[DrCaleb]

I have seen many of those things, and I don't live anywhere near Alaska.

rickc rickc:

Personally I would be afraid to let my cats wander around all those wild predators.

Quite often people new to the area will come by asking if I have seen their cat. I usually don't tell them if the cat went through that barbed wire fence, that puts them in a field with lots of coyotes. And when the coyotes aren't around, there are hawks who don't mind a cat instead of a gopher.

(and that cat was nearly an Eagle treat.)

[raydan]

I have a huge oak tree in front of my kitchen window, so the only wild life I see is squirrels.

[DrCaleb]

SQUIRREL!



A couple vids I've been saving up:

A Goldfinch that sings outside my window in the morning:



A Daddy Northern Flicker feeding at my suet:



A couple fledgling Blue Jays learning what is edible and what will eat them at my deck feeder.



A male Ruby Throated Hummingbird:



A couple fledgling Yellow Headed Blackbirds (too cute!):

[BeaverFever]

Not a burd oic but cool story:

$1:

Andean condor can fly for 100 miles without flapping wings

World’s largest soaring bird flaps wings only 1% of time in flight, study shows

Associated Press
Mon 13 Jul 2020 21.13 BST

A study sheds light on just how efficiently the world’s largest soaring bird rides air currents to stay aloft for hours without flapping its wings.

The Andean condor has a 3-metre (10ft) wingspan and weighs up to 15kg (33lbs), making it the world’s heaviest soaring bird.

For the first time, a team of scientists strapped recording equipment they called “daily diaries” to eight condors in Patagonia to record each wingbeat over more than 250 hours of flight time.

Incredibly, the birds spent just 1% of their time aloft flapping their wings, mostly during takeoff. One bird flew more than five hours, covering more than 100 miles (160km), without flapping its wings.

“Condors are expert pilots but we just had not expected they would be quite so expert,” said Prof Emily Shepard, a study co-author and biologist at Swansea University in Wales.

The results were published on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The finding that they basically almost never beat their wings and just soar is mind-blowing,” said David Lentink, an expert in bird flight at Stanford University, who was not involved in the research.

To birds, the sky is not empty but a landscape of invisible features: wind gusts, currents of warm rising air and streams of air pushed upward by ground features such as mountains.

Learning to ride air currents allows some to travel long distances while minimising the exertion of beating their wings....

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... light-bird

[DrCaleb]

Peregrine falcons entertaining visitors at Hopewell Rocks

[Strutz]

Those were neat vids DrC!

It's awesome when you can observe nature in your own backyard. On the neighbouring property there is a huge oak tree, which we face, and we see many different species of birds that enjoy it and use it. Often there will be a few different ones on it all at once but they all seem to not mind sharing.

[DrCaleb]

Most birds seem to co-exist well. The ones that don't are the Sparrows, Magpies and Brewers Blackbirds. Very pretty those are, but assholes.

The Brewers Balckbirds have fledged for the year and headed south. Magpies and Blue Jays are fledging, and I have yet to see baby hummers, goldfinches or red wing blackbirds. Haven't seen any Dark Eyed Juncos yet either, but they are super floofie.

[DrCaleb]

Oh! And I did see a reticulated woodpecker at a suet ball.

I was very happy with that!

[DrCaleb]

Pair of buffleheads reunited with 3 ducklings after night out in Hinton, Alta.

[Sunnyways]

rickc rickc:

How cool would it be to live in Alaska? This ladies yard is like a game preserve. She sees more cool stuff in a week than most of us city dwellers see in a lifetime. Personally I would be afraid to let my cats wander around all those wild predators. It would only take one second for them to become dinner.
]

Great videos, DrC and rickc.

That lady is very calm given the number of predatory animals on her deck. We’ve a lot of bald eagles in Newfoundland but I’ve never seen one so close to a house.

[Sunnyways]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

:)

Most birds seem to co-exist well. The ones that don't are the Sparrows, Magpies and Brewers Blackbirds. Very pretty those are, but assholes.

The Brewers Balckbirds have fledged for the year and headed south. Magpies and Blue Jays are fledging, and I have yet to see baby hummers, goldfinches or red wing blackbirds. Haven't seen any Dark Eyed Juncos yet either, but they are super floofie.

You’re in Alberta? Great birdlife in those vids.

[DrCaleb]

Sunnyways Sunnyways:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

:)

Most birds seem to co-exist well. The ones that don't are the Sparrows, Magpies and Brewers Blackbirds. Very pretty those are, but assholes.

The Brewers Balckbirds have fledged for the year and headed south. Magpies and Blue Jays are fledging, and I have yet to see baby hummers, goldfinches or red wing blackbirds. Haven't seen any Dark Eyed Juncos yet either, but they are super floofie.

You’re in Alberta? Great birdlife in those vids.

Yes, thanks!

I only have one rule, I only record wildlife in my yard.

And yea, I wouldn't go anywhere near those eagles, any more than I would a wolf or bear. Those beaks could tear your hand of easily.

[DrCaleb]

Finally got a pic of a Ruby Throat standing still. This one feeds in the morning, then puts her feet up and relaxes for 2.3712 seconds, then takes off like a sky dart.

0:

Hummer - Female Ruby Throat.JPG [ 801.13 KiB | Viewed 183 times ]

[raydan]

[DrCaleb]

With the 'carpet' of fledgling Goldfinches in my yard, it has attracted a Falcon. I don't know if it's a Merlin or Kestrel, cause it's a fast mover.

Hasn't caught anything that I've seen, but when the Blue Jays see it, it gets bombed like a Japanese battleship. Video soon!