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Aquila posted:That's me. These binoculars are amazing. I bought them as a gift to myself after using a decent pair of east german binoculars for 15 years. You don't have to spend nearly that much either, https://www.amazon.com/Canon-10x30-Ultra-Compact-Binoculars-Black/dp/B00004THDC will get you 99% of the benefits, cost a third as much, and weight half as much (I kinda wish I got these instead). Imaged stabilized binoculars are the best thing you can get for bird watching, any difference in optics quality from spending more is completely overwhelmed by the human inability to hold something steady. IS binoculars also work handheld for astronomy. Those are listed as out of stock, but these appear to be the new model: https://www.amazon.com/Canon-10x30-Image-Stabilization-Binoculars/dp/B00XOGP13S/
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Jun 16, 2018 01:20
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Not sure if this is molt or losing feathers in sticky eucalyptus flowers. Vulture or Chickadee cc-9797 on Flickr
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Jun 21, 2018 19:00
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I'm imagining that chickadee shoving his bald head deep into the viscera of a road-killed rat, the precise moment of speciation that eventually leads to the cutest little carrion birds.  Admit it: you're grinning too at the thought of gore-spattered vulture-tits hopping around and squabbling with each other over the squirrel your cat left on your porch.
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Jun 21, 2018 21:22
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ExecuDork posted:I'm imagining that chickadee shoving his bald head deep into the viscera of a road-killed rat, the precise moment of speciation that eventually leads to the cutest little carrion birds. hurry up evolution! also: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/great-tits-still-flesh-rending-predators/
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Jun 21, 2018 21:31
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Image stabilised binoculars are the greatest thing. I got mine half off on the used market. They’re old enough to vote and they still work perfectly.
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Jun 22, 2018 05:01
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I can't remember where I read it but I recall reading that Chickadees in the frozen north feed heavily on dead animals in the winter. I seem to recall seeing photos.
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Jun 23, 2018 19:47
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Someone on a local birding group said it was likely normal molt. So I guess there's a good chance of some funny looking birds this time of year. I remember my parents getting full-on bald headed cardinals that were just blue skin above the neck.
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Jun 24, 2018 00:43
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BetterLekNextTime posted:Someone on a local birding group said it was likely normal molt. So I guess there's a good chance of some funny looking birds this time of year. I remember my parents getting full-on bald headed cardinals that were just blue skin above the neck. Bald blue jays are a regular sight around this time of year where I am.
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Jun 24, 2018 01:29
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BeastOfExmoor posted:I can't remember where I read it but I recall reading that Chickadees in the frozen north feed heavily on dead animals in the winter. I seem to recall seeing photos. well there ain't much else. although ones near human settlement can take advantage of feeders and garbage
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Jun 24, 2018 01:34
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I think a great horned owl is introducing himself to my area tonight. Someone's hooting up a storm, and it sure doesn't sound like our usual barred or screech owls.
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Jul 11, 2018 04:30
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Is it a great horned owl, or is it a dude imitating a great horned owl because he thought there was one in the area and is trying to track it down?
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Jul 11, 2018 05:18
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How do you go looking for owls, anyway?
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Jul 11, 2018 05:21
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Depends on the species, but usually you go somewhere quiet woodsy at night and listen. You can even play the sound of an owl and if there's one nearby it might call back and get a little closer, but don't be a jerk and do this for like the one popular owl in your town that everyone goes out to look for, and do it as minimally as possible. Some species like Barn Owls and screech owls will sometimes nest in owl boxes so that might be a thing where you live. Birders can be (justifiably) cagey about the location of owl roosts, but it can't hurt to ask if there are any good spots to check. e: of course most that I've seen have been accidentally encountered during the day or at dusk.
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Jul 11, 2018 06:31
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YggiDee posted:Is it a great horned owl, or is it a dude imitating a great horned owl because he thought there was one in the area and is trying to track it down? No clue, but based on what I looked up online about great horned owls it sure sounded like one. We have a couple of barred owls in my area, but their calls are pretty distinctive, and I've seen eastern screech owls several times courtesy of blue jays freaking the gently caress out over one sitting in a tree.
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Jul 11, 2018 13:38
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Saw my first nightjar - a common nighthawk! Weird muppet-looking friend.
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Jul 11, 2018 13:51
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Platystemon posted:How do you go looking for owls, anyway? Every one I've seen has been a lucky accident. Dusk is a good time, early morning is probably better but I'm not good at mornings. The sunny side of a tree line is a good place to look (i.e. be to the west of a patch of trees, looking east at the north-south straight line edge of the patch delineated by a powerline or road or fence or whatever) if only because if there IS an owl there, you have a better than average chance of actually spotting it. Plus the light is good for photography. I've seen two or three Great Horned owls this way. Cythereal posted:I've seen eastern screech owls several times courtesy of blue jays freaking the gently caress out over one sitting in a tree. We've been talking about this in the bird photos thread in the Dorkroom, but yeah, this is an excellent way to find owls. Watch for corvids (jays, crows, magpies) losing their minds and being noisy obnoxious jerks, centered on a particular tree. I never got a decent photo, but a year or two ago I spent an enjoyable hour following an owl around a small Regional Park (less than 1 square km) in southwestern Ontario, based on a trio of crows that would not leave it alone for a second.
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Jul 11, 2018 14:20
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WrenP-Complete posted:Saw my first nightjar - a common nighthawk! Weird muppet-looking friend. They eat lots of bugs, too, so they're always a welcome sight. ExecuDork posted:We've been talking about this in the bird photos thread in the Dorkroom, but yeah, this is an excellent way to find owls. Watch for corvids (jays, crows, magpies) losing their minds and being noisy obnoxious jerks, centered on a particular tree. I never got a decent photo, but a year or two ago I spent an enjoyable hour following an owl around a small Regional Park (less than 1 square km) in southwestern Ontario, based on a trio of crows that would not leave it alone for a second. My local jays never seem too worried about our barred owls or hawks, but screech owls really seem to drive them nuts. It's a good thing, too. Screech owls are so small and so well camouflaged that it's a real pain to find one of the little guys.
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Jul 11, 2018 17:05
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Agreed with Execudork. My crow allies here hate owls and will attack them in groups - seen a barred owl and a great horned owl that way. I've heard that's a common crow behavior. I'm never sure what owls did to them.
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Jul 11, 2018 17:32
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I live in one of the residential neighborhoods of Seattle and I regularly see hawks and eagles out my window because the crows are mobbing them (and that gets my parrot all excited too) Crow friends best friends
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Jul 11, 2018 17:38
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WrenP-Complete posted:Agreed with Execudork. My crow allies here hate owls and will attack them in groups - seen a barred owl and a great horned owl that way. I've heard that's a common crow behavior. I'm never sure what owls did to them. I don't know if this extends to owls, but Japanese folklore has it that in a past life, crow lent money to hawk, and hawk thought he could escape the debt by dying*. Crow followed him into the next life though, and constantly harries him about that unpaid debt. *may have been by transforming into a hawk, and crow transformed into a crow...my memory and the translation is fuzzy. Finger Prince fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Jul 11, 2018 |
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Jul 11, 2018 17:40
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WrenP-Complete posted:Agreed with Execudork. My crow allies here hate owls and will attack them in groups - seen a barred owl and a great horned owl that way. I've heard that's a common crow behavior. I'm never sure what owls did to them. Well, the main issue is that owls will eat crows and sometimes raid nests to grab and eat the babies. You're seeing crows trying to deter predators.
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Jul 11, 2018 17:50
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https://imgur.com/r/Natureisbrutal/hqvGvzE
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Jul 11, 2018 18:07
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To spare the merely curious of clicking that link, great horned owls are well known for targeting bird nests to grab hatchlings and fledglings to feed to the owls' own chicks. Great horned owls are among the most diverse and opportunistic raptors in North America when it comes to feeding - they'll eat drat near anything that moves that they can catch and kill. They're one of the most prolific predators of adult ravens and crows, too, in addition to their nest raids. Basically, if you're smaller than a mid-size dog, great horned owls are silent flying nocturnal Terminators. They'll attack anything up to and including raccoons, porcupines, and adult ravens and hawks. Hell, they'll even eat peacocks in areas where those are established.
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Jul 11, 2018 19:58
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WrenP-Complete posted:I'm never sure what owls did to them. The Great Horned will be back, though. In the night. When's it's very, very dark. And quiet. And still. Then, suddenly, there will be one less crow in the world.
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Jul 12, 2018 15:11
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Platystemon posted:How do you go looking for owls, anyway? I do a fair amount of owling. Generally my process is to go out a few hours before sunrise and use a bluetooth speaker to playback songs in hopes of getting a response. Generally I'm looking for Saw-Whet owls and I've never heard them spontaneously singing in the seasons I'm looking, but they'll often sing and/or call when they hear the playback. They're almost impossible to see, however. I'd say I get a decent look at one of ever fifteen or so that I have within 50ft of me. I've had mixed luck with other owls. Barred are super aggressive. Great-Horned generally seem apathetic about responding, although I did play a song briefly at my house once and have one sit in a tree above me and sing for hours afterwards. Western Screech will respond. Barn Owls usually hunt in flight, so they'll just circle you in the darkness and take off. Finding owls at dusk or at roosts are pretty difficult in most circumstances. Robins have been my best bets for finding roosting owls in most cases, actually. Jays usually find the owls too, but they're so loud anyway that it can be difficult to tell if they actually are upset about something interesting. If you hear a robin in the woods just giving its alarm call over and over its worth checking out.
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Jul 13, 2018 00:50
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Whoops, sorry for not specifying. I was very interested in mythological stories about owls and crows! I figured that they scientifically don't like them because the owls prey on them or their babies. That's my bad, I should have said.  Thanks for all the good information of many kinds though! 
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Jul 13, 2018 03:33
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Is this a good thread for some bird identification? I have some hummingbirds I can't get a grip on, despite having a Sibley's. If so, I'd like to post some pictures. 25 miles west of Denver, altitude about 8900 feet.
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Jul 27, 2018 00:59
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imo owls are the goons of the bird world. they sleep all day and stay up all night and their greatest skill by far is the ability to track down and acquire food edit: also whoops i posted this in the bird photo thread instead of this thread. check out this mama duck whose adopted brood has reached 76 babbies!! so fuckin cute and floofy i am dying over here every time i look at them https://twitter.com/i/events/1022139322181378048
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Jul 27, 2018 01:04
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torgeaux posted:Is this a good thread for some bird identification? I have some hummingbirds I can't get a grip on, despite having a Sibley's. If so, I'd like to post some pictures. 25 miles west of Denver, altitude about 8900 feet. Yes
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Jul 27, 2018 01:10
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Kenshin posted:Yes Thanks. It's the fine differences within the genus that get me.  Identification Shot8 by B. B., on Flickr Identification Shot by B. B., on Flickr Identification Shot2 by B. B., on Flickr Identification Shot Duo by B. B., on Flickr Identification Shot5 by B. B., on Flickr
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Jul 27, 2018 01:18
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Male rufous and ??? My best guess is female rufous, but it could be a broad‐tailed. Platystemon fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Jul 27, 2018 |
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Jul 27, 2018 02:30
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Platystemon posted:Male rufous and ??? I cannot tell the difference in the rufus and broad tailed, at all. Is the other a magnificent?
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Jul 27, 2018 03:31
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I think its size rules out magnificent.
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Jul 27, 2018 03:49
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I'm not very good with these guys, but my guessestorgeaux posted:
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Rufous in background, maybe a young male broad-tailed in foreground? I feel like there should be some brown in the tail for rufous. quote:
quote:
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Jul 27, 2018 16:23
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BetterLekNextTime posted:I'm not very good with these guys, but my guesses Thanks. I just can't differentiate with Genus very well.
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Jul 27, 2018 16:56
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torgeaux posted:Thanks. I just can't differentiate with Genus very well. Would you mind posting your setup? We have a feeder in our front porch and it seems fun to try and snap a few of the various hummingbirds that come by. Do you hand hold or tripod?
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Jul 27, 2018 17:07
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H110Hawk posted:Would you mind posting your setup? We have a feeder in our front porch and it seems fun to try and snap a few of the various hummingbirds that come by. Do you hand hold or tripod? Handhold. Fuji XH-1, sometimes the 90mm f/2, sometimes the 55-200. Being able to shoot 12 frames per second is really, really helpful. I just go out every day and spend time very near the feeder, with or without camera, so they're used to me being there now. Of course, they're contemptuous of me now.  What are YOU looking at by B. B., on Flickr
torgeaux fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Jul 27, 2018 |
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Jul 27, 2018 17:16
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torgeaux posted:Handhold. Fuji XH-1, sometimes the 90mm f/2, sometimes the 55-200. Being able to shoot 12 frames per second is really, really helpful. I just go out every day and spend time very near the feeder, with or without camera, so they're used to me being there now. Of course, they're contemptuous of me now. What shutter speed / ISO are you using to get these crisp shots? Looks like full daylight so I'm assuming you go up into 400-800ish ISO to get a faster shutter? We have Nikon D5100's so that only gets us 4fps. Ours are semi used to us being around as it's on our porch which we walk by to get to the cars. It sorta depends on how hangry they are if they buzz off. (We also cheer them on when they fight.) I'll probably try it out with the 50mm (so, 85mm) f/1.4 to see how it goes at first, then start mucking with our zoom from a further distance away if they aren't playing along. Thanks!
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Jul 27, 2018 18:07
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H110Hawk posted:What shutter speed / ISO are you using to get these crisp shots? Looks like full daylight so I'm assuming you go up into 400-800ish ISO to get a faster shutter? I don't worry about the shutter speed, too much. Mostly they're not moving that fast, and wing blur is inevitable. When I set ISO, I start at 800, usually just use autoISO, which has meant 200-6400, depending. For my favorite so far, below, I was just getting the stationary bird, and the other swooped in and I just tried to keep them both in frame. It was ISO 1250, 1/300.  Personal Best by B. B., on Flickr
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Jul 27, 2018 20:35
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torgeaux posted:I don't worry about the shutter speed, too much. Mostly they're not moving that fast, and wing blur is inevitable. When I set ISO, I start at 800, usually just use autoISO, which has meant 200-6400, depending. For my favorite so far, below, I was just getting the stationary bird, and the other swooped in and I just tried to keep them both in frame. It was ISO 1250, 1/300. Sweet, thanks. I'll fiddle with it some!
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Jul 27, 2018 20:43
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