Birding

[Lisablue85]

Originally Posted by psi500

If anyone has followed the Southwest eagle cam in Ft. Myers Fl. here are photos of the baby that was born this last December. It branched for the first time the day we where there

Been watching from the start. Really amazing!

[Reed Cundiff]

Will be watching this once we have WIFI and bandwidth.
Reed and Elaine
Currently at Pancho Villa State Park

[Lisablue85]

Originally Posted by Reed Cundiff

Will be watching this once we have WIFI and bandwidth.
Reed and Elaine
Currently at Pancho Villa State Park

Hopefully you get wifi soon, the little one should be out of the nest within a week.

[Reed Cundiff]

A male Black-chinned Hummingbird has shown up at feeder. Unfortunately, we have 8" of snow and more coming down with below freezing expected.
Read up on hummers surviving in snow and it is chancy; however, they are known to survive and it should be sunny the rest of the week.

Have put cover over feeder so the feeding holes do not get covered with snow (a 12" light metal pie pan - just punch a hole in it for the suspension cord).

Using 1-1 water to sugar:
1. Does not freeze to 25 F
2. The bird needs all the energy per volume of cold water it can get.

Reed and Elaine

[Traildust]

We live in the high desert of NW Nevada and do get our share of birds. The Yellow Head Blackbirds are first to show in the spring then the Black-Chin Hummingbirds. We also get Bullock's Orioles which are the most colorful. The one bird we do see migrate here every spring that are sort of odd is the Vultures. They show up sometime in early April and stay till late Sept. usually. We have a stand of large Cottonwood Trees not far from us and the Vultures always return to the same trees every Spring, there are about 20 to 30 birds usually. I have no idea where they mate and raise there young cause they don'y appear to do it here. They never build any type of nest in the Cottonwoods and I never see any young Vultures.
Bill

[Reed Cundiff]

The male Black-chinned Hummingbird made it through the snow storm. Had two feeders with one warming inside so that the bird(s) had warmish syrup in morning. He was joined by quite a few more males and females as they migrate north and up in elevation

[Reed Cundiff]

We spent three weeks at a National Park Campground near Gunnison, CO. The day we left, a Grouse flew up into a tree. Checking our varied bird books, bird ap, and Thayer Bird Guide, it could only have been the endemic Gunnison Grouse.

[Reed Cundiff]

The birds are migrating through. The male hummers have already gone south but we are getting a lot of females and fledglings on migration. So we have changed the humming bird feeders to 1-1 (water to sugar) so that they have the energy to put on fat and glycogen. "...They (ornithologists) found hummingbirds that fatten up spent more time at feeders in order to gain weight rapidly, in some cases putting on as much as 35-40 per cent of their body mass in the four days before migration..."

[psi500]

This pair of red shoulder hawks played right in front of our campsite every evening for the two weeks we where camped there.

[MTSam]

Looks like fun psi500. Very nice photos.
I'm starting to see some slow migration of birds in North Central Montana. We were getting into freezing temps last week at night. This week we're a tad warmer. Hoping to get a quick weekend trip out to see what's around.
Love your photos - wish I was there!

[psi500]

Thanks MTSam. These picture where taken in the Florida panhandle and we discovered an Eagles nest directly across the lake from our campsite. We are going back in November so hoping they have a chick or two by then. You see many sandhill cranes where you are?

[Reed Cundiff]

Enjoyed the photos. We have only seen the Red-shouldered Hawks in the Everglades 8 years ago. We remember how "tame" they were. They seemed to have almost no fear of humans. Your photos brought back how beautiful they are.
Reed and Elaine

[psi500]

What's everyone seeing? Central and southern Indiana has seen the Blue-winged teal moving out and the Gadwalls, Northern Shoverlers and American Wigeon's increase.

[MTSam]

Hey psi500, 3 yrs ago the neighbor had a couple pair in his field (Sandhill Cranes). Seemed like I was always too busy to go watch or grab a camera.
Started looking for them the last 2 and nothing. Go figure! There’re out here, just not always in a reasonable viewing distance. Maybe things will change. I’m making it a bigger priority now lol.

Shorebirds have pretty much been long gone. Starlings are making a true mess of the camper. Had just washed and waxed it good thank goodness.

Working out at FWP last month the duck,goose, swan migration is slow. Really poor numbers for opening day.

I’ve had many hawks starting to come down. Lots of good healthy coopers.