BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015

Subject: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 14 Mar 15 - 10:23 AM

When I google Birdwatching 2015 links come up, but when I click on the links, no content. If content did show up, I don't understand what would be necessary to copy it to Mudcat. Any more savy birding folks who might have better luck than I in finding and restoring that thread?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 14 Mar 15 - 10:33 AM

So, in the meantime - The Dark-eyed Juncos took off for their summer breeding grounds this past week. I am always curious to know where that may be for this particular population.

White-throated sparrows still here, but thinning out.

Saw a pair of Cardinals courting this morning.

The juvenile Red-headed woodpecker seems to have moved on also. (*sob*)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Mar 15 - 01:22 PM

A mess of passenger pigeons, two dodos, and an ivory-billed woodpecker.

I've seen, however, a blue jay, a bald eagle, and some buzzards.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Mar 15 - 02:47 AM

Oh, darn. I'm sorry I missed that thread. You can find a few messages here (click) - if you look at the cache. Feel free to copy and post these messages in this thread if you like. I can't do anything for a week, because I'm traveling.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 15 Mar 15 - 08:14 AM

Here goes. Will try to post in date and time order but there is a reason I was a failure as a file clerk:>) Also, I did not attempt to look up the links in various posts and restore them.



The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3691174
Posted By: maeve
05-Jan-15 - 07:59 AM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Raptor began this Mudcat tradition, and Janie hoped someone would start the New Year's thread for 2015, so here it is. Post about your yard bird list, tell us what you've seen away from home, ponder bird behavior, but do stop in when you can, and we can all enlarge our understanding of the feathered jewels of the natural world.

    Maeve

    PS Last year's birdwatching thread is here:Birdwatching 2014

    It began here: Birdwatching (First thread, 2002)


    ____________________________________________________

The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3691217
Posted By: Rapparee
05-Jan-15 - 09:17 AM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Does seeing a pterodactyl count? I think I saw one yesterday, but it might have been a raven.
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3691234
Posted By: maeve
05-Jan-15 - 10:11 AM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Was it a ravin' pterodactyl?

    Ever heard a Great Blue Heron's call echo across a northern lake? Quite pterodactylish.
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3691345
Posted By: Charmion
05-Jan-15 - 03:20 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Nothin' visible here in downtown Ottawa but crows, observed with great fascination by the cats.

    A large maple tree across the street accommodates a whole murder of the beasts, and at this time of year they huddle in its branches with their feathers fluffed against the wind and an unmistakable air of anticipation -- garbage day tomorrow!

    In fact, the neighbourhood crows are the reason for my tardy performance in putting out the garbage every week. Anything the least bit interesting that hits the street in a plastic bag is located and promptly hauled out with maximum mess.

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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3691479
Posted By: Janie
05-Jan-15 - 10:59 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Thanks for starting this, maeve.

    I need to figure out a good excuse to spring for the cost of a set of fair to middling binoculars. Not for going out into the field, just to make out enough detail for birds around the yard and at the feeders. I don't go birding, just watch what is in my yard, and between the permanent screens in my windows and the limits of corrective lenses at my age, even 30-40 ft away is too far to see with any detail for all the "little brownish/grayish birds" that are not particularly distinctive in their plumage and small details like eye rings are important to identify.

    In the scheme of things, a minor problem to be concerned about.


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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3691487
Posted By: maeve
05-Jan-15 - 11:40 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Janie, the reason you need some good binoculars or a scope is either one will give you pleasure. That's sufficient.

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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3695223
Posted By: Janie
18-Jan-15 - 08:34 AM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Just saw my first ever Red-Headed Woodpecker. A juvenile.
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3695364
Posted By: Steve Shaw
18-Jan-15 - 08:44 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    To Janie. Get yourself a pair of Olympus 8x25 PCI binoculars. They are cheap, have superb optics, won't quiver when hand-held and they'll fit in your pocket. Best thing I ever bought!

    We had a grey wagtail in our garden today, first ever sighting (in 28 years!) of one of those. Wrong location, wrong habitat, but don't tell the bird that!
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3695366
Posted By: Steve Shaw
18-Jan-15 - 08:48 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    I should have added that those bins are fantastic for spec-wearers (such as myself), or for non-spec-wearers equally. You either pull out the eye cups or push them in, as required. Bingo!

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he Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3695378
Posted By: GUEST,leeneia
18-Jan-15 - 11:13 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Last week we had an unusual siting - a Cooper's hawk, sunning itself in a redbud tree in the neighbor's yard. This is an uncommon bird, according to our bird book, but it is more than uncommon in the heart of the city, where I live.

    My husband got some good photos and sent them out in an e-mail to all the birdwatchers we know. If only it would settle down here and live off the pigeons...
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3695471
Posted By: Janie
19-Jan-15 - 06:53 AM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Thanks, Steve.

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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3695542
Posted By: GUEST,gillymor
19-Jan-15 - 10:57 AM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Kayaking in Carl Johnson State Park SW FL this weekend inside a gulf coast barrier island:
    Double Crested Cormorant
    Several Great White Heron (and a blue morph)
    Night Heron and a Green Heron
    Several Osprey
    Black and Turkey Vultures riding the wind.
    Numerous Terns and a few Brown Pelicans fishing.

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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3695875
Posted By: Rapparee
20-Jan-15 - 10:28 AM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    A Northern Harrier has been hanging about, watching the squirrels, hoping they let their guard down.
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3695970
Posted By: maeve
20-Jan-15 - 03:15 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Mostly American Goldfinches in droves, many Black-capped chickadees of course, Hairy and Downy woodpeckers, both red (I grew up calling them rosy) and common nuthatches...

    And a pair of ravens wheeling, circling, loving the updraft over our orchard.

    Janie- I have no bins recommendation 'cause I can't afford any, but Steve's sounds good! Amazon had a used/refurbished pair at about half price. I'd love to see one of your red-headed woodpeckers!

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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3696853
Posted By: GUEST,Arkie
23-Jan-15 - 05:22 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    The Cornell bird cam now showing is on an owl nesting in Georgia. The owl has two eggs which should hatch in about two weeks. Have to admit not much happening right now. Just an owl in a tree top protecting her eggs from wind and rain. Still I enjoy checking on her now and then. There is a pretty strong wind blowing at this moment and the tree has a lot of movement.

    Owl Nest
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3696985
Posted By: maeve
24-Jan-15 - 09:39 AM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Some bird watchers here might find the Feather Atlas interesting and useful.
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3699967
Posted By: GUEST,Arkie
03-Feb-15 - 12:55 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    There was a small pip or crack on one Mrs. Owl's eggs this morning. She is still sitting on the nest so it will be hard to get a peek.

    Bird Cam
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3700109
Posted By: GUEST,gillymor
03-Feb-15 - 07:45 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Thanks for the link Maeve, fascinating.
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3700123
Posted By: GUEST,Arkie
03-Feb-15 - 08:52 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    There is now a little owl in the nest.
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3700280
Posted By: OldNicKilby
04-Feb-15 - 09:31 AM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    We are in the U K Midlands about 90 miles North of London. In the last week we have had in the garden: _
    Wrens, Sparrows, Robins,Bull Finch's Chaffinch's, Long Tail Tits Blackbirds, Thrush's, Wood Pecker's Field Fare's, Red wing's, Magpie's,
    Gold Finch's. Dove's Pigeon's '
    Then as "Fly overs" Heron, Cormorant's Geese Swan's
    Thankfully no bloody Starling's
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3700454
Posted By: Joe Offer
04-Feb-15 - 11:45 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    My wife and I got a great start on our birdwatching this year. We went to Florida January 10-20, and spent almost a week in the Everglades. My best photos are here (click).

    I went to the Everglades once before, during summer and just at the end of a drought, and I was thoroughly unimpressed. But in January, the birds were amazing. I think the most amazing sight was plain old American coots, thousands of them, gathered in a lake in Everglades National Park. Coots don't fly very well, but it sure was fun watching them try.

    -Joe-
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The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3700583
Posted By: GUEST,Jon
05-Feb-15 - 09:54 AM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    The starling is a bird I have never seen in my part (near Cromer) of North Norfolk.
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he Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156504   Message #3700587
Posted By: Steve Shaw
05-Feb-15 - 10:08 AM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015

    Somebody up there must have been listening: just seen me first long-tailed tit of the season! Mr Woodpecker and a bloody squirrel (one of those grey foreigners, of course, though I'm not a racist) have also been around today. Starlings? We get a few on the feeders and on the ground, but the big flocks tend to stay in the fields around us. They are very smart birds, imitating other birds expertly (once thought I'd heard a curlew on me nut feeder!), and they quickly learn how to use the feeders. They're a vulnerable species too, don't forget. I love starlings!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 27 Mar 15 - 02:42 PM

Male goldfinches molting here to their summer yellow.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: maeve
Date: 27 Mar 15 - 03:31 PM

Great job retrieving posts, Janie!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 27 Mar 15 - 04:16 PM

Thanks maeve. Took awhile to figure out what cache means, and where to find it, but once I did, was pretty simple to do.

Sharing the following for any other ignorant folks like me who might want to try to retrieve a thread or posts lost in the crash.

When I googled the thread, I got a number of links. One example -
Mudcat Café message #3700583
www.mudcat.org/detail_pf.cfm?messages__Message...
The Mudcat Cafe
Feb 5, 2015 - The Mudcat Café TM Thread #156504 Message #3700583 ... Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2015. Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2015.

When I opened the links, all that was there was "Mudcat Cafe TM" Eventually I saw, when I went back to the google page with the list of links, that there was a small arrow indicating a drop down menu after "cfm?messages__Message". When I clicked that arrow, the word cache appeared in a box, and when I clicked the box, the content of the message appeared.

fwiw, I found it easiest to copy and past each message into a wordprocessing document which I could then manually sort by date and time, and copied and pasted from the wordprocessing document to try to insure the copied messages would be in date order here. The list of links on google was not in chronological order.

I'm sure more tech savy folks could have done this more easily, but I also know I am not the only tech-challenged person on Mudcat, so hope sharing my experience is useful to some.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: maeve
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 08:51 AM

It's good to know, Janie.

Current yard birds include ravens tumbling in the sky overhead, crows, up to five Bald eagles in the sky and three staying right here with us, 8 Turkey vultures, American robins, Tree sparrows, juncos, Black-capped chickadees, American goldfinches, Downy and Hairy woodpeckers, Red-breasted and Common nuthatches, Tufted titmouse, Mourning doves, hundreds of various gulls overhead. TL thought he heard a Great Blue Heron booming from the beaver swamp. Redpolls have been singing their wee hearts out for a month to our delight, including a rarely-seen rostrata (Greenland) form.

The balloon nest of the Baltimore orioles is still hanging in a Black cherry in the orchard, despite fierce winds throughout the winter. Bantam eggs are beginning to appear in the coop bringing hopes of new chicks, and snowdrops are peeking above ground, with a few blossoms already open. Daffodils are spearing their way through the ice and debris. Today I must cut the basketry willows, before warblers arrive. I left them last year because the warblers- several species- had claimed them. We have plenty of similar brushy trees to serve them.

Something is hooting from the back of our woodlot...who is there, I wonder?

Life returns.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 12:52 PM

Here in the Arkansas Ozarks, the Goldfinches are bright yellow and plentiful. The color change occurred over the past week. Purple Martins have returned and Cowbirds are cleaning out the feeders.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: maeve
Date: 04 Apr 15 - 07:08 PM

New arrivals- Song sparrow is back at the top of his favorite singing tree. Red-wing blackbirds have returned.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 07 Apr 15 - 06:22 AM

Woke up half an hour before the alarm clock went off this morning. Usually, this is annoying, but not this morning, as I heard a woodcock calling outside my window.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: maeve
Date: 07 Apr 15 - 11:30 AM

Yep- woodcocks returned here the night of the 3rd, ducks and geese and Rose-breasted grosbeaks following right behind. We've been watching eagles in the back yard for 2 weeks now. Our bantams are laying perfect ivory colored eggs again. Eight Turkey vultures wheeled through last week, resting for couple of days behind the yurt. Purple finches have slipped in with the goldfinches in the window cherry.

Arkie, our goldfinches are just beginning the changeover. It takes time to find the seeds with beta-carotene, leutin, and zeoxanthin, in the spring, especially with the deep snow of this winter covering much of the food plants.

Non-bird: Three deer on two different days wandered through the orchard/hay field areas. Their granddaddy dropped off orchard rent in the winter in the form of one perfect antler, found after the snow melted by the rose arbor. The young'uns only nibbled apple prunings and old hay, so we are still in their debt. Pussywillows are silently bursting forth, and Our first harvest of the year is from the basket willows- all cut and ready for sorting and drying. We had snow most of yesterday and first thing this morning.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 07 Apr 15 - 05:46 PM

The bay has been busy at work. One mature loon in full breeding plumage and one juvenile hanging around off-shore. Rafts of paired-up common eiders, big flocks of common goldeneyes, about six pairs of common mergansers, lots of buffleheads, and our osprey are starting to return. Also spotted while out inspecting trail signs was a golden-crowned kinglet.

At home, CAT TV (the front windows) was showing a large flock of robins in the yard and a tufted titmouse checking out the beams of the overhang above my front door.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 07 Apr 15 - 08:48 PM

In from watching the male woodcocks courting the females. It's pretty elaborate - he flies up in a wide spiral to 250 to 300 feet, wings making a fluttering noise, and then zigzags back to earth, wings making a slightly different fluttering noise, landing in the same spot he took off from. On the ground, he makes a nasally "peent! peent!" call until the next flight up. This ritual is known as "skydancing". Video here.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 08 Apr 15 - 01:02 AM

Rare sound in my neck of what used to be woods and now is the edge of a small town. Bob-whites calling early this morning.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 10 Apr 15 - 10:45 PM

The owls have moved on from the Cornell bird cam nest, and a pair of Ospreys have moved in. They are in the process of redecorating.

Osprey Nest

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,achmelvich
Date: 11 Apr 15 - 02:39 PM

i went to have a look at a nest hole where i saw green woodpeckers fledging from last year. this year nuthatch have moved in to the same hole. will there be trouble? do woodpeckers return to the same nest each year?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: maeve
Date: 11 Apr 15 - 03:09 PM

achmelvich- I'm not familiar with the European Green Woodpecker, so I went looking for an answer to your question. I found the following:
"...the Green Woodpecker's circular nest-hole is the biggest of all the British woodpecker species and, usually, a fresh hole is bored out each year. Fresh wood chips below a tree give a clue, as well as pecking sounds... late March or April are the times to be on the alert. The nest height varies, but is usually a few metres up in the selected tree trunk. Oak is a favourite, commonly with some rot inside the trunk... Clearly Green Woodpeckers are expert at assessing the degree of rot in an affected tree; Great Spotted Woodpeckers seem to select tree trunks in far greater states of disease and decay. " (From http://www.wildlife-sound.org/journal/2005/grnwood.html"

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 11 Apr 15 - 06:20 PM

The resident osprey are late this year. There have been two that have stopped in and checked out the nest on the island, but neither were the resident birds. Yesterday, there was a bald eagle sitting in the osprey nest and I thought mean thoughts at it until it left. While eagles look majestic, they really are thugs. I'm not at all fond of them. But today, there was an osprey on the nest who looked like it was at home, so fingers crossed.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,achmelvich
Date: 12 Apr 15 - 01:46 PM

ta very much, maeve - now i'm going to have to go and find out where the new nest is in my local wood (kelsick farm, near keswick in the lake district) as watching them fledge last year was so great i feel i have to do it again.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: maeve
Date: 12 Apr 15 - 02:06 PM

You're welcome, achmelvich. I'd want to watch them again too, if they were a local bird here.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST, a
Date: 12 Apr 15 - 05:20 PM

don't know if you have seen this photo - it caused a bit of a stir over herehttps://www.google.co.uk/search?q=green+woodpecker+weasel&rlz=1C1CHWA_enGB621GB621&espv=2&biw=1242&bih=585&tbm=isch&imgil=NMPuCTLgAtfr_M%253A%253BEMC1KU-

- sorry, i'm sure we don't such a stupidly long link

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 12 Apr 15 - 06:04 PM

I can fix that. clicky!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Apr 15 - 09:03 PM

We've had several sightings of birds we seldom or never see here in the Wash DC suburbs.

A Brown Thrasher, several Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, a Flicker... who thinks the metal flashing on our chimney is the perfect early morning way to announce himself..., a Mockingbird (which we see very seldom) and the usual Sparrows.

In the meantime, we are on about our 15th generation of Carolina Wrens... who have adopted an old plastic dish drainer piled on top of old empty aquariums in a secluded corner of the back porch as the perfect nesting site. They start in Feb. sorting & cleaning.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Newport Boy
Date: 13 Apr 15 - 01:25 PM

A good weekend here (N of Bristol). Our pair of Pied Wagtails are back - there's a big roost about 4 miles away. Swallows and House Martins arrived back from Africa today - not seen the Swifts yet. Wood pigeons have mated after an awful lot of aggro the past 2 weeks.

Otherwise the resident Coal & Great Tits, Robin, Wren, Magpie, Crow, Blackbird, Dunnock and Sparrows, with a small group of Goldfinches in the orchard opposite.

The Sparrowhawk, which spent time at the weekend perched on top of the beech hedge, lunched on Sparrows today - a straight-line chase in front of the summerhouse where I was relaxing. He usually takes them off the bird table.

In the skies around - Buzzards and the occasional Grey Heron. The Jay which was a regular in February seems to have gone elsewhere.

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 07:47 AM

Latest visitor - brown rat! They have been scaling the feeders and bird tables and have been bold enough to let me get within 3 feet of them. They also ignore the "electronic pet scarer".

We started taking the feeders down and clearing up at night but the rats moved on to the squirrel feeder and gnawed their way through that. Either they or more likely squirrels are now raiding the metal bins where we store the feed.

I fear the time for all out war is coming. I don't like it and think rats in the field away from the home are quite nice intellegent creatures but there are limits... We've only resorted to poison in the past when they have invaded the roof space.

In case it does come to that, can anyone suggest the best one to use and advice re our cats and other creatures?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: maeve
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 08:48 AM

Hello, Jon. There is no good poison. Anything you use will also endanger other animals including your pets and the birds you enjoy watching and any native predators that might encounter the poisoned rats.

Trapping is the only way I would recommend. A different time-honored direct approach would be having them shot by someone who understands rat behavior and is skilled in safe use of weapons. Either way, removal of all food sources followed by destruction and thorough clean-up of nesting places used by the rats once they have been killed is necessary. Wear a good face mask to prevent inhalation of their dropping fragments.

Continued care in feed storage will be necessary, and we find metal baffles can help prevent the rats from scaling feeder posts. You may like to try trays or baffles designed to catch scattered feed before it hits the ground to be helpful as well.

Good luck.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 09:35 AM

Thanks maeve, I sort of feared someone would say that about poisons.

Shooting is out but can you expand on traps.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: maeve
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 01:59 PM

Jon, I don't live in your part of the world so I don't know what traps are available and appropriate for your situation. Its important to find methods of control that, used in conjunction with cleaning up and closing off buildings, allow for as humane and immediate control possible, and use methods and materials you are prepared to live with. The following site may be helpful to you. It is not cheerful reading by any means yet does seem to address many important considerations. http://www.ufaw.org.uk/rodents.php

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 03:30 PM

Thanks meave. I'll get Pip to read that article too.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 18 Apr 15 - 08:10 AM

Maeve beat me to the no poison in the environment is good poison. Secondary poisoning (owl eats a poisoned rodent) is one of the biggest killers of owls here in Maine.

On a happier note: All viewable and established osprey nests at the park are inhabited by their previous residents. The Eastern Phoebes are back, and I heard my first hermit thrush of the season yesterday. Other recent arrivals are the yellow-shafted flickers and a ruby-crowned kinglet.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 18 Apr 15 - 08:44 AM

The red-headed woodpecker is back! Fully mature plumage now, and boy, is he gorgeous.

I'm so sorry about the rats, Jon. We had a feeder-driven invasion of wolf rats a number of years ago when we lived in the country, and it was a terrible ordeal to finally get rid of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Thompson
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 05:12 AM

For iPhone/iPad-using people in Ireland, and for those in Britain too, there's a nice new app called Chirpomatic; you point it at a singing bird and it makes a stab at telling you what the bird is that's singing. It's very new and will be improved by users' feedback, but even in the first week of using it I found that I became much more aware of my local birds, and was surprised at how they stuck to their own little patch of suburban territory. Good fun, and well worth the price of a couple of euro.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 06:32 AM

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has an app for North American birds. It's on their All About Birds website.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 06:52 AM

Oops! Lost my cookie! Above guest was me.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: gnu
Date: 20 Apr 15 - 01:07 PM

I see a Hbird (Hummingbird) was spotted near the southern tip on Maine on Tuesday. I'll watch the weather near the full moon and decide when to put out a feeder.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: olddude
Date: 21 Apr 15 - 01:28 AM

Beautiful bald eagle sitting on a floating chunk of ice while I was steelhead fishingin the harbor. I bet he didn't need a rod and reel

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 28 Apr 15 - 11:21 PM

Rose-breasted Grosbeak at one of the sunflower feeders this evening. Saw my first ever last year. Wonder if it is the same bird I saw last year on it's migratory path. One visit to the feeder. That was the first time I had ever seen one.

Because I am not home except on weekends, I have no way of knowing when I see migratory birds that are rare for me to see, if they have long passed this way and I am seeing them by chance, or if they are unusual sightings. I don't live on a migratory flyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 29 Apr 15 - 11:19 AM

Saw a swallow yesterday.

--
The rat man is coming this afternoon and that means there will be poison in the roof. We'd had a lot of work done last year with the first cople of rows of tiles taken off to fit some sort of guarding but they've still found a way in.

We are going to try to keep the battle with the bird feeders and table to ourselves and have a couple of baffles on order.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 29 Apr 15 - 11:53 PM

Ruby Throated Hummingbirds showed up here in Arkansas Ozarks last Thursday. Boy, were they hungry. Had a Baltimore Oriole at the hummingbird feeder yesterday and today. The Downey Woodpeckers have made the Hummingbird feeder a regular stop. We still have White Throated Sparrows at the feeders. Thought they would be gone by now.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 30 Apr 15 - 07:25 AM

Eastern bluebirds arrived a few days ago. Saw one on the overhang on the cottage on Monday. Other birds observed out the window on a regular basis: eastern phoebes, chipping sparrows, black-capped chickadees, tufted titmice, downy, hairy, and pileated woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches, American robins, northern cardinals, crows, and turkeys. Right now, there's a red-eyed vireo calling.

Soon, I hope, the bobolinks will be back at Sayle's Field down the road. Bobolinks are in decline, at least in the northeast, due to changing agricultural practices. They nest on the ground in fields and farmers are now cutting hay earlier. Sayle's Field and one other large field in the town I live in are being managed by the local conservation trust specifically for bobolinks, and they seem to be doing well in both locations. Don't really see them much anywhere else, though. When I was a little kid, we'd go visit my great-grandparents near Skowhegan, Maine and my great-grandmother would ID the bids in the surrounding fields for me. Bobolinks were the ones I remember because of the call she told me they make: "Bobolink, bobolink! Sping, spang, sping!" If you listen to the call on the top on the sound tab in the link I gave, it really does sound like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: maeve
Date: 30 Apr 15 - 08:25 AM

We have Bobolinks nesting in our orchard and the neighboring hayfield as well, ranger1. Love to watch and listen to them. We watched an adult with a fledgling in our rose arbor last year.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST
Date: 01 May 15 - 12:21 PM

Went to Minsmere reserve this week, and for half an hour or so watched two bitterns fishing at the edge of the reedbeds. The male boomed as we were watching.

To put it into perspective, there are probably only 80 or so pairs in the UK.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 02 May 15 - 03:32 AM

That GUEST was a cookie-less me.....

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 02 May 15 - 08:01 AM

I believe bitterns can be hard to spot even when you know they are around. I've not seen one but Cley, about 1/2 hr by car from here, is the nearest place to me with bitterns.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 02 May 15 - 08:21 AM

Kayking in Estero Bay, SWFL last night:

Roseate Spoonbills foraging on the flats in their breeding colors at low tide along with egrets, cormorants, one anhinga and and various herons.
Also several osprey, fishing and gathering nesting material.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Will Fly
Date: 08 May 15 - 07:17 PM

As a long-term birdwatcher, I feel quite envious of the range of birds in the US when compared with the UK - though, of course, the size of the US is vast by comparison with over here.

When I lived in West London in the late 1960s, me and a friend used to drive out every weekend in his Beetle to wasteland and water meadows on the fringes of Heathrow Airport. It was full of marshes, gravel pits and rough country - and fantastic for birds that were (and are) pretty rare. We saw smew, corncrakes, water rails and other rarities that, in other, more well-known areas, would have had drawn crowds of avid twitchers.

Everyone who has a garden of any size should leave some of it as "ungardened" and wild. Weeds and thistles attract great birds!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 08 May 15 - 07:23 PM

Have only glimpsed them once or twice, many years ago during the years we spent the winters in Florida doing arts & crafts shows.

I envy those of you who live where there are so many different species of birds, in season or while migrating.

I'm about to give up on attracting hummingbirds where I live now. My neighbor also remarks that it is very rare for her to see hummingbirds at her feeder. Maybe when I retire in a few years and have some more time will be able to create the soil conditions in beds where I can grow more plants that attract hummers.

The rose-breasted grosebeak is still here. Not familiar with their patterns and don't often see migratory birds here. Those of you who do live on migratory flyways, is there a lot of variation among species in how long birds will pause to rest and refuel while in transit to and from their summer grounds? And if you commonly see Rose-breasted Grosebeaks during migration, is it common for them to hang around, in transit, for several days to a few weeks?

Haven't seen the Redheaded woodpecker in several days. They are uncommon in this region. The range maps indicate they do occur year round when seen, but also are migratory. Don't know if it has left the area or if I simply haven't spied it in my reduced birdwatching time over the past busy week. While it mostly was on the sunflower feeders it had recently discovered the peanut/suet nugget feeder. I had to retire that feeder for a time this week because the starlings, catbirds and grackles were breaking my budget. Have a couple of caged suet feeders the small birds can get to, but they also exclude birds like the red-bellied and redheaded woodpeckers. The larger clinging birds have never seemed to take to the hooded suet feeders that require clinging upside down to get to. I guess they will if they want the suet badly enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 08 May 15 - 07:26 PM

It was a beautiful day for working outside and enjoying the bird life around me. Our osprey are now sitting on eggs, and one of the males dropped a headless fish on one of the busier trails. Watched a male hairy woodpecker excavating a nest cavity. Had a concerned ovenbird keeping tabs on me while I cut brush and raked near where I'm assuming he/she is nesting. Eight great blue herons in the bay this AM at low tide. Male black-throated green warbler and male yellow-rumped warbler both made an appearance, as did a brown creeper. And then there are the usual suspects - bluejays, chickadees, titmice, crows, a raven, the common eiders in the bay, American robins, chipping sparrows all seen, and numerous others, both identified and unidentified, heard.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 08 May 15 - 09:24 PM

Swallowtail kites have been passing through our area (NW Florida) for the last week or so. I've seen three flocks of a dozen or more birds. I don't recall seeing more than three or four at a time before this year.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 09 May 15 - 06:01 AM

Saw a kestrel on my way in to Cromer yesterday afternoon.

---
"Everyone who has a garden of any size should leave some of it as "ungardened" and wild. Weeds and thistles attract great birds!"

Wev'e got all that, Will and some really wild patch close by. There is a strip of land in the field behind us which the farm doesn't use because of a pipe running to the septic tank for our and a couple of other houses. We rent part of that strip for our veg plot, etc. (although part of that is wild, Pip, eg. likes to let the cow parsley grow in one bit) but further up, apart from a track through, it is completely left to nature. There are pigsties up there that you can't see for brambles and blackthorn.

This area seems to me to be particularly liked by blackbirds but I don't normally see the unusual.

I think my favourite sight round the back was a yellow hammer last year. The most unusual was a moorhen that seemed to have got lost (or perhaps was exploring having stopped off at our small pond for a drink?) - it was in one of our sheds.

Perhaps what I'd most like to see there again though is a mammal - a pipistrelle. I don't sit out there often at dusk but I used to like it when they would fly close to me to (I think - they seem to be quite curious about what's around) find out what I was about.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Will Fly
Date: 09 May 15 - 07:36 AM

We get bats flying around the house in the summer, but I don't know what they are - and you can't see them clearly at dusk. Lord knows where they roost, because there are no obvious areas in our cul-de-sac. Fields at the end of the road but no barns.

However, there is an old farmhouse with its own grounds and outbuildings behind our road, so that may well be the hideout.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 09 May 15 - 07:46 PM

Must admit Will, I'm guessing at they type of bat but suspect it is this one.

I have actually handled these btw as a sort of 3rd in the line helper. When we lived in N Wales, Pip/mum joined a bat group and got a few bats for temporary housing. Once in a while I'd help out and feed the meal worms, and in the case of the noctule bat (he was a permanent captive that never learned to fly - apparently they need to be taught and he was an orphan - but the other few were for rehab   and release), wax worms.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 10 May 15 - 07:54 PM

Heard on my run this morning: ruffed grouse drumming, ovenbird, black-and-white warbler, black-throated green warbler, chickadee, red-eyed vireo, crow, red-winged blackbird, northern cardinal, American robin,and barred owl. Lots more that I couldn't identify. Love running with the dawn chorus!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 10 May 15 - 08:40 PM

i can't imagine liking running and I get a slower and slower "waker upper" (need my coffee fix and an hr to get what's left of brain in gear and try to work out what I might be up to for the day - funny really as I used to be a wake up at the last minute, gobble a bowl of cereal before school/work type but it's been years since I could do that easily). Love the dawn chorus when I do get to hear it though.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 10 May 15 - 11:12 PM

Appears the grosebeak has finally moved on. I think the red-headed woodpecker has also. Hope to see you both again in another season!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST
Date: 10 May 15 - 11:30 PM

Hows it work for you, Janie? We have birds here that only seem to use us when I'd guess other food is in shorter supply. (Eurasian) Jays and magpies might start to come for peanuts and we might even get to see a great woodpecker. They are all resident species who I think prefer to move a bit "outward" from us when it suits them. They are always around but not that often in the garden.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Stu
Date: 11 May 15 - 04:57 AM

Birding news from the Peak District of the UK. Seen recently:

Curlew on the high moors
Pheasants are strutting their stuff and dozing on the field
Swallows and swifts are arriving in numbers now, but no house martins yet
Kingfisher (yay!)
Lots of Goldfinches
Greater Spotted Woodpecker

The kingfisher was seen as I walked into town where the river is sandwiched between a road and the main West Coast line. We have healthy population of dippers on this river too and they have territories all through the town and into the countryside beyond.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 11 May 15 - 09:57 AM

I'm a trail runner, Jon. Different breed from those people you see running along the roads. I only started last December (at the age of 45!) because I needed to get active for both physical and mental well-being. I was actually surprised to find how much I enjoy it. The added benefit is all the bird and animal activity I get to see and hear, as well as the spring wildflowers I'm seeing now.

As for birds, coming home from work last evening, I spotted my first bobolink of the season.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 11 May 15 - 09:12 PM

I've not seen them but have been told we have a pair of mallards in the field.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 11 May 15 - 11:10 PM

i dunno guest. I mostly see birds that are either here year round or commonly winter here. I frequent a privately owned birdstore franchise near where I work but about 20 miles from where I live, and usually have a good gossip about what birds have been seen once a week, plus the owners send out e-mails on a regular basis on what they have seen in their own backyards and what other backyard birdwatchers are reporting.

I work long hours and can not assume that birds I rarely see and thrill me when I do see them have not routinely frequented the yard during migration when I didn't happen to be around or looking out the window. I do know I do not live on a major migratory flyway.

From talking to other backyard birders and exchanging 'notes' with the folks at the birdshop, it seems that both Rose-breasted Grosebeaks and Red-headed woodpeckers have been seen more than is usual the past year or so. The Grosebeaks are definitely migratory. In theory, we are in the year-round range of Red-headed woodpeckers, but they are migratory also, and are unusual, if not rare, in this region. An unusually high number of us have had them at our feeders this winter and spring for this year. Further reading on-line suggests that they are becoming more uncommon across their entire range, but also that their numbers and appearances vary considerably over time in any part of their range. I was hoping the woodpecker would stick around, but was quite sure it was solo (was in immature feathers this winter and molted to mature plumage early this spring.) Without a mate, it was bound to leave. Hope it will be back. While folks 10 miles west reported seeing 3-5 Rose-Breasted Grosebeaks at a time at their feeders over the last 2-4 weeks, I am pretty sure I had only one. I saw my first of that species last spring. Maybe they have been here before and I missed them, but I think not, simply because it was here for at least 3 weeks before continuing it's migration and I really think I would have spotted them before over that amount of time. I actually wonder if it is the same bird. Although their breeding grounds tend to be much further north of where I live, they do also breed in the North Carolina mountains, along the top of the Blue Ridge. I always wonder if the migratory birds that mostly nest well north of here but also along the crest of the Appalachians that I happen to see are among the small populations that migrate up the coast then cross the Piedmont to breed up in the mountains of western NC.

As best I can tell, the major migratory flyways on the East Coast for birds either run up the Atlantic Coast or from the central Gulf Coast, over the deep south Mississippi River states up into the Appalachian range, which begins at least in northwest Georgia, and arguably in northern Alabama. My speculation is not well informed, just based on looking at range maps of summer grounds.

I've lived on the NC Piedmont for 29 years, in 3 very different habitats within a 20 mile radius. Some birds are ubiquitous to all three habitats, year round or in the summer or winter season. Many have not been, and have been specific to the habitats where I have lived, even within that small radius of 20 miles.
Habitats are shrinking.

Keep your feeders clean:>)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 16 May 15 - 12:14 PM

If you are visiting Scotland you may be interested in The Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown-on-Spey which offers bird watching and wildlife courses and tours - some self guided, others with guides.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 16 May 15 - 12:24 PM

There's a facebook page called Dunoon in Old Photos (closed group I think, but anyone interested can join - not sure if you can look without being a member?)- in fact, not all the photos being posted are old!
One of the regular 'posters' is Harry D Smith who last year photographed a pair of mute swans every day from their arrival on a small loch behind the town (formerly the waterworks)in February/ March 2014 until the last of their cygnets was chased away a couple of weeks ago. Harry's photos plus a few short videos are beautiful.

Unfortunately Harry did not post these as an album, but separate pictures each day so there's a fair bit of trawling through the site to view them all - however he has produced an e-book (?I think) which has the swans' life story in photos - details on the facebook site or Harry's page.

The cob and pen had built a new nest and I think started laying eggs before the last cygnet left. They are now sitting on 6 eggs (5 last year, of which 4 hatched, and three made it to adulthood)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 17 May 15 - 09:57 AM

Kayaking in Lovers Key State Park, SWFL on shallow grass flats on a very low falling tide:

Black Skimmers skimming the suface for small fish. Summer is here.

Tricolored Heron, hunting on the flats along with other Herons, Spoonbills, Terns, Ospreys and Pelicans.

Pairs of Cardinals hop-scotching along the mangroves.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 18 May 15 - 04:56 AM

After a week amongst the large, greedy and slow-moving birds of Cornwall (buzzards and shanty-singers), felt privileged to see three red kites over Lambourne motorway services on the way home. Then discovered there are an estimated 400-500 pairs in the area, and they are beginning to be considered a nuisance.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: gnu
Date: 21 May 15 - 12:49 PM

Well I'll be darned.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 21 May 15 - 05:01 PM

I'll stick with my field guide, thanks. And field guides are set up in a way that makes perfect sense to me: most primitive to most evolved.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 21 May 15 - 07:56 PM

I dunno Tami. I'm going to take a closer look. Might be good to have both. I also want to check into the apps that may help identify birds by their call.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 21 May 15 - 09:31 PM

Janie - The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a free app called Merlin.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 12 Jun 15 - 11:44 AM

I caught a coal tit today. It was in the kitchen when I came in from outside. I closed the through doors to other rooms and it found its way through to the porch. Birds that get in the porch usually find their own way out through the door pretty quickly but this one was in there for a while.

I tried and failed to open a stuck up with paint window near to where it was. In the meanwhile, the bird started flapping around between the window and some coats hanging up. I put my cupped hands in the gap and somehow the bird wound up in them.

I took it outside and released it. It flew up into an oak tree.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: gnu
Date: 09 Aug 15 - 12:43 PM

I SAW A HUMMINGBIRD! First one since last summer and I only saw that one a few times during the late summer migration. We used to see them all summer long... I blame herbicides and pesticides. Same as for the bees and butterflies. So sad.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 09 Aug 15 - 01:42 PM

I took my hummingbird feeder down after a few weeks early in summer because there were no takers. A neighbor 2 doors down has plenty of hummingbirds coming to her feeders. She also has many pots of colorful flowers in her porch. In contrast, the only plants I have in my yard that draw hummers are the azaleas, and they often are nearly finished blooming by the time the hummers arrive.

Hope springs eternal, however. Have spotted a couple of hummers casting about in the yard over the past couple of weeks, so put the feeder back up yesterday.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Aug 15 - 03:19 PM

We have a pair of black vultures hanging out in the next door neighbor's yard. The dogs bark at them when one of the birds perches atop the 50' ham radio antenna in her yard.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: ranger1
Date: 09 Aug 15 - 09:43 PM

Our young osprey met with a sad fate. They fell victim to one of my least favorite birds in the universe - a bald eagle. Apparently, the eagles wait until the juveniles are large enough that mum isn't sitting right on top of them anymore, but are still too young to fly, and then come in for the kill. One was killed outright, the other was saved from death by one of the parent birds, probably mum, but putting the youngster back in the nest would have been setting the buffet table for the eagle. We sent it up to Avian Haven, where the great folks up there will make sure that it at least has the possibility of survival. Shortly after our youngster arrived, they took in three or four more juvenile osprey that had also survived eagle attacks.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Janie
Date: 09 Aug 15 - 10:07 PM

Hope the young ospreys make it, Tami.