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Slater
Trad climber
Central Coast
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Feb 17, 2012 - 08:10pm PT
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A few more from the same day.
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Slater
Trad climber
Central Coast
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Feb 17, 2012 - 08:24pm PT
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Heck yeah!
I got my buddy into it now (he's at #46)
He saw the acorns stuck into the oak tree and said... "I would have never even noticed that if I wasn't looking for birds."
A new Awareness of the world. That's pretty darn cool...
Glad to be stoking you, but my birds seem so tame compared to the exotic stuff you guys are posting up! I feel like I'm still working through the Bird ID 101 class and am looking forward to what comes next (Spring), but enjoying the winter NOW.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 17, 2012 - 08:33pm PT
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Slater, you're amping me up! I've got one thing to say - Buff-collared Nightjar!
Mark my words, I'm gonna be a superstar! (I bet even Willoughby and Riley don't have one) :-)
ps somebody needs to study those OCD peckers!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 17, 2012 - 08:54pm PT
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HaHaHa! Neither do I but I'm gonna give 'em a shot in May. Guadalupe Canyon, AZ bishes!
If I'm lucky I can do a citizen's arrest of some drug smugglers while I'm at it.
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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Feb 17, 2012 - 09:02pm PT
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Alas, no
Buff-collared Nightjar!
for Willoughby
yet.
But I have seen Long-tailed and Pennant-winged Nightjars in Cameroon, and all the nightjars without crazy feathers sorta pale after that. Actually, I like 'em all. Here's a poorwill I finally nailed down a few summers ago in the Carson Range. I know it's shady and not great, but I went through a lot of trouble getting this photo!!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 17, 2012 - 09:07pm PT
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Cool shot! Luv me some Capris! I found a Poorwiil sitting on a dead log in the
middle of the day in Col Nat Mon. What a shot! But I didn't have a camera!
My wife grew up in Cameroun! Her dad used to hunt h o r n b i l l s to feed them! Arrrrrrrrrg!
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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Feb 17, 2012 - 09:11pm PT
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I spent ~ 7 months there climbing rotten trees and pulling young and female hornbills out of nests to rig 'em with radio packs, just before they were set to break out of their mud-reinforced cavities. We'd rig 'em up and then stick 'em back in to the cavities to fledge on their own schedule, but it was really invasive and terribly stressful for the birds - I was NOT into that part of the job, at all. But it was definitely a trip-of-a-lifetime kinda job, and I saw some amazing, amazing things.
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Slater
Trad climber
Central Coast
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Feb 18, 2012 - 11:57am PT
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I got a scrub jay and a house finch (did I even need to look?).
Man, I got the most boring backyard in the United States...
How ya'll doing out there?! Post something to make me jealous!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 18, 2012 - 12:03pm PT
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I already posted my Red-whiskered Bulbul from my yard. No parrots today
though - they've long denuded my pecan tree so I get to sleep in now.
Willoughby, I have serious issues with such invasive and stressful 'studies'.
They sure don't seem to benefit the subjects much.
Where in Cameroun were you?
Did you speak French before you went there?
Didjya try to climb Mt Cameroun? If so did they warn you about the deadly gas?
These could be hornbills or bustards but they were still dinner!
A different time and place to be sure...
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matty
Trad climber
under the sea
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Feb 18, 2012 - 12:12pm PT
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Salton sea tomorrow, hope it's good. I'd really like to see a burrowing owl. Staying in Indio the night before. Will hit the north side, drive down the NE coast and then explore the SE corner. If anyone else has a favorite spot I'd love to know.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 18, 2012 - 12:24pm PT
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Matty, you need to get down to the south end where the ibises and ground-doves lurk!
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Feb 18, 2012 - 01:47pm PT
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No exciting photos. A quick trip to Walden Ponds to see a nice assortment of water fowl...and all the usual suspects:
Canada Geese
Tundra Swan
Golden Eye
Common Merganser
Eared Grebe
Red Heads
Canvas Backs
Ring-necked Ducks
Mallard
Coot
Kingfisher
Black Billed Magpies
Red Winged Blackbirds
Starling
Kestrel
Widgeon
Assorted Gull (no scope, didn't even try)
Pigeon
Red-Tailed Hawk
All common-ish, but fun nonetheless!
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Feb 18, 2012 - 02:04pm PT
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Michael Furtman is a wildlife photographer. I don't know him personally, but follow him on FB where he posts many of his beautiful photos. He takes some awesome photos - especially of ducks/water fowl imo. He posted a series today of Golden eye x Hooded Merganser. Thought I'd share here for others.
See bottom left. His words "This is the bird (left, bottom) I photographed the other day. It retains some of the Hooded Merganser's brown flanks, and vertical chest stripes."
Also from M. Furtman... "I photographed these three ducks three years ago. The trailing bird is clearly a Hooded Merganser X Common Goldeneye hybrid. The bird in front is a normal hen Common Goldeneye, and there's a normal drake below her. This hybrid seems to be "more" Goldeneye than Merganser in coloration, but the bill gives it away."
Furtman: "Here's a normal drake Hooded Merganser in flight."
And finally, he stated "This is what a male (left) Hooded Merganser is supposed to look like."
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Feb 18, 2012 - 06:11pm PT
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Flicker in the backyard today.
Bald Eagle along the Rio Grande near Pilar, NM
Eight days to Honduras and hundreds of birds.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Feb 18, 2012 - 06:29pm PT
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Callie, you need to post BN's pics!!!!
:-)
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Feb 18, 2012 - 06:46pm PT
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I know! I have been bugging him to get some ready! He took a few this morning at Walden. Haven't seen them yet. I'll harass him a bit more now.
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Slater
Trad climber
Central Coast
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Feb 18, 2012 - 08:31pm PT
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bob, rad pics!
dude, I just saw my first Northern Flicker about 45 minutes ago.
We took the dogs out in the truck to get some exercise at the edge of the Mesa and saw it perched on a bush. We thought it was a dove until we looked closer with Binocs. Wow, what a cool bird! It was the red type, looked reallly cool in flight.
Honduras and 100s of birds... jealous.
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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Feb 18, 2012 - 10:35pm PT
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Willoughby, I have serious issues with such invasive and stressful 'studies'. Me too. It sucked. I did my best to mitigate our impact and outright object when I could, but unfortunately I wasn't the boss.
Where in Cameroun were you? Mostly out in the middle of the Reserve du Dja, way down by the Gabon border. A solid day's hike out to our camp. Deepest, darkest Tarzan Africa. But, halfway through my stay I traveled to Buea and hiked Mt.Cameroon. Had to drag/bribe my "guide" up and down in a day, complete with my full traveling pack, supplies for me for an overnight, War and Peace, etc. It's a long story, but essentially my guide assumed I was going to pack food and water for him, which I didn't. He'd also never been to the top before. Guinness and 33 beer advertisements on the summit. Also saw a Peregrine high on that hill. That race they do up that thing must be crazy to see. I think that gassy lake you're probably referring to is a little further north and east, but definitely in the vicinity. After my work tour was over I travelled all the way up to Waza National Park and back, over 11 days IIRC.
Did you speak French before you went there?
Bien sūr.
EDIT - also, when I was in the SW Province I mostly resorted to French, 'cause the pidgin English there was just impossible. I remember a great story a friend told about trying to buy beans for 20 minutes, and nobody knew what in the hell he was talking about. Eventually he changed up his query and asked "have you got beans?" Suddenly everybody was like "oh, 'got-beans.' Yeah, we sell got-beans." AKA, beans. Anyway, it went down something along those lines.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Feb 18, 2012 - 10:41pm PT
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Thanks Slater and your photos are great...I'm really enjoying them. Been to Honduras three times but this trip I'm staying in just a few places over the 10 days. Lago Yojoa is a great birding destination and looking forward to my time there.
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cyndiebransford
climber
31 years in Joshua Tree, now Alaska
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Feb 18, 2012 - 10:58pm PT
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I am camping at Fort Stevens near Astoria, Oregon. I went to the beach today and saw Bald Eagles, scoters, cormorants, gulls, dunlin, snowy plovers, geese, scaup, Bufflehead, goldeneye, mergansers, sanderlings and crows. No photos as the day was nasty; windy, rainy and cold. All of these are also common birds, but it was fun to look at them. I took a hike in the forested area too hoping to see birds but I didn't see anything. I heard birds but couldn't locate them.
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