Bird watching!!!!

[Blueser100]

Long-time bird watcher here in Southern Ca. We have created a bird-friendly environment in our backyard and front garden. It's a wonderful pastime. I recently joined the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. They have great live cams all over the world that attracts the most amazing birds. They have an area of their website where you can post all the details of your bird sightings.

https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/

There are many live bird cams around the world that are very interesting to watch. I love the Albatross cam!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZX...6NpR-eH_gdDwYA

[fitness1]

I did a 60 miler on my bike today - on the way out, and a couple hours later on the way back there's a wooden bridge over a wetlands area near town - there were 30 or more Egrets probably 100-150 feet away. They were all congregated closely. It was a cool site (sorry, no smartphone to catch it)

[jnidoh]

Wags...excellent picture of eagle and osprey!

Like Fogducker, we've had osprey nesting on power poles within 150 ft of our house for many years. They would occasionally land in the yard for sticks when building their nests.

The power co. would use a helicopter every year in late fall to remove the nest and the osprey would return every spring and rebuild. Last year we waited but they never showed and this year the pole remained empty.

Luckily, we've been watching a red tailed hawk that often perches in trees around our house and I've been trying to locate the nest for the past few years. This year, watched as they performed their mating ritual above our house/wooded area and kept seeing them fly towards a clearing.

This clearing, about 500 ft from the house is where we store our tractor, trailer and stack fire wood for friends to use. Spring, summer and fall, I go there, sit on the trailer to play and sing, and no one hears me or complains. Their nest was in a tree about 50 ft from the trailer and although 70-80 ft up, they still screamed and even dove at me once as a warning.

Took me about two weeks, spending maybe 10-15 min at a time and talking to myself out loud before they went about their business and ignored me. I'd sit there and play for a while and then pull out the glasses and watch them. Since the nest was so high, was only able to see them fly in and out, and sometimes the tops of their heads when in the nest.

Not really a bird watching post since by the end of May when everything turned green, couldn't even see the nest anymore since the trees/branches were so thick. Still hear them and see mom and dad hunting/flying through the trees to the nest but chose not to venture any closer to avoid disturbing them.

john

[fitness1]

Took a few pics of the Egrets on my bike ride this morning - not great as they were taken with a 15 year old Sony point and shoot fully zoomed (birds are a couple hundred feet away) There were at least that many out of view to the right too.

[TRose]

The Rosebreasted grosbeaks pass through the southeastern United States on their migratory trek each spring. Headed from Central America to their breeding grounds in the northern US and Canada they stop for rest and food in our backyard the third and fourth week of April every year. IMG_1619534737.131003.jpg
Here is a photo of a male and female Rosebreasted grosbeak.

[TRose]

Female Rosebreasted grosbeak:IMG_1619534946.826726.jpg

[Fogducker]

Currently waiting for the Orioles to arrive and enjoy the GRAPE JELLY we put out! Who'd a thunk that is what they are attracted to. I didn't believe it last year but within one day there they were enjoying their largesse!

Fog

[fazool]

when I was in college, I wanted a bird feeder outside my second story window. I bought a really big pole and set it up. We lived on a forest so it was great but then the birds were really loud before dawn every day so I moved it.

My wife and I aren't avid bird watchers but we really enjoy birdfeeders and we get quite a nice variety of birds. Most common for us (on a forest again) are cardinals, blue jays, robins, woodpeckers (2 kinds), hummingbirds, starlings, grackles, house sparrows, canada geese, mallards, common field sparrows and great blue heron.

My wife has a work from home office and I made this (on my guitar workbench) cat perch so the "office cats" will sit next to her and they are eye-level with the bird feeder.

[NormanKliman]

In my urban setting, I like to watch common swifts. I have no photos, so here are a couple of links:

https://ebird.org/species/comswi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_swift

Swifts are peculiar because they’re extremely sleek and fast but have tiny legs and feet that don’t work very well, and I’ve read that they eat, drink, mate and even sleep on the wing. Of course, they nest and will occasionally alight, but I’ve never seen them anywhere but in the air. They’re hard to miss because they’re not afraid of people and will often swoop past you as they weave around trees and buildings at top speed in their endless pursuit of insects. Mornings and evenings, swarms of them wheel over the rooftops, making a screeching sound that I love to hear. It’s definitely a screech, not unlike the sound we associate with chimps, but it comes from such a cute little thing that it makes me laugh. Like Tweetie Pie having a bad day.

I actually had a very cool learning experience involving swifts about 20 years ago. Around this time of year, I’d take my bicycle out to the fields near my apartment and, as I’d ride through the brush, I’d notice a swift following me closely, sometimes fluttering in mid-air ahead of me, as if to get a better look at me. After that happened a few times, I figured they were just curious or nosy little buggers, until I realized they were eating the insects that were driven to flight by the passing of my bicycle.

Great photos in this thread!

[Brucebubs]

[rsay777]

There are links to cameras installed at Bald Eagle nests in many locations. SW Florida, Catalina Island, Berry College etc. It fascinating to watch the nest building, egg laying, incubation, hatching, feeding and teaching of the Eaglets. Then to see them fledge and learn to hunt and finally fly away. Almost emotional.

[Fogducker]

Just a brief note, my OSPREYS are back again. They showed up about a week ago and Consumers Power had their old platform, with last years nest, ready once again!

Fog

[catdaddy]

Got lucky with this (grainy) photo of pair of Sandhill Cranes that had built a nest on a floating reed mat in the lake behind our home. We had been watching them closely through binoculars for about a month, saw the eggs in the nest and the hatching. Saw the hatchlings for the first time about a week before this photo was taken, and were fortunate enough to see them escorting the two youngsters out of the nest to dry land for the first time. I was surprised to see that the chicks were good swimmers, as I never considered that long-legged cranes could do anything other than their characteristic striding, but the water was too deep for the chicks to be walking so swim they did!

[ghostnote]

My lovely significant other is a pretty serious birder. She's been to places like New Mexico - and old Mexico too, now that I think of it - to see different species that you can't see together elsewhere. The part that blows my mind, though is that she knows them by their calls and songs. When we walk through the woods she can rattle off the name of every bird we hear.

[birdsong]

Although working in a state govt complex has it's trials and tribulations, I can't, and don't, complain too much. For 32+ years I've been paid to watch birds, study birds, survey birds, and lead public programs for any level of interest and pretty much all ages. The job has taken me to 10 different countries.

In some spare time I volunteer for our local Audubon chapter.....

One of my favorite study birds....... Painted Bunting.