'FORUM FRIENDS, WILDLIFE-FROM-WHEREVER' (Off-season, all cams off at Loch Garten)

I quite agree with Gardenbirder - don't like wood pecker much - poor little sparrow (never mind the cow bird stuff Scylla, it's a house sparrow :) )

Well, scylla, I am lurking from the US (as you know!) but you all seem to know US birds better than me in any case! I did wonder, however, if this was a female hairy because of the beak being longer. It's true the downies are also smaller, but I can never tell cos they seem too similar in size to my untrained eyes.

In my walks here in Upstate NY in the past couple weeks I have seen and heard downies/hairies, red-bellied, pileated woodies, and also house sparrows, house finches, gold finches, titmice, dark-eyed juncos, cedar waxwings, chickadees, nuthatches, robins, cardinals, blue jays, and the ubuquitous and somewhat clueless mourning doves. Some of these were pointed out by my walking companion--she is a self-styled naturalist! She recently sent me this video taken of migrating sandhill cranes at a nearby refuge: https://youtu.be/U8kAPslmkWE

Kisses to y'all. xxx

scylla said:

Female Hairy Woodpecker

Unknown said:

(never mind the cow bird stuff Scylla, it's a house sparrow :) )

I don't know how to take that, CIRRUS - but just in case my snap wasn't clear:

Thank you for the Dark-eyed Junco tweet, ALAN - need to check how far off course it was

At least it shouldn't have a problem with our weather.

Unknown said:

I have seen and heard downies/hairies, red-bellied, pileated woodies, and also house sparrows, house finches, gold finches, titmice, dark-eyed juncos, cedar waxwings, chickadees, nuthatches, robins, cardinals, blue jays, and the ubuquitous and somewhat clueless mourning doves

Wow!  (And it's always really lovely to see you, CC.)  On the cams I've covered I've never seen a pileated (nor a red-headed, incidentally, which is apparently huge)... and I agree about the "somewhat clueless" mourning doves, aww.

We need a cam in a new region, maybe I'll look for a New York state one.

EDIT - Of course, there are the several Cornell cams - so I'm now 'doing' Sapsucker Woods NYC and Boreal Birds, Ontario.

Nice to see you, CC, and lucky you, to see all of those wonderful birds on your walks! Somehow I mistakenly thought you were in southeast Canada, but interested to hear you are on the other side of the border in Upstate New York. Just looked at a map--is everything outside of New York City known as 'Upstate'? An old friend of mine grew up in Scotia, next to Schenectady, and she called that 'Upstate'; sadly, we have lost touch.

Alan, Thanks for the London Dark-eyed Junco report, although we will not try to see it! I wonder how the Junco travelled across the ocean--blown in or on a ship or a bit of both. Or am I about to learn that they live in Europe, too?!
Scylla, I have just checked the allaboutbirds.org site and it is the Pileated Woodpecker which is large (40-49cm), larger than the Red-Headed (19-23cm), the RHW is about the same size as the Red-bellied (24cm) and the Hairy (18-26cm), and they are all larger than the Downy (14-17cm). The Downy just looks cuter than the Hairy, to give the technical description--lol!

Unknown said:

Scylla, I have just checked the allaboutbirds.org site and it is the Pileated Woodpecker which is large (40-49cm),

Short-term memory problems here, GARDENBIRDER 

Which also accounts for me not remembering if I was also going to respond to something you said on the previous page - but at least I remember that there is a previous page  

News from USFWS Pacific Region

'She's back! Wisdom, a mōlī (Laysan albatross) and the world's oldest known, banded bird in the wild has returned to Midway Atoll at the Pacific. At least 69 years old, she and her mate are currently incubating an egg! '

Amazing!!

Oh wow! Thanks Korky!