Forum Birdwatching 2010

[I Ratant]

I see these Tri-colored Blackbirds (Agelaius tricolor)hanging around with Red-Winged Blackbirds, and Yellow-headed Blackbirds frequently..

 

[Rolfe]

Saw a linnet on my bird feeder today - first one since last summer.

(Also found some tiny avian feet in the cat's food dish. So small it might have been something that fell out of a nest, but bringing it in to eat out of your food bowl - sheesh!)

Rolfe.

 

[davefoc]

We saw what to us was very surprising behavior for mallard ducks at a local pond today.

Apparently mallards can swim substantial distances underwater when they are molting.

We saw several ducks submerge, often after some severe harassment from another duck and stay submerged for on the order of 10 seconds or so and surface more than 15 feet away from where they had submerged.

We only saw one of the baby pied-billed grebes that we took pictures of a few weeks ago. The baby coloring had largely disappeared and we watched it catch a crayfish on its own. Maybe the others had matured fast enough to fly away or maybe it was great circle of life time for them.

We didn't see any of the baby mud hens from a few weeks ago. Where had they gone? Hawk food? Catfish food? It doesn't seem possible that they had matured fast enough to have flown away.

We did see a fresh batch of mallard ducklings. The only female we saw today was with them. I'm not too hopeful about their chances. We also saw a batch of wood ducks dwindle from eight to zero in about a week about a month ago.

 

[Mr Clingford]

I think the male might be also.

It is surprising how similar, the wild birds are to each other (at least the ones that are around here) when the wild/bird domestic mixes are so variable...

You're right, davefoc. I had a close look at the male today and it is a hybrid - its front was pale (still bloody big!).

I haven't observed Mallards diving either.

And, Stand like an Egyptian...

 

[I Ratant]

A couple of female Yellow-Headed Blackbirds... )Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) yesterday evening at the common gathering place for several different species of Blackbirds in Palmdale, CA.

 

[mummymonkey]

The female osprey at Loch of The Lowes is ill and is lying flat in the nest. Her two chicks are about a week from fledging. She has been returning to this nest for 17 years.

http://www.thewebbroadcastingcorporation.com/swt/swt.php

In this picture the male can be seen feeding the two large chicks whilst the female lies with her wings outstretched towards the front of the nest.

 

[mummymonkey]

Made the BBC news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/10363910.stm

 

[Rolfe]

What an age, though - and reproducing to the last! I wonder where they'll send her for post mortem? A marine mammal expert came here and did a young dolphin today - absolutely fascinating.

Rolfe.

 

[davefoc]

...

And, Stand like an Egyptian...
http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=348&pictureid=3145

And walk like an Egyptian

 

[dasmiller]

And walk like an Egyptian
[qimg]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/AlopochenAegyptiacus_5028.JPG/120px-AlopochenAegyptiacus_5028.JPG[/qimg]

Interestingly, I saw my first Egyptian Goose yesterday. Had no idea what it was until I got home, opened up the pictures, and started flipping through Sibley's.

I was up at Balboa Lake, in the Sepulveda Dam area.

 

[mummymonkey]

What an age, though - and reproducing to the last! I wonder where they'll send her for post mortem? A marine mammal expert came here and did a young dolphin today - absolutely fascinating.

Rolfe.

Well she's up and about now! The expert wrote in the blog she would be dehydrated and that ospreys got all their fluid from their food. Minutes later she flew down to the loch and drank from it.

She's now back on the nest and looking quite perky. Even feeding the chicks with pieces of the fish that the male has caught.

 

[Rolfe]

Oh, great! Fantastic news! (Just the sort of thing that happens after someone has given homoeopathy or something, that "proves" it works.)

I can't see the webcam because it keeps telling me I don't have the right plugin for Forefox, unfortunately.

Rolfe.

 

[I Ratant]

Cute video....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7xBLvMIBZU

 

[Mr Clingford]

And walk like an Egyptian
[qimg]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/AlopochenAegyptiacus_5028.JPG/120px-AlopochenAegyptiacus_5028.JPG[/qimg]

Cool!

At my local watering hole I saw 7 Egyptian Geese, the most I have seen. They were near some Canada Geese and some Greylag Geese; the Canadas have dark legs, the Greylags pink and the Egyptians pinker still. I wonder what causes such differences in the colours?

 

[davefoc]

Interestingly, I saw my first Egyptian Goose yesterday. Had no idea what it was until I got home, opened up the pictures, and started flipping through Sibley's.

I was up at Balboa Lake, in the Sepulveda Dam area.

They seem to be establishing themselves very quickly in the Southern California area. I have seen them in Fullerton (where walk like an Egyptian was taken) and in Costa Mesa at Mile Square Park.

Since I've become a little more interested in the natural world over the last couple of years I've noticed several species that are fairly recent additions (with the last five years or so) to the Southern California landscape, including fox squirrels and brown widow spiders.

 

[I Ratant]

ISS near miss with the Moon!

Not exactly birds, but it is flying..
Got this last night as the International Space Station passed just below the Moon south of Palmdale.
Vivitar T-mount 400/f5.6 lens at 1/800th, f11, ISO 400
5 composited images..
Had I been a hundred miles south or so.. a passage across the Moon?
Drat!

 

[Alferd_Packer]

My son and I saw a turkey hen and her brood setting up a roost last weekend. It was late afternoon and we surprised them on a trail through the woods.

 

[dasmiller]

Not exactly birds, but it is flying..
Got this last night as the International Space Station passed just below the Moon south of Palmdale.

Neat!

 

[I Ratant]

Saw this little guy on the bikepath yesterday evening.
Yesterday was the hottest day so far.
I wonder if heat exhaustion/starvation may have done it in.
Possibly a juvenile Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)

 

[Camillus]

Identification

On another forum someone is looking for help identifying a bird that they saw in Southern Finland. They posted some pictures of it in flight.

I can't help them out but I wondered if anyone here recognised it.