BS: Birdwatching 2009

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Raptor
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 07:36 AM

Rufus Hummingbird
Calliope hummingbird nice

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: ragdall
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 05:19 AM

I saw 36 species in my yard in 2009:

House Sparrow
House Finch
Purple Finch
Tree Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Wilson's Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Common Redpoll
Hoary Redpoll
Pine Siskin
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Rufus Hummingbird
Calliope hummingbird
Bohemian Waxwing
Cedar Waxwing
Evening Grosbeak
American Robin
Varied Thrush
European Starling
Common Crow
Northern Flicker
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Northern Shrike
Merlin

rags

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Janie
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 08:44 PM

OK. Home from WV. I had 42 species seen from my yard in 2009.   30 of them are either year round or winter here.   The rest very sparcely distributed over the course of spring and summer.

Wish I lived on a major flyway.

And so far this fall and winter I have had far few birds of any kind than I had las fall and winter.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Raptor
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 01:52 PM

Numbers People!

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Raptor
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 02:25 PM

Post your totals here for 09

I only had 55 but it was a busy year.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Janie
Date: 01 Jan 10 - 11:40 PM

So, how many species did you see this past year from your yard? (I won't know the answer for myself until I'm home again and have access to my own computer.

And when is Raptor gonna come in from kayaking and start the 2010 thread?

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Janie
Date: 20 Dec 09 - 04:10 PM

Song sparrow in my yard for the first time that I have seen. They are in this area, I just haven't seen one in my yard before.

Getting close to time to tally our counts for the year.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 13 Dec 09 - 04:52 AM

In Cornwall, England...

Poem 190 of 230: BIRDWATCHERS' BUDE - WINTER 2001/2

Behind the Tourist Centre,
    Between canal and river,
On the marshy drained floodplain
    (Not now visited by train),
In among willow and reed,
    Eking out some winter feed:
Treecreepers, bobbing robins,
    Chirpy blue-tits, grey-herons,
The screams of water-rail,
    And snipe sharp on their trail.
Plus, out along limestone down,
    Soaring seabirds can be found.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://walkaboutsverse.sitegoz.com (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Janie
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 08:19 PM

Bit by bit, more dark-eyed juncos and white-throated throated sparrows are showing up.

Still not seeing as many birds of any species as by this time last year.

I'd really like to lure the red-bellied woodpeckers, but haven't seen a peanut feeder yet that I think would keep the squirrels out for long.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 07:27 PM

Migrating geese long gone, but a few stay throughout the winter, at water outfalls. (Alberta).

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: scouse
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 06:02 PM

Wind is at last NE or east and I seen quite a few flocks of geese flying SW in the past week or so. Just got really cold over here in "Cloggieland." at last.
As Aye

Phil.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 03:58 PM

A female pheasant has started to come to my feeder with contains oil seeds.
The sparrows are messy and spill seed to the deck beneath the feeder, where she joins a little red squirrel waiting for seeds to drop.

The usual black caps and nuthatches.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: maeve
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 10:41 AM

A flock of 50+ Canada geese flew over our farm early this morning. There were quite a lot of them clustered st the head of the > formation.

Chickadees and the little finches continue to visit the little window feeder. The flutters at the feeder remind me there is life out there still, frozen world and cold notwithstanding.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: gnu
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 02:06 PM

I also diced up meat and fat and made sure it got it.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: gnu
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 02:05 PM

It is indeed, m.... last wto years, it has also winter fed a turdus non-migratorius stunnedus.

(American Robin here in mid-winter. Kinda hard pickin worms and bugs with 4' of snow on the ground.)

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: maeve
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 01:41 PM

Interestingly, the goldfinches disappeared again shortly after sunrise.

and 400...Birds of a feather...

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: gnu
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 01:34 PM

Cedar Waxwings! Had to look it up.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: maeve
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 01:33 PM

Cedar waxwings, gnu? It's a great bird tree.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: gnu
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 01:26 PM

Last two winters, we have had a large flock of (good lord, I can't remember the name.... maeve?) feed on the apples in Mum's tree. The tree is left unpruned to be ornamental and to provide winter birdfeed.

A Sharpie uses it similarly and I have a fair bit of video, one at about 12' away... gruesome, but it's nature.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: maeve
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 08:11 AM

I stuck a small suction-cup window feeder onto the window nearest the computer about a month ago. No birds visited it until the first snow hit. Chickadees were first of course, but since dawn this morning the American Goldfinches have been feeding nonstop on black oil sunflower seeds.

I just realized that most of the songs I write have birds in them.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: maeve
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 05:46 AM

Sharpies are wonderful birds, Janie. We enjoy watching the local Sharpie trying to snatch chickadees; all of whom easily evade capture and laugh as they do.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Janie
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 08:52 PM

Oh - forgot the reason I opened this thread to post to begin with!

A sharp-shinned hawk has taken to perching on a power line not 20 feet from my back porch, and is not at all bothered by my comings and goings so I have been getting the opportunity to observe it at close range for extended periods.

Such sleek and handsome little hawks!

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Janie
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 08:49 PM

So far this fall i am not seeing nearly the number of birds at the feeders as I usually do by now. My sister, over on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, has noticed the same thing.

We are almost 7 weeks past the average 1st frost date, and all either of us have seen is an occasional light dustings in low lying areas. (My parents, who live outside of Charleston, WV, still have not had a hard frost.) Roses and impatiens are still blooming here, most unusual for early December.

Many common species of birds that live here year round are migratory in the northern part of their range, and so we get higher populations in winter of birds like Northern Cardinals, White-throated Sparrows, Chickadees, tufted titmice, etc. Numberous Dark-eyed Juncos usually winter here and leave in spring. I have only seen a handful of juncos and the populations of the year round species do not seem to have increased as is usual by now. I'm guessing that warmer conditions across the Eastern USA are resulting in the birds either not migrating as far south, delaying the time of winter migration, or the birds are extending their year-round range further north.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: EBarnacle
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 01:27 PM

This past weekend, Lady Hillary and I were headed to Port Jervis, NY and spotted a bald eagle where we had never seen one before--just into Sussex county, NJ but nowhere near the Delaware River.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: maeve
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 10:53 AM

Bald eagles
Ravens
Black-capped chickadees
Hairy and Downy woodpeckers
Rose-breasted and common nuthatches
American crows
American goldfinches
Barred owls
Great Horned owls
Brown creepers
Slate-sided juncos
Piliated woodpeckers
several migrating warblers and sparrows
Canada geese
wild turkeys
unidentified ducks migrating
others I'm too sleepy to remember.

This time of year our outside work causes waves of little birds to shift and swirl from one clump of bird food plants to another; almost like in Spring.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 08:57 PM

Janie-

My wife managed to capture a screen-shot of the newly hatched hummingbird being fed. That was the high point of her week (my wife's!).

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Janie
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 05:55 PM

That hummer's wedcam is way cool, Charlie.

The rain and wind and cooler temps have the birds hitting the feeders as if it is January and a snowstorm is coming.

Guess they also need to aclimate.


In my next life I am going to live on a major migratory flyway. (either that, or be a migratory bird.)

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 04:08 PM

Oh, the other fascinating "cam" features this year's class of 20 whooping cranes being guided by ultra-light aircraft in their migration from Wisconsin to Florida: click here for website

This year's migration is way behind schedule (they're currently in Illinois) and folks are beginning to worry about winter weather. They may need to ship them south by FedEx,

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 10:19 AM

Here's a link to an active Hummingbird Cam, with a newly hatched young one: Click here for website

Caution: web cams can become addictive!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: maeve
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 09:28 AM

"Somebody's knocking on the door..." Never mind, it's the Hairy Woodpeckers finding insects and the nuthatches' store of seeds hidden in the siding and roof.

Bluebirds, Cedar Waxwings, Black-capped Chickadees, Great Horned Owl, Downy Woodpeckers, Brown Creepers, Barred Owl, Canada Geese, Bald Eagles, various kinds of sparrows, American Crows, Ravens, American Goldfinches, a multitude of migrating warblers, and a flock of migrating unidentified birds whose calls in flight sounded like little horns, "Toot, tooot, tooot..."

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: ragdall
Date: 11 Nov 09 - 10:59 PM

I have regular visits from Northern Flickers, Black-capped Chickadees, Dark-eyed Juncos, Pine Siskins, House Sparrows, House Finches, a male Downy Woodpecker, Red-breasted Nuthatches and had a guest appearance from a Brown Creeper, Oct. 27th.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Janie
Date: 11 Nov 09 - 02:38 PM

One little junco has just turned up under a feeder. I was almost right on the money!

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: scouse
Date: 11 Nov 09 - 10:45 AM

The Parrots have returned and are eating me out of house and home!!!Peanuts,Peanuts plus they seem to love the "Fat." balls I hang on the Balcony.
As Aye,
Phil.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: EBarnacle
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 07:09 PM

Wow, classical operant conditioning in a "natural" environment.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Janie
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 03:13 PM

Very cool!





Expecting the juncos to appear just any day now. Took down all the feeders and cleaned and sanitized them this weekend, and have added a log suet feeder with perches, which should be easier for the Bluebirds to access than the perchless wire suet cake feeders.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: ard mhacha
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 02:43 PM

An amazing video of a Swallow, some bird brain, seeing is believing,http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&feature=email&v=3GQGKdl9B9E

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: GUEST,Black Belt Caterpillar Wrestler
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 07:30 AM

Had a scrabbling at the bedroom window one morning last week, got out of bed and slowly cracked open the blinds to find the local kestrel looking in at me from 18" away.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: scouse
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 07:10 AM

Bugger!! I thought we'd got rid of it during my holiday but Trichomonas gallinae has returned in the east of the Netherlands.Over here on the west coast I hope we'll be Ok but ya never know!!
As Aye,
Phil.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: maeve
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 03:49 PM

A flock of a dozen or more bluebirds are making a rest stop of our gardens and orchard. Males, females, and young are all flying from cherry trees to utility lines and back, swooping down to the grass, and eating the blue arrow-wood berries in the hedgerow. The adults hace examined several nest boxes. Joining in the air dance are several unfamiliar warblers, a buzzard, nuthatches, chickadees, sapsuckers, a phoebe, and an ovenbird.

The little phoebe thinks he owns the orchard.
maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: Janie
Date: 12 Sep 09 - 09:48 AM

A pair of Black-and-White Warblers have stopped by for some rest and refreshment on their way south for the winter. They are tired enough to not be very skittish and allowed me to get amazingly close to the birdbath.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: maeve
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 09:52 PM

I've watched ravens play, gnu. Diving, then suddenly rolling, sometimes seeming to glide belly up- it's a wonderful ballet of the air. I love to watch them, and I love their remarkable vocabulary of calls and talky sounds.

Barn and tree swallows play Drop and Catch the White Feathers over and over again with no discernible goal except the game itself and the practice of flight maneuvers. We keep a couple of white feathers handy for that purpose.

Finally, cedar waxwings spend time apparently playing with flower petals, or berries. They pass them up and down long lines of waxwings perched on branches. The berries they eat, eventually, but the petals? Petals all seem to end up floating to the ground when the game is over.

Eagles are amazing, I agree.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: gnu
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 08:02 PM

Say what?

It is play. Not a fight. They "play."

Anyone else watch such behaviour or similar?

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: gnu
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 09:50 AM

Freda... beautiful!

The Hummimgbirds are in full training maneuvers here. They've only been at the feeders regularly for a few weeks and they are very flighty. Sadly, Mum won't get much time with them this year. I assume the males will fly south anytime in the next twos weeks, the females and young within two weeks of the males.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: scouse
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 09:08 AM

Where in deep shit over here in the Netherlands at the moment!! We have Trichomonas gallinae going around, we've been told to stop giving them Food and Water and clean everything. Luckily none of my lot seem sick at the moment but I'm keeping my eyes peeled.
As Aye,
Phil

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: freda underhill
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 07:12 AM

..and when I came home, in the back yard, there was a flock of king parrots up in the huge gum tree. They were female, because they had green heads..



..but now it's dark, and the birds are quiet!

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: freda underhill
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 07:01 AM

This afternoon I wandered around Sydney harbour, by the Botanic gardens, with Sandra (from Sydney, yes, THAT Sandra) and amongst the cacophany of birds calling were a flock of sulphur crested cockatoos, diving and swooping up and around the treetops!

aaahhh...

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: ard mhacha
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 05:35 AM

Gnu remember the neighbours are listening.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: gnu
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 12:25 PM

Yer an ard man, yee are. Geese are nasty and vile creatures that can inflict serious pain and injury. Not to mention that they can shit twice their weight daily.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: ard mhacha
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 11:45 AM

EBarnacle,I think the people of the US are the problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2009
From: EBarnacle
Date: 05 Aug 09 - 03:12 PM

Resident populations of Canada Geese are a problem throughout the US. Quite a few people have received a dinner as part of local population control issues.