Finally! Got some pics of our local ravens. A flock of young ones have been around lately, making noise. This pair have stayed and seem to be pretty happy foraging in my winter compost pile uncovered by the thaw. The old raven couple never spent much time in the compost although they did come for bread I put out. I think this might be a young mated pair.
I got the pics through a curtain and standing back a couple of feet. Seemed like they saw me but didn't fly off until I moved closer, so I got lots of shots of them, but had to adjust for the window glare.

What kind of ducks are these? I took the photo out of the car window.

I'm guessing they're domestic ducks rather than wild. The light one looks like an Indian Runner duck, fawn and white coloring -- see here: https://meyerhatchery.com/products/Fawn ... p189143084. The dark one could be a black Indian Runner duck, a Cayuga duck, or possible a Black East Indian duck (but they're fairly small in general, so maybe not). If you noticed them standing up straight and looking a bit like a bowling pin, definitely runner ducks. The light one looks like the right shape for a runner duck; can't tell about the left one.

I don't recall ever seeing a duck like this in my life. It had humongous "feet." Does anyone know what it is? It was hanging out with a random bluejay.

Black-bellied whistling duck. What a striking bird, but those huge pink feet look kind of goofy. Its close relative, the fulvous whistling duck, has bright blue feet and bill, which also look odd.

Nice to see it has a friend. Thanks for the fun pic!

The black-bellied whistling ducks are abundant around my house. They are I believe cavity nesting ducks like the wood ducks. Both of those have been looking for cavities in the trees recently. We also have a nesting box that the wood ducks claim. Earlier in the year, big noisy flights of whistling ducks fly over the house heading to the west in the evening and then back east in the morning. I wonder where the roost and feed?

The black-bellied whistling ducks are very vocal, but so are the wood ducks. No quacking, but interesting vocalizations, other worldly sounding with the wood ducks. Wood ducks are way more shy about people being near them. Not quite a month ago I saw a mommy wood duck with close to a dozen little ducklings swimming very close to her.

Both ducks are handsome.

I had a flight of blue winged teal buzz over me yesterday. They are early to migrate in the fall and late to return in the spring.

Imagine raising all these kids!

Heard this horrible noise out on the Yellow Crowned Night Heron rookery. I moved in a little closer to see what was going on. One Heron has continuously squawking piteously and looking towards a nest of sticks maybe 10 feet away. I see some large bird the nest. Wasn’t a heron, but turns out to be a big Red-Tailed Hawk devouring a fledgling heron.

These Red tailed hawks have discovered this rookery and now come by periodically to harass and kill the young birds. The smaller Red Shouldered Hawks have also, but the Herons have been able to successfully fend those hawks off.

Been a bad year for the Herons. I feel for them. I don’t know if there are any fledglings remaining.

DriftlessRoots wrote: ↑Sat May 04, 2024 6:42 pm DSCN5942.jpeg

Beautiful bird, what type is it?

It’s a Painted Bunting we saw in Georgia recently. Went down specifically to find some.

Beautiful! Here in east central Georgia I've only seen one or two painted buntings in the almost 40 year's I've lived on this place. Sure wish there would be more! What part of Georgia were you in?

I haven’t seen a painted bunting in years. There was patch of woods and fields about a mile from my house that had painting buntings years ago, but that’s a single family housing development now.

We do have indigo buntings around here. They seem to enjoy the thickets and very brushy areas.

The Mississippi Kites have returned. These raptors always arrive right at the end of April and first of May. They will breed and all be gone by September 1st. Until then, they will fill the sky with thrilling acrobatics and their unique high pitched whistles.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mis ... ite/sounds

GoDawgs wrote: ↑Sun May 05, 2024 7:47 am Beautiful! Here in east central Georgia I've only seen one or two painted buntings in the almost 40 year's I've lived on this place. Sure wish there would be more! What part of Georgia were you in?

We were staying on St Simon Island and taking day trips around the area. Saw them at Harris Neck and Fort Frederica. Previously had only seen one briefly at a distance in Oaxaca.

By sheer happenstance, I looked out the window this morning to check on the opening status of our Shocking White Bearded Irises, and what do I see but the 1st Indigo Bunting of the year, trying to remain upright on a flimsy Peony frond.

The Gotch

A good friend of mine the former coworker and musician had his bird get out and it stayed out all night in the rain and hail during a storm.
He search all over the neighborhood looking for it to no avail.
Then on Sunday it came back.
I cant begin to express to y'all haw kind hearted this person is.
He's had all manner of pets.
Chickens.
Turtles.
Rabbits.
Dogs you name it.
The man loves animals.
[attachment=0]IMG_20240510_075842.jpg[/attachment]

ultimate yellow, and ultimate blue are showing up at the bird feeder.
gold finches, and indigo buntings are present along with rose breasted
grosbeaks, red wing black birds along with the chickadees, and nut hatches.
sorry no pics.


keith

Saw 3 high flying large hawks or eagles while working in the woods this weekend. They were too high to say much except the unmistakeable wing span and shape. Other birds were very quiet, in fact the whole area was really quiet over the long weekend with many folks gone camping. Ravens came by in the afternoon, singing sweet songs of peace. I had to stop working and making my own noise, just to listen. Their happy songs are the best.

“Tame” Red-Tailed Hawk. Could not figure out why the hawk didn’t fly away when I walked up, was it hurt? But,the hawk only changed positions a little in the tree. Some song birds, carolina chickadees, were raising a racket nearby so maybe the hawk had found a nest with fledglings to feast on.

Red-shouldered hawks have historically been our more typical hawks that I see daily, but I’m seeing more of the substantially larger Red-Tailed hawks around the last couple of years. The Red-Shouldered hawks aren’t quite big and bad enough to successfully catch, they do try sometimes, and kill the night herons and adult squirrels, but that’s not the case with the red-tailed hawks. Any enemy of the squirrels is a friend of mine.

Red-shouldered hawks are heck on the green anoles and ribbon snakes, though.