BS: Backyard Bird List 2017

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Janie
Date: 01 Jan 18 - 11:38 AM

Here is my 2017 Backyard Birdlist

American Crow
American Goldfinch
American Robin
Barred Owl
Bluejay
Brown Thrasher
Canada goose
Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Chipping Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Bluebird
European Starling
Fox Sparrow
Gray Catbird
Great Blue Heron
House Finch
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Northern Mockingbird
Pine Siskin
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Red-tailed Hawk
Ruby-Throated hummmingbird
Rufus Sided Tohee
Screech Owl
Sharp-Shinned Hawk
Song Sparrow
Tufted Titmouse
Turkey Vulture
White Breasted Nuthatch
White Throated Sparrow
Yellow-rumped Warbler

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Janie
Date: 02 Dec 17 - 08:31 AM

The Dark-eyed Juncos appear to have arrived sometime in the night. 12/1 or 12/2. Pretty much on schedule. I start looking for them around Thanksgiving each year.

I wonder where they spent the summer.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 26 Sep 17 - 08:39 PM

Sparrowhawk spotted at bird tables by visitor on Sat 23 Sept. Not sure that is why its been so quiet the last few days or whether it is still around.

Have had a friendly robin with me on my little bits of occasional clearance round the back, I guess for example cutting some ivy back from a shed has exposed some things of interest...

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: gillymor
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 07:10 PM

Funny, vultures closeup on a blustery day with wind-ruffled feathers do appear to have gills. I'm not sure if it's something they do voluntarily.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 06:13 PM

That's revealing. Anyone know of these birds with neck gill like feathers?

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 09:59 PM

Interesting, they turned the old homestead into a halfway house for public exhibitionists long ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 08:57 PM

I've done both Wheaton and Rockville. This post is coming from inside your house ! 8^|

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 06:26 PM

Don, if you asked those security guys in Potomac "Have you seen any vultures here?" they probably thought you were talking about gun lobbyists.☺️
Kensington was a nice place to live but was nothing special, just a bunch of middle class neighborhoods and it's best feature was it's proximity to R.C. Park, IMO, but like I say that was almost 40 years ago. Maybe my departure sparked a gentrification movement.☺️
I was born in Bethesda at Suburban Hospital and grew up in Rockville and Wheaton and later spent a few years, on and off, in a communal house on a horse farm off River Road in Potomac before landing in Kensington.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 04:32 PM

Kensington has a great reputation for reasons I do not understand .
Next is Bethesda then Chevy Chase and if you have well over 100 million dollars you have a place in Potomac. Where it is not gated, there is roaming security. If I were stopped I could tell them I was bird watching and ask "Have you seen any vultures here"?

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 07:57 AM

That's Kensington, Maryland in Montgomery County, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 07:56 AM

I have to admit that I'd give a Fiesta, thusly appointed, a pretty wide berth.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 07:52 AM

By the way, when you mentioned Kensington, I thought, "My! Vultures in London!" When I looked it up, I saw there are several Kensingtons in USA.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 07:49 AM

Yes gillymor, I suppose it could get a bit messy. But wouldn't it be beautifully intimidating for all those tailgaters and dangerous overtakers to see a humungous black vulture glaring at them from the bonnet of one's little Fiesta!

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 07:20 AM

Having a big Black Vulture perched on the hood of your car or truck is probably not as much fun as it sounds, Senoufou, especially when they use it for a latrine.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 03:58 AM

Oooh I'd love a vulture on my car too! Very cool! But I suppose one doesn't want the windscreen wipers or tyres pecked to bits.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 09:04 PM

I use an electric bike I made. But I need a new one.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: gillymor
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 06:36 PM

Better keep moving, Don, and showing signs of life so those big buzzards don't start getting ideas.☺️
I used to live in Kensington and bicycle through R.C. Park about 40 odd years ago. Lovely place.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 03:41 PM

Its not just one black buzzard, I should have mentioned its a flock of 3 or 4 at a time. We have hawks and eagles here too. I saw a large hawk swoop down and while in flight pick up a six foot snake and fly off with it. Almost every yard has a bunny sitting in it. Birds of prey are their only predator since there are no wolves. I have only seen one coyote here which was one helluva one off.

I wish the beavers had right of way but park rangers move them once they start to change the forest to meadow.

For a regular suburban street I am merely yards away from Rock Creek Park which was developed by Theodore Roosevelt.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: gillymor
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 01:03 PM

Down here in S.W. Florida, on the cusp of the Everglades, when you park at a trailhead the vultures sometimes light on your car hood and chew on your windshield gasket and occasionally your tires. The only remedy seems to be to stick plastic bags out your closed doors and hope it's windy enough to make them flap a bit and scare the birds off. Sometimes it works.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Senoufou
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 12:50 PM

I'm assuming by the way that a four-foot high buzzard is also called a black vulture, but I'm not terribly au fait with foreign bird species!

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Senoufou
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 12:41 PM

I'm so jealous of all these folk from other countries who have such interesting and exotic birds. I'd love a massive vulture sitting on our roof hee hee.

On the way out of the village this morning in the car, I 'pretend spat'. (A lone magpie was pecking at a sad pigeon carcass in front of us) My husband always smiles. He thinks white people are bonkers anyway, and this merely confirms it.

Great honking overhead this evening as eight large geese flew past. Couldn't make out what type, as they were silhouetted against the evening sun.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 12:34 PM

all we have in this part of the UK is bloody cats and seagulls... 😣

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 11:20 AM

Late summer early fall we have gigantic buzzards sit at the crest of the roof. They are quite attention getting since they are 3 to 4 ft. tall. They don't choose our roof specifically but I noticed them here when a crowd formed in the front yard staring up. Further south I saw a huge white Crane who didn't mind me being just 10 feet away.

I once saw a small bird with a needle like beak that looked out of breath. It looked like gills opened on each side of its neck. I dismiss that a bird can not have gills but I swear I could see the neck feathers open and close like breathing.

Yesterday at noon I saw a 4 ft fox with a ball of white fur at the end of its tail saunter out of the backyard and cross the street from the side yard.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 22 Jul 17 - 10:14 AM

I suspect that bloody ginger & white cat had our blackbird nest...

not heard them for weeks...

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: gillymor
Date: 22 Jul 17 - 10:02 AM

On an early morning walk through CREW Rookery swamp here in S.W. Florida saw a Barred Owl. A rare sighting for me. Also several Red Shouldered hawks, both adult and immature.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Jul 17 - 03:09 AM

Oh! Ruby-throated hummingbirds! I wish we had something exotic like that here in UK! I've just looked it up, and they're very bright and elegant.
My mother used to spit (just a token one, not really!) when she saw a magpie on its own. 'One for sorrow' and all that. If you spit, it neutralises the curse.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Janie
Date: 21 Jul 17 - 10:42 PM

The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have finally found the feeder.

Having lots of fun watching fledgings of assorted species in the birdbath these days.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 21 Jul 17 - 07:02 AM

Trying to think of other birds.

We had what I think must have been a juvenile magpie a few weeks ago. It certainly seemed inexperienced as it tried to fly onto our roof. There were 2 other magpies that appeared to be keeping watch from the trees and "chack chacking" away.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Jul 17 - 07:02 AM

Glad it got safely out again Jon.

Our neighbour over-the-road has a 'tame' and cheeky blackbird. She offers it all sorts of good things, and it boldly comes into her kitchen and demands more. Now a robin has followed suit. Luckily she has no cats! But they do leave a bit of a mess sometimes (maybe a 'thank you' message?)

The house martins are all over the place in our street and the close opposite. They zoom around at dusk hoovering up flying insects. Their young are now flying too. Hope they all make it safely back to Africa (in spite of the rotten 'sportsmen' with guns who pick them off en route!)

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 21 Jul 17 - 03:18 AM

Trough the patio door, Sen. We have had it wide open for hours on some of the warmer days. This one decided the way back out was through a skylight so we opened that for it.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Jul 17 - 02:50 AM

I was surprised and pleased to see about six tree sparrows in our front garden yesterday evening. And even more in a large privet hedge near the village shop. They're getting almost rare now, but here in Norfolk, they seem to be on the up and up!
Jon, however did a blue tit get into your living room?

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 20 Jul 17 - 08:46 PM

Pied wagtail round the back the other day.

Also a blue tit in the living room.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Apr 17 - 09:18 PM

Today I noticed sparrows, cardinals and robins all band together to attack a Blue Jay that notoriously lays its egg in another bird's nest where the blue Jay chick murders the other chicks in that foreign nest.
It was a
multi species alliance against a common foe.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Apr 17 - 09:18 PM

No penguins as of yet...

But did see a black bird on the wall outside our kitchen window a couple of times last week..
which is a particularly exotic sighting in this part of the town centre...

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Janie
Date: 26 Apr 17 - 07:54 PM

Interesting. Still no grackles. Maybe because I have changed the suet feeders I use such that they can't get to the suet.

The starling have apparently moved on to greener pastures. Hurray.

My hummingbird feeder is lonely, but I really don't have other flowers planted or blooming in the yard that might attract them. Also moved it this year and the location may not be good.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Janie
Date: 19 Apr 17 - 02:23 PM

The Gray Catbirds are back. No common grackles yet but have seen a few Cowbirds. The Juncos headed north a few weeks ago as well as most of the White-throated sparrows, though a few of them stay year-round. That FB feature that shows posts from the past displayed a photo from 2 years ago of a red-headed woodpecker at my feeder. A rare sight. Had a juvenile who wintered here that one season and caught a picture of it just after it molted to mature red head and just before it moved on.

For a couple of years a lone Rose-breasted grosbeak stopped over for a week about this time of year to load up on sunflower seed before continuing on it's way. No joy so far this year.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Senoufou
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 08:39 AM

In our last house (open fields and quite isolated) we had a phemale pheasant called Phergie. She too was tame and came up to our feet (should that be pheet?) in spite of our three cats sitting watching. We also had Mr Magniphicent, a superb male pheasant with shining copper/golden plumage, but he never seemed to phancy Phergie.

I turned Countryfile over Thompson, as it upset me to see the poultry squashed together in cages and pens. I try to source local free-range eggs from our neighbours, but I suppose they too will need to watch out for avian flu. Sad state of affairs isn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 07:23 AM

A male pheasant, who we've named Phil, seems to have taken up semi-permanent residence outside the back door (where all our bird feeders are). Every time I go outside he affects to dash off into the bushes to hide, but most of his arse end is still sticking out! As soon as I chuck a few peanuts on the ground he's perfectly happy to come right up to my feet. Very endearing, and after all he's a very handsome chap. He can eat peanuts like they're going out of fashion though, and they're not cheap!

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: gillymor
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 07:10 AM

On an early morning walk through the fog yesterday at Corkscrew Swamp, Immokalee, FL I snapped both an adult and a juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron and a couple of large Pileated Woodpeckers along with lots of the usual subjects.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Thompson
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 06:33 AM

Lots of Brent geese around here at the moment; they flew in with all the latest gossip from Canada and Scandinavia.

Unfortunately our neighbours in France and Britain are suffering a severe outbreak of avian flu; a few cases have been found in Ireland in whooper swans, which migrate from Iceland.

Was watching the English (and increasingly British-nationalist) programme Countryfile last night; a lot of domestic fowl are now having to be reared under cover to keep them from wild birds, and they were theorising that bird flu might be becoming endemic in Britain, and that vaccination, which they said was currently forbidden in stocks reared to provide food to the public (not sure if they meant eggs or meat or both) might be a solution.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Senoufou
Date: 05 Feb 17 - 06:41 AM

Rusty, I've heard that birds have 'local accents' and their sounds vary from one region to another. I wonder if Norfolk birds say, "Are yew oroit bwoy?" to each other?

I often smile when I chuck food out for the birds. There's a group of crows hanging around and they seem to shout "Food! Food!" It's quite distinctive. My husband says I'm mad.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 05 Feb 17 - 04:38 AM

Apparently Japanese scientists have discovered that great tits can converse in joined-up sentences. This came as no surprise to me - every year at Great Garden Birdwatch time, they say, 'Right lads, off to the woods for a couple of days until it's all over.'

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Feb 17 - 08:46 PM

Bought a bag of "finch seed" from Wilko. Hey presto, it worked a treat. Within two minutes of throwing a handful on the ground we saw the first goldfinches we've seen in our garden for years. Our chaffinch count zoomed too. No sign of any greenfinches so far though. 😟 On the day of the RSPB garden bird count we had a visit from a bullfinch. That's just the third time in thirty years!

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Feb 17 - 01:12 PM

Saw a solitary goldfinch this morning on our birdbath. Hope its mates are around somewhere, as we had a nice group of them last summer.

We always chuck out scraps for the birds on to our back lawn, and are getting all the wrong birds coming down. Today it was about twenty huge and rather dominant seagulls. They aren't used to gardens at all, but hovered like drones until they plucked up the courage to land and grab stuff to swallow whole. They fiercely chased off some tatty-looking crows and three skinny starlings. After they'd gone, a robin and a male blackbird hoovered up the remaining scraps.

Our conservatory windows are now covered in huge blobs of seagull poo, as is our car. Thanks guys!

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Janie
Date: 04 Feb 17 - 11:04 AM

Pine Siskins!

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 22 Jan 17 - 10:34 AM

I just looked out the back kitchen window at what at first glance I thought was a mouse
climbing inside a dead wall clinging bush..

it was a wren.

Seldom ever see any birds in our back yard because this part of town centre is infested with cats
and dominated in the air by seagulls and crows.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: maeve
Date: 21 Jan 17 - 04:15 PM

No rigging involved: House sparrow history in North America

Steve - Thanks for looking into the House sparrow conundrum. Yes, they are invaders, deliberately introduced- to our loss. They are not related to any native North American sparrow species.

Senoufou - Welcome. As Janie stated in the first post, "You can list any birds you can see while standing on your own property/lot, including fly-overs, or birds you can with surety identify by their call that you hear from your yard, even if you can't sight them. If you have a favorite birdwatching spot elsewhere or an office window, can have a list for them also, but the idea is what birds do you see/hear in a specific location/habitat." First post for 2017

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Jan 17 - 04:00 PM

Yes, whenever I think of English sparrows coming across the Atlantic in the rigging of the ships, it reminds me of Captain Jack Sparrow and the fact that he won't stop making films.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Jan 17 - 03:18 PM

Cor, you do seem to have a problem with our house sparrows. They are not native to the US and that's the source of the problem. This end, they are in balance with our other birdlife. Thanks for prompting me to educate myself, maeve.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Bird List 2017
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Jan 17 - 03:13 PM

Oooh, I had that a few weeks ago. I called it The Haunted Lung Disease. Only one side was affected, but the wheezing all night sounded like a cartoon ghost.
(Sorry about thread drift)