Wild Side Ornithology Club

[beautress]

Lew Scharpf's wonderful bird identification video--sight and sound, American birds

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Great video Becki

Recorded very loud though. My cat started freaking out. Now he's gazing out the window puzzled about hearing daytime bird noises in the dark

Something tore down my bird feeder, probably either a coon or a bear. Gonna have to make a new one.

Oh, my goodness. I have to put my computer sound to low for some of those bird ones. And coincidentally, Miss Piccolo freaked quite a bit when I was playing it. She refused to come into eat. Nobody likes to eat like Miss Piccolo, but nope! She would not come in the back door for 30 minutes until the sound was good and off. lol

I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. Sorry your bird feeder got downed. This year I decided to let the field go fallow and grow. You never saw so much seed on grass as is in my field, and I have every imaginable bird call lately. I wish you godspeed on getting your new bird feeder going. If you can, I hope you show a pic when it's done. I bought a computer printer a month after I got my new computer, and sadly, I still don't know how to make it work. I think I buried the instructions in a pile of quilt fabrics. lol My table looks like a regular cyclone hit it. Nighers. I'm tired after a long day of quilting.

 

[beautress]

Yellow-headed Blackbird
Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus
Yellow-headed Blackbird

 

[beautress]

Yellow-headed Blackbird
Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus

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[Pogo]

Yellow-headed Blackbird
Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus

View attachment 258646View attachment 258647View attachment 258648View attachment 258649View attachment 258650

View attachment 258651

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Nice!

I guess I owe a piece of music by now.... you've posted several blackbirds lately so here's Silly Wizard.

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[beautress]

Wow, Pogo. I love that lovely piece. Thanks. Is the singer Scottish? That's just an amazing song, that's all.

 

[Pogo]

Wow, Pogo. I love that lovely piece. Thanks. Is the singer Scottish? That's just an amazing song, that's all.

Yes, good ear. That's Andy M. Stewart.

 

[beautress]

I finally saw an egret yesterday. I happened to look outside and caught a glimpse of him from upstairs. I couldn't tell if he was a young great whiet egret or just a white egret. He had a larger beak than the narrow scissors I've seen on the great white egrets usually across the lake from my window. I haven't opened the windows over there to try to conserve energy lately. I've had bronchitis for 5 weeks and it's just letting up some. That followed 6 long and dreary months of fighting off pneumonia symptoms following an inoculation that was supposed to ensure that I would never again have pneumonia. I got by without taking any prescriptions, and I think my immune system is sturdier now than it was before. I pinpointed vitamins and supplements, only to find out the last few weeks of the pneumonia that it's advisable to eat a raw carrot every day to discourage throat carrier germs that safeguard the bad stuff in your chest. Also, a stick of celery is good for that and other issues, so lately, it's been a carrot and a stick of celery morning and before retiring. Carrots have something in them that decimates mouth and throat bacteria/diseases. I didn't know that before I got good and sick of being good and sick for months. lol

Have a great evening. I haven't had serious symptoms for about three days, my longest run of good health in 7 or 8 months.

O, I think I'll try and find an egret that looks like the one in the shallow end of Lake Freedom. BRB.

like egret seen yesterday

Great Egret - most graceful birds on earth, hands down!

 

[beautress]

fly away
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[beautress]

Friday, May 17, 2019: today's Audubon calendar bird is the Tufted Titmouse. They're such cute little charmers at all angles, imho!

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[beautress]

And in flight, tufted titmice are fabulous!

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[beautress]

Accepted range:

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[depotoo]

In our backyard. Great blue heron

 

[beautress]

Notice how that showy tuft is tucked neatly away when they fly. They're regular aerospace engineers of flight. And still cute too boot!

 

[beautress]

In our backyard. Great blue heronView attachment 261251

You must truly be blessed to have a great blue heron trust himself into your property's keeping. We have 3 of them who compete unsuccessfully with the great egrets. The egrets are late risers, and most of the time the great herons make themselves scarce in their presence, but not always. "Pinkie" (the lavender G. blue heron) is the shyest of all. I know her because of her unique color. Haven't seen her yet this year. But I've been indoor with pneumonia and bronchitis all winter and spring. Last pneumonia shot I will ever take.

 

[Pogo]

Notice how that showy tuft is tucked neatly away when they fly. They're regular aerospace engineers of flight. And still cute too boot!

Tufted Titmice, along with Carolina Chickadees, are the most common birds at my feeders, Becki.

After that I'd say the occasional Nuthatch, some wrens (who nest in a jar hung sideways on my porch) and, if I put out the proper thistles and suet cakes, finches and woodpeckers.

I still haven't got my new feeder built. It will be modeled like this, found on something called "the internet" ---

I had to prowl around the recycling center to find a 2-liter Pepsi bottle since I never drink that stuff. Then I realized I don't have a cap for it. so that will be the next step, then I can mount it.

The rollers (I'll use paper towel cores) are to keep squirrels from climbing over to it. They'll just roll off. I get a lot of animal vandalism.


Other than the titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and finches it's the time of year I get to hear my favorite bird music, the wood thrush, around dawn and dusk.

And oh yes the rufus towhees always greet me and I talk back. I've been known to walk around with a handful of black sunflower seeds.

 

[beautress]

Notice how that showy tuft is tucked neatly away when they fly. They're regular aerospace engineers of flight. And still cute too boot!

Tufted Titmice, along with Carolina Chickadees, are the most common birds at my feeders, Becki.

After that I'd say the occasional Nuthatch, some wrens (who nest in a jar hung sideways on my porch) and, if I put out the proper thistles and suet cakes, finches and woodpeckers.

I still haven't got my new feeder built. It will be modeled like this, found on something called "the internet" ---

I had to prowl around the recycling center to find a 2-liter Pepsi bottle since I never drink that stuff. Then I realized I don't have a cap for it. so that will be the next step, then I can mount it.

The rollers (I'll use paper towel cores) are to keep squirrels from climbing over to it. They'll just roll off. I get a lot of animal vandalism.


Other than the titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and finches it's the time of year I get to hear my favorite bird music, the wood thrush, around dawn and dusk.

And oh yes the rufus towhees always greet me and I talk back. I've been known to walk around with a handful of black sunflower seeds.

A tufted titmouse may have overwintered here. My sewing machine faces the window of the oak at second story level, where the shyer birds tend to hop freely about knowing they are completely safe that far off the ground. So I saw tufted titmice having a ball hopping around, flying and landing, landing and flying all winter long. They are happy creatures and I love watching them. The only thing more entertaining is seeing a Virginia creeper do its act. That just makes me laugh every time, but sightings are rare from the window, since they tend to prefer ground to low branch areas of a smaller tree than the great oak tree out front which towers above a steepled roof high above the second story.

Your feeder looks beautiful in its illustration phase, and looks as though once you get the lid fixed, you can tell at a glance when to refill. What a clever idea. I have relatives that think pepsi cola is mother's milk, so I could get some lidded bottles from some of them if I wanted. Unfortunately, they're clean down to Galveston 90 miles south of here or likely 100. Since my farmstead is 6 miles north of the nearest town, it's probably further. Oh, well, I know others around here who toast to soft drinks a lot. I quit drinking them about the time I retired. Reduced activities mean reduced caloric burn, and nobody over 50 needs that. I hope when it's finished you can transfer a pic over here to Wild Side.

 

[Pogo]

Notice how that showy tuft is tucked neatly away when they fly. They're regular aerospace engineers of flight. And still cute too boot!

Tufted Titmice, along with Carolina Chickadees, are the most common birds at my feeders, Becki.

After that I'd say the occasional Nuthatch, some wrens (who nest in a jar hung sideways on my porch) and, if I put out the proper thistles and suet cakes, finches and woodpeckers.

I still haven't got my new feeder built. It will be modeled like this, found on something called "the internet" ---

I had to prowl around the recycling center to find a 2-liter Pepsi bottle since I never drink that stuff. Then I realized I don't have a cap for it. so that will be the next step, then I can mount it.

The rollers (I'll use paper towel cores) are to keep squirrels from climbing over to it. They'll just roll off. I get a lot of animal vandalism.


Other than the titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and finches it's the time of year I get to hear my favorite bird music, the wood thrush, around dawn and dusk.

And oh yes the rufus towhees always greet me and I talk back. I've been known to walk around with a handful of black sunflower seeds.

A tufted titmouse may have overwintered here. My sewing machine faces the window of the oak at second story level, where the shyer birds tend to hop freely about knowing they are completely safe that far off the ground. So I saw tufted titmice having a ball hopping around, flying and landing, landing and flying all winter long. They are happy creatures and I love watching them. The only thing more entertaining is seeing a Virginia creeper do its act. That just makes me laugh every time, but sightings are rare from the window, since they tend to prefer ground to low branch areas of a smaller tree than the great oak tree out front which towers above a steepled roof high above the second story.

Your feeder looks beautiful in its illustration phase, and looks as though once you get the lid fixed, you can tell at a glance when to refill. What a clever idea. I have relatives that think pepsi cola is mother's milk, so I could get some lidded bottles from some of them if I wanted. Unfortunately, they're clean down to Galveston 90 miles south of here or likely 100. Since my farmstead is 6 miles north of the nearest town, it's probably further. Oh, well, I know others around here who toast to soft drinks a lot. I quit drinking them about the time I retired. Reduced activities mean reduced caloric burn, and nobody over 50 needs that. I hope when it's finished you can transfer a pic over here to Wild Side.

I intend to, in fact that's what I was going to post here instead of the illustration but there I was scrounging a bottle at the recycling center thinking I had what I needed, and then --- no cap Such a little thing.

I'm outfitting mine with simple twigs for perches rather than the plastic strips. That's what I did with my old plastic feeder that was destroyed by --- I dunno raccoons or a bear or whatever. It looks simple enough.

I should prolly just stock up on soda bottles whenever I recycle for backup materials.

 

[beautress]

Oh, for the first time I saw a South African bird specie's nest atop an electric company's high wire, and the Sociable Weaver is its architect. I'm going to read up and share these little twits. I bet they put gray hairs on a South African Electrical Engineer's head!

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The sociable weaver (Philetairus socius) is a species of bird in the weaver family that is endemic to southern Africa.[2] It is the only species assigned to the genus Philetairus.[3] It is found in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana.[1] but their range is centered within the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.[4] They build large compound community nests, a rarity among birds. These nests are perhaps the most spectacular structure built by any bird.[5]​

 

[Pogo]

The only thing more entertaining is seeing a Virginia creeper do its act. That just makes me laugh every time, but sightings are rare from the window, since they tend to prefer ground to low branch areas of a smaller tree than the great oak tree out front which towers above a steepled roof high above the second story.

And here I thought Virginia Creeper was a plant.

Well it put a song in my head. Doesn't everything.

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[beautress]

More Sociable Weaver architecture: