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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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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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BeastOfExmoor posted:Man, seeing those photos makes it really hard to live on the west coast I went for a walk in Munich's Englisher Gardens today and got all excited about stuff that's hyper-common in large European cities, like the geese here that are just as obnoxious as the Canada geese back home (how many species have YOU been hissed at by?). I have macro pictures of European Coots, if you aren't satisfied by a quick look at extreme range of some never-touches-soil tube-nose I don't know what to tell you.
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Apr 24, 2016 19:12
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I've got a pair of Brown Headed Cowbirds as regulars at my balcony feeder, and I'm curious about the species. There's a fair bit of opinion around suggesting that BHCs are pretty much the worst thing EVAR because they're nest parasites. Most of these discussions, including the Wikipedia page, come down to a series of old reports by Herbert Friedmann and co-authors in the 1960's and 1970's. The relevant bit on the wiki:Wikipedia posted:The brown-headed cowbird eggs have been documented in nests of at least 220 host species, including hummingbirds and raptors.[5][6] That sounded like an interesting bit of natural-history to procrastinate at work reading about, and I stumbled across the 1977 paper by Friedmann, Kiff, and Rothstein. It's an old-school Natural History Report, with "notes" (a paragraph or two) about each of the species of birds reported to have been parasitized by BHCs. That quote above is based on a subsequent report from 1985 that I haven't been able to get my hands on, yet, but if you're interested in the 1977 version it's at the Smithsonian: https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/5409 I don't know if that's behind a paywall or not, I came to it through a series of journal articles, starting in Ecology. No hummingbirds or raptors that I could see in my skim through the 1977 report, though I think it's worth pointing out that some of the species listed are represented by a single record of a person looking in a nest and seeing a cowbird egg. The first species listed for BHC (the report also talks about other Cowbird species) is the Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola), from a single record, and is described as "an accidental host choice, an error on the part of the parasite." Cowbirds seem to be one of those species that people love to impose their own morals upon - how dare they leave their young to be raised by others! - but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I think they're lovely birds and they are quite welcome at my urban, apartment-balcony feeder.
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Jun 14, 2016 20:58
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Link to the vid? Sounds like fun!
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Jul 25, 2016 04:21
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No pictures because they all scatter if they see me, I have to move like a sloth to even see, but the birds at my feeder include two male Goldfinches with the brightest yellow feathers I've ever seen and a Cardinal with some absolutely rockin' punk hair. Get a feeder. It's cheap entertainment.
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Jul 27, 2016 01:34
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There aren't any nesting raven pairs around me, but if I start collecting road kill the family of turkey vultures with the nest a few blocks away might take an interest. I like to go for drives on weekends, I consistently see splattered skunks and pulped porcupines. That would also probably annoy my neighbours, but adding a species to the list that visit my balcony seems like a worthy goal. I should talk to my cousin about this - he owns a company that makes birdseed. Walmart carries it but it's a bit more expensive than the generic / house brand stuff, and I can't make any honest claims about Topcrop Blue Jay & Cardinal mix's ability to attract more or a greater variety of species to your feeder (I buy it out of family loyalty). He used to keep a bowl of dried mixed berries on his desk, straight off the production line downstairs. I wonder if I could convince him to market a line of Raven & Vulture food...
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Jul 28, 2016 04:17
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Cythereal posted:From PYF. Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree Merry merry king of the bush is he! Sing! kookaburra, sing! kookaburra sing your song for me! Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree Eating all the OI! GET THE FACK AWAY FROM ME BARBIE YA FAT oval office!
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Aug 1, 2016 06:28
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Anything outside of a dollar store all-plastic toy should have adjustable eye cups. Waterproof is a great idea, though. My Porro-prism Bushnell's from 8 years ago are waterproof 8x42 that cost almost exactly $100 back then. Similar to this: http://bushnell.com/wildlife/binoculars/legacy-wp/8x-42mm A couple of years ago I gave my GF a set of Pentax Roof-prism binos and she absolutely loves the hell out of them. About $240, but there was a sale and I think regular price was around $300. Decent, waterproof binoculars don't seem to be something that shows up much on the second-hand market, most of the used stuff is really old, and really crappy. So there aren't many deals to be found there. A good place to look for birdwatching binos is a hunting/fishing/outdoors store, especially the big-box stores (Cabela's, for example). Sometimes their house brands - which are just re-branded from a major manufacturer - can get you something pretty good for not much money.
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Oct 31, 2016 21:44
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BetterLekNextTime posted:and the cluster behind appear to be house sparrows. House Sparrows are in the family Passeridae, but native North American sparrows are in the family Emberizidae. Many guidebooks group birds by taxonomy, so the native emberizid sparrows will appear in a separate section from the passerids. If you want to prevent future bird-on-window hits, there's a bunch of advice here: http://www.flap.org/ What guidebooks do you have? There are several good ones covering all of North America, and another range covering regions like "east of the Rockies", as well as state-level guides that vary widely in quality.
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Jan 13, 2017 15:40
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bean_shadow posted:The only other book I have is National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America Sixth Edition. I kept track of the birds I saw at my balcony feeder last year. I'm in Waterloo, Ontario.
I think my neighbours and my landlord would complain if I tried putting out roadkill on my balcony for the scavengers. I think the insectivores would appreciate the maggot supply, though.
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Jan 14, 2017 22:36
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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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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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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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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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 Bob_or_Lelaina by Martin Brummell, on Flickr^ this is Bob (or Lelaina, if it's a lady - I'm still not sure, if you are then lmk), we have a great relationship as we've seen each other once which is far more than I see the majority of my people friends - ofc they can be a bit bitey at times but that's ok because they are one of the most ridonckulous birds I've ever met.
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Apr 26, 2017 00:51
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I am very jealous! I live in Waterloo and have relatives in the Leamington area, I can get down there easily. Except I'm doing fieldwork (nothing to do with birds) in Alberta all May! I've been to the Pinery, it's excellent. I'll be back in SW Ontario in June and July, so of course I'll be spending some time out there when I can. Thanks for the update, I like having a reason to be homesick (besides the usual reasons).
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May 15, 2017 22:49
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Sierra Nevadan posted:Birds are like really hard to tell apart. Like Gulls. A synchronized dive bomb poop raid on my truck would cause me to laugh and clap my hands. You lucky bastard. Identifying them is hard, but not impossible. Just make sure you're looking at a decent-sized flock and set your standard for success at "pretty confident (species) is in there"
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Jun 1, 2017 20:10
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Dufous partridge, derpeterius subspecies
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Dec 15, 2017 05:13
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I'll participate if I remember. My prediction: House Sparrow x lots, American Crow x a few, maybe a Rock Dove or two. Quebec City is surprisingly terrible for urban birds. Does it count as my backyard if it's the shoreline of the St Laurence, 2 km away? It's covered in chunky ice and has been cold and grey for months, but yesterday I saw a Snowy Owl when I was out driving around in the snowstorm, so maybe there'd be something interesting down there.
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Feb 12, 2018 15:54
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Welp, I have achieved a near-minimum-possible entry into the world of eBird. I just submitted my Great Backyard Bird Count: a grand total of 2. Not 2 species, 2 individual Black-Capped Chickadees, that I almost did not see, just hear, chasing each other through the bare branches of the small trees at the base of the slope, on the shore of the St Laurence at Quebec City. The eBird maps show two hotspots near where I was. I went up the observation tower that I think must be one of those hotspots, but I didn't make my count there because I saw nothing except some crows on the side of the tower blocked from view and there were many people around. I walked out onto the ice, hoping to see something like a gull or a mallard that hadn't migrated, but nope, nothing. So I walked a ways down the path to a point where some picnic tables were sticking up out of the deep snow, just off the path, and I sat on a table and scanned everything I could see with my binos. At minute 14 the chickadees showed themselves, but I was already certain of the ID from their calls. So now my lifetime stats are binary - just a big field of zeros and a few ones.
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Feb 19, 2018 00:07
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BetterLekNextTime posted:That’s rad, congrats. We have black-headed here but they haven’t really found the feeders yet this year. Also, yesterday driving back towards town on the highway we passed under a raven cruising along at about 30ft altitude, getting harassed by a crow. Repeated dives by the crow onto the raven, with the raven rolling inverted to present claws to the crow on each pass.
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May 7, 2018 15:54
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You can sometimes find good binos (weathersealed, decent lens coating, respectable brand) on sale. My Nikons were like $150 a year ago. Almost every gear-centric hobby (binos for birding, cameras & lenses for photography) will have an overabundance of advice pushing the most expensive options while loudly claiming these are not, in fact, the most expensive options and are anyways absolutely necessary for every rank novice to "invest" heavily in.
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Jun 15, 2018 15:52
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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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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: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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I just moved to Australia, and I've been trying to keep track of the birds I see (the first time I see a member of a species). Can anyone recommend an app for my Android phone that might make this easier? Do most bird-identification apps include a checklist function?
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Jan 26, 2019 12:52
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Post your hardest ID Last weekend, my wife and I went to transport an injured bird. We joined the local wildlife carers shortly after we arrived here in Australia - we're in Armidale, NSW - and this was our first actual activity after the meeting in March where we got our certifications as members of the society. An elderly woman in a town about 2 hours away had ended up with "an injured tern" that the society leadership had arranged for care at a marine conservation park (that also has dolphins  ) on the coast, about 3 hours away. We like to drive around and explore on weekends anyway so Sunday Drive #203 was 500 km to pick up the bird and take it to the conservation park. We were told "tern" but Allison (names changed) looking after it said she thought it was probably a gull; certainly it was big enough. It was clearly a juvenile, that had crash-landed in a field nearby and Allison thought it had become exhausted and dropped out of the flock it was a part of. We got a good look at the bird, including holding it and putting it in the car, and taking it out halfway down to the coast to flip over the towel in the box after it poo poo all over it. So we were pretty confident that it was a juvenile Gull-Billed Tern, Gelochelidon nilotica. The person at the marine park who took the bird inside for "sea bird gatorade" (their rehydration fluid; injured birds are often dehydrated) said she'd let us know when the vet at the park had looked it over and made a positive ID, but she thought it looked like a Gull-Billed Tern, too. A couple of days later, we find out it's actually a Red-tailed Tropicbird, Phaethon rubricauda. When we looked up photos of this species, our passenger was even closer than the dead ringer that we thought of as the Gull-Billed Tern. Really subtle differences, that you'd never see in a bird that was free and able to fly away from you. Juvenile not-gulls are loving hard.
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Jun 3, 2019 06:39
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I missed the Aussie Backyard Bird Count (October) but I have a mostly-inactive account at eBird and you've prompted me to try to remember to fit in a 15-minute session (or more) at the places I'll be over the next couple of weeks. I'm housesitting for some profs here and their house is in a lovely patch of (bone-dry drought-afflicted) bush near the university for a month, starting tomorrow, and from the 22nd to the 26th my family will be at a rental cabin in a national park on the New South Wales central coast, an ideal place for some semi-serious birding. Weirdly, Australia doesn't seem to do a christmas count. Everybody is on holiday in the sun, and birding is pretty popular around here, you'd think it would be A Thing. Oh well, I'll go out and mis-identify a bunch of stuff. Thanks for the prompt! Hopefully I'll remember.
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Dec 13, 2019 01:14
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/\/\/\ Nice. I like Snow Buntings, they remind me of my PhD fieldwork, in the Canadian High Arctic. I would get woken up by the juveniles sliding off of my dome tent - their claws are noisy on nylon fabric. EDIT: these guys  Weather Premonitions 9 by Martin Brummell, on FlickrBeastOfExmoor posted:I never considered the Kingfishers would eat Crayfish. That's pretty awesome. Coming from Canada, where there's one camera-hating bastard of a kingfisher to Australia, where there are many different and often quite photo-tolerant kingfishers has been very eye-opening. Sacred Kingfishers (I've got photos but they're languishing on a HDD) often hunt land-bugs (grasshoppers, spiders, beetles, etc.) from fence posts and low tree branches. We saw one using a large piece of driftwood on a beach as its survey perch several months ago, it appeared to be hunting crabs. And the kookaburras seem to be entirely terrestrial, I usually see them in forests or just in trees, not necessarily near water. They'd certainly take a yabbie (local slang for crayfish).
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Jan 11, 2021 01:23
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BetterLekNextTime posted:I think it was the Scarlet Tanager I heard about. When I lived in Saskatchewan, the flat empty part in the middle of Canada, there was a boom year for Snowys. My (now-) wife and I saw about a dozen over a 6-hour drive, all of them perched on top of wooden powerline poles. We developed the habit of scanning powerlines and similar repeated tall structures (big fence posts, telephone lines, etc.) from 100 km/h, and that's how we found a bunch more interesting birds, including a Golden Eagle one day.  Raptor by Martin Brummell, on Flickr SD 140 24 by Martin Brummell, on Flickr
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Jan 18, 2021 01:29
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