Birdwatching certainties:

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s1m0n
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Birdwatching certainties:

Post by s1m0n »

When someone sees the specs and says, "Hey, you must know about birds, right? I saw this really weird bird the other day it had.." it's always a northern flicker.

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And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')

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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by devondancer »

Here, it's a Jay. And if it is a "really weird call" it will be a Great Tit.
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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by s1m0n »

devondancer wrote:Here, it's a Jay. And if it is a "really weird call" it will be a Great Tit.
Are english jays corvids (crow family) like ours?
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')

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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by Innocent Bystander »

Yes they are, and I'll echo Devondancer's remark. Here it IS always a Jay. Once in a while it's a Grebe or a Hoopooe, but most of the time, it's a Jay.

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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by dwest »

Around here is southeastern Virginia it is likely going to be a Painted Bunting during the winter months. We have more in the state this year than ever recorded. Photos rarely do it justice.
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I like that red malar on the red shafted flicker.
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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by Lambchop »

Roseate spoonbill for us . . . and they nearly always think the creature was the victim of dye-wielding pranksters . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseate_Spoonbill

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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by tin-titan »

I've seen these handsome things in my yards on a couple of occassions.

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Wow, I didn't know they had Painted Buntings in Southern VA.
DWest I am not joking when I am asking this. Is the animal in your avatar a sheep or a dog?

(Perhaps a sheep dog :boggle: )
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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by tin-titan »

Oh sorry the red-crested bloke is a Pileated Woodpecker.
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Tune up your drones,
Let flee that heavenly tone."
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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by s1m0n »

tin-titan wrote:Oh sorry the red-crested bloke is a Pileated Woodpecker.
I don't have a backyard, but I've seen a pileated woodpecker in Vancouver, a mile or so from my apartment. Most laypeople who see a pw can get as far as recognising that they've seen a woodpecker of some kind. The automatic flicker rule applies when they can get no further than 'it's a bird..' They have no idea that what they're looking at was also a woodpecker.
Last edited by s1m0n on Tue Jan 26, 2010 3:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')

C.S. Lewis
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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by tin-titan »

Unfortunately, in the last ten to twenty years I have hardly seen any flickers. There numbers seemed to have dwindled here.
"Wake up your bones,
Tune up your drones,
Let flee that heavenly tone."
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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by dwest »

tin-titan wrote:
Wow, I didn't know they had Painted Buntings in Southern VA.
DWest I am not joking when I am asking this. Is the animal in your avatar a sheep or a dog?

(Perhaps a sheep dog :boggle: )
We have Painted Buntings in several spots around the state, including the mountains, this winter. One of my greatest certainties during the winter months is that at some point I will identify a yellow-rumped warbler,we call them butter-butts, as at least three different other highly unlikely species.

My avatar is a bird dog, and she's not sheepish about anything. She is an Irish Water Spaniel and the cutest dog on this planet. Right now she is watching Cardinals, chickadees, white throated sparrows, house finches, a red-bellied, cowbirds, blue jays, goldfinches, kinglets, white-breasted nuthatches, titmice, robins, waxwings, song sparrows, turkey vultures and ring-billed gulls. Robins seem to be her favorite.
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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by sbfluter »

These are the ones that get non-bird-oriented people talking around here:
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Western Tanager

And so do these:
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Lilac-crowned Amazon (we've got a flock of wild ones in Santa Barbara)
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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by mutepointe »

I want to see a Painted Bunting.

Around here this summer, it was Orieles. The orange portions, as shown in the picture, were more brown and they looked more like humongous baby robins.

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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by dwest »

mutepointe wrote:I want to see a Painted Bunting.

Around here this summer, it was Orieles. The orange portions, as shown in the picture, were more brown and they looked more like humongous baby robins.

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Orchard orioles are brown and black.
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Re: Birdwatching certainties:

Post by s1m0n »

Never seen one in BC, but I've seen the occasional indigo bunting in Ontario. In the bunting family, it's the sibling that inherited all the class:

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And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')

C.S. Lewis
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