Forum birdwatching 2009

[bruto]

We've been seeing flocks of Robins, turdus migratorius recently. In case you European folks have forgotten, our robins aren't really robins, but thrushes in dress uniforms. In any case, they seem to have decided, like so many other birds this year, not to be quite as migratorius as their name implies. I don't know what a bug and worm eating bird lives on when there's a foot of hard snow on the ground and it's 10 degrees F outside. Snow fleas?

They say youth is wasted on the young, and I sometimes think wings are wasted on some birds. Turkeys walk everywhere, even though when pressed they can not only fly, but glide as beautifully as a vulture. And if I had a robin's wings, I'd have damn well flown south when I had the chance!

 

[bruto]

Not exactly a bird sighting here, but I thought this was amusing. My wife was out cross country skiing and saw this mark in the snow out in our back field. Light was poor, so shadow detail is not good, but as you can see, something a good bit bigger than a robin found something for lunch.

 

[Kotatsu]

Not exactly a bird sighting here, but I thought this was amusing. My wife was out cross country skiing and saw this mark in the snow out in our back field. Light was poor, so shadow detail is not good, but as you can see, something a good bit bigger than a robin found something for lunch.

It's bigfoot, isn't it?

My brother just sent me this link, which is a lot of pictures of birds fighting in mid-air. Quite nice, some of them.

In other news, I'm in London now, and have had some birds since yesterday. I'm off to the museum in a few minutes, but I'll post a list of my records in the afternoon. Nothing fancy, so far, but I have a Wren with a lovely voice just outside my window!

 

[Kotatsu]

We've been seeing flocks of Robins, turdus migratorius recently. In case you European folks have forgotten, our robins aren't really robins, but thrushes in dress uniforms. In any case, they seem to have decided, like so many other birds this year, not to be quite as migratorius as their name implies. I don't know what a bug and worm eating bird lives on when there's a foot of hard snow on the ground and it's 10 degrees F outside. Snow fleas?

They say youth is wasted on the young, and I sometimes think wings are wasted on some birds. Turkeys walk everywhere, even though when pressed they can not only fly, but glide as beautifully as a vulture. And if I had a robin's wings, I'd have damn well flown south when I had the chance!

At least the European thrushes eat a lot of fruit during the winter, so if you have any old apples or so you could put out, maybe they'd appreciate that. I assume the American Robin would eat the same, being in the same genus as the European thrushes, but I don't know for sure.

 

[bruto]

At least the European thrushes eat a lot of fruit during the winter, so if you have any old apples or so you could put out, maybe they'd appreciate that. I assume the American Robin would eat the same, being in the same genus as the European thrushes, but I don't know for sure.

I do realize that they're eatinig fruit rather than bugs, but find it odd that they'd be so reluctant to fly down south when they have the wings to do it.

It does raise an interesting sort of ecological/social question here in Vermont, because in recent years a large number of apple orchards have gone fallow. Some years ago

<ADD> Hey, goldfinches outside the window! </ADD>

there was the Alar scare that virtually killed the cider industry, and some orchards never recovered, even though most of them had never used Alar in the first place. Add to that labor and other costs, and the result is that there are many large and still very fruitful orchards going entirely unpicked, with fine looking apples hanging on the trees throughout the fall and winter. So of course the next thing to wonder is whether this unusual abundance is inducing the robins, and perhaps other birds, to stick around when they would formerly have left.

Ok, now back to those American Goldfinches, carduelis tristis. The return of their gold is locally considered one of the most reliable indicators of when spring is really arriving. There's not much gold on these poor little things at the moment, as they hang hopefully around the empty bird rat and bear feeder, which has been empty now for the last two winters

 

[bruto]

Looking out the window next to my computer desk, a nice cheery pair of Cardinals, cardinalis cardinalis. Happily a common bird in these parts, pretty to look and and nice to hear in spring too. If I were seriously trying to unconvince an atheist, I think I'd start with cardinals and chickadees.

 

[bruto]

I'm visiting in Connecticut, where there is an actual active feeder up. Despite the nasty snow and sleet storm that has thinned the attendance a bit, I've gotten a couple of additions, including a Tufted Titmouse, parus bicolor, a Pine Grosbeak, pinicola enucleator, a Pine Siskin, carduelis pinus, and I'm still awaiting the return of a small woodpecker to get enough look to see if it's red headed or red bellied.

We're in a very pine-rich area of Connecticut (home of Cathedral Pines), so I guess it's appropriate that two of the birds added are "pine" birds.

edit to add, further sighting confirms that we have a Red Bellied Woodpecker, melanerpes carolinus. Not a familiar critter to me. I don't think they generally get as far north as Vermont, but it's definitely at home here in CT.

 

[sphenisc]

Ah, Pine Grosbeak, one of my bogey birds. Some day I'm going to catch up with one.

Meanwhile - back to reality

House Sparrow Passer domesticus : 21/01/09 Angus, Scotland

I must have seen one before that, but somehow I haven't noted it down.

 

[Kotatsu]

I'm almost finished adding everything (this is taking much longer than last year, as I have much more to do, and thus have been at work much longer... sorry...), and will probably be finished during the weekend.

EHocking has suggested he and I meet up at some point while I am in London, and I just suggested Monday after work. If anyone else reading this is in the area and would be interested, please let me know.

 

[Kotatsu]

For those interested, we'll be meeting at the Brass Monkey on Vauxhall Bridge Road, near Victoria Station on Monday, 6.30 PM. I will be instantly recognisable as the person who looks exactly as in the pictures on my CS page (reachable through my signature).

 

[bruto]

finally a bump and an update. It's been killer wicked ***ing cold here recently, and no new birds have appeared for a while. but today, with a bit of thaw in the air, we went down to the edge of Lake Champlain to see what might be fishing off the edges of the ice, and met some birds, and a bird watcher who knows a bit more about some of them than I do. He was intently watching a flock of gulls, and spotted (and showed us through his nice big scope) a white winged gull, which looks, from my book to be a Glaucous Gull, Larus Hyperboreus, said to be pretty rare in these parts. Big fella, white with some speckles. While we're at it, we can add to the official list, the usual sorts of gulls we see, namely the Herring Gull, Larus Argentatus, and the Ring Billed Gull, Larus Delawarensis.

Nearby, we spotted some ducks, from which I was able to distinguish a couple of Buffleheads, Bucephala Albeola, and a couple of Mallards, Anas Platyrhynchos.

We chatted for a while about migratory birds and such, and in the process I learned a little more about what we had assumed were our summer birds not going south. It seems that the ones we see are usually not our summer birds, but birds from further north. So, for example, while our own robins have flown south, the Canadian robins winter down here. Similarly, it seems, many of our winter blue jays are Canadian.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm pretty sure all my garden birds have already been mentioned by one or more of the other Scottish posters, but here goes.

I checked my list from last year's thread, and here's what I've seen from that this year.

Coal tits, Parus ater (numerous)
Great tits, Parus major (numerous)
Blue tits, Parus caeruleus (numerous)
Chaffinches, Fringilla coelebs (numerous)
Greenfinch, Carduelis chloris (intermittent, sometimes several at once)
Sparrows, Passer domesticus (numerous)
Robin, Erithacus rubecula (one resident)
Magpies, Pica pica (frequent)
Rooks, Corvus frugilegus (occasional)
Crows, Corvus corone (quite frequent)
Woodpigeons, Columba palumbus (frequent)
Collared doves, Streptopelia decaocto (frequent)
Starlings, Sturnus vulgaris (numerous)
Blackbirds, Turdus merula (resident pair)

However, I've seen two new species this year -

Yellowhammers, Emberiza citrinella
Tree creeper, Certhia familiaris

The yellowhammers were in a small flock with chaffinches and sparrows, feeding on the ground below the bird feeder. There were about half a dozen of them. I've not seen them since.

I saw the tree creeper this afternoon, on the peanut feeder. Just the one. I managed to photograph it well enough to identify it from the bird book.

It's been quite snowy here, so the feeder is popular. The bigger birds are quite clever - the starlings can manage the fat ball feeders and the peanut feeder, and I caught a rook sitting on the (frozen) water bowl and reaching over to guzzle the last of the seed from the seed feeder. The crows (I have a hoodie crow hangs around a lot) sit on the top and look frustrated, but they and the blackbirds have a ball when I put household scraps on the table part. There was half a fruit loaf went mouldy, and a tin of stale shortbread, and these went down a storm.

I've tried some ridiculously expesive antifreeze sold as safe for birds, but it doesn't work - the water bowl is always solid. There is a river not far away, so I think they'll be OK, but I don't know how far these species range. Anyone know of any solution to this?

Hey, am I the first tree creeper?

Rolfe.

 

[davefoc]

Hi folks, I'm new to this thread.

I took some pictures of ducks in my local pond and when I tried to identify them with Wikicommons images, the images were so disorganized that I have spent a bit of time updating and editing the duck pages in Wiki Commons.

Anyway, mostly the only kinds of birds I can identify are ducks based solely on my recent efforts and great egrets that I got a nice picture of today catching a fish.

My list of ducks from the Clark Park Pond in Buena Park, CA, USA:
American Wigeon
Mallard
Bufflehead
Ring-necked Duck

The Bufflehead is my favorite by far. There are very few of them. At first I thought the sole male was by himself because from a distance the females look like American coots (of which there are a whole lot pretty much all over Orange County, CA (where there's ponds)). Now I think he may have one or two female companions that I've observed when I've been to the pond over the last few weeks. The problem with that observation is that the female buffleheads that seem to be with this male don't look much like the images of female buffleheads I've seen on Wikimedia or any place else on the web for that matter. But they also don't look like the females for any of the other duck species that I've seen in the pond

The one today spent quite a bit of time foraging with the male bufflehead before she moved off to another section of the pond. She's the same size as the bufflehead male, but she's brown not gray/black like the images of female buffleheads on the web and she doesn't have the little white patch on the side of the head. I wonder if female buffleheads look much different as juveniles than they do as adults.

 

[sphenisc]

...

I've tried some ridiculously expesive antifreeze sold as safe for birds, but it doesn't work - the water bowl is always solid. There is a river not far away, so I think they'll be OK, but I don't know how far these species range. Anyone know of any solution to this?

Hey, am I the first tree creeper?

Rolfe.

This site recommends using a ping-pong ball, though I've found that only works if the water is just freezing, and there's sufficient breeze to make the ball bob and move occasionally. Adding a little water in the bottom of the ball makes it less likely to blow away.

Sightings:
07/02/09 Lothian, Scotland

Rock Pipit Anthus petrosus
Herring Gull Larus argentatus
Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus
Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus
Curlew Numenius arquata
Carrion Crow Corvus corone
Common Gull Larus canus
Red-breasted Merganser Mergus serrator

Teal Anas crecca
Redshank Tringa totanus
Fieldfare Turdus pilaris
Wren Troglodytes troglodytes
Dunlin Caldris alpina
Knot Caldris canutus
Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica
Sanderling Caldris alba - Some showing first signs of summer plumage

08/02/09 Edinburgh, Scotland
Robin Erithacus rubecula
Dunnock Prunella modularis
Blackbird Turdus merula

Perth & Kinross, Scotland
Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos major
Water Rail Rallus aquaticus - Hard weather gave me my best views since my wedding day!
Great Tit Parus major
Goldeneye Bucephala clangula
Goosander Mergus merganser
Mute swan Cygnus olor
Tufted duck Aythya fuligula
Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo

 

[Rolfe]

I'm seeing a lot of what I take to be chaffinches (from their wing markings), but with dull brown breasts instead of pink. Is this a winter plumage?

Rolfe.

 

[mummymonkey]

I'm seeing a lot of what I take to be chaffinches (from their wing markings), but with dull brown breasts instead of pink. Is this a winter plumage?

Rolfe.

Perhaps. If they have white rumps though you might consider brambling?

Almost hit a barn owl in the car yesterday so thats:

Barn owl, Tyto alba - Perthshire, Scotland.

 

[Rolfe]

Mmmm, still think chaffinches in mufti.

One of the yellowhammers came back. It would be nice if they became regulars.

Rolfe.

 

[Kestrel]

The weather and other responsibilities have kept me from doing as much birdwatching as I would like, but I did find one new species here in Colorado, USA.

Trumpeter Swan Cygnus buccinator

There were also some interesting ducks on the other side of the lake, but I couldn't get close enough to ID them.

 

[sphenisc]

I'm seeing a lot of what I take to be chaffinches (from their wing markings), but with dull brown breasts instead of pink. Is this a winter plumage?

Rolfe.

The females look like this all year round.

The males are brighter in summer than in winter but have pretty much the same colours... except the bill is greyish blue in summer, changing to brown in winter.

 

[Rolfe]

Yes, that's pretty much it. If it's the females I'm seeing, I don't know why there should seem to be so many more of them in winter though.

Rolfe.