Looduskalender

Ohhh birds and swallows, to boot.

Here is the female barn swallow who raised a clutch of just 2 babies on our front porch last year.

I named her Hannah and I loved her. And her mate, Tron, is in the photo as well.

Beautiful, Chimega. Thanks for sharing your photo.

A beautiful tummy view.

Thank you, Starling and alice!

Here is a male kestrel that used to sit on our deck rail, waiting for the finches so he could have lunch. He was just stepping off to go after one of the house finches.



Here's one of the goldfinches that are always at my feeders. This one is one of the males.

The kestrel is so cute with his feathers all a akimbo. They are one of my favourites but usually I see them from far away.

alice44 wrote:The kestrel is so cute with his feathers all a akimbo. They are one of my favourites but usually I see them from far away.

I have always seen them from far away, too, until this one showed up. But I think he is wise to us taking his photos, now, as he hasn't come back. That's good for my goldfinches and chickadees, though.

fireblade1 wrote:Today I saw this bird. I am sure a Stelze (in german) but to much yellow for a Bachstelze (Wagtail) and not enough for a Schafstelze (Yellow Wagtail)

Fireblade, we have already thought in the ways of citrine or yellow wagtail and I feel confirmed, when I read the Birder's diary of 12th August:
With picture: http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/14271

Young citrine wagtail. It can be distinguished from a juvenile yellow wagtail by more grey upper parts, broader wing streaks and the yellow ring surrounding the ear area (11.08.2012 Pulgoja bird station)

In 1991 a male citrine wagtail nested at Pulgoja in a mixed pair together with a common yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava) female. When the bird was finally caught it turned out as a great surprise that it already had a ring on the leg. Investigation showed that the bird had been ringed one year earlier (21.07.1990) at the selfsame Pulgoja station as a young yellow wagtail. The possibility that a citrine wagtail also might be an option was not even thought of and since the juveniles of both species are similar a mistake was made at identification that is for ever registered in our birdwatching annals.

Felis silvestris wrote: Fireblade, we have already thought in the ways of citrine or yellow wagtail and I feel confirmed, when I read the Birder's diary of 12th August:
With picture: http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/14271

Wow. Thank you very much. I think it was a young yellow wagtail. Not only because there is no ring around the ear. More because I never saw a citrine wagtail.
Thanks again.
Btw. Saw six cranes (and a rabbit ) yesterday

Maybe you should be on the lookout for Tõnn, he is in Schlewsig-Holstein at the moment!

fireblade1 wrote:Today I saw this bird. I am sure a Stelze (in german) but to much yellow for a Bachstelze (Wagtail) and not enough for a Schafstelze (Yellow Wagtail)

Wagtails are difficult bird group for identification. And they have many subspecies too. I'm not big expert but I think this is an adult female from subspecies flava. In any case it isn't citrine wagtail.

I think vainamoinen is right, its a "Schafstelzenweibchen", a female yellow wagtale.

macdoum wrote:Alice,did you say Birders ?;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaX7i1Q7 ... e=youtu.be

.....

A few 'bad' words there.

Hahaha, that video is funny and so true to life for birders.

Meet our regular summer visitors. They are around us throughout the summer, and we can follow their family life close. We also tell our cat: What ever you do, DON'T TOUCH THE WAGTAILs (please..)
White Wagtail (Motacilla alba):

They are the only birds that like to take a bath in our bird pool, and they use it very often. The parents take the children there, and it's funny to watch them the first time. A little snack on the pool edge is taste good:

One of the fledglings enjoyed the nice weather from the top of our shedroof yesterday:

A good stretch:

Unfortunately one of the parents seemed to had injured its leg, and needed to rest a little extra for a period. I was a little nervous for him/her, but fortunately it has gone well:

A visitor without wings, an intruder/outbreaker from the forest..

Notice the becomingly, pink, necklace

Lussi, what a lovely photos! And stone the pool is great - I have also to find something like that for next summer!

Thank you Olga. Yes, a bird pool will be perfect at Squirrel Hill
It's perfect for my cat too. She uses it as a drinking source, during the day, when we are at work and she is out

Lussi05 wrote:

Lovely pictures Lussi. And also something what I have not seen in my life.

I went to the beach and we saw a few birds
gulls, terns, brown pelicans, cormorants, least sand pipers, and maybe bigger ones and sanderlings
but mostly I did not get photos because my slightly longer lens is out of commission


Crow by alice_knitter, on Flickr


Osprey by alice_knitter, on Flickr

And a ground squirrel -- at Seal Rock park


Ground Squirrel by alice_knitter, on Flickr

alice, that sure is an unusual looking squirrel. I've never seen one like that. We have several different types, here. Grey, black and then chipmunks and ground squirrels.

We have these which really are terrified of humans.



Then the chipmunks. They're so cute.

I don't now where to post this link, so I post it here. It's a link to the blogg of Carsten Rohde. It's some nice pictures and coments of LSE and Blackstork if you scroll down the page. It will be very exciting to follow his observations in Israel in time to come:
http://blackstorknotes.blogspot.de/