All About Pocket Knives

Ike, that is a wonderful collection of uncommon birds. If those are common for you, you must be living adjacent to the Garden of Eden.

Waukonda wrote: ↑Sat Aug 15, 2020 3:53 pm Indigo Bunting, Prothonatary Warbler and Rufous Sided Towhee

Nice pictures! That Indigo is a pretty colored one!

Ike, those are some awesome pics!! Wow those would be finds around here! A
Wonderful

Thank you Garry, Tom & Floyd.

Garry, I had to laugh a little at your post. A few miles from where I live, there is a small unincorporated community by the name of "Eden". It consists of a cluster of houses and a church, with an old ramshackle bar across the highway from the church. The name of the bar? The Garden! It is not exactly a birding destination.

Ike, I gotta agree with the other gents--great shots of some beautiful birds!

Ike, I just knew you had to be near Eden. As for the bar not having any birds, well there are birds and then there are birds.

Now Now keep it clean.

Very nice birds, Ike! Any of those three would be a treat to spot in my garden.

Bird activity is kind of slow here.I did see an owl, a Barred Owl, in my back yard last week. I have lived here for over twenty years and it was the first owl I have seen here. No photo, unfortunately. And the Hummingbirds are back for the fall build up along the coast!

It is so humid here that I cannot easily get a photo of anything because my camera lens fogs up as soon as I step outside!

Beautiful photos Ike. You’ve caught some colorful birds.

It’s been hot and dry here, typical August weather. When that happens we start getting a real show at the birdbath as birds come for a drink. Most are common. Today we had chickadees, cardinals, titmouse, mockingbirds and several species of sparrows. But occasionally we get species we don’t often see. This afternoon was a new one that had us stumped for a while but finally identified it as a juvenile male orchard oriole. It was at both the hummingbird feeder and the birdbath. I put half an orange out to see if we can keep it coming back. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a good picture so this is one from the internet.

Ken

Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Sun Aug 16, 2020 3:17 am Beautiful photos Ike. You’ve caught some colorful birds.

It’s been hot and dry here, typical August weather. When that happens we start getting a real show at the birdbath as birds come for a drink. Most are common. Today we had chickadees, cardinals, titmouse, mockingbirds and several species of sparrows. But occasionally we get species we don’t often see. This afternoon was a new one that had us stumped for a while but finally identified it as a juvenile male orchard oriole. It was at both the hummingbird feeder and the birdbath. I put half an orange out to see if we can keep it coming back. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a good picture so this is one from the internet.

Ken

Excuse my ignorance, but how did you identify it, do you have a reference book that you can look up.

Yes I have a couple of books that I use. What made this one difficult to identify was it’s predominantly yellow whereas the adult male is black and orange. When I looked for yellow birds none looked like this one. So then I start looking for characteristics of females and juveniles.

The internet is a big help once you’ve narrowed the possible species down to two or three. Then you can find a lot of images of each species. Here’s one of the best books for Texas birds.

Ken

Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Sun Aug 16, 2020 3:53 am Yes I have a couple of books that I use. What made this one difficult to identify was it’s predominantly yellow whereas the adult male is black and orange. When I looked for yellow birds none looked like this one. So then I start looking for characteristics of females and juveniles.

The internet is a big help once you’ve narrowed the possible species down to two or three. Then you can find a lot of images of each species. Here’s one of the best books for Texas birds.

Ken
B82F93A9-CF4B-42D3-995F-705160507D2B.jpeg

I love those sorts of reference books, on any subject.

Orchard Orioles are common in my area. But I do not often identify one. They tend to stay up high enough that they are usually silhouetted against a bright sky and hard to see colors or patterns. The sputtery song tells me they are there, though. They really like Bradford Pear trees.

Dinadan wrote: ↑Sun Aug 16, 2020 2:07 pm Orchard Orioles are common in my area. But I do not often identify one. They tend to stay up high enough that they are usually silhouetted against a bright sky and hard to see colors or patterns. The sputtery song tells me they are there, though. They really like Bradford Pear trees.

Last summer I saw a couple of Orchard Orioles a few times and thought they were Blackbirds for that same reason, high in tree and silhouetted against sky. Then one day, I saw the hanging nest and got a better look at them. Hoped they would be back this year, but no luck.

Here are a couple pics from this spring. Wood Ducks swimming in my woods when it was flooded and some Bobolinks that stopped by for a few days on their way North. Bobolinks may not be a big deal to many of you, but I only see them every few years in migration.

Ike, it is good seeing the Bobopinks. Once common in the midwest, they were in significant decline several decades ago. I have no idea of their current status.

Quick Steel wrote: ↑Sun Aug 16, 2020 2:58 pm Ike, it is good seeing the Bobopinks. Once common in the midwest, they were in significant decline several decades ago. I have no idea of their current status.

Garry, https://abcbirds.org/bird/bobolink/ states a 50% decline in population over the past 40 years due to pesticide use and habitat loss.

Dickcissel

I never had the pleasure of seeing a Dickicssel. Thanks for the photo.

Steve Warden wrote: ↑Sun Aug 16, 2020 5:16 pm

Quick Steel wrote: ↑Sun Aug 16, 2020 2:58 pm Ike, it is good seeing the Bobopinks. Once common in the midwest, they were in significant decline several decades ago. I have no idea of their current status.

Garry, https://abcbirds.org/bird/bobolink/ states a 50% decline in population over the past 40 years due to pesticide use and habitat loss.

Habitat loss due to farming practices has been a major contributor, the loss of family farms to commercial conglomerates whose practices are more intensive (more fertilizer, harvest crops earlier, cut hay earlier and more often, etc). However bobolinks and many other native species are being helped a lot by habitat conservation supported by hunters. Hunters’ organizations wanting pheasant populations protected are paying for habitat preservation, which in turn benefits other species, including bobolinks.

I can only recall seeing bobolinks here once, about 20 years ago. Texas is not in their normal range. We had planted winter oats for cattle pasture and that spring we had a flock of unusual birds arrive. They were feeding in the oats. I was curious and upon investigation found they were bobolinks. A few days later they were gone, and I’ve never seen them here since. I guess they were lost!

Ken

Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Sun Aug 16, 2020 3:53 am Yes I have a couple of books that I use. What made this one difficult to identify was it’s predominantly yellow whereas the adult male is black and orange. When I looked for yellow birds none looked like this one. So then I start looking for characteristics of females and juveniles.

The internet is a big help once you’ve narrowed the possible species down to two or three. Then you can find a lot of images of each species. Here’s one of the best books for Texas birds.

Ken
B82F93A9-CF4B-42D3-995F-705160507D2B.jpeg

Hey Ken, Just curious, on the cover of your bird book, a Shrike is pictured. How often do you see them? I see them maybe only once or twice a year in my area.
BTW, I found some Community coffee w/chicory over the weekend.

Shrikes are not uncommon but it’s unusual to see more than one or two around. What you see more often is their signature of leaving grasshoppers impaled on barbed wire. They catch them and then stick them on the barbs, and leave them there. So you can tell when a shrike has been around because they leave that “signature” even if you don’t see the bird. Not sure if any other bird species does that but the first time you see a grasshopper in that predicament, you’ll be curious how it got there.

Hope you enjoy the coffee with chicory. It adds a distinctively different twang. Drink a few cups over a few days, then let us know what you think.

Ken

Eastern Kingbird

Ike, I love to watch the Kingbirds especially if they have a young one. They can be quite the aggressor maybe even bully sometimes. Thanks for sharing the pic.

The Eastern Kingbird was a long ago favorite of mine, I mean during my growing years. They would take on any opponent of any size: hawk, owl, crow. No doubt today they will take on drones.

Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 7:56 pm Shrikes are not uncommon but it’s unusual to see more than one or two around. What you see more often is their signature of leaving grasshoppers impaled on barbed wire. They catch them and then stick them on the barbs, and leave them there. So you can tell when a shrike has been around because they leave that “signature” even if you don’t see the bird. Not sure if any other bird species does that but the first time you see a grasshopper in that predicament, you’ll be curious how it got there.

Hope you enjoy the coffee with chicory. It adds a distinctively different twang. Drink a few cups over a few days, then let us know what you think.

Ken

The Shrike is also known around here as a "butcher bird" because of the practices that Ken described. In addition to grasshoppers, they also will hang small frogs and lizards on a fence barb. Lacking a fence they will impale their prey on plants with heavy thorns.
Treefarmer