Bird Watching Club

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

Chickadee

SoCal, what size lens are you using. I can never get that close. Beautiful work.

auntienance

Lisa, I'm going to be horribly jealous if you tell me these are taken in your back yard lol!

SoCalLisa

Almost in my backyard:-) really though,

I live about ten minutes from the coast, and five minutes from the little lake I go by on my way to the grocery store..San Diego gets many birds migrating as well as our own..

SoCalLisa

I use a Canon SX 50 HS at the moment, that is 50 optical zoom but I have used a variety of cameras. When I used film, I had all the lenses, but now I can't be bothered..just the one not detachable lens. I mostly take flower pix and travel pix, but I have just been hit with the bird loving..

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

this is one of my favorite..

coraleliz

SoCal-I live up the coast from you & I see many of the same birds. But where did you find the "little blue heron"? I'd love to see one. I love your green heron shot also!

SoCalLisa

I saw the bright blue heron in the Imperial Beach estuary is that theone you mean?

coraleliz

Thanks Lisa. I haven't heard of Imperial Beach. Wish I knew about it when my sister lived in Carlsbad. I'd love to see a little blue heron. That is what the 5th pic down on this page is? The one after the widgeon.

Here's a very common bird around my part of the world.

EDTA-this is a juvenile black pheobe.

SoCalLisa

Imperial Beach is right on the Mexico, US border on the Pacific..there is a National Refuge there...

lewing

Long-time birder here, loving this thread . . . and the wonderful pictures.

Curveball, yes!! on cedar waxwings.  I think they're the most elegant bird ever . . . not gaudy, just sleek and lovely.  I wish I saw them more often, too.  They seem to be episodic.  I might go a year or more without seeing them, and then a whole bunch will show up.

I moved from a house in Michigan to an apartment in Brooklyn recently, so my ability to attract birds with a feeder is limited.  But Prospect Park is close by -- I routinely see hawks there as well as your standard winter songbirds. NY harbor isn't too far away, either, for waterfowl.  (Brants -- not something I was familiar with in the midwest, they're like a smaller, darker Canada goose -- seem to be very common.) 

That's one of the things I've always loved about birdwatching: you can see interesting birds just about anywhere.

Did you guys know that we have parrots in Brooklyn?  Green monk parakeets -- lore has it that a bunch escaped from a crate at JFK airport many years ago.  I don't know if that's true, or if not, where they came from, but there are several well-established colonies in the borough.  The closest to me is in the gothic entrance arch at Green-Wood cemetery (and in the Con Ed substation across the street).  They frequently do flyovers of my block -- so, so cool. 

I've also seen them in New Jersey (Edgewater), and I think there's a colony on the upper east side of Manhattan, too. 

Linda

nesw

I've heard the story of the green monk parakeets escapefrom JFK also. I'm in NJ and I've seen a colony in the town of South Orange. Quite noisy and hanging out with a group of starlings at the time. Very pretty birds! I wonder how they're tolerating the recent frigid spell (down to 5-7 degrees F at night, 20s during the day).

coraleliz

There's also a flock of Parrots in San Francisco. Another "escape" situation Interesting how some times we embrace certain birds that naturalize & sometimes we don't(like those European Starlings). But I have seen some beautiful photos of them. We also have the Ring Turtle Dove, another "escape". Nobody seems to mind.

Moderators

Beautiful photos everyone! Usually I get my bird-picture fix by checking out the local forecast page at The Weather Network's site, where bird-watchers in the region can upload their photos.

There's a charming movie about those San Francisco parrots, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.

curveball

there are or at least have been in the past escaped parrots living in Seattle WA too. I've seen them a few times but not recently. They are very hard to spot, because they are so close to the same color as the leaves. I had no idea that any parrots, except maybe the budgerigar, were tough enough to survive East Coast winters. Don't they mostly come from the tropics?

coraleliz

Here's a Black-necked Stilt from the local slough.

lewing

Curveball, I think the Brooklyn parrots are native to Argentina, so that would be more temperate than tropical.  But yeah, it's amazing how they've adapted to northeastern winters.  I worry about them in the cold weather, too, but they seem to pull through just fine.  Not sure what they eat, but they obviously find something.  And their huge nests -- which can be really elaborate -- give them protection. 

I've seen the San Francisco parrots, too.  I have to admit they're more colorful than our Brooklyn parrots, but I'm still partial to our guys. 

L

SoCalLisa

cora, that is a great shot..

SoCalLisa

I also love ducks...

this is a male ruddy duck from a pond nearby

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa