Bird Migration and Misc Birding Thread
- Thread starter Kinch
- Start date
Finally got birdfeeders refilled and heater in the birdbath yesterday. Cardinal got a drink last night, and lots more juncos, finches and a dove back today. I’ve missed seeing them.
Put out my extra rations for the snow storm. Getting lots of gold finches, juncoes, a cardinal and a red belly. Also a mourning dove.
Not many better Midwest settings for bird photography than fresh powder, pines, and Cardinals. 
Just captured a great one. Pure luck during a rapid fire. 
Thanks, I will. Daughter is a huge bird nut and I will probably be getting this award winning game for her for Christmas. She is not a huge gamer but I think the bird theme and varieties of birds in the game will be right up her alley.
Thanks!
We have a had a male and female downy woodpecker regularly every since we hung the suet feeder over a month ago. They are there multiple times pretty much every day. This is the female.
We think this is a partially leucistic female downy that comes by almost as often. She has a delightful chocolate brown rather than black plumage.
Sorry about the poor shot. She won't sit still.
If anyone knows differently, please let me know.
Sorry about the poor shot. She won't sit still.
If anyone knows differently, please let me know.
Suns out and windchill is 3°. Good screech owl forecast. They sometimes will pop out and sun themselves on a day like today rather than just huddle down in a cavity. I'll need to bundle up but I'm going to pop over to local spot and try my luck owl hunting.
And sure enough, got to see a red morph screech snoozing in the sun.
Note to Self: Order some new wool socks. BRRR! Warming up now with some coffee and hot oatmeal.
Don’t burn your toes - oatmeal sticks.And sure enough, got to see a red morph screech snoozing in the sun.
Note to Self: Order some new wool socks. BRRR! Warming up now with some coffee and hot oatmeal.
Frozen Birder Report from Mpls park this morning. Two Great Horned Owls, one Screech Owl (same as yesterday), two buck deer and two sets of frozen toes. Screech owl was worth the cold toes.
From the other day, a red morph Eastern Screech Owl napping in the sun in an old Pileated Woodpecker cavity. Was cold and crispy out but sunny and not windy, just the forecast for getting lucky and spying one of these little nuggets.
Wow...that is awesome! How did you even see this? I would have looked right past this 100 times!
It's a known cavity. Seen people post photos of owls in it before but I was only able to find it this fall. Guy I know has a photo of two owls poking their heads out of this cavity last year (or maybe this spring) so I think it might have been their nest site. There are a LOT of cavities in that park area but this is the only the 2nd one I've found an owl in. Been over there maybe 10 times this fall and saw screech twice (last was Nov 12th), they move around some. This was quite a reach with 600mm, a pro 800mm prime would have been better but I don't have that!
Here's a gray morph from same park on November 12, close by (1000') so likely it's mate. Much closer to the path than the red morph.
More screech owl. Did a spontaneous quick trip over to check on a screech owl that I've seen each of the last four months. It was napping away in the sun in spite of the -2° temperature and wind chill of -19°. Hardy little owl.
Deer hunted 1st season Iowa. Our party hunts different than most, mainly hunting open fields after other groups push the deer out of the timbers, and we cover a lot of ground focusing mainly on hunting respectable sized racks.
My bird observations from this year's hunting is that we probably saw more pheasants this year than I have seen since I was a kid. I'm hoping the predicted warm up affords enough snow melt to expose better access to feeding areas. More importantly though is avoiding a wet spring to get the chicks off to a good start. Didn't see an excessive amount of coyotes so that will help.
A treat we have enjoyed the past couple years is sighting some trumpeter swans--anywhere from groups of 25-30 to just trios. This year it took good binoculars or the spotting scope to find them in the snow covered fields.
Nothing out of the ordinary, but several coveys of partridge which always seem extremely anxious.
The bald eagles appeared to be out in force once again and it's always enjoyable to view their majesty.
Not an ornithologist, but it seems the red-tailed hawk population is disproportionately high in my area--one or two perched on the electric poles on every mile we traveled. I would guess that nature adjusts populations of predators according to prey available over time but the pheasant population will keep the numbers up.
The only other observation that may or may not have been an anomaly that I don't remember from prior years is the numerous flocks of meadowlarks. Maybe just more visible this year as they congregated along the gravel roads because of the snow cover.
My bird observations from this year's hunting is that we probably saw more pheasants this year than I have seen since I was a kid. I'm hoping the predicted warm up affords enough snow melt to expose better access to feeding areas. More importantly though is avoiding a wet spring to get the chicks off to a good start. Didn't see an excessive amount of coyotes so that will help.
A treat we have enjoyed the past couple years is sighting some trumpeter swans--anywhere from groups of 25-30 to just trios. This year it took good binoculars or the spotting scope to find them in the snow covered fields.
Nothing out of the ordinary, but several coveys of partridge which always seem extremely anxious.
The bald eagles appeared to be out in force once again and it's always enjoyable to view their majesty.
Not an ornithologist, but it seems the red-tailed hawk population is disproportionately high in my area--one or two perched on the electric poles on every mile we traveled. I would guess that nature adjusts populations of predators according to prey available over time but the pheasant population will keep the numbers up.
The only other observation that may or may not have been an anomaly that I don't remember from prior years is the numerous flocks of meadowlarks. Maybe just more visible this year as they congregated along the gravel roads because of the snow cover.
Is there a red tailed hawk sized bird that will have a white under side? Would they change color with changing seasons?
