Forum Birdwatching 2010

[Rolfe]

I do some post mortems on birds brought in as part of the screening programme for bird flu. Most of them are swans, and we always check for rings and notify the appropriate people if necessary. Most of them are local mute swans, but I had a Whooper with a tag from Reykjavik one time.

Rolfe.

 

[Unlike a Bull]

I'm not really a birdwatcher, but I thought I'd share this picture of what I think is a red-tailed hawk (chicken hawk) that caught a squirrel at my school (University of Central Florida. Orlando, Florida). I put it in spoiler tags because the squirrel that's being eaten is kind of gruesome. Click at your own risk. Also, what are the dimension requirements for posting a picture? I kept resizing it until the forum accepted it, but I feel like the resizing lost some of the detail.

 

[Kotatsu]

Hah, I was just on the phone with my mother, and she told me she'd had a Goshawk take a pigeon at the bird feeder this morning.

I also finally have something new to add:
Bohemian Waxwing, Bombycilla garrulus, Gothenburg 6/2.

 

[Floyt]

I also finally have something new to add:
Bohemian Waxwing, Bombycilla garrulus, Gothenburg 6/2.

Nice! Haven't seen one for twenty years. They used to show up around Munich in midwinter, like birds of paradise popping out of a freezer - then winters got less snowy and they stopped coming. I hear there's been a resurgence of late, would love to spot one again (well, wrong side of the world anyway ATM).

 

[Jorghnassen]

A partridge in a pear tree.

Well, technically a ruffed grouse Bonasa umbellus in a pine tree. It's the second time I see one (probably the same) in my backyard. I have a couple of terrible pictures, but I'm too ashamed to post them. The bird stayed for at least an hour and a half in that spot.

 

[Kotatsu]

I went out with the newly formed Young Ornithologists' Group here in Gothenburg yesterday, and my whole body seems to be aching from walking around in the snow from 5am to 4pm... It was a great day, however:

7/2 Gothenburg:

Long-eared owl, Asio otus (1)
Siskin, Carduelis spinus
Song Thrush, Turdus philomelos
Redwing, Turdus iliacus
Collared Dove, Streptopelia decaocto
Jay, Garrulus glandarius
Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes
Eider, Somateria mollissima (2)
Mute Swan, Cygnus olor
White-tailed Sea-eagle, Haliaëtos albicilla (3)
Oystercatcher, Haematopus ostralegus
Purple Sandpiper, Calidris maritima
Shag, Phalacrocorax aristotelis
Velvet Scoter, Melanitta fusca
Common Scoter, Melanitta nigra
Scaup, Aythya marila
Common Guillemot, Uria aalge
Black Guillemot, Cepphus grylle
Great Crested Grebe, Podiceps cristatus
Snow Bunting, Plectrophenax nivalis
Red-breasted Merganser, Mergus serrator
Brambling, Fringilla montifringilla
Kestrel, Falco tinnunculus
Raven, Corvus corax
Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos major
Buzzard, Buteo buteo
Redpoll, Carduelis flammea flammea
Lesser Redpoll, Carduelis flammea cabaret
Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis
Twite, Carduelis flavirostris

---
(1) We found these in a churchyard, and could see and hear some in a tree, but we estimated there were three or maybe four of them. When we left, we met an old birdwatcher who went straight there, and as he stood watching, they all left that tree for another tree, and he counted 12 of them!
(2) There were almost 10.000 eiders within one kilometers from the coast! And further south, just within range of my scope, there were approximately 20.000 more. The air was filled with their various communication sounds. There were some other birdwatchers there as well, including the senior who counted the owls, and they had never seen that many eiders so close to the shore.
(3) Two third-years and one second-year sitting on the same little islet.

 

[bruto]

I've been slow on the 2010 list, but here at least is a start. For some reason we haven't been seeing a great many birds this season, expecially not many songbirds. I suppose since we don't feed them they're all hanging out somewhere else. Besides, we tend to be more on the lookout for raptors.

Anyway, here's the list so far, all from Vermont's Champlain Valley, within about a 50 mile radius of Benson:

Cardinal, cardinalis cardinalis
Blue Jay, cyanocitta cristata
American Robin, turdus migratorius
Eastern Bluebird, sialia sialis
Starling, sturnus vulgaris
Crow, corvus brachyrhynchos
Black-capped Chickadee, parus atricapillus
Common Merganser, mergus merganser

I'm told that the bluebirds are probably just not migrating, but that the robins are not our summer robins, but down from Canada. They tend to have a darker red breast than ours.

Bald Eagle, haliacetus leucocephalus. As yet, as far as I know, these eagles all nest across Lake Champlain in New York state, but do rounds here in winter when the lake is frozen.

We went out touring today, and after something of a lull recently, it seems the raptors are out in force. So today's list adds:

Red Tailed Hawk, buteo jamaicensis (a very common one all year round here).
Rough Legged Hawk, buteo lagopus ( a winter visitor)
Peregrine Falcon, falco peregrinus
Ruffed Grouse, bonasa umbellus
Barred Owl, strix varia (we saw two of these this afternoon)

One of the barred owls sat still long enough for me to snap him through my dirty windshield. I don't think it's going to make the Audubon cover, but it's identifiable at least.....



The snowy owls that have been occasional visitors here have not appeared, but up in Burlington, I did manage to spot an icy one.



(strix gelidus?)

 

[dasmiller]

From Upper Arlington, Ohio (it's a suburb of Columbus), Feb 8-14, 2010,

Photographed:
Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis Cardinalis
American Goldfinch, Carduelis tristis
House Sparrow, Passer Domesticus
Carolina Wren, Thryothorus ludovicianus
House Finch, Carpodacus mexicanus
Dark-eyed junco, Junco Hyemalis
American Robin, Turdus migratorius
Song Sparrow (probably), Melospiza melodia

No Pics:
European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris
Red Bellied Woodpecker, Melanerpes Carolinus (really would like to get a good picture of this one. Ah, well)
American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos
Blue Jay (probably), Cyanocitta cristata

I saw a number of hawks, but wasn't able to identify any of them.

Because I was travelling, I didn't have my "good" camera (Canon 50D), so I had to make do with something more travel-friendly.

The last pic was a different sort of visitor that had taken up residence in a storage bin in my back yard.

 

[Kestrel]

A few more species seen between Jan 19 and Jan 31, 2010 near Denver, Colorado, USA.

Downy Woodpecker, Picoides pubescens
Western Meadowlark, Sturnella neglecta
House Finch, Carpodacus mexicanus

So far I haven't identified any species in February that were not already on my list for January.

 

[bruto]

Add one for today, and one forgotten from last night's list:

Wild Turkey, meleagris gallopavo;

Northern Harrier, circus cyaneus.

 

[davefoc]

[non bird topic]
on Dasmiller's strange bird:

That's probably a brown widow female spider and not a bird (Kotatsu probably noticed that right away). There's something of an interesting story there. They are not native to California or North America but they have become very common over the last several years. In our area I believe there are more of them than black widows. The definitive determination that they are a brown widow and not a black widow is that their egg sac is a spikey ball completely unlike the black widow's cotton ball. Brown widows have quite a color range including a very light brown, purple and very dark brown. And they usually have more distinctive markings than adult female black widows which tend to lose distinctive markings as adults (except for the red hourglass). Some of those markings are just visible in Dasmiller's picture The darker ones can look quite similar to black widows. I am surprised to see that they are living in Ohio now, which makes me wonder if my identification is correct.

Black widows in North America have been divided into three different species but I don't think any of them look quite like the spider in Dasmiller's picture.

As to whether they are more or less venomous than black widows: Find your internet site and take your pick. I tend to believe the sites that suggest they are less dangerous than black widows. For one thing they are somewhat smaller. Perhaps Das could do some experiments on this issue and get back to us.
[/non bird topic]

I've identified quite a few new species (for me) this year and look forward to listing them in a future post but I thought I'd just link to a little video I made of a snowy egret in this post and mention what is the most surprising bird sighting so far for me.

My wife had mentioned several times over the last few weeks that she had seen a strange duck in some of the parks where she and her friend walk. I thought she was probably talking about the mallard/domestic bird crosses that are common in some of the parks around here. But when I saw the bird I recognized it immediately. I spent some time organizing the anseriforme images on Wikimedia and one of the most distinctive birds in that group is the Egyptian goose and what do you know that was what my wife had been seeing. We spotted three in the park that day. We looked it up immediately when we got home and the Wikipedia article doesn't even mention that North America is in their range. I thought we'd really seen something unique, but I poked around a bit more and found out that captive birds have been released (perhaps accidentally) into California and the east coast and they are becoming established. I did read that birder groups don't count them as a sighting yet because the bird is not considered an established wild species, but I hope I can count it on JREF, at least in the amateur division.

snowy egret video (hi def)


snowy egret video (low def)


This was my first crack at video editing and it was very painful figuring out how to edit the particular hi def video that my camera produces. I finally found an editor, corel videoStudio Pro that worked fairly well (except for the occasional crash). (windows moviemaker, spinVideo and the rudimentary editor that came with the camera didn't work) Especially when my young daughter came home from college and helped me figure it out. Amazing, I've been working with computers now for forty years but the younger generation is passing me by. Oh well.

 

[dasmiller]

[non bird topic]
on Dasmiller's strange bird:

That's probably a brown widow female spider and not a bird (Kotatsu probably noticed that right away).
<snip>
I am surprised to see that they are living in Ohio now, which makes me wonder if my identification is correct.

I should have been clear about that - the widow was at my house near Los Angeles, not in Ohio.

 

[sphenisc]

10/02/10 Lanzarote (Spain)

Houbara Bustard, Chlamydotis undulata
Southern Grey Shrike, Lanius meridionalis
Berthelot's Pipit, Anthus berthelotii
Yellow-legged Gull, Larus michahellis atlantis (Subspecies ID by location)

11/02/10
Trumpeter Finch, Rhodopechys githaginea

14/02/10
Barbary Partridge, Alectoris barbara

 

[EHocking]

Thread Statistics

Sorry it's taken so long, but Kotatsu added some 2009 sightings into the middle of the year and I took some time to reconcile his database with my version. I'll also post in the 2009 thread, along with my Ecuador/Galapagos list for those who are interested.

I've also updated for 2010:

2009 Totals |
Total Individual Sightings|2028
Number of Forum Contributors|47
Order Count|27
Family Count|124
Species Count (including subsepcies)|826
Subspecies Count|48

2010 Totals |
Total Individual Sightings|309
Number of Forum Contributors|15
Order Count|17
Family Count|57
Species Count (including subsepcies)|185
Subspecies Count|8

Year Totals to Feb | 2008 | 2009 | 2010
Total Individual Sightings|313|326|309
Number of Forum Contributors|58|47|15
Order Count|17|15|17
Family Count|64|44|57
Species Count (including subsepcies)|233|150|185
Subspecies Count|8|4|8

Now to steal some more of your photos and update the web pages...

 

[GeeMack]

There are few things as wonderful as having a bird in your hand. I cannot recommend enough to try to work with birds in some way. An easy way to do that is to see if your local university has some kind of local research program that would involve capturing birds. Unless the members of the team are strange, they will love nothing more than getting another volunteer to help them with nets and stuff, and above all help them clean out the nets from birds if there's a lot of them.

Another easy way is of course to see if there are some local banders, and see if you can join them. Anyone over the age of 4 could do it, so I encourage everyone to give it a try.

I've been involved in a couple of hummingbird banding projects here in central Illinois, and I've handled a hummingbird who was being rehabbed from an injury. I almost had an opportunity to band owls last year in northern Michigan, but the winds picked up so they couldn't put the nets out the evening I was there.

We have a wild white-breasted nuthatch who comes to our feeders, and when we're outside he happily eats from our hand. He's been coming almost every day for 2-1/2 years. Whenever we have company we try to take them out in the yard so they can enjoy feeding him, too. When he hears us talking he flies over to see if we have some treats for him. Having a wild bird land on your hand is quite an experience, and everyone who does it seems to get a new perspective of our relationship with birds.

Here's a YouTube of our nuthatch...

​

 

[Floyt]

The year's first

Little Blue Penguin Eudyptula minor - Dunedin Harbour, New Zealand - 02/03/10

I saw it from the bus today, paddling duck-like in the Harbour Basin, a meter or so away from the road edge. That's about 15km and round a headland to the next colony I know of, so hopefully he wasn't totally lost.

 

[jasonpatterson]

Just adding new sightings for me this year. The usual suspects all make their appearances daily (cardinals, blue jays, sparrows, chickadees, titmouses (titmice?), nuthatches, gold finches, house finches, mourning doves, crows, pigeons, and ring billed gulls...)

2-15-2010: Macedonia, OH, US
Downy woodpecker - Picoides pubescens
Red bellied woodpecker - Melanerpes carolinus

2-20-2010: Macedonia, OH, US
European starling - Sturnus vulgaris (In retrospect, a contender for my most pleasant birding surprise of the year, it took almost 2 months of 2010 passing before I saw a starling. Of course, it's never just one, and in this case it was more like 40.)

3-2-2010: Macedonia, OH, US
Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus (My first anywhere near home, it was quite the surprise. It flew fairly low overhead while I was at the feed mill buying bird seed, of all things.)
Sharp-shinned hawk - Accipiter striatus

I also saw a very large bird that was bluish-gray under its wings zoom across a field into a forest. It was what spooked the bald eagle, I think. I didn't get a very good look, but it definitely wasn't the eagle I saw shortly thereafter. My first thought was that it was an owl actually, as it was huge and brief impression of its shape was that it was owl-like, but the coloration didn't match anything in the area at that size. The bird was substantially larger than a red tailed hawk, but smaller than the bald eagle. Any thoughts?

 

[GeeMack]

I also saw a very large bird that was bluish-gray under its wings zoom across a field into a forest. It was what spooked the bald eagle, I think. I didn't get a very good look, but it definitely wasn't the eagle I saw shortly thereafter. My first thought was that it was an owl actually, as it was huge and brief impression of its shape was that it was owl-like, but the coloration didn't match anything in the area at that size. The bird was substantially larger than a red tailed hawk, but smaller than the bald eagle. Any thoughts?

Great blue heron? Flying into the forest might not seem right for a heron, but they do perch sometimes. And the great blue herons do stay around in the winter as long as there's any open water for fishing. They'll take a rodent in a field, too, if the get an easy shot at one.

Other than that the only thing I would guess being bigger than a red-tail and small than a bald eagle might be a great horned owl. Catching the light certain ways could make their wings appear bluish.

Not too many choices for birds that size in Ohio at this time of year.

 

[dasmiller]

3-2-2010: Macedonia, OH, US
Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus (My first anywhere near home, it was quite the surprise. It flew fairly low overhead while I was at the feed mill buying bird seed, of all things.)
Sharp-shinned hawk - Accipiter striatus

Oddly, my only bald eagle sighting was also in Ohio, over the Scioto river. I saw it at great distance, and at first I was puzzling over why one of the vultures had a white head. It took a minute for it to sink in, but I just couldn't imagine a bald eagle in Ohio. So when I got to a computer, I did a little research and found that there was a known bald eagle nest on that stretch of the river.

So you never know.

Okay, more accurately, I never know.

 

[sphenisc]

...
I also saw a very large bird that was bluish-gray under its wings zoom across a field into a forest. It was what spooked the bald eagle, I think. I didn't get a very good look, but it definitely wasn't the eagle I saw shortly thereafter. My first thought was that it was an owl actually, as it was huge and brief impression of its shape was that it was owl-like, but the coloration didn't match anything in the area at that size. The bird was substantially larger than a red tailed hawk, but smaller than the bald eagle. Any thoughts?

Northern Goshawk?? Underwing shown here

http://www.desertusa.com/mag06/apr/hawk.html