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alice44
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Re: Birds Birds Birds

Post by alice44 »

They are not near enough to me that I can smell them, but the sunlight has been a bit rosy and my eyes are running -- I just realized it is probably the fires making my eyes run.
My sister was visiting my Aunt, who is still maybe 50+ miles from the fires (the area does not have roads so it would be farther to drive), and they actually went out looking for the fire because there was so much smoke, they thought the fire was local.

Link to stories -- each with a picture
http://topics.oregonlive.com/tag/wildfire/photos.html

This is a classic fire sky
Image


back to birds -- this part of the state is pretty dry and is a great place to see a wide range of raptors -- along the Columbia river Osprey and Bald Eagles but away from the river it is Golden Eagles. Much of the mountainous area is national forest down, down lower we grow hard red wheat.
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Post by ame »

alice44 wrote:Ame made a trip to the "Trotting" grounds (for horses) just outside of Turku after reading that a WTE was hanging out there and making forays to the dump to hunt gulls and other birds, there.

She was not so lucky to see the eagle but she did get some pictures and audio of what she did see and hear, which she posted in the WTE thread.

here's a link to her report viewtopic.php?p=115561#p115561
it took me some time to check the link here from the link she posted here... :mrgreen: is that a bit confusing... ? :laugh:
- what a treasure box this thread is! :loveshower: (... like for example here: viewtopic.php?p=113434#p113434 :whistling: )

now i had time to look for a proper word for the "trotting course" (it did sound funny but that's the one my dictionary gave me) the sport seems to be called "harness racing" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harness_racing). it's horse racing with a carriage (called 'sulky' it seems) where gallopping is not allowed. if the horse starts to gallop the driver has to slow down so that the begins trot again. if the horse gallops repeatedly it will be disqualified, as well as if it crossed the finish line gallopping.

this is THE horse sport in Finland, the most and very popular one. i don't exactly know how popular it is around the world but there are very famous harness races like Prix d'Amérique in Paris, with enormously high price money.

i found a video of a race posted in Y-tube supposedly by the proud owner of the winning horse. :D
the start is made by "making somersaults" (as it is called in Finnish; i have no idea what it could be in English). that means that the horses are making circles on the cource and they start to drive after countdown. the other possibility is to start behind a car holding gates and driving in front of the horses.

in htis video during the first round many horses begin to gallop and the drives have to drive to the outer lane and slow down the horse. one horse doesn't settle to trot and is eventually disqualified.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkOptDfTknw
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Post by Felis silvestris »

I have a colleague who is doing this kind of horse race.

I just wrote (in the LSE thread) about my diving into ancient ornithology articles today. Another really sad and shocking story I came across in a publication from 1851.

Bailiff XY at ABC, an avid friend of ornithology, owned at the beginning of this year a merlin falcon (Falco Aesalon)* and a tawny owl (Strix Noctua)** which he kept together in a chamber where they both slept side by side in an overthrown basket. The merlin had become tame very fast and started feeding immediately when being fed. One evening the owner heard loud noises from the chamber, went in and found the falcon in the claws of the owl which regaled most sumptuously in the meat of the former friend. Mr XY explains this situation to himself, and rightly so, the tawny owl, tormented by hunger - because the impudent falcon had eaten the food thrown to them alone - descended on the sleeping companion and overpowered him. Always a perky daring deed of the small owl

* did not find this one, but it must be Falco columbarius
** nowadays Athene noctua
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"You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals" (Paul McCartney)



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Post by ame »

i've had two special bird experiences today.

first at about 11 am or so, before noon, a flock of at least 30 or 40 cranes flew over our house towards South. they were flying in a formation of a curved crescent, not with a sharp angle, and were talking. then it sounded like they started flying in circles as their voices 'seemed' to come from about the same distance for some time before they flew further. this is not very special as this is the time that cranes are leaving for the South, but this was the first flock i saw this autumn. :whistling:

later i was cleaning the garden and going in and coming out doing this and that... then when once i was stepping down the stairs i felt as if something touched my elbow and then i saw a rather big bird which flew just by me. i don't know if its wing really touched me or was it the air flow which i felt but it flew really close to me. then it landed on the rack which is for beating carpets. i first thought it was a woodpidgeon (because it was about that size and our neighbourhood is crawling with them) but when it stopped i saw it was a hawk of some sort! :headroll:
- i just wish i knew which hawk! :slap:

it was about the size of a hooded crow, feathers were brown and had horizontal stripes and it had a rather long tail. it had a bright black eye with some yellow around it. it looked at me for maybe 4 seconds and then it flew away. my poor blind cat was there, too, and he heard that there was a bird and tried to go and catch it, but he was sooo late: the hawk had already flown away when he started to take careful jumps towards it.

i searched my bird guides and i think it was a young goshawk, because it's very common and it was about the right size and it has the right look. sparrowhawk is too small and i think i'd recognize a buzzard if i saw one alive, because i've watched them so much on the cameras here. :D

it's so frustrating with these birds of prey: there's so little chance to see them for to learn to know them in real life. one can see them so seldom and only for a short time and from long distances... :faint:
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Post by Lussi05 »

Since 2008 we've had a Crane couple who live in this area, and come to the field here to eat seeds. We've also been lucky enough to see the Crane dance :loveshower: A couple of weeks ago we saw a flock of 8 birds, and we was so lucky because we have never seen so many Cranes at the same time before..So Ame, when you saw a flock of 30-40 Cranes my flock become very small :rolleyes: ..there must be an impressiv sight :bow:
( flock of Geese are common here, but we have not yet seen any)


http://boeeirhe.blogspot.com/2011/05/fl ... ensol.html
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Post by Lussi05 »

It is definitely autumn. This morning I heard the Pygmy Owl( Glaucidium passerinum ) with it`s scale song, and it is ice on my stairs, so the temperature has been freezing for the first time this night...

Pygmy Owls scale song...( look/listen down the page )
http://www.xeno-canto.org/browse.php?query=pygmy+owl

Pygmy Owl..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Pygmy_Owl
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Post by Felis silvestris »

Lussi05 wrote:It is definitely autumn. This morning I heard the Pygmy Owl( Glaucidium passerinum ) with it`s scale song,
Yes, it's definitely autumn, I heard the first leaf blower! :mrgreen:


:help:
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"You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals" (Paul McCartney)



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Post by alice44 »

Felis silvestris wrote: Yes, it's definitely autumn, I heard the first leaf blower! :mrgreen:


:help:
Sigh
Around here the snow blowers are in constant use -- they blow seed pods and mowed grass off the lawns all summer. AND -- due to city sewage repair (about half of my 50 foot hedge was removed for the sewage digging) the city took out the rest of the hedge and will replace it with a fence -- I just saw the rototiller guy blowing dirt from the process out of my neighbour's lawn. Dust 20 feet in the air! All that noise, the little bit of dirt on top would not have hurt the lawn they park a car on. I really don't like that noise.

Sorry I am not very good with the foot to meter conversion.
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Post by macdoum »

Aww Alice.. its Fall again and people are going potty/crazy again.. :slap:
Carmel a member of SHOW .. I hope you love birds too. Its economical. It saves going to heaven.
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Post by Felis silvestris »

I specifically hate the leaf blowers! Completely unnecessary item and always used by janitors around one after the other, so as many people have as long the noise as possible!
“One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals” (Mahatma Gandhi)
"You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals" (Paul McCartney)



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Post by alice44 »

White Pelicans at Finley Wildlife Refuge

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White Pelicans by alice_knitter, on Flickr


I think until recently these did not visit here -- maybe partially due to the way the water levels at the refuge are maintained, but mostly because their population is up since DDT was banned. I think the White Pelicans bread at inland lakes and then return south to Florida and the Gulf. I guess after the BP mess it especially nice to see them here. I think they will be migrating back south and east pretty soon.
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Post by Felis silvestris »

Stunning pictures of a "murmuration" of starlings, both, video and still photos

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/0 ... 72687.html
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Post by Lussi05 »

Felis silvestris wrote:Stunning pictures of a "murmuration" of starlings, both, video and still photos

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/0 ... 72687.html
I have seen something similar before, it is very fascinating... :nod:
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Post by Bubo »

Yesterday, on my balcony

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Bubo Bubo
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Post by Felis silvestris »

So cute, Bubo! I think the tits here know that a cat is living behind the window, I have tried it with a fat ball hanging far outside, but they never came. :unsure:

(what I know for sure - the crows here know about my cat! Sometimes one teases her when she sits at the bedroom window)
“One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals” (Mahatma Gandhi)
"You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals" (Paul McCartney)



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Post by Bubo »

Felis silvestris wrote:So cute, Bubo! I think the tits here know that a cat is living behind the window, I have tried it with a fat ball hanging far outside, but they never came. :unsure:

(what I know for sure - the crows here know about my cat! Sometimes one teases her when she sits at the bedroom window)
I don't have cat, but neighbours have. And one tit is already killed by that cat :evil: But my bird feeder is always with birds.
Maybe You could try to put your bird feeder to another location? Maybe in the tree?
Bubo Bubo
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Post by Felis silvestris »

I am living on the 7th floor ... But people do hang fat balls into trees around or have bird feeders. It would be nice to watch them but I have to accept that they just pop in for short visits once in a while. Maybe I am also to high up for them to expect food found here? Would have been nice "TV" for the cat, who never would ever get the chance to catch one of them! Whenever we had a chance visit and she sees, she is so amazed :mrgreen:
“One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals” (Mahatma Gandhi)
"You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals" (Paul McCartney)



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Post by Lussi05 »

Felis silvestris wrote:So cute, Bubo! I think the tits here know that a cat is living behind the window, I have tried it with a fat ball hanging far outside, but they never came. :unsure:

(what I know for sure - the crows here know about my cat! Sometimes one teases her when she sits at the bedroom window)
I have a cat AND a bird feeding place that gets visits from lots of birds....every feeding season she waits patiently to catch some :slap: , but luckily she rarely gets hold of them..
- cat waiting patiently..... :peek:
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Post by alice44 »

My dad sent me this today

A Cedar Waxwing in the rhododendron outside their window and under the bird feeders.

Image



Bubo the Tits on your feeder are so cute.
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Post by Lussi05 »

Alice that was a beautiful picture of the Waxwing, thank you :wave: ( and to your dad )
A flock of Whooper Swans have for several days settled down in a field near my house, where they are eating plants. They are very shy, so it is difficult to take a picture of them...
- Whooper Swans..
Image
- in the afternoon...
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