Any birdwatchers?

[Blondie420]

I once saw a king fisher and could feel my heart skipping a beat.

 

[Blondie420]

In fact, I’m just starting to realise that I’ve been inadvertently birdwatching for quite a bit

 

[SimonDoom]

I once saw a king fisher and could feel my heart skipping a beat.

Kingfishers are improbable-looking birds. Part of the fun of sighting them.

 

[Statius]

Saw the first Canada geese a few days ago and the first turkey vultures today, southern Michigan. No robins yet, kind of surprising but good as we're supposed to hit freezing temps again next week, but that doesn't always matter, sometimes they come back too early.

 

[ishtat]

The fork tailed swifts appear to have left the higher buildings in Sydney, on their way back to their East Asian breeding grounds.They are summer visitors and feed on the insects caught in the up draughts between higher buidings. Never seen near ground level.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

What kind of a peckerhead do you have to be to go around banging your nose into trees all day?

 

[Statius]

What kind of a peckerhead do you have to be to go around banging your nose into trees all day?

Around my parts a red headed one

 

[ConstanceEvermuse]

What kind of a peckerhead do you have to be to go around banging your nose into trees all day?

Red heads and pileated here. Great sound when they decide to attack utility poles

 

[SimonDoom]

What kind of a peckerhead do you have to be to go around banging your nose into trees all day?

This is something I've never figured out about woodpeckers. It takes a ton of effort, and stress to the head, to peck holes in a tree. It seems like an awful lot of work for the benefit of getting an insect or storing an acorn. It makes no sense to me from the standpoint of energy consumed v. energy gained.

 

[Britva415]

stress to the head

It's harmless to them. They're adapted to it.

Anyway, they don't starve, so, your sense of "energy budget" is... not a bad way to think, but it doesn't match the reality.

Woodpeckers are successful because they exploit niches the other birds aren't competing for. Competition consumes energy too, so, they come out ahead. Or at least break even like all the other species who aren't extinct.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

The headaches, neckaches and tinnitus must be a bitch.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's harmless to them. They're adapted to it.

Anyway, they don't starve, so, your sense of "energy budget" is... not a bad way to think, but it doesn't match the reality.

Woodpeckers are successful because they exploit niches the other birds aren't competing for. Competition consumes energy too, so, they come out ahead. Or at least break even like all the other species who aren't extinct.

I realize this is how evolution works and it must be this way. I'm just saying, it seems counterintuitive. It's another one of those ways that life sometimes seems improbable.

 

[ishtat]

The Japanese pygmy woodpecker which I have seen through out NE Asia is tiny, - sparrow sized, but successful because it can take advantage of its small size to get bugs from, tiny cracks in trees. It cannot excavate big holes but is still successful in surviving very harsh winters.

 

[old_prof]

We had a fallen tree maybe fifteen feet from our screened porch. We watched over three summers as a Pileated reduced it to sawdust. They were not quiet summers on the porch though.

 

[SimonDoom]

We had a fallen tree maybe fifteen feet from our screened porch. We watched over three summers as a Pileated reduced it to sawdust. They were not quiet summers on the porch though.

I've only seen a Pileated Woodpecker once in my life, a few years ago, on a hike in the woods, and it was one of my most memorable sightings. I heard it before I saw it. It has an incredibly piercing, unmistakable call. It was probably 80 feet or more up in a tall conifer, but I knew instantly what it was.

 

[ConstanceEvermuse]

The headaches, neckaches and tinnitus must be a bitch.

I wanna say their tongues wrap around the brain and provide shock absorption. Can't recall where I came across that tidbit. Long before the days of Google.

 

[old_prof]

Pileated is a common bird in the edge of the woods right behind our house. There is a second kind of woodpecker which is smaller and has some other variation, but I forget what it's called. My sone can tell teh difference between them, but I can't/

 

[Statius]

We have a pileated in the woods behind our house as well and 1 other smaller species.

 

[SimonDoom]

I saw a large flock of Snow Geese flying north, far overhead, this morning, probably on their way to Alaska for the summer.

 

[Comentarista82]

A bonanza!

Brown thrasher, American robin, Northern Cardinal, red-bellied woodpecker, blue jay, Carolina wren, northern mockingbird, morning dove, tufted tit mice, killdeer, American crow, eastern bluebird, house sparrow, Carolina Chickadee, fish crow, Pine Warbler, European starling, brown headed cow bird, chipping sparrow, downy woodpecker, white wing Dove, Eastern Phoebe, house finch, yellow rumped warbler, Northern Flicker, white throated Sparrow, turkey Buzzard, Cedar waxwing, dark-eyed junco, orange crowned warbler, Common grackle.

Can you believe it?!?? 31!! Oh wait...they must have visited Baskin Robbins before getting here.

 

[SimonDoom]

A bonanza!

Brown thrasher, American robin, Northern Cardinal, red-bellied woodpecker, blue jay, Carolina wren, northern mockingbird, morning dove, tufted tit mice, killdeer, American crow, eastern bluebird, house sparrow, Carolina Chickadee, fish crow, Pine Warbler, European starling, brown headed cow bird, chipping sparrow, downy woodpecker, white wing Dove, Eastern Phoebe, house finch, yellow rumped warbler, Northern Flicker, white throated Sparrow, turkey Buzzard, Cedar waxwing, dark-eyed yunko, orange crowned warbler, Common grackle.

Can you believe it?!?? 31!! Oh wait...they must have visited Baskin Robbins before getting here.

Banner day for a birder.

 

[Comentarista82]

Banner day for a birder.

For sure! I would have thought I won the lottery had I seen a redheaded woodpecker to boot! There's 1-3 in that area, but I've only seen the one within the same 2 blocks, but like once a season. Could have even been a Yellow-billed Cuckoo about or Belted Kingfisher (we could hope). But that IS a new record (previous was 26).

First time I've ever seen them explode like that in late afternoon after it rained nearly the whole day.

 

[SimonDoom]

The Cooper's Hawk was back on its favorite branch in my backyard tree, munching on a bird for its breakfast. All those gray feathers fluttering to the ground made me think of nuclear fallout.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I saw feathers falling the other day.

Just a bird chucking off the winter coat though.

 

[SimonDoom]

First day of spring. Took Merlin out and captured calls of 15 different birds in 18 minutes. It's going to be an unusually warm day, completely sunny. Heard a Common Yellowthroat for the first time this year.