The Bird Thead

[LFC]

[LFC]

This moment did NOT end on friendly terms.

[andydp]

Probably a repeat, but a reminder to always be alert.

[andydp]

[andydp]

Why there will always be an England.

Duck walks into pub, downs pint, fights dog

A duck wearing a bow tie suffered injuries following a brawl with a dog in a pub in Chulmleigh, Devon, UK.

The dapper duck, named Star, was enjoying a pint with his owner Barrie Hayman when Hayman's dog Meggie reportedly started the fight.

Star's beak was injured in the brawl, which took place at The Old Courthouse Inn.


www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/duck-walks-into-pub-downs-pint-fights-dog/MHIDFCUT2YMQ6ESDSF6LXRO6MM/#:~:text=A%20duck%20wearing%20a%20bow%20tie%20suffered%20injuries,which%20took%20place%20at%20The%20Old%20Courthouse%20Inn.

[LFC]

Jul 8, 2022 14:35:32 GMT andydp said:

Why there will always be an England.

I wonder if they have an equivalent to Floridaman, like Manchesterman. Or anybody who is Irish.

[AnBr]

Study Examines Memory in Birdwatchers, Finds Having Expert Knowledge Helps Us Memorize New Information

[AnBr]

[AnBr]

[AnBr]

[AnBr]

[LFC]

This weekend I was on a boat roughly 100 miles offshore of Cape May, beyond the edge of the Continental Shelf in about 7,200' of water. Early in the morning we had a chum slick going to attract seabirds and we attracted a real doozy, a Bermuda Petrel also known as Cahow.

This is probably the 2nd or 3rd rarest seabird on the planet. It was considered to be extinct for centuries and in the early 1960s just 18 breeding pairs existed. This is an excellent history of the superhuman recovery effort driven mostly by two men. Today the entire world population still likely consists of roughly 300 individuals including 143 breeding pairs this past winter and who knows how many young at sea that won't nest until they're 3-6 years old.

The Gulf Stream waters off of the Outer Banks of North Carolina are a known summering location for them and I had managed to see on five times across 70-80 of trips back in the 1990s. This individual is a first record for NJ and only the 3rd record for the U.S. outside of that area, the other two records being from VA and MA.

Here are some meh but completely identifiable photos I managed.

[goldenvalley]

That must have been a rush to see them LFC.  I'm glad the efforts to save them seem to be working.

[LFC]

Aug 29, 2022 15:25:07 GMT goldenvalley said:

That must have been a rush to see them LFC.  I'm glad the efforts to save them seem to be working.

That it was. I think out of 50 or so people aboard I and one other person, who was with me on a trip that I lead in NC, were the only two to have ever seen one before.

[LFC]

[AnBr]

[LFC]

Frickin' swans.

[AnBr]

[LFC]

Oct 30, 2022 20:41:54 GMT AnBr said:

View Attachment

One of my wife's all-time favorite birds. She's held them at banding operations before and she practically melts every time.

[AnBr]

Cute little thing.

[LFC]

In one instant 50 American Goldfinches exploded off our feeders. Huh. I wonder why.

Juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk on its first southbound migration.

[LFC]

Neat stuff.

Dawn breaks in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. The city is still asleep, but the early risers are greeted by a beautiful symphony: Hummingbirds, corn-eaters, yigüirros (clay-colored thrushes), yellow-breasted grosbeaks, blue tanagers, house wrens, warblers and other birds announce that a new day has arrived.

Soon the incessant noise of vehicles and their horns, construction, street vendors, and more take over, shaping the soundscape of the frenetic routine of hundreds of thousands of people who travel and live in this city. Then, the birds’ songs will slip into the background.

“The act of birdsong has two main functions in males: It is to attract females and also to defend their territory from other males,” says Luis Andrés Sandoval Vargas, an ornithologist at the University of Costa Rica. For females in the tropics, he adds, the primary role of their song is to defend territory. Thus, in order to communicate in cities, to keep their territory safe and find mates, birds must find ways to counteract the effects of anthropogenic noise—that is, the noise produced by humans.

“The main effect of urban development on song is that many birds sing at higher frequencies,” says Sandoval Vargas. Studies over the past 15 years have found, for example, that blackbirds (Turdus merula), great tits (Parus major), and rufous-collared sparrows (Zonotrichia capensis) sing at higher pitches, with higher minimum frequencies, in urban environments than in rural ones.

[andydp]

Never let it be said I don't enjoy a good double entendre.  Link to order your own set is below the photo.



dvacso.com/products/set-of-6-bird-pun-coasters?fbclid=IwAR1C_0htW0qOMh9zuNgjKP1otPgMIzBGG8FDh88SZn82TuYOA5BSrZyOn2E

[LFC]

[goldenvalley]

Slow birding? LFC what do you think of this?

A new book, “Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard,” proposes doing just that — during feeder season and throughout the year. The author, Joan E. Strassmann, is an animal behaviorist and professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Slow birding, a term she adapted from the slow food movement, is not checklist-driven bird-watching, which may feel almost competitive, as if mandating that more is better, and rarer is best. For a slow birder — and Dr. Strassmann considers herself one — the payoff is not a longer life list, but connecting with and gaining insight into our inner circle of everyday birds.
“When someone asks what new or exciting birds I have seen on my morning walk, I smile and answer with delight as I name the commonest birds,” she writes.

This sounds nice of course, but isn't travel away from your home part of the fun?