Posted on 02/06/2016 10:52:59 AM PST by Islander7
Hey there! Been missing your bird threads. Looked out the window this morning and saw several doves fighting over the bird feeders. Inspired me to ease up the road a bit to an osprey nest I've been keeping an eye on.
The pair there have raised their fledges for at least the past four years. This is likely their time using this nest as the rotting pine sways precariously in even the slightest breeze.
At any rate, I thought about you. Hope you are well and able to get out.
Enjoy!
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Birdie ping
Has he been ill? I’ve noticed a lack of his photos recently. While walking my dog this morning I could hear a bald eagle calling but never saw it - did see a huge pileated woodpecker digging into a healthy red cedar.
Not sure of any health issues. I do miss his threads though.
thx for posting this.....it’d be great if we had a bird watchers thread going....love me some birds...
Pileated woodpeckers are my favorite bird....saw them three times in my life....a pair up on Lake Koocanusa many years ago, two sitting in our front tree when we returned from Easter Mass and one in the woods by my grandkids house in Edmunds wa....beautiful bird..
You and me both!
I'm a professional birder -- yes, I really do get paid to survey birds! -- and I've always wanted to start a regular birdwatching thread. But I can't cause I'm working in the field too much! Such is life...
But I'm back from a bird survey this morning at a riparian setting in the Desert Southwest. Here is a sample of what I recorded today:
100s of gadwalls, mallards, and American wigeons.
A few dozen northern pintails, green-winged teals, buffleheads.
A few ring-necked ducks and common mergansers and 1 female common goldeneye.
2 northern harriers, 1 red-tailed hawk, 2 sharp-shinned hawks, 1 Merlin, 1 red-shouldered hawk.
Dozens of verdins, black-tailed gnatcatchers, Abert's towhees, Audubon's warblers, ruby-crowned kinglets, crissal thrashers, white-crowned sparrows, song sparrows, Bewick's wrens, and marsh wrens.
And 2 male Anna's hummingbirds.
Plenty of wading birds too, but there's your sample of what I recorded today.
Great to get paid for doing what you love!
Bird ping!
Reading this post got me to thinking about the woodpeckers that are in my back yard...I am in south-central Texas. After looking up the birds of Brazos Valley, I find that we do have the Pileated woodpeckers, but those in my back yard are the red-bellied woodpecker. Thanks for such an interesting post!
Just so you know, you also have another woodpecker that is pretty much exclusively a "native Texan" like you. It's called the golden-fronted woodpecker, and in America, it's only found in Texas! (And a tiny stretch of Oklahoma.)
Nice bird, but not easy to find, even in Texas.
Good luck!
Thanks for the thread I7, beautiful pics. Looks like they may have to look for a new nest before long if you get a real blow.
Thanks for the ping, Fly. Not only big numbers but lots of species. Sounds like you’re busy most of the time now, you ever get any time off? :-)
GORGEOUS.
Breeding bird surveys for me begin February 29. Then I’ll disappear off the planet for a few months. Haha. Still, I can usually find some time to FReep every now and then, so life is good!
Made me think about the woodpeckers attacking my house
If you do, make sure you add me please!
I live in S.E. Mich and the DNR has been trying to reintroduce Osprey here and from what I understand, they now have a several nesting couples at a local park called Stoney Creek.
Anyway, I play softball several mornings a week at a park maybe 10 miles away from that lake. On one morning, I was playing on a diamond next to a small pond when I observed an osprey flying around and sure enough, he started fishing that pond by making about 4 dives before he finally flew off..........
That was really cool to watch......
I also have a couple photos of a juvenile Coopers hawk that I caught perching on my back deck railing after trying to catch birds from my bird feeder. I've got to figure out how to get them on my home page........
Did you take those with a digital camera and how did you do it?
Yup, digital. I just stood really still. :{)
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