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I saw a woodpecker today at the bird feeder in my front garden, we had just filled them up and shortly after a large group of tits and wagtails decended on it then got chased away by him. Looking on-line it seems like it was a greater spotted woodpecker, his red spot was obvious.
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Feb 1, 2014 15:53
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I get a GSW visiting my garden too. If it has both a red bum and back of the head, it's a male, but just a red bum and it's a female.
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Feb 1, 2014 18:19
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Got to see Pink-footed Geese today. WOW!! Now there's a rarity! That one isn't even in most of the books here.
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Feb 2, 2014 01:30
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Kawalimus posted:Got to see Pink-footed Geese today. WOW!! Now there's a rarity! That one isn't even in most of the books here. That's pretty cool, I saw a snow goose the other day at some ex gravel pits in Surrey. Not supposed to be there, but there none the less. A local mentioned that a few may have escaped captivity and had been seen around, but refugees are welcome in my books.
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Feb 2, 2014 02:06
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Went birding yesterday because there's nothing else to do. It was cold and windy, but we still managed to get 23 species. Best (Eastern Finland, February) were 2 Fieldfares, 2 Blackbirds, a flock of Bohemian Waxwings, White-Backed Woodpecker, Great Grey Shrike and Goshawk. In the evening I also managed to see an Otter, which was nice. Tomorrow we're aiming for Moose, Red Deer, Three-Toed, Lesser Spotted, Black and Grey-Headed Woodpeckers, Siberian Jay, Dipper and owls.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:40
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I just got a copy of the newly released Rare Birds of North America. Wow! Well worth tracking down if you have even a passing interest in North American rarities. The paintings are perfect. They're the best bird paintings I've ever seen and considering the high standards already set by the Sibley guide and the Collins guide that's saying a lot. The text is also excellent. I usually feel like Steve Howell is a little too verbose and dry with his text (the Peterson Guide to Gulls almost never fails to put me to sleep within two paragraphs), but he's done a really good job with this guide. One of the more interesting things is they examine existing records for rare species and postulate the means by which the birds ended up in North America. I've heard rumors that this team is working on a standard North American field guide which is something I'm really looking forward to if it happens.
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Feb 9, 2014 17:43
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I need some help IDing a duck. It has a black head with a mohawk (black spiky messy) Like a Female common merganser but maybe a little longer. It has a tan breast. The back is black on the top of the back, with a white stripe and is grey near the wings. As I say top to bottom; Imagine it like a duck floating on water. instead of neck to tail. Edit: Duck Duck Guess.jpg  DOUBLE EDIT: Is it a red breasted Merganser? Marshmallow Blue fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Feb 13, 2014 |
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Feb 13, 2014 15:12
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Looks right for a male Red-Breast Merganser to me.
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Feb 13, 2014 16:11
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Crossposting from TFF in a more appropriate thread about my Florida visit: I had a fantastic time and ended up seeing about 130 birds in 5.5 days including 20 life birds. (Actually I just checked and it's like 23 according to this one) Those were Black-bellied Whistling-duck Mottled Duck American Bittern Reddish Egret Roseate Spoonbill Swallow-tailed Kite Short-tailed Hawk Purple Gallinule Limpkin Snowy Plover Wilson's Plover Piping Plover Long-billed Curlew Lesser Black-backed Gull Eurasian Collared Dove Common Ground-Dove Barn Owl Red-cockaded Woodpecker Crested Caracara Nanday Parakeet Monk Parakeet(They are countable after all!!) Loggerhead Shrike Florida Scrub-jay And finally...BACHMAN'S SPARROW!!! Got a great look at this one too!!! And I saw some other cool stuff that I've seen before again like Painted Bunting and what have you. Just had a great time all around when I was birding and when I wasn't from start to finish. My host was awesome and joined me on some of my later in the day birding trips. The one where we saw the Barn Owl was especially magical. Kawalimus fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Feb 27, 2014 |
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Feb 26, 2014 17:11
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Is there a good simple english term for owl listening trips (= drive around desolate landscapes in the middle of the night, it is cold, you may hear something)?
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Feb 27, 2014 11:10
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I've heard 'Owl Prowl' used for that sort of thing, but I don't know how common it is.
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Feb 27, 2014 13:09
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I would just still call it "owling". Anytime owls are the main focus of a bird expedition it's owling. Like howling without the h.
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Feb 27, 2014 14:15
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Kawalimus posted:I would just still call it "owling". Anytime owls are the main focus of a bird expedition it's owling. Like howling without the h. I've only ever heard "owling" Nice Florida list!
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Feb 27, 2014 15:12
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Owl Prowl seems to be the correct term where I am, but I've heard both that and owling. The important thing is seeing owls!
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Feb 27, 2014 21:32
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BetterLekNextTime posted:
Thanks. I'm really pleased with myself. But I did make a few errors. First it took me three times to actually see a Red-cockaded. I heard them all three times but didn't get a visual till the final try and I don't like counting life records for non-nocturnal birds as heard-onlys. The first error was when I went to this Babcock-Webb place I didn't realize the roads would be that bumpy(was driving my friend's older car) so I had to bail kind of early, especially after it got windy and I couldn't hear anything anymore. I also got lost trying to get to the entrance cause Google sent me to some boyscout camp instead of the wildlife area. However this wasn't a total loss because in this nonsense is where I saw the Swallow-tailed Kites, which I didn't expect to see on this trip. So I was thrilled about that. I finally saw the RCW in Withlacoochee state forest after two tries there, I found where to go and got one of the clusters. So that was that. But if I didn't take so many tries here I could have seen even more birds than I did. I would have chased something like Snail Kite, Burrowing Owl, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, or something else. I should have gone to this place called Hains on the day I went to Babcock-Webb since it was a little further south. But they were calling for storms that day and I didn't want to get potentially caught in a thunderstorm that far away from home in a place I didn't know. Another thing is I got so excited the day I was looking for and finding Bachman's Sparrow that I forgot to look for Sedge Wren which I wanted to see down there. Oops! They are seen up here now and then though so I'm not too upset about it. But all in all it was a lot of fun and she and I hope to do something else like this again in the future. It was easily my best trip I've ever taken.
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Feb 27, 2014 22:02
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FWIW, owling is the term used in Washington state as well. Kawalimus, that was an awesome trip. Swallow-Tailed Kites are my favorite bird, but I've only seen them a couple times in Florida and once as a flyover when I was driving down the freeway in Louisiana. My wife and I just booked a trip to Louisiana, but unfortunately its in November so I unless work sends me to the east coast at some point this spring it looks like I still won't get to see any east coast warblers  I'm going to chase Red-Cockaded there though.
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Feb 28, 2014 01:23
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Well I'm starting my field season again in Wyoming- not very birdy now but there have been reports of a Gyrfalcon in the area so that's something...
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Feb 28, 2014 02:34
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BeastOfExmoor posted:FWIW, owling is the term used in Washington state as well. Ok, good. Translating such concepts is difficult, because the jargons seem to be completely autochthonic and many terms don't even seem to exist outside a very specific set of birders. Some terms seem to be very similar between languages, but could have risen independently - the two bird theory is obvious. Owling is horrible, by the way. Completely abysmal. I like it. Nevertheless I managed to hear 4 species and 12 individuals in two evenings (3 Ural, 1 Eagle, 7 Tengmalm's and 1 Pygmy), which bodes well for owl ringers. El Perkele fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Feb 28, 2014 |
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Feb 28, 2014 18:22
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El Perkele posted:Ok, good. Translating such concepts is difficult, because the jargons seem to be completely autochthonic and many terms don't even seem to exist outside a very specific set of birders. Some terms seem to be very similar between languages, but could have risen independently - the two bird theory is obvious. I've actually been planning on starting a bird blog for a while that is aimed towards helping new birders become connected and understanding the birding community. One of the big things I've been working on is a list of birding terms. I've found that there are a lot of terms like this that are used frequently by birders but never given explanation. It took me forever to find an actual definition for the word "pish", for example, although it looks like someone has now made a Wikipedia article for it. El Perkele posted:Owling is horrible, by the way. Completely abysmal. I like it. Nevertheless I managed to hear 4 species and 12 individuals in two evenings (3 Ural, 1 Eagle, 7 Tengmalm's and 1 Pygmy), which bodes well for owl ringers. Someone would have to be kicking me in the balls ever five minutes for this to register as anything less than awesome.
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Feb 28, 2014 19:38
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As we seem to be discussing terminology anyway, I feel a duty to inform that the term "owling" has another, much stupider definition. People who, for reasons ranging from idiocy to a lack of core body strength, have decided they like the idea of planking but don't want to lie flat on top of random objects, have come up with the easier-on-the-back-but-harder-on-the-knees activity they call "owling". This is crouching somewhere and getting your photo taken by your cretinous friends. Hopefully this faddish use of the word will fade.
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Mar 1, 2014 00:27
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BeastOfExmoor posted:Someone would have to be kicking me in the balls ever five minutes for this to register as anything less than awesome. The terror of owling is not the evenings you happen to hear them, but the endless hours where you stand in the dark, listening to distant cars, it's too cold, it's 2am, you hear nothing
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Mar 1, 2014 11:01
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El Perkele posted:The terror of owling is not the evenings you happen to hear them, but the endless hours where you stand in the dark, listening to distant cars, it's too cold, it's 2am, you hear nothing "Is that an Long-Eared Owl, or a dog barking really far away?" Really though, the true terror of owling is when you're out in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere and you run into someone else. I know I'm sane and up to something useful, but WTF are these people out here for? I once pulled into a gravel parking lot and my headlights illuminated a whole group of people standing around in the dark doing who knows what. Needless to say, I did u-turn and headed to the next spot.
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Mar 2, 2014 07:38
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Any chance an ID is possible from this picture? Taken in Jasper, Alberta I suspect Scaup but I don't know if it's possible to tell Lesser from Greater.
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Mar 2, 2014 22:53
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InternetJunky posted:Any chance an ID is possible from this picture? There is a James Bond joke to be made here. The bird is not a Scaup species.
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Mar 2, 2014 23:53
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InternetJunky posted:Any chance an ID is possible from this picture? They are females Common Goldeneye- the brown head with bright yellow eye and white patches on the wings should be diagnostic here- Barrows can be tough to tell apart sometimes but should have broken up white patches along with yellow bill
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Mar 3, 2014 01:04
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Glad I stumbled on this thread. I'm into photography and happened to pass by a National Refuge in Virginia in July and wandered in with my rig and slapped on a 300mm zoom lens to see what I could see (Street Photography is my normal MO). I went back into my memory cards and apparently I took pictures of some Ospreys, a Blue Grosbeak and some other bird I can't identify. I downloaded the iBird app and am pretty sure I identified the first two correctly (I know gently caress-all about birds), but I can't seem to get this last picture of the three birds identified. Any guesses?   e: Okay this is really tough, identifying these birds. I have the iBird Pro app, went through an old picture I found from July '13 in the Pittsburgh area, put in all of the relevant info that I could find (I tried to get specific, and then did less specific searches in case I was getting color wrong, etc.), and for the life of me, I can't figure out what this goddamned thing is. Nothing shows a bird of this color with the orange breast in any of the illustrations that they say are possible matches. Birding seems really interesting,and would be a great by-product or even possible focus (no pun intended) of my photography, but it seems that I can't even get the basics of this. Really frustrating at this point. Here is the bird. I'm curious if anyone knows what it is what the illustration on iBird will look like once I search by name:  Count Freebasie fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Mar 4, 2014 |
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Mar 3, 2014 19:23
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Count Freebasie posted:Glad I stumbled on this thread. I'm into photography and happened to pass by a National Refuge in Virginia in July and wandered in with my rig and slapped on a 300mm zoom lens to see what I could see (Street Photography is my normal MO). I went back into my memory cards and apparently I took pictures of some Ospreys, a Blue Grosbeak and some other bird I can't identify. I downloaded the iBird app and am pretty sure I identified the first two correctly (I know gently caress-all about birds), but I can't seem to get this last picture of the three birds identified. Any guesses? Your Osprey and Blue Grosbeak are definitely correct ID's. The last bird is an American Robin. The third photo though, is interesting. I'm kind of leaning towards juvenile Starlings, although they don't looks quite right.
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Mar 4, 2014 23:30
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What makes that definitely a Blue Grosbeak? I don't see any rufous color on the wings but maybe that's just the image. I thought Indigo when I first saw it. I don't really see much of a mask there either that a BG would show. It's more the small Indigo Bunting kind to me. Mystery pic I'm seeing juvenile Starlings also. Kawalimus fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Mar 5, 2014 |
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Mar 5, 2014 02:06
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Kawalimus posted:What makes that definitely a Blue Grosbeak? I don't see any rufous color on the wings but maybe that's just the image. I thought Indigo when I first saw it. I don't really see much of a mask there either that a BG would show. It's more the small Indigo Bunting kind to me. Coverts are blue-tinged and no black mask so I support Indigo. And support to Starling as well. El Perkele fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Mar 5, 2014 |
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Mar 5, 2014 14:15
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Beak looked too large to me, but upon actual comparison with a field guide I concur on Indigo Bunting. That reminds me that someone posted on my local listserv and linked to their online photo gallery which was chock full of wrongly identified birds. Mostly common birds identified as rarer birds, but they had a Indigo Bunting that they apparently photographed nearby labeled as a Mountain Bluebird. Mountain Bluebirds aren't exactly common in that county, but Indigo Buntings are incredibly rare.
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Mar 6, 2014 04:16
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BeastOfExmoor posted:Beak looked too large to me, but upon actual comparison with a field guide I concur on Indigo Bunting. BetterLekNextTime posted:Well I'm starting my field season again in Wyoming- not very birdy now but there have been reports of a Gyrfalcon in the area so that's something... . But... I start my new full-time job in a month, working with local landowners to preserve habitat for Lesser Prairie-chickens in New Mexico. Anyway, I have not been birding lately, what with buckling down on finishing up my thesis and trying to prepare for this move. But I did sit out on my porch the other day to get some incredibly up-close shots of some of the locals. Harris's Sparrow  American Tree Sparrow  Dark-eyed Junco 
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Mar 8, 2014 04:42
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It's that time of year again... chg-Grouse in Driving Snow on Flickr Sage-grouse have been lekking for 2 weeks now. These crazy fuckers were out in a horizontal driving snow. But here in the land of always winter, we don't have much else right now. I've seen bald and golden eagles, Rough-legged hawk, and heard our first spring migrant (Sage Sparrow).
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Mar 11, 2014 21:47
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On the subject of game birds, long lost footage of the extinct Heath Hen.
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Mar 11, 2014 21:56
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I hadn't seen that before- very cool. Super eerie to see an extinct species like that though. Here's a video of the sage-grouse from this morning. Hopefully it won't end up being one of those artifacts.
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Mar 11, 2014 23:17
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I'm glad I found this thread. I always take my camera with me on business, and since I saw thread I started taking pictures of birds. Since I have no idea what the hell these birds are, I have to photograph them and then use iBird to try and figure out what they were. Was passing by a nature preserve today, had my gear in the back, walked in and waited to see what would pop up. And then I caught this big motherfucker below. I'm positive I got the ID right on this (Great Blue Heron). I don't know how common/unimpressive this bird is to you experienced folks, but I'm pretty stoked to get a picture like this after just starting this little hobby.   Took a bunch more pictures of other birds. Now, it's time to identify them. Got two of what I think is a hawk, so time to hit iBird and figure out what it is. e: What I shot today (with a camera): Boat-tailed Grackle Common Merganser White-throated sparrow Blue-gray gnatcatcher (not 100% on this one) Black-capped chickadee Red-tailed Hawk Anyone know what this is? The closest thing it looks like on iBird is a Blue-gray gnatcatcher. Thought?:  Count Freebasie fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Mar 13, 2014 |
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Mar 13, 2014 01:44
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Great-blue herons are fun! Now work on the birds in the background  quote:Dark-eyed Junco. The coloration is overall kind of similar to the gnatcatcher, but it's shape and behavior are much closer to a sparrow instead of gnatcatcher which is a flitty little thing that waves it's long tail around.
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Mar 13, 2014 04:02
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BetterLekNextTime posted:Great-blue herons are fun! Now work on the birds in the background I was able to get photos of all of the birds I listed in the post above. Since they all seem to be common birds, didn't think they would be anything worth posting.
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Mar 13, 2014 14:15
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Missed the common merg in your list- right you are! Is any one good with falcons? A couple of folks on the crew saw a falcon take a sage-grouse yesterday morning. I'm torn between Prairie and Gyrfalcon (unfortunately the digiscoped images they had weren't the best). I've got a download link to a zip folder with a couple dozen photos (a couple of a rough-legged as well) here Photos may be  for grouse bitsIn favor of Prairie would be the head patterning and the relatively sparse streaking on the breast (I think). In favor of Gyr would be not seeing obvious black armpits, and one side view photo I can kind of imagine the tail is quite long compared to the wings (but posture might be bringing the wingtips forward). Size is tough- it gave the impression of being pretty big and hulking in some of the photos, but in the one picture it appears smaller than the rough-legged (although it is huddled over the grouse). BetterLekNextTime fucked around with this message at 16:16 on Mar 14, 2014 |
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Mar 14, 2014 15:59
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Hybrid! Every spergy bird-watcher's favourite answer! Seriously, though, get in touch with Internet Junky - he posted a few photos of each of those falcon species in the Dorkroom making GBS threads thread recently.
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Mar 14, 2014 18:50
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BetterLekNextTime posted:Missed the common merg in your list- right you are! Head and breast pattern are just fine for adultish Gyr, no black in the underwing either.
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Mar 14, 2014 22:33
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