Forum Birdwatching 2010

[dasmiller]

Ballona Creek (LA Area), California, 2010-05-22

With the exception of the tree swallow, there's nothing new on the list. And the tree swallows have probably been there the whole time, usually showing up as small blurs in my pictures.

Pictures:
Anna's Hummingbird, Calypte anna
Canada Goose, Branta Canadensis
Cinnamon Teal, Anas cyanoptera
Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus
Great-Tailed Grackle, Quiscalus mexicanus
Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor, my first (at least it's the first time I could identify one)
Red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus
Ruddy Duck, Oxyura jamaicensis
Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura
Allen's Hummingbird, Selasphorus sasin (probably)

No Pics:
American Coot, Fulica americana
Black-Necked Stilt, Himantopus mexicanus
Gadwall, Anas strepera
Mallard, Anas Platyrynchos

There were two tree swallows trying to chase off a grackle who was calmly perched in a tree. This didn't make the swallows any slower, but at least they kept flying the same track so I was able to get a picture that was merely blurry.

In other news, after several months of absence, my neighborhood Cooper's Hawk is back. Well, I assume it's the same one.

And I have a pair of Eurasian collared-doves who sometimes stop by my bird feeder.

Links to the bigger versions of those pictures (on Flickr):
Moorhen
Cinnamon Teal
Cooper's Hawk

(trust me, that swallow picture doesn't look any better bigger)

 

[Tricky]

Brazos Bend Texas, May 23 2010

It was a good day in Brazos Bend State Park, South of Houston. Everybody was chowing down and... erm... well let's just say love was in the air. Even the alligators were booming love songs.

The first thing we saw was this male Anhinga which was drying out from a recent dive. I've never seen one so soggy.

But everybody seemed to be hungry too, like this Black-Crowned Night Heron who had selected a crawfish for his entree

Crawfish were also the choice of this Yellow-Crowned Night Heron. (YCHN's were so abundant I stopped photographing them unless they did something special.)

But the Gourmand of the Day award goes to this Green Heron that spent several minutes swallowing a fish that looked far too big for his mouth.

Green Herons were also abundant, and were posing prettily like this one that was wading through the duckweed.

There were songbirds too, like this little Marsh Wren,

and this gorgeous flash of yellow and grey, the Prothonatory Warbler.

But many birds were just interested in doing the dirty, like this pair of Purple Gallinules.

And this Yellow Crowned Night Heron was doing something I'd never seen. It was standing erect, spreading it's wings like a preacher delivering a sermon, and puffing out it's belly feathers. It was also making some very low-volume clucking or grunting. You could barely hear it but his throat sack was wobbling like a bag of hyperactive jello.

There was lots more too. I'm not the kind to keep lists, I just do this for fun. Today was fun.

 

[LibraryLady]

I think the heron in the last photo was looking for love.

 

[Mr Clingford]

Awesome crisp pictures.

 

[Rolfe]

Anybody know why my garden visitors go through far more birdseed in summer than in winter?

Migrants? (but I thought we got winter visitors as well as summer)
Population augmented by fledgelings? (but the scarfing seems to increase before anything is likely to have hatched)
Neighbours who only put food out in winter?

Rolfe.

 

[Alferd_Packer]

A bit late and somewhat indirect, but my son spotted a couple of sand hill cranes back in May nead Woodstock Illinois while on a boy scout campout.

Is it me or are sand hills making a remarkable comeback over the past few years?

 

[Mr Clingford]

Pictures taken with my mobile. Cute babies around today. Saw mute swan cygnet and Canada Goose families (pictured above) and a family of Moor Hens.

 

[Fiona]

Once again thanks to all of you who take the pictures: I never manage to get good ones of the zippy birds and I am well impressed by those who do

Nothing exotic on my list but for what is it worth this is what I definitely saw in Donegal over the last fortnight

kestrel
magpie
jackdaw
rook
crow
chaffinch
swallow
swift
grey heron
grey wagtail
pied wagtail
mallard
house sparrow
robin
great tit
blackbird
songthrush
bullfinch
yellow finch
common tern
herring gull
goldfinch
shelduck
collar dove
cormorant
sandpipers
sparrowhawk
wood pigeon
dunnock
treecreeper
starling
dunlin
oystercatchers
cuckoo (again heard not seen )

And lots of things I could not identify: especially gulls

 

[Tricky]

A bit late and somewhat indirect, but my son spotted a couple of sand hill cranes back in May nead Woodstock Illinois while on a boy scout campout.

Is it me or are sand hills making a remarkable comeback over the past few years?

Were they ever in trouble? I thought Sandhills were the most abundant cranes in the world.

 

[Tricky]

Anybody know why my garden visitors go through far more birdseed in summer than in winter?

Migrants? (but I thought we got winter visitors as well as summer)
Population augmented by fledgelings? (but the scarfing seems to increase before anything is likely to have hatched)
Neighbours who only put food out in winter?

Rolfe.

Migration might have something to do with it, depending on where you live. I suspect, though, that birds are more active in the summer, plus they have to grab a lot of food for their young-uns. Those dang kids will eat you out of house and home.

 

[Tricky]

Saw a Nighthawk hunting over a parking lot last week. Then it landed. First time I've ever gotten a decent picture of one.

 

[dasmiller]

Saw a Nighthawk hunting over a parking lot last week. Then it landed. First time I've ever gotten a decent picture of one.

Neat! I've seen 'em flying overhead, but I've never gotten a good look at one.

 

[Fiona]

Funny looking thing, if you ask me

What? Me? Jealous of Tricky's pictures? Don't be ridiculous

 

[Tricky]

Funny looking thing, if you ask me

What? Me? Jealous of Tricky's pictures? Don't be ridiculous

My pictures are pretty much crap. I don't have great equipment (don't go there) and I don't usually use a tripod. All I have going for me is that Houston is a birding mecca, and you can see a whole lot of great birds up close.

But yeah, they are funny-looking. Tiny bill and squinty eyes. Related to Nightengales though, so they do have some poetic pedigree.

 

[Mr Clingford]

This picture doesn't show how big the male is as it is the biggest mallard I gave ever seen.

ETA: This is a pair, if I hadn't made that clear! The female is some kind of hybrid.

 

[I Ratant]

Nighthawks (Chordeiles minor)make really interesting noises when they're flying in pairs.
And when they land they breathe heavily, which makes them easy to walk up on.
Many times they'll just sit and watch.
Females lack the white chin strap, it's more of a buff color.

 

[sphenisc]

Related to Nightengales though, so they do have some poetic pedigree.

Unless my dull brain perplexes and retards, I don't think they're particularly closely related.

 

[davefoc]

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=348&pictureid=3105
This picture doesn't show how big the male is as it is the biggest mallard I gave ever seen.

ETA: This is a pair, if I hadn't made that clear! The female is some kind of hybrid.

I think the male might be also.

It is surprising how similar, the wild birds are to each other (at least the ones that are around here) when the wild/bird domestic mixes are so variable.

I watched a domestic (all white) duck mating with a domestic (all white) goose the other day. To anthropomorphize for a moment, it was rather touching. They mated and then they circled around the pond together. Sort of in your face, we know our relationship is strange but we love each other.

 

[bruto]

Not such good luck. After watching a pair of wood ducks, with what appeared to be a nest on the other side of our pond, and hoping for some ducklings, they have vanished. I suspect something came and ate them or their eggs or chicks. Similarly, a pair of mallards that had been lingering in the swamp below the pond have vanished. We had a Canada goose family stop by for a swim with some preadolescent goslings, but they only stayed a day. Meanwhile the robins we've been enjoying watching out the window as I sit at the computer have also gone, after it appears a red squirrel ate their brood! The bluejays in the barn and the robins behind may have done better, but they're gone now too. I hope they had time to fledge.

We still have a good supply of wrens, but otherwise it's been a rough year for birds here. I may have to get one of those wildlife cameras to see what sort of monsters are lurking around the pond. I suspect bloodshed. We know what happens to bunnies there:

 

[dasmiller]

The good news is that there were two of the Cooper's Hawks hanging around my neighbor's yard this morning, and they were eating so I had time to get the camera, get the tripod, etc. The pictures came out well despite the fact that it was near-overcast and the sun was behind the birds.

The bad news is that after staring at the pictures, then Sibleys, then the pictures . . . I've concluded that they're not Cooper's Hawks. They're Sharp-shinned Hawks. So if you ever happen to read one of my older posts and see "Cooper's," think "Sharp-shinned."

Interesting behavior note - as the last picture shows, they can disguise themselves as feather dusters. I can only guess that this adaptation enables them to hunt domestic birds. So if you keep a few parakeets, for example, and one goes missing, count your feather dusters. If you have an extra feather duster and it keeps a painful grip on your hand when you use it, it's probably a Cooper's Sharp-shinned hawk.