Bird Issues

Coupla bird issues. About 2-3 weeks ago I was looking out the kitchen door near midday at a pair of white winged doves. Spotted a flash of green on the side of the neck just below the black streak. Looked more closely with 8X36 binoculars and saw a scattering of individual green feathers among the gray, on both sides of the necks of those two birds.    

Nothing in my books about that. Looked at doves since and no green. Would like to document it because it might be a new observation.   New subspecies.   New ... something.

Another issue. A little twitchy bird has been bugging the heck out of me for over a year now. It's olive green above, yellow below, with a white patch on the belly. It's call is a lot like a cardinal's "chk ... cnk ... cnk" pr "Tnk ... tnk ... tnk" but definitely not piercing like the cardinal's call. Unless it was different birds I've misidentified it as a yellow breasted chat or nashville warbler.

What I saw today is not a chat. No dark patterns, just olive green above and yellow below. And white on the very bottom.   As I said, twitchy, nervous, furtive.   

I heard the call a bit ago and saw movement in my now naked pecan tree across the street. It was pecking at the nut clusters.     Got 10X42 binoculars. Took long shaky looks at the bird. Except for a small eye ring there is nothing distinctive except the colors I described. What the hell is it?

Not a vireo, has to be a warbler. According to my Natl Geo guide, an immature Nashville Warbler. But immature so long?

My life list has a lot of question marks on it.

Green display feathers on necks of white-winged doves

About midday I was out in the yard with my 8 X 36 monarchs hoping for an overflight of geese, or the little bird that showed up yesterday for a few minutes, but found only doves to look at.   So I looked at doves.   White winged doves, at under 20 feet.

Saw a dash of green on the side of the neck just below and a little to the rear of the black neck marks.   Saw the same on another dove that seemed to be paired with that one.  

Looking closely, it was a spray of individual feathers that had that bright green cast.  Similar to the gorget of certain hummingbirds but smaller in area.   Individual green feathers in a field of gray feathers, that gives a green shimmer when the light is at the right angle.

Gonna check my books to see if this has been reported.  

Catching Up Time

Got some catching up to do.   Nothing spectacular seen, mostly the changes of the seasons and slight shift in bird life.

I did see a clay-colored sparrow in the backyard back in September.   Will add a photo or two here when I have the time.   I did get some photos, mostly not sharp because it was an active little sparrow hopping along in the shrubs.  

Couple of weeks ago saw a white crowned sparrow, white quite vivid to the unaided eye from 25 feet, and the black stripes also were vividly black.   Saw the same bird twice, once hopping among low shrub branches and then again within an hour or so at my low platform feeder.

From my backyard near downtown on Nov. 16, I saw two geese, presumably canada geese but might have been another variety.    Haven't been to the playa lakes and so am dependent on what appears overhead at the house and yards.

Saw the first junco of the season today in the buddleia branches in the front yard this morning.   Saw a male purple finch and a male house finch too, both eyeing a feeder and wary of the watching cats.

Since late spring finches have been rare.   I don't think I saw one the whole summer.

I said nothing spectacular.   Not quite true.   One morning in October I was out after 9 a.m. looking at birds and started in, when over distant trees to the SW there was the outline of a huge bird.   It flew almost directly at me and over, pretty low, I'd guess at under a hundred feet.    With my 1985 Swift Audubons I clearly saw the red naked head.    Not at all unusual out in the country, but a rare sight inside city limits.

Which brings up another buzzard sighting.   I was driving to the dentist when at the lip of the canyon opposite the Windmill museum there were 7 vultures circling.  Something dead obviously.    Some hours later a human body was found at the east end of Jim Bartram/Dunbar Lake about a mile away as the buzzard flies.   Unrelated presumably, but not a common occurrence in the city.

Back in October I saw 3 strange birds at the Wearever gallon stewer I keep on the platform for watering birds in relative safety.   I put the glass on them and saw a strange broken white eye ring.  Excited at finding a new and possibly very rare bird I went to my copy of the Natl Geographic guide.  Robins.   I never looked a robin through binoculars before.   Red face.

The Common Swift: Airborne for Months!

Common swifts are observed to not light or perch for up to 10 months of the year.    http://www.morningticker.com/2016/10/this-bird-is-doing-something-that-is-astonishing-scientists/

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CuOwje2XEAAkWL8.jpg

Bewick's Wren

ID'ed a Bewick's Wren Friday Thursday morning.    My first wren!

Was in the kitchen and glanced out the back storm door.   Saw a strange little bird hop off it's perch on some lumber I have leaning there going toward the ground.  

That's the territory of the blue-eyed cat!   Out of concern for the risk-taking bird and curiosity as to what it was I went out.    Bird flew to a branch while I fumbled with my Swift audubons that don't close-focus well.   But I saw the bird!    Tail poking up like the flag of an invading country, speckled along the side and spotty underneath.

When I first glimpsed the bird I thought it looked like a dark-eyed, slate gray junco.    Did not see the white eye streak.

Most of my new bird IDs follow a double-take, corner of the eye glimpse.

Monday Morning 8-9 a.m.

A good Monday morning for birding! Went out before sun-up to feed cats and saw little Smokey (a 3-4 month old part-siamese kitten) take a flying leap off the porch onto a jasmine bush, flushing a largish bird that flew at me and over, don't know if it was in the bush or the tree above. Owl, otherwise unidentified.

After feeding cats I put out bird seed into 3 feeders and after putting some stuff on the stove to heat went back out with binoculars, choosing my Swift Audubon 8.5 X 44s. Was looking among the house sparrows for something not a house sparrow, because yesterday two other sparrow species showed up and I was not able to ID them.

Started back in the house when a mustard yellow little bird (some kind of warbler?) lit in my arbor vitae tree across the street and disappeared into the foliage. (Damn little yellow and green birds do that often, disappear on me) 80 feet away. I went back in for more optical horsepower.

Came back out with Nikon 12 X 50s. Nothing. Did see a grackle land on a branch with something long and winged in his beak. (OMG, did he catch a hummingbird? Apparently not, the wings -- and the grackle plucked them off as he ate -- were translucent and there were several -- big dragonfly most likely.)

Went in to check on stove. Nothing burning. Went back out with the Swifts again, made 1977 but the sharpest binoculars I own -- just got them off eBay, previously owned by a little old lady in Pasadena, literally, seller said they were his grandma's -- and with a wide field of view compared to the 12 X 50s and the roof prisms (except for the little 8 X 36 Nikon Monarch which is comparable to the Swifts in field of view but not as sharp and without the huge stereo view that porros give).

Went across the street to my other back yard and scanned the trees for something new. Nothing. Blue jay landed in a top branch. Then a raptor flew over fast. Smallish, little bigger than a dove, no idea what it was, merlin, kestrel, cooper's, who knows. Started back in.

Whoa! Stopped in the middle of the street. HUGE wings to the SSW. Do we have condors?

Backed to the curb. Bird passed almost directly overhead, not that high, seemed like he was eyeing the neighborhood. Red naked head. Turkey vulture! Over 6 ft wingspread. First on Backyard Bird List. Did he know we had old people and dogs ready to kick the bucket? He know something about me? Time will tell and the vultures are waiting.

Note about vultures.   Living in Lubbock, Texas, is not like being out in the country.  We rarely see vultures or raptors out in the neighborhoods.    Close to two weeks ago, however, I drove near our canyon greenbelt and saw about 7 vultures circling overhead near the road, a clear indication that something or somebody was dead.  A rare sight!   We do get geese here, both overhead and at the hundred or so playa lakes within city limits.