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The thread for birds and birding

Re: The thread for birds and birding

On a related subject: neighbors who put out food for stray cats in the vacant lot next to my house. I'm tempted to put up a sign that says, "I don't feed the dirty, flea infested rats near your house, so don't feed the dirty, flea-infested cats near mine!"
 
Re: The thread for birds and birding

I was out in the vegetable garden a few days ago and saw not one but two hummingbirds. They were flitting about the zinnias. One flew near me and hovered for several seconds about eye level, not more than three feet away.
 
Re: The thread for birds and birding

Speaking of hummingbirds...

We have a bunch in the yard the past few days as they must be heading south - saw 6 at one time at the back feeder dive bombing each other.

Normally we have 1 or 2 during the summer and only ever saw 1 this year.


I'm sure they'll be gone is a few days.
 
Gurtholfin said:
Speaking of hummingbirds...

We have a bunch in the yard the past few days as they must be heading south - saw 6 at one time at the back feeder dive bombing each other.

Normally we have 1 or 2 during the summer and only ever saw 1 this year.


I'm sure they'll be gone is a few days.
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The ruby throated hummingbirds will be making to epic single night flight across the Gulf of Mexico to the Yucatan soon. I'd love to get the chance to be on the gulf coast some evening and watch one of the huge groups of hummingbirds as they take off.
 
Gurtholfin said:
Witnessed something a bit gruesome in the yard today.

We have (had) a nest of grackles on the backyard line in a tree. Could hear the babies making a ruckus every time mom or dad would come back with food. Parents were protective of a circle around the nest and even buzzed the wife once when she got too close.

Today, all of a sudden about 10 other grackles descended on the nest and where making all kinds of frantic/frenzied racket and after about 10 minutes of this, two of the babies were on the ground dead.

I know that grackles will raid nests to eat baby birds, but this was a pack of them killing some of their own kind and they didn't eat them.


Looked online but couldn't find any mention of this type of behavior.
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Cowbirds do that and they kind of look like grackles. Brood parasitism and "mafia" behavior.
 
Re: The thread for birds and birding

Can you explain this a little bit? Are the crane's not capable of migrating on their own, or is this similar to herding cattle from their summer feeding ground to winter ground?
 
Re: The thread for birds and birding

FiveHole12 said:
Can you explain this a little bit? Are the crane's not capable of migrating on their own, or is this similar to herding cattle from their summer feeding ground to winter ground?
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I think that perception comes from groups who have been breeding whoopers to preserve their population and using light aircraft to help the young ones on their first migration. The stories about raising those chicks are pretty amazing. While the chicks are being raised (for how long, I don't recall), they never see a human or hear a human voice.

One breed of cranes, not whoopers, of course, actually has to fly at altitudes of up to 26,000 feet to migrate over the Himalayas.
 
FiveHole12 said:
Can you explain this a little bit? Are the crane's not capable of migrating on their own, or is this similar to herding cattle from their summer feeding ground to winter ground?
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Burd is correct I believe. They do this on the first migration to help them learn a safe and proper route.

There are several migrations fully underway right now. Huge flocks along the east coast but especially in the plains states are lighting up radars. I'll have tp see if I can find the picture I found that showed it. If you follow the US fish and wildlife service on Facebook you may have already seen it.
 
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Re: The thread for birds and birding

Check out USFWS_Migratory Birds on Facebook. Lots of cool bird stuff. (no I don't work for the USFWS...I just like birds a lot; I'm a fish culturist)
 
burd said:
What's a fish culturist, Proud?
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Aquaculture...ie fish farming. On a public scale it's state and/or federal fish hatcheries that raise fish to stock in waterways for sport fishing or for species restoration. Private hatcheries raise fish to stock in private waters (like farm ponds) but may also help stock public waters. Many private hatcheries also raise fish to adult size destined for the dinner table. I'm in that last group. I work as a fish health technician for the worlds largest producer of rainbow trout. I'm responsible for monitoring fish health at my farm from the time the tach until the time they go to our processing plant.
 
Re: The thread for birds and birding

Wow!

We just saw an eagle!

Sitting on a branch of a tree next door.

Not a common sight in this area, to say the least. :)
 
Re: The thread for birds and birding

Even more wow!

We saw a second eagle!

The first one had a white head, the second a brown one, and was perched on a branch eating a fish. Then they were both in the same tree together.

If this turns out to be a mating pair and they settle near here, that would be amazing.
 
Re: The thread for birds and birding

FreshFish said:
Even more wow!

We saw a second eagle!

The first one had a white head, the second a brown one, and was perched on a branch eating a fish. Then they were both in the same tree together.

If this turns out to be a mating pair and they settle near here, that would be amazing.
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Assuming they're both bald eagles (and if you saw a bald and a golden sitting together in the same tree - quadruple wow!), then I'm pretty sure the brown head is a juvenile, not a female. It can take up to 5 years for them to reach full maturity, so chances are they bred years ago someplace else.

Where do you live?
 
Re: The thread for birds and birding

LynahFan said:
Assuming they're both bald eagles (and if you saw a bald and a golden sitting together in the same tree - quadruple wow!), then I'm pretty sure the brown head is a juvenile, not a female. It can take up to 5 years for them to reach full maturity, so chances are they bred years ago someplace else.

Where do you live?
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Central coastal Connecticut, between New Haven and Rhode Island. We'd seen eagles in the wild when we lived in Wyoming (one actually flew alongside us for about 100 yards eight feet off the ground, totally off the charts wow!), but this is the first time I've seen them here.
 
Re: The thread for birds and birding

FreshFish said:
Central coastal Connecticut, between New Haven and Rhode Island. We'd seen eagles in the wild when we lived in Wyoming (one actually flew alongside us for about 100 yards eight feet off the ground, totally off the charts wow!), but this is the first time I've seen them here.
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Go down to a local landfill, they will often live close to those places as rats will live in them. There's a landfill in Burnsville, just south of the Minnesota River is where the landfill is located. Along the southern side of the landfill is a bald eagle haven. The eagles can be seen soaring some 100 ft above the mounds, and then swooping down every so often.
 
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