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Rakins posted:I might have missed it but what would be a good pair of binoculars in the 200-300 range to get started? Nikon Monarch 5 or 7 in 8x42. REI has them to try and with the yearly member coupon price is almost as good as online usually.
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# ? Mar 2, 2015 19:57 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 04:52 |
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Aquila posted:Nikon Monarch 5 or 7 in 8x42. REI has them to try and with the yearly member coupon price is almost as good as online usually. Yea, that's one nice thing about the Monarch's, you can actually find them in a lot of stores to try in person. Cabelas/Bass Pro Shops often have them as well.
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# ? Mar 2, 2015 21:13 |
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ExecuDork posted:When I first got a feeder - a little over a year ago - I had zero birds for a month. Then the local sparrows, chickadees, and nuthatches discovered it and they were regular, abundant visitors until I moved. At the new place, the feeder sat unvisited for about a week, now we have a flock of sparrows that hits it several times a day. There are a few chickadees and nuthatches around, but the sparrows dominate at the moment. I am technically in Russia. By that I mean the European-most part of Russia (discounting territorial disputes), on the border with Finland. So, I guess I shouldn't panic, but I still don't know if I shouldn't hustle and update my setup which so far is kind of temporary and experimental... It may sound stupid, but would it be better if I somehow managed to fix a stick out of my window, attaching it to the bars, and then hung stuff on it, like a branch? I'm not sure though, if that's not going to make my place unnecessarily conspicuous to people.
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# ? Mar 2, 2015 21:22 |
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Does any one have recommendations for good birding spots in San Jose, CA? We're visiting my in-laws in a couple of weeks. They live on the south side of the city, near the intersection of 87 & 85. I can get some good yard birds at my mother-in-law's feeders. Other than that, in the past I've ridden a bike along Guadalupe Creek to Almaden Lake Park, and along the bike trails on Alamitos Creek.
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# ? Mar 2, 2015 22:20 |
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supermikhail posted:I am technically in Russia. By that I mean the European-most part of Russia (discounting territorial disputes), on the border with Finland. I don't know if it will attract the birds any sooner, but they definitely perch on the metal rod my feeder is hanging from. I think giving them a stick - and putting the food a bit away from the wall / window - might make them happier and I doubt it's going to change how a random person walking by views things. I mean, it's going to be pretty obvious that you've got a bird feeder out, and people will react to that or not react to that in ways way beyond your control. I guess if your neighbours are utter asstards they might do something but it seems unlikely.
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# ? Mar 2, 2015 22:49 |
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EPICAC posted:Does any one have recommendations for good birding spots in San Jose, CA? We're visiting my in-laws in a couple of weeks. They live on the south side of the city, near the intersection of 87 & 85. I can get some good yard birds at my mother-in-law's feeders. Other than that, in the past I've ridden a bike along Guadalupe Creek to Almaden Lake Park, and along the bike trails on Alamitos Creek. The Palo Alto Baylands should be excellent this time of year. I've been out there a few times, and it's alway full of bird life. Coyote Hills Regional Park over by Fremont looks like a pretty phenomenal hotspot too, but I haven't explored it myself. I'll be checking it out when I visit the Bay Area next month, but I guess that won't be in time to give you a trip report. We're getting occasional visits from the first Northern Saw-whet Owl to be documented at Arcata marsh since 2008. The Anna's Hummingbirds kept waking it up when I staked out its roost for an afternoon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41sOfGPXzQ4
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# ? Mar 3, 2015 16:41 |
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Just saw a very small hawk on a tree in my front yard in Southern Illinois. I would venture to guess it was no bigger than a bluejay. Guessing it must have been a Kestrel, but the GIS images for kestrels seem to have them being a lot redder and more contrasty than what I saw, this guy was brown and white. Seasonal coloration? sex? not a kestrel?
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# ? Mar 3, 2015 16:47 |
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Slo-Tek posted:Just saw a very small hawk on a tree in my front yard in Southern Illinois. I would venture to guess it was no bigger than a bluejay. Guessing it must have been a Kestrel, but the GIS images for kestrels seem to have them being a lot redder and more contrasty than what I saw, this guy was brown and white. Seasonal coloration? sex? not a kestrel? Probably a sharp-shinned hawk or a merlin. Kenshin fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Mar 3, 2015 |
# ? Mar 3, 2015 16:49 |
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Moon Potato posted:The Palo Alto Baylands should be excellent this time of year. I've been out there a few times, and it's alway full of bird life. Coyote Hills Regional Park over by Fremont looks like a pretty phenomenal hotspot too, but I haven't explored it myself. I'll be checking it out when I visit the Bay Area next month, but I guess that won't be in time to give you a trip report. how do people even find these guys? I've been to a bunch of places where they supposedly are resident and roosting, and have never seen one. Is it a matter of meticulously digging through every pine tree in the whole area and hoping to get lucky? Is there some species of owl whisperer birder that just knows where to look, and once found their location spreads through word of mouth? If it weren't for photographic evidence, I'd be suspicious there even is such a thing as a saw-whet owl.
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# ? Mar 3, 2015 20:56 |
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Slo-Tek posted:Just saw a very small hawk on a tree in my front yard in Southern Illinois. I would venture to guess it was no bigger than a bluejay. Guessing it must have been a Kestrel, but the GIS images for kestrels seem to have them being a lot redder and more contrasty than what I saw, this guy was brown and white. Seasonal coloration? sex? not a kestrel?
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# ? Mar 3, 2015 23:49 |
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Linedance posted:how do people even find these guys? I've been to a bunch of places where they supposedly are resident and roosting, and have never seen one. Is it a matter of meticulously digging through every pine tree in the whole area and hoping to get lucky? Is there some species of owl whisperer birder that just knows where to look, and once found their location spreads through word of mouth? If it weren't for photographic evidence, I'd be suspicious there even is such a thing as a saw-whet owl. I've heard people have success looking for "whitewash" (owl poop) below roosts. I believe Saw-Whet's often roost in the same tree frequently so it accumulates over time. It really helps to have limited locations to look, so open spaces with a few dense trees are ideal. The place I go to find Saw-Whet's is a forest in every direction so it'd be laughable to even try. EPICAC posted:Does any one have recommendations for good birding spots in San Jose, CA? We're visiting my in-laws in a couple of weeks. They live on the south side of the city, near the intersection of 87 & 85. I can get some good yard birds at my mother-in-law's feeders. Other than that, in the past I've ridden a bike along Guadalupe Creek to Almaden Lake Park, and along the bike trails on Alamitos Creek. I've birded that area several times. I've always just gone off eBird reports for birds I want to see. My favorite spots are along the south edge of the bay , but I've always been there during fall shorebird migration and things look pretty sparse this early for shorebirds. I'd probably just use Hotspot Explorer to find general locations. If you're looking for specific species you can obviously check that out as well.
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# ? Mar 4, 2015 00:25 |
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Linedance posted:how do people even find these guys? I've been to a bunch of places where they supposedly are resident and roosting, and have never seen one. Is it a matter of meticulously digging through every pine tree in the whole area and hoping to get lucky? Is there some species of owl whisperer birder that just knows where to look, and once found their location spreads through word of mouth? If it weren't for photographic evidence, I'd be suspicious there even is such a thing as a saw-whet owl.
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# ? Mar 4, 2015 05:16 |
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EPICAC posted:Does any one have recommendations for good birding spots in San Jose, CA? We're visiting my in-laws in a couple of weeks. They live on the south side of the city, near the intersection of 87 & 85. I can get some good yard birds at my mother-in-law's feeders. Other than that, in the past I've ridden a bike along Guadalupe Creek to Almaden Lake Park, and along the bike trails on Alamitos Creek. How far are you willing to drive? Seconding Coyote Hills, and the general suggestion to check eBird. In San Jose you are a modest (1-2 hour) drive from a ton of good places.
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# ? Mar 4, 2015 05:26 |
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BetterLekNextTime posted:How far are you willing to drive? Seconding Coyote Hills, and the general suggestion to check eBird. In San Jose you are a modest (1-2 hour) drive from a ton of good places. Yea, when I travel with my family I'm always limited in my ability to travel so I hesitated to suggest it, but anytime I'm down there I absolutely have to drive down to Monterey. It's probably one of my favorite places in the entire world and has the added benefit of being a place that can be appreciated by non-birders as well. If you go be sure to hit the Elkhorn slough area for Godwits/Willets/Curlews and Sea Otters.
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# ? Mar 4, 2015 16:20 |
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Moon Potato posted:The Palo Alto Baylands should be excellent this time of year. I've been out there a few times, and it's alway full of bird life. Coyote Hills Regional Park over by Fremont looks like a pretty phenomenal hotspot too, but I haven't explored it myself. I'll be checking it out when I visit the Bay Area next month, but I guess that won't be in time to give you a trip report. BeastOfExmoor posted:I've birded that area several times. I've always just gone off eBird reports for birds I want to see. My favorite spots are along the south edge of the bay , but I've always been there during fall shorebird migration and things look pretty sparse this early for shorebirds. I'd probably just use Hotspot Explorer to find general locations. If you're looking for specific species you can obviously check that out as well. BetterLekNextTime posted:How far are you willing to drive? Seconding Coyote Hills, and the general suggestion to check eBird. In San Jose you are a modest (1-2 hour) drive from a ton of good places. BeastOfExmoor posted:Yea, when I travel with my family I'm always limited in my ability to travel so I hesitated to suggest it, but anytime I'm down there I absolutely have to drive down to Monterey. It's probably one of my favorite places in the entire world and has the added benefit of being a place that can be appreciated by non-birders as well. If you go be sure to hit the Elkhorn slough area for Godwits/Willets/Curlews and Sea Otters. Thanks for the advice. My mother-in-law is into birding, and my wife likes looking at birds, but doesn't really care that much about keeping a list or IDs, so I don't really have to worry about boring people with a trip to look at birds. The purpose is of the visit is to introduce her extended family to our 4 month old, so I assume we'll be booked a good chunk of the time. We're planning on driving up to Berkeley to visit some friends, and Coyote Hills is on the way, so that seems like a good time to stop there. My wife has an aunt in Watsonville, if we end up there, then Elkhorn slough seems like a good option for a stop.
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# ? Mar 4, 2015 20:44 |
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Here's what I have in my window recently (not the old people): One thing I'm missing is birds. I don't know, my cat hangs out on the windowsill, maybe birds are afraid of her? But I'd think there would at least be attempts, or raids while she's away. Also, a couple days ago noticed a flock of pigeons just round a corner from here. Also, my window started 2.5 weeks ago, so I guess there's still hope, but I can't help getting anxious from time to time.
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# ? Mar 17, 2015 05:44 |
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There are pigeons on the roof of the next building over, which is structurally identical to mine and in the same complex. But the pigeons never come to my deck or my feeder, despite the mess the sparrows make. We have a cat, too, but she's utterly useless as a hunter and is afraid of the birds. What seeds have you got out for the birds? Some birds seem to have a pretty specific search image and won't really notice a new source of something they don't normally eat. We've had peanuts-in-the-shell on the deck railing for weeks and the local bluejays and magpies - who are supposed to absolutely love such treats - haven't touched them.
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# ? Mar 17, 2015 05:56 |
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Oh. Although the last part doesn't exactly inspire hope. Anyway, I really haven't thought of that, and in that bottle I put some small grain whose name escapes me, but essentially on the basis that in a country house where I lived for a while chickens were fed that, sometimes... I think... I could take the enterprise even more seriously and buy a mix for birds from a petshop. However, they come in hefty (relatively speaking) bags, and I've already thrown one out from an old unsuccessful accidental attempt at bird ownership... before I embarked on this enterprise, obviously (otherwise I would have kept the bag, although perhaps the due date really means something). On that note, perhaps the reason the cone-shaped things are untouched is because there are no cone-preferring birds in the area. Edit: According to this page I've hit it on the head with white millet for sparrows! supermikhail fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Mar 17, 2015 |
# ? Mar 17, 2015 06:35 |
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Soon it'll be a month of a failed experiment. I'm basically ready for any suggestions. I just realized that it would be really nice to make it not failed since I'm going on a trip in a couple of weeks, and it could make a nice sanity aid for my cat in my absence. Also, in that week-old photo it's almost summer, and right now outside it's snowing.
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# ? Mar 23, 2015 14:22 |
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There was a bit on Last Week Tonight regarding making the Red-Tailed Hawk the official raptor of New Hampshire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nO_-SAPrUU
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# ? Mar 23, 2015 16:00 |
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Are there any meadowlark experts in this thread? I saw these in the pastures near my parent's house in Limestone County, Texas last weekend. Both eastern and western meadowlarks are in range. I didn't hear any calls to help distinguish. I'm sort of leaning towards eastern since the malar looks light, but since the throats aren't completely yellow I'm not sure if this is diagnostic. Any ideas? IMG_0124 by EPICAC, on Flickr IMG_0130 by EPICAC, on Flickr IMG_0139 by EPICAC, on Flickr
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# ? Mar 25, 2015 19:29 |
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I don't know what you call that. I call that overkill. Where are they?
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# ? Mar 30, 2015 17:09 |
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Cross-posting from making GBS threads birds. I went out and found—more accurately found a group of people with binoculars and long lenses—the Black-backed Woodpecker that's been wintering over at Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston. He was within reach of my puny 300mm lens for about 30 minutes. I thought I'd missed him when I didn't get a chance to go out in January, but apparently he never left. The crazy snow this season just prevented people from getting in to look for him. Black-backed Woodpecker [Picoides arcticus] by EPICAC, on Flickr Black-backed Woodpecker [Picoides arcticus] by EPICAC, on Flickr Black-backed Woodpecker [Picoides arcticus] by EPICAC, on Flickr I saw some nice birds last week visiting my wife's parents in San Jose, CA. Fifteen lifers, but I only managed to get good shots of a bushtit visiting the in-laws' back yard. Bushtit [Psaltriparus minimus] by EPICAC, on Flickr Bushtit [Psaltriparus minimus] by EPICAC, on Flickr
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# ? Apr 4, 2015 20:20 |
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On the off chance there's some Aussies about, what sort of bird hot spots are there sort of day trip distance around Brisbane? Would it be worth the effort to fly up to Cairns for a day or two? I'm going next week for about a week.
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# ? Apr 6, 2015 01:44 |
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One of two red-shouldered hawks that have taken up residence in my neighborhood recently. They're supposed to be averse to human-populated areas from what I've read, but if he hatched during their most recent mating season then he'd be right at the age where his parents would kick him out. I couldn't find a whole lot of information about fledgling behavior, but I'm assuming they're just sticking around while they get the hang of hunting for themselves before they take up permanent residence elsewhere. Photo quality is crap because I don't have a camera mount for my scope, and high temps/humidity causes distortions over long distances. This was taken around 475 feet away.
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# ? Apr 6, 2015 19:25 |
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Frank Horrigan posted:
Hmm- at least on the west coast these guys are pretty suburban if not urban. Not sure how many years it takes them to set up their own territory- good question!
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# ? Apr 6, 2015 20:04 |
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Just been in Queensland, Aus for a week and a bit, some around Brisbane's northern suburbs and hinterland, and a few days at O'Reillys rainforest retreat in lamington national park. Holy crap the birds! My partner and I saw pretty near a hundred life birds. What a wonderful place! I highly recommend O'Reillys for both birding and hiking and cool eucalyptus and rain forest. My favourite birds from the trip were the laughing kookaburra, Eastern whipbird, and paradise riflebird. Will spam the photos thread once I get some good ones processed.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 01:18 |
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There are two newly-hatched poofs in the Humboldt Bay eagle nest this weekend. Eaglet #1 hatched yesterday, and #2 emerged this morning. There's a live stream from the nest cam here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/humboldt-bay-eagle-cam
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# ? Apr 26, 2015 20:42 |
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Eaglets!! I don't think I posted this yet- A golden eagle nest at a cool petroglyph site in Wyoming. Golden Eagle Nest, Castle Gardens on Flickr Golden Eagle Nest, Castle Gardens on Flickr [img]https://farm9.staticflickr.com /8795/17287512711_86d9d92234.jpg[/img]Golden Eagle Nest, Castle Gardens on Flickr Golden Eagle Nest, Castle Gardens on Flickr Castle Gardens 2038 on Flickr
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# ? Apr 27, 2015 12:18 |
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Oh neat, I didn't know Golden Eagle chicks were white. I'm used to seeing the little grey bobbleheads in Bald Eagle nests.
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# ? Apr 27, 2015 22:53 |
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Posted in the Critterquest thread, but I figured the birding thread would enjoy it too. A piebald American Robin that lives outside my apartment complex. Unfortunately only had my phone camera on me at the time, hence the less than stellar quality.
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# ? May 5, 2015 22:33 |
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http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2015/05/06/bad-news-from-bowland.aspx Bastard(s).
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# ? May 6, 2015 19:53 |
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Look at these shitheads in their little gloryhole. Gah.
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# ? May 8, 2015 17:02 |
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Finally got to see a super cooperative Mangrove Cuckoo today.
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# ? May 8, 2015 23:49 |
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Kawalimus posted:Finally got to see a super cooperative Mangrove Cuckoo today. drat. After the trip I just took to Texas this may be my most desired North American bird. Are you in Florida? Speaking of Texas, I lucked out and ended up South Padre Island the same day this beauty showed up. Slate-Throated Redstart by Josh, on Flickr Terrible photo, but incredible bird. I also got a Painted Redstart to make it a three redstart week.
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# ? May 9, 2015 05:37 |
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BeastOfExmoor posted:drat. After the trip I just took to Texas this may be my most desired North American bird. Are you in Florida? Awesome! I'd love to see one of those. I gotta get out and see some more of those western birds. When I get the chance is the question! On the cuckoo...Well I gotta admit I kinda cheated . I went out of the continental US to get it. But who cares it was still tough to actually get a look at one. I was out with my mom since it's close to mother's day which was real cool cause she got to be on one of my bird walks. So she's a photographer and she even got a pic of it!!!! My previous attempts at this bird(one outside the continental US also) were completely futile. But it's big so I can't get it on here. Kawalimus fucked around with this message at 12:26 on May 9, 2015 |
# ? May 9, 2015 12:10 |
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Kawalimus posted:... I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd like to see it. You could open an Imgur account and share it through there.
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# ? May 9, 2015 12:26 |
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Ok I'll work on that. I'm headed home today and have a long day of travel coming up so you won't see it till sunday but I really like the pic she got. It was cool it reminded me of when I was a kid and she used to take me places birding. Never thought she'd be the one I'd see the Mangrove "c*********" Cuckoo as I had come to call it. edit: Edited in case someone is offended by that! Kawalimus fucked around with this message at 14:49 on May 9, 2015 |
# ? May 9, 2015 12:28 |
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http://i.imgur.com/7VhJa4W.jpg Here it is! I think my mom did a pretty good job with this pic.
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# ? May 10, 2015 12:50 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 04:52 |
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Not sure if this is the right place, but can anyone identify this hawk? My abilities are limited to asking "does it have a red tail", and this time the answer is no. Taken in Calgary, Alberta. edit: The consensus among my friends is Merlin. Are we right? Chamale fucked around with this message at 03:57 on May 15, 2015 |
# ? May 15, 2015 03:37 |