Rolfe
Adult human female
I don't think so!
RSPB said:
Not prayer, I'd say. Thanks for the ID, by the way.
Rolfe.
-
Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more
Forum birdwatching 2009
- Thread starter Kotatsu
- Start date
-
- Tags
- birds birdwatching
I don't think so!
Not prayer, I'd say. Thanks for the ID, by the way.
Rolfe.
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
Two moderately interesting birds today, not new overall, but I think new for 2009:
One was a Northern Harrier, circus cyaneus, over Glens Falls, NY, flying so high overhead I took it initially for a falcon. But it would have been a super-rare gyrfalcon if so, and its black wing tips and black tail tip would have been out of place. The book says harriers fly high and soar when migrating, harriers are common around here, and the timing is about right, so I'm grudgingly calling it a harrier, despite wishing I could claim a gyrfalcon.
The other, no doubt about it, my wife spotted in a tree on the way home. A Barred Owl, strix varia. Common enough around here, but usually heard rather than seen. This was a full sized, adult one, which took flight after we'd watched it for a while, and when a big owl opens up its 3 and a half feet of wingspan, it's impressive. Stuart Little had better stay home tonight.
One was a Northern Harrier, circus cyaneus, over Glens Falls, NY, flying so high overhead I took it initially for a falcon. But it would have been a super-rare gyrfalcon if so, and its black wing tips and black tail tip would have been out of place. The book says harriers fly high and soar when migrating, harriers are common around here, and the timing is about right, so I'm grudgingly calling it a harrier, despite wishing I could claim a gyrfalcon.
The other, no doubt about it, my wife spotted in a tree on the way home. A Barred Owl, strix varia. Common enough around here, but usually heard rather than seen. This was a full sized, adult one, which took flight after we'd watched it for a while, and when a big owl opens up its 3 and a half feet of wingspan, it's impressive. Stuart Little had better stay home tonight.
Kotatsu
Phthirapterist
Well, the posterior underside is the wrong colour for a short-toed anyway^^.
No worries. The aim is to answer all identification questions to the extent possible. I have books on Europe, the US, Canada, Thailand, Japan, and Australia so far, and access to quite a lot of other areas as well through my supervisor (mainly Asian ones, though), so if there are any questions, please feel free to ask. I may be much slower in replying here this year than last year, but I'll get there eventually...
davefoc
Philosopher
Did you mean ring-necked duck? I can't find anything else to match the description.
...
Ugh, yes I meant ring-necked duck. sorry. And as of a few days ago he was still there with his alien species female buddies.
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
I'm visiting in Connecticut, where my mom and her companions maintain a lavish bear, squirrel, turkey, hawk and even occasionally songbird feeder. The volunteer sunflowers from this collection of apparatus could fill most other people's feeders for a season.
Well, anyway, not too much new activity today, except for squirrels the size of tabby cats, and a flock of a couple dozen turkeys, but I did see some Tufted Titmice, parus bicolor. Very common down here, but we rarely get them in Vermont.
On the way down we also saw another nice big barred owl. I grabbed a poor snapshot out the car window with my measly 1.1 megapixel Kodak, a detail of which I present. I didn't have a long lens for my film camera, so the slides will probably not be much better when they come out. But I figure an owl is an owl and owls are cool, so here's an owl:
Well, anyway, not too much new activity today, except for squirrels the size of tabby cats, and a flock of a couple dozen turkeys, but I did see some Tufted Titmice, parus bicolor. Very common down here, but we rarely get them in Vermont.
On the way down we also saw another nice big barred owl. I grabbed a poor snapshot out the car window with my measly 1.1 megapixel Kodak, a detail of which I present. I didn't have a long lens for my film camera, so the slides will probably not be much better when they come out. But I figure an owl is an owl and owls are cool, so here's an owl:
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
Spring is coming, spring is coming! Everybody get up and do a little spring-is-coming dance. The vultures are heading north, and they never lie (please tell me they never lie!).
They're not in Vermont yet, but we saw some in Sheffield, Mass, where the Housatonic River wanders through a swampy flood plain. We saw four big Turkey Vultures, cathartes aura, cruising over the flats, undeterred by the falling snow. Chased then down a side road to get a better look.
They're not in Vermont yet, but we saw some in Sheffield, Mass, where the Housatonic River wanders through a swampy flood plain. We saw four big Turkey Vultures, cathartes aura, cruising over the flats, undeterred by the falling snow. Chased then down a side road to get a better look.
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
No new birds for a while, but we've been watching the rough-legged hawks, and seeing a lot of pairing up. It's my understanding that they migrate back north before they mate, but they seem to be gathering up their mates, and we've seen several instances of what appears to be a big hawk simply sitting immobile in the middle of a field, with another nearby in the trees. I'm assuming that the large one is the female, squatting on the ground. But it seems peculiar since they aren't supposed to be either nesting or mating here and now. Internet resources on hawk courtship are sparse and usually concentrate on the juicy part about how they lock together and tumble through the air, but tell us little about how they get acquainted, swap phone numbers, etc.
Any raptor experts out there who can shed some light on what we're seeing? Are they just pairing up for the flight home?
Any raptor experts out there who can shed some light on what we're seeing? Are they just pairing up for the flight home?
mummymonkey
Did you spill my pint?
Thing is Soapy there are no magpies here, and no more garden birds. The whole "magpies wipe out garden birds" theory belongs in The Mail, not JREF. Perhaps with Magpies afoot they're a little more wary? I don't know.
mummymonkey
Did you spill my pint?
8th March Perthshire
Stock dove - Columba oenas
Stock dove - Columba oenas
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
Signs of spring today: A flock of snow geese flying over Lake Champlain, and a vulture in Whitehall, NY (just at the bottom end of the lake).
Rolfe
Adult human female
Some early spring flowers out, the first lambs being born soon, and it snowed heavily today.
I'm seeing fewer female chaffinches - have they all gone back to Sweden? Will the local boys have enough girls left to make more little chaffinches?
Rolfe.
I'm seeing fewer female chaffinches - have they all gone back to Sweden? Will the local boys have enough girls left to make more little chaffinches?
Rolfe.
davefoc
Philosopher
Just thought I'd check in with a non-sighting.
My little lone bufflehead has been gone for about two weeks now.
Will he find his mates? Maybe he became hawk food. I'll never know, I suppose, but I look forward to seeing if he comes back next year.
My little lone bufflehead has been gone for about two weeks now.
Will he find his mates? Maybe he became hawk food. I'll never know, I suppose, but I look forward to seeing if he comes back next year.
sphenisc
Philosopher
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2004
- Messages
- 6,253
Somehow "the first vulture of Spring", lacks a certain...poetry.
------
Edited highlights
01/03/09 Lothian, Scotland
Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus
Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa
Velvet Scoter Melanitta fusca
Curlew Numenius arquata
SkylarkAlauda arvensis The first one in full song I've heard this year.
Slavonian GrebePodiceps auritus
Long-tailed Duck Clangula hyemalis
Turnstone Arenaria interpres
Stock Dove Columba oenas
Dipped on some snow buntings and red-necked grebes reported in the area.
I was trying to videotape the birds that hangout on my Kiwi vine all winter.
Well I set up my video camera and made a coffee, but of course, they would not come back and put on the usual display. I let it run for twenty minutes and fetched it back in from the cold. I thought I had captured nothing but blue sky. Well I thought I could at least make a cool time lapse video out of it. Frame by frame I went through this video. One frame had this shot in it, I would have never seen it otherwise. I even tried to pause it during normal speed and nothing but sky and vine. I am glad I didn't toss this video.
These crazy and funny birds dive bomb my vine all day.
To add, I have be able to get a few more good pictures, now they are a little more used to the video camera in their favorite spot.
Well I set up my video camera and made a coffee, but of course, they would not come back and put on the usual display. I let it run for twenty minutes and fetched it back in from the cold. I thought I had captured nothing but blue sky. Well I thought I could at least make a cool time lapse video out of it. Frame by frame I went through this video. One frame had this shot in it, I would have never seen it otherwise. I even tried to pause it during normal speed and nothing but sky and vine. I am glad I didn't toss this video.
These crazy and funny birds dive bomb my vine all day.
To add, I have be able to get a few more good pictures, now they are a little more used to the video camera in their favorite spot.
Last edited:
That makes for a good Mystery Bird Competition! I'll hazard a wild guess at Carolina Chickadee, though I'm not even sure what angle the head is at.
Sometimes a mystery is more fun than the outright blatant.
Though Chickadees and Sparrows frequent this beloved Kiwi.
I've been able to get a few more stills since I posted this picture.
But those moments one wishes they had a camera, are the best kind.
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
Spring springy spring spring spring! 
The Red Winged Blackbirds, agelaius phoeniceus are back.
The Red Winged Blackbirds, agelaius phoeniceus are back.
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
Come on, folks, it's spring. Surely Vermont is not the only place where birds are arriving.
Today, considerable quantities of Common Mergansers, whose irrationally random Latin name is mergus merganser, have been gathering on the lower reaches of Lake Champlain where there is enough river current to produce open water.
Today, considerable quantities of Common Mergansers, whose irrationally random Latin name is mergus merganser, have been gathering on the lower reaches of Lake Champlain where there is enough river current to produce open water.