Start with the bright, colorful ones. Then the Raptors
Gold Finch Rose Breasted Grossbeak Cardinal
Bald Eagle
Canada Geese Pelican
House Finch Brown headed Cowbird Chickadee Red winged Blackbird.
Include what you want to. I left out some of the "every yard" birds.
Yesterday on the old Savanna Army Depot, I had Cornell's Merlin App running and it detected vocals from the Eastern Towhee, and the Osprey. Never seen either bird that I recognized it. But want to. Looked hard but the brush was thick.
64 years old and never seen some of the common birds around me. Time to make up time...
I see regularly at the feeder and around the house Cardinals Chipping Sparrows Scarlet tangers Summer tangers purple finches Black capped chickadees Brown headed Nutthatch Black Capped Nutthatch Pine Warblers Brown thrashers
I see Indigo Buntings in the pasture but they seem pretty secretive Downy Wood peckers Piliated wood peckers Wood Thrushes in the woods and of course crows, blue jays and Redtailed hawks
Western Tanager House finch Grackle Mourning dove Eurasian collared dove Red winged blackbird Canadian goose Mallard Cinnamon Teal Coot Sand hill crane Blue Heron Kingfisher Bridge swallow Bald eagle Golden eagle Red tailed hawk Swainsons hawk Kestrel Grey partridge Pheasant
Hen Wood Duck with 6 little ones. Kingfisher. Oriole. Yellow Winged Blackbird, Osprey. Along with the regulars. Lesser Goldfinch, Red Winged Black Bird, Erasian Collared Doves, White Crowned Sparrows.
Covey of Gambel Quail Hummers on the desert willow Roadrunner Mourning Doves Red Tail Hawk Cactus Wrens Male Cardinal Something smallish with a lot of yellow At a distance - wing beat like eagle - would have to be a Golden
Got a good look at a bald eagle about twenty yds in a field below house , biggest one I’ve seen in sometime. One big powerful looking bird . Starlings , robins, cardinals, red wing black birds , crows , bunch of little birds . Occasional raven . Chicken hawks .
4,000 acre prairie restoration and bison project 15 minutes from the house. I walk the trails over there frequently and went a couple of hours ago.
Saw,
Barn Swallows Eastern Kingbirds Turkey Vultures Wild Turkeys and Crows
The Merlin App on the phone detected a number of bird calls of stuff I didn't see. Most notably the Yellow Billed Cuckoo, or Storm Crow. I did hear the call, and it's one I've heard before. But I did not see the bird. I honestly don't recall ever hearing the term "Yellow Billed Cuckoo". I've heard of the storm crow, but figured it was a crow in a storm.
Great Crested Flycatchers are the only real notable bird for me. They’ve been nesting in my tulip tree. I think they’re out of the nest now and I was seeing the young following one of the adults today. Kestrel , crows , cardinals , thrashers , redheaded woodpecker , downy woodpecker , pileated woodpeckers , red tailed Hawk , and I think a Cooper’s hawk. There’s others that I’m forgetting. Sat outside in my sling chair after I replaced the sling in it. I needed a rest after wrestling with that PITA job ! The sling really didn’t want to slide into the track !
Great Crested Flycatchers are the only real notable bird for me. They’ve been nesting in my tulip tree. I think they’re out of the nest now and I was seeing the young following one of the adults today. Kestrel , crows , cardinals , thrashers , redheaded woodpecker , downy woodpecker , pileated woodpeckers , red tailed Hawk , and I think a Cooper’s hawk. There’s others that I’m forgetting. Sat outside in my sling chair after I replaced the sling in it. I needed a rest after wrestling with that PITA job ! The sling really didn’t want to slide into the track !
This is another bird that, if I ever saw one, I never recognized it. The Merlin App has indicated them at my home and a couple of other places. Seem like a guy oughtta at least know what birds are in his yard and neighborhood.
Bunch of Scrub (blue) Jays in the back yard until a Sharp Shinned or young Coopers Hawk showed up. Talk about fast movers. He missed and that was it for birds in the back yard for the rest of the morning.
Great Crested Flycatchers are the only real notable bird for me. They’ve been nesting in my tulip tree. I think they’re out of the nest now and I was seeing the young following one of the adults today. Kestrel , crows , cardinals , thrashers , redheaded woodpecker , downy woodpecker , pileated woodpeckers , red tailed Hawk , and I think a Cooper’s hawk. There’s others that I’m forgetting. Sat outside in my sling chair after I replaced the sling in it. I needed a rest after wrestling with that PITA job ! The sling really didn’t want to slide into the track !
This is another bird that, if I ever saw one, I never recognized it. The Merlin App has indicated them at my home and a couple of other places. Seem like a guy oughtta at least know what birds are in his yard and neighborhood.
Look in the canopy for great crested flycatchers, a bit bigger than a Cardinal.
Severe drought here is affecting everything, local mockingbirds not breeding, breeding white-wing dove numbers way down, same with the great-tailed grackles.
My purple martins are gonna lose 4 out of five young this year, already had a number of “fallouts”, young martins too weak to fly.
On top of that I just saw an adult Cooper’s hawk , a male, had to be resident. First breeding Coop I’ve seen in my neighborhood in 35 years, tho I’ve been expecting them. They are death on purple martins.
The annual robins and swallows nesting in boxes on the house. Bald eagles, dove, turkey, geese and those long neck birds I call loons. Kinda like my Dad called every one from the Middle East AAArabs. Loons...
Great Crested Flycatchers are the only real notable bird for me. They’ve been nesting in my tulip tree. I think they’re out of the nest now and I was seeing the young following one of the adults today. Kestrel , crows , cardinals , thrashers , redheaded woodpecker , downy woodpecker , pileated woodpeckers , red tailed Hawk , and I think a Cooper’s hawk. There’s others that I’m forgetting. Sat outside in my sling chair after I replaced the sling in it. I needed a rest after wrestling with that PITA job ! The sling really didn’t want to slide into the track !
This is another bird that, if I ever saw one, I never recognized it. The Merlin App has indicated them at my home and a couple of other places. Seem like a guy oughtta at least know what birds are in his yard and neighborhood.
The great crested flycatcher is a tough one to get a good look at. I was aware of some kind of bird with a nest for a week before I was able to get a clear view and look it up. They stay way up in the tree and don’t really perch out in the open. They perch inside the tree mostly.
I’ve downloaded the Merlin app and have been recording as I drink my coffee. So far I’ve got great crested flycatchers (seen) , Carolina wrens , black vultures (seen) , red shouldered hawk (seen) , Cardinal, tufted titmouse, crows (seen) , blue jays. So far that’s what I’ve seen and or recorded this morning. There’s definitely four flycatchers spread around the yard so I’m assuming two young have made it out of the nest. They’re not using the tulip tree anymore so not tending the nest.
As I approach the double nickel in age I’ve gone soft ! I’ve been watching a bushy tailed tree rat sit on my feeder’s head and throw $11 a bag corn out and haven’t felt the need to shoot it yet. Yet…
Stopped yesterday at my LGS and picked up 300 rounds of CCI Mini Mag HP. I have plenty of 22 lr but this is what my BAR 22 likes the best. The squirrels……… not so much. My feeders would be cleaned out every two days if not for the tree rat squad standing guard. I also keep a dog proof trap under the feeders for the night raiders(coons and possums).
Stopped yesterday at my LGS and picked up 300 rounds of CCI Mini Mag HP. I have plenty of 22 lr but this is what my BAR 22 likes the best. The squirrels……… not so much. My feeders would be cleaned out every two days if not for the tree rat squad standing guard. I also keep a dog proof trap under the feeders for the night raiders(coons and possums).
The squirrels work on my feeder but it holds 500lbs so they’re not wiping it out in two days. I’ve got one big coon that comes all hours of the day. I often see it out there at high noon. As long as it doesn’t get up on the feeder head and wreck it the coon doesn’t bother me. The only thing I don’t have coming regularly are turkeys. I get some every once in awhile.
Johnw: 75 degrees here today (by FAR the warmest day of this year so far) and the birds are VERY active around my bird feeder, yard and nearby fields. So far today: Robins Chickadees Wrens Gold Finch Swallow Meadowlarks Magpies Mourning Doves Eurasian Doves Black Birds Red-Wing Blackbirds Vultures Ravens Western Tanagers (they just arrived back here last week) Bald Eagle Goshawks And the Bird Watching highlight (or lowlight?) of the day was a Golden Eagle that kept repeatedly swooping down on a Doe Antelope who has been in her "birthing posture" all morning. I hope that the soon to be mother Antelope can avoid losing her fawn(s) to this giant bird. The Antelope is 550 yards distant and with my good binoculars I can not see a fawn anywhere in the shortgrass and sage field the mother (?) is lying down now. Hoping for the best here. Hold into the wind VarmintGuy
Canada geese 2 breeds of hummers Mergansers Goldfinch Steller’s Jay Bald Eagle Vulture Osprey Redtail hawk Chickadee Some little red headed tweety bird Mourning doves Swallows Flickers Starlings
Nothing out of the ordinary lately except a chipping sparrow, which I don’t see (or maybe notice) very often. Noticeably missing this season are the house wrens, though I have a house and a gourd available for rent. Always enjoy hearing the noisy little bastards, the most noise per pound (gram) around here.
Wifey had to release five blueberry thieves from the nets yesterday including a bluejay, which is unusual for them.
New one for me. Possibly a black rail. Best I can figure it was.
Arkansas along US65 south of Clinton. Compactish very dark waterbird in flight. Much smaller than the egrets. Not a gallinule nor coot, though I did interact with an old coot in Little Rock.
Our brood of (2/5 hatched) parakeets is fully dead now. Mom seems sickly. We're hell on pets.
There’s a colony on the Shenandoah not far from here, just off the Rt. 7 bridge. Seem to prefer to roost in the sycamores that predominate along that river.
My wife interacts with an old coot on a daily basis, poor thing!
Today? Almost nothing. I'm inside in a warehouse shop all day. Just the usual grackles, starlings, and house sparrows outside the window. Buzzards are always around. I paid no attention to anything driving to or from work.
Last weekend on the road, though, I saw about a bazillion red wing blackbirds, lots of barn swallows under every bridge I passed, herons, egrets, probably a Canada goose or two, several ospreys, one bald eagle, red tail hawks, a kestrel, and no telling how many "backyard birds" like cardinals, robins, etc.
We’re down to goldfish now (one). About as low-maintenance as it gets, and no major emotional distress when they go under.
Do have a squirrel that has no proper regard for its place in the scheme of things around here. Made the mistake of giving him a couple of shelled pecans instead of peanuts and the next day he turned his nose up at the peanuts liked he’d been eatin’ pecans all his life, the fugger!
Cowbirds, Cardinals, And Grosbeaks are messy eaters... Stick their beak in the seed and fling it all over creation. Now I've got a sizeable herd of rabbits waiting on them to do it again.
I let the beagle out earlier and she tried to run 4 ways at once
Johnw: The VarmintWife and I took a long road trip yesterday to a distant gunshop/town and made a day of it. Along our route we saw: Pheasant Hungarian Partridge Wild Turkeys Blue Herons Sandhill Crane Curlews Marsh Hawks Mallards Cinnamon Teal Flicker Mountain Bluebirds Redtail Hawks and several other varieties of Hawks and Falcons Spring is finally starting hereabouts. Hold into the wind VarmintGuy
Have a baby robin on the ground right now in the back yard. This evening momma fought off my dog, a rabbit, mocking bird and a deer. Nobody was getting within 5 feet of her baby.
Feel for the little one out there in the dew of the night, but this is typical robin behavior. You don’t sit on your butt, fly or else.
Wood Duck SandhillCrane Warbling Vireo Blue Jay Cardinal
Went to My Daughter and SIL's place today knowing that Sandhill's generally nest on their place or the neighbors. Wasn't disappointed as they were feeding in an emergent field of corn across the road, and highly visible.
The Woodie was a bonus. The vireo was maybe a miracle.
Have been recording the sound of the Warbling Vireo almost everywhere I've gone in the past week. If they're visible at all, they've just been a too brief unidentifiable blip of movement in the trees. This afternoon, daughter and I were sitting by the pond when 2 clearly visible and identifiable Vireos flitted out of the trees and landed briefly on an arbor archway. Not much bird to feel so big over, but I was as happy with the Vireos as I was the Sandhills.
Used the SIL's camera to get a shot of one Sandhill.
I see hawks, crows, barred owls (at dusk), vultures, my chickens, mourning doves, cardinals, occasionally bluejays, tiny warblers (they make a nest and hatch out chicks every spring in a bucket hanging from the roof of my back porch), two kinds of woodpeckers, starlings. Those are the typical birds seen around my home.
Hawks, Eagles, Crows, my special little friends are some kind of Flycatcher's, not sure if they are the same ones, but its been 4 years now I have been noticing them, cute little guys.
Starling English House Sparrow Western King Bird Whitewing Dove Mourning Dove Euopean Dove Black Vulture Redtail Hawk Barn Pigeon Western Siccortail Flycatcher
I could watch Western Kingbirds all day, they are so graceful in flight. Around here the scissortail flycatchers get back first, many of which are aggressively displaced when the western kingbirds arrive a couple of weeks later.
OTOH western kingbirds depart in August on account of they do their post-breeding molt on the winter range in Mexico/Central America.
Scissortail flycatchers are cricket and grasshopper specialists, catching a lot of their prey on the ground, such prey generally being most abundant late summer and fall. So scissortails hang around on the breeding grounds to molt after breeding. Around here where I am you can find then until November.
‘Nother point of trivia, in Oklahoma scissortails get shotgunned in some places on account of the Indians use their tail feathers for peyote fans.
When I drove through South Dallas at about 11:00 in the morning the other day I saw a flock of Blackbirds hanging out at the 7-11 on the corner nearly all drinking 40 oz of Colt 45 and Old English.
I did see some bird in the front yard a couple of days ago that was all yellow with dark wings, no idea what it was but the sea roaches ran it off when they came to steal cat food.
Saw a string of pelicans lifting out of LeClaire Cove on the Mississippi this morning on the drive home from work. RW Blackbirds and starlings here and there.
Heavy Rain when I got off yesterday, and when i stopped for gas at the Pleasant Valley BP there was a RW Blackbird hovering over some rushes growing in the ditch and squalling for all she was worth. Reckon her babies got flooded.
I have kind of stayed away from this thread because I really like birds, live where there are a lot of them and notice them a lot. Afraid once I get going I might be a long time and will always have to come back with one I forgot. Anyway.... on a typical day we see a lot of birds:
white herons ibises black crowned night herons green herons wood storks (maybe seasonal, don't think I've seen one for a while) great blue heron ring billed gull great black back gull coopers hawk red tail hawk bald eagle bluebirds cardinals downy woodpeckers red belly woodpecker Carolina wren house wren blue jay mourning dove mocking bird great crested flycatcher osprey chickadee blue jay robin tufted titmouse song sparrow brown pelican mergansers crested cormorant European cormorant field sparrow eastern phoebe common yellowthroat Eastern towhee red wing black bird boat tail grackle golden eye grackle purple grackle ravens house finch blue gray gnatcatcher cedar waxwing yellow-rumped warbler brown headed nuthatch ruby crowned kinglet Canada goose killdeer
that's it from the list I've been keeping of those I can identify. Can't say I've seen them all the same day.
Not today, but a typical year of watching would include;
Red Belly Wood Pecker Morning Dove Palliated Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Downey Wood Pecker Red Tail Hawk Sharp Shined Hawk Baltimore Oriole Eastern Blue Bird Robin Flicker Crow Blue Jay Grackles Cow Bird Blackbirds Killdeer Finches Wrens Titmouse Chickadee Sparrow Osprey (when working the river) Bald Eagle (again, when working the river) Warbler Bats Turkeys Chickens (my egg layers) Blue Heron (working river or on creek) Geese (Canadian, they are thick here) Ducks Nuthatchs Cardinal Scarlet Tananger Indigo Bunting Purple Martin Turkey Vulture Starling Pigeon Barn Swallow Owls (rarely) Grouse (rarely anymore) Grosbeak
I’m missing some for sure. Have a list at home with the books I use to identify. Enjoy feeding and watching birds and have for years. Cool topic. Fun to rack my brain in the midst of a thunderstorm.
Stupid house cats are making a return here. They are hard on our birds. Coyotes had them extinct for years but now they (Yotes) seem to have disappeared. We are seeing a resurgence of rabbits, squirrels and groundhogs too.
I saw a couple of hen turkeys cross the road to the cabin with 10 or twelve little ones running along, close behind. I thought they had all crossed the road so drove on past. Two of the little guys, that were stragglers, busted out of the underbrush like a couple of quail. I didn't know those little guys could fly...
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