"birding" fun

[SCEtoAUX]

Nice pics of those birds.

It is always a bonus to be driving down the road in a predominantly urban area and see a heron wading in some standing water looking for something the snag.

[Kevin WS]

Whulsey - like your herons! Good "flying" shot - nice to get these.

Is the pond in your garden?

-----------------------------------

Michael - interesting selection of birds.

Looked up the first one and as far as I can see Don is correct - it is a Song Sparrow.

The Goldfinches are nice little birds. The words for a group of these are pretty nice and fit them well...."charm", "treasury" and "vein" all being used!

[Kevin WS]

Here are some shots of a Fish Eagle.

This is a bird I have never been able to get decent shots of - but last trip, wham! Two different birds in one day!

The Fish Eagle is a big bird - up to five and half pounds in weight, and up to eight feet in wingspan.

And yes, their main source of food is fish. They catch big fish too, including large barbel (catfish).

Where these are too large for the bird to physically lift them out of the water, they "skim" across the surface to the shoreline, where they then eat them.

These pictures are of two different birds on the same day.

Picture 1 - Bird 1 on a tree out in the lake. The nest is not his!

Picture 2 - Bird 2.

Picture 3 - Bird 1 a little later in flight.

[Michael Mash]

Great images Kevin.
Those resemble the American Bald Eagle, but perhaps a little smaller.
Mike

[Kevin WS]

Thanks Mike.

I looked up the American Bald Eagle, and I see it is also mainly a fish eater! A relative maybe? The call sounds similar in way to the Fish eagle as well.

One big difference though is in the talons - the African Fish Eagle has huge talons, the Bald Eagle quite small talons. This is reflected in the food variety for the Bald Eagle I guess!

[whulsey]

Wish that was my garden. That's the common area with an artificial stream for the condominium complex that I live in.

The flying shot was mainly luck. Was trying to position myself for another shot and saw it get into takeoff position, so just did a 'point and shoot'.

[Kevin WS]

The flying shots are always mostly luck! In my case anyway!

Like one in probably one hundred fifty plus attempts at flying shots are not rubbish!

[Kevin WS]

Back from my latest field trip.

Drought in the area I go to is rough - no rain since Feb 2015. Spent a fortune feeding animals and birds.

Saw very few birds as well, but the sightings had were interesting.

Here is one of the first sightings - a Magpie Shrike. He has a really long tail and a tiny hook on the end pf his beak.

Often impales prey on barbed wire fences.

[Don Boose]

You always post the most interesting birds, Kevin! The fish eagles are magnificent, and I was glad to know about the magpie shrike.

Wayne - Belated recognition of your excellent images. Your condominium common area looks like a pleasant place to hang out.

Two days ago, we had a brown thrasher in our back garden (uncommon, but not unprecedented) and a wren that I couldn't identify - smaller than our resident Carolina wren, same white eye brow but less prominent and a shorter tail more consistently up-thrust). I would like to think it was a winter wren, which would have been a life bird for me, but couldn't make a positive i.d. No camera available for either bird. Hope the wren comes back.

Don

[SCEtoAUX]

Nice pic of that Magpie Shrike.

We have Loggerhead Shrikes in the USA that do the same impaling of prey on barbed wire or thorns. I was walking a fence line in Oklahoma many many years ago and saw a bird fly away but there was something stuck on the fence where it had vacated. Getting closer revealed a small lizard impaled there. Neat for me, but not so neat for the lizard.