After Jaws, i was afraid to go into even a small pool.The Birds remains my scariest movie cause they are real. After I saw it as a child, I wouldn’t leave the house without a bucket or baseball helmet on my head
Bird Migration and Misc Birding Thread
- Thread starter Kinch
- Start date
To be honest, I like watching birds but am in no way into birding. My son However is a Animal Ecology Major at Iowa State, with a Wildlife Conservation emphasis. He loves birding, has leaned toward Ornathology. He has accepted a summer job/intern set up working for Auburn University in conjunction with Alabama Fish & Wildlife doing a Birding follow up project on population counts. 3 month project all over Alabama. Gets, ISU grad credit, Pays hourly, state vehicle and room all included. He is pretty excited.
He loves the Birding Club and The Wildlife Society at ISU.
Any Alabama Birds he should be on the lookout for?
He loves the Birding Club and The Wildlife Society at ISU.
Any Alabama Birds he should be on the lookout for?
Have only driven through Alabama, but I would guess they would have a greater variety of egrets and herons than Iowa.
Have a pair of Brown headed nuthatches eating from my suet the last few days here in north Alabama. New species for me. Cute tiny birds. Sorry, no pics.
Wheeler wildlife refuge in Decatur would be a good place to visit.
Sandhill cranes and an occasional Whooping crane (rare).
Chased the Yellow-throated Warblers around the resort gardens for a week before I got a good photo the other day. These don't typically get as far north as Minnesota so I was determined to get a good photo even if it's not an exotic tropical. And it is a pretty warbler.
Come down to Lacey-Keosauqua State park, southeast Iowa. Lots of Yellow-throated warblers. It’s birds-watching paradise during the spring migration.
Spied another North American vacationing in Mexico. Best look I've gotten at a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. She really liked this one palm tree and had drilled a lot of holes in it. Took a bit to get the image, she kept circling to keep the trunk mostly between me and her so I just sat in a poolside chair and watched her for an hour and she rotated around the tree a few times and I got a good look.
We are having a hard time keeping up with the bird feeders. We must be the only restaurant in the hood. They usually fly off when I refill the feeders but they just go fly up higher in the tree and sound like they are yelling at me for not refilling the feeders sooner. I’m sure the severe cold weather is hard on them
A pileated woodpecker has been hanging around our backyard for the last few weeks. It's funny how easily you catch a larger bird out of the corner of your eye.
Kind of off subject but the line put out publicly about the cause of Bird Flu in chickens seems a little odd to me. It’s been stated that it is related to duck & geese migration flightways but this latest upswing wasn’t during that period. Additionally, nothing is said about ducks and geese dying from it so, obviously, they have built up immunity as have other wild birds apparently. I’ve also never read about zoos or bird sanctuaries loosing birds to the Bird Flu. Any thoughts?
Star Trib here in MN just had an article on that citing info from the University of Minnesota raptor center. A few years ago every owl tested by them that had contracted the avian flu died. They are now seeing an uptick in cases again but also finding antibodies in most of the raptors so maybe the wild population is starting to build some level of immunity. A couple years back the entire Great Horned Owl family (two adults and three fledged owlets) at Lake Nokomis all died after they got the flu. With the flu now spread to livestock there are a LOT of vectors to infect domestic chicken/turkey factory farms.
Rising numbers of great-horned owls, bald eagles and red-tailed hawks have been getting sick and dying of bird flu this winter as the virus continues to mutate and circulate in North American wildlife.
There are no signs of this strain of the H5N1 virus dissipating, unlike past bird flu outbreaks. Wildlife managers are bracing for the possibility that it may become a permanent part of the landscape.
“It may be here to stay,” said Dana Franzen-Klein, medical director of the Raptor Center in St. Paul. - Star Tribune
More eagles, owls dying of bird flu as persistent outbreak circulates in Minnesota
The Raptor Center in St. Paul has seen rising numbers of animals sick with avian influenza this winter.
Thanks for the info. We have a 1M bird egg facility 3 miles from us & it’s been depopulated twice. My cousin’s farm in Nebraska is part of the Costco project near Fremont and his son has over 1M birds. Bird Flu is a huge concern. A HS classmate of mine is an expert in handling bird litter at large facilities and used as a consultant in the depopulation process. USDA takes over the sites & manages (regulates) to make sure proper procedure is followed. The owners get financial help or nobody would be taking the risk of producing eggs now. The good thing is that it is not long after an egg is incubated that it is in production.Star Trib here in MN just had an article on that citing info from the University of Minnesota raptor center. A few years ago every owl tested by them that had contracted the avian flu died. They are now seeing an uptick in cases again but also finding antibodies in most of the raptors so maybe the wild population is starting to build some level of immunity. A couple years back the entire Great Horned Owl family (two adults and three fledged owlets) at Lake Nokomis all died after they got the flu. With the flu now spread to livestock there are a LOT of vectors to infect domestic chicken/turkey factory farms.
Rising numbers of great-horned owls, bald eagles and red-tailed hawks have been getting sick and dying of bird flu this winter as the virus continues to mutate and circulate in North American wildlife.There are no signs of this strain of the H5N1 virus dissipating, unlike past bird flu outbreaks. Wildlife managers are bracing for the possibility that it may become a permanent part of the landscape.“It may be here to stay,” said Dana Franzen-Klein, medical director of the Raptor Center in St. Paul. - Star TribuneMore eagles, owls dying of bird flu as persistent outbreak circulates in Minnesota
The Raptor Center in St. Paul has seen rising numbers of animals sick with avian influenza this winter.www.startribune.com
You need some Crows if you are looking to shoo away the blue jays. My visiting blue jays are hit and run on the feeders because of the Crows.
I have witnessed a pair of Downey Woodpeckers showing up to the daily festivities.
