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Forum birdwatching 2009

I heard a hawk strike a flying bird... and there was a cloud of feathers there.
And one day while flying a toy airplane I heard some ravens making a tremendous fuss.. and then they plopped to the ground right near me, locked together.
Another was circling, I presume taping the incident.
They had a cigarette and left.. :)
 
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Kotatsu, the pictures have arrived. Thanks, they're great!

Looking forward to seeing more of your photographs from Japan.
 
macdoc said:
Thought you twitchers might get a kick out this Close Encounter ;)

Tried to post this up in the thread about the previous " where did the birds go " but ehMac is being a total pain.

This guy - red tail...

[qimg]http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m269/macdoc/Picture140-1.jpg[/qimg]

I'm sitting working at my desk with the window open where I take those photos from - there is a double set in the middle of which one opens....

I hear this BANG behind my right shoulder

I swivel my chair and look right into the eyes of a large hawk with a starling dangling from his talons.
Red tails have a wingspan close to 5 feet so with his wings partially flared he filled a good chunk of the window.

...I knew if I moved he leave so I had my serious look - damn he looked big and fierce that close -
I tried to reach behind for my camera but then he thrashed his way out of the cherry tree dinner in claw....

:eek:

THAT was once in a lifetime.....I've seen hawks at my wing tip when sailplaning - maybe 15 ' away but never ever expected to see the end of a strike in a tree from 6' away.......

He was clinging with one claw right where that wilted branch is hanging down - wings partially flared and looking me straight in the eye-

[qimg]http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m269/macdoc/Picture137-1.jpg[/qimg]

What commotion in the tree where there were other starlings feasting on cherries.....

Guess I know why they departed last time.....what a fastastic thing to happen on an otherwise totally dull day....
I'm 4' from the window and the tree branch he was clinging to is 2' from the open part of the window so you can imagine the bang as he crashed into the branches and grabbed the starling......

Red in tooth and claw indeed......up close.....:clap: made my day.....
Close encounter of an unusual kind....

As a twitcher I've seen a few strikes from a distance - usually while driving but nothing like this....
Click to expand...


Ah, yes. I love these scenes. My bird feeders are right outside my window, 8 feet from my usual computer sitting location. I'm in a garden level apartment, sunken about 3 feet below grade, so the level of the ground is at the window sill, about my shoulder level when I'm sitting here. I've had the good fortune to see Cooper's Hawks strike in my yard, scattering the doves and sparrows, often sending one careening into my window with a big thump. The Coop's usually miss, but I've seen a couple good hits in my yard and the parking lot 50 feet beyond.

Several months ago I was standing by that window watching the little birds eat, when an American Kestrel made a hit on a House Sparrow only 10 feet away from my eyes. Left a very cool divot and wing print in the snow. Quite exciting to see close up.

And another day last winter I saw a squirrel acting very nervous and upset on a tree branch across the parking lot. I grabbed the binoculars and walked over to investigate. THere was a Cooper's sitting on a low branch in the brush patch, couple feet off the ground, and munching on his recently caught small bird lunch. He was only 20 feet into the bushes from where I stood, and he went about his business of eating while I stood there watching for at least 20 minutes. :)
 
Cool - nice set up for watching the backyard 3D drama unfold..

I get a couple good thumps a week by stray flyers..

I must admit I was surprised a hawk with a 5' wingspan would barrel into a tree right up against the house.....the starling looked tiny in that big talon set.

Damn he looked big framed in the window....
How big is a Coopers?
 
macdoc said:
Cool - nice set up for watching the backyard 3D drama unfold..

I get a couple good thumps a week by stray flyers..

I must admit I was surprised a hawk with a 5' wingspan would barrel into a tree right up against the house.....the starling looked tiny in that big talon set.

Damn he looked big framed in the window....
How big is a Coopers?
Click to expand...


The Cooper's Hawk is slimmer than the Red Tail, about a pound compared to the Red Tail's 2 to 4 pounds. The Cooper's, with a wingspan of around 32 inches, about 2/3 the width of the Red Tail, is pretty impressive for a backyard bird.

Red Tailed Hawks are extremely common in our area. You can't drive along any highway for more than a few miles before seeing one, or two, or..., sitting on a utility pole or highway sign, or soaring overhead. The Cooper's Hawks, although less often seen, are much more likely to come into neighborhoods to prey on the birds at feeders. I've watched the Red Tails dive onto a target in a field or into the median strip on the highway, but almost always while I'm driving by, so the viewing is limited.

I've seen a Bald Eagle take a fish from the river, and another sitting on a branch only 50 feet away gnawing his catch. I've watched an American Kestrel pick a Garter Snake from the ground and take it up to a phone line where he proceeded to work his way along it like a kid eating a licorice whip. I've seen Kingfishers dive into the water and come out with a small fish, and Herons and Egrets wading and stalking, and snatching what I thought were fish too big to eat. But then they worked those big old fish around head-ways and went about swallowing them whole. I know it's not Lions dragging down Zebras out on the Serengeti, but seeing birds successfully hunting is always a thrill for me.

You were lucky to see that Red Tail/Starling encounter, macdoc. But here's hoping it's not a once in a lifetime experience. Good stuff! :)
 
I've seen lots from a distance....not sure I would want to be much closer...:boggled:

Best previous to this was having a big raptor right on my wingtip in a thermal ad we eyed each other for a few minutes. Just watching his ease of flying was a treat.

The soaring club is on a raptor flyway and a staging are for crossing the Great Lakes - right time of year there are hundreds gathered stack in thermals....
Much fun.....

Perfect cue for finding lift.....seagulls on the other hand...welllllllll not so bright..;)
 
Rolfe said:
Larks. Do they sing on the ground as well as in the air?

I was walking in the Pentlands a week ago, and noted some very charming birdsong apparently coming from the heather - often the side of a hill. I did wonder about larks, but I thought they sang on the wing and I didn't see anything hovering. Then on Sunday evening I joined in a short church hike to an outdoor service commemorating some Covenanting battle or other, and noticed the same thing only more so. I asked one of the others in the group, and was told "larks".

So was she right?

Rolfe.
Click to expand...

??
 
Mmm, moorland songbirds again. That link seemed to suggest that singing on the ground is not usual for larks. So if it wasn't larks I was hearing singing in the heather, what might they have been?

Rolfe.
 
Web Page Updating

While Kotatsu and his mates are gallivanting around souther England, I've been tasked with keeping the list up to date and have just finished it to the end of June.

So.

Front page has been updated to give 2009, 2008 and overall species count.

The species LIST has also been updated.

I'm working tonight on the individual Country lists and then onto loading some of the pictures into the gallery over the weekend.

Nearly back on track and I'll be endeavouring from now on to keep the site up to date on a monthly basis.

PM me on any link problems or missing "ticks".
 
sphenisc said:
End of May, unless June was very quiet. :)
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mumble, mumble (*&"(£*ing XML, pivot tables, pedantic listers....:mad:

Still some work to do obviously!

Total Individual Sightings 1161
Number of Forum Contributors 33
Order Count 22
Family Count 88
Species Count 443
Subspecies Count 12

Yep. Webpage not reflecting status at July.
 
France is not in the list of countries so far as I can see? Am I missing it?
 
Seen on a trek through the Alakai Swamp on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, USA June 27:

ʻElepaio Chasiempis sandwichensis
'Akeke'e Loxops caeruleirostris
'Apapane Himatione sanguinea


Seen while at the Honolulu airport on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, USA June 29:

House Sparrow Passer domesticus
Common Myna Acridotheres tristis
Zebra Dove Zenaida macroura
Rock Dove Columba livia
Spotted Dove Streptopelia chinensis

It's not a great photo, but can anyone identify this small bird from Kauai?
 
Maybe not on topic, but... our albino-looking parakeet Baby Baxter flew out the garage door last week Saturday. We'd just returned from a business trip to Indonesia and were moving into a house we are renting in Colorado.

Guess I was jet-lagged (14 hour time difference) and allowed this to happen. My wife and I watched Baxter as she rested on the upper branches of nearby trees tearing off bark, flying from one tree to another, higher and higher each time until we lost sight of her, and then she was gone.

Reported it to the local Humane Society.

They called us this afternoon to say they'd recovered a parakeet in the downtown area here. The description fit Baxter, we went to their facility, and guess what?

The little bastard had covered a distance of over four miles, exhausting herself at the swankiest hotel in the area. Had she finally fallen to the ground most anywhere else around here I think it would've been curtains.

Amazing.
 
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