Ed Forum birdwatching 2008

[Kotatsu]

Eric: The pictures of the Great Blue Heron and the Marsh Warbler don't show.

EDIT: Oh, and I am catching up with the entire US as well! Woohoo!

EDIT2: Hey wait, I didn't consider the fact that Hawai'i and Alaska are split off... blast...

EDIT3: I really think it looks much better now that the total species list is ordered after the scientific names.

 

[President Bush]

Two common birds easily spotted around rice terraces on Bali... notable for their song:

The yellow-vented Bulbul (pycnonotus goiavier) starts at early dawn with a liquid bubbling chatter like a squeaky wheel. Laura and I quite enjoy the sound.

Though the white-breasted waterhen (amaurornis phoenicurus) is cute looking its terrible song like frogs being shot through a firehose into a blocked drain followed by what seems like ten minutes of ru-wak ru-wak ru-wak ru-wak makes me want to hunt down that one outside and strangle it.


google images

 

[Hokulele]

EDIT: Oh, and I am catching up with the entire US as well! Woohoo!

EDIT2: Hey wait, I didn't consider the fact that Hawai'i and Alaska are split off... blast...

It looks like the Hawai'i birds are included on the US general list as well, so you may be closer than you think!

 

[Fiona]

we already have a picture of a heron but I just liked this one so I am sharing

 

[BillyJoe]

After Fiona's beautiful Heron I am a little embarassed to post this one.
However, it is probably a bird no one else here has seen out in the wild.

[Dandenong Ranges, Victoria, Australia; Sunday 15th June 2008]

Am I right?

 

[BillyJoe]

These are probably more familiar:

[Dandenong Ranges, Victoria, Australia; Sunday 15th June 2008]

 

[President Bush]

Kookaburra and a couple dusky lorys I think.

 

[sphenisc]

Laughing Kookaburra and Crimson Rosellas

[and BillyJoe's gull is a Silver Gull.]

 

[Kestrel]

we already have a picture of a heron but I just liked this one so I am sharing

[qimg]http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g291/castlechariot/heronlanding.jpg[/qimg]

That's a wonderful Heron photo. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Kestrel]

Laughing Kookaburra and Crimson Rosellas

[and BillyJoe's gull is a Silver Gull.]

Silver Gull would be a new species for the list, but his photo was from 2007 so it doesn't count.

I rather suspect he can find another one.

 

[Kotatsu]

That's some very nice pictures, especially the heron. Is it really that easy to get close to kookaburras, or were you just lucky?

I can add a European exotic tonight:
Rose Finch Carpodacus roseus

 

[BillyJoe]

Laughing Kookaburra and Crimson Rosellas

[and BillyJoe's gull is a Silver Gull.]

Three out of three.

 

[BillyJoe]

Is it really that easy to get close to kookaburras, or were you just lucky?

The photograph was cropped from a much larger photograph, so it was further away than it looks. It did float down to the grass, perhaps hoping for a scrap of food. I probably got to within 3 metres before it took off again (see below).

This is also cropped from a much larger original...

I think I stopped its forward motion but it was impossible to stop the wing flaps with the limited light available on an overcast Winter's day.

 

[Kotatsu]

That's a great photo for a "Guess which bird"-competition!

I got a new lens today, which I hope will help me get some better pictures of birds not held in my hand...

 

[Kotatsu]

On business on Bali... Ubud and thereabouts. Somebody's gotta do it.

Everyone gets to see beautiful birds except me... ^^

But that will all change in a few months, and then you'll all be sorry.

I have added birds reported by myself, President Bush, BillyJoe, Fiona, and Lilith.

EDIT: Looking at the list, I also found that I had placed some species in the wrong family, and misspelt "Hirundidae" for one Sand Martin.

 

[Kotatsu]

Two new species for the Swedish list tonight, one of which is new to the list as a whole, I believe:

Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus
Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus

The latter is a tricky species here. I see it once or twice every year, but I've never seen it in the same location twice so far. Tonight was also a new location (The Delsjö Area, Gothenburg). I don't know any place where you are more likely to see it than anywhere else in the Gothenburg area, actually. Very common, but tricky.

The former is much easier. I've heard and seen it in that location four years in a row now. If you wait until just around eleven, chances are very great that they will start hunting gnats and stuff on the hill where I stand, and then you'll get to see them swoop past less than ten metres from you. Impressive!

Missed out on Corncrake, though... there's usually two on that hill, but none tonight.

 

[Kestrel]

A few new species spotted today in Colorado, USA:

Ruddy Duck Oxyura jamaicensis
Lark Sparrow Chondestes grammacus
White-faced Ibis Plegadis chihi

Also got some nice photos, such as this Snowy Egret.

 

[Kestrel]

Two more species spotted today in Colorado, USA:

Grey Jay Perisoreus canadensis
Cliff Swallow Petrochelidon pyrrhonota

 

[Kestrel]

Finally got around to checking my list from Saturday, I have two more new species from Colorado, USA:

Sage Thrasher Oreoscoptes montanus
Broad-tailed Hummingbird Selasphorus platycercus

 

[Kotatsu]

I've added these birds. With that, I take my leave for a while, first going North, then South. I will return in three weeks before I go to Germany, hopefully with a bag full of species and photos of beautiful Snowy Owls. Keep reporting though, and, more importantly, keep looking at birds.