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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
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Location: Pittsburgh |
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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
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 Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:44 pm |
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| olderthanIusedtobe wrote: | | Too bad a cardinal is not an option for seeing around here. |
I think a Wood Duck is cooler. I waited 11 months to get that photo above. I'd always ignored ducks until someone excitedly told me that they'd seen a 'Wood Duck". After doing a quick image search for them, that very day and the one after I went in search of one at our local lakes/wetlands, and actually managed to see one. However, my photo wasn't particularly satisfying to me, and I kept my eyes pealed for them. For nearly a year I saw none close enough to get a nice photo of, until this one pictured here.
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neek
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Joined: 12 Sep 2011
Posts: 2223 | TRs | Pics
Location: Seattle, WA |
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neek
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Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:54 pm |
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| GaliWalker wrote: | | I think a Wood Duck is cooler. I waited 11 months to get that photo above. I'd always ignored ducks until someone excitedly told me that they'd seen a 'Wood Duck". After doing a quick image search for them, that very day and the one after I went in search of one at our local lakes/wetlands, and actually managed to see one. However, my photo wasn't particularly satisfying to me, and I kept my eyes pealed for them. For nearly a year I saw none close enough to get a nice photo of, until this one pictured here. |
You could see so many of them up close around here! They hang out at Juanita Bay (along with a lone mandarin duck), around Marsh Island, and at many local ponds and lakes, including the little detention pond behind our house. There is also a Eurasian wigeon that hangs out at Matthews Beach, and probably a lot of other cool birds I don't know about. It's tempting to invest in a fancy zoom lens just for the ducks.
 GaliWalker
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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
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Location: Pittsburgh |
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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
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Mon Apr 18, 2022 5:39 pm |
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About the only thing cooler than a Wood Duck has to be a Mandarin Duck. I would love to see one!
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olderthanIusedtobe
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Joined: 05 Sep 2011
Posts: 7567 | TRs | Pics
Location: Shoreline |
As well as the aforementioned Mandarin duck, there's also a lone one somewhere in the Portland area. I see pictures of both frequently on a birders group on Facebook. Both are celebrities.
For me, I'd really like to see some more warblers. I see Wilson's occasionally, like those little guys. On the same Facebook page I'm constantly seeing pics of Townsend's, yellow rumped, black throated gray, and common yellowthroat. They're around. I've never seen any of them. All beautiful with distinct and striking markings. Maybe I would need to be more dedicated, learning calls, carrying binoculars, etc. I used to have a Wilson's show up in my backyard, but it's been years since it has appeared.
I would also really like to see an acorn woodpecker. I don't know about here in Pugetopolis, but around Portland and it seems as though they're fairly commonly seen around Catherine Creek area in the Gorge, a little east of White Salmon where I grew up and where my folks are still at. I've hiked there several times, haven't seen them.
GaliWalker
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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Posts: 4778 | TRs | Pics
Location: Pittsburgh |
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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
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Mon Apr 18, 2022 7:08 pm |
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Just last week I saw a Banded Kingfisher (female) near some wetlands close to our house. I couldn’t get a clear shot, but I thought it was a beautiful bird.
'Gali'Walker => 'Mountain-pass' walker
bobbi: "...don't you ever forget your camera!"
Photography: flickr.com/photos/shahiddurrani
olderthanIusedtobe, Anne Elk
'Gali'Walker => 'Mountain-pass' walker
bobbi: "...don't you ever forget your camera!"
Photography: flickr.com/photos/shahiddurrani
olderthanIusedtobe, Anne Elk
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zephyr
aka friendly hiker
Joined: 21 Jun 2009
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Location: West Seattle |
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zephyr
aka friendly hiker
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Mon May 09, 2022 8:30 pm |
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This probably should go in the Animals thread, but I thought it might be appreciated here. Apparently this is a House Finch confronting (bravely I might add) a young Red-Shouldered Hawk. Supposedly by being so close to the hawk, the larger predator won't attack. That's anecdotal so I don't know if it's true or this is just a brave finch in a rare encounter. Still a cool photo nonetheless. Sorry no real details. It came from a random blog. ~z
Anne Elk, olderthanIusedtobe
Anne Elk, olderthanIusedtobe |
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olderthanIusedtobe
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Joined: 05 Sep 2011
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Location: Shoreline |
Wow, cool zephyr. I've been seeing pictures lately on a facebook birders group of red winged blackbirds attempting, and sometimes succeeding in driving off great blue herons. GBHs are voracious and will each pretty much anything, and are probably more than 10x the size of the blackbirds.
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olderthanIusedtobe
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Joined: 05 Sep 2011
Posts: 7567 | TRs | Pics
Location: Shoreline |
| GaliWalker wrote: | | Banded Kingfisher |
Belted maybe?
Heard/saw one one near a creek when I was visiting my brother in Ohio, near Dayton. They are frequently encountered near any kind of water here in the Puget Sound area. Quick look online, appears they occur in most of the U.S.
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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Posts: 4778 | TRs | Pics
Location: Pittsburgh |
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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
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Tue May 10, 2022 9:57 am |
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Yeah, looks like you're correct, "belted kingfisher", not "banded kingfisher". (I could have sworn I saw "banded kingfisher" in my birds of Pennsylvania book...nope, my book has "belted" too.)
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Olympic Hiker
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Joined: 19 Oct 2009
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Yep, Belted Kingfisher. There are two other kinds of kingfishers in the continental US, but you’d have to visit Texas to see them.
If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. - Lincoln
If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. - Lincoln
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Sculpin
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Joined: 23 Apr 2015
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Sculpin
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Fri May 13, 2022 8:36 am |
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| zephyr wrote: | | Apparently this is a House Finch confronting (bravely I might add) a young Red-Shouldered Hawk. Supposedly by being so close to the hawk, the larger predator won't attack. |
First of all, I doubt that the finch is close enough for a lunge, I think that is a telephoto illusion.
But even if it were, the finch is much quicker. Plus hawks don't grab prey with their beaks, and even if the finch were a few inches away, the hawk could not grab it quickly enough with its talons.
Red-shouldered hawks will take perching birds off of feeders in the winter. This house finch is no doubt sounding the alarm and hanging close to the hawk so the other finches know exactly where the hawk is located.
To sum it up, I don't think the finch would be safe within reach of those talons, and I don't think that is what is depicted.
Between every two pines is a doorway to the new world. - John Muir
Between every two pines is a doorway to the new world. - John Muir
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Backpacker Joe
Blind Hiker
Joined: 16 Dec 2001
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Location: Cle Elum |
Turkeys at my house.
 Turkeymens at my house.
"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Posts: 4778 | TRs | Pics
Location: Pittsburgh |
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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
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Thu May 19, 2022 5:09 am |
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Red...
 Cardinal (male)  Goldfinch (female, juvenile)
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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Posts: 4778 | TRs | Pics
Location: Pittsburgh |
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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
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Fri May 27, 2022 10:39 am |
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From yesterday:
 Grey Catbird
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cdestroyer
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Joined: 14 Sep 2015
Posts: 1160 | TRs | Pics
Location: montana |
lazuli bunting
western tanager
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