Bird Id Part 2.5

[Knight]

Kinda figured it was not a Great Gray by the color of its eyes. Are these owls territorial Paulnj ? Any chance this guy is gonna stick around for the winter ? If so i may be able to get a few better shots of Him or Her

[paulnj]

Yes they are territorial , as are all bird species, but only on breeding grounds usually. This owl will stay in the area if food supply is abundant and people don't bother it too much(they are secretive and like dense swampy conifer growths from my experience in summer atleast). Not that trying to photograph it periodicly is bad, but constant pestering by people will make it move on after awhile.

Good luck !

[Lava Lamp]

But now I'm not so sure. Here's the first exposure. Paul, what do you usually set your camera to catch a flying backlit hawk like this?.

[Lava Lamp]

Tried to bring out more detail...

[srobb]

Really nice job bringing out the details, lava. I am not Paul so I will not hazard a guess as yet. I will try to start id'ing after Christmas when I (hopefully) will have my bird book. I have seen some really red tails, but have not had a real good shot at them.

Paul, I would be interested in what your settings are for that as well.

[paulnj]

I knew what it was even dark like the first.The second tells me it's age though ;)

What you have here is a juvenile redtailed hawk.

My setting for hawks in flight are not set in stone as you can imagine, but +1ev 5600k WB is a good start. I shoot RAW+JPEG , so if I do get a sweet shot, i can always adjust the raw as a last resort.

I am not fond of editing as I prefer to shoot shoot shoot.

.

[alboy]

i took nice pic of a heron flying up the river , he is always behind my house on the river bank looking for his food... i tried to put the pic here but for some reason it will not upload so its in the gallery..............cheers


Here you go

[Knight]

Juvenile or Female Paulnj ?


alboy are you sure your respecting the file size and image size to upload ?

[paulnj]

Juvenile or Female Paulnj ?


alboy are you sure your respecting the file size and image size to upload ?

Tough call there! I have never seen a pine grosbeak, With that faint an eye stripe and lack of the bright wingbars, I would say juvenile?

All my ID books are packed away with the rest of my gear right now. Starting at MIDNIGHT I am doing the Christmas Bird Count until dark tomorrow Good thing I got up at 6AM today to shop huh

[paulnj]

This is a purple heron I do believe. They look very similiar to the Great Blue Heron of the US.

Flight images aren't easy! You did very well for your first time.

[mjs1973]

My first thought when I saw this in the field was that it's a Hairy Woodpecker. When I got home and looked in my book, it seems that the marks are very similar to the Downy. These aren't the greatest pics, but I'm sticking with my first thoughts and going with a Hairy Woodpecker.

Am I correct Paul?

[Knight]

I took a couple of diferent pictures of these Pine Grosbeak`s , ill take a look and C if i can spot some differences.

[paulnj]

I had the ID instantly from the first image..... DOWNY

The beak is too short and the white above it are some good field marks to go by. Hairy/ Downy isn't that easy though as You can tell.

[mjs1973]

I had the ID instantly from the first image..... DOWNY

The beak is too short and the white above it are some good field marks to go by. Hairy/ Downy isn't that easy though as You can tell.

Thanks for the help Paul!

[Lava Lamp]

Came across this bird on a trail through woods near a marsh. He ran along the trail in from of me for a while and this was the best shot I could get that wasn't just his rear end. Looks like a house sparrow, but it was pretty orange and extremely puffed up, as you can see. So what it is?

[paulnj]

... swamp sparrow ;)

[Lava Lamp]

Have we had a crow yet? I've found them very hard to photgraph -- very wary and all black.

[alboy]

here is a shot of a gull i got this morning..

[paulnj]

Have we had a crow yet? I've found them very hard to photgraph -- very wary and all black.

THAT IS ONE SWEET SHOT THERE!!!!!

[paulnj]

Sorry, but all UK gulls I can't ID ... YET. coastal birds are my weak point.. don't tell though ;)

This appears to be a Common Gull ( Larus canus )

[alboy]

yup its a common one, there is hundreds of them here.
there is a sparrow hawk always having a go at them, the gulls gang up on it, im yet to get a good shot of that happening......
cheers.
alan...

[paulnj]

COMMON GULL is the name of it ;)

[alboy]

did some research and its a herring gull, we dont have many common gulls here..

[paulnj]

I don't want to sound like a know it all, but who says that it's a herring gull? While the UK has herring gulls of a different subspecies, I know the subspecies that resides in the US quite well . The outer flight feathers don't have enough black to my eyes, but I could also be WRONG since that's a different subspecies??

The UK has Larus argentatus argenteus , while the US has Larus argentatus smithsonianus

http://www.birdguides.com/html/vidli...arus_canus.htm

" The Common Gull is most likely to be mistaken for a Herring Gull but notice that it is much smaller with altogether more delicate features, including the fine bill which lacks a red spot. It also has greenish legs and a darker grey back than most Herring Gulls. In flight the black in the primaries makes a more extensive wedge with bolder neater white blobs near the tips. Immature Common Gulls in flight have a conspicuous black wedge on the leading edge of the primaries "

After much google research I still am not convinced of either ID ;) The white on the wing tips of the adult COMMON gull is missing and the BLACK feathers in the tips seems too little for herring gull. herring gulls have 4 different winter(or summer) plumages by age, so this very well could be a 3rd year herring with fewer black wing tip feathers than usual ;)

[alboy]

i must say you are very much correct, after looking it up more i found that the herring gull and common are very much the same looking but the common is much smaller which this bird is.


cheers..
alan