Xray the Enforcer Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 I realize that I forgot to follow up on my post about leading the bird walk. Walk was very successful -- at least 10 novice or intermediate birders, plus some of my coworkers. Highlights included Belted Kingfisher, Wood Duck (drake), Red-tailed Hawks (probably a mated pair), and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Plus a bunch of other fun ones that are Usual Suspects. As such, a success! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yukle Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 National Geographic this month is a whole special on birds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 3 hours ago, Yukle said: National Geographic this month is a whole special on birds. They are one of the organizations participating in Year of the Bird, alongside BirdLife International, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the National Audubon Society. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily Valley Posted February 1, 2018 Author Share Posted February 1, 2018 On 1/22/2018 at 0:44 PM, Robin Of House Hill said: We have gold finches and house finches here, all year long. Because of the direction our balcony faces, we usually see them when they are back-lighted, which makes positive identification difficult. I can say they are gluttons for nyjer seed. I would positively die of frustration if the birds were backlit. DIE. 17 hours ago, Xray the Enforcer said: All birds are awesome, no matter their ubiquity or rareness. and storks are always rad. Burds! I have 2 questions for you: 1. How do I get the crows to come back to my yard. I've tried going out there and yelling, "CROW! COME EAT THESE NICE PEANUTS!!!" This is not working. 2. ARE WE GONG NERD BIRDING IN AUGUST? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 5 hours ago, Lily Valley said: I would positively die of frustration if the birds were backlit. DIE. Burds! I have 2 questions for you: 1. How do I get the crows to come back to my yard. I've tried going out there and yelling, "CROW! COME EAT THESE NICE PEANUTS!!!" This is not working. 2. ARE WE GONG NERD BIRDING IN AUGUST? Crows aren't really feeder birds and they're probably really wary of you. They do like shiny things, though, so if you leave baubles out they may go for those and then get used to the peanuts. and YES ABSOLUTELY. I'll ping my friend who is a professional bird guide (and ornithologist) in California and see if he'd be willing to give me tips on where we could bird easily around San Jose. There are some great wetlands/mudflats in the South Bay (I've birded those in the past), but I'd love his guidance on that. I could also see if he's organizing any pelagic trips out of Santa Cruz during that time, if anyone is keen to get on a boat to go chase jaegers and skuas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily Valley Posted February 2, 2018 Author Share Posted February 2, 2018 14 hours ago, Xray the Enforcer said: Crows aren't really feeder birds and they're probably really wary of you. They do like shiny things, though, so if you leave baubles out they may go for those and then get used to the peanuts. and YES ABSOLUTELY. I'll ping my friend who is a professional bird guide (and ornithologist) in California and see if he'd be willing to give me tips on where we could bird easily around San Jose. There are some great wetlands/mudflats in the South Bay (I've birded those in the past), but I'd love his guidance on that. I could also see if he's organizing any pelagic trips out of Santa Cruz during that time, if anyone is keen to get on a boat to go chase jaegers and skuas. This morning I had just gotten back in from doing the fence top posts with black oil sunflower seed and refilling the patio blend feeder (millet shelled sunflower n stuff) when I spotted a crow through the window on the fence rail. ***I DID NOT MOVE OR BREATHE BECAUSE HE SPOTTED ME THROUGH THE WINDOW**** He sent out several triple calls and then hopped down AND PICKED UP TWO OF MY PEANUTS! The girlfriend has a massive jar of bottle caps which she has been turning into crow at tractors (threading them together) would it be better to just leave them? Or can tops? Or just strips of tinfoil? It was such a beautiful bird! I would be up for ANY AND ALL NERD BIRDWATCH adventures! Count me as a +1 and I'll start studying for the area! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! @Robin Of House Hill It took a few days for the finches to find the Nyjer seed feeder, but the found it! Thank you for the tip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudguard Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 On 1/31/2018 at 4:18 PM, Xray the Enforcer said: I realize that I forgot to follow up on my post about leading the bird walk. Walk was very successful -- at least 10 novice or intermediate birders, plus some of my coworkers. Highlights included Belted Kingfisher, Wood Duck (drake), Red-tailed Hawks (probably a mated pair), and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Plus a bunch of other fun ones that are Usual Suspects. As such, a success! That name is great. Sounds like something a person from the 1800's or early 1900's would use as an insult. You damned yellow-bellied sapsucker! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S John Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 Thought you bird people might appreciate Tower Girl: https://news.utexas.edu/2018/03/02/new-camera-offers-view-of-uts-resident-falcon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 Love peregrines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yukle Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 On 2/1/2018 at 11:31 PM, Xray the Enforcer said: They are one of the organizations participating in Year of the Bird, alongside BirdLife International, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the National Audubon Society. This month's is also amazing! All about bird intelligence. The common crow is the smartest bird. Its forebrain is 80% of overall brain mass, and it shows lots of intelligent behaviours such as tool use, mimicking, understanding sound instructions... Where I live down under my kids and I had a great time watching the magpie who nests outside our house chase away two large ravens. They're terrifying when swooping - and also my favourite bird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seli Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 Talking about ravens, there is now concrete evidence that 2 seperate species of raven have merged in the past. Similar to the way eg modern humans and neanderthal humans merged, contributing to the extinction of one of the species. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/03/02/ravens-mated-another-species-into-oblivion-their-twisted-family-tree-shows/?utm_term=.4d03ad88d2ea Quote Common ravens in California look like other ravens. But their mitochondria contain a genetic jumble. Mitochondria, the tiny power-plant organs within animal cells, carry their own sets of DNA. Animals — humans and ravens included — inherit mitochondrial DNA from mothers. The mitochondrial DNA in ravens revealed a “deep genetic divergence between two different lineages,” Omland said. Somewhere along the line, this discovery suggested, California ravens came from mothers that were unlike the rest of the world's common ravens. ... About 1.5 million years ago, the birds in what is now California split from the rest of the ravens like a tributary that curves off from a great river. Their ongoing isolation allowed them to evolve into a different species. Much later, somewhere around 440,000 to 140,000 years ago, common ravens first contacted this separate raven species again. “This is definitely an ancient speciation reversal event,” Kearns said. The two species fused, the larger one swallowing the smaller. It was as though the land between the river and the tributary eroded, and once again it flowed as a single body. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily Valley Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 BURD NOOOOOZ! My feeders are getting emptied DAILY. I have one with black sunflower and one with a patio blend that is either mixed seeds with millet or the one with cracked corn and sunflower seeds. I have black oil sunflowers growing EVERYWHERE in my yard (good job burdz!) I'm still mostly getting finches, sparrows jays and cardinals. A couple weeks ago I had a hawk in the yard! Based on it's tail I think it was a Cooper's Hawk. I REALLY want him to come back, but so far he has NOT. The jays went crazy and then the yard was dead silent for about ten minutes while he surveyed his hawk food feeding station. There's a purple martin house up at work. (Thanks @Xray the Enforcer for help with the ID) Two days ago there were about a half dozen of them checking it out, screaming at each other and trying to poop on my head. I had NO binoculars and NO field guide. I've been armed with both since then and there;s been NO sign of them. Stupid fkn birds. So my pals are gonna help me build a spot for them in the backyard. I think I'm late to attract a colony this year, but a girl's gotta have goals. Looking forward to see who else shows up this spring!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 I broke my record for most species seen in a day today, with 47. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 18 minutes ago, Hereward said: I broke my record for most species seen in a day today, with 47. That's a wonderful birthday gift, innit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Certainly was, though the stubborn refusal of everyday birds like Dunnocks, Starlings, Chaffinches and Song Thrushes to put in an appearance as it started to get dark and I was stuck on 45 was a bit worrying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 2 hours ago, Hereward said: Certainly was, though the stubborn refusal of everyday birds like Dunnocks, Starlings, Chaffinches and Song Thrushes to put in an appearance as it started to get dark and I was stuck on 45 was a bit worrying. some days, I'm just happy to see frickin' Cardinals. You, me, and @MinDonner should do some Central American birding. COME TO BELIZE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 On my way! PS I’d love to see a Cardinal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 YASSSSSSSS BTW, spring migration has started. The first timberdoodles have started showing up in the NY area. Love me a timberdoodle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
all swedes are racist Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 man, little i like seeing out my window more than a couple cardinals in some freshly driven snow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mance Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 We had a sharpe shinned hawk at the feeder bait station yesterday. She loomed ominously for a solid hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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