Birds • Page 5

I was looking at an article about what was in this years Grammy gift bags and I saw this $300 smart bird feeder that include a camera that sends pictures of birds to your phone and it made me think of this thread

 

gift bag for attending, or like winning one? lol

either way, I'm about to slide into the DMs of everyone who went/won last night and make the argument that they don't need this because they're rich and I need it because of science

 

I think it was performers/presenters

 

Bird Journal 2/5/24

Basically just gonna do a write-up of yesterday's walk. There were 8 of us, and myself and another girl were the only ones without white/gray hair, so I finally found my people. She had a massive scope on her camera and was in town for work, but she leads bird walks up in the mid-Atlantic, so I was by far the most inexperienced. Of course, everyone was super nice. The leader Sandi had me walk in the front and she along with everyone else were very kind and informative. Of note: there were two birds in particular they were hoping to spot - a Green-Tailed Towhee and a Field Sparrow. More on them later.

The property is a 224 acre bird sanctuary with dedicated feeding stations and bird blinds all over the place. For the first little while, all we saw were a bunch of ruby-crowned kinglets. We then came to the first bird blind, where we just sat and watched for a good twenty minutes. All manner of sparrows showed up, including the aforementioned Field Sparrow, in addition to a Spotted Towhee (I think perhaps my new favorite bird) and the regular faces of Cardinals, Chickadees, and Titmice.

We then crossed a big open field and skirted the trees, bringing us next to a road along the property. While we were walking, I noticed a bird in the brush ahead, and promptly asked, 'what's that bird?'

These moments during birding are great, because everyone gets quiet and looks in the same direction, while the spotter says stuff like 'you see that fork in the tree?' or 'it's at 3 o'clock by the big branch'. Sandi excitedly said 'oh that's the Green-Tailed Towhee!! Nice spot, Jordan!" They were all super stoked, and it reinforced my enjoyment of the hobby to see everyone go quiet and appreciate something in nature. One guy was like "Thank you, Jordan," like I'd just given him a ride to the airport or something. Definitely a highlight for me.

Saw some other cool things, like three different kinds of hawks and an Inca Dove hiding in a tree, and even a bunch of cool butterflies. Twice, people who volunteer on the property came through on golf carts to do their feeding rounds and both times Sandi told them about 'our new birder Jordan'. It was funny, since they're all older they kept saying what good eyesight I have (I have terrible natural vision that contacts fix).

Overall another cool trip. I'll be doing the monthly beginner one next week too. One thing I was thinking is that I've gone with groups both times, but that it would be so peaceful to go out on my own. Just walking through nature and the quiet trying to spot birds alone sounds very therapeutic, but I do love the group walks. Really shows the comradery of the community.

 

some of the pictures that one of the group members got yesterday:

Inca Dove


Ruby-Crowned Kinglet


Field Sparrow


Green-Tailed Towhee (the one I spotted)

 

I FORGOT ANOTHER DAY OH NO

 

Bird Journal 2/6/24

Gonna write an entry for yesterday because I saw a new bird - a Ladder-Backed Woodpecker. Common but still not on my list. I will occasionally see Golden-Fronted Woodpeckers here but that's it.

I think woodpeckers are going to be some of my favorite birds. Here's what the Ladder-Backed looks like:



I really want to see a Northern Flicker, which can also be found in the area. They look exotic for a common woodpecker:

 

Bird Journal 2/7/24

Saw the most metal thing today - a red-shouldered hawk carrying its prey (another bird or a rodent, couldn't tell) up into the canopy of our neighbor's huge tree. The thing was silent and looked super out of place flying over our backyard, even though it's a natural habitat for the species. I've seen the same hawk chase squirrels on the neighbor's roof. It's cool to know we have a resident guardian.

Also signed up for this month's weekly beginner bird walk this weekend. hoping to see some cool stuff!

 

Bird Journal 2/8/24

There's a little ditch down the road for water runoff and it runs alongside a greenbelt tucked between the backyards of some houses. Thought it would be cool to go down there and see what I can see (lots of trees and such). Lots of activity but nothing out of the ordinary, though I did see more Inca Doves for only the second time.

Then some damn ass little dogs from started barking at me followed by a bigger dog a few yards down and I was like aight I can't go any further.

What's a man gotta do to get some decent birding in in his own neighborhood

 

Bird Journal 2/10/24

yeah I skipped a day but nothing happened yesterday !!!! well I guess my brother-in-law and I played Wingspan and that's the literal reason I got into birding so there's that.

Today I went on the monthly beginner bird walk, same as the one I went on last month. The weather was gray and overcast and let me tell you, it's incredibly difficult to see what you're looking at when your binoculars are trained on a bird perched way up high in a tree but it's backlit by the gray sky with no sunlight. You're just looking and black or gray blobs with wings. So yeah the weather sucked, but there were a few cool spottings.

One was a White-Eyed Vireo. Unfortunately, we only heard it. One of the guides Becca called it out. I pulled out the Merlin app and sure enough, it IDed the same. We heard it a few times after that but never got a visual on it. Wish I could have seen it:



Second was a Hermit Thrush, but I didn't see or hear it. Two of the guides saw it, and one of them got SO excited, she exclaimed under her breath "It's a fucking Hermit Thrush!" Which is hilarious because these ladies are in their sixties dropping F-bombs because of birds and is quite frankly one of the best parts of birding - seeing people get so stoked for a tiny part of nature. She said it was the first one she'd seen all season. Like I said, I didn't see or hear it but I trust them:



Wish I could have seen it!

In the end we logged 24 species and covered 2.35 miles in almost 3 hours. Three new birds were added to my list, including the two above.....but I'm not sure I count them personally because I only heard one and didn't see the other.

Another solid walk. Here's the data: https://ebird.org/checklist/S161125958

 

Bird Journal 2/11/24

I forgot to mention yesterday my wife said I didn't have to wait until the 18th for the binocs so we went to the bird store to get them. Unfortunately the ones I had my heart set on were out of stock. I then was gonna maybe go with the slightly lower tier ones but they were out of stock too. The guy ordered them and said they'd be hear in a week.

 

Bird Journal 2/13/24

ok fine I'm just gonna write in here when there's something to write about

this isn't much, but I thought it was funny. I work from home and I had the bedroom window open and heard an unfamiliar bird making a sort of buzzing sound. I immediately opened up Merlin and ran to the window to get a sound ID but it flew into the backyard. I ran out there and my wife already had her phone out and app on and had IDed it as a Bewick's Wren. Not a new bird but it doesn't come around very often, so I'm not super familiar on its range of calls.

True love, right? She read my mind and did the work. I love data.

Bewick's Wren:

 

Bird Journal 2/16/24

Hell yeah booked a trip to Cincy for a few days. My passions are combining!!! The best part about traveling now with this hobby is the chance to see new birds! Stuff that's common here is rare there and vice versa. It's like going to a new region of the world map in a Pokemon game and seeing all the new Pokemon. It's actually exactly like that

 

Bird Journal 2/18/2024

I'm miffed, on my calendar 2/18 is listed as the original binoculars date. I placed the order last Saturday and they said it'd be in in a week. I called yesterday and nothing and didn't get a call today !!1 They're trying to get me out of the hobby before I even get in!!

also going to the zoo tomorrow, should see a cool bird there

 

Bird Journal 2/21/2024

MY BINOCULARS ARE IN WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

gonna go pick them up after work and bird SO hard

 

Don't get a lot of variety around here, but I saw some sort of woodpecker this morning so that was cool.

 

whereabouts are you? time to do some detective work

 

In the LA area.

I didn't get a good look at him, but I think it's one of these guys

 

oh man they're here and beautiful. will post a pic tomorrow, because I know everyone wants to see a random guy posting low quality pictures of midrange binocs in the bird thread on a niche music website

 

Bird Journal 2/23/24

A friend saw a Mississippi Kite today and I'm jealous. They told me they thought of me when they saw it. I am now the person people think about when they see birds.

Anyways tomorrow I'm going on my first solo bird walk with the new binocs, can't wait

 

Show me the money Jerry!

 

I'll post a pic tomorrow! haha

 

Bird Journal 2/24/24

First solo bird walk was a success! I added 3 new birds to the list, including a Belted Kingfisher, which is one of the local birds I wanted to see the most.

I mean look how cool this thing is

 

I have been hunting the Kingfisher since I started taking wildlife pics a few months ago. Nice! I know of one spot nearby where one likes to hang out and I’ve heard him but haven’t seen him yet

 

Dude it landed like ten feet away in the trees, just chilling on a branch! Desperately tried to get a good photo but it's just be and my phone out here lol

My wife says that a camera is the inevitable next step in the hobby and I fear it's true