Wild Side Ornithology Club

[Spoonman]

nearing the end. these birds will be out of the nest soon. one is already gone

 

[Spoonman]

No better bird to honor the day

 

[freedombecki]

No better bird to honor the day

Love these fabulous pictures of the American National Bird, and on Independence Day, too! Thanks, Spoonman!!

 

[freedombecki]

This morning, I cheerfully stumbled on a great new website, "IBC" or the Internet Bird Collection. Link to IBC: the Internet Bird Collection

Here are the stats:

75337videos
91447photos
10514sounds

7787 species with videos (78.05%)
8899 species with photos (89.2%)
5297 species with sounds (53.09%)
92.91% of all the species covered
Whoa!!! Is that cool or what!!!

​

Here is one of the pictures:

​

And link to the page in which to view one of the videos, a House Finch eating loquats and replaced by a Western Tanager: http://ibc.lynxeds.com/video/house-...lt-female-feeding-loquat-fruit-then-being-dis

I love it! ​

 

[freedombecki]

Oh, I forgot the name of the goose above but it's the Hawaiian State Bird. BRB

(back now) Oh, the Hawaiian goose is the nene, Branta sandwicensis.

 

[flacaltenn]

Turkey Hen taken from my back door.. They brooded up in our woods and led the chicks around for weeks..

[/IMG]

 

[freedombecki]

Turkey Hen taken from my back door.. They brooded up in our woods and led the chicks around for weeks..

[/IMG]

Thanks, flacaltenn! What I wouldn't give if a flock of turkeys nested on our little acreage. We're even between two seasonal creeks! Oh, well. We have Great white egrets in our lake, and Great Blue Herons frequent here as well. Yesterday, the hugest Great egret I've ever seen was enjoying a morning of fishing. He was so beautiful. The others are large, but he seemed a lot larger. No, not a swan, just a typical grace-filled white egret.

I've seen one of them whip 5 flamingos. And I do mean they left after three days. He singled them out and tortured them with minor maneuvers. They may have been very immature flamingos, but they got the message. Too bad. They were so pink and cute.

 

[flacaltenn]

Turkey Hen taken from my back door.. They brooded up in our woods and led the chicks around for weeks..

[/IMG]

Thanks, flacaltenn! What I wouldn't give if a flock of turkeys nested on our little acreage. We're even between two seasonal creeks! Oh, well. We have Great white egrets in our lake, and Great Blue Herons frequent here as well. Yesterday, the hugest Great egret I've ever seen was enjoying a morning of fishing. He was so beautiful. The others are large, but he seemed a lot larger. No, not a swan, just a typical grace-filled white egret.

I've seen one of them whip 5 flamingos. And I do mean they left after three days. He singled them out and tortured them with minor maneuvers. They may have been very immature flamingos, but they got the message. Too bad. They were so pink and cute.

I ALMOST got a viral class video of a flock of turkeys in the yard "playing" with one of neighborhood cats.. 10 of them circled the cat just like rope-a-dope and if the cat charged, they would leap over each other.. Cat was tired after 20 minutes or so and slinked off.

Thought I had it recorded, but only got a couple seconds of it..

When the turkey hens brought their brood into the yard, I had a hose going up the hill. The little ones were lined up singled single file, but not one of them was brave enough to leap the hose. The lead guy would charge the hose and go to the back of the line. This went on for about an hour..

So much enjoyment out of our birds around here. Costs a fortune to keep a couple feeder going with the chipmunks and jays and squirrels..

 

[freedombecki]

Turkey Hen taken from my back door.. They brooded up in our woods and led the chicks around for weeks..

[/IMG]

Thanks, flacaltenn! What I wouldn't give if a flock of turkeys nested on our little acreage. We're even between two seasonal creeks! Oh, well. We have Great white egrets in our lake, and Great Blue Herons frequent here as well. Yesterday, the hugest Great egret I've ever seen was enjoying a morning of fishing. He was so beautiful. The others are large, but he seemed a lot larger. No, not a swan, just a typical grace-filled white egret.

I've seen one of them whip 5 flamingos. And I do mean they left after three days. He singled them out and tortured them with minor maneuvers. They may have been very immature flamingos, but they got the message. Too bad. They were so pink and cute.

I ALMOST got a viral class video of a flock of turkeys in the yard "playing" with one of neighborhood cats.. 10 of them circled the cat just like rope-a-dope and if the cat charged, they would leap over each other.. Cat was tired after 20 minutes or so and slinked off.

Thought I had it recorded, but only got a couple seconds of it..

When the turkey hens brought their brood into the yard, I had a hose going up the hill. The little ones were lined up singled single file, but not one of them was brave enough to leap the hose. The lead guy would charge the hose and go to the back of the line. This went on for about an hour..

So much enjoyment out of our birds around here. Costs a fortune to keep a couple feeder going with the chipmunks and jays and squirrels..

Both scenes sound amazing, flacaltenn. If I had watched them avoid the hose, I would have been laughing till I cried. I love baby animals, and even more so when they are adorned with feathers. The cat-hunt-turkeys scene would have been to die for!

 

[Spoonman]

robins are starting late this year. this is the first hatch I've seen of them

These guys have just gotten started

 

[flacaltenn]

THe robins come thru here every fall mixed in with cedar waxwings.

There's always a couple days when they strip the Holly trees bare of berries in minutes.

It's just like Hitchcock's movie...

 

[Spoonman]

THe robins come thru here every fall mixed in with cedar waxwings.

There's always a couple days when they strip the Holly trees bare of berries in minutes.

It's just like Hitchcock's movie...

sounds like a cool sight to see. robbins show up here early spring and are usually nesting by april. for some reason they are just getting started this year

 

[freedombecki]

THe robins come thru here every fall mixed in with cedar waxwings.

There's always a couple days when they strip the Holly trees bare of berries in minutes.

It's just like Hitchcock's movie...

Once upon a wintry day in Wyoming, a flock of unusual birds came flying around my house. They looked like cardinals, except they didn't have any red coloring, and they had these mask-like dark markings around their crested heads, and bodies of a neutral but cool, grayish tan. I looked them up, they were "Cedar Waxwings" I've loved them ever since, but never saw another in Wyoming. What they were doing in such a cold weather's day there, is a mystery to me to this day.

The only other weird occurance was when black guillemots arrived at my little man-made lake behind the house here in the Piney Woods of Texas. They arrived in late Spring and stayed until the cool days of fall. There was no mistake, because black guillemots have a certain look and wing coloration, and they're divers. Only trouble is, in summer they gather above the arctic circle, but this flock remained all summer at my lake. I have no idea why that is. Occasionally I spot a pretty bird out on the lake, but those black guillemots charmed my heart to pieces. When they fly in a flock, you could get dizzy watching them. Their markings make them pointillism in motion, is the best description I can give you, but it's an excitement of nature you have to see to believe. If you're ever up in the arctic in summer and you notice a dizzying, delightful large group of beautiful birds flying over head the size of a duck but with pointed bills, check the markings of a couple of them that land. While they're landing you should see the white markings of their wings that give them that spectacle like no other I've ever seen in all my years. Not all popcorn is in a pot! They just boom visually when flying.

Our diverse nature. Simply amazing and unexplainable gifts from God.

A black guillemot:

And another:

Oh, yes, and those red feet? That's what made me know which bird they were! (In addition to their wing color) The inside of their mouth is just as red as their feet, I'm thinking.

 

[freedombecki]

robins are starting late this year. this is the first hatch I've seen of them

These guys have just gotten started

Thanks for the totally fabulous pictures, Spoonman. You have an eye for nature.

 

[Foxfyre]

Posted this in the Coffee Shop this morning but thought it should be here too:

This is a Rufus-necked wood-rail that showed up in our Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge (just south of Albuquerque) this week. First sighting EVER of one of these in the United States as it is unique to tropical coastal areas of lower Central and South America. Why it showed up here in the New Mexico high desert is a mystery but it was front page news in the Albuquerque Journal this morning and we also made the Dallas news, Huffington Post, and probably a lot of other media. Birders are coming from all over the country hoping to get a glimpse of it.

Now those of us who come to this thread all enjoy and appreciate wild life and enjoy seeing wild things. But are ya'll passionate enough about birding that you would buy a plane ticket or drive 700 miles hoping to see one of these things? I love nature and most things in it, but I can honestly say I don't have THAT much passion for bird watching.

 

[flacaltenn]

Posted this in the Coffee Shop this morning but thought it should be here too:

This is a Rufus-necked wood-rail that showed up in our Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge (just south of Albuquerque) this week. First sighting EVER of one of these in the United States as it is unique to tropical coastal areas of lower Central and South America. Why it showed up here in the New Mexico high desert is a mystery but it was front page news in the Albuquerque Journal this morning and we also made the Dallas news, Huffington Post, and probably a lot of other media. Birders are coming from all over the country hoping to get a glimpse of it.

Now those of us who come to this thread all enjoy and appreciate wild life and enjoy seeing wild things. But are ya'll passionate enough about birding that you would buy a plane ticket or drive 700 miles hoping to see one of these things? I love nature and most things in it, but I can honestly say I don't have THAT much passion for bird watching.

I smell a slightly unethical way to increase tourism.. Could work.. <<sarcasm>>

 

[Foxfyre]

Posted this in the Coffee Shop this morning but thought it should be here too:

This is a Rufus-necked wood-rail that showed up in our Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge (just south of Albuquerque) this week. First sighting EVER of one of these in the United States as it is unique to tropical coastal areas of lower Central and South America. Why it showed up here in the New Mexico high desert is a mystery but it was front page news in the Albuquerque Journal this morning and we also made the Dallas news, Huffington Post, and probably a lot of other media. Birders are coming from all over the country hoping to get a glimpse of it.

Now those of us who come to this thread all enjoy and appreciate wild life and enjoy seeing wild things. But are ya'll passionate enough about birding that you would buy a plane ticket or drive 700 miles hoping to see one of these things? I love nature and most things in it, but I can honestly say I don't have THAT much passion for bird watching.

I smell a slightly unethical way to increase tourism.. Could work.. <<sarcasm>>

I doubt even the State of New Mexico government, not really known for unreproachable conduct, attitudes, methods, or morals, would go to all that expense to attract a few dedicated bird watchers.

 

[flacaltenn]

Posted this in the Coffee Shop this morning but thought it should be here too:

This is a Rufus-necked wood-rail that showed up in our Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge (just south of Albuquerque) this week. First sighting EVER of one of these in the United States as it is unique to tropical coastal areas of lower Central and South America. Why it showed up here in the New Mexico high desert is a mystery but it was front page news in the Albuquerque Journal this morning and we also made the Dallas news, Huffington Post, and probably a lot of other media. Birders are coming from all over the country hoping to get a glimpse of it.


Now those of us who come to this thread all enjoy and appreciate wild life and enjoy seeing wild things. But are ya'll passionate enough about birding that you would buy a plane ticket or drive 700 miles hoping to see one of these things? I love nature and most things in it, but I can honestly say I don't have THAT much passion for bird watching.

I smell a slightly unethical way to increase tourism.. Could work.. <<sarcasm>>

I doubt even the State of New Mexico government, not really known for unreproachable conduct, attitudes, methods, or morals, would go to all that expense to attract a few dedicated bird watchers.

Just getting out the msg that you desert dwellers HAVE birds (and water like in the pic)--- would increase visitors..

 

[Foxfyre]

I smell a slightly unethical way to increase tourism.. Could work.. <<sarcasm>>

I doubt even the State of New Mexico government, not really known for unreproachable conduct, attitudes, methods, or morals, would go to all that expense to attract a few dedicated bird watchers.

Just getting out the msg that you desert dwellers HAVE birds (and water like in the pic)--- would increase visitors..

For sure. New Mexico actually has the fifth largest land mass in area, border to border, though I suspect with all our mountains, if we were flattened out we would be the size of Texas. But we also have the least amount of surface water of all 50 states. Nevertheless, the Apache del Bosque wildlife refuge attracts millions of migrating birds and is a favorite destination for thousands and thousands of bird watchers every year. Probably because surface water is so scarce, the refuge attracts a larger concentration of birds--everything from sandhill crane and even a rare whooping crane to Arctic geese to hummingbirds.

I was just reading though that bird watchers are coming from around the world to see that rufus-necked wood-rail. I'll admit that I just don't see why it is so important, but I think I'm glad there are people who do. But then I have a nephew that travels far and wide just to attend huge shows where they buy and sell the glass insulators that used to occupy the tops of telephone and power poles. We are an interesting and diverse people.

 

[Spoonman]