Where are you? We are in winter nesting area for the bald eagles here, so we get to see them regularly. But when I first moved down here, the first time I saw one in person, I was fucking blown away by its size. Watching them big ass things fly is just mesmerizing
Another crazy day on the river walk. Hooded Merganser, Golden Eye, Red Headed Duck, Mallards, Pied Billed Grebe, King Fisher, Herron, and some sort of hawk. Couldn't make out what kind, though.
Great grays are amazing I think one of my favorite experiences from school was a summer session trip to the great planes and Yellowstone. Got close to 130 different bird species in 2 weeks. The best was in Yellowstone - one of the professors was friends with a guy who did the guiding for a planet earth crew. The pine martens on the first season were filmed in his backyard. He took us up the mountain to the tree with the great gray owl nest from the show - we got to see the juvenile birds sitting there waiting to fledge. Absolutely incredible.
2nd day of thawing out from the 20+ inches of snow. Found 2 dead bluebirds and 1 sparrow (I think) that must have died from exposure. :(
Saw my first Pine Siskin for this winter. Also got some good Scrub-Jay photos. Pine Siskin (I'm pretty sure) Scrub-Jay
Have a few eastern bluebirds that lurk on the electric/phone wires above, waiting for me to serve them a live mealworm buffet... Still no luck in the bird box though.
This one looks nice: Or this one: This website has a lot: https://www.finesgallery.com/detail...pMpZ4NjPRgPvLECa_EO02cdlFdhXepcMaAmx6EALw_wcB
The spot I've been going to this week has been pretty wild. I've seen feral Parrots fighting with European Starlings for Sycamore cavities, House Sparrows pairs apparently nesting in Swallow nests, and yesterday I saw my first Scaly-Breasted Munia (their population is apparently exploding in SoCal). Just a shit-ton of non-native species. I'm flooding this thread with pics again, but this camera is the shit and I can't help myself. Spoiler Scaly-breasted Munia Female House Sparrow in a swallow nest Red-crowned Nuttal's Woodpecker
I want one as well but I know next to nothing about cameras and every time I start to look online I have no patience. The price points vs. equipment always trips me up and ultimately makes my ass quit.
He’s on 344mm + 4x digital zoom. Willpépé the Coolpix 950, that he’s using, would be a great starting point/entry camera for birding. It’s generally priced sub $800 & you wouldn’t need to add additional lenses
Definitely copping this. Company is being sold out from under me, starting a solo gig and finally waiting for the three fucking feet of snow to melt. Can't wait to walk outside again.
I'm not really experienced with cameras, the P950 has been perfect for me so far. It's even got a bird photography mode. Only thing it doesn't do well with is capturing objects in motion, because of the shutter speed. In flight photos are ridiculously hard. I had another look at that woodpecker pic I posted above, and I actually think it's a Downy. Thought it was a really small Nuttal's, but if you look at the pic, the red patch doesn't look like a Nuttal's, and it's got a white patch on its back. I don't see Downy's here ever, so I'm still not entirely sure.
A good tell in photos like these is the bill length. A hairy’s bill is equivalent to the length of its head, whereas a downy’s is closer to a third. Based on that, this is a downy. You can also differentiate them by their tail feathers - the outermost tail feathers on a hairy are solid white while they are spotted on a downy. Lastly, downys are far more common in town and in yards. I’ve never seen a hairy at one of my feeders in all my years of feeding.
Only got a shitty pic with my phone, but saw a flock of Cedar waxwings in a neighbors tree yesterday while walking the dogs. I probably need to find myself a small point and click the camera for those situations
I'm optimistic cell phones are gonna get wildy better at this in the next few years, because of the camera hardware that manufacturers are putting in, like Samsung going with 10x optical this year.
Camped in the desert last night, saw a Verdin and Lawrence's Goldfinches this morning. Both are lifers, and pretty uncommon.
I went to the middle of nowhere (Anza-Borrego desert) and saw a lot of cool shit. Male Lawrence's Goldfinch. Very uncommon, hard to pin down locations during winter, saw 3 females and 2 males. Probably the rarest bird I've seen so far. Male Phainopepla is metal Verdin, another lifer. Only found in the desert. Female Anna's I'm pretty sure.
Some great news this past Friday morning at a farm turned preserve near where I live. There is a pair of bald eagles that have been nesting at this location for some time and back in January the female laid three eggs. Early Friday morning the first laid egg hatched and and a chick emerged. It is the 25th known hatchling since the nest was discovered in 2004. Live webcam here:
Thanks. I can't make out what the dead, rotting carcass was in the nest that they spent most of today feeding on. My best guess is a squirrel. Also, during daylight hours in the nest if you mentally impose a clock face over it, at about 11:00 are the remnants of a bird that was dinner. It's foot is very clear.
I went down a YouTube wormhole last night and found this 25 minute clip of a bald eagle nest somewhere in south west Florida. The adult flies into the nest with a live rabbit for its 2 fledglings. I laughed at the couple of times that the adult called out. They're such large, majestic, and powerful birds yet they sound like a seagull with emphysema.
got visited by this big guy yesterday, he sat there for a minute before hopping off. He/she is so big that many of the branches cannot support him or don't have enough open space and therefore nicked up wings in the landing/takeoff.
I'm guessing this is a Black Vulture. The Turkey Vultures in these parts are the size of 747's. Every now and again I see one up close on the side of the highway eating roadkill and they're just giants. Great pic!
A couple more pics from my camping trip. We went into a slot canyon that looked to be completely devoid of life. Of course there was a Rock Wren there. Rock Wren
My dog drug up some partial turkey vulture carcass from somewhere the other day. By the time he decided he was done dragging it around, there was only a leg left. He's been banished to the fenced in yard since then.
Update: 2nd egg hatched this morning four days later (and almost to the minute) and there are now two chicks in the nest. Hopefully they don't kill one another.
Had a female Cooper’s hawk take a squirrel under one of my feeders today. I knew they’d occasionally prey on mammals, but this was my first time witnessing it.
I was driving so could not safely take a pic, but for the first time in my life I saw a bald eagle in an open area just off the sidewalk of a busy street with on the ground picking away at what appeared to be a rabbit. I mean, I've seen bald eagles before, but never on the ground in the wild like that, in a pretty busy urban area.
Coopers Hawks out here doing the Lord's work. Nothing worse than spending a small fortune on high quality, gourmet wild bird feed only to see one of those bushy-tailed rats come along and clean out the feeder before any birds show up.