Anyone out here into bird watching? Just put out my oriole feeder a few days ago and spotted my first of the year in the Lindon Tree in the backyard. Was really excited two males showed up. Only got a few pics of them. Spoiler Anyone have a bucket list of birds? I’d really love to see a pileated woodpecker. What’s everyone’s set up? I got a 8x pair of Binoculars. Would like to upgrade to 10x. Was borrowing my dad’s camera for the shots of the orioles. I’ll get some other photos and things running if this shows any interest.
I'll find some of my photos later. Mostly take waterfowl and shorebird pictures because work makes it easy, but I've got some other decent ones. Some of my favorites are probably of a burrowing owl I saw last year hanging out in a hole on the side of a dirt road in Nebraska. 10x swift Audubon binocs for me. Had them for years now through my graduate field work and seasonal tech jobs. They can take a beating and still look fantastic.
If you birders haven't done this - try it. Get some speakers and play the screech owl call outside of your house when it gets dark. If you are in the suburbs you should attract every barred or great horned owl in earshot
For identification, listening to bird calls and playing them to fuck with my cat Merlin Bird ID is an awesome app for your smart phone. You do have to register your email, but the app is free and 110% worth it. Regional and continent based bird groups for free.
I originally had the feeder hanging off the hummingbird mount when I noticed him in the tree. I was able to sneak out the back door and get some pictures without taking them through a screen. After he didn’t come to the feeder, I moved it back to where I’ve had it for years and that’s when two showed up. I took most of the pictures through a window on the porch. Wanted to let them eat and get used to the feeders new location before I sneak back out for photos.
Huge birder, both recreationally and professionally and I’ve participated in the CBC for about 15 years running now. Lucky24Seven do you put out grape jelly for the orioles as well?
Lucky24Seven I've had a Hairy, Downy, and Red Bellied woodpeckers at my feeder over the last few years, but never more than one at the same time. They're really beautiful. They're really into suet. Cardinals and Blue Jays are very common at my feeder. My favorite is the Northern Mockingbird as they'll often fuck with my cat at my kitchen window.
Yep, in the feeder, there are two holes that I put cups in with jelly, and on the humming bird mount I put jelly cups. When they are feeding heavily, they can wipe out all the grape jelly in two days.
Also team fuck house sparrows. Going to start trapping and culling all those assholes here pretty soon
They don't come to my feeders luckily. Just a horde of house sparrows that chase away everything else. I've had white breasted nuthatches, black capped chickadees and hairy woodpeckers nest in trees around my house but they can't use the feeders
Had a job in grad school finding and marking red cockaded woodpecker trees. Have been into bird ID ever since.
What seed and food do you use? Had to buy a bag that’s not the usual and all our good looking birds left, lol. Now we just have a bunch of midgets that come but they are extremely picky and dump half of the food out. My dog now thinks he’s a bird.
Millet mix on the ground, usually sunflowers in a few feeders and a feeder with thistle. Some peanut suet and water in trees
Black Oil Sunflower seeds are a catch all in this area. Suet cakes with fruit and insects will attract different bird types. If you’re trying to encourage nesting like I do for Bluebirds, I nail a mason jar lid to the top of their bird house and put out meal worms for them. Years back the bluebirds would fly right over my head when I’d refill the mealworms. Red Breasted Gross Beak on Black Oil seeds. If I were to use fruit and insects I’d see more of them. Only seen one of these guys and it was about 5 years ago last month. Spoiler
We've got major squirrels around here that steal bird feed like crazy What feeders/solutions do yall suggest to ward them off
Don’t shoot your eye out. Edit: I think it really just depends. I used to plink them with a low power BB gun that wouldn’t kill them until one came at me out of a tree and broke its neck as it landed before my feet. After that, I have specialty feeders for certain birds I want to see. I keep those away from fences and in the open so squirrels stay away. I have another spot that I load up my called my “catch all” that I use peanuts in the shell, cracked peanuts, and black oil sunflower seeds that I don’t really care about losing seed at. The squirrels usually stay over there.
You really can't. Keep feeders on stands away from things they can climb. Or give up and put out a corn cob feeder for them
I second the corn cob feeder. If you’re handy, you can make one really cheap. I’ll upload a picture later this week of one I made.
Some photos I took a few years ago when I worked at Cape Hatteras. Got a great look at a group of Piping Plovers one day walking down the beach. I love watching shorebirds, they are so much fun.
One more image dump. Got some better stuff on my other computer but it's in the closet at the moment. I'm lucky enough to work with birds and have lived in some cool places, but I think the Sandhill Crane migration in Nebraska may be one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. My office was right on the river in the heart of the Sandhill Crane migration stopover in NE - we had ~400k cranes within a few miles of the office during the spring. Driving to work I'd pass easily 100k birds eating on the corn stubble or kettling over the fields. If any of yall are serious enough to travel to see birds - go to Grand Island NE during mid-march. It's absolutely mind blowing. My picture kinda sucks, I'll have to see if I have some better ones.
Had the first male/female Hooded Oriole pair show up yesterday. They love the Hummingbird feeder. There's still a White Crown Sparrow hanging around which is unusual for this time of the year in SoCal.
I used to be into birds when I was younger, bridged the gap between my grandparents and I. Now that I’m older, I’ve gotten into upland and waterfowl hunting a lot, so I’ve kind of gotten back into the bird ID stuff again.
Absolutely love waterfowl. I’d like to encourage pictures in this thread, BUT please be photos that you took yourself. Nothing pulled from wiki or a google search. It would be awesome if this thread could evolve into something like an Amateur Nature Photography thread. How neat is that?
I don't bird, per se, but I do live in a bird sanctuary. Had some doves, cardinals, and Bluejays dancing around the yard after I cut it a few days back. My dad said yesterday that he had seen 2 bald eagles up in Arkansas and I have a friend near me that has put balds on his snap chat recently. Bums me out a bit not seeing one yet. Do love seeing hawks on our farm in Arkansas though.
My mom's mom used to keep hummingbird feeders filled at the farm, but I think she's given up over the past couple years. Just too much for her and was a near daily task filling feeders and making sugar water. The back porch would be swarming with them. But they're still around, my mom found a hummingbird nest a month or so ago up there. Dad's mom was constantly fighting the squirrels at her suburban house.
Def have gained an interest becoming an adult and my backyard has a great bird setup. Several Oriole nests and Cardinals. Never really get to see the Owls but, in the fall, they love our setup when we take the TV onto the deck for late night CFB games. They make all kinds of cool sounds. Also Have a beautiful Red Tailed Hawk that lives 2 houses down the street Ive sent Owsley. Somewhat related - Neighborhood also has a Collective Land Trust that houses an Emu named Lou. Guy is a boss Raptor. Also lots of Roosters and Chickens and Mallards there too.
Like Fran Tarkenton said, living in Atlanta really is amazing from an urban birding perspective. There’s a park with a small creek behind our place, and I’ve seen everything from scarlet tanagers and blue grosbeaks to pileated woodpeckers and great horned owls in it. We currently have brown thrashers, gray catbirds, brown-headed nuthatches, Carolina wrens, and eastern bluebirds nesting in/around our place. We get a lot of bats too which I freaking love. We do a zero pesticide yard for bees more than anything, but it’s great for the birds too.
I keep a life list which is a lot of fun. My most recent lifers are reddish egret, black-bellied plover, ruff, and Cape May warbler, and prairie warbler. Migrants have just started showing up, but I haven’t seen any in numbers yet. First swallow-tailed and Mississippi kites have turned up in south Georgia which I always love seeing.
Yea its a pseudo park of sorts that we all maintain/upkeep. Not sure who deeded the land etc or who is the point person. Ive only been here a little over a year but its mostly just a place for ppl to grow produce and smoke pot. Mostly the latter. I do know that they had to put up signs outlining what Lou can be fed and what he cant eat. He had some sort of virus/bacteria in February from eating something a human fed him.
I love to bird- getting really close to migration time here in coastal Maine. It is not uncommon to show up to some spots in mid-May and knock off over 20 different warblers. My partner spent a summer working on the piping plover/least tern project which was pretty sweet. I get the most joy looking for northern/ boreal birds- need to get a three-toed this year.
This is pretty fucking cool. Full vid is on the page in the link. https://triblive.com/local/pittsbur...-eagle-brings-live-catfish-to-startled-young/ Spoiler HOME LOCAL SPORTS NEWS OPINION A&E LIFESTYLES VIDEO OBITUARIES SUBSCRIBEPLACE ADBUY TRIB PHOTOSREADERS' CHOICECONTESTS - - - - - JOBSHOMESAUTOSCLASSIFIEDS - - - - - TRIB TOTAL MEDIACONTACT USFEEDBACK Email NewsletterseTrib Digital ReplicaOur PublicationseFeaturesBuy Trib PhotosWhere to Buy the Paper ALLEGHENY This is what mama does: Hays eagle brings live catfish to startled young MARY ANN THOMAS Fri., May 10, 2019 6:30 p.m. COURTESY OF CSE CORP./AUDUBON SOCIETY OF W. PA. Hays bald eagle brings live catfish into the nest, much to the surprise of the eaglets. Being good parents, the Pittsburgh Hays bald eagles have been bringing food daily to its two young eaglets, carefully feeding them small morsels — fish, mice, other birds, carrion. But on Friday, the young birds got a real taste of the wild. CSE Corp., the company the operates a live webcam on the Pittsburgh Hays eagles nest, grabbed the feed of mama eagle bringing a live catfish to the nest Friday morning. To watch the webcam live, visit CSE’s website or the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. Mary Ann Thomas is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Mary at 724-226-4691, [email protected] or via Twitter . Categories: Local | Pittsburgh Allegheny |Top Stories EMAIL NEWSLETTERS TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newslettersdeliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox. Putin Scores, He Wins and Then Falls Face First on Hockey Ice Inside Syria’s Secret Torture Prisons: How al-Assad Crushed Dissent A New Revolution? Mexico Still Waiting as López Obrador Nears Half-Year Mark Havoc in Hong Kong Legislature Over Extradition Bill SponsoredDiabetes Will Kill You (Do This To Stop It) SponsoredTop Cardiologist: This One Thing Will Properly Flush Out Your Bowels © 2019 Trib Total Media, LLC | Terms of Service Top
Just got a lifer pair of orchard orioles in my new neighborhood! Of course I was on my run and didn’t have a phone or binos handy, but I was able to observe both of them fairly clearly for a solid 5-7 minutes. I caught the male flying out of the corner of my eye and initially thought it was a redstart. So I pished and he came down, and I proceeded to nerd the fuck out. I knew they were the smallest oriole, but didn’t realize how small until now. Spectacular start to the weekend.
Hummingbird feeder has been out since Monday and I saw my first of the year Wednesday. Also, had about 6 Orioles at the feeder. Most I’ve ever seen in the yard at a time. I proceeded to up out another orange cut in half, and more jelly. The House Finches are liking it as well.