Turtle Posted March 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 ...Its pretty cool when you make a connection between people because of birds... ___Syncronicity is flying here like a flock of ducks leaving a pond! While I was reading your post I quoted from Cedars, I received a long distance call from a cousin; she called because she was sitting on her porch with a broken ankle feeding the birds & thought of me. To top it off, as I was typing this reply, I received another call from a child who knows I watch birds telling me about a new bird book just gifted from the grandparents.___It is pretty cool making a connection with you Cedars because of birds. :) Thanks for the ongoing descriptive posts & links.;) ___No special bird activity here beyond what we have come to accept as ususal, but I'll keep an extra eye out today.;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racoon Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 ___Syncronicity is flying___No special bird activity here beyond what we have come to accept as ususal, but I'll keep an extra eye out today.:) Went to Lotus Park here on Hayden Island between Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River...Its a nice little park on a small peninsula near some Boat homes... There were some really nice looking Canadian Geese! :eek: All plump and relatively friendly... Green Goose Pooh everywhere :eek: Sat and watched on a sunlit bench, as the herd moved closely about...;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedars Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 ___Syncronicity is flying here like a flock of ducks leaving a pond! While I was reading your post I quoted from Cedars, I received a long distance call from a cousin; she called because she was sitting on her porch with a broken ankle feeding the birds & thought of me. To top it off, as I was typing this reply, I received another call from a child who knows I watch birds telling me about a new bird book just gifted from the grandparents.___It is pretty cool making a connection with you Cedars because of birds. :cup: Thanks for the ongoing descriptive posts & links.:cup: ___No special bird activity here beyond what we have come to accept as ususal, but I'll keep an extra eye out today.:hihi: This is a cool thread! Yes we have a connection for sure. I am glad you enjoy my posts! I will post a flash from the past. I hope it brings some memories of your own that you can share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedars Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 Today the promise of spring has disapeared. Snows are moving thru my area and drive times to work have more than doubled ... for those who decided to go... June 4, 2004, I wandered to my favorite birding area. It was a good day of birding. We reported to the nature center the first baby swans seen. A tagged bird, H56 male had fathered 6 babies and they were taking a swim under careful watch of their parents. Mom took the crew slowly away from us and H56 let us know by his placement between us and the kids, he was willing to take measures to prevent us from disrupting his babies security. According to the nature center, H56 is a reliable producer of new swans each year. While a milestone for me (first report of baby swans that season) the day offered much more than that. After rounding a few bends in the road and taking two lefts and a right we found ourselves faced with a new encounter. Opposite of the main dyke lake is a marshy meadow. Some small hills offer spots for birds to nest. This is where we encountered the American Bitterns. We didnt see them at first. What attracted our stop was the sound the birds made. I heard the noise first and told my birding buddy to STOP THE CAR! We listened and I heard it again. There! That noise! Again and again. We traced the sound and finally spotted this bird. He stood there with his head straight up, beak pointed towards the sun. He was very hard to see, blending into the dead marsh grasses as they swayed with the winds. He swayed his head and neck with the winds, looking so much like the grasses he was hiding in. His neck bubbled out in a flowing ripple of black, brown and white, then a Plop, there was the noise again. The bird was around 60 feet off the road. http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/Infocenter/photo_htm/Images/h1900pi.jpg Then from a little further up the road another one plopped back! We had two of them ! This second one was just off the road, maybe 10 feet away. We crept the car towards that bird slowly and got a glimpse of him/her sneaking deeper into the grass marsh again. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/American_Bittern_dtl.html The noise the birds were making sounded like the largest drop of water hitting a puddle you could ever imagine. One big drop. Plop. Wait. Plop. These two birds were shouting puddle drops at each other. I do not know if it was a territory dispute, a battle between two males trying to impress a hidden female that we never saw, or a pair of birds making courtship sounds to each other. It is one of the most interesting bird noises I have ever had the opportunity to hear. This call is close. Maybe it was because we were there the call was shortened to the puddle drop. http://wildspace.ec.gc.ca/life.cfm?ID=AMBI&Page=Call&Lang=e It also brought me back to days in my youth when I had searched for the source of this dripping water I would hear sometimes as I wandered my area. With as secretive as these birds are, No Wonder I never found the source! A neighbor kid insisted it was a bird noise and we laughed at him. Birds dont make that noise. He tried to get us to find the bird but we were not persuaded. If I ever see this boy (now a man) I will have to apologize to him for doubting his claims those many years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedars Posted March 18, 2006 Report Share Posted March 18, 2006 The snow we got this week is begining to melt. Today as I was out trenching the driveway to drain puddled waters I heard a sandhill crane calling. One lone bird circled the swamp/lake northwest of me several times calling out. A plane came and the bird moved away to the west. I am hoping this was the male of the pair that have been nesting here for the last few years. My first sandhill of the season! Yay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2006 Thanks Cedars! I haven't seen a Sandhill Crane in decades. (I loved the Bittern story & call links too:hihi: )I am forced to move so I have started packing feeders etc.. The birds here must again fend for themselves. Not knowing yet where I will end up, I am myself now a migratory animal scouting for a safe haven. :rain: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedars Posted March 19, 2006 Report Share Posted March 19, 2006 Thanks Cedars! I haven't seen a Sandhill Crane in decades. (I loved the Bittern story & call links too:hihi: )I am forced to move so I have started packing feeders etc.. The birds here must again fend for themselves. Not knowing yet where I will end up, I am myself now a migratory animal scouting for a safe haven. :phones: Sorry you have to move. It doesnt sound like it was planned. I hope you find a great place fast! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racoon Posted March 19, 2006 Report Share Posted March 19, 2006 I saw a pair of interesting ducks yesterday, at my Quiet spot at Lotus Park, near the Columbia river. I was right on the waters edge, looking at the boats, and boat houses, and birds. There was a pair of black ducks, with a white bills.I couldn't find what they were in my Audubon guide.They might have been American Coot's?? I also saw some variety of Cormorants. a pair Flying right at the waters surface.And the usual Plump Canadian Geese. they get pretty close sometimes.they're just so purdy :phones: PS Nice links Cedars! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedars Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 I saw a pair of interesting ducks yesterday, at my Quiet spot at Lotus Park, near the Columbia river. I was right on the waters edge, looking at the boats, and boat houses, and birds. There was a pair of black ducks, with a white bills.I couldn't find what they were in my Audubon guide.They might have been American Coot's?? I also saw some variety of Cormorants. a pair Flying right at the waters surface.And the usual Plump Canadian Geese. they get pretty close sometimes.they're just so purdy :naughty: PS Nice links Cedars! American Coot would be a good guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedars Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Today after work I went out to get our mail. In the swamp east of me, I heard two different Sandhill Cranes calling. This is the swamp our local pair uses to raise chicks. I am now convinced the bird I saw on saturday was one of our own. There may be more than one pair around. The first year the cranes settled in this swamp there were two pair. But the people who lived there moved and I dont get the reports that I used to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedars Posted March 27, 2006 Report Share Posted March 27, 2006 I knew it was going to happen and I procrastinated most of the day and missed alot. The sun was out. The temps were rising. The signs were there the last two weeks. I knew it would happen the first good day after melting most of the snows from our near blizzard almost two weeks ago. I knew it was comming when I saw robins in my yard and the oaks across the road were ringing with the calls of red-winged blackbirds just yesterday. Today it happened. I was going out to the garage to do some sanding and I heard them. I doubted myself and went into the garage to do this task. An hour later the sound was so loud I could hear them over the sander. SANDHILL CRANES!! I ran out of the garage and spotted them high, high in the sky. Counting was difficult but I got to 45 before the mass swirled around itself, rearranging into a double V. I estimate there was 54 or so birds. And westward they flew. I stayed outside for another half hour and saw two more groups. One I estimate at about 20-25 birds. The other I estimate at 10 birds or so. So in this short of a time I saw around 80 sandhills. I heard several more groups that I couldnt spot to the east of me, and a few groups to the west of me that I couldnt see. A friend called and verified he too heard cranes all afternoon. He also was in his garage and their calls to each other reached him inside these walls. He couldnt believe the number of times he heard them today. All afternoon he said. The sandhill cranes moved thru central minnesota today in large numbers. Next come the swans!! oh. and I saw an eagle ... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racoon Posted March 27, 2006 Report Share Posted March 27, 2006 A friend called and verified he too heard cranes all afternoon. The sandhill cranes moved thru central minnesota today in large numbers. Next come the swans!! SWEET! Can't you get some pic's Cedars???:) We would love to see them! PS! There is still the Attachment of Charlene the Pigeon on Post #168!that is taking up space in Turtle's Gallery!Take a look... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedars Posted March 27, 2006 Report Share Posted March 27, 2006 SWEET! Can't you get some pic's Cedars???:eek2: We would love to see them! PS! There is still the Attachment of Charlene the Pigeon on Post #168!that is taking up space in Turtle's Gallery!Take a look... I can post links to pics others have taken. I have a heck of a time getting good photos myself because I dont have a good camera. These birds are huge. 4 feet tall. On a still day, their voices in flight carry well over a mile. You will hear them comming long before you can see them. Sound clip from operationmigration.orghttp://www.operationmigration.org/SC-unison.wav2nd sound clip from same sitehttp://www.operationmigration.org/SC-Flight-callssm.wav Lots of pics on this page:http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/pictures/Grus_canadensis.html Heres a good pic of the birds in flight:http://sdakotabirds.com/species_photos/sandhill_crane_1.htm And a good pic of a group on the ground:http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Sandhill%20Crane%20Creamers%20Field.htm I did see your pic of Charlene. Its really cool to have a connection like that. Some people dont like pigeons but I think there cool. But then, I dont have any statues in my yard ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedars Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 Late yesterday afternoon I saw my first migrating swans. Trumpeter swans I believe. Around thirty birds in this group. I stayed outside for a while longer, hoping more birds would come thru. I heard some, but they were either too far away to the north, or they were flying above the dratted cloud cover we had. Both Trumpter and Tundra swan call clips here:http://www.trumpeterswansociety.org/id.htm Good tundra pics:http://thebirdguide.com/digiscoping/photos/tundra_swan.htm I posted of my trumpter pics a while back. Its pretty big.http://hypography.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=378&d=1134565407 Two more small groups of Sandhills flew over. First group was 11 birds. Second group was 7 birds. Today the trip home brought some hawks and an eagle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve daniels Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Could be a black headed gull. Not sure if you get them in the US but they're pretty common here in Europe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve daniels Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 "why is it that the sea gulls here have black heads, and in california their heads are white?" Could be a black headed gull. Not sure if you get them in the US but they're pretty common here in Europe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedars Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 "why is it that the sea gulls here have black heads, and in california their heads are white?" Could be a black headed gull. Not sure if you get them in the US but they're pretty common here in Europe Welcome to the forums Steve! Are you a bird watcher? If so, I have a few questions regarding migrations, populations, conservation efforts and such about what goes on in Europe regarding birds. Any insight would be appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.