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Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

We have been hiking a lot more and recently I started bringing my binoculars - an old pair of 10x50s - but they're too bulky to just wear around my neck and it's a pain in the rear end to keep pulling them out of a backpack. I saw the recommendations on the first page via audobon, they all seem to be for 8x42s, but I think what I'd really like is something I can tuck into a pocket. I know going smaller means sacrificing magnificaiton & light gathering. Any suggestions for something quite small and light, but still of decent quality, around $150 or less?

Also here are some lovely cell phone camera birb pics.



Tentatively IDing as a cooper's hawk. Mt. Wanda, Martinez CA, Feb 3rd.



Gooses. We get shitloads of canada geese around here but these are a different flavor. Newhall Community Park, Concord CA, Jan 31st.


A white water birb of some kind. Newhall Community Park, Concord CA, Jan 31st.


A hawk in my back yard. Red shouldered or red tailed, most likely? Concord CA, Dec 25th 2020.



Hawk, probably red shouldered. Lime Ridge Open Space, Concord CA, Oct. 30 2020.

Later I'll get out my actual good camera photos. I don't have a long telephoto, and I rarely bring the 150-300mm with me, so it's not an ideal setup for birding, but I have a few that are better than lovely cell pics.

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Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

Thanks!

For that first hawk, the color is deceptive: it's backlit somewhat, so the bird's colors aren't coming through, it's just dark. I made the tentative ID based on the fan-shaped tail, and looking at it with my binoculars. But I am not a Birder Person who can identify hakws easily so I'd still defer to your ID!

e. it is much more likely to be a red-tail hawk then a Ferrugineous, given it's hanging around the SF bay area rather than out in the desert, and Mt. Wanda is a known red-tail & red-shoulder hangout.

Here's a couple more pics of it, I just posted the two best ones but any of these might help.


Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Apr 1, 2021

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

Oh you're local, cool! I know a long-time birder, family friend, who does raptors a lot; but she's more of a friend of my parents' and I don't like to bother her too often with "what's this bird" texts lol. She did teach me to identify red-shouldered by their (loud, incessant) calls, though, so I feel pretty confident in identifying them if they vocalize.

We've also been looking at lots of smaller birbs lately but those tend to be near impossible to photograph well with a cell phone. We are pretty sure we have a yellow-rumped warbler ID, we definitely heard a great horned owl around the backside of mt wanda on two different hikes, and we've seen a lot of little finches and stuff. Plus of course the woodpeckers and the jays, crows, mourning doves, and redwinged blackbirds that you find everywhere around here. There's also a pair of kites (or maybe merlins?) up on mt. wanda that we can spot at a long distance, their hovering is awesome.

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

I love owls!
On one of the hikes we do every other week or so, there's a side-trail where we've heard a great horned hooting a couple or three times. Haunting and awesome to be walking very quietly through the trees and suddenly hear it echoing around. We haven't spotted it though. I'd really like to.

BTW thanks for the binocular recommendations, I wound up going with the Nikon Prostaff compact ones. Haven't gotten to go out and use them yet (wife got food poisoning last week, is still recovering).

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

never forget they're dinosaurs
there's a tiny part of that thing's brain that still remembers being a terror of the jungle

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

The National Audobon Society has decided it is high time to address an important question in avian taxonomy:

When Is a Bird a ‘Birb’? An Extremely Important Guide

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

There's also the Audobon app, which is good; and I recently was introduced to the app by Cornell U called "Merlin" by another birder, and it's capable of identifying a bird from its song (you record a bit).

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

Unfortunately the bird tracking apps are a bit balkanized, there's the Audobon app, ebird, Merlin, iNaturalist (which is not just for birds but you can do birds on it), and probably several more. I wonder if there's any research branch that combines the tracking info in all these different apps into one database.

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

What kind of bluebirds, what is your area?

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Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

Psycho Society posted:

eastern bluebirds according to merlin, in the northeast US

according to nestwatch, they dont even stay in the sam nest in the same season lol

quote:

After a successful clutch fledges, the female bluebird will often go off to build a second nest, leaving the male to care for the fledged young.

https://nestwatch.org/learn/focal-species/eastern-bluebird/

Birdfact says

quote:

Do Eastern Bluebirds nest in the same place every year?
It’s pretty common for Eastern bluebirds to reuse a previous nest site, with studies showing between 26 and 44 percent of birds returned to a site they had used before. This is particularly likely when the earlier brood hatched successfully.

To encourage bluebirds to reuse a nest box again, it’s recommended to clear out the contents at the end of the breeding season, so there is enough room for a new nest to be constructed.
https://birdfact.com/articles/eastern-bluebird-nesting

So they might, and you can try, but more likely than not you won't get the same pair, since the male selects the site and then attracts a female.

Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 08:17 on Mar 11, 2023

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