Bird Id Part Ii

[paulnj]

Dude that appears to be a TRUE Muscovy duck! The angle is a hard one to ID from though.

[mjs1973]

Can you see enuf of these little ones to ID them?

[paulnj]

Are you joking ? Give me a location of the nest( looks like an over hang, but is it near water.....) and I will give you a few birds it could be.

Seems it is mostlikely a eastern pheobe nest from my experience, but it would be close to water. Alsp mourning doves and robins nest anywhere too ;)

[mjs1973]

Are you joking ? Give me a location of the nest( looks like an over hang, but is it near water.....) and I will give you a few birds it could be.

Seems it is mostlikely a eastern pheobe nest from my experience, but it would be close to water. Alsp mourning doves and robins nest anywhere too ;)

Well, you do have the right answer in your reply. The nest is sitting on top of a porch light on the back of a cabin we rented in northern WI. There is a lake about 50 yards from the cabin.

[mjs1973]

I was going thru some old pics looking for eagles and came across this guy.

[Mike T]

I go away for a few days and come home to a new forum, here's a shot I took saturday down on the Gulf coast of Florida.
Mike

[paulnj]

I go away for a few days and come home to a new forum, here's a shot I took saturday down on the Gulf coast of Florida.
Mike

Little blue heron and a snowy egret

[Mike T]

Here's another bird from Florida, I only had my 200mm lens with me so I had to crop this a bit. I wasn't planning on doing any birding down in Florida but I wish I had put my 2x extender in the bag, I won't make that mistake again.
Mike

[Mike T]

The area I was in was pretty built up but I saw on a map a state park on the gulf so I took a short ride there. It was called Honeymoon Island State Park and in the park was a nature trail named The Osprey Trail and this was a very accurate name. There were several nests not far from the trail and many Osprey flying around. Here's one of the ones I was pretty close to.
Mike

ps. since I named the bird how about IDing its meal

[paulnj]

The area I was in was pretty built up but I saw on a map a state park on the gulf so I took a short ride there. It was called Honeymoon Island State Park and in the park was a nature trail named The Osprey Trail and this was a very accurate name. There were several nests not far from the trail and many Osprey flying around. Here's one of the ones I was pretty close to.
Mike

ps. since I named the bird how about IDing its meal

LOOKS like a Mullet to me.

[paulnj]

PALM WARBLER 8 out of 10 wintering warblers are palms in florida.... so I have seen ;)

[paulnj]

I was going thru some old pics looking for eagles and came across this guy.

It's a Downy woodpecker

[paulnj]

Eastern Pheobe is my educated guess

[Lava Lamp]

These littel ones are confusing. Found him at the edge of woods leading to a salt marsh...

[paulnj]

That's a mockingbird.... not that little ;)

[mjs1973]

Eastern Pheobe is my educated guess

Baby robins. The only reason I know is because mom and dad made sure we kept some distance from them. Made grilling out on the back deck very interesting.

[paulnj]

Well..... I was close

[mjs1973]

Well..... I was close

Yes you were, and your skills just amaze me!

[Mike T]

Another bird from down in Florida
Mike

[paulnj]

Do you know what it is.... I do

Prairie warbler

[paulnj]

Yes you were, and your skills just amaze me!

Why thank you, but I must admit my skills are getting foggy from lack of birding this year.

[JSPhoto]

This should be easy for you Paul...... I hear there are several in the woods below, so I'm going to spend some time there next week and see if I can get some GOOD sshots... unlike this one.

JS

[paulnj]

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

[JSPhoto]

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

[paulnj]

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 !