Wild Side Ornithology Club

[beautress]

I went looking for an endangered birds of america video, but all I could find was this one, plus a second one, which included 3 or 4 birds but lots of other creatures:

Birds on the Endangered Species List


Animals that did Not go Extinct


Animals About to Go Extinct

​

May have mentioned this some other time but a few years ago speaking of endangered, I spotted a red cockaded woodpecker pecking 'round my forest.

They're nice birds.

I've seen several of these on my front porch bird feeder, although I think they're redheaded woodpeckers (?):

They showed up and weren't all that bashful, or they just knew I wouldn't hur them. They liked the chow,
​

And I've see a couple of these:

I saw these in different years, and boy, both times it was a happy accident.
​

To tell you the truth, since my better half died in June of 2016, I haven't been very good about putting food out for the birds. Lately, I've fed them twice. It was fun to put food out when my husband got pleasure from looking at the birds, too, after he lost interest in everything else except taking joy rides when he got his hands on a set of keys. He had dementia, and I'd been warned by the sheriffs in 3 counties including this one to keep him off the roads. I'm trying to start life over, Pogo. It's funny how when you lose an important other of over 44 years, the things you love just remind you of what was good when you were a partner, but there's not so much fun in it when you're all by yourself, lonely as hell, and have no one to show off your stuff to anymore. It takes very bright people to appreciate birds and when a light goes out, it's like there's not enough light to see until you start building bridges back to the places you love as much as you love life.

Life is complex, but when you lose someone you cared for, you have just got to sit down and think about what life is going to be all about in the future. I am just now starting to get angry, and that's supposed to happen a week after your loved one dies. Didn't happen. I was in a fog, didn't come here very often the 2 years after he passed. That should have been water under the bridge in less than a month, but no, it took 2 years, maybe more.

 

[Moonglow]

Last year horny toads appeared around the place..The owls returned and the bald eagles disappeared again and black bears returned.....

 

[Pogo]

I went looking for an endangered birds of america video, but all I could find was this one, plus a second one, which included 3 or 4 birds but lots of other creatures:

Birds on the Endangered Species List


Animals that did Not go Extinct


Animals About to Go Extinct

​

May have mentioned this some other time but a few years ago speaking of endangered, I spotted a red cockaded woodpecker pecking 'round my forest.

They're nice birds.

I've seen several of these on my front porch bird feeder, although I think they're redheaded woodpeckers (?):

They showed up and weren't all that bashful, or they just knew I wouldn't hur them. They liked the chow,
​

And I've see a couple of these:

I saw these in different years, and boy, both times it was a happy accident.
​

To tell you the truth, since my better half died in June of 2016, I haven't been very good about putting food out for the birds. Lately, I've fed them twice. It was fun to put food out when my husband got pleasure from looking at the birds, too, after he lost interest in everything else except taking joy rides when he got his hands on a set of keys. He had dementia, and I'd been warned by the sheriffs in 3 counties including this one to keep him off the roads. I'm trying to start life over, Pogo. It's funny how when you lose an important other of over 44 years, the things you love just remind you of what was good when you were a partner, but there's not so much fun in it when you're all by yourself, lonely as hell, and have no one to show off your stuff to anymore. It takes very bright people to appreciate birds and when a light goes out, it's like there's not enough light to see until you start building bridges back to the places you love as much as you love life.

Life is complex, but when you lose someone you cared for, you have just got to sit down and think about what life is going to be all about in the future. I am just now starting to get angry, and that's supposed to happen a week after your loved one dies. Didn't happen. I was in a fog, didn't come here very often the 2 years after he passed. That should have been water under the bridge in less than a month, but no, it took 2 years, maybe more.

I don't know the top one but the big bottom one is a pileated woodpecker (and they are big, just check out those talons). Those are numerous around these woods, I heard one off in the distance just this evening. It's ironic that my friend who got me into birding (there were a couple but the major one) has all these various birds on her life list but has never seen the pileated woodpecker, and my place is crawling with them. The cartoon character Woody Woodpecker was based on this guy.

Can't say much about the rest except to promise you a permanent metaphorical shoulder and sympathetic ear.

 

[beautress]

We had horned toads in Wyoming, who lived on the cliff side of Dead Horse Hill. They were so cute when they wiggled their little fat guts away. They disappeared the year the Bald Eagles had their rendezvous one year from my backyard lookout that oversaw the Platte River basin headed out west toward Alcova as seen from my back fence. Never saw another. I don't know if they were snacks for the eagles or just got scared and left the country.

Welcome to the wild side, Moonie. Beats civilization, no?

 

[beautress]

I went looking for an endangered birds of america video, but all I could find was this one, plus a second one, which included 3 or 4 birds but lots of other creatures:

Birds on the Endangered Species List


Animals that did Not go Extinct


Animals About to Go Extinct

​

May have mentioned this some other time but a few years ago speaking of endangered, I spotted a red cockaded woodpecker pecking 'round my forest.

They're nice birds.

I've seen several of these on my front porch bird feeder, although I think they're redheaded woodpeckers (?):

They showed up and weren't all that bashful, or they just knew I wouldn't hur them. They liked the chow,
​

And I've see a couple of these:

I saw these in different years, and boy, both times it was a happy accident.
​

To tell you the truth, since my better half died in June of 2016, I haven't been very good about putting food out for the birds. Lately, I've fed them twice. It was fun to put food out when my husband got pleasure from looking at the birds, too, after he lost interest in everything else except taking joy rides when he got his hands on a set of keys. He had dementia, and I'd been warned by the sheriffs in 3 counties including this one to keep him off the roads. I'm trying to start life over, Pogo. It's funny how when you lose an important other of over 44 years, the things you love just remind you of what was good when you were a partner, but there's not so much fun in it when you're all by yourself, lonely as hell, and have no one to show off your stuff to anymore. It takes very bright people to appreciate birds and when a light goes out, it's like there's not enough light to see until you start building bridges back to the places you love as much as you love life.

Life is complex, but when you lose someone you cared for, you have just got to sit down and think about what life is going to be all about in the future. I am just now starting to get angry, and that's supposed to happen a week after your loved one dies. Didn't happen. I was in a fog, didn't come here very often the 2 years after he passed. That should have been water under the bridge in less than a month, but no, it took 2 years, maybe more.

I don't know the top one but the big bottom one is a pileated woodpecker (and they are big, just check out those talons). Those are numerous around these woods, I heard one off in the distance just this evening. It's ironic that my friend who got me into birding (there were a couple but the major one) has all these various birds on her life list but has never seen the pileated woodpecker, and my place is crawling with them. The cartoon character Woody Woodpecker was based on this guy.

Can't say much about the rest except to promise you a permanent metaphorical shoulder and sympathetic ear.

Thank you ever so kindly, Mr. Pogo. I tried to stop moping around this last year, but everything I did turned to a disaster, as life does sometimes. I fell for a guy who loved birds and had hummingbirds by the dozens visiting his yard He raised cows, but had this habit of smoking like a chimney. About two weeks after we started dating, he visited his VA doctor who found "a couple of small spots" on his lungs. He underwent chemotherapy for about 6 months, but by that time his "spots" became malignant, metastasized, and the last chemo, it had shown up a spot in his brain. He died a months after that. We never got too close because he was bipolar, and I'm not certain, but that condition may have made him feel a little paranoid, too. But I was hooked. I found him on the floor one day after 2 days he didn't return a phone call, so called his family and the hospital. His nurse daughter-in-law advised him to do home hospice, so he did. 10 days later he was gone. I spent the better part of those days by his side. His offishness disappeared, but he lost his speech capacity, so no telling what his thoughts were. He seemed glad I stood by him, and I did. The last day, I told him to go to the light. That home hospice would not allow him to eat or drink anything until he drew his last breath. I didn't know how cruel that could be to someone who cared for another, but the only contact I've had with his family was to deliver quilt tops to the grandmother of his great grandchildren, one apiece. Good therapy, I'm a little over it, but I can't drive by his farm/ranchouse without having tears rush in. I don't know why, but his caring for not only birds, but all the little obnoxious critters around his place, he took care of all of them with more food than they could eat before the rain spoiled it. I just truly realized I loved his caring for the varmint squirrels, etc. just grabbed my heartstrings and pulled them up pretty tight. lol

 

[beautress]

I went looking for an endangered birds of america video, but all I could find was this one, plus a second one, which included 3 or 4 birds but lots of other creatures:

Birds on the Endangered Species List


Animals that did Not go Extinct


Animals About to Go Extinct

​

May have mentioned this some other time but a few years ago speaking of endangered, I spotted a red cockaded woodpecker pecking 'round my forest.

They're nice birds.

I've seen several of these on my front porch bird feeder, although I think they're redheaded woodpeckers (?):

They showed up and weren't all that bashful, or they just knew I wouldn't hur them. They liked the chow,
​

And I've see a couple of these:

I saw these in different years, and boy, both times it was a happy accident.
​

To tell you the truth, since my better half died in June of 2016, I haven't been very good about putting food out for the birds. Lately, I've fed them twice. It was fun to put food out when my husband got pleasure from looking at the birds, too, after he lost interest in everything else except taking joy rides when he got his hands on a set of keys. He had dementia, and I'd been warned by the sheriffs in 3 counties including this one to keep him off the roads. I'm trying to start life over, Pogo. It's funny how when you lose an important other of over 44 years, the things you love just remind you of what was good when you were a partner, but there's not so much fun in it when you're all by yourself, lonely as hell, and have no one to show off your stuff to anymore. It takes very bright people to appreciate birds and when a light goes out, it's like there's not enough light to see until you start building bridges back to the places you love as much as you love life.

Life is complex, but when you lose someone you cared for, you have just got to sit down and think about what life is going to be all about in the future. I am just now starting to get angry, and that's supposed to happen a week after your loved one dies. Didn't happen. I was in a fog, didn't come here very often the 2 years after he passed. That should have been water under the bridge in less than a month, but no, it took 2 years, maybe more.

I don't know the top one but the big bottom one is a pileated woodpecker (and they are big, just check out those talons). Those are numerous around these woods, I heard one off in the distance just this evening. It's ironic that my friend who got me into birding (there were a couple but the major one) has all these various birds on her life list but has never seen the pileated woodpecker, and my place is crawling with them. The cartoon character Woody Woodpecker was based on this guy.

Can't say much about the rest except to promise you a permanent metaphorical shoulder and sympathetic ear.

The top one is a Redheaded Woodpecker, Pogo. They are not shy birds, but will allow you to admire their strinking beauty if they know you're the one who feeds them, and you're not too aggressive (stays a distance, etc.) The pileated woodpeckers want nothing to do with people. If you see one around here, it's not by the front porch feeder, but out in the woods at an unexpected place you may have never trod before. Just an impression of one person. I really know little about them, except they're almost as astonishing to see as their spectacular Redheaded Woodpecker cousins. For one thing, they seem twice the size as a redhead, which is about the size of a bluejay, but in no way is similar in shape, maybe 8.25" body length plus whatever tail that follows it, maybe a little smaller(?) Can't remember, like I said I wasn't doing much bird feeding after my husband died. Right now, I'm in a dither because I haven't contacted the IRAs my husband established, and he left everything to me. He also had stock market stuff coming out the ears. I'm just not business-minded, and can't even put my hands on documents procured after his death--death certificates, And letters of something-or-another established by a day spent at the courhouse telling a judge about my husband and his life, and showing him a will, etc. My worry for this whole year was about paying taxes on this huge acreage since I'm not able to care for animals and the orchard I planted died out in the drought of 2011 when the well water didn't have enough supply for the needs of the tree that I underestimated, never having cared for trees in my whole life. At least the pecan tree made it, but I don't have a clue how to get going and do all the household tasks and the business procedures too. My dear late husband spoiled me by doing every last detail of taking care of money, and all I can do is be sick with worry because it's like the bird feeders, just no incentive. If he was a vegetable just laying around in bed, I'd be doing everything, but gone? It's a different universe without him. I guess I sound like a crazy person, serves me right prolly.

 

[Pogo]

I went looking for an endangered birds of america video, but all I could find was this one, plus a second one, which included 3 or 4 birds but lots of other creatures:

Birds on the Endangered Species List


Animals that did Not go Extinct


Animals About to Go Extinct

​

May have mentioned this some other time but a few years ago speaking of endangered, I spotted a red cockaded woodpecker pecking 'round my forest.

They're nice birds.

I've seen several of these on my front porch bird feeder, although I think they're redheaded woodpeckers (?):

They showed up and weren't all that bashful, or they just knew I wouldn't hur them. They liked the chow,
​

And I've see a couple of these:

I saw these in different years, and boy, both times it was a happy accident.
​

To tell you the truth, since my better half died in June of 2016, I haven't been very good about putting food out for the birds. Lately, I've fed them twice. It was fun to put food out when my husband got pleasure from looking at the birds, too, after he lost interest in everything else except taking joy rides when he got his hands on a set of keys. He had dementia, and I'd been warned by the sheriffs in 3 counties including this one to keep him off the roads. I'm trying to start life over, Pogo. It's funny how when you lose an important other of over 44 years, the things you love just remind you of what was good when you were a partner, but there's not so much fun in it when you're all by yourself, lonely as hell, and have no one to show off your stuff to anymore. It takes very bright people to appreciate birds and when a light goes out, it's like there's not enough light to see until you start building bridges back to the places you love as much as you love life.

Life is complex, but when you lose someone you cared for, you have just got to sit down and think about what life is going to be all about in the future. I am just now starting to get angry, and that's supposed to happen a week after your loved one dies. Didn't happen. I was in a fog, didn't come here very often the 2 years after he passed. That should have been water under the bridge in less than a month, but no, it took 2 years, maybe more.

I don't know the top one but the big bottom one is a pileated woodpecker (and they are big, just check out those talons). Those are numerous around these woods, I heard one off in the distance just this evening. It's ironic that my friend who got me into birding (there were a couple but the major one) has all these various birds on her life list but has never seen the pileated woodpecker, and my place is crawling with them. The cartoon character Woody Woodpecker was based on this guy.

Can't say much about the rest except to promise you a permanent metaphorical shoulder and sympathetic ear.

The top one is a Redheaded Woodpecker, Pogo. They are not shy birds, but will allow you to admire their strinking beauty if they know you're the one who feeds them, and you're not too aggressive (stays a distance, etc.) The pileated woodpeckers want nothing to do with people. If you see one around here, it's not by the front porch feeder, but out in the woods at an unexpected place you may have never trod before. Just an impression of one person. I really know little about them, except they're almost as astonishing to see as their spectacular Redheaded Woodpecker cousins. For one thing, they seem twice the size as a redhead, which is about the size of a bluejay, but in no way is similar in shape, maybe 8.25" body length plus whatever tail that follows it, maybe a little smaller(?) Can't remember, like I said I wasn't doing much bird feeding after my husband died. Right now, I'm in a dither because I haven't contacted the IRAs my husband established, and he left everything to me. He also had stock market stuff coming out the ears. I'm just not business-minded, and can't even put my hands on documents procured after his death--death certificates, And letters of something-or-another established by a day spent at the courhouse telling a judge about my husband and his life, and showing him a will, etc. My worry for this whole year was about paying taxes on this huge acreage since I'm not able to care for animals and the orchard I planted died out in the drought of 2011 when the well water didn't have enough supply for the needs of the tree that I underestimated, never having cared for trees in my whole life. At least the pecan tree made it, but I don't have a clue how to get going and do all the household tasks and the business procedures too. My dear late husband spoiled me by doing every last detail of taking care of money, and all I can do is be sick with worry because it's like the bird feeders, just no incentive. If he was a vegetable just laying around in bed, I'd be doing everything, but gone? It's a different universe without him. I guess I sound like a crazy person, serves me right prolly.

Becki I think you need to hire yourself a financial advisor, or in other words just channel all those assets into a single investment manager service. I have mine in the local Edward Jones office and it's great, they take care of everything for a small and reasonable fee. And you DO need to know what the tax requirements are, for instance I'm required to take a minimum annual payment from my IRA so you want to keep on top of that before it spins away and you have to play catch-up.

And then the stocks, you need to know (OR someone you designate needs to know) what they are and how they're doing. When my dad deteriorated for ten years with Parkinson's he had investments that he hadn't told anybody about, ergo no one was watching as they should have, and when the crash came in 2008 he (and our inheritance) lost a good six figures of assets. All those years of building up a nest egg and then he was too spaced out on the drug cocktails that is American medicine to have any idea what was going on. So you want some eyes on all that so you don't get to the same point of looking back and thinking "if only I had dealt with this...".

Really, don't worry about arranging and working the numbers. They will do that for you.

(/offtopic)

 

[beautress]

Thanks, Pogo, I missed that. Oddly, I got a call from the lawyer's office to get my land deed figured out Monday,, and they were working on a plan to contact all the accounts and get them in my name. It will take a load off my shoulders to know I can call up my broker company and order him to cut a check to pay my horrific tax bill every year from now on. When all that get's settled out, I'm going to try and take your advice if I need to. I actually went to a bar last week to sing Karaoke hoping to meet some single people my age. <gong!> The average age there looked about 25. I don't think they had dating their grandma's pal in mind. Wait a minute. There was one who had a "Vietnam vet" t-shirt on, kinda cute, but all of a sudden I got terrified. People play by different rules these days, and I don't like those rules. *sigh* Pass the knitting needles and dust off the sewing machine. I'm going back to sewing quilts for the duration. A little fear is a sobering influence. And the bar people didn't look too enthusiastic when I ordered a hot dr. pepper with lemon for my throat. I'm allergic to alcohol. I drove the 50-mile drive home in Hill Country at about 45 mph around midnight, wondering why I sang Carly Simon's The Spy Who Loved Me to a bunch of gang men people who were perfect strangers, which suits me fine now that I think about it. Mr. VVet left early anyway. <giggle> Between karaoke participants, the bar played risque country music. I couldn't believe my ears to hear all those 4-letter words stashed into quasi-country music. I bet some of those younger gals parents' hadn't been to a bar in a million years. I really wasn't expecting a choir rehearsal, but the sex ed songs...in exaggerated politically correct groups kinda put my stomach in my throat. It was a quiet, uneventful drive home in the dark between tall pines and farm prairies where cows rule.

Well, so much for my one and only time ever to go to a bar by myself to meet people who weren't even there.

 

[beautress]

Killdeer

​

My first sighting of killdeer birds was in 2009. We had moved from Wyoming back home to Texas, and bought a small acreage in Walker County, where I was walking fence one day and noticed these very distinctively marked, beautiful small birds squeaking, squawking, and making a commotion as I passed by. I tried to look them over as best I could, and when I had several things known about them--dark horizontal stripes along head and neck, obviated by white stripes above and below each dark stripe. Just one look, and I was hooked. They were there every day, until I started mowing the northwest and western fence lines, which face the farm to market road I live on. They really didn't like the mowing, so I decided to go back to the house and come back the following day when they weren't around (fat chance.) After a couple of weeks, the killdeer were gone. The next year, rinse, repeat. They'd had enough, packed up and left. I really was not aware that they were like field chickens--they lay their eggs right there in full view, and they protect them by fleeing the nest area where 4 eggs could be sitting there, and go into their noisy broken-wing fugue in which they pretend their wing is broken, luring the predator away from the eggs and nest, and begin following a distant to keep their visitor from stepping on or eating their eggs. (see video above)

 

[beautress]

Went for a visit to the Audubon Society page and found this amazing creature--a female Cerulean warbler.

^^ If she isn't too cute, I don't know what is! ^^​

Recently, ornithologists associated or corresponding with Audubon have discovered at least two females singing their hearts out. Their story is here: Female Cerulean Warblers Chirp Away at Birdsong Stereotypes

 

[beautress]

Scientists say a patch of hot water in the Pacific killed a million seabirds in less than a year​

​

Very sad loss of birds this year due to hot spots in the Pacific NorthWest​

​

A common murre, a fish-eating seabird of the North Pacific, were part of one of the largest mass die-offs in recorded history.​

As many as 1 million seabirds died at sea in less than 12 months in one of the largest mass die-offs in recorded history, and researchers say warm ocean waters are to blame.

The birds, a fish-eating species called the common murre, were severely emaciated and appeared to have died of starvation between the summer of 2015 and the spring of 2016, washing up along North America's west coast, from California to Alaska.
Scientists say a patch of hot water in the Pacific killed a million seabirds in less than a year


​

 

[beautress]

Around A Million Birds Estimated Dead After A Hot ‘Blob’ In Pacific Ocean, Study Reveals

​

KEY POINTS

• A million birds die and wash up on coasts
• Researchers blame warm water patch in the Pacific for this
• Birds commonly known as ‘Murre’ most affected

Agroup of researchers from the University of Washington estimated that around one million seabirds died in the Pacific region after a hot water “blob” caused an imbalance in the ecosystem. The study was published Wednesday.

The researchers had taken into account the immense number of sea birds, preying on fish, had died and washed up across the coast in Alaska and California in the United States. The birds, more commonly known as the Murre, had a high mortality rate.

The study found out that the deaths were caused due to a shift in temperature of the area from cold to hot and was termed by the scientists as the “blob”. A gigantic section of hot water had severe effects on the ecosystem of the place. The section of about 1000 miles of water was found out to be around three to six degrees hotter than the rest of the area.

 

[beautress]

One of 3 areas in map form:

The Blob That Cooked the Pacific

 

[beautress]

Another type of map:

Are Climate-Related 'Hot Blobs' Spreading and Killing Marine Life Worldwide?​

 

[beautress]

A longtime member of USMB has defended the birds at a discussion on electrically powering the nations, and here's the proof: Texas solar lead

 

[beautress]

10 Fun Facts About Chickadees
​

 

[Shawnee_b]

I love chicadees! Got them here in KY too but 10 years in Maine I fed them every day cause Maine was hell in winter. As I walked to their feeder they would land on me, hear their wings. If I had seed or blackoil sun seeds in my hand they would land and eat. Cool little birdies

 

[beautress]

I love chicadees! Got them here in KY too but 10 years in Maine I fed them every day cause Maine was hell in winter. As I walked to their feeder they would land on me, hear their wings. If I had seed or blackoil sun seeds in my hand they would land and eat. Cool little birdies

Feeding them in winter prevents a lot of death. I really need to fill my feeders. Thanks because your post reminded me, Shawnee_b.

 

[Shawnee_b]

I love chicadees! Got them here in KY too but 10 years in Maine I fed them every day cause Maine was hell in winter. As I walked to their feeder they would land on me, hear their wings. If I had seed or blackoil sun seeds in my hand they would land and eat. Cool little birdies

Feeding them in winter prevents a lot of death. I really need to fill my feeders. Thanks because your post reminded me, Shawnee_b.

You're welcome Beautress. Yup, birdies got to eat. Chickadees like suet too.

 

[beautress]

I love chicadees! Got them here in KY too but 10 years in Maine I fed them every day cause Maine was hell in winter. As I walked to their feeder they would land on me, hear their wings. If I had seed or blackoil sun seeds in my hand they would land and eat. Cool little birdies

Feeding them in winter prevents a lot of death. I really need to fill my feeders. Thanks because your post reminded me, Shawnee_b.

You're welcome Beautress. Yup, birdies got to eat. Chickadees like suet too.

Update: Well, I found some birdseeds at another town I visited last night going to a Karaoke event, but only the peanuts got placed atop the wood fence. I still need to fill the bird feeders with the rest, but it's dark and cold out there at present, so I have to wait till tomorrow morning, if it will just stop raining and the sun will come out a few minutes. Well, it says cloudy but shows no cloud on the map. "???" I guess that's sign language for "go figure." *sigh*