field markings

Two Sparrows

Posted on Thursday, 18 April 2013 by The Birding Bunch

Mark 4:
11 And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
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After a couple of years of trying, a little one was finally able to get both of these birds in one shot. This is the first time they’ve overlapped for any length of time. Normally, one leaves before the other arrives. I did a little fancy editing. Both birds were in the same picture, but far apart. I was able to get them closer together.

The Chipping Sparrow is our summer resident and the American Tree is here for the winter. Do you know who is who?

One’s a Chipping
Another’s a Tree

Often they are confused for one another being very similar in appearance. The American Tree has an eyeline that matches the crown. It also has a patch of orange on its shoulder. Field marks not seen on this photo are the Tree Sparrow has a black dot on its breast and it has a bi-colored bill.

The Chipping Sparrow has a black eyeline that goes from the bill and through the eye. There are no markings on its breast. The Chipping Sparrow is the smaller of the two, weighing only 0.4 ounces (11 grams).

Today, the 16th, we still have the Juncos and Tree Sparrows. Our latest Junco was in 2011. She stayed until the 29th of April. Except for brief warm ups, it’s been chilly. Maybe they hesitate to go back north??

Categories: field markings

The Tail End

Posted on Monday, 15 April 2013 by The Birding Bunch

Revelations 22:
13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
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I think I mentioned before that we found a couple of male Kestrel tail feathers. Before you are concerned, this picture is all we have. The Little Birding Expert took the feathers back out side. They very well could be now used as nesting material for a HOSP.

Here is a link to a photo of female Kestrel feathers.

Again we are just seeing the female. We’re happy to have her around, but what are happening to the males? I cannot believe they are being eaten. Maybe she’s picky?

We were out of town for a few days, so I am still trying to get my bearings. The boys enjoyed the time off school, and the chance to do things like milking cows, feeding calves and other farm chores. We also gained a couple of life birds in another state.

Saturday was a GREAT day for birding. Our year list is now at 101 and our day list was 70 species. That is a record for us. We’ve heard of people getting around a hundred in a day. They probably had to drive miles to do this. We ended up going no further than maybe 20 miles from home. Most of them were within five miles.

Categories: field markings, raptors

“Don’t Let the Robins See You”

Posted on Wednesday, 10 April 2013 by The Birding Bunch

Romans 6:
22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
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I’ve heard stories where Titmice, Jays and other birds seem to know exactly where their food comes from and will peck on a window, or call to get the occupants’ attention. We never had this happen to us. At best, we have a few birds hang out in the feeding area waiting until we leave. Oh and there were those Redpolls that didn’t even wait.

It seems we now have our own story to tell. Our bird is a a male Robin. He remembered our berries from last year and came right to them once we started throwing them out the window.

Mr. Robin with a dirty berry

This was silly. I was trying to get a photo of the bird with the berry in his bill. Usually, he picks up a berry and swallows it. This time, he decided he wanted to beat it up a bit. Maybe it was too big or not soft enough?? He kept picking it up to shake it and then toss. After this treatment, the berry got a little dirty. He eventually ate it.

Many mornings, he will perch near the window and call rather loudly. When one of us opens the window, he may fly or hop off a couple of feet, but always stays in sight. After the berries are tossed, he comes over before the window is even shut.

If we just happen to be standing at the window, and he sees you, he comes over expecting a treat. Seriously. The funniest episode was Saturday evening. I was just seeing what few birds were around and from across the driveway, he comes a running right toward me . Well, a fast hopping; Robins don’t run. He stops right in the area where we throw berries and even with the window opening, he stayed where he was. I toss a few berries and he’s satisfied.

You might wonder how to tell a male and female Robin apart. The male has a dark head that sometimes is black. In the photo above you can see the contrast between the head and back feathers. They are the same in all other markings.

Categories: bird facts, field markings

Wannabe Wren

Posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013 by The Birding Bunch

Ephesians 6:
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
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This is our first ever sighting of a female Belted Kingfisher. Our earlier sightings have all been male.

What caught my eye is how her tail is held up much like a wren’s. How cute. I never noticed they have a pattern on the underside of their tails.

In the bird world, it is the male birds who stand out with their brightly colored plumage. In the case of the Belted Kingfisher, it is the female who wears more colors. She has an orange colored belt, whereas the male has none.

I enjoy these birds, but don’t often get to see them. They seem so intense as they are hunting for their meals, but yet at times they look just plain goofy with their head feathers standing on edge. The nearby creek is filling up again. At least for a time, if our drought continues. We we are hoping the Kingfisher and Great Blue Herons return.

Categories: di fekkel, field markings

They’re Back; Or Thirteen

Posted on Monday, 4 March 2013 by The Birding Bunch

Colossians 2:
8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

This is one of those posts that I want to go two different directions, so could not decide on one title.

Do you know who this is? We’ve not seen this species for almost two months and we were blessed by their first visit.

Back of bird

Haha! I like a good pun, don’t you?

Can you tell by this next photo who it is?

See it’s perky red cap.

Here is the bird- a Common Redpoll. Complete with a small, black goatee. Both male and female have this marking.

A really, red Redpoll.

If I remember, the ones we had before were not quite this red. The bird above is the male. The females do not have red on their fronts.

Redpoll trio

You may wonder, what is so special about thirteen? Well, my oldest is now a teenager and on his special day, we had thirteen of these birds stop by for a visit. How amazing is that?! Can that be a coincidence? When we are able, we try to go birding on our birthdays, but this winter has been more winter-like, so our birding has remained around home.

I have much more to say about these fun little birds, but this will be in a future post.

Categories: bird rarities, field markings

An Art, Not a Science

Posted on Wednesday, 27 February 2013 by The Birding Bunch

Ecclesiastes 12:
11 The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
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This is a Red-tailed Hawk. There is no question about it; you can clearly see the red tail, which no other hawk can claim. We can also agree these are icky photos, but we won’t focus on that.

But we count subspecies for our life list if we see a clear difference between the species. This bird is much darker than a normal Red-tailed. At the take-off, you see there is no ‘belly band’ and the patagium is obscured. (Don’t worry, I won’t often bore you with technical terms; I just learned that marking had a name.)

Hunting through the guide in the van, we figured it could be a Western dark-morph or a Harlan’s. But which one? I emailed these two photos to a birding friend and she felt it was a Western, but not entirely sure. She offered to forward these if I wanted other opinions. That could be interesting, so I gave the go ahead.

The gist of the replies were they are pretty sure Western Red-tailed Hawk but there were some buts… referring to markings of a Harlan’s. One reply even said of two raptor experts they are familiar with, one would say Western, the other Harlan. I had no idea who those experts were. As I was looking in the bibliography of Hawks in Flight, a book I recently purchased, I learned these two raptor experts co-authored a book together. Funny.

After sharing these replies with my husband, he said “Bird identification is an art, not a science.” I would have to agree with that. Except… our life list has no place for art.