Got any bird pics?
- Thread starter Wadin' Boot
- Start date
The sound of a falcon stooping is incredible. Had one at Dry Falls going after a duck. I heard it before I saw it. There was another one in Costa Rica that hit a swift. The swift was tumbling through the air and the falcon made a U-turn and got the bird.
Beautiful photos. You clearly know what you are doing with a camera. I was in Tucson last week and spent several days visiting Madera Canyon, Sweetwater wetlands, Sonoita Creek, and Saguaro NP. It is a special place.
I had a similar experience on Dry Falls. As you said, the sound is incredible.
It hit a smaller bird above me and feathers floated down around me landing on the lake while I was sitting in my boat. I really wish I had a video of that.
SF
Gyrfalcon22
Legend
Boot, looks like you have a very good looking 1 year (last year's hatch) Peale's peregrine. Those are the largest subspecies of Peregrine.
Nice shots of the Ruler of the Skies !
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Gyrfalcon22
Legend
A good mystery is always fun in nature. Wild geese seem to show leucism quite regularly-or I just see so many geese that it is normal a % and when you get to see thousands a season the odds go up finding oddities. Like the storm version of wigeon ducks, it makes it worthwhile to scan through a whole flock to make sure you aren't missing anything.
Like a couple years ago locally.
A 15-year old birding phenom in our state picked out an ultra-rare for north america, Common crane individual out of a flock of Sandhill cranes that was local. Some folks booked flights to come and see as they are a lister's must.
This shot I took is a bit deceiving as the Common crane is not that much larger than the sandhills on the left
Back to the more recent mystery bird. I see partially white/leucistic geese every couple of years. They look just like their fellow geese they are in a flock with but have various sized single or multiple white patches. Usually on the head or neck. Wild geese also mix with domestic geese quite often. One interesting bird that popped up recently was traveling with Greater White-fronted geese that would mingle with 100's of Cackler geese, but it definitely liked its speckled pals more. I decided to research some and have come up to the hypothesis it is a hybrid of the two geese species in the flock of 1000. Snow goose was in the play, as was Barnacle goose, but company kept lends it to the more likely answer I think of GWFxCack
So, if I go with the Greater white-fronted x Cackler goose hybrid I must also add a shot of another goose, a Cackler, with white speckles on its neck. Hmmmm. Hybrids are not always a perfect blend of two plumages so color is not the best way to know. @RRSmith and @Cabezon are our waterfowl experts so will hopefully get them to add on to this. That second goose may just have some leucism going on.
Pretty bird by any definition.
Below: the Cackler with some extra white speckles like the other suspected hybrid.. Leucism or hybrid genes sneaking through?
Cackling geese are very cool waterfowl. The smallest, the minima subspecies, is about the size of a Mallard duck !
Like a couple years ago locally.
A 15-year old birding phenom in our state picked out an ultra-rare for north america, Common crane individual out of a flock of Sandhill cranes that was local. Some folks booked flights to come and see as they are a lister's must.
This shot I took is a bit deceiving as the Common crane is not that much larger than the sandhills on the left
Back to the more recent mystery bird. I see partially white/leucistic geese every couple of years. They look just like their fellow geese they are in a flock with but have various sized single or multiple white patches. Usually on the head or neck. Wild geese also mix with domestic geese quite often. One interesting bird that popped up recently was traveling with Greater White-fronted geese that would mingle with 100's of Cackler geese, but it definitely liked its speckled pals more. I decided to research some and have come up to the hypothesis it is a hybrid of the two geese species in the flock of 1000. Snow goose was in the play, as was Barnacle goose, but company kept lends it to the more likely answer I think of GWFxCack
So, if I go with the Greater white-fronted x Cackler goose hybrid I must also add a shot of another goose, a Cackler, with white speckles on its neck. Hmmmm. Hybrids are not always a perfect blend of two plumages so color is not the best way to know. @RRSmith and @Cabezon are our waterfowl experts so will hopefully get them to add on to this. That second goose may just have some leucism going on.
Pretty bird by any definition.
Below: the Cackler with some extra white speckles like the other suspected hybrid.. Leucism or hybrid genes sneaking through?
Cackling geese are very cool waterfowl. The smallest, the minima subspecies, is about the size of a Mallard duck !
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Gyrfalcon22
Legend
Shorebirds bring it up to another level of craziness. Trying to pick though flocks of thousands x thousands of smaller birds is birding insanity (no one ever accused birders of being sane anyway, of course..).
This guy was either Andre the Giant of the Dunlin world, or something else. And that something else is a much more rare Red Knot mixed in.
This guy was either Andre the Giant of the Dunlin world, or something else. And that something else is a much more rare Red Knot mixed in.
Your images are spectacular as always - thanks for sharing! Oh boy, the hybrid thing is always a toughie. I am going to send those images to a buddy that has worked a lot with YK Delta geese and get his thoughts. In the meantime, I tend to agree that it might be a CACG/GWFG hybrid.
I don't know what these colorful regular visitors are, but they have gotten used to the dog and I and are not as skittish as they used to be.
I am tempted to say pine siskins. They have very musical calls. You might download the free Merlin app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The app can identify birds by sound, from a photograph, or via series of questions.
Steve
I will check that out, thanks.
Yes, they do have musical calls, and are quite vocal, especially when they first come in.
Nice shot!Trying to work in the yard today and some stupid bird circling overhead keeps distracting me with its shadow. Super annoying!
View attachment 151744
I suffer a similar issue, trying to work in the yard and I keep hearing a hawk so I have to stop what I'm doing and scan the sky to see if I can spot him - rarely do. Neighbors must think "there's that dumb ole man again, staring blankly into the sky"
cheers
Bonefish Jack
Steelhead
Sorry for no pics … All week, I have been hearing/seeing Red Crossbills and Evening Grosbeaks up in the Douglass Firs around my house.