Birds

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 7981 - 8000 of total 9874 in this topic

<< First | < Previous | Show All | Next > | Last >>

StahlBro

Trad climber

San Diego, CA

Oct 20, 2015 - 12:19pm PT

Can't see the video, but I have seen a lot of boat tailed grackles lately.

StahlBro

Trad climber

San Diego, CA

Oct 20, 2015 - 12:39pm PT

Cheers DMT!

Boat tails are bigger than the common grackles.

They can be a real pain during the mating season. They dive bomb you when you enter their "territory", and they ususally attack you from behind.

10b4me

Mountain climber

Retired

Oct 20, 2015 - 01:30pm PT

I think it might be a great tailed Grackle. It's song seems similar to this one.

StahlBro

Trad climber

San Diego, CA

Oct 20, 2015 - 01:37pm PT

I think you are right 10b. Wrong geography for a boat tail.

Crimpergirl

Sport climber

Boulder, Colorado!

Oct 20, 2015 - 07:53pm PT

Nice Grackle audio.

No photo or audio, but the last several days 100s of Sandhill Cranes have been flying over Boulder and other Front Range cities. It's the first time I've even seen/heard it. Very exciting!

Tony

Trad climber

Pt. Richmond, CA

Oct 21, 2015 - 07:18pm PT

On my way back from the Sierra Eastside I stopped briefly at Mono Lake. From the County Park boardwalk I spotted an odd-looking white bird with its head underwater. With size reference I was thinking Snow or Ross's Goose. An Eared Grebe swam by and I wondered "Smew?". It finally raised its head and appeared to be a almost completely white leucistic Eared Grebe. I got some poor distant shots and some digiscoped video.

[Click to View YouTube Video]

I thought I'd found something really rare, but upon getting home I found an article about just this. Although it is pretty rare (1 per 100,000 in fall) there are so many Eared Grebes on Mono Lake (about a million visit each fall) they are regularly seen. This one was on the far end of the spectrum, though. All white except for a faint line down the nape and neck.

We went on our fifth pelagic trip of the year last Sunday out of Ft. Bragg. I have a lot of photos to process before posting, but we saw a Great Shearwater, 3-4 Flesh-footed Shearwaters and ~30 Parakeet Auklets!

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Oct 22, 2015 - 08:09am PT

Nice find, Tony! Two years ago we saw about 20-30 Eareds at Lk S America (12,000') in
late Sept. They spent the night in the middle of the lake, even though I assured them we
could get along if they came ashore.

My only leucistics were an Audubon's Warbler and a Cockatoo.

Chaz

Trad climber

greater Boss Angeles area

Oct 22, 2015 - 10:11am PT

Willoughby

Social climber

Truckee, CA

Oct 22, 2015 - 10:26am PT

Tony, that sounds like it was an amazing pelagic to be on. I think there's 16 or so Great Shearwaters from CA now. Kudos!

dee ee

Mountain climber

Of THIS World (Planet Earth)

Oct 23, 2015 - 03:52pm PT

We had a Magnolia Warbler at W. Mason Park last weekend. StahlBro and I went down and found it (with many other birders present), but I could not get a photo, super bad lighting.
I did get this B and W Wobbler.

Today I dashed over to H. Weider Park for a Black-throated Sparrow, common at Josh but very rare in the OC. Once again I got skunked on the photo.

Darwin

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Oct 23, 2015 - 07:50pm PT

Not a bad commute home!!!!
(aka I'm effing stoked)

Darwin

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Oct 23, 2015 - 08:15pm PT

OK, there's one more that I want to post.

Tony

Trad climber

Pt. Richmond, CA

Oct 24, 2015 - 01:01am PT

We went out on a great pelagic trip from Ft. Bragg with the Mendocino Coast Audubon last weekend. There were no “slow” spells despite being out 11 hours. Soon after leaving the harbor we began to encounter many Black-vented Shearwaters. This quite far north to see them, but the warm waters have shifted them up. We saw hundreds feeding from shore on the previous day.

There were lots of Pink-footed Shearwaters.

Also Buller’s and Sooty Shearwaters.

Early on we saw a Great Shearwater, which was a first county record. Willoughby is right in that were only 6 previous state records for this Atlantic species. About half of them have been in the last couple of years.

We then headed toward a seamount, but started to encounter numbers of Parakeet Auklets. They were pretty fleeting and far off, so no photos. In fact, I can’t really count them, although they couldn’t have been anything else. I never managed to spot any orange bills.
As we headed out we saw a Flesh-footed Shearwater, pretty uncommon. There were three more sightings, at least a couple likely different birds.

Lots of others showed up throughout: Black-footed Albatross, Northern Fulmer, Pomarine Jaeger, Leach's and Ashy Storm-petrels.

As we were nearing the harbor, this unusual leucistic Black-vented Shearwater flew by.

Oh yeah, a Brown Booby. Lots of these up north this year.

Finally, a small mystery Shearwater was seen. Not quite right for either Manx or Black-vented. I don't know if an ID has been settled on.

Eric Beck

Sport climber

Bishop, California

Oct 24, 2015 - 12:18pm PT

At Skaha, 28 September, a Pileated Woodpecker, my first ever. This was just north of the bathroom between Redtail and Doctor's.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Oct 24, 2015 - 12:32pm PT

Bill looks too short for Little so Audubon's?

10b4me

Mountain climber

Retired

Oct 25, 2015 - 11:14am PT

Went out last night, with a group from the Pasadena Audubon Society, on a search for owls. We heard a Spotted Owl, and saw a Northern Pygmy Owl, Great Horned Owl, and this guy.