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KenECoyote

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Hi,

I helped in reviving a zombie thread on hawks; however the thread seemed to turn more into one on general birding (which I'm a big amateur fan of), so I wanted to start a thread on general birding.

Post your sightings and stories here and pics are greatly appreciated as well! :)

Best,
KenECoyote...devoted bird watcher and aspiring bird catcher.

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About 8 years ago, while I was looking out my living room window at my Koi pond and enjoying the fish. When, the whole window was suddenly filled with wings of a Osprey as it dove into the pond and made off my one of my largest Koi's. I was amassed and pissed at the same time. The Koi pond sits only 15 feet from the house and with the trees on two sides the Osprey had to dive into the pond by following the roof line down. The Osprey's have been fishing in the Columbia River and the small river near my house, but I never thought that they would dive into a pond so close to the house. A week later while shopping in Astoria, Oregon I came home and found the pond empty of Koi. That was an expensive loss and forced me into placing netting over the pond and replacing the Koi with Comets (Gold fish). Live and learn.
 
I saw two baby Ring-billed Gull last weekend. This was a first for me. You see the adult Ring-billed Gulls around here by the thousands but never the babies.
 
You should tweet this... :wink:

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Or at least toss us a link to the aforementioned thread...

First bird pic posting! Nice find and thanks for the link! :)

About 8 years ago, while I was looking out my living room window at my Koi pond and enjoying the fish. When, the whole window was suddenly filled with wings of a Osprey as it dove into the pond and made off my one of my largest Koi's. I was amassed and pissed at the same time. The Koi pond sits only 15 feet from the house and with the trees on two sides the Osprey had to dive into the pond by following the roof line down. The Osprey's have been fishing in the Columbia River and the small river near my house, but I never thought that they would dive into a pond so close to the house. A week later while shopping in Astoria, Oregon I came home and found the pond empty of Koi. That was an expensive loss and forced me into placing netting over the pond and replacing the Koi with Comets (Gold fish). Live and learn.

I recall a while back when I was considering a fish pond in my backyard that I read about the possibility of the same thing happening. Netting makes it look less nice, but at least you keep the fish. ;)

I saw two baby Ring-billed Gull last weekend. This was a first for me. You see the adult Ring-billed Gulls around here by the thousands but never the babies.

That's awesome! Yeah, baby bird sightings (other than ducks and geese) are difficult. I've recently seen some sparrows and Grackles in my back yard where they were bigger than the parents feeding them...very funny sight!
 
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Okay, I'm going to post some pics; however note that some may be common, some are taken with the cheap camera on my phone while others are taken with an old digi-slr (5-100mm) and I may not know what the bird is. :)

Cormorant on my dock...has beautiful blue green eyes.
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Cute yellow bird taking a bath in my driveway.
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Swan with unusually swoopy wings...very nice swan and I love him since he chases off the stupid geese that poo all over my area!
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The neighborhood crows. My daughter loves crows, but these seem very shy (which is smart).
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I have some possibly better pics on my digital SLR, but will need to download (or locate) them.
 
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Some more...

Red cardinal.
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Blue Heron.
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I believe this is a "Guck"/"Doose"...a cross between duck and goose. There's another more unusual one I've seen in my lake that has a mallard ring neck, but is quite huge.
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And the very rare "Air" Hog. I sighted this at my club launch site and no one would believe me...just found the photo! :)
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OK! what the hell is a Air Hog? I like that Cardinal. The wife has some humming bird feeders so I'll get some better pictures of them.Here's one from last year.

Got this of a Quail sitting on the back fence.
 
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OK! what the hell is a Air Hog?

Actually that was a joke thrown in to see if anyone was paying attention...however it is an authentic pic. It turned out to be a ground hog which had climbed the tree and was surveying the area when I drove up on it on my way to METRA. I was really floored since I hadn't seen anything like it before. Let me tell you...I've seen a lot of strange things in my life and I'm glad there are now have camera phones good enough to document them since many people don't seem to believe some of the things I've seen or are insistent that I'm wrong. :)

BTW - Awesome quail pic!
 
Taken at Haystack Rock - Cannon beach, Oregon about a month ago.

Eagle swings in for a snack.
Grabs a Common Murre.
Gull tries to get the Murre.

Shot Hand-held with my D500 & 600/4 lens.

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Some flocks...

About 100 Turkey Vultures in the sky over NY (counted to 88 and gave up...there were more out of frame):
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Video of Swifts and Swallows Swarming:
[video=youtube;2VJG0lMSl4k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VJG0lMSl4k&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
I just saw my first live Woodcock today, and wouldn't you know it I'de left the camera at home!
It was at my Mom's house, and she was on her front porch when I got there making the universal "SHHHSS" symbol, so I exited the vehicle slowly, and approached cautiously, throwing my gaze toward the direction she was staring in.
I stayed quiet and she motioned me to come in the house, and when we were safely inside, I asked what it was, and was totally excited when she said there was a Woodcock in the front yard under one of the trees.
We went to the living room, and had a great line of sight to it only 30 feet away! I watched it intently through her binos while she explained that it had been there for two hours.
How odd, as they are known to be around, but I have only ever seen a carcass of one, and that was only distinguishable by it's bill.
To see one for real was a real treat!
It was sticking it's bill ino the ground, obviously foraging for grubs or the like, and then it would preen it's feathers on it's breast, even removing a few and discarding them on the ground. I hope to retrieve a few in the morning.
My Mom told me that she had had Ruffed Grouse in the yard earlier in the day, and though she actively feeds the birds year round, even though you are not supposed to in the summer, due to Black Bear, it was still out of sorts, but she said her neighbor had yesterday been expanding his yard with a bunch of chainsaw activity, so he must have disturbed their nesting grounds.
The Woodcock appeared to be perfectly healthy and was still there when I came back an hour later, and when I left.
I spoke to her at around 8:30 on the phone when it started raining and got dark, and she said it had been there as the light faded til' you could not see it.
What an awkward looking bird, and I feel bad for it that it likely showed up due to it's habitat being disturbed, but atleast know I have had the privilege of watching one.
I'm going back tomorrow at 6:30-7:00ish, and bringing the camera in case it is still in the area.
It seemed rather unafraid of me or my Mom, or even my Dog as I walked her to the vehicle, as my Mom had been Dog sitting for me.

Oh, and here's my best bird pic' I've ever gotten.

 
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I had to look up Woodcock to find out what it is...very cool sighting! It's great when the birds hang around since so often they're very skittish and (more often that I care to count) they fly away as soon as you grab a camera.

Also that is a fantastic pic! :)
 
I had to look up Woodcock to find out what it is...very cool sighting! It's great when the birds hang around since so often they're very skittish and (more often that I care to count) they fly away as soon as you grab a camera.

Also that is a fantastic pic! :)


I've got a pic of a woodstock, and a video with him and a dog if that's any consolation...

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[video=youtube;0U9_RZJMQyo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U9_RZJMQyo[/video]



You know I love a good yolk, and I have too much fun egging you on... However, if I keep up with the bird puns, I might be seeing these guys show up...

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Probably the most dramatic sighting I've ever had:
I was on my way to a contract in the DC area; I'd just landed at DCA. I was in my rental car heading to the customer's site, coming up the GW Parkway. I looked over and there was a large bald eagle sitting on a low branch near the Potomac. This was a few years ago, before everyone had camera phones. If I *had* had a camera, it had the potential to be an amazing shot - this majestic bird with our nation's capital behind it. But ... I'm kind of glad I didn't; I'm sure the Photoshop of my memory has tweaked it into perfection. I pulled over and watched the bird for a while; after some time, she flew off.
 
Probably the most dramatic sighting I've ever had:
I was on my way to a contract in the DC area; I'd just landed at DCA. I was in my rental car heading to the customer's site, coming up the GW Parkway. I looked over and there was a large bald eagle sitting on a low branch near the Potomac. This was a few years ago, before everyone had camera phones. If I *had* had a camera, it had the potential to be an amazing shot - this majestic bird with our nation's capital behind it. But ... I'm kind of glad I didn't; I'm sure the Photoshop of my memory has tweaked it into perfection. I pulled over and watched the bird for a while; after some time, she flew off.

Wow! That's cool. I hear ya though...many great sightings and few shots taken. The first time I sighted an eagle at my lake I was driving along the East edge about 5 miles from home and saw a large bird swooping down almost alongside me about 50' away...I was thinking..."what bird is that?" (it was all brown and quite large)...then suddenly it stuck it's talons out and I saw it had white feathers on it's legs and it grabbed a very large fish out of the lake. What an amazing sight!

A year later I had a large tree cut down in my back yard and as the cutters were leaving, I was talking to my neighbor in the back and I suddenly said "Look! An Eagle!". Next thing I know I hear all this screaming coming from the street and I thought the tree guys had an accident...it turned out that one of the guys was so excited to see an eagle that he was hootin' and hollerin' a storm (eagles were rare in my area a few years ago). :)
 
One of the creepier bird stories I have is that I once had a headless mallard duck float by my dock. Head was cleanly cut off. Really gross. I asked my neighbor what he thinks did that and he said either a very big snapping turtle or the duck flew into a wire or line. Looking at the straight angle of the cut, I didn't think it was a line hit. A year or so later, someone pulled out a monster snapping turtle shell a few hundred feet down from me that had to be about 2.5-3' across. I no longer go into the water barefoot.
 
Miki and I are birders. We feed a lot of birds 40lbs of sunflower seed every 2 weeks. Plus many suet cakes, There are times here in WI were we will have 15-20 male Cardinals the red ones setting in the snow covered tress. We have about 12 different kinds of birds comin to our feeders. The birds are our pets.
 
That's an unbelievable shot, Fred. Have you considered selling it to a nature magazine?

Thanks, but I avoid selling photos....had many opportunities to turn that hobby into work and just not that interested in ruining a hobby....
 
I think you guys will like this set.
My wife and I usually bird together, but I was out at Brothers with my Clark College team getting in their test flight, so she went to Ridgefield NWR with out daughter instead.
She came home with this amazing sequence. Shot with her D500 and 200-500 lens.
They watched this heron from beginning to end - from catch to down the hatch took about 20 minutes.
This was a VERY large bull frog - I'm amazed what the heron swallowed whole.
They are dinosaurs!

Here are the four "highlight" shots that tell the story:

#1 - The "catch:"
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#2 - "The kill" - yes, look at the beak through the brain, the frog is dead:
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#3 - "Positioning:"
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#4 - "Down the Hatch:"
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An amazing sequence.
Wish I could have been there to see this.
That frog was huge!

Cheers,
FredA
 
My creepy dead duck story...

A few years back on one frosty morning in winter, I was riding my bike, and exploring a large pond (small lake?) in Beaverton, Oregon. I see this dead duck laying on a piece of ice floating near the edge. This makes me stop, and go back to investigate. As I got there I saw this dark brown rounded shape surface, grab the duck and pull it underwater. I'm sure it was an otter. Turns out there's otters in those waters.
 
I think you guys will like this set.
My wife and I usually bird together, but I was out at Brothers with my Clark College team getting in their test flight, so she went to Ridgefield NWR with out daughter instead.
She came home with this amazing sequence. Shot with her D500 and 200-500 lens.
They watched this heron from beginning to end - from catch to down the hatch took about 20 minutes.
This was a VERY large bull frog - I'm amazed what the heron swallowed whole.
They are dinosaurs!

Here are the four "highlight" shots that tell the story:

#1 - The "catch:"

#2 - "The kill" - yes, look at the beak through the brain, the frog is dead:

#3 - "Positioning:"

#4 - "Down the Hatch:"

An amazing sequence.
Wish I could have been there to see this.
That frog was huge!

Cheers,
FredA

Wow! That's really an amazing sequence and the angle is perfect!

I had a heron recently grab a big catfish out of the lake and peck away at it on my lawn...I was surprised that it was going at it so long and once I grabbed my camera it was gone (as is usually the case); however it left the catfish on the lawn, so I took a pic of it before I threw the wounded sucker back in the water.
 
My creepy dead duck story...

A few years back on one frosty morning in winter, I was riding my bike, and exploring a large pond (small lake?) in Beaverton, Oregon. I see this dead duck laying on a piece of ice floating near the edge. This makes me stop, and go back to investigate. As I got there I saw this dark brown rounded shape surface, grab the duck and pull it underwater. I'm sure it was an otter. Turns out there's otters in those waters.

Wow! I didn't know otters eat birds! I have a few otters by me and one made a home under my old dock for a bit and also had pups...very cute little buggers, but they only stayed a short while.
 
I spotted a "new to me" (and my daughter) bird today on my dock...a small wading type bird which was watching the water and trying to get a meal. It was on my dock; however as soon as I got my camera (which was nearby), it was gone...then I spotted it on my neighbor's dock. Sorry if the pics aren't so great...I used my digi-slr, but it's old and I have to shoot from a distance through a window (while at my desk). :)

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I just did a bit of a search and I think this is a green heron.
 
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