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I've been cooped up since last Tuesday, finally got out today. The weather is gray and dark, rain coming later from hurricane Ida. She is giving Ray Nagin ulcers now! The grackle girls saw me coming way down the beach, I had 15 or 20 on and around the car in a short time. I don't know if they recognize the car, or recognize me. I try not to attract them inside, they aren't housebroke, LOL! The gull with spots is a young Ring billed gull, the gray bird is a Laughing gull. It's common for them to flock together.

They make it look so easy!

The Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, just cannot catch a break. First, a coolant leak destroyed some of the magnets that guide the energy beam. Then LHC officials postponed the restart of the machine to add additional safety features. Now, a bird dropping a piece of bread on a section of the accelerator has, according to the Register, shut down the whole operation. The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident,...

The Grackles recognize the car now, LOL, I think I've started them on the welfare wagon!

My little pond is all dried up, had to go hunting for models. I got a Big Mac and headed for the beach. I was alternating bites of burger and shooting seagulls from the window, looked over and a little femaled Boat Tailed Grackle was sitting in the window watcheng me eat. My camera bag always has a little ziploc full of dry cat food just for these occassions. She ate some from my hand, but I couldn't use a camera that way. I put a handfull on top of my camera bag, and she settled in for lunch. The...

The Ibis was so venerated in ancient Eygpt that they were even mummified and placed in royal tombs. I think there is a reason. If you are trying to grow crops in a river bottom, in a warm climate, you will be plagued with grubs and bugs and other pests, all trying to eat your veggies. The Ibis is eager to help, they love to eat the pests. Egypt owes a major debt to the Ibis clan.

The little pond will be bone dry soon, I'll have to find another place to watch birds for a while. A good heavy rain would be a big help.

News to Note, October 17, 2009: A weekly feature examining news from the biblical viewpoint (fascinating STEM CELL piece in story #5!)...

There are times when the pond is like liquid glass. We need rain, the water is getting very low now.

We always have some of the various sandpipers around, but now the winter migrants are starting to trickle in. These are Greater Yellowlegs, Tringa melanoleuca

A Great egret and Snowy egrets from the little pond.

This bird still has yellow up high on the legs, it is one of this years chicks. The feet will stay bright yellow and the legs will turn black.

St. Augustine High School hosted a regional JROTC drill competition today. Grandson Gerry rolled me out of the sack at 6AM and off we went. Why we had to leave so early is beyond me, nothing started until about 9AM, but since the army was running things you just got to follow orders! I couldn't get the right angle on the Sun but managed to catch some of the action. I headed out just after 10AM to chase some critters, Gerry was there for the day. I'm trying to calibrate a new monitor, some pics may be light or dark...

Birds, more than any other group of animals, are a celebration of color. They have evolved to every extreme of the spectrum, from the hot pink of flamingos to the shimmering blue of a peacock’s neck. Yet, for decades, paleontologists who study extinct birds have had to use their imaginations to see the colors in the fossils. Several feather fossils have been unearthed over the years, but they have always been assumed to be colorless vestiges. Now a team of scientists has discovered color-producing molecules that have survived for 47 million years in the fossil of a feather. By analyzing...

Disguises and aliases might seem like the stuff of spy movies, but real-world scientific sleuths have rediscovered an "extinct" bird living under a false name and wearing a mask. The Tasman booby has had it rough. It started when humans learned that the booby was easy to catch and tasty to eat. Native to small islands off Australia and New Zealand, the species was dealt its first near fatal blow around A.D. 1200, when Polynesian settlers on Norfolk Island (map) hunted it to the brink of extinction. Yet the Tasman booby managed to survive in one small population on Lord...

Out at 5;30, with a sausage biscuit and a cup of coffee. I watched the sport boats head out the inlet, but the sunrise didn't really turn on today. I watched the Red Shouldered Hawk land, got as close as I could, then the Mockingbird showed up cussing at the hawk. The Mockingbird knows it can out manuever the hawk, they are fearless.

Here's a surprise: Wild crows can recognize individual people. They can pick a person out of a crowd, follow them, and remember them — apparently for years. But people — even people who love crows — usually can't tell them apart. So what we have for you are two experiments that tell this story. First, how do crows tell us apart? Watch this video:

100 Birds Seized In Shelton, Police Say: SHELTON, Conn. -- Police said 150 birds were seized in a canary-fighting investigation in Shelton on Sunday. Police said canaries and saffron finches were seized and 19 people were arrested at a Ripton Road address. “There was 100 canaries fighting, and they were betting on them 'til they were dead. It’s absolutely shocking,” said neighbor Marion Sega. Police said they served a search warrant at the home after receiving a tip that an illegal bird fight involving 150 canaries and finches was scheduled to take place on Sunday. Canaries are popular beginner pet...

WASHINGTON – The toucan's colorful bill gives new meaning to the phrase cool dude. Indeed, that gigantic schnoz turns out to be a radiator the rain forest dweller uses to lose body heat. The bill of the Toco Toucan makes up about one-third of its body length and ornithologists have long wondered about the purpose for the appendage. Could it be a sexual signal, some snicker.

About 33 percent of Minnesotans are bird-watchers, according to a report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, putting the state in the top five in the nation for bird-watching. One in three Minnesotans is an active bird-watcher, ranking the state in the top five nationally, according to a report released Wednesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report, an update on how many Americans are birding and how much money they spend on the hobby, found 33 percent of Minnesotans qualify as bird-watchers. Nationwide, the report said, interest in bird-watching is holding steady at about 21 percent of the...

The White Ibis seem to be finishing with the seasons first crop of chicks. There are some just fledged birds around, but they're spooky and hard to approach. This is a yearling, one of last years crop. It will be closer to pure white when it is a little older, The grass is actually growing in a pond.

I got to the pond just as the marsh birds started coming in to drink and bathe. When the tide is high they can't feed efficiently, so they take a break. Roseate Spoonbills and a Great Egret. I got a lot of shots, it will take time to process them all.

LONGMONT, Colo. — Police in Colorado have confiscated 53 baby birds from a 15-year-old boy who apparently took them from neighborhood nests and stored them in his bedroom. Police believe the boy had the birds for at least 24 hours. Authorities confiscated them on June 16 after his mother realized he had them and called animal control. "He and some other children in the neighborhood had been trying to feed them with little success," Longmont police Sgt. Dave Orr said. The birds included barn swallows, sparrows and a bluebird. Forty died, but the other 13 are recuperating at the Greenwood...

SAN ANTONIO -- A dive-bombing bird has been going for hatless guys as they walk near a San Antonio deli. The manager of the McAlister's Deli says the bird doesn't seem to peck anyone, but Michael Sangiuliano says "it will sure scare the pants off you." WOAI-TV video posted Monday of the large, dark bird shows it swooping toward assorted males as they walk across a parking lot or try to enter vehicles. A couple of men say they were slightly scratched.

Bird size is limited by the time it takes to replace feathers. An extinct bird the size of a Cessna airplane and weighing as much as an average human was one of the largest birds to have ever flown the friendly skies. Scientists have wondered how the bird, called Argentavis magnificens, could balloon to such heft (more than 150 pounds, or 70 kg) and still replace its feathers during a molt. Now, new research reveals the bird, which lived 6 million years ago in the Miocene epoch, likely molted all of its feathers at once during a long fast.

June 17, 2009—The fossil hand of a long-necked, ostrich-like dinosaur recently found in China may help solve the mystery of how bird wings evolved from dinosaur limbs, according to a new study. The ancient digits belonged to a 159-million-year-old theropod dinosaur dubbed Limusaurus inextricabilis. Theropods are two-legged dinos thought to have given rise to modern birds. Although it was a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, the newfound dinosaur was a small herbivore, said study co-author James Clark, a biologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The animal was about 5.6 feet (1.7 meters) long and had relatively short, clawless...

I’m trying to get to bedrock on conflicting assertions and policies related to free-ranging cats and songbirds. The American Bird Conservancy has posted a new video criticizing an array of programs across the country through which well-meaning animal lovers “trap, neuter and release” feral cats. Search the Web for “ trap, neuter, release” or “ feral cat coalition” and you’ll find such efforts from Indiana to Florida to Washington State. The idea is that, once sterilized, populations of wild cats will slowly decrease on their own accord by attrition. The video, and other experts on bird-cat interactions, strongly dispute this,...

These are a few weeks old, the rains have kept me pretty much grounded. The rains also killed a bunch of the newly hatched chicks. Some of the birds will try again, but they'll have to beat hurricans season to pull it off.Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis and Wood Stork, Mycteria americana.

It’s hard to make it in the city. That’s true for people, but it applies to other species as well. Some animals thrive in urban settings, amid reduced habitat and increased predation, while others don’t. Scientists don’t know why, although it’s thought that certain species are more receptive to their environment and better at adapting themselves to it. In a study at the University of Florida, Douglas J. Levey, an evolutionary ecologist, and his colleagues show that mockingbirds quickly learn to recognize humans who are perceived as threats.

Two California men were indicted today on federal charges that they illegally smuggled Asian songbirds into the country, most recently last month when one of the defendants, returning from a trip to Vietnam, was found with 14 live birds strapped to his legs. As seen in the below evidence photo, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at Los Angeles International Airport discovered the birds under the pants of Sony Dong. According to a Department of Justice press release, CBP agents inspected Dong and "found bird feathers and droppings on his socks, as well as birds' tail feathers visible under his...

They wouldn’t blow away the competition on ‘Dancing with the Stars’, but it turns out that some birds got rhythm. After studying a cockatoo that grooves to the Backstreet Boys and about 1,000 YouTube videos, scientists say they’ve documented for the first time that some animals “dance” to a musical beat. The results support a theory for why the human brain is wired for dancing. In lab studies of two parrots and close review of the YouTube videos, scientists looked for signs that animals were actually feeling the beat of music they heard. The verdict: Some parrots did, and maybe...

I spent a couple of hours by the little pond Thursday afternoon. It's the nearest source of freshwater to the saltmarsh, and it is a bird magnet. The ducks are Mottled Ducks, Anas fulvigula. They are close relatives to Mallards, but they don't migrate. they are adapted to breed in the saltmarshes. People have been feeding migratory Mallards for years, and as a result some of the Mallards don't fly North to breed. They stay here during breeding season, and have bred into the Mottled Duck line. It's hard to say just how much this has changed Mottled Duck genetics....

See the youtube video, pretty cool http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7IZmRnAo6s The bird even head bangs !!!

The ponds are brimming, green is showing up all over, the birds are nesting, give thanks, Spring is here! My yard crew was busy yesterday, I tested a new camera on them. I finally moved up to a DSLR, A SONY A-200. I'll just eat a lot of beans and rice this month to pay for it, LOL

We never saw the Sun today. I helped a friend who has a PR firm on a shoot, St.Augustine's royal family was trying on new costumes. They are on the way to Tallahassee to represent St. Augustine in a parade. I'll have pics of that when she finishes the project. The flowers are all in local yards, shot while riding down the streets.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - It's called a white-crested laughing thrush and it's bringing smiles to zookeepers in Syracuse. The Rosamond Gifford Zoo greeted a new bird March 7. The chick is named Zephyr.

New troubles for the company at the center of the nation’s salmonella scare have prompted Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. to expand its recall of wild bird food products. Scotts Co. LLC, a subsidiary of the Marysville-based lawn and garden giant, on Friday added seven products to the slate of suet wild bird food it recalled in February over concerns they might contain peanut meal bought from Lynchburg, Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America. The move comes after the beleaguered Peanut Corp. of America shut down a Texas facility over concerns of possible salmonella contamination. Peanut Corp. of America’s products, originally those from...

Spanish vultures are hungry, even starving — and the regional government in Madrid plans to do something about it. EU laws aimed at halting the spread of mad cow disease require the countryside to be kept clear of dead livestock even if they died of natural causes. But Juan Carlos Atienza of the Spanish Ornithological Organization says the lack of animal corpses since the law was introduced in Spain in 2002 has hit certain vultures very hard. Esperanza Aguirre, president of Madrid's regional government, said Monday the capital aims to ease the vultures' hunger by allowing some dead animals to...

Zippity Doo Dah Zippity Ay My oh my What a wonderful day. This flock of White Ibis will let me approach within 10 or 12 feet if I move slowly. They were resting quietly in a patch of little flowers. Scenes like this only come along occassionally. The dark birds are last years chicks.

A fun bird to watch. Only the White Ibis is seen around here commonly, although I've seen a couple of the related Glossy Ibis.White Ibis, Eudocimus albus

A bird suspected to be extinct was reportedly photographed for the first time in the Philippines, and then sold to a poultry market as food.

A rare quail from the Philippines was photographed for the first time before being sold as food at a poultry market, experts say.Found only on the island of Luzon, Worcester's buttonquail was known solely through drawings based on dated museum specimens collected several decades ago. Scientists had suspected the species—listed as "data deficient" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's 2008 Red List—was extinct.A TV crew documented the live bird in the market (above) before it was sold in January, according to the Agence France-Press news agency.

The fish never saw it coming. Truly amazing.

These guys spend a lot of time way out in the salt marsh, I don't get this close as often as I'd like. The heron was hunting little crabs and shrimp. The spread wings pose is typical, the shade created helps the heron see through the surface glare. It was very cloudy, sea fog starting in. I set the saturation on high, it is easier to desaturate a bit than to replace color not in the image. I'm never as pleased with the result, full sunlight can't be beat. The lake is surrounded by houses, the colors reflect on the...

I should wait but I ain't! The little female Boat tailed Grackles are a favorite of mine. They get tame really fast, doesn't take long until they're eating from your hand. They love Cheetos!

I set out to the C store, grandson in tow, to get a bag of ice. When I turned toward the hay fields near the agriculture center he never even blinked, he knows me too well to think I'll pass up a chance at a shot! What the heck, it only took a couple of minutes!

How do you survive 25 days at sea with nothing but the giant icebox you are floating in? By drinking rainwater and eating fish vomited up by seabirds, apparently. That is the amazing tale of two Burmese fishermen who were found floating in shark-infested waters off the far North Coast of Australia in a large cooler box. Ko Ko Oo, 22, and Haung Htaik, 24, were discovered by Australian customs officials floating in the orange-and-white cooler in the Timor Sea, about 60 nautical miles from Thursday Island, northwest of Darwin on the far north central coast of Australia, at the...

When you can't find anything else to shoot, the gulls are always around. This is a Ringed-bill Gull, Larus delawarensis.

A RARE and beautiful snowy white robin has been delighting Christmas revellers with its own winter wonderland performance. Families have been turning out to watch the white robin – believed to be the only one of its kind in Britain – as it flits among cherry trees and pours out a seasonal song. Albino robins are almost unheard of in the wild. Their glistening plumage makes them easy targets for predators such as sparrowhawks. Yet Snowflake the Robin has been merrily bob-bob-bobbing on Hampstead Heath this winter and has become something of a celebrity. Delighted observers have been calling the...