Any birdwatchers?

[liqueur]

They appear to be declining, especially in the Eastern US...

Thank you for this information

Don't expect any detailed answers soon, though. Funding for such research has fallen dramatically.

Why am I not surprised...?

 

[Comentarista82]

Any birdwatchers out there in the forum?

It might seem like an odd thing to ask in an erotic author forum, but, after all, they're frisky critters, constantly strutting and making a lot of noise looking for mates.

They're a constant reminder of the beauty and wonder of life around us. Almost everywhere you go, there are birds. There's no better or easier way to appreciate nature around us than by watching birds and their habits.

They sing all the time, adding music to our surroundings.

If you are a birdwatcher, you travel in a different way. You go to new places looking for birds you haven't seen before.

One of the best ways to tell everybody that you're a nerd is when you're with a group of people and suddenly call out, "My goodness, there's a yellow-bellied sapsucker!" I've done stuff like that and enjoyed the way people react, like they're partly impressed and partly sorry for me.

And the coolest thing? They're dinosaurs. I love that. A reminder of the wonder and beauty of evolution.

I have been a casual birdwatcher since I was about 12, which was a long time ago. I have the Merlin app on my phone so I can ID birds by their calls nearby. If you don't have it, I recommend it.

I am, and love it. Have a decent pair of binoculars, but not stellar.

Was going to recommend Merlin from Cornell Ornithology Labs, but you'd already done so. It is a great app, but not perfect. But it sure helps when you can't see them and only hear them. Warblers are hard to spot in the trees unless you sit somewhere, camouflage yourself and wait.

I can identify every bird I've regularly seen or heard by its calls or songs, but there's a few that even Merlin confuses (I've seen four instances so far). As one example, although there was a Pine Warbler singing and a pissed-off Carolina Wren trilling, Merlin correctly id'd the Pine Warbler and Carolina Wren, but mixed them both on detecting the waveguide and spit out "Northern Cardinal" when there wasn't one singing nor chirping. It helped me id a Yellow-billed cuckoo which I've heard tons but never seen--but usually around quiet parts of a lake or a quiet park with a partial forest nearby. Always brings me peace to hear them going at it, and today I finally saw a White-breasted nuthatch, which sounds like a staccato blue jay for its calls.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

"Pesticides and intensified agriculture have led to declines in the flying insect populations that the eastern whip-poor-will depends on."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_whip-poor-will

So, not so much the bug spray affecting the birds, but affecting the bugs the birds feed on.

 

[Comentarista82]

I've never lived anywhere in the whippoorwill range, but reading about them mentioned they are declining likely from insecticides and feral dogs and cats. The stuff I read says they nest on the ground, so sounds like they are vunerable!

I hear tons of them here in the Piney Woods of East TX, although you usually won't hear them until dusk or a little later.

 

[Bloodandglitter]

I love cardinals. Ever since I was little.

 

[Comentarista82]

Owls are, IMO, the most photogenic of birds. The Great Horned Owl, in particular, is my pick for the most photogenic bird.

The Great Horned Owl is pretty common, and it's one of the more gregarious ones that doesn't tend to easily scare. Had one follow me on a night walk, where I would advance one block and it would land on a branch in front of me, look me over, then do it two more times. It was super cool.

 

[Comentarista82]

When I bike past marshy areas I sometimes see black birds with red patches on their wings. Hmm...they could be red-winged blackbirds.

They are.

If you want to check out something super cool, look at Jocelyn Anderson photography on Facebook, which documents and videos hand bird feeding in Kensington Metropark in Milford, Michigan.

 

[Zrosey]

I am out in the nw and yesterday the sandhill cranes were flocking up and flying south bound.....kinda sad to see summer over so soon!

 

[Comentarista82]

Can't find a web picture of Splash Dancer.





Y'all got Mockingbirds? Those things are INSANE!!!



But they sure are a hoot to watch.

State Bird of Texas, so yes (state bird at least one other state too).

Look up the article from (I believe) Miami Herald where it documented people that studied mockingbird behavior where they had students go near a mockingbird nest to see what happened. The mockingbird attacked their heads up to 2 months later because it remembered them.

One allegorical account was where a guy lost some kind of key remote that played a certain song. He later found the remote although 3 weeks later he heard a mockingbird near that same bush singing the same bars off that remote.

 

[Comentarista82]

I've seen a pileated woodpecker only once in my life. I spotted it not because of its drumming but because of its call, which pierced the stillness of the forest like a clarion. I've never heard a bird call like it -- a rapid-fire succession of high notes. It was far off the ground in a fir tree, so fairly far away from me, but there was no mistaking what it was.

The Pileated ones are super common in the FL panhandle and Central FL. I'd sometimes see them on a TX lake like Sam Rayburn, Toledo Bend or Lake o' the Pines. That one definitely looks like Woody Woodpecker!

 

[Comentarista82]

I love cardinals. Ever since I was little.

Great bird. Mates for life and has 30 variations of its song.

An uncle I adored that was more like a grandfather to me (and he survived WWII with a bullet next to his heart that was never removed) died and my mom and I went to sit on the porch of his house to reflect on his life and enjoy the peace and quiet. Cardinals are notoriously skittish, but wouldn't you know it? One came and sat on his TV antenna and sang its heart out for 15 minutes--and looked us both right in the eye from 30 feet above. Never seen a cardinal sing like that, nor give that kind of performance since. We stopped sobbing and it captured our hearts; I'll never forget it to my dying day.

 

[liqueur]

I hear tons of them here in the Piney Woods of East TX, although you usually won't hear them until dusk or a little later.

Oh, I'm glad to know that!

 

[Bloodandglitter]

Great bird. Mates for life and has 30 variations of its song.

An uncle I adored that was more like a grandfather to me (and he survived WWII with a bullet next to his heart that was never removed) died and my mom and I went to sit on the porch of his house to reflect on his life and enjoy the peace and quiet. Cardinals are notoriously skittish, but wouldn't you know it? One came and sat on his TV antenna and sang its heart out for 15 minutes--and looked us both right in the eye from 30 feet above. Never seen a cardinal sing like that, nor give that kind of performance since. We stopped sobbing and it captured our hearts; I'll never forget it to my dying day.

Something similar happened on the day of my Aunt's death. A cardinal sat in the tree right above me and just hung out for a few minutes. I sobbed.

 

[Comentarista82]

I am out in the nw and yesterday the sandhill cranes were flocking up and flying south bound.....kinda sad to see summer over so soon!

I got to see a male Sandhill dance for a female in a baseball park next to a post office in Summerfield, FL on a 25-mile bike ride I regularly did in that area. Happened to have my camera and get a few shots that came out well. Quite the performance and very entertaining. If you get to see one, count yourself blessed.

 

[liqueur]

Was going to recommend Merlin from Cornell Ornithology Labs, but you'd already done so. It is a great app, but not perfect. But it sure helps when you can't see them and only hear them.

I've seen Merlin make its share of errors. but it's still amazing correct so much of the time.

 

[Comentarista82]

Something similar happened on the day of my Aunt's death. A cardinal sat in the tree right above me and just hung out for a few minutes. I sobbed.

Sorry about your aunt, but how lovely you had marvelous company.

 

[Comentarista82]

I've seen Merlin make its share of errors. but it's still amazing correct so much of the time.

Yeah...it gets more right than wrong. Out of somewhere like 50 recordings, it's only messed up 3-4 times. Of course, that likely reflects 200 different birds with only 3-4 errors, so that's pretty spot on.

 

[liqueur]

I've seen a pileated woodpecker only once in my life. I spotted it not because of its drumming but because of its call, which pierced the stillness of the forest like a clarion.

I have one that hangs around my house a lot. Very elusive, though. I hear it far more often than I see it. They love wild grapes. If you have any grapes around you, up in the trees, that's a good place to spot them.

 

[Comentarista82]

I have one that hangs around my house a lot. Very elusive, though. I hear it far more often than I see it. They love wild grapes. If you have any grapes around you, up in the trees, that's a good place to spot them.

The one I have trouble spotting/hearing regularly is a Red-headed Woodpecker. Have one in the park near where I live, but only saw it for the THIRD time in a year; the first two he trilled and this time, just flew--but now I know the 2 new light poles it favors. I hear and see the Red-bellied and Downy ones often, but that's only 5 sightings for the Red-headed one. According to Cornell, it's a little more uncommon.

 

[liqueur]

The one I have trouble spotting/hearing regularly is a Red-headed Woodpecker. Have one in the park near where I live, but only saw it for the THIRD time in a year; the first two he trilled and this time, just flew--but now I know the 2 new light poles it favors. I hear and see the Red-bellied and Downy ones often, but that's only 5 sightings for the Red-headed one. According to Cornell, it's a little more uncommon.

I've never seen one. They don't come this far north.

Edit: but I'd never seen a red bellied woodpecker either, and now they've moved up the Champlain basin as far north as Burlington VT. It's only a matter of time before they're up here in Maine, too. In fact I think I heard that they're already being seen down in the Portland area.

So who knows, about the red headed woodpecker?

 

[Bloodandglitter]

Sorry about your aunt, but how lovely you had marvelous company.

Thank you and sorry to hear about your uncle as well. She was ny favorite Aunt and liked me for me

 

[Bamagan]

The one I have trouble spotting/hearing regularly is a Red-headed Woodpecker. Have one in the park near where I live, but only saw it for the THIRD time in a year; the first two he trilled and this time, just flew--but now I know the 2 new light poles it favors. I hear and see the Red-bellied and Downy ones often, but that's only 5 sightings for the Red-headed one. According to Cornell, it's a little more uncommon.

I took this picture years ago at a wildlife refuge on the northern Gulf Coast. Very handsome birds!

 

[Comentarista82]

I've never seen one. They don't come this far north.

One that was brand new for me was Mississippi Kites. They have exact same short song as an Eastern Wood Pewee, but only two bars long (compared to four for the Pewee). They've already left the area for South America it appears, and I miss them already. Showed up in late March and it's the first time they've ever been here.

 

[Comentarista82]

I took this picture years ago at a wildlife refuge on the northern Gulf Coast. Very handsome birds!
View attachment 2566201

Great catch! Their red/white/black pattern is so distinctive.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

One allegorical account was where a guy lost some kind of key remote that played a certain song. He later found the remote although 3 weeks later he heard a mockingbird near that same bush singing the same bars off that remote.

I have heard them meow like cats and cry like babies.

I've also had them follow me around the yard while mowing, swooping for bugs that got chased up.