I have no permission to reveal any names, but it is one of our own. Please, just check in with good wishes for someone who is part of the birding world. They need all of our support right now. Write something about flight, songbirds, feathers … anything.
Watching birds is something I never was into until about five years ago. Until I started looking I never realized what diversity and beauty there is right in my own back yard, not to mention within city limits.
It’s kind of like that with people. I’m always amazed at how little I know about folks I have been around. I hear them tell about their life and realize I didn’t have a clue that this guy I decorated a 50th anniversary cake for is an Arab linguist, or that that nice lady was once a maximum security prison guard.
All the world around us can be beautiful or interesting if we keep looking.
And to that goldfinch who made a guest appearance at my feeder two days ago, where are you? Come back!
For anyone who likes looking at the life cycle of birds, the following link is to a set of cameras on the Kodak building in Rochester, New York, where a pair of falcons is nesting and raising five young ones. http://birdcam.kodak.com
Thousands of voices.
Some screech, some warble, some caw.
And some are silent.
Too close to the nest,
A mockingbird attacked me.
Staying far away…
“Which bird is that one?”
"That one is an “LBB.”
“Huh?” “Little Brown Bird.”
Eagle soars above.
Owl burrows into the ground.
All part of the earth.
Quivering jewel
Attracted to my red shirt.
Hungry hummingbird.
I’m taking some time off tomorrow to wander through a local nature preserve. Had planned this for awhile, since I realized how tense my life had become. And I know the site I want.
I’ll be heading to a field where I did some birding two years ago. I was part of our local birdathon, and assigned the southern region: specifically, I was looking for Whooping Cranes that had been released south of Kissimmee a few years ago. That would be a real find in our quest for the most number of birds sighted in one day. I had until about 11 am to find as many species as I could before I had to meet everyone to rush over to the coast to go seabird spotting. On the way to the release site, I pulled over to check for some burrowing owls sites reported in the area, and was distracted by an Eastern Meadowlark.
I’d seen these in books and heard the recordings on tape, but had never had my own private concert. Two fenceposts away was my own personal Pavarotti. No, not Pavarotti - too throaty and bombastic and ego-laden. Domingo. Yes, definitely Domingo. Sweet, not covered, full of life. Bright without thinness, pure and clear tones.
I sat in the dirt road for about maybe 20 minutes and listened to the sunrise, listened to the clouds shed their morning pinkness, listened to the warm scent of the orange grove at the end of the road. Each note stirred every flower in the pasture. The egrets walked by in slow-motion, spying for bugs. The cows grazing nearby ignored me and the meadowlark and went about their business of trimming the weeds: been there, heard that, if they had invented the elevator it would have been their Muzak. Didn’t matter. It was a treat just for me.
That day, I slowed down for a few moments and listened to the voice of the earth. And for but a few moments, it said everything was right with the world.
Such mystification, Zenster, but any birdlover in need of good wishes is well worth the time.
I work in wildlife rehabilitation, and we are smack dab in the middle of the baby bird season. The nursery is full of tiny voices, hungry from sun-up to sundown, needing to be fed every 20 minutes. The chickadees Dee-Dee!, mockers shout their distinctive one note, the robins clatter-chatter & gulp greedily. Bluebirds, shy, take only as much as necessary, then turn away. Mourning doves tcuuu-wheet and lay low, jays are clowns and love to play, cardinals vibrate for attention… The most amazing thing I’ve learned with this intimate peek into the bird world is that each species is so distinct, and each individual is truly unique. So and so gapes right away, but his brother is more tentative. In three weeks, they are grown up and ready to fly away, off to join the big ol’ world.
It’s amazing, too, that humans can raise baby birds at all. It takes dedication, but many folks learned from (sometimes sad) experience and have passed the proper knowledge on. The veterinarians and volunteers I’ve worked with are inspiring in their compassion for each little feathered one in their care. When one falters, all their best attention is given to help it. Some have had a bad course of fate, but with care, so many birds can fly off into their lives. It’s the big grin of a feeling to see them fly on yonder, free!
A nice side effect of this experience is that I now hear bird calls more distinctly than before, especially hungry babies. A veil between worlds is lowered; and I can hear the interplay of chickadees, robins, bluebirds, and mockers. They have their own will of voice, and the first light of dawn is the most incredible symphony. Each day is a free-for-all of “Yup, I’m here, let me tell you about it!” I can’t precisely understand that language, but the few phrases I now know wake me up smiling. That song doesn’t need me at all, but I’m glad to help it along when I can.
MysteryBirder in Need: I hope you receive all the compassion and care your heart needs now, and that your wings mend soon.
Bird-nerd here. Picked it up a couple of years ago against my better judgement and enjoying it-- nice cheap rewarding hobby. Lots of interesting things around here especially in the winter. Goldfinches lately-- fantastic looking birds.
I saw a nice PACK, I tell you, PACK of like 35 snowy egrets in the slough near here this weekend.
Here’s a site that has all the stamps from aroud the world that have had birds on them
Cheer up. The ducks (mallard couple named Boris and Natasha-- third spring in a row they’ve shown up for weeks on end) are on the back porch for their bready handout. They like bagels but not croutons, you know.
Well, let’s see. This spring I was able to add American Woodcock and Wood Thrush to my list of backyard birds. And on vacation in Vermont I saw not one but two Pileated Woodpeckers from the deck of our condo, not 40 feet from where I was. I was able to get a good, long look at them. At a nearby wildlife sanctuary I got good close looks at Yellow Warblers, Barn and Cliff Swallows, Marsh Wren and Wood Ducks. Oh, and I heard a bizarre whinny that I was later able to find on my CD of bird calls…it was a Sora! A lot of good “birding vibes” this spring.
I love watching birds. Mockingbirds are my favorite, mainly because they were/are my Grammy’s favorite and she and I spent many happy hours together when I visited her as a child, looking out the window at the birds. She used to feed a mockingbird raisins … “just five” she would always say, that’s all that mockingbird would eat, and then sing its heart out. She used to make birdhouses out of old Clorox bottles, spraypainted brown.
My second-favorite is the cardinal. You don’t know how pleased I am that my 8-year-old daughter can recognize its call.
Best wishes to the bird-lover! And to all avian fans.
Thank you everybody and I apologize for the mystery. The intended person has been informed about this thread and I hope they will appear soon.
I can already tell you that the stories and poetry here will ease this person’s heart in this time of trouble. All of you have done a sterling job and I am grateful. Please continue to share what you have experienced with the birding world.
Sixteen years ago, I visited my Aunt in the Sierra Nevada foothills. She had many hummingbirds that would nest near her house. A few pairs even wintered at her location. All of the regularly stocked syrup feeders attracted dozens of the little suckers. I had the intense pleasure of sitting less than ten feet from a gang of feeders watching twenty of these jeweled eggbeaters vie for position at the drinking stems. I was in ecstasy to be so close to so much beauty all at once.
Three years ago I was in my kitchen and chanced to look out the back door window. There on the porch railing was a Western Audubon Flicker. Stunned into silence, I watched for a few minutes as this gorgeous bird sunned itself. A few months later, I found a flicker’s breast feather with superb zebra-like stripes on it. I wear it in the hat band of my Stetson Fedora.
Two years ago, I was walking Zen near my home and had my mind blown completely. Perched on some power lines were almost forty of the same Flickers. This must have been a local population or something. I was breathless to see so much avian beauty all at once.
Last year, about this time someone hit and killed a skunk out on the county road. It laid there for a few days stinkin’ up the neighborhood, because for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to move a dead skunk and then just what do you do with it?
I was doing the dishes one morning and glanced out the kitchen window to see a very large bird sitting on a fence post near the garden alongside the road. At first I thought it was a Turkey, as they are common here, but I’d never seen one sitting on a post. I went and got the binoculars to get a better look but just as I got back to the window it flew off. I knew from the flight that it wasn’t an turkey but still didn’t know what it was.
Later in the day I was in the garden shed puttering away, wishing I’d had the courage to have moved that damn skunk before it started to get so ripe.
Finally finished my chores and poped out the door of the shed to see a very freaked out vulture trying to make off with the flat skunk. That thing took one look at me and launched itself backward and upwards at the same time launching a huge load of projectile vomit in my direction that was unbelievably fouler than the very dead skunk!
I learned a few things that day, North Idaho has Vultures, Vultures can fly backwards and that my kids must really love me if I’m that damn ugly that I can make a Vulture puke.
I’ve been birding here for 20 odd years and had no Idea that we had Turkey Vultures in the area, thought I’d made the sighting of the year. Later perusal of my birding books indicated that they do range into this area and much to my surprise, are well known to use their vomitus as a defensive mechanism.
Dedicated birder that I am, I bravely took a shovel and moved the badly decayed former skunk to the other side of the fenceline so my visitor would’t be so engrossed in his meal that it would become road-kill itself. Unfortunately, it never returned.
Best line all day. Big prize for you!
When I was a kid I occaisionally saw vultures flying over the neighborhood. I’d lie on the ground like I was dead and tell the other kids in the vicinity to do the same so we could lure the vulture down. The vultures were never fooled and I’m not sure what we would have done if one had come down to investigate. (“But Mom! It followed us home! And we’ve named it Vulchy! Can we keep it? Pleeeeeeeze?”) Years later one did almost land on me during a bird show at the Rio Grande Zoo.
Where I live now the white winged doves are breeding. One has declared the lightpole in front of my house as his territory and spends the day cooing relentlessly. It’s amazing that something so small can make so much noise.
There is a great movie playing right now (at the Paris Theater in NYC) called “Winged Migration.” I haven’t had a chance to see it yet, but it is critically acclaimed.
A great movie for bird lovers, no doubt.
There’s a male cardinal that hangs out around my house. He’s come back each spring for the few years that we’ve lived there, and his arrival is our first “official” sign that spring is coming. Unfortunately, sometimes he’ll wake up and sing much earlier than my husband and I wake up. :smack: When we’re more awake and in better moods, we laugh about him, saying that he’s singing the cardinal equivalent of “hey, baby!” to the females out there. Last week, on my way into my house after work, I looked up into a tree in the backyard and saw him perched atop it, chirping away. I smiled at seeing this little red beacon of feathers and song.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
I’ve had a Black Vulture puke in the back of my car (I was transporting it to a rehab center at the time). I know your pain, and my car knows Febreeze.
The office where I work is right on the San Francisco Bay, so I can walk along the shore at lunchtime. I always enjoy observing the shorebirds. Today I noticed a snowy egret whose feet were different from any I’d seen before. Usually, snowys have black legs with bright yellow feet. This one’s feet appeared to be a brownish pink. Very odd.
I love birds. Most every year we get a little brown finch that makes her nest under the patio. She always puts it in one of the corners at the very top of a beam.
Well the first year we were here I didn’t know what was going on. I would come out on the patio and see little twigs laying around the bottom of the beam. I looked up top and there she was in the corner with twigs hanging out of her mouth. So I observed from a distance to see the full picture. She was feverishly trying to make a nest. The wind was blowing hard and everytime she left to go get more twigs they would fall off.
Being new to this sort of thing, I was thinking she is crazy. That nest will never stay there. Sure enough though a few days later she had a nest exactly where she wanted it and it stayed. A few weeks later we had baby birds falling out of the nest to take on a new flight. The lesson I learned from that little bird was that wherever you decide to make your home, stick to your plans, keep focused, and don’t let nothing stand in your way. Not even Mother Nature.
The catbirds(our same pair every year) are back for the season. They’re investigating a yew bush next to the driveway with some interest.
Wow. OK, we’ve had this great horned owl in the neighborhood for a couple of weeks, and coupled with the Newcastle virus thing it was the impetus to a moratorium on the parrot playing on the back porch. I was just out checking mail, and the owl has moved into the tree RIGHT outside our back door. o wonder the ducks haven’t come by for handouts this afternoon. …
Ah, here:
“Hey, send out the parrot. . .”
OMG! How adorable!!!
(Or it would be, if GHOs didn’t consider SOs to be appetizers.)
Odd bird moment of the day, part B (funny AND sad):
On our jog through the adjacent fields, there was a field that had been roughly mown; I don’t really want to imagine the details of how this all occurred, but there was a big ass great blue heron, who was working at a whole ground squirrel (minus head? couldn’t tell) that he was carrying around in his beak-- just sort of walking around with this entire dead squirrel, its little fluffy tail hanging down. He’d whip his head around to look at something and this squirrel cadaver would flap about like a furry wind-sock.
Sort of sad for mammal lovers, but kind of amusing in a sick ‘cycle of life’ way. I’m sure that all the hawks and kestrels thought that this was a totally unfair distribution of carrion.