Wild Side Ornithology Club

[freedombecki]

Wow, Foxfyre. 10pm to 3am? That songster sure knows how to make his neighbor birds crazy with his clever soliloquy! They'll pack their bags and let him have the place!!! what a twit!

One of his calls sounded exactly like Christmas jingle bells.

 

[Pogo]

For desert dwellers we do enjoy a large variety of birds throughout New Mexico, but maybe not quite as many song birds as we had in Kansas. Probably if we worked harder to build a bird habitat in the yard, we would have more, but feeding the birds also attracts and encourages breeding of mice which is not good here.

But we do have some nesting mocking birds nearby and they provide us with a lot of birdsong for hours at a time.

Mockingbird Song Serenade - YouTube

I miss mockingbirds. They don't like the mountains much so I only see them if I go to Flatland.

Amazing talents for mimickability:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5aSW6EuYjY]???????? mockingbird mimicking car alarm - YouTube[/ame]

Not to be outdone down under is the Australian lyrebird...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjAcyTXRunY]World's Weirdest - Bird Mimics Chainsaw, Car Alarm and More - YouTube[/ame]

Camera shutter with motor... chainsaw...?

 

[Pogo]

For the record, my first hummingbird just showed up.

To be followed by dozens more

 

[Spoonman]

some birds on the feeder

 

[Spoonman]

 

[freedombecki]

Wow! The goldfinches are going for that sock big time! I just put one out a couple of weeks ago but bet its all empty. I better go get some more!

Thanks, Spoonman. Great pictures. I love all of them.

 

[Spoonman]

Wow! The goldfinches are going for that sock big time! I just put one out a couple of weeks ago but bet its all empty. I better go get some more!

Thanks, Spoonman. Great pictures. I love all of them.

thanks becki, I have a great video to download later too

 

[freedombecki]

Wow! The goldfinches are going for that sock big time! I just put one out a couple of weeks ago but bet its all empty. I better go get some more!

Thanks, Spoonman. Great pictures. I love all of them.

thanks becki, I have a great video to download later too

That sounds fun! Looking forward to seeing it!

 

[Spoonman]

Wow! The goldfinches are going for that sock big time! I just put one out a couple of weeks ago but bet its all empty. I better go get some more!

Thanks, Spoonman. Great pictures. I love all of them.

thanks becki, I have a great video to download later too

That sounds fun! Looking forward to seeing it!

let me download it now and get it on youtube

 

[Spoonman]

I've been feeding birds outside my office window for quite a few years now. many of them get to know me pretty well. at times I can even hold my hand out the window and have them land on it. i'll have birds hang out in the tree next to the feeder while I refill it. but this woodpecker took things to a different level. he lets me know when the feeder or suet are empty. every time they are he comes to the window and does this little dance and pecks on the window to get my attention and let me know its empty. once I fill it, he stops. this has been going on for a few years now.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkxglKtqSR8&feature=youtu.be]M4H03623 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[freedombecki]

I've been feeding birds outside my office window for quite a few years now. many of them get to know me pretty well. at times I can even hold my hand out the window and have them land on it. i'll have birds hang out in the tree next to the feeder while I refill it. but this woodpecker took things to a different level. he lets me know when the feeder or suet are empty. every time they are he comes to the window and does this little dance and pecks on the window to get my attention and let me know its empty. once I fill it, he stops. this has been going on for a few years now.

M4H03623 - YouTube

Spoonman, that's totally wonderful!!!!

Thanks for sharing it.

 

[Pogo]

I've been feeding birds outside my office window for quite a few years now. many of them get to know me pretty well. at times I can even hold my hand out the window and have them land on it. i'll have birds hang out in the tree next to the feeder while I refill it. but this woodpecker took things to a different level. he lets me know when the feeder or suet are empty. every time they are he comes to the window and does this little dance and pecks on the window to get my attention and let me know its empty. once I fill it, he stops. this has been going on for a few years now.

M4H03623 - YouTube

Spoon, I'm sure you're not used to hearing this but .... nice pecker!
Thanks for taking the time and trouble to upload that.

I had a beautiful serendipitous experience yesterday on what I thought was a business trip. It didn't dawn on me until in the moment that I would be driving along Lake Erie in the height of the migratory season and I'd have time for a diversion

but fortunately I noticed the sign at the Magee Marsh Wildlife area in northwest Ohio, where there's a nice boardwalk to walk through the area. The place was teeming with birds and birders-- soon as I stopped at the info station there were a couple of eagles flying overhead. They say it's the warbler capital of the world, and it was crawling with birders from all over wielding serious optical weapons of mass instruction.

All I had was a cheap camera not really suitable but if I can find some worthwhile shots.

Lots of birding events on right about now.

Biggest Week in American Birding

Calendar


This area and the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge are along highway OH 2, maybe 30-40 miles east of Toledo.

 

[Spoonman]

I've been feeding birds outside my office window for quite a few years now. many of them get to know me pretty well. at times I can even hold my hand out the window and have them land on it. i'll have birds hang out in the tree next to the feeder while I refill it. but this woodpecker took things to a different level. he lets me know when the feeder or suet are empty. every time they are he comes to the window and does this little dance and pecks on the window to get my attention and let me know its empty. once I fill it, he stops. this has been going on for a few years now.

M4H03623 - YouTube

Spoon, I'm sure you're not used to hearing this but .... nice pecker!
Thanks for taking the time and trouble to upload that.

I had a beautiful serendipitous experience yesterday on what I thought was a business trip. It didn't dawn on me until in the moment that I would be driving along Lake Erie in the height of the migratory season and I'd have time for a diversion

but fortunately I noticed the sign at the Magee Marsh Wildlife area in northwest Ohio, where there's a nice boardwalk to walk through the area. The place was teeming with birds and birders-- soon as I stopped at the info station there were a couple of eagles flying overhead. They say it's the warbler capital of the world, and it was crawling with birders from all over wielding serious optical weapons of mass instruction.

All I had was a cheap camera not really suitable but if I can find some worthwhile shots.

Lots of birding events on right about now.

Biggest Week in American Birding

Calendar


This area and the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge are along highway OH 2, maybe 30-40 miles east of Toledo.

very cool. I am lucky to be surrounded by some pretty diverse habitat. i live in a very rural area that has a good mix of forest, open meadow and grasslands, marsh and lakes. even the woods that directly surround my house are woodland, meadow and bordered by marsh. so i get a tremendous amount of diversity in wildlife.

 

[koshergrl]

We have a lot of nifty stuff here too...coastal mountains, temperate rainforest, estuaries, bays, rocky and sandy shores, dunes....

I love it, you see amazing things just driving the kids to school, lol. Which is good, my schedule doesn't allow for much quiet down time. We have quite a few osprey and bald eagle, with all the lakes, rivers and ocean.

 

[Spoonman]

We have a lot of nifty stuff here too...coastal mountains, temperate rainforest, estuaries, bays, rocky and sandy shores, dunes....

I love it, you see amazing things just driving the kids to school, lol. Which is good, my schedule doesn't allow for much quiet down time. We have quite a few osprey and bald eagle, with all the lakes, rivers and ocean.

nothing beats nature does it? I love getting on my bike and just riding through the mountains. so relaxing

 

[koshergrl]

We are also host to a lot of migratory water birds and such...very cool. I heard a whole flock of white birds making a bizarro sound I've never heard before as they flew towards the estuary over my house...I couldn't see them well enough to tell what they were, they were sort of far away by the time I spotted them (I heard them first). They were some sort of goose, but not any that live here year round.

Canada honkers fly over my house every morning...and we have sandy plover nesting grounds here as well.

Black tail deer, elk, and black bear...also we've managed to pick up some wolves.

 

[koshergrl]

Plus otters (different types including California sea otters!), seals, sea lions! Mink too.

 

[koshergrl]

Today at lunch I went to one of the local lakes...I saw osprey hunting but at a distance...

And I was checked out very closely by these:

who were camped out in the tops of the tallest conifers...

Here:

I dunno I'm into the aerial pics of things lately, lol.

Oregon Lakes Association - Woahink

This is what my view looked like:

and

Except not in black and white, lol..

 

[Spoonman]

this morning i hear the turkeys gobbling not too far into the woods. they got an early start, about 5 AM. i guess everybody is focused on mating

 

[koshergrl]

Plus otters (different types including California sea otters!), seals, sea lions! Mink too.

Omgosh! So I mentioned the otters...which are a member of the least weasel family....

Taking the kids to school, we saw one of these:

My daughter saw it first, said "Hey look at the squirrel!" Then it was "Wait, chipmunk! Look at the chipmunk! Wait..what IS that???"

Well it was a mink, white tipped tail and all. It ran along the residential street, then crossed the road and dodged under a bush.

This is right in the same location that my friend, my brother and I used to play along the creek....we saw these in the creek every year at the same place, and thought they were little otters.

Nope, they were mink..and they're still around, despite the degree of development. What was complete wilderness is now developed...except for the very banks of the creek, which are still a tangle of bramble..and these guys are still in there somewhere.