Birders' Nest

[Pohjolas Daughter]

According to many people on a Manitoba birding Facebook page I follow there have been several dark eyed junco sightings. A good sign of spring on its way! 

Yay! 

Went for a nice long walk with a friend by a river this morning.  Saw some great things whilst out including a red-tailed hawk flying right overhead of us; it circled approximately 3 times or so right overhead of us then eventually flew away.  Earlier in the morning we saw what we think might have been a great horned owl (alas my friend couldn't get his binoculars out quickly enough).  It was flying towards some trees.  It was massive and blocky in shape.

Great way to start the day. 

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Had a very pleasant surprise this past Tuesday.  I was leaving my house when all of a sudden to the side of me and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bunch of birds leaving in a flurry.  Apparently, they had been having a grand ole time using my bird bath.  I sat down and was quiet and still for a bit, and they ended up coming back.  Saw several black capped chickadees, a few song sparrows, and a couple of robins.  Unfortunately, when the robins show up, the smaller birds flew away.  They did keep coming back though to drink and bathe.  Hadn't ever seen so many birds using it before!  Thinking of maybe seeing if I could set up some kind of wildlife cam so that I could enjoy watching them from within my house...that or maybe set up a second bird bath somewhere that I could watch it through a window?  In any event, nice to see that they were making good use of it.  I had wondered over the years whether anything other than the wasps were making use of it.

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Delighted to see that Big Red's (the female red-tailed hawk at Cornell) first two eggs have hatched--the second one hatching early, early this morning.  Watched her for a while feeding M1 (the first-hatched).  What a good mother she is!  And her faithful partner Arthur is such a good provider (bringing all of them various things to eat) as well as doing brooding duty (when Big Red lets him!).  Hopefully the third egg will hatch in the next couple of days.

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

The three red-tailed hawk chicks at Cornell are all doing well (knock-on-wood).  They have been *flapping their wings and hopping all around the nest--including on top of the light boxes (which are angled down towards the athletic field.  How the heck do they manage to stay on top of those things:  they are metal and facing downward?!).  Fledge or fludge day is any time now.  I believe that the eldest one, M1 is 46 days old today (almost typed years!).  Average fledge is something like 47.something-or-other days.

* a combo known as "flappercising"

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Delighted to announce that M1 had a successful (and powerful!) fledge this morning.  If anyone wants to see it, it was at 6:00 (EST/Cornell Cam1 time).  Just type in Cornell hawk and cam.

PD

[VonStupp]

We have had this guy for about a year now. The girls love him and have taught him to say a few things.

I liked Gus immediately due to his mischievous, curious look in his eyes. I included a picture of him playing hide and seek with me before we got him. He now flies all over the house; rules the roost, as they say
VS

[Pohjolas Daughter]

We have had this guy for about a year now. The girls love him and have taught him to say a few things.

I liked Gus immediately due to his mischievous, curious look in his eyes. I included a picture of him playing hide and seek with me before we got him. He now flies all over the house; rules the roost, as they say
VS

Sweet! 

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

We have had this guy for about a year now. The girls love him and have taught him to say a few things.

I liked Gus immediately due to his mischievous, curious look in his eyes. I included a picture of him playing hide and seek with me before we got him. He now flies all over the house; rules the roost, as they say
VS

You might appreciate this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGsN7jzp5DE

PD

[VonStupp]

You might appreciate this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGsN7jzp5DE

PD

Adorable.   I hope, god-willing, my mother will live many more years; but I know when she passes, I will inherit her cat. I wasn't sure how that would fly between bird and cat.
VS

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Adorable.   I hope, god-willing, my mother will live many more years; but I know when she passes, I will inherit her cat. I wasn't sure how that would fly between bird and cat.
VS

Hopefully, she will live much longer and that if kitty is still alive when she passes, that all will go well between the two.  It's amazing how much and how often animals of different species become friends. 

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Had really cool experience today.  A friend and I did an errand together (mid-afternoon) and then went for a short walk along a local pond/river.  Alas, didn't see many birds there but the weather was particularly nice for this time of year, so we enjoyed it.  Then went out to do a tiny bit of grocery shopping and came back to my house late afternoon.  Unloaded groceries and said our goodbyes.  Friend was just about starting to get back into his vehicle when we both heard a loud squawk (I was by the front door and went to go outside at the same time as he called me to come back out.).  Thought that it might be a red-tailed hawk at first.  Went down the stairs and looked up at where he had pointed:  it was a bald eagle sitting high up in a tree of mine (an adult).  It just hung out on one of the branches, sitting in the sunshine looking around.  We watched it for about 10 minutes and then saw it fly away.  It was huge!  Beautiful and striking bird.

Bald eagles are second in size in terms of birds in the US.  The only larger bird is the California Condor.

I feel honored that it chose to sit--for even a short while--in one of my trees.

PD

[steve ridgway]

One of the magpies was making the most of the sun just now.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

One of the magpies was making the most of the sun just now.

Cool!  I've never seen a magpie before.  Wonder if we have them in my area?  And, nope!

Their coloring is lovely.

PD

[steve ridgway]

Their coloring is lovely.

I'll keep an eye open for any magpie feathers, they have blue and green in as well as black and white.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I'll keep an eye open for any magpie feathers, they have blue and green in as well as black and white.

I love this website--very helpful in identifying birds.  https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eurasian_Magpie/

It's run by Cornell University.

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

We have had this guy for about a year now. The girls love him and have taught him to say a few things.

I liked Gus immediately due to his mischievous, curious look in his eyes. I included a picture of him playing hide and seek with me before we got him. He now flies all over the house; rules the roost, as they say
VS

How's Gus doing these days?

PD

[Scion7]

Of course, observing these is dicey ...

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Of course, observing these is dicey ...

What on earth are those?!

By the way, I read an article saying that they are trying to genetically engineer a comeback for the dodo (and possibly two other birds).  Here's one article about that:  https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/world/dodo-bring-back-from-extinction-colossal-scn/index.html

PD

[Scion7]

What on earth are those?!

Manchester grouse. 

[Scion7]

A pair of the gigantic Dromornis stirtoni – one of the biggest birds of all time – wanders the landscape of the Australian Miocene with their attractively patterned chicks. Despite appearances, Dromornis and its kin – the dromornithids or mihirungs – are not closely related to other, similarly-shaped birds from the fossil record (like the gastornithids and phorusrhacids). They are instead allied to anseriforms – the wildfowl. This affinity would surely have affected some aspects of their life appearance.

Vegetarians, but at 12-14 feet tall, quite daunting. Many vegetarians are quite dangerous - rhinos, elephants, bull-type cows ... I wouldn't relish coming into their perceived-threat radius, if they were still around. (pushes Florestan out of the blind into their midst ...)