Bird Watching Club

mumito

Hi there just found this thread. Lisa looks like a blue foot Booby bird.

nesw

Wow - that looks like a blue-footed booby! Was this at the Gulf of California? I think that's their northernmost range?

SoCalLisa

It was in the Gulf of California....not very much further south then we are here..

it was way up a cliff from where we were...in a moving little boat...

Mum's husband is a pro bird photographer...wow factor..

mumito

DH took this in Mexico last year.

luvmygoats

Have got to get at least a camera that works. We have 2 rather inexpensive digital ones that never seem to have a charged battery and I never use them.  My cell is so old it doesn't have a camera. Pics on one are not too bad. Anything new is just not going to happen this year so I've go to figure one of these out. Just outside my den window on the arc light was a red tail. He was hard to see in detail (and I say he, could be she) as the sun was behind him. Started screaming; all I could hear in response was a blue jay.  I could have just died.  My back French door has built in blinds so can't take pics thru those.  All the front face due west so they have shade screens.  This south facing window is the only one with only bottom screening.  Just my luck.

Wow clicked to preview this. A blue footed booby. Sounds like a made up name but I know it isn't. We don't have anything near that exotic.

Nancy - There probably are more birds. I've been sticking close to home still finishing up something from work hanging over my head.  I live on a cul de sac about a 0.3 mile down to the end.  8 houses mostly just long mowed front yards but there is that one hidden stock tank I scared the blue heron out of one day.  The main road has way too much traffic for me to want to walk on it most days even now at just past mid day and not much else to see anyway.  I have a large cattle acreage across the main road, cannot estimate acres but large.  Others around are in the neighborhood of I think 8-15 acres with some way more than that.  Ours is one of the smaller lots just 2 acres but we could have not afforded to pay more when we moved out here so all is good.  And DH does NOT want to mow more.

Welcome Mumito. Love your's and tinyfishy's pics.

SoCalLisa

right next to the blue footed boobies were blue herons

auntienance

OMG! A blue footed booby! That's it, I'm moving! Awesome

SoCalLisa

These birds were in my area today..I took this from my backyard and

they were almost a quarter of a  mile away, so not so much in focus..

I don't know what they are

auntienance

This is my first attempt at posting pictures.  Hope it works.

This is a gray tree frog that came to visit one morning while we were sitting on the porch drinking coffee.

auntienance

This is a pair of very pretty boys arguing over grape jelly.

auntienance

And last, but not least is a pileated woodpecker looking for suet.

auntienance

Lisa, the coloring looks a lot like great crested flycatchers, but I don't know that those are in your area.  Possibly a kingbird, but I'm just not as familiar with western species.

luvmygoats

Nancy - How do you hang your suet?  What I'm asking is how far off the ground.  I have some low drooping elms but not sturdy enough. The main branches are only accessible by ladder.  The last suet feeder succumbed to a mini tornado in 2009 which took most of the top of the elm. DH has not replaced it nor have I asked him to be honest.  Don't think its going to happen.  This one was one of those wire cages.  I like your wooden one.

Love the orioles (I think that's what they are).  Didn't know about grape jelly.  I see the baffle above them so I assume that's to deflect rain and squirrels.  We had the suet on a long wire so the squirrels couldn't get to it.  My other 2 birdfeeders are very low one on a sweet gum tree and one on a pole so I can fill them so the squirrels have free access.  What they knock on the ground the birds are free to eat.  I have water close by that's always full for the goats.  I do have a birdbath but very seldom full.  Water would be blown out today with our winds.

My book says a pileated woodpecker is crow size.  Wow.

auntienance

Luv, all of the feeders hang on arms from our deck.  Some are 4 arms ft in length about 15 feet off the ground, but that particular suet feeder is on a hook.  It's very attractive to the clinging birds but not so much to the sparrows who don't like to hang upside down.  The baffle over the jelly and the orioles is to keep rain and sun off.  Oddly enough, the squirrels don't bother the jelly but the racoons sure do.  We have to bring it and the hummingbird feeders in at night in the summer.  Yep, the pileateds are big guys.  We see them often at the edge of our woods, but it was pretty exciting to get this one at the feeder.  This one is actually a little smaller than the others we see.

auntienance

This is what happens in our birdbath at night in the spring and summer.

luvmygoats

Is that the same (or cousin of) gray frog?

auntienance

Cousin probably :-)

coraleliz

SoCal- here's a pic I took awhile back of a kingbird. They are pretty common in along California's coast.

The differences in coloring could just be lighting. I'm a little further north than you. What I'm told is that this is either a Cassin's Kingbird or a Western Kingbird. The way to tell them apart is their call.

I'll have to dig up a pic of out orioles. Ours are different. Our frogs are a bit different too. I have lizard & snake pictures but no frogs.

SoCalLisa

Somebody told me it was a thick billed kingbird, cora, does that make sense? I have no clue

I love your picture

Teka

Tonight, I would rather be listening to the spring peepers than bracing for the coming snow storm.  

SoCalLisa

Love your birds, Nancy..

SoCalLisa

Hoping all goes well Teka...snow is the reason we live San Diego..or should I say lack of it...

Teka

;o)

luvmygoats

Teka -  Are you due for the brunt of the storm?  May your electricity stay on and you stay warm my friend.  Never trust a groundhog.

coraleliz

SoCal-The thick billed Kingbird occasionally strays to Southern Calif. http://audubon2.org/watchlist/viewSpecies.jsp?id=203 It's a new one to me, so I'll keep my eyes out for it.

Here's what our most common oriole looks like. The Hooded Oriole. Here's the male

Here's the female

SoCalLisa

Cora, that is interesting, the only birds other than hummere that like my feeder is an oriole

auntienance

Lisa, I'm afraid my pictures don't compare to yours lol.



Our hummingbird feeders attract orioles, woodpeckers, house finches and oh yes, hummers. We have 3 feeders in the front that most of the hummers use. The deck will have a hummingbird feeder and an oriole feeder (bigger holes) as well as the jelly and orange feeder. The woodpeckers tend to dominate the deck feeders.

curveball

I still remember the time years ago that a Western Tanager came to our hummingbird feeder. I'd never seen one before and haven't ever seen one again. That was in the SF Bay Area--I don't even know if their range extends this far north.

Teka

Damn groundhog!!

coraleliz

curveball-Western Tanagers are found in Washington state. They are shy & skittish. I think you were lucky to get one at you feeder. Usually I see them thru binoculars, fleeing....