BIRDS

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, too big for bittern (brown egg) or heron (green egg). They nest out on reeds as well.

[beenthere]

Can't tell the size from the pic....anything hanging around the nest honkin at ya?    ;D ;D   (that'd be a clue, if'n there was...) 

[pigman]

Looks like goose eggs to me. Tomorrow I will risk life and limb and try to get a picture of the eggs under this goose. The goose's nest is only about 20 ft from my sawmill and the sawing does not make her leave the nest.

[Furby]

Yeah, I wasn't going to get close enough to put anything in for scale. :-\
I do have one pic with a paddle end showing, but it's a ways away from the nest.
I'd say they were 6" long, maybe more.

When we first came out onto the lake from the stream, there were tons of ducks, a handfull of geese and a few white swans over in the direction of the nest.
I was following the shoreline looking for goose nests and this nest jumped out at me.
Nothing was sitting on it and all the birds that were in the area before had moved down the lake as we moved across.
I called the kids over to have a look and then we got out of there.

A little while latter when we were heading back to the stream, I swung over to the nest to try and get a zoomed in close up as you see above as I hadn't taken any before.
Nothing was in the area or on the nest. :-\
It is on a South facing point though, so it was getting lots of sun.


Bob,
At one of my customers has a Live Wall display that my boss and I put plants in Fall before last.
I was there two weeks ago and noticed a goose sitting at the top and another further down the drive.
As I was coming out the drive, they were both walking around the island in the middle of the drive and as I went past, one of them let into the truck. Honking and flapping it's wings trying to scare the truck away, that's when I saw the nest right at the top of the 2' tall Live Wall. :D :D
It was raining or I would have gotten a pic.
Thing is, there isn't any water anyplace around, not sure why they picked the middle of a stores entrance drive.
If it's still there next time I go, I'll get a pic. ;) ;)

[pigman]

six inches long!    I don't thint they are goose eggs. The goose eggs I have seen are only about 2.5 to 3" long. But I suppose everything is bigger in Michigan, execept the mountains. :D

[semologger]

Are they ostrich eggs? I heard they are big. :D

[Furby]

That was the second thought I had after I ruled out goose eggs......... man those look like ostrich eggs!!! :D :D :D
But no, they aren't that big, but one would be a decent meal for most folks. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Well that rules out any type of heron.  :D

I have a lot of those heron and bittern around here in summer, it would be neat to find their nest on the ground. Blue heron do not always nest in trees.

[limbrat]

 
These guys might look sweet but there realy sizeing you up for lunch.

[limbrat]

Not realy but they are working there folks hard right now.

[OneWithWood]

Of all the days not to have my camera with me  :-\  !!
Yesterday while out spraying invasives I kicked up a bird I have never seen before.  It was on the ground and jumped up into a snag when I almost stepped on it.  The bird was the perfect green to blend in to the early spring foilage.  About the size of a cardinal, it was all green except for a yellow patch above and below the eyes.  I did not get a good look at the beak unfortunately.  the closest thing I found in my field guide was a carolina parkeet.  :P  But those birds are thought to be extinct.  I supose it is possible it is a type of tanager but the brillance of the yellow markings, the green of the body and the general shape of the head indicated parakeet.  Maybe a neighbor lost their pet bird  :
Linnea and I went back to the area this morning with the camera but no bird was sighted.

[semologger]

I thought woody the wood pecker had retired. I was wrong here he is.



I also got a picture of this road kill cleaner upper bird.



I got a new camera and i love it. i take it everywhere i go. If i could take a pichure of it i would.Its a Canon powershot SX100IS  It has 10 times optical zoom. It zooms in digital at 40. Its a 8 mega pixels.

  I wish i had it about an month ago i would of took a picture of a bald eagle that was perched in a tree. He was about 20 yards off the road as i drove by.

[Onthesauk]

Good pictures!

We didn't have any buzzards here until about five years ago when a pair showed up in the valley.  The next year there were a couple more and then this last week, driving down the valley, I counted 8 of them circling together over the highway plus a second pair about 10 miles farther down.  Surprised there is enough to support them all.

[SwampDonkey]

What about a female painted bunting? Looks like it may be out of range though. I saw those in Florida once and thought I was looking at green robins. :D

Or a smaller bird is a solitary vero or Philadelphia vero in migration to Canada (out of range down your way). Or maybe a female and migrant male scarlet tanager.

[OneWithWood]

I thought about all those, SB.  Just did not look entirely right.
One thing is certain, this bird was either out of its range or just passing through.

[Radar67]

Everyone seemed to like the Eagle cam, so here is the Egg CAM

There is one hatching right now.

[Furby]

At one of my customers has a Live Wall display that my boss and I put plants in Fall before last.
I was there two weeks ago and noticed a goose sitting at the top and another further down the drive.
As I was coming out the drive, they were both walking around the island in the middle of the drive and as I went past, one of them let into the truck. Honking and flapping it's wings trying to scare the truck away, that's when I saw the nest right at the top of the 2' tall Live Wall. :D :D
It was raining or I would have gotten a pic.
Thing is, there isn't any water anyplace around, not sure why they picked the middle of a stores entrance drive.
If it's still there next time I go, I'll get a pic. ;) ;)

Made it out there the other day.
One of the geese were missing, I assume the male.
I'm guessing it was er um, escorted from the property in an orderly manner. ;)
Got this pic though, still not sure why they'd pick that spot to begin with.

[Furby]

We were kayaking up at the lake yesterday and foated up on this.
Can anyone I.D. them?
My first though was geese, but then I realized they seemed a bit bigger than the geese eggs I've seen before.
I'm thinking swans as there are several in that area, but I've never seen a swan's nest up close before.

Two weeks later and I had the chance to get out and check the nest.
It was empty and looked like something had dug through it. :-\

Did you try and get some Goose egg pics Bob, or did the Goose win ???
I floated up on a Goose sitting on a nest, but there was no way I was going to try and get a pic of the eggs while trapped in a little kayak.
I would have been a sitting Furby! ;D

[pigman]

No Furby, I did not get a picture of the goose eggs. I kept forgetting my camera. A week later the goose was gone and the eggs were broken open. I am not sure, but I think some animal got the little gooses. I see the two big geese, but no little gooses following them. :(

[SwampDonkey]

Probably a coon or a fox. I see a fox sometimes terrorizing snipe and woodcock nests in the field. One fox was barking at me the other day and really did not run away as I walked past, just to the brushed in line fence. Then I looked back and she was on her way up along the ditch toward the neighbor's chicken house.  :

[Tom]

I don't have the story on this Sandhill Crane, but Jeff sent it to me in an email off of his phone a little while ago.

The reflection in the upper left seems to be the roofline of the cabin's porch.  That means he is out in the yard and presumably in the truck.  That might account for some of the curving in the image.  If this bird is looking into the truck, its a big bird.  Perhaps Jeff should remain where  he is. :D

[SwampDonkey]

I was walking up the road today and met the neighbor in the opposite direction. I asked her if some chickens have been disappearing and she said she has 3 left out of 12. I said it's that dang fox. I knew the thing would be into the coup.  :D

[Ron Scott]

I came across this nesting swan while out scouting for turkey recently. The female is on the nest and the male is guarding it. He gave me the "evil eye" and was getting ready to run me off. I didn't hang around very long. ;)

[SwampDonkey]

Found a woodcock nest with 3 eggs yesterday in some hardwood thinning. Saw two grouse also, that were probably setting, but I didn't search for nests. Was busy measuring land with my GPS.

[ibseeker]

My FIL was telling me just the other day that he was looking out the window of the cockhouse when he spotted a jake walking down the fence line. He just happened to have a stag in a fly pen close by so he grabbed it up and opened the back door of the cockhouse just as the jake was rounding the corner of the fence. He tossed that stag down right close to the jake and the fight was on! Both birds broke about 3 feet into the air and commenced to whacking each other, he slipped around behind and grabbed the jake and tossed him into the fly pen. The next day his neighbor came by and told him....DanG, I been trying to shoot a turkey for the last month and you catch one with a rooster!  :D