Weekly Chat, Sunday, February 28, 2010

Hullo and good evening/morning to all!

Margobird:   I am so pleased to hear your good news! This is simply wonderful!!   =O)

Annette:    I am sure you'll find the Sibley Guide to be very, very useful. I have his version for the eastern birds and I refer to it constantly, especially when trying to ID all our various hawks! Which leads me to Diane's question....

Diane:   I find the Red-tailed Hawks to be the most confounding bird to ID because of their many, many variations and they don't all have a red tail! We have 1? more? hawk in this area that I've sworn at first glance was a Peregrine Falcon because of the overall black-ish/gray-ish and white coloring with heavy chest streaking. A fellow birder who lives nearby has seen the same bird (birds?) hanging around on the interstate but saw a red tail. I never saw a red tail on my sightings but when I was close enough on Sunday to see this bird (or one of them) with binoculars, the hawk face was immediately apparent. 

For the most part I have seen the light morph birds or those with dark, Peregrine-like looks and one from over the summer that was all brown on brown with a brown tail! And I learned along the way that Pale Male is not a light morph hawk, his kind is actually known as "pale."  Which type(s) are you seeing in your neck of the woods?

I was out for a walk late this afternoon and nearly walked right under a Cooper's Hawk before I realized it was up in a tree hunting and twisting it's head this way and that and totally around backwards too. I watched for a bit and came back later to find it still perched and right before it found an unlucky entree cause it flapped off in to a yard swiftly and loooowwww to the ground. It's amazing to be in this gargantuan city and find such a majestic bird right there, doing what it does and not caring who sees it. And I was so close I could hear the wings flap when it initially flew from limb to limb! Awesome!

Tiger:   I LOVE the Glenn Nevill website, so thanks for sharing that. I really enjoy seeing the 2 Northern Harrier photos. (They have the round facial discs.) The White-tailed Kite is uber gorgeous too!

George: What a nice surprise you could have tea and watch the Sea Eagles! 

Best wishes to all and a very Happy Friday!

Annette: What's that you say??? aquilareen burned her bra during a big riot and sit in??? Oh, my stars, I don't check in for a couple of days and look what happens!!!

Glad you found the show sale. Don't you love when you're in the right place at the right time? 

I can't be an owl tonight. Have a demanding shopping and errand-running mission tomorrow. I'll catch up with everyone later. Thanks all for links, pics, chat, and news of AQ's subversive activities.

Great Friday to everyone!

Hi, Caerann! Good to hear from you. On my birthday, very late last summer, I had an awesome sighting that has perplexed me since. I was standing at my kitchen sink, looking out the window onto the deck and toward the creek (burn). We have a huge ancient tree that is dead on one side and alive on the other. The live branches droop low over the deck, brushing the rails. The song birds and woodpeckers love that old tree because it provides so much shelter. (I don't have the heart to cut it, even though it's going to fall on the deck one of these days, and the ants use it for military marches. LOL)

Suddenly, a raptor landed on a branch very near the window. It looked straight in at me with ferocious intensity. My heart nearly stopped. It was the size of a really big red-tailed hawk -- top of the size scale. It had a hawk face, although the beak was more golden than one generally sees on a red-tailed. The color was confounding. The entire bird was dark colored (even the chest). In the bright, late afternoon sun, the  bird was a deep and vivid copper brown/red color. Only the tips of the tail feathers were outlined in white.

I've checked bird books/sites, comparing the big fella with all of the hawks and other raptors, and I've never found any bird quite like him or her. I did see some mention of a rare "dark phase" red-tailed, and I wondered if perhaps I'd seen an example of that color variation. You said that you saw an "all brown on brown with a brown tail" during the summer, so maybe this dark color variation is becoming more common here in our midwest area. That must've been what I saw. He/she sure was a sight to behold in the late sun.

That was a wonderful encounter you had with the Cooper's Hawk. It's truly awe-inspiring that these birds can adapt and thrive in big cities.

Thanks, Caerann, for the info. You're the best. I wish you great success with the job hunt. My best friend in Indy -- a very successful and talented editor -- was unemployed for a long time, and she just got a job this week. I think maybe things are looking up a bit. Good luck!

Folks in the U.S. and anyone interested:

The ruby-throated hummingbirds are on their way!!! Yay!!! They are migrating back to North America and the first sightings have now been made in Florida and Texas. Click on "migration maps" on this page to track the sightings.

http://www.burdr.com/2010/03/track-the-ruby-throated-hummingbird-migration/

Oh, and since I'm still here and haven't gone to bed, I have to post this new pileated woodpecker video.

http://www.burdr.com/2010/02/pileated-woodpecker-calls-while-excavating-nest/

Night all.

Good morning – frosty Friday – was minus 4, now creeping up to zero – very bright.

Annette – did you actually buy any of the shoes?  Want to have another push on tidying in the greenhouse this afternoon, then ready to set up the propagator to raise seeds for summer.

Caerann – pleased you could drop in – hope the job search is giving you some encouragement – tough times everywhere, but that doesn’t help the individual predicament.  Lucky sighting of the Coopers Hawk, to see it perched and then take flight and swoop.

Dianne – I hope you eventually did roost ready for a busy day!  Thanks for brilliant Pileated Woodpecker video.

Off to church coffee morning now – hope everyone has a good day.

I keep thinking of Maureen/Hilary – hope she’ll resurface soon.

Morning All, Cold frosty start but sun is shining, so looks very promising for today.

 Annette, Our latest Alexander McCall Smith book ( from Amazon) has just been delivered,  'Precious and the Piggies'.  I do enjoy them as light reading but didn't enjoy the TV series which were based on the books.

Margobird,  I am sure you slept better last night, now knowing all is well.

Really must start my HW for today and will catch up later.

Enjoy the sunshine.

Mornng Brenda H very frosty here this morning, but sun is hining brightly.  Can't believe we have now had several days without rain.  Birds all very busy first thing after the cold night.

Yes I did sleep well, and still feel so lucky that nothing is wrong.

Hope you get your HW done and then have a sit down.

Good morning original goldfinch very sunny after a very frosty start.  Had to defrost bird baths again.

Maureen/Hilary has been in my thoughts too hope she is OK.

Mornig Diane thanks for the links,   Will look forward to the humming birds return, as I have found  cam so hopefully will see them.

Have a good day.