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

Unknown said:

I am awaiting the albatross hatching in NZ later this month

I did follow a Laysan Albatross for a while a few years ago - lovely birds, with lovely behaviours :)

Some more snaps from Ohio.

This Blue Jay melted the colours:

And one of these has a quite different hairstyle from the other's ;)

L-to-R - Main characters are American Goldfinch, Female N Cardinal, Red-bellied Woodpecker:

I'm trying to catch up and have gone completely mad but the beauty of them all is so difficult to contain.

It started snowing:

Got thicker:

Then got thinner.  These will be in the wrong order and I've forgotten all "titles"...

EDIT - Oh yes, this one was Mourning Dove beset by Tree Sparrows :)

All titles except for this one - what a surprise to see a Black Phoebe creep into the picture, but not close enough:

Then the bird feeder - and as soon as I take a snap I see a better one later, well it's just too bad!

All after the snow had gone.

A Downy, I wager:

And a female Downy with a delightful bird beneath that I don't know:

A Purple Finch who actually looks quite purple instead of like a House Finch:

Hi Scylla, If I’m not mistaken the little bird is a Carolina Wren,  It has the same distinctive white eyebrow.  Take a look at this pic from the Internet.  Hopefully an expert will let us know!

Thanks for pics, Everyone. On another thread, Alan has posted a Pennsylvanian site which has 4 cameras focused on a Peregrine Falcon nest box and on ledges on the appropriately named Rachel Carson State Office Building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. No Peregrine there when I looked just now, but it is another spot to watch:
www.dep.state.pa.us/.../falcon-cam-popup_v2.html
and this is the main web page:
www.dep.pa.gov/.../default.aspx

Korky, Regarding your capture of 2 Woodpeckers back on page 17, I am not sure what the bird in the background is. Lisa has voted for Downy so that is likely to be right. Tough to judge the size of the bird at the back. That bird has very spotty wings and according to the All About Birds site, the resident Hairy Woodpeckers in the west have very black wings, but Hairy Woodpeckers from the north and northeast could migrate to West Texas in the winter and they have spotty wings. The range maps on the All About Birds site shows the HWs being resident in West Texas but does not show the Downy's range going quite as far as West Texas. However, the birds do not read the textbooks and bird ranges are changing around the world with climate change so who knows?--lol! What do others think?!

scylla said:

I can't help but I'll highlight it so's to attract an expert eye ;)

I am now 99% sure that this was a female Ladder-backed - VIDEO labelled "Female".

After watching the video, Scylla, I revise my ID..... and concur! Female Ladder-backed.

Lisa K said:

If I’m not mistaken the little bird is a Carolina Wren

Thank you, LISA!  I think you are right.  My acknowledgement has been delayed by the fact that I can't load the Ohio Dept of Wildlife website, I also tried yesterday re woodpeckers but it times out.

In the google results list you can see this:

Korky, your post and link reminded me that we saw Royal Albatross nesting from a conservation observatory outside Dunedin a couple of years ago. Unfortunately this picture was taken through tinted glass off the observatory windows.

We also saw lots of White Capped Albatross on a boat trip from Stewart Island off the bottom end of S Island. They reminded me of Kriton..

We also saw Kiwi at night and many other interesting wildlife & birds.