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Bird watching?

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:19 pm
by zoegirl
Anybody else like to watch birds? I like to watch them at my birdfeeder. My parents birdfeeder gets more then mine but I have had the occasional downy woodpecker and tufted titmouse, along with the rarer nuthatch. MOre often I gety the sparrows, juncos, and finches.

Today, though, I had a very awesome visitor...a Sharp-shinned hawk came in to the yard (may have bumped into the house, sat on my fence for a good ten minuted looking a bit...flummoxed....I heard a thump and thought that maybe a little guy flew into the sliding door....probably on the lookout for the other little birdies (saw one once swoop down and pin down a sparrow, one of those bittersweet observations that make you go "cool" but "aw!" at the same time :esurprised: ) Anyway, he drove my dog nuts because she could see him on the fence and he wasn't flying away.

Certainly drove the other birds away! This is what they look like

Just wondering.Image

Re: Bird watching?

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:29 pm
by Furstentum Liechtenstein
Wow...it sounds like you live in the country.

I live in a large city and at this time of year the only fancy birds around are blue jays. We also have common sparrows.

During the warmer months, cardinals, juncos, pidgeons and McDonald hawks abound.

FL

Re: Bird watching?

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:31 pm
by cslewislover
Yes, I love birds and do some field bird watching. Those hawks live in our area. But the most awsome bird that comes to the yard - and eats other birds - is a Prairie Falcon. I'll get a pic to put here. One time it landed right in front of my kitchen sink, where there's a large bush and the bird feeder. It was trying to catch a bird, of course. They are very large, and I had one look at me one time and it made my hair "stand up."

Image

Re: Bird watching?

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 8:03 pm
by zoegirl
Fürstentum Liechtenstein wrote:Wow...it sounds like you live in the country.

I live in a large city and at this time of year the only fancy birds around are blue jays. We also have common sparrows.

During the warmer months, cardinals, juncos, pidgeons and McDonald hawks abound.

FL
NOt really in the country, but in the suburbs. I own a townhouse but am very fortunate to have a line of trees that end up leading to a drainage pond behind my house. (Maryland is very strict about contruction run-off into the CHesapeake, so that pretty much any relatively new development contains two or more drainage ponds. This means that there are many hedgerow like areas of protection for the birds.

Any good surburbian area could probably boast the birds that I get.

A good suet feeder gets them coming! The birds like the suet and they are voracious. That brings that tufted titmouse

Image

and the downy woodpecker
Image

so if you have any trees around you or a forrest close to you, they might come.

Re: Bird watching?

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 8:10 pm
by cslewislover
That tufted titmouse is so cute!!! We get bushtits here - very plain looking. And I've put suet out a number of times - it doesn't work here. I'll list some more birds we get here too, and post some pics.

Re: Bird watching?

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 5:33 am
by Zebulon
zoegirl wrote:Anybody else like to watch birds?
I like to watch and photograph them. I also like to photograph other animals that we, my wife and I, happen to see while we do our bicycle trips. Here are a couple of shots I have pictured this summer... and offered to my beloved ones and my clients for the New Year event. Details are in french but the pictures are, well, in all languages. ;o)
http://www.edition-id.com/fetes/bonneannee/

Zebulon

Re: Bird watching?

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:29 am
by Cactus
The only bird worth watch is... the kingfisher

Re: Bird watching?

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:36 am
by cslewislover
Those are nice photos, Victor!

And that's a neat video too, Cactus. I didn't know some Kingfishers were blue. The ones here - if you happen to see one - are not. Birds are so amazing, and some have such funny behavior. Did anyone see that show on PBS that showed the one bird do what looks like a moonwalk? Very funny.

Re: Bird watching?

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:22 am
by zoegirl
Cactus wrote:The only bird worth watch is... the kingfisher
There is a wetlands park nearby that I liek to go to that has a resident kingfisher. They have a cool bird call, very distinctive.

The woodpeckers calls are rather strange as well.

I am probably better at hearing and identifying than patiently sitting and watching for them, unless it is at my birdfeeder

Re: Bird watching?

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 7:03 pm
by zoegirl

Re: Bird watching?

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 9:06 am
by Harry12345
The only birds we get where I live are pigeons and seaguls. :P

In the field on my way to college there is a large congregation of crows... which is freaky because I've never seen a crow anywhere else! :esurprised: They're all very scary looking, and they all watch me intently as I walk to college. No joke! :o

Re: Bird watching?

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 9:09 am
by cslewislover
Harry12345 wrote:The only birds we get where I live are pigeons and seaguls. :P

In the field on my way to college there is a large congregation of crows... which is freaky because I've never seen a crow anywhere else! :esurprised: They're all very scary looking, and they all watch me intently as I walk to college. No joke! :o
:pound: Crows are very aggressive, you better watch your back. :evilnod: They kill each other, I mean other weak crows.

Re: Bird watching?

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 9:22 am
by Harry12345
cslewislover wrote:
Harry12345 wrote:The only birds we get where I live are pigeons and seaguls. :P

In the field on my way to college there is a large congregation of crows... which is freaky because I've never seen a crow anywhere else! :esurprised: They're all very scary looking, and they all watch me intently as I walk to college. No joke! :o
:pound: Crows are very aggressive, you better watch your back. :evilnod: They kill each other, I mean other weak crows.
Crows have been known to attack humans on occasion. :esurprised: