BIRDS

[DDW_OR]

I am sure glad for the Merlin Bird ID app.
has free data packs for around the world.

i like the Hermit Thrush.
sounds a little Sci-Fi

[beenthere]

The pic of the owl looks like an oil painting. Or was the pic filtered through an app similar to the one Jeff used to use to enhance a photo?  Just curious. 

[aigheadish]

No filter but I did increase the brightness a touch on my stock Samsumg Note phone. 

[Hilltop366]

Nice photo.

The phone as well as jpeg automatically "fixes up" photos to improve them. They are limited to how much detail and sharpness they can get with a tiny lens and sensor so they add definition among other things which improves the edges of details so the photo looks better. Years ago before those photo filters were common I had taken a picture and bumped up the definition, saved it then took it out of the photo editor program then put it back in and bumped it up again, after a bunch of times doing this the photo looked like one of the filters.

Now the picture of the owl with all the leaves makes for lots of edges compared to a sky distant lawn etc. so I think that is why it turned out that way.

[Ron Scott]

Nice picture! 

[thecfarm]

I was coming out of the woods with my truck, headlights on and saw something, owl? go to the ground and flew off. All that I saw was wings.

[WV Sawmiller]

    Eastern bluebird Progress report:
(See previous post of 14 July)

10 July - eggs
14 July - newly hatched
24 July

  Its tough living here in WV. I walked out to take this picture for the update on my bluebirds about 40 yards from the front steps in the box in the back yard. When I step out and look left a young doe standing about 35 yards away in the edge of the front yard snorted at me and trotted off. (She was probably finishing the watermelon rind I left for her yesterday. When I looked right I could see a big blue heron in the creek under the bridge. He was evidently eating the fish heads and guts someone ( )  had left in the pool in the creek there. Its a great place to live and the grandkids int he city really love it up here.

[WhitePineJunky]

Seen a heron land too if a pine tree today in woods 

[thecfarm]

I saw a blue heron take off out of a tree one day.
I was walking to the pond by my parents' house.
Kinda looked like something out of a horror movie taking off.

[SwampDonkey]

I can hear the bluebird babies when I walk by the nest box now. I know the adult birds have been busy going in and out. And they also sing all day in the trees. Sometimes they are on the porch roof singing.

[thecfarm]

That wipperpoorwill starts in around 9 just about every night.

[TreefarmerNN]

That wipperpoorwill starts in around 9 just about every night.

We don't have whipperwills singing around any more.  I used to hear them frequently but haven't heard one for years.  And no, it's not all my hearing is worse.

On the plus side, we've got a few bobwhite quail coming back.  Even if there aren't enough to really hunt, it's nice to hear a friendly bob white call.

And, this turkey was doing something goofy in front of a game camera.

[thecfarm]

I have not heard a whippoorwill in years either. 
This one is making up for all the missed years. 

[doc henderson]

[KWH]

Doc, thanks for the humor that was a good one.

[WV Sawmiller]

  I got up this morning to find this hawk sitting on a fence post about 35 yards from my bedroom window. After a while he hopped down into the grass in the pasture but did not appear to catch anything. I don't know if he was after a grasshopper or a mouse or what. He flew back up and landed on a cross fence gate 10 yards away and sat there a while.

  I am not sure what kind he was. He had a bright red chest but not  red tail so I don't think he was a red tailed hawk. I thought Cooper's hawks have a much lighter chest. They are common here. From the pictures I looked up I wonder if he was a red shouldered hawk.

  Any ornithological experts handy who can confirm what he is?

[SwampDonkey]

The baby bluebirds left the nest yesterday. I have not been around the house during work hours to listen for them. They usually stick around for awhile.

[SwampDonkey]

I'm no expert, but it does look like a red shouldered hawk, which is a common hawk up here.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-shouldered_Hawk

Apparently, they will team up with the crows to drive off any great horned owls in their territory. The owls will kill and eat their young, but visa versa can happen to if the hawks team up.

[Ron Scott]

Yes, a red shouldered hawk.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Thanks Ron. I love to see any of them. We probably have more great barred owls up here than anything else but hardly ever see them. I did see a dozen or more Ospreys on the lake Tuesday along with 2 immature Bald Eagles but neither of them come up my creek that far from the river. Blue herons do but not the eagle or ospreys. They seem to want open shallow water to fish.

[Hilltop366]

Spent the weekend on the Tusket islands off the end of Nova Scotia. Its only a 10-15 min boat ride from the mainland. Spent Saturday on Deep Cove Island where there was some live music (we played for a while too) then went to Turpentine Island to stay over night and part of Sunday.

Heron on lobster traps, picture taken from Turpentine Island NS.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I went out and checked on my bluebirds and they had graduated and flown the coop. I hear they are headed for a family reunion up in Centereville NB. They will be some tired little birdies when they get there but I am sure they will enjoy the trip.

    I went ahead and removed the old nest. If the parents are so inclined they still have time to build another nest and raise another clutch before it turns too cool around here and feed gets hard to find.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Just before sunset I saw a bunch of bluebirds flitting around in the air and lighting on my fence and willow tree in the back yard. It looked like training flights to me where the new batch of bluebirds were learning how to fly and steer and such. Maybe they were doing strength training for their long flight ahead to Centreville NB.

   It was lots of fun to watch them. After spending several weeks with 2 siblings in a 4" X 6" nest cavity I am sure they are very surprised and thrilled to have a wide open space to cavort in.

[SwampDonkey]

I haven't had to time to observe here yet, maybe this weekend. Although it looks like a wet one.

[thecfarm]

I heard an owl this morning.
Something else that I have not heard in years.