Birding and Bird Photography

Visited one of my usual spots yesterday and snagged this:

not as pretty as you guys with cameras but thankfully I was able to get close enough with the iPhone.

 

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - a regal name for such a small bird.

 

my male and female grosbeak returned yesterday. I always enjoy seeing them at the feeder.

 

birds do have friends

 

makes sense, they are cowhead birds....

 

Yep buddies they are, if I ever make it to Africa I may see these pair ups too



I’m sure there’s more, keep your eyes open and scanning, I am

 

I have a Kildeer Nest in my driveway, they are so good at hiding their eggs that you can barely even see them in plain sight.

 

Just came across this app
https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
It will be nice to have on hikes in the woods.

 

Yes good app!
May get its sister….. eBird too

 

Merlin is an AWESOME app. The sound and picture ID are usually decent, though sometimes comical at what it suggests. I would suggest using those sparingly. It’s great when birding in a new spot and you need to narrow down the list of possible species based on location and season.

The eBird app is okay in my opinion. I’m usually too engaged to want to tally my count in real-time on the app, but sometimes it comes in handy. I much prefer interacting with ebird.com rather than the app.

 

here are all my apps, don’t use them all lol
If anyone knows of more??? share lol

 

I also have an app called Name the bird! It’s a bird ID app that is mildly amusing in your spare time. Helps me do something constructive while waiting in line or some other situation where you turn to your phone for short term boredom.

 

Golden Eagle
lov these guys

 

Mom and juvenile sap sucker.

 

Had a family vacation down south in FL and decided to take my binoculars for the heck of it and was able to snag about 20 species to my life list! I don’t travel much so many were fairly common:

Swallow-tailed Kite, Black Vulture, Cattle Egret, Carolina Chickadee, Laughing Gull, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Brown-headed nuthatch, Purple Martin, Fish Crow, Brown Pelican, White-winged Dove, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Forster’s Tern, Least Tern, Sandwich Tern, Royal Tern, Black Skimmer, Snowy Plover, White-eyed Vireo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and White Ibis.

Not bad for a trip not centered on birding. I think the highlight for me was the Black Skimmer, it flew by so close on the beach that I didn’t need to glass it. Such a cool looking bird!

 

out in the middle of the forest in Montana, hummer gets in my face and says…”well are you gonna open a restaurant or not?” ….. what can I say

On it!!!

happiness strikes in lil moments

 

https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1555272443052408836?s=21&t=zWeDCG8Y3K8mceRXT-iszw

 

Relative?