Lame. It’s from Cornell’s IG. Great horned owl bringing a barred owl back to the nest to feed its chick.
Gonna hit up the mountains on Friday since there seems to be stuff rolling through now. There's a newly discovered migratory hotspot near me where thousands of birds get funneled at a low point. I went up there a few weeks ago and it was pretty dead, but now they are seeing lots of cool species. A shit-ton of Lawrence's Goldfinches have been seen which is kind of surprising. From Moore Lab of Zoology: "The spectacle of spring bird migration is on full display at Bear Divide in the western San Gabriel Mountains. Led by Dr. Ryan Terrill, the Moore Lab is counting thousands of birds each spring morning as they pass over a low saddle in the mountains on their way north. The Pacific Coast has lacked a place to monitor diurnal bird migration similar to well-known East Coast migration hotspots like Cape May. The data we collect will help us understand how well birds are doing as they respond to changing habitats and climates." This is the live-data. https://dunkadoo.org/explore/bear-divide-migration-count/bdmc-spring-2022
The mountains were pretty great today. Pretty dead as far as warblers or Empid flycatchers, but still saw a lot of cool stuff. I heard a Mountain Quail; I still have never seen one. I got a lifer with a Red-breasted Sapsucker, and the Jays were swarming everywhere. Steller's Jays everywhere. Acorn Woodpecker Red-breasted Sapsucker. My first time seeing one. Best Nuthatch photo I've ever taken. Anna's Hummingbird California Scrub-Jay
Yeah, saw a bunch today. Too high up to get any good shots though. This spot is somewhere you're almost guaranteed to see them.
I downloaded the merlin app from cornells bird lab to find out what birds are singing around me. Turns out its basically just cardinals screaming non stop. Some eastern bluebirds and carolina chickadees though.
Sitting in my lounge, sipping coffee & watching the normal array of songbirds visit our feeder this morning… Notice a massive flock in a neighbor’s treetop. Grab the telephoto lens & see about 50-60 cedar waxwings. While not a rare sighting, I’ve only seen them around here once before & have never captured a photo. I was pretty geeked, despite blurry images… they took off before I could get my settings dialed in.
Did my 5-6 mile loop this morning and caught the owl from the other side of the tree. That fucker is an absolute unit. Would love to see it in flight.
I tried to get a good photo of a flock of them a few days ago with my phone. Didnt work out how i hoped.
I start my vacation next Friday. Music festival in Santa Barbara, then I'm driving to Arizona to do some birding and solo camping. I'm gonna be really bummed if I can't finally find a Vermillion Flycatcher on this trip. The 2 birds I want to find the most would be an Elegant Trogon and a Rose-throated Becard
Yeah, I'm gonna hit up the Santa Ritas and the Catalinas. Won't stray too far east past Tucson. Will probably go to Saguaro too.
Went to a water conservation park this morning. Was super cloudy, but still saw a lot of good stuff. Nashville Warblers and Black-throated Grey Warblers being the most noteworthy. Spoiler Cassin's Kingbird Northern Shoveler A shit ton of Pelicans Phainopepla are back in town (I think this is a young a male) Great Egret with breeding coloration around the eye. Saw a lot of Pin-tailed Wydah; this is probably a bad thing.
I'm sure many of you already knew this, but TIL that there are birds of prey that intentionally spread fires to flush out prey. https://bioone.org/journals/journal...ern-Australia/10.2993/0278-0771-37.4.700.full
Saw a lot of awesome shit this morning. Bullocks Orioles, Green Herons, and Yellow Warblers to name a few. It's also 94 degrees right now, wtf. Male Bullock's Oriole Snowy Egret Common Yellowthroat. Finally got a clear fucking picture of one; only took a year. Green Heron Red-winged Blackbird
Great name, indeed. My only beef with this name is that in Wingspan, neither "bush" nor "tit" counts towards the 'birds with a body part in their name' bonus
Btw Wingspan is a fucking great board game. My wife and I are currently obsessed with the online multiplayer version
When you could only get it on secondary after it came out I’m not sure you could find it for under $150-200.
I'll be flooding this thread with pics pretty hard over the next week, sorry in advance. I'll try to keep spoiler discipline. I checked the eBird where I'm going in AZ. People have already seen Elegant Trogons, Red-faced Warblers, and Elf Owls. More stuff from this weekend. Spoiler Ruddy Duck Bullock's Oriole Double-crested Cormorant Rookery Red-winged Blackbird Western Kingbird
After a 450 mile drive, I got out of my car and got 8 lifers within 2 hours Elf Owl (pushing the low light capabilities of my camera to the limit. It's actually a composite photo of two shots, and I have to hold on target for 6 seconds without moving. Good enough for an ID.) Spoiler Vermillion Flycatcher was my number 1 target on this trip, and i got it in the parking lot of my first stop near Joshua Tree How the fuck does something like this even exist?
I saw and got a photo of the Elegant Trogon this morning. Hiked up this mountain trail at like 6:30 a.m. Almost gave up, but then it landed on a Sycamore in the light. Awesome.
I'm out of Madera Canyon now. A pretty incredible place, and I got to meet a lot of really cool people. Here are some photos. Spoiler Elegant Trogon. So lucky to get this shot. Yellow-eyed Junco Hepatic Tanager Mexican Jay Painted Redstart
Putting in for a job in Central Montana ~6 hours from Yellowstone and 4 from glacier. Going to be great for my life list if I get it
Thanks. It was really cool. I've pretty much got a thousand photos. Saw 22 lifers, maybe more if I could ID some of these Empids. Spoiler Broad-billed Hummingbird Cactus Wren Gambel's Quail Yellow Warbler. . Verdin Curve-billed Thrasher
Owsley your thoughts? https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/why-experts-say-you-should-immediately-stop-filling-birdfeeders.html
I wouldn't worry about songbirds. It's mostly in waterfowl and raptors. We have had quite a bit of mortality with snow geese, eagles and Hawks. No dead songbirds. If you're attracting ducks to your feeders then yeah I'd not do that for a while. Otherwise probably not a concern right now.