Seen any neat birds lately?

[John_DiFool]

@Tethered_Kite

We live above a nature preserve and often have creatures in our yard.

One day last summer I looked out the window and saw a Blue Heron standing by my pond, waiting. I opened the door and said, “Shoo, shoo!” He was so tame that he just looked at me like,“Pipe down, lady. Can’t you see I’m fishing here?”

So I had to walk toward him moving my arms and got quite close before he would budge.

Even then he just flew to the top of our fence and waited for me to go back in the house. We played this game for a while.

I’d never seen one so closely before and was surprised by his size and the beautiful blue shade of his feathers.

A number of individuals in the heron family are tame from following fishermen around and trying to bum a fish from them.

And don’t get me started on the great egret that’s literally been following me around town. First of all, she hunts lizards in the grassy medians and gardens, and not in a lake or tidal creek like any respectable egret. She’s recognizable from that habit and the way she bobs her head from side to side when stalking them. One day I am pulling out onto the main road, and she swoops in from the left and lands in front of my car, looks at me for a moment through the windshield, then calmly walks around to the side and snags an anole in the bushes. She had been hanging around my apartment for 2 months back in the early winter, then vanished one day-only to reappear a month later 7 miles away, near my mom’s condo while I was eating lunch at my favorite diner.

[Sehmket]

@dwyr

My mother, when she couldn’t get outdoors anymore, used to love to watch the birds coming to her windowsill bird feeder. Not the same model but this one is similar. You can see out but the birds can’t see in. It’s easy to fill from inside the house. Her cat was absolutely mesmerized by it. The only downsides were the price, of course, and hers needed a bit of weatherstripping around it in the cold weather. It was very hard to keep squirrels out of too. Her window was on the second story of the building and the squirrel used to leap from the balcony over to the feeder. She used to put out bird seed mixed with chili pepper. It kept most of the fuzz balls out except for one who seemed to crave the heat. My brother claimed he could actually see the squirrel’s eyes water.

Oh, my, that is just amazing.

Thanks, too to Troppus for the suggestions! I’ll have to take a look around and see if I can manage to get those to stick!

[MadTheSwine]

I haven’t seen any since Tuesday.

[Tethered_Kite]

@swampspruce

Pretty sure those are burrowing owls.

Not quite time for the birds to return yet but I find the ravens highly entertaining. On warmer days you see them playing on the air currents off of buildings and scoping out what’s for dinner at the local grocery store or Wal-mart in the back of pick-ups. It is endlessly entertaining. I watched one pick through someone’s bags that they thoughtfully left in the bed, select a package of wrapped cheese slices, throw it down, unwrap the cling wrap and help themself.

So I guess we can assume that ravens have crappy taste in cheese?

Last spring I watched a group of crows steal the eggs from a robin’s nest in my neighbor’s pine tree, one by one, and drop them on the side-walk.

[Dendarii_Dame]

Saw a few red-winged blackbirds while walking around a lake today. They have a beautiful song.

[ducati]

Near our house in Ponte Vedra, I noticed a pair of Pileated 'peckers hanging around a utility pole.

I got as close as I could, used my 400mm lens and watched mamalooking around, then flying off.

Then, Little Mohawk Jr. stuck his head out. He wasn’t alone, but his siblingwould never come close to looking out.

They’re on the side of the highway, so I couldn’t watch them much, but I did see both adults there from time to time. I never have seen that before, and never with my camera of course!

[gracer]

@Sehmket

Oh, my, that is just amazing.

Sehmket, I just bought one of those cheap house-shaped feeder things and ran some string through the window. Easy peasy, and looks all right. To refill I haul it in (you can pretend you are aboard a ship, if you want) then flip it out again. If you want a pretty version you could always use ribbon I snapped some pictures, but because I was balancing on the window sill they are less-than-spectacular. I’ll try to post them somewhere…

[gracer]

OK, here is a link for everyone to admire this stunning feat of engineering. No laughing!

If there is personal info up, could someone tell me?

[Dinsdale]

@Troppus

What’s the book,** Dinsdale**? I’d really like to check that out.

Defining the Wind by Scott Huler. I actually copied a couple of pages of ch 9 and handed them to my family. Really spoke well of the value of observing.

Here’s one that bugged me last year, and I saw it again yesterday. Along the expressway in sw MI, a large hawk with w white belly and black back, wings, and head. I’ve seen these birds perched along expressways in central IL. But when I try to look them up in Peterson, no luck. The black seems darker than the male goshawk or harrier, and the breast seems quite white. Closest I see is the Short Tail, but this bird is much larger that a crow, and I ain’t in FLA! (Reminds me of the birdwatching scene from the Honeymooners…)

Any thoughts?

[SandyHook]

Spent the winter along the Rio Grande and surrounding country and saw a lot of great birds.

The top three, as far as unusual goes, were: Whopping Crane, Crimson Collared Grosbeak, and the Common Pauraque.

[StGermain]

Yesterday as I was driving to work there was a flock of wild turkeys in the field across from my house. I saw a white turkey! I looked it up and apparently there’s a relatively rare coloration called smoke phase. She was beautiful.

StG

[Amateur_Barbarian]

They’re mundane, but I love robins. In the West, I grew up with robins being undistinguished little wren-birds. Here in the Northeast, we have real robins. Nothing makes me smile more than a robin, or three, or six, staking out their ground on my lawn, lordly as hawks, arrogant as crows.

[Dinsdale]

Robins are really neat birds - but they are so prevalent. And LOUD! Once you learn their song it is inescapable!

I’ve got 3 feeders up - one with safflower, 1 thistle, and one cheap millet/sunflower mix. I’ve refilled the mix for tons of sparrows, juncos, mourning doves, and cardinals - and the other 2 have remained essentially untouched.

I’ve been driving myself nuts trying to identify these ducks. I figure one of them is probably a lesser scaup, but it could be a greater or a ring neck. Then I saw another one - a big duck, the size of a mallard, dark brown body and a black head. Figured it might be a black duck, but they seem to have lighter grey heads. Maybe a black/mallard cross?

[StGermain]

Hijack - Dinsdale - My niece is graduating from her engineering college this spring. Dean’s list, straight A’s. She’s got an engineering job with Honda. How’s your son?

StG

[lieu]

I’ve seen a couple of beautiful ones lately but, sadly, they appear to be dead possibly from flying into glass here at work. I looked at them closely and marvelled at their gorgeous coloring and was going to look them up but then, surprisingly, saw their likeness in a series of bird displays we have in the central corridor, bird carvings by some exceptional artists. They were Cedar Waxwings and the yellow on the wingtips, the black and white on their face and the tiny red tips of their wings are just beautiful.

[Intergalactic_Gladiator]

Two weekends ago we were in the Wisconsin Dells and saw some pheasants and a bald eagle. I’m almost 100% certain it was a bald eagle unless there is some other giant raptor out there with a white head.

Edited to add: We live in Chicago but we often see hawks flying around. We also have cardinals, gold finches, and purple finches near us though I haven’t seen the finches here yet.

[StGermain]

@Dinsdale

Robins are really neat birds - but they are so prevalent. And LOUD! Once you learn their song it is inescapable!

I’ve got 3 feeders up - one with safflower, 1 thistle, and one cheap millet/sunflower mix. I’ve refilled the mix for tons of sparrows, juncos, mourning doves, and cardinals - and the other 2 have remained essentially untouched.

I’ve been driving myself nuts trying to identify these ducks. I figure one of them is probably a lesser scaup, but it could be a greater or a ring neck. Then I saw another one - a big duck, the size of a mallard, dark brown body and a black head. Figured it might be a black duck, but they seem to have lighter grey heads. Maybe a black/mallard cross?

Could it be a female black scoter? Apparently sometimes they winter in the Great Lakes area.

Black Scoter
Melanitta nigra

A rare late fall and winter visitor to Tennessee, the Black Scoter is the only all black duck in North America. This scoter is very vocal, often being located from miles away by their constant, melodious whistle. It is an elusive species often found in mixed flocks.

Description: The Black Scoter is a large, diving, all-black, migratory sea duck of North America. Males have a diagnostic bright yellow-orange knob at the base of its black bill. Females are sooty brown with full light cheeks and a dark cap and thin bill. In flight both sexes show a silvery-gray sheen that contrast with the black of the underwings. Black Scoters fly in straight and V formations with rapid, direct, strong wing beats their wings making a whistling sound.

Female Description
Sooty brownish. Dark cap contrasting sharply with pale grayish brown feathers on rest of head. Sides and flanks paler with indistinct barring. Bill not swollen or only slightly, may have hint of yellow.

StG

[Dinsdale]

@StGermain

Could it be a female black scoter? Apparently sometimes they winter in the Great Lakes area.
StG

Hmm - could’ve been. Thought the entire head was black, but that is close. Thanks.

BTW, pm sent.

[swampspruce]

@Tethered_Kite

So I guess we can assume that ravens have crappy taste in cheese?

Last spring I watched a group of crows steal the eggs from a robin’s nest in my neighbor’s pine tree, one by one, and drop them on the side-walk.

Not at all! I should have specified that it was sliced old cheddar not processed cheese. They also have a penchant for dog kibble, rib eye steaks, and I’ve seen them take off with multi grain dinner rolls. Also, stale doughnuts from the local T-Ho dumpster. Very smart, although not the prettiest songbird.

[tbook]

@Baker

Eurasian collared doves. You can tell them from mourning doves because they are slightly larger and have that “ring around the collar” on their necks.

A pair moved into my neighborhood last year. They are beautiful.

Eurasian Collared-Dove Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of...