|
19 Jun 24 - 09:58 AM (#4204126) Subject: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: keberoxu What happened with all our birdwatchers?? Anyway, I'm not really a birdwatcher but I could not help but notice the latest gaggle of goslings with their goosemother, as they were grazing right next to the road shoulder. The goslings are now past the ugly little gray stage, and they actually appear like miniature geese, especially the color of their plumage. |
|
19 Jun 24 - 06:45 PM (#4204155) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: Stilly River Sage Last week I spotted a juvenile yellow-crowned night heron in my front yard, and got enough photos for a good ID (from the car, where I rolled down the window but didn't move much at all so it wouldn't leave). I'm always pleased that my yard is wild and welcoming enough that birds like this will move from the woods across the road to the yard to continue their grazing on bugs and such. I have a lot of toads and lizards and snakes, and some of them may also be lost to the birds, but that's what happens in a healthy yard. Here's one of them from Wikimedia. |
|
19 Jun 24 - 07:08 PM (#4204159) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: Sandra in Sydney I live 1 train station from Sydney's CBD & we have the usual urban birds - seagulls, pigeons, mynah birds (Oz & lots more imported Indian, both members of the starling family), crows/ravens, magpies & our very own Australian White Ibis aka Bin Chicken which came to the Big City c1982 after a bad drought in their proper environment. Cockatoos are very noisy & everywhere as foolish people feed them. I've once or twice seen the beautiful Rosella in our courtyard perched on a water pipe & demanding to know where the trees are, then it heads to a park or a better garden! We have 2 large parks nearby - Sydney CBD's Hyde Park, & Centennial Park which add to the bird population, but I haven't been there for a while as it's a huge park to walk around! |
|
19 Jun 24 - 08:10 PM (#4204163) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: gillymor I got out in my kayak the other morning for the first time since my last hip replacement and paddled around the backwaters of the barrier islands looking for fish. They weren't too cooperative but there were plenty of birds doing okay, black skimmers zipping trough pods of baitfish, an osprey dive bombing mullet and a flock of roseate spoon bills wiggling their beaks in the water by a sandbar. |
|
20 Jun 24 - 03:02 PM (#4204201) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: Dave the Gnome Our tiny front garden is alive again. As well as the resident host of sparrows, the jackdaws are back in force. They have to contend with a family of wood pigeons, a pair of mallards, blackbirds and some itinerant black headed gulls, but we generally manage to keep them in corn and seed. The back garden seems to be the domain of the starlings although we see a few bluetits and hear all sorts that I don't recognise. |
|
20 Jun 24 - 03:52 PM (#4204209) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: Stilly River Sage We used to see huge flocks of grackles and starlings, but I haven't seen as many (not perched in my trees, at any rate). And where there were once the smaller birds hopping around the yard, now I see more crows visiting. There didn't used to be many crows around here 20 years ago when I moved in. |
|
22 Jun 24 - 07:14 PM (#4204281) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: keberoxu Bird-listening is legit too, I should hope: I can heard the red-wing blackbirds calling in the marshes, even though I can't see them. Last month I visited a friend's house, where they work hard at keeping the bird feeders supplied. I not only saw a red-wing blackbird AT THE FEEDER, which is unusual, but I also saw a goldfinch going after thistle seed. |
|
22 Jun 24 - 08:45 PM (#4204284) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: Sandra in Sydney one of my friends has 2 birdbaths on her plant-filled balcony - different birds have different bathing or drinking habits. The balcony looks down on a plant-filled yard so there are many birds around, & she enjoys watching them |
|
23 Jun 24 - 04:10 PM (#4204323) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: The Sandman tonight i saw 2 swans, a pied wagtail, 2 sand martins and 2c housemartins and a robin |
|
24 Jun 24 - 12:34 AM (#4204340) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: Neil D My wife maintains a couple birdfeeders about 30 feet out from our front porch. She also scatters peanuts around the front yard. The blue jays especially love the peanuts. We also get the most beautiful cardinals as well as sparrows, woodpeckers (3 types), robins, grackles, red-winged blackbirds, a variety of finches and mourning doves. Killdeer don't visit the feeders, being mostly meat eaters, but I often see them flying across the cornfield as I come up the drive. We also have two hummingbird feeders on the porch and had frequent visits last year. This year I've only seen one lone female out there twice now. |
|
24 Jun 24 - 06:57 AM (#4204359) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: gillymor The other morning I was looking out back at a pair of wood storks feeding in the rainwater-swelled swale that abuts the woods while a small green heron worked around it's edges, occasionally poking it's beak in the water after a minnow when suddenly a family of otters tumbled out of the woods and started frolicking and rough housing in the water. It spooked the birds but the otters put on a heckuva show. |
|
24 Jun 24 - 01:36 PM (#4204378) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: The Sandman today i saw a Thrush, |
|
25 Jun 24 - 06:23 AM (#4204427) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: The Sandman house martins, jackdaw, swan,pied wagtail |
|
25 Jun 24 - 08:00 AM (#4204429) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: Dave the Gnome The swifts are screeching like mad overhead |
|
25 Jun 24 - 08:56 AM (#4204431) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: The Sandman are there a lot of them, Dave |
|
28 Jun 24 - 01:52 AM (#4204601) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: The Sandman yellow wagtail, house martins |
|
02 Jul 24 - 05:08 PM (#4204850) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: keberoxu Not the usual birdwatching: I am sitting before a large window, and I just saw a bird fly smack-bang into said window. I have not gone outside to see if the bird remains where I saw it drop. |
|
02 Jul 24 - 07:23 PM (#4204860) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: gillymor I walked out of our 2nd floor condo at dawn this morning to witness the sunrise battles between the blue jays and the mocking birds and found our neighbor feeding a jay bird by hand which was a new one on me. |
|
02 Jul 24 - 07:28 PM (#4204861) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: gillymor keberoxu, The Audubon Society used to give out stick-on bird decals for windows to discourage birds from flying into them. |
|
03 Jul 24 - 03:52 AM (#4204880) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: Dave the Gnome We moved the bird feeder a few feet and the sparrows seem to have taken offence! They used to live in the privets but we haven't seen them for ages :-( Anyone know if putting the feeder back where it was will bring them home or have we lost them now? |
|
03 Jul 24 - 03:56 AM (#4204881) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: The Sandman try it Dave, what is there to lose. I saw a woman feeding a swan out of her hand, unfortunately she was feeding the swan bread, which has little nutrition and in large quantities is not advised. |
|
03 Jul 24 - 08:34 AM (#4204906) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: Dave the Gnome I shall - Thanks Dick |
|
07 Jul 24 - 12:29 AM (#4205120) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: leeneia My neighbor planted great big sunflowers on our narrow street in mid-town River City, and goldfinches have found them. We never see goldfinches here! How do they find the flowers? |
|
07 Jul 24 - 04:41 AM (#4205125) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler I seem to be seeing more swifts around than in the last few years, fewer swallows though. We had an unexpected visitor the other week, a peregrine falcon came and sat on a fence post just across from my workshop window. I believe there is a place about 4 miles away where they regularly nest. We are just reaching the time of year when the curlews head for the coast and follow the lapwings that went about a month ago. The skylarks are still evident in numbers. I can usually hear a duet or even a trio if I am outside for any lenght of time. Robin |
|
07 Jul 24 - 04:51 AM (#4205126) Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2024 From: Dave the Gnome We moved the feeder back and have seen more sparrows but the haven't taken up residence in the hedge yet |