Recently in Birds Category

Yesterday I shot about 16 minutes of video, which was mostly just a nest cavity with little spurts of activity. This has been edited down to the video linked below, which is a little over 1.5 minutes. The Mountain Bluebird chicks are being fed by mom in the first segment (brief glimpse of a chick just before she arrives at about 5 seconds), then dad in the third. In the middle segment (which begins at about 35 seconds and ends at 1:20) it looks like one of the chicks is exercising its wings, the end of the wing visible fluttering about in the cavity. Things to listen for include a Grace's Warbler shortly after the beginning, then off and on throughout the clips (there's also a couple of occasional faint buzzes from a Western Wood-pewee in this segment). At about 27 seconds a Mountain Chickadee can be heard, faint Pygmy Nuthatches at about 48 seconds, Common Raven (clearly!) at about 1:07, and a Western Tanager just before the male shows up in the 3rd clip.

The audio file is about 3 minutes long, also starts with a Grace's Warbler, then some faint chirps from a Red Crossbill that are followed soon after by the same type of chirp, though much louder (at about 19 or 20 seconds). Beginning at around 1 minute the cacophony begins, with constant bantering among the crossbills for the next 2 minutes, increasing at about the 2 minute mark. This actually goes on for nearly 6 minutes total in my raw file, but I think you'll more than get the picture in 3 minutes. There are other bird sounds mixed in, especially the Grace's.

For the Mountain Bluebird video (Flash, 11 megs) click here . . .

To listen to the Red Crossbills (.mp3, 3 megs) click here . . .

So Wednesday, after shooting video of the bluebirds, Roxy and I set out for the south end of the Paunsaugant Plateau in the Dixie National Forest. I took both the still and video cameras, but really enjoy video and did that for the most part. I've edited things down, but still have over 6 minutes, so decided it was best to split things up into separate clips. You'll find a couple of birds (and lots of bird song in the background), butterflies, a certain dog we know, and more. Enjoy!


For Part 1 click here . . .


For Part 2 click here . . .

(Pt. 1 is a little over 11 megs, Pt. 2 just over 14 megs - Flash Video format.)

This morning I took a few minutes before my busy day gets started (Bryce Canyon's Astronomy Festival begins) to record some more bird song. I had a Plumbeous Vireo nearby that got me going and a few more birds soon joined in the party. The recording begins with the vireo then, at about 19 seconds are some very faint "metallic" chips from a Grace's Warbler. It isn't long before he begins to sing and will be heard almost all the way through. At 59 seconds he lands in a tree about 30 feet from the microphone and gets quite loud in comparison to the previous calls. Some Red Crossbills fly into the area and can be heard shortly afterwards. At 1:27 the Grace's is chipping again, then at 2:05 a Broad-tailed Hummingbird is heard buzzing around, and at 2:20 some Pygmy Nuthatches are faintly heard. The constant chatter through the last portion of the recording is the crossbills bantering back and forth. Total time is about three minutes and the mp3 file is about 3.5 megs.


Plumbeous Vireo & More

Red Crossbills have been hanging around the area a lot of late and one thing I've learned is they seem to be able to make a number of different noises. I managed to capture a couple of them this morning, the first just a series of chirps, while the second is 3 chirps followed by a series of alternating "buzzes" (best description I can think of). They've got some other sounds as well - one pretty odd that I can't begin to describe - but need to work a little more to capture them.

This recording is edited down to about 1:17 and more prominent than the crossbill is the repeated trilling of a Chipping Sparrow, with some occasional chirps from one of the local robins. It starts with a crossbill chirping followed immediately by the sparrow. At about 37 or 38 seconds the crossbill's chirps will be noticeably louder and quickly fade - it left its perch and was flying right overhead. Beginning at 54 seconds, the crossbill's call is 3 short chirps followed by alternating buzzes until the end of the recording. Click on the link below to listen, file is mp3 format and about 1.5 megabytes.

Red Crossbill Sounds

Okay, this is kind of goofy I suppose, but there was a lot of bird sounds this morning, so I experimented and made a little recording. Actually, I made a couple, but the camcorder, while more sensitive, makes a lot of motor noise and is pretty much unusable. So I recorded on a computer using a wireless microphone, but it isn't as sensitive, so had to use a sound editor to really pump up the audio.

The dominant sound you'll hear is the Olive-sided Flycatcher calling out "Quick, three beers!" Right after the first call - if you have the volume turned up - you'll here the brief hum of a Black-chinned Hummingbird. Around 25 seconds and at 1:30 there are faint chirps from some American Robins; at 50 sec. and 1:15, Pygmy Nuthatches; at 2:20 the chirping is from some Violet-green Swallows. Throughout, though quite faint, a Western Wood-pewee buzzes in between the calls of the Olive-sided - it's a little louder after 1:40. (The file is just a little under 4 megs.)


Morning Birds

Today I finished up my trips to Richfield to the dentist for a crown and, along the way, once again had some pretty good birds. It wasn't as productive as the last trip, but that is mainly because the ducks have pretty much all moved north; the only ducks I saw were Mallards. The day's tally of 43 species included 5 new birds for the year: Prairie Falcon (high in a snag eating something unidentifiable for breakfast), Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Cliff Swallow (hundreds near the dam at Otter Creek Reservoir), Sage Thrasher, and Rock Wren.

The wren was interesting as I was thinking while driving through Black Canyon, about 30 miles north of Bryce, that it should be pretty good habitat for either Rock or Canyon Wren. Within 2 minutes of that thought, I saw a small perched on a rock, stopped and it was nice enough to stay put long enough to figure out who he was.

Saw more Western Kingbirds than I have ever seen in a single day, too. Only a few south of the reservoir, but north of there were pockets with a lot of them, perched on fences or utility poles or lines. Also got to watch a pair of Common Ravens relentlessly mobbing a Golden Eagle, obviously unhappy the bigger bird was in the neighborhood.

Close to home I have a pair of Mountain Bluebirds who look to be nesting in a snag not far from my front door (have I mentioned that already?), and a pair of Pygmy Nuthatches in another snag nearby. They were busy gathering nesting material this morning and bringing to back to the cavity in a slit about 30 feet up the tree.
 
Full list below the fold . . .

Today is International Migratory Bird Day - a great day to get out birding if you can (I have to work!). Or go out and count them by participating in the Spring Migration Count like some of my friends at Halifax River Audubon in Florida will be doing. And a number of teams have converged on Cape May, N.J. where they will be participating in the annual World Series of Birding.

For "my" part, last night I did my evening program Wings on the Wind at the lodge, and we'll be handing out some "junior birder" booklets to all of the participants in the park's Junior Ranger program today. And, since I'm doing an astronomy related talk tonight and don't go to work until later, I will have a little time this morning to get out do a little bird watching for fun, and see if any "new" birds have arrived in the park in the past few days.

No matter where you live, there just might be and IMBD event near you, and if there isn't, there will be some birds around you can watch for a while.Then for the next 365 days, until IMBD rolls around again, do bird friendly things like by shade grown organic coffees, support one or more of the many organizations that work to help birds, and, when it comes time to vote, quit electing these know-nothing, so-called conservatives who have tried in the past, and continue to fight now, protections like the Endangered Species Act and also live in their climate change denial fantasy world (these people will be the death of us all).

So get outside, see what the birds are doing, and have a great International Migratory Bird Day!