morning bird report

[jrisk]

there's a known pair of Peregrine Falcons that hang around a nearby church and I've gone and checked for them every day this past week - four times yesterday and twice today so far and no freaking luck! It would be really nice to get them for my fantasy birding challenge. I ran into an older woman who was staked out yday and she gave me a bit more info about the falcons. They're a male and female, both about 5 years old and they're nicknamed Whitey and Betty and she had them there last week! She gave me her number and we're both going to let each other know when we see them. Apparently she's been reporting the sightings to MassWildlife so they can keep tabs on all of the possible nesting PEFA in the state.

[jrisk]

glad to be back so soon. went out this AM and had the pair of PEFA (that's the banding code for Peregrine Falcon) at the local church down the street for me. Meet Betty and Whitey!!



there's a nesting box on the school next door so hopefully they stick around and use it this year!

[CMYK]

hey jon i saw a great heron today as i was running around the reservoir around here. No photo unfortunately, took off when we got close and I only saw him fly away.








great jizz

[rubymtn]

Roadrunners, always and forever.

[p3rn]

downside to (seed) birdfeeders in an urban environment is that they often attract rodents as well.

[jrisk]

well, birding has been pretty slow lately. a fairly rare Canvasback duck popped up close by and I was able to nab another lifer.

yesterday, a local nature club reached out to me to see if I was willing to help monitor bluebird boxes this nesting season and I've agreed to! There's a trail of about 45 boxes in a nearby wildlife management area. they've never been able to accurately assess the success rate of bluebirds in the area so I'll be stopping by at least once a week to take notes on the activity at each. should be an interesting experience!

[jrisk]

how is your fantasy league going?

thanks for asking!! it's going alright, been a little slow lately. I'm at 55 overall species, missing a few obvious birds but I'll get them eventually. I was pretty excited to get all of the local falcons (Merlin, Peregrine Falcon and American Kestrel). Below is a not-great pic of the Kestrel. Extremely cute birds!!

[Trench Witch]

I like the ruddy duck

[jrisk]

good morning. just had an unexpected sighting of an adult Great Horned Owl and its owlet!

[jrisk]

started monitoring the bluebird nestboxes today. there's at least FIFTY BOXES that i'll have to be checking on a pretty regular basis. please pray for me.

anyways, I mapped the boxes today and checked each one. lots of nests in progress! here's the requested picture of a male bluebird.



there's also a good population of Tree Swallows in the area. they were super active today, flying all over the place and checking out the boxes. just look at their iridescence!



here's an example of a bluebird nest (in progress). I expect it'll get filled in more and packed down over time.

[khayandhi]

European birds are boring compared to American birds but I saw a nice pair of mistle thrushes earlier. They have what the bird-watching mums of my acquaintance refer to as a 'confiding' expression. This tree was cut down the next day, which as a metaphor is too on the nose

[CMYK]

jon there were a bunch of woodpeckers where I was camping this weekend it was pretty cool. What woodpeckers live at high altitude in northern new mexico?

[bels]

They were probably "New Mexico Mountain Woodpeckers" aka Picus Mexicaltus

[jrisk]

jon there were a bunch of woodpeckers where I was camping this weekend it was pretty cool. What woodpeckers live at high altitude in northern new mexico?

did some research and doesn't look like that area gets birded a whole lot but I think you'd be surprised how many woodpeckers are able to thrive at that elevation. Here's a list of what I think was most likely around.

American Three-toed Woodpecker
Williamson's Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Red-naped Sapsucker
Northern Flicker

[CMYK]

thank you jon, that is interesting that there are so many options! I distinctly remember there being a few different tones/cadences as they were pecking. Are those sounds identifiable in the same way that bird calls are? Perhaps there were multiple types!

[jrisk]

yes, a lot of them they do have distinct drumming styles. tones are generally just based on the tree matter that they're hitting but the rhythms can be used to ID them.

sapsuckers in general are pretty unique when compared to other woodpeckers. it's usually slower and a little more "free form" sounding. since we're on the topic, check out the recording I took this AM of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. this male was moving around on a dead tree using different spots to generate different tones. pretty cool



the other woodpeckers I listed would be much harder to ID specifically since they generally follow the rhythm of "peck as fast as possible".

[CMYK]

jon i had a great birdwatcher siting today - older couple, prob 60/70s in a rarely trafficked corner of a local trail system. Head to toe all black gore tex (small probability of rain today). Sunglasses + sun hats, one with a huge pair of binoculars, the other one with an insane camera (looked like the ones you see on the sideline of NFL games - telephoto so long it had its own stand. Wonder what they were looking for.