birds?

[BJ]

originally posted by Joel Stewart:
Brad thats a great sighting. Very cool looking bird. I'll have to ask mom if they've gotten an occasional flyby down in Budd Inlet.

The folks are on the edge of a forested bluff, so they get both sides of the Olympic corridor type of birds. There is some great birding in Wash....and the south sound area is not lacking at all either. Last summer, I stared into the eyes of a barred owl 15 feet away on my folks' densely wooded drive early one morning. Watched it calmly sit there as 2 jays scolded the crap out of it before they got bored and flew away....only to be next taunted by a gray squirrel, who came over to see what the commotion was about. Finally the owl got tired of all the attention, dropped off his branch, opened his wings and floated right by at eye level, totally silent. No wind whistling in those wings.

I've seen a few Eurasion widgeons down at Nisqually delta before, but I haven't been down since they started taking out the dikes. You? That place can be good....lots of harriers out in the fields and other stuff in the pockets of trees to the north side. (I haven't been down to Malheur yet tho....sounds great).

I guess I'd have to say my bird of the year has been the hawk owl, seen twice at dusk here in kyoto. That is one interesting hybrid looking bird. I'll see if I can dig up a pic.

The thinking is that the Jaegers (as well as a ton of other shorebirds) sometimes during migration (esp. fall migration) roll thru the middle of the sound to Olympia, and then out the Chehalis drainage to Grays Harbor. They are usually around, in a very limited way, for about a two week window, around the beginning of October. Beginning of October, after a storm, I took the day off to bird at West Point (Seattle) and saw a ton of cool stuff - including a great mixed flock of American Widgeons, Snow Geese, and Greater White Fronted Geese. Beautiful.

Very cool about the Barred Owl. I love owls' lack of sound. I once flushed a GHO about 20 feet in front of me on a trail, big bird that, and absolutely zero sound. It still gives me goose pimples 20 years later. There was a nesting pair with babies (back now talking about Barred) in Woodland Park this Spring. They are suddenly all over the place. There is a guy on Bainbridge Island who is keeping count and I think he had something like 60 this year just on the Island. Pretty wild.

There is a hybrid Eurasian x American Widgeon that's just been posted about on our local listserve, and wow, it's a mile from our house at Green Lake. We just decided to go see if we can find it in the morning.

Nisqually is the best. Need to get down there, we're overdue.

So, the hawk owl. That is a bird I am absolutely dying to see. There was one hanging around up at Harts Pass in the Okanogan a month or so ago, I almost made the five hour drive, but just didn't get to it. I would love to see your pic.

Most definitely let the Seattle crowd know where you're next in town.

 

[Chris Coad]

originally posted by Joel Stewart:

originally posted by Chris Coad:

chris - where are you? my folks on occasion, get loons in the bay out back in olympia, wa....they are gorgeous haunting birds with that call of theirs.

New York City, on a little island in the tidal strait that runs between Long Island Sound and NY Harbor.

I'm rather more partial to our cormorants. They're sinister looking and will vomit on you if you get too close.

mmm...what a thought. i kinda like watching them dry their wings.

there's a tradition of fishing with them here....still done (for tourists mainly i guess) by firelight on river boats at night. the birds have a ring around their neck and a leash about 20 ft long. guess that ring around their neck keeps them both from swallowing their catch and from spraying their master in vomit as well.

Mainland birds, like mainland flora, have been a revelation to me, even the relatively limited population that you encounter on a small island in New York City. My sister-in-law is a bird professional, so when desperate I've had to turn to sending her a blurry photograph for identification purposes.

 

[Joel Stewart]

originally posted by Joel Stewart:

originally posted by Ruben Ramos:
I came home one evening to witness this:

Some kind of hawk eating a sparrow I believe.

not only a rare shot of the predator, but gladly, of the prey too.

(just had to repost this beauty)

 

[Joel Stewart]

Brad, I asked yesterday and Mom said she's never seen the PJ before down in Budd Inlet. They do get some weird strays down there sometimes tho.

The Hawk Owl has a profile just as a birder would imagine....slimmer than an owl, but owl-like head on a hawk-like body. strange but cool looking.....and once again (like the barred sighting) weirdly non-spookable. for such a rare creature, it was oddly calm in the face of a jaw dropped human bean.

 

[Joel Stewart]

originally posted by Florida Jim:
Joel,
I do but not in any structured way.
Living along the coast of FL and then in the western mountains of NC, we get a pretty good variety. I won't forget kayaking the inland waterway and coming upon nesting roseate spoonbills.
But more than anything, I remember my Dad sitting on his porch telling me what each peep, cheep and call was from the woods. He'd lived on a farm when he was a boy and again when he retired - he actually picked out the sound a pileated woodpecker makes and they are quite rare.
Best, Jim

one of those lucky things, but pileateds are plentiful in the south sound area of wa. big crow size woody wood pecker shaped birds......craftsmen with their technique.

 

[Frank Deis]

Pileated Woodpeckers are pretty common in the area of Southern Vermont where my wife's family lives. We would see them visiting the nest, feeding babies etc. Actually I saw a hummingbird on the nest in that same town (Saxtons River). A hummingbird nest looks roughly like a thimble or a bottle cap.

The sounds they make are very distinctive. Not just the squawks and hoots. Most woodpeckers drum like a sewing machine, "rat a tat a tat a tat." The Pileated drums like, hmm, like you are playing pool in a room with a hard floor and you knock a ball clear off the table. And as it bounces the bouncing speeds up as each bounce is a little lower. Rat a Tat a Tat tat tat tatatatatat...

They aren't too hard to spot down around Princeton (enough semi-dead trees to keep them happy) and in fact in southeastern Virginia where I grew up. Along the James River, say the grounds of the Mariners' Museum is a good place to see one.

F

 

[Joel Stewart]

originally posted by Frank Deis:
Pileated Woodpeckers are pretty common in the area of Southern Vermont where my wife's family lives. We would see them visiting the nest, feeding babies etc. Actually I saw a hummingbird on the nest in that same town (Saxtons River). A hummingbird nest looks roughly like a thimble or a bottle cap.

The sounds they make are very distinctive. Not just the squawks and hoots. Most woodpeckers drum like a sewing machine, "rat a tat a tat a tat." The Pileated drums like, hmm, like you are playing pool in a room with a hard floor and you knock a ball clear off the table. And as it bounces the bouncing speeds up as each bounce is a little lower. Rat a Tat a Tat tat tat tatatatatat...

They aren't too hard to spot down around Princeton (enough semi-dead trees to keep them happy) and in fact in southeastern Virginia where I grew up. Along the James River, say the grounds of the Mariners' Museum is a good place to see one.

F

very good birding style post

tks

 

[drssouth]

Enjoyed watching a piliated woodpecker while deer hunting last week... he was hitting/pecking the tree very slowly... not sure why.. boredom.. barbituates...thyroid problems...slow bugs??

 

[Joel Stewart]

originally posted by drssouth:
Enjoyed watching a piliated woodpecker while deer hunting last week... he was hitting/pecking the tree very slowly... not sure why.. boredom.. barbituates...thyroid problems...slow bugs??

thorough peckers

same here. big birds watching you while they tear a tree apart, right?

 

[Seth Hill]

I've got a few red-tailed hawks that live in buildings around the neighborhood. I was lucky enough to see one grab his Thanksgiving meal- striking a pigeon on the sidewalk about 10 feet from me.

 

[Joel Stewart]

originally posted by Brad L i l j e q u i s t:

Most definitely let the Seattle crowd know where you're next in town.

missed this, Brad, thanks and will do.

was out on the river this morning and watched a pair of sandpipers preening on rocks in the river in the morning sunlight. need to bring binos next time to id them better. i did not notice these birds on the river until last year. wonder if i wasn't paying attention or they are new arrivals? when spooked, these birds are extreme land hugging flyers....very cool to watch them dip and saw thru the air at high speed inches above the water, following the terrain changes exactly.

black capped gulls wintering here from siberia are using interesting fishing techniques here in the river now. they tread water forcefully over a selected zone with their head looking down (kicking up debris, flushing fish out from the bottom?) before dipping their beaks to pick up something. another reason to not forget the bino's.

saw a japanese kingfisher the other morning, perched like a miniature shrike on the side of a reed. iridescent scarab-like colors and only about 4 inches long. called "kawa-semi" in japanese, which translates to river-cicada.

 

[Frank Deis]

We got married in 1970. Wedgwood brought out a series of china honoring Colonial Williamsburg for the bicentennial in 1976, and we chose a pattern called "Cuckoo." Of course as birdwatchers we knew this was not a cuckoo -- the upright posture and big head was obviously a Kingfisher but not the kind we were used to seeing.

Ever see these where you are?

Frank

PS the suckers discontinued the pattern a few years ago, and I have been paying high prices on eBay and elsewhere ever since.

 

[BJ]

originally posted by Frank Deis:
Eurasian KingfisherWe got married in 1970. Wedgwood brought out a series of china honoring Colonial Williamsburg for the bicentennial in 1976, and we chose a pattern called "Cuckoo." Of course as birdwatchers we knew this was not a cuckoo -- the upright posture and big head was obviously a Kingfisher but not the kind we were used to seeing.

Ever see these where you are?

Frank

PS the suckers discontinued the pattern a few years ago, and I have been paying high prices on eBay and elsewhere ever since.

Try www.replacements.com

 

[Joel Stewart]

here is the little guy...iridescent blue back, rust colored breast and flanks, straighter, longer bill than your plate's bird, but so it goes with plate decorators....they aren't sibleys

 

[Frank Deis]

originally posted by Brad L i l j e q u i s t:

Try www.replacements.com

Been there, done that. But thanks Brad. Replacements has rather high prices. Actually they are now peddling their stuff on eBay. I do a lot better with random "antique" dealers, and best of all with sellers in England. The cheap prices far outweigh the shipping costs. We don't use this too often and hence don't break the dishes very often, fortunately.

My favorite fact about Wedgwood is that Charles Darwin married a Wedgwood...

Back when we bought it they had advertisements that showed a large car being parked atop four teacups. They thought people were worried about the fragility of china and wanted to show how strong it really was. It's true, porcelain is strong stuff and most of what I have bought has been additions rather than replacements.

F

 

[Frank Deis]

originally posted by Joel Stewart:
here is the little guy...iridescent blue back, rust colored breast and flanks, straighter, longer bill than your plate's bird, but so it goes with plate decorators....they aren't sibleys

Thanks Joel, that's the guy!

F

 

[Ian Fitzsimmons]

I have a six-year-old boy I'd like to get into birds and birding. Any suggestions for irresistibly cool books, toys or videos that might help draw him in?

 

[Joel Stewart]

originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
I have a six-year-old boy I'd like to get into birds and birding. Any suggestions for irresistibly cool books, toys or videos that might help draw him in?

Ian, I am sure there are books and dvd's out there...I am out of that loop these days, but any and all types of books worked for me. I devoured every book on animals that was in the house when I was a kid, and watched everything about animals on tv. ("Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom!!!") Also, the folks encouraged all the animal drawings I was doing at the time...which is pretty natural for any 6 yr. old to be doing, I think. Beyond that, direct observation is key, wherever and whenever...

 

[Eden Mylunsch]

Living close to the coast I see a lot of birds around. They're mainly seagulls and pelicans though, although there are others flying by that are different but I'm not enough of a birder to know the difference. They've been doing lots of construction across the street lately so the owl that used to reside in the area has decamped for greener pastures. The construction has also severely limited the scope of my view of nearby water, so pretty soon I won't be able to watch the pelicans plunging into the water for 20-40 feet up in search of fish. I also won't be able to see the dolphins as they swim by. Such are the vagaries of progress.

FWIW, I was able to snap a photo of a passing crane about half an hour ago:

-Eden (I think it was a Malibu crane, but could have been a Bigge)

 

[Ian Fitzsimmons]

originally posted by Joel Stewart:

originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
I have a six-year-old boy I'd like to get into birds and birding. Any suggestions for irresistibly cool books, toys or videos that might help draw him in?

Ian, I am sure there are books and dvd's out there...I am out of that loop these days, but any and all types of books worked for me. I devoured every book on animals that was in the house when I was a kid, and watched everything about animals on tv. ("Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom!!!") Also, the folks encouraged all the animal drawings I was doing at the time...which is pretty natural for any 6 yr. old to be doing, I think. Beyond that, direct observation is key, wherever and whenever...

Thanks. Our wee fellow is into inanimates, notably the solar system (ad infinitum), but has just recently taken notice of living things, like dolphins and birds. I'd like to seize the opportunity. From your note, I conclude one good idea is just to have a lot of stuff around the house that he can pick up as the mood takes him.