Bird Id Part Ii

Well..... only a redtailed hawk "kites" like that ;)

Hawks in general are secretive in nature(as are most wild animals), so getting close will take patience and a bit of luck ;)

My suggestion is the approach B moose Peterson used in the beginning in his camaro..... drive around and watch ahead. KILL the engine and coast up to your subject while still being innn you mobile blind :) It does work sometimes on perched hawks.

Another way(my favorite) is to find a hillside clearing and wait for the area hawks to come by. KNOWING your subject( it's habits, flight pattern, favorite perches, hunting grounds...) is just as important in wildlife as it is in sports :)

I knew you'd get it... :) lol, even with that bad shot. It was a 100% crop of a raw file from the 28-300mm lens, so it was about 390mm (1.3 on the MKII N sensor). The woods where they live are very small, maybe 8 acres at most. No hills as such, Indiana is flat, and this area is all corn/soybean fields.
I guess I'll just have to spend some time waiting on them to see where they go and when. The guy says there may be as many as 5 of them.

JS

Well..... they are migrating right now, but very well may stay in your area(some stay here year round)

Since you have corn/soy field, you WILL get harriers and roughlegged hawks wintering if the conditions are right. Also if the fields are VAST enough, many hundreds of acres , you may get short eared owls this winter hunting as the sun drops low ;)


Chinook Mines in Clay County Indiana in december/ january will give you a good chance at all 3 species ;) I love google !

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Originally Posted by paulnj

Back by popular demand !!!

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OK, Since I want people to learn....

Let's see who can ID this :)

It's 1/3RD the frame BTW to make EVERY field mark visible :)

I want a PERFECT ID too ;)

I will give it a few days or 2 CORRECT perfect ID's ;)

Hmmm, Interesting... I have been looking for somewhere to go. I never heard of Chinhook Mines before...I'll look that up! I had heard that Patoka Lake in Southern Indiana has Bald Eagles, and in February they have a big deal there and a day for spotting them where a lot of people show up. It's on the Indiana DNR site for Patoka Lake and C52 website which is a site for a captive Bald Eagle. This Bald Eagle was born with a defect in its wing (s) and cannot fly.
C52's Website: http://www.in.gov/dnr/c52/HowToSpot.html

In the years I have lived in Indiana I saw one owl, twice, two days apart. This past summer I had one in my back yard but could not find it. I also have woodpeckers that I cannot find no matter what I do. I see their holes though! I have pine trees in front and in back of my property, and behind that is a 17 acre field (corn this year), across the street is a 324 acre farm field as well. I'm out in farm country, for maybe 5 more years, then the developements will be here too :mad: .

Thanks for the info Paul, I'll check it out!

JS

Thanks for the homework Paul. This will give me a chance to test out my new bird book. I did get the Smithsonian book I was asking about in my other thread from earlier this week. Only bad thing with this assignment is that now I'm afraid to read the rest of the posts in this thread because I don't want any help IDing this bird. :)

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Originally Posted by paulnj

I want a PERFECT ID too ;)

I will give it a few days or 2 CORRECT perfect ID's ;)

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Without going through the whole thread and ruining my chances, I would say on first guess that it is a Coopers Hawk.

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Originally Posted by paulnj

OK, Since I want people to learn....

Let's see who can ID this :)

It's 1/3RD the frame BTW to make EVERY field mark visible :)

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My uneducated guess is Accipiter striatus aka Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Well february is the beginning of nesting season for raptors ;), which is why they do it then. Great horned owls fledge from the nest in may, while some eaglecmay fledge as late as early july(unless in FL where they double clutch at times). If you have open water in your area in winter(lakes, big rivers... DAM OVERFLOWS!!) You should be able to find an eagle there if fishing is good) I go to the hudson river NYC parks, Rio res. near port jervis NY and the Conawingo dam in maryland to see eagles in winter(if time permits) I usually can find 30 + in a day in NY and 30-150 in maryland if conditions are right)

I photographed this bird yesteday in Valley Forge, PA. What is it?

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Originally Posted by Lava Lamp

I photographed this bird yesteday in Valley Forge, PA. What is it?

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slate colored variety of the Dark-eyed Junco ! They are coming down from canada to winter here in the north east.

Not sure what this is ... Seattle

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Originally Posted by SmartWombat

Not sure what this is ... Seattle

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American Robin

Found this guy a couple weeks ago.

First from winter feeder. :)

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Originally Posted by SmartWombat

Not sure what this is ... Seattle

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You beat me to it. I was going to post this one from Valley Forge, PA in the US that I took a few days ago. Are there robins in the UK?

White breasted nuthatch, but they are not considereda winter species since they are breeding birds in your(and mine) neck of the woods :)

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Originally Posted by mjs1973

Found this guy a couple weeks ago.

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Adult turkey vulture

Yes these are both american robins . The european robin looks far different, therefore I think smartwombat was in the US(Seattle) when he took that image.

You are correct, but.... It's a 1st fall cooper's hawk :) The sharpie guess was close though, as they do look very similiar unless you know the field marks to look for ;)

Taken at the Portland Zoo.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../Oregon005.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../Oregon018.jpg

Things are slowing down here so I don't know how many new birds I'll be able to post so here's another rerun. I shot this down in Florida a week or so ago, these birds were not as camera shy as the ones I come across here in NJ.

Mike

I do believe that's a lorikeet of some sort, but which(if one) I don't know

The owl looks to be an eagle owl of some sort ;)

post a full frame of the owl and I will get you an ID

Mike ..

Images from FL are quite easy to get compared to the REAL WORLD ;)

I am not trying to be funny, but my experience is that it was like shooting zoo animals.

I was in Ding Darling shooting headshots of herons and egrets with a 500mm 5 years ago.

From PA...

While house sparrrows are bad for other nesting birds(wrens, bluebirds, tree swallows), I don't find them to that bad.

I feed mine even ;)

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Originally Posted by paulnj

I do believe that's a lorikeet of some sort, but which(if one) I don't know

The owl looks to be an eagle owl of some sort ;)

post a full frame of the owl and I will get you an ID

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This is the only other shot I have of it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...p/65150017.jpg

Bubo bubo.... european eagle owl

Hey Paul...can you help me out with this bird? Can't figure it out. :)

Emily

And this one too, if you don't mind! :D
Emily

Well the top one is a yellow rumped warbler and the bottom one is a female house sparrow :)

Paul...do you mean the top as in second post?? The first post with the two pictures is the same bird...and it seemed smaller than a house sparrow...?

The first post with 2 images is a YRWA . It is far bigger than a sparrow too :)

The second post(dark image) is indeed a female house sparrow from what I see.

But which one?

Yellow rumped warbler ;) They are quite big for a warbler aren't they !

Lava, that looks just like the one I posted...but a better pic..hehe. :D

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Originally Posted by julsoph

Lava, that looks just like the one I posted...but a better pic..hehe. :D

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Had a flock in my back yard today...

From my winter feeder :)

Newly photographed species for me.