# Seen any neat birds lately? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 22, 2013, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626 "2013-03-22T13:06:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/101 "2013-04-08T00:59:31Z")
I didn’t get to see any magpies when I went hiking at Pinnacles NP. I did get to see some California Condors though. [Here’s one cruising along a ridgeline](https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Qjf3aTd0J6spUj2SgakB_ZOVj12mjHxH38n7cGMtl8o?feat=directlink). ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/102 "2013-04-08T17:48:57Z")
I went to the local botanical gardens yesterday and got a few shots of this [great grey heron](http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z300/romansperson/heron%20april%202013/558720_4810865794908_1519971025_n_zpsa5fe0abf.jpg) catching fish in the pond. ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/103 "2013-04-08T20:34:00Z")
> [@ducati](#): > > Nothing particularly exciting visits Atlanta, unless you count the storks migrating far overhead every year. I spoke too soon. I just rounded the house into the back yard to see a Bald Eagle sitting on a platform feeder. He looked at me, then swooped away over my deck and down the driveway faster than you’d think a VW-sized bird could move. With over a dozen bird and squirrel feeders out back, it must look like a raptor buffet from overhead. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/104 "2013-04-08T20:49:25Z")
Not especially special, but we just took a two hour road (two hours one way) trip this weekend and on the way down and back we must have seen 20+ hawks, mostly red-tailed, but some others, scoping for food, hanging out in the trees, and one even on the ground. Was pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/105 "2013-04-08T21:01:32Z")
> [@romansperson](#): > > I went to the local botanical gardens yesterday and got a few shots of this [great grey heron](http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z300/romansperson/heron%20april%202013/558720_4810865794908_1519971025_n_zpsa5fe0abf.jpg) catching fish in the pond. That’s a [Great Blue Heron](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blue_Heron), unless you’re in Eurasia. Nice photo! I saw one catch a gopher once, that was neat 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/106 "2013-04-09T17:37:05Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > That’s a [Great Blue Heron](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blue_Heron), unless you’re in Eurasia. > > Nice photo! I saw one catch a gopher once, that was neat 🙂 Could be either one - they’re in the Asiatic section of that particular garden, which also has [black-necked swans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-necked_Swan) and a few other non-native species, along with the usual suspects like Canada geese and mallards. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/107 "2013-04-09T18:08:11Z")
I saw some Belted Kingfishers the other day. Not as exciting as some but they’re not real common around here. A conservation group is working on bringing back some wetlands, which is increasing the number of cool birds that turn up. I see Great Blue Herons, what I think are Great Egrets (they’re too big to be Snowy Egrets), and Wood Ducks on a regular basis. I just came across an article that says the Bald Eagles are back there too! Yay! I saw them a couple summers ago and they’re so impressive. I nearly drove off the road watching them. Here’s the website for the group: [http://www.lrwp.org/eaglemarsh.php](http://www.lrwp.org/eaglemarsh.php) ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/108 "2013-04-09T18:20:45Z")
Got a good close up look at a pair of buffleheads yesterday, so chalk up another duck I can confidently ID. Today at lunch the pond held some coots, a couple of pied billed grebes, several shovellers, and a couple of buffles. Yesterday I was biking, and saw a couple of groups of vultures circling. Was glad to see the one group start landing in a field, as I was heading uphill and into the wind at the time, and suspected they were commenting on my apparent level of fitness! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![xanthous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/53a042/32.png) [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/109 "2013-04-09T19:26:40Z")
Heard a Phoebe calling the other day. That’s when I was finally able to fully embrace that Spring is here! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/110 "2013-04-09T20:08:31Z")
I’ve had more pileated woodpeckers than usual in the yard lately. There are usually smaller peckerwoods around too. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/111 "2013-04-09T20:35:11Z")
Well, I’ve got this cockatiel sitting on my knee, but she’s not neat, she’s messy… There was a merlin (falcon) in the park last week. They show up in my neighborhood once in a while–a couple years ago I saw one argue with a Cooper’s hawk over a tree branch perch and I also saw one being harassed by a kestrel which wanted its prey (a cotton rat.) I was in Kentucky over the winter and I saw huge numbers of robins (some days I could easily find 100 in 20 minutes) and oddly enough a lot of vultures, which seemed particularly fond of Georgetown KY even though I didn’t see any roadkill there (not even possums.) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/112 "2013-04-09T21:57:22Z")
I’ve just been watching a falconcam on the top of our utility building downtown. The one parent is currently sitting on four eggs. There’s an inside and an outside camera, just now the latter is better. The parents are named Boreas and Nemaha. [http://www.westarenergy.com/wcm.nsf/content/falcons](http://www.westarenergy.com/wcm.nsf/content/falcons) ---
**Author:** ![Jennmonkye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/278dde/32.png) [@Jennmonkye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennmonkye)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/113 "2013-04-10T00:11:54Z")
Saw two American White Pelicans. Not too rare, eh? In OMAHA, NEBRASKA!!! ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/114 "2013-04-10T01:37:13Z")
Lots of migrants coming through now (at long last)-great cresteds and chimney swifts just showed up today in fact, also got 2 least terns (which I was studying while back in graduate school). Even got a peregrine last week. ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/115 "2013-04-10T01:56:55Z")
We recently bought a house on 1.5 lovely wooded acres – with a resident owl. A big one. I think it’s a [barred owl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barred_Owl). We hear it a lot and get pretty regular sightings. It loves to sit in the trees across the driveway from the kitchen window. We say “hi” and it gazes back somberly. My little girl, who is 18 months old, has taken to hooting. Which is awesome. ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626/116 "2013-04-10T02:22:17Z")
Our backyard (just N of Atlanta) gets lot of songbirds to our feeders. As a result we’ve gotten a few flyby visits from this [guy](http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/sharp-shinned_hawk/id) looking for a snack. Haven’t seen him actually succeed, but damn he is fast. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-neat-birds-lately/653626.md?page=5)