Birding

[Turtle]

___That is weird Cedars. The news reports around here in the Pacific Northwest keep quoting "scientists" as saying 'something really weird is going on in the ocean & we don't know what'.

___I think the dying birds are Muirs (sp), but now there is a "weird" increase in large flocks of other seabirds following "weird" increased populations of small fish. :lol:

___I went blackberry picking down my hill & that owl was in a tall oak hooting. I never saw it, but when I rustled around it hooted, but when I stood still picking berrys, it grew quiet. It went hoo....hoo..hoo.....hoooo. It's hard to correlate what I hear to the call descriptions in my ID book. It seems to stick around so I may yet identify it. :)

[Cedars]

___I went blackberry picking down my hill & that owl was in a tall oak hooting. I never saw it, but when I rustled around it hooted, but when I stood still picking berrys, it grew quiet. It went hoo....hoo..hoo.....hoooo. It's hard to correlate what I hear to the call descriptions in my ID book. It seems to stick around so I may yet identify it. :lol:

 

Heres a page with owl sounds. Small files so even dial-up users can hear. Check out the Bubo virginianus and see if that matches what you heard.

 

http://www.owlpages.com/sounds.php

 

I was crosschecking common owls in your area via this site:

http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/family_EZ.asp?famname=Strigidae

 

If it was higher pitched than the file I suggested, check out the spotted owl sound and see if that is closer. I did not get thru all the washington area owl sounds.

[Turtle]

___Thanks Cedars. I checked my book & think it is either a Great Horned Owl or a Western Screech-Owl. I listened to the owl sound site, they have the Great Honed Owl call , which didn't sound like the call I heard; apparently no recording for the Western Screech Owl.

___If it was the third possibility, the Spotted Owl, that would create quite a stir as they are rare (maybe classed endangered?)

___Correct spelling of the dying birds on the Oregon Pacific coast is Murre, plural Murres.

[Cedars]

___Thanks Cedars. I checked my book & think it is either a Great Horned Owl or a Western Screech-Owl. I listened to the owl sound site, they have the Great Honed Owl call , which didn't sound like the call I heard; apparently no recording for the Western Screech Owl.

___If it was the third possibility, the Spotted Owl, that would create quite a stir as they are rare (maybe classed endangered?)

___Correct spelling of the dying birds on the Oregon Pacific coast is Murre, plural Murres.

 

I read sometime back that the spotted owl and the barred owl are interbreeding. But their calls seem to be vastly different, with the barred being much deeper voiced. I have barred here and they hunt my yard at night alot during the winter months.

 

As far as the Murres go, I am not familiar with them at all. There are so many things that can affect groups of birds, such as botulism. I know in Lac qu Parle, in southern minnesota, during the fall migration, there is often outbreaks of some type of avian choloria (spelling?) where sometimes thousands die off. Maybe these fish are carrying some type of bacteria in their systems that the Murres are more sensitive to than other birds.

[Turtle]

___Apparently the Murres have died of starvation :) ; they don't eat the particular little fish that is drawing the other birds. Whatever their primary food source is (my Audubon doesn't specify) , it has died back in the ocean. :lol: Underwater volcanism is my guess. :)

[Cedars]

___Apparently the Murres have died of starvation :( ; they don't eat the particular little fish that is drawing the other birds. Whatever their primary food source is (my Audubon doesn't specify) , it has died back in the ocean. ;) Underwater volcanism is my guess. :P

 

Heres a good page on murres.

http://hww.thinkmcmillan.com/hww2.asp?id=57

 

Seems their diet is flexable enough that if they are starving, other ocean predators should be impacted also. Have local fisherman been noting a significant reduction in their catches?

 

The Murres seem to be very sensitive to oil spills. Anything like that happened? Has there been alot of underwater volcanism in this area?

[Turtle]

___Thanks again Cedars for a good link.

___ From that article I took this paragraph:

"These birds spend almost all their lives at sea and dive beneath the surface to feed on fish, squid, and shrimp-like crustaceans called krill; in fact, they eat almost any marine life up to the size of a 30-g fish." [ The "these birds" phrase refers to the 2 types of Murres & it is the Common Murres dying here.]

___I note krill is among the food sources & I believe they dine on yet smaller life, but the upshot is that if the "weirdness" going on in the Pacific affects the smallest, the chain all above breaks down subsequently. In the case of Murres, the larger fish they take may have also died of for lack of medium fish for lack of small fish for lack of krill.

[Eclogite]

I was something of an amateur ornithologist when I was at school, but nothing serious since. I live in the country, so we have a reasonable range of birds - the usual garden birds: robins, blackbirds, various tits, various sparrows; crows, rooks, magpies, ; a pair of kestrels hanging around recently, an occasional owl, an even rarer heron. A month ago a pea hen turned up! Peahens are not native to Scotland. It's still here, roosting in one of our trees. Anybody know how peahens cope with snow?

Turtle, in the UK birdwatchers call themselves twitchers. Is that nomenclature peculiar to here or do you use the same term in the US?

[Turtle]

___Thanks for an international view Eclogite; the Robins in Scotland surprised me. :D As most references call it the "American Robin", I never considered it was in Europe. How long have robins lived there? Or is it possible we call different birds "Robins"?

___As to birdwatchers over here in the US, they call themselves "birders"; a "twitcher" over here is someone with involuntary body movements. :hihi:

___I don't know how the peahens fair in the snow so perhaps you can let us know. :D

[Eclogite]

As I was writing 'robin' I was thinking, will Turtle be aware that this is not the same as the 'American robin'. Brevity won out over clarity! I believe (as is often the case in these matters :hihi: ) that the American variety is larger than the European. (I am fairly certain they are found throughout at least western Europe.) As far as I can recall the two are not closely related, but the early settlers recognising a familiar red breast gave it the name.

 

The European variety is very aggressive in defending its territory from all comers, so unless you have a large gardnen you are likely to see no more than one male on a regular basis. They turn up within moments of any digging, aware that worms are now on the menu.

[Turtle]

___I bought a bag of bird seed on impule today - $1.79 - & just at dusk finished screwing my home-made coffee-can feeder to the uppermost stump of a little tree I topped outside my window. I also started building a cardboard blind for my camera to insert in the open window. This may or may not get out of control. :eek2:

[Buffy]

That depends on what you're trying to capture on film! What are you shooting for Turtle?

 

Chirp,

Buffy

[Turtle]

That depends on what you're trying to capture on film! What are you shooting for Turtle?

 

Chirp,

Buffy

___I gave away all my film photography equipment & a couple years ago decided on a Sony Handycam for it multifunctionality. I plug the camera into my video/audio inputs on my little TV & watch onscreen. The stills I take from the video via a USB connect to this PC; if "we" had a firewire port I think its possible to uplink sharper digital images. I use the software Sony gave with the camera; called Pixela.

___The out-of-control refers to how elaborate I get with my blind. I need at least to keep the weather out, shield myself from view, & accomadate the locations of controls on the camera. I may also build a little hood as I looked for a commercial one a few times & found none. I also thought a cable on pulleys to trolley the feeder up closer?! :beer:

___At the least I expect to draw sparrows, finches, chickadees, jays, grosbeaks, & towhees. :eek2:

[McGyver]

Bird TV programs and movies are fascinating to watch. HBO previously was airing a ? French movie on migrating geese. I can't recall the name, but you really could fly with these larger birds - who migrate some 2000 miles each season.

 

I believe I saw a statistic several years ago indicating there are more birds on the planet than humans. Anyone else see such figures?

[Buffy]

That depends on what you're trying to capture on film!

___I gave away all my film photography equipment & a couple years ago decided on a Sony Handycam for it multifunctionality.

Of course! I didn't mean to imply such luddism, but we older folks still refer to "albums" and the kids think we're talking about the "photo" kind. At least I'm not old enough to have owned a "Brownie" like you have Turtle...say, at 103, you must have actually met Mr. Eastman, eh? :xx:

___The out-of-control refers to how elaborate I get with my blind....

Just keep repeating, "DOG, DOG, DOG...." :eek2:

___At the least I expect to draw sparrows, finches, chickadees, jays, grosbeaks, & towhees.

Good modest goals. I have my 5 mile jog up into the hills and duck the hawks and trip over the quail everyday...I'm not much for making them models...

 

Have fun! (Semi-obscure NO reference! and remember to click here y'all!)

Buffy

[Turtle]

___The Jays have fount the feeder already, both the Steller's Jays & the Scrub Jays. I have put a monatage in the Science Gallery of some stills of one of the Steller's Jays. :evil:

http://hypography.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=482&c=3

[Buffy]

Pretty! But I have to admit, Jays are the one bird I have *no* trouble blasting away at.... :evil:

 

Screeeeeetch!!!

Buffy