I’m here! Currently the only bird-watching I do is the osprey nest in my work parking lot. There’s another one down the road, but I don’t get to scope them out like I can here.
Sadly, I won’t be around to see any baby ospreys because I’ve given my notice. I’ll be keeping my eye out for other nests, now that I know how prevalent they are.
I also have two cockatiels. One was a tiny 4-week old baby when I got him, and he’s turned into quite the handsome, vocal male. Recently, he’s taken to biting, which is extremely disenheartening to me. I spend all my time at home with him, but I do work a lot. Add that to the change in season and the hormonal thing birds go through, and I now have to be very careful with him. He’s been flighted his whole life, but after drawing blood the second time (on my face!), his wings were clipped.
It’s hard when you feel like something you love and care for has turned on you, but I’m just trying to be patient and calm with him. I’m hoping to gain back that trust that I’ve lost.
I like birdwatching, but I suck at it. The interesting birds are quite often marked differently than those in the guidebooks, so I am rarely confident about which one I’ve seen. I’m not a list keeper, but having traveled to Africa, Asia and South America, I’ve seen a ton. Africa is unbelievable for birds. You can’t turn around without adding a new bird to your list.
My yard, despite being botanically rather barren, has a ton of birds. They make a racket. I get mockingbirds, hummingbirds, Steller’s jays, mourning doves, and a passel of other scruffy generic things. I hear in the early morning what sounds like the hooting of an owl. Recently, I’ve been thinking that there is some homeless dude sleeping in the yard because it sounds like someone is snoring. I went out yesterday to check it out and it’s a loud bird call with the cadence of someone snoring (the muffling effect of a poorly insulated house makes it sound like snoring). I haven’t been able to track it down, but I feel much better now that I know some bum isn’t sleeping in my yard.
Down by the beach, you can see Great Blue Herons and White Egrets pretty much on a daily basis. The first two Bald Eagles since the 1940’s have hatched on Santa Cruz Island.
I’ve got a cool bird feeder but I’m worried about putting it out, as people on this board have said that it’s not entirely ecologically responsible. However, if I hang it in the right spot, I’ll be able to see a ton of birds without getting up from the couch.
After reading this thread, I took my camera onto my deck and grabbed a few shots. Nothing uncommon (I never have my camera when those things happen) but here are a few common birds:
Thistle feeder with Goldfinches:
A House Finch:
A Cardinal:
A Sparrow (Chipping Sparrow?)
Mourning Doves:
White Breasted Nuthatch:
An Oriole in a tree. I think they are nectar feeders, not really common in my yard:
A European Goldfinch (in my house, not outdoors):
I am not great at bird IDs, if anyone notes any mistakes, please lemme know.
How’d I miss this thread? I’ve been interested in birds since childhood. I’ve had guide books since I was in my twenties. I’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the US and have seen that elusive Road Runner as well as Everglades Kites, and Sissortail Flycathers. A Great Horned Owl used to roost in our now defunt front yard pine trees (Gone thanks to Hurricane Charlie and Pine Borers). A troop of Sandhill Cranes marches around the campus of my mother’s assisted-living facility. I’ve also been watching an extremely large flock of Fish Crows for years. They fly south in the morning and north in the evening. Correspondence with a wildlife officer clued me in to where they nest. He also told me that there is a deadly enmity between owls and crows–that they both regularly try to decimate each other. And, of course, living in Florida, there is a right plethora of birds…including LBBs. (kai, I think it’s so funny we both call them that!). Finally, homage must be paid to “Birdit” the cockatiel, who I “found” when he landed on my head in the back yard. He’s now a family member.
Tomorrow morning, we’re leaving for St. Louis, to watch the Cardinals play the Nationals. I opened my Field Guide to the right page, and I showed it to my wife. “The Cardinals ought to change into this kind of bird this weekend.” I pointed to the Gnat-catcher (Nat-catcher.)
But Starlings are cool. Seen in good light, showing their irridescent plumage sprinkled with “stars”, they are actually quite beautiful. And they are really amazing mimics - I’m always entertained by hearing them run through a repertoire of the local species as they gabble away. Even Mozart recognized their incredible vocal abilities - he kept one as a pet, and wrote a poem for it and held a funeral when it died. Starlings can even be taught to speak, an ability remarked on by Shakespeare and Schubert. And I like their cheekiness and general air of insouciance.
Now Starlings in the US are in fact pests, competing with native species for nest holes and making a nuisance of themselves when they occur in big flocks. But they do have some redeeming features if you look at them closely.
I never watched birds till I moved here, but just since last night I’ve seen…
Buncha flying foxes (bats. ENOURMOUS BATS. ARGH!)
A flock of bare-eyed (I think, I got pretty close) white cockatoos
A couple of rainbow lorikeets squabbling in the tree outside my house
A bazillion Indian mynah birds (pests, here.)
Your standard sparrows
Something I don’t know what it is, but it’s VERY cute and has a tiny wedge-shaped tail that it can swivel around, and is very cheeky and talky.
I have seen, here, in the past:
A black 'too
Some wedge tailed eagles
Pink gallahs
When I lived in Vegas, out towards the edge of the desert, I was surrounded by burrowing owls, which are both ugly and very, very cute at the same time. Tiny owl, no ear tufts, long, bare legs. One used to hang out on my balcony rail at night.
James Wolcott is a bird lover. In his blog he was writing about a Michigan bird party to see the Kirtland Warbler. They are protected and rare. The funny part is with registration it included lunch. They served chicken. Can that be right?
I lost one of the a few months ago (read accidentally set it free), and have been looking to replace it BUT i was told you can’t reintroduce a bird once a finch has been left by itself. Apparently the java’s are *vicious * little birds and peck the newcomer’s feet off!
You have cute birdies though.
Here is my cockatiel trying to set the java’s free.
I really don’t get out birding as much as I’d like, but I can’t complain since part of my job is to catch birds. Here are a few that I got “up close and personal” with over the years:
Brachy- cool pics. A friend in Jersey once saw an albino crow while walking near his house. He carried a camera for days, hoping for a shot. He would see the bird from time to time, but only when he didn’t have his camera.
The barn swallow’s head shot looks similar to a nighthawk (or nightjar or whatever you call them). I’ve necropsied a few (nighthawks) over the years and it is wild the thousands/millions of tiny insects you get from their crops.
Thanks vetbridge. Isn’t that an amazing mouth on the swallow? He was a young bird that got trapped in our greenhouse.
Your use of “necropsy” reminds me of when we necropsied Laughing Gulls at an airport (big bird strike hazard here). They’d have a boatload of Japanese beetles in their crop. I think the most we counted in one bird was over 700 :eek:
I haven’t seen any totally albino crows here in central Jersey, but we do come across a number that have an odd feather (often balanced on the other side) or a few toes that are white. And when we used to bleach-mark crows on campus, we’d get calls about some “strange type of crow with polka dots on the wings.”
