MORE BIRDS

Let's see those Photos and videos!!
OneoftheEarls
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#21

Post: # 27021Unread post OneoftheEarls
Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:34 pm

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This bird was in my garden (Juni).
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Shule
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Location: SW Idaho, USA

Re: MORE BIRDS

#22

Post: # 27046Unread post Shule
Fri Jul 31, 2020 7:40 pm

Here are the bird sounds I was talking about. The birds look like Brewer's blackbirds, but I have a feeling they're not Brewer's blackbirds and that they're actually more closely related to yellow-headed blackbirds (even though yellow-headed blackbirds are supposed to be the only species in their genus). Whatever the case, they have yellow eyes, and are black, with a sometimes visible violet twinge. They liked my neighbor's bird feeder a lot. The ones I see usually hang out a little further out in the country by cow pastures and creeks, rather than by my house, but this recording is from my street.

You can hear some faint sounds of doves, too. The doves around here tend to be a hybrid between our native doves (which I think are mourning doves) and collared doves. I think there were some sparrows present, too (either that or some other kind of similarly-sized bird).

The recording was taken on 1 Apr 2019 (but it's not an April Fools thing, of course).

Here's what the birds look like from a distance (this was taken earlier this year):
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I looked through all my tablet pictures, and that's the only bird picture I found (except for a ceramic white raven or something). I have a few yellow finches from another camera somewhere, though, but not up close or anything.

Do you have a recommended camera for birds that isn't super expensive?
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Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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Shule
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#23

Post: # 27047Unread post Shule
Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:10 pm

Here's another recording, from 13 May 2015 (much older, and poorer quality; please excuse the occasional static/muffled microphone sounds, and the sudden dog bark somewhere in the middle); mostly, this is toads singing, but it has some great horned owl hoots here and there; I thought there was a barn owl in there, but I didn't hear it the last time I listened.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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Sue_CT
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#24

Post: # 27058Unread post Sue_CT
Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:03 pm

All awesome photos!

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Growing Coastal
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#25

Post: # 27063Unread post Growing Coastal
Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:31 pm

That's cool Shule! That's a big variety of night life. Our red wing blackbirds sound a lot like yours.
Your place has a lot of night sounds, if that's where the recording was done. Where I live, in town, it is very quiet at night.
One day I heard a frog from the back side of the house. I listened some more and realized that it was one of the starlings up in the fir trees mimicking a frog. They imitate children too and can sound like a school yard full of kids.
I hear the hoots but no Barn Owl.
Thanks for posting those.

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Shule
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#26

Post: # 27067Unread post Shule
Sat Aug 01, 2020 3:15 am

We don't usually have so many sounds at night. That's why we recorded it! :) Usually it's just quiet with maybe some crickets chirping or cows mooing (potentially hysterically). Rarely, you might hear coyotes. Roosters crowing at night isn't unheard of. The great horned owls only stuck around audibly that year, pretty much; they might have been around before. The toads sang a lot for a number of nights that year and I think a little the next year, but I had never heard them do it before then in such large numbers. The dog barking is pretty normal, though! We used to have a bunch of barn owls in the neighborhood for a couple years, which would make occasional sounds.

I just hear distant crickets, now.

The recording was done from our front porch, I think. Either that, or the road in front of our house.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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Growing Coastal
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#27

Post: # 27087Unread post Growing Coastal
Sat Aug 01, 2020 10:53 am

One thing about having all that company at night is that if anything comes around there is a sudden silence. I don't even have crickets here. I have to go a ways to a dry field to hear them and I see them in late August on the ground on one of my walks. I remember one night of having a cricket in the house when I lived in the country. It kept the whole house awake. My heart shrank a bit when I saw a woman step on one inside a building. I guess she didn't know what great bug hunters they are.

We had coyote sounds at night when I lived on the mainland. I don't think they've made it across the water to here, yet. They used to try to get the dogs out to the back woods so that the coyotes could make a try for the chickens.

I am totally the wrong person to ask about cameras. I know nothing about them. I bought an expensive one when I retired knowing I would get lots of use out of it. Whichever sort of camera, it should have manual focus. Without the manual focus the birds get lost in the background. My camera shows where the focus is by highlighting the image on the screen in blue so I know it is right. There are so many cameras around it is very confusing to me. So many of them have features I would never use. Maybe post a question re: best cheap cameras? I'd like to know too!

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Shule
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#28

Post: # 27115Unread post Shule
Sat Aug 01, 2020 5:03 pm

[mention]Growing Coastal[/mention]
Okay, I posted another thread about the cameras.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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bower
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#29

Post: # 27132Unread post bower
Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:36 pm

Here are some young blue jays I saw yesterday. The adults are blue all over but these have a lot of grey.
IDK about cameras either, the only setting I tend to use on mine is the macro lens and the zoom in combination for chasing birds and wild things.
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AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

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Growing Coastal
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#30

Post: # 27156Unread post Growing Coastal
Sun Aug 02, 2020 9:09 am

I think we had the Blue Jay in Ontario. When I was a kid we'd hear them first light waking us all up with their tapping on the stove pipe cover on the roof. I was told by an aunt that they would steal squirrel babies out of their nests.
Here, it is said that no one knows where our jays nest. They forget where they stash their food and I have a couple of oak trees starting due to their buried nuts. There are no oak trees very nearby but they are growing a couple of blocks away, planted by the city.

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Whwoz
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#31

Post: # 27249Unread post Whwoz
Mon Aug 03, 2020 4:18 am

Went out fishing today, saw a Wandering Albertross. Unfortunately to rough to get an photo but they are big birds. Also Australasian Gannets were about, and saw a dolphin as we were heading back in

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Growing Coastal
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#32

Post: # 27260Unread post Growing Coastal
Mon Aug 03, 2020 10:18 am

It's great to live where we can see wildlife like that Whwoz.
My SIL went to the beach to have his coffee one sleepless morning and was rewarded with Orcas swimming by. That's not an every day thing.

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worth1
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#33

Post: # 31700Unread post worth1
Fri Oct 02, 2020 8:00 am

Ravens in Austin.
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Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

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You might as well be arguing with a cat.

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Shule
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#34

Post: # 31730Unread post Shule
Fri Oct 02, 2020 7:36 pm

We have doves outside, now, and various unknown kinds of tweeting birds. Birds have seemed kind of scarce, this growing season.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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Growing Coastal
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#35

Post: # 31736Unread post Growing Coastal
Sat Oct 03, 2020 9:35 am

The birds go quiet here in August when the only morning bird song is hummingbirds squeaking. This year, however, there was a horde of English Sparrows sitting in the back yard all day long morning til night. Sitting in the hedges, drinking and bathing in the fountain. No foraging or scratching in the dirt or bug hunting in the trees. Nothing. Only going to the neighbour's feeder, messing up my runner beans leaves up top where they formed a canopy and wrecking the little kids' pea plants next door. 40 -50 sparrows can do damage!
1st I blocked the fountain off from them, then I tried scaring them away by shaking the shrubs/trees where they would sit. It got to be so that they would leave when they saw me coming. And now they do not sit in the yard all day doing nothing. I guess they have found another fountain to congregate around. At least they are getting some excerise flying there!
Also, there is a little hawk that has started taking birds that frequent the neighbour's feeders. It was sitting on the hydro lines above a dead, headless pigeon one morning this week. The pigeon was only a feather or so smaller than the hawk. Amazing that such a wee bird could take one almost as big as it is. It came down and fed on the pigeon several times, including next morning so I'm glad I left it alone rather than clean it up right away. Only feathers and a bit of bone were left. Mother nature wastes nothing. Even flies had a feast!
One neighbour says that it sits on her fence watching for birds in some ivy by that feeder.
Seems it is a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Now that the Horde is gone there are far more indigenous birds flying in for a drink and foraging on the ground.
I am wondering whether the bean leaves were used by the birds as a mite remover. Bean leaves can trap bedbugs. Why not bird mites? The backs of the leaves are very velcro like and that is what traps the bad bugs.

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worth1
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#36

Post: # 32252Unread post worth1
Mon Oct 12, 2020 12:18 pm

We rescued this Texas Whip poor will that was trapped in the building we ar working in.
Salazar is holding it we let it out and it flew away.
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Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

You can't argue with a closed mind.
You might as well be arguing with a cat.

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Growing Coastal
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#37

Post: # 32258Unread post Growing Coastal
Mon Oct 12, 2020 1:37 pm

Cool! Never seen one but heard many in the country north of Toronto Ont when I lived in Toronto.
When I drove my dad's last car home to BC from Ontario I stopped for gas near Algonquin Park. I asked the young indigenous boy what the bird we could hear singing was. He had no idea. It made me sad that he seemed so out of touch with his environment.
Great rescue!

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brownrexx
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#38

Post: # 32264Unread post brownrexx
Mon Oct 12, 2020 3:16 pm

Beautiful [mention]worth1[/mention] I have also heard but not seen whip poor will's.

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bower
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#39

Post: # 32268Unread post bower
Mon Oct 12, 2020 6:36 pm

Great shots! :) I saw a very pretty woodpecker in the woods today but didn't have my camera with. Someone has been eating the ripe peas from my winter pea trellis, which must be a bird. Not sure which one though, maybe one of the small ones. They don't touch the unripe pods, but have been getting into the dense mess where the pea plants collapsed, and pecking out the pods that are really ready for me to pick! I guess it's okay for them to have a few.
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

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worth1
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Re: MORE BIRDS

#40

Post: # 32273Unread post worth1
Mon Oct 12, 2020 7:56 pm

Just so as you know Salazar loves all creatures great and small even wee creatures like snails.
He was afraid it would fall to the ground as we were on the 2nd story and was happy it flew away.
It could be a night hawk but I think it is a whip poor will I have seen both several times.
Both are what they call nightjars and closely related.
Its that crazy bird you sometime see at night driving slowly down a lonely gravel road.
I hear them calling here at the house at night all the time.
My dad always said if the whip poor will calls it isn't going to rain.
Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

You can't argue with a closed mind.
You might as well be arguing with a cat.

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