Wild Side Ornithology Club

[freedombecki]

Rabbits will attack predators. It's hard to say whether the rabbit diverted the snake away from her underground nest or was trying to get her babies back.

I reran the video three times, and the bird has the head shape and a suspicious v-neck marking that wants me to say it could be a Western Meadowlark, but I'm not 100% certain. Most of the meadowlarks in Wyoming, where we lived for 35 years, were very, very shy. However, it could be that curiosity got the better of the bird's no-contact senses or it could've thought while the rabbit's away... baby rabbits can be quite tiny at first.

Maybe, but I've never seen rabbits be concerned about the meadowlarks that are both herbivorous and carnivorous but seem interested, at least to me, in smaller insects. And I don't know. You may be right that the bird in the video is a meadowlark, but if it is, it is an unusualy large one. Or maybe I'm just not remembering them all that well as we have been gone from Kansas a long time now.

The ones who live on our ranch vary between 8" to 9 1/2". They're very wonderful birds. You'd be walking out in the scrublands, and suddenly that distinctive little sweet gurgle comes out of nowhere, blesses the air for a while, then drops back into a respectful silence--unless there are several engaging in the chant. I think the Western Meadowlark may be larger than the Eastern one. Their warbles are distinctively different, but so pretty (to me).

 

[freedombecki]

i have been lucky enough to hold a hummingbird....what an experience

That takes a large amount of animal magnetism and love for birds, sb. They must totally trust your hands.

 

[freedombecki]

Here is a page that offers 5 free bird songs from Cornell Laboratory for Birds. Enjoy!

Also, here's a really nice bird, the Dark eyed junco:

Dark eyed junco, information, songs etc.

There are a lot of facts about this bird at the link, and to hear the sounds of the sundry "races" of dark-eyed Junco, scroll down and follow instructions. It's definitely worth the trip over to Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Enjoy!

If you are out in the field and hear such a sound, you are advised to walk around to flush them out. You will be looking at a dark bird, although the markings vary between species. The birds hang around on the ground looking for fallen seeds, etc. One observer said he thought they made their calls while absentmindedly walking around on the ground, looking for food.
​

 

[Foxfyre]

Humming birds though are among the most social of all the wild birds and it only takes a little patience to get them to lose their fear of humans.

This video is a good illustration:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUEZkwJulBY]Hand feeding Hummingbirds - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Si modo]

Although Snowball isn't IN the wild, he IS wild.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJOZp2ZftCw]Snowball (TM) - Another One Bites The Dust - YouTube[/ame]

 

[freedombecki]

Foxfyre, that was a happy showing of what a little patience can do, and there was also some breathtaking photos of Alaska, too. Katchekan? Those waterfalls shown later were fab. Thanks.

 

[Foxfyre]

Foxfyre, that was a happy showing of what a little patience can do, and there was also some breathtaking photos of Alaska, too. Katchekan? Those waterfalls shown later were fab. Thanks.

A few years ago we were blessed with a cruise from Seward, Alaska through the inside passage and then on to Vancouver. One of our ports of call was Ketchikan. A wonderful place. And there were lots and lots of hummers.

 

[freedombecki]

Oh, Si modo, That cockatoo got da beat!

 

[Si modo]

Oh, Si modo, That cockatoo got da beat!

He is awesome.

And, he has quite a few scientists curious. Cool stuff.

 

[freedombecki]

I confess, Si, I had to come back today and watch the comedic Cockatoo. He has more energy than Jack LaLanne back when.

 

[freedombecki]

The first summer tanager was at the far east back fence in a tree, just sitting there doing nothing, his stunning plumage a sharp contrast to the greens and browns of spring. He hopped to the other side of the tree trunk he was near when he saw me, but I was hooked. Sidestepping to get a better look, he flew away to a nearby tree.

These birds are just the most beautiful pilgrims imaginable. A few days later, I saw another, but this bird lacked the color, and was on the orange side of red, same beak and head shape, though. One year we had more tanagers than cardinals, which have the black patch and crest.

Tanagers are the Miss Americas of the red bird group, imho. They're pretty, they're least aggressive, and they're never not pretty.

Just thinking out loud. I love tanagers, and we see several types throughout the warm times of the year. And they seem crazy about this area, because they're about a lot.

 

[freedombecki]

I'm hearing a lot of birdsong, and I was thinking that I sure see a lot of tanagers, cardinals, and mockingbirds when the blackberries. I did a search on what birds are attracted, and got more than I asked for. A lot of other animals benefit, too, not to mention insects I already knew about due to their presence during this bountiful time of year when blackberries ripen. Here's what I pulled up:

[SIZE=+1]Some of the birds and animals that eat blackberry fruits are: Northern Bobwhite, Wild Turkey, Red-winged Blackbird, Eastern Bluebird, Common Crow, Great Crested Flycatcher, Common Grackle, Blue Jay, Eastern Kingbird, Norhtern Mockingbird, Baltimore Oriole, Eastern Phoebe, Tufted Titmouse, Cedar Waxwing, Gray Catbird, Northern Cardinal, American Robin, Brown Thrasher, Striped Skunk, Virginia Opossum, Red Fox, Raccoon, Eastern Gray Squirrel, Meadow Vole, White-footed Mouse, and Eastern Chipmunk. White-tailed Deer, Eastern Cottontail, and Beaver eat the leaves and stems.

[/SIZE]​

Source

It's not clear to me which of the local ones I see here (mentioned above) go for the blackberries or the insects that feed from them. Maybe it's fruit and bonus protein.

 

[freedombecki]

Are Swans Lethal?

ABC News
April 16, 2012

An angry swan is being blamed for knocking a man out of his kayak in a Chicago pond and then continuing to attack until the man drowned. Anthony Hensley, 37 of villa Park, IL, worked for a company called Knox Swan & Dog which used swans and dogs to keep geese off the condominium's properties.

Hensley was in a kayak on the condo's retention pond checking on the animals Saturday morning when one of the swans swam at him, causing him to fall out of his kayak into the water. Two witnesses saw Hensley struggling to stay above water and resurfaced a few times in the pond. He was not wearing a life vest.
​

 

[Foxfyre]

Are Swans Lethal?

ABC News
April 16, 2012

An angry swan is being blamed for knocking a man out of his kayak in a Chicago pond and then continuing to attack until the man drowned. Anthony Hensley, 37 of villa Park, IL, worked for a company called Knox Swan & Dog which used swans and dogs to keep geese off the condominium's properties.

Hensley was in a kayak on the condo's retention pond checking on the animals Saturday morning when one of the swans swam at him, causing him to fall out of his kayak into the water. Two witnesses saw Hensley struggling to stay above water and resurfaced a few times in the pond. He was not wearing a life vest.
​

One place we lived in Pittsburg KS was across the street from a small inner city lake that was home to a bunch of ducks and three large swans, two white, one black. The black one was the largest of the three and the most adventuresome frequently crossing the street into neighboring yards, including ours. I learned quite quickly just to keep the kids indoors when that swan came to visit. He would swell up like a poisonous toad, twist his neck, hunch his shoulders, and hiss and, if you tried to shoo him, he would lunge at you. There was no scaring him off. He was ready to do serious damage.

 

[freedombecki]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REltaaei2ts"]Trumpeter Swans of Monticello Minnesota - YouTube[/ame]​

 

[freedombecki]

Out on the lake out back, I've noticed a pair of these gorgeous ducks, beautiful in every way, swimming and hiding out under the small clump of china berry trees across the lake from my bay window lookout. When they fly, it's a trip, because their wings have such a pattern it looks like they're an army of creatures instead of one duck, and when two of them fly side by side, they look like they could cut down the Red Baron!

photo credits here

Some birds take on a whole new dimension in flight. Loons have that quality, and the Fulvous whistling ducks here are a double-take waiting to happen in flight. I'll see if I can find a picture that does what I just saw about 5 minutes ago to illustrate this. (That may not be able to be shared, but you'll know it if you have a pair around you and you notice them flying across water.) I can't describe their unique and beautiful motions in flight. Too much going on in feather patterns, I guess.
​

 

[freedombecki]

Here's another someone took about 100 miles from here:

photo credits here​

 

[freedombecki]

I'm looking at fully the biggest Great egret ever to appear here at our 2.5 acre lake they built to wrap around 2 sides of the back fence of the house yard. He is utterly magnificent. At first I thought he was swimming, but not so. He is walking on a long pair of legs so gracefully, he seems to be floating, but you can see his full image on the lake surface, so you know it's the Great egret and not a swan. Great egret has flown across the lake several times, establishing pecking order, maybe. The Great blue heron has been biding his time here all year, but I think he defers to the egret and leaves if there is too much of a fluff going on, on the part of Great egret. The heron blends in the shadows of the tree reflections on the lake, but not the Great egret. He's showy, and he's fabulously beautiful, not to mention elegant, and he knows it. He has the keys to the kingdom, and all are his subjects! "I'll take the shade, little fulvous whistling duck nuisances," his strut announces, and "I prefer this fishing area for my afternoon hors d'oeuvres, Sir Great Heron. Scoot along now." And the minions do as decreed.

 

[freedombecki]

For the three days up until yesterday, I saw these awesome fliers over the pond/lake I hadn't noticed for the last two years. They were fully black water birds, except for offwhite white wing patches which made their flight such a remarkable thing to see; they had black beaks similar in shape to loons, but the kicker was the hot, bright, demonic-looking legs, and I mean to tell you they were red. I thought, "there are six of these cutie pies, and while we might get mixed up about white and black markings, the red legs and an occasional red patch around the mouth must mean something." So I dutifully plugged my observations into Bing! and dozens of birds, totally unrelated to what bird I was seeing, so I looked up at what I had loaded, and failed to put the red legs bit in. When I did that, the same name kept coming up, "Black Guillimot." So I clicked on a few of them, but noticed the wing patches were a pure, glistening white, whereas the birds I saw had offwhite wing patches, but were in every other way identical, especially their beautiful heads and beaks. They look like thoroughbreds, except they're birds. Today, when I went into images for Cepphys grylle, Latin name for the Black guillimot, sure enough, I found some dead ringers for the little tribe that visited my lake for 2 1/2 days. I don't know if I will get to sight them again for a few months, because for some reason unbeknownst to me, they are not frequent visitors to Walker County Texas, but one of the sources said some of them winter feed as shorebirds in the south before heading up to Canada's St. Lawrence River basin area, Maine, and the northern Adirondacks. Also, it said they breed inland, not at the shore, which may be one reason they visited our lake in spite of a perpetual Great Blue Heron loner and an annual family of Great Egrets who quibble with him over who has pecking rights on whatever it is at the bottom of the shallows of our lake they find is cuisine. I know I may never have the privilege of seeing any more, and I don't know why they're headed north at this post-spring flight, but the last time I saw them, they flew north, so I'm pretty sure they graced me with their fabulous vision of flight for 3 short days, and oh, how I totally loved seeing them.

Isn't he stunning! Oh, wait, I can only describe how stunning his vision was as several of them were flying over the lake. They are amazing fliers, dazzling would be the word I was trying to come up with. They're absolutely dazzling. Oh, yes, and the reason I saw the confusing red around the beak area infrequently? Well, here's a visual on that reason:

​

 

[freedombecki]

One other thing I noticed by looking at literally hundreds of photos of Black Guillimots online is that some of them do appear to have off-white wing coloration in a minority of the pictures. That tells me location, diet, and heck, maybe they just flew through some dust devil country, of which there is plenty wherever land clearing has taken place on the Gulf coastal areas. Oh, how lovely it would be if they flew outside over the lake every single day of the year, and what a rare treat I may have gotten. *sigh*

And you'd just have to see one in flight to "get it" as to why there are so many photographs of them online. People are stricken if not smashed by their enchanting, dazzling beauty in flight.