DAILY PICS VOL. 27

Maybe a Horned Grebe, adelbertcat.

Great photo of the minah Dinu! Over here you see them very occasionally as pets. They are know for being terrific mimics and can be taught to repeat phrases. Do they also mimic speech in the wild or are they more like mockingbirds - mimics of other birds and sounds around them. Such fascinating birds!

They speak their own 'language' and they have a good vocabulary!! It's amazing how they can do many sounds. But they don't seem to have the time for mimicing - they too are busy creatures these days, LOL - and I can remember them doing that many years ago but not much now.

Here are a pair of pigeons doing a 'waltz' on our house. This was a shot I took using my "bino-zoom" technique from my Fuji FinePix A120. I took a series of 3 pictures and I cropped it up equally. So when I run all three quickly like a movie, it is funny! I had posted this in the photo forum some months back.

Dinu

Nice pics guys!

Nothing going on here today (photo wise), its pouring rain outside and quite dark.

I have been watching w/ my binoculars and along w/ the Chipping Sparrows and Dark-eyed Junco's I'm now seeing a number of White-throated Sparrows doing their comical little "scootch" trying to stir up things while foraging on the ground.

I see an increase in the numbers of the Juncos and Chipping Sparrows over the last few days.

The White- breasted Nuthatch made a nice appearance today first zipping right past my DH as he was carrying things in up the driveway ( DH had been out foraging too,lol) and onto a Maple tree for a moment then into the Pine tree.

I saw many other birds but most were the usual characters along with a visit from Mr. Sharpie (Sharp-shinned Hawk) who scared the dickens out of everyone. :-)

Seemama- Have a wonderful trip! Pelle

I tried to get a new bird pic, but all I got was more sandhill cranes.

indiana_lily
your opening picture of the sparrow stuck in your bird-feeder, takes me back to when we lived in Lowestoft in England way back in the 1960's.
We had put up a nest-box to try and attract the Bluetits to nest in our garden, and the first year the Bluetits used the box and successfully raised a family.
The next year, the blue-tits again started investigating the box, but then a cock House Sparrow decided this looked the perfect place for his wife to raise their family. Every day he sat on the box and sang (if you can call the House Sparrows vocalisation a song) to tell his wife what a beautiful place he had found for her. He made it very clear that the bluetits were not welcome, and they gave up their claim on the territory.
After a few days, the hen sparrow came along to inspect this desireable residence. The hole was small, designed only for bluetits, but nevertheless she managed to get her head in through the hole. But that was as far as she went. She couldn't get in through the hole! She tried to pull her head out! She couldn't get out either! "A wedged 'sparrow' in great tightness"!
I had to go to the rescue. I couldn't ease her out either, so I had to open the nest box (the roof lifted off). Looking inside, I could she had turned her head down as if trying to turn it to face outwards. I had to reach inside the box, get hold of her little beak and lift it so that it was pointing straight into the box and then I could gently ease her head through the hole and let her free.
Needless to say no sparrows ever nested in the box, and that year neither did the bluetits!

Kennedy

It has been my goal to get reasonably close images of the RB Nuthatch. Got those today, so now my goal is unobstructed reasonably close shots!

I had just sent pelle a site w/ the RBN eating from a hand, and had gone outside for my morning birdwalk. Since I'm anticipating the return of the Chestnut-backed Chickadee, I was checking out the small cedars where I saw them feeding last year. I saw small birds and went over. These shots are from about 2-3 feet looking down at the bird. I was afraid to move the branch any farther out of the way and frighten the lil' guy, so there are branch obstructions...........but I surely did get close! ;-)

This message was edited Oct 27, 2007 7:34 AM

Real close

Ready to take off.

Nice going tiger!!

Thanks for posting them! :-)

camouflage

I am totally in awe of the splendid photos you've all been posting - I haven't been on DG for much of the week, so it is quite the treat to catch up and see them all!

We had a gorgeous day today - and I was fortunate to spot a couple eagles in a tree as I was driving by my favorite park.

Here's a closeup of one of them. I took a gazillion images, of course, but deleted a lot and haven't cropped too many yet.

Good for you Murmur!! Nice shots!!!

Thanks for posting them!:-)


LOL-adel!
Thats a good one!

Pelle

Nice pic of an adult Bald Eagle.

We have had cold and snow, followed by warming with rain. When the sky cleared this after noon, I went out to enjoy the sun and take a few pictures.
The American Coot is still camped out at Lake Hood. There was more open water today. The ice was melting. The rain falling on the ice had created a mirrored surface. The Coot is feeding at the edge of the ice.

The Coot came up from a dive wearing his dinner as a necklace.

At Potter Marsh, five juvenile Trumpeter Swans were feeding near the road in good light. I was able to take a few close up shots.

The juveniles are gray colored with pink bills. The bill turns black with age.

On Tuesday this part of the Marsh was covered with ice.

Very nice pics Gary!

Darn, I just had a nice looking Coopers Hawk swoop through the yard then circle around and land on my arbor. He sat there rotating his head around looking for possible prey for about 8 minutes! I took 2 pics but theres no light so they were just a blur but through the binoculars I could positively ID him.

I sure hope I see all this action once the weather clears. :-)

Update: He must have tagged one because I saw feathers on the ground later. So I went out to look at them (Mourning Dove feathers) and as I was raising my head up from looking downward the Coopers H. swoops in from my left not more than 4 feet off the ground and 12 feet in front of me! Never had a hawk fly that close to me before; very cool!

This message was edited Oct 27, 2007 11:20 AM

Nice swans. Don't think I've ever seen them out of zoos.

Some honkers muscled in to this pic.

Wow what a beautiful shot! Thanks BCA! :-) Pelle

Distant pic, but can you ID?

Looks like a Northern Flicker Deb!

Heres some info on them.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Northern_Flicker.html

This message was edited Oct 27, 2007 11:50 AM

Thanks Pelle, for the ID and the link. I'm taking notice of more birds since I found this forum.

Thats great Deb and congrats on seeing the Flicker !

Be sure to listen to their call at that site. I have them here but rarely see them; I heard one the other day but couldn't spot it.

I just went back to the site, didn't listen before because I had to download the player. So, now I've spent a good while listening to different bird calls. I wish I had spotted the one I heard yesterday.
Thanks Pelle.

I like flickers, they are more common in the sandier aeas around here because of the ants.

I had my camera in my hand when an eagle flew over, but didn't get a very good pic.

Well finally we got about an hour of off and on sun late this afternoon.

This pics not too good but its a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

I don't see these very often so it was a nice surprise :-)

Just finished the winter feeding station. It spooked the "piglets" so bad it took them 33 seconds to return and start eating again.

This pic was supposed to go with the above post

It took 23 hours for this Junco to come to the feeder after I moved it under cover.

Carolina Wren

Great pics! I'm glad some people are seeing birds, seems to have gone quiet here.

Nice Eagle pics Murmur, I take gazillions sometimes too and spent hours sorting after!

Sweet Swan Grasmussen, lucky to get some good close ups.

Al, did you herd those honkers there? You always seem to come across lots of big birds, great shot!


pelle, that is quite a good pic of the Sapsucker really, nice bird. You got lucky today, the Wren has posed nicely for you too!

Interesting feeder adelbert with the Junco, giving me an idea there!

A hawk flew over our house and my nose was pointing up in that direction for this shot - luckily a bit sunny yesterday to bring out the colours under its wings -- what a fantastic wingspan! At full stretch.

Great flight picture Dinu! That notched tail is a dead give away, that is another of your Black Kites or Pariah Kites (Milvus migrans). I used to see them all the time in my 6 months in Pakistan, more than 40 years ago. One Black Kite was flying over and suddenly fell dead from the sky right at my feet. It had a bad infection in one eye and perhaps that had killed it, but to die in mid flight like that was pretty amazing.

What a memorable experience that!! I'm a bit confused: Eagle, Kite and Hawk -- The book does not mention hawk. Still have to read it. Some diagrams indicate how to identify - but this hawk is not mentioned. BTW, would you let me know?