Saw 5 Swallow species on the same telephone line this morning. At least 100 of them perched and flying around. So many Swallows Barn Swallow (left); Cliff Swallow (right) Violet Green Swallow Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow
That Acorn woodpecker photo is awesome!!!! Popovio. Walked out a jetty, Barnegut lighthouse in central jersey to get some sea ducks before they leave. Harlequins eider drake Oldaquaw/Long-tailed duck Red-breasted Merganser hope this finds you all well. Had some r-w blackbirds and grackles moving through. First tree swallow of the year. Spring not far off
I had no idea an Oldaquaw even existed. That's a cool duck. Had a pretty great day at this desert/chapparal spot near me. Seeing Wrentits out in the open was wild, they are usually ninjas. Vermilion Flycatcher. Gave zero fucks that I was there, and flew past my head so many times. Wrentits do not look special. But even seeing one is special. They are also maybe the most SoCal bird I can think of, as well as the most sedentary bird in North America. Cactus Wrens were busy building their nests. A showy Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's)
Took a day trip out to the desert. It was awesome. Roadrunner Hooded Oriole Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) Gambel's Quail Costa's Hummingbird Cooper's Hawk
didn't get a good pic but a white dove with a leg tag landed in my backyard an hour ago in Denver. pretty cool.
That's an awesome looking Pelican. I'm going back to Joshua Tree to camp this weekend. My Pokémon targets are Scott's Oriole, Black-throated Sparrow, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, and Ash-throated Flycatcher. Also, I can't figure out if I saw a Black-chinned Hummingbird this past weekend.
Think this is good for an immature male black-chinned. I think Costa’s is the only other one in that range with a similarly colored gorget, but this looks like it’ll be restricted to the throat and not cover the crown as well.
Owsley is spot on, very nice. Good call between one of the two. Where were you? I can’t see the bill and it’s an immature. Look at the lower right, it’s starting to get those weird little fingers/flares. Black-chined have an even delineation between the gorget and upper breast. Costa’s have those things that descended below the gorget. Black-chined would not have that iridescent feather patch that you see on the lower right. Hatch year male Costa’s hummingbird, would be my educated guess. But what do I know? Half the fun of birding is figuring out the puzzle. Happy birding to all! The woodcocks are doing their displays here, always a nice March thing.
And Jorts, nice pelicans pictures! I know you mentioned you didn’t bring your camera out a lot. Did you get to bird a little w/o camera. Cool place, great birds!
If by birding you mean, sitting around the casita drinking, with my binoculars, sure… managed to casually identify these: White-Winged Dove Social Flycatcher Olive-throated parakeet Tropical Kingbird Yellow Warbler Common Yellowthroat Great Kiskadee Cinnamon Hummingbird Golden Fronted Woodpecker Yellow Throated Warbler Roseate Spoonbill
Man- trying to to plan this Cuba trip is incredibly frustrating. I fear it only gets harder going forward. Always wanted to go there. Don’t think I’m gonna be able to pull it off. Fuck, overshare. I’m good with the Spanish, the red tape on both sides is just infuriating. Since I was a little baby nerd reading books -I’ve always wanted to go to this Zapata swamp. Oh well, maybe next year? Better overshare than when I flipped out, sorry for that again. I have idea why I did that. Had my FOY phoebe and a TON of pine warblers this week. A few palms, better things ahead.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article91704472.html Fucking ivory-billed woodpecker.
Joshua Tree was pretty sick. Saw everything I wanted to see, except for Black-throated Sparrow. Roadrunner with a Gilbert's Skink that I just now realized is also biting its own tail. This dude ran up to our campsite like this, took this from my camping chair. Scott's Oriole Ladder-backed Woodpecker Say's Phoebe'
Went to this lake area to see late winter/early spring stuff co-mingling. I saw Orioles chasing Brown-headed Cowbirds. I saw a Red-winged Blackbird push a Belted Kingfisher fully into the water. I saw House Sparrows fucking with Western Bluebirds. It was a god damn war out there. Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) Warblers look crazy right now. Great Egret Cinnamon Teals are my favorite duck. Western Bluebird Red-winged Blackbird
Got a North American lifer, a little gull, this weekend. Have one on my life list in Belgium, of all places Gulls are super annoying. But still cool. Impossible. Like I fucking found that -my friend Jason did.
Pretty good day, super windy, was nice to get out and about. I know that you that live in the southeast and on the west coast can see these guys all the time. Only the second one I’ve seen in NJ. A Black-necked Stilt. My photos are not on par with the great photographers here, more for documenting. Very far away, but you can’t mistake that bird. Had a couple pectoral sandpipers also, the start of passerine migration also. Numerous palms, pine, yellow rumpeds, bg gnatcatchers, e phoeobes, kinglets etc. I can’t wait for the next few weeks. stilt, this far north is a good bird
Heading to Bear Divide this weekend for the annual craziness. Then Joshua Tree and Zion next week. I better finally see a Canyon Wren.
1st rose bested grosbeak was in my Nashville backyard/Greenspace in the 90s. Just saw my 2nd on my feeder in Little Rock. Such a pretty bird. According to the Google it isn't supposed to be here
This is my favorite time of year for sure. First Tanagers and Warblers of the season spotted this morning. Met a Bobcat on the trail, and also saw some Golden-crowned Sparrows running with a large group of White-crowneds. Red-shouldered Hawk Black-throated Gray Warbler Golden-crowned Sparrow. This dude is maybe days away from heading up to Alaska. One of the nature center dudes was walking around with the resident Barn Owl. He let me take some pictures. Bobcat on the trail. It was fucking nice out there.
Prospector. There are definitely a rose- breasted grosbeaks in your area. Just for a few weeks. Always good if you travel, or in you area. EBird bar charts are an amazing resource. https://ebird.org/barchart?r=L696909 awesome pics Popovio. A little further north than you! But late April early May is like the best for all those migrants! Best time ever. one fun pic on the nature sign, kinda cheeky.
Had a black-and-white. Louisiana waterthrush. Palm, pine. FOY black-throated green(just a beautiful creature). seriously, reconsidering if I need to fucking throw for down for a better camera. I’ve kind of nerded guys out, but I actually much prefer taking audio recordings? Hope you guys are all well. Love
Hey to follow up on that with greater clarity, I know a lot of you have found Merlin. Also through Cornell eBird is how many people record sightings. And I linked the one bar chart for Little Rock. But if you go to eBird and hit explore, And then you can go to any site in the world and they have a full bar chart of everything recorded when seasonally, And the thickness of the line shows relative abundance. It’s an incredible resource for you locally and even better if you travel somewhere, you can see every bird that could, and should be seen there. Anyway, This is the best time of the year up here. I’m still like a week away from the real sweet spot. Had FOY black-throated green warbler(2nd actually), ovenbird, parula, prairie warbler, warbling and white-eyed vireo. Wood thrush Tons of the early migrants/lingering winter birds. A ton of white-throated sparrows(Some of them looking really sharp in their new breeding plumage. A bunch of RC kinglets, gnatcatchers, hermit thrush, sapsuckers, creepers. A good day best time of the year for birds! Bad pic of a hermit thrush
You can also cyberstalk open profile life lists. Check this one out?!?!?!?!?!? https://ebird.org/profile/MjM1Nzk4/world that eBird profile is just, I dunno. It’s crazy. Super nice guy too I met him once in Maryland. The dude has been like pretty much every country in the world. And the 9,944 isn’t his whole list. First person to see 10,000 species of birds, ever. Crazy. https://www.aba.org/peter-kaestner-breaks-the-10000-bird-barrier/ Bird ran over boys!
Quick trip this morning, and it was insane. All the migrants. Western Tanager Lazuli Bunting Lawrence's Goldfinch. You never know when you might see one. Black-headed Grosbeak Ash-throated Flycatcher
Crap photo is crap, but I’m always so happy when the rose-breasted grosbeaks stop by on their northward journey.
Your pics are awesome as always Popovio! Lazuli bunting is a gorgeous bird. RGBR are always so great when they show up! Really nice singers too, and the underneath of their wings has that same beautiful color when they fly. Gorgeous day up here today. Even outside of the birds, the best weather of the whole year. Got a bunch of FOY again today. Blue-winged warbler, Wood thrush, yellow throat, ovenbird, orchard and Baltimore orioles. (They breed here, not just migrants).
Been a good couple of days here. White-eyed and red-eyed vireos, northern parulas, prothonotary hooded, black-and-white, and black-throated green warblers, American redstarts, waterthrushes, and summer and scarlet tanager era all heard/observed in the last few ventures out. Had big group of blackpolls a few years back but haven’t seen or heard them in town the past few years, though I’m sure they’re still passing through.
https://birdcast.info/ And that’s a petty cool site! i’m trying to keep it to myself and not too much about birds! But I won’t so I’ll probably send some weird posts
That’s an awesome list Owsley! Blackpolls are super late, along with mourning warblers(way rarer). Up here in New Jersey, they are actually not showing up until late May in numbers. So Atlanta is probably a little bit earlier. They don’t remotely breed anywhere near here, meaning they are all migrants. I’ve even had them in early June. I can tell you are a great birder. So apologize if I’m being pedantic. They truly are very treetop birds, and they move through after it’s leafed out and hard to see. They’re actually pretty abundant as far as warblers go. They have a really high-pitched “trilly” song. Most also fly direct from South America to mid-atlantic/New England in one shot. And then work their way up to Canada. Definitely the craziest migrant in the warbler family. They probably just fly right by Atlanta! But yeah, up here. It’s like the last week of May when I hear them mostly. Unlike you and prospector. I got my FOY rose-breasted today. Had a FOY worm-eating also, FOY ovenbird, very early great-crested flycatcher. The flycatcher’s come later also(except the Phoebe).
Had my first warbler of the year in ND last week. Saw a yellow rumped. Before too long I'll be waking up at 5am to a deafening dawn chorus.
Made it to Zion. Saw some Summer Tanagers outside of Joshua Tree yesterday, not a common sight for us West Coast folk (or ar least for me). Got my Black-throated Sparrow and Verdin. Also lifer Black-tailed Gnatcatcher. Am really hoping to see California Condor. Someone saw one a day ago.
No condors spotted, but Zion is just amazing. Not super birdy as Hippo said, but still a decent amount of stuff. Was mostly hiking anyways ( I did see a lifer American Dipper when hiking The Narrows). Joshua Tree and this oasis spot nearby was crazy however. Phainopepla Verdin Black-headed Grosbeak Black-tailed Gnatcatcher (my first time seeing one) Gambel's Quail Ladder-backed Woodpecker
my backyard if fucking killing it! Had 4 rose breasted grosbeak males on my feeders. Weren't actively feeding just looking around and hanging out. Two days ago for the 2nd time in my life saw an oriel in AR. Put out jelly saw 3 males yesterday and saw two today.and saw some sort of bird yesterday at sunset all orange/red, summer tanager? at least 2 eastern blue bird couples, humming birds are back
Very cool! Nice pics Jorts and Popovio. Phainopepla are so cool, silky-flycatcher, “our” (north American one). Beautiful place, hope you enjoyed it! Astonishingly beautiful, but there are more birds in an urban city park in New Jersey than in all of that national park♂️. But I think, it’s a tad bit more scenic. Just a touch more See Prospector, grosbeaks are there if you keep your eyes open! Very cool that you got to see that many in your yard! Stuck in Ohio doing old parent stuff.Love/hate thing. Not my mom, the place. Birds are bonkers great here, Love to my Ohio State brethren, but I could take or leave the people here. Leave, like I did. Nutty birds in rural Ohio, and my battle with the local eBird editor is about to be in full force!