Birding

[Queso]

that story was moving-

all of this concrete makes me sick sometimes-

literally-

sometimes ill be sitting in my room and for some funny reason i'll be super attentive to smell

and i'll get a whif of polution that i overanalyze and it makes me puke

 

so every once and a while i get away

deep into the forests i roam-

their territory-

it amazes me to see all of the critters living

why just the other morning i was smoking my water pipe on a rock in the middle of nowhere

and a deer swiftly trots by-

i know that this thread is for birds- but hey

a deer flew by me

and it was beautiful

[Cedars]

We have a family of buzzards (er...not the right name but on I go till it pops into mind) living nearby by the quarry.

 

Vultures? If so, Turkey Vulture has the red head and is found in your area.

 

I have to side track a bit Cedarsa, because I want to tell you about some Cedars we have out here. There is an island called Long Island, sitting in Willipa Bay, enclosed by North Beach Peninsula, on the SW coast of Washington State.

On this island is a stand of virgin Cedars that have individual now-today-living trees that are 2,500 years old. Also in the stand is stumpage evidentiarry of the stands existence for 4,000 years.

The island [Long Island] is about 6 miles long x 1 1/2 miles wide. This very bay [Willipa Bay] is where geologists first found conclusive evidence of past Great Quakes & the ensuing Tsunami. No fewer than 4 such events are recorded in the alternating layers of mud & sand.

 

I have Cedars here, though not as old. They attract Cedar Waxwings in the fall in large numbers. I have stood in my yard and as the flock moves to the next trees, they have flown so close to me, I could have reached out and touched them. Lots of warblers will crowd these trees on their migrations. A deer researcher noted the tempetures in a stand of cedar trees in northern minnesota was between 10 and 15 degrees higher than the surrounding areas and thought maybe these stands were attracting so many deer in this particular area because of this.

 

 

Well, I do run on. The Swans come to this area sometimes too.

PS Does anyone feed the wild rice to the birds there?

 

Feeding wild rice would be very expensive. We have lost many of the natural wild rice beds. I would guess that the number of birds who would be attracted to the wild rice would be mostly waterfowl, or birds who take the seeds before they mature, which with the regulations surrounding rice harvesting here, would put you in violation of these regulations and take up a huge amount of time to gather yourself.

 

I love your pictures!! I need to get a good camera and spend some time taking pictures. My skills with a camera tend to leave me with blurry spots against a blue sky as my target is flying away. I do have a few acceptable pictures I have taken over the years. I should get a website so I can post them.

[Drip Curl Magic]

Everytime I go to yosemite, I keep an eye out for a California Condor. For some reason, that's the only bird I'm interested in. I think I'm amazed at their size.... and how few of them are left in the wild.

[Queso]

um wow i just had such a random memory

me and chris regna spotted a huge condor one time

but then we realized it had mechanical wings

it was some kind of robot bird-

i'll never be able to figure out what i saw

[Drosera]

Hi,

 

I realize this response comes real late, but it concerns the photo of the suspected Vireo. I come from the East Coast, so I don't know the all the species you have on your side. But if I saw that bird here, it would definitely *not* be a vireo, but rather an Empidonax Flycatcher. In my region, there are 5 recorded species that look virtually identical, and you have to hear their calls to identify them properly. The 2 species of Vireo over here have obvious stripes above and below the eyes, are larger than what your pic seemed to show, and the beaks are somewhat longer and sharper.

 

Keep bird watching!

[Cedars]

Hi,

 

I realize this response comes real late, but it concerns the photo of the suspected Vireo. I come from the East Coast, so I don't know the all the species you have on your side. But if I saw that bird here, it would definitely *not* be a vireo, but rather an Empidonax Flycatcher. In my region, there are 5 recorded species that look virtually identical, and you have to hear their calls to identify them properly. The 2 species of Vireo over here have obvious stripes above and below the eyes, are larger than what your pic seemed to show, and the beaks are somewhat longer and sharper.

 

Keep bird watching!

 

Those are good points you present. The angle of the picture makes a positive identification much harder. The beak shape, I cannot distinguish against the background.

 

Part of my basis for agreement on the vireo identification is the surrounding terrain and the posture of the bird in the pic and what appears to me to be a very stout body, with a rounded head. It appears the bird is low to the ground foraging. The vireos I see most often are foraging in my blackberry and raspberry bushes.

 

Many of the flycatchers have a crest of some type and should show up some in the pic, even in this angle. In my experiences, the flycatchers tend to hunt higher and catch insects in flight. Though we do not have the numbers of flycatchers here that the western region does, so I do not have a point of reference on the feeding behaviors of the western birds.

 

But you did cause me to pick up my bird book and refresh on the flycatchers again!

[Cedars]

that story was moving-

all of this concrete makes me sick sometimes-

literally-

 

so every once and a while i get away

deep into the forests i roam-

their territory-

it amazes me to see all of the critters living

why just the other morning i was smoking my water pipe on a rock in the middle of nowhere

and a deer swiftly trots by-

i know that this thread is for birds- but hey

a deer flew by me

and it was beautiful

 

Thanks. Its always good to know someone reads my post.

 

When we went to yellowstone, we had a great time feeding the Gray Jays that hovered over the picnic areas. We had a big bucket of granola and shared with the birds. Of course the park says Do NOT Feed the Animals, but they started it. LOL, they would land on our table and grab pieces of food and take off. So we gave into natures needs. Once we started feeding them, they came closer and closer. We got some to come between 2 and 3 feet of us. Same with the prairie dogs in s. dakota. Sunflower seeds. It was a great adventure. My kid still remembers these events with a smile.

 

Now this is a different perspective during the same trip. We were headed towards a petrified tree. As we neared the area we saw a bunch of cars parked along the road and many people gathered around this one spot. I rolled the window down and asked a man with a camera, what was going on.

 

He was very excited. Theres a Momma Bear Playing With Her Cubs about 30 feet off the road!!!

 

I couldnt believe it! I said, Are you NUTS?? You dont mess with a bear and her cubs!! He gave me a look of disgust and headed towards the bears. Me and the people with me debated on whether to stick around for a Kodak moment of "when animals attack" but decided it was getting too close to dark and we wanted to check out the tree. I rolled my window up and we drove away.

[Cedars]

Everytime I go to yosemite, I keep an eye out for a California Condor. For some reason, that's the only bird I'm interested in. I think I'm amazed at their size.... and how few of them are left in the wild.

 

To see a Condor would be a noteworthy event for any person. If I were in the region of california where the birds are found, I would set aside a day or two to try to spot one myself.

[Turtle]

Vultures? If so, Turkey Vulture has the red head and is found in your area.

 

 

 

I have Cedars here, though not as old. They attract Cedar Waxwings in the fall in large numbers. I have stood in my yard and as the flock moves to the next trees, they have flown so close to me, I could have reached out and touched them. Lots of warblers will crowd these trees on their migrations. A deer researcher noted the tempetures in a stand of cedar trees in northern minnesota was between 10 and 15 degrees higher than the surrounding areas and thought maybe these stands were attracting so many deer in this particular area because of this.

 

 

I love your pictures!! I need to get a good camera and spend some time taking pictures. My skills with a camera tend to leave me with blurry spots against a blue sky as my target is flying away. I do have a few acceptable pictures I have taken over the years. I should get a website so I can post them.

 

Thanks Cedars: Turkey Vultures they are indeed. Had a bit of a memory lapse ther.

What species of Cedar is there? We have Western Red Cedar here, which is what is on Long Island. We have something called Port Orford Cedar, which is not a true cedar, but grows nowhere else in the world except for a small region near Port Orford Oregon. I understand they have become a popular tree for folks to plant in their yards & as a consquence they have spread widely.

On the photos, all memebers may attach a photo to any post. The size is limited, but I think the allowable size increases with a member's level which increases with a member's number of posts. Members who sign up as Hypography Sponsors also receive their own space in Hypography/s Science Gallery section which allows larger photos.

I have some other blurry shots of the Hutton's Vireo; I'll look to see if there is a better view of the bill.

Nice to see some more participants in this thread; thanks folks.

:cup:

[Kirk Gregory Czuhai]

We have a large number of cats near by, so fewer birds. I hate cats.

 

Woof,

Buffy

I am thinking there might be too few BIRDS around too compared to some of the crazy (stuff) i read to often in this Hypography

(whatever) boards.

 

like a breath of fresh air i have come to this site originally only to return

to my previous posting to BIRDING!

 

some moderator barely old enough or not able to grow normal hair is probably

going to find some objection to this posting?

 

If there is a problem then rest assured its with the moderators as i would

suspect they would show more character to most of them than the one(s)

hell bent on modifying, explaining, or even deleting my postings.

 

ANYWAY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR for all of you even

incluing the god of science freaks.

 

http://www.altelco.net/~lovekgc/kam.jpg

 

you are such geniuses!

 

you are such scientists!

 

what a circus!

 

and the "mature" monitor that tampers with my postings, what an

IMPORATANT person you are! LOL LOL :cup:

[Tarantism]

i saw a bald-headed bird today, rather large in size up in the hills on the way to gilroy, ca. at first glance, i figured it was a turkey vulture and dismissed it as nothing special (for me, i have seen lot of those around here.). then, it flew down closer and it was much bigger than i originally though i ahve never seen a turkey vulture up-close, but this was much bigger than i would have figured. am i seeing something else, or are the vultures just that large?

[Cedars]

What species of Cedar is there? We have Western Red Cedar here, which is what is on Long Island. We have something called Port Orford Cedar, which is not a true cedar, but grows nowhere else in the world except for a small region near Port Orford Oregon. I understand they have become a popular tree for folks to plant in their yards & as a consquence they have spread widely.Nice to see some more participants in this thread; thanks folks.

:cup:

 

Trees are not my specialty and as I looked up the type of cedar, I found they not a cedar, they are a juniper.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_virginiana

 

These are swans from this spring. One is a release bird with the yellow neckband. Its mate was born in the wild.

 

[ATTACH]378[/ATTACH]

 

Thanks for the pic posting clues!!

[Cedars]

Heres a scarlet tanager pic. It was from like May 8 or 10. This day, in the same wildlife area that I took the swan pics at, these birds were moving thru in large numbers. We saw well over 30 individuals that day. The pic was taken with the bird insect hunting no more than 10 feet (and often less) from the edge of the road.

 

[ATTACH]380[/ATTACH]

[Cedars]

i saw a bald-headed bird today, rather large in size up in the hills on the way to gilroy, ca. at first glance, i figured it was a turkey vulture and dismissed it as nothing special (for me, i have seen lot of those around here.). then, it flew down closer and it was much bigger than i originally though i ahve never seen a turkey vulture up-close, but this was much bigger than i would have figured. am i seeing something else, or are the vultures just that large?

 

Vultures are that large. Around here, if a bird is soaring, its very hard to tell if its a vulture or an immature bald eagle. Unless the bird is low enough to see the bill. Eagles have much thicker bills. The vulture head (in soaring view) is much smaller than an eagle head.

[Racoon]

I love birds too. I am from the majestic Northwest as well.

I leave bread out on my deck to attract birds; I get a great view!

I particularly enjoy the Stellar Jays. They are a beautifully colored blue with a black mohawk. They make a screeching sound.

[Tarantism]

it was definatley no eagle. good call, probably vulture. thanks!

[Cedars]

We had our first big snow of the season this last week.

 

I put out my suet this week. The Downy and Hairy woodpeckers showed up right away. I have at least two male Red-bellied woodpeckers. And friday morning, my first Pileated Woodpecker of the season showed up.

 

Lots of Nuthatches, Black Capped Chickadees and Blue Jays, as they are so very common here. Juncos and Tree Sparrows are back too.

 

I had two male Cardinals chasing each other thru the trees on thursday. The most males I have had in my yard at once was seven. They do stand out against the snow so brightly! Around january they will stop this territorial sparing and just worry about getting the best seeds. I think the extreme cold temps adjust their attitudes.

 

I found Mourning Dove wing feathers in two spots near the feeders. I did not see what took the bird, but I found no cat tracks in the snow anywhere close to these feathers. Each year I have a Sharp-shinned Hawk that shows up around Dec 15th to hunt my feeders. I wonder if the bird has returned again.