Forum birdwatching 2009

[I Ratant]

The local ravens were making some noise.
Then I saw what had attracted their attention.
This guy has moved into the neighborhood.

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A follow-up to the local Bobcat..
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http://www.avpress.com/n/28/

 

[Floyt]

29/07/2009, Taiaroa Head, Dunedin, New Zealand:

Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi

Coasting through a flock of gulls, this guy looked like a dinosaur among the lizards...
They are busy rearing their chook-sized hatchlings on the other side of the Head, but I'm too cheap to pay and go have a look.

 

[Kotatsu]

For some reason, the wireless connection that has hitherto been reliable for only a few minutes, them dropped away entirely only to re-emerge ten minutes later to do the same thing changed entirely yesterday, and now it seems I have constant full speed connection. It's almost as if someone else in the house was downloading something large, and it finished yesterday... Hopefully it will work for the remainder of my stay!

I stepped onto a yellowjacket (aggressive, carnivorous wasp, Vespula maculifrons) nest and got stung a dozen times before I could run away. Of course it was a mile walk to finish checking on the cache and get back to my car, and all of the stings were in my legs...

Oh my! I've managed to avoid getting stung even once so far, which means that I retain the fear of being stung of my childhood. I also seem to be repulsive to ticks, and the only two I have ever had I found on my stomach a day after we had caught enormous quantities of Robins, notorious for having lots of ticks. They had both settled, but they never begun sucking blood, and fell off after a while.

Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi

I am quite jealous.

New additions to the Canada list:
25/7 Tsawwassen
Bewick's Wren Thryomanes bewickii

26/7 Boundary Bay:
Surf Scoter Melanitta perspicillata
Sanderling Calidris alba

27/7 Boundary Bay:
Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus

27/7 Tsawwassen:
Black-crowned Night-heron Nycticorax nycticorax

28/7 Tsawwassen:
Red-breasted Nuthatch Sitta canadensis

29/7 Boundary Bay:
Lesser Yellowlegs Tringa flavipes
Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus

30/7 Boundary Bay:
Baird's Sandpiper Calidris bairdii

 

[Kestrel]

Seen today near Loveland Pass, Colorado, USA:

Pine Grosbeak Pinicola enucleator

 

[EHocking]

I haven't caught up with this week's sightings, but will work on updating to July this weekend.

In the meantime, I've uploaded over 40 photos from this thread to the web site.
I've had a little difficulty with maxing out the site, so still need one more stab at the gallery page tomorrow. Certainly by Monday, all will be up to date!

 

[EHocking]

I haven't caught up with this week's sightings, but will work on updating to July this weekend.

In the meantime, I've uploaded over 40 photos from this thread to the web site.
I've had a little difficulty with maxing out the site, so still need one more stab at the gallery page tomorrow. Certainly by Monday, all will be up to date!

48 new photo pages added.

Contact me if there are missing links or you want to add/delete your photos. There are bound to be a couple of mistakes, but I have a high degree of confidence that most of pages will work.

If you want to email photos, [email protected] is the address to use. You may want to PM me, as I don't check it very often. Otherwise I'll just continue stealing them from the thread!

 

[Kotatsu]

Today, at Robert's Bank outside Vancouver, I had my first Blue-winged Teals Anas discors; tomorrow will likely be the last day we go catching shorebirds here, though I'll remain in the area for another week. I've almost run out of ethyl acetate for louse collection, and while I have more at the SFU, it takes a while to go and get it there, and it doesn't seem worth while. I'll be doing a trip to Seattle next week (staying at Miss_Kitt's place!), and will probably have time to go scoter catching again on Tuesday. Other than that, it seems this trip is almost over, and I'll have to go back to the University of Crapenburg again...

 

[I Ratant]

I recognize the style of the presentation, but haven't seen this one described.

 

[Kotatsu]

I recognize the style of the presentation, but haven't seen this one described.

I'm guessing an aberrant Phylloscopus.

 

[EHocking]

Canus irregulus? or Golden-retrieverCrest?

ETA: Some sort of bird-dog, anyway.

 

[Fiona]

Did you make that picture. I Ratant? tis very clever indeed

 

[I Ratant]

Did you make that picture. I Ratant? tis very clever indeed

.
That's way beyond my capabilities.. comes from here..
http://www.worth1000.com/cache/gallery/contestcache.asp?contest_id=3695&display=photoshop

 

[Fiona]

Nice find

 

[Kotatsu]

Three new today:
Stanley Park, Vancouver:
Chestnut-backed Chickadee Poecile rufescens
Double-crested cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus
Red-breasted Merganser Mergus serrator

Hopefully I also have a whole range of new photos, including these three species, but my memory card gave me an error message when I was photographing a Brow Creeper, so I don't know if everything on it was erased or what happened... if it is, that's more or less all photos I've taken while in Canada...

 

[EHocking]

...Hopefully I also have a whole range of new photos, including these three species, but my memory card gave me an error message when I was photographing a Brow Creeper, so I don't know if everything on it was erased or what happened... if it is, that's more or less all photos I've taken while in Canada...

Don't do anything to it!

There is software that can repair and recall erased cards.
I suggest you use a different card in the meantime and when you get back to "civilisation" drop me a line and I'll try to find the software that I have used successfully in the past (unless you've got your laptop with you, then you may be able to do it travelling). Oh, backing up to CD while travelling is a good option and most photo shops offer the service these days.

 

[Kotatsu]

Uah! Well, I won't and can't, as I have my transfer cable back home... But I'll send you a mail when I come back...

I'm dead tired after having spent the day at sea. We finally caught some ducks: 97 in all, roughly equally divided between White-winged Scoter and Surf Scoter (great pictures of the latter). As these were caught in Canada, this means that White-winged can be added to the Canadian list. Also new for the Canadian list are:

American Black Oystercatcher Haematopus bachmanni
Common Tern Sterna hirundo

Now I need some sleep...

 

[davefoc]

Could somebody identify this bird?

I took the picture at the San Diego Wild Animal Park but the bird seemed to be wild. It wasn't in a cage.

I thought it might be a Brewer's black bird, perhaps a female or a male in eclipse plumage? It didn't seem to quite fit any images that I looked at for possible birds in the Southern California area.



ETA: On a different subject: There's been a California Towhee visiting our backyard for the last few weeks. It likes to perch in a high spot where it repeatedly emits a short metallic sounding chirp very similar to the one emitted by ground squirrels here during some parts of the year. What's the purpose of this behavior? Is it a male calling for a mate? Would it be building a nest at this time of the year?

 

[EHocking]

Could somebody identify this bird?

I took the picture at the San Diego Wild Animal Park but the bird seemed to be wild. It wasn't in a cage.

I thought it might be a Brewer's black bird, perhaps a female or a male in eclipse plumage? It didn't seem to quite fit any images that I looked at for possible birds in the Southern California area.

[URL]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehosting/thum_5664a7932ece6e72.jpg[/URL]

Perhaps an immature/moulting Steller's Jay? Does the female lack blue plumage?

Here's a photo from our very own thread Gallery.
The wing pattern, legs and bill shape are a pretty good match.

 

[Kestrel]

Perhaps an immature/moulting Steller's Jay? Does the female lack blue plumage?

Here's a photo from our very own thread Gallery.
The wing pattern, legs and bill shape are a pretty good match.

San Diego Wild Animal park is the wrong habitat for Steller's Jay.

An immature Western Scrub-Jay perhaps?

 

[EHocking]

San Diego Wild Animal park is the wrong habitat for Steller's Jay.

An immature Western Scrub-Jay perhaps?

Ah. Had no books at hand and still had the gallery photos in my head from the weekend.