"birding" fun

[birder]

Cool Catbird, Don. I assume your Catbirds sing into and through the night sometimes on summer nights as ours do? They haven't shown up here yet, but I look forward to seeing/hearing them. Yellow warblers are loudly singing now. Bird populations are struggling in areas, for lots of reasons. We are quite spoiled to enjoy them in our area, mostly due to favorable habitat. That we have so many feeders and boxes up helps, and we feel lucky to be able to enjoy them. Ive been watching the youtube nest cams from the Redtails at Cornell so I get an inkling of your weather, the Peregrines from Berkley are really cool right now, too.

[SCEtoAUX]

I have been seeing some Brown Thrashers. They seem to nest around here every year. This looks like a juvenile Brown Thrasher.

This one stood still watching me for a while. It did not fly away until I sneezed.

They are interesting birds to watch. The adults are mostly brown and they thrash around in undergrowth alot with their beaks looking for stuff to eat.

It also looks like the Northern Mockingbird family is back in the area. I was mowing the lawn a few days ago when a Northern Mockingbird flew up and perched on a wire. When I would pass by with the mower it would swoop down and grab a bug. It followed me around, swooping for bugs, until I finished. Then it flew away. That is a regular event when I mow the lawn.

[Don Boose]

Nice image, Doug -

We now have seven count 'em seven catbirds fluttering around in our back garden, as well as the brown thrasher, a Carolina wren, a red-headed woodpecker, a couple of bluebirds, and the usual suspects (starlings, grackles, mourning doves, robins, black-capped chickadees, cardinals, white breasted nuthatches, house and gold finches, mockingbirds, and red-bellied, hairy, and possibly downy woodpeckers and sapsuckers). I have taken some photos (not great since the window is still dirty and no tripod) and will share them in a day or so. Down at the Conodoguinet, the bank swallows are back, along with the occasional great white egret or blue heron and common or garden mallards. Hoping to see the kingfisher soon.

Don

Don

[Vermin_King]

Owls are gone for a week, so have to content myself with song birds

[Don Boose]

Very nice, Dave. Are they finches?

Don

[Vermin_King]

Purple finches. They showed up about three weeks later than normal, but I have seen as many as eight at a time, when normally I've seen 2 or 3 at most. The gold finches showed up last week, too, but they haven't been photo-cooperative


A robin is in the normal purple finch nesting site, so I'm not sure where they will nest this year

[N96HBK]

Very interesting bird photos!!

I live in a densely populated area in Seoul, so there aren't many species that live in this area. I did however have the chance to capture some Brown eared Bulbuls and some sparrows from our house.

I got to know Bulbuls when they launched an assault at our persimmon tree last winter. They devoured most of the fruits... At least we had some left to eat. The number of Bulbuls seem to be increasing very slowly, I wasn't familiar with them until recently.

Another interesting moment was when sparrows came to eat the rice we scattered. I noticed a sparrow that seemed to be feeding another motionless bird, and I went out to have a closer look to discover that it was a chick!! The fuzzy little chap came to have a nap in our tree, and stayed for a while until the mother left.

Birds are bringing me lots of joy during this hard period. When things clear out a bit, I want to explore a bit and take photos of wild birds that are rarely seen in urban areas.

[Don Boose]

I enjoyed seeing these images, Dong-Woo.

I do not recall ever seeing bulbuls during the years that I lived in Seoul (1971-72, 74-78, 84-87) or up near the Imjin River 1962-63. The most common birds that I remember were the magpies (kkaji, which was also the most common bird in our garden when we lived in Japan 1987-1990, and sparrows like those you captured on film. We belonged to an international weekend hiking club called the "Mountain Magpies" (san kkaji.

Don

[Vermin_King]

Birds and power lines...


As I mentioned above, the purple finches were way late this year, so a robin built her nest where the finches usually nest. Momma robin flies off every time I try to catch feeding time, when all three heads are craning for the tasty morsels, but here's one with its head above the rim.


No baby owl this year, but at least there are a few little birds around.


The robins nested there for years until three years ago, then the finches started nesting there and the robin would nest in one of my bushes, but the finches were late this year

[N96HBK]

Cute little birds!!! We don't have robins here, but Barn swallows come every spring to make nests on houses. They used to nest in the house next door, but after new folks moved in there, swallows never considered the place anymore.. The previous owners made an artificial nest so the swallows can easily build around it and raise the young.

Don, very interesting to read about your experience here!! But as far as I know, we had constant political conflicts, military coups and massacre during those years... I hope you were not directly affected by our rough history..

I started noticing Bulbuls in Incheon while I was in middle school, which was a few years ago. I read a blog which said that Bulbuls have started to expand their habitats to populated cities in recent years.

I have never encountered mountain magpies (I think I read that they're called Eurasian Jays), not even in the deep forests.... They look magnificent, I'd like to have a picture of one.
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The baby sparrow came back today, and we were blessed to capture the mother feeding it!!