Spring 2009 Bird ID Thread.

[paulnj]

Grackle ?

Correct you are.

[Mike T]

I had a day off today and it didn't rain ! Here are a few shots from today, I think I know what birds two and three are but I'm not to sure about the first one. After I took this shot the bird flew down to the ground then back into another tree, a few swallows started to dive bomb it so it went to another tree where a couple of crows were giving it a hard time. I did get one shot with a swallow but it didn't come out to good.

Mike

[A.M.D.A.]

I had a day off today and it didn't rain ! Here are a few shots from today, I think I know what birds two and three are but I'm not to sure about the first one. After I took this shot the bird flew down to the ground then back into another tree, a few swallows started to dive bomb it so it went to another tree where a couple of crows were giving it a hard time. I did get one shot with a swallow but it didn't come out to good.

Mike

#1 = Could be a juvenile broad-winged hawk, but I am leaning more toward juvenile red-tailed hawk, due to tail pattern. Any frontal shots?

#2 / #3 = Female american kestrel.

#4 / #5 = Cooper's hawk.

[paulnj]

#1 = Could be a juvenile broad-winged hawk, but I am leaning more toward juvenile red-tailed hawk, due to tail pattern. Any frontal shots?

#2 / #3 = Female american kestrel.

#4 / #5 = Cooper's hawk.

Correct and #1 is definately a redtailed hawk.

[SARtech]

I vote yes on Grackle

[Mike T]

Hit a few places today one new bird for me. Here are a few shots.

Mike

[A.M.D.A.]

Hit a few places today one new bird for me. Here are a few shots.

Mike

#1. Adult male yellow warbler. Female doesn't have reddish stripes on chest / belly.
#2. Northern Rough-Winged swallow.
#3. A thief Bald eagle, stealing from an Osprey.

[Mike T]

The Eagle has a nest on this lake and I've watched it chase off an Osprey that was just in the area. This Osprey just dove into the water when out of nowhere the Eagle came at it. Here's a shot of that too bad it's blurry.

Mike

[paulnj]

Awesome mike is that the eagles over near the college?

Mike, I seen 18 PINE GROSBEAKS yesterday in Chatham on a job. Life bird and no camera :mad2:

[Mike T]

nest is at Little Swartswood although I have a feeling there are no chicks this year. I've been there several times this year and this was the first time I saw an eagle. I was there a few hours watching the Osprey work the lake and saw the eagle twice. After it went at the osprey it flew up to the tree the nest is in but it never went to the nest. I didn't see any movement at the nest the whole time I was there. In past years you would at least see the head of the eagle on the nest once in a while and if one was in the tree they would call out to each other.
Right after I took these pictures there were 4 osprey over the lake, I joked with some of the people there that they were coming to gang up on the eagle.
Lifers with no camera sounds like something that would happen to me. Have you ever been to Garret Mountain near Patterson ? I've heard it's a great place for spring migration , I have some time off and I'm thinking of giving it a try.

Mike

[paulnj]

glad to here they are still over there. I haven't been out that way in 3 years. I stopped birding really hard when my friend Bill passed away and I went back to day time work again.

Garrett mountain is an awesome spot during migration. You have the pond which is great and then the park above it. I have seen most every bird that passes through during migration there, but it all depends on migration. I would say give it a week for the heart of the migration (typically 1st week of may). NO reports from garrett as of yet and the rare bird alert has very few neotropicals on it thus far.

http://www.njaudubon.org/Tools2.Net/...s.aspx?sk=3156

[Mike T]

I thought 2 and 3 were a Peregrine Falcon. I sent them along to a guy that runs the Sussex County Bird Club web site and his ID was Peregrine. It's kind of hard to tell the size of a bird circling over head but this bird seemed bigger then a Kestrel. He also said the first is a young red-tailed

Mike

[A.M.D.A.]

I think perhaps he is right. Initially, I though peregrine as well, but the tail pattern and underwing pattern seemed a little odd.

But the fact that the bird has only 1 "mustache" visible could be the deciding factor, as well as your comments about general body size.

My bad.

[paulnj]

MINE TOO!

I hurriedly only looked at the first image, but the second is clearly a young peregrine molting into adult plumage.

A.M.D.A has the darker form in his area, so it's me who is the BAD ID person :mad2:

[Loupey]

Is this a tree sparrow?

(and not just because it is a sparrow and in a tree )

[paulnj]

Actually that's a scrub brush sparrow . lol

Field sparrow actually and even better to find. Tree sparrows have less rufous on the neck/chest area and a central dot on the chest.

[Loupey]

Cool! Either way would have been a first for me - so another one gets checked off

Thanks, Paul

[SARtech]

Sure is cute.

Kristine

[A.M.D.A.]

Sure is cute.

Kristine

Adult female red-bellied woodpecker.

[snowblade]

Thanks for the pictures! I'm pretty excited to be visiting this thread. I took my first ornithology course last June, and I'm gearing up to go birding again this summer -- only I'm not actually waiting for summer! I've put out my first feeder and have been enjoying the sightings of various common birdies. I don't have a high quality camera as of yet, but hopefully with a little inspiration from this site I'll still be able to produce some nice shots.
Looking forward to it...
Sara

[SARtech]

Welcome to the Forum Sara!
Can't wait for you to come out to the terminal and shoot some stuff. We could even go on a nice Saturday if you want. Before I got my DSLR (Digital SLR), I got some decent stuff with my point and shooter. I had to do a lot of PP (post-production) in Photoshop, but I could help you with that if you like.

There's a lot of help here. Have fun!

Kristine

[Loupey]

Wasn't sure of this one so I shot it to ID at home. Because of the barred tail and extremely heavily streaked breast, I'm thinking it is an immature red-shouldered?

[paulnj]

That's a cooper's hawk.

[lionman]

wow they are all magnificent birds and captured with such precision and acuricy not to forget crispness thay look amazing you could publish those photoes in a book they look so good thank you for uploading those a real treat to see

[paulnj]

The ID threads are by season, so 4 a year . I do believe we have 3 years of threads, so a search will find plenty more ID threads that are locked.