"Wisdom, at least 63, has had 7 chicks in 7 years By Matt Cantor,
Wisdom the Laysan albatross is "at least" 63 years old, experts say, making her the oldest known wild bird on the planet. And, amazingly, she's still hatching chicks. Last week, a worker at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge—Wisdom's home in the north Pacific—saw the mother caring for a new chick, according to a press release. And it's a feat she's managed for each of the past seven years, LiveScience notes. For comparison, most Laysan albatrosses live between 12 and 40 years, per the US Fish & Wildlife Service. Wisdom first came to the attention of researchers while incubating an egg ... in 1956. She was tagged then, and has likely raised no fewer than 30 chicks in her lifetime."
I went on a pontoon boat birding ride into the Upper Newport Bay today. It was fun but not too birdy. The best bird was a Reddish Egret.
Afterwards I went over to the Environmental Nature Center in Costa Mesa to look for Japanese White-eyes and saw around 10. These birds are very small (3") and very hyper.
It is very cool to see lots of birds doing the nest building thing right now - we saw a bunch of Cliff Swallows gathering mud from a puddle at a trailhead yesterday, but the camera was at home... Some more SW birds from this Spring:
Verdin, Tucson mountain parks
Credit: BrassNuts
Bewick's Wren, Morongo Valley CA
Credit: BrassNuts
Pair of Redtails in an old Saguaro, Phoenix. The boy has some breakfast between his feet on top.
Credit: BrassNuts
Costa's Hummingbird, Phoenix
Credit: BrassNuts
Mockingbird poses between imitating car alarms ;-)
Nice one, Bob! But why is he giving you the Stnkeye?
BTW, Blue Grosbeaks are the House Sparrow of Portal. And keep an eye out for the Cuckoo
I saw there last year. I was sitting on the patio of the 'joint' drinking a beer while it was too hot
to bird and it flew by up the creek. My kind of birding!
African birds HB Central Pk a couple days ago...
The proud Egyptian Geese parading 5 new goslings.
An interesting ancient Egyptian painting of these geese: http://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/tag/geese/
Egyptian Goose family
Credit: Plan B
Egyptian Gosling
Credit: Plan B
And there were 2 pairs of African Pin-tailed Whydah. I got a pic of the male and female.
Great photos Plan B...these guys scored big. On my ride this afternoon.
Credit: Bob D'A
My new job is about 15 minutes from Bosque del Apache...all you folks are invited and have a place to stay if want to come birding (or climbing and biking) anytime.
Let us know!