04.01.2006, 11:29 PM | #1 |
expwy. to yr skull
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,855
|
Yesterday, I went for a bike ride and saw an awesome red-winged blackbird. For y'all that haven't seen one before, they look like this:
Are there any other birdwatchers out there? I usually make special trips to birdwatch a couple times a year. I'd like to go more, but I usually end up mixing it in with camping and fishing and so on. |
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.02.2006, 05:05 AM | #2 |
invito al cielo
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Birkenhead
Posts: 9,397
|
I like a spot of birdwatching. Usually it's places quite local to me such as Thurtaston Country PArk and Bidston Hill. Also we get a lot of migrating coastal birds in the Dee estuary.
Sometimes in Chester we see a raven, which is great. Sometimes there are special ferry cruises out into Liverpool bay for the purpose of birdwatching. On last September's we watched Arctic Terns, which was very nice. WHen I see something intereseting from now on, I'll post in this thread. Common-fairly common for us are: bullfinches, peregrine falsons, greenfinches, great tits, blue tits, moorhens, kestrels, woodpeckers and many more, especially wader types. In our (small, urban) garden, we only get magpies, jays, blackbirds and a few others with any regularity.
__________________
Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. http://www.flickr.com/photos/outsidethecamp/ |
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.02.2006, 05:09 AM | #3 |
expwy. to yr skull
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,855
|
Hip Priest, I bet there are lots of birds you see often that I have never seen.
I actually considered building a set-up with a mic and parabola for recording birds. I have a book (The Singing Life of Birds by Donald Kroodsma) that explains how to do it. Birdsong is really interesting. I am a huge nerd. |
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.02.2006, 05:10 AM | #4 |
expwy. to yr skull
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,855
|
My pic of a Scarlet Tanager that I took in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park:
|
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.02.2006, 05:11 AM | #5 |
expwy. to yr skull
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,855
|
There are a lot of Killdeer around here now. I hear them squawking as I drive around. The little bastards will pretend to be injured if you go near their nests.
|
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.02.2006, 05:25 AM | #6 |
invito al cielo
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Birkenhead
Posts: 9,397
|
I'm just now about to get into the whole birdsong thing. I've been trying a bit, and I'm armed with some recordings to help me learn.
I live close to pockets of very accessible but under-used countryside, so there are decent populations of nice things. We're also furtunate to live close to two very different rivers - the industrial Mersey on one side and the protected Dee on the other. We get a lot of migratory birds here.
__________________
Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. http://www.flickr.com/photos/outsidethecamp/ |
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.02.2006, 05:32 AM | #7 |
invito al cielo
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Birkenhead
Posts: 9,397
|
Arctic Terns; they are great to watch in flight, swooping and turning, harrasing the other birds.
__________________
Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. http://www.flickr.com/photos/outsidethecamp/ |
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.02.2006, 05:34 AM | #8 |
expwy. to yr skull
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,855
|
I've only seen arctic terns on TV.
|
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.02.2006, 05:44 AM | #9 |
invito al cielo
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Birkenhead
Posts: 9,397
|
Well, right now I'm logging off to go for a walk around the West Kirby area, so there's a chance I'll see some waders.
__________________
Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. http://www.flickr.com/photos/outsidethecamp/ |
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.02.2006, 02:20 PM | #10 |
invito al cielo
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Baltimore
Posts: 7,808
|
I love spotting a cardinal when everything is blanketed in snow.
__________________
Confusion is next and next after that is the Truth. |
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.02.2006, 02:38 PM | #11 |
invito al cielo
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: psycho battery
Posts: 12,161
|
i just saw a fox walk through my garden.
although not a bird, it is still quite rare and wildlife related. |
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.02.2006, 06:49 PM | #12 |
invito al cielo
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 2,544
|
Fox...rare? Don't know about that. I used to see them around town quite a lot. Well, I saw what I'm sure was the same fox 3 times in Leicester (it had a limp). I was at a pedestrian crossing waiting for the green man and this fox came up and sat on the kerb and waited for the light with me. It was a bit weird. Then I saw it in the same area a couple of other times.
|
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.03.2006, 03:09 AM | #13 |
expwy. to yr skull
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,855
|
This a cool page from a book from 1650 called Musurgia Universalis by Athanasius Kircher:
The parrot is saying "hello" in Classical Greek. |
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.03.2006, 03:13 AM | #14 |
expwy. to yr skull
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,855
|
That book is full of the coolest illustrations ever:
|
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.03.2006, 03:13 AM | #15 |
expwy. to yr skull
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,855
|
Look at this keyboard with the extra keys to make up for the retarded systems of tuning they had back then:
|
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.03.2006, 08:53 AM | #16 |
invito al cielo
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Montreal
Posts: 5,807
|
I plan to do some this summer since I get up at sunrise to go to work. The bike ride on the way there is beautiful because I pass waterfalls and rapids on a riverside bikepath, so I stop to watch the sunrise all the time and there's plenty of birds
|
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.03.2006, 09:21 AM | #17 | |
invito al cielo
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: psycho battery
Posts: 12,161
|
Quote:
it was quite rare for me, but perhaps not as rare as some other animals i suppose. thats only the second fox i have ever seen in my life. i did see a kingfisher get a fish once which was pretty amazing and a pike grab another smaller fish but thats my wildlife story's over in the blink of an eye. |
|
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.03.2006, 09:55 AM | #18 |
bad moon rising
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 101
|
there's this composer, Olivier Messiaen, who used to sit and notate birds singing. - that's some ear i say! I think he incorporated several birdsongs into his music.
|
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
04.03.2006, 09:02 PM | #19 |
the end of the ugly
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Lynchburg in the 03!!!
Posts: 865
|
bird watching is boring..unles your talking about watching "birds" as in gals
__________________
RIPfrey05 registered: 6/12/2004 00:00 Im a church kicking bitch posts: 2089 1337, were gangsters http://www.myspace.com/thefloridaorangebirds MY FUCKING BAND |
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |
09.15.2006, 10:43 AM | #20 |
invito al cielo
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Birkenhead
Posts: 9,397
|
Today we went on a trip into Liverpool bay, organised by the RSPB and Liverpool Museum. A very pleasant afternoon, with the following sightings (in order):
Sandwich Tern Kittiwake Common Gull Lesser Black-Backed Gull Greater Black-Backed Gull Shag Guillemot Cormorant Arctic Tern Common Tern Arctic Shua Long-Tailed Skua Red-Throated Diver Great Crested Grebe Herring Gull Common Scoter Bar-Tailed Godwit Mediteranean Gull (also some seals and porpoises, but they are obviously not birds)
__________________
Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. http://www.flickr.com/photos/outsidethecamp/ |
|QUOTE AND REPLY| |