I don't know if there is a bird thread like the bug thread, so here is my pecker to your bug:
I have a family of Cardinals around too and I am hoping to make friends with a Crow one day. If you do they will bring their Murder to you because they are your friend.
There were three red tail hawks circling over our house shrieking at each other a bit ago. Could have been up around 1,000 feet or so, I could hear them but it took a minute to find them in the air.
Sitting in a tree in the back yard. I took the pic on my cell phone thru a set of binoculars.
In reply to preach (dudeist priest) :
Word.
In reply to preach (dudeist priest) :
Nice pecker! I've enjoyed accidental birding most of my life. Enjoy them when I see them, but don't seek them out as an activity.
There's an awesome little bit of woods just outside my current workplace and I see occasional flashes of white/black and hear them pecking/drumming on trees. My understanding is that woodpecker species ID is potentially tricky, so best to enjoy, and not obsess over exactly what it is.
There's also a pond across the way at my workplace, so we get ducks, geese, herons, and egrets. I don't have any photos, but in addition to the Downy (?) Woodpeckers, I've seen Stellars Jays, Flickers, Western Tanagers, Chickadees, Crows, Bushtits, House Finches, Towhees, Black Crowned Sparrows, and a Sharp Shinned or Cooper's Hawk in the woods. I've seen Mallards, Wood Ducks, Buffleheads, Widgeons, Canada Geese, Great Blue Herons, Night Herons, and some sort of big white Egret in the pond. Nice change from my old job where it was all pigeons, crows, and House Sparrows, with rare seasonal Cedar Waxwing sightings!
In a tree in front of my folks place, you see the oddest birds pearching just before and after storms.
Are penguins birds?
Earlier this year I heard this chicken hawk try to snatch some sparrows that hang out in the front hedge.
He wasn't successful or I would've been able to get some real National Geographic shots.
Not what I expected... still cool. Around here we have Eurasian doves (invasive, bad) a few flavors of hawk including peregrin, and if you get up in elevation a bit there are vultures and some brown eagles.
Thing was staring at me like wondering if I was edible.
And crows. Lots. And these little speckled trash eaters that hang around parks and Walmart.
In reply to j_tso :
Sounds very cool; I love watching raptors hunt. Such a cool thing to witness, even if no photos. This year I saw a hawk snatch a squirrel and depart with it in its talons, and last year I saw one in hot pursuit of a smaller bird through the tight and twisty trees.
Can't remember if this was during the last year of school, or if I was visiting USF one day, but a hawk had found a nest of baby... somethings. Squirrels, maybe? Just sat there on a tree eating them.
Sand Hill Cranes, just chillin' by the drainage ditch at work.
Also, we have a buttload of them in the neighborhood. My house seems to be right on the border of the range of 2-3 mated couples of hawks. Its great for bird-watching.
Cooper hawk? Chicken hawk? Some type of hawk. Me and the GF were at a park and it was calling LOUDLY.
There are some sandhill cranes around my house too. There used to be a flock of 4 when I first moved in but people have been hitting them on the main road by my subdivision 
Saw this guy beside the trail when I was biking a few months ago:
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to preach (dudeist priest) :
Nice pecker! I've enjoyed accidental birding most of my life.
That would make you an amateur ornithologist.
stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) said:
Cooper hawk? Chicken hawk? Some type of hawk. Me and the GF were at a park and it was calling LOUDLY.
Guy at the top of the tree looks like an Osprey. Was he the one yelling, or the one below?
Ospreys and the hawks we have around here have different yells.
On the base where I work when I am out in San Diego there is a ball field that is not using one light due to Osprey:
I got to see a seagull chasing a young osprey and momma got pissed and smoked the gull out of the sky in a puff of feathers. Very impressive.
this Owl has been hanging around since Ian, and also since they tore down the lot behind us. We had the windows open yesterday evening and it sounded like the owl was right outside our window when it hooted. Very cool.
See if this works. When cleaning up after Ian, the local breeding pair of Sandhills came to hang out. This pair has been here over 10 years. When we moved it, they had already been here a while. You'll see 1 had broken its bill at the nostril and it healed wonkey, thats the Mom, some call her "crooked bill". They play like this regularly. They know me and my yard and know they are safe. I DO NOT feed them, i just accommodate them.
He throws sticks and grass clumps with his feet and bill.
I went out for a drive a few weeks ago and spotted this Greater Roadrunner about an hour from home. Apparently we're right on the fringes of their territory.
The "birdbrains" hanging out as usual. I was on my diesel tractor when i took these. They dont care, which is good.
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