Lily Valley Posted April 5, 2018 Author Share Posted April 5, 2018 On 4/3/2018 at 2:46 PM, Crazy Cat Lady in Training said: Yesterday morning. There is still one egg left so we're on PIP watch. I made my classes look at the Pittsburgh nests. They were totally amazed. Three baby eagles in two nests!!! Still the usual suspects in my yard. It's going to pour down rain all weekend, so little chance to get to the park for more birding. Boo. The NUMBER of cardinals, jays and doves that are visiting has grown and the crows are starting to take an interest. My small feeders are getting drained by mid-day. I need a reliable source for black oil sunflower seeds and bigger feeders. Luckily, the finches never go hungry thanks to that thistle seed feeder. Thank you @Robin Of House Hill! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice Queen Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 4 minutes ago, Lily Valley said: I made my classes look at the Pittsburgh nests. They were totally amazed. Three baby eagles in two nests!!! Still the usual suspects in my yard. It's going to pour down rain all weekend, so little chance to get to the park for more birding. Boo. The NUMBER of cardinals, jays and doves that are visiting has grown and the crows are starting to take an interest. My small feeders are getting drained by mid-day. I need a reliable source for black oil sunflower seeds and bigger feeders. Luckily, the finches never go hungry thanks to that thistle seed feeder. Thank you @Robin Of House Hill! These cams are wonderful teaching tools, aren't they? Here's one of our peregrine falcon nests if you're interested. Hatching should begin around April 14. I'll warn you, though, that this crazy bird has a habit of eating her chicks and none of the experts knows why. http://www.aviary.org/PF-Nestcam1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady narcissa Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 Apologies for interrupting this thread. @Lily Valley can you please PM me? I tried to PM you but it said you can't receive messages. /ends thread interruption To make this on topic...there is an adorable red cardinal that lives on my street which blows my mind because I live in the middle of a large city and it just seems so out of place. But I think one of the apartment buildings has a garden of sorts behind it and it must primarily live there and come out to the street front every so often. It makes me so happy when I see it once or twice a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily Valley Posted April 6, 2018 Author Share Posted April 6, 2018 19 hours ago, lady narcissa said: Apologies for interrupting this thread. @Lily Valley can you please PM me? I tried to PM you but it said you can't receive messages. /ends thread interruption To make this on topic...there is an adorable red cardinal that lives on my street which blows my mind because I live in the middle of a large city and it just seems so out of place. But I think one of the apartment buildings has a garden of sorts behind it and it must primarily live there and come out to the street front every so often. It makes me so happy when I see it once or twice a year. Ah, my mailbox was full. Fire away! On topic, the mockingbird have started guarding their nests. I'm getting chased walking around! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 Pine Warblers have started arriving!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 For those who are getting into birding: local bird observatories will usually post migration forecasts based on current sightings, historical data, radar data, and weather reports. Here's a forecast that my friend helped write: https://cranecreekbirding.blogspot.com/2018/04/april-11-to-15-more-migrants-incoming.html Do a google search to see if someone is doing a migration forecast for your area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindwalker Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 I somehow got sucked into this thread. Fascinating! Although in my place (big city), I mostly just see crows (love them), pigeons (dont love'em), magpies, and on the river, ducks and six white swans (one of them giving my crazy little dog the evil eye, so we hastily retreated). Sparrows have become quite rare. Oh, and right across the river, in another city, we have a nice colony of those small green parrots named after Alexander the Great (decendants of ex-imprisoned birds-- neozoons??). I was wondering, any recommendations for birding in Central Europe, like field guides, identification websites and such? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 I can ask my friends who are bird guides (e.g. people who lead bird walks and bird tours for a living) which ones they use. Mind, those books will be in English, so you'll probably have to either look for translations, or get in contact with a local bird guide or birding group to get the local vernacular names. Digging around, I've seen multiple glowing reviews of this field guide: https://www.amazon.com/Collins-Bird-Guide-Lars-Svensson/dp/0007268149 and here's a link to the app: http://collinsbirdguideapp.com/ BTW, I always recommend getting an actual physical book in addition to any apps -- it's much easier to flip through and start seeing similarities between birds within a family or genus, which will help your birding ID skills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 I saw my first Swallows of the year yesterday, which was nice. Also, I saw a mystery bird, and still cannot ID it. Normally, I would guess that my mind was playing tricks after a fleeting glimpse, but I followed this duck down the river for at least half a mile and had excellent and repeated views through by binoculars. I suppose it must have been an escaped exotic or a hybrid of some sort. Still, very frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 Domesticated Mallards can be a giant PITA and, yeah, confound birders all the time. Can you give us some field marks of your mystery duck? This article concerns North American ducks, but it's a good overview of how duck variation and hybridization can really mess with identification. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/domducks.htm MOAR ducks: http://www.10000birds.com/manky-mallards-domestic-feral-or-just-plain-odd-mallards.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 Yes, it was about 25% bigger than a Mallard (easy to estimate owing to a heated encounter at one point), its body was dirty white or cream, with some brown wing feathers, its head was dark brown, bordering on black, and it had a dark blue bill of Mallard shape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 whoa. Blue bill? Which ducks in England/Yurp have blue bills? (Right now the only one I can think of for NA is the Ruddy Duck in breeding plumage.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 The Smew and the Tufted Duck have greyish blue bills, but they're both smaller than a Mallard. #baffled Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 Hmm, could be a Smew... at a stretch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smew#/media/File:Smew_female_RWD5.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 it's probably some hellish combo of hybrid and leucistic, just to be extra-special annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 Must have been some party! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 1 hour ago, Xray the Enforcer said: This article concerns North American ducks, but it's a good overview of how duck variation and hybridization can really mess with identification. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/domducks.htm MOAR ducks: http://www.10000birds.com/manky-mallards-domestic-feral-or-just-plain-odd-mallards.htm I've just seen your edit. Thanks! It looked very, very much like the Khaki Campbell in the second link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. X Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 1 hour ago, Hereward said: Yes, it was about 25% bigger than a Mallard (easy to estimate owing to a heated encounter at one point), its body was dirty white or cream, with some brown wing feathers, its head was dark brown, bordering on black, and it had a dark blue bill of Mallard shape. You had a heated encounter with a duck? Do tell! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 What goes on on the riverbank, stays on the riverbank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seli Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 20 hours ago, Mindwalker said: I somehow got sucked into this thread. Fascinating! Although in my place (big city), I mostly just see crows (love them), pigeons (dont love'em), magpies, and on the river, ducks and six white swans (one of them giving my crazy little dog the evil eye, so we hastily retreated). Sparrows have become quite rare. Oh, and right across the river, in another city, we have a nice colony of those small green parrots named after Alexander the Great (decendants of ex-imprisoned birds-- neozoons??). I was wondering, any recommendations for birding in Central Europe, like field guides, identification websites and such? I tend to use paper books, for the reasons Xray already mentioned and because I grew up with them. I do prefer particular lay-outs and the presence of distribution maps in my guides, but that is personal taste. The aforementioned Lars Svensson has a Dutch edition, which I believe is nice. Another one I have here is by Detlef Singer, which might be translated in other languages as well (Originally German). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.