Ridgway's rail, Millbrae, CA. First one I've seen this year, never saw any last year.
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Ridgway's rail, Millbrae, CA. First one I've seen this year, never saw any last year.
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Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx
Thanks! It's fun to do. Oh, and you'll notice in the first video, the woodpecker is like "I'll just take a seed and head back to the tree, thank you human." - immediately followed by a chickadee that's like "OMG I'M GOING TO ROOT THROUGH EVERY ONE OF THESE SEEDS AND KNOCK THEM TO THE GROUND AND IGNORE THE HUMAN MOVING HIS HAND TO INDICATE THAT I'M OVERSTAYING MY WELCOME!!!"Originally Posted by Duncan Glenday
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
Awesome! Great shot!
This year is supposed to be an irruption year for finches and the like. Those of us south of the Canadian border should keep their eye peeled for Red Crossbills, White-winged Crossbills, Purple Finches, Evening Grosbeaks, Common Redpolls and Red-breasted Nuthatches!
Chad
A while ago I noticed our squirrels were hungry and thirsty - it's been cold and dry for a while. So I put out some water, and threw a bunch of unsalted peanuts in the shell out back for them. But more Blue Jays than I knew there were have taken over, and are going wild. The squirrels look perturbed. Well, we'll make sure they all get fed and watered as the day goes on.
Blue jays go crazy for peanuts, and will bully their way to them no matter what. If you want to make sure the squirrels are getting some, hand toss them directly to them - they should be able to grab them before the blue jays swoop down to snatch them.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
Pulling into a big ranch yard the other day a bird of prey was flying in front of us. By its body shape and the way it flew I guessed that it was an owl. Sure enough it landed in a tree row and it was a huge great horned owl. The ranchers' son said "well, that explains the cat being missing for the last two weeks." I was kind of relieved Friday when I saw the cat sunning itself on the dog house.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
^ That's cool. And happy to hear that the cat was safe!
We caught sight of a snowy owl last weekend. It landed on a street light. It was the same street where we spotted one last winter. Makes me wonder if they are nesting near by. There's lots of open field around there, so it's probably a great spot to catch dinner.
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Looks like a penguin!
In my parents' backyard, it's the doves, the international symbols of peace, who chase the other birds away from the feed block.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
We do get a lot of Mourning Doves looking for water, but I think they must migrate for the winter, because they disappeared as of a few weeks ago.
Also, where do the Chickadees go? There were a zillion a week or so ago, and now I see none.
I'll bet this storm in the south has caught a lot of migrating birds by surprise.
We had 11 of these in our trees and on my roof this morning. They are huge with a ring around their eyes. Not sure what they are but when they were flying in and out of the trees the limbs were shaking as they took off. You could hear their wings flapping from about 50 feet away.
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^^ Turkey vulture??
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
That’s what I thought at first. Maybe they were but I’ve seen a lot of turkey vultures around our area and these looked different
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Black Vulture
Mourning Doves (MODO) and Carolina Chickadees (CACH) are here all year-round. MODO's do not migrate very much and CACH's don't migrate at all. The birds will move around to where the food is in the area. Some days I have a full feeders, other days they're empty all day. If you do have feeders up, make sure to keep them full or the birds will leave for another food source. It could take them awhile to rediscover your yard.
Have you seen them lately? I love not far from KOP and don’t recall seeing these guys before. They stayed one day and I haven’t seen them since. They do have that vulture appearance of sitting on my trees out back and watching from my roof and my neighbors rooftop. Ominous for sure. I kept my dog in the house while they were hanging out with the thought of them attacking him. He’s just a small 15 pound dog.
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Yeah, I see them all the time, usually in flight. From the underside, Black Vultures are all black, except for gray wingtips. They also have a shorter, more triangular tail than a Turkey Vulture and fly with their wings straight across. Turkey Vultures have gray feathers extending the length of the undersides of the wings, have a longer tail, pink heads, and hold their wings in a shallow "V" in flight.
As far as your dog, you don't have to worry about vultures. Turkey Vultures only feed on carrion, and while Black Vultures will very occasionally make their own kills, dogs are not on their list. Eagles, larger hawks and owls are more likely take a swipe at a pet, but that's still pretty rare.
Thanks for the info. I see the turkey vultures along the sides of the road many times after road kill. Ugly birds.
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My pleasure. Those sucks can smell a roadkill from 10 miles away! Sometimes you'll see 20-30 of them kettling (circling) high above a kill.
Once we were letting our dog wander in this area, near Theodore Roosevelt Nat'l Park.
https://sddigitalarchives.contentdm....otos/id/52303/
We looked up to see two golden eagles doing spirals a few hundred feet above us. We hustled that little dog right back to the family truckster.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Golden Eagles?! Sweet! That's a good find!
...And they rock from side to side in flight, which - along with the shallow dihedral - is diagnostic.
Regards,
Duncan
Where I used to work often there were several Turkey Vultures hanging out on a ledge outside a large conference room and you could see them easily from the windows regardless of where you were sitting. It made for a strange but somehow relevant conversation piece.
Yep. Also known as "teetering."
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