Ed Forum birdwatching 2008

Random list of birds seen at our bird bath or about the yard over the past week.

Japanese White-Eye (locally known as mejiro) - Zosterops japonicus
Zebra Dove - Geopelia striata
Spotted Dove (locally known as poop generators) - Streptopelia chinensis
Java Rice Finch - Padda oryzivora
Papayabird (some kind of finch) - Cardodacus mexicanus
Grey Francolin (known locally as "shut that [rule 10] bird up!") - Francolinus pondicerianus
Common Mynah - Acridotheres tristis

One bird we saw last weekend while hiking:

Pacific Golden Plover (locally known as kolea) - Pluvialis fulva

Of this list, only the plover is a native species. We may be out in better woods for bird-spotting next weekend, and may be able to add a few exotics to the list. Unfortunately, I am very bad at discerning the different native species as most of them are generally categorized as "small green birds". There are a few I know on sight, and a couple more where I know their calls.
 
Saw a couple of black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) at lunch today...(and now Hokulele knows where I take my lunch break on thursdays :) )
 
Thank you everyone! This is going great. I can actually contribute two species of my own today, as I was actually outdoors when it was still light. We had a Lesser spotted woodpecker Dendrocopus minor on a tree on the way to lunch today, climbing around like a tit. Very nice, I thought. The other one is a Goshawk Accipiter gentilis which flew past my window as I wrote about the woodpecker!

With that, we are now at 119 species from various parts of the US and the UK, Sweden, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand! I am particularly glad that we have contributors from so many different parts of North America, including both the Eats coast, the West coast, the South, the Central parts, Alaska and Hawaii! That's very promising if you all keep keeping your eyes open when spring comes. I'm a bit disappointed, though, that we have so few Europeans, and NO Asians or South Americans contributing. But what can you do, eh?

Also, for those of you who complain about introduced species: how do you think it feels for me not to have seen so common European species as Ravens, yellowhammers, and starlings yet, while these have been reported from all across the world? ^

Notes:
In the absence of specific dates, I will assume that the bird in question was seen the same day as it is reported (I am on Swedish time, as well, which may differ from when your dates are...). A bird reported "during the last week" or similar non-specific date in the past will be assumed to have been seen as close to today as is allowed within the timeframe, unless more information is given. For instance, I have put Hokulele's plover down on last Sunday.

ETA:
This weekend, if I have time, I will sit down and standardise the lists I have according to the checklist I'm using. So far, I've just written down the names that have been reported, and I know that "officially", I have left out quite a few "Common", "Northern" and "European".
 
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Tricky said:
Sheesh! Leave it to silly humans to take something as relaxing and pleasurable as birding and turn it into a competition.
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Don't look at it as a competition! Look at it as a way to get people who otherwise would divide birds into "ducks, gulls, small birds and look-that-damn-dove-is-back-unloading-its-refuse-onto-the-bonnet-of-my-car-that's-it-I'm-getting-my-shotgun".

So far, we haven't had much discussion about birds and birding in the thread, but that could be great additions to it as well, if some one has something to tell. I could perhaps tell you about how I've been at a bird observatory three times last year collecting ectoparasites. It's one of Sweden's --- and Europe's! --- most famous bird observatories, Ottenby, and I had great fun. The greatest part is being about to hold them in your hand, I think. I have about 1800 pictures of me doing exactly that, actually, all the way from the smallest ones (Goldcrests Regulus regulus and Pallas' Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus proregulus) to the really big ones (Mute swan Cygnus olor and Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo). It's great fun, and you elarn so much when you're able to hold two similar looking birds next to each other and compare them.
 
None of your birds sound at all familiar. Hmm . . .

Here are some of my yard mates.

Eastern Rosella Platycercus eximius
Crimson Rosella Platycercus elegans
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Cacatua galerita

Dozens of these spend part of every day of the year at the feeders just outside the back door of the Royal Palace, eating me out of house and home.

Pied Currawong Strepera graculina graculina

We seem to be home base to a large extended family of these. If I haven't remembered to leave some breakfast out for them, they tap on the doors until I get them something. Then they chase my cats away and eat their breakfast as well.

Yellow Wattlebird Anthochaera paradoxa

I've planted lots of native shrubs to attract birds like these, and they visit daily during Summer. Bottle-brushes (Callistimon sp.) are their favourite.

Crested Pigeon Ocyphaps lophotes

Just kinda wandering around, picking up leftovers from the rest of the flock.

Nothing rare, I'm afraid, as all of the above are very common here in central Victoria, Australia, but I hope they make some interesting additions to your list. I'll keep a careful eye out for some of the less common species from now on.

I have/can take heaps of pics if you like, or is that for later on?

Cheers
 
I've been enjoying this thread. I always have an eye out for interesting birds, especially raptors, but hadn't been paying much attention to the ordinary ones. Now that I am, I'm finding it surprisingly hard to spot them. We gave up our birdbear feeder this year, so the usual parade of finches and chickadees and nutchatches and sparrows and cardinals and grosbeaks has gone somewhere else.
 
Akhenaten said:
None of your birds sound at all familiar. Hmm . . .
I have/can take heaps of pics if you like, or is that for later on?

Cheers
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I will add these birds to the list at work on Monday. Thank you!

And please keep your eyes open for common birds as well. All birds are equally welcome!

As to pictures, feel free to post as many as you like. I was actually thinking to get some kind of free picture host page and post some of my pictures of hand-held birds. I especially thought I'd post pictures where comparisons can be made between similar species, so people will be able to learn something from it. Sadly, these pictures are all from Swedish birds, so far (I am going to Japan this year to collect, though, so I will get a lot of pictures from there... and later on, we'll probably do collections in Canada (East and West), Kazhakstan, Israel, Spain, Australia, and some other places... I love being a PhD student!).

Would anyone be interested in such a learn-by-pictures thing? I suppose it could be done on a more fundamental level as well, starting from how to tell different orders of birds apart, and so on, provided I'd get back up from someone who's familiar with non-European birds...
 
bruto said:
I've been enjoying this thread. I always have an eye out for interesting birds, especially raptors, but hadn't been paying much attention to the ordinary ones. Now that I am, I'm finding it surprisingly hard to spot them. We gave up our birdbear feeder this year, so the usual parade of finches and chickadees and nutchatches and sparrows and cardinals and grosbeaks has gone somewhere else.
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Hooray! The thread has helped create a greater interest in at least one person!

I often get told that I must have amazingly good eyesight, or exceptionally good hearing, to be able to tell all kinds of birds apart. And while there certainly are times when I actually believe that (1), it is all just training. I have been a birdwatcher for 16 years only, and I find it exceedingly easy to tell most birds apart, at least to genus level, even if I just see the way it flies, the sounds it makes, or its shape. It's taken a lot of field practise, but I am the kind of birder who really like to stand watching the same bird for an hour (provided it's a pretty bird^^) and study the way it moves, the sounds it makes, and so on. I do enjoy the occasional competition, and I do keep some sort of track of the birds I see, but I only very rarely go out of my way to see rare birds, unless they are really close and I had planned to go birding anyway. So my bird list in total isn't very impressing (about 280 species in Sweden and another 40 or so in the rest of the world, most of which were in China...), but I do believe that I have more fun when I'm out that the people who see it as a competition.

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(1) For instance, we were taking plankton samples on a frozen lake once in the middle of a snow storm. As I was drilling a hole in the ice, I suddenly heard something, and just turned around and screamed across the gale to the other people in my group, "There are two skylarks flying over us!" and within seconds located them, pointed them out to people, estimated where they landed, and had my group sneak up to them and confirm that there were, indeed, three skylarks resting behind a drift of snow. That impressed my whole group^^.
 
Kotatsu said:
<snip>I have been a birdwatcher for 16 years only, and I find it exceedingly easy to tell most birds apart, at least to genus level, even if I just see the way it flies, the sounds it makes, or its shape. <snip>
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You've just described what UK birders call the "jizz" of a bird.

This seems to be extremely humourous to our US birder friends.

(1) For instance, we were taking plankton samples on a frozen lake once in the middle of a snow storm. As I was drilling a hole in the ice, I suddenly heard something, and just turned around and screamed across the gale to the other people in my group, "There are two skylarks flying over us!" and within seconds located them, pointed them out to people, estimated where they landed, and had my group sneak up to them and confirm that there were, indeed, three skylarks resting behind a drift of snow. That impressed my whole group^^.
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Is it time for sad birder stories?

OK

We were in east Africa (Okavango Delta, from memory). While we were watching a group of Red Lechwe (antelope), a troop of baboons rushed in and brought a young one down. It was noisy, nasty, literally nature red in tooth and claw. While our group stood watching the gory proceedings with the fascination of a small boy pulling wings of a fly , I excitedly whispered, "A Water Dikkop!". Which was standing, frozen not 3 feet from the group.

The group to a man (and woman) rolled their eyes at the geek in the party.



ETA: Sorry! I didn't mean to start a photo thread!
 
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Perching in a crabapple tree on Jan 11, 2008 in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.

Turdus migratorius - American Robin
Bombycilla cedrorum - Cedar Waxwing

The Robin may have been mentioned before, but didn't show up on the list you posted.
 
MIA since we abandoned the bird bear feeder this year, I finally saw a black capped chickadee (parus atricapillus) today! About time. They're usually all over the place, and when we did feed them they would come tap on the windows when the feeders were empty.
 
Too bad we didn't do this during the autumn - I saw lots of unusual birds while visiting the observatories at La Palma (in the Canaries). Haven't actually seen much in the way of birds this year, just the usual doves and a few finches. Maybe the cats scare them off.
 
EHocking said:
We were in east Africa (Okavango Delta, from memory). While we were watching a group of Red Lechwe (antelope), a troop of baboons rushed in and brought a young one down. It was noisy, nasty, literally nature red in tooth and claw. While our group stood watching the gory proceedings with the fascination of a small boy pulling wings of a fly , I excitedly whispered, "A Water Dikkop!". Which was standing, frozen not 3 feet from the group.
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Yeah yeah, baboons tearing at flesh, check out my family at Thanksgiving, but there's a fricking Water Dikkop exhibiting behaviour!

The group to a man (and woman) rolled their eyes at the geek in the party.
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Philistines.
 
Since I've joined the thread, I'd better participate in the lists

2008 to date:

Blue Tit Parus caeruleus
Great Tit P. major
Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus
European Robin Erithacus rubecula
European Blackbird Turdus merula
Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs
Greenfinch Carduelis chloris
Green Woodpecker Picus viridis
Eurasian Jay Garrulus glandarius
Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris
Common Magpie Pica pica
Jackdaw Corvus monedula
Carrion Crow C. corone
Canada Goose Branta canadensis
Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus
Herring Gull L. argentatus
Shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis
Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus
Collared Dove Streptiopelia decaocto
Pied Wagtail Motacilla alba
Hedge Accentor Prunell modularis
Wren Troglodytes troglodytes
 
Kotatsu said:
Also, for those of you who complain about introduced species: how do you think it feels for me not to have seen so common European species as Ravens, yellowhammers, and starlings yet, while these have been reported from all across the world? ^
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Speaking for myself, I'd be glad for you to have the opportunity to see all the ones I have here. Just PM me your address and I'll send them to you. :p

Many of them truly are a nuisance and drive out native species. If the Canada geese that were introduced to Europe are anywhere near the same kind of irritant, I also send my sincere apologies.
 
Well, I've been out birdwatching for 15 hours now, with little food and with rain pouring down almost the entire time. I am totally exhausted, because yesterday evening, when I was going to bed to be able to get up at one o'clock, the family that lives above me decided to throw a party, so only about 2 hours sleep before that as well...

I will be able to add about 25 species, though, but as there was so much rain, we didn't see anything special... I'll add this when I've had some sleep...
 
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