GeeMack
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Forum birdwatching 2009
- Thread starter Kotatsu
- Start date
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- Tags
- birds birdwatching
Tricky
Briefly immortal
mummymonkey
Did you spill my pint?
Gannets fishing offshore yesterday.
Morus bassanus - Tentsmuir, Fife, Scotland.
Morus bassanus - Tentsmuir, Fife, Scotland.
Oh what wonderful pictures you are all getting!! This is a great thread again. I have not the skill for such great pictures and I am not getting out much these days. I was in the park yesterday and I did see a lot already reported. Nuthatch and a wren were the ones I was best pleased with. though my attempt at a picture of either was not a success.
Here is a nice robin though
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3579/3437161021_cc65f7eb2b.jpg?v=0
and a great tit
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3314/3435726614_cd6b36e052.jpg?v=0
Here is a nice robin though
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3579/3437161021_cc65f7eb2b.jpg?v=0
and a great tit
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3314/3435726614_cd6b36e052.jpg?v=0
sphenisc
Philosopher
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2004
- Messages
- 6,253
Oh what wonderful pictures you are all getting!! This is a great thread again. I have not the skill for such great pictures and I am not getting out much these days. I was in the park yesterday and I did see a lot already reported. Nuthatch and a wren were the ones I was best pleased with. though my attempt at a picture of either was not a success.
Here is a nice robin though
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3579/3437161021_cc65f7eb2b.jpg?v=0
and a great tit
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3314/3435726614_cd6b36e052.jpg?v=0
Where are you, Fiona? We won't have fledged great tits here for at least another month!
davefoc
Philosopher
Thanks for the mystery bird Tricky. I liked the puzzle.
It looked familiar enough that I might get it but in the end I had no clue. The only two finches I can sort of recognize are the house finch and the lesser goldfinch. I searched through the goldfinches and nothing seemed quite right. I never considered the possibility that it might be a house finch (house finches being red). After that I was left with the thought of searching through all the finches and possibly not finding it. This was supposed to be tricky, so I thought it might not be a finch at all, so I gave up. Good thing I did, at my birder skill level I was never going to get to yellow variant. There's something like 5200 species of passerines and that seems plenty confusing enough without the added nuance that they can be a completely different color than the standard bird.
It looked familiar enough that I might get it but in the end I had no clue. The only two finches I can sort of recognize are the house finch and the lesser goldfinch. I searched through the goldfinches and nothing seemed quite right. I never considered the possibility that it might be a house finch (house finches being red). After that I was left with the thought of searching through all the finches and possibly not finding it. This was supposed to be tricky, so I thought it might not be a finch at all, so I gave up. Good thing I did, at my birder skill level I was never going to get to yellow variant. There's something like 5200 species of passerines and that seems plenty confusing enough without the added nuance that they can be a completely different color than the standard bird.
EHocking
Penultimate Amazing
I keep meaning to email Kotatsu!
(I haven't even updated the webpages for 2008).
I think I'll have some time over this weekend and I'll add some new (though not terribly exotic) ones of my own for 2009.
Tricky
Briefly immortal
Yah, it was fun for us too. Took us hours to figure it out. Finally we found it in Sibley, kind of as a footnote.
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
Not exactly watching, but hearing, we've been getting a lot of thumping from our local Ruffed Grouse bonasa umbellus contingent. If you're not familiar with this, they beat their wings in a way that is audible for a great distance, starting at a slow pace, then accelerating until it fades to a flutter. The first time I heard it years ago, I thought someone was trying to start one of those old 2 cylinder "Johnnypopper" Deere tractors with a clogged fuel line, and thought "man, that guy never gives up!"
A few more for the list from Colorado.
April 12, 2009
Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura
Cedar Waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum
April 14, 2009
Double-crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus
American White Pelican Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
April 12, 2009
Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura
Cedar Waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum
April 14, 2009
Double-crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus
American White Pelican Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
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davefoc
Philosopher
That is a very nice picture, Kestrel. For a moment I thought it was the same bird as this:
So far I haven't been able to figure out what this is. I saw it at the park today. The same bird was in my backyard and I took a picture of it through the dirty window of my office.
I suspect it is a common bird but that hasn't helped me figure out what it is. I've looked at most of the likely suspects in the list of 130 birds for my local park. Gnatcatchers gave me a glimmer of hope, after that some of the fly catchers looked plausible. Some kind of vireo seemed believable.
The picture doesn't show the beak very well. On the picture I took of the bird at the park the beak seems stout, a little crow like.
ETA:
I might have stumbled on the answer?
Maybe this is more likely?
So far I haven't been able to figure out what this is. I saw it at the park today. The same bird was in my backyard and I took a picture of it through the dirty window of my office.
I suspect it is a common bird but that hasn't helped me figure out what it is. I've looked at most of the likely suspects in the list of 130 birds for my local park. Gnatcatchers gave me a glimmer of hope, after that some of the fly catchers looked plausible. Some kind of vireo seemed believable.
The picture doesn't show the beak very well. On the picture I took of the bird at the park the beak seems stout, a little crow like.
ETA:
I might have stumbled on the answer?
Maybe this is more likely?
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sphenisc
Philosopher
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2004
- Messages
- 6,253
Your picture looks good for Cassin's Kingbird.
Western Kingbird has more white on the head extending onto the throat.
As for the one you saw in the park, I suspect it was Thick-billed Kingbird - though it might be a bit late for them. Can you show us the picture you took? There's a picture link on the second post here
davefoc
Philosopher
Here it is. I think I mislead you a bit with the beak comment. But the beak does look a little crow like to me.
I think this is a cassin's kingbird for the same reason you said the other one was.
As an aside, I suppose this is obvious to everybody, but it is a lot harder taking a picture of small birds. I thought I had a chance with this guy but I seemed to have missed the focus a touch and the light might have been better. I was happy that I got the top of beak. That seems to be missing from a lot of the on-line pictures.
I was looking at cameras that might allow me to take better pictures and it looks like a huge jump in cost from my $250 Canon SX100 and the next step.
In another completely unrelated comment: I was watching a snowy egret feed on fish yesterday. It was amazingly proficient at this. Every four or five minutes it would draw a bead on something in the water, it would snap its neck and drive its mouth into the water. I thought it was mostly missing but I was taking a picture just as it pulled back out of the water. When I looked at the pictures the bird had caught a small fish on every try. This is the same snowy egret that I noticed feeding on worms a week or so ago I suspect. Interesting that an animal would learn to hunt such disparate prey. The great egret has a similar range of prey I notice. I've seen it catching fish and lizards.
ETA: Another completely unrelated aside.
I saw a lone Canadian goose in the pond a few days ago. I was surprised that they would be hanging around this late in the year, but I read that non-migrating populations are becoming established and becoming pests. That probably wasn't the case here, I haven't seen it since. It's surprising the way lone birds get separated from the main flock. It seems like it would be really difficult to find your buddies once contact has been lost. I notice that there's a very similar goose, Branta hutchinsii, but this goose was about twice as long as the mallards so just based on size I'm pretty sure it was a Canadian goose.
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Rolfe
Adult human female
I cycled (then walked when the track got too bad) right through the Cauldstane Slap drove road on Sunday. Saw lots of red grouse, or could some have been black? - the light wasn't good in places. Heard lots of lapwings. Also numerous little things I couldn't identify.
And there are dozens of pied wagtails at work.
A colleague who lives about a quarter of a mile from me across the hill says he sees my woodpecker every day.
Rolfe.
And there are dozens of pied wagtails at work.
A colleague who lives about a quarter of a mile from me across the hill says he sees my woodpecker every day.
Rolfe.
CORed
Penultimate Amazing
The coldest winter I ever spent was a spring in Denver.
This may be a dumb question, and I do not intend to make more work for anyone... the "gallery" on your linked page (which I love)--does that include the pics that have been posted to the thread?
(I'd be happy to help add them, if it A-is possible, and B-is not under any real time constraints.)
EHocking
Penultimate Amazing
I did start pilfering from the threads and invited emails to [email protected] - which I haven't checked for months...(there's an underline b/w the e & the h)
Didn't get around to looking at the web pages on the weekend, on of the things I want to do is change the gallery in order to make navigating to photos easier.