Wild Side Ornithology Club

[beautress]

Oh, silly me, Pogo! I thought you were talking about a Brown creeper from Virginia. My bad! I actually saw several brown creepers when we lived in Wyoming, they are hilarious. First they climb up to a certain height, then do this strange twist and contort dance going every which way going down the trunk. They're such clowns! I don't know why I got them confused with a plant.

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[beautress]

Brown creeper being a Brown Creeper

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[beautress]

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[beautress]

'Nother Brown Creeper entertainment video. I just think they're so funny. The ones in Wyoming never failed to amuse.

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[Pogo]

Oh, silly me, Pogo! I thought you were talking about a Brown creeper from Virginia. My bad! I actually saw several brown creepers when we lived in Wyoming, they are hilarious. First they climb up to a certain height, then do this strange twist and contort dance going every which way going down the trunk. They're such clowns! I don't know why I got them confused with a plant.

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Ah yes, I've got those, didn't pay much attention. I thought the Nuthatches were funnier....

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[beautress]

Oh, silly me, Pogo! I thought you were talking about a Brown creeper from Virginia. My bad! I actually saw several brown creepers when we lived in Wyoming, they are hilarious. First they climb up to a certain height, then do this strange twist and contort dance going every which way going down the trunk. They're such clowns! I don't know why I got them confused with a plant.

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Ah yes, I've got those, didn't pay much attention. I thought the Nuthatches were funnier....

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No less! The punchline was the boy bird showing his stuff on the last scene. Thanks for an adorable look into the life of nuthatches.

 

[beautress]

Now, I've neglected the really, really big birds of the world, but not everyone has, as below:

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[Pogo]

Along with the migrating birds in this season we get here in Appalachia a plethora of exotic moths and butterflies. Here's one I found on the glass of my door this morning sleeping off a night of moth decadence:

I'm calling him "Pogofounditus BowlofTrixius". Tried to get a shot of the underside but could not get it in focus through the glass.

 

[beautress]

Along with the migrating birds in this season we get here in Appalachia a plethora of exotic moths and butterflies. Here's one I found on the glass of my door this morning sleeping off a night of moth decadence:

View attachment 262698​

I'm calling him "Pogofounditus BowlofTrixius". Tried to get a shot of the underside but could not get it in focus through the glass.

That's beautiful, Pogo. I'm not certain, but I associate that picture with a kind of Maple leaf moth. That is pink, yellow, and very fuzzy. How big was it?

 

[beautress]

Pyrrhuloxia

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[beautress]

This comes from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and is found here: Pyrrhuloxia Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Pyrrhuloxias are stocky, medium-sized songbirds with tall crests and long tails. They have heavy but short seed-cracking bills with a curved culmen, or upper edge.

Measurements - about the size of a Northern Cardinal.

• Both Sexes
• Length: 8.3 in (21 cm)
• Weight: 0.8-1.5 oz (24-43 g)

Adult Male

Pyrrhuloxia female

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[Pogo]

Along with the migrating birds in this season we get here in Appalachia a plethora of exotic moths and butterflies. Here's one I found on the glass of my door this morning sleeping off a night of moth decadence:

View attachment 262698​

I'm calling him "Pogofounditus BowlofTrixius". Tried to get a shot of the underside but could not get it in focus through the glass.

That's beautiful, Pogo. I'm not certain, but I associate that picture with a kind of Maple leaf moth. That is pink, yellow, and very fuzzy. How big was it?

'Bout an inch and a quarter as I recollect. A medium size.

From a quick Googly Image search it looks like Dryocampa rubicunda, a/k/a Rosy Maple moth or "great silk moth" so you were right.

Just my good fortune he (it's prolly a he, males are always showing off) chose to spend the night on my glass door.

 

[beautress]

Roseate Spoonbills in reflecting pond

Wonder if they share a small segment of DNA with Pogo's pink moth's DNA....

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[beautress]

Roseate Spoonbill, Platalaya ajaja

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[beautress]

I'm so fond of the color blue, that this is hands down, one of my most favorite birds: the Mountain Bluebird:

 

[beautress]

Thanks to Bing!​

 

[beautress]

With spending time outdoors mowing fields, etc., I've been seeing this one bird hanging around over the area that was part wild until I mowed it. I don't know exactly what this hawk is doing but he looks the most like this one, called the Broad-winged Hawk.

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The one out back in the field by the workshop/barn has been hanging around in the taller trees, and he likes to be seen. I'm not certain he's the Broad-winged Hawk, because I haven't seen him very often, but the other day he was in the huge tall oak tree near the front of the barn and flew to the southwest corner of the field by the back yard. He was huge! and beautiful and majestic.The wingspan was likely 36-38", and he was a light, mottled tan color and his flight was quick as lightning. So the name may or may not be "Broad-winged Hawk." But this bird was beautiful in flight.

 

[beautress]

A little music from Henry Mancini's writing of a Themesong for "The Thorn Birds"

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[beautress]

When I was researching a book I wrote on ABC Animals for children, X was a challenge, and I actually found it only by looking through my 1960s version of a college Webster's Dictionary that I had purchased at the behest of the professor of my Freshman English Class at the University of Houston. Anyhow, the X section in the dictionary wasn't all that long compared to other letters, but I read every X word until I came to a curious bird that was called a "xenops." I found pictures of xenops birds here and there, and did a drawing from one of the pictures I found, since I knew they were at the time found in South America and Australia (and probably a few islands or nearby places to these two areas bordering the south Pacific Ocean area. I ran across one article on the Xenops that made the claim it was the bird that inspired the book, "The Thorn Birds" by Australian author, Colleen McCullough. I found no reference of that nature today, but oh, well, that was back in the late 80s, and was over 40 years ago when computers weren't as fully packed as they are now, but it was better than the 60's when all we had were hard-covered books, and were happy to have them.

So whether or not they're THE 'thorn' bird, I found the only "X" I liked in the world of ornithology, and here are a few pictures of the little cuties:

Plain Xenops, Projeto dacnis

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[beautress]

Great Xenops Megaxenops parnaguae

The Great Xenops is a handsome, distinctive furnariid of the caatinga region of eastern Brazil. It is brilliant rufous-orange overall, with a white throat, and a wedge-shaped, slightly upturned bill. The bill may be used to pry and chisel at bark as it works along branches, but it also forages in vegetation. It occurs alone or in pairs, often in attendance at mixed flocks. There is no published information on the breeding behavior of this species. Its song is a bubbly chattering, its call a harsh, descending squeal "kier!". There is a map of its range below at Cornell's Ornithological Department

Great Xenops - Introduction | Neotropical Birds Online​