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Thanks! I have family in Leamington, looks like I have an excuse to both get down there and get away from the awkward stories at the same time. When do the Monarchs happen?
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Sep 1, 2015 03:11
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ExecuDork posted:Thanks! I have family in Leamington, looks like I have an excuse to both get down there and get away from the awkward stories at the same time. We were there at the end of September and the trees were still pretty heavy with them at the point. Not sure how late they hang around though. I guess don't leave it too late.
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Sep 1, 2015 05:24
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ExecuDork posted:Does anyone have any experience looking for southward-bound migrants in southern or southwestern Ontario in autumn? Mid-October seems like it'd be pretty late for that far north, unfortunately. I'll be in Texas in early October and when I looked on eBird it seemed like most birds had already pushed through there by then. Linedance posted:Looks like I'm going down to Texas in a couple of days, for a couple of days. The plan, such as it is, is to head down the gulf coast from Houston, taking in the coast and Rio grande valley possibly. I know less than nothing about the area. Any tips? The Texas coast is awesome. I spent a few days down there in spring migration and it was amazing. Galveston Island is your closest spot to Houston. There are several wooded "migrant traps" in that area that are easy to check out. There are books that go over them, but the best way to find them now is probably to use eBird hotspot explorer. I birded Lafitte's Cove. It was small, but decent. There's several other wooded areas within a 20 minute drive that should hold migrant songbirds. You can also ride a free ferry to the Bolivar peninsula. Bolivar Flats is a short drive from the ferry and is a really good shorebird spot. 20 minutes down the road is Rollover pass which is also very good for shorebirds. Another 20 minutes will get you to High Island, the world famous migrant trap. There are several spots here operated by the Houston Audubon. There was a small per-day fee to bird them in the spring, but I'm not sure about fall. In spring they're really weather dependent (bad weather = great birding), but I imagine fall migration is a bit more nuanced. Thirty minutes North of High Island is Anahuac NWR which is an excellent brackish marsh with good oppportunities for viewing birds like Least Bittern. Even if you don't want to take the extra time to bird the spots on the other side of the ferry it may be worth walking on the ferry just to enjoy the ride. I saw numerous dolphines on both the trips I took and Magnificent Frigatebirds should be hanging out. The Lower Rio Grand Valley is awesome and is the only place north of Mexico you can see many of the birds that hang out there. That said, it's a long drive from Houston. 400 miles, maybe 6-7 hours. Once you get down there things are pretty spread out as well, so you may do a lot of driving. Hotspot explorer can be useful down there, but the main hotspots are Santa Ana NWR, Bentson-Rio Grand, and Estero Llano Grande.
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Sep 1, 2015 05:38
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Laguna Atascosa was pretty nice- there was a mix of some upland stuff (green jays, thrashers, caracara) and decent water birds as well. I've been to the other LRGV spots that Beast mentioned and they are all good. There was also a big feeder station at Salinino but you might need to google it and make sure it's running that time of year- it might only be a winter thing. Also Anzalduas has had Sprague's Pipit in the winter so maybe worth a stop. You might try Aransas NWR along the coast too- maybe the Whooping Cranes will be in? I'll more or less echo what Beast said- It might be worth a little thinking of what you want to see. There are some super specialty birds (e.g. wild Moscovy duck, Ringed/Green Kingfisher, etc) that you can only pick up at spots right along the river. However, if you haven't birded much in that part of the country, you'll probably pick up a lot of new stuff wherever you go. Stick closer to Houston- get out along the coast, try to hit some upland areas, and have a good time! If you are/become a "serious" birder, you will inevitably get back to the Lower Rio Grande sometime when you have a few more days to explore.
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Sep 1, 2015 12:56
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BetterLekNextTime posted:You might try Aransas NWR along the coast too- maybe the Whooping Cranes will be in? Whooping Cranes don't return until late October from what I could tell when I was trying to plan my early october trip.
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Sep 1, 2015 15:30
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It might be a far-fetched question but this is the place I thought might have advice. Has anyone in this thread ever been to Tambopata in Peru where the macaw clay lick is? If so, was it worth the cost/etc? My ma keeps hinting that she'd like to go for her 70th birthday since I got her into parrots and bird-watching, and I figured I'd ask here if anyone had.
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Sep 1, 2015 15:31
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Here's a video I got of a young Mississippi kite a couple weeks ago. They've started nesting near my neighborhood. I also got some pictures of a sharp shinned hawk and the adult kites. Sorry for the shakiness. I didn't have a tripod. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQoFSsEhJDE And a downy woodpecker in my front yard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG_vFINp9O0
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Sep 1, 2015 18:01
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Tendai posted:It might be a far-fetched question but this is the place I thought might have advice. Has anyone in this thread ever been to Tambopata in Peru where the macaw clay lick is? If so, was it worth the cost/etc? My ma keeps hinting that she'd like to go for her 70th birthday since I got her into parrots and bird-watching, and I figured I'd ask here if anyone had. I haven't, but a few thoughts. Have you guys had much experience with the tropics before? I think you would have a blast, but if it's your first trip, you might consider Costa Rica or Belize which are pretty tourist-friendly, or maybe a Brazilian Pantanal lodge- a lot of the wildlife is big and easily seen there. But Peru is pretty much unbeatable for birds, it's just that birding in the rainforest can be tough since some of the birds can be hard to see. I think a blind/boat by the clay lick would be unbeatable, but I'm just thinking of the rest of the stay.
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Sep 1, 2015 18:12
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If I ever find a bird rare enough to make it in the local paper again I really hope it's not named Booby.
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Sep 2, 2015 22:24
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Welp, change of plans. Going to Vancouver instead. Probably check out reifel, Iona, Boundary Bay again, or might head up the sunshine Coast for a day. Will do Texas in the winter. Better birds, better weather!
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Sep 2, 2015 22:47
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I'll be in McAllen, TX in mid September for a few days to visit Santa Ana NWR and some of the other surrounding parks and wildlife refuges along the Rio Grande, so look for my pictures in the bird photography thread for what to look forward to.  It'll also be peak butterfly season!
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Sep 2, 2015 22:50
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The yellow-eyed juncos are out in force here, which is strange since everything I read after identifying what they were said it's southern part of New Mexico only, and I'm up north at nearly 9000 feet in the Rockies. It's 100% them though, unless there's a species that looks identical down to the shade of the red cape. Anyhow, this was as close as I managed to get to the one that was just tearing the poo poo out of my flowers  Wish I could have gotten the screen up but he was definitely aware I was moving at that point. Fat little twitterbirds.
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Sep 6, 2015 18:46
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Can anybody help me with an ID assist on this? Taken in McAllen, TX on September 19th. I'm not used to the birds down there and while I know it's a somewhat common one I just can't figure out what it is.
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Sep 23, 2015 15:00
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I think it might be a Great Kiskadee?
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Sep 23, 2015 15:44
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YggiDee posted:I think it might be a Great Kiskadee? aha, that sounds right! Thanks
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Sep 23, 2015 15:53
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My partner found four golden crowned kinglets entangled in burrs (from invasive burdock) the other day. 3 on one cluster, one already dead. She couldn't free them up because they're so tiny so she took them to the humane society who thankfully were able to help. They freed the two, but one seemed to have a broken wing. She was going to take them to the wildlife rescue center, but they operate on an on-call triage basis and were at the other end of the city. She decided since they were freaking out in the box they were in to let them go back in the park. The liveliest one flew right out and called back to its companion, who hopped onto the edge of the box before flying to the bush. I guess its wing wasn't that bad. Anyway, it's better off there where it can forage and hopefully heal up. She then found another, its face all mashed against its wing/shoulder with a burr. This one was too entangled to attempt anything with so she brought it home and we were going to bring it to the wildlife center in the morning. Sadly it didn't make it. It must have really hurt itself trying to free itself from the burr. Some other people found a magnolia warbler and a winter wren in a similar situation. I think the high winds might have driven the little birds to forage in the low lying burdock and that's what hosed them up. gently caress burrs!
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Oct 4, 2015 15:12
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I saw a magpie with no tail feathers today, it was an odd sight.
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Oct 4, 2015 21:37
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neckbeard posted:I saw a magpie with no tail feathers today, it was an odd sight. It probably had a run in with a cat.
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Oct 4, 2015 21:46
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Linedance posted:It probably had a run in with a cat. yeah, was at the edge of a residential neighbourhood so most likely. For a loud garbage bird, they're quite nice looking though
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Oct 5, 2015 00:20
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A while back I joined a bird photography group for my province on Facebook, earlier today someone posted some hummingbird shots at a backyard feeder. The shots were taken earlier today and the person is in a suburb of Edmonton. While we haven't had staying snow yet, the temperature around here has been around freezing for pretty much the past 2 weeks with temps dropping to occasionally below -6 overnight. Isn't this way too drat cold for a hummingbird?
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Nov 18, 2015 03:05
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I think as long as they have constant food they'll do ok for a little while. Especially with the short days they probably just go into torpor for like 14 hours a day.
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Nov 18, 2015 04:41
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neckbeard posted:A while back I joined a bird photography group for my province on Facebook, earlier today someone posted some hummingbird shots at a backyard feeder. The shots were taken earlier today and the person is in a suburb of Edmonton. While we haven't had staying snow yet, the temperature around here has been around freezing for pretty much the past 2 weeks with temps dropping to occasionally below -6 overnight. Isn't this way too drat cold for a hummingbird? I had to look it up since it's REALLY late for a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird north of the SE US. Turns out it's a Costa's Hummingbird whose normal range only extends to central California so it's a bit lost. I imagine it will be gone one way or another in the near future. That said, we have Anna's Hummingbirds here in Seattle year round and they will survive through weather like that, although it rarely gets that cold for more than a few days all winter. I have to bring in my feeder to thaw it out when things get bad.
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Nov 18, 2015 04:47
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Anna's will breed in that weather- they are crazy. If I remember correctly a big proportion of winter records east of the Rockies are mixed up migrants rather than late Ruby-throats.
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Nov 18, 2015 04:53
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BetterLekNextTime posted:Anna's will breed in that weather- they are crazy. I believe you're correct. There's a nice little write up on the Louisiana winter hummingbird banding project here: http://www.casacolibri.net/winterbanding.asp They tend to have mostly Rufous in the winter, but other species are around as well. edit: Anna's start breeding in like February or March. It's pretty crazy.
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Nov 18, 2015 05:09
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BetterLekNextTime posted:Anna's will breed in that weather- they are crazy. Had a bit more time on my lunch break at work to check things out, it's a Costa's so it must have gotten into a group of Ruby-throated as I believe those are the only hummingbird that migrates up to central Alberta Has been photographed by a few different people https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=pcb.900786463338983&type=3 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=pcb.901228513294778&type=3 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=pcb.900753970008899&type=3
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Nov 19, 2015 19:54
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I always seem to see good birds when I go out snowboarding. Last year I saw a northern hawk owl getting harassed by a couple of crows at sunshine village while going up the lift, and last week at kicking horse I flushed a white tailed ptarmigan after I tripped up on a tree root.
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Dec 26, 2015 15:10
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Today I saw the Peregrine Falcon at Morro Rock
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Jan 1, 2016 07:06
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Nice! I missed Peregrine on both of my Christmas Bird Counts this year. We did get a surprise Golden Eagle on one, and a merlin flying by clutching a black phoebe on the other.
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Jan 1, 2016 19:17
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Sorry if this isn't the correct thread, but is there a place I can pick peoples brains about birdseed? I'm an amateur bird feeder and haven't managed to settle on a good bird seed / feeder combo for the birds I'd ideally like to see. I live in Chicago in a 6th floor condo with a Juliet balcony (opens on one side only with a foot wide ledge) and have out a couple different feeder types. At first I was getting cardinals and finches and a downy woodpecker until my seed ran out and I bought a new bag - then it was nothing but sparrows and pigeons. It seems to be milo that attracts pigeons, and millet that sparrows love, although they also seem to delight in everything else, and will throw things they don't like onto the ground to get to the 'good stuff'. Right now I have a mix that is sunflower seeds and (I think) safflower hearts in a hopper feeder, same in a tube feeder, a pair of finch socks, and a woodpecker suet block in a cage feeder. I am getting a pair of cardinals, a few rare red-headed finches, a couple chickadees, a pair of starlings that like the suet, a single mourning dove that I don't mind, and a flock of sparrows that come and go - they seem to like this mix less than the one that had millet it in, which they emptied out in a day. But, they still come and go. Any advice on what a better seed / seed blend / setup might be?
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Jan 3, 2016 19:29
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EVG posted:Sorry if this isn't the correct thread, but is there a place I can pick peoples brains about birdseed? I'm an amateur bird feeder and haven't managed to settle on a good bird seed / feeder combo for the birds I'd ideally like to see. I live in Chicago in a 6th floor condo with a Juliet balcony (opens on one side only with a foot wide ledge) and have out a couple different feeder types. Pure black sunflower seed, in shell if you don't mind the mess, or shelled is a good start and junk birds aren't as fond of it. It's full of fats that birds need in winter. In spring you can add little buggy suet bits for protein, but they can gum up your feeder a bit. I've heard that hanging monofilament in front of the feeder deters house sparrows but the other birds don't pay it any mind.
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Jan 3, 2016 19:47
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I heard that too, and spent an hour rigging up a 'halo' sparrow deterrent from coat hangers and hobby wire: the sparrows sat on it.
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Jan 3, 2016 21:05
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It sounds like you're actually pretty successful for a 6th floor urban feeding station. You could try a niger/thistle feeder if you want to try for goldfinches. I agree with the black oil feeder idea. For the mixed seed, I don't really have a suggestion, but if you have a local audubon store/wild birds unlimited or something, you could ask for a mix that will have less waste. Most of the cheap bags you get from the grocery store or petco/petsmart have a lot of filler that most birds won't like. Except maybe for doves/pigeons, most birds are quite choosy and will happily make a huge mess digging through a bunch of less preferred stuff for the one kind of seed they happen to like.
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Jan 3, 2016 21:30
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I actually did go to Wild Birds Unlimited the last time I went shopping - they recommended a hopper-style feeder and the mix that I am using now (Supreme blend: black oil sunflower, sunflower chips, safflower and striped sunflower) - completely inundated with sparrows. They toss the sunflower seeds down on the ledge but then try to bully away the cardinals who would like to eat them. Jerks! I might try just nyjer seed in a finch-specific feeder with tiny holes - I heard from someone that sparrows and larger birds have beaks that make it more difficult to retrieve tiny seeds this way. But after spending $50 on a fancy feeder and $30 on a bag of seed at WBU, I'm a bit hesitant to shell out for another style. Maybe I'll just wait until it is a bit warmer and wander over to bird watch outside. I'm only about a half mile walk from Chicago's Montrose Bird Sanctuary which I've heard is rather popular, both for sighting rare birds and for gay hookups. So, I'm sure to see something interesting.
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Jan 4, 2016 02:57
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So I'm totally new to birding and don't know much beyond I think they're really pretty. But just got a telephoto lens for Christmas so I'm hoping to take it up a bit more seriously from here on out. Here's a red tail I saw today that came out to hunt at the bluffs this evening as I walked my dog. Eventually I'll learn to take halfway decent photos and identify accurately... I have to start somewhere. 
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Jan 4, 2016 04:42
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a life less posted:So I'm totally new to birding and don't know much beyond I think they're really pretty. But just got a telephoto lens for Christmas so I'm hoping to take it up a bit more seriously from here on out. Here's a red tail I saw today that came out to hunt at the bluffs this evening as I walked my dog. Eventually I'll learn to take halfway decent photos and identify accurately... I have to start somewhere. Nice Red-tailed Hawk! Birds are awesome- welcome to the club. If you haven't seen it yet, there's a bird-specific photo thread in Dorkroom. The OP is a little old but it's great just to see some of the amazing photos people are getting.
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Jan 4, 2016 05:17
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I'm also brand new! I picked up Sibley's a while back and my binoculars arrived today, so I went strolling around the mission bay neighborhood of San Francisco. I honestly expected nothing to come of it but I saw some beautiful birds! I had a lot of trouble IDing them but just walking around and paying close attention to sights and sounds was so pleasant! I saw a tiny hummingbird, western gulls, two kinds of ducks, a group of sparrow-like birds that flew too fast for me to inspect, and this big badass great blue heron! If I can find birds like this just around town, then I'm extra stole to go to an actual park! I'll head to the golden gate park tomorrow.
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Jan 17, 2016 01:42
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At the top of this page I mention my family in Leamington. My cousin is actually CEO of a company that manufactures bird seed. So, I'm far from disinterested in the "what do I put in my feeder?" discussion, even though I don't actually have a financial stake in the company. Anyway, disclaimer aside the name of the company is TopCrop. Please just google it, I'd rather not link directly because a) I don't want to look like a shill for the (that side of the) family business and b) awkward questions at holiday gatherings about "What's this awful something that linked to our website?". I know they sell it at Walmart, among other places. There's an organisation in North America, Wild Bird Feeding Industry that TopCrop is a part of. They sponsor research on various aspects of birds and bird feeding, like what kinds of feed various species prefer, and how to limit the negative impacts of feeding on wild populations. Obviously, the companies involved have an interest in people buying feed for birds, but they do have some useful information on their site.
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Jan 17, 2016 03:57
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giogadi posted:I'm also brand new! I picked up Sibley's a while back and my binoculars arrived today, so I went strolling around the mission bay neighborhood of San Francisco. I honestly expected nothing to come of it but I saw some beautiful birds! I had a lot of trouble IDing them but just walking around and paying close attention to sights and sounds was so pleasant! Nice! SF and the bay area in general are great places for birds. The SF Christmas Bird Count had over 180 species this year .
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Jan 17, 2016 04:56
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giogadi posted:I'm also brand new! I picked up Sibley's a while back and my binoculars arrived today, so I went strolling around the mission bay neighborhood of San Francisco. I honestly expected nothing to come of it but I saw some beautiful birds! I had a lot of trouble IDing them but just walking around and paying close attention to sights and sounds was so pleasant! Awesome. If you have a smartphone running iOS or Android (and enough space) you should download the Merlin ID app. It asks a few questions and leverages eBird data to guess what the bird you saw was. The Sibley book is a must have, but its limited since you have to have a theory about which bird you saw before you look at the map to see if its expected in your area at this time of year. For instance, there are three Hummingbirds that have been seen in SF county in January. One is literally the most common bird in the county (according to eBird) and the rest are fairly rare. (numbers are a percentage of submitted checklists that the bird appears on)  Really jealous of you starting to bird in California. I've had some great times birding the south bay when I've been down there for work. Shorebirds year around. Awesome rarities in fall. Enjoy it. If you can find some morning bird walks in the area those can be VERY helpful when getting started. ExecuDork posted:[Bird Food talk] My dad texted me from the hardware store the other day to tell me they were clearing out Nyjer seed for $0.50 for ten pounds (normally about $2 a pound). I had him buy my like 80lbs. I hope we get some goldfinches this year..
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Jan 17, 2016 07:21
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well this is pretty hosed up, reminder don't to trespass/be a douche: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/jan/16/after-attracting-birders-rare-hawk-owl-killed-near/ quote:A northern hawk owl, a species rarely seen in the Inland Northwest, was reported dead on tribal lands near the Okanogan River last week after it had attracted scores of birdwatchers from as far away as Oregon.
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Jan 20, 2016 01:40
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