Forum Birdwatching 2012

[Kotatsu]

Live???!!!!

"Yes".

 

[jasonpatterson]

This is my first year birding so I'm a total noob. I have a few birds I have yet to identify to add to this list once I figure it out. Maybe I can post them later and get some input. I apologize for the poor formatting. These were all spotted in Oregon, mostly near Portland

It's a lot of fun. I'm terrible at it, honestly. If you have the opportunity, I would strongly suggest that you find a local birding group (the Audubon Society almost surely has a club in Portland) and try a guided walk or other birding event. You'll see lots more birds than you would on your own and will probably be able to learn some good locations for birding nearby.

I went out today and had a pretty disappointing showing for the amount of time I spent. I drove to the other side of Cleveland after an American Bittern (fairly rare for these parts, and this one had been giving people a great show for days) but it had left the night before. I then went on to Headlands Beach State Park, a great lakes sand beach with a small nature preserve attached. Once the migration really gets going, there are often substantial fallouts in the area because of the lake, but nothing much today. Aside from everyday birds, about all I saw were sparrows and gulls, and I stink at identifying either, though I did get to watch a very cute winter wren for some time. I saw a towhee as well, but didn't get a good enough look to figure out which species it was.

Headlands Beach State Park, Mentor, OH 4-7-2012
American crow - Corvus brchyrhynchos
American robin – Turdus migratorius
Brown headed cowbird – Molothrus ater
Brown thrasher - Toxostoma rufum
Canada goose - Branta canadensis
Common tern - Sterna hirundo
Dark-eyed junco – Junco hyemalis
Double-crested cormorant - Phalocrocorax auritus
Downy woodpecker – Picoides pubescens
Eastern phoebe - Sayornis phoebe
Herring gull – Larus argentatus
House sparrow - Passer domesticus
Mallard – Anas platyrhynchos
Mourning dove – Zenaida macroura
Northern cardinal – Cardinalis cardinalis
Northern flicker – Colaptes auratus
Red bellied woodpecker – Melanerpes carolinus
Red tailed hawk - Buteo jamaicensis
Red-winged blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus
Ring billed gull – Larus delawarensis
Ruddy duck - Oxyura jamaicensis
Song sparrow - Melospiza melodia
Turkey vulture - Cathartes aura
White-breasted nuthatch – Sitta carolinensis
Winter wren - Troglodytes hiemalis

Many many unidentified sparrows/finches and gulls/terns. I really hate these groups. Every bird should have a large, clearly visible patch of distinctive coloration. It's just not fair to barely competent birders like me...

 

[jasonpatterson]

Went out again today but conditions were pretty bad for the types of birds present, very windy, too noisy to hear movement, etc. Oh well, I still had a nice walk and got to see the local bald eagle nest, with a parent on the egg(s?) This may be the first time I've gone birding and not seen a single non-native bird.

Brecksville, OH 4-8-2012
American crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos
American robin – Turdus migratorius
Bald eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Black capped chickadee – Poecile atricapilla
Blue jay – Cyanocitta cristata
Brown headed cowbird – Molothrus ater
Canada goose - Branta canadensis
Great blue heron - Ardia herodias
Mallard – Anas platyrhynchos
Northern cardinal – Cardinalis cardinalis
Palm warbler - Dendroica palmarum
Pine warbler - Dendroica pinus
Red bellied woodpecker – Melanerpes carolinus
Red-winged blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus
Ring billed gull – Larus delawarensis
Song sparrow - Melospiza melodia
Tufted titmouse – Baelophus bicolor
Turkey vulture - Cathartes aura
Wood duck - Aix sponsa

 

[dasmiller]

This may be the first time I've gone birding and not seen a single non-native bird.

Since the English sparrows and European starlings are pretty much ubiquitous here (LA), I can't even walk out my front door without seeing a non-native bird. Or stepping on a non-native snail.

<sigh>

ETA: IIRC, the sparrows and starlings are awfully common in Ohio, too. The snails, not so much.

 

[JeanFromBNA]

"Yes".

I thought trilobites were extinct. Do you have a time machine? Can you get a photo of a pteradactyl?

 

[CORed]

A photo from last week. It must be spring, the Cormorant's are back in the Denver area:

[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehosting/218314f7b2fd4e40d6.jpg[/qimg]

Double-crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus

Yes, and the White Pelicans Pelecanus erythrorhynchos should be showing up any day now.

 

[Kotatsu]

I thought trilobites were extinct.

"Yes".

Do you have a time machine?

"Yes".

Can you get a photo of a pteradactyl?

Send me your camera and we'll see.

---

I went birdwatching with my father this weekend, but we didn't get anything special. Lots of lekking places for Black Grouse Tetrao tetrix*, two Hen Harriers Circus cyaneus, Black-throated Diver Gavia arctica, Willow Tit Poecile montana, Black Woodpecker Dryocopos martius, Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria, Great Grey Shrike Lanius excubitor, Crested Tit Lophophanes cristatus, White Wagtail Motacilla alba, Green Sandpiper Tringa ochropus, Dunnock Prunella modularis, and a hybrid Canada Goose x Greylag Goose Branta canadensis x Anser anser.

On the last observation, are these common elsewhere as well? I think I must have seen twenty this year already, and they are getting more and more common. I have no idea if they used to be this common, but these days, they are everywhere in Sweden. There seems to be many more hybrid ducks and geese in general here, and I've seen at least Branta leucopsis x canadensis, Anser anser x indicus, Anas crecca x platyrhynchos and an unidentified Anas hybrid this year, with several others last year. The central report page here has pictures of almost all thinkable combinations of Anas ducks from the last few years. Is this becoming more common, or are they just photographed more often?

* = I may have some pictures of this.

 

[CORed]

Yes, and the White Pelicans Pelecanus erythrorhynchos should be showing up any day now.

I stopped by Sloans Lake (Denver, CO USA) on the way home from work yesterday. I saw pelicans. They're back, though I only saw a few, so I think there will be more showing up in the next few weeks.

 

[Kestrel]

I stopped by Sloans Lake (Denver, CO USA) on the way home from work yesterday. I saw pelicans. They're back, though I only saw a few, so I think there will be more showing up in the next few weeks.

Check out the Black-crowned Night Herons Nycticorax nycticorax nesting on the island in the Denver's City Park Lake.

The island in Duck Lake next to the zoo is mobbed with Double-crested Cormorants Phalacrocorax auritus. An odd sight in the middle of a major city.

 

[I Ratant]

I mentioned this guy last year.. I'd hoped it wasn't a transient..
Apparently it is local.
It flew by this morning...
Either a birth defect or a mutation, up with which it has coped nicely.
I would have expected after 6 months any accidentally removed feathers would have grown back..
Flies with the standard issue ravens..

 

[GeeMack]

I mentioned this guy last year.. I'd hoped it wasn't a transient..
Apparently it is local.
It flew by this morning...
Either a birth defect or a mutation, up with which it has coped nicely.
I would have expected after 6 months any accidentally removed feathers would have grown back..
Flies with the standard issue ravens..

That's pretty cool. Over the past several years we've had a couple of tail-less House Sparrows frequent our feeders. They seem just as agile as any of the others.

 

[CORed]

Check out the Black-crowned Night Herons Nycticorax nycticorax nesting on the island in the Denver's City Park Lake.

The island in Duck Lake next to the zoo is mobbed with Double-crested Cormorants Phalacrocorax auritus. An odd sight in the middle of a major city.

I see Double Crested Cormarants all the time on Rocky Mountain Lake (I-70 and Federal) which is just a few blocks from my home. I often see them flying over my house around sunrise and sunset. I once saw one come up with about a 12 inch trout. Apparently they roost somewhere east of there (along the South Platte, maybe). Also on Rocky Mountain lake I see American Coots, a variety of ducks ( a Wood Duck a few times, but not recently) and the usual billions upon billions (I exaggerate, but only a little) of Canada Geese.

 

[CORed]

I mentioned this guy last year.. I'd hoped it wasn't a transient..
Apparently it is local.
It flew by this morning...
Either a birth defect or a mutation, up with which it has coped nicely.
I would have expected after 6 months any accidentally removed feathers would have grown back..
Flies with the standard issue ravens..

It could also be an injury (a predator bit off enough of the the tail to keep the feathers from regrowing, maybe).

 

[Kotatsu]

So, does anyone speak Italian here, or know someone who speaks Italian and who is also interested, however marginally, in birds?

I ask because I am peer reviewing a paper on pigeon lice, and the authors suggest that "Colombo", which is the type host to one species, is currently the name of a female Rock/Domestic Pigeon Columba livia, whereas the male is called "Colomba". As I speak no Italian, I checked this on Wikipedia, and it has Columba livia as "Piccione selvatico occidentale" (or just "Il Piccione"), and "Colombo" as a general female pigeon or dove.

It is not terribly important, but it would be nice to clear up in case this has taxonomic implications.

 

[Poison Oak]

Fascinating thread and great photos. Thanks for starting it.

We feed the birds year round (SE Ohio). We're in a rural area, and off the top of my head we have the usual .... cardinal, junco, various finches, various native sparrows, chickadee, nuthatch, mourning dove, robin, various hummingbirds, various woodpeckers, blue jay, grackle, starling, red winged blackbird, purple martin, barn swallow, titmouse, bluebird, mockingbird, and a few (very few) english sparrows. We also have the occasional red tailed hawk or owl glide through now and again, and turkey vultures are always within sight.

About a week ago we had two pair of something we'd never seen before, but have since identified as a tree swallow. We don't know what to think if them. They have been flitting around and hanging from the entrance of a blue bird house that's next to a large bush in the corner of the yard. Then they'll fly over to the clothes line and sit on the line or on the clothes line pole, like they're "surveying their kingdom" but keep going back to that one bird house to hang from the entrance.

That particular bird house has been attractive to both pair tree swallows as well as a pair purple martins and two pair of bluebirds, but the bird house is only chest high, and is also about ten feet from an empty purple martin house on a 15' pole. As of this morning nothing has started making a nest in it. It's like they're stilll tring to decide if they really want it or not. The blue birds and martins have explored the martin house, but not very often, and the only thing that tried to start a nest in the martin house was a pair of (now deceased) english sparrows.

Like I said, we've never seen tree swallows before and it's kinda cool. Anyone here have any experience with them? We don't know how long they'll hang around and although we're reading up on them on the 'net, we don't know anything about them.

 

[jasonpatterson]

ETA: IIRC, the sparrows and starlings are awfully common in Ohio, too. The snails, not so much.

Indeed. Checking the feeder outside my kitchen window, I currently have:
12 house sparrows
1 chickadee
1 blue jay

I get excited when I see a chipping sparrow hanging around the feeder, just because it's a native. I haven't had many starlings of late, one or two are hanging about but they've been much less common this past winter than they were previously. When I realized that I hadn't seen any house sparrows or starlings on that walk I was pretty well stunned.

Other than the white stripe near the edge of the wing I'd guess it could have been a couple of female Brown-Headed Cowbirds.

In other news, it turns out you were right GeeMack. One of the birds has continued to lurk about in the yard, and lately she's been sticking with a male. I have yet to get a picture (I have neither the skills nor the equipment to get anything other than a gray blob, unfortunately) but she has very odd, dark coloration for a cowbird.

 

[GeeMack]

I get excited when I see a chipping sparrow hanging around the feeder, just because it's a native. I haven't had many starlings of late, one or two are hanging about but they've been much less common this past winter than they were previously. When I realized that I hadn't seen any house sparrows or starlings on that walk I was pretty well stunned.

We like the Chipping Sparrows, too. When the White Throated Sparrows and American Tree Sparrows head north, and the Chipping Sparrows come back, it's "officially" Spring for us.

In other news, it turns out you were right GeeMack. One of the birds has continued to lurk about in the yard, and lately she's been sticking with a male. I have yet to get a picture (I have neither the skills nor the equipment to get anything other than a gray blob, unfortunately) but she has very odd, dark coloration for a cowbird.

Female Brown Headed Cowbirds are pretty much just gray blobs. My wife says they're the generic yard bird, average size and shape, no particular markings, just a plain old ordinary bird. There does seem to be some variation in their color from a dark charcoal gray to almost silvery. It seems to be as much dependent on the lighting as it variations from one bird to another. In spite of that nondescript-ness, or maybe because of it, they seem to cause more confusion at first glance than most other feeder/yard birds in our neighborhood.

 

[bruto]

Jason, I'm glad you're still getting chipping sparrows. We used to see them by the score, but recently all I seem to get are house sparrows.

 

[Ixion]

Not really a bird-watcher, but spotting wildlife is something I enjoy. This morning I spotted a bird I thought was rather unusual for Southern Arizona. A front blew through, bringing wind and rain and cooler temps for our desert.
As I was returning from an errand this morning, I saw a large bird fly over my car. I am used to spotting crows and hawks and occassionally owls in the desert, but this bird didn't look like one. It reminded me of the wetland birds I saw growing up on the Texas coast. After a second, I realized it was a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). I am not a 100% certain, but it definitely had the size and coloration, and it was a heron. It landed in the parking lot of our apartment complex. I rushed to get the camera and take a picture. Unfortunately, it walked behind a tree as I was snapping the shot, and then a car chased it off. However, I still will present my terrible photo as evidence the heron was here. I never thought herons were present in the Sonoran desert! (click to enlarge)

 

[dasmiller]

After a second, I realized it was a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). I am not a 100% certain, but it definitely had the size and coloration, and it was a heron.

Definitely looks like a heron, but from the posture and color of the legs, I'd suggest that it might also be a Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax.

I never thought herons were present in the Sonoran desert!

I've taken heron pictures in Henderson, NV. Of course, the heron was wading in a pond, but Henderson is definitely desert. I don't know if they simply fly over open desert or try to follow streams and lakes.