BIRDS

[SwampDonkey]

They are way up here to, but also uncommon. Mostly turkey vulture and they have kinda moved in because never saw one here years ago.

[WV Sawmiller]

   We spotted an Eastern Bluebird on the power line in the front yard this morning so while I was collecting some firewood on the other side of the house I checked on the nest box there to be sure any old nests had been removed. To my surprise there was a new nest already built and a clutch of 5-6 eggs already laid. I was wondering if it was an old clutch from last year but I saw some small tufts of feathers in the nest that look fresh so I put the top back on and will watch the box more closely. The parents did not attack me like I have had them do in the past when there was an active nest. I hope this is a fresh clutch and all do well. I love my bluebirds.

[caveman]

I saw a couple of Osceola turkey hens in my pasture this morning, a bald eagle on the east side of the lake we were fishing yesterday, and a bunch of chickens my daughter and her husband butchered today.  

Last week I started seeing the swallow tailed kites.  They evidently migrate from South America.  They come up the Isthmus of Panama and somewhere in Mexico or Texas, they decide to fly across the Gulf of Mexico.  There are GPS trackers on some of them.  Six of the ones with GPS trackers made the trip across the Gulf and are in various locations in Florida now.  They eat snakes as well as other things.

[Old saw fixer]

I was lying in bed early this morning after a latrine visit and heard a squirrel in the attic.  About that time an owl started hooting outside.  There was no more noise from the attic until the owl went to bed...

[WV Sawmiller]

   I can hoot like an owl and Sampson, my little Rat Terrier. gets very upset. I don't know if one ever swooped at him or why he is scared of them. 

   I know an eagle tried to get him right after I brought him home and he'd wake up in the boat when I was fishing and he was along for the ride and he'd jump up and start barking when one flew over. He weighs 13-14 lbs and I think is too big for an owl to catch.

[KEC]

WV, Reminds me, a guy who fished the famous trout streams in New Yorks' Catskill Mountains area told me that he would see a lot of fish in a river. Then suddenly, the fish would vanish and shortly after that he would see an eagle overhead. I think he said that it might be around 15 minutes after that when the fish came out of hiding. I'm convinced that when you fish from a boat that the sight of the boat spooks some of the fish.

[SwampDonkey]

Up this way, I fished a remote dead water I just had discovered. Was trout a plenty, nothing bigger than 10". They would dart out from under the bank of muskeg, moss and heath bushes. The water would just boil with fish. That night we had a thunderstorm, water raised a little. Went back in to fish. Not a sign of anything. A later venture into that dead water revealed something I never saw. A rookery of blue herons that were nesting in big old white pines. And that was the end of the fishing.   

Neighbor had fish ponds with trout, always had trouble with blue herons.

[WV Sawmiller]

   In one of my wildlife classes I remember reading or hearing about a study where they had a pen full of quail and they hooked a cut-out of a hawk to a cable and they let it slide down the cable over the pen. The quail scattered, took cover  or froze every time. Just on a whim some smart Alec reversed the cut-out and slid it down the wire again and the quail paid no attention to it. They got to looking at it and the best they could determine when "flown" backwards it looked more like a duck or goose than a hawk and the quail were not alarmed at them.

   I've been in the woods with chipmunks calling and squirrels chattering and such and suddenly everything would go dead silent. Usually a hawk or an owl would fly up and light in a tree nearby. One time it was a red fox but it was always a predator.

[WhitePineJunky]

These squirrels in your area WV, are they red squirrels? I have a hard time seeing them shutting up 

[Hilltop366]

A few eagles around the camp this weekend, I watched one land on a rock in the river and stay for while and take half a dozen drinks, he was a ways away (over 800') to get a good picture but was nice enough to give me a low fly by for a closer picture.

[WV Sawmiller]

WPJ.

  Around here we have Fox Squirrels, Grey (Cat) squirrels, a few red/pine squirrels (Often called fairy diddles) and tons of chipmunks. We also have a few flying squirrels but they are rarely seen.

  Chipmunks are about the noisiest ones. They will even get in a knothole or under a rock and keep on calling even when they can't still see you.

[aigheadish]

Neat shots Hilltop!

[SwampDonkey]

Mostly red squirrels up my way. Rarely see a grey squirrel outside of the towns. Up in the softwoods on the woodlot I've only seen red squirrels. They have piles of cone scales by spring time all over the place. They sure eat a lot of spruce seed.   They can't usually get the fir cones, they disintegrate before winter, one will hold together once in awhile. I had a small white pine that had cones last year in the woods, the squirrels cut all the cones. One cut all the red pine cones off in the back yard here, shoots and all.

[KEC]

SD, Do you see crossbills in your area? They compete with Red Squirrels for conifer seeds. There's a place in the Rocky Mountains where there are no Red Squirrels and crossbills do well there. Sounds like your squirrels are multi-tasking, havesting food and nest material at the same time?

[SwampDonkey]

Crossbills I don't see often. But lots of smaller birds like goldfinch, pine siskins, red poles, junco, nuthatch and chickadees. As to the pine shoots they are still on the ground. Them squirrels prefer insulation in the barn. :D

[SwampDonkey]

Migratory birds. Yes some crows do leave here but a lot stay in winter. We had at least 40 crows in a flock around here all winter. Usually only 6 or so come to the yard. This winter, like most in the past, I only see 2 pairs of ravens around here in the winter. If raven came into the yard, those crows would all dive bomb it out of here.   Neighbors said the other day, when we were talking about returning birds, 'the crows are back'. I said ours around home never left. You can't tell him any different. Evidence don't matter I guess. Besides crows caw, ravens I call old hags they screech or sound like someone knocking wooden sticks at other times.  

raven calls,
Old hag screech

wood knock later half

[aigheadish]

The guys talking about blue birds... You talking about eastern bluebirds? They are cool. Blue in nature is always neat.

Here's one in the yard, shot with my phone at 100+ feet away. Ooh, two cardinals hanging out too! 200+ feet away!

[KEC]

I have read that birds respond to a solar eclipse by behaving as though it's the end of the day and getting dark out (which, of course, it is getting dark). I am in Central New York close to the path of the total ecliplse coming on April 8, 2024 and I plan to watch the eclipse and the birds. I'll post about what I see.

[doc henderson]

We had a big prairie fire here about 10 years ago and thousands of birds high in the sky, circled and squawked like it was the end of the world.  kind of strange they sense the emergency.

[SwampDonkey]

It's weird seeing geese fly over head with 20" of fresh snow.  Last week everything was bare to grass and mud, even the woods had hardly any snow left. And I saw new bear tracks last week in corn stubble. There was a small patch of snow he walked in. Just woke up, now it's winter again. Actually yesterday the snow settled 2" in 45°F weather.

[NewYankeeSawmill]

I have read that birds respond to a solar eclipse by behaving as though it's the end of the day and getting dark out (which, of course, it is getting dark). I am in Central New York close to the path of the total ecliplse coming on April 8, 2024 and I plan to watch the eclipse and the birds. I'll post about what I see.

All the wildlife did when it went through our neck of the woods a few years ago. A bit odd, unsettling feeling, for sure, but very cool. The birds all flew to their nests, the frogs and crickets started, then 5 minutes later the sun reversed, but the animal's weren't having it. They were buggered up for the rest of the day, !
(SUNY Oswego Alum here, we used to vaca in Keuka and Cayuga lakes all the time)

[SwampDonkey]

A couple of geese with an old crow in the field this afternoon. A long ways off and raining to boot so not a great photo.

[WhitePineJunky]

Had geese over winter here 

[SwampDonkey]

I'm pretty sure we didn't up here. But they have been back now a couple weeks on the fields. I do know we have had ducks in the Presque Isle river all winter which is near by.

We have geese here in the summer pretty much as an invasive species thanks to Frank McKenna. They were nuisance transplant geese from Mississauga, Ontario. They were only rarely seen breeding here. Now we have an explosion of birds, which seem to get along well beside humans. They have impacted our local birds in wetlands. Geese were traditionally noticed in migration. I never saw a goose on the river when I used to fish by canoe and that goes back a couple decades before the 90's. Now people along water fronts complain about them constantly. I have no complaint about them because they are not impacting me at all. I like to observer them. They are a welcome site. 

[WhitePineJunky]

Yeah I like seeing them as well but can understand in numbers around urban areas they can cause a mess,
Every couple days there will be a flock flying overhead and always with the "honk"