Any birdwatchers?

[SimonDoom]

Peterson's info is old. Global warming, etc. according to Cornel’s “All About Birds,” they're now as far north and east as Massachusetts. But there were multiple confirmed sightings last summer in Vermont (in the Champlain Valley— Vermont’s tropical zone)

I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to get an updated guide. According to the online Cornell Lab range map, though, the range for black vultures in the West is about the same -- a little extension into southern and mid-Arizona but nowhere else in the West.

I hope to go on a trip before long where I can, hopefully, see California condors. To date I don't think I've seen one.

 

[liqueur]

What's the status on California condors? Weren't they down to two or three breeding pairs left, at some point?

 

[SimonDoom]

What's the status on California condors? Weren't they down to two or three breeding pairs left, at some point?

In the 1970s I believe the population was down to 22 left, and they captured all of them and put them in the LA and San Diego zoos, where they were bred in captivity and ultimately released. The program was successful. There are over 600 now with over 300 having been released into the wild. So they are doing much better.

 

[liqueur]

In the 1970s I believe the population was down to 22 left, and they captured all of them and put them in the LA and San Diego zoos, where they were bred in captivity and ultimately released. The program was successful. There are over 600 now with over 300 having been released into the wild. So they are doing much better.

Oh, that's great to hear.

 

[Britva415]

Oh, that's great to hear.

Yeah. There was a while where you couldn't see them at all unless you were a biologist on the project. Certainly not out in the wild.

Now you can see them at at least one Northern California zoo (I forget which one) and if you go to Pinnacles National Monument, you're practically guaranteed to see at least one.

 

[SimonDoom]

Yeah. There was a while where you couldn't see them at all unless you were a biologist on the project. Certainly not out in the wild.

Now you can see them at at least one Northern California zoo (I forget which one) and if you go to Pinnacles National Monument, you're practically guaranteed to see at least one.

I plan to go there someday, but it is out in the middle of nowhere and not easy to get to.

 

[ParticularStranger]

Hi, hi. Just wanted to say I like birds and want to hang out here with y’all. I like learning birds by their call, seeing new birds when I travel and I also take pictures of dead birds when I see them. I started doing that about fifteen years ago. No idea why. I have a pretty big collection of these photos.

 

[SimonDoom]

Hi, hi. Just wanted to say I like birds and want to hang out here with y’all. I like learning birds by their call, seeing new birds when I travel and I also take pictures of dead birds when I see them. I started doing that about fifteen years ago. No idea why. I have a pretty big collection of these photos.

Welcome. Feel free to share pictures. If you like learning bird calls, I recommend downloading the Merlin app if you don't have it already.

 

[ParticularStranger]

It's the best!

 

[Comentarista82]

Hi, hi. Just wanted to say I like birds and want to hang out here with y’all. I like learning birds by their call, seeing new birds when I travel and I also take pictures of dead birds when I see them. I started doing that about fifteen years ago. No idea why. I have a pretty big collection of these photos.

Feel free to share as you have the chance and welcome.

 

[Comentarista82]

Here's one I took in 2008 of a Carolina Wren

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

There must be a dozen of more ZippyZoomies out there chasing each other around the feeders. Must be bulking up for their trip across the Gulf soon.

Funny how they'll literally crash into each other to knock one away from the feeder.

Even saw two DPing one of the yellow bee guards.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I've been feeding these idiots for ten years or more and I've never seen anything like the frenzy going on out there this last day or two. Course they're naked, so no pictures on Lit.

 

[yowser]

Serene Great Blue Heron

 

[Comentarista82]

Serene Great Blue Heron

View attachment 2680262

Nice pic. How far away were you, if you had to guess the distance? Sometimes they spook easily and sometimes when I used to bank fish a lot, they let you get fairly close.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

I hope to go on a trip before long where I can, hopefully, see California condors. To date I don't think I've seen one.

Pinnacles National Park is your best bet. I saw one in the wild there for the first time there just a few months ago! I knew they were big. I still wasn't ready for how big it was ()

 

[SimonDoom]

Pinnacles National Park is your best bet. I saw one in the wild there for the first time there just a few months ago! I knew they were big. I still wasn't ready for how big it was ()

That's where I plan to go. I'll have to give myself a few days at least because it's not super easy to get to.

 

[Britva415]

Pinnacles National Park is your best bet. I saw one in the wild there for the first time there just a few months ago! I knew they were big. I still wasn't ready for how big it was ()

Apparently there are over 80 of them in Grand Canyon, too. Now: That's a huge park. But it also has better sight lines than Pinnacles. It seems like the chance of seeing condors there would be pretty high. They're gigantic, you could spot them from a long way off.

 

[Comentarista82]

Thirty!!
----------------------------
Robin
Cardinal
Red bellied woodpecker
Blue jay
Carolina wren
Mockingbird
Mourning dove
Tufted tit mice
Killdeer
Crow
Eastern bluebird
Inca doves
House sparrow
Carolina chickadee
White eyed vireo
Pine warbler
Great Crested Flycatcher
Starling
Brown headed cowbird
White-breasted nuthatch
Downy woodpecker
White Winged Dove
Blue gray gnatcatcher
Eastern phoebe
House finch
Northern Flicker
Red-winged blackbird
Common grackle
Gray Catbird
Rock Pigeon

Here's a treat from a Doris Drulard in FB (Bald Eagle)

 

[yowser]

Nice pic. How far away were you, if you had to guess the distance? Sometimes they spook easily and sometimes when I used to bank fish a lot, they let you get fairly close.

I don't recall, but definitely not close. I had a long lens (70-300mm) and the photo was shot at 200. My impression is they don't like company.

 

[liqueur]

I don't recall, but definitely not close. I had a long lens (70-300mm) and the photo was shot at 200. My impression is they don't like company.

My experience has been that if they choose to join you, at a riverside, for instance, that's fine. But don't you even think about presuming to join them.

Lovely photo.

 

[Comentarista82]

Here's one back in the day of a mockingbird that I took:

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Breakfast at the Slurpees is well underway. Probably a couple of dozen hitting both feeders, sort of taking turns.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

It's freaking ridiculous how many there are. Several have to sit on the railings, wires and twigs waiting for an opening.

 

[Russian_Beauty]

Seeing such a topic on Lit made me think of one of my favourite stories in Boccaccio's Decameron, about a girl who asks her parents to sleep in the balcony so she could listen to the nightingale.

(Day 5, Story 4, the girl has the name Caterina, same as mine).