Wild Side Ornithology Club

[beautress]

I'm concerned about birds that are threatened with extinction after receiving a notice from the Audubon Society, where I've linked to so often because of the calendars I buy every year that they publish. The calendar features one bird per diem (and sometimes one for 2 days) that brighten the square you write stuff on, where you went, projects you finished, and whatever you use the calendar to remind you to do, phone numbers, doctor appointments, professional concerns you dealt with that day, even vacation notes... anyhow, I love my bird calendars and use them or not, I love seeing the bird pictures even if I cannot remember the names and details of each different bird. I once read there are over 900 birds who reside in or visit temporarily the North American continent's USA. Smarter birders than me can keep them all in their head, but I can't, so my contribution is this thread where whoever has something to bring to the table is more than appreciated!

Here's the table of endangered birds I found at the Audubon society for the Texas region: Geographical Search

I'm not sure what qualifies us to know the birds are endangered, but there are birders on their own levels who count birds at Christmas (CBC) and at BBC (some kind of Bird Count that starts with a B). Please bear with me as I learn, but I will try to bring forth an endangered bird from the Audubon Society's endangered list from time to time, and if you find species which have a significant reduction in sightings from year to year and - possibly for reasons unknown - I hope you will bring them to the thread, and if the bird is one you have seen, how you felt when you saw the bird and/or its brood when one picture or another touched you in the heart area.

Example: The American White Pelican, Geographical Search , American White Pelican

Climate Endangered: The American White Pelican
Seasonal Map is here: American White Pelican​

Nesting populations of this species have increased dramatically in the eastern portion of its summer range in recent decades, but the climate space for summering range is forecast to shift dramatically northward and contract for the future. Also, most of the world’s American White Pelicans winter in Mexico, and while Audubon's climate model predicts that the species’ winter range in the U.S. will be likely able to expand and shift northward, further research is needed for a better understanding of whether American White Pelicans may be able to adapt to the shifting available winter range or take advantage of the changing climate suitability for the species as a whole.


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Pelicans are so beautiful.

There's a ferry that crosses the Mississippi River constantly in New Orleans which is a fun ride even if you don't need to cross. As you're waiting to embark the pelicans gather around the propeller wash and cluster there for a nice bath.

"Pelicans are so beautiful"

That is absolutely right on, Pogo. Lake Livingston, which is about an hour's drive from my home gave me some eye candy about 3 years ago, when I was passing two bodies of water with the small town of Onalaska in a peninsula between them. I noticed all these white birds with black-tipped wings hanging around everywhere. There must have been the entire Gulf coast population of them, just thousands of them hanging around, prolific in about a 4 square-mile area I passed. And man, beautiful were they ever! I had never considered them beautiful before until I saw them interacting with the joy of being alive, together, and in the sunshine of that amazing day. Thanks for reminding me how beautiful they are, Pogo. You brought back one of the best memories I will ever have of birds having a convention and enjoying every ray of sunlight they were soaking up. What a gregarious bunch of cutie pies. *sigh*

 

[beautress]

Oh, yeah, and if they were headed for extinction, the other birders may have forgotten to look deep in the heart of Texas, because there they were, hundreds of thousands of them, just having the time of their life.

 

[Pogo]

Oh, yeah, and if they were headed for extinction, the other birders may have forgotten to look deep in the heart of Texas, because there they were, hundreds of thousands of them, just having the time of their life.

It's my understanding that the pelicans in Louisiana -- the Pelican State, for those who remember that motto -- actually were extinguished there and had to be restocked from some populations brought over from Florida.

Well at least we were able to fix it.

 

[beautress]

Oh, yeah, and if they were headed for extinction, the other birders may have forgotten to look deep in the heart of Texas, because there they were, hundreds of thousands of them, just having the time of their life.

It's my understanding that the pelicans in Louisiana -- the Pelican State, for those who remember that motto -- actually were extinguished there and had to be restocked from some populations brought over from Florida.

Well at least we were able to fix it.

Yes, Pogo, our world has lost a lot of delightful birds--the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the Passenger Pigeons. If only they had headed somewhere nobody would have messed with them and I got to see a colony of either of them someday. On my small property, I swear I have seen at least two birds, I don't even know if they exist anywhere else, only saw each one only once*. One was a Kelly green iridescent bird that was bigger than a pigeon but smaller than a goose with a streamlined long neck and just that eyeful of iridescent green, a neither long nor short tail, and we just stood there and watched each other for several minutes. I was like stunned, and I've looked in every bird book I own and have never seen such a bird in any of them. I have no idea what I was looking at, but was he a stunningly graceful animal. That was about 5 years ago, maybe. The year my late husband and I arrived here I saw this unbelievable solid red bird hanging out in the trees south of my southwest pasture, which borders a seasonal stream ravine, and it was the size of a parrot. Unfortunately, I went into the house to grab a camera, but by the time I got back, all was left were the grey branches of prespring woods before the leaves roll out. That red against the bluish gray may have been what made it such a stunning sight. Oh, yes, and prespring here is definitely not cold weather, probably was somewhere between 55 and 65 degrees. Might have been early in 2010, we hadn't been here quite a year. Again, I have no idea if I was looking at a large Amazonian red parrot. Maybe one got lost and flew too far as we are about a hundred miles north of Galveston, Texas, which greets the Gulf of Mexico directly to its south. Could a parrot have flown from South America all the way North across the entire Gulf and a hundred miles up this way to find a bite to eat? I don't know. Just sayin'. What got my attention was the absence of any other color than red, and at first, I thought somebody threw a too-bright red shirt up in those trees, but when I walked closer to where I had sighted it, there was nothing remotely red anywhere around that stand of deciduous trees by the ravine. Gone is gone.

Thanks for the chat. I have to get going to do a little mowing while the sun's shining and it hasn't rained for about 6 hours now. Have an absolutely wonderful weekend, Pogo.

*edit: not twice, only once. lol

 

[Pogo]

Oh, yeah, and if they were headed for extinction, the other birders may have forgotten to look deep in the heart of Texas, because there they were, hundreds of thousands of them, just having the time of their life.

It's my understanding that the pelicans in Louisiana -- the Pelican State, for those who remember that motto -- actually were extinguished there and had to be restocked from some populations brought over from Florida.

Well at least we were able to fix it.

Yes, Pogo, our world has lost a lot of delightful birds--the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the Passenger Pigeons. If only they had headed somewhere nobody would have messed with them and I got to see a colony of either of them someday. On my small property, I swear I have seen at least two birds, I don't even know if they exist anywhere else, only saw each one twice. One was a Kelly green iridescent bird that was bigger than a pigeon but smaller than a goose with a streamlined long neck and just that eyeful of iridescent green, a neither long nor short tail, and we just stood there and watched each other for several minutes. I was like stunned, and I've looked in every bird book I own and have never seen such a bird in any of them. I have no idea what I was looking at, but was he a stunningly graceful animal. That was about 5 years ago, maybe. The year my late husband and I arrived here I saw this unbelievable solid red bird hanging out in the trees south of my southwest pasture, which borders a seasonal stream ravine, and it was the size of a parrot. Unfortunately, I went into the house to grab a camera, but by the time I got back, all was left were the grey branches of prespring woods before the leaves roll out. That red against the bluish gray may have been what made it such a stunning sight. Oh, yes, and prespring here is definitely not cold weather, probably was somewhere between 55 and 65 degrees. Might have been early in 2010, we hadn't been here quite a year. Again, I have no idea if I was looking at a large Amazonian red parrot. Maybe one got lost and flew too far as we are about a hundred miles north of Galveston, Texas, which greets the Gulf of Mexico directly to its south. Could a parrot have flown from South America all the way North across the entire Gulf and a hundred miles up this way to find a bite to eat? I don't know. Just sayin'. What got my attention was the absence of any other color than red, and at first, I thought somebody threw a too-bright red shirt up in those trees, but when I walked closer to where I had sighted it, there was nothing remotely red anywhere around that stand of deciduous trees by the ravine. Gone is gone.

Thanks for the chat. I have to get going to do a little mowing while the sun's shining and it hasn't rained for about 6 hours now. Have an absolutely wonderful weekend, Pogo.

You too Beateous Becki.

I'm actually working all weekend (right now) --- but it's going well.

I don't think I can match your Amazonian parrot et al but a few years ago I was in Cleveland and they asked me to go from there to Detroit, so I meandered along the highway across northern Ohio and came upon a bird sanctuary. I had plenty of time so I stopped, not even realizing it was May and the peak of the migration season, and the place was packed, I mean packed, with very serious birders, calling out breeds and carrying cameras the size of Volkswagens. The people who shoot those awesome pictures we see later. They were all there. It was magical. Never have I seen so many varieties of everything in such a short time.

 

[beautress]

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[beautress]

Oh, yeah, and if they were headed for extinction, the other birders may have forgotten to look deep in the heart of Texas, because there they were, hundreds of thousands of them, just having the time of their life.

It's my understanding that the pelicans in Louisiana -- the Pelican State, for those who remember that motto -- actually were extinguished there and had to be restocked from some populations brought over from Florida.

Well at least we were able to fix it.

Yes, Pogo, our world has lost a lot of delightful birds--the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the Passenger Pigeons. If only they had headed somewhere nobody would have messed with them and I got to see a colony of either of them someday. On my small property, I swear I have seen at least two birds, I don't even know if they exist anywhere else, only saw each one twice. One was a Kelly green iridescent bird that was bigger than a pigeon but smaller than a goose with a streamlined long neck and just that eyeful of iridescent green, a neither long nor short tail, and we just stood there and watched each other for several minutes. I was like stunned, and I've looked in every bird book I own and have never seen such a bird in any of them. I have no idea what I was looking at, but was he a stunningly graceful animal. That was about 5 years ago, maybe. The year my late husband and I arrived here I saw this unbelievable solid red bird hanging out in the trees south of my southwest pasture, which borders a seasonal stream ravine, and it was the size of a parrot. Unfortunately, I went into the house to grab a camera, but by the time I got back, all was left were the grey branches of prespring woods before the leaves roll out. That red against the bluish gray may have been what made it such a stunning sight. Oh, yes, and prespring here is definitely not cold weather, probably was somewhere between 55 and 65 degrees. Might have been early in 2010, we hadn't been here quite a year. Again, I have no idea if I was looking at a large Amazonian red parrot. Maybe one got lost and flew too far as we are about a hundred miles north of Galveston, Texas, which greets the Gulf of Mexico directly to its south. Could a parrot have flown from South America all the way North across the entire Gulf and a hundred miles up this way to find a bite to eat? I don't know. Just sayin'. What got my attention was the absence of any other color than red, and at first, I thought somebody threw a too-bright red shirt up in those trees, but when I walked closer to where I had sighted it, there was nothing remotely red anywhere around that stand of deciduous trees by the ravine. Gone is gone.

Thanks for the chat. I have to get going to do a little mowing while the sun's shining and it hasn't rained for about 6 hours now. Have an absolutely wonderful weekend, Pogo.

You too Beateous Becki.

I'm actually working all weekend (right now) --- but it's going well.

I don't think I can match your Amazonian parrot et al but a few years ago I was in Cleveland and they asked me to go from there to Detroit, so I meandered along the highway across northern Ohio and came upon a bird sanctuary. I had plenty of time so I stopped, not even realizing it was May and the peak of the migration season, and the place was packed, I mean packed, with very serious birders, calling out breeds and carrying cameras the size of Volkswagens. The people who shoot those awesome pictures we see later. They were all there. It was magical. Never have I seen so many varieties of everything in such a short time.

Sounds amazing to me, Pogo! My front yard had 100+ different types of birds any given week of the summer (and quite a few in the winter) the first few years here. I couldn't get over it. Tons and tons. See if I can find some small pics.

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[beautress]

Oh, I got away from birds on the 2018 Audubon Calendar. If you love birds, I hope you contact the Audubon folks for engagement calendars and their specie-a-day calendars (or whatever you call them.) I do my best to at least buy them if through Amazon or Ebay, and if you prefer other online bookstores, you can find them through your favorite search engine. I will just list them, and link to a source from now on, since sometimes the pictures disappear, prolly for good cause by the mods.

Yesterday, my calendar from Audubon Society showed a Green Jay (Nov. 1), and the Lark Sparrow occupies the days of Nov. 2 and 3.

The Green Jay, with its map and at least 3 pictures of their splendid beauty are here at the Audubon Society's Field Guide: Green Jay
Note, that if you want to see one, you better take your best binoculars to South Texas in the triangular area of Laredo, Brownsville, and Corpus Christi with the caution that these are very elusive birds, and they are hard to find, even when you're right on top of them. lol

The Lark Sparrow, according to Audubon is on this page: Lark Sparrow

If coloration is true, this bird is candy to the eye in neutral shades, and has all the loved shades of copper, cool grey-beige, warm beige, black, white, and all shades of brown imaginable, from darkest to lightest. And Audubon has the most delightful 4 songs and 2 calls published toward the bottom of the Lark Sparrow's Audubon Field Guide page.

Hope the links will be satisfactory until I get a camera and figure out how to hook up my wireless scanner when that day comes, if ever. I'm so electronically challenged!

 

[beautress]

Cornell Ornithology Lab has a great song id video entitled "Bird Song Heros" ~ And here it is:

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[beautress]

Tory Petersen's Guide for learning birdsongs along with his book shown on the video cover:

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[beautress]

This is at youtube, and is just enjoying the sound of birds, no worries... goes on for a couple of hours and nice background noise if you are doing something tedious. I think I will listen while quilting.

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[beautress]

The above goes on for 2 hours. This one has slightly different birds of the forest but is a 3-hour nap, it that is on your agenda for the afternoon or evening. Happy listening and have the best dreams ever!

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[yiostheoy]

Yeah, I could've named this "Aesthetics of Ornithology", but would you then have opened the door to that amazing world filled with foreign-language visitors to your backyard, shoreline, National Park vacation lands, or at a friend's farm?

Welcome to Shangri-La! Birds are a blast, but thanks to Alfred Hitchcock's epic film, "Birds" our entire culture (well, not all) grew suspicious of our global companions as fearsome interlopers rather than the caroling community and vermin eliminators who gather at backyard feeders across the civilized world, looking for a meal and leaving a song in our hearts and free fertilizer for our lawns and even the beautiful meadow flowers we see out in the country lands of America.

If you have a favorite bird, or know what kind of bird is so beloved in your state, please share a picture or two of birds you may have photographed. Because I am approximately the world's worst photographer, I will try to share credited public domain photos to those who kindly list their pictures as nonprofit use for amateurs who just love birds and want to share a picture of a particular type of bird with those who have a love for birds in common.

Thanks for opening the lost-leader thread, and as time goes on, I hope you enjoy the amazing world of birds, and I'm hoping one or two of you are avid birders, members of the Audubon Society, or registered ornithologists. Hey, I'm none of the above, but I love birds and admire anyone who has a degree in ornithology and respects those elusive little warblers as well as those fearsome wilderness vamps known as snowy owls, one of whom sideswiped my car on a dark, cold road in a snowstorm in Wyoming 20 years ago. Actually, it was a full-frontal assault with him diving at me, and I saw the bright yellow of his huge eyes just before he changed course and flew upwards as I was just driving down the road on the way home between Laramie and Clark's Corner. He frightened me so completely, my heart was thumping for half an hour afterward, and I'll never forget it.

Most of my experiences watching and enjoying birds have been very good ones, and they're worth every minute I spent enjoying observing their playful antics on edging out the competition at the bird feeder. And the farm where we live now has the special treat of being a favorite spot of those fabulous and inimitable summer tanagers.

[ame=[MEDIA=youtube]Ufkcx-UqljM[/MEDIA] Owl Invasion - YouTube[/ame]
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Some links that may help acquaint you with a wild bird you've seen that you cannot quite name yet and other resources for understanding our feathered friends:

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Macauly Library

Patuxent Bird Identification Center

What Bird - Novel Way to Identify the Bird you just heard or saw
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Smithsonian Institution, National Bird Collection

British Trust for Ornithology

Birds of North America - Life Histories of breeding birds

Birds of Mexico Checklist

Birds of Canada Checklist

Birds of the USA

Nature Worldwide Birds

This bird has not posted in 3 years.

Probably died by now and was eaten by buzzards.

 

[yiostheoy]

A song sparrow

A song sparrow nest of eggs:

I often come home to find feathers all over my living room.

It means my cat has been successful outside again.

A few days ago he brought me home a fat pigeon.

So I skinned it and cleaned it for him and put it on his dinner plate.

He ate it all.

He is a good kitty.

 

[beautress]

St. Francis, Lover of birds...

"My sweet little sisters, birds of the sky," Francis said, "you are bound to heaven, to God, your Creator. In every beat of your wings and every note of your songs, praise him. He has given you the greatest of gifts, the freedom of the air. You neither sow, nor reap, yet God provides for you the most delicious food, rivers, and lakes to quench your thirst, mountains, and valleys for your home, tall trees to build your nests, and the most beautiful clothing: a change of feathers with every season. You and your kind were preserved in Noah's Ark. Clearly, our Creator loves you dearly, since he gives you gifts so abundantly. So please beware, my little sisters, of the sin of ingratitude, and always sing praise to God."

"While Francis said these words, all those birds began to open their beaks, and stretch out their necks, and spread their wings, and bend their heads reverently toward the earth, and with acts and songs, they showed that the holy father [Francis] gave them great pleasure." Source: Saint Francis of Assisi's Sermon to Birds

St. Francis, September 26, 1181 to Oct 3, 1226

More about the life and works of St. Francis and his love for animals and their care here: Saint Francis of Assisi biography, birth date, birth place and pictures

 

[beautress]

What a coincidence. In Italy, there was a storm yesterday in which 17 people have died and 14 million trees were decimated through yesterday evening:
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Italian storms claim 17th life, and 14 million trees | Reuters
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The loss of 14 million trees in the area of the storm's path across that area of the Mediterrannean (see map for the latest day of the storm that has been raging for several days), and there was some mention of Austria, too, not shown on this map. That is a lot of loss of habitat for birds who make their home in forests and all over the area, so my prayers are up for all the wild birds that have been hard-hit. All I could find in video was here:

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[beautress]

While this may have nothing to the cyclone-like storm that has troubled the eu in October and November of this year (2018,) I found a weather report that shows what happened to a lot of birds in a hurricane in the recent past, which may be how birds have adapted a survival strategy to get through unimaginable weather:

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Still praying for the birds, though.

 

[Pogo]

A song sparrow

A song sparrow nest of eggs:

I often come home to find feathers all over my living room.

It means my cat has been successful outside again.

A few days ago he brought me home a fat pigeon.

So I skinned it and cleaned it for him and put it on his dinner plate.

He ate it all.

He is a good kitty.

NEGGED.

My cat has chased a bird into the house and a couple of chipmunks/squirrels over the years. When the chipmunk gets away and hides somewhere that's when I set the Havahart trap so he corrals himself unharmed and I can take him back out to the woods to set him free.

There is nothing to be gained or gloated over from gratuitous killing of the innocent. Zero. You should be thread-banned here since you just don't get it and have no purpose other than trolling those who do.

 

[Pogo]

While this may have nothing to the cyclone-like storm that has troubled the eu in October and November of this year (2018,) I found a weather report that shows what happened to a lot of birds in a hurricane in the recent past, which may be how birds have adapted a survival strategy to get through unimaginable weather:

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Still praying for the birds, though.

Becki, ain't it amazing how they just seem to be connected to the Universal Subconscious that tells them to stay in the eye, just as they all just "know" to turn left in unison? Boggles the mind. One of many ways in which the animals are smarter than we are. Or at least more connected with Nature.

 

[Pogo]

Check this out Becki....

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