Birding and Bird Photography

You notice the blue morph in the lower left hand corner? Another oddball! Dig the blue morphs, in my experience you can usually find 1 or 2 for every 500 or so Chen sp. (Ross or snow goose).

 

Common but always beautiful

 

Man, I envy all these exciting birds you guys have.

 

If you all didn't know about this gem check it out. Navigate to your region. I've seen alot rare birds and got alot of lifers due to this listserv over the years.

Go to view all lists at the top to find your region.

http://digest.sialia.com

 

Mom I’m hungry, can I .........never mind I’ll just take it by force directly from your stomach!

 

Outside front door this week

 

Muscovy/mallard hybrid duck

 

Took this a while ago, but one of my better finds.
Long-eared owl chick at nest.

 

Mourning doves are the most frequently struck bird. Black vultures don’t make the top 30 struck, and turkey vultures are 21st.

More info can be found here: scroll to table 18 for list of all birds struck (and resulting damages, etc.), and table 20 for the most frequently struck.

https://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/wildlife/media/Wildlife-Strike-Report-1990-2017.pdf

Cheers.

 

The numbers and opinion on most struck birds or most dangerous are all over the place depending on the source. My local airports and military base uses trained raptors to scare away smaller birds to reduce strikes.

 

Not opinion at all. That link and report uses information directly from the national wildlife strike database. It varies by airport, but those stats are nationally for all reported strikes.

 

I had a project on Travis AFB. They used falconers there and even had living quarters there for both them and their raptors. They used different falcon species depending on if they were deterring blackbirds, ducks, or geese. Pretty cool.

 

OK guys and gals, I was on my way to work this morning and seen this guy sitting on a power line. It was way bigger than a pigeon. The only white birds we have in my region are some Egrets/Herons, pelicans and various gulls (winter only) according to my Macmillan Field Guide. Sorry for such a crappy pic, phone was all I had available. I’m truly stumped, can someone identify this guy?

 

Maybe someone lost a parrot.

 

Check out the merlin bird id app for your phone, i find it to be pretty useful for birds you aren’t familiar with.

 

It was there again this evening. At first glance I thought it could be a cockatoo. But later I was able to get fairly close and it appears to be some type of giant dove? Again way bigger than a pigeon or a Eurasian ring necked dove. Maybe a magician lost one of his props.

 

Looks like a “release dove” from here. Bred white rock dove used for release events.

 

Agree.. it’s strange that it returned to the same area for a day or so, today it appears to have moved on? Again, that thing was HUGH (in my best Trump voice).

 

Pale flamingo, bald eagle, sand hill crane, Inca tern, pied imperial pigeon