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BetterLekNextTime posted:Maybe listen to Red-shouldered Hawk That's close, but what I hear is less harsh and a lot sharper, if that makes sense, and has a more distinct drop-off on the second half. It also pauses for a lot longer between calls.
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Jan 15, 2017 03:31
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Maybe try this one? http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/red-shouldered-hawk I'm not sure what else to suggest based on your visual description. There's Cooper's Hawks or Sharp-shinned hawks too, so maybe check out those... e: maybe the Northern Flicker Kyeer call - those can also flash pink https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/sounds BetterLekNextTime fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Jan 15, 2017 |
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Jan 15, 2017 03:37
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Yeah I figured it was a longshot. I'm fairly certain it isn't a hawk though. Guess I'll just have to hope it gets lazy and perches where I can actually see it.
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Jan 15, 2017 03:45
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Maybe an Inca Dove? It's a long shot, but when I hear 'dove sized thing yelling at my window' the culprit is usually a dove.
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Jan 15, 2017 03:56
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Anyone want to offer their opinion on cameras to document birds? The OP does mention this, but since it's over 3 years old, it seems worth asking again. My aim is to do as well as I can under $500. I've been primarily looking at superzoom cameras, since I would really like something that's fairly easy to use, not massive/heavy, and has plenty of reach to have a shot at capturing birds in the distance. I understand a DSLR will always provide the best image quality, but I'm willing to sacrifice some of that for these other factors. I'm mainly looking for quality that's good enough to identify a bird after the fact, and tag on my eBird checklists with reasonable clarity (not looking to blow them up and frame them on my walls or anything). I've been looking at the Canon Powershot SX60 HS (the OP recommended the SX50 at the time), but am waiting to see if the price drops lower than where it's at. Does anyone else use this camera, or a perhaps a similar alternative that I should be considering for birding? I'd be interested in hearing any perspectives on these. Side note: My wife actually has a Canon DSLR, but not with any lens with enough zoom, so another option would be for me to just invest in a new lens to accomplish this. I'm sure this would be the preferred approach of any true photographer; however, I'm not convinced I could easily do this within my budget, especially if I want something portable enough to carry alongside binoculars. But if anyone disagrees, feel free to educate me!
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Jan 15, 2017 05:10
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I'm not sure of the superzoom question. Maybe check out Panasonic and Sony as well? Regarding the DSLR, it definitely depends. A 70-300mm lens works ok for "documentation"- meaning that, particularly for smaller birds, you'll often need to crop/zoom into the photo to see detail, and because of this there will be loss in image quality compared to longer lenses. However, the 70-300s are going to be a fraction of the weight of a 500 or 600mm lens, so you can carry and hand-hold them much more easily. Check out Tamron or Canon 70-300, and make sure it has image stabilization, and don't be afraid to buy used or refurbished. I think you can get either one for under $500 pretty easily. The next step up would be around $800-$1000 I think, for e.g. Canon 400mm (non IS) or sale prices for the Tamron or Sigma 150-600mm.
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Jan 15, 2017 05:38
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waffy posted:Anyone want to offer their opinion on cameras to document birds? The OP does mention this, but since it's over 3 years old, it seems worth asking again. My go-to superzoom recommendation is whatever Canon is currently selling for cheap refurbished when they have a sale, which is the SX50 currently. Typically it sells for $150 when this happens. I bought a SX40 for that price a few years ago and I've been happy with it. If you can stretch your budget a bit, the 150-600mm (Tamron or Sigma) are an incredible value and will beat the pants off any superzoom, period. Chard posted:Yeah I figured it was a longshot. I'm fairly certain it isn't a hawk though. Guess I'll just have to hope it gets lazy and perches where I can actually see it. You might have missed the edit, but BetterLek mentioned Northern Flicker, which was my guess. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/sounds Here's my current yard list in taxonomic order: code:
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Jan 15, 2017 06:26
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BeastOfExmoor posted:You might have missed the edit, but BetterLek mentioned Northern Flicker, which was my guess. Ahhh! I did miss the edit but that's absolutely it, thank you! Now to get a good look at that handsome boy
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Jan 15, 2017 06:40
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waffy posted:Anyone want to offer their opinion on cameras to document birds? The OP does mention this, but since it's over 3 years old, it seems worth asking again. The two areas where a DSLR will have an advantage is responsiveness (autofocus speed, writing photos to the card, response to commands) and high ISO/low light conditions.
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Jan 15, 2017 09:42
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ExecuDork posted:The chickadees and House Sparrows are the most common and reliable visitors. The two species of nuthatches are also pretty frequent, and there are a couple of doves that whistle onto my balcony and make stupid noises almost every day. So far this year everything above Starling has already shown up after I refilled my feeder; it was completely empty after my 3 weeks away over the break. There are many, many crows around but they don't care about my feeder, and I've seen what was probably a Cooper's Hawk in the area but not specifically hunting my feeder or the nearest trees. Plus some Turkey Vultures, gulls, and various ducks at long range during the summer. I saw a lot of black-capped chickadees in the fall, when I first put the feeders up but I don't seem to see them much this winter even though my guides tell me they are year-round. I also see a lot of the white-breasted nuthatchers. I'm lucky if both of my feeders and the bit I put on the ground is there after 12 hours. Do the seeds that claim to keep squirrels away work? I may put some normal seed out for the squirrels (because I love all animals) but put the anti-squirrel seed in the feeder. What I've seen so far, since putting up my feeder. Once again, I'm in Marshalltown, Iowa, which is about 45 - 60 minutes north and slightly to the east of Des Moines:
Other birds
And at the nearby Riverside Cemetery (I was last there on Election Day to calm myself):
I've heard that it isn't wise to feed ducks and geese bread. Is it wise to feed them at all? If it's OK, what is it fine to feed them?AQ
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Jan 15, 2017 15:09
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bean_shadow posted:I've heard that it isn't wise to feed ducks and geese bread. Is it wise to feed them at all? If it's OK, what is it fine to feed them?AQ The Reifel Bird Sanctuary near Vancouver has a permanent population of several hundred mallards that hang out in the parking lot and entrance area. They're so used to humans you have to be very careful when driving through the parking lot and watch where you step for the first 100m of trails. The gift shop sells packages of bird seed so you can try to hand-feed any birds bold enough to go for it (watching a small child get mobbed by ducks is highly entertaining), it's a generic mix for any bird though they don't describe the composition anywhere on their website that I can see. Most ducks and geese that are habituated enough to humans to respond to somebody tossing stuff into the pond are filter-feeders that target seeds from water-growing and near-water-growing plants anyways; there are a huge number of grasses in that category that produce seeds very similar to what's in normal commercial bird seed. Throw a few handfuls at your local mallards and canada geese and you'll make some noisy new friends, I think. EDIT: It also depends on what you consider "wise". Big geese can get pretty aggressive and if you go and do this with any kind of regularity they'll start to recognize you and come running as soon as they see you. Is this something that you want?
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Jan 15, 2017 23:18
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Had another bobwhite at my feeder today.  They're not really feeder birds, but the birds that get on the feeder tend to scatter stuff onto the ground and a bobwhite came by today and ate a bunch. I hope he's careful if he's not passing through, there's a family of barred owls in my area that I regularly see bag squirrels and rabbits.
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Jan 16, 2017 00:45
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I got some of that "red-hot sauce" specially made to be mixed in with bird seed to keep squirrels away but is OK for birds. Does this work? I'm not sure I want to shell out for a new bird feeder. The birds eat enough food as it is and the squirrels and deer do not help. I've been using up 40 pounds of bird feed in a week. This cant go on. I got some squirrel food to put on the ground so they get something. How to keep squirrels away from feeders?
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Jan 16, 2017 14:43
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Can't you just mix in a bunch of cayenne powder or red chili flakes? Birds aren't bothered by capsaicin, squirrels and deer most certainly are.
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Jan 16, 2017 17:40
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Put some work into it you lazy person. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWU0bfo-bSY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0NxxZWMOMQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TamMqvk4Bb8 Only the best squirrels will eat your precious, precious seed.
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Jan 16, 2017 19:51
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ExecuDork posted:Put some work into it you lazy person. Owls are proving an effective squirrel deterrent where I am. It's amazing how much the squirrel population dropped off after I started hearing hooting every night.
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Jan 16, 2017 20:14
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bean_shadow posted:I got some of that "red-hot sauce" specially made to be mixed in with bird seed to keep squirrels away but is OK for birds. Does this work? I'm not sure I want to shell out for a new bird feeder. The birds eat enough food as it is and the squirrels and deer do not help. I've been using up 40 pounds of bird feed in a week. This cant go on. I got some squirrel food to put on the ground so they get something. I know I've told this story before, but we had a problem with a squirrel coming to our window feeder and setting up camp (he literally sat in the feeder and ate until he couldn't move, then settled in for a nap, woke up a few hours later and kept eating). We tried liberally lacing the feed with cayenne pepper, here's what happened. Squirrel came for lunch as usual, started eating, paused... Confused... Little squirrel eye starts watering... "what is this intoxicating exotic new flavour?" it's tiny squirrel mind thought... And he continued to gorge himself on these delectable new spicy peanuts. The only thing that I've seen effectively work are Squirrel Buster brand feeders.
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Jan 16, 2017 20:23
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My housemate in college worked for a professor who was testing the spice levels needed to deter squirrels. These were captive squirrels so maybe didn't have as much choice not to eat compared to a wild squirrel who can just go down the block, but whatever. There really wasn't any effect of spice until the level was so high that the humans had to wear goggles, respirators, and gloves to handle the seeds. Don't know about deer though.
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Jan 16, 2017 21:01
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Went to the local cemetery and got up close to this sassy beauty. I think most swans are sassy, though. It had been cleaning itself when I got closer and then it gave me this look before going back to preening. 
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Feb 12, 2017 20:04
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I always picture swans as super-vain, like they are weighing whether they are going to muss up their feathers before they decide to kick your rear end. Compare with geese, who just kick your rear end. Birder announcement: the Great Backyard Bird Count is next weekend. Everyone should do it, since it's a cool, free citizen science project that you can do at your own house with very little effort (or go to a local park, etc). http://www.audubon.org/content/about-great-backyard-bird-count
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Feb 12, 2017 23:02
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Anyone have a recommendation on a good bird identification book for Cuba?
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Feb 22, 2017 01:47
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I saw a fledgling starling this morning running around with it's mommy bird it's february what in the god drat
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Feb 22, 2017 21:38
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Mirthless posted:I saw a fledgling starling this morning running around with it's mommy bird Where do you live?
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Feb 23, 2017 01:58
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I went to Panama a couple of weeks ago, saw tons of cool birds. The most incredible thing though, was our visit just happened to coincide with an INCREDIBLE, MASSIVE hawk migration! We stayed at the Radisson Summit golf resort outside Panama City in the hills. If you're planning on visiting, you might get lucky like we did with the first week of march.  P1010989.jpg by King Dugga, on Flickr  P1010981.jpg by King Dugga, on Flickr  P1010980.jpg by King Dugga, on Flickr What you see here is thousands, and thousands, and thousands of Turkey Vultures, Swainsons Hawks, and Broad Winged Hawks (in that order of frequency). This went on every night from late afternoon to after dusk, and again in the morning. I've never seen anything like it and was in awe!
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Mar 22, 2017 23:57
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I've been wondering something about mourning doves. Are they especially dim-witted? My parents have a tray feeder set up in the backyard, and the mourning doves will often just squat there and gorge themselves without watching their surroundings. Sometimes they will just sit down in the tray feeder for upwards of 20 minutes, not eating anything, but seemingly relaxing. This doesn't always work out well for them. I've witnessed a hawk ambushing two mourning doves that were lounging around like this, so it's not like it's the safest location for them to idle.
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Mar 23, 2017 01:11
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You should see their nests. They're not bright. Re: migration -- holy poo poo!!
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Mar 23, 2017 02:05
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There's at least one Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay that comes to eat at the suet feeder on the tree that overhangs my deck each morning, who is totally unafraid of people. I was out there moving around this morning and he just flew up and ate for about a minute, perched maybe three feet away from me. Glanced at me once, then just did his thing before filling his beak totally and flying off again. I'm thinking he has a mate somewhere maybe, he always fills his beak up just before he leaves. This has been your morning bird nerd talk.
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Apr 8, 2017 16:14
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A humorous article about US state birds and what they should be: http://www.slate.com/articles/healt..._and_hawks.html
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Apr 19, 2017 15:49
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WrenP-Complete posted:A humorous article about US state birds and what they should be: gently caress slate. Here is the original post from 2013: http://www.thebirdist.com/2013/04/state-birds-what-they-should-be.html Pro-tip - Lund writes for National Audubon now and writes a great column called The Birdist's Rules of Birding which is worth checking out. Also if any of you birders want to support bird conservation/research/education, Mass Audubon (oldest, best, largest state-only Audubon Society) is hosting Bird-a-thon in May. Get out and bird.
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Apr 19, 2017 16:40
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Lord Wexia posted:gently caress slate. Here is the original post from 2013: http://www.thebirdist.com/2013/04/state-birds-what-they-should-be.html Oh, thank you! Didn't realize that wasn't the original.
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Apr 19, 2017 17:20
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Here's some really stupid (and NSFW) bird humor that someone just sent me. https://dumbbirdsfieldguide.tumblr.com/
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Apr 19, 2017 17:34
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Since spring is here for most of the US (it just arrived in New England a week ago), has anyone had any good outings lately? Unfortunately I'm not much of a photographer, but if I was I'd certainly have good photos of the Palm warblers I had great views of and the Ruffed grouse I snuck up on yesterday. Barred Owls have also been hooting like crazy setting up territory at all hours of the day/night.
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Apr 19, 2017 18:10
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Some Carolina wrens have made a nest in my flower pot (in DC)! We've named them Gwen and Gus and we are delighted. This is their nest:  
WrenP-Complete fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Apr 19, 2017 |
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Apr 19, 2017 18:41
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Lord Wexia posted:Since spring is here for most of the US (it just arrived in New England a week ago), has anyone had any good outings lately? Not in the past couple of weeks, but I did get out a bit last month. Got to watch some turkeys for a bit- I'm usually off in sage-grouse land and miss their display time.  Dam Road Turkey-9762 on FlickrAlso got to see a few birds along the coast. The harrier was double-fisting 2 voles- I don't know if it found a nest or what but I don't think I've ever seen a raptor with food in each hand. The white bird is a pretty leucistic sparrow- probably white-crowned. I was hoping for snow bunting but no luck!  Harrier double-fisting-0001 on Flickr Capitola Loon-9837 on Flickr Wren square crop-0713 on Flickr Leucistic sparrow 7-0816 on FlickrWrenP-Complete posted:Some Carolina wrens have made a nest in my flower pot (in DC)! We've named them Gwen and Gus and we are delighted. I haven't had birds in my nestbox in my yard for maybe 10 years but I peeked in the other day and there was a chickadee and 3 eggs! Hope they are successful!
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Apr 19, 2017 21:56
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Lord Wexia posted:Since spring is here for most of the US (it just arrived in New England a week ago), has anyone had any good outings lately? My wife just gave birth to our second child so I've been at home for the last two weeks on paternity leave. The downside is that I haven't been able go places to bird much, but the upside is that we have a very good house for birding. I had 57 species yesterday, which was 7 higher than my previous high for a single day. We're still a week or two away from the big glut of migrants up here so things should only get better.
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Apr 20, 2017 02:01
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BeastOfExmoor posted:My wife just gave birth to our second child so I've been at home for the last two weeks on paternity leave. The downside is that I haven't been able go places to bird much, but the upside is that we have a very good house for birding. I had 57 species yesterday, which was 7 higher than my previous high for a single day. We're still a week or two away from the big glut of migrants up here so things should only get better. Congrats! Get the kid started early. My parents were into birding, and I was going along on hikes with them when I was really young.
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Apr 20, 2017 17:21
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BeastOfExmoor posted:I had 57 species yesterday, which was 7 higher than my previous high for a single day. This morning I needed to visit the local hardware store anyways and they had some bird-feeder stuff on sale. So tonight I'll figure out how to attach the suet block feeder and maybe start attracting insectivorous birds with the block I bought that says it contains "bugs" (pretty sure it's just gonna be mealworms, but whatever). I had a Downy Woodpecker visit my feeder earlier this week for the boring seed mix I have in there, maybe he'll bring his friends to the suet block? I also picked up a cheap plastic hummingbird feeder, even though I've never seen nor heard a hummingbird in my neighbourhood. There are plenty of Turkey Vultures around, every time I see one I think about how I could put some roadkill on my balcony and maybe my landlord wouldn't mind....? EDIT: re: hummingbirds. I'm just going to put sugar-water in the humming-feeder, in case anyone was worried that I was going to use honey or something.
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Apr 20, 2017 22:22
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ExecuDork posted:You bastard. I'm very jealous. Also, yes, congratulations on the birding-baby thing. Good work! Just a thought, are you boiling the sugar-water first? I think they like it more, and also it kills germs/molds(?) I get sometimes as many as 3 male and female Anna's feeding at once on a very consistent basis, I never get tired of watching them drink. Once just the other I saw a red guy come by that was either a Rufous or Allen's but there's no way to tell. He got bullied away anyway, I think he was migrating. Need more feeders!
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Apr 20, 2017 22:40
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Boiling - I hadn't thought of that, good idea! I'll make sure any hummingbirds that come by are getting sterile-when-I-put-it-out solution, at least.
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Apr 20, 2017 23:05
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Saw some Black-bellied Whistling Ducks today, near St. Louis. Which is unusual, because they are generally South America/Florida/Texas/Louisiana. Long pink-legged weirdos not from around here.     Also, this bat: 
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Apr 21, 2017 00:07
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