However, though they have intermediate-length wings, they still don't have quite the same 'profile' as the northern harrier. Harriers have a 'flattish' face that rough-leggeds lack. Unlike harriers, rough-leggeds often have a pale 'window' patch in the outer ends of their wings.
Also, these two species move and forage very differently, which is where a lot of time out in the field really helps. Rough-leggeds tend to perch on telephone poles or any other tall structure out on the plains, or they tend to alternately soar and hover while watching for prey below. Harriers tend to forage by continuously quartering very low (often less than 10 feet) off the ground, rocking back and forth and flapping only occasionally, holding their wings in a shallow 'v' shape.
By landscape and context (open, treeless, winter), field marks (profile, white rump patch, flattish looking face), behavior (coursing low), we know this is a northern harrier. We know it is likely adult female b/c adult males are pale gray above, whereas females are dull brown. Field marks are insufficient to entirely rule out that this could be a juvenile (which are similar to adult females but more cinammon-y in color)...we would have to see the underside of the bird to be confident (adult females tend to be whitish with brown streaking, while juvies are cinnamon brown with variable streaking).
It's really helpful to go out with birding id groups/classes, b/c the instructors can give you context by which you can quickly rule out most possibilities and hone in on the field marks that you need. It goes from being overwhelming to fun very fast. Although admittedly, periodically very frustrating (the plentiful birds that you can't 100% 'call'.)
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Wow @wenchsenior!
Blown away by your knowledge.
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Wow @wenchsenior!
Blown away by your knowledge.
Thanks, but it required nothing but time spent paying attention. I'd better be decent at it after all these years!
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In my backyard I have a birdfeeder with safflower seeds that attracts cardinals, and I think maybe sparrows but not sure.
And another feeder has nyjer which attracts yellow finches.
There's some evergreens nearby for the birds to fly to before and after feedings from the bird feeders.
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Wow @wenchsenior!
Blown away by your knowledge.
Thanks, but it required nothing but time spent paying attention. I'd better be decent at it after all these years!
Excellent description of how to use all the available information to figure out the species. The time of year, the landscape, and behavior are things my wife always hammers on. Being able to eliminate options makes it SOOOO much easier to identify what it actually could be.
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Just thought I would update you on the progress. I am still watching birds around my home, hopefully, I can go and watch birds at other locations later this summer (recovering from Guillian-Barre).
I have set up a squirrel-proof birdfeeder which actually seems to work. Perfectly located, I can see the feeder from my desk and from the sofa. Trees next to the feeder are a sanctuary for the birds, but far enough that the squirrel cannot jump onto the feeder. The squirrel tries getting into the feeder every day, then gives up and eats all the seeds dropped by the birds. The squirrel and mourning dove's do a great job of cleaning up. I have also added a bird bath a few feet away and I see a lot of birds stopping there for a drink after the feed. I see a lot of common grackles, but the blue jays stopped visiting when I replaced the feed from Sunflower to a mix. Seems like about 6 different birds which come to the feeder (Common grackles, blue jays, mourning doves, sparrows, house finch, cardinal). The grackles seem to dominate the feeder and I am wondering if I can put up a feeder which will attract smaller birds and still keep out squirrels. Any suggestions?
I kept seeing what I thought was a female cardinal with a sparrow which regularly visits the feeder. So weird that a female cardinal and sparrow were friends. All this time, the male cardinal would be on the ground, never coming upto the feeder. Something was not right, what I thought was a female cardinal did not have a crest. I slowly came to the realization that I was wrong and that was not a female cardinal. Out comes the Merlin app, and voila, it was a house finch couple. So interesting that the house finch couple always fed together.
I've also sat on the porch and watch red-tailed hawks. I still cannot distinguish them with the naked eye, but if I get a good look with the binoculars I can clearly see the red tail.
I have got the Sibley books from the library. One on birding basics, one on birds of the east and the last is the full guide to birds.
Also, reddit.com has a few birding resources which are helpful. One is https://www.reddit.com/r/birding, one is https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird. Both are very useful.
Edit: Wonder why the robin's do not show up at the feeder. They seem interested and watch from a distance. Maybe, they do not eat seeds?
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Just thought I would update you on the progress. I am still watching birds around my home, hopefully, I can go and watch birds at other locations later this summer (recovering from Guillian-Barre).
I have set up a squirrel-proof birdfeeder which actually seems to work. Perfectly located, I can see the feeder from my desk and from the sofa. Trees next to the feeder are a sanctuary for the birds, but far enough that the squirrel cannot jump onto the feeder. The squirrel tries getting into the feeder every day, then gives up and eats all the seeds dropped by the birds. The squirrel and mourning dove's do a great job of cleaning up. I have also added a bird bath a few feet away and I see a lot of birds stopping there for a drink after the feed. I see a lot of common grackles, but the blue jays stopped visiting when I replaced the feed from Sunflower to a mix. Seems like about 6 different birds which come to the feeder (Common grackles, blue jays, mourning doves, sparrows, house finch, cardinal). The grackles seem to dominate the feeder and I am wondering if I can put up a feeder which will attract smaller birds and still keep out squirrels. Any suggestions?
I kept seeing what I thought was a female cardinal with a sparrow which regularly visits the feeder. So weird that a female cardinal and sparrow were friends. All this time, the male cardinal would be on the ground, never coming upto the feeder. Something was not right, what I thought was a female cardinal did not have a crest. I slowly came to the realization that I was wrong and that was not a female cardinal. Out comes the Merlin app, and voila, it was a house finch couple. So interesting that the house finch couple always fed together.
I've also sat on the porch and watch red-tailed hawks. I still cannot distinguish them with the naked eye, but if I get a good look with the binoculars I can clearly see the red tail.
I have got the Sibley books from the library. One on birding basics, one on birds of the east and the last is the full guide to birds.
Also, reddit.com has a few birding resources which are helpful. One is https://www.reddit.com/r/birding, one is https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird. Both are very useful.
Edit: Wonder why the robin's do not show up at the feeder. They seem interested and watch from a distance. Maybe, they do not eat seeds?
When you see a red-tail soaring, note the dark leading edge of the underside of the wing. That's one of the diagnostics to recognize red-tails (even as juveniles when they don't have the tail color yet).
Robins eat mostly insects/invertebrates (grubs/worms) and fruit, rather than seeds. ETA: one of the great irritations of feeding birds is that it is much easier to attract the seed-eating families then the fruit or insect eating families, even though things like warblers and tanagers are some of the most colorful and fun. See, this is how you end up getting up at daybreak to go stare into dense thickets in pursuit of cuckoos, vireos, gnatcatchers et al. (I just went thrashing through part of a thorny mesquite thicket along the Rio Grande a few days ago to confirm that I was hearing a Lucy's warbler) or staring up obsessively at open edges of thick, tall woodlands (along fields, roads, water) so that you can see the upper canopy, where the little buggers are flitting about. It's even WORSE in the rainforest, where it's dark, and often cloudy and rainy, and the tree canopy can start 50 feet above you. And you are stuck down there knowing it's teeming with good stuff right over your head LOL. My husband and I have done quite a bit of professional bird trapping, and I have fantasized about setting up mist nets along elevated bridges built just below tree canopies, so as to more easily catch some of these families.
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When you see a red-tail soaring, note the dark leading edge of the underside of the wing. That's one of the diagnostics to recognize red-tails (even as juveniles when they don't have the tail color yet).
Awesome. Went back and saw pictures on the Merlin App (http://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/) and Sibley and the pictures clearly show the dark leading edge. I was looking for the belly band, but the dark leading edge is far easier to spot. Thanks.
Robins eat mostly insects/invertebrates (grubs/worms) and fruit, rather than seeds. ETA: one of the great irritations of feeding birds is that it is much easier to attract the seed-eating families then the fruit or insect eating families, even though things like warblers and tanagers are some of the most colorful and fun. See, this is how you end up getting up at daybreak to go stare into dense thickets in pursuit of cuckoos, vireos, gnatcatchers et al. (I just went thrashing through part of a thorny mesquite thicket along the Rio Grande a few days ago to confirm that I was hearing a Lucy's warbler) or staring up obsessively at open edges of thick, tall woodlands (along fields, roads, water) so that you can see the upper canopy, where the little buggers are flitting about. It's even WORSE in the rainforest, where it's dark, and often cloudy and rainy, and the tree canopy can start 50 feet above you. And you are stuck down there knowing it's teeming with good stuff right over your head LOL. My husband and I have done quite a bit of professional bird trapping, and I have fantasized about setting up mist nets along elevated bridges built just below tree canopies, so as to more easily catch some of these families.
Thanks. Now I need to find out how to invite those fruit/insect eaters to dinner ;-)
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Thanks. Now I need to find out how to invite those fruit/insect eaters to dinner ;-)
It's all about creating an environment they like to feed in next to a space they feel comfortable/protected. Robins like to feed in grassy patches and around gardens where they can get lots of worms and hopping/crawling insects. If you're using pesticides on your lawn, stop doing that and you'll attract more birds (not to mention helping out the planet). I've also heard of people attracting them by buying bins of earthworms and seeding them around newly turned earth (like you would get around a flower bed or garden).
Likewise you can attract swallows and martins and other insect-eating birds by installing a few appropriately sized bird houses. Often takes a season or two for some to take up residence, but once they do you'll see them often. Each kind of bird prefers a slightly different house setup (e.g. swifts need to be in a field somewhere, away from trees or large bushes).
awesome to see you enjoying your mustachian hobby.
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When you see a red-tail soaring, note the dark leading edge of the underside of the wing. That's one of the diagnostics to recognize red-tails (even as juveniles when they don't have the tail color yet).
Awesome. Went back and saw pictures on the Merlin App (http://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/) and Sibley and the pictures clearly show the dark leading edge. I was looking for the belly band, but the dark leading edge is far easier to spot. Thanks.
I've never seen a juvie with no belly band, but some of the adults are too dark or too light underneath for it to be visible. Red-tails are super-variable, plumage wise.
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It's all about creating an environment they like to feed in next to a space they feel comfortable/protected. Robins like to feed in grassy patches and around gardens where they can get lots of worms and hopping/crawling insects. If you're using pesticides on your lawn, stop doing that and you'll attract more birds (not to mention helping out the planet). I've also heard of people attracting them by buying bins of earthworms and seeding them around newly turned earth (like you would get around a flower bed or garden).
Thanks. I have never used pesticides on my lawn. So there were always birds on my lawn and trees.
Last year, I made a mistake and got Mosquito control. I did not do enough of research, I assumed they would get rid of standing water and kill the larvae, but they ended up spraying trees and bushes. Last year, I did not have mosquitos but also did not have any insects or moths or butterflies. There were no birds on my lawn or on the trees. There were no bats flying above my garden in the evening. The bats would literally turn away from my garden and go elsewhere. This was a horrible decision by me. I will never get mosquito treatment again. This year, I have seen a lot of birds, confirming that the mosquito control was the problem.
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I don't have any advice to add @CowboyAndIndian, but thank you for starting a birding thread! I visited a wildlife management area today and saw this little beauty in the willows. I only saw one Northern Yellow Warbler last summer, so for me they are always a treat even if they are not really rare.
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Nice! I haven't seen one this year yet, either.
RE: Attracting fruit and insect eaters, we originally gardened our sterile backyard mainly to attract pollinators, but by accident discovered a 'magic' bird-attracting plant for the west/southwest: Ribes sp., specifically R. aureum and R. odoratum (smells AMAZING). We started with 3 plants on our part-sun back fence, which gradually formed a semi-espaliered thicket of maybe 20' long x 4' wide x 10' tall, and it is swarming with birds spring-autumn. Of the >70 species we've recorded in our backyard, probably half are attracted primarily to that thicket. That and a running fountain pull in birds like a magnet during migration and pre-migratory 'staging'.
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I don't have any advice to add @CowboyAndIndian, but thank you for starting a birding thread! I visited a wildlife management area today and saw this little beauty in the willows. I only saw one Northern Yellow Warbler last summer, so for me they are always a treat even if they are not really rare.
Thanks @Parizade. This hobby has given so much pleasure in the last few weeks.
Could we please have more pictures?
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Nice! I haven't seen one this year yet, either.
RE: Attracting fruit and insect eaters, we originally gardened our sterile backyard mainly to attract pollinators, but by accident discovered a 'magic' bird-attracting plant for the west/southwest: Ribes sp., specifically R. aureum and R. odoratum (smells AMAZING). We started with 3 plants on our part-sun back fence, which gradually formed a semi-espaliered thicket of maybe 20' long x 4' wide x 10' tall, and it is swarming with birds spring-autumn. Of the >70 species we've recorded in our backyard, probably half are attracted primarily to that thicket. That and a running fountain pull in birds like a magnet during migration and pre-migratory 'staging'.
Thanks, @wenchsenior, you have sent me down the rabbit hole again! Order in with Amazon for 3 plants of currant clove (R. odoratum). Looking into fountains also.
I presently have crab apple and regular apple trees in my yard. I know the crab apple is very popular during the late fall, early winter. Any other suggestions for plants? I have one corner of my yard (the NW corner) which I want to reserve for a garden similar to this https://qr.ae/TWI74Y . Hopefully, the clove currant will go there.
Wow, 70 species!! I have seen 8-9 from my back yard. I have a long way to go.
ETA: I would like something like this garden https://www.gardenista.com/posts/10-garden-ideas-to-steal-from-superstar-dutch-designer-piet-oudolf/
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Nice! I haven't seen one this year yet, either.
RE: Attracting fruit and insect eaters, we originally gardened our sterile backyard mainly to attract pollinators, but by accident discovered a 'magic' bird-attracting plant for the west/southwest: Ribes sp., specifically R. aureum and R. odoratum (smells AMAZING). We started with 3 plants on our part-sun back fence, which gradually formed a semi-espaliered thicket of maybe 20' long x 4' wide x 10' tall, and it is swarming with birds spring-autumn. Of the >70 species we've recorded in our backyard, probably half are attracted primarily to that thicket. That and a running fountain pull in birds like a magnet during migration and pre-migratory 'staging'.
Thanks, @wenchsenior, you have sent me down the rabbit hole again! Order in with Amazon for 3 plants of currant clove (R. odoratum). Looking into fountains also.
I presently have crab apple and regular apple trees in my yard. I know the crab apple is very popular during the late fall, early winter. Any other suggestions for plants? I have one corner of my yard (the NW corner) which I want to reserve for a garden similar to this https://qr.ae/TWI74Y . Hopefully, the clove currant will go there.
Wow, 70 species!! I have seen 8-9 from my back yard. I have a long way to go.
ETA: I would like something like this garden https://www.gardenista.com/posts/10-garden-ideas-to-steal-from-superstar-dutch-designer-piet-oudolf/
That link looks fantastic! I had better not recommend anything specific in terms of plants, b/c I am in a radically different climate/soil and across the country from you. Your local Audubon group will have tons of advice on the best plants for birds in your area. You might have native species of Ribes around your area that will do better than mine (which are western).
Yeah, it's actually considerably more than 70 species-sightings-in-yard if you count the birds that have flown/soared over our yard, as opposed to actually been IN the yard. But we've been here almost 20 years, with about 15 of them after we gradually landscaped our backyard for birds/insects. See pics below; we would never have gotten anything like that number had our yard remained sterile like the first pic. Someday we'll tackle the equally sterile front yard. Lawn...ugh.
Speaking of new bird sightings, DH and I also keep track of interesting sightings in the neighborhood, esp at the park half a block from our house. On our (binocular-free...see we CAN do it, but now I'm regretting we didn't have them b/c see rest of sentence...) walk this morning we saw our first Yellow Warbler of the year (they are singing all over, but we finally saw one); Mississippi Kites building a nest in a locust tree (MS Kites are thick all over town); and most interesting, a Bronzed Cowbird pair, with the male displaying using his 'helicopter flight' (see link to someone's video https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=AwrEzeexU9hc.HIAN9RXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0N2Noc21lBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=cowbird+helicopter+display&fr2=piv-web&fr=mcsaoffblock#id=1&vid=c464e487b003280dbe94239d32171089&action=view (https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=AwrEzeexU9hc.HIAN9RXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0N2Noc21lBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=cowbird+helicopter+display&fr2=piv-web&fr=mcsaoffblock#id=1&vid=c464e487b003280dbe94239d32171089&action=view)). Bronzed Cowbird range has been expanding north in recent years; we are outside their traditional range, so this was a cool sighting. And we'd never seen that display before.
Birding makes every walk fun!
ETA: If you get a fountain, learn from our mistakes. Get one that is taller than ours, and place it further from vegetation. We have constant trouble with feral cats in our neighborhood coming and trying to hunt in our backyard. We currently have the fountain off b/c of this (it's unfair to 'bait' the birds in with water only to have them potentially ambushed) and are investigating putting flashing barriers up on our fence to prevent most of the feral cat encroachment, digging out some of the close vegetation, and getting a taller fountain. Cats are an incredible problem for native birds.
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I think that is an American Goldfinch with a house Finch couple. Am I right?
I've started taking some pictures of my feeder, but still using the 18-50 lens and taking the picture thru the glass and the screen. So, not very good pictures....
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It is interesting how the female House Finch and Cardinal are happy to share the feeder, but the male Cardinal never goes to the feeder. He seems to always eat off the ground (you can see just his head below the feeder).
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oh my gosh THANK YOU everyone who is posting photos, this is quickly becoming my favorite thread.
A DNR naturalist was kind enough to send me a map of Sandhill Crane nesting areas recently, I'm planning a photo-safari tomorrow to see if I can get some good shots of the fuzzy little ones. Stay tuned :-)
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@wenchsenior , I want a garden like that. It is so beautiful. Is it a "new perennial movement" garden?
@Parizade , we want pictures!
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It is interesting how the female House Finch and Cardinal are happy to share the feeder, but the male Cardinal never goes to the feeder. He seems to always eat off the ground (you can see just his head below the feeder).
Our cardinals also are interesting in that they won't use our flat-topped bubbling fountain, but they go nuts when I do overhead watering of my yard...they get right in the spray and PARTY.
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@wenchsenior , I want a garden like that. It is so beautiful. Is it a "new perennial movement" garden?
@Parizade , we want pictures!
I dunno what to call my garden. DH calls it my "Botanically Bountiful Bird-benefitting Backyard" LOL.
ETA: It IS mostly perennials.
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@wenchsenior , I want a garden like that. It is so beautiful. Is it a "new perennial movement" garden?
@Parizade , we want pictures!
I dunno what to call my garden. DH calls it my "Botanically Bountiful Bird-benefitting Backyard" LOL.
BBBBB
Lol!!
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@Parizade , we want pictures!
Just remember, you asked for this lol! I never did find the sandhill cranes but I did find a nesting trumpeter swan! I found the peregrin falcon's nest and got a shot of one of the adults feeding the young (not a good shot, but what a cute butt eh?). A spectacular pair of wood ducks, a pair of blue winged teals, a pied billed grebe, and a cute little redstart. Not a bad day!
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oops, only 4 photos allowed per post
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Just remember, you asked for this lol!
I'm in heaven!
Beautiful pictures! What camera and lenses do you use?
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Nikon Coolpix P900. It's a point and shoot, so you can't change lenses, but the zoom is great!
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/nikon-coolpix-p900-review/ (https://www.cnet.com/reviews/nikon-coolpix-p900-review/)
The grebes were doing their mating dance but they were too far away to capture. Still pretty fun to see.
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Nikon Coolpix P900. It's a point and shoot, so you can't change lenses, but the zoom is great!
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/nikon-coolpix-p900-review/ (https://www.cnet.com/reviews/nikon-coolpix-p900-review/)
The grebes were doing their mating dance but they were too far away to capture. Still pretty fun to see.
That's a good day! Love the squeaky teals! The peregrine butt made me giggle and feel a little envious. I've spent soooo many hours watching raptor nests, but relatively few watching peregrine nests. Makes me nostalgic. Though not nostalgic for having to listen to hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of food-begging from the nestlings LOL.
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The peregrine butt made me giggle and feel a little envious. I've spent soooo many hours watching raptor nests, but relatively few watching peregrine nests. Makes me nostalgic. Though not nostalgic for having to listen to hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of food-begging from the nestlings LOL.
The babies were silent until the parent came wheeling in with a shriek, which set them all off shrieking back. Then they became quiet again when they started feeding. It was all quite dramatic, as if National Geographic had staged the whole thing for effect. I loved every minute!
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When I broke my arm and had nothing better to do than sit around and look at birds is when I got into birding. We went to wild birds unlimited and got a pole with some accessories. We have a peanut ring that attracts mostly blue jays, a finch feeder with thistle, a standard feeder that we fill with safflower, and a suet feeder. We also have a squirrel baffle on the pole to prevent squirrels from climbing it. We also have 2 hummingbird feeders mounted on our fence separate from the pole.
We also bought the "Birds of Michigan" field guide by Stan Tekiela. It came accompanied by 2 audio cds of all the birds in the guide. I was hesitant to purchase it (I think it was like $30) but it's been an amazing resource. I ripped the audio cds to mp3s and put them in my dropbox which is on my phone, so I'm able to easily search for and listen to the birds on my phone which has been useful. I know he has field guides for other areas and would definitely recommend him.
This season we have been getting a lot of baltimore oriels coming to our hummingbird feeders. I went 36 years of my life and only saw a single baltimore oriel, but the last 2 weeks I've been seeing like 50 a day. Probably the same 5 or so over and over, but you get my point. Also seeing a hummingbird multiple times a day. Only the female so far this season. We also have a bunch of rose-breasted grosbeaks hanging around lately - I'd never seen one of those until a couple weeks ago.
Our regular birds are cardinals, robins, blue jays, house sparrows, goldfinches, house finches, mourning doves, grackles, dark eyed juncos, white crowned sparrows, red bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, and probably a few more I'm forgetting.
We've also seen titmouse, chickadee, northern flicker, nuthatch, hairy woodpecker. We've seen some other ones around michigan, but not in our backyard.
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This season we have been getting a lot of baltimore oriels coming to our hummingbird feeders. I went 36 years of my life and only saw a single baltimore oriel, but the last 2 weeks I've been seeing like 50 a day. Probably the same 5 or so over and over, but you get my point. Also seeing a hummingbird multiple times a day. Only the female so far this season. We also have a bunch of rose-breasted grosbeaks hanging around lately - I'd never seen one of those until a couple weeks ago.
Aw, I grew up in WI and it was the Baltimore Orioles and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks that got me super into birds as a kid! And Loons, of course. I had such a great Loon call that I could get ours to answer me. My parents used to make me do it as a party trick. I was also a great swimmer and used to constantly put on fins and try to swim 25-30 m underwater to sneak up on our Loons as they were fishing. Once in a while I got close so they'd have to scoot away. They were always sticking their heads under to watch me as I swam up...I still have such a vision of those red eyes glaring suspiciously at me. Poor Loons! I was a such a pain in the ass to them!
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I had such a great Loon call that I could get ours to answer me. My parents used to make me do it as a party trick. I was also a great swimmer and used to constantly put on fins and try to swim 25-30 m underwater to sneak up on our Loons as they were fishing. Once in a while I got close so they'd have to scoot away. They were always sticking their heads under to watch me as I swam up...I still have such a vision of those red eyes glaring suspiciously at me. Poor Loons! I was a such a pain in the ass to them!
What a great childhood memory! Loons are the state bird here is Minnesota so it's always special to see one. I heard on today but didn't catch a glimpse
@frugalnacho do you ever put oranges out for your orioles? I've heard they like the fruit. Make an orange feeder for Orioles (https://www.audubon.org/news/make-orange-feeder-orioles)
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Loons are still super close to my heart. As a kid, I got to enjoy 2 years of chemotherapy. (Enjoy is probably a strong word). My folks managed to get us up to Canada for a fishing trip between treatments, and the loons were a completely new thing for me at that time. It was the first time in months that I'd had a break from needles and angry nurses and calloused doctors. Hearing loons still brings me back to the sense of relief I had that trip.
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Loons are still super close to my heart. As a kid, I got to enjoy 2 years of chemotherapy. (Enjoy is probably a strong word). My folks managed to get us up to Canada for a fishing trip between treatments, and the loons were a completely new thing for me at that time. It was the first time in months that I'd had a break from needles and angry nurses and calloused doctors. Hearing loons still brings me back to the sense of relief I had that trip.
@brute, your post broke my heart a little. I hope you've told this to your parents, I can only imagine how much the trip meant to them.
I will think of your words now whenever I hear a loon, just one more reason to appreciate their haunting call.
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Sorry, not read everything yet.
We are not real birders, but generally interested in birds. We have traveled to several places in our country just to see birds. I have a simple bird book, which seems pretty complete for the birds that I have looked up.
I recently learned about this website, where you can learn about birds and do quizzes. https://www.birdid.no/
It is european, so it's not sure you have the same birds over there in the US.
We like to use a camera with good, general tele lens when watching birds. It is still a medium size, very sharp tele lens with zoom, but no extreme canon like real birders have.
With binoculars you will have to remember what the bird looks like, look into your book and look back at the bird, which might have moved or flown away. If you manage to snap a picture, it is much easier to look it up in the bird book.
We also use binoculars, in my case a waterproof Nikon 30mm 8x pocket bino that I also bring along on long hiking trips with heavy backpack.
This weekend we go to our cabin and it should be the time of the year that lots of migratory birds will spend some time there. I expect there to be a lot of water after the snow melting and that attracts birds who like wetness.
Next weekend we will go paddling in Sweden and on those lakes we will see a lot of water birds, which by now are a bit familiar. We have been there a number of times before. There is usually also a nest of a predator bird.
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Loons are still super close to my heart. As a kid, I got to enjoy 2 years of chemotherapy. (Enjoy is probably a strong word). My folks managed to get us up to Canada for a fishing trip between treatments, and the loons were a completely new thing for me at that time. It was the first time in months that I'd had a break from needles and angry nurses and calloused doctors. Hearing loons still brings me back to the sense of relief I had that trip.
This story gives me Feelings.
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@brute, great story. Was'nt the Loon the bird in "On Golden Pond" with Jane and Peter Fonda?
@frugalnacho, similar to you, I got started as I was sick.
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Saw a male common yellowthroat in my garden today! First time I've ever seen one.
Not my picture, but this is the bird:
(https://d1ia71hq4oe7pn.cloudfront.net/photo/66117571-1280px.jpg)
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OOOO, NICE!
I've only recorded yellowthroats twice in our yard in almost 2 decades...
If you want to try to see more, hang around water and listen for them (ear-piercingly high "WITCHITY WITCHITY WITCHITY" )and try to track the little buggers that way. They are vociferous!
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Warblers are great, but I definitely struggle with them. Over the weekend we got out mushroom hunting and my wife was pointing out everything by ear. I'm finally getting a few down, but the main one was the scarlet tanager. Now that i know which bird that the "chick-burrrr" call belongs to, I doubt I'll forget it. I like it when it's distinctive, helps out a novice like me quite a lot.
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Talking about sounds: at our cabin there is sometimes a boreal owl (Aegolius funereus). It makes a very distinct sound that we have learned by playing of the various owl sounds on a bird website. Then one evening we went outside on out terrace, in the pitch dark and played off the sound from the laptop a couple of times. That resulted in the (small) owl flowing straight towards us. It only backed off within half a meter from our heads. A bit scary, but very exciting.
I hope that in the coming weekend we will see the common crane (Grus grus) that is mating/nesting in that area at this time of the year. You can hear them from a long distance, because they are extremely loud. They are very big birds. Sometimes you can see them dancing (and occasionally mating), but only from a distance, sitting in the car, when they don't notice you.
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Warblers are great, but I definitely struggle with them. Over the weekend we got out mushroom hunting and my wife was pointing out everything by ear. I'm finally getting a few down, but the main one was the scarlet tanager. Now that i know which bird that the "chick-burrrr" call belongs to, I doubt I'll forget it. I like it when it's distinctive, helps out a novice like me quite a lot.
There's always a few calls that are easy to learn, thank goodness (like the common yellowthroat). Summer tanagers sound similar to robins; if I hear a 'robin' in a southwestern riparian area, I always check and it's always a summer tanager.
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Talking about sounds: at our cabin there is sometimes a boreal owl (Aegolius funereus). It makes a very distinct sound that we have learned by playing of the various owl sounds on a bird website. Then one evening we went outside on out terrace, in the pitch dark and played off the sound from the laptop a couple of times. That resulted in the (small) owl flowing straight towards us. It only backed off within half a meter from our heads. A bit scary, but very exciting.
Thank goodness owls respond to audio during breeding season or it would be hard to ever survey for them! DH has called in more Great Horned Owls (using his own vocal imitation, which is amazing) than I can count over the years. I can call in Spotted Owls (not that they are easy to find, of course) and Barred Owls (very easy to find) using my own vocalizations. I'm spotty with Elf Owls...it's hard to get the exact pitch of their 'sneezy' alarm call right using a human voice, but sometimes I'm on point. For the rest, recordings are the best.
Interestingly, if you broadcast a large owl call first (or that of an owl species that kills other birds, such as a Pygmy Owl), it will sometimes prevent the smaller owls from responding. So it's best to go sequentially up the size ladder if calling up different species in the same area.
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Talking about sounds: at our cabin there is sometimes a boreal owl (Aegolius funereus). It makes a very distinct sound that we have learned by playing of the various owl sounds on a bird website. Then one evening we went outside on out terrace, in the pitch dark and played off the sound from the laptop a couple of times. That resulted in the (small) owl flowing straight towards us. It only backed off within half a meter from our heads. A bit scary, but very exciting.
Thank goodness owls respond to audio during breeding season or it would be hard to ever survey for them! DH has called in more Great Horned Owls (using his own vocal imitation, which is amazing) than I can count over the years. I can call in Spotted Owls (not that they are easy to find, of course) and Barred Owls (very easy to find) using my own vocalizations. I'm spotty with Elf Owls...it's hard to get the exact pitch of their 'sneezy' alarm call right using a human voice, but sometimes I'm on point. For the rest, recordings are the best.
Interestingly, if you broadcast a large owl call first (or that of an owl species that kills other birds, such as a Pygmy Owl), it will sometimes prevent the smaller owls from responding. So it's best to go sequentially up the size ladder if calling up different species in the same area.
This is almost precisely what one of the chapters of my wife's thesis was on. It's pretty cool.
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Haha imagine being an owl and getting catfished by some dude.
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I had a large owl of some sort follow me from the woods back to the farm house on a late evening walk in from the woods. It was about 1.5 miles across mostly open fields with some fence rows. It would swoop down close then fly up in a tree but kept following me. Neat, but also a bit weird wondering what it was up to.
I have been to a few birding tourist destinations. Hawk Ridge in Duluth MN has large migrations in the spring and fall. We went there for biology class in middle/high school for a couple times. Currently live in North Idaho and we have 100s of bald eagles come in the late fall/early winter for spawning kokanee salmon.
We also had at least two pairs of sandhill cranes that nested on our farm in NE Mn. Have some cool pictures on game cameras of the little ones. You can hear their calls from 2 miles away! Also, a loud owl hoot or crow call is a good way to get a tom turkey to gobble in the spring breeding season. Along with a large number of other loud noises from slamming a car door to just shouting.
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I had a large owl of some sort follow me from the woods back to the farm house on a late evening walk in from the woods. It was about 1.5 miles across mostly open fields with some fence rows. It would swoop down close then fly up in a tree but kept following me. Neat, but also a bit weird wondering what it was up to.
It might have been following you hoping you would scare up some rodents out of the grass as you walked. My husband had one field site with a wild Cooper's hawk that figured out that my husband's activity would flush the songbirds out of the brush. So it would follow him around while he was there. Essentially, it was identical to what DH would have been doing had he been flying the Coop for falconry purposes (except the bird wouldn't come back to him afterward).
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I live about an hour away from the Internation Owl Center and the National Eagle Center in SE Minnesota and have visited both. I'm also close to the Upper Mississippi Wildlife Refuge, all of these are bird-lover havens. It's hard to imagine a better place to be as a birder.
I did visit the Whitewater Draw in Arizona last year to see the Sandhill Cranes who overwinter there. It was quite dramatic, 11,000 huge birds making their haunting prehistoric calls. That was also a very worthwhile birding visit.
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Went for a walk in the Delaware Raritan Canal State Park a couple of miles from my home. Like a rank amateur, that I am, I forgot to take binoculars or camera.
My son pointed out a huge bird flying down the canal and we had no clue what it was. Pulled out the Merlin app and shortlisted it to the Great Blue Heron. Luckily, a little later, I found the bird across the canal and it posed for me while I tried to take a picture of it with my phone. Merlin was able to identify it as the Great Blue Heron.
Another bird that my son pointed out as a cardinal. I see cardinals each day, and it did not fit in the cardinals body shape. A binocular would have helped a positive id of a cardinal or a scarlet tanager.
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Went for a walk in the Delaware Raritan Canal State Park a couple of miles from my home. Like a rank amateur, that I am, I forgot to take binoculars or camera.
My son pointed out a huge bird flying down the canal and we had no clue what it was. Pulled out the Merlin app and shortlisted it to the Great Blue Heron. Luckily I found the bird across the canal and it posed for me while I tried to take a picture of it with my phone. Merlin was able to identify it as the Great Blue Heron.
Another bird that my son pointed out as a cardinal. I see cardinals each day, and it did not fit in the cardinals body shape. A binocular would have helped a positive id of a cardinal or a scarlet tanager.
And thus begins the slippery slope of carrying the binocs EVERYWHERE.
Speaking of interesting sightings, the Great Lakes and Rockies are experiencing an unusual number of Western Tanagers out of range, due to the violent weather. I'm not sure if they are appearing farther east, but everyone should keep your eyes open. We get them occasionally in our town/yard during migration, but not commonly. Pic of male bird from Cornell site.
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On my walk yesterday, I saw a dead black and white warbler lying on the road.
(https://d1ia71hq4oe7pn.cloudfront.net/photo/63666541-1280px.jpg)
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Oh, man. They are lovely birds.
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@CowboyAndIndian I love great blue herons, it's always fun to see them. I think I may have seen a black and white warbler on my walk Monday but I too neglected to bring binoculars or camers.
@wenchsenior that western tanager is stunning, I would love to see one!
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DH installed the Merlin bird app yesterday and it works extremely well. I installed it now as well. The picture recognizing is very good, but the app doesn't run so smoothly on my Android phone (when wifi, mobile data and GPS are switched off). I regularly need to restart the app.
I also found an app to identify trees and plants, which is very useful for me as I am trying to learn those.
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DH installed the Merlin bird app yesterday and it works extremely well. I installed it now as well. The picture recognizing is very good, but the app doesn't run so smoothly on my Android phone (when wifi, mobile data and GPS are switched off). I regularly need to restart the app.
I also found an app to identify trees and plants, which is very useful for me as I am trying to learn those.
Do you use SEEK?
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app (https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app)
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What got me into birding was finding a bird that captured my imagination. The Black-Cappped Chickadees is my bird. They're super common where I live and after I was able to hand feed them, I was hooked. They are the cutest damned things and seeing them up close and interacting with them on their terms is really cool.
After those initial encounters, I gobbled up everything I could find about them online via Wikipedia and Cornell.
Learning about related species in other parts of the country and world is also fun. Whenever my wife and I travel, to a spot we know has a different chickadee species, we try to see them. There are 7 in North America and we've managed to see 4 of them (black capped chickadee, mountain chickadee, carolina chickadee, and chestnut backed chickadee). In addition to the chickadees, we've been able to see and identify a ton of other bird species too. I find that birding makes traveling more interesting. You pay closer attention to the wildlife around you.
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I love chickadees to @mies, they are so bold and friendly. They are also one of the few birds that remain active even on the coldest days of winter. When other birds are puffed up like dandelions and hiding in the trees the chickadees are still bouncing around and singing. It's inspiring to see.
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I love chickadees to @mies, they are so bold and friendly. They are also one of the few birds that remain active even on the coldest days of winter. When other birds are puffed up like dandelions and hiding in the trees the chickadees are still bouncing around and singing. It's inspiring to see.
Absolutely! The wintertime is one of the best times to see them. That is the time of year when I will hand feed them. This time of year, they aren't interested in people and sunflower seeds or peanuts. There are bugs to eat and babies to raise :D
If you are lucky when you are hand feeding chickadees, some other species will show up and hand feed also. I've hand fed tufted titmice, white breasted nuthatches, red breasted nuthatches, and on one occasion, a downy woodpecker. None are as bold as the chickadees though.
Sorry to hijack the thread with my chickadee and hand feeding stuff. Finding a bird you like and learning as much about it as possible can be a great gateway to birding.
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I don't think you hijacked anything, we are all talking about how much we enjoy birds and your story fits right in
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I don't think you hijacked anything, we are all talking about how much we enjoy birds and your story fits right in
Absolutely, the more birders we get here, the more we can talk about birds ;-)
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Sweet. I'm hoping to cross one more chickadee off my list this summer. I'm going to Maine for a trip in about a month and I should hopefully be in the range of the Boreal Chickadee. That will be chickadee number 5 of 7 for me. The last two will be harder to get. The Mexican chickadee mostly lives in Mexico and I don't anticipate visiting Mexico anytime soon. The gray headed chickadee is practically impossible to see. They live at the very edge of where the treeline ends before the arctic circle. Even if you can get to their range, you still probably won't see one. They are pretty elusive.
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Here is the common crane (grus grus), in Norway. Yesterday we saw 6 cranes and had no camera ready.
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wow @Linea_Norway, it looks HUGE
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wow @Linea_Norway, it looks HUGE
It is huge, bigger than a stork. 95-120 cm.
We took this picture with the tele lense, from the car.
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My first full day in the Pacific NW this handsome couple stopped by to welcome me to the neighborhood. The markings are slightly different here than in the midwest, but I still recognized them as flickers
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My first full day in the Pacific NW this handsome couple stopped by to welcome me to the neighborhood. The markings are slightly different here than in the midwest, but I still recognized them as flickers
Flickers are great. We have more of them around in winter, and I haven't heard any in a while. Right now, we have some breeding ladderback woodpeckers that occasionally come into the yard, but I haven't gotten pics of them.
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I don’t have any pictures to share, but I have been seeing wild turkeys with babies recently near work. The adults are ugly, but the babies are really cute.
I also got to see some puffins last week while in Maine. The whale watching cruise was a bust for seeing whales, but they took us past an island with nesting puffins.
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I don't think I've ever seen a ladderback, or a puffin. This guy was singing in the backyard this morning, I think he's a Lincoln's Sparrow
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Sweet. I'm hoping to cross one more chickadee off my list this summer. I'm going to Maine for a trip in about a month and I should hopefully be in the range of the Boreal Chickadee. That will be chickadee number 5 of 7 for me. The last two will be harder to get. The Mexican chickadee mostly lives in Mexico and I don't anticipate visiting Mexico anytime soon. The gray headed chickadee is practically impossible to see. They live at the very edge of where the treeline ends before the arctic circle. Even if you can get to their range, you still probably won't see one. They are pretty elusive.
Did you get to see a Boreal Chickadee @mies I got this in my email this morning and thought of you (they mention the best spot in Minnesota to see Boreal Chickadees)
Sax-Zim Brochure Map (http://saxzim.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Sax-Zim-Brochure-Map_4_Nov_2016.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1EFBLW8WSNJbPyo0oWvbm5TcTkm18XzO655zaxocj1Q0B5CQmdgHy2MYw)
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Sweet. I'm hoping to cross one more chickadee off my list this summer. I'm going to Maine for a trip in about a month and I should hopefully be in the range of the Boreal Chickadee. That will be chickadee number 5 of 7 for me. The last two will be harder to get. The Mexican chickadee mostly lives in Mexico and I don't anticipate visiting Mexico anytime soon. The gray headed chickadee is practically impossible to see. They live at the very edge of where the treeline ends before the arctic circle. Even if you can get to their range, you still probably won't see one. They are pretty elusive.
Did you get to see a Boreal Chickadee @mies I got this in my email this morning and thought of you (they mention the best spot in Minnesota to see Boreal Chickadees)
Sax-Zim Brochure Map (http://saxzim.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Sax-Zim-Brochure-Map_4_Nov_2016.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1EFBLW8WSNJbPyo0oWvbm5TcTkm18XzO655zaxocj1Q0B5CQmdgHy2MYw)
Sadly, I was not able to see any boreal chickadees. Just black caps, which I see daily here in Ohio. I know boreal chickadees live in Maine, but I’m guessing they don’t get to the coast very often :D
If I’m ever in Minnesota, I should probably check out that spot. Thanks for sharing that!
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I don't think I've ever seen a ladderback, or a puffin. This guy was singing in the backyard this morning, I think he's a Lincoln's Sparrow
For puffins, come and visit Norway (island Runde) or Iceland (Vik). I have seen puffins both places.
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I would love to visit Norway sometime, my sister was there last year and her photos were beautiful.
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Went on a whale watching tour today and these Rhinoceros auklets seemed to enjoy fishing alongside the boat.
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Auklets...sweet!
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Took a quick 2-day getaway that involved some really nice birding. No new species, but lots of great, repeated looks at lots of fun stuff that I never tire of seeing. Total list was ~35 species (not quite as many as last year). The most satisfying was a great extensive look at a Bell's Vireo (they are common, plain little things, but tend to be skulky and hard to see well, so I was happy to get a really good look on this occasion).
I'll just list the really fun and/or colorful ones that I saw well. Pics are all cribbed from the internet (disclaimer: I don't own, all credit to the various photographers) b/c I continue to resist photography equipment creep. Male birds are pictured for more color, though I saw lots of females and juveniles as well.
Yellow-throated warbler...the West doesn't have a ton of warblers, and this is one of the flashiest.
Bewick's wren...love their little 'eyebrows'
Black-throated sparrow (2 of the loveliest sparrows were commonly seen)
Lark sparrow (SO MANY LARK SPARROWS)
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Blue-gray gnatcatcher (tons of these tiny, scoldy little things)
Scissor-tailed flycatcher (lots, esp fun to see all the fledglings out and about)
Vermillion flycatcher (ditto)...when in full breeding plumage, the males actually look like they are glowing from an internal red light
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Blue grosbeak
Lesser goldfinch
Painted bunting
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And finally,
Orchard oriole
Summer tanager
Zone-tailed hawk
Yellow-billed cuckoo (cuckoos are a particular obsession of mine, and this place was crawling with them)
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Wow @wenchsenior , you had a good trip! I am almost fully recovered now from a viral sinus infection so I will be heading out next week to explore the area a bit more. I've heard there are puffins in the Seattle area, I may actually get to see one!
Oh, I hear a bird call I don't recognize from the back yard, must go!
***edit***
I didn't see the one that was singing, but this dark-eyed junco (Oregon variety) posed nicely for me
***edit***
Later in the evening, when neighbors were setting off fireworks all around us, this hummingbird sat in our arborvitae seemingly in a state of shell shock. It's either a black-chinned or Xantu's, or maybe Anna's (idk!)
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We love the juncos! We've discovered (by banding) that many of the same individual juncos (!) have returned to our particular backyard to winter over several consecutive years. Same with our ruby-crowned kinglets. It's kind of astonishing how they will go hundreds of miles away to breed, and then come back to the same little yard in the off season.
Hummers are tough for me unless they are adult males. That won't be Xantus unless far far out of range. The hint of white eyeline extension seems to indicate Anna's, but I wouldn't stake money on it lol.
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Interesting to see so many birds that I'v never seen of heard of, as I live on another continent.
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I went to mammoth cave in Kentucky for vacation this past week. I added a lot of new birds to my list. I used the Merlin app on my phone to identify all of them.
All new additions to my list:
Indigo bunting
Summer tanager (yellow female and red male pair)
Eastern bluebird
Belted kingfisher
Prothonotary warbler
Eastern meadowlark
Northern mockingbird
Carolina wren
Eastern Phoebe
Wood Thrush
Louisiana waterthrush
Song sparrow
Wood duck
This brings my 2019 total up to 41 species.
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Well done @frugalnacho, that's a good list!
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I went to mammoth cave in Kentucky for vacation this past week. I added a lot of new birds to my list. I used the Merlin app on my phone to identify all of them.
All new additions to my list:
Indigo bunting
Summer tanager (yellow female and red male pair)
Eastern bluebird
Belted kingfisher
Prothonotary warbler
Eastern meadowlark
Northern mockingbird
Carolina wren
Eastern Phoebe
Wood Thrush
Louisiana waterthrush
Song sparrow
Wood duck
This brings my 2019 total up to 41 species.
Good list! I just visited Mammoth Cave a couple years ago for the first time. Lots of waterthrushes!
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A great blue heron I think, first I've seen in salt water though
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I LikeLesliethebird nerd on youtube,shorteducationalvideos of birds in Newfoundland.
check it out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTL9QGcPsK0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTL9QGcPsK0)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCbh0nfPdig (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCbh0nfPdig)
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Went on a trip to Florida. Here are some photos that I got using my phone.
The osprey was sunning itself and talking to another osprey sitting on the mast of a boat. It was so confused when I used the merlin app to verify the bird call.
My sisters house had a small pond behind where I saw this great egret.
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I love when this thread updates. I enjoy other bird-watchers' enjoyment.
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I love when this thread updates. I enjoy other bird-watchers' enjoyment.
I've not been posting lately, but I enjoy the others posting.
My birds are the common one. Every walk I take, I hear birds and think @wenchsenior or @Parizade would be able to tell me what those birds are. Long way to go for me, baby steps ....
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Some more from that trip. A brown pelican. I am surprised I got that from my phone.
Sat for lunch at on the terrace and when the table next to me left, this sea gull tried to get the left overs :-)
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A muscovy duck!
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Some more from that trip. A brown pelican. I am surprised I got that from my phone.
Sat for lunch at on the terrace and when the table next to me left, this sea gull tried to get the left overs :-)
Laughing gull. One of the few I find easy to id. DH and I always joke about how we check out when surrounded by gull species (which is rare b/c we don't live near water) b/c there are so many species, we don't have a lot of time to sit and practice with them, and they have several age-plumages, too.
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Some more from that trip. A brown pelican. I am surprised I got that from my phone.
Sat for lunch at on the terrace and when the table next to me left, this sea gull tried to get the left overs :-)
Laughing gull. One of the few I find easy to id. DH and I always joke about how we check out when surrounded by gull species (which is rare b/c we don't live near water) b/c there are so many species, we don't have a lot of time to sit and practice with them, and they have several age-plumages, too.
Did not know that there are many species of gull! Thank you.
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Great Blue Heron enjoying breakfast.
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Those are some fine action shots @CowboyAndIndian, amazing you could get them with a phone. Good job!
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Those are some fine action shots @CowboyAndIndian, amazing you could get them with a phone. Good job!
Thank you. As usual, I forgot to pack binoculars or a better camera. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.
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Last one, one I could not identify. Merlin cannot find out what it is. Again, in St Petersburg, FL, right next to water.
The photo is quite poor and the details are not clear, the damn bird would not sit still and pose ;-).
Any ideas?
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It's hard to say from that photo @CowboyAndIndian, my guess would be a grackle of some kind.
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It's hard to say from that photo @CowboyAndIndian, my guess would be a grackle of some kind.
Yes, or a mockingbird.
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It's hard to say from that photo @CowboyAndIndian, my guess would be a grackle of some kind.
Yes, or a mockingbird.
I have common grackles in NJ and it did not look like those.
Going thru Merlin, I see it could be a mockingbird.
Let me try reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird and see what they say.
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It's hard to say from that photo @CowboyAndIndian, my guess would be a grackle of some kind.
Yes, or a mockingbird.
I have common grackles in NJ and it did not look like those.
Going thru Merlin, I see it could be a mockingbird.
Let me try reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird and see what they say.
I was looking at the tail all flared out and thinking Boat-tailed grackle but you would have seen the same iridescence you see in the common grackles of NJ
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It's hard to say from that photo @CowboyAndIndian, my guess would be a grackle of some kind.
Yes, or a mockingbird.
I have common grackles in NJ and it did not look like those.
Going thru Merlin, I see it could be a mockingbird.
Let me try reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird and see what they say.
I was looking at the tail all flared out and thinking Boat-tailed grackle but you would have seen the same iridescence you see in the common grackles of NJ
Mockingbirds tend to flick their tails up and also flare their wings pretty frequently. If you saw any white on the wings or tail (outer feathers), that would indicate a mockingbird.
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It's hard to say from that photo @CowboyAndIndian, my guess would be a grackle of some kind.
Yes, or a mockingbird.
I have common grackles in NJ and it did not look like those.
Going thru Merlin, I see it could be a mockingbird.
Let me try reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird and see what they say.
I was looking at the tail all flared out and thinking Boat-tailed grackle but you would have seen the same iridescence you see in the common grackles of NJ
Mockingbirds tend to flick their tails up and also flare their wings pretty frequently. If you saw any white on the wings or tail (outer feathers), that would indicate a mockingbird.
My observation skills are poor. Don't remember any iridescence or white on wings or tail.
Sorry....
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Here is an Eastern Phoebe. The photo was taken by my friend G. Hegde, who is a phenomenal photographer, but unfortunately not into birding.
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It's hard to say from that photo @CowboyAndIndian, my guess would be a grackle of some kind.
Yes, or a mockingbird.
I have common grackles in NJ and it did not look like those.
Going thru Merlin, I see it could be a mockingbird.
Let me try reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird and see what they say.
I was looking at the tail all flared out and thinking Boat-tailed grackle but you would have seen the same iridescence you see in the common grackles of NJ
Mockingbirds tend to flick their tails up and also flare their wings pretty frequently. If you saw any white on the wings or tail (outer feathers), that would indicate a mockingbird.
My observation skills are poor. Don't remember any iridescence or white on wings or tail.
Sorry....
If you enlarge the photo there appears to be some white on the underbelly and under the tail, but it's hard to tell if that's just a trick of light.
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I broke down and got myself a cheap telephoto lens for my Sony Alpha 6000. 55-200 (82-310 for 35mm) 4.5-6.3 .
Photo of a cardinal taken thru the window and screen, so not of the highest clarity.
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Some questions for the bird knowledgeable.
Common grackles were the most common bird at my feeder, but they have deserted my feeder in the last 3-4 weeks. The grackles had 10+ nests in my garden and I do not see them now.
Any idea what could be the cause? I did get rid of some dead branches on trees in my garden, could that be the cause? I am seeing a lot more crows around, could that be a cause?
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It's pretty hot there now isn't it? Your birds might be hanging out in cool shady places or closer to water sources, do you have a birdbath in your yard?
Have you changed what you put in your feeder? Different food will attract different birds.
Food and Feeder Preferences of Common Feeder Birds (https://feederwatch.org/learn/common-feeder-birds/)
Also I think grackles prefer to eat insects in the summer so if it's a good year for bugs your grackles are filling up on them.
ANd yes, crows can be bullies chasing away smaller birds.
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It's pretty hot there now isn't it? Your birds might be hanging out in cool shady places or closer to water sources, do you have a birdbath in your yard?
Yes, bird bath is within a few feet of the feeder. I refresh the water every couple of days.
Have you changed what you put in your feeder? Different food will attract different birds.
Food and Feeder Preferences of Common Feeder Birds (https://feederwatch.org/learn/common-feeder-birds/)
No, just the sunflower seed that they seem to prefer.
Also I think grackles prefer to eat insects in the summer so if it's a good year for bugs your grackles are filling up on them.
Good. Natural insect control!
ANd yes, crows can be bullies chasing away smaller birds.
Yikes.
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Grackles will likely have all their fledglings out now, as well (our great tailed grackles are long-fledged down here in the south), and protein/fat is more the food the growing birds need, so they are probably wandering more widely in search of food. But the crows could definitely be a factor.
Blue jays, crows, and roadrunners (in the southwest) will all regularly predate squirrel babies, as well as nestlings and fledglings of other bird species, but I'm not sure exactly how that plays into post-fledging behaviors. Squirrels will also eat nestling birds. Incidentally, I assume grackles do as well. I caught one harassing a baby box turtle in my backyard recently, and I bet it was testing its luck at eating it (it gave up, eventually).
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This peacock showing off for the ladies.
Taken in Central NJ at Grounds for Sculpture a couple of years ago.
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Went on another whale watching tour today and saw my first puffin in the wild!
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EEEE!!!!! :has seabird envy:
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All the little Mississippi Kite babies have started fledging around town. Growing up, on their way to being lovely, elegant adults.
Pics all by my DH.
Adult kite carrying nesting material.
Adult kite building nest.
Juvenile near fledging age.
Adult kite perched.
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Oh they are lovely @wenchsenior, what a treat to watch a family of them
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Beautiful pictures @Parizade and @wenchsenior
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Went to Cape Cod for a wedding and went to charge my car, thinking it would be a boring 45 minutes. In the parking lot saw a birding family with a big tripod and a huge lens on their camera, watching/photographing an osprey nest.
In the osprey nest were 3 juveniles, with the parents very busy trying to feed them and help them learn. The birder told me that it is very rare to have 3 juveniles in one nest. Learned a lot about ospreys.
As usual, I forgot my camera and binoculars (who takes those to a wedding?), so this is a cell phone picture.
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Three juvies! That's a lot of noisy food begging LOL.
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I love ospreys, what a great experience @CowboyAndIndian!
I think sometimes I "forget" my camera subconsciously on purpose when I'm craving a more in-the-moment experience. While it's great to have photos of all the birds I see, sometimes it's more fun to just enjoy the experience without trying to capture it.
I've been watching The Bird Nerds (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDJU_yhd1y0J1LIVbRL0NVA/videos?view=0&sort=da&flow=grid) on Youtube, it's fun to see their adventures.
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I've been watching The Bird Nerds (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDJU_yhd1y0J1LIVbRL0NVA/videos?view=0&sort=da&flow=grid) on Youtube, it's fun to see their adventures.
Nice. Thanks for the suggestion, I have subscribed.
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White-breasted nuthatch.
I kept thinking it was a woodpecker since it kept hanging like a woodpecker and digging into the crevices of the tree. Sorry for the poor quality, taken thru glass and screen.
Not my identification, but used reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird/).
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Two new birds in a day, I am very happy! And I did not even have to leave my sofa for this ;-)
I think this might be a Carolina Chickadee or a black-capped chickadee, seen here with a house finch.
With the help of Merlin, I thought it was a Carolina Chickadee, but Reddit says it could be a black-capped chickadee.
This is what the user kiwikiu thought on Reddit.
the border between Black-capped and Carolina in NJ is pretty much a straight line between Trenton and Perth Amboy, with Black-capped on the north side and Carolina on the south. The two species are basically impossible to reliably separate by eye, so call (Carolina is higher-pitched) or location is the way to go
I am pretty much on the straight line between Trenton and Perth Amboy so location did not help. I did not hear the call.
What got me into birding was finding a bird that captured my imagination. The Black-Cappped Chickadees is my bird. They're super common where I live and after I was able to hand feed them, I was hooked. They are the cutest damned things and seeing them up close and interacting with them on their terms is really cool.
After those initial encounters, I gobbled up everything I could find about them online via Wikipedia and Cornell.
Learning about related species in other parts of the country and world is also fun. Whenever my wife and I travel, to a spot we know has a different chickadee species, we try to see them. There are 7 in North America and we've managed to see 4 of them (black capped chickadee, mountain chickadee, carolina chickadee, and chestnut backed chickadee). In addition to the chickadees, we've been able to see and identify a ton of other bird species too. I find that birding makes traveling more interesting. You pay closer attention to the wildlife around you.
@mies , any ideas which chickadee it is?
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I miss seeing nuthatches. We only get them occasionally down here.
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I can't help with the chickadee ID, sorry. They are wonderful little visitors though, so friendly.
I put up a hummingbird feeder on Saturday, it's already seeing a lot of action. I think this is a female Anna's. Haven't seen any males yet.
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Two new birds in a day, I am very happy! And I did not even have to leave my sofa for this ;-)
I think this might be a Carolina Chickadee or a black-capped chickadee, seen here with a house finch.
With the help of Merlin, I thought it was a Carolina Chickadee, but Reddit says it could be a black-capped chickadee.
This is what the user kiwikiu thought on Reddit.
the border between Black-capped and Carolina in NJ is pretty much a straight line between Trenton and Perth Amboy, with Black-capped on the north side and Carolina on the south. The two species are basically impossible to reliably separate by eye, so call (Carolina is higher-pitched) or location is the way to go
I am pretty much on the straight line between Trenton and Perth Amboy so location did not help. I did not hear the call.
What got me into birding was finding a bird that captured my imagination. The Black-Cappped Chickadees is my bird. They're super common where I live and after I was able to hand feed them, I was hooked. They are the cutest damned things and seeing them up close and interacting with them on their terms is really cool.
After those initial encounters, I gobbled up everything I could find about them online via Wikipedia and Cornell.
Learning about related species in other parts of the country and world is also fun. Whenever my wife and I travel, to a spot we know has a different chickadee species, we try to see them. There are 7 in North America and we've managed to see 4 of them (black capped chickadee, mountain chickadee, carolina chickadee, and chestnut backed chickadee). In addition to the chickadees, we've been able to see and identify a ton of other bird species too. I find that birding makes traveling more interesting. You pay closer attention to the wildlife around you.
@mies , any ideas which chickadee it is?
Whoops. Just saw this :D It looks like you get both kinds in New Jersey, and by appearance, they look pretty much identical from far away. Plus this one looks all ratty from climbing in and out of knot holes all summer, which further muddies the water.
The easiest way to tell them apart is by their call. Black caps have a essentially a two note see-bee call. Carolinas have a four note call. If you live where their ranges overlap, that can also make it difficult to ID them. They can learn each other's calls and interbreed.
Sorry I can't give a positive ID!
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Had a fun day on the tidal flats, saw kildeer, herons, osprey, eagle, and a ruddy turnstone (my first!). Along with many seagulls, crows, and robins.
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Apologies in advance. This is not a bird-related post.
In a previous post, I had mentioned that I had used mosquito control last year and I had no insects in my garden and hence did not see any birds or bats. And then @wenchsenior posted pictures of her beautiful garden and I was very, very jealous ;-). So I decided to dedicate a small part of my garden for butterflies, more specifically Monarch butterflies. The local Audobon society had a native plant sale and I bought a couple of pots of milkweed and planted in the corner that I had dedicated to butterflies. There were enough nectar plants, so I hoped it would work in attracting monarchs and other butterflies.
I am not sure I have seen any monarchs in my garden before this year. It could be that I was not looking or was working and did not see them. Now I see one or two a day. I am very thrilled. If you see the bottom left corner of the pictures, I see an egg which I hope is a monarch egg.
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Had a fun day on the tidal flats, saw kildeer, herons, osprey, eagle, and a ruddy turnstone (my first!). Along with many seagulls, crows, and robins.
@Parizade, your pictures clearly show the "M" that the osprey wing makes, especially if you compare it with the eagle.
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Your monarchs are beautiful, good for you for planting milkweed for them. They need allies.
The osprey was an incredibly graceful glider, I barely saw it move its wings at all.
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Saw a chestnut backed chicadee at the feeder today and thought of you @mies. Saw lots of black capped chicadees as well, they seem to be more agressive and try to chase off the chestnut backed. They were going for different food too, which I found interesting.
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Saw a chestnut backed chicadee at the feeder today and thought of you @mies. Saw lots of black capped chicadees as well, they seem to be more agressive and try to chase off the chestnut backed. They were going for different food too, which I found interesting.
Awesome! I love these guys. I got to see them in Redwood National Park a couple of years ago.
I’m not surprised the black capped chickadees we’re doing that to the chestnut backs. There’s a woman on YouTube called Leslie the bird nerd that does videos on the birds where she lives in Canada. She gets boreal and Black capped chickadees and says the black caps are aggressive towards the boreals.
In other chickadee news, while I was in a garden at the zoo today I saw some fledgling chickadees begging and being fed by their parents. Mom and dad looked ragged. They were probably getting close to being done with them. The babies looked like they had lost the yellow around their beaks.
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A rufous hummingbird visited our feeder this morning. These tiny creatures migrate over
2000 4000 miles!
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A rufous hummingbird visited our feeder this morning. These tiny creatures migrate over 2000 miles!
I love them. We get them occasionally on migration.
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A rufous hummingbird visited our feeder this morning. These tiny creatures migrate over 2000 4000 miles!
Holy crap, that is one large journey for such a tiny bird.
I have not seen a hummingbird in my garden. Any specific tips?
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Do you have a Wild Birds Unlimited story near you? They sell guaranteed for life hummingbird feeders that are easy to fill and clean. That's really important because it's too easy to make your hummingbirds sick with a dirty feeder or contaminated nectar. They can also tell you what species you can expect and when they are migrating.
Making the nectar is simple: I boil a cup of water in the microwave, then add 1/4 c. plain white sugar (don't try to get fancy with honey or organic sugars, plain white is best. and DON'T add any red coloring). Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then let it cool and pour it into a clean feeder. Change it out every few days or you will be attracting more bacteria than hummingbirds. I do it Sundays and Wednesdays.
Since you enjoy gardening include some plants that hummingbirds like. Hanging fuschia is a favorite. Good luck!
In other news, a Steller Jay checked out my suet today. Handsome fellow, but good lord they're HUGE.
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Do you have a Wild Birds Unlimited story near you? They sell guaranteed for life hummingbird feeders that are easy to fill and clean. That's really important because it's too easy to make your hummingbirds sick with a dirty feeder or contaminated nectar. They can also tell you what species you can expect and when they are migrating.
Making the nectar is simple: I boil a cup of water in the microwave, then add 1/4 c. plain white sugar (don't try to get fancy with honey or organic sugars, plain white is best. and DON'T add any red coloring). Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then let it cool and pour it into a clean feeder. Change it out every few days or you will be attracting more bacteria than hummingbirds. I do it Sundays and Wednesdays.
Since you enjoy gardening include some plants that hummingbirds like. Hanging fuschia is a favorite. Good luck!
In other news, a Steller Jay checked out my suet today. Handsome fellow, but good lord they're HUGE.
Great advice. Thanks @Parizade
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Do you have a Wild Birds Unlimited story near you? They sell guaranteed for life hummingbird feeders that are easy to fill and clean. That's really important because it's too easy to make your hummingbirds sick with a dirty feeder or contaminated nectar. They can also tell you what species you can expect and when they are migrating.
Making the nectar is simple: I boil a cup of water in the microwave, then add 1/4 c. plain white sugar (don't try to get fancy with honey or organic sugars, plain white is best. and DON'T add any red coloring). Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then let it cool and pour it into a clean feeder. Change it out every few days or you will be attracting more bacteria than hummingbirds. I do it Sundays and Wednesdays.
Since you enjoy gardening include some plants that hummingbirds like. Hanging fuschia is a favorite. Good luck!
In other news, a Steller Jay checked out my suet today. Handsome fellow, but good lord they're HUGE.
Heh. Just remember, it's almost all feathers.
I post occasionally on a facebook group devoted to backyard wildlife, mostly to help id things for newbies. Great Horned Owls are commonly seen, and I've many times had to patiently explain that their enormous-appearing size is mostly illusory and they cannot carry off your kid LOL, or even your medium-sized dog (not that they'd want to).
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Ha! He didn't like the dog one bit and made sure the whole neighborhood heard his complaints. But I'm more concerned about the little birds, who disappear when Big Blue shows up.
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Ha! He didn't like the dog one bit and made sure the whole neighborhood heard his complaints. But I'm more concerned about the little birds, who disappear when Big Blue shows up.
Well, jays ARE kind of thugs.
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Ha! He didn't like the dog one bit and made sure the whole neighborhood heard his complaints. But I'm more concerned about the little birds, who disappear when Big Blue shows up.
Well, jays ARE kind of thugs.
Good looking thugs!
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And quite gregarious with people. Mine engages in converstation with me every morning now, though I think I accidentally said something offensive this morning (cackack a CACK cack or something to that effect). He flew off in a huff.
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And quite gregarious with people. Mine engages in converstation with me every morning now, though I think I accidentally said something offensive this morning (cackack a CACK cack or something to that effect). He flew off in a huff.
The bird whisperer!
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The bird whisperer!
Ha! Not a very good one, haven't seen Big Blue since the incident.
We had a bushtit flashmob at the feeder this morning, about 20 little birds converged with a mighty racket. My granddaughter climbed up on her step stool to see it and exclaimed OH MY GOD in a voice loud enough to scare them all off.
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I love Bushtits! I was delighted last winter when a flock moved through the shrubs only a couple feet from my face at the San Diego Zoo. We actually saw several good non-zoo species that day.
I just got a new life-list bird this past weekend! Although I spent a decade in Tucson, I never managed to see one of the southwestern specialties, the Red-faced Warbler. But this past weekend in the southwestern mountains, I got an excellent view of one, and my companions got the best view they'd ever had as well (normally these warblers stay somewhat high in the tree canopy, but this one came down to about 15 feet above ground right over our heads). Very exciting...that 'get' only took 20+ years longer than I expected LOL.
We also saw some other nice stuff that we've seen before, particularly Pygmy Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, and another southwestern specialty, Painted Redstart.
Pics from various websites.
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Beautiful @wenchsenior! I had a new warbler in the backyard today but couldn't get a photo. It was too shy and finally decided the feeder wasn't tempting enough. Wilson's warblers are the most common in this area so I assume that's what it was.
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Help me identify this new hummingbird, it broke down the fence to get to the feeder last night.
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Help me identify this new hummingbird, it broke down the fence to get to the feeder last night.
The very rare Ursus furryus hummer!
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Help me identify this new hummingbird, it broke down the fence to get to the feeder last night.
The very rare Ursus furryus hummer!
Unfortunately Ursus has ruined the party for all the others. No more feeders in the backyard, my son doesn't want his 5yo daughter sharing space with tier one predators.
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In addition to any bird books, I would recommend a book like this for your area, it has birds, insects, mammals, mushrooms, trees, flowers ect so is handy for identifying some of the other critters you may encounter, like today me realizing that the 1 1/2 inch long wasp with the 1/4 inch stinger was a tarantula hawk(shudder).
https://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-Mountain-States/dp/0679446818/ref=sr_1_3?crid=28ZH4HNJL8U0P&keywords=audubon+rocky+mountain+states&qid=1566697458&s=gateway&sprefix=audubon+rocky+mountains%2Caps%2C-1&sr=8-3
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In addition to any bird books, I would recommend a book like this for your area, it has birds, insects, mammals, mushrooms, trees, flowers ect so is handy for identifying some of the other critters you may encounter, like today me realizing that the 1 1/2 inch long wasp with the 1/4 inch stinger was a tarantula hawk(shudder).
https://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-Mountain-States/dp/0679446818/ref=sr_1_3?crid=28ZH4HNJL8U0P&keywords=audubon+rocky+mountain+states&qid=1566697458&s=gateway&sprefix=audubon+rocky+mountains%2Caps%2C-1&sr=8-3
I LOVE tarantula hawks! That incredible iridescent purple! I was recently watching a male fly around following a female's scent trail (which was sort of comical...I'd watched her fly by on a certain route, and a minute later a male flew by, on the exact same invisible road).
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Our area has several waterfalls with black swift nesting sites. We saw several on a hike back in July. No pics, but here are a couple links to articles about black swifts.
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/september-october-2012/out-shadows-black-swifts-north
https://www.audubon.org/news/where-find-rarest-swift-north-america
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Three close encounters with a hawk in the last week. Unfortunately, the hawk was in a tree each time and I only got a glimpse of it when it flew away. Not enough for identification :-(
@wenchsenior, I remember you writing about bird calls and how a new call is enough to break out the binoculars. I can finally recognize the calls of a few local birds without seeing them, the blue jay, cardinal and the mourning dove. The mourning dove is a cheat, I knew it before.
A whole bunch of jays (maybe 10-15 in an apple tree) making frantic calls found me the first hawk.
4-5 crows chasing a hawk was the second.
A lone hawk decided to use the tree next to my feeder. Guess he was using it as a hunting blind....
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Three close encounters with a hawk in the last week. Unfortunately, the hawk was in a tree each time and I only got a glimpse of it when it flew away. Not enough for identification :-(
@wenchsenior, I remember you writing about bird calls and how a new call is enough to break out the binoculars. I can finally recognize the calls of a few local birds without seeing them, the blue jay, cardinal and the mourning dove. The mourning dove is a cheat, I knew it before.
A whole bunch of jays (maybe 10-15 in an apple tree) making frantic calls found me the first hawk.
4-5 crows chasing a hawk was the second.
A lone hawk decided to use the tree next to my feeder. Guess he was using it as a hunting blind....
Yes, jays and crows are a great hack to find raptors in wooded areas.
Most likely a Cooper's hawk, at an urban bird feeder on the eastern seaboard, though there could be other possibilities. Coops do haunt feeders b/c they are bird-hunting specialists. But you'll have a lot of different hawks moving through your area at this time of the year. If you start feeling ambitious about the raptors, try a trip to Hawk Mt, Pennsylvania during autumn migration. https://www.hawkmountain.org/ (https://www.hawkmountain.org/)
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If you start feeling ambitious about the raptors, try a trip to Hawk Mt, Pennsylvania during autumn migration. https://www.hawkmountain.org/ (https://www.hawkmountain.org/)
Very, very tempting.
Just two hours from home. Very close to Allentown where DS is going to school.
So, probably could kill two birds with one stone (bad idiom, considering this is all about birds).
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If you start feeling ambitious about the raptors, try a trip to Hawk Mt, Pennsylvania during autumn migration. https://www.hawkmountain.org/ (https://www.hawkmountain.org/)
Very, very tempting.
Just two hours from home. Very close to Allentown where DS is going to school.
So, probably could kill two birds with one stone (bad idiom, considering this is all about birds).
@wenchsenior, you are a bad influence ;-)
I had to meet my son at 2 pm, so left at 8.30am and went to Hawk Mountain, reaching around 10.30am. I expected the place to be empty, but all the parking lots were almost full.
It was a cool (glad I took my jacket), cloudy, windy day with drizzles in the morning. But it was perfect weather for the raptors.
At the south overlook, there was an observer and a trainee doing counts. Also, about 5-6 other interested birders, all of whom seemed to know a lot. One guy was from California and was spending the week here watching the raptors. They would find birds in a seemingly empty sky.
Saw 126 broadwing in one hour, one flock(kettle?) was about 36 in size. Also saw a couple of ospreys, bunch of others which I could not distinguish.
What a day! Could not get any photos, my 300mm lens could not pick up birds that far. My binoculars got a lot of use.
Thanks for the recommendation.
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If you start feeling ambitious about the raptors, try a trip to Hawk Mt, Pennsylvania during autumn migration. https://www.hawkmountain.org/ (https://www.hawkmountain.org/)
Very, very tempting.
Just two hours from home. Very close to Allentown where DS is going to school.
So, probably could kill two birds with one stone (bad idiom, considering this is all about birds).
@wenchsenior, you are a bad influence ;-)
I had to meet my son at 2 pm, so left at 8.30am and went to Hawk Mountain, reaching around 10.30am. I expected the place to be empty, but all the parking lots were almost full.
It was a cool (glad I took my jacket), cloudy, windy day with drizzles in the morning. But it was perfect weather for the raptors.
At the south overlook, there was an observer and a trainee doing counts. Also, about 5-6 other interested birders, all of whom seemed to know a lot. One guy was from California and was spending the week here watching the raptors. They would find birds in a seemingly empty sky.
Saw 126 broadwing in one hour, one flock(kettle?) was about 36 in size. Also saw a couple of ospreys, bunch of others which I could not distinguish.
What a day! Could not get any photos, my 300mm lens could not pick up birds that far. My binoculars got a lot of use.
Thanks for the recommendation.
Awwww....I am having so many warm fuzzy feelings right now. Welcome to the slippery slope!
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This is the hawk which was stalking my bird feeder...
Any idea of what it was? I just shot off 5 photos before it got startled and flew away and this is the best.
The belly band makes me think Red-Tailed hawk. What do you think?
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I went to Mackinac Island for a conference this weekend. I saw a pine siskin while biking around the island. That's another bird added to my list.
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I went to Mackinac Island for a conference this weekend. I saw a pine siskin while biking around the island. That's another bird added to my list.
Siskins are very cute!
We had a nice (and unusual) autumn migrant the other day. Adult male American redstart (pic not by me).
FLITFLITFLITFLITFLITFLITFLIT
Man, they never stop moving.
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This is the hawk which was stalking my bird feeder...
Any idea of what it was? I just shot off 5 photos before it got startled and flew away and this is the best.
The belly band makes me think Red-Tailed hawk. What do you think?
It is an immature Cooper's or an immature sharp-tailed sharp-shinned (man, you can tell I was just editing grouse papers this weekend). Too blurry to be sure which. The immature red-tail belly band is lower down and the chest is whiter. Also, red-tails rarely haunt bird feeders in wooded areas (they are mostly mammal eaters, and tend to forage in open country). Whereas Coops and sharpies are bird-hunting specialists, who frequent more heavily treed locations. Also, see how long the tail is? That's an accipiter thing.
ETA: As I've said, size is deceptive in the field, but I'm guessing this bird looked to be between a blue jay and crow to your eye in size. Red-tails are (and look) bigger. If you know the approximate size of the tree branches, you can get an idea of rough length of bird.
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When life gives you gulls, you take gull pictures.
Trip to Montauk (eastern tip of Long Island, NY) and the only birds I saw were gulls.
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ACK, juvenile gulls! I'm out. LOL
Seriously, we don't live anywhere near a coast, so that's our 'excuse' for not practicing gulls. And when we visit the coast, we work on id'ing non-gulls first. As a result, except for Laughing Gulls, my gull-id skills are less than optimal. Much like my flycatcher skills.
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looks like a ring billed gull
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Has anyone seen this documentary on Netflix called Birders?
https://decider.com/2019/09/25/birders-on-netflix-stream-it-or-skip-it/
Are there any other bird-related series/documentaries that you would recommend?
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You could watch The Big Year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Year
I can't recommend it as a great movie, but it is birding related, and that alone made it worth the watch. I also like Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Steve Martin. If you're into birds I would say it's worth a watch.
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You could watch The Big Year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Year
I can't recommend it as a great movie, but it is birding related, and that alone made it worth the watch. I also like Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Steve Martin. If you're into birds I would say it's worth a watch.
Agree; it's a cute movie.
There's one scene that opens cold with a shot of a dump/landfill site, and my husband and I both shouted "BROWNSVILLE DUMP!" right before the caption came up confirming the location. B/C of COURSE any film about U.S. birders would have to include it...and we'd gone there on our first trip to South Texas. Gotta get those Taumalipas Crows! What a weird subculture I'm a member of...
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You could watch The Big Year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Year
I can't recommend it as a great movie, but it is birding related, and that alone made it worth the watch. I also like Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Steve Martin. If you're into birds I would say it's worth a watch.
Thanks. I like all of the actors, so it should be a good watch. Will find out if Netflix or Prime has it.
Edit: Netflix and Prime do not have this. Will keep it in mind and see if it shows up later.
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When I was a young man, I went day hike in a wildlife sanctuary near Bangalore(Bannerghatta). We had an experienced guide with us and walked on game trails. What I remember vividly about that hike was the guide listening to the alarm calls of other animals(monkeys mostly) to warn us of tigers or elephants. We spent an hour on some large boulders to avoid some elephants on our way.
So, a nice way to find raptors has been to keep an ear for bird alarm calls. Three times this year, blue jays have notified me of hawks on apple trees in our back yard. My bad luck that it was a dull gray rainy day and hence the photos are awful. The blue jays were so brave, they were within a few feet of the hawk telling it how unwelcome it was!
@wenchsenior, do your magic. Which one is this?
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Looks like an immature Cooper's hawk. Probably a female, judging by size. That's not a bad photo at all. You can see most of the easy field marks. Pale eye, brown head and back, vertical streaking scattered on breast, long tail, upright posture, bars on tail. I can tell you that it isn't a Sharp-shinned, which looks superficially similar, but the field marks for that id are much harder for a beginner (in some sightings, I wouldn't make the call). In this case, you can mainly tell by the relative size of the eye compared with the head (sharpies have a sort of slightly bug-eyed, crazed looking expression that Coops do not, and their eyes are proportionally larger). Also, this bird is too large to be a Sharpie.
I am currently in VA, and just hiked in the Shenandoah/Appalachian Trail for a couple days. Almost no bird activity this late in the year, but a big surprise at one of the lookouts...an adult Northern Goshawk glided by at eye level. A bit south for their typical range, but no mistaking that hawk, presumably doing a bit of winter-season cruising the mountain ridge-line. A special sighting of an uncommon bird (even more uncommon in the east than the west). I feel very lucky...it's been a number of years since I've seen a wild goshawk.
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I hiked at Cromwell Valley Park near 695. There were a number of birders there looking for migrating hawks. I saw a sharp shined hawk, a northern flicker (yellow shafted), blue jays, a woodpecker (downy or hairy), and others.
Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk
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Looks like an immature Cooper's hawk. Probably a female, judging by size. That's not a bad photo at all. You can see most of the easy field marks. Pale eye, brown head and back, vertical streaking scattered on breast, long tail, upright posture, bars on tail. I can tell you that it isn't a Sharp-shinned, which looks superficially similar, but the field marks for that id are much harder for a beginner (in some sightings, I wouldn't make the call). In this case, you can mainly tell by the relative size of the eye compared with the head (sharpies have a sort of slightly bug-eyed, crazed looking expression that Coops do not, and their eyes are proportionally larger). Also, this bird is too large to be a Sharpie.
Thank you, I am learning a lot from you. Really appreciate it.
I am currently in VA, and just hiked in the Shenandoah/Appalachian Trail for a couple days. Almost no bird activity this late in the year, but a big surprise at one of the lookouts...an adult Northern Goshawk glided by at eye level. A bit south for their typical range, but no mistaking that hawk, presumably doing a bit of winter-season cruising the mountain ridge-line. A special sighting of an uncommon bird (even more uncommon in the east than the west. I feel very lucky...it's been a number of years since I've seen a wild goshawk.
Do Goshak's not migrate south?
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I hiked at Cromwell Valley Park near 695. There were a number of birders there looking for migrating hawks. I saw a sharp shined hawk, a northern flicker (yellow shafted), blue jays, a woodpecker (downy or hairy), and others.
Awesome. Did you get any photos?
I went to Hawk Mountain a couple of weeks ago and was blown away by the number of raptors I saw.
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Looks like an immature Cooper's hawk. Probably a female, judging by size. That's not a bad photo at all. You can see most of the easy field marks. Pale eye, brown head and back, vertical streaking scattered on breast, long tail, upright posture, bars on tail. I can tell you that it isn't a Sharp-shinned, which looks superficially similar, but the field marks for that id are much harder for a beginner (in some sightings, I wouldn't make the call). In this case, you can mainly tell by the relative size of the eye compared with the head (sharpies have a sort of slightly bug-eyed, crazed looking expression that Coops do not, and their eyes are proportionally larger). Also, this bird is too large to be a Sharpie.
Thank you, I am learning a lot from you. Really appreciate it.
I am currently in VA, and just hiked in the Shenandoah/Appalachian Trail for a couple days. Almost no bird activity this late in the year, but a big surprise at one of the lookouts...an adult Northern Goshawk glided by at eye level. A bit south for their typical range, but no mistaking that hawk, presumably doing a bit of winter-season cruising the mountain ridge-line. A special sighting of an uncommon bird (even more uncommon in the east than the west. I feel very lucky...it's been a number of years since I've seen a wild goshawk.
Do Goshak's not migrate south?
Some birds stay near or on their breeding territories all year; others wander south a bit from their breeding grounds. When my husband studied a northern MN population, most of the residents were there through deep winter, but not actively defending their breeding territories...mostly just roaming around locally.
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We went walking this Saturday at the DR canal close to home. Remembered to take my camera for once. I did not expect to see any birds but was very lucky.
Started off with a great egret.
Next, the Canada geese who were so polite and let me take pictures of them. In spring, they are so aggressive protecting their goslings. Read this hilarious answer on what marines fear the most https://qr.ae/TWAotc
Finally, I got to see a huge number of double-crested cormorants. Looks like they were using the canal and Lake Carnegie for a little R&R before heading south.
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Decided to go to the same place on Sunday. Was hoping for more migratory birds, but just one Great Blue heron. I waited about 20 mins hoping to get a picture in flight, but no luck
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One more trip to Grounds for Sculpture.
The leucistic peacock is quite interesting.
I was very happy with the way my photos turned out.
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In the last week of October and the first week of November, I saw over a thousand Turkey Vultures. Wonder why so many?
These pictures are from Bowman's tower in Washington Crossing Park. Includes some fall colors also.
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Only when I saw turkey vultures up close, did I realize how big they were.
Photo from Mercer county park, NJ
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I saw a Bald Eagle!!!
I lucked out in Mercer County park when I met an older gentleman with a camera with a huge lens. I assumed he is taking bird photos and started a conversation with him. He had come to the park to try and get a picture of the Bald eagle pair that are nesting. We saw this guy sunning himself but even after waiting for an hour, he/she did not move.
We can only see them across the lake, cannot go anywhere near 1000 feet of the nests.
My poor camera did not cut it, and this was the best I could do. Maybe, time for a lens extender :-)
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I also saw an Eastern Bluebird in Mercer County. The best photo was the one I expected the least.
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Only when I saw turkey vultures up close, did I realize how big they were.
Photo from Mercer county park, NJ
Don't startle them...they vomit defensively. I've been soooo close to being slimed by falling rotten meat a few times LOL.
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I really enjoy everyone's enjoyment of the birds they are seeing. I love this thread.
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I have a little story. Not about a bird that I saw, but it's amazing.
My husband and I have been doing field research on birds on a Caribbean island for years and years, but a few years ago, the research program (which involved a lot of scientists in addition to us) was shut down. However, the island owners invited a few researchers from the group to stay on and keep working on specialized projects, and we were among the handful. We did that for a couple more years, but were hesitant to set up years-long study goals (which are much preferable to 1-2-year studies). Then I also had some health issues that prevented me from being fit enough to do the work, so we didn't go for a couple of years. Then, in 2017, the island was blasted by back-to-back Category 5 hurricanes, which devastated it and all the neighboring islands.
The anthropogenic devastation was, of course, widely reported on and was horrifying. One person we knew was killed in the storm, many lost their homes. Needless to say, we couldn't go down to do research that year, but the spotty reports we got of the bird populations in the aftermath were gut-wrenching. Every leaf was stripped from every tree in the island chain, vegetation didn't start to reemerge for 3 weeks afterward...most of the birds presumably died outright, but any nectar-, fruit-, and insect-eating birds that survived promptly began starving (carnivorous or omnivorous birds such as thrashers and cuckoos could presumably eat the dying ones). The forests were devastated, with tons of huge, mature tall-canopy trees down, etc. The day we got some aerial photos sent to us from an emergency aid flyover, I had to go to our office bathroom to have a nice, big crying jag.
A few months ago, with the island infrastructure back up and running, we got word that the island owners wanted us to come down and do inventory to see how the various bird populations were doing in the aftermath. I was not able to go for reasons too tiresome to go into, but we managed to rustle up a friend who had previously done work on the island's endangered iguanas, so he and my husband went down a few weeks ago.
The first few days, I would wait tensely every evening for reports on what they were seeing. About half the backcountry trails were totally impassable, debris in the understory blocking visibility all over the island, etc. As expected, fruit-, insect-, and nectar-eating species were nearly wiped out. Omnivorous species' numbers seemed down, too, but not nearly as much. Iguana numbers (thankfully they are also omnivorous) also appeared down but stable, and with a decent number of hatchlings.
So bad, but not as bad as I'd been dreading.
But the very first day of mist-netting to trap birds, my husband caught THIS bird, already banded. A tiny, unassuming, 18-gram resident flycatcher, that my husband had previously banded...on the 15th of October 2005. People, 2005!!!!! This bird was AT LEAST 14 years old (astounding for such a tiny animal), and had survived at least 4 hurricanes hitting his home, including the two 2017 monsters.
My husband said he has rarely felt so humbled as when he was privileged to hold this tough little bird again for a couple of minutes. And I cried, from happiness this time, when he sent me the news. I hadn't realized how bottled up I'd kept my worry about the island fauna until that moment. Ah, it looks as though my shriveled, cynical soul CAN be touched, after all. THIS is the kind of thing that makes me want to keep fighting what usually seems like a pointless effort against humanity's constant assault on the planet's ecology. Little things like this amazing little bird, just going about its life in the face of catastrophic destruction...
As my husband often says, 'Anyone who doesn't believe in magic just isn't bothering to look for it.'
Behold...Methuselah.
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Only when I saw turkey vultures up close, did I realize how big they were.
Photo from Mercer county park, NJ
Don't startle them...they vomit defensively. I've been soooo close to being slimed by falling rotten meat a few times LOL.
Yikes, I will not go below them now.
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I really enjoy everyone's enjoyment of the birds they are seeing. I love this thread.
***
I have a little story. Not about a bird that I saw, but it's amazing.
My husband and I have been doing field research on birds on a Caribbean island for years and years, but a few years ago, the research program (which involved a lot of scientists in addition to us) was shut down. However, the island owners invited a few researchers from the group to stay on and keep working on specialized projects, and we were among the handful. We did that for a couple more years, but were hesitant to set up years-long study goals (which are much preferable to 1-2-year studies). Then I also had some health issues that prevented me from being fit enough to do the work, so we didn't go for a couple of years. Then, in 2017, the island was blasted by back-to-back Category 5 hurricanes, which devastated it and all the neighboring islands.
The anthropogenic devastation was, of course, widely reported on and was horrifying. One person we knew was killed in the storm, many lost their homes. Needless to say, we couldn't go down to do research that year, but the spotty reports we got of the bird populations in the aftermath were gut-wrenching. Every leaf was stripped from every tree in the island chain, vegetation didn't start to reemerge for 3 weeks afterward...most of the birds presumably died outright, but any nectar-, fruit-, and insect-eating birds that survived promptly began starving (carnivorous or omnivorous birds such as thrashers and cuckoos could presumably eat the dying ones). The forests were devastated, with tons of huge, mature tall-canopy trees down, etc. The day we got some aerial photos sent to us from an emergency aid flyover, I had to go to our office bathroom to have a nice, big crying jag.
A few months ago, with the island infrastructure back up and running, we got word that the island owners wanted us to come down and do inventory to see how the various bird populations were doing in the aftermath. I was not able to go for reasons too tiresome to go into, but we managed to rustle up a friend who had previously done work on the island's endangered iguanas, so he and my husband went down a few weeks ago.
The first few days, I would wait tensely every evening for reports on what they were seeing. About half the backcountry trails were totally impassable, debris in the understory blocking visibility all over the island, etc. As expected, fruit-, insect-, and nectar-eating species were nearly wiped out. Omnivorous species' numbers seemed down, too, but not nearly as much. Iguana numbers (thankfully they are also omnivorous) also appeared down but stable, and with a decent number of hatchlings.
So bad, but not as bad as I'd been dreading.
But the very first day of mist-netting to trap birds, my husband caught THIS bird, already banded. A tiny, unassuming, 18-gram resident flycatcher, that my husband had previously banded...on the 15th of October 2005. People, 2005!!!!! This bird was AT LEAST 14 years old (astounding for such a tiny animal), and had survived at least 4 hurricanes hitting his home, including the two 2017 monsters.
My husband said he has rarely felt so humbled as when he was privileged to hold this tough little bird again for a couple of minutes. And I cried, from happiness this time, when he sent me the news. I hadn't realized how bottled up I'd kept my worry about the island fauna until that moment. Ah, it looks as though my shriveled, cynical soul CAN be touched, after all. THIS is the kind of thing that makes me want to keep fighting what usually seems like a pointless effort against humanity's constant assault on the planet's ecology. Little things like this amazing little bird, just going about its life in the face of catastrophic destruction...
As my husband often says, 'Anyone who doesn't believe in magic just isn't bothering to look for it.'
Behold...Methuselah.
OMG, that is so touching. Thanks for the story of Methuselah.
I did not even think what a major storm or hurricane could do to flora and fauna of a place.
Edit: This thread has reached the fifth page. When I started it, I would have been happy with five responses.
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Dark Eyed Junco. First time I saw this.
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And a house sparrow. I only see house finches, so seeing a sparrow was good.
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And a house sparrow. I only see house finches, so seeing a sparrow was good.
Fuck house sparrows. They are a nasty non-native invasive species. They monopolize feeders in droves restricting access to other species, and they take over nesting sites of native birds (and kill their offspring in the process). If I didn't have neighbors in such close proximity to my feeders I would be outside with a gun periodically eradicating house sparrows.
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Dark Eyed Junco. First time I saw this.
This looks like a northern mockingbird. Equally cool. Bigger than a junco (which are wee little guys).
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And a house sparrow. I only see house finches, so seeing a sparrow was good.
Fuck house sparrows. They are a nasty non-native invasive species. They monopolize feeders in droves restricting access to other species, and they take over nesting sites of native birds (and kill their offspring in the process). If I didn't have neighbors in such close proximity to my feeders I would be outside with a gun periodically eradicating house sparrows.
LOL. Yeah, they are pretty awful. We knock the the extremely local population back occasionally by trapping them and feeding them to my husband's falconry birds, but there are SO MANY. The males are handsome, however.
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Dark Eyed Junco. First time I saw this.
This looks like a northern mockingbird. Equally cool. Bigger than a junco (which are wee little guys).
agreed. We get tons of dark eyed juncos at my house every winter. They've been around for maybe a month or two now.
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Dark Eyed Junco. First time I saw this.
This looks like a northern mockingbird. Equally cool. Bigger than a junco (which are wee little guys).
Thank you. I went back to merlin and can see the differences between the two.
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DH and decided to skip traditional Christmas dinner activities b/c our house was a disaster from renovating. Instead, we picked up my mother, and drove around the city (mostly unsuccessfully) trying to figure out where all the waterfowl etc were at. Finally, after working our way over two hours from the far north end of the city (opposite where we live) south, we located all the good stuff at a pond only about 2 miles from our house. In addition to a ton of Mallard Ducks, Canada Geese, some Double crested Cormorants, a Great Egret, and some tiresome hard-to-id plovers, we got a lot of terrific, beautiful ducks. I'll post pics (from online, not mine) of mostly the males b/c they are the flashy ones. All the males were out of eclipse plumage except the Ruddy Ducks (which were not coppery, but just regular brown), so the boys were absolutely SPIFFY in their fresh new feathers.
Northern Shovelers, Pintails, Ring-necks, Less Scaups
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Tiny Green winged Teal, squeaky Wigeons, Ruddy Ducks (THE TAILS!), and my personal favorite, the low key but lovely Gadwalls
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Beautiful!
I got to see a red-bellied woodpecker today.
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Beautiful!
I got to see a red-bellied woodpecker today.
Oh, those are nice! It's been a few years since I've seen one.
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Beautiful!
I got to see a red-bellied woodpecker today.
Oh, those are nice! It's been a few years since I've seen one.
And I forgot to add, I saw my second bald eagle!
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Jonesing for some bird photos but it is too cold to go outside. What can I say, I'm built for the tropics ;-)
So, this is what I came up with. I found a sunny spot outside a window and have set up a birdfeeder there. It was one of the three or four casement windows in my house. Removed the screen and put in a thin sheet of plywood with a hole cut out for the lens. It would have been a lot harder with the sliding windows.
So, taking photos is easy, crank open the casement, stick your camera in the hole and shoot away. I'm relatively warm with a mild draft. I know I will not get any exotic birds, but ...
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Jonesing for some bird photos but it is too cold to go outside. What can I say, I'm built for the tropics ;-)
So, this is what I came up with. I found a sunny spot outside a window and have set up a birdfeeder there. It was one of the three or four casement windows in my house. Removed the screen and put in a thin sheet of plywood with a hole cut out for the lens. It would have been a lot harder with the sliding windows.
So, taking photos is easy, crank open the casement, stick your camera in the hole and shoot away. I'm relatively warm with a mild draft. I know I will not get any exotic birds, but ...
GENIUS!
(I am also built for the tropics...I have a t-shirt and a sweater on and it's 74 degrees in our house and I'm actively cold...I used to regularly get cold in the Caribbean LOL and have to put on my hoodie.)
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My lazy man's blind is working quite well. I have to move the feeder so that it is not in the shade of a bush, but that should be easy.
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Blue jays are so beautiful. Beautiful thugs LOL.
My husband reported that he just had an adult peregrine falcon cruise right over his head at 2-story-roof height, looking to flush pigeons on campus. He said that it was between classes and there was a crowd of people around, but when he looked around, NO ONE had registered it...all the students were walking looking down at their phones. I mean, PEOPLE! It's the world's fastest bird! It's a bummer how unobservant humans can be.
We get a fair number of peregrine falcons and prairie falcons. and occasionally merlins, around the campus area during spring, winter, and fall. I have had prairies slash by over the outdoor pool when I was backstroking, and I'm always the only person that seems to notice.
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You are so right. I am driving (near my house, 25 mph, and no traffic) and I tell my wife, "Did you see that woodpecker fly across the road" and she says she did not.
I guess that once you get into birds, you are tuned to see them. For those who are not, they are noise to be ignored.
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You are so right. I am driving (near my house, 25 mph, and no traffic) and I tell my wife, "Did you see that woodpecker fly across the road" and she says she did not.
I guess that once you get into birds, you are tuned to see them. For those who are not, they are noise to be ignored.
Yes, for sure. I am frighteningly unobservant of people around me, esp when I'm in a pair or small group of my own. It's actually not safe, so I try really hard to focus on observing people when I'm out alone. It's really hard, though b/c I am not very interested in people and far more interested in almost every other thing I see, esp nature. My husband was in law enforcement when he was young, and though he also isn't intrinsically interested in observing people, he has dramatically better awareness b/c it was drilled into him and now he can't lose it.
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The birdfeeder has been moved. I'm getting better with my camera and lens.
I love photographing in January. The whole day is the golden hour when the daylight is soft and diffused, the blues are scattered and the light appears reddish. Photos have that soft glow when taken during the golden hour (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hour_(photography).
Birds are hard to photograph, they are skittish and take to flight at any moment. They also do not like to pose for me showing me their backsides;-) Of all the pictures I take, I find that only 1 picture out of 100 is very good.
I was very happy with how this red-bellied woodpecker picture turned out. I have not processed or cropped the picture, it is straight out of the camera.
ETA: I believe it is a female.
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The birdfeeder has been moved. I'm getting better with my camera and lens.
I love photographing in January. The whole day is the golden hour when the daylight is soft and diffused, the blues are scattered and the light appears reddish. Photos have that soft glow when taken during the golden hour (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hour_(photography).
Birds are hard to photograph, they are skittish and take to flight at any moment. They also do not like to pose for me showing me their backsides;-) Of all the pictures I take, I find that only 1 picture out of 100 is very good.
I was very happy with how this red-bellied woodpecker picture turned out. I have not processed or cropped the picture, it is straight out of the camera.
ETA: I believe it is a female.
It’s a female. The red cap goes all the way to the bill on males.
We get these guys on our feeders pretty frequently. We get pileated woodpeckers too, but we have only see them a couple of times in the 4 years we have had our feeders.
Birds are hard to photograph. Of the thousands of bird photos I’ve taken, only 50 or so are worth showing anyone :D
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Posting to follow
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Posting to follow
Welcome.
You know you have to pay the bird tax ;-) We need pictures...
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Birds are hard to photograph. Of the thousands of bird photos I’ve taken, only 50 or so are worth showing anyone :D
Pictures or it did not happen ;-)
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Birds are hard to photograph. Of the thousands of bird photos I’ve taken, only 50 or so are worth showing anyone :D
Pictures or it did not happen ;-)
I’ll see what I can do :) I have some nice chickadee shots from a few years ago when I was still doing photography pretty heavily.
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Posting to follow
Welcome.
You know you have to pay the bird tax ;-) We need pictures...
:) I'll try, but I actually don't photograph birds much. We aren't able to have feeders (due to bears), so it's really hard to get any good photos.
I've done trips in the past just for birding purposes, but it's been awhile. Mostly we bird at home. We have a few bluebird boxes, and we like to watch the resident mockingbirds, wrens, blue jays, phoebes, various woodpeckers, sparrows, crows. We have a flock of free range chickens, and I like watching the interaction between our birds and the wild birds. I've noticed, for example, that our chickens understand and 'speak' blue jay and crow. They exchange and relay warning calls about Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks. I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the cedar waxwings this winter, but they haven't shown up yet. We have two holly trees in front of our house that are loaded with berries and for the past few years we've been a stopover for big flocks of cedar waxwings as they fuel up along their journey. When they show up I'll see if I can get some pix.
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I got the bald eagle pictures!
I had gone to the county park to photograph the sunrise.
After about an hour, I saw something big at the top of the tree on my side of the lake. I walked there, but he/she was sitting in the middle of branches and the photos were awful because of the lack of light and the branches. Still, I think I shot off 50-75 pictures. It went to a tree a couple of hundred yards away. Much better view without branches obstructing, but still low light. The third flight was the charm. Another couple of hundred yards, but no branches obstructing and I was on the sunward side and the sun was starting to come out.
A few lessons from this. I got only one photo of the eagle fly, that too at a distance. I had so many opportunities, but could not get a picture. Also, next time, do not wear a red jacket and hat! Third, I need a better lens than my 55-210mm.
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Your posts always make me really happy.
Eagles are sure impressive. The feet especially...crazy! There's a number of pics floating around of my husband holding juvenile golden eagles (whose feet grow to full size before the body is quite there) and it is always shocking how big those legs and talons are.
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Your posts always make me really happy.
Thank you.
I am so excited today. I did not go looking for birds, but I found the one I was looking for.
I am absolutely walking on clouds!
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Here is a raptor I photographed from below this morning. Early morning, very little sun and shooting into the sky resulted in a silhouette with no distinguishing features.
I have gone through silhouettes, the closest match I can get is a Merlin or a peregrine falcon or an osprey. I'm tending towards osprey, but haven't they migrated south?
Any ideas?
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Here is a raptor I photographed from below this morning. Early morning, very little sun and shooting into the sky resulted in a silhouette with no distinguishing features.
I have gone through silhouettes, the closest match I can get is a Merlin or a peregrine falcon.
Any ideas?
Not a merlin or peregrine. ETA: (ETA again...never mind, that will teach me to just glance at it once...). I think it's another bald eagle. You can see the paler head in close up. This also would explain the very plank like effect with the broadness of the wings near the tips.
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And quite gregarious with people. Mine engages in converstation with me every morning now, though I think I accidentally said something offensive this morning (cackack a CACK cack or something to that effect). He flew off in a huff.
Parizade was talking about Stellar Jays.
Looks like my Blue Jays are talking to me. Or rather, complaining to me. Every time the feeder is empty, the Blue Jay goes to a higher branch where he can see me at my desk, looks directly at me and loudly complains that I am not doing my job. First couple of times, I thought it was just a coincidence, but this has been happening for a couple of months now.
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Here is a raptor I photographed from below this morning. Early morning, very little sun and shooting into the sky resulted in a silhouette with no distinguishing features.
I have gone through silhouettes, the closest match I can get is a Merlin or a peregrine falcon.
Any ideas?
Not a merlin or peregrine. ETA: (ETA again...never mind, that will teach me to just glance at it once...). I think it's another bald eagle. You can see the paler head in close up. This also would explain the very plank like effect with the broadness of the wings near the tips.
Awesome. Then I probably saw the mate of the one I was photgraphing or one of the juveniles which have not left home.
You are right, when I went to close up, I saw the paler head.
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The grackles are back. My blind is working quite well and I am getting great pictures.
Seeing this fellow, it almost looks like a Jersey guy with an attitude, saying "Youse talking to me!"
PS: I also got the bald eagle flying. Except my 55-210 lens does not have the horsepower to get a good picture of the bird which is flying about 500 feet away. It would have been a great picture if ....
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I also saw a grackle with white patches on the neck. Any idea what it is? Can a bird be leucistic partially?
Even the beak looks lighter in color.
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I also saw a grackle with white patches on the neck. Any idea what it is? Can a bird be leucistic partially?
Even the beak looks lighter in color.
Yes, that's what it looks like. Cool!
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The covid thing has made me stay at home. But, I have managed to get a friend interested in birds!
He set up a bird cam for a nest in his house.
https://youtu.be/bSEOat90lPA
I think it is a house finch. The lady of the house is being rather coy and sitting low in her nest.
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I hope that all are safe during Covid-19.
Here is a great blue heron from the lake near my house.
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Nothing too exciting happening here in terms of migrants, with the exception that some migrating rufous hummingbirds that have been visiting our feeder have been terrorizing every other small bird that tries to come into our yard. Yesterday I watched one chase a hermit thrush back and forth across the yard like something out of a cartoon.
Hummingbirds are such little assholes LOL. (internet pic not by me)
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Nothing too exciting happening here in terms of migrants, with the exception that some migrating rufous hummingbirds that have been visiting our feeder have been terrorizing every other small bird that tries to come into our yard. Yesterday I watched one chase a hermit thrush back and forth across the yard like something out of a cartoon.
Hummingbirds are such little assholes LOL. (internet pic not by me)
Out here in Central NJ, I have a small spot set up for hummingbirds. I've planted trumpet honeysuckle and cardinal flower (native NJ plants which humming birds love) and I hope to see a lot more humming birds next year.
I also added a DIY hummingbird feeder made out of kikkomans soy sauce bottles. Humming birds loved it but then the hornets found it. The hornets kept chasing the hummingbirds away and I even got stung by one of them when I was near there. So, no more feeders, hopefully the natural feeders will bloom big next year. So, here the hornets are the assholes!
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It's been pretty quiet here the past few months. However, we had a juvenile female yellow-bellied sapsucker in the yard yesterday, which was fun. Pic is unfortunately a bit blurry b/c taken through a cat-smeared window. She's cute, though.
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It's been pretty quiet here the past few months. However, we had a juvenile female yellow-bellied sapsucker in the yard yesterday, which was fun. Pic is unfortunately a bit blurry b/c taken through a cat-smeared window. She's cute, though.
Nice.
I finally bought a big lens, a Sigma 100-400mm, which translates to a 150-600 on my crop sensor camera. Just got it this morning and a couple of test shots were awesome. Waiting for a dry day to go out and try to get those bald eagles.
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I've always been in awe of the birders who can hear a bird song and then come up with some mnemonic to remember the song.
I thought I'd share my list of birds I heard (H) or spotted (S) while on a trip. (there should be images attached)
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@BlueHouse , Wow, just Wow!
If I may ask, where were these birds sighted/heard? Was it South Africa? I was not into birding when I went there in 2015.
Pathetic me, can just distinguish the sounds of Blue Jays, Crows and Grackles ;-)
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@BlueHouse , Wow, just Wow!
If I may ask, where were these birds sighted/heard?
Pathetic me, can just distinguish the sounds of Blue Jays, Crows and Grackles ;-)
Oh my gosh! I should have explained! I was on a trip specifically to learn about animals, birds, nature, etc. Experts spotted these and taught me how to identify. That’s what the field notes are for. After a few weeks I could identify some on my own and when we had a test, I passed because I knew what bird made a sound like a squeaky wheel.
No, I’m no expert!
I have similar lists for animals, insects, trees, and grasses. But mostly because someone else pointed them out to me.
Trust me, I say wow to the instructors who taught the course. This was an EcoTraining course in South Africa. We lived for a month on a private reserve that had just removed its gates to be part of Kruger National Park.
Ps to @CowboyAndIndian your post that mentioned South Africa was what inspired me to post the pages from my journal there.
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DW and I bought a property on 2.5 acres, located within the boundary of a national forest. Lots of woodlands around us, and a state park as well. We have a Pileated Woodpecker that must have a nest near us as we hear/see him every morning at around dawn(started out at 7:45 am, has moved up to about 6:45 am in the past few weeks). The one we see the most is a Male(easily identified as has a red streak on his cheek vs a black streak on the females). We've also seen 2 females, one looked fully grown, the second looked smaller so we have a good healthy population. Yesterday we spotted (what I think were) two Red Shouldered Hawks mating on the top of a dead birch tree by our pond, which is awesome as they are listed by the state as threatened. Apparently we have the near perfect habitat for them, and I am happy to encourage any predatory birds to help with mice. I've seen a bunch of smaller birds but they haven't got close/stayed still long enough for me to identify.
I'll be putting birdfeeders up on the small islands in our pond (once I get lumber and build a footbridge to access it) and I look forward to seeing what birds we can attract here. The seller had mounted a suet feeder on the deck that I refuse to use until I've relocated it farther from the house to deter rodents.
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PTF as I'm interested in birding.
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Sorry folks for not posting here. I have NOT dropped off the face of the earth.
In November, we got an offer we could not refuse. Someone asked to buy our house. They had families in adjoining streets and wanted to be close to their parents and sister. They paid us well above market (Covid refugees from NYC) and we accepted their offer.
We ended up buying a smaller house about 10 miles away with a much smaller garden. I've been busy fixing the house and building closets and laundry rooms.
I still did a few birding sessions. I have found a better park (https://www.mercercountyparks.org/assets/Mercer_Meadows.pdf) (about 1600 acres) about a mile from my house. Lots of great bird watching but very limited time. Hope to get back next year.
In other news, I have a much bigger lens, 100-400mm, equivalent to 150-600mm in a full-frame camera which I hope to put to use soon.
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It's been a quiet period here, as well, though to be honest I haven't been putting much effort in.
My husband reported seeing a peregrine falcon buzzing the shorebirds at one of the local ponds yesterday morning (peregrines usually show up here in late August) and I've been hearing occasional 'different' bird calls on walks, so hopefully as migration starts to roll things will get more interesting.
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I've always been in awe of the birders who can hear a bird song and then come up with some mnemonic to remember the song.
I thought I'd share my list of birds I heard (H) or spotted (S) while on a trip. (there should be images attached)
Catching up on old posts, and I am DYING of envy right now.
ETA: JACOBIN CUCKOO OMG!!!
I have a serious problem about cuckoos. It started out harmless: being charmed by roadrunners in AZ in college. Then I fell into a bit of a fixation on hunting for yellow-billed cuckoos at a field site one summer during my scant free time (so noisy but so hard to see, at least for newbie me). Then I ran into my first Puerto Rican lizard cuckoo during a work trip. Then we started working in the Caribbean and I saw my first mangrove cuckoo...in this long-ago picture we'd just mist-netted our first MACU and you can see by my shit-eating grin how my incipient interest is about to bloom into full obsession LOL. Here is also a better picture (not by me) of the species. They are so pretty and interesting.
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Mangrove cuckoo with correct picture this time
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I haven't seen a ton of birds recently. We took down our feeders because of a disease that was being spread amongst blue jays and robins.
We have been getting flickers in our backyard which is cool. One hopped up to our back door last summer. I took a picture with my phone, but it was pretty uninspiring. A red tail hawk flew over my head while I was doing yard work near the back of my property. It was being mobbed by blue jays that didn't want it around.
Nothing exotic or out of the ordinary to report. Just native birds doing their thing :)
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I have had great fun lately with the Sound ID feature on Cornell's Merlin Bird ID app. In the app you can have virtually any bird song id'd. It's great fun when the summer leaves are so thick that it's hard to actually see the bird.
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@wenchsenior, you have the coolest trips!
@mies, have also removed my feeder due to the bird salmonella spreading. I'm just keeping my bird baths filled.
@Dee18, like some people are color-blind, I think I cannot wrap my brain around bird calls. After a year of listening intently, I can just recognize a blue jay, grackle, crow and mourning dove. That is pathetic. I should practice with the merlin app and see if I can improve.
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I also did not put out bird seed starting in the spring : ( Does anyone know when that can be resumed?
I have a hummingbird feeder that was ignored last year, but this year there is a couple? I believe, that use it, and a third bird that keeps trying to use that gets chased away. So I bought 2 cheaper feeders, and will put one in backyard and one in front so both parties can have access.
I find hummingbirds -magical. So for me it has totally been worth it. I would love to visit other parts of the world (south east US, Mexico, central, south america) that have different hummers and watch them. I recommend "Humminghbirds - jeweled messengers" both me and my kids loved it (and Attenborough's voice is so soothing).
I'm not really a birder. I just when I see a new bird try to look up and figure out what kind of bird it is. Other than robin and cardinal (and mourning dove) don't know the birdsongs. Maybe that's the next thing to do.
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I also did not put out bird seed starting in the spring : ( Does anyone know when that can be resumed?
I have a hummingbird feeder that was ignored last year, but this year there is a couple? I believe, that use it, and a third bird that keeps trying to use that gets chased away. So I bought 2 cheaper feeders, and will put one in backyard and one in front so both parties can have access.
I find hummingbirds -magical. So for me it has totally been worth it. I would love to visit other parts of the world (south east US, Mexico, central, south america) that have different hummers and watch them. I recommend "Humminghbirds - jeweled messengers" both me and my kids loved it (and Attenborough's voice is so soothing).
I'm not really a birder. I just when I see a new bird try to look up and figure out what kind of bird it is. Other than robin and cardinal (and mourning dove) don't know the birdsongs. Maybe that's the next thing to do.
I love hummingbirds also. Such beautiful birds!
In my old garden, I decided to go the native way to attract them by planting trumpet flowers and cardinal flowers.
I got rid of the hummingbird feeders since the wasps(hornets?) found it and they very aggressively protected the feeder and drove away hummingbirds. Also, hummingbird feeders were a lot of work, having to clean out and replace the sugar water every couple of days so that it did not spread any disease among the birds.
I've still got to figure out what/where I'm going to plant for the hummingbirds.
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Posting mostly to follow. I recently saw (or at least noticed) a cedar waxwing for the first time and am thinking I'd like to learn to identify more of the birds I see. The waxwing looked so different from other birds that it actually inspired me to pause and look up what it might be.
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Posting mostly to follow. I recently saw (or at least noticed) a cedar waxwing for the first time and am thinking I'd like to learn to identify more of the birds I see. The waxwing looked so different from other birds that it actually inspired me to pause and look up what it might be.
Oh, I love them! We get big flocks here most winters, and I always id when they arrive by hearing them first before I see them...the high, thin 'seep' calls from the tops of the tall trees in the neighborhoods. I have phenomenal high-register hearing (I can readily hear the ultra-high-pitch noise-makers used to repel mammals from lawns etc...ugh), whereas my husband's is very poor, so he relies on me to alert him to the waxwings so we can go looking. He's got much better vision though (dammit).
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I also did not put out bird seed starting in the spring : ( Does anyone know when that can be resumed?
I am reconsidering using my bird feeders during spring/summer/fall.
Birds get 70% of their protein from insects. So, just not using pesticides in my yard should give them a lot of insects to eat and a much more pleasant outdoor experience for me.
I'll put feed out only during the winter months. When insects are hard-to-find/dormant, the birdseed might keep a few birds from starvation.
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I feed them, because I have a platform feeder against a kitchen window, and love watching them close. So that's why I do it. As far as plantings, I planted 2 native honesuckle plants (major wheeler-highly recommend) have native trumpet plants (I have to cut these back because are kind of aggressive. Other plants are monarda, hostas (I got the kind that flower) a butterfly bush (which I know, not native) and this bush with small white trumpet flowers the bees really like, that came with the house (might be abelia grandiflora)
So I see them especially visit the honeysuckle, in particular the part that climbed up a tree and is up high. I also refuse to use insecticides in my yard. I do use a brush killer on the ivy and the mimosa tree (ongoing, slow process). Also have a birdbath. But as in back corner not as good bird watching opportunity.
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Posting mostly to follow. I recently saw (or at least noticed) a cedar waxwing for the first time and am thinking I'd like to learn to identify more of the birds I see. The waxwing looked so different from other birds that it actually inspired me to pause and look up what it might be.
Oh, I love them! We get big flocks here most winters, and I always id when they arrive by hearing them first before I see them...the high, thin 'seep' calls from the tops of the tall trees in the neighborhoods. I have phenomenal high-register hearing (I can readily hear the ultra-high-pitch noise-makers used to repel mammals from lawns etc...ugh), whereas my husband's is very poor, so he relies on me to alert him to the waxwings so we can go looking. He's got much better vision though (dammit).
Neat! I like how you and your husband can combine forces on your senses for an optimum birding experience! Sounds like a solid team. Now that I know what the cedar waxwings are, I hope to see many more in the future.
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...
I have a hummingbird feeder that was ignored last year, but this year there is a couple? I believe, that use it, and a third bird that keeps trying to use that gets chased away. So I bought 2 cheaper feeders, and will put one in backyard and one in front so both parties can have access.
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Very easy to make a hummingbird feeder with Kikkoman soy sauce bottles. https://youtu.be/wDTmVcid7Tc
Good idea to keep the feeders separated. They are very territorial about "their" feeder. So, do not put them in line of sight from the other.
My feeders fed the hornets very well :-(
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Very easy to make a hummingbird feeder with Kikkoman soy sauce bottles. https://youtu.be/wDTmVcid7Tc
That is so neat, thanks for the link!
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In my quest to learn bird calls, here is an interactive guide. Click on the bird and you can hear its call.
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mcvmagazine/bird_songs_interactive/index.html
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Here is also a better picture (not by me) of the species. They are so pretty and interesting.
Did you forget to attach the picture, @wenchsenior ?
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Here is also a better picture (not by me) of the species. They are so pretty and interesting.
Did you forget to attach the picture, @wenchsenior ?
It's the next post. I couldn't get the pics to attach to the one you quoted. Me with first mangrove cuckoo. Close-up of cuckoo. LOOK AT THEIR TAILS! :flails happily:
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Here is also a better picture (not by me) of the species. They are so pretty and interesting.
Did you forget to attach the picture, @wenchsenior ?
It's the next post. I couldn't get the pics to attach to the one you quoted. Me with first mangrove cuckoo. Close-up of cuckoo. LOOK AT THEIR TAILS! :flails happily:
oh so beautiful! I understand your obsession!! Great pics.
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Early migration season has begun in our backyard with the arrival of the Handsome Assholes AKA male rufous hummingbirds. The males are some of the most belligerent fight-pickers of all the various belligerent hummer species. Our local male has our entire flower-filled backyard mostly to himself, but when there is no one directly competing with him for flowers (and there rarely is), he goes cruising out of the yard specifically to pick fights with hummers that are perched many yards away minding their own business.
Rufous hummer males are SO handsome, though, so I still enjoy them. Pics attached not by me, from the internet.
Also, on a walk recently we ran across this Texas horned lizard, standing in the middle of his 'dinner plate' (ant hill). Pic by my husband.
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Rufous hummingbirds are so beautiful.
Hopefully, in 2023, my garden will be flowering and attracting hummingbirds. In our case, just one variety in the northeast, the ruby throated one.
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I started really getting into bird watching lately (after growing interest over a couple of years) and I wasn't aware of this thread's existence. I'm here with my new fancypants but not overly pricey binoculars and posting to follow!
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We just had the tree nearest the house split off about 30 ft up in a storm this week. So, since I now have a nice, dead trunk I mounted two iron plant hangers and hung two red glass humming bird feeders. We can see them out the living room windows when sitting down. I am curious how long it will take the hummingbirds to find it. I know we have some in the neighborhood as one was checking out our window a couple days ago.
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We just had the tree nearest the house split off about 30 ft up in a storm this week. So, since I now have a nice, dead trunk I mounted two iron plant hangers and hung two red glass humming bird feeders. We can see them out the living room windows when sitting down. I am curious how long it will take the hummingbirds to find it. I know we have some in the neighborhood as one was checking out our window a couple days ago.
Also, put in plants that hummingbirds like. Make sure that the plants are native to your area.
In my area (Central NJ), I added trumpet honeysuckle and cardinal flower, both of which are native. The cardinal flowers had flowers on them when I planted and hummingbirds found it within 30 minutes of planting.
Also, do not buy native plants at the big box store. They use neo-nicotinoids in their plants, which will kill insects and birds.
Please post pictures when hummingbirds do show up.
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The hummingbirds took about 48 hrs to find the feeders. We definitely had two of them, might have had a third- hard to tell with those little psychotic fighter jets... no pictures, the only camera I have is the phone and it's not up to the task.
On a related note- has anyone tried something like this? Hooking the camera on your phone up to a monocular telescope?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096M8FZ4J/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_XX3M279DXB288XFSDM61?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096M8FZ4J/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_XX3M279DXB288XFSDM61?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1)
Haven't seen them in about a week, and it looks like late August/early September is when they migrate south out of my area. Keeping the feeders up for a little bit longer to catch any stragglers.
We did have a group of 3 female Mallards move in to the pond so that's been fun.
I just got the bird feeder and suiet feeders out, so had far only nuthatches and I think maybe a Tufted Titmouse.
Today we also had a Horned Lark show up. Our bird books get regular use :)
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.. little psychotic fighter jets...
Lol.
I'm definitely using this!
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.. little psychotic fighter jets...
Lol.
I'm definitely using this!
When we used to mist-net birds at one of our field stations, we would sometimes accidentally catch hummingbirds (which we really did not want to do b/c 1) we didn't have permits to band them nor the correct teeny bands; and 2) hummers are so delicate and sometimes get their tongues twisted into the nets, which is super stressful for the bird and us trying to untangle the bird.)
The female hummers almost never got caught, but the males would often hit the net in pairs so we'd have to deal with two of them caught right next to each other, b/c they completely lost their minds fighting each other and flew into the net without noticing. In addition to their stress at being captured, they would sometimes continue to shriek AT EACH OTHER even as we were handling them to try to get them out of their predicament.
In local news, the barest trickle of migrant warblers started this week with a small flock...the only one I id'd was a female American redstart.
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The hummingbirds took about 48 hrs to find the feeders. We definitely had two of them, might have had a third- hard to tell with those little psychotic fighter jets... no pictures, the only camera I have is the phone and it's not up to the task.
On a related note- has anyone tried something like this? Hooking the camera on your phone up to a monocular telescope?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096M8FZ4J/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_XX3M279DXB288XFSDM61?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096M8FZ4J/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_XX3M279DXB288XFSDM61?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1)
Haven't seen them in about a week, and it looks like late August/early September is when they migrate south out of my area. Keeping the feeders up for a little bit longer to catch any stragglers.
We did have a group of 3 female Mallards move in to the pond so that's been fun.
I just got the bird feeder and suiet feeders out, so had far only nuthatches and I think maybe a Tufted Titmouse.
Today we also had a Horned Lark show up. Our bird books get regular use :)
Oh, good one. Very cute.
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Reviving this thread from the dead to highlight two recent trips that resulted in some really nice birds:
Last October in Guadalupe National Park, we saw lots of stuff, but since I can't find my list at the mo, the standouts were
a fuck ton of Townsend's Solitaires, and
(very exciting) some outstanding views of Vared Bunting males(!) in great light(!) so we could actually see the colors(!!). If you've ever chased Varied Buntings for weeks while getting only glimpses of black or dark blue, you will know what a moment this was.
Pics from generic internet except credit to photographer Mark Chappell for his great bunting shot
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...And our most recent trip, to Tucson. Too many birds to post, so I will highlight the more interesting and/or 'specialty' species:
Bridled Titmice
Broad-billed Hummingbird
Cactus Wren
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Gila Woodpecker
Lucy's Warbler (I have huge fondness for these little guys)
Mexican Jay
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Phainopepla
Pyrrhuloxia
Verdin
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Oh, Tucson, how I love you.
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And then, we got home and found a flock of adult male Evening Grosbeaks in our backyard, well out of normal range, presumably blown over from the Mississippi Flyway during the terrible winter storms of the previous week.
Haven't seen these since I lived in northern WI decades ago.
All in all, an excellent month!
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@wenchsenior , awesome. Thank for reviving this post.
I've been busy with house fixing, but have still been doing bird watching, but neglecting photographing them.
After almost 2 years, I got my camera and went searching for birds in this wonderful park near my house. I spotted this eastern bluebird and managed to get some great shots.
ETA: Probably my best photo. I was with another (better than me) photographer but I was the one to find the bird, identify it and get the picture. The bird was about 50-60 feet away and light was not very good. So, very proud of this photo.
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Great photos!
I'm getting ready for the purple martins to arrive. I took down my gourds, cleaned them, and put them back up. I monitor them to assure no starlings try to sneak in.
The scouts in my area usually arrive around tax day (4-18).
I have three other gourd poles that I maintain for other folks so I need to get on it.
The spring so far has been absolutely crap, it was hailing on me yesterday!
The purple martins bring me so much joy with their daily babbling cacophony, then one day, they are gone, back to Brazil for the winter.
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We have a birding thread? What the hell!
Here are a couple of my sightings (that made for ok photos) from last year. A few early migrants have shown up in my part of the world. The days are getting quite a bit louder with mating calls.
Top to bottom:
Double crested cormorant
Black capped chickadee
Red winged blackbird putting the run to a common raven
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@wenchsenior , awesome. Thank for reviving this post.
I've been busy with house fixing, but have still been doing bird watching, but neglecting photographing them.
After almost 2 years, I got my camera and went searching for birds in this wonderful park near my house. I spotted this eastern bluebird and managed to get some great shots.
ETA: Probably my best photo. I was with another (better than me) photographer but I was the one to find the bird, identify it and get the picture. The bird was about 50-60 feet away and light was not very good. So, very proud of this photo.
That's a very good shot, far better than anything I've ever taken. You should see the official 'voucher' photo I took to verify the evening grosbeaks in our location posterity... it was TERRIBLE, but just good enough to see field marks LOL. I'm so impressed when anyone posts their own photos to this thread...
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I bought my mom a feeder system for her birthday back in Feb, along with a couple of houses. It's a small hobby I thought we could share. She lives in a rural area in the NE corner of Tx. We haven't been disappointed. An eastern bluebird pair is using one of the houses. The ruby-throated hummingbirds are back. I was visiting last week, and on the feeder we saw goldfinch, house finch, tufted titmice, carolina chickadee, bluejay, cardinal, indigo bunting, red-bellied woodpecker, and brown-headed cowbird. The juncos and red-breasted nuthatches have left. We spotted painted buntings last year. Hoping they'll return.
Eastern phoebes have a nest on the side of her house. They don't like the feeder, but will loop along the cyclone fence trying to catch insects.
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Great thread—I am newish to learning bird identification but had a great sighting of a northern goshawk this winter which sparked my interest.
My partner gave me a book which I’m about to start reading (seems seasonally appropriate) which he thought was very good
Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay by Merilyn Simonds
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PTF (someday, I'll learn birding)
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I bird with binoculars, not a camera so I don’t have any photos to share but I do have a story. A birding club I belong to started a new discord server which among other topics includes where to go to see rare birds. I went to a designated location twice the other week to see a Prairie Warbler which is not common this far north. On my second visit, there were so many birders it felt like a party.
There were maybe a dozen of us standing on the far side of a bike path watching the warbler flit around the tree branches. Suddenly, the bird flew across the bike path and landed on a tree branch about a foot above my head! It was really cool but I was afraid to move my head and get a close-up look.
Many of my fellow birders had cameras, but at this point the bird was so close to everyone that their huge camera lenses (designed to photograph birds from afar) were completely useless. It makes me laugh to think of so many cameras but no photos of this occurrence.
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@wenchsenior , awesome. Thank for reviving this post.
I've been busy with house fixing, but have still been doing bird watching, but neglecting photographing them.
After almost 2 years, I got my camera and went searching for birds in this wonderful park near my house. I spotted this eastern bluebird and managed to get some great shots.
ETA: Probably my best photo. I was with another (better than me) photographer but I was the one to find the bird, identify it and get the picture. The bird was about 50-60 feet away and light was not very good. So, very proud of this photo.
That's a very good shot, far better than anything I've ever taken. You should see the official 'voucher' photo I took to verify the evening grosbeaks in our location posterity... it was TERRIBLE, but just good enough to see field marks LOL. I'm so impressed when anyone posts their own photos to this thread...
Thank you.
BTW, I am building a native garden in my backyard for birds/pollinators. I got the inspiration seeing pictures of your back yard.
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Great thread—I am newish to learning bird identification but had a great sighting of a northern goshawk this winter which sparked my interest.
My partner gave me a book which I’m about to start reading (seems seasonally appropriate) which he thought was very good
Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay by Merilyn Simonds
Awesome.
Get the merlin app (free). It is fantastic in identification of birds. You download the appropriate databases (e.g., when I travelled to India, I got the India download). I also have the north american databases.
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Great photos!
I'm getting ready for the purple martins to arrive. I took down my gourds, cleaned them, and put them back up. I monitor them to assure no starlings try to sneak in.
The scouts in my area usually arrive around tax day (4-18).
I have three other gourd poles that I maintain for other folks so I need to get on it.
The spring so far has been absolutely crap, it was hailing on me yesterday!
The purple martins bring me so much joy with their daily babbling cacophony, then one day, they are gone, back to Brazil for the winter.
That is a great idea. I had not thought of building bird boxes. I have been building/growing and environment that they like, but I will add bird boxes to the mix.
Unfortunately, my plantings will only be ready next year....
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Great photos!
I'm getting ready for the purple martins to arrive. I took down my gourds, cleaned them, and put them back up. I monitor them to assure no starlings try to sneak in.
The scouts in my area usually arrive around tax day (4-18).
I have three other gourd poles that I maintain for other folks so I need to get on it.
The spring so far has been absolutely crap, it was hailing on me yesterday!
The purple martins bring me so much joy with their daily babbling cacophony, then one day, they are gone, back to Brazil for the winter.
That is a great idea. I had not thought of building bird boxes. I have been building/growing and environment that they like, but I will add bird boxes to the mix.
Unfortunately, my plantings will only be ready next year....
Make sure to do the research and build the right boxes for what you are trying to attract.
Purple Martens want very specific lodging, as do most other natives. Starlings I think will live almost anywhere; I have to actively discourage them from taking over from the Martens.
I've had eight Martens show up and check out the gourds in the last week. The scouts arrive first, and then they couple up and do what birds do.
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@wenchsenior , awesome. Thank for reviving this post.
I've been busy with house fixing, but have still been doing bird watching, but neglecting photographing them.
After almost 2 years, I got my camera and went searching for birds in this wonderful park near my house. I spotted this eastern bluebird and managed to get some great shots.
ETA: Probably my best photo. I was with another (better than me) photographer but I was the one to find the bird, identify it and get the picture. The bird was about 50-60 feet away and light was not very good. So, very proud of this photo.
That's a very good shot, far better than anything I've ever taken. You should see the official 'voucher' photo I took to verify the evening grosbeaks in our location posterity... it was TERRIBLE, but just good enough to see field marks LOL. I'm so impressed when anyone posts their own photos to this thread...
Thank you.
BTW, I am building a native garden in my backyard for birds/pollinators. I got the inspiration seeing pictures of your back yard.
Oh, that's exciting! (Wish my garden looked that good currently...many of my perennials senesced at the same time a few years ago, and I haven't quite got the gaps filled back in again).
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I bought my mom a feeder system for her birthday back in Feb, along with a couple of houses. It's a small hobby I thought we could share. She lives in a rural area in the NE corner of Tx. We haven't been disappointed. An eastern bluebird pair is using one of the houses. The ruby-throated hummingbirds are back. I was visiting last week, and on the feeder we saw goldfinch, house finch, tufted titmice, carolina chickadee, bluejay, cardinal, indigo bunting, red-bellied woodpecker, and brown-headed cowbird. The juncos and red-breasted nuthatches have left. We spotted painted buntings last year. Hoping they'll return.
Eastern phoebes have a nest on the side of her house. They don't like the feeder, but will loop along the cyclone fence trying to catch insects.
This is all great stuff!
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Great thread—I am newish to learning bird identification but had a great sighting of a northern goshawk this winter which sparked my interest.
My partner gave me a book which I’m about to start reading (seems seasonally appropriate) which he thought was very good
Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay by Merilyn Simonds
That is fantastic!
Goshawk sightings are extremely unusual. My husband did 2 separate research projects on them over the years in the Southwest and the Midwest, and outside of that work we've only seen a handful over the decades. I had a good view of an adult during migration/wandering to the normal southern limits of the species' winter range a few years ago in the Appalachians, but usually you have to get info about a breeding territory to get a decent chance of seeing any. Or happen to be living in proximity to a breeding territory.
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Purple martins, Mississippi kites, and western kingbirds arrived back this week.
Also, we saw an incredible flock of about 60+ turkey vultures hanging out over the neighborhood circling to look for a roost site. Not sure whose house/stretch of street they settled on for the night (poor bastards, that's a lot of raptor shit!)
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Great thread—I am newish to learning bird identification but had a great sighting of a northern goshawk this winter which sparked my interest.
My partner gave me a book which I’m about to start reading (seems seasonally appropriate) which he thought was very good
Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay by Merilyn Simonds
That is fantastic!
Goshawk sightings are extremely unusual. My husband did 2 separate research projects on them over the years in the Southwest and the Midwest, and outside of that work we've only seen a handful over the decades. I had a good view of an adult during migration/wandering to the normal southern limits of the species' winter range a few years ago in the Appalachians, but usually you have to get info about a breeding territory to get a decent chance of seeing any. Or happen to be living in proximity to a breeding territory.
It indeed felt special @wenchsenior There's a spot in mature forest that I hike to for winter swims (a friend and I install and clear a hole in the ice on a little lake) and I knew it was a raptor that I hadn't seen before (managed to get a good view and a blurry photo). The bird had come to check in on what we were up to I suppose :)
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Spotted a sweet little bird yesterday--found out it's called Wilson's Warbler :)
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Spotted a sweet little bird yesterday--found out it's called Wilson's Warbler :)
I love them!
This past few days we've had a slew of random migrants in our yard: hermit thrush, Nashville warbler, female common yellowthroat (another warbler), and a female painted bunting.
Also, the Swainson's hawks are back...saw one coursing near my house yesterday.
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I saw my first Goldfinch of the season this morning. Last year we had a pair in a small patch of trees outside our building - my wife was expected someone to call the police while I was on our patio with the binos watching them, which from the ground would look like I was looking into the houses across the parking lot!
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Mom spotted the first painted bunting of the year on the feeder. Such beautiful birds. Also saw a rose-breasted grosbeak for the first time.
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It's an addictive hobby! I went from being just generally 'into birds' as a kid to feeling totally naked traveling anywhere other than on local errands without my binocs LOL.
Just want to call out @wenchsenior for describing birding so perfectly (along with plenty of practical and useful advice!).
Rainy day here, so we went up into the montane forests to see how many woodpeckers we could find. Seemed logical at the time, and we found six different species of woodpeckers to reward us for our chilly, drippy choice. Plus lots of other birds and one very surprising moose. Highly recommend.
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We just had a walk in our local park. This park is not a traditional park with manicured lawns and recreation facilities. It has mostly meadows and forests. Beautiful park.Amazed at the number of birds we saw on the walk.
One interesting sight was to see about 30-40 turkey vultures all in a narrow cylindrical section from ground level to about 2000 feet. Maybe they had found a thermal there and were using it to climb up, since this was around 9 am and the day was just warming up.
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We just had a walk in our local park. This park is not a traditional park with manicured lawns and recreation facilities. It has mostly meadows and forests. Beautiful park.Amazed at the number of birds we saw on the walk.
One interesting sight was to see about 30-40 turkey vultures all in a narrow cylindrical section from ground level to about 2000 feet. Maybe they had found a thermal there and were using it to climb up, since this was around 9 am and the day was just warming up.
Tis the season for huge flocks!
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It's an addictive hobby! I went from being just generally 'into birds' as a kid to feeling totally naked traveling anywhere other than on local errands without my binocs LOL.
Just want to call out @wenchsenior for describing birding so perfectly (along with plenty of practical and useful advice!).
Rainy day here, so we went up into the montane forests to see how many woodpeckers we could find. Seemed logical at the time, and we found six different species of woodpeckers to reward us for our chilly, drippy choice. Plus lots of other birds and one very surprising moose. Highly recommend.
Ooo, very nice.
Notable bird things from yesterday.
A GINORMOUS flock of cedar waxwings scattered all over one full block of a street near us. Normally they have moved out/through here by now, so this was a surprise. There were so many that I had to cover my facing ear the whole way down the block b/c that incredibly high-pitched contact call actually hurts my ears.
Then I got home and thought I heard some more waxwings (high-pitched buzzing) in our own backyard, but when I stepped out it was the other high-pitched-noise-creator-that-hurts-my-ears... male broad-tailed hummingbird.
Also, one of the Mississippi Kite pairs was copulating in the park when we walked by and they are already at work building their nest.
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Florida is awesome for birding. I went to St. Pete just before Labor day and wow, I got some great pictures.
For those (including me) who think you need a great camera to take pictures, you are wrong. I took my camera with me, but did not take it on walks with DW. My phone took great pictures. All the following are pictures taken by my phone.
The red shouldered hawk was taken about 30 miles inland since I had to relocate from St. Pete due to Hurricane Idalia. It was wet and did not appreciate being photographed.
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Here are a couple more, post has limitations on size.
The White Ibis were all over downtown St. Pete and they were not alarmed at me going close for a picture.
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Last couple of photos.
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Awesome photos @CowboyAndIndian ! I always think pelicans are so odd looking, like dinosaurs. Very cool.
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Awesome photos @CowboyAndIndian ! I always think pelicans are so odd looking, like dinosaurs. Very cool.
Thank you @Trifle.
I have always had the same thought about pelicans. If you remember Jurassic Park, the last scene of the original film had pelican's flying as seen from the helicopter(plane??). When I saw the film, I thought they were pterodactyl's escaping from the island, setting up for a followup film :-)
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Awesome photos @CowboyAndIndian ! I always think pelicans are so odd looking, like dinosaurs. Very cool.
Thank you @Trifle.
I have always had the same thought about pelicans. If you remember Jurassic Park, the last scene of the original film had pelican's flying as seen from the helicopter(plane??). When I saw the film, I thought they were pterodactyl's escaping from the island, setting up for a followup film :-)
I had the same thought!
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Rather surprisingly, I spotted a peacock on our back yard fence a few weeks back. Turns out he wandered away from the Toronto Zoo out an open gate, across the rouge river, up a ravine, and then through the suburbs before deciding on our fence. Our dog REALLY wanted to meet him but that seemed like a bad idea. (We called the zoo and someone came by to pick him up.)
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Rather surprisingly, I spotted a peacock on our back yard fence a few weeks back. Turns out he wandered away from the Toronto Zoo out an open gate, across the rouge river, up a ravine, and then through the suburbs before deciding on our fence. Our dog REALLY wanted to meet him but that seemed like a bad idea. (We called the zoo and someone came by to pick him up.)
It's fun to see something like that 'feral,' so to speak.
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Rather surprisingly, I spotted a peacock on our back yard fence a few weeks back. Turns out he wandered away from the Toronto Zoo out an open gate, across the rouge river, up a ravine, and then through the suburbs before deciding on our fence. Our dog REALLY wanted to meet him but that seemed like a bad idea. (We called the zoo and someone came by to pick him up.)
It's fun to see something like that 'feral,' so to speak.
There was a part of my reptilian brain thinking that it's pretty close to thanksgiving and that's a good sized bird . . .
:P
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Rather surprisingly, I spotted a peacock on our back yard fence a few weeks back. Turns out he wandered away from the Toronto Zoo out an open gate, across the rouge river, up a ravine, and then through the suburbs before deciding on our fence. Our dog REALLY wanted to meet him but that seemed like a bad idea. (We called the zoo and someone came by to pick him up.)
It's fun to see something like that 'feral,' so to speak.
There was a part of my reptilian brain thinking that it's pretty close to thanksgiving and that's a good sized bird . . .
:P
I believe that in Victorian times, peacock was eaten in England. In ancient Rome, peafowl were a delicacy.
It is the national bird of India, so I was surprised to get woken up in Staten Island(mid 80's), NY with the ugly screams of peafowl. It is a very distinctive call and I did not expect it in Staten Island. It seems that some family with an estate had maintained a flock of them.
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Rather surprisingly, I spotted a peacock on our back yard fence a few weeks back. Turns out he wandered away from the Toronto Zoo out an open gate, across the rouge river, up a ravine, and then through the suburbs before deciding on our fence. Our dog REALLY wanted to meet him but that seemed like a bad idea. (We called the zoo and someone came by to pick him up.)
My neighbors (not too close, luckily) used to have peacocks, in a large outdoor enclosure. They are super fucking annoying, every spring they make a huge racket every time they hear a noise. This lasts through summer, then they seem to pipe down.
Apparently the Egyptians used them as guard birds, because they're so predictably re-active to noise.
One day years ago they both escaped in a storm. One was found the next day but the other disappeared.
Fast forward six months, I was at my dentists office, and somehow he mentioned that a peacock showed up near his house six months ago, and it likes to roost on his roof, and they were feeding it. The dentist lives about three miles from me.
Mystery solved, the wandering peacock returned home.
A few years ago it was killed by a raccoon ( *oh no* ).
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Rather surprisingly, I spotted a peacock on our back yard fence a few weeks back. Turns out he wandered away from the Toronto Zoo out an open gate, across the rouge river, up a ravine, and then through the suburbs before deciding on our fence. Our dog REALLY wanted to meet him but that seemed like a bad idea. (We called the zoo and someone came by to pick him up.)
My neighbors (not too close, luckily) used to have peacocks, in a large outdoor enclosure. They are super fucking annoying, every spring they make a huge racket every time they hear a noise. This lasts through summer, then they seem to pipe down.
Apparently the Egyptians used them as guard birds, because they're so predictably re-active to noise.
One day years ago they both escaped in a storm. One was found the next day but the other disappeared.
Fast forward six months, I was at my dentists office, and somehow he mentioned that a peacock showed up near his house six months ago, and it likes to roost on his roof, and they were feeding it. The dentist lives about three miles from me.
Mystery solved, the wandering peacock returned home.
A few years ago it was killed by a raccoon ( *oh no* ).
I'm surprised the raccoon got it! They're not small birds.
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Someone a few miles north of me apparently kept peacocks as, er, "pets" (as noted above, they're not the nicest pets...) and now there's a sufficient wild flock that they're self-sustaining (I think some of the neighbors feed them, and someone may provide shelter in the winter: if you're playing along, you'll note that I live in a place with somewhat significant winters...) It's always fun to go for a run in that direction and have to detour around one!
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Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you had a great day with family and friends.
We have a pre-meal tradition of the whole family taking a walk in a nearby park. While I was looking at the turkey vulture, a fellow walker pointed me to this red tailed hawk who was sunning himself.
Again, I did not have my camera, this is a cell phone shot
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Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you had a great day with family and friends.
We have a pre-meal tradition of the whole family taking a walk in a nearby park. While I was looking at the turkey vulture, a fellow walker pointed me to this red tailed hawk who was sunning himself.
Again, I did not have my camera, this is a cell phone shot
Good shot, regardless.
Tis the season...for tons of immature red-tails looking super fluffy in the cold. Down here, as well.
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I remembered to take my camera and big lens to St. Pete just after thanksgiving. Had a couple of mornings when I could take photos.
These birds were almost posing....
This was more an exercise in photographing birds. I did get one exotic bird.
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Heres the exotic (invasive??) bird I mentioned. A Nanday Parakeet, native to Central South America. I found a tree full of them in downtown St. Pete (Vinoy park, if you are interested.
How did these parakeets get here?
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Here are a couple of photos which I am also proud of.
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Amazing photos @CowboyAndIndian !! Thank you. Very interesting about the parakeets. There are some weird situations in Florida with animal escapees.
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Amazing photos @CowboyAndIndian !! Thank you. Very interesting about the parakeets. There are some weird situations in Florida with animal escapees.
Thank you @Trifle.
I wonder if there are a minimal number of birds needed so that there is a viable gene pool. I remember reading the need for atleast a 1000 individuals to propogate a speicies, otherwise there is a lot of inbreeding and the specie dies out.
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LOVE pelicans!
Our 'local' male merlin, who generally winters in our neighborhood, finally showed up this week. I was getting a bit worried, but there he was on his usual telephone pole, scoping out the park and school yard. Between me FINALLY feeling human again after being ill starting back in late October and just getting over pneumonia, this was a good week.
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LOVE pelicans!
Our 'local' male merlin, who generally winters in our neighborhood, finally showed up this week. I was getting a bit worried, but there he was on his usual telephone pole, scoping out the park and school yard. Between me FINALLY feeling human again after being ill starting back in late October and just getting over pneumonia, this was a good week.
Glad you are feeling better!
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Heres the exotic (invasive??) bird I mentioned. A Nanday Parakeet, native to Central South America. I found a tree full of them in downtown St. Pete (Vinoy park, if you are interested.
How did these parakeets get here?
From: https://www.wildsouthflorida.com/nanday.parakeet.html
Nandays were first seen flying "wild" in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County back in 1969, most likely an escapee from a pet store or owner, or deliberately released.
Another good read: https://www.stpetebikingtours.com/post/what-s-up-with-those-squawking-parrots-in-st-pete
I've seen huge flocks of them flying around the area near Vinoy Park. Beautiful to watch the pandemonium.
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Thank you @jinga nation . That was really informative.