BIRDS -- even more bird mafia discussion

[Xray the Enforcer]

The last thread was locked so I've started a new one -- and with a celebration! Mr. X and I saw our lifer Common Redpoll today. This was *the* bird I had wanted to see this winter and I am so glad that I was able to finally find some. They were foraging with a flock of Snow Bunting and Horned Lark, two of the best non-alcid winter birds in my region. 

[A True Kaniggit]

This thread deserves another post. No matter how weird. 
 

Yay birds!

[Mlle. Zabzie]

That is AWESOME!!!!

Today my sunflower seed feeder was overwhelmed by a flock of red-winged blackbirds.  The jays were not amused. 

Our finch population is strong and the juncos just kept doing their thing, but the jays were sort of bewildered.

Also ravens are freaking huge.

In non bird related news saw a possum streaking across our pool cover.

[Zorral]

Quote

"Twitter Is Turning Birds Into Celebrities and Birders Against One Another
A Twitter account helped spread the word about rare birds in New York City, but publicizing their locations exposed a rift among birders."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/nyregion/central-park-birders.html?

[Xray the Enforcer]

That article is terrible and does nothing to actually cover the issue at hand: owls are easily disturbed and many starve to death because they cannot effectively hunt while a bunch of people are staring at them. Also the fact that journalists, including that failson, keep uncritically quoting the same unethical men -- who are not avian ecologists or ornithologists and who have a financial (DiCandido) or ego (Barrett) interest in harassing birds -- is just disgusting. It's also a failure on a professional level, and I hope that a vulture shits copiously in that journalist's mouth.

It is SO EASY to bird ethically (I do!), and yet it seems to be beyond the abilities of some people who value their entitlement over the needs of vulnerable animals. 

[ThinkerX]

on the route at work, I routinely pass by crows feeding on small dead critters that died via road kill.  I believe they intentionally scare said critters onto the road in hopes of such mishaps.  Last week I saw a pair of bald eagles that had joined said crows road kill feast, right in the middle of the pack  

[Tywin et al.]

Nvm.

[DireWolfSpirit]

31 minutes ago, ThinkerX said:

on the route at work, I routinely pass by crows feeding on small dead critters that died via road kill.  I believe they intentionally scare said critters onto the road in hopes of such mishaps.  Last week I saw a pair of bald eagles that had joined said crows road kill feast, right in the middle of the pack  

That is exactly what I'm seeing often on my commute to work. Eagles and super humongous Ravens picking over field carcasses.

I thought they were Crows but have been informed these are Ravens, small dog sized lol, these things must be full of venison.

[DireWolfSpirit]

At home we have a nice tree grove behind the house. Lots of woodpeckers, morning dove, blue jay, etc.

Most exciting for me is the Great Horned Owl I keep hearing but have yet to sight. Others have seen the Owl perched on the garage when stepping out for a smoke.

Unmistakable call-

 

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, Xray the Enforcer said:

That article is terrible and does nothing to actually cover the issue at hand: owls are easily disturbed and many starve to death because they cannot effectively hunt while a bunch of people are staring at them. Also the fact that journalists, including that failson, keep uncritically quoting the same unethical men -- who are not avian ecologists or ornithologists and who have a financial (DiCandido) or ego (Barrett) interest in harassing birds -- is just disgusting. It's also a failure on a professional level, and I hope that a vulture shits copiously in that journalist's mouth.

It is SO EASY to bird ethically (I do!), and yet it seems to be beyond the abilities of some people who value their entitlement over the needs of vulnerable animals. 

Maybe it's the editor's organization of how its presented, because the concluding paragraph could easily be read as ho-hum no issues here? It was a mistake to conclude with that remark without context, saying, "If you really don't want to interfere with the birds, stay home."  Quite the same as anti-maskers: "Don't like it if people aren't wearing masks?  Stay home!"

The NYC papers regularly bring us articles on birds and twitchers and what is ethical and what is not.  So does the local public radio station.  They don't endorse harassing birds at all.

But yes, the pandemic has accelerated our loving nature to death.

What we have been hearing the most about lately, besides the Karen with the leashless dog who called the police on a quiet black birder who objected to her rambunctious dog scaring the birds and lied in front of his face telling them he was attacking her -- is the crows mobbing all the new owls that are moving in, including immediately the Great Snowy.  My friends in southwest, who had a nesting pair of owls move into the tree by their patio have been mobbed relentlessly by the crows too.  Then a falcon started hunting that territory.

I've watched several times now crows mobbing our neighborhood falcons who have grabbed a nestling or nabbed a crow right out the air while in flight.  But the falcon has these places on top of room a/c window units where it takes refuge and can't reach him.  Then he takes the prey back to the nest.  This is right on West Broadway!

 

[Mlle. Zabzie]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

Maybe it's the editor's organization of how its presented, because the concluding paragraph could easily be read as ho-hum no issues here? It was a mistake to conclude with that remark without context, saying, "If you really don't want to interfere with the birds, stay home."  Quite the same as anti-maskers: "Don't like it if people aren't wearing masks?  Stay home!"

The NYC papers regularly bring us articles on birds and twitchers and what is ethical and what is not.  So does the local public radio station.  They don't endorse harassing birds at all.

But yes, the pandemic has accelerated our loving nature to death.

What we have been hearing the most about lately, besides the Karen with the leashless dog who called the police on a quiet black birder who objected to her rambunctious dog scaring the birds and lied in front of his face telling them he was attacking her -- is the crows mobbing all the new owls that are moving in, including immediately the Great Snowy.  My friends in southwest, who had a nesting pair of owls move into the tree by their patio have been mobbed relentlessly by the crows too.  Then a falcon started hunting that territory.

I've watched several times now crows mobbing our neighborhood falcons who have grabbed a nestling or nabbed a crow right out the air while in flight.  But the falcon has these places on top of room a/c window units where it takes refuge and can't reach him.  Then he takes the prey back to the nest.  This is right on West Broadway!

 

I'm pleased as punch to see crows back in the tri-state.  They were decimated by West Nile ~15 years ago, and I believe are only now making a comeback.  Also, corvids are fun.  

[Larry of the Lawn]

We had a few snowy owls in my area a few winters ago, fortunately someone put up a bunch of flyers near all the riverfront parks and on FB alerting people that they were likely down here because the were starving and not to approach within 100 yds.  

On a slightly unrelated note, please use traps and deterrents for rodent control, owls often eat poisoned rodents.  I found a dead great horned owl last year that was bleeding from it's eyes and cloaca but otherwise appeared uninjured.  I saw a DEC ranger later that day (warning they are still cops!) and told him about it to see if they had any interest in it, he said that they'd been finding a bunch of raptors poisoned by rat poison, and most were owls.  

[TheLastWolf]

Caw Caw! @Xray the Enforcer

How the hell do crows partner with Brahminy kites and hunt rodents in my backyard!? 

[Mlle. Zabzie]

58 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

I’ve never seen an owl in person, but pictures are good enough for me. I hear the one that lives close to W’s house. It has a very loud WHO WHO call.

There are a lot of fat squirrels for it to eat, and his house is right next to a creek, so there’s also a water source. 

I have hopes of my owl box.  It is 12 feet in the air facing east (into a nature preserve) in a lightly wooded area. Even if I never see the denizens, I want them to eat chipmunks. 

[A True Kaniggit]

3 hours ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

I have hopes of my owl box.  It is 12 feet in the air facing east (into a nature preserve) in a lightly wooded area. Even if I never see the denizens, I want them to eat chipmunks. 

Do you have bird feeders?

When I was little my grandma despised chipmunks. They were always stealing from her feeders. 

[Mlle. Zabzie]

21 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Do you have bird feeders?

When I was little my grandma despised chipmunks. They were always stealing from her feeders. 

Yes, I have bird feeders.  The chipmunks are definitely interested, but the squirrels (and the raccoon) are worse....  

[Argonath Diver]

On 2/15/2021 at 12:18 PM, DireWolfSpirit said:

At home we have a nice tree grove behind the house. Lots of woodpeckers, morning dove, blue jay, etc.

Most exciting for me is the Great Horned Owl I keep hearing but have yet to sight. Others have seen the Owl perched on the garage when stepping out for a smoke.

Unmistakable call-

 

Great Horned Owls are my favorite bird. What an incredible animal. I sure hope you get to see him; of course they're nocturnal, but it's not uncommon to see one swoop through at dusk, or even mid-day on occasion. Bigger wingspan than local hawks, and a body nearly as robust as an eagle's. 

My parents still live in the same house for nearly fifty years now. A lovely 3 acre wooded property, once outside of town, now rather encircled. I'm still over there fairly often for projects, yard work and all that. Dad is a lifelong birder and has a robust life list over three continents. The jerk. I have my back balcony and of course our woods. 

We do, though, get some great birds occasionally. No Great Horned Owls in several years - though in my childhood we had one that lived far up our a huge oak for a long time, hence my joy seeing them. Currently there is at least one Barred Owl with a nest close by; they are still very big, but not quite as magnificent as their cousins. Their call is similar, but also unmistakable - "Hoo hoo hoo-hoo,  hoo hoo ho-hooooo"  or as my dad says "Who cooks for you, who cooks the stewww"

Anyway, today I was over shovelling our long-ass driveway, and saw one of the rarest birds we get! A Pileated Woodpecker. Absolutely tremendous. No confirmed sightings on our property, according to dad's bird book, since 1996. Generally, the biggest woodpeckers around are Red Headed ones, which are perhaps a smidge bigger than a blue jay (with a very distinctive round and bright red full helmet of a head). Pileateds, on the other hand, are freakin' huge - size of a crow, with a gorgeous red crest atop black-and-white striped racoon eyes. A very distinctive call, and holy crap when he was hammering away for a sweet, sweet grub in our sub-zero windchill, it echoed through the woods. Apologies for the ramble, I'm about as excited as a casual birder gets today.

[Mlle. Zabzie]

17 minutes ago, Argonath Diver said:

Great Horned Owls are my favorite bird. What an incredible animal. I sure hope you get to see him; of course they're nocturnal, but it's not uncommon to see one swoop through at dusk, or even mid-day on occasion. Bigger wingspan than local hawks, and a body nearly as robust as an eagle's. 

My parents still live in the same house for nearly fifty years now. A lovely 3 acre wooded property, once outside of town, now rather encircled. I'm still over there fairly often for projects, yard work and all that. Dad is a lifelong birder and has a robust life list over three continents. The jerk. I have my back balcony and of course our woods. 

We do, though, get some great birds occasionally. No Great Horned Owls in several years - though in my childhood we had one that lived far up our a huge oak for a long time, hence my joy seeing them. Currently there is at least one Barred Owl with a nest close by; they are still very big, but not quite as magnificent as their cousins. Their call is similar, but also unmistakable - "Hoo hoo hoo-hoo,  hoo hoo ho-hooooo"  or as my dad says "Who cooks for you, who cooks the stewww"

Anyway, today I was over shovelling our long-ass driveway, and saw one of the rarest birds we get! A Pileated Woodpecker. Absolutely tremendous. No confirmed sightings on our property, according to dad's bird book, since 1996. Generally, the biggest woodpeckers around are Red Headed ones, which are perhaps a smidge bigger than a blue jay (with a very distinctive round and bright red full helmet of a head). Pileateds, on the other hand, are freakin' huge - size of a crow, with a gorgeous red crest atop black-and-white striped racoon eyes. A very distinctive call, and holy crap when he was hammering away for a sweet, sweet grub in our sub-zero windchill, it echoed through the woods. Apologies for the ramble, I'm about as excited as a casual birder gets today.

We see pileateds up here fairly frequently (actually all woodpeckers - downy, hairy, red-bellied, yellow-bellied sap-suckers, flickers, even the odd red-headed, which are super rare).  There is actually a sad reason for this - there are a lot of ash trees in this area.  Unfortunately Emerald Ash Borer is a major problem - we've had to take down several ash trees recently.  But, the woodpeckers go to town.  Sadly, once the woodpeckers are interested, it's far too late for the tree.  Also, there are lots of carpenter bees...

[Argonath Diver]

Apparently the population of pileated woodpeckers has been on the rise the last few decades. Very cool. A friend of mom's told her a couple summers ago that invasive honeysuckle bushes drive out woodpeckers and other foraging birds, as that filthy, vile evil fucking plant covers so much of the woods' floor. One of the biggest projects I've worked on the last two years has been to eliminate hundreds of honeysuckle bushes that weren't so prevalent thirty years ago, and by now have completely monopolized a lot of our woods. We certainly don't see nearly as varied species of birds as were around a few decades ago. Just one more reason for me to get out and murder more of those bedamned bushes. The woods looks so much healthier without it. Alas, underneath that is the even more insidious Eounymus (winter creeper) that has spread throughout our property and the neighbors. 

My condolensces to the loss of your ash trees. We have lost more than half of our old growth oaks due to oak blight. The tree I mentioned housed our old great horned owl was one stately colossus, and it's now an unsightly, dying 80 foot Y-shape that's likely to collapse any season. Birds also likely don't like the intrusion of all the subdivisions that have surrounded our little ~15 acre valley that used to be ringed by cornfields, not ugly little plots with sod yards and ugly cookie-cutter homes. Piss off, progress! 

[Mlle. Zabzie]

27 minutes ago, Argonath Diver said:

Apparently the population of pileated woodpeckers has been on the rise the last few decades. Very cool. A friend of mom's told her a couple summers ago that invasive honeysuckle bushes drive out woodpeckers and other foraging birds, as that filthy, vile evil fucking plant covers so much of the woods' floor. One of the biggest projects I've worked on the last two years has been to eliminate hundreds of honeysuckle bushes that weren't so prevalent thirty years ago, and by now have completely monopolized a lot of our woods. We certainly don't see nearly as varied species of birds as were around a few decades ago. Just one more reason for me to get out and murder more of those bedamned bushes. The woods looks so much healthier without it. Alas, underneath that is the even more insidious Eounymus (winter creeper) that has spread throughout our property and the neighbors. 

My condolensces to the loss of your ash trees. We have lost more than half of our old growth oaks due to oak blight. The tree I mentioned housed our old great horned owl was one stately colossus, and it's now an unsightly, dying 80 foot Y-shape that's likely to collapse any season. Birds also likely don't like the intrusion of all the subdivisions that have surrounded our little ~15 acre valley that used to be ringed by cornfields, not ugly little plots with sod yards and ugly cookie-cutter homes. Piss off, progress! 

It’s very sad.  But we have beautiful maples of various kinds (including one that housed an oriole last summer!), a lovely tulip poplar, and several red and white oaks, dogwood, etc.  We have some ornamental fruit trees that are dying (I’m going to replace them - they don’t live that long) but will go non-ornamental/fruit-bearing.