Ed Forum birdwatching 2008

[bruto]

Today we went out for a while, mostly to photograph clouds and stuff, and to look for eagles. We did, in fact, spot several bald eagles, which like to fish off the edge of the ice on Lake Champlain. Nothing new there, but I don't think I'll ever stop being a little excited when I see one, having grown up during the years when they were so nearly extinct.

Otherwise, we saw some ducks, which I'm having a hard time identifying, owing to distance, and because they looked terribly like common eider ducks, which is a very unlikely thing to see in winter on Lake Champlain. As a result, I'm assuming my spotting and color identification was not very precise, and that they were common goldeneyes (bucephala clangula), which are somewhat similar at a distance, and more expected. Still, those things looked an awful lot like eider ducks. However, if they were, they were way far from home.

We also saw a flock of starlings, which should not be around here at this time of year, but there they were.

And we also saw some snow geese (chen caerulescens), which really ought to have flown further south by now, but there they were, swimming and flying around the Champlain bridge. Makes one almost start to wonder a little about global warming.....

As usual, a few red tailed hawks, and what was probably an osprey, but a bit far for absolute confirmation. And scads of seagulls, which I am too lazy to try to sort into species and subspecies. Probably herring gulls (larus argentatus), but I'll lump them under larus ubiquitus or perhaps rattus alatus!

 

[mummymonkey]

Pink-footed Goose Anser brachyrhynchus yesterday.

 

[Elizabeth I]

San Antonio, Texas, January 13, 2008:

White-winged dove, Zenaida asiatica

Northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis (this bird has already been reported by someone else - are we going only for number of different kinds of birds or also for different sighting locations?)

Feral pigeon/rock pigeon, Columba livia

Bulverde, Texas, January 13, 2008:

Canyon wren Catherpes mexicanus (I think - but it could be a house wren - it looked more speckled than a house wren but wasn't really in the right place for a canyon wren)

Also, I reported a vulture/buzzard earlier. I just wanted to clarify that it was the turkey vulture/turkey buzzard, Cathartes aura.

 

[Floyt]

Rifleman Acanthisitta chloris - 12.01.08 - Central Otago, New Zealand
These guys really are cute, teeny-tiny wrens with a snub nose.

Typical, I come in to list all the NZ birds which only live here and some Scarfie's been on the lam birdwatching!

I've never put match to couch and get tipsy from half a bottle of beer, so I can't be one

 

[Kotatsu]

Hello, everyone! I have added all the ones reported so far (Thank you everyone!), and I must express my delight that so many people consider this worthwhile! Dare we hope that we'll reach 1000 birds before the end of the year? Maybe even 2000? I dread the coming of the migratory birds, when there'll be heaps of reports of the same birds over and over again, and --- above all --- many more species in many places!

There have actually been a few signs of Spring here in Gothenburg. Or, rather, we have had signs of the winter being uncommonly mild again... Skylarks, lapwings, some small warblers, and so on.

The competition this weekend was fun, but we ended up in last place (as always^^). I guess my team doesn't care enough about winning to put quite as much effort into it as some other teams. However, I was able to add the following species:

Somateria mollissima - Eider
Fulica atra - Coot
Gallinula chloropus - Moorhen
Bucephala clangula - Goldeneye
Tachybabtus ruficollis - Little grebe
Mergus serrator - Red-breasted merganser
Mergellus albellus - Smew
Aythya ferina - Pochard
Aythya fuligula - Tufted duck
Cepphus grylle - Black guillemot
Anthus petrosus - Rock pipit
Haematopus ostralegus - European oystercatcher
Falco tinnunculus - Kestrel
Anas crecca - Teal
Cygnus cygnus - Whooper swan
Anser anser - Grey-lag goose
Gavia stellata - Red-throated diver

The list was cut short due to heavy rain. I also didn't like the competition part, as it meant that when we were at some places, another team saw some birds, but didn't tell us, because they didn't want us to see it. Thus, we missed out on Shag, Common scooter, Velvet scooter, Long-tailed duck, Purple sandpiper, and some others. Ah well, I'll just have to go back there this weekend and find them again, when there's no competition and people will point rare birds out to me^^.

With these reports, we are 1t 152 species!

A note:
I do it this way when I get reports from you: I enter it into one spreadsheet with five columns: Date, Species (Latin), Species (English), Location, Observer. I then cut and paste it to another spreadsheet, where all species are ordered alphabetically, to make it easier --- in the future --- to see if a species has already been reported or not. I then copy it to a third spreadsheet, where they are ordered by order, then alphabetically. When I have time, I will also order these by family.

I plan to use this third sheet to be able to get statistics further on. Which groups have been easiest to spot many species in? Which groups have been harder? I could think of hundreds of good uses for this kind of statistics, and will perhaps post them from time to time. If I could be bothered, it would also have been nice to have a spreadsheet with all birdlists of the participatory countries, so we could see where we have most geographical coverage, but I really don't have time with that.

After two weeks, we have the following, for example:
Anseriformes: 16
Apodiformes: 1
Charadriiformes: 11
Ciconiiformes: 8
Columbiformes: 9
Coraciiformes: 1
Falconiformes: 11
Galliformes: 6
Gaviiformes: 1
Gruiformes: 4
Passeriformes: 65
Pelecaniformes: 5
Piciformes: 5
Podicipediformes: 1
Procellariiformes: 1
Psittaciformes: 2
Strigiformes: 3

Anyway, thank you, and have fun out there!

 

[Kotatsu]

Is it time for sad birder stories?

By all means! Here's another story, which isn't particularly sad, though:

Last autumn, when I was at the Ottenby bird observatory, we decided one night to go out and catch birds with nets in the sea. The wind was almost storm-level intensity, it was raining, and pitch black. Perfect for this kind of thing, in other words. So six of us pull on our waders, take the large car-battery driven flash lights used for this stuff, a few nets, several large sacks and a small boat, and go out.

Now, the area where we were going to catch birds in a sort of very narrow and shallow bay West of the observatory. Apart from the lighthouse, there is virtually no lights visible. After about ten minutes of wading, I realise that one leg of my waders is leaking, so I have water to my knees both inside and outside the waders. A few minutes later, when I had come to terms with this, I notice that the hole on the other leg was just higher up, so now both my feet are filled with water.

We walk around out there for two hours perhaps. As I am not a ringer employed by the observatory, but a guest researcher, I got to tend the boat, which wanted to drift anywhere I didn't want to go. We had caught some brent geese, an eider, a gadwall, some snipes, and some gulls, when I suddenly realise that the two groups of ringers are too far away from each other for me to keep up with either of them. I am virtually alone out there, as I can barely see their flash lights in the rain.

Then, out of the darkness comes a cormorant flying, slowly against the wind. It is less than two metres from me when I spot it, and shine my light on it. It comes closer still, and not until I actually touch it doe sit veer of and disappear in the darkness. That was amazing, I thought. But that was just the start.

I start moving North towards one of the groups of ringers. I can't hear anything over the wind, and I have my lights directed downwards because the bottom is slippery and very uneven. Then I notice something. Coming downwind straight towards me is a flock of brent geese, which haven't seen me. And when I say "straight at me" I mean it. I touched three on their wings, trying to catch them, but failing, before one flies straight into my chest, bleats in fright, and then, while I am struggling to catch it at the same time as I have to hold on to my flash light and the boat, it escapes between my legs, and all that remains is some droppings on my waders and jacket, and a few scratches on my hands.

I am rewarded shortly afterwards when I catch up with the ringers. One of them is carrying seven brent geese, and the other another three. All in all, I think we got fifteen or so that night. And as all the ones I looked at had lice, I was very happy!

But the feeling of being in total darkness and seeing a cormorant or a brent goose flying straight at you just a metre away.... well, it was awesome...

Today's contribution:

Where are you from, Akhenaten?

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.

Oh, I forgot to send you that Vance list! I will do so tonight!

Otherwise, we saw some ducks, which I'm having a hard time identifying, owing to distance, and because they looked terribly like common eider ducks, which is a very unlikely thing to see in winter on Lake Champlain. As a result, I'm assuming my spotting and color identification was not very precise, and that they were common goldeneyes (bucephala clangula), which are somewhat similar at a distance, and more expected. Still, those things looked an awful lot like eider ducks. However, if they were, they were way far from home.

I don't really know what Lake Champlain is like, but Eiders are incredibly rare in inland localities, unless there's been a storm recently, and even then I've only heard about it once or twice. So my guess would be the Goldeneye. It then becomes interesting to know if you have only the Common Goldeneye in Vermont, or if there's any chance you'd get Barrow's Goldeneye. I will check this in a bird book later today.

Pink-footed Goose Anser brachyrhynchus yesterday.

Lucky you! We had one here before Christmas, but it flew away sometime before New Year's, so I didn't get to see it yet this year. I had plans on catching it, but couldn't get any assistant to help me before it was too late...

Northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis (this bird has already been reported by someone else - are we going only for number of different kinds of birds or also for different sighting locations?)

No, just different species. This would be a monumental task otherwise....^^

Also, I reported a vulture/buzzard earlier. I just wanted to clarify that it was the turkey vulture/turkey buzzard, Cathartes aura.

Noted.

Rifleman Acanthisitta chloris - 12.01.08 - Central Otago, New Zealand
These guys really are cute, teeny-tiny wrens with a snub nose.

They really are! Like a strange Goldcrest. At the observatory this autumn, we had a great bird day where we caught over 1800 birds, most of which were either Goldcrests or Robins. They are very good at escaping in the lab and flying away to the library...

 

[Akhenaten]

Hi Kotatsu and thanks for the thread. I'm in Broadford, Victoria, Australia.

37° 12' 24.39" S 145° 3' 21.05" E

The place with the grey roof and lots of trees.

 

[bruto]

I'm visiting my mom in Connecticut, and she has a very active feeder. Even so, I'm surprised by how few birds we're seeing this year. This is usually a place where one can see just about every bird that ever flew in North America.

She does have a huge flock of turkeys, with one group numbering thirty, and others occasionally joining. It's quite a sight.

And crows, lots of crows; chicadees and chipping sparrows, and more big, fat, shiny gray squirrels than you can count.

Otherwise, the following additions to my list:

Blue jays, cyanocitta cristata
American Goldfinch, cardelis tristis
Purple finch, corpadacus purpureus
American cardinals, cardinalis cardinalis

The goldfinches aren't gold this time of year, but they're always around. When they start turning yellow, we count that as a sure sign of spring.

I have heard that the west nile virus is thinning the bird population this winter. I don't know whether that's true, but I'm surprised I haven't seen more of the usual songbirds.

 

[Molinaro]

Rough-legged Hawk Buteo lagopus

Saturday Jan 19th, Toronto


Last month I watched one in a tree in my backyard. It was chasing a little bird (no idea what.. little round brown thing) from one perch in the tree to another. They would be about 2 meters apart sitting on a branch, then the hawk would swoop at it and the little guy would quickly dart to another branch.

This hapened 6 or 7 times and I was curious to note how slow the hawk seemed compared to the small bird in this situation.

It turned out that I think creating that image was the plan! On it's next attempt the hawk moved much faster than on any previous attempt. The little bird instead of jumping to another branch dove down along the trunk of the tree, spiraled behind it, and then swooped along at fence height accross backyards and away.

 

[flume]

Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) 1/19/08 northern NV USA
(in case the other person who emailed you never got back to confirm.)

 

[Jeff Corey]

We just got back from St. Maartens, N.A. Over the last week we spotted brown pelicans, white egrets, various gulls and terns, hummingbirds, finches and others that I photographed and will try to identify later. A local bookstore manager tried to locate a bird book for me but was unable to do so. She said that their bird population was almost totally wiped out by a hurricane in 1995.
A visit to the aviary in St. Maarten's Park yielded many pictures of toucans, parrots, peacocks and so forth, but I'm guessing that doesn't count here. Only birds in the wild, right?

 

[SteveGrenard]

A visit to the aviary in St. Maarten's Park yielded many pictures of toucans, parrots, peacocks and so forth, but I'm guessing that doesn't count here. Only birds in the wild, right?

If pictures count, I saw a show on the History Channel about giant birds and found this old photo online of one with a 27 foot wingspan. The H-channel, of course, ended leaving open the possibility that such birds exist but no one in modern times has seen one, yet. I would hate to be standing underneath when one flies by and let's go.

 

[bruto]

An aviary with pictures of birds and not actual birds? What a gyp. If pictures count, I saw a show on the History Channel about giant birds and found this old photo online of one with a 27 foot wingspan. The H-channel, of course, ended leaving open the possibility that such birds exist but no one in modern times has seen one, yet. I would hate to be standing underneath when one flies by and let's go.

Drifting sideways for a moment into the aviary department, I recommend that any raptor lover who happens to be passing through Vermont pay a visit to the Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) raptor center in Woodstock if you get a chance. They take in injured birds, release those that can survive, and keep the ones that can't, and put on demonstrations with some of them. They have some very impressive birds. It's amazing just how big a vulture is up close.

 

[mummymonkey]

Lapwing - Vanellus vanellus

 

[Kotatsu]

Hello, all! I've had visitors from both Norway and Italy this last week, so I haven't' had time to do any birdwatching --- and there was a storm here this weekend that would have given me a new species of bird if I had just had time to go out into the Northern Archipelago of Gothenburg! Ah well, I'll make up for it next weekend, I guess.

Blue jays, cyanocitta cristata
American Goldfinch, cardelis tristis
Purple finch, corpadacus purpureus
American cardinals, cardinalis cardinalis

Only the Jay was a new one, sadly. But every bird counts!

Rough-legged Hawk Buteo lagopus

Saturday Jan 19th, Toronto

Welcome, Canada! As to your story, I heard something similar with a Common buzzard Buteo buteo here in Gothenburg a few years ago. They are smarter than they seem...

We just got back from St. Maartens, N.A. Over the last week we spotted brown pelicans, white egrets, various gulls and terns, hummingbirds, finches and others that I photographed and will try to identify later. A local bookstore manager tried to locate a bird book for me but was unable to do so. She said that their bird population was almost totally wiped out by a hurricane in 1995.
A visit to the aviary in St. Maarten's Park yielded many pictures of toucans, parrots, peacocks and so forth, but I'm guessing that doesn't count here. Only birds in the wild, right?

Yes^^. If you have problems identifying the birds, send me the pictures and I'll help you. Or post them here. I have quite a lot of literature just a minutes walk from my office in my supervisor's office, so it should be easy.

If pictures count, I saw a show on the History Channel about giant birds and found this old photo online of one with a 27 foot wingspan. The H-channel, of course, ended leaving open the possibility that such birds exist but no one in modern times has seen one, yet. I would hate to be standing underneath when one flies by and let's go.

I believe these birds were used as a reason to start a nuclear war in the excellent SF-book "This is the Way the World Ends".

Lapwing - Vanellus vanellus

Spring in Scotland already? We've got our first pipits here now, and a Buff-browed warbler Phylloscopus humei further south along the coast.

 

[mummymonkey]

Spring in Scotland already? We've got our first pipits here now, and a Buff-browed warbler Phylloscopus humei further south along the coast.

I wish. Large numbers of lapwings winter here, only moving on when the weather is very cold.

 

[sphenisc]

Glenshee, Scotland

Snow buntings Plectrophenax nivalis
Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus
Ravens Corvus corax
Common Buzzard Buteo buteo

Auchmithie, Arbroath, Scotland

Linnet Carduelis cannabina
FulmarFulmarus glacialis
Herring gull Larus argentatus

 

[bruto]

From yesterday, we can add a Common Merganser (mergus merganser). Just the one. No mate in sight.

 

[Kestrel]

Spotted a few minutes ago in my backyard, Jefferson County, Colorado, USA.

Falco sparverius American Kestrel

 

[bruto]

If hearsay is allowed, I'll add that my wife says she saw a flock of robins yesterday. For those outside the U.S. I should point out that our robins are not actually "robins" but a kind of thrush called turdus migratorius, and that name should be a hint why this was worth a double take in Vermont in January.