Birds

[jsdemar]

Redtailed Hawk on my power pole.

 

[jd2cylman]

Best picture I could get with my phone. Got to the launch site early one morning and this dude was just a sittin on the post airing out the laundry. We stared at each other for about 15 minutes until I got too close. Pretty sure it was a turkey vulture.

 

[dpower]

Mandarin duck

We've had a Mandarin duck hanging out along lake Michigan in Milwaukee for the last few weeks. An escapee, no doubt, but still a beautiful bird!

 

[DigBaddy]

We've had a Mandarin duck hanging out along lake Michigan in Milwaukee for the last few weeks. An escapee, no doubt, but still a beautiful bird!View attachment 563401

I caught that on MKE Parks Instagram...if I wasn't tied up with maple stuff, I'd try to go find it.

 

[KenECoyote]

I officiated a funeral today. As we pulled into the cemetery, there was a hawk in the middle of the driveway with a grey squirrel in his talons. He stared at our car while he decided if he needed to move out of the way. He did, but while the squirrel was alive, he was already crippled enough that he didn't look like he was going to get too far before the hawk returned.

• While driving into a town nearby I once saw an eagle swoop in to get a roadkill and it tried very hard, but gave up as we approached (I was slowing down from 50mph heading into the 30mph). I felt bad, but it happened too fast.
• Years ago I had a Snowy Owl swoop fairly close in front of my car... in NY... in July! I have the grainy dashcam footage somewhere. Prior I had told people about spotting the snowy owl, but they wouldn't believe me.
• Finally I once drove around a downhill bend in a 40mph zone and saw a vulture on the road. I slowed down, but it flew off and I thought I was in the clear... until it did what vultures do and swooped back around! I heard it hit parts of my roof, but it wasn't too hard and it flew off fine.

 

[dmaaero]

I have not heard anything about it this year, but the past few winters we have had a snow owl spend some time on the outer banks of NC.

 

[dmaaero]

Red shoulder hawk.

 

[jsdemar]

A youthful roadunner near my patio.

 

[boatgeek]

We had a snowy owl overwinter down here a few years ago. It was easy to find in the neighborhood--go the opposite direction that the people with long-lens cameras and big smiles were going.

A friend of mine was driving on the highway when an osprey tried to cross after catching a big fish. It wasn't gaining altitude fast enough to clear the car, so it eventually dropped the fish and got clear. The fish impacted the center of the windshield. "My windshield got cracked by a salmon" is one that doesn't come up every day in the insurance biz.

 

[Funkworks]

… "My windshield got cracked by a salmon" is one that doesn't come up every day in the insurance biz.

Imagine a restaurant menu listing “Osprey-caught salmon”. Might be worth a windshield!

I once witnessed a cross-walking pigeon being run over by a dump truck. Except for that one, an interesting thing about pigeons is they thrive where humans live. Their population wound dwindle without us. I’ve had one come up to me once while parked at a drive-thru. They love take-out.

 

[smstachwick]

View attachment 563302
Wood duck

I led a team to build and install nesting boxes for those little guys for my Eagle project. They ended up getting a few families and 1 even was home to a beehive.

 

[Joekeyo]

The Audubon club, of which I am a member, has installed has over 10 bluebird boxes in our retirement community. Many of them have been used successfully by bluebirds. Eggs laid and fledglings. We have lots of bluebirds around and they are easy to spot.

 

[Wayco]

Great blue heron flying over golf course pond by our house


Hummer feeding baby in nest outside our window

 

[dmaaero]

My wood pecker friend, he has no problem letting you know the fedder is empty.

 

[Wayco]

Pretty sure the "woodpecker" above is a "Northern Flicker"

These two were taken with my iPhone, so excuse the quality.

Great Egret


Hooded Merganser

 

[jsdemar]

The Rocketry Forum has gone to the birds!

Great Horned Owl hatchling. The nest is in my neighbor's tall pine tree (tallest place in our desert neighborhood). Their small dogs are nervous!

 

[dmaaero]

I think @Wayco is correct, does appear to be a northen flicker. I"ll try another guess, red wing blackbird?

 

[DigBaddy]

Yup, RWB!

Here are some more of them from our back yard last spring.


Female

 

[tsmmiller]

Yup, RWB!

Here are some more of them from our back yard last spring.

View attachment 563845View attachment 563846View attachment 563847
Female
View attachment 563848View attachment 563849

While we were dating the former Mrs came to my parents home. We had hundreds of red wing black birds around at the time. She inquired "What is the black bird with the red wings?" I told her it is a "Red winged black bird!" She just glared at at me....I told her, "No! That is what it is really called! I didn't know the scientific name, (still don't!)

 

[Wayco]

Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius poeniceus. iBird PRO is your friend....

 

[dmaaero]

This might be a blue bunting, taken on the game lands last July

 

[jsdemar]

This might be a blue bunting, taken on the game lands last July

View attachment 564030

Blue or Indigo Bunting. I'm not sure what the difference is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_bunting

 

[dmaaero]

Could also be a indigo bunting, i"m not sure as its not a good picture. Taken with a 300mm zoom a long ways away. A few weeks earlier we saw this bird from 8-10 feet away sitting on some tall grass/reeds. They were growing in the ditch that runs thru a bunch of huge fields, but couldn"t get a photo quick enough.

 

[jsdemar]

Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius poeniceus. iBird PRO is your friend....

Red winged blackbirds have a unique song. It always reminds me of fishing in the creek near where I grew up in northern NY state. Now that I'm in the Southwest, I haven't seen many. They seem to like the river environment... I've heard them near the Rio Grande while camping.

 

[jnmiller]

Took these photos at Conowingo Maryland last year

 

[boatgeek]

Red winged blackbirds have a unique song. It always reminds me of fishing in the creek near where I grew up in northern NY state. Now that I'm in the Southwest, I haven't seen many. They seem to like the river environment... I've heard them near the Rio Grande while camping.

Redwings are one of two birds that I usually hear before I see. The other is the belted kingfisher, which has a distinctive chittering call as it's flying.

 

[mbeels]

We have Steller's jays (with the crest) and more recently scrub jays that are pretty blue. They're hard to get pictures of though.

I remember seeing some Stellar's Jays while running through Carkeek Park. They're quite beautiful right up close.

Yup, RWB!

Here are some more of them from our back yard last spring.

Beautiful, some of my favorite birds to spot.

 

[Wayco]

We had red-winged black birds across the street in a marshy area back when we moved here 23 years ago. All that is gone now, over-run with commercial development.
I saw a belted kingfisher this morning by the lake, but it was gone by the time I got my good (SLR) camera with the telephoto lens. Then I noticed why the kingfisher was around, there were a bunch of cormorants feeding on small fish! Then three great white egrets showed up and started in on the fish too. Since I had the SLR camera out, I started taking pic's of all this activity:

Egret on right trying to swallow a big fish.


Cormorants and an egret feeding on fish. I had never seen an egret catching fish on the wing like this.


Egret and cormorants taking a break.

While I had the camera out, I also shot some other birds that were around:

Canada geese


I wish the window was cleaner, but there is a male Gambel's quail that occasionally shows up on our aluma-wood awning to peck at his reflection in the glass:

 

[jderimig]

My bird this morning...

 

[dmaaero]

A little downey woodpecker at the feeder